Chapter 17: March of the Calamity

Only the strong can be intoxicated by the allure of terror.

— Charles Baudelaire

Lowering its stance to roar, the Balfa Mata unleashes a wide-range burst of frigid air around itself.

After emitting the cold wave, it summons massive ice hammers across the surrounding area with delayed timing. The girl resembling a Hannibal—Bell?—lightly steps to dodge the flying ice hammers spawning from the Mata's front to her left and right.

"Yo! Hup! Toh!"

She escapes the range of the barrage of ice blocks, which gains a Stun effect when the Aragami is Activated, and uses a Perfect Guard against the shattered fragments to avoid taking hits.

Reacting to her swift evasions and approach, the Balfa Mata forms a giant ice spear beneath its target's feet, attempting to skewer her.

Compared to a standard Prithvi Mata's attack, this AoE is significantly wider; if targeted in a narrow space, there is no escape.

"Haha! This is fun! This is how a fight should be! Oraaaah!!"

Detecting the faint edge of the ground's warning effect, Bell destroys the emerging ice spear at its source with her Variant Scythe.

The Balfa Mata conjures multiple giant ice-block mines in front of it and launches them. It roars, detonating the homing ice cluster as it continuously spirals toward her.

Against the pursuing, chain-detonating ice mines, she instantly creates several purplish-red spheres of lightning in her palms and fires them to offset the attack.

From the completely white space, her vision blinded by the glittering frost dust, Bell leaps from the flank with her raised Scythe and pounces on the Balfa Mata.

"Hyahhaaaa!!! Your torso is wide open!!! Gotcha!!!"

The sharp blade of the Variant Scythe slashes down into the Balfa Mata's flank.

However, the Balfa Mata crouches, cloaking its body in a vortex of freezing air to generate a shield of ice. A defensive film of ice coats its already robust carapace, repelling and blocking the Scythe's strike so it cannot reach.

Having defended against the girl's attack, the Balfa Mata lowers its body at an angle and jumps vertically. Upon landing, it unleashes a freezing stomp all around, spreading an effect that spawns a massive ice hammer.

"Hah! You really are ridiculously hard!! Hey! Is this the good old Resurrection +99 or what?!!"

The Balfa Mata closes in on the girl, who survives by a hair's breadth with a Perfect Guard, and throws a freezing right hook. As she twists her body to avoid the fast, high-power sharp claws, it follows up with a forward biting attack.

Assaulting vertically and horizontally, it leaps toward her, generating a shockwave at its landing point, then leaps again from a different spot—the Balfa Mata's three-dimensional maneuver attack.

"Alley-oop! Heave-ho! Hiyah!"

Against the approaching Ice Empress's relentless attacks, Bell uses Steps, Guards, and Back Jumps to freely and continuously evade, launching a barrage of slashes and lightning strikes in return.

Blocking the lightning with homing ice bullets, the charging and leaping Balfa Mata flips upon landing, creates distance, pauses for a moment, and heavily inhales.

Similarly, Bell puffs out her chest, arches her back, and takes a deep breath.

An enormous, terrifying torrent of breath is unleashed from the mouths of both the Empress and the girl.

White, freezing cold and red-hot roaring thunder.

Both breaths collide, rumble, burst, and trigger a massive explosion.

"Guh, what a battle... I'm so pathetic... To think I can barely manage just keeping myself hidden..."

Hiding in a corner of the rubble, Werner can only watch the battle between the Aragami and the girl in silence.

He wants to help the girl, but there isn't a shred of room for him to intervene in such a fierce battle. It's a neck-and-neck, back-and-forth struggle. Lethal strikes that would end the fight if they connected intersect again and again.

Who will ultimately settle the score? Who will be the one left standing on the earth?

"Hahaha!! That actually hurt! Truly wonderful! Nice!! SOOOOO NIIICE!!!"

Snapping off the frost frozen all over her body, Bell twists the corners of her mouth on her frostbite-riddled body, laughing with genuine amusement. Fundamentally, the act of smiling is an instinctive behavior used by beasts to intimidate their prey during a hunt.

"LoOkS LiKe It'S oKaY fOr Me tO gO aLL oUt NoW! pLaY wItH mE MoRe, MoRe, MOOOOOORE!!!"

As if responding to the girl's maddening scream, an overwhelming, violent power surging to the bursting point courses through and fills her body.

Thirst.

To satisfy an intense, thirsty desire.

The suppressed, surging torrent of power flows into the limbs of the slender, young, beautiful girl.

Her hands, arms, and legs grotesquely swell and hypertrophy like logs, and her glossy brown back bulges out to form reversed scales.

Her mouth tears wide open laterally, revealing a full array of fangs. Combined with an elongated snout and majestically extending twin horns, she morphs into a grotesque creature.

Purplish-red crystalline scales clad her expanding body, forming a sturdy armor of blade-tips.

She swings a tail as thick and long as a submarine cable from her waist, gouging the earth with the resilient claws of her feet.

In contrast to the gauntlet-like left arm, her massive right arm swells to form a ripping, giant scythe. It is the unwavering blade of condemnation that equally mows down and hunts everything.

Contrasting her glowing golden right eye, her left eye on the shadow-cracked half of her face blazes with a deep crimson-purple flame, hinting at a roaring hellfire.

A blue-black Demonic Dragon.

A majestic figure worthy of such a name.

Though her appearance and features resemble the Ash-Forged Aragami known as the Tyrani Hannibal, the aura and intensity she exudes are incomparably greater.

The sight of a once petite, cute, and adorable girl transforming into an unbelievable, terrifying monster can only be described as madness.

"...Bell, just what in the world are you...?"

"COME COME COME COME!!! LET'S LOVE EACH OTHER TO 'DEATH'!!!"

Werner's mutterings are drowned out by the Demonic Dragon's merciless roar.

The Balfa Mata, somewhat surprised that a human female has turned into a massive Aragami rivaling itself, raises a roar. Having bathed in the lightning breath, its body is ruptured and covered in wounds great and small.

The Demonic Dragon cracks the joints of its body—where human and dragon have merged and tissue cells have rearranged—stretching and flexing the joints and muscles of limbs that have achieved an evolution far beyond human.

I'll Devour you. I'll Devour every last bit of you.

You are my prey. You are mine.

Let me tear your flesh apart. Let me crush your bones to pieces.

Let me hear you scream at the top of your lungs in agonizing pain!

And then, I'll forcefully rip out your Core while you're still alive and gorge on it right in front of you.

To satisfy my insatiable thirst to Devour, I will consume you down to the last piece of your cells.

I roared. To make it realize the conclusion known as its despairing fate that was about to arrive.

Not to be outdone, the bastard roared right back in opposition to my cry.

Oh, isn't this interesting... A wounded half-wit like you thinks it can take on the great me? Stop messing around.

I'll remind you exactly who is the hunter and who is the hunted prey!

Without a shred of hesitation or doubt, I thrust my right hand forward in a tearing motion.

BAAAAAM!!!

A shockwave that struck the eardrums.

Cleaving through the atmosphere at subsonic speed, I instantaneously closed the distance to right in front of it.

A reckless, un-aimed, un-restrained strike of my hand-blade.

The extended, sharp, razor-like claws of my fingertips pierced through the snout of its creepy Noh-mask face in a horizontal sweep, deeply gouging out both of its eyeballs.

"~~~~~~~!!!?"

Riiiiiiiip, as flesh is torn apart... Cruuuunch, as the hard carapace is smashed and broken... This exquisite sensation... Siiiick... I can't get enoooough!

I was intoxicated by the ecstasy of the resistance as I toyed with the prey, a sensation that fit perfectly in my hands.

"~~~~~~~~~!!! ~~~~~~~~~!!!"

The bastard swung its front legs around erratically and staggered back in a panic.

Apparently, I was way too fast for it to even have time to Guard.

Stripped of its vision, it let out an angry growl, whipped up a vortex of cold air to form multiple ice spears, and fired them all at once in every direction.

I casually and effortlessly dodged them, slamming another hand-blade into the bastard.

"~~~~!? ~~~~!!"

Panic-firing ice spears. I dodged them easily and punched it, then dodged the next volley of spears and delivered a kick that sent it rolling. Poking at it over and over like that, I gradually cornered it. Amusingly, its once-hard exoskeleton was being shaved away, becoming more and more battered and pathetic. It tried cloaking itself in its ice shield, but a little forceful thrust was all it took to instantly shatter it.

To me, it looked like the comical dance of a clown, and I couldn't help but hold my stomach and laugh out loud.

Once I started laughing, I couldn't stop. Its clumsy appearance looked just like a drunkard staggering aimlessly. A muffled, mocking laugh bubbled up from the back of my throat at this goofy, idiotic clown.

It lowered its stance and began a motion to gather power.

Oh? What's this? You gonna do something?

While I observed with deep interest, it poured every last ounce of its strength into unleashing a massive, ultra-cryogenic cold wave in all directions.

The earth, the sky, even the atmosphere was painted white and frozen over. An absolute zero cold wave that ceases all life activities enveloped the entire surface.

In this silver world of dancing frost, only the Balfa Mata stood alone────

"SoOo? WaS tHaT iT? GoT aNyThInG eLsE?"

The Demonic Dragon, its body crackling with purplish-red electricity, sluggishly and nonchalantly appeared as if nothing had happened.

Well, it was a little chilly, I suppose. But warming up my body with lightning like this solves the problem entirely. By the way, I also shielded the old man Werner from the cold with a field barrier of lightning. He'd die if he got caught up in it, after all.

"~~~~~~~~!!!"

The Balfa Mata's growls grew low and feeble. Turning its back to me, it stumbled away with a wobbly gait, attempting to flee the area.

It seemed that was its absolute best, final resistance.

Hey, hey... It's already over? Just when things were about to get fun. I was just finally getting warmed up, too...

Sigh... Talk about a killjoy. ...I don't even want a cowardly bastard like that's Core anymore.

My body rapidly shrank, reverting to my original, irresistibly cute, utterly adorable, and exceptionally nice-bodied lovely maiden form. (Pardon the self-praise, lol).

Besides, what an idiot... You're my prey. Did you really think you could escape from me? How naive.

With an exasperated look and cold eyes, I aimed my slender left arm at the bastard.

Making a strange noise from the shoulder, my left arm shifted its structural tissue with a cracking sound, transforming into the barrel of a massive Ray Gun in the blink of an eye.

"True Ash-Dragon Piercing Gun"

The Ash-Dragon Gun, praised as the weapon whose sinister bullets can pierce through anything. It's my pride and joy. And of course, along with my Variant Scythe 'True Ash-Dragon Conquering Scythe' and Tower Shield 'True Ash-Dragon Absolute Wall', they're a complete matching set upgraded to +60.

These guys have shared my joys and sorrows, and as a reincarnation bonus into this "different world"────

Huh? ...For some reason, when I try to remember... things get fuzzy... What was it again... Oh well, whatever.

Alright then, my Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Neo Armstrong Cannon is gonna spit hot fire!!!

The tip of the blue-black, ominously formed gun barrel locked onto the Aragami, who was pathetically fleeing in the distance.

A low, driving torque sound resembling a motor engine echoed from the barrel, gradually rising in pitch as spirals of light converged and gathered...

────Burst.

For a moment, a split second, everything was painted and enveloped in white, and all sound vanished from the atmosphere.

A short while later, as the blurry white curtain faded from view, the form of the Balfa Mata was nowhere to be found upon the ice and frost-covered earth.