CHAPTER 18

Ingenuity

The moment I walk through the gate, Seiya is already extending his left hand, wreathed in Hellfire, toward Deathmagla.

“My hand…! My haaand!!”

Writhing in pain, Deathmagla’s screams echo through the dim, needlessly spacious torture chamber.

“…Huh?”

By the time Deathmagla notices the intruders and lays all three eyes on Seiya…

“Burn. Hellfire!”

…he is engulfed by the flames that burst from Seiya’s hand.

Y-yes! That was surprisingly easy! I was worried, but there don’t seem to be any undead around, either!

Leaving Deathmagla’s fate in Seiya’s hands, I rush over to Mash and untie him.

“Mash! Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah…”

I promptly remove his blindfold, but after seeing him…I almost instinctively look away. His body is covered in burns, and all his fingernails have been ripped out. Mash notices my reaction and tries to force a smile, but it’s a painful sight when so many of his teeth are missing.

A ball of anger rises from the pit of my stomach.

That sadistic three-eyed monster! How could anyone do something so cruel to a young boy, barely even a teenager?!

“Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of you right now!”

I cast a healing spell.

I start off by focusing my powers on relieving his body of stress and fatigue along with healing his burns.

In the middle of healing Mash, I figure Seiya’s probably about finished, so I casually look over…and I can hardly believe my eyes.

As the flames continue to lick at Deathmagla’s flesh, Seiya is furrowing his brow with a pained expression. It’s an odd look for him, since he’s never one to really show his emotions.

B-but why? Deathmagla is the one on fire…so why?

However, it isn’t long before I realize it. While he is indeed cloaked in flames, they’re not the crimson flames of Hellfire. Sinister black flames appear to be protecting him from Seiya’s skill. After the flames of Hellfire fade, the black flames leave Deathmagla’s body and coalesce into a human shape around twenty meters tall.

“Wh-what…what is that thing?!”

Mash struggles to lift his head. The moment he sees the beast of black flames, its face utterly featureless, his body goes into convulsions.

“Th-that’s…! That’s…! That’s…!”

“Mash? Wh-what’s wrong? Mash, calm down!”

Mash turns utterly pale as his teeth chatter. Deathmagla wraps his left hand with a cloth to stop the bleeding while glaring at Seiya.

“So that’s the fire magic that you so proudly killed Chaos Machina with? Too bad it doesn’t work on me. You shouldn’t have underestimated the almighty—”

Without even waiting until the end, Seiya unsheathes his sword and makes the first move to attack the flame monster. With blinding speed, he instantly closes the distance, then slices through the beast from shoulder to hip…but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. Just like how one cannot cut actual fire, there doesn’t seem to be any change in the fiery monster even after being attacked.

I-is this a ghost-type monster?! Th-that would mean…!

“Seiya! Use holy water! Try rubbing it on your sword and attacking!”

But Seiya shakes his head.

“I already tried that, but it didn’t work.”

What…? Th-the sword already had holy water on it? When did he do that? W-wow, he really is prepared for almost anything, isn’t he? Wait!

“Why didn’t it work, then?! Is that not a ghost?!”

Deathmagla stifles a laugh.

“This is Dark Firus, the strongest fire-type monster in existence and, in a way, my partner—born from endless experimentation on hundreds of monsters.”

“A fire-type monster?! I thought you could only create undead!”

“I can do more than create undead! My ability can re-create all types of monsters! You shouldn’t just assume things, you half-wit!”

Tsk! Who are you calling a half-wit, you arrogant little…?! I mean, yeah, I assumed wrong, but so what?! Now that we know it’s not an undead monster, all we have to do is change tactics!

Just as I’m about to use Scan on Dark Firus to search for its weakness…

“Do you plan on checking its status? Go ahead. Unlike some people, Dark Firus doesn’t use cowardly abilities like Fake Out.”

“…Well, I guess that means you already peeked at Seiya’s status.”

“I actually couldn’t because his Fake Out level is so high… But that doesn’t matter. Dark Firus is invincible, after all!”

Heh! He wouldn’t be saying that if he could actually see Seiya’s stats! I can use Goddess Power, and while I’ve been too afraid to look at his attributes lately, I know for a fact that he’s become even stronger since his fight with Chaos Machina!

I strain my eyes and check the enemy’s status. Dark Firus’s attributes pop up without a fight, just like Deathmagla said they would.

DARK FIRUS
LV: 74
HP: 80,187	MP: 9,215
ATK: 31,559	DEF: 135,875	SPD: 10,741	MAG: 8,377
Resistance: Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning, Earth, Holy, Dark, Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Curse, Instant Death, Status Ailments
Special Abilities: Null Physical (LV: MAX), Null Fire Magic (LV: MAX), Null Wind Magic (LV: MAX), Null Water Magic (LV: MAX), Null Lightning Magic (LV: MAX), Null Earth Magic (LV: MAX), Null Holy Magic (LV: MAX), Null Dark Magic (LV: MAX)
Skills: Deadly Flames
Personality: Only obeys Deathmagla

Its attack and speed easily surpass Chaos Machina’s…but what surprises me most are its defense and special abilities.

“It has over one hundred thousand defense… To make matters worse, it’s not only immune to physical attacks but almost all magic as well?!”

Wh-wh-what is this?! There’s no way Seiya can defeat this thing! Fire magic doesn’t work, and he can’t use Wind Blade for obvious reasons. Even Atomic Split Slash has earth properties. Fire, wind, and earth magic won’t work, and sword-based attacks won’t work, either…which leaves only one thing…

“I-ice magic?! That’s it?!”

“Precisely. But you can’t just start using ice magic and expect it to work. There’s a sequence to it.”

Sensing his advantage, Deathmagla gets cocky.

“But hey, I’m a nice guy. Let me tell you how to do it. First, you need to use the skill Oscillatory Wave to create a disturbance in Dark Firus’s molecular structure. Next, you need to use ice magic to change its type from fire to ice to materialize it. Only then will its Null Attack ability be removed. After that, you just need to strike Dark Firus with an attack power that surpasses its defense, and you win.”

“Oh, how kind of you.”

Seiya expresses his gratitude. I, on the other hand, get goose bumps all over my body. While Oscillatory Wave is a move you can learn after level 7, blunt attacks are more or less meaningless in a sword and magic world like Gaeabrande. A sword-wielding knight having a bare-knuckle blunt skill like that just doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, for magic users that specialize in fire magic, it’s theoretically impossible to have ice spells, since that’s fire magic’s weakness. Moreover, even if you did somehow miraculously have both of these skills, you’d still have this monster’s impenetrable defense to deal with…

Deathmagla smirks while watching my face go pale.

“Do you get it? It makes no difference if I tell you how to beat Dark Firus because you’ll never do it! I just wanted you to fall into despair before you die! What kind of person would learn blunt skills when they use a sword?! Regardless, it’s impossible for a human to learn both fire and ice magic! They’re complete opposites! Furthermore, even if you did remove its Null Attack, it still has a defense of over one hundred thousand! Your chance of defeating Dark Firus is zero!”

He cackles triumphantly.

“Hya-ha-ha-ha! Hero, I was surprised when you teleported here after cutting off my left hand! But I, Deathmagla, have already prepared for the worst!”

Then he proudly indicates the fiery monster with his chin.

“The Hero came prepared to fight undead monsters, but what awaited him was an invincible fire-type beast without any of the weaknesses possessed by the undead! I imagined every possible scenario and prepared for them all! Do you see now? This is how a true master of ingenuity prepares for battle!”

Wh-what is wrong with this guy?! He’s insane! This isn’t even the last battle against the last boss, but there’s no way we can beat him! …N-no, even so…this Hero is overly cautious. I’m sure he prepared for this, too, and is about to do something miraculous…

I look to Seiya, entrusting him with my last sliver of hope.

“…What the hell?” Seiya murmurs.

“S-Seiya?”

“Well, this is a surprise. I can’t believe it.”

Wait, seriously?! Is losing really our only option?!

I am consumed by anguish, but the Hero continues staring stoically at Deathmagla.

“You prepared for every possible scenario? That’s ‘how a true master of ingenuity prepares for battle’? I really can’t believe it. Why would you go out of your way to brag about something so obvious?”