Crash! A huge collision rang out, and Finel turned around in surprise. Her body, specifically her sisters that were attached to her body, was crumbling and breaking apart from her; between their remains, one person came into view.
Thud! Zich nimbly jumped on top of the lumps of fat. The mushy sensation he got upon landing made his face scrunch up. The arms popping out around his surroundings floundered. Their eyes looked towards Zich while their noses sniffed, and their mouths screamed. Zich sliced off the nearest meat clumps that came out like humps. Their mouths screamed, but Zich ignored them. The meat clumps he sliced off were huge, literally big enough to be a small house, and Zich lifted them. While slicing off the arms reaching for him like cutting down tree branches, he stared at the hole he created. Fluid monsters were crawling out of the hole.
“This place is forbidden to enter,” Zich murmured and shoved the meat clump right into the hole.
Crumple! Although the meat clump was much bigger than the hole, everything that made up the floor and what Zich held consisted of meat clumps, so he was able to push it into the hole with enough force. It filled up the hole so tightly that even a drop of water couldn’t leak in. Zich sliced all the fluid monsters that had already made their way in and stared at the hole he had blocked.
‘They were hard to deal with because of their abilities, but since they weren’t that physically strong, at least they wouldn’t be able to come in immediately.’
Crunch! After crushing a nearby lip and piercing Windur into the eye next to it, Zich looked forward.
“Hey, it hasn’t been that long since we last saw each other.”
The surrounding arms tried scratching Windur, but they couldn’t land a mark on the sturdy sword which was stronger than most rare metals. When the arms changed their targets and aimed for Zich, he personally crushed them with his feet.
—You are…!
Finel’s face was distorted. Zich thought her face looked just like how people responded when cockroaches suddenly popped up in their house.
—You didn’t die nor run away!
“Die? Me? If you wanted to kill me, you shouldn’t have only sent the Kraken but dozens of monsters that you keep at even deeper pits underwater. Even then, I’m not sure I would die. Regardless, I’m not the type of person who would die just because you sent some weird fluid monsters and the Kraken off to kill me.” Zich puffed out his chest confidently. “And what do you mean by running away? I’m not the type of person who needs to succeed in all my battles or kill my enemies, but I’m not cowardly enough to run away from a shoddy monster like you.”
—How dare you! Know your place!
When Finel shouted, the whole area rumbled and echoed. Mouths from all over the place rang in unison and created a chilling effect. Yet, it only made Zich clean his ear holes and blow his earwax.
“Don’t you think there’s a difference in opinions in what my place is?” Zich’s eyes turned sharp. “More importantly, is Lyla there?”
Near Finel, there was a gathered pile of meat clumps. In a way, it looked like the cocoon of an insect that was about to emerge.
—You have keen senses.
“Well, I won’t be anything without my senses,” he remarked like he had received a compliment. Then, he continued, “It seems like you have given Lyla quite the full-course treatment. Although I was the one who suggested it, I think Lyla is satisfied now. She won’t have a good impression of you if you go too far. How about letting her go now?”
—What nonsense.
Finel immediately shot down Zich’s suggestion.
“Yeah, I thought so. Guys like you don’t listen to suggestions. You are the type of kid who didn’t listen to what adults told you and regretted it later on.”
Zich took out Windur from the floor. “Unfortunately, the only thing effective for guys like you is a good beating.”
—You blabber on so well for someone dragged to the bottom of the ocean by me!
“It wasn’t by you but the Kraken. Aren’t you the one who is having trouble remembering things now? Even with the immense power you gained, you still struggled against me and called the Kraken. You are just like an arrogant child calling for her mommy after getting beaten up by the neighborhood kid.”
Zich stationed Windur upright. “Now you don’t even have this Kraken. Who are you going to tattle to now?”
—Just because you had the upper hand once, your arrogance knows no bounds! Why don’t you try me again! I will teach you that the coincidence from last time won’t happen again!
“Yeah, yeah. Why don’t you teach me since I am so willing to learn? Please don’t call on your mommy this time.” Then, Zich’s tone suddenly dropped much lower, “Ah, before that, let me ask you this. What happened to the other guys? You know those three fluffy kids.”
—Hmph! I killed all of them!
Finel snorted since she wanted to get on Zich’s nerves, but the choice of her opponent was too unfortunate.
“Is that so? I’m glad they all escaped safely. As expected of Lyla, I knew she would do at least that much.”
—I just told you I killed them!
“If you are done with your lecture, do you want to listen to my lecture on lying? You are so bad at it that it’s making me pity you even when you are my opponent.” Although his words sounded like he was speaking for her sake, everything besides them such as his tone, expression, and posture looked down on Finel.
—You bastard!
Finel was enraged. Zich began to rush towards her. The arms all over the floor tried to grab him, but Zich stepped over them as he ran. Realizing that it was difficult to attack him physically, they began to use magic. A familiar scene like before unfolded. Each of the lips recited individual spells while magic circles formed on the hands. Yet, Zich was determined.
Babababam! Magic rained down on Zich. They were bombardments that fought with sheer numbers, not caring whether they canceled or interfered with each other; Zich made his way between them. However, even Zich couldn’t escape the magic that Finel herself used.
“Tch!” While clicking his tongue, he escaped the fireball flying his way, smashed the cold air trying to grab his ankles, and scattered the lightning coming in front of him.
Baam! An enormous explosion rang out in the space filled with fleshy chunks. The whole space shook, and the nearby ‘mouths’ screamed. However, Finel unleashed spells without caring if her body was injured. This was one of the reasons why she relentlessly poured out mana even in areas where mouths and arms were making barriers to protect their main body. Of course, the main reason why Finel was releasing magic like this while injuring herself in the process was that she realized how much of a threat Zich was. Her wariness towards Zich had exponentially increased after he threatened her life, and it reached its peak after Finel read Lyla’s memories. Finel saw that Zich would be called Demon Lord Zich Moore in the future.
‘I can’t let down my guard at all!’ Finel clenched her teeth and continued to pour out mana as hard as she could.
‘It’s hard to get closer.’ Zich continued to strike and evade Finel’s spells while continuing to move forward. Fortunately, since Finel’s flesh covered the entire surface of the lake, she couldn’t use the power from the lake waters.
After evading Finel’s attacks like this for a while, Zich landed on something hard instead of squishy flesh.
‘It’s a tree root.’ It was the root of the gigantic tree covering the island. Even while the entire space was covered in flesh, the tree still carried a formidable and grand presence. Of course, a large part of its roots was still covered in flesh clumps but the parts that were revealed were a sight to see.
—Die over there!
With Finel’s shout, the tree branches began dropping water droplets again. It seemed as if she was planning to create the liquid monsters again. Zich tightly clutched Windur to crush them when—
Wiiiiing! Windur trembled. At the same time, the tree root that Zich was stepping on lightly vibrated.
“Hmm?”
—W-what is that?
Zich and Finel were both taken aback. This was the first time Finel experienced something like this, but it was different for Zich. The corners of his mouth curved upwards.
‘As expected, that works here as well.’ A nostalgic amount of mana swirled inside his body, and Zich swung his sword.
Crassssssh! Zich’s swing carried incomparably more force than before and shredded apart the water droplets falling down like a storm. The water droplets couldn’t transform into monsters and shattered completely against the flesh clumps or tree roots.
Finel’s jaw dropped. The strength that Zich just showed was shocking. Then, a memory that she stole from Lyla suddenly rose to the surface of her mind—when he was near trees that were similar to the Tree of Water she was on, Zich’s power exponentially increased.
—Damn it!
Finel began pouring out spells again, but Zich sliced all of them and approached further. The speed at which he was moving forward was also extremely fast. Finel bit her lips. If she had remembered Zich’s relationship with the tree just a little bit earlier, she would have never let Zich approach the tree.
‘As expected, I need to properly organize the memories I stole.’ However, she couldn’t turn back time. ‘I guess it can’t be helped.’
On the other hand, this wasn’t the first time Zich had come closer to the tree. In the first place, Finel’s first battle with Zich was on a tree root. However, during that time, there was no sign at all that Zich’s power would be triggered, but now, he was able to continuously shoot out enormous amounts of power. Finel could think of one possible reason.
‘My control over the tree has decreased.’
This happened because Finel had moved away from the tree root to subdue and capture Lyla. Finel seeped into the clumps of flesh. She began to move while using the clumps of flesh as tunnels. All the flesh was part of her body, so it was easy for her to move her main body across the clumps of flesh.
“You’re over there!” Of course, Zich was not an easy opponent. He sensed her movements and unleashed attacks at her main body.
However, Finel could use the arms and mouths attached to her flesh and shoot out spells, form barriers, and easily return back to the tree roots. In order to increase her strength, Finel began retrieving the flesh that had scattered around her surroundings.
Ziiiiing!
As Finel began to focus her attention on gaining control over the tree, the tree’s vibration greatly decreased. At the same time, Zich’s mana also decreased. Zich clicked his tongue as his strength decreased, but he wasn’t very disappointed. ‘In the first place, my strength hadn’t increased that much anyways.’
Even though his strength had largely increased, it was significantly less than when he was able to use all of the mana in his body like before. ‘And it’s probably because of that meat clump.’
But it was all right. Zich was able to reach his intended goal. Zich stared at the wall made out of meat clumps in front of him. If Zich recalled how the space looked when he first came inside, there used to be an open hole in the place he was looking at. In other words, there was a huge amount of meat clumps aggregated in that place, and Zich sensed Lyla’s presence deep inside this pile of meat clumps.
‘I need to pull her out.’ Zich was about to swing Windur towards the inside of the wall when—
Crasssssh! Zich evaded the magic aimed at his back. He slowly turned around and stared at Finel who attacked him.
—You think I’d just sit back and watch you release her!
“Hey, obsession is also a disease. Did you perhaps fall in love with Lyla? I support all kinds of love, but you need to get consent from the other party. One-sided love like that is not love but a crime.”
—Love? Even though I know you don’t know anything, you’re really an unpleasant guy! The only emotion I feel towards her is hatred!
“Then, why don’t you let her go now? Why are you trying to embrace someone you find so unpleasant?”
—It’s because she’s going to become my new body!
Even though it seemed like an interesting story, there was no time for Zich to satiate his curiosity because Finel was about to start attacking again.
‘Hmmm, it’s true that her attacks are troublesome. Is there a way to distract her while I save Lyla?’
At that moment, Zich felt a familiar presence. Zich’s gaze headed towards where the door was. When Finel was retrieving her flesh, she had also retrieved the flesh covering the door so there were no obstacles blocking the door anymore. When the door opened, Zich saw familiar faces coming in.
“Sir Zich!” Hans called out to him in a loud voice.
Zich laughed loudly as he saw the man together with Snoc, and Elena.