Chapter 923

My metal wolves made quick work of the antidemons around us, so we didn’t need to bother with them anymore.

Fran wouldn’t let this opportunity pass.

「We’ll keep going, and take down the antidemon boss!」

『Sounds good, but stay on your toes!』

「We’ll be fine!」

Fran shouted as she increased her speed, immediately dashing off in the direction of a powerful presence.

「Taaaaah!」

Fran and I fired a blast of lightning to destroy the antidemons in our path, then ran through cutting down any trying to fill the void.

After annihilating everything in our way, Fran closed in on the commander. We had broken through the entire horde of tens of thousands of antidemons in the matter of seconds.

Divine Beast Form was really something. However, it’s no exaggeration to say that the real battle began now.

「Grarroorh!」

「Gugriohh!」

「Shaaaaaah!」

「Mrgh…… Looks strong!」

『But there’s so many of them……!』

We found special antidemons whose aura, power, and appearance obviously stood out from the rest. The problem being that there was more than one of them. Five of the unique antidemons blocked our path, as if waiting for Fran’s arrival.

Which one is the commander of the horde? Or are they all commanders? Please don’t tell me there’s one that’s even more powerful. I kinda doubt it, since these five were clearly special.

The strongest antidemon we’ve ever fought was Twisted Horn at Castel. I don’t think any of these guys are as strong as him, but they’re still in a different league than the red dragon antidemons, the second strongest we’ve fought.

「……We can just crush them all.」

Fran muttered, glaring belligerently at the five antidemons suspected of being commanders.

『Okay! We can handle them now, if we go all out!』

「I don’t know how long I can maintain Divine Beast Form, so I’ll give them everything I’ve got now!」

『Go for it! I’ll use the metal wolves to split them up. We destroy them one by one!』

「Nn!」

It won’t be an easy victory by any means, but we can handle one against five in our current state. However, a certain group broke into our fight before it started.

「I’ll be fighting too!」

「Don’t count me out either!」

「Grrrrr!」

「Hahaha! Let me have one!」

Velmeria, who had turned completely dragonic aside from her face; Zefmate, who wore a leopard’s head and radiated blue mana; Urushi, cloaked in the deepest darkness; Mea, erupting white flames…… Our friends.

All of them had gotten huge boosts, comparable to Fran’s. Velmeria, with light blue scales all over her body, had fully activated Divine Dragon Form, regaining the entirety of the power she used to rampage through the capital.

Zefmate’s head had completely turned into that of a leopard’s. Furthermore, his legs took a much more bestial form, with his entire body cloaked in the divine attribute. This was clearly no normal Awakening.

My appraisal indicated this state was called “Holy Beast Form”. Maybe that’s the final evolution of beastmen outside of the Ten Ancestral Races.

His agility went over 1500, and he had developed the “Blue Leopard” skill. That’s a skill bearing the name of his race, so there’s no way it can be weak. It seems to apply the effects of Leopard Leg to any part of his body.

Those tricky moves of his would only get trickier.

Urushi’s status showed up as “Potential Release”. That’s generally a very dangerous state, but thanks to Sophie’s song, he’s also regenerating constantly. Apparently, the burden on him was much lighter than my usual Potential Release.

The drain on his life seems almost negligible after being mitigated by the regeneration, so he should last quite a while.

Stat-wise, he didn’t get much of a boost aside from agility.

However, he did gain a Innate Skill called “Twilight”. This seems to be a debuff ability that greatly debilitates any opponent he touches.

And finally, the one with probably the most terrifying evolution, Mea. Her status was now “White Beast Form”, and her stats exceeded 1000 across the board. Also, [Divine Flame] got added to her skill list.

The white flame cloaking her entire body radiated the divine attribute, and her auto-counter got so intense that “nasty” was now a significant understatement.

If someone touched her Divine Flames for a single moment, the raging inferno would spread over their entire body in a flash. It literally couldn’t be extinguished, so all they could do was say their prayers before getting vaporized.

「Mea, that’s so awesome!」

「Fuhahaha! I know! But this is not the only power I have gained!」

With a big smile on her face, Mea pulled out the sword on her back.

Then, she raised her beloved blade high in the air.

The divine sword containing the red dragon, Lind.

「You mean…!」

「Precisely! With both me and Lind strengthened, the gateway to new power has been opened!」

Mea swung her sword to the side and shouted.

「King of dragons, the raging tyrant of red! Reveal yourself before me!」

Right here, right now, a second divine sword was about to manifest itself.

「Lindwurm, Divine Sword Release!」

The Raging Dragonblade Lindwurm responded to Mea’s shout, along with an enormous amount of mana swirling around its blade.

The sword’s red, dragon-shaped engravings began glowing with a fierce radiance. That light eventually enveloped the entire sword, and released a brilliant flash.

「Gyah!」

Huh?! Mea blinded herself since she was looking right at the blade!

「My eyes! My eyes!」

『Colonel Mus*a!?』

「Mu*ka?」

『Sorry, you can ignore that. I just felt like I had to say it.』

But still…… Your first usage of Divine Sword Release, and you end up blinding yourself! Is this some kinda gag?!