[Vol. 9] Chapter 92: Burn Away All Things, Purge All Evil
The staff looked like bone, not smooth at all. It was full of tiny cracks and rough holes, as if countless dead voices whispered through it. It gave off a strange, ancient silence. A feeling of death.
On top of the staff there wasn’t a jewel. Instead there was a cloudy crystal the size of a fist with an odd, uneven shape. The crystal was dark inside, like frozen gloom mixed with black cinders from a fire. Every so often it faintly flashed, giving off a dim light that seemed about to be swallowed by the surrounding dark.
Strangely, this light didn’t brighten the area. Instead, the shadows around the staff looked thicker and heavier.
Clearly, this was not a normal weapon made by ordinary means.
The two of them faced each other without speaking for a long time. The small figure in the black robe kept silent, the blonde girl measured him calmly from head to toe. Finally the robed figure could not hold back and spoke first.
“Who are you?”
His voice was very hoarse, like an old man near his end. But it also sounded like he was speaking inside a closed metal box, every word echoed oddly. It felt unreal and made people uncomfortable.
The girl’s expression did not change. A faint smile touched her lips. Her eyes were mostly fixed on the strange staff in his hand. She answered casually:
“I’m the one who’s going to beat you up.”
“Human?” the robed man sneered in a strange tone.
“You don’t look human at all. Is this your statement on behalf of the dragon race? If the dragons want to interfere here, have you thought about the consequences?”
His words were full of threat. He didn’t name his backers, but in a few lines he raised the matter to a higher level, clearly trying to intimidate or scare her into backing off.
The girl only gave him a cold, quick glance, as if looking at talking mud underfoot. She wasn’t impressed by his bluff.
“Then when those guys told you to attack Nofenburg, didn’t they warn you about what could happen? Or were you just a pawn they pushed forward to test us and stir trouble?”
His reply came back to him like a slap. The staff in his hand trembled slightly. Although his face was hidden, his voice showed a flash of panic.
“What are you people? How much do you really know?!”
The blonde girl’s smile grew. There was a cruel edge to it now.
“I know far more than you think. If that thing in your hand wasn’t somewhat useful, do you really think the Twilight Council’s stray dog would be worth us going to so much trouble just to trap him?”
As if suddenly reminded of something important, the robed man looked quickly at the pale bone staff he held. He recovered some courage.
“A treasure, right… I’m not afraid. I have a gift from my master. Can any mythical being be stronger than a true god?”
Either eager to prove himself or angry at his earlier fear, he didn’t waste words. He suddenly raised the bone staff and pointed it at her from afar.
“Seismic Blast!”
“Voom~!”
Almost the moment the words left his mouth, an extremely powerful wave of mental energy burst out from the top of the bone staff, from that dark murky crystal embedded at its tip!
That will was ancient and deep. Though it was formless and invisible, the psychic power shook the waters of the deep sea, surging and roaring like a giant dragon twisting its body. Wrapped in black spiritual force, it charged straight toward the girl’s face!
Seeing this, the man in the black robe felt much calmer, even showing a bit of smug satisfaction.
That bone staff, a gift from his lord, was a weapon made to control those creatures known as “Calamity Beasts.” With it, even those terrifying monsters above, once thought to be unbeatable, had to obey the holder’s command.
He couldn’t directly control intelligent beings with their own will, but by using the staff’s power to destroy the target’s soul first, and then repeating the usual process, he could achieve the same result.
Ever since he had offered that feather he’d nearly died to obtain and was rewarded with this divine tool, he had tested the bone staff’s power many times after being sent north. The truth proved clear, even the terrifying giant beasts of the frozen lands couldn’t resist this combo of spells. Otherwise, there was no way he could have crossed that icy wasteland so easily.
The dragon race might be infamous for their power, but they hadn’t truly reached the level of gods. As long as he gave it his all, he was sure of victory.
Just imagining riding a real dragon as a mount filled him with excitement!
But… that thought had barely formed when his body froze in place.
The blonde girl merely lifted her hand, lightly and casually, yet her movement was perfectly precise. With a gentle squeeze, she caught the dragon of spiritual energy in her palm as if it were nothing!
It was clearly a formless mental attack, an invisible current of water, and yet she used no magic or special ability, just her bare hand, to hold it still. The dark fragments of spiritual energy struggled and scattered between her fingers, but they couldn’t move an inch further.
The man in black felt as if the attack extending from his staff had slammed into an unbreakable mountain. He couldn’t even cut off the spell or pull it back. A burning backlash surged up the staff, and before he could react, the girl’s aura stirred again.
From her fingertips, golden flames suddenly burst forth, blazing like wildfire across the dragon’s whole body, burning fiercely even under the sea!
She raised her head. At some point, the golden light in her vertical pupils had turned solid, like two miniature suns sinking into the ocean, their burning glow stabbing painfully into his eyes.
Even though he hadn’t been physically hurt, a terror unlike anything he’d ever known consumed him. His whole body trembled uncontrollably as he stumbled backward, panic flooding his mind.
The being before him no longer seemed like a beautiful young girl, nor even a dragon or monster. She was flame itself. The fire that burns all things, the fire that could destroy the world.
“You… you…!”
[Hmph. There’s some skill in this trick, but it’s incomplete, and the user is utterly worthless.]
Her golden eyes remained calm and cold. It was as if the golden fire burning in her hand wasn’t the power to destroy all things, but just a faint candle flame. Even that blazing fire couldn’t shake her heart in the slightest.
She was not merely one who controlled the flame. She was the flame itself.
[Now then, take your broken toy and come with me.]