Chapter 1464.2

Tear! Crash!

A silver slash sliced through the dimensional gap she’d opened earlier, flying toward the young man.

He didn’t even have the time to counterattack or evade, only able to instinctively throw his body aside. An instinctive fear had washed over him, warning that trying to block it meant death.

If he had gotten away without hesitation, it would’ve been fine. But the pressure he felt when he met Evangeline's eyes a moment before had suffocated him once more. That brief moment of confusion and hesitation led to a fatal outcome. The silver slash flew straight at him without giving him a chance to evade. “No! My body can’t keep up!”

‘Too late to dodge?! Then...!’

If he couldn't dodge it and blocking meant certain death, there was only one option left. He twisted the space under his control, trying to redirect the attack back at Evangeline.

Nonetheless, the blade energy continued flying directly at him.

“GAAA!!!”

His arm was sliced off in an instant.

A horrific scream rang out as blood sprayed into the air. “AAAARGH!!!”

It was an unexpected sneak attack, dealing a critical injury. He didn’t even have the luxury to assess himself in detail, as he sensed a follow-up attack. He hurriedly lifted himself, but a foot was already flying toward his nose.

Boom!

In the end, without being able to resist, he suffered two attacks within the space he had been monopolizing.

“Hmm. That appearance definitely is...” Following his thrown body, someone else walked out through the completely torn space, remarking, “Yepp. It's definitely Gargantia Netzach.”

The other asked, “Do you know him?”

“This is my first time seeing an awakened one. The crazy dragon who preys on its own kind, the adopted son of the First Lich Nyx... I heard Nyx sealed him away in the Eternal Seal three thousand years ago, causing his mind to collapse.”

Muttering with fascination, Perserque glanced at Evangeline, Shiverwock, and the young lords and ladies huddled together in fear, before turning her gaze to Evangeline. Her expression hardened once she noticed Evangeline's torn sleeve and the small scratches beneath it.

As if to not miss the chance, Evangeline immediately hid behind Perserque. She then peeked out from behind her, pointed at Gargantia Netzach, and shouted, “That bastard’s a total jerk!”

She started complaining about the minor injuries she had suffered, as if she'd been waiting for the chance to let it all out. “The burnt hair ends here, and this scratch here, and this bruise... Everything!”

Perserque chuckled while Illyna sighed, declaring, “I'll take care of him. Could you analyze the surroundings, please?”

“Be careful. Nyx once said that Gargantia possessed an uncanny power to control space.”

“Well, he’s a remnant of the First Lich Nyx, so that’s not surprising. Doesn’t have a direct relation, but he's quite deeply connected.” Illyna approached, holding the massive longsword Caldeiras that was nearly as tall as she was in one hand.

Nonetheless, Gargantia Netzach still refused to accept that he'd felt such overwhelming fear just moments earlier. He still convinced himself he'd been mistaken, that it had all been a hallucination brought on by the strange pressure he'd felt the moment he met the mixed-blood’s eyes.

With that thought in mind, he twisted the space. Although he couldn't draw on his full power, he figured it couldn’t be that hard to simply face just one human.

Even though his arm had been instantly severed, it wasn't something critical, and he could regenerate it anytime. Looking at the already shattered dungeon, he slowly wrapped his body in light. “Since the altar's destroyed like this... I'll have to go with the spare.”

His voice changed, and he growled, “Be crushed by my fury and despair, you short-lived mortals.”

Instantly transforming into a gigantic dragon with black scales, his body appeared to be at least several hundred meters long from head to tail. He was much larger than a normal dragon.

Afterward, the surrounding space began to distort.

When Illyna lightly swung her sword and sent a wave of blade energy, it surprisingly disappeared beyond the distorted space.

“Spare?”

Illyna narrowed her eyes and looked up at him.

He unleashed a tremendous roar that crushed the air around them and began twisting the surrounding space. “KRAAAHHH!!!”

It was a unique dragon form of Fear.

The young lords and ladies with low resistance fainted, frothing at the mouth. The others screamed and collapsed.

“Ugh!”

“Aaaahhh!!!”

However, Illyna was unaffected.

Ssss!!!

Gargantia suddenly burst out of the shattered rift and began gathering breath in his mouth. “Turn to ash, puny mortal!”

The breath was definitely emitting a strange aura.

Perserque muttered, “Ugh. What’s this smell?”

A dragon's Breath didn't have a foul smell. After all, it was nothing but pure energy. That meant the disgusting odor she sensed was clearly coming from the residue mixed into his mana.

Such a foul odor shouldn’t have even been possible under normal circumstances. But since Illyna couldn't smell the lingering stench, she calmly gathered her strength. She soon slowly lowered her stance with Caldeiras in one hand, positioning it behind her head.

Squelsh.

Along with a heavy sound of tearing flesh, Gargantia trembled. Both of its wings were severed simultaneously.

“Hmm?” He staggered heavily, belatedly realizing his injury. He lost his concentration and whiffed his attack, blasting his Breath randomly into the air. “Grrr?! What is this?! I clearly isolated the space!!”

“Even my handsome husband knows to dodge that move. Who do you think you are to take it head-on?” Illyna said with a chilling face as she gathered the aura flowing from her entire body. It seemed that even those two sword strikes had drained a considerable amount of her stamina.

“This wench!”

With the wings keeping him aloft having vanished, he plummeted to the ground. With a furious roar, chunks of his flesh writhed and expanded, instantly regenerating his wings and severed forelegs.

“How dare you!! I command you to perish along with this whole area!” Gargantia, who had managed to float again, began to conjure hundreds of black magic circles around him.

[Dragontongue Magic]

[Power Word Kill]

His will melted into the magic, creating a massive casting. An ordinary mage would've forgotten to breathe at the sight of such high-level magic, as the manifested spell was on an entirely different level from a Breath.

Unlike Davey, Perserque couldn't analyze and dispel magic in an instant, so she couldn’t assist.

Since it was impossible to redirect it like a Breath, Illyna gripped her sword with both hands and took a vertical slash stance.

“My entire body's gonna ache for a few days...” Muttering briefly, she put force into her right hand and gently moved her left hand to support it.

Then, she instantly released a significant portion of her vast, subtly shimmering power.

[Continuum-Attacking Blade]

[Extreme Shatter]

[Collapse Cleaving Slash]

Crack!

The same kind of rift she used for dimensional travel appeared as she sliced through space itself. However, its scale was tens to hundreds of times more than what she normally used.

The twisted rift sliced through the magic entirely, sending it flying beyond the rift. It was an overwhelmingly superior version of Gargantia's ability to control and isolate the surrounding space.

“No way... What is this?”

Crack!

Realizing she had shattered his magic and grasping the seriousness of the situation, he chose to retreat. But Illyna was already on top of him, trampling him as she brought her sword down.

She rendered his defense useless with a single strike. He frantically tried to boost his defense, but she calmly swung her sword one more time.

This time, she managed to leave a large scar on his defensive magic and body.

“This... This can't be happening!”

“Still got one shot left.”

Crack!!

He tried to counterattack, but she was faster. She quickly decapitated him.

Lightly pushing off his gigantic head as it flew into the air with a spray of blood, Illyna swiftly descended to the ground. Twisting her body midair, she unleashed dozens of sword strikes at his airborne form.

He must've had some kind of plan, yet he died before he could put it into action, making it meaningless in the end.

Evangeline, who had been hiding behind Perserque and peeking out her head, muttered blankly, “Wow... Now I see why Dad is so submissive with you...”

Strictly speaking, the reason the enemy couldn’t do much to Illyna was that its attacks were related to space, but that didn't really matter.

At that moment, one of the young lords who had been staring blankly at the situation muttered, “Did... Did she get rid of that monster?”

At the same time, a startled Evangeline turned her gaze to the young lords and ladies.

Most of them stared blankly at what had just happened before their eyes, though soon enough they seemed to accept that the enemy was dead.

Some trembled, their tension released. But three boys among them were different.

“Unbelievable... So this is the skill of the woman they called a genius from the previous generation?”

“She’s way beyond that...She can’t be explained by talent alone,” Crama mumbled in astonishment.

Illyna was barely even twenty.

No matter how much others called her a genius, it seemed impossible to cause such an absurd phenomenon at that age.

Prince Khrones looked up at the sky with a hardened face.

Illyna had cut down more than just Gargantia. The sky where he had been floating still bore the massive scars of the dozens of sword traces she had created.

‘And those... won't disappear for a while, will they?’

His hands trembled instinctively. He was supposed to be an unrivaled genius, the pillar of the next generation. Some had even compared him to the legendary Saint of Tionis and the Sword Princess of the past, Illyna de Pallan. That was how extraordinary and versatile his abilities were for someone his age.

Although he usually pretended otherwise, feigning modesty, he silently agreed with it.

There were few beings who reached the rank of high Expert and also used magic before reaching adulthood. That was why he never bothered to stop the rumors, and he never doubted that he’d become a supreme being someday.

No, he had even thought that his talent might be even greater and more extensive than that.

His friend Ratius showed that talent in martial arts, and his other friend Crama showed prominence in magic.

However, if he were asked again, he wouldn't be confident in answering.

An unrivaled genius? Talent comparable to the Saint of Tionis or the Sword Princess?

It was nothing but laughable.

He wondered if he was finally experiencing what it felt like to stand before an impenetrable wall. No, to be precise, it’d be more like staring into a bottomless abyss.

The fear of looking into a bottomless chasm suffocated him.

‘How arrogant of me, always acting like I'm on top of the world...’

He didn't think he would be able to unleash such an absurd sword attack, even once he reached her age.

Princess Evangeline alone had already shattered his confidence. The skills of the rumored Sword Princess were truly astonishing.

At that moment, someone spoke to him, asking, “Are you hurt anywhere?”

He hardly knew what to say. “Princess Evangeline...”

“Well, that thing’s dealt with, so there won't be any more problems. The dungeon collapsed, so no more monsters will come out either.”

He had no response, remaining silent.

“Your expression isn't good.” She approached and asked, “Are you hurt somewhere?”

He flinched and took a few steps back. “N-No, I'm not.”

“I'm glad you’re not hurt! No one died, so that crappy butthead’s plot is also...”

“No. He's most likely not dead,” Perserque said as she quietly watched the spot where the creature's head had fallen and turned to dust.

Illyna, who had been sheathing her sword; Evangeline, who had just turned around after asking Khrones a question; and everyone else turned to look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“The First Lich Nyx... The reason he sealed his adopted son was because of his crazy ideology and his mad plans, but also because he’s the source of the power that granted Nyx absolute immortality,” Perserque muttered with a hardened face. “Even if Illyna sliced him up along with the space, he mustn’t have died.”