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chapter 92




It happened so quickly.
They blinked, and Hydra’s head was on the ground.
Had he killed Hydra in one stroke just like he’d killed Indra?
‘No.’
It wasn’t the same. In fact, these two situations couldn’t be more different.
Hydra hadn’t been hibernating, and Frey knew how resilient Demigods were.
The sword skill Riki had shown was better than Lucid, but he didn’t think it was good enough to kill a Demigod in one strike.
“Kyahahaha!”
As if responding to Frey’s doubts, Hydra’s voice rang out.
Two heads grew from the stump of her neck. It was a very grotesque sight, but no one present was weak enough to cry out in disgust.
Hydra fluttered around as though she were dancing.
She then made a noise of excitement.
“Now I understand! Riki! It was you! You were the traitor all along! Hehehe! If I tell Ananta, he will surely reward me greatly!”
Hydra’s hair quickly began falling out.
No, it wasn’t just her hair.
Snakes began crawling on the ground at a tremendous speed.
Then Riki swung his sword again.
Shuk.
Green blood splattered once again as the snakes were all precisely cut into six pieces.
Chiiik.
The blood corroded the ground.
Did her blood contain strong acid?
As Frey noticed this fact, Riki spoke with a stiff expression.
“…I missed two.”
As he stepped out of his hiding spot, Frey asked.
“What do you mean?”
“She split her lives and ran.”
“Split her lives?”
It was not an easy concept to understand.
Riki spoke quickly as he explained.
“Hydra has 9 lives. This means that she will not completely die unless she has died nine times. In addition, she has a lot of annoying skills that make it possible for her to divide and scatter her lives like she just did.”
Frey couldn’t understand much, but he understood that it made her extremely dangerous.
Riki’s expression also hinted at the urgency of the situation.
“Then this is not the time to be explaining like this, is it? We need to start tracking her as soon as possible…”
Frey agreed with Snow.
But Riki’s expression remained the same.
“Although, it’s just two of them. They scattered in two different directions. Chasing one means inevitably losing the other.”
“Even with your abilities?”
Frey asked with a disbelieving expression.
At first glance, it might have seemed impossible to catch the two Hydras that had gone in opposite directions; however, the one standing in front of him was an Apocalypse, one of the five who stood above the normal Demigods.
Riki sighed.
“If I could use all of my power, I’d naturally be able to kill her even if she scattered in four directions instead of two. But I’m currently putting a great deal of effort into maintaining the barrier currently surrounding this forest.”
He was talking about the barrier that Frey had felt before.
“Then can’t you release it and hunt Hydra down?”
“The moment that happens, Hydra will immediately tell the other Demigods everything she learned here. The barrier is blocking any communication to the outside.”
Only then did Frey truly understand the urgency of the situation.
If the other Demigods learned that Riki was the traitor, everything would be over.
“Then what will we do?”
“I’ll take one. As for the other one…”
“We’ll handle it.”
He hadn’t said it first because he understood what Riki intended to do.
Riki’s expression stiffened a bit.
“Can you do it?”
“It’s not about whether we can or not. If we let Hydra go, we all know what will happen.”
“That’s true.”
“Then we have no choice.”
“…I know. We don’t have time, so let’s move out immediately.”
Riki looked at the forest around them.
“My barrier covers this entire forest. However, that means we have to kill Hydra before she can leave.”
“Understood.”
“…The power of the snake clone would be only about 1/9th of Hydra’s full power, but that doesn’t mean she can be underestimated.”
That made sense.
Originally, Frey would not have accepted such a request. It was not easy to deal with a Demigod even when he had been at his peak.
But this time was different.
Frey felt calm confidence fill his heart.
‘…the first time I defeated a Demigod, I was also 8 stars.’
However, now was not the time for him to dwell on such thoughts.
“Snow, we’ll have to hurry.”
“Understood.”
“You go east. I’ll handle the one in the west. She stopped controlling her power, so you shouldn’t have any trouble tracking her, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then I wish you luck.”
Just as Riki was about to leave, Frey called out to him.
“Wait. What exactly is Hydra’s power? I don’t think that it’s just the extra lives you just told me about.”
“It’s tenacious vitality, regeneration and poison. Stay away from the green liquid that she spits. You guys wouldn’t be able to withstand it.”
“…green liquid.”
It seemed that her blood was also like that.
“Fire is her weakness. If you can manage to cast powerful fire spells, you will have an advantage.”
Riki said this as though it was insignificant, but the information was actually extremely useful for Frey.
Originally, these were all things he would only earn after entering a life and death struggle with the Demigod, but now, he had been given such information without any risk.
‘I definitely can’t break this alliance with Riki just yet.’
He still had yet to fully grasp his ally’s true intentions, but at least for now, it was worth it to stick with him.
Shik.
Riki’s figure disappeared, and Frey left with Snow.
As Riki had said, Hydra no longer paid attention to controlling her enormous strength, which made her easy to track.
It wasn’t long before they caught up.
“Hehehehe! Hihihihihihi!”
She was showing off her tremendous strength, her aura rising fiercely. Trees were uprooted and thrown out of the way as they collided with her body. Even so, her speed did not decrease at all as she swept forth like a typhoon hellbent on destroying the forest.
‘It doesn’t seem like she’s trying to run away.’
Frey felt that the situation might’ve been a little dangerous as he turned to Snow.
“Let’s split up and attack. There is no plan. We will attack while assisting each other.”
This was more efficient than trying to create a detailed plan on the spot. Both Frey and Snow had a lot of practical experience so they could fully understand each other’s intentions.
“Understood.”
Snow then shifted her trajectory, moving to the side.
As he kept following Hydra, Frey decided his next move.
‘If fire magic is her weakness…’
It may have a much greater effect than they expected.
A resolute glint flickered in Frey’s eyes.
He had no intention of holding back just because they were surrounded by trees. Even if the entire forest was to turn to ashes, it would still be worth it if they were able to get rid of Hydra.
“Lava Blast.”
He didn’t even need to chant.
As soon as Frey said those words, a Lava Blast, which was the 7 star spell with the highest destructive capability, appeared immediately.
It had been powerful enough to destroy the lightning barrier that Lukes had been proud of!
However, the Lava Blast that he cast this time was much more powerful than it was at that time, despite the fact that he’d omitted the chant.
Kaboom!
The spell struck Hydra’s side.
Despite this, Frey did not lower his guard, and instead, he paid close attention to the cloud of smoke created by the explosion.
“Hihihi!”
With her signature giggle, Hydra’s body shot into the sky. One of her arms hung loosely while covered in horrible burns, but Hydra simply ripped it off with her other hand.
It was a similar situation to what happened with Lukes. At that time, Frey’s Lava Blast had also injured Lukes’ arm.
The difference, however, was the attitude.
Hydra didn’t show any reaction even after discarding one of her own arms.
Taht.
Snow shot up after her. Her speed at that moment was so fast that she appeared to be twice as fast as Ivan.
And the speed with which she swung her sword was even greater.
Shiik.
Hydra’s head was cut off.
Nevertheless, her body was still filled with overflowing vitality.
“Hehe!”
She turned in the air while letting out a laugh, causing her green blood to splash towards Snow.
‘The green liquid is dangerous.’
She remembered Riki’s advice at that moment, but because she was in the air, there was no way for her to evade it.
She tried to minimize the damage as much as possible with the one handed shield in her other hand.
Psshk!
Nevertheless, Frey’s barrier was much faster.
The barrier didn’t last very long. After blocking the blood for a few breaths, it shattered.
However, it was enough.
Snow hurriedly dived away from the blood.
Kuurk!
The heads sprouted from Hydra’s neck, and her severed head flew toward Snow at a tremendous speed.
The two heads sprouting from the severed neck was something she’d witnessed before, so Snow had raised her sword in preparation.
Kwak!
“Ugghh…!”
Snow grit her teeth.
The blade of her sword creaked, and more than that, her joints screamed in protest. But if she reduced her strength for even a moment, there would be a new Hydra head sized hole in her body.
Her body smashed through several large trees, creating a large scar in the ground.
“Ahhhhhp!”
Snow desperately hit Hydra’s head into the sky. (YH: home run?)
Hydra, who was still in the air, spoke with a laugh.
“You’re pretty good! Then it’s my turn…”
And with that, she began to vomit something.
“Urrk!”
“…!”
From her mouth came snakes with bright green scales. These snakes rained down from the sky, which would cause one to wonder how so many snakes managed to fit in such a small body.
Snow made an expression of disgust.
“You are so disgusting.” (TL: agreed, bleh)
This was very tricky.
Her vitality was beyond imagination. Before Snow realised, her arm had also regenerated.
If this was just 1/9th of her power, just how strong was this Demigod at full strength?
Snow had never doubted herself, but now, she couldn’t help but feel something deep within.
‘I just need to stall for time. Frey will use that chance to cast a powerful spell.’
They would need to burn her entire body all at once. Otherwise, they would never be able to kill this ridiculous monster.
But now wasn’t the time to ponder.
She had to delay this Demigod as long as possible, even if it meant using Riki’s divine power.
It was then.
“…huh?”
Suddenly Snow looked up at the sky, wondering why there were suddenly two suns floating there.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. She soon heard Frey’s telepathy.
[Snow, get back.]
Snow didn’t think too deeply and retreated hurriedly.
After confirming that Snow was out of range, Frey muttered while looking at Hydra.
His first 8 star spell.
“Another Sun.” (TL: literally)
“…h-, huh?”
Hydra looked back with a blank expression.
‘I see the sun… but why are there two?’
That was Hydra’s last thought. Shortly thereafter, her entire body became black ash before scattering in the wind.
Frey didn’t let his guard down against Demigods because he knew better than anyone how strong they were.
He had had countless experiences of someone he thought dead jumping up and attacking him again.
That was why he didn’t lower his guard until he was certain that Hydra had definitely been killed by the spell.
8 star Magic, Torkunta’s heart and the Staff of the Great Sage.
The synergy created by these three elements created an effect that not even Frey had been able to expect.
No. It wasn’t just that.
Originally, it should have taken many times longer to cast an 8 star spell. Yet Frey had been able to drastically reduce that time.
‘Ultra-high speed computation gained from my years in the Abyss. I’m finally able to use it.’
In that space completely cut off from the outside world, the only thing that Frey had the freedom to do was think.
He thought a great deal to maintain his sense of self. However, the only thing that he’d been able to think about was Magical Science.
Frey thought and thought and thought.
It was strange to call it hard work.
Killing time.
Right, it was more accurate to call it killing time.
Nevertheless, one of the by-products of this endeavour to kill time was an ultra fast computational ability.
As he was now, he could do the calculations for dozens of magical formulas at the same time. (TL: I was wondering why he was so fast at that and didn’t want to put it under the banner ‘well he’s the great mage’…now it makes sense)
Regardless of how complex it was, if he was to calculate it hundreds or even thousands of times, eventually he would figure it out.
This meant that even the most complicated large-scale spells could be created instantaneously.
Omitting the chant required a tremendous amount of mana, many times more than if one was to chant the spell, but even that could be disregarded.
Frey’s current mana capacity was already double of when he was Lukas.
And when he reached 8 stars, the Ultra-high speed computation that had only been possible in his thoughts had become a reality.
In a sense, this was much more important than any elixir he had taken so far or the Staff of the Great Sage.
Frey realised.
At that moment, he was already stronger than the ‘8 stars Lukas’ of the past.
And also that it wasn’t impossible for him to deal with Demigods.