1006: Meltritte's Body

「A few sacrifices are justified if I can finally eradicate the dragonkin!」

Meltritte began breathing heavily with her shoulders heaving up and down. Her naturally beautiful face contorted into the face of a demon.

It’s as if her madness was gradually eroding her sanity.

「……I can understand why you want revenge.」

Fran’s words were filled with very powerful emotions. No doubt she was remembering how much hatred she used to have for the blue cats.

「Enough with the sympathy! Are you going to leave me alone or not?」

「Never. There’s no way I’ll let you get away with sacrificing anyone. Besides, this continent is full of people I want to protect. That’s why I’m going to defeat you.」

Fran held me up with a hint of sadness on her face. It seems she had no intention of trying to convince Meltritte. She probably put herself in Meltritte’s shoes and realized that words weren’t enough to stop her.

After all, even Fran might do something similar if it meant saving the black cats.

「In that case, you’ll be the first to die by my hands! I can finally deliver punishment to all the sinners living on this continent! I won’t stop until every last one of you is dead!」

「I won’t let you.」

「Then die!」

The two’s shouts signaled the start of their battle.

Meltritte and Fran moved simultaneously, slamming their weapons against each other.

「Your sword……! It is clearly no ordinary magic sword! How could it withstand a clash against mine?!」

「My sword is the best!」

Meltritte was way stronger than I had imagined, mainly stat-wise. She might be on the level of high-level antidemons.

Despite her slender arms, her blade carried a ridiculous amount of force behind it. She must have incredibly high strength in spite of her appearance.

She also had an inhuman sense of vision, as she managed to follow Fran’s slashes. However, Fran was clearly the better swordsman. Meltritte eventually ran out of options to defend herself, and ate one of my spells.

「Kah! So you use magic too!」

Her body didn’t seem to take much damage from that, but my thunder and flame spells burnt off the rest of her battered robe.

As a result, I finally succeeded in getting a full appraisal on her.

『Her race isn’t just lorelei, but also antidemon? Just like Nadia!』

I compared her strength to a high-level antidemon, but her body was actually half antidemon. Upon closer inspection, I could see the tough carapace under her clothes.

Her face and hands showed no signs of this, but it seems most of her torso had already mutated into an antidemon form.

Fran’s eyes widened when she saw this. She couldn’t hold her surprise back after being reminded of Nadia.

It seems that Meltritte also sensed Fran’s surprise. She smirked as she lightly tapped the carapace covering her chest.

「You noticed? Lovely, isn’t it?」

「……An antidemon… body……?」

「That’s right. Have you ever heard of the failed divine swords?」

「Nn.」

「Oh? That makes things quick. Both of these are failed divine swords, you see. It’s thanks to their wonderful powers that I managed to obtain this body.」

To think there were other failed swords besides Overgrowth! And moreover, she had two of them fused together.

Falldown and Evil-Eater, right? One of them must have an ability similar to Overgrowth’s.

「You did this to yourself?」

「Exactly. I would do anything to gain the power to fight!」

With her antidemon mutation exposed, she no longer had any need to suppress this power. Meltritte began ramping up her speed with her antidemon aura in full drive.

But none of her attacks ever reached Fran.

「How can you avoid that!」

「You might be fast, but that’s it. All your moves are obvious.」

「Then try this! Haaah!」

「That won’t hit either.」

「Damn! You’re pretty good!」

Meltritte’s strong points were her physical strength and the tricky nature of the crossed failed divine swords. She gained the initiative at the start, but was no longer a match for Fran after we adjusted our strategy.

The difference in swordplay was just too great. Meltritte was indeed formidable, but her forte must have been ranged combat.

Now it was Meltritte’s turn to be on the defensive. She just barely managed to block Fran’s onslaught with her superhuman reflexes.

However, her defense was nowhere near perfect. We constantly etched shallow wounds into her skin.

It seems the insides of her body were more mutated than the outside appearance. No blood exited her wounds, and she regenerated instantly. The exact same thing we saw with high-level antidemons.

Just repeatedly scratching her like this would be meaningless. We have to take her down in one fell swoop. Meltritte’s composure was probably due to confidence in her durable body.

After realizing this fact, Fran calmly focused her energy despite being in the middle of combat. While delivering enough blows to seal away Meltritte’s counterattack, she concentrated on the mana within herself.

Fran always got a headache from trying to cast two spells at the same time, so who would’ve thought she’d be able to use Parallel Thought this well. The divine-attributed mana began building up, set aside from the mana she was currently using for combat.

Meltritte just noticed too, and the confident smile on her face twitched slightly. Unfortunately for her, it was already too late to escape.

（Master!）

『On it!』

Right as Fran stepped in to strike, I blasted the cross-sword in Meltritte’s hand with the full force of my telekinesis.

She probably noticed the invisible force with her sharpened senses, but there’s no way she could dodge an attack from this close.

Though Meltritte held tightly onto her blade, it nearly flew out of her hands. By the time she managed to pull it back, Fran was right in front of her.

「…!」

After realizing that her parry wouldn’t make it in time, Meltritte’s face contorted in frustration. She certainly never expected the random girl accompanying the Rank S adventurer to be this good.

（I can try that now.）

Fran cloaked her body in divine aspected mana. Her black lightning gained a tinge of blueish-white light which caused it to glow brighter.

「Sword God Transformation!」

As soon as she whispered the words, her slash of divine speed cleaved Meltritte’s torso.

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