Ishura - Volume 2 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: The Realm of Slaughter

“You’re in enchanted sword range now, Mestelexil.”

Mestelexil had chosen to attack Atrazek with guided missiles. Hence, he had stopped moving, confronted with Toroa at close range. He had gotten that close to Toroa the Awful, to the land’s most powerful enchanted swordsman. Mestelexil opened up the vents of his front jet propulsors—

“Too late.”

Flames erupted from within Mestelexil’s armor. An explosion went off inside his body.

“Wh-whaaaaaaah?! F-Fire! It’s, fire!”

The Grim Reaper had already followed through with both his sword strokes.

In one hand was Nel Tseu the Burning Blade. In the other was a sword he was using for the first time during their battle.

“…Nel Tseu the Burning Blade. Mushain the Howling Blade.”

Riding the air current created by the Howling Blade, it drove the heat from the Burning Blade into the golem. Forcibly sending air back through the golem’s jet propulsors, it mixed with the fuel itself and exploded inside him. Kiyazuna shouted.

“Mestelexil!”

“I’ve brought down your precious golem, Kiyazuna the Axle. You’re next!”

Kicking Mestelexil’s motionless frame, Toroa aggressively jumped into the air. He drew the Divine Blade Ketelk. He would kill Kiyazuna inside her Chariot Golem with its long-range stab. Then a new gun barrel faced him. It was the Chariot Golem’s machine gun.

The long-range attack from Divine Blade Ketelk, fully launched in midair, diverted the gun barrel. Crossing over its firing line, Toroa’s massive body landed in the Chariot Golem’s cargo bay.

“The Blasting Blade! Hand it over!”

“Like hell I will, fool!”

From his flank, an enormous metal hand grasped at Toroa.

Toroa ducked to avoid it and slashed with the Frostvenom Blade, still strapped to his upper arm.

“Wh-whooooah.… G-Get away, from, Mama!”

It was Mestelexil. He had self-repaired his propulsors and reached Toroa in an instant. The golem had unbelievable vitality.

Toroa knew that the crystalline substance he left with the previous attack should be starting to extend deep inside his body. That meant the golem’s life core was somewhere else instead. However…

“That’s a bad move. At this range—”

He dodged away from the sight line of the gun barrel that opened up around Mestelexil’s knee. Toroa once again slashed with his enchanted sword. The golem feigned a punch with his left arm before fire erupted from the hidden gun on his neck. Evading the shot, Toroa effortlessly followed up with his next attack. It was exactly as he expected.

“You can’t use your fancy guns because Kiyazuna’ll get caught in the blast.”

“O-ohhh! Wh-whoooaa!”

The single-shot surprise attacks woven into their melee-range clash were tactics that Toroa hadn’t yet seen during their battle, but none of it was beyond his expectations. This golem could rebuild any part of his body into a weapon at will.

“Dammit! We don’t got time for any of this! That Particle Storm’s coming!”

With both fighters continuing their fierce battle in the cargo bay, the Chariot Golem aggressively took off. Behind it, the wind was hot on their heels, destroying everything in its path as it went.

Amid the scenery flashing by and kicking up a cloud of dust as it went, Mestelexil was panicked.

“I-I, need to, defeat Particle Storm! But, I have, to beat, Toroa, too! But…”

His monstrous strength and full-body artillery arsenal were barely able to keep protecting Kiyazuna from Toroa’s ferocious attacks. While half the surface of his inner flesh was being covered in the corrosive crystals, his ultimate priority was still Kiyazuna’s life.

Complete mechanical recovery was possible. If his golem part was completely covered in crystals, as long as they had their shared curse, the homunculus inside couldn’t be killed at the same time. However, in the second it took to finish reconstructing himself, Toroa the Awful would be able to kill Kiyazuna the Axle.

“There is nothing to be afraid of. Little ones.”

The declaration from the very weather itself echoed across the whole ravine.

“Seeing you fear, flee, baffled, it is truly a comical and wretched sight.”

The Particle Storm’s mantle visibly accelerated. With his true form being that of a wurm, he was the strongest terrestrial creature in the world. Thus, just as the wyverns in the skies, the wurms, a draconic race that evolved most adapted to the surface, possessed mobility far outpacing the other species of living creatures on the surface.

If their enemy felt like it, it was questionable whether the Chariot Golem, rushing at full tilt, would be able to shake him.

“Hey, Toroa! Get the hell off my golem!”

Eroded by the crystals, Mestelexil at last dropped to his knees. Ever since the legend of Toroa the Awful began to spread…no matter how formidable a champion there ever was, none of them had ever been able to defeat him while in range of his enchanted swords. The invincible weapon of war was losing.

Kiyazuna shouted as she hurriedly operated the driving controls.

“It won’t speed up! That Particle Storm bastard’s gonna catch up to us! Just how heavy are you, dammit?!”

“…Hand over the Blasting Blade! Is it worth losing your life over?!”

“Ab-so-lute-ly not! Doing what some vagrant asshole tells me to? That’d be the same as dyin’ anyway!”

The Blasting Blade was just a sword in the end. Both of them were well aware of the fact.

“Kiyazuna the Axle doesn’t bend to anyone, y’hear me?!”

The scythe-like enchanted sword pierced through Mestelexil’s torso. The armor, eroded by the minute crystals, had grown brittle enough for a normal blade to pass through. Even if he could chant Word Arts, the golem’s body would be unable to keep up.

“Ungh… M-Mama…”

Toroa reversed his ascent then took advantage of the maneuver to grab a new enchanted sword.

Next, turning around, he cleaved behind him.

“…Howling…Blade!”

With a single slash, the dust creeping up behind them was driven away from the Chariot Golem and scraped into the ravine rock surface.

If Toroa hadn’t reacted with the Howling Blade, they would have been wiped out.

Contact with the Particle Storm meant instant death. A realm of slaughter, taking both Kiyazuna and Toroa down together.

Now it catches up with us?! Right when I finally beat Mestelexil…! Actually, wait…

Toroa sent his next slash flying. Straight behind the Chariot Golem.

He needed to incessantly slash with the Howling Blade to defend against the Particle Storm’s air currents. If his hands stopped, it meant instant death. In order to defeat his opponent, Kiyazuna, he now had to defend her.

Kiyazuna slowed down on purpose! In order to force me, her enemy, to deal with the Particle Storm! Then…while I’m stuck handling this wind—

“—emfectas neos yactectenaoathal bagneteha usvasvetmotosye inqdorteae—” (—collect in the bottomless light vortex that binds twin heavens pierce the vast gloom and falling blossoms and castle columned rocks turning eternally—)

Mestelexil’s supernatural Craft Arts could even reconstruct his own body.

However, it was not his own body he was creating.

“Keep it up Mestelexil! You got the right idea!”

An iron fingertip tried grabbing hold of Toroa’s ankle. With the Lance of Faima’s reaction, he picked up on the attack and countered with the Frostvenom Blade. He turned his attention to the seated Mestelexil. The finger wasn’t his. Mestelexil wasn’t moving, all active functions still deactivated.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOO—”

“Impossible!”

It was a different golem. Different as well from the Chariot Golem they were riding, the golem was bronze-colored and hollow. He swung the Howling Blade. He defended against the Particle Storm that was closing in right before his eyes.

“ROOOOOOW.”

He sensed a new presence appear behind him. The Burning Blade. Setting the golem’s interior ablaze, it was knocked off the speeding cargo bay.

It was the second one. The golems that hadn’t been in the cargo bay mere moments ago were multiplying—

“Harq icketems senka didenket mou odasdionrinser fines opponiswem seltegnes tia—” (Deep blue daydream palace drown in mercury walk and remember in fantastical landscapes the nine thousand words that fulfill immature crystal prophecy—)

“Mestelexil… Wait… This thing’s…!”

The soil and rocks of the Gumana were being shaped one after another with Craft Arts, giving birth to an army.

Mestelexil, concentrating wholly on his Word Arts and with his combat capabilities still disengaged, could do even this.

“…a golem that makes other golems?!”

The soulless golem army foolishly advanced straight into the Particle Storm, swarming in to bring an end to Atrazek’s true form inside.

“Oh, turning your hand against me, now? Fragile, so horribly fragile your bodies are… Excellent. Truly excellent. I, of course, shall allow your meaningless resistance. It is a bit of a shame you shan’t be able to scream in sorrow.”

The Particle Storm’s advance slowed. Metallic squeaks and gunpowder explosions echoed from inside the whirlwind.

With the durability of the golem’s composite armor, as long as their survival was considered meaningless, it was more than possible to advance through the Particle Storm and make an attack on Atrazek’s true body.

The conclusion Mestelexil came to was not to regenerate himself. It was to handle all the enemies facing him at once.

“…How ’bout I give you a rundown on Mestelexil’s functionality, Toroa the Awful. There is only one main body that can exist in this world at one time. Otherwise, his shared curse that references each part of him won’t function, see? But what if you thought about that another way, eh?”

“Kiya…zunaaaa!”

“It means he can produce an infinite number of soulless base bodies!”

The Chariot Golem, accelerating further, momentarily escaped from the Particle Storm’s range.

However, if anything, the threats Toroa needed to contend with were growing in number. The golems overflowing the cargo bay swooped down on Toroa the Awful.

Just how many of these things are going to pop up. If this really does keep going on forever…!

The Divine Blade Ketelk’s slashes gouged out the life core inside a golem’s armor. One of the golems collapsed from the attack. Still, he couldn’t attempt to use this method to take out so many golems.

Though they weren’t immortal, and they didn’t possess the Word Arts to create supernatural weaponry, their physical abilities and armor were on par with Mestelexil’s own.

“…Actually. It looks like—”

As he was driven to the edge of the cargo bay, Toroa the Awful still discovered an opportunity to come out victorious.

“There’s a limit…after all. Kiyazuna the Axle.”

“Huuuh?!”

There was a loud shatter.

Atrazek’s voice made itself known.

“Take a good look for yourself.”

The shatter was the sound of wreckage sent flying from inside the storm, crashing into the Chariot Golem. They were golems with over half their frames shaved off. In the exact same way this same weather phenomenon had annihilated the entirety of Kiyazuna the Axle’s army in the past.

Even golems boasting the firmest of armor would die the moment they reached the main body inside the storm. Once they got through the storm, lying in wait at the other end of the obstructed view were the tough jaws and massive tail of the wurm within.

“See with your own eyes if the fire and trickery of you minia can get through to me. If knowing that answer should satisfy you, I shall oblige.”

The Particle Storm was gaining on them.

“Tch, trying to weight us down, eh? That bastard…”

“What are you going to do now?! Keep this endless golem spawning up, and logically we’re going to slow down with it! You can’t keep up this onslaught against me forever! Planning to keep it up until I’ve run out of energy, eh, Kiyazuna the Axle?!”

Even going face-to-face against a machine, it was exactly what Toroa the Awful wanted.

He had repeated it all many, many times before.

“I promise, I can keep swinging these enchanted swords of mine long into the night!”

“Dammit! Mestelexil, stop ramping up production! You’re turning into a damn chain ’round my neck…!”

She hadn’t imagined a situation like this. Originally, this Chariot Golem had been prepared so that only Kiyazuna could withdraw from the battlefield.

As long as she was nearby, there was no way for Mestelexil to display his true power.

If I was just a little farther away from Mestelexil… VX gas, thermobaric bombs, he would’ve been able to try them all out, dammit!

Toroa continued to fight. On top of a vehicle sprinting away at high-speed, all by himself against an endless army of golems and the Particle Storm. He held super-powered weapons, the full extent of their abilities unknown, and could wield them all with perfection.

As long as this man was here, Mestelexil was forced to protect Kiyazuna.

This bastard… He’s completely beyond any of my expectations!

Amid the disorder of the battle, at first glance, it seemed Kiyazuna’s camp had built up an overwhelming advantage, but in fact, from the very moment they were forced into this situation, Toroa the Awful held their lives in his hands.

Toroa had the option to destroy the Chariot Golem itself at his disposal. If she lost her way to escape from the Particle Storm, Kiyazuna the Axle’s death was guaranteed.

It meant, from the very beginning, he was a man who was able to assess the tide of battle. Even against weapons from the Beyond that no one in the world had seen before, he could match them with similar attacks and counter them, as though he already knew everything about them. Though he had the voice of a young man, he showed an ability to respond to any situation like a shura who had spent a lifetime with an enchanted sword at his side.

From somewhere unknown, he had acquired such an enormous wealth of battle experiences that seemed impossible given his youth.

“Toroaaaa…!”

“—Gah!”

Yet, Toroa the Awful suddenly gasped as he continued eradicating the golem army.

“Your time’s up, Kiyazuna the Axle.”

“Huuuh?!”

“This vehicle’s actually a golem, right?! I didn’t intend for this to happen, either… This vehicle’s going to collapse!”

“And why’s that?!”

“Vajgir, the Frostvenom Blade. The crystalline substance this sword releases, it eats living organisms! Whether its bone, metal…even soulless constructs, anything with a life of its own will corrode away! In other words…”

Toroa looked beyond the swarming golem arm, where Mestelexil sat slumped over and motionless. His own faculties disengaged, everything was focused on golem production. His body was completely covered in the fine crystals, and they were now spreading directly down to the cargo bay at his feet.

Before long it would reach the structural and mechanical sections of the golem. Kiyazuna understood that, as well.

“Damn you…!”

“…I’m not planning on committing suicide with you! Hand over the Blasting Blade!”

The Grim Reaper extended out his arm to the driver’s seat as he fought against the surging golems.

“Like hell I am!”

“I’ll get the Particle Storm!”

“……!”

“I… I should be able to use the Howling Blade to push through and advance through his wind! No matter how tough the main body inside’s armor may be, with the Blasting Blade, I can kill him! Because I’m Toroa the Awful!”

Toroa the Awful was her enemy. Under some irrational pretext, he was after Kiyazuna’s treasure and had backed her this far up against the wall.

However, he was serious. There was no doubt in her mind about it.

“Don’t you…dare order me around!”

The Chariot Golem shook violently. Mechanical damages had dropped its speed significantly, and the realm of death, the Particle Storm, was gaining on the vehicle’s frame. Atop the now unbalanced vehicle, Toroa tried to draw the Howling Blade. Golem remains swooped in on him, as if taking careful aim to prevent him from doing so.

The enemy was the strongest Force Arts user in the land. The swarming army of metal itself was being launched like cannonballs toward them.

“Tch…!”

Toroa staved off the attack with an explosion from Nel Tseu the Burning Blade. He was one step too slow. A few grains of sand slipped inside and tore his trachea. They were already within the Particle Storm’s range.

“Quite a stunning performance, really. You are the first I have seen hold out so long against my storm. And yet, if you simply let me hear your tearful wails and see your terror, I would have shown you mercy.”

Toroa tried to draw his next enchanted sword.

Only those who stood within the storm, moments before death, saw its form.

A shadow that floated into view among the storm blocking out the sky above—the mere silhouette of the ancient and godlike wurm, head raised up in the air.

“A pitiful end.”

A large circle ripped open in the blotted-out sky.

The Particle Storm, which prevented any and all attacks against it, was pierced through, and meteoric destruction thrust into the ground.

Sound.

Tremors.

Rumbles.

The ground exploded and the world shook.

“Wha—”

Even Atrazek’s massive body was sent in the aftermath, his colossal form smashing the steep ravine walls.

The overwhelming destruction split open the ground’s crust. It pierced down deeper. So deep, it was impossible to see the bottom.

The god was unable to utter a single word. It was the first time the land’s supreme absolute being had experienced being dumbfounded.

“…Hng…Oooh.”

Unable to maintain his Power Arts, he let out four rough gasps of air.

Finally, he spat out a single phrase.

“What was that?”

The Chariot Golem was overturned. Such was the power behind the shockwave following the attack.

“Nrrgh… D-dammit! What the hell?! What happened?!”

What had happened?

No one there had understood the latest development, but a single person among them, Toroa the Awful, saw the truth behind the attack. The thing that flew in from high in the sky was neither a meteor nor a bomb.

“A pillar…a pillar, of iron.”

Yet even the strongest Grim Reaper of them all was mistaken in his assumption.

That pillar of iron was, in fact, an arrow.

Sine Riverstead.

The Needle Mountain outside the village was currently packed with a number of soldiers. They were Aureatia comms soldiers.

The giant, large enough to look down over all of them, was listening to an observation report via radzio.

Impact location verified. 1116 by 362.

“Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Right on target, what’d I tell you?! Well? Did I get the Particle Storm?!”

Uh, nope—It wasn’t a direct hit. I… I misjudged the distance. The next one will hit.

The voice coming through the radzio belonged to Kuuro the Cautious.

The communication from the spotter, looking at the Particle Storm right before his eyes, reached all the way to the Sine Riverstead, traveling through a relay tower constructed at the Gumana Trading Post.

For an individual comms soldier, it was a staggeringly long distance, over thirty kilometers as the crow flies. The operation was possible entirely due to the personnel and technology available to the greatest of all minian nations, Aureatia.

There was also an individual capable of long-range ballistic bow fire without even seeing their target, from over thirty kilometers away.

“Seriously? Worthless trash. Ah well, makes no difference to me.”

He nocked his bow with a fresh arrow.

A colossal black arrow, nearly as tall as he was, at twenty meters long.

While the Particle Storm may have been a completely enigmatic and godlike disaster that wrought destruction, there was a being in this world capable of killing such a disaster.

“I just gotta keep firing until I hit, then.”

The gigant’s name was Mele the Horizon’s Roar.

An Aureatia soldier positioned at his feet turned to the radzio and shouted.

“Preparations for shot number two, complete! Kuuro the Cautious, requesting the next spotting information!”

“Hey, hold on now, pipsqueak.”

With his arrow still drawn, the gigant called down to the Aureatia soldier.

“Excuse me…?! Pipsqueak? Are you talking about me?”

“Well, you’re a pipsqueak, ain’t you? Fix the pavement in the next town over. Replace the farming tool for Erig’s family, too. All of ’em.”

“B-but, I’m just a comms soldier, so…”

“Well, call up one of the big shots then. I’m the one awake before noon and doing all the work. Each shot’s gonna cost ya.”

Mele readied the arrow. The same man who normally never fought, and instead spent his days lying around.

The Particle Storm’s projected course had it pass through the Sine Riverstead. The sand would reduce everything—from the living creatures, down to the very environment they lived in, into tiny particles. Just by passing nearby, the weather phenomenon would bring irrevocable losses to the fertile village he loved.

Fixing his eyes on his enemy, standing physically beyond the horizon, Mele’s mouth twisted.

“Got some guts, coming after the Sine Riverstead, Particle Storm.”

It was the smile of a warrior.

“I’ll shoot your damn eyes out.”

Across this horizon, there lived someone idolized as a god, wielding tremendous power as he lived among the minian people.

Two gods battling each other.

“…He missed! Damn! Sh-show me… You can see it…!”

Kuuro the Cautious’s grip threatened to break the radzio in his hands.

It had missed… Mele the Horizon’s Roar’s lethal arrow had missed.

The extraordinarily long-distance archer fire was Aureatia’s trump card. It was their best hope of stopping the Particle Storm, regardless of whether it was a naturally occurring weather phenomenon or whether there was a true form hidden within.

Kuuro, with his abnormal clairvoyance ability, could pinpoint the target. He should have been able to correctly foresee where Atrazek would move to next. At the very least, the old him during his days in Obsidian Eyes would have.

He was expected to be capable of doing so. He bore the weight of countless lives on his shoulders.

“Hey. Kuuro. The wind’s strong! It’s dangerous. Let’s get away from here.”

“…I can’t. Even at this range, I can’t get a hit. If I don’t look from a closer range, right now, I can’t do anything.”

Kuuro muttered, reflecting on his anguish.

The fierce battle between Kiyazuna the Axle and Toroa the Awful was unfolding atop the Chariot Golem, and they continued to flee from the Particle Storm’s range. The three-sided battle line was shifting backward, and while Kuuro had been observing from longer range at the start, the lethal calamity was closing in on his position. Now, he himself was in danger.

For him, a non-shura spotter, he had nothing, neither a Chariot Golem, made airtight in anticipation of the Particle Storm, nor anything on par with the Howling Blade and the sublime skills to wield it. If he was swallowed up by the storm, that would be the end.

“…That thing’s actually a wurm. It wraps itself up in the Particle Storm with some sort of Force Arts or what-have-you. Aureatia knew all of that from the start. This thing had a will of its own, and that’s why it went after civilization and populated settlements…”

The main body, previously visible from the hole opened up by the arrow, was already hidden again in a thick cloud of dust.

A constantly reverberating rumble, like thunder, and nigh as dense as the ground itself. Kuuro’s senses could see all the way beyond the horizon. However, he could see too much. He could hear too much.

The Particle Storm was an impregnable fortress that sheltered its main body. The immense overload of information disrupted his concentration.

“The target isn’t always inside the center of the storm. He should be able to change his Force Arts’ area of effect at will. From the echoing of the sand in the middle, I sense its range. And I also get the feeling… No, stop. No point in speculation. Don’t believe what you can’t see. Look, look harder.”

“Um, I-I can… Hey. Like I always do, Kuuro. I can, I can go and look for you…! Isn’t, isn’t there something I can do?! If everything’ll come to nothing unless we defeat that thing, then—”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

Inside the Particle Storm, with her tiny body, Cuneigh would be ripped to shreds. She would be killed instantly. A more fundamental problem than any spotting difficulties.

“Why are you trying to get yourself killed! Aren’t you afraid to die?!”

He tightly held Cuneigh close inside his coat. As though to shield her from the gaze from the land of death in front of them.

“K-Kuuro…”

“Headquarters. Reporting spotting coordinates. 1127 by 355…!”

Light burned far away in the deep blue sky. It traced an arc across the sky before falling.

Despite how extremely far apart they were from each other, barely a second had passed following his report.

Then, it pierced through sky and ground.

“A-Another…miss…!”

Atrazek’s mantle of sand was torn asunder. And yet that was the extent of it.

The impact point was perfectly on the indicated mark. Kuuro’s spotting was the problem.

Even with his own life hanging in the balance, his sight failed him.

He grew weaker still. Beyond simply losing his gift of clairvoyance…he was sure, someday, his senses would dull beyond those of the average person. The sense of impending death that came to him when he closed his eyelids was here in front of him at this very moment.

He was losing it. The once-vivid world began slipping through his fingers.

I… I should be able to see it.

“Kuuro. Kuuro, it’s okay.”

The wholly frivolous words of comfort from Cuneigh rang so very hollow.

“M-Mama!”

Kiyazuna, beginning to topple over from the meteor quakes shaking the ground, was saved by Mestelexil’s large hands.

The four limbs that had once crumbled into dust were completely regenerated, looking completely good as new.

“I-I am good, as new, again! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Because I, am immortal!”

“Ha…! Converted the crystals directly with Craft Arts, didja? That’s my boy. Perfectly handling whatever enchanted nonsense gets thrown atcha! Well done, Mestelexil!”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Anyway, first we gotta deal with Toroa the Awful. If we don’t kill him, the Particle Storm’ll be the least of our problems. Gather up the golems. Fence ’im in and crush him all at one!”

“…That won’t be necessary.”

The voice was near the overturned Chariot Golem. From among the pile of materials spilled out over the ground, Toroa picked up and held a single sword.

“The Blasting Blade’s mine.”

“Y-You little—!”

In the tumult of their battle, there were too many things to handle at once. Though a self-proclaimed demon king, possessing the highest degrees of both intelligence and mental fortitude, Kiyazuna the Axle was an elderly minian woman.

Toroa the Awful destroyed a nearby boulder with a test swing and confirmed that it was indeed the real Blasting Blade. Then, he turned to face not Mestelexil…but the Particle Storm rampaging far out in front of him.

“I’ve figured this sword out. I’ll fulfill my end of the bargain, Kiyazuna the Axle.”

“…What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m going to defeat the Particle Storm.”

An ominous and sinister “road” had been formed inside the complex Gumana Ravine. The traces of the Particle Storm’s passing were pulverized into dust, forming a line, like a child cutting one through a piece of clay.

Furthermore, the arrows from Mele the Horizon’s Roar had gouged deeply into the earth’s crust, leaving behind a hole too deep to see to the bottom.

With the extent of the fissures and upheaval, topographical changes that would normally take thousands of years had happened all in one day.

This lone dwarven Grim Reaper was intentionally stepping onto this battlefield of gods.

“Hey… You bastard. Thinking you can patronize Kiyazuna the Axle, do ya?”

The situation was different now. Mestelexil was revived and well. He even generated a golem army in the middle of battle. The scale of Kiyazuna the Axle’s fighting force was overwhelming.

“That shithead’s mine. Mestelexil! Kill ’em both!”

“R-roger! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I’ll beat, them both! Watch me, Mama!”

“Well…do what you will!”

Right before Toroa rushed forward, light once again rained down from the heavens. An arrow from the Horizon’s Roar.

The iron pillar instantly lost its shape under the phenomenal momentum as it connected with the ground, piercing deep into the terrain and disappearing.

“Damn you; damn you aaaall!”

Writhing in agony from his wounds, Atrazek roared in rage and agony. His exceptionally large size and remarkable vitality, thanks to his wurm body, allowed him to survive the aftermath of the impact.

However, the destiny gathered at their location was far more incomprehensible and terrifying than mere calamity. It was something altogether ludicrous.

“What did you… What did you call here?!”

“I h-have, no idea! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“It matters not. Out of my way!”

“Enough already! Your time’s up, Particle Storm!”

On this day, in one part of the world, supernatural and transcendent shura were gathered together.

Each looked at the others with fire in their eyes. They possessed strength enough to deliver on that murderous intent.

The end was nigh. To all those standing at this point, a realm of slaughter, at the crossroads between fate and ill-portent, emerged.