That was a roar that split the heavens. That was a rumble that shook the earth to its roots.
The giant Viola was like a worm-shaped mountain range, and in the instant it came crashing in it not only shook the entire Pantry, kicking up billowing dust, but hurled itself hard at Leo and the others with a violent thunderous blast and a savage shockwave. Its charge was brutal and powerful, like a runaway train. Its assault was terrifying and dreadful, worthy of an avalanche splitting the earth.
"Fall back!!!"
Asfi shouted herself hoarse, throwing herself to the side along with the whole Hermes Familia, scrambling so desperately it was less like dodging a monster's attack than dodging a natural disaster. In fact, it was no different from dodging a natural disaster.
When the giant Viola charged through where everyone was standing, first the shockwave spread outward like an explosion, blowing everything away, and then everything in its path was crushed to pieces, exactly like a mountain rushing past, sending everyone flying. Even Leo, who had leapt high, springing up to the heights to dodge the Giant Flower's charge, was blown away in an instant by the storm-like shockwave, nearly slamming into the ceiling of the Pantry.
"Aaaaaaaaaah...!"
The Evilus members weren't so lucky. They had no time at all to escape the range of the Giant Flower's charge, and were simply rolled over by that mountainous bulk, falling utterly silent after a chorus of screams.
The aftershock of the Giant Flower's charge was still spreading through the great cavern, flinging great numbers of Violas to the ground. The ground was shaking, and so was the air. From a single charge alone, a scene of disaster-level destruction had appeared here, terrifying to behold.
"Light of heaven, sword of stars."
Leo's figure was still in midair, and before he even landed he saw this staggering sight, his expression hardening as he chanted his Magic without a second thought.
"Meteor Dance!"
A brilliant magic circle spread across the ceiling, larger in scale than ever before, and from it descended countless meteors, forming a beautiful meteor shower that came pouring down toward the earth in a mighty torrent. Meteor after meteor streaked down, and in the end they all fell onto the Giant Flower.
Explosions chained one after another across the Giant Flower's body, the terrible firepower pouring down onto it all at once, bursting endlessly across its surface into countless dazzling starbursts, until blood sprayed from all over the Giant Flower and its multicolored flesh flew everywhere. And yet, firepower on that scale, enough to reduce tens of thousands of monsters to dust, couldn't wring even a single cry of pain from the Giant Flower. As though it had been bitten by countless ants, it ignored the wounds on its body, swung its enormous tentacles, and lashed out at Leo in midair.
The tentacles came whistling in one after another, striking the ceiling and smashing it to pieces amid successive blasts, raining down endless dust and rubble. Leo, up in midair, should have had absolutely no way to dodge this wave of attacks, but before the tentacles reached him he chanted his other Magic without hesitation.
"...Race onward like a comet."
Brilliant starlight bloomed across him one burst after another, wrapping around his whole body. In that moment, Leo became a true comet, sweeping off into the distance at astonishing speed, avoiding the tentacles that kept coming at him. The comet flew back and forth among the giant tentacles with utter freedom, and no matter how the Giant Flower kept whipping its tentacles in pursuit, it still couldn't catch him.
"That Magic..."
Asfi, checking the casualties among her members, saw this and froze on the spot.
"That's that flight magic!"
Lulune recognized it at once. Back in the town of Rivira on Floor 18, Leo had used this Magic, and the impression it left on Lulune was deep, so of course there was no way she wouldn't recognize it.
"Flight magic?"
Hearing Lulune's words, Asfi turned to look at her.
"Yeah, Magic that lets him fly. I saw him use it on Floor 18, and just like your Talaria, Asfi, it can fly!"
Lulune hurried to explain to Asfi.
"I never thought he'd actually fly up into the sky by the power of Magic!"
Asfi looked at the comet up in midair, and the look in her eyes had changed. She could only fly by the power of a magic item, but Leo had flown up into the sky by his own power, and the two were completely different. What's more, Asfi could tell that Leo's Magic was probably not just for flight, either. The proof was that the comet racing through the air was getting faster and faster, so fast that not only could the Giant Flower's tentacles not keep up, even their eyes could barely keep up with it.
With the giant tentacles striking at the comet again and again, only to be left behind by it each time, hitting the ceiling, walls, and ground behind it, the brilliant comet kept accelerating, until it flashed and vanished in midair. Trailing a long tail of light, tracing a beautiful trail of radiance, after it had completely shaken off the Giant Flower's tentacle attacks it swept straight toward the white-haired man, who was still regrowing his body.
"Wha...?!"
The white-haired man's face changed sharply. He tried to react, but there was no time at all.
The brilliant comet slammed straight into the white-haired man, sending him flying. Before his tumbling body could steady itself, the comet traced one graceful arc after another and crashed into him again and again, so that in midair he took impacts from all directions, battered every which way, utterly wretched.
The powerful impacts made the white-haired man spew out a great mouthful of blood, looking half-mad.
"Enough!"
He raged, he went berserk, he tried to counterattack, but he couldn't catch up to that comet that was still accelerating.
"You like ramming people, don't you? Then try a taste of it yourself!"
Leo's voice rang out, and the comet split the air once more, crashing into the white-haired man.
With one final, most powerful impact, the white-haired man was at last slammed hard into the green wall, smashing the green flesh wall to bits.
"Gah...!"
Driven bodily into the wall, the white-haired man let out a wordless howl of pain, blood streaming all over him.
He should have counted himself lucky, because with such tremendous speed Leo couldn't swing his sword while using Comet Chase, or rather the speed of a sword swing would be far slower than his flight speed, so he'd crash into his target before he could swing, which was why the white-haired man, and Revis too, had only been rammed away by him. Otherwise, with his speed in flight, he could easily have taken these Creatures' heads off on the very first strike and won the fight. Of course, at that kind of speed, so long as the gap wasn't too great, winning was only a matter of time. The white-haired man was now enjoying exactly that treatment.
When the comet came racing in and scattered its full radiance before him, revealing Leo's figure within, the white-haired man had only just managed to lift his head before a black longsword ran him through the chest. His face froze, his eyes wide open, as if unwilling to believe what was happening before him.
Leo stood before him, looking down on him from above, no emotion at all in his eyes. The black longsword in his hand had already stabbed deep into the white-haired man's chest, running through the flesh he'd worked so hard to regrow, and finally piercing that multicolored magic stone within his chest.
With a series of cracking sounds the magic stone split apart inch by inch, countless fissures spreading through it. Since the white-haired man was a human with a monster's body, he naturally had the same weakness as a monster. The magic stone was the foundation of his survival, the core of his existence. Destroy a monster's magic stone and it dies, and these Creatures were naturally no exception.
Unwilling to believe his life was ending here, the white-haired man twisted his face and reached out a trembling hand, gripping the black longsword that had run through his chest.
"How can it end just like this? How can it possibly end just like this?"
The white-haired man wailed hysterically.
"I haven't fulfilled 'Her' wish yet! I haven't let 'Her' see the sky yet! This second life, that goes on because of 'Her,' how can it end just like this...!"
At that, Leo only kept watching him with no emotion, and after a long while said a single line.
"A defiled existence, even if it was once holy, what right does it have to see the sky again?"
The moment he said it, the white-haired man jerked his head up in shock and looked at Leo.
"You... you..."
His expression was exactly that of someone whose greatest secret had been mercilessly laid bare, utterly caught off guard.
"You think I really don't know who 'She' is?"
Leo let out a cold laugh and said this.
"Just wait. One day, Ais and I and the whole Loki Familia will send 'Her' back to the heavens with our own hands."
With that, Leo's sword hand tightened, grinding the magic stone inside the white-haired man's body completely to pieces.
The multicolored magic stone shattered utterly inside the white-haired man's body, losing all its luster. The white-haired man opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but couldn't get out a single word. Like every monster that loses its magic stone, he crumbled to ash in an instant and scattered completely away.
Leo took in the whole process, and only after confirming the other was truly reduced to ash did he turn and look toward the Giant Flower.
That Giant Flower had already had its attention drawn by the Hermes Familia, and was swinging its enormous tentacles at them. Every tentacle strike whipped up a wild wind and smashed the ground, the sheer force of it horrifying, to say nothing of the way the Giant Flower launched that terrifying charge every so often, crushing everything like a walking mountain, more fearsome than a Floor Boss.
Asfi had already activated her Talaria, the pair of oddly shaped sandals on her feet, their sides embroidered with a wing pattern, sprouting small wings that carried her up into the sky, letting her rain down Burst Oil from on high, explosions going off across the Giant Flower's body. But unfortunately, even Leo's Magic with its staggering firepower could only tear its skin open, unable to finish it off, so Asfi's Burst Oil was even more hopeless, no match for the Giant Flower at all, barely even managing to do any damage.
Leo meant to go help her, but his movements stalled again, and instead he looked toward the quartz pillar that radiated red light. Up on it, at the base, the green jeweled fetus was still turning a pair of huge eyes, gazing at every single person on the battlefield with a look full of malice. Sensing Leo's gaze, the jeweled fetus looked at him too. That gaze was not fierce, but deeply evil. That look was not frightening, but exceedingly strange.
Leo understood a little now why Ais had reacted so strongly after seeing this thing. Even he felt uncomfortable, and that went double for Ais, who had a blood-level resonance with the thing before them.
So Leo leapt down through the hole the white-haired man had punched in the wall, and with a single flicker arrived at the base of the quartz pillar, before the jeweled fetus. As though sensing some danger, the jeweled fetus actually began to struggle, seeming to want to flee. Unfortunately, it was too late.
"You should never have come into this world."
As the words fell, Leo thrust his sword out without hesitation. The tip of the black longsword pierced through the entire green orb, running through the fetus inside.
A grief-stricken, rasping howl went up, from the Giant Flower and the Violas alike. The other two Giant Flowers coiled around the quartz pillar, quietly draining the nutrient fluid, woke too, and even as they gave off terrible roars they wrenched themselves free of the stone pillar and came crashing down toward Leo below, leaving him no time to think of anything else. He pulled his sword and flickered aside, starlight blooming across his whole body as he became a comet and swept away at astonishing speed.
The two Giant Flowers slammed heavily to the ground, throwing up a great crash and dust.
At the same time, an explosion suddenly went off in one corner by the wall of the great cavern, raising a loud shattering sound that drew the attention of everyone in the great cavern. From inside that broken hole, a figure came flying out with astonishing force, trailing several streams of smoke like a cannonball, violently smashing through the wall and flying into the Pantry, finally landing on its back and slamming hard into the ground, plowing out a trench the whole way, until it had flown out dozens of meters before slowly coming to a stop.
"Cough, cough...!"
Not long after, the owner of the figure struggled unsteadily to her feet, coughing up several mouthfuls of blood. She was covered head to toe in wounds, the sword wounds especially staggering in number, blood staining nearly her entire body until it was almost as red as her hair. This was Revis. Her face was still as fierce as a savage beast's, but the crimson longsword in her hand had become ragged and battered, just like her.
Ais leapt out through the broken hole too, entering the battlefield. On her body, not a scratch.
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