indianbanksassociation #341 - Blackened three times stronger
#341 - Blackened three times stronger
"Forget it, none of that matters. Whatever changes may come, I can explore them slowly later. What's most important right now is…"
Zunzun turned to look at the last dilapidated shrine.
"Yosuke, I'm counting on you."
"Annihilation of the Flame Phoenix!"
Sure enough, Yosuke Shimaqi was a man of few words and ruthless action. As if venting his resentment towards the gods on the shrine, a super-powerful fire magic descended from the sky, instantly destroying the shrine completely.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
"Couldn't you give us a little warning?"
"Too, too fast!"
The crowd crossed their arms in front of them, constantly resisting the oncoming heatwave while staring warily at the center of the flames.
All three shrines had been destroyed. Next, a powerful enemy was bound to appear. And the "great power of a god's rampage" spoken of in the Ice Clan's ballad gradually appeared before their eyes.
Pale blue energy covered the entire sky, its central part like a huge, extremely thick drop of water, slowly dripping downwards. But the water droplet did not fall to the ground, instead suddenly changing shape in mid-air.
Appearing there was a giant nearly 100 meters tall, wearing a deep blue cloak.
No, that's not quite accurate.
Because they were looking up from below, they should have been able to see the face inside the very low-pulled hat—but that part had no face. It was entirely a void, with starlight gathering and swirling inside. They could even clearly see the seams inside the hat and along its edges.
And inside the long, drooping hem, there was also only a faint darkness and starlight constantly gathering and swirling. This existence gave off a very strong sense of déjà vu.
—The feeling of a certain GM appearing in SAO, except that this one was a real existence and entirely blue, not crimson.
"Alright, let's go!"
Zunzun and Yosuke Shimaqi were the first to adjust their condition. The two of them looked at the suddenly appearing God-Giant, rubbing their fists and rapidly increasing their magical aura.
"The enemy is the rampaging power of a god…"
"Then let's use maximum firepower from the start."
Yosuke Shimaqi materialized a sword of light and darkness, while Zunzun quickly finished chanting the spell and drew the Fairy Sword from the hexagram magic circle. To ensure his own maximum strength, he did not send any fairy into anyone's body this time.
"Haaah!" X2
The two released maximum firepower at the same time, and the magic condensed into a beam of light instantly pierced through the God-Giant's body, tearing a hole dozens of meters wide in its chest. And the energy beam did not stop, disappearing into the sky.
An ordinary enemy would have already died, and even an ordinary energy aggregate would have dispersed as a result, but this was no ordinary being.
"Zunzun?"
"Its magic power is still very strong, no, to be precise, it's still rising!"
Zunzun's eyes had already turned bright red. The Crimson Demons are very sensitive to magic power, so he could see the state of the God-Giant.
Maybel said with some surprise, "It had no effect?"
"Look at your feet, Maybel."
"Grass, it's…"
Looking down, she found that the grass at her feet was growing wildly, soon covering the entire plain. Not only that, countless corpses also emerged from the ground, drilling out from under the grassland.
"This abnormal life fluctuation…!"
"Just as I guessed, that's an aggregate of holy magic. Because it has no physical body, the attacks have no effect. Plus, it's originally a recovery-type magic, so is that why it's reviving these guys?"
This was the so-called disaster.
Watching the corpses constantly drilling out of the ground, their lost flesh gradually grew back. Bones healed, nerves and muscles continued to grow, and finally skin and senses reappeared.
These were undoubtedly the monsters that had died nearby, and the reason for their revival was because the recovery magic had gone berserk.
And this was no simple berserk.
It was the berserk of the power of a god.
The elven bishoujo and Maybel took action in time, instantly eliminating a large number of monsters, while Leica and Edgar also joined the battlefield, fighting with the monsters. But soon, they discovered that these dead monsters would be reborn again in a few breaths.
"Isn't this never-ending!?"
"Zunzun!"
Leica and Edgar shouted.
Zunzun also shouted back, "No, it's not the time yet! We need to weaken the power of the god a little more!"
They two obviously wanted to release the Magic Flame Dragon now, allowing it to absorb the power of the god to revive and eliminate this tricky recovery ability at the same time.
But if the Magic Flame Dragon was released now, it would instead be swallowed by the power of the god and become part of its own power, so they could only delay it for a while longer.
"Yosuke, follow the plan!"
"Alright, leave it to you!"
After a simple instruction, Zunzun rushed up with the Fairy Sword, slashing off about half of the giant body with one sword, and then attacking again in the gap where it was about to recover.
"—I'm freaking exploding!"
All the magic power in his body was condensed in an instant, not only Zunzun's own magic power, the second source of magic power, but also the power of the Fairy and the power of the Cherry Bomb. In short, Zunzun unleashed all of his magic power in one breath.
With a boom, an explosion even more exaggerated than Megumin's Explosion magic erupted, a powerful explosion that Kazuma Sato would have to give 10 billion points to.
A huge mushroom cloud appeared on the plain, and Yosuke Shimaqi and the others were blown away dozens of meters by the oncoming thrust.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa—"
"Too, too exaggerated!"
"Is Zunzun really that strong!?"
The Alicia trio were the first to be blown away. Yosuke Shimaqi had his hand stuck in the grassland, with a transparent barrier in front of him. Thanks to this, he was not blown away. The elven bishoujo used the scabbard she had just obtained, holding the sword in one hand and grabbing Maybel with the other, barely managing to stabilize their figures.
And when the explosion ended, everyone except Yosuke Shimaqi, whose expression was a little indifferent or who had already guessed it, stared at the giant crater in front of them with their mouths agape.
It could be said to be a comet hitting the Earth.
Leica and Edgar, covered in dirt, pulled Alicia out of the pile of dirt while saying the FLAG line that should never be said.
"With such strong power, whether it's the power of a god or a collection of holy magic, it must have been blown to ashes."
"D-don't jinx it, Leica!"
Alicia screamed excitedly.
I don't know how she knew the word 'jinx,' and I don't know why she understood its meaning, but there was no leisure to ask.
Because—
"Light of Saber!"
At some point, Zunzun was standing blankly in the void in front of the giant, facing them while using his signature move. The raging thunder, blessed by holy magic, became enough to cover the entire sky.
Zunzun, descending from above, with his emotionless eyes and high-above posture, was almost indistinguishable from a god. He was simply the embodiment of a god!
"I say, is Zunzun that strong?"
"Could it be that he usually doesn't show his full strength? He just released a big move!"
"Could it be the so-called 'blackening triples strength'!"
"Damn it!"
Faced with the overwhelming thunder, the crowd had no room to dodge and could only desperately resist. Yosuke Shimaqi stood in front of the crowd, and with a clap of his hands, he summoned a curtain of water, wrapping the crowd.
"Kuroki!?"
"Using water!?"
The crowd's faces changed drastically, but they soon realized that the thunder's mighty force, the raging magic that permeated the entire world, was bypassing them. It was as if the place where they were was a safe isolation zone.
"What is this?"
"Pure water."
Yosuke Shimaqi pushed up his glasses. He said calmly, "This is knowledge that even elementary school students know. Pure water does not conduct electricity. Because I knew Zunzun's skills and magic, I was always thinking about how to fight, so I thought of this."
Normally, to use ultra-pure water magic, in addition to being extremely proficient in water magic, one must also have very strong magic control.
Kurogane Tsumugi is a typical example.
But Yosuke Shimaqi didn't need to do that. He could easily create ultra-pure water that isolated electricity by simply asking the water-type fairies for a little help.
"More than that…"
Yosuke Shimaqi looked at Zunzun, who was fighting in the void above, and said, "That's spirit-type holy magic, right? I remember it's magic that can manipulate people. Maybel was the one who was manipulated back then."
"Ah, the one where I was controlled by the priest?"
Maybel exclaimed in surprise.
The elven bishoujo said anxiously, "Then what should we do now? If Zunzun is being controlled, isn't this very bad right now?"
"W-wait, wait… can you guys stop chatting? This is very bad right now!"
"Teacher, quickly think of a way!"
Leica and Edgar were starting to lose their grip.
Although the ultra-pure water barrier created by Yosuke Shimaqi could isolate the erosion of thunder, it could not isolate the harassment of the constantly reviving monsters. The constantly gathering monsters were overwhelming the two of them.
In addition, Zunzun could do more than just lightning magic. Seeing the fire and earth magic constantly gathering in his hands, the crowd's faces changed.
"L-leave it to me!"
Alicia suddenly stepped forward and said, "I can probably guess Zunzun's purpose in bringing us here. It must be for now! As long as I use the Staff of Salvation to synchronize with Zunzun's senses, I'll definitely be able to save him! Come on! Please let the surging waves of this lost person's heart become one with me—"
She was not stopped in time, and she successfully connected to Zunzun's heart, only to be kicked out after a few breaths.
The crowd rushed over.
"Are you okay, Alicia!"
"N-no, I'm okay! Zunzun's past memories… I came into contact with the darkness in his heart… The young Zunzun was wearing a dress and squatting alone in front of a small mound of dirt, always playing with mud by himself… Wearing a pink little skirt, with no companions to talk to…"
The girl looked at the cold and aloof Zunzun, who was high above and unlike ordinary people, with a look of sympathy. His isolated appearance was very similar to his childhood self.
The crowd also looked at Zunzun with sympathy, but for some reason, the thunder became even more violent.