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Last Embryo Volume 4 Epilogue Part 3

「No, stop! Do not do it, Heracles!」

But the black lion ran through the beach without heeding Orpheus’s call. He rushed at Parashurama with his black hair fluttering in the wind, and swung his land shattering giant club at her with monstrous speed exceeding the limits of both humans and Demigods.

Up until now, Parashurama somehow managed to stand her ground against him, but this blow took her completely by surprise. Dodge to the side or get on the ground, neither of those option will work now, because she was simply too late with her reaction. But then, as if it was waiting for this exact moment, a ray of shining light got between the two of them, interrupting this desperate do or die scenario.

「.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !!!!?」

「Whoa, there, no need to be on such a high alert, miss Decayer. As you can see, the cavalry has come to the rescue, so you can sit back and watch the show from the sidelines. But first, stand still for just a sec, would you?」

While remaining wary, Parashurama held her bloodied battle axe ready to strike anyone who would dare to come near her, but Izayoi easily slipped through her defenses and touched her forehead with his hand. Just as he was expecting, the meltdown phenomenon was beginning to occur in her body as well.

Surprised to see him here, Parashurama shouted while taking a backstep to prevent him from touching her head any longer.

「So it is you, you goddamn brat! What the hell are you doing here?! And how did you get here in the first place?!」

「I am afraid that it is a company secret, so even if you beg me on your knees, I will not be telling you that. As much as I would love to properly settle our score from four days ago, right now we have bigger fish to fry, would you not agree?」

He said as he stopped the attack of the incoming club with one hand, and then he looked at Heracles, who just stood there, completely void of his reasoning.

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .」

「Yo, great hero. Is it just me or does this feel like your heart is not in the right place? The hell’s wrong with him? Is he still being controlled?」

「Y-Yes. . . . . but that is not important right now! That man who called himself Krishna, is he still chasing you? Why did you leave your brother alone? Is he going to be okay?!」

Orpheus attacked Izayoi with a barrage of questions while raising one of his brows in wonder. He could not tell what it was exactly, but he felt as though Izayoi was being unusually serious. Did something happen to make him that way, or was it just one of his rapid mood swings?

「Homura is a grown-ass kid, he can take care of himself just fine. Now, onto the matter at hand. Orpheus! Lend me some of those threads of yours!」

While avoiding a series of Heracles’s club swings, Izayoi snatched Orpheus’ harp away from him. He ripped the threads off of it, and while giving off a faint glow similar to the one of that Aurora they saw moments before and moved behind Heracles’ back in an instant.

(S-So fast!)

His movement speed just now was truly extraordinary. Even though Parashurama has mastered every possible martial arts that the world had to offer to its highest peak, she was still unable to fully follow upon what happened just now. Seeing something that happened so fast that her eyes failed to register it took her breath away. However, her astonishment did not ended there, because Izayoi proceeded to wrap the strings from Orpheus’ harp tightly around Heracles’ neck, but instead of trying to outright strangle him, he knocked him off his feet and for the brief moment while he was suspended in midair, he began to swing him around, allowing the increasing centrifugical force to do his job for him.

「Gh. . . . . . . . . . . khaaaaa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .!!!!!!!」

Even though he was supposed to have completely lost his sense of self when Krishna took possession of his body, Heracles raised a voice filled with agony for the first time since his battle with Parashurama and Orpheus began. Realizing that Izayoi wanted to use the weakness of his Divinity against him in the same way that he tried to do in his brief skirmish with him, Orpheus produced more threads and supported him by entwining more of them around their opponent’s neck. Increasing his swing’s speed so that it began to approach that of the third cosmic velocity, Izayoi then released the threads he was holding onto and launched Heracles high into the air towards the Little Garden’s ceiling.

「H-Hey, are you an idiot?! What the hell did you do that for?! If only you just kept strangling him for a few more minutes, the victory would have been ours! What good is realeasing the threads now going to make. . . . . .?!」

「. . . . . . . . . .??? Oh no, this is bad! You idiot, if you value your life, then get as far away from him as possible! Now!」

「Huh?」

Detecting the danger that was fast approaching, Parashurama started to increase her distance as soon as she saw the waves of light that began to radiate off of Izayoi’s body. Izayoi himself assumed a stance and prepared to unleash his attack while gathering all of his energy into his right hand, which now also had a B.D.A infused shackle around it. Glaring up high into the sky at Heracles who had no way of defending himself from what was about to hit him, he simply smirked and said:

「I am sorry to say this, but I just remembered something kinda important. I do not know how to adjust this thing’s power output, so I will just be hitting you with all that I have got and then some. Do your best not to go and die on me now, Mr. Great Hero!」

Immediately after he finished his sassy taunt, even more light began to converge around Izayoi’s right hand. But it was not a phenomenon caused by {Another Cosmology}. Reaching the peak of its brightness. All of it focused itself into his now clenched fist, ready to deliver its strike at any moment. The Star Particle Bodies released from the B.D.A entered Izayoi’s bloodstream and caused both the inside and the outside of his body to become separated from the concept of time.

His posture was brutish and unrefined. None of the martial arts he has been painstakingly learning for the past three years are reflected in it at all. But if there was one thing that the 「Decayer of Injustice」 was able to understand from it, it would have to be that.

This next blow of his is definitely going to be a deadly one, delivered with an intent to kill.

「- – – {O V E R R I D E W I T H A N O T H E R C R O W N! ! ! ! !} – – -」

He shouted the keywords, raising his heartbeat and blood flow to their absolute limits. And in the moment when he spoke the name of the phenomenon that he was about to invoke Izayoi’s body got enveloped by the pseudo-light in its entirety. . . . and ascended towards the sky at the speed of the sixth cosmic velocity.

* * *

That night, The Lost Continent of Atlantis was shaken to its very core by the two intense battles and the three lights that appeared in between them.

Since it was still the {Lost Continent of Atlantis} Gift Game’s first day, the people wrapped up I these two battles were the only one to clash with one another, while the rest of the Players were probably still on the lookout, trying to find a solution needed to satisfy the Game’s Victory Condition.

When Izayoi returned to the hunter’s hut at the base of the mountain – or what was a mountain anyway – he saw a single figure standing there and inadvertently clicked his tongue.

「Yo. Since you are here, then I assume that your battle was a success as well?」