Ch 147.1
「Ain?!!」
The sword’s blade turned into particles of light and disappeared into thin air.
Divine Sword Ainbelle was Ain’s second form. Nothing major would happen even if it was chipped away a bit, but to completely break it… Just as I burst out in cold sweat I heard Ain’s voice.
《G…ramps…》
《Ain, is that you?! Hey!! Are you okay?!!》
《I’m… fine… I’ll turn back to normal soon… so…》
Her voice grew more and more distant as she continued to speak.
However, I could still feel her presence inside me.
It seems like she just went to sleep.
「I thought I’d go easy on you, but in the end I decided to ditch the idea. So just go suffer and die you bastard.」 said Grain as he began gathering magic power at the tip of his finger.
The spell he was preparing to cast was Red Blaster. It was a spell that created heat rays which scorched the caster’s enemies.
「Don’t dodge now, okay? You’re going to listen to what I tell you right?」 asked Grain
「Ze…ph… don’t… worry… about… me…」
Just now Grain had purposefully weakened his grip around Milly’s neck just so that he could let her speak.
He was probably planning on letting me hear Milly so that I would do exactly as he asked…! With a grin on his face Grain pointed his finger at me and fired off the heat rays.
Right wrist…!!
I gathered magic power at the place the heat rays were aiming at, and somehow managed to guard the attack.
「Urg…h…?!!」
Still guarding with just magical power alone didn’t amount to much and just slightly weakened the attack.
Red Blaster was a spell that could continuously fire off heat rays as long as the caster continued to supply magic power.
Normally it wouldn’t be strange for my hand to be burned to a crisp immediately, but the feeling I got right now was that of it being roasted over low heat.
Did its power decline due to the magician killing spell, or is he purposely lowering its output…?
「Zeph!! Zeph!!」
「Hyahaha!! That’s a nice scream you got there!」 said Grain with a vile laughter, mocking Milly’s sorrowful cry.
The smell of meat being burned entered my nose and I was forced to clench my teeth from the pain.
As the heat rays died off I held onto my wounded right hand, glaring at Grain.
「Kuku… The next side is up next, prepare yourself!」
Next it was my left hand. As I suffered the attack of the heat rays I almost lost my consciousness.
「AHHHH!!」
Grain laughed as he watched me scream my lungs out. He appeared to be in a great mood, but even so he showed no openings and I couldn’t try anything due to Milly being held hostage.
Right leg, left ear, shoulders, thighs… The relentless strikes continued as I used guard, fuelled by magic power, to try and somehow avoid any lethal wounds.
「Haha! Dance, dance!! Put on a good show for me!!」
「NOOOO!!Zeph!! Zeph!!」 Milly screamed out my name.
My eyesight turned misty. It seemed like I had suffered a decent amount of damage.
I couldn’t feel anything besides pain.
「We’re still not done you know? I need to make you suffer for Kane as well!! I’ll keep going until you beg for me to spare you! No wait, I’ll continue even if you do!!」
Grain appeared to be thinking of ways to slowly torture me to death.
There… should definitely… be an opening… somewhere…
Grain’s spell then burned my forehead and I once again screamed in agony.
How long has passed since that first attack I wonder.
Grain continued to mercilessly rain down spells on me. The heat rays continued to scorch my body.
I reached a point where I couldn’t even let out a word. I could only hear Grain’s laughter echo in the area.
「Ze…ph…」
Milly’s face was covered in tears as she looked at my miserable state.
Looking closely, I could see that Grain had stuck his hand in Milly’s mouth.
He’s probably preventing her from biting off her tongue…
After all it wouldn’t be strange for Milly to opt for suicide, considering the state I was in.
「Phew, I sure had my fun… Though I still think that it’s a little bit early for you to die, don’t you agree?」
As my knees gave up and I fell to the ground I once again felt a heat ray pierce my left arm.
「ARGHHH!!!」
「Ahahaha! This is so damn fun! It’s so damn fun to bully the weak!!」
I was at a point in which I couldn’t even use magic power to guard anymore.
I had lost my sense of pain as well, and my scream wasn’t even a scream.
As I was in that state I suddenly heard something drop right in front of my feet.
「Oh my.」 said Grain with a slightly disappointed voice.
As I heard him I looked forward.
In front of me there was a piece of meat that was charred black. It was my left arm.
As I watched it with a dumbfounded expression, Grain looked down at me, seeming a little bit disappointed, but nonetheless happy.
「My bad, my bad, it seemed like I let myself go on that one. On the bright side, you still have your right hand and your both legs, so should we continue our playtime? Hyahaha!!」 he apologized with only one of his hands.
His apology was akin to that of apologizing to someone you had bumped on the road.
His other hand was still stuck in Milly’s mouth, but that didn’t stop her from letting out a painful roar.
「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!」
It was a long, painful roar.
And alongside it Milly’s magic power burst forth.
「Wh?!!」
「Mi…llly…?」
Was her dormant magic power awakened by her anger towards Grains?
Her surging magic power was so thick; that not even Grain’s Screen Point could absorb all of it.
Being shocked by the development, Grain unconsciously let go of Milly.
As she was freed from Grain’s grasp, Milly stood between me and him, and as to surprise me even more, her magic power continued to rise even further.
Her magic power was at a level that not even me, nor the Five Heavenly Mages, nor anyone else could compete with…
「HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ZEPH!!」
「…. Haha…」
However, Grain still didn’t seem to be bothered by Milly that much as he just spit on the ground.
On the other hand, Milly didn’t also flinch from his cold murderous gaze.
「Blue Gale!!」 she shouted out as she cast a Blue Gale at Grain.
A water vortex, that was close to the size of the Double Blue Gale me and her would usually cast together, launched towards Grain… However,
「Like it would work.」
「?!!」
Screen Point.
Without us noticing, he had released the Screen Point covering his left hand, and had switched it to cover his whole body, nullifying all magic.
From behind the water vortex the sound of Grain kicking the ground could be heard.
He didn’t seem to care about Milly’s Blue Gale at all as his speed didn’t falter at all.
「… Blue Gale!! Blue Gale!!」
Milly continued casting Blue Gales.
With the amount of spells she had just cast, anyone could determine that her potential was tremendous.
However, the compatibility with her current opponent was just too bad.
At Grain’s charge Milly’s legs began to shake from fear and she took a step back.
Not good.
No matter how tremendous her magic power may be, she can’t fight him with his magician killing spell…
「Milly… run away…!!」
「Zeph…」
Hearing my voice Milly’s legs suddenly stopped.
I could see that her knees were about to give out. In order to prevent that from happening she held onto her legs with all of her strength.
She then turned towards me and smiled.
「… It’s okay. I’ll protect you. I’m the leader after all!!」 she said with a dazzling smile, as she then once again turned towards the incoming Grain, prepared to fight.
The stance she took told me that she was planning on casting Blue Gale again.
Is she planning on firing it at close range and suiciding…!
Setting her gaze at the shadow coming from behind the water vortex, Milly stretched out her arms and cast her spell.
「Blue…」
However, before she could finish it blood dripped down from her mouth.
The dripping mouth flowed down her pale face, made its way through her throat, her collarbone and finally combined with the blood coming out of her chest.
Sticking through Milly’s chest was Grain’s sword, who had now disappeared from sight.
Milly used her trembling arms to grab a hold of the sword’s blade sticking out of her chest.
At that moment, Milly’s chest exploded alongside her fingers and she was blown away.
「… You can’t do it. People without power cannot protect anyone.」 said Grain with a smile standing behind Milly, looking through the hole in her chest.
He was using the sword in his hand to support Milly that was about to fall.
Milly’s body lost all of its strength as her limbs fell down and her head sagged as well.
She was dead.
「Oh my… Kuku. That’s what happens when you look away during a fight. Didn’t you teach her something as basic as that?」
「Mi…」
Grain then pulled out his sword and let Milly fall down.
Just as she was about to fall to the ground he grabbed her hair with his hand and pulled up her face so that her eyes could meet mine.
「Zeph, I’m sorry. I said I would protect you, but I ended up losing.」 he said while moving Milly’s mouth and imitating her voice.
「lly…」
Blood continued to drip down from her mouth.
Each time he moved her mouth even more blood dripped down.
Her limbs were sagging, her eyes had lost all of their light, her cheeks had lost their reddish color… The joyous, energetic Milly that always stood in front of me was nowhere to be found.
「So boring… And here I thought that I’d mess with her a little more… You see I have this bad habit of taking care of people quickly when they refuse to obey me…」
Grain said as he casually threw Milly to the ground, and trampled on her head with a dissatisfied expression.
Milly’s beautiful golden hair got stained by the dirt and blood, and her neck was bent in the wrong direction.
「Guess there’s no helping it, I’ll just have my fun with you… Oh wait, now that I think about it I have another toy over there!」
As his words left his mouth, my heart shrank.
His eyes were looking at the sleeping Claude.
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