Chapter 109: Untitled

Chapter 109: Untitled

“Huh?”

A flicker of surprise flashed deep within those stunning, yet seemingly emotionless, golden eyes.

She watched the strange movements of that short figure—it wasn’t a counter, nor was it using a spell to respond. It was a bizarre way of dealing with it she had never seen before… Facing a frost ray that could turn stone to ice, the other party just swayed their body a few times, looking completely relaxed! It looked as if they were dodging a few leaves drifting down from a tree, yet those few unremarkable movements rendered the deadly spell useless. The ray that brushed past his body could only slam into the ground with a series of crackling explosions and scattered ice crystals.

What the attacker didn’t know was that the enemy, who seemed to show not the slightest change in expression, was actually cursing her countless times in his heart.

“This monster… what kind of magical beast is she? An ice fairy? Damn, why has my luck been so bad lately! I just wanted to try my hand at being a playboy on the streets, I didn’t even get to tease the neighbor’s wife yet…”

Black flames burned fiercely in Constantine’s eyes, giving him endless space for thought… Although originally, he had resolved not to use this power… at least, to use it as little as possible, the current situation left him no room for second thoughts. In fact, if his reaction had been even a hair slower just now, he might have ended up a block of ice!

The scene in reality still terrified him—merely a frost ray had brushed past him… just brushed past him, yet that icy blue chill spread at an unbelievable speed, like some kind of potent venom. The linen robe at his side was instantly covered in white frost. A faint sheen flickered on the tattered cloth before fading away… Constantine’s coat wasn’t the flashy, impractical type nobles often wore; it was magical equipment imbued with Mage Armor, though not a meticulously crafted piece. Not only was it difficult for ordinary swords and arrows to pierce, it could also defend against common minor spells.

Yet just now, in those seemingly unthreatening snowflakes, the spell armor only managed to flash three times! With a fluidity that defied belief, the boy slipped out of the robe. Watching the valuable equipment transform into thin ice in an instant, the muscles in his cheek twitched involuntarily twice.

If he had been hit head-on by those ice shards… Constantine didn’t dare think further. In reality, even with his swift reactions, he still felt waves of numbness in half his body—he was growing cold, his fingertips were tingling. If not for that power, his consciousness might have snapped right then.

Constantine’s mind raced into full gear.

Staring intently at the other’s golden, beast-like pupils, flecks of light flickered in the boy’s dark eyes as he discerned each of her subtle movements.

The boy tried to find a chance to escape… He knew he absolutely couldn’t just think about running at a time like this. When facing fear, the moment you turn your back, you completely surrender to that fear; reason and fighting spirit would be eroded away in an instant, leaving nothing! Now, he could only fight desperately using the speed and agility granted by his potion-enhanced state. But if he fled recklessly, exposing his back to that gentle silver hand, the result would likely be being frozen by a frost ray and then blown to smithereens.

The opportunity came immediately.

Three arrows hummed as they cut through the air, flying toward the beautiful figure. The combination of fierce three-edged arrowheads and force was enough to penetrate solid breastplates. Simultaneously, a short, strange sound of praise and silent, odd noises came… The Cleric raised her mace at the same time, white light bursting from above her head! And from the shadows, two slender daggers shot toward that shimmering silver back without making a sound, the sharp blades reflecting a glint of emerald light, like a scythe from the God of Death!

Constantine’s eyes narrowed… The coordination of the three Mercenaries was exquisite, but he knew full well it could never inflict any real damage on this mysterious and ferocious opponent… No matter how well-coordinated, their killing power was still only at the level of killing people, and the being before him was clearly not human!

“Fools! All of you, get lost! I don’t want…”

The silver woman frowned and let out a soft snort. She couldn’t even be bothered to dodge the weapons flying through the air toward her, simply letting them collide with her body and then fall to the dust amidst a series of clinking metal sounds. The only things that made her dodge slightly were the two spells the Cleric flung, but that too was just an absent-minded wave of her hand, as if shooing away flies. A mirror of ice crystals condensed in the air, reflecting the spells aside!

But Constantine was waiting for this fleeting opportunity!

In a flash, a burning Scroll appeared in his hand! After a brief, flickering glow, a large number of thin strands shot out from his hand!

No, “gushed forth” seemed a better word. The silver-gray strands stretched outward like living things and, in the next instant, wove themselves into a wide net, completely enveloping the similarly silver figure. These strands shimmered with a beautiful luster, seemingly drawn from metal! The strands coiled around the figure, tightened, paused briefly, and then began to pull taut in their respective directions! Then, a grating, metal-on-metal screeching sound arose, and immediately, thin cracks appeared on the shimmering silver dress!

—This was Steel Constraint, which could generate a large number of metallic ribbons to entangle a creature, trapping it in place and preventing movement. Although not a high-level spell, given that the Mage who inscribed this Scroll was quite powerful, the effectiveness of the metal strands had been expanded to the limit! Those strands could be considered countless metal blades. Once they coiled around and tightened on a creature, it would be difficult for the target to escape being crushed to pieces—this had been given as payment for a certain line of thought, according to Christine’s exact words.

…Constantine seemed to want to let out a sigh of relief. Although he knew this spell might not be that effective, at least now he had gained half an initiative.

But that breath never came out; instead, it was sucked back into his lungs… The boy’s eyes narrowed further. He realized he had still greatly underestimated his opponent—almost at the same time the metal strands began to tighten, the silver figure suddenly moved! She made a struggling motion, seemingly not large, but the power unleashed was terrifying… The steel strands instantly ground to a halt. No matter how sturdy and sharp those thin strands were, they couldn’t advance an inch further. Not only that, with a motion of her raising her arms, the metal strands let out a groaning creak and then, amidst a series of crisp cracking sounds, snapped apart segment by segment!

“What kind of monster…”

Constantine felt his scalp crawling uncontrollably… He was now certain enough that this beautiful, inhuman woman before him was indeed not human. A Human simply couldn’t possess such strength to break free from that iron restraint, nor could a Human have skin that tough… Such a fearsome enemy was simply not something a kid like him could contend with.

Therefore, before the other fully broke free, the boy turned and ran without looking back, without the slightest hesitation, dashing into a shop at the side of the street.

He wasn’t without concern for the safety of his subordinates, but after some consideration, he still made this seemingly cowardly choice to abandon them… He was the main target. As long as he was alive, the opponent was most likely to chase him, not kill a few seemingly irrelevant followers—even if she could kill them with a casual gesture, if he were still alive, there was hope for their revival.

As he stepped through the door, he pulled at his waist, and two magical glows enveloped his body, one after the other! As his hand swept back, the back door of the shop slammed open! Simultaneous with this sound, his body crouched, and he seemed to transform into a black crossbow bolt, suddenly shooting out through a small window less than two feet wide on the other wall of the shop! At the same time, his trailing hand unleashed another triple-force battering ram.

His movements were smooth, as if practiced a thousand times, and in the swiftness of the hare and falcon, it all took merely two or three breaths!

The battering ram effect was enough to handle a real city gate, and the effect of three stacked together made it treat all structures as mere grass. With a heavy crashing sound, the overloaded shop door collapsed—along with the poor shop’s outer wall… A chain reaction immediately threw the entire street into uproar! The already not-so-sturdy building structures began collapsing one after another. But those three waves of impact force surged forward a considerable distance… at least twenty feet.

The once peaceful commercial street was now in complete chaos. The sounds of explosions and collapsing buildings came one after another, like the heavy chords of a heavy metal rock song; the deafening noise made the boy shake his head—frankly, for a moment, Constantine even remembered the double-kick firecrackers and sky-shaking thunder from New Year’s celebrations when he was very small.

In the swirling dust, Constantine had already discarded his tattered coat. Crouching like a rabbit, he darted again into a low alleyway! Then he rushed toward the Shadow of a pile of rubble—now he could only hope the collapsed building would buy him a little more time, giving him a chance to survive.

“Don’t think you can escape, you vile Undead Creature! You…” The silver woman let out a roar, shooting out from the billowing smoke and dust! She remained unharmed, though the silver outfit, now dusted with a bit of grime, had many tears, revealing skin beneath as white and smooth as congealed fat.

It was just that the boy’s movements were a bit slow. Countless snowflakes suddenly appeared in the air!… Or rather, these hexagonal things more resembled the shuriken from the ninjas in the boy’s memory? Glittering, six-bladed, sharp as knives, they spun through the air, slicing toward him!

Constantine was greatly startled, but for a moment, he was powerless to dodge. In desperation, he let out a furious roar, black flames erupting in his eyes! Then, the boy’s hands moved rapidly, seeming to split into two, then four, each forming different gestures… This wasn’t a physical multiplication, merely illusions created by the rapid movement of his hands, but even this degree was clearly beyond what a Human could achieve.

In the next instant, a burst of scorching air erupted violently in front of his body! The fierce convection of air blew the incoming blades off course, scattering them in all directions. Still, a few grazed Constantine’s body, his clothes torn in dozens of places, a thin line of blood beading on the skin of his neck!

This should be a new ability gained from the Demon God as his own power grew… A glimmer of understanding crossed the boy’s mind. Unfortunately, it couldn’t save him from his current predicament…

Clatter…

Where the frozen, spinning weapons passed, the silver chain holding the Amulet snapped. The Bequli Gem hit the ground of the alley with a dull thud. The boy’s body still stood, but the icy coldness that had invaded his body like a poison was already turning his skin a bluish-gray. Constantine seemed to perceive intensely that death was seizing his body.

“Filthy Undead, accept the punishment you rightfully deserve! You…” The silver figure appeared before the boy the next moment. She uttered a solemn, righteous voice, then reached out toward Constantine. That soft, pale palm looked as delicate as a flower, but Constantine, having witnessed the previous events, knew very well that even the lightest flick from this hand was enough to shatter his skull.

Perhaps… a miracle might still happen? The boy found himself strangely calm at this moment, as if he wasn’t facing a life-and-death situation.

…

The clouds in the sky grew thicker, and sporadic snowflakes began to drift down. In the blink of an eye, the light snow became a heavy snowfall of goose feathers. The wind also gradually picked up, but upon careful observation, one could see the snow’s range was quite small, covering only about a quarter of the city district. However, within the cloud layer, unnoticed tiny electrical sparks began to flicker, especially eerie because this Lightning had no accompanying thunder!

The pain came… Constantine frowned. The ensuing, continuous agony was almost unbearable for the boy. He wanted to lift his arm to ease the pain, but his whole body was still trapped in that damned frozen state…

Perhaps the only thing to be thankful for was that this pain didn’t come from death—it was pain like the noise of a thousand needles piercing his ears!

Just after uttering that sentence… or rather, before her righteous declaration had even finished, the silver woman suddenly threw her head back and let out a piercing shriek.

In fact, calling it a shriek was no longer appropriate; the sound was closer to a roar, yet it was louder than any roar in Constantine’s memory. One could even say it was like the thunder from those clustered Lightning bolts in the sky. Constantine blocked his ears immediately, opening his mouth wide… For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything… This high-frequency sound exceeded the limit of what a Human could tolerate. If he hadn’t done this, his eardrums would have surely been destroyed!

This completely defied the laws of nature. It was hard to imagine a creature of human size could produce such a sound.

“My God!” The roar finally ended. The utterly tormented, terror-stricken soul stared blankly at the monster—or perhaps the hybrid of monster and human—before him… The silver-haired Lady’s original appearance was gone, replaced by a taller, more slender figure—the delicate face and silver hair were exactly the same as before, but from the hair at the sides of her head extended four twisted, fierce-looking horns. Huge wings were folded at her back, a slender tail swayed gently behind her, and the thick metallic scent that now permeated the space revealed her identity to some degree! A Demon? No, both the bat-like wings and the tip of the tail were covered in fine silver scales. Although in shape they somewhat resembled creatures from the Lower Planes, this cold, arrogant, and imposing pressure was not something filthy Demons could emanate!

—Everything before him made Constantine’s back tingle with dread. No wonder this woman’s power was so outrageous, and those arrogant, almost nonsensical statements… He should have guessed much earlier that she wasn’t human—that was beyond doubt—but the boy never imagined the other party was… that kind of monster…

“Found, found…”

Simultaneously, the other party stared at him. The now-monstrous Lady’s pair of golden eyes fixed on the boy before her, uttering a neurotic mutter. Then, this Lady raised her palm high… and shouted a word in a strange, wonderful language!

Was that… Draconic? Constantine suddenly chuckled.

“Bam! Cra-crackle…”

The pale, soft, seemingly fragile palm that looked as if it could be burst with a puff hung in the air, stopped by a longsword wreathed in gray mist. As an ear-piercing scraping sound arose from where the two met, a shower of light scattered from the point of contact! The two figures retreated in opposite directions, and only then did the pressure-borne storm spread out around them…

The boy squinted, looking at the rather plain-looking, ancient-style longsword that had blocked the hand of death at the last possible moment. The black blade was entirely shrouded in pale gray mist. Yet this seemingly ordinary-looking longsword carried an intense, almost blinding magical sheen in Constantine’s vision. Constantine narrowed his eyes to a slit to barely make out that the dark blade was actually composed of countless tiny, multicolored threads hidden within. The constantly, subtly flowing threads seemed to form some sort of operating world… like a galaxy.

And the hand holding the longsword was slender, dry, and powerful, possessing the noble, elegant, jade-white skin tone that male Nobles dreamed of. The massive emerald ring on the ring finger made the hand appear even more sickly pale.