Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 444

Eight hands moved, forming seals.

I was already well aware through the paper spider Bael that various hand gestures could substitute for magic incantations, but still, a chill crawled up to my scalp.

“Everyone be careful! It’s coming!”

Of course, even without my warning, the ladies were already tense and braced for whatever was about to fly toward us. Soon, a searing flame surged at us.

Fwaaaa—!

The fire shot from the giant’s hand fell upon us like divine retribution from the heavens. It might as well have been divine retribution itself—after all, it was the wrath of a god.

Against the ultra-high heat, the mana shield I had deployed shattered like a pane of glass hit by a baseball.

“Ugh—.”

From the beginning, Solomon, who had reached the 10th Rank, had been compared to a god.

And now, I, who had only just barely reached the 8th Rank, was attempting to confront an existence that was the source of all magic itself. It was absurd from the start.

Just when I thought all the shields would break and we would all burn away in this hellfire, a slicing sound split the wind.

『━━───.』

At the same time, I felt the massive body tremble with a great shock. When I turned my head, I saw nymph Trish flying out like a bullet, kicking the giant’s body.

Even with my keen eyesight, her speed was so extreme that she looked like a black and white flash streaking across my vision.

『━Remnant of━─the past──.』

The giant stretched out countless hands to capture her. Each arm emitted intense lightning or whipped up gusts of wind.

It seemed each arm wielded a different kind of power. But no matter what, even a brush against one would surely inflict grievous wounds.

Yet Trish climbed the giant’s body and hurled her fist at its stony, statue-like face.

—Nymph Rock Crusher!

Compared to the giant’s massive body, her fist was minuscule, but the impact generated a shockwave powerful enough to rival a meteor crashing through the atmosphere, leaving a deep dent in the giant’s face.

KWAANG—!

『━━──!!!』

The massive body staggered, swaying like a great tree about to topple. Trish, knocked away by the rebound, landed nimbly beside us and said,

“As you can see, it’s possible to destroy it! No need to be scared! If we don’t take it down, none of us will survive!”

It was difficult to understand everything she said.

But I grasped one thing clearly: It was possible to fight back, and there was a way to defeat it.

The giant, who had seemed like an overwhelming transcendental being, now began to seem like a "monster we might just be able to beat," and with that shift, confidence surged within me.

And not just within me—everyone else, too.

“Light Lance. Maximum Enhancement. Single Shot.”

Ayra began chanting a powerful spell. With her 8th Rank magic, a brilliant lance of blinding light formed in the air, crackling with intense energy.

At a glance, the amount of destructive power it radiated could have blasted a gaping hole even through a castle wall.

Ayra, wielding the thick incarnation of destruction in her hand—

“Hrgh—!”

With a sharp cry, Ayra thrust one foot forward. The weight concentrated in that step crushed the world beneath her for a brief moment, and like a cannon, she launched the Light Lance.

—Magic Spear, Gungnir!

Fwoosh—KWAANG—!

The lance cut through the air and pierced the giant’s arm. A violent explosion erupted, and the arm that had been casting flames at us disintegrated into dust.

The feat was so impressive that no words of amazement even came out.

“Only one arm?”

But Ayra clicked her tongue in disappointment. Then Narmee shouted beside her:

“Sis, I think we need to use that thing too! Hurry!”

At Narmee’s urging, Mirna slung off the bag she carried on her back. She pulled something out—a strange wooden tablet. You could even call it a little piece of wood.

Clack.

A wooden tablet, suddenly?

Mirna snapped it—crack—and without a moment’s pause, she and Narmee began chanting a spell in perfect unison, with the same tone and cadence.

“Demons wandering the nine heavens, ancient serpents—awaken from your slumber and obey your master’s command.”

From the broken tablet in Mirna’s hand, black smoke began to rise.

It quickly expanded with an ominous presence, forming into a towering shape as large as a tall building.

It was a dragon, adorned with multiple wings. Not a wyvern—a true dragon, the kind said to have soared through the primeval skies.

A ghost of a dragon?

As it spread its wings, Elga and Stella each grabbed onto its tail.

In an instant, the dragon ghost shot forward like a missile, Elga clinging to it.

The dragon’s massive form collided with the giant’s body, grappling it.

Pop—!

At the same time, Elga sprang high into the air and swung her halberd, striking with all her might at the giant’s leftmost upper arm that was sparking with lightning.

“Aaaaaaaah—!”

With a cry more like a scream than a shout, her thick, fearsome battle-axe howled. It slammed into the giant’s solid shoulder with an explosive shock—

“Meteor Slash—!!!”

Flaaaash—!!!

And finally, she succeeded in severing one of the arms. Elga’s superhuman strength and the crushing power of her halberd had succeeded in destroying the god’s flesh!

“Ah—.”

However, suspended in midair, Elga let out a deflated sound as she plummeted toward the ground.

Falling dozens of meters without a parachute—even Elga wouldn’t get away unscathed.

“Elga! Catch this!”

Just then, Stella, still clinging to the dragon ghost, pulled something from her belt and threw it.

It was a rope with a grappling hook, slicing through the air like a snake to wrap around Elga’s waist.

Whirr.

“Got you! I’ll pull you up!”

“I thought I was dead for sure! But still, I chopped off one arm! Six left—!”

The ladies' hopeful voices echoed in my ears. Six arms left. If we kept fighting like this, we had a real chance at victory.

At the same time—

An uncanny unease crept over me because everything was going too well. Had there ever been a time in my life when things went so smoothly? Happiness and success only made me more anxious.

Having rolled through the mud all my life, fear at good fortune was my chronic disease. But this time, it felt different.

What was this?

This trembling?

This fear?

“...Something’s wrong. This isn’t right. Everyone, everyone’s—!”

I opened my mouth wide to shout something.

And then, like old peeling paint falling away, the entire scene before me began to slip away. As if revealing the true colors hidden beneath layers of pigment.

Flutter, flutter, flutter.

What my eyes saw—

Was stark, terrible reality.

The ladies, who had just been fighting valiantly against the giant, were now lying scattered across the floor, broken and bloodied.

Hss, hss.

The least damaged among them were Elga, kneeling with her halberd embedded in the ground, and Ayra, gasping for breath with her stomach pierced by a jagged shard of ice.

The twins and Professor Stella were nowhere to be seen.

“What the hell....”

My vision tried desperately to reject what it was seeing. Where had the illusion started? Where had it ended? My mind stuttered, unable to process the overwhelming flood of information.

『Pitiful. You should have remained a little longer in your daydream. Behold. This is the truth.』

A colossal voice echoed directly within my body. What I had been seeing until now had been nothing but hallucination or mirage. The devastation now before me was reality.

It awakened me.

『Despair. Creates cracks in the heart. Cracks in the heart. Invite gods into them. Vessel—empty yourself. Accept your fate.』

How had it come to this?

Or perhaps—it had always been inevitable. From the start, trying to resist destiny or the great world as a mere mortal had been a mistake.

The giant hand approaching me seemed to freeze time. The life I had lived flashed before my eyes. My happy wedding floated to mind.

『This time, it will not be a new millennium. But endless eternity itself. I am the world. The universe. All existence.』

The hand stopped.

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