Arifureta Vol 9 Chapter 8 (1/2)

The User of Age of G.o.ds Magic

Without any warning, the white beam suddenly shot down from the heavens.

The light attacked Hajime with a perfect timing; when he was about to finish the last Magma Serpent. Thus, Hajime was swallowed by a destructive storm carrying fierce heat and impact.

“Ha-Hajimee!!!”

Yue’s scream rang out. Slightly away from Hajime, s.h.i.+a and Tio could only watched Hajime being swallowed by the beam absentmindedly, only to regain their senses when they heard Yue’s sorrowful scream they never heard even once ever since they met.

Pouring down from right above Hajime, the beam also swallowed the last Magma Serpent and reached the scorching sea, grandly blowing away the surrounding away, and temporarily disclosing the bottom of the magma sea. The beam kept piercing the sea of magma for a while, but gradually became thinner and thinner before finally disappearing as if merging with the air.

Yue, who frantically jumped to where Hajime was, Hajime appeared from the disappearing light and was floating in the air, even though he had become tattered. However, having crossed his arms to protect his chest and face, Hajime immediately lost his balance and began to fall towards the rampaging sea of magma because of the beam’s impact.

“Kh! “Soar”!”

Thinking Hajime had lost his consciousness; Yue used magic to stop Hajime from falling on his back. Using this chance, she hugged Hajime and they landed in the nearby foothold.

“Kh! Hajime! Hajime!”

Maximum uneasiness could be seen on Yue’s face while she made Hajime drink the holy water she took out. Hajime’s condition was quite miserable. His right arm was burnt so badly that even the bone could be seen, while his artificial arm half melted. His eyepatch was blown off and blood kept flowing from the deep wound on his cheek. Furthermore, his abdomen was burnt black, carbonized. Even so, as a proof of his growth, his internal organs weren’t damaged.

At that time, in the moment the beam was about to swallow Hajime, he twisted his body to face the beam by a hair-breadth and used “Concentrated Strengthening” and “Strength Endowment,” derivations from “Vajra.” Thanks to that, his head was defended by the reinforced artificial arm while his heart and lungs were protected by his right arm and Donner. The clothing around his belly, made from a special demonic beast’s leather, had its defense raised further by “Strength Endowment,” Hajime himself had an abnormal magic resistance, so there was no danger to his life but…

“Nh… recovery is too slow!”

Apparent with Yue irritated mutter, the recovery using holy water didn’t advanced much. Thus, Yue gritted her teeth.

Previously, Hajime had been burnt and collapsed after receiving the beam attack to protect Yue during the fight against the hydra in «Orcus Great Dungeon»’s last trial. Thus, Yue didn’t want to see it again, and she vowed to never let Hajime experienced such a thing again. However, the spectacle of Hajime being swallowed by the beam and collapsed powerlessly was just like the reproduction of that time. It made Yue’s normally expressionless face warped from regret.

And at that moment,

“Fools! Above thee!!”

Tio warned and at the same time, numerous flashes poured down. These were small version of the beam. Each had the power and scale of a tenth of the previous beam, but each of light of death could surely destroy one’s body.

However, Yue hadn’t notice the incoming flashes above because she was occupied with making Hajime drink the second vial of holy water. It was a situation where Yue’s magic wouldn’t make it in time since she had only looked up now because of the warning. In another three seconds, no, one second… between the time it felt like it enlarged, Yue desperately constructed a defense magic in her head.

“Won’t let thee! “Tempest Void”!”

Tio let Yue earned another few seconds. “Tempest Void,” was a mid-ranked defense magic of wind element. The wall of compressed air received the rain of death. The barrier of wind bent greatly at the moment of impact. Normally, the attack would bounce back, but there was no chance to do that. The mini-beams. .h.i.tting one after another made the air shrieked. The time it could be intercepted was truly only a few seconds.

However, that was enough.

“”Divine Interruption”!”

Yue’s defense magic activated. Normally, she would use “Absolute Calamity,” but the time shortened to activate it wasn’t much even though she had become more skilled in using it. It was because the time to construct and activate gravity magic couldn’t be compared to magic of other attributes. Thus she decided to use “Divine Interruption,” the best defense magic she could immediately activate.

Barrier of light that shone brilliantly appeared before Yue’s thrust out hand, covering Yue and the unconscious Hajime in semi-sphere. In addition, the “Tempest Void” activated by Tio was finally unable to endure the storm of mini-beams, and collapsed accompanied by sound of air being ripped. At the same time, the non-declining torrent of destruction poured into the barrier of light below it.

WOOOOOOSSSHHHH!!!

The huge waterfall-like pressure didn’t annihilate Hajime and Yue, but it continued to attack them. Yue’s “Divine Interruption” cracked. Judging it would be bad after receiving more force than she imagined, Yue transformed the all-covering barrier into a s.h.i.+eld that only covered overhead in the middle of its activation. The strength increased conversely to the range it covered.

The surroundings were destroyed by the mini-beams and parts of the foothold other than where Yue and Hajime were, already sunk into the sea of magma.

These mini-beams stubbornly aimed at Hajime, they didn’t even pouring at the nearby footholds where s.h.i.+a and Tio were to halt them. However, s.h.i.+a and Tio were forced to stay where they were because the power and density of barrage from the mini-beams were that abnormal.

“Hajime-san! Hajime-saan!”

“Calm down, s.h.i.+a! Thou willth die if thou come out of this one’s protection!”

“But! Hajime-san is-!”

Tio frantically admonished s.h.i.+a, who tried to dash into the downpour of mini-beams with tearful look while she moved the s.h.i.+eld of swirling wind.

Tio was also worried about Hajime. She understood how painful it was for s.h.i.+a. However, they mustn’t defenselessly charge into the minimized version of the attack that had severely injured Hajime, and had an effect of weakening the recovery rate of holy water. Gripping s.h.i.+a by the scruff of her neck, Tio desperately averted the threatening lights.

After ten seconds or maybe one minute… the storm of beams that seemed to continue through the eternity, poured down particularly intense, and the end finally could be seen. The surroundings were in miserable condition, and white smokes were rising here and there.

Yue and Tio had used up their magic power. Panting, they refilled their magic power using the magic power stocked inside Magic-Crystallization stones.

And at the same time, a man’s voice that was half-amazed and half-admiring descended from the sky.

“… A force that cannot be overlooked; indeed it was the right thing to ambush here. You are all too dangerous. Especially, that man…”

Yue and the girls looked up towards the ceiling where the voice came from. Following that, their eyes opened wide in astonishment. As for the reason, several dragons and a pure white, gigantic dragon that couldn’t be compared to the rest were flying, and there was a red-haired, black-skinned, slightly pointed ear, a man from Demon race on the white dragon’s back.

“For the Breath of my white dragon to be incapable of killing him… and in addition, he had strong unknown weapons not written in the report… these women, too. It is truly unbelievable for you to not be finished with a barrage of 50 Ash Dragons. You, just what are you? Just how many Age of G.o.ds magic do you have?”

The man was glaring from the sky with his dangerously narrowed golden eyes, similar to Tio’s. He asked that question while being cautious of Yue and the others who glared back at him. He thought Yue and the girls’ power came from Age of G.o.ds magic from the Great Dungeons.

“Before questioning, how about you introduce yourself first? Does the Demon race have no manners?”

The one who answered the Demon race man was the previously unconscious Hajime. The Demon race man frowned. However, Yue and the girls’ voice rang out before the man even opened his mouth.

“Hajime!”

“Hajime-san!”

“Art thou okay!? Master!?”

Hajime somehow managed to raise his upper body, but he once again fell because his injury was indeed severe. Yue promptly supported him while s.h.i.+a and Tio jumped from the nearby foothold to where Hajime was, worried.

Hajime smiled to tell Yue and the girls, who were worriedly looking at him, that he was alright, and stood up by himself. However, he wasn’t in a condition where he would be able to immediately fight. This was displayed by his forehead drenched in sweat due to sharp pains he felt. Even so, Hajime moved his gaze from Yue and the girls towards the Demon race in the sky, and was showing a fearless smile.

“… There’s no need to introduce myself to those who will die soon.”

“Same here. I am asking just because it was normal to ask. I am not interested either, so don’t mind it. By the way, how’s your friend’s arm?”

Hajime asked as if to ridicule to stall for time for his recovery. The Demon race man had said “report” and “ambush,” so Hajime recalled the Demon race who was behind the scene inside the town of Ul, whose arm blown off and got away with his life. Thus, his information might have come from there.

With his eyebrow twitching for an instant, the Demon race man answered with tone somewhat lowered than before.

“I change my mind. Bury this name of mine into your flesh and bones. My name is Freed Baghuar. A G.o.d’s Apostle who will give divine punishment to the heretics.”

“G.o.d’s Apostle… I see. How exaggerated. Were you allowed to introduce yourself as that because you obtain the Age of G.o.ds magic? It wasn’t the kind of magic that control the demonic beasts, right? …Although the demonic beasts fired the beams, they seemed to do it at their own discretion. So, it must be a magic that created demonic beast, right? Of course, those who can create a matchless army can introduce themselves as G.o.d’s Apostle, heh.”

“That’s right. For “Alv-sama,” who had obtained G.o.d’s powers, told to me directly, “My apostle.” Therefore, all of my being is devoted to realize my master’s wish. Thus, I will use my all to deny you, whose existences will only be an obstacle.”

Closely resembling Ishtal of Church of the Saints, the Demon race man, Freed Baghuar, was denying the existences of Hajime’s party up front. However, Hajime fearlessly laughed with fierce denial. Though his recovery rate was slow, Hajime had used “Recovery” derived from “Magic Conversion” to change his magic power into recovery, and his bleeding had stopped. Though he could not use his left arm, it was possible for him to use his unbroken right arm even if the bone could be seen. Hajime psyched, “I can still fight!”

“That’s my line. Those who obstruct me are enemies. And I will… kill my enemies!”

After shouting so, Hajime endured the sharp pain to aim Donner at Freed and pulled the trigger. He held down his screaming right arm and body due to recoil, and used killing intent aimed at his enemies. Furthermore, he activated “Light Speed” and took out Cross Bits to attack. At the same time, Yue’s “Thunder Dragon”, Tio’s Breath, and s.h.i.+a’s exploding-slug bullet fired.

However, when several of the 3-4 meters long Ash Dragons entered the attack trajectories, numerous piled up, triangular, reddish black barriers immediately appeared and received all of the attacks from Hajime’s party.

The barrier that received the force of Hajime’s party’s attack and didn’t even held on for a few seconds before it cracked, but more Ash Dragons came from behind and piled up another similar barriers, and thus it wasn’t possible to break through. When they looked carefully, there were turtle-shaped demonic beasts on the dragons’ back. Their sh.e.l.ls were s.h.i.+ning in reddish black, so these turtle-shaped demonic beasts were most likely the ones that activated the barriers.

“Did you think I only brought along these dragon-type demonic beasts? You wouldn’t be able to easily break through their defense, you know. Well then, I will show you. I will show the other power I had obtained — the power of G.o.ds!”

Freed began to focus and recited the chant in mutter. On his hand, there was a large fabric where complex and bizarre magic array was drawn. According to what he said, it was another power of G.o.ds. He probably meant the Age of G.o.ds magic he obtained in this «Guryuu-en Great Volcano». Knowing the great effect of an Age of G.o.ds magic, Hajime’s party began to attack furiously, to not let him finished his chant.

However, once they broke through the barrier of the Ash Dragons, a new barrier would immediately activated behind the previous one, thus their attacks could not reach Freed. Normally, Hajime would’ve asked Yue and the other two to cover him and go forward using “Aerodynamic,” but he still haven’t completely healed, so it would be difficult for him to beat the group of Ash Dragons. Thinking so, Hajime grinded his teeth.

Hajime put away Donner, and fired all ammos of Orkan whose recoil was small, but they only blew away several of the Ash Dragons’ barriers, that’s all. They weren’t able to reach Freed. Even the Cross Bits that had quite the power couldn’t completely destroy all of the barriers.

And the time was up. Freed finished his chant.

“”Boundary Piercer.””

“Kh! Behind you! Hajime-san!”

At the same time as the last letter of the magic’s name was said, Freed and the white dragon disappeared. More accurately, s.h.i.+ning membrane-like thing appeared and they jumped inside. The time Freed said the magic’s name and s.h.i.+a’s warning were the same, so Hajime’s party, without having time to be wide eyed from astonishment, turned their heads around.

There was… right before Hajime a white dragon’s whitely opened mouth and Freed on top of it, aiming at Hajime. Inside the dragon’s mouth were extreme heat and magic power which concentrated and compressed until the limit. Hajime immediately used Orkan as a s.h.i.+eld and at the same time, the beam was fired from zero distance.

BOoOoOoOoOOOM

“Ghh!! AaAAAH!!”

Accompanied by a roaring sound, the held up Orkan was. .h.i.t by the beam and Hajime was blown away. The severe impact and the damage made his flesh screamed, and Hajime raised an agonized groan from his clenched mouth.

“Hajime!”

Wanting to help Hajime who was blown away by the beam, Yue and the girls immediately tried to attack the white dragon, but the Ash Dragons attacked in a barrage as if they knew what the girls would do.

While he didn’t receive a direct hit from the beam, the impact from being blown away made Hajime’s wound reopened, and his blood sprayed. Hajime was desperately holding Orkan with his wounded right arm and braced himself using “Aerodynamic.” Then, thinking he would be dropped into the boiling sea if this keeps up, Hajime activated “Limit Break.”

It was a dangerous bet to activate “Limit Break” with a wounded body. Normally, he would only be exhausted after using “Limit Break,” but with his current condition, he would likely to become paralyzed afterward. Even so, Hajime judged that using it was indeed necessary to break through this situation.

Hajime’s body wrapped inside a torrent s.h.i.+ning brightly red, his power swelled up explosively.

“RAaAAA!!”

Roaring, he slanted Orkan to forcibly avert the beam up. Even so, he could not completely avert it, and he was blown away while spouting blood because of the beam.

The white dragon continued attacking by firing numerous light bullets which was the same as Hydra’s. However, the dragon’s beam was far tougher than the hydra, so the light bullets also couldn’t be underestimated. Furthermore, its combination with a user of Age of G.o.ds magic made it extremely troublesome.

“Cross Bitt!”

With the incoming light bullets, Hajime concentrated to his limit, entering the slowed down world and was evading like a swaying fallen leaf. Following that, he put away Orkan that had become useless because it had melted, and fired Donner, while also making the Cross Bit fly to a.s.sault Freed at the same time.

“How tenacious! To dodge a decisive blow by a hair-breadth-!”

Covered again by the barrier of the turtle-shaped demonic beast, Freed was grinding his teeth as he watched the seriously wounded Hajime’s tenacity in wonder. Then, he once again begin to recite the chant while the white dragon flew at high speed.

“This one won’t let you!”

Towards Freed and the white dragon who endured the fierce attack from the Cross Bits while firing the light bullets and backing away from Hajime to regain time to finish the chant, a mysterious voice suddenly resounded in the entire s.p.a.ce. At the same time, they were attacked by a terrific impact from the flank.

Blown away, Freed stopped his chant and instinctively clung to the white dragon. He then looked at the one who blew away the ten meters long white dragon. He opened his eyes wide in astonishment.

“Black dragon!?”

“It seemth thou hath forgotten thy place and got carried away! This one won’t let you hurt Master anymore!”

The one who blew Freed and the white dragon away was the “Dragonformed” Tio. Having accepted the risk that the Demon race would know about the Ryuujin race, Tio demonstrated her appearance. And even though she was one size smaller than the white dragon, her pressure far surpa.s.sed the white dragon.

The reason Tio decided to join Hajime’s party on their journey was because she came to like Hajime, but also to observe the people who came from another world, and to find what her future move would be. With that, she wanted to conceal that she came from Ryuujin tribe. It was also her race’s law, so she naturally would do that. After all, no matter how strong her race was, they wouldn’t be able to fight against number. It was something that permeated inside their people from the persecution 500 years ago.

However, Hajime, who she was convinced to be invincible and could not be injured, had sustained severe injuries. Thus, when she saw Hajime had powerlessly collapsed because of the beam pouring down from the above, Tio’s mind was attacked by fierce agitation.

She thought she had misunderstood something. Hajime is a human. If wounded in a moment of carelessness, it was possible for him to easily die. Tio gradually recalled this, and her, who had forgotten common sense due to her long life, was now clearly conscious of her feeling thank to her devotion towards Hajime. He was an object of her interest, but not as her Master. She understood now that Hajime was a “man” that she, as a woman, did not want to lose.

Therefore, she decided to “Dragonform” in front of others. She wouldn’t be able to puff her chest and call them comrades if she was unwilling to do it in this crisis. Above all, the pride of Tio Clarce of Ryuujin race would not allow her to choose the law above her important person’s life, neither could she do that.

“Young one! Remember this! This is the “Dragon”‘s Breath!”

ROooOOOOooOaaaAAR

Accompanied with a roaring sound, a black flash immediately came to swallow the white dragon along with Freed. The white dragon twisted its body and fired its Breath beam towards the incoming Breath. Black and white flashes collided, scattering violent shock wave. The ocean of magma right below, centered on the colliding point, was rampaging and generating gigantic tsunamis of magma.

At first, Tio and the white dragon’s Breaths were equal, but Tio’s Breath began to gradually push the white dragon’s.

“Kuh, for me to meet a survivor of Ryuujin race here… there’s no other way. Although it is risky, I will use magic to make the s.p.a.ce…”

“Do you think I will let you?!”

“Kh!?”

Maybe because he didn’t have any report about the Ryuujin race, Freed was truly surprised. Seeing this situation, he gritted his teeth, took out another fabric from his pocket, and tried to chant the Age of G.o.ds magic again.