Chapter 143: Fleeting Despair

In front of my gaze, information about Fargodas rose up.

Ttirring―!

[Target Information]

Name: Fargodas

Age: 45

Occupation: High Priest of Chaos, Turncoat (變節者)

Life: 999 / 999

Stamina: 4,420 / 6,460

Holy Power: 11,304 / 21,830

After checking that, I then confirmed the information of the being that Graffios had summoned this time.

[Target Information]

Name: Graffios

Status: Offering of the Dark Holy War

Grade: S

Life: 7,390 / 9,990

Stamina: 8,930 / 14,300

Mana: 111,900 / 131,210

Both beings possessed terrifying stats.

They had several times more life and mana than I did.

But I didn’t shrink back.

Instead, with an even more confident expression, I swung my sword at them.

Shwaaaaaaak!

A streak of white thunderbolts stretched long and left a mark across Graffios’ torso.

Kkiaaaaaaaaak!

Its screech rang out even louder, as if the pain had reached it.

“I should’ve smashed you when you were still an egg. Patrick! Take everyone and get back!”

“Are you all right?”

“You’re in the way! Go!”

Trying to fight while protecting them all made it hard to focus on attacking.

Thus, Turklan and Deborah followed after Patrick and withdrew from their positions.

Only then could I gather my strength again.

‘I need to end this as quickly as possible.’

Something invisible to others was visible to me.

It was the flow of the earth’s energy that Graffios and Fargodas were absorbing.

‘So this was the cause……!’

Trees and soil began to dry up.

At this rate, the land here would surely end up like the territories I’d passed before.

I gathered mana and breathed it out through the tip of my sword.

White thunderbolts erupted in a long arc, forming the shape of a massive blade.

“Here I go!”

Shiaaaah!

The strike stretched out toward Fargodas first.

“God……! Has not forsaken…… us……!”

“You’re the ones who abandoned your god.”

The long arc extended from Fargodas’ left waist to his right shoulder.

In an instant, he was cleaved in two, and from the split, jet-black energy burst out like crushed pulp.

Kkiaaaaaaaaak!

That energy was immediately sucked into Graffios.

It continued to absorb the energy.

“For a guy with a massive body, you’re scared of me?”

I held the enlarged blade and strode forward.

Graffios flinched and began retreating backward.

It seemed to instinctively feel fear.

“Don’t defile this land anymore—just die.”

To finally finish what I couldn’t conclude in the cave, I tightened my grip on my sword.

Kkiaaaaak! Kkiaaaak!

Graffios kept backing away.

“Why is it acting like that?”

Now that I thought about it, Fargodas had been strange too.

Judging by physical ability, he should’ve been almost equal to me.

But seeing him get sliced in one strike, it was as if his stamina or holy power had been completely ignored.

“Is my power its natural enemy?”

I extended the massive white blade toward Graffios.

Kkiaaak! Kkiaak!

As the blade drew closer, Graffios hopped back like a startled chick.

“So it really is incompatible with me?”

If necessary, I had been planning to bombard it with spells like when it came out of the rubble.

But its unexpected reaction felt strange.

“I was overthinking it.”

To finish it off, I raised the massive blade of White Flash high.

Once I struck, it might be over.

At that moment, an urgent voice echoed inside my head.

[Stop! Human! Want to live!]

“……Huh?”

It wasn’t something heard through my ears, but something ringing directly inside my head.

It felt like a thought was being transmitted from somewhere.

[Want to live! Human! Stop!]

The same words as before.

“What is this? Is this thing talking?”

Only Graffios was standing before me.

Since it had only screamed until now, I wasn’t sure if it was truly speaking.

[Yes! Want to live! Want to live!]

It didn’t seem capable of proper speech.

I reduced the aura of the sword I was about to swing and stepped closer.

“Why are you only talking now?”

[Don’t know! Talking! Want to live!]

It seemed to speak only from instinct.

Of course, I had no intention of listening to Graffios.

“Why should I spare you? Even now you’re still absorbing the energy of this land.”

[Don’t! Want to live!]

“If you keep absorbing the land’s energy, I will kill you.”

It was something I said just in case.

But the flow of energy from the earth toward Graffios suddenly stopped.

[Don’t! Want to live!]

“And this is supposed to be a reason for me to spare you?”

[How? How?]

As the awkward speech continued, a faint laugh slipped from me.

“If I spare you, what are you going to do?”

[Don’t know! Want to live!]

I fell into thought.

I couldn’t let Graffios go here. If it escaped this place, it might devastate the land somewhere else.

On top of that, the title “Offering of the Dark Holy War” meant it would eventually be offered to the Demon King.

“Let’s just die here.”

Srrring!

The sword I had lowered rose upward.

At that moment, Graffios flinched in shock, and its enormous body began shrinking at incredible speed.

Shushushushushuk!

Its body looked as if it was being compressed.

It kept shrinking until it reached the size of a human head.

“What did you just do?”

[I weak! Want to live!]

“So what are you trying to say?”

[Follow! Want to live!]

“You’ll follow me? Why?”

[Suspicious! Want to live! Follow! Want to live!]

Flapping its tiny wings, Graffios circled around me in loops.

Just looking at it, it resembled a small bird.

“What if you must die?”

[Want to live! Want to live!]

“…….”

[Want to live! Want to live! Want to live!]

At that sight, a memory flashed through my mind.

‘Nagita…….’

Back when I lived as the mercenary Kang Inhyuk, it reminded me of the little girl who used to follow me around in the refugee district.

Of course, I couldn’t compare a human to Graffios, yet a strange feeling stirred within me.

“Do as you want.”

[Really? Really?]

“But from now on, you must not absorb the energy of the land.”

[No? No? But hungry! Hungry!]

“Can’t you eat something else?”

[Don’t know! Don’t know!]

Its way of speaking sounded like a newborn who had hurriedly learned to speak.

Its whining wasn’t exactly pleasant, but I shook my head helplessly.

“You eat mana?”

[Mana? What’s mana?]

“This.”

I raised my right hand and awakened a pure-white flame of aura.

At that sight, Graffios’ eyes widened.

[This is mana? Mana?]

Graffios approached my fingertip and stuck its tongue out.

At the same time, a sizable amount of my mana was sucked into it.

‘This is pretty bad.’

A quarter of the 10,000 mana I had left vanished instantly.

That amount was enough to cast a 5th-circle wide-area spell several times.

[Tasty! Tasty!]

“Glad it suits your taste, I suppose. Wait, then what about this?”

I awakened my aura again.

Not a flame-like aura, but White Flash.

Pajijijijik!

White lightning sparked between my fingers.

Graffios immediately recoiled in fright.

[Hate! Scary! Scary!]

“So you like the other one but hate this?”

[Scary!]

“The aura of the Master Emperor realm must be something different, then?”

For a being with over 130,000 mana to fear it, something was definitely there.

Of course, I couldn’t figure out the reason right away.

But since it served as a method to restrain Graffios, I felt relieved.

“First, let’s get out of here.”

Using Detection, I confirmed there were no survivors near the rocky mountain.

When Graffios awoke and collapsed the mountain, it seemed everyone there had died.

“I also need to find out what the Empire was trying to do here.”

I then moved toward the direction Patrick and the others had taken.

It took some time before I arrived.

The group, resting in the forest, hurried forward upon seeing me.

“You’ve worked hard, Master.”

“Are you unharmed?”

“Are you okay? That monster from earlier—what happened to it?”

Their voices trembled with worry, likely due to the terrifying experience they witnessed.

“It’s been dealt with.”

“You destroyed it?”

Turklan recalled the sight of Graffios rising from the rocky mountain.

The overwhelming mana and oppressive presence felt like it could crush everything.

But since I returned unharmed, shock was only natural.

“Mm…… rather than destroying it…….”

As I searched for the right words, something poked its head out from beneath the gap of my armor near my neck.

Though small, it was unmistakable in appearance.

“T-that’s!”

“Isn’t that the monster from earlier?!”

Shocked, Turklan and Deborah quickly stepped back.

Since I had delayed explaining, I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

“There were circumstances, so I couldn’t kill it. But it won’t grow at will like before or cause any danger.”

“……Did you tame it?”

At Patrick’s quietly spoken question, I nodded with an uncertain expression.

“I don’t know if you’d call it taming.”

“Master, you continue to surprise us every day.”

“It was just luck. And its food can be replaced with my mana, so you don’t have to worry.”

“If it uses mana as nourishment…… then like that heretic priest Fargodas said, it may truly be a divine beast.”

Before dying, Fargodas had shouted “Divine Beast!” upon seeing Graffios.

Of course, in a world of magic and sword, the Phalon Continent held many beings spoken of only in legends.

Dragons were among them.

But since they hadn’t revealed themselves for so long, they remained mere legends.

“A divine beast, Graffios…… I’ve never heard of it.”

“I’ve never heard of it either.”

“I should ask Regina to look into it. And now we should get moving, right?”

Our first destination was the Mineta Kingdom.

Passing through Poltaz, Ratpadon, and Glonia within the territory of the Dior Empire had eaten up quite a bit of time, so we needed to increase our pace.

“I am fine, so let’s go to the Bachenan Holy Kingdom first.”

It was Deborah.

Naturally, she must have been curious about the situation in Mineta Kingdom.

But for some reason, she conceded.

“Why so?”

“We need to pick up Sir Turklan’s wife, don’t we? We can stop by Mineta Kingdom on our way back.”

Turklan felt grateful for her consideration.

“Princess, thank you.”

“It’s only because I followed along unnecessarily. Sir Turklan’s matter came first, so don’t think too much of it.”

With her approval, everyone set their direction toward the Bachenan Holy Kingdom.

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