Chapter 60 - Testarossa vs Mother Serpent

"Milady would not be happy about this..." Merlin frowned as he fired another spell toward the several enemies ganging up on him. Surrounding him, the students that he was so proud of were slowly dying. Only around fifteen of them remain alive, albeit barely.

"Force Transfer." Merlin invoked a spell that brought all of his students near him. "Recovery Dome." He then used holy magic to heal them and recover their stamina.

"Master, what should we do? Their numbers never decrease no matter how we try!" One of his students asks if they help protect the injured and still recovering.

"Have faith in Milady, she is currently already dealing with the source." Merlin tried to alleviate the low morale of his students. Certainly, they are surrounded by not just human-sized snakes, there seem to be small dragons and multi-headed dogs as well mixed in for some reason.

"Do not lose faith, use holy magic to smite this monstrosity." Merlin used his staff fired a Holy Cannon and swiped his staff diagonally spreading the attack.

The recovered students got into position and used the magic they were all proficient at.

"No metamorphosis magic! You might get mistaken for the enemy."

"Icicle lance," The attack stabbed through the brain of a small dragon, dropping down to the ground.

"Firestorm," a whirlwind of fire was coming forward to the pact of multi-headed dogs and were chasing them.

"Liquefaction," The ground started to water, and the dogs were stuck in place. Eventually, the flames caught up to them and they were burned alive.

"Maintain your position, switch up if you don't have any more mana. Pray to our lord to recover!"

Meanwhile, a few kilometers away from their position.

Testarossa and the demon child she was always with were fighting a half-woman half-snake monster.

"Shashasha, give it up. My children are endless and persistent." The monster Echidna proclaimed as she created more monsters.

She was only about the size of an average woman, with the snake's lower half the only thing unusual about her and the snake's hair. She was surrounded by four dragons who were all protecting her from any attack.

"Oh my, I don't think giving up is an option, unfortunately." Testarossa fired off a Death streak attack right above Echidna.

The monsters that were rushing everywhere all stopped in their place before dying on the spot silently like they were forced to sleep by magic, an eternal sleep that destroyed even the souls of its target.

"Oh?" Testarossa was surprised, to say the least, that the dragons covering Echidna were still alive and normal. "That's new."

"Shashasha! Do you think your magic can affect my favorite children? They have my blessing as the mother of monsters!" Echidna laughed inside the encirclement, the dragons were all tough. They had scales as hard as or even harder than some legendary armor. Their resilience in protecting their mother was commendable if nothing else.

Additionally, they were blessed by Echidna with her life manipulation that helped them survive Testarossa's Death Streak.

Testarossa looked at the demon child with her, he nodded his head and moved forward close to the dragons.

Immediately, the dragons fired their breath to chase away the threat to their mother. And yet, he continued to enrage them and circle them several times.

"If force death won't work," Testarossa got close without the dragons' notice, in her hand was an abyss core. "Then destruction it is." The abyss core was turned into a nuclear flame that burnt everything near them all.

Testarossa and the demon child remain unaffected as they move out of the way. Yet, the dragons remained alive and well.

"Well, this is starting to anger me.." To her words, the child flinched and unconsciously moved a few inches away. "Should I just blow up the entire planet?" She asks herself not caring for the casualty of her decision.

"Shashasha, weak, weak!" The dragons after more than an hour finally opened up their encirclement. Inside there, Echidna had fully evolved herself. "You gave me time to modify myself, now I'm even more powerful than these children of mine!"

Her outward appearance barely changed as she still had the torso of a snake and the upper half of a woman with snakes for hair.

"Enas, Dyo, Tria, Tesseris help your mother kill these demons." The dragons roared and fired their breath attack toward the child demon and Testarossa.

Enas, Dyo, and Echidna were all fighting Testarossa while the demon child was fighting Tria and Tesseris. The demon child was pitifully flying through the sky trying to remain alive as best he could.

"How pathetic, abandoning your subordinate and using him as bait." Echidna tried to goad Testarossa while attacking her with poisonous breath from her mouth.

Testarossa looked at her confused, "Obviously, what use are subordinates than to be of use to their master? It is only natural to lay their lives for their master, if they die that's simply how low their conviction is."

"...That's messed up."

"So, you say, Disintegration." Testarossa turned and fired at Echidna. She felt the danger from the attack and covered herself with her arms and wings.

"Agh!" The wings were filled with small holes and bruises. "What..what was that!?"

"Oh? So that works." Testarossa had an evil smile as she formulated a plan of attack that would finish off Echidna.

Echidna gritted her teeth, "Enas kill her!"

The dragon roared and ran towards Testarossa. She dodged the dragon that was trying to rip her apart by biting her. She landed on the dragon's back and she touched its back with her palm.

"Demise," Testarossa tried using her Unique Skill: Reaper that manipulate individual death. The opposite of Echidna that focuses on Life.

The dragon lost consciousness for a second and started to fall but regained consciousness the next second later. It shook its back trying to remove Testarossa from its back.

"That resistance to death is fascinating." She places her hand to her chin in a thinking gesture, "I need to learn more about this, you'll help me won't you?" Testarossa would then kill the poor dragon that she was flying on as Echidna and the other dragon tried to kill her.

The demon child flew around the area while firing behind him. He was trying to lose the two dragons that were following him. He knew he could not defeat them, even if one was a hard ask for him.

All he needed to do was lessen the enemies that were on his master. And he has done that splendidly.

"Young man need some help?" Merlin flew from behind the dragon, "Magic scattershot." Pure mana energy was fired at one of the dragons that were chasing. The dragon turned and changed target, lessening the burden on the demon child.

"Oh, did that hurt? maybe not." Merlin analyzes the dragon that was uninjured. "Let's test all my magic at you!"

With Merlin distracting the other dragon, the demon child did not have to buy time by running anymore.

It turned and planned to fight the dragon that was left on its tail. Using his unique skill, he turned into several small clones of himself.

Confusing the dragon, he slowly surrounded it. He started to fire magic attacks all over the dragon.

Merlin was testing all of his attacks, from basic elemental spells to the more complex compound spells. And yet, it still barely has any effect on the dragon.

"I guess Holy magic is the only thing that works." Merlin fired a holy cannon at the dragon.

The dragon roared in pain, unlike the other time, it took damage from holy magic. Using this as confirmation, Merlin kept firing Holy magic exclusive attacks.

While also experimenting on how much he can modify already established holy magic attacks.

"Holy Lance," A large white arrow-shaped attack was fired at the dragon.

Sensing the danger, it tried to dodge to the side. And yet, to the side, it dodges to have a hidden Napalm Burst hidden. Pushing the dragon back into the range of the Holy Lance.

The dragon's stomach had a deep wound, not only that, but it also had its front legs(arms) cut.

Blood flowed out of the wound; the dragon was enraged it started to fire its breath at Merlin.

He would then use holy types of barriers. "Looks like holy magic is your weakness!"

Merlin was now the one on the offensive, and the dragon realized it.

The dragon was in danger, that was on its mind. It needed to do something or else it would die.

Then it recalled Tesseris, the other dragon that was with it. At the moment, it was chasing the demon child. If the two cooperated then they would be able to eliminate both.

Tria the dragon ran, it ran towards where it sensed the other one was.

The demon child was slowly gaining the advantage of the fight. He observed Merlin's battle via his clones, Merlin has reached a similar conclusion to his master that holy magic is indeed their weakness.

He has been firing several holy magic, even imitating Merlin's scattershot and applying Holy Magic to it. If anyone is proficient in magic it would be demons after all. Not to mention he is a long-lived one that was there even before the time Rimuru was their master.

He knew the other dragon was coming their way, but personally, for him, it was better this way. He was not able to use Holy magic that good in the first place. His attacks could only leave bruises and deal small damage.

While Merlin has managed to leave a clean cut on one of its limbs.

The plan would be that Merlin would be the one to finish off both while he acted as bait.

Then they finally arrive, the dragon roaring to its companion. Communicate between themselves so they will finish off their enemy.

While Merlin was behind firing at the dragon in front, noticing him, Merlin went to his side.

"Let's do this together young man."

The demon child only nodded his head in affirmation. It was easy to have a nonverbal plan with how everything was set up.

As the plan goes, Merlin would deal the damage while the demon child would be the vanguard and bait.

And the plan worked, the two dragons were both heavily injured after several minutes of fighting.

"Oh, this work, we can finish them now!"

The two dragons started to sense the danger to their life, so they telepathically asked their mother for help. But she was too busy with Testarossa to give any actual support. She did give them some type of support and advice to be able to win against them.

"GAHH!!" The two dragons roared and moved closer together.

"What?" Merlin was confused by what was happening in front of him. "How is that even possible..."

The two dragons merged into one.

A two-headed dragon with four wings and two tails.

"It is less enemy," Merlin fired a holy cannon towards the dragon.

The dragon received the attack and took no damage from it. The durability was combined and doubled in strength.

The demon child tried to act as bait again, but this time the dragon was faster than expected.

His left arm was bitten off from his body. Due to this damage, he fell to the ground trying to recover.

"Oh no..." Merlin saw the dragon right in front of him.

The two-headed dragon fired off its breath, and Merlin created a barrier to block the attack while trying to escape. The barrier broke and the breath eventually caught up to him.

"Ahhh!! hot!!" Merlin was covered in flames, he tried to cover himself with magic to survive but he burned to cinders.

Testarossa frowned from what she sensed, due to Merlin's contract with her, she has received his soul when he dies. And right now, his soul is in Testarossa's hands meaning that he died.

"You deserve punishment later, both of you." Testarossa was finally getting a better understanding of the concept of her ability and Echidna's ability.

Life and Death may seem opposite at the surface but further understanding shows that the two are two sides of the same coin. Or the very same thing as well. Death gives meaning to life, and life is the meaning of death. Without the other, each of them would be meaningless.

"Rimuru-sama please guide my understanding of my abilities to further be able to support you for eternity."

<<Evolution to Demon Lord confirmed. Harvest Festival will now begin.>>

<<Confirmed. Unique Skill: Reaper has evolved into the Ultimate Skill: King of Fatality Ronove... Successful>>

"Death Parade," Testarossa hit the dragon she was standing on and finally, the dragon fell without reviving thanks to Echidna's blessing.

"Wahh?! Enas, revive." Echidna tried to revive Enas' soul, but the soul was not there anymore. Or more like the soul was effectively gone.

"Fufufu it is no use, I have become someone stronger than you." Testarossa flew towards Echidna.

"Tsk, Dyo kill her!" Echidna ordered her other dragon as she tried to escape.

Testarossa made quick work of the dragon and chased after Echidna.

"Wait! Wait! Let's talk this out!" Echidna boosted flight by doubling her wings from two to four while also creating dragons to stall for time as she escaped.

"Don't be like that, weren't you planning to kill me?"

"I was just joking!" Echidna finally saw the two-headed dragon that she was trying to find. Using that one as a base for her to evolve again.

"Tria, Terissa! Come here!"

The two-headed dragon flew fast towards their mother.

"Trinity Disintegration!" A three-layer holy magic attack was fired just above the dragon, killing it while leaving no trace whatsoever.

An angel floated from where the dragon was killed, "You're destruction of my territory ends here!" She was looking angrily at Echidna as well.

Another angel? Probably someone who was in this universe. Testarossa thought to herself, as she saw the angry Angel. She's probably mad about what was happening to the universe she was assigned to watch.

Testarossa materialized a whip from her magic and tied it to Echidna's neck, "Now, now. We have so much to talk about, fufufu."

A blue short-haired woman with twin daggers cut off the whip from Echidna's neck.

"We need to leave," She grabbed Echidna and spread out a large amount of steam. Echinda for her part also created hundreds of different dragons, and snakes to confuse the enemy as they escape through a portal.

"They escaped..." Testarossa sighed as she looked at the army of monsters to exterminate. "Merlin, finish them off."

Then, the person Merlin who was supposed to be dead was revived by Testarossa. Revive was not the right term, he became part of her lineage. As a greater demon serving the white primordial just like the demon child.

"Understood Milady." He bowed and with the demon child started to clean the area.

"So," Testarossa looked towards the female angel. "Who are you?"

A/N: Next up is Carrera vs Tiamat, going to see Abbas and Lendy shine a bit next chapter.