Rumble!
As Azmun released the restrictions on his power with the words of covenant, an abnormal reaction occurred in the chimera's body.
Grrr...
It let out a grotesque sound, and suddenly its entire body began to swell.
Crunch!
At first, its arms and legs puffed up, then soon its torso expanded overall, and its face transformed.
Raaargh!
Its skin became like dragon scales, its face sprouted tusks like a wild boar's, and its body resembled a tiger's.
Zeke raised Bahamut upon seeing the chimera mutate into a monster.
'One of the Four Fiends, Doul. This had to be an experimental subject infused with its power.'
It was undoubtedly a bizarre creature created by mixing the cursed blood of a demon dragon with the corrupted sacred blood of one of the Four Fiends—something that should not have existed in the world.
Zeke felt deep revulsion toward the Nostra Family's chimera research, which toyed with life.
Azmun smirked with vile satisfaction as he gazed at the fully liberated chimera.
"Chimera! Kill them all!"
At Azmun's command, the chimera opened its maw wide and charged toward the Black Spirit Unit with a threatening roar.
Diego, at the forefront, swung his dual swords to deflect the chimera's sharp claws, while Aster thrust his spear at it.
Clang!
The spear failed to pierce the chimera's tough scales and bounced off.
Felix, standing behind, gripped his sword and drew up his energy.
Whoooong!
Felix unleashed Agamemnonʼs Golden Swordsmanship, his body infused with the arch paladin's potent aura merging with the technique. A brilliant aura blade erupted from his sword.
His blade dug into the chimera's scales.
Crunch!
Felix's sword slashed along the chimera's side, inflicting a wound from which green blood spurted.
Sizzle!
The chimera's acidic blood hissed as it melted the floor.
Seizing the moment, Reina and Liam rushed in together, striking the wound with their sword strikes.
Swoosh!
Reina's flash-like attack and Liam's heavy blow pierced the chimera's wounded side simultaneously.
Crunch!
The powerful strike made the chimera stagger and topple sideways.
Raaargh!
The chimera let out a pained cry.
Azmun, watching from behind, was startled, his smug expression fading into anxiety.
'To think even those subordinate knights—not Zeke Draker himself—were this strong.'
Every member of the Black Spirit Unit was at least a blue knight or higher, all seasoned warriors worth a hundred men in battle. Azmun had completely failed in his analysis of them.
As a result, his plan to subdue them with the chimera and escape crumbled.
Zeke approached Azmun slowly, Bahamut in hand.
"Have you used up everything you've prepared? It might be wise to surrender now, before things get any more tedious."
Azmun forced a bitter smile at Zeke's words and steadied his breathing. He had not expected to resort to this method, and tension gripped him.
"Zeke Draker, what I've prepared isn't over yet."
At the same time, Azmun began chanting something.
Zeke sensed something off as Azmun muttered in a low, eerie voice, speaking a language he'd never heard before.
'This was...?'
It was an unfamiliar tongue.
Yet it resembled the language spoken by the shadowy figure that had appeared within William Siemens's geas.
Rumble!
As Azmun intoned the bizarre incantation, Ajitahakaʼs sword, embedded in the ground by Zeke, reacted abnormally.
Tssst...
Suddenly, the sword writhed and opened a massive maw.
And remarkably, the sword's elongated mouth flew toward the chimera.
Crunch!
Ajitahakaʼs sword bit into the chimera and began burrowing into its body.
The chimera then began transforming in yet another way.
Raaargh!
It cried out in agony as its body color shifted first.
Crunch!
The surface turned black, and the wound from Felix healed almost instantly.
Crack!
Once the color fully changed, the chimera's face split into four parts, revealing a maw packed with sharp teeth.
At the same time, something erupted from the chimera's back.
Ssssh!
Tentacles bristling with sharp teeth burst forth.
Zeke grimaced at the tentacles emerging from the chimera's body.
'Those were outsider species?'
They resembled the outsider species he'd seen in the Forest of the Forgotten.
From the emergence of outsider species traits in the chimera fused with Ajitahakaʼs sword, Zeke made a deduction.
'Could Ajitahakaʼs power have been connected to Siemens Apollyon?'
Siemens Apollyon had sealed the Earth God's soul in the Forest of the Forgotten, guarded by an outsider species beast.
The mysterious language in William Siemens's geas linked to traces in Siemens
Apollyon's ruins. Now, the sword from Ramon Siemens had transformed the chimera into an outsider species.
Zeke suspected a close connection between Siemens Apollyon and Ajitahakaʼs power.
Raaargh!
Fully transformed into a flesh-devouring beast through fusion with Ajitahakaʼs sword, the chimera roared at the Black Spirit Unit.
Azmun looked at Zeke and said,
"Even you, the knight of salvation, won't be able to handle this flesh-devouring beast that devours everything without satisfaction."
As Azmun spoke meaningfully, dozens of tentacles erupted from the flesh-devouring beast's body, attacking the Black Spirit Unit members.
Confirming the sight, Azmun turned to Zeke and said,
"Zeke Draker, let me propose once more. If you join hands with me, we can take Rom..." But then it happened.
Ssssh!
One of the tentacles from the flesh-devouring beast coiled around Azmun's ankle. "Wh-what?"
The tentacle wrapped around Azmun's body and hoisted him into the air.
"N-no! St-stop!"
Azmun knew the incantation to create the flesh-devouring beast but not how to stop it.
The beast, which devoured anything, apparently saw even its summoner as mere meat and did not recognize him.
The tentacle dragged the bound Azmun toward its body, and a new maw opened on its back.
"N-no!"
Crunch!
With a scream of despair, the sly schemer Azmun Barrios vanished into the fleshdevouring beast's maw.
Only the gruesome sound of bones and flesh breaking echoed from its back.
The beast that had swallowed Azmun licked its lips with a grotesque tongue, eyeing the Black Spirit Unit and Zeke as if still hungry.
At that moment, the waiting Komodo lizards and dragon warriors charged at the fleshdevouring beast.
Raaargh!
Grrr...
Dozens of lizards and dragon warriors pressed the assault on the flesh-devouring beast.
But with its own dozens of tentacles, the beast ensnared the lizards and dragon warriors, immobilizing them.
As the flesh-devouring beast opened its maw to devour the shadow spirits, Snap!
Zeke snapped his fingers, canceling the shadow spirits' summons.
The momentarily halted flesh-devouring beast turned toward Zeke and approached.
The Black Spirit Unit members formed ranks in front of Zeke.
Zeke addressed them.
"I'll handle that thing. You all deal with the Capricorn Palace knights remaining in the imperial palace."
He snapped his fingers again, summoning ghost knights, golem knights, and Kaimanʼs unit mounted on lizards.
Zeke specifically instructed Liam,
"Liam, lead the unit and clean up the Rom imperial palace." Liam nodded at Zeke's order.
"Understood, my lord. All members, follow me!"
Liam was not the oldest or strongest in the Black Spirit Unit, but thanks to his past life as the mercenary king, he adeptly commanded them.
After sending off the Black Spirit Unit, Zeke faced the flesh-devouring beast alone. He donned Theiaʼs Hercion and raised Bahamut, drawing up the power of the full power technique.
Rumble!
Sensing the extraordinary power of the full power technique, the flesh-devouring beast bared its teeth and let out a threatening roar.
Raaargh!
A tentacle bristling with teeth flew toward Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke swiftly evaded the incoming tentacles using the gale technique.
But the number targeting him increased rapidly, and realizing his limits, Zeke took to the air with the dragonʼs wings skill. He dodged the pursuing tentacles while launching a sacred radiance technique at the flesh-devouring beast's main body.
Zzzap!
The bolt of light hurtled toward the beast.
Boom!
The beast nimbly dodged the light bolt.
It then scaled the wall with its sharp claws, charging at Zeke.
Raaargh!
Suddenly, its arm extended, transforming into a whip-like appendage with razor claws, which it swung at him.
Swoosh!
The claw sliced through the air toward Zeke.
Clang!
Zeke blocked the beast's claw with his body protected by the full power technique, then immediately soared forward, charging at it.
"Haaah!"
His body bathed in the sacred radiance technique's light, Zeke thrust Bahamut ahead and unleashed another bolt of light at the beast.
Zzzap!
The intense light bolt poured forth, and astonishingly, the beast's body began to dissipate like mist.
Tssst...
But moments later, the scattered body reformed, reappearing behind Zeke.
Ssssh!
The beast extended a tentacle, coiling around Zeke's body.
Suddenly ensnared by the tentacle, Zeke found himself unable to move.
Sizzle!
Acidic fluid from the tentacle tried to melt Theiaʼs Hercion.
But the orichalcum armor would not dissolve from mere beast secretions.
Frustrated that Zeke's armor remained intact, the beast growled.
Raaargh!
Its face split into four again, revealing a massive maw.
The beast shoved Zeke, still wrapped in the tentacle, whole into its mouth.
Crunch!
Unable to chew through Hercion with its teeth, the beast swallowed him first, intending to digest him inside.
Having fully swallowed Zeke, the satisfied flesh-devouring beast soon sensed something amiss.
Grr...
Its belly began to writhe.
Gurgle!
Suddenly, the beast opened its maw and started vomiting something up.
Kerck!
Half-melted bones, chunks of flesh, and armor fragments poured endlessly from its mouth.
The beast clawed at the ground in agony, maw agape.
Boom!
At that instant, a massive explosion erupted from its belly.
Raaargh!
The beast spewed foul fluid from its mouth again.
Unable to endure, it opened the maw on its back.
Kerkerkerk!
A groan of torment escaped that mouth too.
In that moment, a golden aura burst from it.
Whoooong!
Unable to contain the light of purification, the beast began retching again.
Its belly churned once more, and a sword suddenly protruded.
Crunch!
The sword tore through the beast's belly, and Zeke slowly emerged from within.
"Whew, what kind of creature even was this?"
In Zeke's hand was the beast's organ, melted by the authority of decay.
He shook off the liquefied remains from his hand, raised his sword, and looked at the flesh-devouring beast.
"Your insides must be burning. Come on, then."
The beast, shaken internally by Zeke, rose unsteadily and let out the most threatening roar it could muster.
Raaargh!
But such a feeble threat held no sway over Zeke.
He raised Bahamut and unleashed the elemental sword: chamber of water power.
Ssssh!
Sensing the threat, the beast lashed out with tentacles, but the wave sword, powered by the full power technique, severed all the incoming dozens.
Kerck!
Approaching the beast, tormented internally and externally, Zeke summoned the blade of radiant light.
A flash of sword light gleamed from his blade, condensed with purifying power.
His sword precisely targeted Ajitahakaʼs sword embedded in the beast's body and thrust forward.
Boom!
The power sustaining the beast's form wavered under the purifying force, rendering it immobile.
In that state, Ajitahakaʼs sword proved it was no ordinary blade: it abandoned the beast's flesh and separated outward.
The beast's mangled body reverted to its original form, oozing green fluids as it collapsed.
No longer a sword, Ajitahakaʼs blade took a black spherical form and floated into the air.
As if anticipating this, Zeke's eyes gleamed at the sight.
Tssst...
Soon, a massive shadow rose behind Zeke.
The shadow engulfed Ajitahakaʼs sword entirely.
At the same time, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[Absorbed an outsider species infused with the authority of a fallen god.]