3 bar menu

Last Embryo Volume 3 Chapter 9 Part 5

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

But it did not mean that Izayoi was at an advantage here, because due to this situation where their Gifts have essentially cancelled each other out, their battle have entered into a type of stalemate, or to be more precise, a pattern that they could not break free from.

The girl who had called herself 『Hero Slayer』 and the Decayer had mastered all possible forms of martial arts to a truly Divine level, so even if she was unable to land one decisive strike on Izayoi because of his 『Gift of Leo』, he was getting cornered by her little by little, his defense and resistance solved and worked around as if he was a King’s piece in the game of shogi, and she was looking for the best strategy to remove him from the board, only in this particular deadly game of shogi removal meant certain death.

(These attacks of hers… I can’t possibly deal with them all when they are coming in such relentless barrages one after the other! Shit, if I won’t find a way do deal with her soon, then things will look pretty bleak for me! Well, if that is the case, then…!)

Instead of deflecting the incoming blade of the battle axe, this time Izayoi grabbed it with both his hands and used the momentum he gained from briefly stopping Parashurama in place in order to close the gap between the two of them. He concluded that if she’s using a weapon with such a long handle then getting closer to her would give him an edge he needed to tip the scales of the battle in his favor, but he forgot that the opponent he was going up against was not someone against whom simple tricks and established strategies would work. Just before he could deliver a blow to her from point-blank range, she spun her weapon above her head in a circular pattern, blowing back everything around her and reducing it to dust.

(Damn… she won’t let me get close so easily, huh? Heh, talk about playing hard to get!)

Izayoi thought while clicking his tongue in irritation as he allowed the shockwave to carry him. His enemy was one of the Avatars who mastered every martial art possible known to man, so he should have anticipated that normal gap closers won’t do shit against her. Not to mention that fighting at close distance also placed him at a disadvantage. What he needed to do was to think outside the box. What would a problem child do to deal with such an opponent? Taunt the enemy into making a mistake and exploit the opening created in this way when it would be the least expected.

「Bring it on then! You might be someone who learned every last martial art in this world and mastered them all to perfection, but let us see how that seemingly perfect martial prowess of yours fares against someone like me, a problem child who lived the entirety of his life until now while indulging in his own desires without a care in the world!」

Now that he found himself facing an incredibly strong opponent after not having a proper challenge for so long, Izayoi’s excitement was reaching the levels that surprised even him, but it was perfectly understandable why he was feeling that way. Because finally, someone whom he could call a worthy opponent has awakened in the Outer World. Not in Little Garden, but right here on Earth, where such miraculous occurrences should no longer be possible.

It was highly unlikely that he would get a second chance like that in the future, so he had to make the most of it now that the opportunity was right here in his grasp. So, allowing the surge of emotions to take control over him, Izayoi raised his fist high into the air, gathered all of his power into his fist… and then brought it down in one swift motion, bringing about a literal tsunami of rocks and earth.

(Mkh….!? It might be bad if he hits me with that.)

Parashurama thought to herself while raising an eyebrow at this boy’s rather unexpected action. The wave of earth and rocks this boy generated reached out so high that she wandered if he wanted to swallow the entire city of Rio and its slum area with it, but then she realized that this was probably not the case, since that attack of his carried so much raw mass with it that not even a carpet-bombing raid could have matched it with the sheer destructive force. It was an unstoppable attack of unmatched scale that, depending on the right circumstances, could potentially wipe out the entire Rio de Janeiro area without a trace. Moreover, now that the slums have been walled off from the rest of the city by Prithvi Mata’s Sacred Tree trunks, escape became pretty much impossible, and even if she did manage to escape, she probably could not avoid sustaining a serious injury in the process.

With all of her other options exhausted, the blood-covered Decayer stabbed her battle axe into the ground beside her and let go of it, after which she looked Izayoi in the eyes and exclaimed with a calm voice and a brutal, almost sadistic smile on her face:

「Not allowing any exceptions to that rule is the proof of me being at the very top, was it? Alright then, if you are so confident about your ability not to be cut by any weapon, then let us put the impenetrability of that Gift of yours to the real test, shall we?」

She placed her hand on her chest and closed her eyes, and then made a gesture as if she was offering a prayer to the heavens above. And then she directed her words towards the power sleeping within her host, the albino girl whom she have possessed.

「… Corrupt, my Astra.」

In an instant, a spear made entirely out of blood has appeared at the other side of the earthen wall, accompanied by a myriad of rainbow-colored aurora lights.

In the next moment, the Decayer’s entire body began to emit massive amounts of heat energy that could only be compared to that of the Earth’s molten core hidden far beneath the surface of the planet. The pieces of soil and sand that came into contact with it were set on fire and turned into lava, which then scattered about into nothingness like the waves of the ocean crushing against the tall rocky cliffs.

When Izayoi remembered to what thing this blinding radiance belonged to and it dawned on him exactly what kind of move Parashurama was intending to use, a wave of cold sweat instinctively ran down his spine.

(Kh… This power!!! Don’t tell me she’s….?!)

But he was unable to finish his sentence because what he saw next made him physically swallow his words even though they were spoken in his mind. After all, Izayoi was all too familiar with the Spear of Blood that Parashurama summoned to her side. And although he knew exactly what kind of destruction was it capable of causing, there was no way for him to dodge it since Pritt and the girl she was carrying on her back were both behind him… no, to begin with, judging by the immense amount of energy that spear was emitting, even if he managed to stop it he would not be able to protect them.

What the 『Hero Slayer』 was about to use was one of the most powerful techniques known to the Indian mythology that saved Izayoi’s ass more times than he could count. An ultimate strike that could be awakened only by invoking a mantra that was lost long ago, back when the Indo-European world was still one, a symbol of the act of leaving the deeds available only to Divine Spirits in the hands of mortal men.

「Pierce him through…『Brahmastra Origin』…!!!」

The Spear of Blood was thrown towards Izayoi at high speed, illuminating the sky not only in the slums or the city, but across the entire continent with its ominous radiance. That attack, the ultimate form of war arts and the ideal of pure, unrestrained offensive power that all of the heroes from the Indian Pantheon pursued but could never have hoped to obtain burned through the barrier erected by Pritt’s Holy Tree as if it was made from wet paper and went forward, coming closer and closer towards the ground, ready to turn the entirety of the Favela slums into smoldering ruins. And when it finally hit its mark, the red brilliance that erupted out of it in a sudden, violent explosion tore the veil of the night to pieces and dyed the skies of the Outer World with a shade of red so crimson-dark as if the heaven’s themselves were cut open and bled out as the life was being drained from them.