Chapter 143: From Commencement to Conclusion (1/2)

Loren was able to smoothly execute the first step of his plan, as it was something he had done multiple times: performing self-boost with the magic received from Gula. He didn’t really understand the details, but he somehow managed to do it by following the sensation and mental images. He had never failed at executing self-boost, maybe because Lapis’ teaching method was good.

“That again? Your skill doesn’t match your determination, does it?”

Luxuria moved first this time, as if he could sense magic coursing through Loren’s body.

Instead of using his fist, the Evil God attacked with a kick. Loren used the flat of his sword to defend himself from the impact and wordlessly focused his awareness towards Shayna.

[‘There’s a somewhat strange aura, so I feel a bit reluctant…’]

Shayna didn’t know what was happening in the outside world since Loren wasn’t sharing his vision with her.

Normally, Loren found her state to be quite pitiful and would try to share his senses with her as much as possible. But this time, he thought he shouldn’t share his vision even if she asked. Lapis and him were old enough that shocking sights didn’t have that much impact on them anymore. But Shayna was much younger, and Loren was worried about the mental impact she would take.

After sharing that thought with Loren, Shayna began supplying him with magic power.

The power he had received from Gula was immense and powerful, but it would be exhausted soon if he kept using it. In order to push back the point of exhaustion, Loren had asked Shayna to supply him more power with Energy Drain. This would dramatically extend the length of his self-boost; Loren himself couldn’t even predict for how long he would be able to use it.

“Is this a war of attrition, I wonder?”

Sucking from Lapis would mean preying on an ally. Since she still didn’t know how much power an incomplete King of Death like Shayna could absorb, Evil Gods like Gula and Luxuria were out of the question. Hence, the targets of Shayna’s Energy Drain were the trees in the surrounding and the naked men, almost all of which had fallen.

It seemed like Shayna had also realized that Loren was using a stronger version of self-boost. The effect of Energy Drain was stronger than ever: the trees withered in the blink of an eye while the men’s bodies became wizened.

Receiving such an immense supply of power from Shayna, Loren focused only on the greatsword he was holding. Even while dodging punches and kicks that held deadly power, his mind was wholly occupied by the thought of slaying his opponent.

Before long, Loren could feel something clicked in his mind.

“You won’t make any progress if you continue to defend only… huh?”

Luxuria broke off in the middle of the sentence. Loren had suddenly attacked. The Evil God leapt back to dodge, his eyes widened at the speed of the strike. He was built much larger than Loren, and the scene of him leaping lightly looked rather unpleasant for some reason.

But Gula and Lapis didn’t have time to pay attention to him; they were captivated by Loren’s strike. It was released at such a speed they had never seen from Loren.

“What was that just now?”

“That is…”

Loren let out a roar, his voice making the air vibrate like a jolt of electricity. Lapis reflexively covered her ears with her hands and recoiled. Gula stood still, her expression stiffened slightly and Luxuria unthinkingly stopped moving at Loren’s sudden change.

Loren raised his greatsword and charged at Luxuria. He didn’t seem to have a specific aim, didn’t even set up a proper path for the blade. He simply struck at the Evil God consecutively.

Luxuria was able to somehow dodge the first few blows, but he soon gave that up. He reinforced his hands with magic and instead chose to meet Loren’s attacks directly.

That showed how fierce Loren’s attacks were. Even if Luxuria had chosen to continue dodging them, he would have needed to prepare to take some hits.

That said, even though Luxuria’s hands were reinforced with magic, him parrying Loren’s strikes with bare hands was still quite extraordinary. But Luxuria himself also found Loren’s attacks to be extraordinary.

“What’s with this boy?! Isn’t he too fast?!”

Speed-wise, Luxuria should have had the upper hand, seeing how he was using bare fists while Loren was wielding a heavy sword. But he noticed that the attacks successively coming at him matched the speed and frequency of his fists.

Luxuria shot a magic shock wave from his fist in order to gain some distance from Loren. But Loren not only cut off the shock wave but also continued to pursue him.

“What is this?! If you’re capable of something like this, do it right from the beginning! It’d be much cooler, right?”

Seeing Loren suddenly switch to offensive only, Gula complained with a voice full of expectation.

Next to her, Lapis scowled intently at Loren, who was attacking continuously with a power she had never seen before. His movements seemed to be different from his usual rampages, even if she also counted the ones she had just witnessed.

“Maybe that’s what it is?”

“What? Lapis-chan, if you know he was hiding a secret talent like this, you should have told me.”

Gula pat Lapis on the back as she told her this. But the next moment, she was surprised by Lapis grabbing her top.

“It’s not that! This is unlike what I know!”

“W-wait a bit, Lapis-chan. If you pull that hard, it’ll show!”

Gula frantically pulled down her tube top, which had ridden up thanks to Lapis’ grabbing.

Lapis didn’t notice Gula’s distress at all. Her mind was full of the realization of the god damn thing Loren had done.

“He is combining them!”

“Combining… what with what?”

“He was combining self-boost technique with his rampage!”

Lapis had guessed correctly.