""—Grand Hell Destruction!!""
――SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSHHHHH!
"Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!?"
A super-powerful slash that ignored defense cut deeply into
Boreios's chest.
Normally, the slash would have divided his sturdy trunk into two, but I
guessed I should say as expected of a saint that had been
blackdollified by Phinis-sama.
Despite receiving such a gash, his will to fight didn't diminish even a
little bit.
Well, I'd expected him to endure that attack, so it didn't give me that
much of a surprise.
"I knew it. To damage such a stupidly huge body, we need an equally
big attack. So unfair~."
"But our attack just now seems to be working pretty well. Look, he's
stopped moving."
As I'd said, Boreios was glaring at us, growling "Grrr…", while
holding his wounded chest.
Sure, the bigger the body, the bigger the attack was needed to injure
it.
But at the same time, the bigger the target became, the easier it
would be to land an attack.
And I suspected Boreios wore lightning armor because he was well
aware of that fact. But unfortunately for him, his opponents were
immortal and muscle-brained.
Sorry, but your tactics are useless against us.
"What a shame, ain't it? Old man. Now that your momentum has
been cut off, this is gonna turn into a one-sided beatin'. Ah, of
course, yer on the receiving side."
"Graa…" Boreios showed an annoyed look to Ophir's provocation,
but—
"…Ari… adne… Gel… nika…!!"
――Fwoosh!
""—!?""
The moment he muttered some kind of incantation, like he did earlier
when he was summoning the lightning armor, his body got
enveloped in black aura.
Is it another defensive magic? As I went alert, something that made
me doubted my eyes happened.
"H-hey!? The old man's shrinkin'!?"
Yes, Boreios's body began to shrink.
Could he no longer maintain his Fantasy Form due to the damage
he'd sustained earlier?
"Let's get down for the time being. Maybe we can purify him as he is
now."
"Wha-, seriously!? I still haven't had enough rampage!?"
We landed on the ground while I was calming down the dissatisfied
Ophir.
Although Boreios had returned to his original size, the black aura
was still swirling all around his body, but—
――Basssh!
""!""
All of a sudden, the black aura burst off. His whole body was now
clad in black armor, though the face part was open, which revealed
Boreios's original look.
Slowly, his tightly closed eyes opened, and then he said, "…Long
time no see, Saintess Ophir. And Savior."
""—!?"" His words caused us to go wide-eyed.
From his looks, it seemed that he had completely regained his
consciousness, but did this mean that he'd broken Phinis-sama's
curse on his own? That was unbelievable.
"H-hey, old man!? Have you regained your mind!?" Ophir asked,
astonished.
Boreios nodded, "Indeed, that is true," and said, "when Goddess
Phinis used the Sacred Treasure to erode me, I sealed my ego
before it completely took over me. After that, I bided my time until I
saw an opportunity thanks to your attack, which I immediately took
advantage of to overlay the temporary consciousness with the power
that I'd been saving up."
"O-oh, 'that so…? I don't really get it, but in short, your guts
ultimately came out on top, right?" asked Ophir.
"Well, you can put it that way. However, my body has been
completely eroded. This won't go back to normal unless it receives
that 'purification' of yours."
"Ah, then—" The moment I tried to offer to do the purification.
――Whoosh!
""Gh!?""
Boreios suddenly swung his Sacred Treasure, and the shockwave
struck us.
As we knitted our eyebrows, wondering what he was up to, Boreios
took a stance with his Sacred Treasure and said, "Don't get me
wrong, Savior. I like my current body. It allows me to bring out my full
strength."
"What…?"
"And in front of me is the world's strongest man, along with the
saintess who makes him the strongest. In which case, there's but
one path I can take, right?"
As Boreios tightened his grip on the Sacred Treasure, Ophir burst
into a laughter and said, "Ha, I don't see why not! Right, Exa! Simply
put, he's askin' for a second round! He'd taken the trouble to regain
his mind to have a match with us! There ain't no reason for us to
decline!"
Ophir sounded very happy, so I had no choice but to comply. I
softened the corners of my mouth and said, "…Alright. Then let's
beat him up to the point he can't even make a sound this time!"
"That's the spirit!"
Following Ophir's big nod, we entered the final battle against
Boreios.