Altamir floated into the air, controlling the Petite Abel ball, and stared at the cube and pyramid of the phantom copper Orechalcos that was crushing Rathboutt under the large hole in the floor.
Although she had succeeded in temporarily destroying Rathbouttâs body by catching him by surprise, Altamirâs plan had run out of steam in the face of the half-immortal Rathboutt.
The remaining magic power had been spent on this Petite Abel sphere.
If she didnât make a decision here, there was nothing left to do.
The cube shake slightly and lifted up at once. The triangular pyramid on top fell to the floor.
The cube was lifted up with one arm by Rathboutt, whose entire body was dyed black by the curse.
âNo matter what you do, itâs useless. âŠâŠ! There is nothing anyone can do to kill me!â
âCarry!â
Altamir chanted the teleportation magic.
Altamirâs body disappears, leaving behind a light of magical power, and appears right next to Rathboutt.
Altamir points the huge ball of flame in her arms at Rathboutt.
As he lifted the cube, Rathboutt was slow to react to Altamirâs sudden approach with magic.
He thought that Altamir would be wary of the combined supernatural and magical attacks of the âCursed Bodyâ.
âW-What is that magic âŠâŠ!â
In addition, the ball of fire that Altamir was holding was enough to make Rathboutt, who had overcome death many times, fearful.
The scorching heat was still stirring inside the huge spherical wards.
I canât even imagine how much magic was shoved into it.
âThis direction is safe no matter what happens âŠâŠ Iâm sorry for this, Baron Lark!â
Altamir waved her arms.
But the Petite Abel ball did not move.
âH-Huh, no!? Why!? Ah, geez! Then itâs either one or the other âŠâŠ!â
Altamir deploys her magic circle in layers.
It creates roughness in spherical wards, causing directional outbursts.
It creates depressions in the surface of the sphere, which turn into cracks.
âW-While Iâm at it!â
At the same time, Rathboutt jumped to the side to take advantage of the gap.
After a momentâs delay, the spherical boundary of the Petite Abel ball collapses, and the enormous amount of heat inside is radiated by the explosion.
âGuuoooooooooohhhh!â
Rathboutt was flung away by the shockwave emitted by the Petite Abel ball, and rolled on the floor in a ball of fire.
His hand was burned and snapped, and the handle of the cursed monkey staff he was clutching was burning away.
The little monkeyâs skull quivered in its jaws as it screamed. The high-pitched scream of the monkey echoed.
The extremely thick heat ray released blew away the north side of the mansion.
Not only that, but the trajectory of the Petite Abel ball gouging out the ground diffused and spread as it left the building, turning the next few dozen meters into an empty lot.
âCough, cough âŠâŠ Looks like I shouldnât have broken the wards, after all?â
Altamir looked at the north side of the building, where the view had been reduced to charcoal, and whispered to herself.
Iâd like to believe that there was no human casualty.
âI canât believe it was set on fire even if it was only grazed âŠâŠ As I thought, it was overkill. I wonder what that Abel was thinking when he used this kind of magic âŠâŠ? Normally, youâd have to chop it up a bit more âŠâŠ but well, thanks to that, I managed to deal with RathbouttâŠâ
Altamir let out a sigh and pondered how to explain this to Lark.
âAltamir-san!â
Hearing Mea shout, Altamir came to himself.
She turned her head to the side and saw Rathboutt standing there, half-burnt and angry.
One of his eyes was burned out, and the remaining eyelid was also burned out.
Rathboutt, who had not shown much emotion until now, had hatred and rage all over his face.
âH, How!? How can you still move!?â
âHow dare you do this to me, youâre just a ghost with a broken spirit!â
Altamirâs chest was pierced by Rathbouttâs back fist, enhanced by the âCursed Bodyâ,
âBuoh!â
âThis is not all of it!â
Without giving Altamir time to adjust her stance, Rathbouttâs ultra-fast bodywork slammed into her face, abdomen, and waist.
âWater, penetrate!â
While he was engaged in ceaseless violence, he did not lack for additional attacks with his magic.
As if to add insult to injury, a blade of water passed through Altamirâs body and destroyed it.
In the end, he unleashed a spinning kick that blew Altamir away with ease.
She was unable to defend herself and fell from her shoulders to the ground, spinning several times before collapsing with her face facing the sky, defenseless.
âDamn, how sturdy is this half-spirit âŠâŠ! If it were human, twenty of them would be dead!â
Altamir somehow manages to stay awake in her hazy consciousness.
A little monkeyâs skull rolled over in Rathbouttâs feet partially charred.
(I screwed up. âŠâŠ! I couldnât get a direct hit, and the shockwave blew it away, so it wasnât fully destroyed!)
After all, Altamir had exhausted her strategies and her magic power, and there was nothing more she could do to fight Rathboutt.
In addition to that, due to the series of blows that she had just received, she was driven to a state where she could barely move her body.
I twisted my body to get up somehow and put my hands on the ground, but I couldnât find the strength to stretch my arms.
âI want to kill you, but I donât know when Iâm going to die, and I donât have the time to torture you. I need to heal my body and my cursed monkey staff. Iâll let you off the hook for now, orange witch. Iâll definitely kill you next time. Donât expect an easy death. There are countless paganism and rituals that lie dormant in Riveras. Iâm going to make you taste all of that pain âŠâŠ!â
After saying that, Rathboutt picked up the skull of his monkey staff and turned around.
The destination is the second floor of the half-demolished Lark residence. This is the room where the Mea remains.
âS-Stay right there, Rathboutt!â
âI didnât expect to be pushed this far, but Iâve achieved my goal, looks like Iâve won Orange Witch! Fufu, the next time we meet, I may be the Pope already instead of the four great priests of the Water God âŠâŠ or that decorative little girl. You can look forward to the day we meet again.â
Rathbouttâs one-eye looks back at Altamir.
He then quickly turned towards Mea, kicked the ground and jumped up, breaking into the second floor of the Lark mansion.
When Mea fired an arrow in response, Rathboute caught it with his bare hand, squeezed it, and let it fall to the floor.
âFufu âŠâŠ that doesnât scare me, young lady of the Doom tribe. All Iâm asking is that you come with me for a bit, come on!â
Rathboutt laughs and runs to Mea.
âHiiiiii!â
Mea is frightened and shuts her eyes.
-At that moment, a magic circle unfolded from an Ortem placed in the room.
It kicks the floor at the bottom, leaps in a straight line toward Rathboutt, and throws a head butt.
âMmm! What the hell is this!â
Rathboutt tried to stop it with one arm, but he couldnât hold it back and took the headbutt of the Ortem squarely on his body.
The impact of the attack caused the skull of the cursed monkey staff to fly out of his hand and roll around on the ground.
Rathboutt grabbed the Ortem with both of his free arms and forcefully pulled it away.
Altamir watched in dismay, but belatedly realized the situation.
âYou had an Ortem guarding you, huh âŠâŠâ
Before Abel moved to stop Nalgarn, he had left an Ortem with Mea being danger as the activation condition.
Mea remained in the house because Abel had told her to do so.
(Itâs better than nothing, but things are still bad âŠâŠ)
Altamir narrowed her eyes and stared at the shoving match between Ortem and Rathboutt.
If it was a normal opponent, he might have been able to deal with it with just one Ortem.
But it was a bad opponent.
The killing priest of the Riveras Kingdom, the monster Rathbouttâs physical enhancement by the âCursed Bodyâ and his mastery of physical techniques slightly surpassed the power of Ortem, even in his dying state.
âHaaaaaaaaah!â
Rathboutt rotated his body to guide the direction of the Ortemâs power, twisted the direction to the floor, and slammed it.
A clean, Ortem-shaped hole appears on the floor, and falls down.
The fact that the opponent was a small doll made it possible to deal with it.
Rathboutt was breathing hard and relieved that he was able to handle it safely.
âI see âŠâŠ so this is Abelâs Ortem. If he were here, it might have been a bit of a problem.â
Rathboutt looks at Mea again, breathing hard.
âNow, youâre coming with me, red stone girl âŠâŠâ
Ten magic circles float from around Mea.
âHmm?â
The ten Ortems that had been left in the room unfolded their magic circles all at once.
At that moment, Rathbouttâs mind stopped thinking.
In a mixture of shock and despair, a gasp escaped from his mouth.
If this was the situation as he saw it, he could easily imagine the predicament he would be in.
He immediately flipped his body on one leg and took the first step as if I were being pushed out by the rotation.
He took a large stride, but it didnât disrupt his stance.
It was an effortless breakaway, the result of a masterful physical technique.
However, instead of escaping, before he could take the second step, he was hit by an Ortem headbutt on his back.
Ten Ortems surrounded Rathboutt, who fell to the ground, and began to lynch him.
There was no way they could give him time to get up, and the relentless blows were repeated.
Rathbouttâs scream echoed.
Altamir was lying on the ground, watching the scene with dead eyes.
Mea climbed down from the second floor and approached Altamir timidly.
âA-Are you okay, Altamir-sa âŠâŠ Um, Alta-san.â
Mea reiterated as if she remembered.
ââŠâŠ Hey, whatâs that?â
It is true that Mea had urged Altamir to leave her and run away on the way.
I wondered what she was talking about at the time, but it was probably for this reason.
However, I still felt unconvinced.
ââŠâŠ W-Well, you see, Abel left me this Ortem for my insurance âŠâŠ Iâve been told not to get my hopes up too high because he prepared it on the spur of the moment âŠâŠâ
Mea replied apologetically.
In fact, Abel had told me that I should ask for help from Altamir if I ever faced a guy that I couldnât handle with the Ortem, but I knew that telling her now would not only be meaningless, but would also be taken as sarcasm, so I kept quiet.
Altamir held his face and let out a deep sigh.
(Whatever the case, Iâm glad nothing happened to you âŠâŠ)
Altamir also thought that maybe Rathboutt could kill Abel, but he realized that he was just imagining things.
âAh!â
Suddenly there, she remembered the characteristics of Rathboutt.
Rathbouttâs immortality lies in the cursed monkey staff.
No matter how hard the Ortem knocks down Rathboutt, it canât defeat him completely unless it breaks that little monkeyâs skull.
I donât know how Abel has arranged the conditions for the Ortem to stop him, but he might mistakenly think he has beaten the semi-immortal Rathboutt and release him prematurely, allowing him to escape.
We need to recover the skull of the little monkey, the root of Rathbouttâs immortality.
âNow, where is that skull âŠâŠ!â
When Altamir looked up, the little monkeyâs skull was lying in plain sight in the room upstairs.
As I thought, the Ortem hadnât been able to detect the cursed monkey staff.
I donât feel safe yet until I destroy it.
(Fortunately, I was able to recover somewhat. âŠâŠ I can even pick it up and retrieve it now. âŠâŠ)
Altamir stood up, floated and moved to the second floor of the half-destroyed Lark residence.
She picks up the skull of the little monkey, keeping a wary eye out for Rathboutt that keeps getting beaten up by the Ortems.
Rathboutt raises his arm to cling to Altamir, but the Ortem crushes it.
âI donât care, itâs even not mine âŠâŠ Well, itâs for disabling the enemy, so maybe if you pass out it will stop on its own?
âThere, Smash it! Iâm not going to lose consciousness as long as I have that âŠâŠ! Guoh! If you use that magic one more time, you should be able to crush it completely âŠâŠ Obogo!â
Altamir looked at the skull of the cursed monkey staff she had picked up.
It is true that if I use the Petite Abel ball again, I might be able to destroy it, but I donât have that kind of energy left now.
In addition, Altamir has no obligation to release Rathboutt.
He was beaten up so badly that he was even told that he would be shaken to death.
ââŠâŠ Then you just stay like that for now. Iâll keep this for you.â
âOrange witch, ohhhhh! Oogaaaaahhh!â
Rathbouttâs roar stopped when he was struck in the chin by the Ortem.
(âŠâŠ What have I been doing all this time?)
Altamir let out one last sigh of inexpressible emptiness.
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