I Became a Dark Fantasy Villain-Chapter 713

"This time—"

Ian broke off mid-sentence and abruptly stepped in front of Mev. He slammed the Platinum Barrier down, shielding her side.

In the same instant, his tattered hooded cloak surged as if alive, snapping and coiling around him.

"--------!"

A thunderous, ear-splitting shriek erupted from beyond. It felt subtly different from the roars that had come before.

Rumble...

Mev stiffened as the ground shuddered beneath her feet, the tremor spreading as though the land itself were convulsing. It was not violent enough to throw her off balance, but she still dropped her stance and braced both hands against the ground.

Whoosh—

A heartbeat later, a massive shockwave slammed into them. It washed over the Platinum Barrier that was shielding her side and crashed into Ian, his hooded cloak pressed flat against himself.

Ian, of course, did not fall. The impact only scattered the crimson divinity clinging to his cloak and armor, ripping it loose in streaming trails.

"Huh..."

A low murmur slipped out from beneath the hood. Ian’s eyes narrowed slightly as he turned toward the source of the shriek and the tremors.

Only then did Mev cautiously peer past the Platinum Barrier.

"------!"

The avatar came into view.

Its wings of tentacles were spread wide as it twisted and howled. All around it, severed tentacle roots surged upward at once, and from their torn ends, new tendrils were already sprouting like bamboo shoots.

Yet that was not what made Mev’s eyes widen behind her visor.

"It’s... mutating again?"

The avatar’s form was slowly changing. The tentacles that had drooped between its wings began to intertwine and fuse, while those that had hung where a feathered crown should have been arched upward in sweeping curves.

Creak— grind—

The mass of tentacles forming its lower body tightened as well, binding together more densely with every passing moment. Vivid violet lines spread through the flesh like fractures.

Rumble—

It was no illusion that the ground beneath it seemed to be slowly caving in.

Unable to tear her eyes away from the ominous sight, Mev asked, "Is it revealing its true form?"

"Hard to say. It might be because you joined the fight," Ian replied quietly.

Mev turned toward him. "What do you mean?"

"You cut its tentacles down like straw. It enjoys pain, sure, but that doesn’t mean it wants to die."

He glanced back at her and tilted his chin slightly.

"So it may have decided to kill first, no matter the cost."

Mev’s mouth fell ajar.

Almost at the same time, a faint curve touched Ian’s eyes. "Either way, it looks like we really can’t put this off any longer."

"To think you were planning to put it off again," Mev muttered after smacking her lips once, letting out a small, dry laugh without realizing it.

Perhaps because of Ian’s calm composure, her thoughts were settling as well. In the end, nothing would change. No matter what form the avatar took, it was still the target of her vengeance.

"With you fighting alongside me, I thought it might be possible even without the divine sword."

At Ian’s added remark, Mev, who had separated the divine sword along with its scabbard again, said, "Thesa would’ve been disappointed."

"Thesa?"

"Yes. Returning it now was part of her plan."

"For once, she came up with something useful."

As Ian let out a chuckle, Mev detached the divine sword, scabbard and all.

The next moment, she paused.

Ian had casually tossed his sword aside and was now holding out his hand.

Mev frowned slightly as she looked at him. "A sacred duty like this must be carried out through proper rites, Ian. Even in a situation like this."

Ian furrowed his brow as he met her gaze. After a brief pause, he smacked his lips and nodded, likely remembering anew that she was an apostle of a god.

"Hold on."

With that, he rose, swinging the Platinum Barrier aside as though shaking it loose. The pressure it had been holding back crashed down onto Mev an instant later.

Rumble, thud—

Mev merely swayed, enduring it calmly on one knee. The tremors rippling through the earth hadn't stopped anyway.

Still without sparing the avatar a glance, she waited for Ian to step back.

Then she finally lowered her head.

"O true bearer of the Blazing Judgment. Grant us your heavenly blessing...."

She raised the divine sword reverently above her head with both hands.

Almost at the same moment, Ian’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at her, his cloak billowing.

"I see. So the procedure really does matter. Heaven will be unnecessary. I’ll settle for the blessing of the two goddesses."

Murmuring words whose full meaning was unclear, he extended his left hand.

The instant his fingers closed around the scabbard, a clear, ringing wave of divinity spread outward.

A strange sensation followed—cool, yet burning. It was the divine presence of the Stern Goddess and the Blazing Goddess intertwined.

"Let there be light... in the highest heavens...."

That was why Mev lowered her arms slowly and continued the prayer with solemn care.

It was obvious that Ian’s words had reached even the two goddesses of the heavens. Of course, she was the only one who noticed.

Ian was already gripping the hilt of the divine sword with his right hand.

Schwing—

From above the balance-shaped crossguard, a pure white blade emerged, carrying a faint bluish sheen.

A low murmur of awe escaped Mev’s lips as she lifted her head to look upon it.

Swoosh—

The azure radiance clinging to the blade did not fade. Instead, it deepened, as though azure flames were sealed within the steel itself, gently sloshing with every movement.

It was a sight she had seen only once before, when she had fully resonated her stigmata with its source.

"Is that the true form of the Blazing Judgment?"

"Probably not," Ian answered lightly as he ran his gaze along the blade. "What you’re seeing now is more like a... first-draw bonus."

"Huh?"

Confusion flickered across Mev’s eyes, but Ian offered no further explanation. He simply tossed the scabbard in his left hand into the pocket dimension.

There was no way to explain that it was a quest reward granted the instant she had presented the divine sword. That was also why he muttered words she couldn't understand.

Swoosh—

Even though Mev had already wielded it twice, divine power was rapidly refilling the sword’s source. For this battle, at least, there was no risk of it running dry.

That looks like the final stage. If anything, that works in our favor....

As Ian skimmed the dazzling information window and finished the thought, he suddenly sprang forward, planting himself squarely in front of Mev.

He lowered his stance and raised the Platinum Barrier once more.

—Watch out....

The warning arrived first as instinct, followed by a whisper so faint it sounded as though it were on the verge of dying.

A far more violent shockwave struck them in the next instant.

Boom!

Mev, who had just been picking up the swords she had set aside, was hurled backward. She slid several steps before slamming the blades into the ground to stop herself.

The red divinity that had been ebbing surged again in an instant, wrapping around her entire form.

"I’m fine, Ian," Mev said, as if she had felt his gaze on her.

Ian nodded, closed the information window, and turned his eyes back beyond the barrier.

Crash! Thud!

The Avatar of Agony had already been reborn into a completely different form. Where it had once resembled a young tree, it now looked like a withered, ancient one.

The tentacles carpeting the area were thinner and harder than before, and the same was true of the lower body rising at its center.

Squelch... squelch...

The six pairs of wings cocooning its upper body were now coated in a slick violet membrane. Dark violet spikes jutted sharply from each joint where the wings connected.

Even more striking was its head, half-hidden behind a pair of small wings. Where writhing tentacles had once been, it now looked as though it wore a crown of thorns.

Whoosh—

Above it, a massive violet sphere was forming. It was almost certainly the source of the shockwaves sweeping across the battlefield.

—As expected... it’s crossed beyond causality...

A low, drained chuckle echoed through Ian’s mind.

—Even if it’s erased in the end, it seems determined to kill you first. Or perhaps, to carve a scar into this world that will never fade.

Yog whispered in a deeply sunken voice.

Ian showed no visible surprise. He simply gave a slight nod.

Mev would never know it, but Yog had murmured nearly the same words the moment the avatar began mutating again.

"How were you planning to kill that thing, Ian?" Mev’s divinity-laced voice rang out from behind him.

She had already risen with her sword in hand and was closing in, as though forcing her way upstream against a raging current. Sticky waves of dark crimson divinity writhed thickly around her.

"My familiar says Dharmaraja likely left a trace of its consciousness inside that body," Ian replied, glancing back at her. "A relic, a symbol, or at least some kind of mark."

Turning his gaze forward again, he added, "That hasn’t changed. I’m going to find it and erase it."

If he succeeded, the avatar would no longer be able to draw power from its true body in the void.

—Now that it’s like this, it should be easier to find. My guess is still in its head.

Above the avatar’s thorned crown, concentric rings of purple spread across the fully formed violet sphere. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

So it really was an eye.

One of Ian’s eyebrows twitched. The shape was disturbingly similar to the eye of Dharmaraja he had seen in his visions.

"I’ll carve a path from the front," said Mev.

She had stopped moving and was staring straight at the avatar. The divinity covering her grew denser and denser, to the point where she looked as though she were drenched in blood.

Ian hesitated, swallowing back the words telling her to stay behind.

She was an Apostle of Vengeance. If she stood idle before her sworn target, there was no telling what price she might pay. In the worst case, she could even lose her stigmata.

"Do you still have the elixir the Great One gave you?" Ian asked at last, clicking his tongue.

"Yes. I always keep it closest to my heart," Mev answered without hesitation.

"Good. Just don’t die. No matter what state you’re in, I’ll bring you back." Ian turned forward again.

"Got it. But this time—" Mev cut herself off.

At the same time, Ian clenched his teeth and lowered his stance again.

Whoosh—

The Avatar of Agony, its eye of chaos blazing, had spread all six wings wide at once.

"--------!"

With a tearing shriek, the area flashed blindingly for an instant. The low-hanging storm clouds unleashed thunder.

Crash! Rumble!

A wave of violet chaos surged forward like a tidal wall, the roar so overwhelming it felt as though the world itself were collapsing.

Almost simultaneously, the hilt of the divine sword in Ian’s right hand flared with searing intensity. Whether it was heat or cold, he couldn't tell.

Even so, he understood at once the meaning carried within that divinity.

"Get ready to run," Ian said, stepping forward.

As Mev instinctively lowered her stance even further, Ian tightened his grip and fixed his gaze on the onrushing chaos.

Swoosh—

He swung the sword in a single horizontal arc.

Along the path of the blade, a vivid azure line cleaved straight through the heart of the advancing violet mass. The instant the swing completed and he came to a halt, that line rippled outward.

Piercing azure sacred flames flooded his vision. The wave of chaos, split cleanly in two, was swept aside and burned as it rushed past them.

Tap, tap, tap!

A dark crimson arc burst past Ian’s side.

It was Mev, her two swords trailing low. Without the slightest hesitation, she charged straight into the heart of the blazing spears of judgment, which were spreading as they incinerated the chaos.

She really is impatient.

Ian flicked the lingering sparks from his blade and followed after her.

Despite the thought, one corner of his mouth lifted faintly before he realized it himself.