Volume 2 – The World Sneered
“
Power
, crush and destroooooy!”
The battle began alongside Ox’s roar.
The man’s body swelled and his bulging muscles tore through his clothes.
He dashed while holding his sword with a speed unfitting for his giant body, and Mary awaited with calmness, no, with a cold irritation in her eyes.
She put strength into her right arm, and it popped off.
Then, a new arm with exposed bones formed in its place.
She swung it while twisting her waist, then clenched her fist and pushed it out towards the blade coming down on her.
“Nuooooooh!”
Ox’s roar echoed through the night forest.
Fist and sword clashed, and the bones got smashed up.
Fragments dropped on the floor lit up by torchlights.
“You’re overconfident! Maaary!”
Mary’s right arm dropped.
Ox’s Sorcery Rating was around 30,000.
Mary’s was 25,000.
Further, Ox’s
Power
turned all of his mana into physical reinforcement.
Instead of needing to use cheap tricks, compared to others who possessed similar Sorcery Ratings, each attack by Ox was greatly powerful.
Mary only had her left arm left. Ox laughed while showing his white teeth and horizontally swung his sword.
Meanwhile, even as blood gushed out from her wound, Mary calmly transformed her left arm into bones as well.
Then, she stopped Ox’s attack with an open hand.
“It’s no uuuuse!”
The blade cutting through the night stopped along with a shrill metallic noise.
Mary was not broken.
She was not cut.
“Why? How can
Death God
stop my attack with its inferior Sorcery Rating!?”
“Didn’t you hear?”
“Wait, is it because of
Death God
’s arcana eating power!?”
“And you call yourself a soldier.”
Mary spoke in a fed up tone of voice, and pointed her regenerated right arm towards Ox’s face.
“Myriad of Corpses – Burial Cannon.”
A bone bullet shot from her hand as her arm got blown off from the elbow up.
Ox could not dodge it at such close distance.
“Bugooh!”
He awkwardly shouted as the bullet hit his face.
Ox’s body bent backwards and got launched into the air.
Mary pointed her left arm at him and shot again.
A direct hit.
Ox spun in the air.
Mary shot again.
But he crushed the bullet with his gaping mouth.
And the third shot changed trajectory after he hit it in the air with his sword.
He was finally acting like a warrior.
But Mary was not impressed, and continued attacking.
“Burial Scythe.”
She swung her massive scythe downwards.
The blade cut the air and split the ground.
Fsssh!
It shot up mulch as the slashing attack turned towards Ox.
“How impudent for an amateur to attack me with a slashing cut!”
He stubbornly swung his sword.
It drew a crescent shape in the air.
The blades clashed and offset each other while giving off sparks.
Mary grew bones from her heels and sped up to charge ahead.
Ox adjusted his posture at the last moment and stopped the scythe’s blade with his sword.
But his one hand was overpowered and he got pushed back.
He supported his sword with his other forearm and somehow stopped Mary’s attack.
“Don’t underestimate me, Mary! My love for Francis…… is stronger than thiiiis!”
“Let me say one thing, Ox. I’m the one who loves my sister the most in this world.”
“No, it’s me!”
“It’s me.”
“It’s meeeee!”
He knocked Mary back after shouting.
His power was clearly higher than his Sorcery Rating should allow.
Mary regained her footing and slightly tilted her head.
But Ox quickly started charging, so there was no time for her to think.
This time, it was Mary’s turn to stop a blade swinging down on her.
“Lady Francis is the one and only person in this world who acknowledged me! Lady Francis is the only thing I have, and I’m the only thing she has!”
“I suppose so.”
“So you acceeeeept!”
Ox was in a rage.
He quickly held his sword up again to crush Mary.
She was knocked back again.
The skin on Ox’s enlarged arm looked thin, and his red muscles were mostly exposed.
His veins and muscles were pulsating, almost as if reacting to his emotions.
Mary squinted her eyes and observed this with suspicion.
“I know that I’m not fit to be a general! But I still carried out the duties that were required of me! Doesn’t the royal army of Orvis control the world as the strongest there is right now!? I’m plenty useful for a symbol, right!? But, but, everyone just keeps complainiiiing!”
Ox resigned himself to his fury and kicked the ground with his foot, causing the surrounding area to shake.
The earthquake reached far.
The animals started making noise.
“And Lady Francis was kind enough to talk to me. ‘Thank you for carrying this country on your back’, she said. ‘We can live in peace thanks to you.’ She spoke kind words to me despite what I am!”
Ox opened his hands.
His eyes did not see Mary any more.
They were looking up to the night sky, looking at a hallucination of Francis.
“Savior. God. That’s what Lady Francis was to me; the one and only shining light in this world. Do you understand, Mary? Do you comprehend how great Lady Francis is!?”
Mary replied with one dry word to his question.
“Shallow.”
“……Huh?”
Ox’s face froze up.
He was not expecting someone like Mary to say a word like that to him.
“My sister was polite to you, yes? She was just using diplomatic language.”
“What…… What are you talking about? You know she’s the one who came and talked to me, right?”
“But I never heard her say anything about you.”
“She wouldn’t tell you her true feelings!”
“She would. We were always together. If she really was interested in someone, she would definitely tell me about him.”
Mary was not trying to instigate him, this was simply the truth.
Francis had a wide circle of acquaintances.
There were a lot of people who adored her, and Francis also did her best to treat them with respect and admiration.
So, if she had ‘met a nice person’, she would have certainly told Mary about it during their daily conversations as a family.
“When it comes to the army…… Yes, she did tell me about a lieutenant general, other leaders, and some specific soldiers.”
“Stop…… That’s not true. She was not just being diplomatic. She could not smile so wonderfully if that was all it was!”
“Her smile? Let me think about my most vivid memory of her smile……”
A smile appeared on Mary’s face, and she spoke while faintly tilting her head.
“It was when she bashfully smiled after we gave each other our first kisses.”
There was no lie in this.
It was the truth, a secret between sisters.
It was Mary who wanted it.
But Francis did not refuse.
After that, the two had started kissing each other in secret every day.
“Aah…… Aaaah…… Oooaaaaaaagh……!”
Ox scratched his head in front of Mary, who was filled to the brim with confidence.
His reinforced arms mercilessly tore his hair off.
He paid no mind to this and continued while groaning.