Chapter 30: The Concluding Battles

The Butcher’s fist slammed into Ael’s mithril shield, sending a shockwave rippling through the air.

“Kill them all! I’ll slaughter as many as I can!” the Butcher bellowed, unleashing a relentless barrage of punches upon Ael.

‘Such powerful fists,’ Ael thought, as she braced herself, deflecting each blow with the full force of her shield.

“Heh! I doubt you can even kill me!” Ael taunted, though every impact sent a numbing tremor through her entire body.

“Fall back—!” The Butcher roared, raising both fists high before smashing them down towards her head. Ael met the blow, shield raised, but the crushing impact nearly buckled her knees. The pain in her arms, gripping the shield, felt as if they might snap.

Yet, even kneeling under the force of the strike, Ael refused to yield an inch.

“Seeking death, are you?!” The Butcher swung a fist towards her right flank. Ael swiftly shifted her shield to intercept, but the force still sent her flying, slamming her against a nearby building.

“Why isn’t your god protecting you now?” the Butcher sneered, advancing on her. With every heavy step, the ground beneath them trembled.

“Summon your silver hands to attack me, then?”

“Heh, I don’t need them for you,” Ael retorted, pushing herself back to her feet. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her ribs might have been bruised, yet not a hint of fear flickered in her eyes.

“All I need to defeat you is my unwavering faith!” she declared, drawing her longsword from her hip and pointing it directly at the Butcher.

“Look at your hideous form! The ‘natural power’ you worship is nothing more than the strength of a demon with dominion over nature!”

“How dare you defile the power of nature by calling it demonic?!” Rage contorted its kangaroo-like face into an even more grotesque snarl. “I’ll kill you!!!”

An arrow struck the Butcher. Though merely a sting against its colossal form, it was enough to draw its attention.

“How could we let a young woman face you alone?” the archer called out.

“Exactly!” the archer’s companions chimed in, brandishing their weapons. Soon, more adventurers from other parties joined the fray.

At least twenty shield-wielding warriors now stood before the Butcher, while priests moved to heal Ael.

“Our original objective was to vanquish you!”

The Butcher found itself encircled by over four hundred adventurers. It let out a furious roar and charged towards them.

***

Meanwhile, at the volcano’s caldera, the Grand Druid, possessed by a wolf’s skeletal form, was channeling the immense power of nature, intent on tearing the continent asunder.

“Do you intend to destroy the world?” Leon had asked him just moments before.

“I merely wish to reshape this continent,” the Grand Druid and the wolf skeleton replied in a chilling chorus of two distinct voices.

It was utter madness, a descent into complete derangement. Naya had faced numerous bosses alongside Leon, but this was the first one who sought to destroy the world—and a revered Grand Druid, no less.

“Leon, you must stop him!”

“I know,” Leon affirmed. Wielding both Light Roar and his mithril sword, he struck at the Grand Druid, only to have his attack parried by the wolf skeleton’s bony foreleg.

‘That defense is incredibly difficult to breach,’ Naya observed, her gaze fixed on the struggle. She turned to Liuli, her voice laced with urgency.

“Do you have any magic left to use?”

“None,” Liuli replied, flipping through her spellbook. It seemed her fireball spell was a one-time use.

“Then now… we can only trust Leon,” Naya murmured, her eyes fixed on the man she admired. “You can do it!”

To think the fate of this entire continent rested in the hands of such a young man.

Leon silently observed the wolf skeleton. Its two disproportionately large foreleg bones served as its primary weapons, their sharp knuckles capable of swinging but not gripping.

‘Of course,’ he thought, ‘a wolf can’t grasp things anyway.’

Because it was fused with the Grand Druid, the wolf’s most lethal weapons—its teeth—were restricted by distance. As long as the Grand Druid remained stationary, the wolf’s skull couldn’t bite Leon.

The Grand Druid itself was encased within the wolf’s ribcage, providing a double layer of protection.

His mithril sword was remarkably light; he should be able to execute that technique.

Leon silently uttered the name of the twin-blade style’s ultimate arcane art. In the blink of an eye, he surged forward. His master, Vanessa, had taught him this technique on their last day together, three years prior.

To this day, Leon found the name of the technique as enigmatic as Vanessa herself.

Liuli gasped, surprised by Leon’s opening stance. ‘Liuli saw her former master use the same sword technique three years ago—Forty-Six Nights.’

The wolf skeleton’s two foreleg bones lashed out at Leon from both sides. He parried with crossed swords, deflecting the blows. Then, he unleashed all forty-six consecutive strikes upon the foreleg bones.

The paths of his blades weaved and tangled like a ball of yarn.

In an instant, every joint shattered, scattering into the air. Before the fragments could even fall, Leon’s figure flickered before the Grand Druid.

As the wolf’s skull crunched through his Light Shield, his final two swords pierced through the gaps in the wolf skeleton’s ribs, striking the Grand Druid’s body.

“You would have been far more formidable if your true body hadn’t been focused on gathering energy,” Leon remarked, withdrawing his swords from the Grand Druid’s form.

The Grand Druid toppled backward, plunging into the volcano’s depths.

***

Concurrently, at the base of the volcano, the other battle had also concluded.

The colossal Butcher crashed to the ground, Ael having delivered the decisive final blow.

“I told you!” Ael declared, pulling her sword from the Butcher’s chest. “Justice will always prevail!”

The adventurers erupted in cheers.

The Iranto Outskirts had been successfully cleared.

This was true, even if the final boss was “man-made.”

Regardless, the path to the Whispering Forest was now unobstructed.