Volume 4, Chapter 36 – Queen Suikyo

“Ho ho ho, you intend to fight me with only the two of you?”

“…That’s plenty.”

I’m bluffing. But I can’t show any weakness. I just need to buy enough time for Chris-san to stop Shizuku-san.

“Ho ho ho. Then let us see what power you possess.”

As Suikyou spoke, she formed water arrows and fired them at us.

I intercepted them with a Defense Wall.

“Mashiro!”

Mashiro-chan’s Wind Blade struck Suikyou. It definitely caught her right in the neck!

“Oh? To think such a pleasant breeze would blow in a place like this, underground.”

However, it seemed Suikyou had taken no damage at all.

“No way!”

“Ho ho ho. Do you truly believe a newborn spirit could possibly wound me? You little Elf brat.”

“Kuh…”

“This is how one attacks.”

In the next instant, water blades were fired one after another. I continued to block the endless barrage with my Defense Wall.

After about five minutes, Suikyou suddenly stopped her attack.

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“Hmm. Are you merely defending? Or perhaps you are waiting for someone to come to your rescue?”

Her tone was provocative, as if she were taunting us.

“For example…”

In the next instant, Suikyou vanished. No, she had merely moved at high speed.

Panicking, I quickly deployed a Barrier to protect myself, Lu-chan, and Mashiro-chan.

“Ho, a good reaction. But you’re wrong.”

I spun around toward the bridge where the voice came from.

There stood Souji-san, being strangled by Suikyou, who had an arm wrapped around his neck.

Souji-san let out a pained, choking groan.

“Hmm. This one is far too weak to be worth sacrificing.”

With that, Suikyou threw Souji-san against the cave wall with a single hand.

Slamming hard against the wall on his back, Souji-san collapsed limply on the spot.

“That half-dead old geezer over there has no value anymore either. I kept him alive for amusement, but perhaps I should have just made him a sacrifice fifty years ago, after all?”

Suikyou spoke with a malicious voice.

“Ah, but he raised that girl properly to be my sacrifice. It seems keeping him alive was the right choice. Yes? Saint Fiene Argentata. Do you not agree?”

Suikyou wore a nasty smirk.

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“W-what are you talking… hm? Your sacrifice? I thought the sacrifices were being eaten by a monster called the Eight-Headed Dragon God?”

“Ho ho ho, indeed. But I am also that.”

“…No way.”

“Ho ho ho. Have you finally realized? For a Saint-sama, you are rather slow on the uptake.”

I mean, do I really need to get dissed for that…?

“In other words, you yourself are the Eight-Headed Dragon God?”

“That is correct.”

She grinned.

“No, but Suikyou only ascended to the throne thirty-five years ago. Why are you talking about things from fifty years ago!”

“Ho ho ho, as I thought, Saint-sama really is slow. If such a fool is the Saint-sama, the future of humanity is in peril.”

She provoked me with heavy sarcasm. It seemed she had no intention of answering. I tried changing the subject.

“Hmm. Then, do you know a man named Yashichi of Matsuhata Juku?”

“Matsuhata Juku? Ah, that village of idiots. Ho ho ho, it was quite a pastime to deceive those fools by placing a cursed rock there. I had wondered recently why I couldn’t draw power from there; was that your doing?”

“What! So that cursed rock at Otae Fuchi was your doing!”

“Ho ho ho. It was well-crafted, was it not? The power gathered through the medium of the soul of a girl who threw herself away thinking of her lover was delicious. Moreover, the man is killed by the very passion of the woman who cast herself off.”

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“What…”

“Ho ho ho ho ho, do you not think it is a wonderful mechanism? The woman dies thinking of the man, and the man dies because of those thoughts. Then, the woman who committed such a foolish act wanders for five years searching for the man, and in the end, she is imprisoned in the rock to atone for her sin for all eternity. And that becomes my sustenance.”

Suikyou spoke with genuine enjoyment. What a twisted personality.

“…That’s in bad taste. You’re the one who cursed a woman who loved her partner and forced her to commit suicide!”

“I merely gave her a helping hand. Besides, it is a fact that I prevented disasters from striking that village. Without my power, that village would have been at the bottom of the valley long ago.”

Saying this, Suikyou walked toward us. She reached out and touched my Barrier.

“Now then, I shall destroy this troublesome Barrier.”

Suikyou poured Dark-Attribute Mana into my Barrier to shatter it.

“Kuh, I won’t lose!”

I rejected the Dark-Attribute Mana with Holy-Attribute Mana, maintaining the Barrier.

“Ho ho ho, you’re quite capable. But do you have enough mana to last?”

“This… much… is enough!”

I glared sharply at Suikyou. It was then. A dazzling light illuminated the cave.

“Aaaaaaaaaah!”

I heard Shizuku-san’s scream. Glancing toward the voice, I saw Shizuku-san bleeding from her shoulder.

“What!?”

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Surprised, Suikyou looked back.

Now!

With all the strength I had, I punched Suikyou right in the stomach.

“Gah!”

Suikyou’s body bent into a V-shape as she was blown back toward the center of the altar. She hit the ground and rolled about three times before coming to a stop.

Ouch. My fist hurts.

Still, I didn’t expect her to fly that far.

It seems I really do have some power in terms of Status.

Though my talent for the sword is zero.

“Curse you… To be blown away by such a blatantly amateur punch… what monstrous strength for a Saint. Gah, in that case, that girl!”

As I cast Healing Magic on my aching fist, Suikyou screamed and emitted something like a black mist from her body. The mist began to envelop Shizuku-san’s entire body.

“Shizuku-san!”

In a panic, I hurriedly cast a Barrier around Shizuku-san, trying to protect her from the black mist.

“Ho ho ho, too late. With this, that girl will never return. Ho ho ho ho ho, ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!”

Amidst Suikyou’s unpleasant laughter, Shizuku-san, with a black aura rising from her body, slowly stepped out from within the Barrier I had cast.