Chapter 1174: Onslaught's Goal

「Haah!」

Fran lunged at Onslaught, but he simply put on a creepy smirk without any attempt to defend himself.

「Hehehehe! It’s useless!」

Onslaught likely has a full understanding of his potent regenerative and defensive capabilities as a fiend. Plus, he knows that the divine-infused slash we gave him earlier did little damage.

He simply laughed at Fran’s futile attempts to damage him. Perhaps he even found it convenient that we’re coming to him.

However, our earlier strike was merely an attack to gauge Onslaught’s strength.

This time, we’ll get serious about taking him down.

I activated Evil Crusher and Evil Conquest with all my might. Furthermore, Fran enveloped my blade with divine energy.

「Teyaaah!」

「GYAAAAAHHH! It hurts!」

Despite complaining about the pain, he still appeared to be in decent condition. He maintained his smile after the huge wound was engraved into his body.

However, the grotesque face emerging from the tip of his tentacle suddenly panicked.

「W-Why isn’t it regenerating…!?」

The wounds that should have regenerated oozed disgusting liquids. They had hardly recovered at all.

As for us, I managed to restore my durability by absorbing his power through Evil Conquest. Considering all my anti-fiend skills, I might be more suited for fighting them than most other enemies.

「W-What did you do?!」

「Dunno.」

「GYAAAAH! Fuck! Stop!」

「Haah!」

「GYAAAAH!」

Fran’s combo chipped away at Onslaught’s body. Seems like it’s only a matter of time at this rate.

Or so I thought, but things can never be that simple.

「Hehehehehe! What’s wrong! Keep it coming!」

「!」

『He suddenly got stronger…?』

「Woof woof!」

Urushi seemed concerned about the surroundings. Or rather, the ground? I see, there’s definitely a strange power flowing into Onslaught from his tentacles extending underground. This power was a tad different from ordinary mana.

『Grudges?』

「Woof!」

Since Urushi was capable of necromancy, he could sense grudges better than me.

Was Onslaught also an undead? Or maybe he’s skilled in necromancy in addition to being a fiendmancer?

In any case, he seems to have an ability for converting grudges into power. Instead of regenerating himself, it seemed like he was recreating his body.

「Hehehehe! The countless grudges ingrained in this land shall become my sustenance! This place has been a battlefield countless times, with hundreds of thousands of deaths! It’s a literal treasure trove!」

While devouring the grudges of Sophiard, Onslaught shouted again.

「As expected of the Evil God’s Saintess! I never expected you to erode my evil energy to this extent! And how can you remain so calm after absorbing this much evil!?」

「Hmph.」

「Ow! Come on! No need to be so hostile! Let’s enjoy our conversation!」

「I refuse!」

「Grr!」

「Gwaah! This wolf is plenty abnormal too!」

Looks like Urushi’s Dimension Fang works on Onslaught too. Attacks with the dimension attribute physically shave off chunks of the target’s body, so they can deal plenty of damage, though not as effective as Evil Crusher or divine energy.

After sensing the threat, Onslaught distanced himself by teleporting his massive body in an instant.

His ability to teleport using evil energy must be why he’s so confident in surviving our attacks. He had the perfect tool for escaping any situation.

Well, it won’t work against us since we can sense evil energy though!

「Gyaaah! Why!」

We immediately teleported in pursuit of Onslaught, delivering a direct hit. He seemed quite surprised, with his massive body and tentacles flailing greatly along with his scream.

But he also had something in store for us.

「Heheh! Got you now! Thanks for coming so close!」

「Mrgh.」

Tentacles all over Onslaught’s body suddenly spewed out something like a black smoke all at once. I thought it might be poison, but no.

It’s a concentrated mist of evil energy. The contamination in the air was magnified ten times over.

「No clue how you’re managing to use evil energy, but a non-fiend like you can’t stay sane after taking in this much! Now fall! Join us in evil! Show me the birth of my greatest fiend!」

Makes sense. He was attempting to turn Fran into a fiend by infusing her with a crapton of evil energy.

The evil surrounding us right now gave me a familiar feeling. Reminds me of how the Evil God Fragment’s aura kept telling me to “destroy everything”.

Any ordinary person exposed to this would indeed go insane, mutating into a fiend.

Since Onslaught was very quick to release this dense cloud, he probably intended to corrupt Fran from the beginning.

However, both Fran and Urushi remained unchanged. The two only showed a small sign of surprise before resuming their attack on Onslaught.

「H-How?!」

Normally, it should be incredibly difficult to fight properly in these conditions. That said, we had the ability to completely nullify the effects of evil energy, so it was merely a slight hindrance to our vision.

「UGAAAAAAH!」

「KILL THEM!」

「GROOOAAAH!」

While we were unaffected, the mist did have an impact on those around us.

The soldiers in the vicinity started turning on us. Even a slight leak of the dense evil mist was enough to drive them insane.

What now? Can we stall the berserk soldiers without killing them?

As I pondered whether or not I should focus on stalling, some new figures appeared on the battlefield.

「Black Lightning Princess-dono! There she is! Everyone, move in and support her!」

「「「 Roger! 」」」

『Eh? Who are they?』

「Insectkin?」

『Y-You’re right! Half-insectkin, just like Neidhart!』

Several half-insectkin made an elegant entrance into the battle, though all of them were unfamiliar faces.