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Volume 5 Chapter 4 Part 8

During her years of staying in Little Garden, Kasukabe You already managed to experience a fight with a Divine Spirit and a Pureblood Dragon, but she has never engaged in battle with a genuine Celestial Star Spirit before. With a a big, wicked grin on its face, the black beast destroyed her Quetzalcoatl’s staff with just its fangs alone. The destroyed staff disappeared, returning to its storage space inside of You’s 『Genome Tree』.

 

「Ugh, this taste is awful. . . I cannot stand it. Thankfully, there is a much better snack right here. . .! ! ! ! ! ! !」

 

(. . . I will not be able to didge it in time! ! ! ! ! ! !)

 

Realizing that he will not be able to avoid the beast’s net attack, You felt the unprecedented feeling of absolute death washing over her to the point where she could swear that she saw the silhouette of the Grim Reaper himself readying his scythe to strike at her neck.

 

However, there was a man right next to her who was prepared to lay his own life on the line in order to not let his friends be taken away by death just yet.

 

「『Override. . . . with Another Crown . . . . . .! ! ! ! 』」

 

While feeling the waves of burning pain washing over his entire body, Izayoi transformed his entire body into a cluster of Star Particle Bodies once more and charged forward towards the beastly Krishna at the speed of light, which caused even the Celestial Star Spirit to become amazed.

 

Now that he has found himself directly in front of his opponent, Izayoi unleashed a lightning-fast barrage of strikes that would normally obliterated the body of whoever came into contact with them and shaved his viscera away into a bloody mist. . . . but against Krishna, he did not feel like any of his ten thousand strikes did any actual damage to him, even though they definitely stunlocked him in place without giving him an opportunity to move at all. No matter what he did to him or how he tried to change his approach, he just did not feel any actual response, almost as if he was slamming his fists against a wall made out of diamond. And the worst thing about it was that it was not just Krishna’s body that seemed to absorb any instance of damage done to it. The black wind that was covering him from top to bottom seemed to be doing exactly the same thing, so putting it in game terms, it was as if Krishna had his Shock Absorption and Damage Reduction stats maxed out way beyond one hundred percent. If this guy really is a Celestial Star Spirit as he claimed to be, then this wind definitely lived up to that name, and there should be even more supermass beyond it on the other side. In other words, it looks like they will not be able to harm him by attacking from the front no matter what they might try to do to him.

 

(Shit. . . I do not have much time left! I cannot waste even a single second!)

 

Knowing that he was going to run out of steam pretty soon, Izayoi shouted at Asuka.

 

「Miss Rich Lady! ! ! ! ! Ready that sword of yours! ! ! ! ! ! Almathea! ! ! Make sure that you protect her at all costs! ! ! !」

 

「Eh. . . ah, all right, I understand!」

 

Immediately realizing wat it was that Izayoi was aiming for, Asuka held up her sword, ready to strike whenever the right opportunity would have presented itself.

 

But just because these two devised a plan of what to do, it does not mean that the black beast was about to stand around letting them execute it while doing absolutely nothing. Since it had Izayoi, who has become like a sentient star right now, in front of it, it attacked him with its fangs and managed to cut through his shoulder with them.

 

The pain from that one attack was so severe that it made Izayoi do nothing more but to roll around on the floor and vomit the clusters of Star Particle Bodies instead of blood. It was moving too fast for any attempts at dodging its attacks to be effective, and on top of that, it was also impossibly adaptive and flexible.

 

Therefore, Izayoi decided that it was high time for a change in his general approach to this battle. Instead of trying to overload Krishna’s black wind with his barrage of blows in hope that some of his strikes would break through the barriers protecting him and would finally harm his main body, Izayoi used all of his strength to lift the beast with his hands, and once he succeeded he ran it through mountains, rivers and lakes of the Lost Continent of Atlantis with such a speed that no human being could have even been able to muster, all the while kicking up clouds of dirt, smoke and dust that could otherwise be taken for sand and dust storms.

 

Throughout this mad dash of his, the black wind beast bit into Izayoi’s body many times, but he simply gritted his teeth and powered through the pain, focusing his attention on one thing and one thing only: directing the body of the black wind beat in such a way that it would end up getting stabbed onto Asuka’s sword, turning into a black shishkebab made of wind. . . . .  and that is exactly what he did. Running towards Asuka, who was waiting on standby with her sword, like a meteor shooting down from the sky, he used the momentum he has gained from all the running that he did just now. . . and impaled Krishna onto the 『Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi’s』 blade, which met him halfway through the air when Asuka performed a forward stab ahead of time.

 

「Nu. . . . . ghuaah?!」

 

When the blade pierced his body from behind, he did not let out a voice filled with anguish, but rather the one that was surprised at what just happened to him. And while it was far from an ideal result of bringing Krishna down for good, it was the second-best thing that Izayoi and Asuka were hoping for. For as soon as the tip of Asuka’s sword came into contact with Krishna’s body, it caused the black wind that was protecting to begin dissipating. The black beast tried to retaliate by slashing its claws at Asuka, but before they could reach her it started coiling and writhing around while it was getting thinner and thinner by the second.

 

「*Tsk!* Looks like I ended up playing a little bit too much even though it was supposed to be just a warm-up exercise, huh? If only I had expanded my sky with my Authority, you would never have been able to catch me off guard like that.」

 

The black beast glared at Asuka’s 『Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi』 wth both anger an joy reflected in its eyes.

 

「That blade truly deserves to be called The Ultimate Holy Sword. To think that a single wound suffered from its single strike would be enough to separate my wind away from me. For someone who looks to be so inexperienced in the art of swordsmanship, that cut was truly remarkable. I guess that means that this is the victory for the kings who chose to bet on humanity’s potential and infinite possibilities, not for the Divine Spirits.」

 

He bore his hangs at them and spun his words happily. However, Izayoi and the others were far away from calling that their victory. Even though they managed to dispel the black wind thanks to going back and forth between offense and defense, this battle was definitely the most dangerous situation that they have found themselves in ever since they first came to Little Garden those few years ago.

 

While dripping greasy sweat from his entire body, Izayoi asked the black beast:

 

「You bastard. . . . . . . who. . . . what in the fuck are you? The Leader of 『Uroboros』?」

 

「The Leader of 『Uroboros』? What are you talking about?」