The eagle-type ultra-colossal monster, Ziz.
This monster had the ability to monopolize the sun’s light and heat by covering the sky, and turn it into its own power.
Grooooowl…!
The red and yellow feathers covering the monster’s back all stood up stiffly.
With the power of solar heat and light it had gathered so far, the giant bird was transforming its body into a new form.
Whoosh!
Heat and light rippled and spread across the entire body of the giant bird.
It was like a giant bird of flame.
The overwhelming heat and light pouring from the monster’s huge body made it feel as if the sun itself was right before their eyes.
Towards this giant phoenix, Mikhail and Lucas were still charging forward without hesitation.Their appearance looked as foolish as Icarus flying towards the sun.
“If you don’t have the courage to touch the sun…”
But because the griffin’s wings were connected by solid muscle, not wax, and Mikhail’s destination was set by conviction, not recklessness.
“How can you fly in the sky-!”
This was not a fool’s leap, but a hero’s challenge.
Flash!
Light scattered from Ziz’s entire body covered in flames, and the next moment, condensed light and heat poured out in the form of beams.
And Mikhail’s griffin avoided all those beams of light completely.
Whoosh-!
Using the new saddle [Thousand-Li Rider] received from Ash to accelerate instantaneously. (TL Note: Li is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. It’s equivalent to 500 meters.)
Maintaining an even faster speed than usual, moving horizontally, vertically, folding wings to spin around, then spreading wings to rapidly ascend and descend repeatedly.
With intricate movements and flight, he avoided all the interceptions of the mythical age monster pouring down incessantly without allowing even a single hit.
At the end of this dizzying acrobatic flight, the griffin rider succeeded in approaching very close to the giant eagle’s head.
“I am Mikhail Vermillion, King of the Vermillion Kingdom!”
Mikhail declared, emitting a dazzling crimson light from the magic spears held in each hand.
“I am the ruler of the skies in this era!”
“…!”
“Return to where you once slept, wings of the past-!”
Just as Mikhail, rapidly approaching, was about to thrust his magic spears into the monster’s neck, the giant eagle’s beak opened wide.
Kyaaaaaaah-!
An enormous roar burst forth.
Due to the sound waves imbued with heat, Mikhail couldn’t approach closely and had to urgently retreat, driving his griffin back.
But even while making an emergency evasive maneuver to withdraw his body, Mikhail had a smile on his face.
“You’re too late, monster…!”
There were no longer any spears in Mikhail’s hands.
Swoooosh!
From the closest possible approach to the monster, he had thrown them like javelins.
Scattering crimson magical power along their trajectory, the two magic spears flew through the sky like missiles-
Thunk!
Thunk-!
They lodged in the giant eagle’s neck.
Not content with just lodging, they propelled themselves with magical power from their spear tips, pushing the entire spears in up to their ends.
Splurt…!
Mikhail’s crimson magical power and the monster’s blood scattered in all directions.
“I’ve made a scratch!”
Watching this scene, Mikhail shouted.
“Show your skill, Empire’s Finest Sword-!”
“…?!”
Ziz’s two eyes, bewildered by the pain of the foreign objects lodged in its neck, urgently looked upward.
Because something else was accurately flying towards its head.
Whoosh!
It was a knight grasping a sword of light in each hand, his body wrapped in a golden aura.
Lucas had long since kicked off the griffin’s saddle and soared into the sky, moving separately from Mikhail.
The knight’s body, drawing a gentle parabola, fell straight onto the giant bird’s head.
“Kyaaaah…!”
And for the first time today, Ziz changed the direction of its body.
With the toughness peculiar to ultra-colossal monsters and innate arrogance, it had not changed direction no matter what attacked from the front, but…
Because it sensed an indescribably eerie premonition from this small human swordsman rushing towards it.
Ziz tried to twist its huge body to change direction. Just the violent movement of the giant bird’s wings caused gusts in the area and scattered distant clouds.
“Don’t bother.”
But Lucas didn’t care in the slightest.
“You’re already within my range.”
The golden air currents rippling around Lucas’s body due to the [Full-Body Descent] effect gathered behind his back, forming a golden halo-
The next moment it turned white-hot and expelled propulsive force forward.
Whoosh-!
Towards the monster’s neck, which was trying somehow to turn its huge body to avoid him, Lucas effortlessly kept pace.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Finally, Ziz spewed light beams from its entire body as a last desperate attack against Lucas, but
Lucas lightly extended his two swords forward, instead absorbing the pouring light beams through the blades.
“I’ll put it to good use.”
Simultaneously landing on the monster’s neck, the knight’s two longswords struck down the two magic spears already lodged there like wedges.
As the two magic spears completely burrowed into the monster’s neck, carving a devastating gash in the giant bird’s neck, the two longswords followed, digging into that gash.
Slice…!
Following Lucas’s movements, the two longswords lightly cut the monster’s neck and emerged again.
Lucas’s longswords looked too short compared to the monster’s huge neck. It seemed like they had only made a very small wound.
Nevertheless, Lucas leapt sideways as if he had completed his mission.
Mikhail, flying in right beside him, skillfully caught Lucas and seated him behind himself. Mikhail asked, looking at Ziz’s still intact state.
“Was it not enough?”
“No.”
Lucas calmly sheathed his two longswords.
“I cut it.”
The next moment.
A long crack appeared on the giant eagle’s neck, then blood seeped out along that gap and…
Rip-!
The huge head was cleanly severed and fell.
When the two swords dug into the monster’s neck, Lucas had wrapped the blades in a slash of light and magical power, and in an instant, cut the monster’s neck with the enlarged blades.
The decapitated eagle’s head slowly fell downwards. The monster’s two eyes, shocked to the end, looked at Mikhail and Lucas with disbelieving eyes.
“Haha!”
The two magic spears flying back through the sky were retrieved into Mikhail’s hands. Bursting into a pleased laugh, Mikhail waved his hand towards the approaching Blue Pearl.
Another griffin rider was already carrying the Dullahan Legion Commander and the Banshee Legion Commander.
Thud-!
Before Ziz’s huge body lost balance, the Dullahan Legion Commander’s head attached to Ziz’s severed neck.
“Hmm, another grotesque appearance this time…”
The Dullahan Legion Commander, who had instantly seized control of Ziz’s body, muttered.
The Dullahan Legion Commander moved Ziz’s huge legs to catch the falling decapitated head.
The Banshee Legion Commander, who had somehow moved along Ziz’s leg to beside the severed head, placed her hand on the giant head.
Then the giant bird’s two eyes, which had been losing the light of life, widened, and a beautiful singing voice burst out from between its beak.
“This is always what we do, isn’t it~”
Seeing this bizarre sight, Mikhail unknowingly broke out in cold sweat, but Lucas didn’t even blink.
“Legion Commanders, I leave the rest of the operation to you both.”
“Leave it to us.”
“To be able to howl on the stage of the sky to my heart’s content, hehe…”
Ziz’s huge body slowly turned, and eventually completely reversed direction.
“Such an opportunity won’t come twice!”
And, it vigorously flapped its wings towards the other flying monsters following behind.
Countless beams of light shot out from the giant bird’s enormous wings, and the head held in its feet continuously spewed out sound waves.
The remaining flying monsters advancing towards Crossroad through the sky began to fall en masse, swept up in that attack.
At the same time, on the ground.
Boom!
Shaking and splitting the earth’s axis, Behemoth and Jörmungandr were clashing.
Buooooo-!
Roaring like an elephant, Behemoth repeatedly tried to trample Jörmungandr with its huge body.
Though it had no other special abilities, Behemoth was a disaster in itself with this overwhelming size and mass incomparable to any other monster.
Every time it rolled its foot, the terrain changed. Mountains collapsed, rivers surged.
Small monsters even slightly close to the ground were obliterated without leaving a trace, and even medium to large monsters were crushed and fell.
However, Jörmungandr was also the World Encircler. The Earthquake Bringer.
Its body is hard enough to crush the hardest rock and twist the strongest earth veins.
At least when it comes to physical collisions on the ground, it doesn’t yield to any opponent.
Jörmungandr narrowly avoided Behemoth’s foot rolls and endured the shockwaves with its body, climbing up Behemoth’s body while trying to break and crush it.
With the collision of the two ultra-colossal monsters, severe earthquakes and dust waves like tsunamis rose in the area.
“Kyaaaah! Waaaah!”
In this process, Violet was having a hellish time.
“An ant’s back breaks in a whale fight!”
With the constant barrage of dirt bombs and shockwaves bursting from all directions, Violet couldn’t even tell where she was.
Whether it was good luck, or whether this too was all under Crown Prince Ash’s calculations, she didn’t know.
Thanks to the [Dragon Scale Cloak] she had been given before this battle, she was able to maintain her balance even on the rampaging monster’s body.
Due to the equipment’s special effect, claws would suddenly protrude from her shoes and gloves, allowing her to cling to walls and run on them. And the high defense of the [Dragon Scale Cloak] kept her body intact.
At least, so far.
‘The time limit must be ending soon?!’
Jörmungandr could only manifest as the ‘World Serpent’ for about 10 minutes.
It’s the effect of the special equipment [Shell of the Old God]. When the duration ends, it shrinks to about the size of a python. They only have 10 minutes to fight.
Instead, Behemoth has an innate weakness.
If it falls even once, it can never get up again. This was a weakness due to its extremely large and heavy body.
Even in actual ancient historical records, there’s a legend that Behemoth accidentally stumbled, fell on its side, and starved to death, becoming the mountain range in the western part of the continent.
So, Jörmungandr, with only 10 minutes of battle duration, had to squeeze out all its power during this time, aiming to topple Behemoth at least once within 10 minutes, but…
‘How much time is left now?!’
Desperately clinging to something, Violet screamed ugly shrieks.
Forget the remaining time, she was dizzy about where she was now, or even who she was. Help…
“Huh?”
That’s when it happened. Suddenly everything around became quiet.
Violet looked around, spitting out the dust in her mouth.
And she could finally realize what the situation was now.
“…!”
It was pinned down.
Jörmungandr was.
One of Behemoth’s ten huge legs had finally succeeded in stepping on Jörmungandr’s agile tail tip.
“Buooooo…!”
Behemoth roared fiercely and put strength into its foot,
“Chiruruk?!”
Jörmungandr, in pain, had to give up climbing and coiling around Behemoth’s neck and fall to the ground.
Crack, crack…!
Starting from where Behemoth had stepped on it, Jörmungandr’s scales began to shatter.
Jörmungandr tried to endure, but Behemoth’s other legs also succeeded in trampling Jörmungandr’s body one by one.
“Shaaaak…!”
Jörmungandr twisted its body in agony. The World Serpent repeatedly spat out blood violently.
“Buooooo-!”
Behemoth let out a roar. It was a proud and loud cry, as if sensing victory.
And.
“Eck…?”
Violet was watching all of this.
“Huh, huh…?”
From atop Behemoth’s head.
“Why… am I here…?”
Probably during the fierce battle, just before when Jörmungandr had coiled around Behemoth’s neck.
When the battle was most intense, the terrified Violet had closed her eyes tightly and crawled around, ending up here…
That’s when it happened. Violet’s eyes, blinking in bewilderment, suddenly met Jörmungandr’s far below.
Jörmungandr’s yellow eyes were clearly looking at Violet.
Only then did Violet snap to her senses.
“…Ah, whatever!”
Whether this situation was Jörmungandr’s intention, or her own good fortune, what did it matter?
The enemy monster’s weak point was right in front of her!
Violet placed both hands on Behemoth’s huge head and used her ultimate skill.
“[Daydream]-!”
–TL Notes–
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