Chapter 40: Adam's Death
Bang! Splash!
"Kyaaaaa!!!" Levana's horror filled scream came right after the sound of flesh crushing and scattering everywhere.
Kyriaki looked at the place where Adam once stood a minute ago. Now only pieces of flesh and a bloodpool remained on the floor. By the look of the viscosity of the blood, it neither belonged to Deadborns nor Dragons. On the top of it all, the spike filled flail remained motionless.
Her brain immediately grasped what had happened. And so did Euclid's brain.
"Pffft…" a mocking laughter burst out from behind them.
"Pffft…puahahahaha!!!" Another laughter similar to the former joined in.
"Ah….ahh…AHHHHH!!!!!" Ethan tripped on his feet and fell to the ground in an unsightly manner.
He crawled backwards immediately radiating a more unsightly image. His twisted face dripped with cold sweat. The pale expression as if he saw a terrifying existence was ugly and horrible.
"Puahahahahaha! Ah! This is so satisfying every time I see it! Did you have fun, little brats?"
"They must have! It was so much fun for me too!"
"Indeed! But how could a dragon fall for something like this? Aren't they supposed to be wise and noble?"
"Kekekeke…foolish dragons. Useless dragons."
"Puahaha!"
Kyriaki stared blankly at the sound source.
'For the sake of Thanasios—'
The two heads, which had been rolling on the ground after getting detached from the body, grinned widely and stared back at her with hollow eyes full of madness. Just like a demon's gaze. The torchlight flickered, just like Kyriaki's inner thoughts.
"Rotten bxxxxxx" Euclid gritted his teeth next to her, his face pale.
His ocean blue eyes that had gone cold glowed like frozen lakes under the winter moonlight. If he had Death Element instead of Weather Element, he'd have seemed like a true death god at the moment.
The Twin heads continued to laugh as their headless body began to move. It grabbed their heads roughly and placed them on the severed necks. With an unpleasant sound, they were affixed together in mere minutes. It was like beheading never happened.
"Zombies are called the living dead. Why do you think we were called by that name?" The head that seemed more intelligent and suspected to belong to the original Einn asked with a wide grin.
"..."
"Cutting us in half, stabbing and beheading…that might be a useful method for lesser zombies. But those of higher rank are different. You cut the heads of Deadborns, yes. But they died not because of that, but because the core that was placed in their throats were broken."
They couldn't argue with that. Due to fighting for days, they had momentarily stopped thinking about other methods to eliminate their enemies.
"And I am the Zombie King! Do you think just cutting down my head would be enough? Puahaha! How entertaining!"
Kyriaki inhaled lightly and jabbed Euclid.
"Let's do it again."
"It's not enough to cut both heads." Euclid slowly nodded and replied back in fluent Sign language.
"But that doesn't mean it's not unnecessary. Judging by his words, it is necessary to cut the heads, but it should be in sync and the core should be shattered at the same time."
"Then…a more barbaric method must be applied here, is that it?"
"Leave it to me."
"Gladly."
"Ummm…" a faint voice came from behind them. Both hatchlings looked back and met a pair of grey eyes.
"You guys are really good at Elven Sign Language, I know that…but…" and those grey eyes went over their shoulders and landed on the bloodpool behind them. "...This isn't the time for secret talks."
"Ah…" Euclid let out a short voice.
Whether it was because he realized the tension or because he realized he was unconsciously using Elven Sign Language and exposing his knowledge which he wanted to keep a secret, only he knew. Neither Levana nor Kyriaki was interested in his inner monologue.
""Oh?"" Both heads of the Zombie King tilted their heads to the left and said in sync.
"Are you going to fight again?" The right head asked.
"Let's go!" Kyriaki's firm and calm words echoed like a war cry.
Clang!
The Flail made a loud sound, and the sound of wind as if something was being swung around echoed together with Kyriaki's words.
Thus once again…
The battle began.
Kyriaki took a tail stance—a basic stance before a major confrontation. As soon as it happened, Euclid ran past her to close the distance between him and the Twin Headed Zombie King.
[Breath of the Ice Spirit: Second Breath: Frozen Water Rope]
He spun around with the tips of his twin swords pointed forward together. A thin wave of water made by sky-blue aura shot towards the Orc-like legs of Einn, piercing his right leg and wrapping it like a tight knot of a rope.
Then he lightly kicked the ground and leaned backwards, pulling the water aura rope with both of his hands. With an irritated scream, the Zombie King fell on his knees once again. As Euclid made it possible, his stance never wavered. His breathing, shoulders and body were as stable as ever.
But his technique was slightly different from his previous use of this sword art.
Kyriaki noted that in her mind, however, her entire main focus was on the Zombie King that she postponed all of her reviews of Euclid for later.
Crash! Bang!!
The Flail smashed the ground as Einn swung it like crazy. Euclid dodged all his attacks skillfully and made his way to where Kyriaki was standing.
The very second he stood right behind her, lifting one of his swords high and the other low in a basic stance, Kyriaki moved.
Now, it was Kyriaki's chance.
[Colors of the Spring: Seventh Color: The Spring Festival]
Multicolored Sword aura speared like a shockwave in a circle with Kyriaki as the center. Although it visualized as a shockwave, the aura that brushed past those who were within the circle never got pushed back. Nor did they feel like they couldn't breath as well as a powerful force temporarily made them powerless. All they felt was the warmth of the spring sun.
A bright light descended as if to say the warmth belonged to it.
Kyriaki changed her position. She held her glowing blade high, on the same line as her head as she crossed her arms to hold it using both. The long sword oriented straightly and the sharp tip was pointed forward as if she was ready to directly thrust her blade into someone's head. Her front leg was slightly bent forward as she put strength to her back leg.
The technique closely resembled ochs stance back on Earth, but Kyriaki who had less knowledge in that area when alive as a human never thought that far.
Below her shadow casted by the light emitted from her sword aura and the fire torches around the boss room began to change. Small plants started budding and flowers of vibrant colors bloomed under her feet.
Few trees were born from the buds and speared their branches, blooming peach blossoms within the blink of an eye. Fireworks of various colors went off like a beautiful dream of a child.
The air became warmer. Fresh green leaves and flower petals fluttered around as the grass field widely speared until it reached the destination where the former aura shockwaves vanished.
Azure, scarlet and canary yellow butterflies flapped their wings calmly and approached flowers and the people within the circle, displaying how harmless they were.
If not for the multicolored dust resting on top of all these alluring scenery, if not for the glitches and transparency of the overgrown trees of butterflies, one would have truly believed it was just some ordinary spring.
Everything happened within a few seconds that it felt like they had just blink their eyes before they got caught in an illusion.
But it wasn't an illusion.
Euclid the Pteron-Dragon's eyes proved so.
And the neon colors unique to sword aura were undeniable.
Then Golden Yellow Iris met Ocean Blue.
Swoosh!
Euclid vanished using the second circle spell
Wroom!
She was pushed back by the powerful force of her own long distance attack. Thankfully, her stance allowed her to maintain her balance.
In that instant, the peach blossom flowers and fresh green leaves all around her sword art circle were stolen by a gust of wind. Alongside it, the flower petals of the flowers below her and the fireworks above her joined it as if it was only natural. The calm butterflies led the wind and flew towards where her sword was pointed at like a laser beam.
Slash!
Bang!
One head fell to the ground, the other exploded.
But that wasn't the end.
Euclid sharply turned diagonally in the air and performed a sideflip. Then he kicked the wall beside him to jump farther away from the Zombie King as if he wanted to avoid something dirty.
As he did so, Kyriaki pulled her sword backwards. She was careful enough to maintain her stance longer. And the gusts of wind that contained all the flower petals, leaves and butterflies that shoot out like a giant laser beam were scattered and within seconds they came back to their start point as if the direction of the wind had suddenly changed.
Each of those things had turned into sharp blades. Those soft wings of the harmless butterflies, tender flower petals, thin leaves and the gentle spring wind all appeared beautiful yet deadly.
Slash! Shing! Swish!
Thud. Thud. Thud.
With those sounds, the beautiful spring filled with vibrant colors vanished into thin air. The afterimage whispered softly to their hearts that the dark dungeon filled with undead would never see such a brilliant spring festival ever again.
The battle ended.
Kyriaki looked at the Zombie King that had become a pile of meat chunks by her attack. Her eyes glowed similar to when she used her X-ray vision. It soon vanished before she observed the results of her sword wielding skills.
Her last technique of [Colors Of The Spring] sword art was too flamboyant for her taste. If it was that colorful and flamboyant even now, when it had been adjusted to her D- rank to be used, she wondered what kind of image would be created when she reached SSS+ rank.
But it wasn't over yet for her to think about other things so leisurely.
"Levana, get ready to fight." Kyriaki took another familiar sword stance.
"Huh? But you guys butchered him a second ago though?" Levana expressed her astonishment with her entire body.
"It's not over yet." In return, Euclid kindly pointed his index finger at what was supposed to be the remains of Einn.
"...! When did you—"
"Hush, Lev." Kyriaki's indifferent voice calmed Levana's shock she got from seeing Euclid next to her.
She remembered that he was far away from them when Kyriaki sliced up The Zombie King like cake, making her genuinely scared of a hatchling's speed.
But there was no time for any of them to have any wandering thoughts. The ground vibrated ever so slightly, marking the start of something minacious.
The sliced body parts automatically rolled around, as if a disassembled robot was reassembling on its own. One by one, leg parts, stomach parts, arm parts…everything slowly began to get attached. Even the torn clothes were attached together by magic.
The children glared at the scene while gripping their weapons.
Truly, this must be the reason they called him the Zombies King.
"Now then, it's time for me to get serious." as the two heads were attached to the necks perfectly, the right head smiled creepily. The Flail on his hand made loud noises as if it had its own will. "It's getting quite annoying to play."
Ignoring that, Kyriaki turned to her two teammates who were ready to follow her and fight together.
"This fxxxxx's core is in his lower abdomen. Can you take care of it, Levana?" she asked calmly with an unfazed expression.
"But-But…if I do that…almost all the core energy would be disturbed to me, no?"
"It's fine. Both me and Ria have higher ranks. It's probably better for our team to level faster to increase the chance of our survival." Euclid hesitated for a second, but then joined their conversation as if he had given up.
The reason they went for a second round of battle wasn't because they thought they should just fight until the mid-boss monsters stop respawning. It was because they knew by then that the core must be broken. The second battle was an attempt to find the spot where the core resides in his body.
Before, the
Thanks to that, Kyriaki immediately found out where the core is.
"Wait for my signal, and use your most suitable and if possible—powerful weapon art right then and there."
It looked like they were using some military codes, but in reality they were just using Dark Elven Sign Language, which had two dialects; one hand and two hands. Currently due to their weapons occupying one hand, they were using one hand directly with swift movements as if they had been using it for their entire lives.
Military codes were a subject they were supposed to learn in their last two years in EESOP. Kyriaki's enthusiasm to learn it and use it in situations like this wasn't granted, thus the usage of Sign Language.
Kyriaki glanced at the fully restored Zombie King and gripped her sword tighter. She has used up almost all her aura in her last attack, to the point she felt her body—her dragon body which rarely felt any weakness—tremble ever so slightly.
"May you be part of me for my glorious path!" The Twin Headed Zombie King vanished the moment he said those words. A moment later, his Flail slammed into Euclid's side, sending him crashing to the ground.
Euclid's defense was B rank due to his dragon nature, so being attacked by a D rank monster shouldn't cost him much trouble. Knowing this, Kyriaki tried to thrust her sword towards the Zombie King.
Her agility was B+. She effortlessly avoided two punches coming from one of his free hands, but unfortunately was pushed back by a remaining free hand. The second punch made a bit of a powerful shockwave.
"Damiiiiittttttttt…." She sensed Levana practically flying out of her detection range. Which meant that she had become a victim of the Zombie King's restless assaults.
Kyriaki moved her body according to acrobatic moves she learned from Professor Alexein in Basic Combat Training classes.
"Stop acting like a rat!" The left head boomed in anger like a child.
The words were directed at her. Kyriaki couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. Then she realized two presences had entered her detection range swiftly. A bright smile as brilliant as the sun itself bloomed on her rosy lips.
"I will, you fxxxxx."
∆ ∆ ∆
"The Highest Rank of Demons are called Demon Kings. There are seven Demon Kings known so far. They also represent the seven deadly sins."
—From records of Demons—