Episode 19 – Heart V
“Yeah, looks like it. I don’t know the details either, but—”
Bramia said that while glancing over at Nada and Amarelo.
He also didn’t fully understand why Nada and Amarelo were so desperate to take this insect down.
Without knowing the full story, Bramia had simply been fighting it—as if it were nothing more than an adventurer’s instinct.
“You can see it behind that thing, right? That mass of stone fused with flesh. That’s this dragon’s heart. I’m aiming for that—”
Nada said briefly.
In the Larva Academy, whenever a student party manages to kill a dragon, word spreads fast.
The party Nada belonged to—Aghiya—was well-known, and naturally, that included the team Corvo had once been part of.
Corvo himself was one of the adventurers who had experience killing a dragon.
“I see. So you guys are seriously planning to get out of here by doing that, huh—”
Having fought a dragon before, Corvo immediately understood Nada’s intent.
It wasn’t that Corvo had never considered it; the idea lingered somewhere in the back of his mind.
But the thought of killing a dragon from inside its body had simply never occurred to him.
“Yeah. Something like that—”
“Wait a second! What are you talking about!?”
Clarisse, who had only recently enrolled in the Larva Academy and didn’t know much about dragons’ biology, couldn’t grasp the situation.
“…In short, all we have to do is kill that insect. Easy, right? You’re an adventurer too.”
Before Corvo could even finish speaking, the insect charged toward Nada’s group.
Corvo glanced at Clarisse while giving her the bare minimum explanation, then fixed his gaze back on the insect and activated his ability—Ogre Slayer.
His right arm swelled grotesquely.
It looked monstrous—warped to the point one couldn’t even call it human.
Bramia, catching sight of that transformation out of the corner of his eye, grimaced openly.
Corvo raised his massive right arm toward the oncoming insect, then slammed it down toward the lance at just the right moment.
The strike was sharp and powerful.
But he lacked the brute strength to match the size of that arm.
He immediately leapt back, widening the distance. If he tried to hold the lance down like that, he knew the situation would turn against him fast.
“Man… the enemy right in front of us is a real pain. Looks like I’m a bit short on firepower.”
Corvo understood his ability’s traits all too well.
Ogre Slayer was indeed a versatile, powerful ability among adventurers, but against monsters whose raw strength vastly surpassed human limits, that alone wasn’t enough to win.
As soon as Corvo disengaged, the insect shifted its target to Serena and Dan.
It was likely because Dan, who was completely focused on treating Serena, was wide open.
But Nada, who had been watching the insect with utmost caution, stepped in front of them, holding his crescent blade with both hands.
“…Tch—”
He was standing firm, yet his body was already at its limit.
He was panting, cursing under his breath.
Nada was sturdy even among adventurers. But because of the acid, he was now fighting without armor, taking hit after brutal hit from the insect. He wasn’t bleeding from the abdomen, but the internal damage was severe.
It was likely second only to Serena’s condition.
“Hey! You damn woman! What’s your Gift again!?”
Bramia understood exactly how desperate the situation was.
When he arrived here earlier, Nada had been holding the insect off alone. Even then, Nada had already been at his limit.
But Bramia, unlike Nada, wasn’t confident in his physical strength and wasn’t suited to protecting the other two from the insect.
Which meant there was only one action Bramia could take—kill the insect as fast as possible.
“My ability, you mean—?”
Clarisse responded in that same drawn-out voice of hers.
“Yeah, that’s right! Hurry up and answer!”
Meanwhile, the insect charged at Nada. Nada also rushed forward to meet it, intending to stop its momentum head-on.
Just as Nada was about to take the brunt of the oncoming assault, Corvo interfered from the side.
He slashed the insect from the flank with the sword held in his ogre-like arm. Of course, the strike only left a faint scratch on the insect’s armor.
But the heavy side-impact slowed its charge.
Nada seized that opening and swung his crescent blade upward, aiming for the insect’s neck.
The insect, however, jumped lightly to the side to dodge.
“My Gift is from the God of Darkness, you know. Looks like you all came at the perfect time—”
Clarisse said with a smile.
“Hm. A destructive power, then. Naturally, you will lend that strength to us, yes?”
Amarelo asked.
“Yes, of course! Let’s defeat that monster together!”
With that, Clarisse began her divine declaration.
But her tone shifted completely from her usual cheerful air—her voice grew cold, almost chilling, as if it carried frost.
“—With the madness of overflowing chaos held in my heart, offering the blade that slew a hundred as tribute, and my child’s heart as a sacrifice, I seek the power of the Dark God—Angra Mainyu. Ah, my god, if you desire fresh blood, grant your power to me, to my kin.”
When her invocation ended, dark power infused the weapons of Nada, Amarelo, Bramia, and Corvo.
A purple torrent of shadow coiled around each weapon like a curse.
After granting them destructive power, Clarisse extended her hand toward the insect and recited a second oath:
“—Feeding on the voices of madness crawling up from the depths, drinking the living blood of a hundred serpents, I seek the power of the Dark God—Angra Mainyu. Ah, my god, grant your curse to me, and to my enemy.”
As she spoke, a black, serpent-like flow of darkness rose from beneath the ground. The snakes wrapped around her—from her ankles, up her thighs, tightening as they climbed. Then her hips, waist, chest—every curve hidden under her robe was constricted slowly and thoroughly.
Naturally, the same serpents coiled around the insect’s body as well.
If one had to describe it, that power was—a curse.
Among Clarisse’s Gifts, this one placed an equal curse upon herself and her target.
The insect’s movements slowed as the countless snakes constricted it. Its mobility was clearly hindered.
But that was still only effective on ordinary monsters.
Even slowed, the insect remained monstrously fast by human standards. Bound by serpents, it still lowered its lance and charged toward Nada—its most troublesome obstacle.
Nada tried to brace the lance with his crescent blade, now imbued with destructive power, but his body reached its limit first.
He coughed up blood and collapsed to his knees.
“Tch!”
Seeing Nada fall, Bramia moved immediately.
He struck the insect’s equine portion from the side, aiming to draw its attention.
This time, instead of barely scratching the armor, the strike dug in deeply—Crimson acid leaked faintly from the wound.
Clarisse’s Gift had greatly strengthened all their attacks.
“Everyone, now’s your chance! My Gift is still immature, so both effects won’t last long! Defeat the insect while you can!!”
As Bramia was still stunned by how powerful the Dark God’s blessing was, Clarisse shouted a warning to everyone present.
The three adventurers snapped out of their awe and refocused entirely on their target.
“I’ll break it open. After that, I’m counting on you to finish it—”
Corvo said.
Due to the nature of his Ability, delicate and precise swordplay didn’t suit him.
What he excelled at was brute-force cleaving—inflicting large wounds to create openings, rather than striking vital points.
“Then I’ll mess with the damn thing! Leave distracting it to me!!”
Bramia yelled from the front, the closest to the insect.
He moved lightly to the right and left, drawing the insect’s attention.
Of course, even while provoking it, he continued landing blow after blow—each small strike shaving away at the monster’s life thanks to Clarisse’s enhancement.
The insect, perhaps irritated at having its movements restrained by Clarisse’s gift—or maybe trying to intimidate the adventurers—rubbed its body together and let out something like a howl from the depths of hell.
Because Bramia took that sound at point-blank range, his body froze for a moment in fear. The insect aimed to use that opening to skewer him with its lance, but before it could, Corvo, already closing in, raised his sword.
“Here I go—”
Contrary to his clear, almost delicate voice, his right arm had swollen to human-sized proportions thanks to Ogre Slayer. With that single arm, he wielded his jade-colored sword like a simple knife and slammed the insect’s lance down into the floor with all his might. Unable to resist, the insect’s lance was forced deep into the fleshy ground.
At that moment, Corvo heard an unpleasant sound from the insect’s right-arm lance—like a bone cracking. It must’ve fractured, he thought. Partly because his strength had become monstrous, but also thanks to Clarisse’s Gift.
Grateful that a wielder of the Darkness Gift like Claris was here, Corvo prepared to deliver another heavy strike on the immobilized insect. His aim was the head, but unfortunately, he couldn’t reach that far with his height.
So instead, he chopped into the torso.
—Crack.
Compared to every wound they’d inflicted so far, this was the largest. A deep gash ran across the insect’s armored shell.
But it wasn’t enough.
Corvo sensed instinctively that a wound like this still wouldn’t kill it.
“No helping it! Hey!!”
Bramia felt the same. No matter how much damage they dealt to the torso, the insect’s vitality was immense. With their current gear, shaving it down all the way felt unreliable.
So Bramia rushed up to Corvo, grabbed him by the collar, and activated his own ability.
Cautiverio Zero—it nullified the weight of anything counted as his equipment, and anything he held could also be treated as equipment and thus have its weight reduced to zero.
Thus, Bramia tossed Corvo straight at the insect’s head like a ball—temporarily removing his weight.
“Y-you’re serious!?”
Corvo hadn’t expected this at all, and his voice trembled mid-air. But he was a seasoned adventurer. Though startled, he quickly understood Bramia’s intention, adjusted his posture in the air, and delivered a monstrous strike to the insect’s head.
—Crack.
This blow—powered by ogre strength, Corvo’s body weight, and Bramia’s throwing force—dealt the greatest damage yet. The location was the back of the head. Cracks spread like a spiderweb across the insect’s helmet-like shell.
“I’m counting on you for the rest—”
Because Corvo had poured everything into that one strike, he couldn’t land properly. He fell flat on his back, coughed up blood as the insect stomped on his abdomen, then scrambled away in a pathetic twist—only to see it.
Amarelo, hurled far higher than Corvo had been—up near the ceiling.
“—Quite the responsibility I’ve been given, hm.”
Amarelo said this, yet even under the crushing pressure of finishing the insect, he didn’t falter. Instead, he laughed as if delighted.
Of all the adventurers here, thanks to Koher Libertad, Amarelo stood at the highest position—looking down at the insect’s head and the wound Corvo had opened.
Yes, this was a holy battle fought to escape from within the dragon’s body.
But to Amarelo, more than that, it was a chance to avenge the humiliation of having his previous attack caught by the insect.
Now he was stronger.
A stationary target. An opening created by Corvo. The power of Clarisse’s Darkness Gift. All of it worked in his favor.
On top of that, he would add his own body weight, the momentum from kicking off the ceiling, and perform a sheath-run into an iai-slash.
But… could he really win?
The question lingered in him.
That was why Amarelo chose a suicidal charge.
Just like before, he kicked off the ceiling to accelerate.
However, Amarelo judged that just that wasn’t enough—so he kicked off the air again, accelerating once more. While plummeting toward the insect under the force of gravity, he decided to use his own Ability to add even more speed.
It was something he would absolutely never do under normal circumstances.
Because if he accelerated too much, there was the lingering risk that he would crash into the ground with that very momentum.
But even that no longer mattered to Amarelo.
If his strongest strike couldn’t get through, then he would finish the insect with an even stronger blow. Even if he excluded the calculation of surviving afterward, such things were truly meaningless to Amarelo.
If it were for the tiny ambition of proving that his swordsmanship—bereft of any offensive ability skills—could work against any monster, Amarelo was the kind of man who would throw away his own life without hesitation.
So—he accelerated.
Falling toward the insect, Amarelo kicked the air over and over, accelerating again and again.
—Accelerating.
Again, and again, and again—accelerating.
As if even that wasn’t enough, he craved more speed, accelerating all the way until the moment he reached the insect.
“Hah!!”
And then, having become as fast as a bullet, Amarelo performed a godspeed iai slash, cutting through the wall of air rushing toward him just before striking the insect.
No one could see it.
It was so fast that even Amarelo’s own eyes couldn’t follow it.
He certainly felt the sensation of cutting through the insect’s head, but when his blade struck the creature’s head, the shock was so great that his arms couldn’t endure it, and he let go of the sword.
Amarelo crashed head-first into the floor and rolled all the way to where Dan and Serena were.
Whether it was due to the impact from hitting the ground or the damage he took while rolling for so long, his body could no longer move. With only his head desperately turned toward the insect, staring through a vision soaked in the blood flowing from his cracked skull, he watched the insect’s “end.”
Amarelo’s slash had, without a doubt, reached the insect.
His blade slipped through the crack created by Corvo, smashed through the insect’s head, penetrated the neck, and stopped at the point corresponding to the human torso.
From the shock of that strike, the Calvaon packed inside the humanoid torso part of the insect—and even that Calvaon, split in two by Amarelo’s slash—fell and rolled to Bramía’s feet. The insect stopped moving entirely, frozen upright.
“Haha… I did it…”
Seeing the insect’s end, Amarelo finally tried to let himself relax.
“You really did it, man…!!”
Bramía, who had picked up the Calvaon that had rolled to his feet, felt a heavy tremor from the floor—then saw something unbelievable.
On the other side of the insect, at the source of the flood of blood surging toward them from the dragon’s heart—Nada was there.
◆◆◆
While every adventurer present, save for one, was desperately fighting to bring down the insect, that one man was lying on the ground, his consciousness hazy from the impact.
But the instincts carved into him as an adventurer had not been lost.
Kill the monster.
That was the one purpose he had not forgotten.
—However, his target was not the insect.
Nada’s target was the dragon.
The very one responsible for swallowing them all was the one Nada aimed for.
That was why Nada firmly gripped the Green Dragon Crescent Blade—one imbued with Clarisse’s Darkness Gift—with both hands. Without sparing a single glance at the insect or the adventurers fighting nearby, he charged straight toward the dragon’s heart.
And then, while his consciousness was still muddled, Nada drove the crescent blade straight into the dragon’s heart.
The wound Nada inflicted at first was certainly small. But with the crescent blade strengthened by the Darkness Gift, he slashed repeatedly at what looked like the surrounding major arteries, and then—almost gouging—he pushed the blade in again and again and again.
As a result, several large “holes” were carved into the dragon’s heart, and what poured out from them was a massive flood of blood.
“Hey, you bastard! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
Bramia’s roar snapped toward Nada.
But Nada was in no state of mind to hear it.
No—he couldn’t even hear Bramia’s voice at all. The dragon’s heartbeat and the torrent of blood roaring out drowned everything else out.
The blood erupting from the heart like a fountain quickly began to spread, filling the entire chamber.
“Nada!”
Corvo called out as Bramia had, and he tried to move toward Nada, but it was impossible—the force of the spreading blood centered around the heart where Nada stood, combined with the ground shaking like an earthquake as the dragon thrashed, made it impossible to get close.
One of the adventurers quickly realized how dangerous the heart chamber was becoming and activated her ability.
“—《Escondil Utero》.”
It was Serena.
Having regained consciousness thanks to Dan’s treatment, she used the only thing she was still capable of—her Ability—with desperate resolve.
In that moment, a distortion formed in the space before Serena’s right hand, and a black tear opened.
“Everyone, this place is dangerous! Hurry, get inside Serena’s ability!”
At the same time, Dan shouted loudly to every adventurer present.
The moment the ability was activated, Bramia immediately grabbed Amarelo, who was still lying on the ground, and escaped into Serena’s Ability. Corvo and Clarisse followed right after.
Their footing was unstable inside the violently shaking interior, and they also had to deal with the incoming torrent.
Such a thing was impossible for an ordinary human being.
And even when all the adventurers except Nada had entered Serena’s ability, he still continued to stab the heart with his crescent blade.
He had no intention of pulling it out.
No matter how violently the ground shook, no matter how much blood rained down over his body, he kept his grip firmly on the crescent blade impaled in the heart.
“Nadaaa!”
Dan’s anguished shout echoed through the dragon’s body.
But it still didn’t reach Nada’s ears.
“No! At this rate, even this space is going to be swallowed by blood!”
Judging that, Serena glanced briefly toward Nada, her face twisting with conflict. After biting down hard on her lip, she closed the entrance to Escondil Utero.
“Nadaaa!”
Even as everything unfolded, Dan kept screaming Nada’s name.
And then, once Serena shut the entrance, the flood of blood bursting out somewhere else swallowed Nada and all six adventurers whole.
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