The Bakusaiga in Zald's hand shattered with a thunderous crack when it collided head-on with Ottar's blade.
"Kh—"
The strongest warrior's knee hit the ground.
Blood sprayed from his mouth, and when that pitch-black blood touched the weeds on the ground, the grass corroded into a dirty residue.
Seeing that scene, Ottar did not follow up with another strike.
He looked at that pitch-black blood with wariness.
It possessed such intense corrosive power, yet it still flowed through Zald's body—and he could still move and sustain combat of a certain intensity!
If it were not Zald, anyone else would already have been bedridden from the torment.
No—that was still too optimistic.
Without a constitution as powerful as the Gluttony's, an ordinary person would have dropped dead the moment they came into contact with such a toxin.
"That's the Behemoth's poison, isn't it?" Ottar asked.
Zald did not answer him.
Or rather, he could not answer.
He could not stop coughing, blood kept forcing its way out of his mouth.
"Do you pity me?" Zald shot Ottar a dangerous look.
The Boarman warrior was cowed by that ferocious gaze, his hair stood on end.
"N-no."
Ottar respected Zald.
He had once been the figure Ottar admired most. The desire to become a warrior like him had never changed, not even to this day.
Behemoth, the Land King.
One of the Three Great Quests for Adventurers. Its body was so enormous it resembled a mountain range.
A poisonous wind swirled around it, the pressure of that wind alone was enough to crush any living creature.
Its venom could transform the surrounding land into a dead zone.
Its mere existence posed a deadly threat to both the environment and all life, not to mention how lethal the poison contained within its flesh and blood had to be.
"Zald… that's enough."
"What?"
Ottar closed his eyes, as if unable to bear looking upon the end of a hero he had once admired.
But after two seconds, he opened them again, feeling he could not turn away.
Because until the very end, he had to show enough respect to the hero standing before him.
"My blade is a special weapon forged by Hephaestus's smith, Rayleigh. It isn't merely an external weapon—it's half of my very self.'
"And only while crossing blades with you did I realize that a Zanpakutō can reflect the truest emotions hidden in one's heart when one's will is burning. Perhaps because you are also holding that man's blade… I saw it. You—no, all of you—your resolve and everything you have given."
The joints of Zald's fingers twitched, but he still pretended not to understand.
"What the hell are you talking about, pig brat? At least say something a man can understand."
Ottar gritted his teeth.
His anger rose to the surface and showed itself on his face.
With a furious expression, Ottar shouted, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ZALD—THIS HUMILIATION?!"
"Hm?"
"WEAK, Far too weak! Every time this body of mine is crushed by people like you, it becomes unbearable! More than disappointing you, I cannot forgive this weak self of mine! What an ugly sight—what fragility!"
"To have no choice but to use heroes of the past like you as stepping stones, because without doing so I cannot reach a higher realm—this powerlessness!"
Roaring, Ottar raised Tenken in his hands.
'Heh.'
For the first time in so long, a smile appeared on Zald's face, which had been as lifeless as a walking corpse.
That smile held excitement, relief, and… a sense of release.
"If that's how it is, then stop talking."
"Yeah! I was thinking the exact same thing! I will defeat you right here!"
Ottar poured all of his spiritual pressure into his Zanpakutō.
His materialized Reiatsu draped itself around him like a crimson coat.
"Big words dumbmass." Zald laughed as he drew his own sword, gripping it with both hands and raising it high.
"OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!"
Ottar's full-powered strike clashed head-on with Zald's final blow.
Clang!
Zald's greatsword was cleaved in two, and for an instant, surprise appeared on the man's face.
Then it turned into relief.
A massive wound split open across his chest, deep enough to expose bone—even his beating heart was visible.
Looking into the wound, it was clear that Zald's insides no longer resembled those of a normal person, his body had already been corroded beyond recognition.
Yet he had still been moving and fighting in that state.
Zald was cut down by Ottar and fell onto his back!
Ottar propped himself up with Tenken, refusing to let himself collapse.
"I didn't expect… to lose to you. Life is truly unpredictable. Cough, cough…"
"Quit lying. Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"
"I don't know what you're talking about…"
"Tch."
Seeing that the man still intended to play dumb even at the very end, Ottar let out a displeased snort.
But right after that, the presence of Gluttony vanished.
Zald had fallen in battle.
"Our commander has defeated the enemy's trump card! Now is the time to wipe out the enemy in one blow! Adventurers—advance!"
Finn had been watching the most important battlefield all along.
The moment the outcome was decided, he did not hesitate for even an instant, giving the order for a full assault.
At that moment, the evilus was still in shock over Gluttony's fall.
A Level 7… had lost?
A hero of the Zeus Familia had actually been defeated by a child of the Freya Familia?
How was that even possible?!
"AAAAAHHH! Help! We need reinforcements on the west side—there's a monster of a woman here!"
"Hahahaha!"
Tsubaki brandished a unique blade shaped like a seven-branched sword.
Her swordsmanship was simple and brutal—pure speed and pure strength.
In her hands, the blade danced into a blur, and wherever she passed, dark faction corpses dropped in heaps.
The half-dwarf woman laughed. "Ora ora! Let me really test out this Tobiume! Don't die off too fast, you lot!"
Boom!
A fireball flew straight into the dark faction's ranks.
The resulting explosion blasted nearly twenty enemies into the air.
The fireballs fired by Tobiume exploded on impact, and their destructive power was anything but ordinary—roughly equivalent to the damage of twenty-five kilograms of high explosives.
"That woman is the captain of the Hephaestus Familia—Tsubaki Collbrande!"
"We can't push forward from the south! Our losses are too heavy—it's the chariot, the Goddess's chariot of the Freya Familia is slaughtering us!"
"Help! Someone help us! There's a monster in the tavern!!!"
Boom!
A heavy fist came crashing down.
Thud! What looked like a light blow knocked the dark faction member unconscious.
Mia Grand, standing there at a full 1.8 meters tall, looked at the enemy she had just one-shot, then glanced down the street and tossed the grunt aside like a dead dog.
"Honestly, Orario's public safety is getting worse and worse. Hurry up and finish these bastards off, you brats. Seriously—business has dried up because of this!"
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