The Lord screamed at the excessive damage. The slanted slash line had traveled through its body, and the black liquid along with its armor were torn as well. Although it was diverted from its core, Shin saw that about 1/5 of the black orb was cut.
“It retreated, huh?”
The core vanished from view immediately. Somehow, it seemed to be able to move freely inside the body to some extent. As he promptly thought about a countermeasure, ignoring the Lord who screamed, he landed on the ground and moved in pursuit without mercy.
He slashed at the Lord’s right legs consecutively to destroy its posture.
The slashing storm was done with a speed that left an afterimage. In addition, whenever Shin’s katana left a flash, different parts of the Lord’s body fell.
Katana system martial art skill 【Kasane Dachi】. (TL note: Thickness of the Long Katana, well i’m not sure about this)
This skill generated, at random, multiple slashing attacks that each possessed a similar power as the individual slashes. It cut the internal parts of the Lord, which also caused the armor to fall off in pieces.
This skill was able to attack several enemies at the same time, as the larger the offensive ability the user possessed, the more its power increased altogether. It seemed like he had already gained total control of the skill, 【Kasane Dachi】, as each of the internal slashing attacks were already at a fatal offensive power.
“GI…A…aa…”
Destructive power was put into each of the slashing attacks that one by one were rampaging inside the Lord. The Lord was barely alive at the time it received the 【Mountain Cleaver】 and it also did not have enough power remaining to support itself.
All of the tails had already been cut off by Schnee and were blown away, leaving no possibility of resistance.
The body of the Lord swelled with the rising internal pressure. As additional invisible slashing attacks were generated inside the body due to【Kasane Dachi】, that ‘energy’ wanted to exit.
He didn’t overlook the core even though it was not found yet. The body that was hit by the tempest of slashing attacks was not a safe place anymore. The only destination the core could escape to was the head.
“It’s the end!”
He kicked the ground and jumped.
Then he took an overhead stance with 『True Moon』, with the blade clad in red lightning, above the top of the Lord’s head.
Katana technique lightning combined skill 【Moon Arc : Thunder Flash】.
First of all, lightning was formed around the red blade as it swung toward the head. Next, the lightning on the katanas main body 『True Moon』 sliced through the skull of the Lord, and lightning struck from inside of it. The red lightning spread and blew away the demon-flames from within the eye sockets. The lightning strikes destroyed the head completely, as it went along the neck and the whole body of the Lord burnt completely as if it was not enough.
“…Tsu! …tsu…”
No screaming came out though its body was roasted.
The single attack from Shin sliced the orb together with the core that escaped to the head, and completely disappeared due to the additional lightning strikes. Naturally a Skull Face without its core would vanished in a short time. The Lord though, didn’t disappear right away because of that gigantic body, but its body was already but a corpse’s mere remains.
“Tsu…tsu…tsu!!”
Despite the crumbling body of the Lord, it stretched out its remaining arm toward Shin in its final moment.
“Master!!”
“Wait.”
Schnee shouted at Shin who didn’t move while seeing the state of the Lord. Schnee, who was rushing toward Shin, stopped at his command, and Shin fixed his eyes on the Lord.
The figure had neither hostility, the thirst of blood, nor the sense of intimidation that existed when he fought it a little while ago. The Lord that was extending out its arm towards Shin, seemed to be trying to grip something that was totally out of reach.
“(So…Wo…Ni)”
“Eh!?”
The voice reached Shin’s ear. Though it was a distorted and had a twisted pitch, it was certainly the words of a person.
However, soon after having uttered it, the Lord dissolved into the atmosphere and become demon essence, just like the other Skull Faces. A huge jewel with a diameter of about 50 cemels remained at the place where the Lord had been.
“Master! Are you alright!?”
“Oh, I’m fine. It’s no problem.”
He soothed Schnee, who rushed at him in a panicked state, and thought about the words he heard just a while ago in his mind.
(In the end, I could hardly understand anything. although it was indeed an enemy.)
He paid more attention to the jewel while having a hard time not showing disappointment on his face. It was certainly the highest grade jewel of the first-class. He collected it for the time being just in case it might become a clue to something.
When he turned his attention to the map, the markers for the monsters, which had escaped from the battle with the two, that he was able to perceive, seemed to have disappeared. There was a little individual monster which escaped the purification too, but it seemed to have faded away with the Lord’s defeat. Either way, the Lord was the cause of this disturbance.
The light that illuminated the surroundings was weakened when Shin confirmed it with the map. As he might have expected, the effect of 【Sanctuary】 seemed to gradually stop. When the light completely faded away, the surroundings became dark, although it was still lit by the moonlight.
And, a big change, as a result of defeating the Lord was visible on the plains. Though he didn’t see it because of the strong light of purification, the demon essence drifted smokily up to the sky from the whole plains. With the spectacle of demon essence floating up, the light seemed to dissolve into the night sky.
The scene that happened over the whole plains caused the surrounding knights and adventurers to remain on lookout.
The demon light that soared up high at the same time as the holy light that repelled the darkness faded out into the shades of the night.
There were many people in awe of that scene, which was never seen until now.
“It seems like it’s over.”
“It looks like it. In a while, it will be returned to the original plains, I guess.”
“…Should we return home?”
“Yes.”
Without saying “To where?”, the two people began to walk as they watched the light of the demon essences disappear.
He braced himself, during the battle earlier, to talk to Schnee the same way as he did in the past or in the game, but an indescribable atmosphere settled between the two people as soon as the tension was resolved.
The time separated was short to Shin, but long to Schnee.
They felt awkward around each other, but they gradually became talkative. In order to fill the time that had passed, they continued to talk.
As the investigation team that consisted of knights and adventurers came quickly, the two people had already left the plains.