"Awoo!"
The demon wolf threw its head back and howled. Though Cid had already pinned it to the ground, it seemed as if some seal had been released. Powerful Magical Power radiated from its body, and its small frame instantly swelled to dozens of meters tall. Malice so thick it almost took physical form burst outward.
"The God-Slaying Wolf, Fenrir...
Long time no see, Fenrir. Sorry I didn't recognize you. You've changed quite a lot."
Having recognized the demon wolf's true identity, the God-Slaying Wolf of Norse mythology said to bring an end to the Norse pantheon, Cid greeted him with a faint smile.
Yes, he knew Fenrir. Back then, he had needed enough material to observe in order to make an interesting toy, so he had gone all the way to Norse territory, knocked Loki unconscious, and spent several days experimenting there.
After he became familiar with Fenrir, he did not even need to knock Loki out anymore. Fenrir would take the initiative to lie down and help with the experiments.
On that note, Cid had spent several days doing experiments in Norse territory without anyone noticing. Just how bad was Loki's reputation? He felt like even if he had stayed there for a year, no one would have realized something had happened to Loki.
"Awoo!"
What Cid did not expect was that, faced with his friendly greeting, Fenrir did not rush over to act like a loyal mutt the way Delta would. Instead, he clamped his mouth shut as if frightened and instinctively backed away a few steps.
That was exactly why he had tried to drag Le Fay away the moment he first saw Cid. Vali might not know, but how could Fenrir not? These brats, even all together, did not amount to a single one of him, and back in his prime, Cid had played with him like a dog.
"Tch, is that really necessary?"
Cid was speechless at Fenrir's overreaction. It was not as if he had done any especially violent experiments. In fact, among Cid's test subjects, Fenrir ranked second in terms of friendliness. First place was Alpha, whom he had restored from a pile of rotten flesh after Demon Possession into a beautiful Elf.
"Forget it. Are you going to fight me together with this mage lady?"
Pointing at Le Fay, who looked completely baffled that Fenrir and Cid actually knew each other, Cid offered a friendly reminder.
"Those who don't resist make good test subjects. Those who resist make interesting test subjects. Are you a smart wolf, Fenrir?"
So no matter what I do, I'm still going to be a test subject?
Fenrir had already been feeling nervous about facing Cid. After hearing that, he turned to look at Le Fay, who was watching him with concern. Then, as if he had made some incredible decision, he bared his sharp God-Slaying Fangs at Cid.
You experimented on me back when I was with Loki. Now that I escaped and joined Delta Squad, you still want to experiment on me? Then didn't I run for nothing? Damn it, I'll fight you.
With that thought, Fenrir's eyes gleamed with ferocity. He stepped through the air and lunged at Cid. Despite his enormous body, he moved with terrifying agility, arriving in front of Cid in an instant.
"Thud!"
Cid grabbed Fenrir's massive jaws with both hands and held them apart to keep himself from being swallowed. As he studied the four God-Slaying Fangs, a gleam flashed behind his green lenses.
"They grew back this quickly? As expected of the legendary God-Slaying Wolf! Don't worry, I'll leave you two this time."
Cid's bright, cheerful voice came from inside the armor, audible only to Fenrir. He even freed a few fingers and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Awooo!"
Fenrir let out a mournful howl. The massive roar turned into layers of sonic waves, blasting Cid away from their clash and slamming him into a wall.
Cid pushed himself out of the wall, shook his helmet to knock off the rubble, and showed no anger at all. Instead, he looked at Fenrir with even greater satisfaction.
That sonic attack? Cid had installed it.
Although his body would automatically evolve any skill he wanted, whenever possible, he preferred to first conduct biological experiments to understand the principle behind it, then let his body evolve in that direction. There was no special reason. It was simply to prevent his body from evolving into a Black Holy Grail.
In that kind of situation, a test subject with strong vitality who could be reused, could not talk and leak secrets, had high magic resistance to prevent mind-reading, and also had low intelligence was extremely important. Fenrir fit every condition perfectly.
"Boom!"
Cid dodged the continuous barrage of fireballs from above. White light, gathered from half the destruction Vali had caused since the beginning, appeared in his hand, and he slapped it onto Fenrir as the wolf lunged at him again.
"Pfft!"
Fenrir's body staggered violently. Vast wounds appeared across him out of nowhere, and the sudden injuries sent his blood spraying from the wounds like arrows. After struggling for a short while, Fenrir finally collapsed, his enormous body crashing to the ground.
"I'll play with you for a bit..."
Cid tilted his head and quietly watched as Fenrir's body shrank after collapsing. His eyes narrowed. The high-speed healing skill Cid had installed in Fenrir began automatically absorbing the surrounding Magical Power to heal his wounds. Then Cid looked up at the sky.
"Excalibur Ruler! Stop!"
The slime in Cid's hand transformed into the holy sword Arthur had dropped earlier, and he raised it toward the rain of fireballs Le Fay had thrown down all at once. Hundreds, even thousands of fireballs covered the entire sky, yet at Cid's command, they froze in place.
"Brother, we really can't win. Let's surrender. Mom and Dad are both really worried about us."
Le Fay had exhausted all her Magical Power in one go, planning to gamble everything on Fenrir carrying everyone away. When she saw this, she gave up completely, slumped to the ground, and began trying to persuade Arthur, the only person on their side still able to move.
"All right, little sister. It looks like we've lost. I still can't remember what this treasure, which should be so important to me, is called. But as a Knight, surrendering isn't my style."
Arthur looked bitterly at the two holy swords that had fallen from him, then took a deep breath and stared straight at Cid.
"Come. Knock me down."
Because all of his combat memories had been wiped clean, he did not even know how to take a fighting stance.
"I admire your courage."
The giant fireball in the sky began to move under the control of the Holy Sword of Control. Cid's calm voice sounded from inside the armor.
"Absorb!"
The blue jewel on the chest of the silver-white armor flashed again, but this time the mechanical voice that sounded was not "Divide."
It was "Absorb"!
The fireballs in the sky began to flow like a whirlpool in the sea. At the center of the vortex, the largest fireball began absorbing the others to increase its own size.
One. Two. Three.
Soon, the fireball devouring the others swelled wildly to over a hundred meters across. The buildings around it, which had only just been restored, began melting into molten iron beneath its heat.
"Divide!"
Light flashed again, and the fireball in the sky rapidly shrank to about one meter across. But no one would think its power had shrunk along with its size. Judging from the temperature, which was no lower than before, this strike would only be even more terrifying.
"Gulp... What is that?"
Le Fay, slumped behind Arthur, could not help swallowing as she watched Cid fuse her attack into such a terrifying strike.
"Absorb, obviously!"
Cid answered as if it were perfectly natural, while the tip of the sword in his hand pointed at Arthur. The fireball in the sky began slowly descending toward him.
From his initial observation and imitation of Vali, Cid had already discovered that the White Dragon Emperor possessed two abilities, Divide and Absorb.
The principle behind the White Dragon Emperor was to use Divide to reduce the enemy's power, then use Absorb to take in the half that had been reduced.
Theoretically speaking, if Boost was multiplying by two and Divide was dividing by two, then wasn't Absorb simply adding an unknown value?
And why did the chosen target have to be himself?
Once that principle was understood, using Absorb to create the same result as Boost became easy.
"Albion, is he right?"
Lying on the ground, Vali stared blankly at the fireball in the sky, blinked, and could not help asking.
"It seems... maybe... perhaps... he has a point."
Inside the Sacred Gear Space, the White Dragon had already begun questioning his existence. He was starting to suspect that he might be a fake Heavenly Dragon.
"Whoosh."
"Brother!"
While Albion was questioning everything below, the fireball in the sky struck the ground and swallowed Arthur. A terrifying heatwave swept across the entire area. Le Fay cried out in pain as she stared at the half-red sphere before her, tears spilling uncontrollably from her eyes.
"Stop crying. He's not dead."
At some point, Cid had teleported to Le Fay's side. Watching the show in front of him, he gave a brief explanation, then turned his gaze back to the flames.
When the firelight faded, what appeared in the smooth, charred crater was Fenrir lying on the ground with his tongue hanging out. His eyes, once filled with savagery, were now rolled back. His gray fur had been burned black, and even the modified, strengthened fur had been partly burned away, exposing his skin.
As for Le Fay's brother, Arthur, he was unconscious on Fenrir's back. Even with Fenrir protecting him, all his clothes had still been burned clean away. His golden hair was gone, and his once handsome face had been scorched pitch-black.
"Heh. Just as expected."
Seeing that, Cid showed an unsurprised expression. He had already noticed Fenrir was pretending to be unconscious. Did that stupid wolf really think he could ambush him?
"Thank goodness. Thank you for your mercy, Holy Son-sama!"
The mage girl beside Cid, seeing that her brother was not dead, first rejoiced over his narrow escape, then turned to thank Cid.
"?"
Le Fay's reaction left Cid baffled. He turned to look at the mage girl, and when he saw that the intense emotion on her face did not seem fake, he genuinely did not understand.
"Are you serious? I nearly killed your brother, and you're thanking me?"
"But in the end, Holy Son-sama didn't kill my brother, did you?"
"Interesting..."
Cid looked the girl up and down, then frowned.
"Even though I turned your brother into that and defeated all of you, you still want to thank me?"
"Yes. I understand. We were the ones who started fighting in the street and destroyed the whole area. Holy Son-sama only attacked us because of that. This was our fault to begin with, and we're already very grateful that Holy Son-sama was willing to spare us.
I'll still compensate the people nearby like I said earlier. If an apology is necessary, I'll also do my best to persuade Captain Vali to apologize."
She spoke with great sincerity. At least on the surface, Cid could not see anything wrong.
"You really don't resent me at all?"
"No. If anything, I'm actually quite relieved. Hehe. I only left my family to help my older brother after he ran away from home. After this incident, I can properly persuade him to go back and see Mom and Dad.
Thank you very much, Holy Son-sama."
Le Fay said it sweetly, her eyes seeming to sparkle like stars.
"Oh. Then it looks like I did a good deed after all. So, are you doing it, or should I?"
"Huh? What are you talking about, Holy Son-sama?"
The cute smile on Le Fay's face suddenly froze, and she answered with an innocent look.
"Look, I knocked out all your teammates and your brother. You're the only one who's merely drained of energy. Isn't that a little unfair to you?"
Cid said it with a grin, wearing a smile exactly like the one Le Fay had shown moments ago.
"Um... Holy Son-sama, actually, I didn't take part in their fight just now. I was trying to convince them not to fight the whole time..."
Cid kept smiling and simply watched Le Fay spout nonsense. As if someone had not been happily trading spells with Cao Cao's mage just moments ago.
"Holy Son-sama, Cao Cao and the others seem to have disappeared. Perhaps we should..."
"It's fine. The monk can run, but the temple can't."
Cid cut Le Fay off directly. He had already expected Cao Cao to flee. Being beaten while suspended by his own Sacred Gear was an insult few Sacred Gear wielders could endure. It was no problem. He would just block their path later. The pig he had been fattening for so long was ready to be slaughtered.
"Th-this, this..."
Blocked by Cid again and again, Le Fay was left speechless, only able to keep stammering.
Facing the flustered Le Fay, Cid merely smiled and conjured a wooden stick. With a casual swing, he shattered the hidden spatial teleportation Magic Formula that had appeared in the void at some point, connecting to Vali and the others.
That was enough. The moment she noticed something was wrong, she had prepared to fight with her life on the line. She had learned a whole pile of highly offensive magic, and because she was worried about her runaway brother, she ran away from home with him. And she actually thought he would believe she was a good girl?
Most likely, after realizing that throughout the battle he had only been defeating people instead of killing them, she immediately decided to make a run for it.
Her attempt to fool him had failed, and her escape had been discovered. Seeing Cid still staring closely at her, Le Fay gave a helpless smile, took the wooden stick, and struck herself hard on the head.
"Heh..."
Cid chuckled, picked up the wooden stick from the ground, and hit Le Fay on the head with it himself.
If you're going to pretend to be asleep, at least do it properly. That acting was only better than Fenrir's.
Complaining inwardly, Cid looked at the beautiful girl lying on the ground with a bump on her forehead, then stretched out his sinful hands.
"Bah. You're broke. Dressed so fancy, yet you're this poor."
After searching through the girl's wallet and confirming there was nothing valuable inside, Cid turned his gaze toward Vali and the others lying on the ground.
Le Fay being broke did not mean her teammates were broke too. One was the descendant of the Victorious Fighting Buddha, and another was the adopted son of the Fallen Angel Governor General. The treasures they carried had to be genuine. They could make up for his losses.
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