Chapter 160

CHAPTER 160: DOING YOUR BEST TO FINISH THE JOB


Daichi was running to the edge of the forest . The reason for that was…

「Uwa, it’s even wet here . 」
「Yes, it seems like that purple water has reached this area already . 」

It was extremely muddy . If he hadn’t been wearing the wood armor with acceleration equipment, it would’ve been very hard to walk .

Even the golems were getting all tripped up .
If the situation were to get worse, then it might become troublesome to run too .

「…… . it’d be preferable to…fly . Sooner rather than later . 」
「That’s right . If we use our acceleration equipment and jets then we can move all at once, should we give it a try?」

We had already gotten close to the plains so there was no obstacles obstructing us from the sky . The recent flight tests didn’t have any problems, so it should be alright for a short amount of time .

「Actually, if I pull the golems while flying, we should be able to get there sooner . 」
「That’s right . Then let’s go . 」
「Yeah, I’ll leave the balance to you Sakura . 」
「Yes, please do .

Then Daichi stomped hard on the ground sending them into the sky .

「Now fly 《Wind Vajra》!」

And so the wooden giant went into the sky .
************************************
The giant purple dragon was spreading poison water just by being there .

「Gu, guuuuuuu……………」

Every movement Katarakta made scattered poison around, weakening the people on the plains . Twenty percent of the knights had already been brought to their knees by the poison . However,

「As long as we crush each and every core it should be fine……!」

However, Dianeia would not give in .

It was lucky that the cores were easily visible .
Compared to its large body, the cores were tiny, however it wasn’t like they couldn’t be hit .

「《Magna Flame Trident》!」

That’s why she immediately threw fire spears .
A strike, equal in power to the one she threw before, struck Katarakta’s body head on . It then stabbed into one of the cores and broke it .

「Nice! Next one . 」

Dianeia prepared to fire her next attack without hesitation, but…

「—–eh… . huh……?」

At that moment Katarakta collapsed into purple water with a splash . It flowed over the ground along with the rest of the water .

「I-it ran!?」
「No . There it is!」

Hesty responded .
She was looking around from the top of the stage and had found the dragon . Katarakta, who had turned into water, appeared to the right of the stage . It was about to fire a water ball .

「Guaa!」

The water ball fired directly at her . The Knights set up a shield wall, but the power of this blow was on a whole different level than the previous one .

… . . they couldn’t block it!

And, as Dianeia prepared to use the flame trident to intercept it…

「I, will block it . 《Shield》」

Hesty set up a shield in front of the stage .


The poison water bullet struck the shield and splashed .

「Th-thank you Hesty-dono . 」
「Don’t let your guard down . The poison, hasn’t been, blocked . 」
「…… . . ugghh」

As Hesty said, just the spray from the attack reached the knights and poisoned them, causing more and more to collapse .

「This is……problematic . 」

Dianeia could feel that her own body was becoming lethargic as well .
She could only deal with it due to her own strength as a mage .

…… . . Thanks to being near Daichi-dono’s magic spot she had gained a resistance to magic poisoning like this .

So she was able to hold on better than others .
Even so, this disastrous scene told her that she had to defeat Katarakta quickly…but…

「Wh-what’s with that dragon? I hit it once and it turns into water…… . . 」
「n, it’s just like, back then . It hasn’t changed . Once it takes an attack, it will change its body to water, and run to a different place . 」

Hesty said with a glum look, glaring at Katarakta, as she spoke of how annoying it was .

「What’s worse, is that it sucks magic from underground water, so if you leave it alone, for a while it will, recover . It’s stamina is, abnormal . While it does that, it will continually, poison the water as well . I don’t know how many, days it will take to break, all those cores, but……before then the land will weaken, and so will we . 」
「That’s right isn’t it……」

After only a few minutes the Knights had been worn out .
They were lucky to have Manaril’s song to help, but even so .

「If this keeps going for hours or days, this land will die . 」
「n, this is the dragon, that we couldn’t defeat, only seal . All we can do is, break each core, make it as small as possible, and have Manaril seal it with her special song . —《White Flame Breath》—!」

Hesty said and attacked Katarakta with her breath .
The laser-like attack pierced straight through Katarakta but…

「I guess, I can’t do it all… . at once . 」

After a few cores had been burnt, Katarakta immediately turned to water .

「We’ll have to do it over and over . 」
「n, that’s why we need to, weaken it while, Manaril’s song gathers power . 」

It was a makeshift solution, but that’s all they could do . Dianeia prepared to attack again with her staff when she saw something .

「…………」

She saw Manaril collapse to her knees on the stage .
******************************************
「Mana-dono are you ok!?」

Manaril had been concentrating on her song, after Dianeia called out to her she realized she’d fallen to her knees .

「Did you get hit by poison!?」
「……no, that’s not it . It’s just that, there aren’t enough people in the crowd . There wasn’t enough power, so I tried to force it using, my own power…I think I got dizzy and fell . 」

Manaril said, analyzing the cause of her collapse .
Her purification magic used a lot of magic power . So usually she would use the people listening to share the burden but…

「Everyone collapsed from the poison water . I lost my audience . —*cough*—」

Manaril could taste blood in her mouth . Her throat was dry and painful . Normally she would use her magic to recover her throat as she sang, but right now her power wasn’t enough .

「… . . please rest Mana-dono . As you rest we’ll try to weaken as much as possible . 」

Dianeia said and descended the stairs preparing to intercept Katarakta . Hesty also went to help .

Manaril watched with teeth clenched .

「How frustrating…… . 」

Even though she’d come this far, and had help from various people…she wasn’t able to accomplish her own task . She wasn’t able to answer their trust .

「If I could……recover my throat……I could sing . 」

Her throat hurt . It felt dry as a desert . She had to recover it as fast as possible, but her power wasn’t enough .

「…… . *cough*…… . 」

Manaril coughed through clenched teeth as blood seeped from her lips . At that moment .

「Sorry I’m late . Is the concert still happening?」
「Eh…… . . ?」

A wooden giant smashed down onto the stage from the sky .

「D-Daichi-san……?」
「Yeah, I made you wait . I wanted to bring you the water before you started, but it ended up like this . 」

He said as golems climbed up onto the stage . Then they handed her a wooden bottle .

「Th-thank you……!」

Manaril accepted the water and dumped it down her throat . It wasn’t just that,

………her power…had returned… . . !?

Power was welling up in her body .

「With this I can keep singing . 」

Manaril stood up . Daichi saw that and laughed putting a hand on her shoulder .

「Ok then, Mana you can sing just like that . I’ll go prepare your stage . 」
「Eh? Stage?」
「Well, I made this stage for you after all… . . so I need to eliminate that troublesome stage setting out there . 」

And so he stepped forth . His armor’s right hand transformed into a giant pestle .