Heldre said it. Without any bluster, he was sincere.
“Blood will spurt from your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, all your orifices. Your eyeballs will roll around, unable to distinguish heaven from earth. I will make it so.”
A voice filled with murderous intent, a clear warning. Frondier quietly listened to those words and opened his mouth.
“Chancellor.”
Frondier called for Osprey.
“What is it?”
“Step back. That position is dangerous.”
“…Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Yes. And by not getting involved, you can help, can’t you?”
To aid Frondier, it was better to be close to him rather than surrounding Heldre.
“Argh!”
Frondier, with the sword in his hand, wrapped it around Cain’s neck. That alone intensified Heldre’s murderous intent, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
With Cain’s neck still in his grasp, Frondier switched the grip of his sword to a reverse grip. He aimed the tip at Heldre.
─Even then, Heldre, blinded by rage, failed to grasp the true intent behind Frondier’s actions.
Why did Frondier wrap his hand around Cain’s neck? Why hold the sword in a reverse grip? Such a stance would make throwing impossible.
Frondier smirked.
“You said you would dodge.”
Frondier, with his hand around Cain’s neck holding the sword. Naturally, his other hand was empty.
It should be empty, but.
The slowly raised empty hand, for some reason, held something like a hammer─
“Try it, ‘Zodiac.'”
With that hammer, Frondier struck the end of Excalibur’s hilt.
Ka-a-ang!!!
A massive metallic sound that seemed to tear through the air erupted.
Instantly, the mana absorbed by Excalibur was released. It was a huge flash of mana in the shape of a sword.
“What─!!”
The sword aura of Excalibur, having absorbed an enormous amount of mana and then amplified it further before releasing it.
Of course, the actual sword was not involved, and the condensed mana of Excalibur, when diffused by the impact, was somewhat weakened.
But does that “somewhat” really matter?
“Kuh!”
Heldre concentrated all of his aura into a single point. He abandoned the thought of dodging. This was no longer merely a sword.
What resembled the shape of a sword, but was as large as a house, was launched with the power of an unknown hammer. Its speed and size made evasion impossible.
Heldre extended his fingers of both hands toward each other and pushed them forward. His aura sharpened like the tip of an arrow.
That aura collided with the flash of Excalibur.
Boom─!!
“Ah, ugh, aaaaah─!!”
Heldre screamed. The moment they collided, all the joints in his fingers were shattered. He knew this would happen. From the beginning, he had given up on his fingers, no, his hands.
Yet, despite such a sacrifice,
Crack, crunch.
“Ah, ack, eughhhhh……!”
His bones screamed. The tips of his fingers were already torn apart, skin ripped open to reveal bone.
The fingers were barely attached to his hand. Instead, sounds of cracking started from his wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
Those imbued with the power of Mjölnir do not easily lose that momentum. It was the same when Renzo first received Mjölnir.
At least Renzo had his beloved weapon to sacrifice, but Heldre was barehanded. Moreover, the power of the mana contained in Excalibur already surpassed that of Mjölnir.
Had there been sufficient preparation to receive Excalibur, perhaps it would have been different, but the aura hastily drawn out in a desperate defense.
As a result.
“Guh, guck……, huk, huff……!”
Heldre, after taking all of it, was in a pitiable state. His fingers were pointing in all directions, and his entire body was covered with numerous burns and wounds like cuts, from which blood streamed down.
He lowered his arms. Probably, he won’t be able to lift them for a while.
“…This, this kind of, unreasonable power……!”
…a strength of this kind, so unreasonable …!
No matter how fierce the attack, how violent the magic, in the end, it will destroy one’s arm.
Heldre looked at Frondier with eyes full of fear.
…Excaliber was still in his field of vision.
In other words,
“You’ve blocked it.”
Frondier had a calm, yet bored face as he looked at Heldre.
“Then it is.”
At Frondier’s words, Excaliber emitted light. Its meaning was clear.
That meaning was called fear.
“Huh, huh…”
Heldre took a deep breath. Frondier spoke with a calm face.
“Put that face away. It’s not convincing.”
“Now, wait a minute. Just give me a moment.”
“Are you a Zodiac?”
Frondier ignored him and raised his hammer.
Here comes the next one again.
Just thinking about it, Heldre’s heart felt like it would burst.
Heldre doesn’t know the maximum amount of mana Frondier possesses.
Let’s say he miraculously blocked the next attack.
Then what about the next one? And the one after that?
Heldre regretted bitterly. If he had been fully prepared, he would have been able to respond to that attack as well. But he came too hastily. And he was too careless.
‘I’m dying…’
Dying? Really? ‘Zodiac’?
But one thing was clear, and it rang through his head like a siren.
Frondier, who pulled the sword back a bit.
His eyes did not feel like they were filled with any kind of spirit.
“S, save me! Please! I’ll do anything!”
Heldre begged for his life.
It was something he had never done in his life.