Chapter 39: Burial Chamber of Angels (part five)
Giant Tirnanog’s star steel-coated claws struck Palug who had shown her identity as a monster.
Too much thunderous roar, I shut my eyes unintentionally.
When I opened my eyes cautiously, there was a sight that made me doubt my eyes.
Despite the fact that he was several times bigger than her, Palug had blocked the claws of Tirnanog with one hand.
How terrifying.
I was deceived by her figure, but she really was a monster.
『Oh, you do not seem to be the King of Serpents.
—You are a man-made fake dragon. As a matter of fact, you should be able to counter me.』
『Fake!? Insolence!! I……I, I cannot tolerate any more than that!』
Tirnanog repeated his attack in his rage.
Palug parried the claws away when they were a hair’s breadth away, warding off that attack rather easily.
She did everything with minimum movements.
Tirnanog gradually appeared irritated, on the other hand the expression of Palug was still full of composure.
(King of Serpents……wait, that was the name of the monster that came out in the story of the contract beast that Auguste was talking about.)
Taking the momentary gap, Palug turned to counterattack.
Palug’s claws slipped through Tirnanog’s defense and slashed his shoulder.
It was a very quick attack, faster than my eyes could follow.
The armor of the attacked shoulder glowed red as if it was exposed to high temperature and had scars in the form of claws.
The spell engraved on the armor immediately started and the wound was closed with the magical power of the Philosopher’s Stone.
I was glad that it could be automatically repaired if it was only damaged lightly.
She would be aiming at the same place where the armor was destroyed.
Even so, she had to have a dreadful attack power to be able to damage the star steel armor with her bare hands.
『You said I was insolent, but you are much more disgusting, Fake Black Dragon. If you are an animal-like beast, then you must submit yourself to someone who is stronger than you.』
『Ridiculous! If it is the providence to submit yourself to the stronger one, then you will show your belly and roll over, you monster cat woman!』
Tirnanog made a sweeping motion with his armor-covered long tail.
Palug lightly jumped over it.
However, it seemed that was exactly Tirnanog’s aim.
Despite his crumbling posture due to the tail sweep, Tirnanog launched an attack with his claws.
It was just like bending the joints of his arms in the opposite direction.
It was a blow that could also be said as expected from the monster Zaratan who could change his body to amorphous liquid.
Nevertheless, it was impossible for Palug to evade the unexpected surprise attack in the air.
Tirnanog’s nails pierced Palug’s belly—or so it looked like, but it seemed that she moved so that the nails missed her body.
Palug put her nails deeply in the star steel that covered Tirnanog’s arm and instead turned his hand into a steel bar like a gymnast.
The armored arm was twisted and the unpleasant sounds of metal being bent echoed.
Tirnanog’s legs left the floor.
The situation had reversed, Palug was standing on the ground, while the body of Tirnanog was lifted and floated in the air.
No matter how much she tried to twist the joints, she couldn’t damage Tirnanog’s inside.
Tirnanog was able to freely change his body between the solid and liquid form.
However, some time lag was required for the star steel armor to change its shape.
Utilizing the slight time lag, it seemed that Palug twisted the armor joints, not Tirnanog, and sealed his movement.
Palug knocked Tirnanog to the floor as it was.
『Well then, please repent. I will let you go this time, strange young serpent.』
『Gaaaaah! Who are you to tell me that!』
Tirnanog pulled out his liquefied forearm from his brachium, kicked the floor with his remaining three limbs and retreated.
The armor which remained in the arms of Palug became light particles after a few seconds, then converged and united again on Tirnnaog’s forearm.
The battle between the two monsters were in a different scale.
I stood frozen as I was captivated by it, but I finally returned to my senses as the escaping Tirnanog appeared before me.
『Guuh……this is regrettable, but with my power right now, I cannot win against that woman……』
“What should I do? Escape at once?”
『No. If you cannot win with your strength alone, you can win with other things. Even if you have a trump card……no, you have brought something, right?』
“I got it.”
I took out my trump card from the wand holder and gave it to Tirnanog.
Wand of Disintegration.
The head was a regular dodecahedron magnetite, and the shaft material was the axle of the water wheel that had been used for more than ten years.
What was used as the core material was space-compressed twenty liters of aqua regia.
The surface of the wand was inscribed with seventeen ancient characters which were now indecipherable.
Tirnanog opened the armor around his jaw and swallowed the wand.
Magical energy absorbed from the wand circulated through the amplification mechanism laid out in his body.
A black ray accompanied by a black spark resembling electricity was emitted from the mouth of Tirnanog.
Since it was amplified in his body, it became a very condensed beam like a dragon’s breath.
Even the divine beast with overwhelming speed seemed to have been unable to avoid the beam, and Palug was hit by the black beam directly.
Palug who was struck by the Disintegration light beam became a distorted phantom image of semitransparent seven colors.
It seemed like the flickering images of a broken television, it was a strange phenomenon.
However, it only lasted for a moment and Palug quickly restored herself.
No matter what kind of monster the opponent was, the Disintegration light beam always destroyed every matter and turned them into fine particles with no exception.
Even though that was how it supposed to be, Palug was standing there intact.
『Oh my, what a dangerous magic. I’m glad that the beam didn’t hit the precious Prince.』
『You bastard……, how did you……!?』
『Do not misunderstand. I got disintegrated properly. I just converged and restored myself instantly.』
Palug who was checking the movement of her body by rotating her shoulders, was smiling sneeringly.
While humming a random tune, she gradually approached Tirnanog.
『It was a good attack. I would be annihilated if I made a mistake. But, I guess your biggest mistake was thinking that I was a matter.』
『If you are not a matter, then what are you!』
『As you can see—』
I could only see Palug took a step forward.
In the next moment, the speed of Palug exceeded my perceptual ability and disappeared, leaving behind afterimages on my retina.
The only indication that she had moved was the red flash of light that marked her trajectory as she passed through.
『—heat, and light』
Strong light emitted from Palug and I covered my eyes slightly.
When I looked again, there was Tirnanog who was divided into six lying down there.
More precisely, what was there was an armor that had been blown and destroyed into six pieces, and Tirnanog who had become liquid and couldn’t keep his shape.
The star steel armor that was supposed to be durable was torn apart and the cut-off sections were red hot with heat as if melting.
Tirnanog’s main body seemed to be barely alive, and the black liquid was wriggling as to avoid the heated metal parts.
His body seemed to be struck with the heat directly, black smokes were rising along with the smell of burning meat.
“Tir!”
『Guuuuuhh!? This is bad……for me to get such damages……』
“Are you alright!? Don’t die!”
『Ah, do not worry……I won’t die……but, I cannot fight anymore……let me sleep, for a while……』
Tirnnaog retreated into my bag as a liquid that had lost the shape of a dragon.
A considerable part of him seemed to have been burned down by Palug, and it seemed that only a small part of the black liquid could move.
He was heavy, but not heavy enough for me to be unable to carry him.
It was good that even with my battle bag alone, it was a reasonably light weight structure.
『Erica……, run, away……』
After saying those words, Tirnanog became quiet.
Shaking the Wand of Glam Sight quickly, I could see that the built-in spell was still running.
To my relief, he was still alive.
I wanted to think that he was just becoming dormant to recover himself.
Picking up my bag, facing towards the exit in front of me, a mass of magical structure that I had never seen before was swaying and complexly intertwined.
In the overlapped normal vision, the figure of the female beast appeared.
『I will not let you escape. The nuisance has been removed with great pains, and now there’s only you and me.』
It was over.
With eyes that looked like the color of gold melting inside of a furnace, Palug laughed.
What should I do.
How could I escape from a monster opponent who even beat Tirnanog in speed.
Suddenly, I noticed that a string of characters that I had seen in a part of a scripture was included on the thing that was surrounding Palug.
It looked like characters from the Ancient Romulus era.
Because there were only few opportunities to see the characters of Ancient Romulus, naturally it was a language that I couldn’t read yet.
I wondered when did I see it.
Was it from the scripture in one of the exhibit of the cathedral, or was it—
(Aah! It’s a part of the inscription that was carved in the obelisk!)
In my head, suddenly many pieces of information became connected by a single thread.
The contract beast had supremacy over the serpents.
The guardian angel of the Founder King gave him the power to manipulate the dragons.
An angel who had the head of a lion drawn on the only God’s mural painting.
An angel holding a medicine bottle.
The contract beast saved people by eating the disease.
The lynx who ate the demon of ill-health became a charm.
The divine beast possessed nails that emitted heat.
The sword of fire that was held by the angel.
Her body was not a matter, it was made of heat and light.
In my previous life, what did they told me the angels were made of?
This was exactly the opposite from the legend of Zaratan.
Originally, she was a monster called Palug.
However, as she was called by multiple names, along the way people remembered her as separate monsters.
“You are not a devil, that was what that child……Tirnanog had said.”
『Hmm. Then if I am not a devil, what am I?』
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