1074: Saving Flut

Fran held me up in preparation for destroying the magic stone.

Rather than a swing, she folded her arm back in the stance for a thrust.

With all of her power concentrated on a single point.

Fran quietly kneaded her mana, and I strengthened myself with Arch-Sorcerer and Evil Conquest.

My blade made a high-pitched creaking sound as if bending under the heavy burden. My durability kept gradually falling, and I felt as if the surface of my blade was melting away. Still, I continued maintaining the enhancements.

「Phew…」

Fran closed her eyes and took a few long breaths in front of the huge magic stone.

「Haaaaah…!」

The deeper the breath, the more power drawn from her inner self.

Then right after her longest breath, Fran’s eyes snapped open as she pushed me out with all her strength.

「Haaaaah! Black Lightning Divine Claw!」

She activated Black Lightning Divine Claw, just like when she destroyed the magic stone weapons in Belioth. The only difference being that her current control of the technique was perfect.

The black lightning was concentrated entirely on my tip, rotating like a drill.

Clad in overwhelming power, I was thrust into the magic stone and…

「Yes!」

『Yeah!』

We struggled to even make a scratch last time, but now we’ve achieved complete victory. Fran’s thrust had pierced the huge magic stone’s defenses, with my tip penetrating all the way through.

Both Fran and I have grown a lot since then!

The huge magic stone was absorbed into me in its entirety and disappeared.

『Yes, yes! Here it comes!』

Come to think of it, this happened last time too…! With a tremendous amount of mana flowing into me, my mind went almost completely blank.

But this was something I’ve experienced on several occasions. Besides, it’s nothing compared to the time I absorbed those two swords. I managed to stay conscious and calm myself down.

（Master, you okay?）

『Yep. No problem.』

（Okay, good.）

Whoa, what? I just checked my stats and that magic stone was worth over 2000 points! Are you kidding? It must have come from something at least Threat Level A!

Then there’s the skills. I got four of them, and all were weird: Flame Dragon Magic, Dragon Roar, Dragonscale Flames, Dragonscale Boost. So this stone must have come from a Flame Dragon. Just like the name suggests, Flame Dragon Magic must be a special type of magic only usable by Flame Dragons. Honestly speaking, this might be the first time I have absolutely no clue how to use a magic skill.

As much as I tried focusing on the skill, no spells came to mind. As for Dragon Roar, Dragonscale Flames, and Dragonscale Boost, I was unable to use any of them either. It seems they can’t even be activated by non-dragons.

Meanwhile, there was someone else stunned as well.

「Hah… What… the…」

Flut widened his eyes in surprise before immediately contorting his face in self-mockery. Well, such a reaction was understandable.

They had resorted to killing the villagers after deciding the giant magic stone was impossible to break. What’s more, doing so caused them to become enemies with Fran.

I have to say the two demon knights deserve a big share of the blame. They clearly came at us with the intent to kill, causing the undiplomatic Fran to respond in the same fas.h.i.+on.

They also brought up the issue of their home country, causing Flut and Satia to rush in and act thoughtlessly.

Another issue was how Flut and Satia misjudged Fran’s abilities. Bune and Ronowe were definitely much stronger than Fran when she first met Flut. Not that I can blame them, but they probably thought Fran wouldn’t be able to help them solve the problem. Maybe they even considered capturing her to be a simple task.

What if they had told Fran the whole story from the beginning and asked for her cooperation? Things would have ended very differently.

「…If only we had trusted you… Everything was pointless… Ah, why was I so foolish…? Hah… Haha…」

Rather than the curse eating his life, his biggest regret seemed to be making the decision to kill the villagers.

「…Fran… Don’t worry yourself… with us…」

「Flut! No! I’ll figure something out!」

「Don’t… worry… My friend… I wish you… luck…」

「Flut!」

「Gah…!」

「Flut!」

Flut coughed up even more blood than earlier. His face was almost entirely devoid of life.

Fran spammed additional restoration spells, but the knife prevented all healing. Also, it’s clear that pulling out the knife by force will only hurt Flut even more. Even a light touch seemed to cause him intense pain.

「In that case!」

Fran held me up in front of her waist. She started focusing her mana again, perhaps concentrating even harder than when she destroyed the magic stone.

A few seconds of silence pa.s.sed.

Fran crouched deep against the ground, and delivered a slash within a hair’s breadth of Flut’s body.

There was no sound, not even a thud. And yet…

「Mm?」

『Whoa!』

I felt mana flowing into me as the knife disappeared completely. We had hoped that destroying the knife might nullify its powers, but instead…

『Cannibalize activated?』

I don’t claim to have a full understanding of the skill, but my Cannibalize should only work against Intelligence Weapons or failed divine swords. Maybe full divine swords might count too.

The knife clearly didn’t have a will of its own, nor was it a divine sword.

『A failed divine sword…?』

But my stats barely increased at all. Maybe it was a really weak failed divine sword or something? However, I did gain a skill: Demon Slayer. This had the effect of weakening demons and doubling the damage dealt to them. It also had a power for detecting them.

（Master?）

『Oops, I’ll explain later. Let’s save Flut for now.』

（Nn.）

The curse was still eating away at him, with so much blood dripping from his wounds. Fran and I repeatedly cast divine-infused healing magic as we did our best to save Flut.

A few more minutes pa.s.sed.

『I think he’s stable now.』

「Nn…」

Fran was exhausted from expending too much mana, but the color had returned to Flut’s face. He should be fine.

『Now then, what next?』