Chapter 1278: Laranflura's Demise

「Fuhahaha! I hope you enjoy watching Sibylla turn into a monster!」

Despite repeated casts of Vishnu, I was unable to do anything for Sibylla. That’s not to say that the spell was weak. After all, I had successfully restored Forrund’s lost arms.

「You little bitch! Stop it or I’ll seriously fucking kill you!」

Apollonius thrust his halberd in front of Laranflura, but the severed head simply laughed in response.

「I already told you that it’s impossible! Sibylla is being tormented by the monster factors running wild in her own body! I merely provided the catalyst!」

「Damn you…!」

「I only have a few minutes left, which means I won’t get the chance to witness Sibylla’s end… I will have to settle for imagining her going berserk and dying at your hands!」

Apollonius raised his halberd again, but froze before swinging it down. He must be considering the possibility that Laranflura was lying, and actually had a way to stop this.

Thus, he could not bring himself to finish her off.

But unfortunately, Laranflura was not lying at all. There really was no way to save Sibylla.

「…She’s not lying.」

「My liege, you can tell if something is a lie?」

「Nn.」

「I see.」

Apollonius contorted his face in anger, before swinging down his halberd on Laranflura.

「I hate all of you! I hate this world! All of you should just——」

「Shut it.」

Laranflura’s head splat in the middle of her childish curses. While I could sympathize with her circumstances, I don’t think I could ever understand her completely…

Apollonius turned on his heel and ran over to Sibylla.

「Sibylla! Hang in there!」

「Ugh… Old man.」

「You can get through this with enough guts!」

「Yeah… Bring it on…」

Despite her pain, Sibylla managed to force a strained smile and squeezed Apollonius’s hand in return.

「Ugh… Gah…」

Sibylla’s body was literally squirming, as if there were snakes or something slithering beneath her skin. Her pupils split vertically like a dragon’s, and sharp fangs emerged from her mouth. Scales started growing on her hands and feet, as the dull cracking sound of splitting bones could be heard within her body.

Laranflura said she made her monster factor go wild. Perhaps that’s the same phenomenon as the limiter removal on the superhumans we’ve seen before.

However, Sibylla continued resisting.

She seems to be attempting to control her monster factor, which prevented her from rapidly transforming like the superhuman soldiers.

「Ugaaaaah!」

「Oof!」

Sibylla’s left arm suddenly grew to a massive size! Her arm was no longer that of a human, but a gray dragon.

And that dragon arm smashed Apollonius away.

「Old… man…!」

「Don’t worry about me!」

Apollonius got back up on his feet and approached Sibylla again. The dragon arm swung again, but he dodged the attack and gripped Sibylla’s hand once more.

「This is about all I can do for you. Sorry.」

「Ugh…」

At the same time, Sibylla’s dragon arm stopped moving.

（Sibylla is controlling herself when Apollonius grabs her hand.）

『I see! You might be right about that!』

（No doubt. You gotta do your best when your dad supports you.）

『…Yeah.』

（Nn!）

For now, we should ensure nothing interferes with Apollonius.

「Let’s put up a barrier.」

『Roger that.』

We instructed the other Hero Zombies, who split into a team for supporting Apollonius and one for setting up barriers. I know I spent a significant amount of mana on healing Forrund and the others, but this is a critical moment.

If only we had some method for controlling Sibylla’s monster factor…

At that moment, Sibylla drew the sword at her waist with her left arm, which had returned to a human form. This was the Red Sword, a magic sword that was recently made as her personal relic.

The Red Sword’s reddish blade exuded an even deeper crimson-colored mana. Then, Sibylla’s entire body writhed more violently.

All the expanding and contracting made it look as if her transformation was accelerating.

Apollonius also seemed to think so too, as he wore a worried expression.

「S-Sibylla! Are you okay?」

「N-No clue…」

「You don’t know? Oi!」

「Don’t fuss, old man. This sword is like a limiter for my power…」

I sensed an indescribable power emanating from the Red Sword. It wasn’t evil or divine in nature. So what could it be?

I further probed the source of this power, then finally understood. This was the power of chaos. I activated Chaos Knowledge to examine more closely, and sensed a dungeon core embedded at the center of the Red Sword.

〈Do you wish to apply control support to the Red Sword?〉

『Announcer-san? Is that even possible?』

〈It is possible for individual Humanseal Sword Master, as the Apostle of Chaos.〉

Does calling me “Humanseal Sword Master” mean I need to use the power I obtained from that upgrade? So I should apply “Apostle of the Chaos Goddess” and “Chaos Knowledge”.

『Just pouring in my power mindlessly won’t work, right?』

〈Affirmative. Invoke the skills to infuse chaos mana into the Red Sword. I will handle the regulation.〉

『Thanks.』

And so, I focused on my powers as an apostle. By invoking the Apostle of the Chaos Goddess skill, I attempted to generate mana with a similar wavelength to dungeon cores.

For some reason, converting the mana was pretty effortless. Also, the mana’s color was a radiant gold. Fran and I had created a similar gold mana earlier, which seems to be something derived from the Chaos Goddess.

Thanks to that experience, I had become accustomed to handling the power of chaos.

『Announcer-san!』

〈Leave it to me.〉

The power of chaos flowed smoothly into the Red Sword with Announcer-san’s assistance. I could see it being integrated and absorbed within.

「This is…!」

Good, Sibylla is looking more stable now. Announcer-san is truly amazing. That said, Sibylla’s transformation had yet to completely stop. We just need one final push…

「I will apply my powers.」

『Holy Mother?』

The gentle voice of a woman echoed around us.