Volume 3, Chapter 47 – The Light Beam Spell

Next, Fia’s gaze turned to the Witch’s Heart Core further back.

“Why are you still playing dead? Can you transfer your consciousness into that furball and leave? You’re a lot of trouble here.”

The questioned Laplace’s Demon first paused, then shouted anxiously in front of Lianne.

“If I could run, I would have run long ago! That guy is alive again, you have to do something!”

“Tsk.”

She could carry the Heart Core and leave the underground, but there were only more people on the surface than down here. Besides, a single Sixth Rank Darkborn plus some Chaos was not enough to make her run away.

“Elf princess! Do you think I am the same as I was before!”

Unlike the last time when he had fled upon seeing Fia, the re-formed Balor roared as if he had gone mad.

Fia adopted a fighting stance—though to call it a fighting stance, in reality, she only took a step forward with her small right foot, which was clad in a black over-the-knee sock—a delicate smile appeared on her doll-like, exquisite face.

“Although I don’t know what you were like before, I’m sure your head isn’t very bright.”

After confirming that Lianne had left, a thought moved in Fia’s mind.

[Dragon Tooth]

In an instant, the stone spears that had turned Balor into minced meat a moment ago surged towards him from all directions again.

Although [Dragon Tooth] had to emerge from the “earth” and could not appear from any position like [Fairy Fire] or [Wind Blade], the scope of this “earth” was very broad. Even the ceiling of the underground Witch Hall was considered earth, so [Dragon Tooth] could appear from any angle in the conference hall.

However, unlike the initial sneak attack, this time Balor was on full alert. The moment the ground trembled slightly, he sidestepped to dodge the Dragon Teeth from under his feet and from the sides. And the unavoidable stone spear from behind, he blocked with a transparent magic shield that was invisible to the naked eye. Although several layers of his shield were shattered, the stone spear also crumbled as a result.

“I won’t fall in the same place twice!”

It’s just a First Rank spell. It’s nothing remarkable to be able to block it.

Fia complained inwardly.

“Did you forget that you ran away when you saw me before?”

“That was me when I was unprepared! For today, I have been preparing for a full ten years!”

While he was speaking, Balor’s entire body was covered in a layer of dark armor formed by Chaos, and his body also became a size larger, reminiscent of a game where a boss enters a second phase after its health is reduced to half. The Chaos armor reflected a metallic luster, making him look very imposing and full of power.

Rеαԁ οn КαtRеаԁіոgСαfe

Balor’s breathing became heavy, and his eyes turned red.

“It seems you have forgotten, elf princess, so let me remind you. Ten years ago, to stop us from summoning our lord, you single-handedly killed everyone in the facility. And I was that ‘too weak to bother with’ minion. I have remembered this humiliation to this day. Now our lord has been resurrected, and you can no longer stop us!”

How strange.

It was probably that the former elf princess had disdained Balor for being too weak and had not bothered with him at all, so he had held a grudge to this day.

It was actually a bit pitiful.

“Go to hell!”

The veins on his four thick arms bulged. Balor threw four dark spears at once, but the power of this attack combined was not even as strong as a single full-power swing from the Despair Demon General. Fia easily blocked it with just her [Bee Shield Field].

In response, Fia used [Firestorm] at Balor’s feet.

A huge pillar of fire shot up into the sky.

“Warm, WARM!! Your progress is far inferior to mine!”

Balor’s durability was far greater than his son’s. Not only could he survive in [Firestorm], but he also condensed a giant spear as thick as a battering ram and threw it at Fia.

“[Starfall]!”

It was indeed a spell of considerable power, but it was still far inferior to the Despair Demon General.

With this evaluation in her mind, a golden glow symbolizing [Strength Boost] lit up in Fia’s hand. She first used [Telekinesis] to slow down the giant spear, then maximized the arm formed by it and, together with both her hands, caught the entire spear.

Give him a taste of his own medicine.

The giant spear flew back faster than it had come.

Before Balor could see clearly, his vision went dark. The spear accurately hit the cheek on his abdomen, ramming him straight into the wall.

Boom!!

The phrase “the earth shook and the mountains swayed” was a perfect description of the current scene.

The underground world seemed about to collapse. Cracks appeared on the walls and ceiling at the same time. A large amount of thick smoke rose from where the giant spear had collided with the wall, and Balor’s entire body was embedded in it.

“Are you a berserker? Don’t demolish this place!”

Rеad оո КatRеаⅾіոɡСafе

The panicked shout of Laplace’s Demon came from behind Fia.

Towards her noisy fellow countryman, Fia adopted an attitude of ignoring him. In her [Wind of Exploration], the figure representing Balor had dimmed, but he was only stronger than his subordinates, not weaker. He would not truly die without being killed a dozen times.

Wait, retract that. This guy isn’t dead at all.

That Chaos armor had raised his durability by several orders of magnitude.

“Hmm… impressive power.”

His deep voice was full of anger. Balor, who was stuck in the wall, pushed away the giant spear and walked out, trembling. His armor was already shattered, and a large amount of blood was flowing from the greenish-blue skin underneath.

“Just as our lord predicted, the Heart Core has self-awareness. In that case…”

Not giving him a chance to finish, Fia switched to a maximized [Mental Shock].

Bang.

A white light flashed and disappeared. Balor’s head suddenly exploded, and his trembling body collapsed into the Chaos, quickly merging with the black slime.

“…You’re too strong. No wonder those witches call you the Guided One.”

“Shut up.”

As Fia had expected, Balor’s body reappeared from another place. It was the same Chaos armor and a larger body, but the red light in his eyes was even stronger than before, and his speech was not as fluent as at the beginning.

“Not only is your power greater than mine, but you are also proficient in profound mental magic… The apocalypse is coming. You are powerless to turn the tide…”

Once again, Fia used [Mental Shock]. But this time, Balor’s body was in a complete state, so the spell could not blow his head apart as before. He only gritted his teeth in pain and knelt on one knee.

“How could this be… how could your growth surpass mine, who has obtained the Chaos…”

So, in his eyes, even if the elf princess had also been growing, it was impossible for her to surpass him? In other words, I am stronger than the elf princess?

Fia’s eyebrows raised slightly. Although a spell like orbital bombardment was definitely stronger than what the elf princess had, there was no definite comparison between her ordinary spells and the princess’s.

All this time, Fia had never shown that she was often secretly comparing herself to the elf princess in her heart, just like a current girlfriend always thinking of surpassing the ex. Now, having received the recognition of Balor, who had once been an enemy of the princess, Fia couldn’t help but feel a little happy. Even the grown-up elf princess was not as good as her current self.

As a reward, she would give him a quick and clean death.

[Light Beam], enhanced by [Hyper-computation].

Rеаԁ oո КαtRеaⅾiոɡСαfе

She set the angle and power—since she had never used it before, she could only estimate the power mentally. Fia followed the information in her mind and aimed the palm of her right hand at Balor, who was trying to get up and re-form his spear.

Tch.

A golden ray, only as thick as a finger, flashed and disappeared. If not for her sufficiently strong dynamic vision, Fia would have almost thought that the spell had failed. The speed at which the ray disappeared was even faster than the speed at which she had thrown the giant spear.

Although it was a First Rank spell, it shouldn’t be that weak.

Subconsciously, Fia looked at her target. Balor neither cried out in pain nor groaned. Instead, as if nothing had happened, he took a step with his right foot and, with a throwing motion, forcefully threw the dark spear.

Unlike before when there was only one, the dark spear exploded into a rain of arrows in mid-air, creating a harsh clanging sound on the [Bee Shield Field]. Because the attack’s coverage had widened, Fia had to expand the range of the shield to protect the Witch’s Heart Core, which also weakened its overall strength. A purplish-blue electric light, indicating that it had reached its limit, burst from the translucent field.

If this attack had landed on the mountain peak, it would have surely flattened the entire summit.

Of course, compared to Balor’s attack, Fia was more concerned about her [Light Beam]. It wasn’t until the rain of dark arrows, which had lasted for several seconds, ended that a voice full of astonishment came from Balor’s side. And as the smoke and dust settled, Fia saw the result of her spell.

There was a round hole at the tip of Balor’s abdomen-nose.

It was probably only as thick as an index finger. The hole did not show the red of flesh and blood, but a black color different from his greenish-blue skin. Not only that, but the color of the hole would even change between different colors as his body swayed slightly.

This is… pierced through? The reason there’s no bleeding is because the wound was instantly cauterized by the high temperature and stuck together?

If that were the case, the practicality of [Light Beam] was too high. The degree of energy concentration naturally reminded Fia of weapons like electromagnetic oscillation blades and high-energy lightsabers.

“Fia! He’s trying to escape!”

Laplace’s Demon’s anxious shout brought Fia back to her senses. Seeing that the situation was lost, Balor no longer had his earlier anger. The surface of his body turned from greenish-blue to black, and his outline also gradually disappeared. It was clear that he was trying to silently merge with the Chaos and escape.

Hey, hey, what about your revenge?

Letting the tiger return to the mountain was not a wise move. Since Balor knew to run, it meant he was not stupid. If she didn’t kill him now, there would surely be endless trouble in the future. Fia expanded the coverage of [Light Beam] to envelop his entire body. Although, like [Bee Shield Field], expanding the coverage would decrease its overall strength, since its own strength was already very high, even if the range was slightly expanded, it was enough to deal with him.

A “hissing” sound, like a laser hitting skin, immediately sounded. A large amount of smoke rose from Balor’s body, and the conference hall was filled with a rich smell of barbecue.

“Aaargh! The faith magic of the Church! Bastard!!!”

Even though his body was charring at an extremely fast speed, Balor could still let out an angry roar.

Fia had no intention of explaining. While he was half-dead, she shifted her gaze to the Chaos around the conference hall. Balor probably thought that the Chaos could not harm her, so he had not had it attack her all this time. Now that he was defeated, the Chaos was fleeing through the cracks in the walls.

Fia tried to use a second [Light Beam] to shoot at the Chaos, but she stopped after less than half a second. When she used the second beam, the intensity of the one aimed at Balor suddenly dropped. This meant that the total intensity of the spell was constant; using a second one was equivalent to expanding its coverage.

Rеаⅾ оո КаtRеаԁіոɡСafе

It’s not that useful after all.

That being said, Balor still perished in less than three seconds. Neither the giant spear nor [Mental Shock] had been able to kill him, yet the light beam could do it so quickly. Perhaps light magic was naturally super-effective against Darkborn like him, Fia thought.

At a speed several times slower than before, Balor revived again. This time, he no longer thought of merging with the Chaos to escape, but a white magic circle lit up under his feet—the light of a teleportation spell.

Fia instead concentrated [Light Beam] to the thickness of a finger and, using it as a lightsaber, cut Balor in half at the waist. The lightsaber had no physical form, so the entire process was without a trace of lag. After the lightsaber had passed through his body, his upper half was separated from his lower. The expression on his abdomen was full of astonishment. He opened his mouth and tried to say something, but Fia did not give him the chance. What awaited him was a sea of flames.

…

After that, Fia killed Balor a total of fifteen times using various methods, including commanding the demon sword Laevateinn. From the seventh time onwards, he had lost the ability to speak, and from the tenth, he had become like a mindless beast, no longer trying to escape but charging at Fia with red eyes.

A full-powered Balor couldn’t even touch a single hair on Fia, let alone in his current mindless state.

If Balor was like his kinsmen, then she just needed to kill him a few more times, and the battle would be over.

“Uwaaah!!!”

Unable to even form his dark spear, Balor roared like a minotaur and charged at Fia. What awaited him were countless [Dragon Teeth] rising from the ground.

“Hah!”

Balor just waved his hand and shattered the Dragon Teeth.

Although he had lost his reason, his strength and speed had increased quite a bit. And because he had no intelligence to begin with, combined with his strong resistance, even [Mental Shock] had become less effective.

The ten-meter distance was covered in an instant. Balor arrived in front of Fia in the blink of an eye. Fia took the opportunity to take a step forward, commanding Laevateinn to go straight for his mouth, while she herself pressed her palm firmly against his forehead.

[Light Beam]

Like a laser cannon, Balor’s entire chest cavity instantly disappeared. After passing through him, the [Light Beam] went straight for the wall, creating a bottomless dark cave. And Balor’s lower half, which had been lunging at Fia due to inertia, was thrown aside like garbage by her [Telekinesis]. His brain had already been scrambled by Laevateinn; the rest of him could not possibly move.

It was over.

Fia let out a light breath. Under the earlier [Firestorm], not much of the Chaos in the room was left. Now that it had been consumed by forming Balor’s body, there was no more Chaos for him to revive.

The battle-scarred conference hall was as silent as death.

“D-dead?” The Witch’s Heart Core made a sound of swallowing. “He won’t suddenly revive again, will he?”