Chapter 20 - Atram and the Heart of Eden (3)
Diopina was so enraged that she let out rough, hissing breaths.
Diopina's giant body undulated with the flickering torchlight.
A sharp voice, like shattering glass, leaked from her face, which was buried in the mass of flesh.
“How dare you, how dare you. What place do you think this is? This is a space for me and Atram. A place where the likes of you should not set foot. You filthy seed. You, looking at you makes me angry. I'll kill you. Yes. When I'm angry, I should kill.”
“Mr. Atram, was that monster always like that? Or did she become like that after dying and coming back to life? No matter how I look at it, she's not normal.”
“I-it seems to have gotten a little worse. But she was always like that.”
Atram, who had been frozen stiff and terrified behind me, spoke up with courage.
However, Diopina became even more excited, as if she was happy that Atram had spoken at all.
“Hehe. My love. I've finally met you. Even after a thousand years, our love is still strong. My love, Atram. Come here. I will make you complete.”
“Stop it, you lump of flesh. At this rate, Mr. Atram is going to die of fear before his lifespan runs out.”
However, Diopina, her ears blocked by madness, continued to prattle on about what she wanted to say.
“Atram, my love, you know, right? The Heart of Eden in your heart is incomplete. Because it was a prototype. At this rate, you will d-die soon. So I made it. The artifact that will cure your incurable disease, the Heart of Eden.”
Diopina dragged her giant body and walked to a table placed on one side of the wide laboratory.
Then she picked up a small, human-fist-sized sphere from the table.
That golden object was empty inside, as if it were some kind of shell.
“If we just combine this with the prototype in your chest, you will become a complete being. You'll be able to live the normal life you so desired, where your wounds heal. Hehe, I did it. I did it for you. And also, Atram. You were worried about being small despite being of the giant race, right? That too, I can solve it. Look at me. I've become huge, right? You too. I'll make Atram like this, too.”
Diopina shouted, spreading her dozens of pairs of arms wide.
“All of this! It's all something I accomplished for you!”
Diopina, shouting in excitement.
Atram, trembling in fear behind me.
I had a feeling that this very moment was a crucial one that would decide Atram's life and death.
I raised my shield and sword, assuming a combat stance, and spoke to Atram.
“Mr. Atram. It's frustrating, but the only one who can save you is that monster-like Diopina.”
Ever since I became an apostle of Moirai, my life had been a struggle to save all life on this land.
To turn a blind eye to a life flickering out before me was the same as denying my entire life.
I wanted to save Atram.
No, I had to save him.
That, in the eons of time, was also a way to protect myself.
Even if that method lay with the enemy, if I could save a single life, I did not want to turn away.
“Kikikikikiki. Th-that's right. Atram. The only one who can save you is me.”
“My intentions are different from yours, but I also want Mr. Atram to live. So I'm asking if he's willing to receive the procedure from you, so please just shut up. When you talk, it only has the opposite effect.”
“Kukukukuk, Atram. I'll make you complete.”
This crazy Chimera.
Still, perhaps she had no objection to me asking for Atram's opinion, as she just chuckled to herself without interrupting me again.
“Mr. Atram.”
“Ughhh.”
I could feel Atram's trembling through the hand that gripped my sleeve from behind.
I once again explained slowly to Atram.
Because I couldn't be sure if Atram, who was gripped by fear, was properly understanding the situation.
“I know. You must be confused. But what Diopina said is true. For you to live, you need that thing called the Heart of Eden. We could fight Diopina and take it from her, but we'll need time to study it afterward. That thing isn't perfect as it is. I can't guarantee that you'll be alive while that Heart of Eden is being completed. So, as a physician, I recommend that you receive the completed Heart of Eden implant from Diopina now.”
“I, I……”
I glanced back to see Atram, who was already shedding tears.
“I, I want to die.”
Thick tears fell relentlessly from Atram's eyes.
“If I receive that thing called the Heart of Eden, that monster-like Diopina will be happy, won't she?”
I felt the strength in Atram's hand gripping my clothes increase.
“Even if you kill Diopina after that, it will be meaningless. The way for me…… for me to inflict pain on that woman is to just die. In that case…… I will die.”
Atram finished his words, shedding tears and trembling.
From Atram's stuttering words, I could feel the fear and anger he held.
It was a sense of kinship that only someone who had lived for a very long time hating a single being could feel.
For a time close to eons, Atram must have thought and thought again.
That he wanted to die, that he wanted to give up.
And he must have been enraged. At Diopina, who made him this way.
‘Just as I have steadily piled up my anger towards the evil god Gamelom and his apostle, the Mad Dragon Ignita, for a long time.’
There was probably no one in the world who could empathize with Atram more than I.
However, I had no intention of standing by and watching Atram's suicide.
In that case, I just had to use a different method.
“I have no choice but to bet on a smaller probability.”
“What?”
“Kill Diopina, take the Heart of Eden, and study it. In the meantime, keep you alive by freezing you again or by some other means. And then implant the completed Heart of Eden in you.”
“What…… what meaning is there in that?”
Atram retorted, as if it were absurd.
“Why is there no meaning? Diopina won't be happy even if you live, will she?”
“That's…….”
“Mr. Atram. Do you know why my name is Savior?”
“What?”
Atram asked back as if asking what I was suddenly talking about.
I recalled the Goddess' words.
The reason my name is Savior.
“Because I am humanity's……. your savior.”
When I first heard these words from the Goddess, my hands and feet cringed, and I was utterly mortified.
I still think they are embarrassing words.
But right now, Atram needs something like this.
I smiled playfully and said to Atram.
“So, I will save you one way or another. There must be life for there to be healing, recovery, and a happy future, don't you think?”
Kukukuk.
Diopina, who had been listening to our conversation, burst out laughing as if she couldn't stand it anymore.
“Who's killing whom? Defeating? Taking away? Who is whose savior? Kukukukuk.”
I gripped the handles of my buckler and sword tightly.
According to the documents, Diopina was a 6th Circle magician.
If she could use magic, I would probably die in an instant without being able to lift a finger.
But right now, she was not a magician but a Chimera.
A monster with nothing but a bloated and dull body, without any combat skills.
If she was just an amateur who was only strong but knew no combat skills, there was no reason I would lose in a fight.
“Atram, if we combine the prototype and the Heart of Eden, you will become perfect. You can turn your weakness into a strength. I will heal you. Before that…….”
Diopina glared at me.
“If I just kill you, you bastard. Everything will be alright. Atram will come back to his senses, too.”
“The one who needs to come back to their senses first is you, isn't it?”
Diopina, picking up all sorts of tools with her dozens of pairs of arms and walking over.
I raised my buckler again.
I operated my Single Core to its maximum.
Diopina and I made eye contact, and without waiting to see who would go first, we rushed towards each other.
Diopina's weapons stabbed in from all directions.
I deflected those attacks with my buckler.
But Diopina's attacks did not stop.
I parry, parry, and parry.
My field of vision was filled with the various weapons Diopina was holding.
I search for a gap in this seemingly endless, infinite attack.
Even though I was deflecting and blocking as much as possible, my arm was tingling.
But I cannot retreat.
Thud.
One step.
I took one more step forward.
With that one step, Diopina's attacks grew fiercer.
Thud.
I grit my teeth and took one more step.
I advanced while blocking.
A giant hammer flew and struck my buckler.
My body tilted.
I injected mana into the leg on the tilting side.
I kicked off the earth.
With that rebound, I swung my sword.
‘It's here.’
An attack during Diopina's onslaught that could be linked to my basic sword form.
I hurriedly linked that long-awaited attack to the 1st form of the sword and shield style.
‘One more step.’
My body swayed greatly from side to side.
A precarious movement as if I would fall.
But that was the very essence of the Clossi-style Sword and Shield Technique.
A balance that, like a reed swaying in the wind, may sway but does not fall.
The sword forms flow like water, connecting from the 2nd form to the 3rd.
And then it cycles again, 5th form, 1st form.
‘I link them.’
I continue to advance.
Becoming a single great flow, I blocked the attacks with my buckler.
I swung my sword.
Each time, one of Diopina's arms was cut off and sent flying.
Whack.
An attack from Diopina that I failed to deflect struck my thigh.
It hurt.
My body swayed greatly, but I regained my posture.
I slash, block, stab, block, cut down, and swing.
Diopina's dozens of pairs of limbs, like a light rain that I fail to block, accumulate damage on my body.
But I cannot stop.
This is a war of attrition.
Neither Diopina nor I can perfectly evade or neutralize each other's attacks.
Only attack.
Before I collapse from exhaustion, I must first cut off all of Diopina's arms and legs.
If not that, then I must break through these endlessly extending arms and legs and plunge my sword into her giant torso.
Thud.
Holding that resolve, I took one more step forward.
Cough.
A fist, I couldn't tell which monster it belonged to, broke through my defense and struck my abdomen.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
But I could not stop my sword.
The moment the chain of my sword forms was broken, I would be beaten to a pulp by Diopina's haphazard attacks.
Thud.
One more step.
Just as I thought that and swung my sword.
“Eek.”
Diopina sank into the ground.
It was a declaration of surrender.
I had won the battle of endurance.
However, perhaps my body had also reached its limit, as my swinging sword was not blocked by Diopina's arm, and my body pitched forward greatly.
“Damn it, where did she run off to again.”
“I'll kill you, you bastard. I'll kill you for sure.”
At the back of the laboratory, having put some distance between us, Diopina screamed, pouring purple blood from her whole body.
Of her dozens of pairs of arms and legs, only three remained.
A clear limit.
“Yeah, try and kill me. If you can.”
Haap.
I took a deep breath.
I had moved to my limit, and my hands and feet were trembling, but I gripped my buckler and sword tightly and raised them at Diopina.
And the moment I took another step towards Diopina to attack.
“Eek. J-just you wait a little!”
Diopina sank into the ground again.
“Mr. Savior!”
At the same time, my strength gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor.
Atram ran over and supported me.
“Are you okay?”
I asked Atram.
“Isn't that my line?”
Atram asked, bringing his face close to mine.
Wow, he really is handsome.
“I'm fine. You said you could tell Diopina's location, right? By any chance, did Diopina go to where my comrades are?”
“No. She's heading towards the giant Chimeras that can't pass through the passage. I think she's planning to kill them directly and absorb their power.”
“Damn it.”
A curse escaped me without me realizing.
I had barely gained the upper hand, and I had succeeded in making Diopina flee, but that was as far as it went.
“How much stronger does Diopina get if she absorbs the Chimeras?”
“Well. I'm not sure about that.”
“So you just vaguely mean she gets stronger than she is now?”
“Yes…….”
“Then I can't do it alone. I need to join up with my comrades. Then we'll be able to win.”
I pushed my heavy body up.
“R-right. Will your comrades be okay?”
Atram asked worriedly.
“Of course. Because our team has a guardian deity there.”
However, if Diopina goes there, the story changes.
Before a stronger Diopina could attack again, I had to quickly join my comrades.
For my sake, and for my comrades' sake.