Kapitel 154: Chapter 152: Hilda’s Struggles
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Without realizing it, Hilda was dragged into the middle of nowhere, alongside an asshole.
After having finally broken through her personal quest and managed to become Hephaestus's true incarnation, she thought she could have an easy life ahead.
She only had to complete this dungeon floating in the skies and kill whatever was in there. She didn't have to worry that much either; she would have many allies to help her.
However, things ended up going wrong; they were all forcefully separated by a mysterious demon, and now she was locked with Heckert, fighting against an impossibly strong centaur-like demon covered in crimson armor.
"Gahahaha! You two are way too weak! Come on, humans! Just tell me where that damn blonde girl from before is, and I'll let you die swiftly and painlessly!"
It was over five meters in height, covered with crimson armor from head to toe, and... well, maybe from neck to toe, because he lacked a head. Instead, he carried it on his left arm.
He also had a second pair of arms, and all three of his other arms wore different weapons. A black morning star, a purple axe, and a red sword.
All of these weapons were overflowing with demon energy, and so was his armor!
Hilda, someone who made equipment, couldn't help but find them incredibly amusing to analyze and was fascinated by their power and how they were made.
However, because she was the demon's prey, she didn't really have an opportunity to talk things out and let him show her his equipment.
"Hahh, this is fucking impossible!" Heckert gasped for air.
His entire body was already covered in countless wounds; his natural self-regeneration skills were not working, and his wounds were contaminated with demonic energy, a poison to humans.
He had been furiously fighting for survival alongside Hilda, but things seemed hopeless. The Death Apostle in front of them was nobody else but Agares, the Apostle of Death that Henrietta and her guild had defeated before Astaroth appeared.
He had been summoned at the same time as Bael and was defeated almost at the same time too. However, he was now being given a second chance!
"I want to find that damn blonde! Where is she?!"
And the thing he wanted to do the most was to have a rematch with Henrietta and utterly crush her with his new strength through this improved, stronger vessel.
"You mean Henrietta?! I have no idea where she is!" Hilda muttered. Her wounded body was overflowing with her Forging Flames, which cauterized her wounds and stopped the bleeding while purifying most of the demonic energy infecting her. "RAAAH!"
She quickly stepped forward, seeing an opening from Agares, who was too fixated on finding Henrietta and having a rematch with her to fix his wounded pride.
"{Hephaestus Divine Hammer}!"
Her hammer suddenly absorbed her blazing aura, growing ten times as large, to a gigantic size, and descending upon Agares at full speed!
CRASH!!!
The explosion of flames was utterly devastating, as Hilda put in all the strength she could and a sizable amount of her large Mana pool.
"Hehe, you're not bad... But you can't keep thinking you're as strong as a Warrior, Blacksmith."
However, Agares was unscathed, his weapons blocking Hilda's strongest blow; the flames covered his body, but his armor protected him.
"H-Huh?!"
Hilda was taken aback, only to feel Agares' tremendous pressure rushing over her entire body, forcing her to fall to her knees!
"Urgh…! Fuck!"
"You're strong, but not enough," Agares said. "You're not like that woman, who had the power of a Celestial with her and therefore was able to defeat me by using my weakness against me. Well, at least, unlike him, you have courage."
Suddenly, Hilda noticed Heckert started flying away as fast as he could the moment she attacked, gritting his teeth without even looking back!
"Heckert, you bastard!"
Hilda felt completely taken aback by his cowardly act; even if he was a prick, she at least thought he was someone with courage and honor.
But in the end, he ran away for his life after she bought him time!
"There's no way I'm staying here and dying!" Heckert thought. "Thank you for buying me time, Hilda, you stupid pretentious fat bitch!"
Thinking Agares was busy slaughtering her, Heckert smiled triumphantly. He had to simply escape and hide until he was found out by everyone else, and simply say she died.
He didn't even have to make up a lie; it was normal for hunters to escape from danger and leave behind their party members to buy time. It was something that even Jack suffered before his contract with Fenrir.
"Urgh…! Y-You bastard!"
As Hilda screamed in frustration, suddenly, Agares disappeared from her side, rushing towards Heckert, flashing like a blur of crimson light.
"What…?!"
Hilda was shocked he didn't kill her and chased down the coward instead!
"Did you think I would let you go, you coward?! That human has more value than you, bastard! I'll leave her for the last; you'll have the honor to die gruesomely first."
Agares was known as the King of Immorality; he loved brutality and bloodshed, but he, like most Demons, had a strong code of honor in battle! He despised cowards and loved courageous fighters who would fight him to the very end, respecting them even after death.
And what infuriated him the most was Heckert's act of cowardice.
"HUH?!"
Heckert quickly realized, as he moved the winds around his body, that a giant crimson centaur was chasing him rapidly, galloping across the floor.
"G-Get away from me!"
Immediately panicking that the demon was drawing closer, the coward pointed his hands against him, releasing a gigantic explosion of winds.
RUMBLE!
Agares swung his weapons, slashing through the wind itself and only growing closer to him! Heckert gritted his teeth, suddenly firing red beams from his eyes.
FLASH!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Countless explosions of flames descended upon Agares, yet his armor remained pristine. Heckert, who was thought to be a model hunter with powers similar to some superheroes, wasn't as invincible as Superman.
He had a very tough body, the ability to fly, and the ability to shoot lasers from his eyes. Indeed, however, these powers derived from Special Skills that Sigurd, the Heroic Constellation, gifted to him as he grew and developed.
The most ridiculous thing, however, was that he didn't even wield a sword like his sponsor does!
"Hoh, that tickles…"
Agares emerged amidst the smoke, his weapons reaching Heckert in an instant. He moved them like a crazed and bloodthirsty asura, while also holding an amazing technique over them!
"T-This can't be happening! This can't be happening!"
"{Crimson Weapon Rampage}"
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Heckert's entire body was covered with countless crimson slashes, his eyes still wide open as he fell into pieces over the floor, splattering his guts and blood everywhere.
"No… I can't… die… like this…"
SPLAAAT!
His soul was quickly siphoned somewhere else, absorbed by the Demonic Castle as it struggled and screamed in agony.
"Hmph."
Agares cleansed the blood from his weapons, looking at the splattered body of Heckert as if it were lower than ants. His hand, holding his head, quickly directed itself towards Hilda, who was drinking her last potion, her Aura growing stronger.
"At the very least, there is someone here that might give me a bit more entertainment…" He smiled maliciously. "What is your name, blacksmith?"
He galloped towards Hilda, and the girl glared at him with an angered smile; she didn't know if she should feel glad the coward was killed or sad he had to end in such a way.
"I-I can't believe Heckert really died…" Hilda sighed. "Y-You bastard…"
"Heh, are you going to pretend you care for him now?" Laughed Agares. "Now, tell me your name!" The Death Apostle pointed his weapons at her.
"My name is Hilda." She said she was cleaning the blood from below her nose, which bled from her nose when she almost exhausted her mana reserves. "You're strange; for being a demon, you're weirdly chivalrous in some areas."
"We Demons are not mindless beasts. We are different from the monsters that invade your world." Agares laughed. "Do you truly understand what all of this truly is? This is not just randomly happening. This is a war between worlds and factions. Even the monsters invading your world are the survivors of Fallen Worlds, the Dungeons you are so accustomed to are Fragments of such worlds… You've been killing these pitiful survivors all this time."
"What?!" Hilda was shocked after hearing this.
"You can't… be serious."
Images of her past started passing through her mind one after another.
FLASH!
Of her entire village being burned down.
"Papa! Mama…!"
And of her screams as she saw her parents burn to ashes.
"Hilda… RUN!"
And her grandfather grabbed her hand and ran away from there as fast as they could, while the villagers were all slaughtered.
Not by a group of monsters, but by a single behemoth.
The silhouette of a red-scaled monster emerged amidst the endless crimson flames, burning through Hilda's memory.
That being said, she despised the most. Was he a pitiful survivor of a destroyed world?
"Don't spit bullshit; you're all bastards trying to destroy us! You're all monsters! I won't take bullshit from you!"
As she recalled the flames of her own trauma, her aura erupted with blazing might, and her armor and accessories boosted her stats, as she conjured chains of flames from her ring.
"{Blazing Chains}!"
FLUOSH!
"Huh?!"
The flames wrapped around his legs, inhibiting his movements while constantly burning through his Health!
"Yeah, that's right! I am a Blacksmith, I'm weaker than warriors…" Hilda laughed. "But that's why I'm fucking overgeared!"
Several other accessory effects were triggered: crimson winds surging from her boots helped her leap into midair, her gauntlets imbued her with the strength of a Giant Cyclops, boosting her strength further, and even her armor overflowed with a black aura, imbuing itself into her hammer!
"{Blazing Charge}!"
BAAAM!
With all her physical strength and her temporary buffs, Hilda clashed against Agares and sent him flying dozens of meters away. A few cracks emerged across his armor!
CLASH!
"URGH…! W-What the…?!" Agares couldn't help but feel completely shaken. "So you were still hiding some strength! AMUSING! Show me more... MORE!"
He quickly stood back up, charging against Hilda. The blacksmith greeted him with her aura suddenly changing form, her necklace imbued with the Mana Crystal of an Ogre King activated.
"{Ogre King's Giant's Aura}!"
Two enormous arms made of her Aura and her flames emerged, clashing against Agares with great power! This necklace she crafted granted her the ability to temporarily conjure a giant's power through her Aura.
Aura was a power most advanced Hunters could develop after getting accustomed to their Mana Flow and their elemental abilities. Imbuing the Mana into their bodies and then mixing it with their life force would generate a Mana Aura, which they could shape and use in a variety of useful ways.
Aside from skills, the biggest difference between high-ranking hunters and low-ranking hunters was whether they could use aura or not! Hilda was quite proficient at it because she constantly used it for her craft, being capable of fusing it with her item's abilities to create even larger effects.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The gigantic, blazing arms punched Agares several times, spreading the cracks across his armor as he constantly evaded wherever he could, swiftly swinging his weapons against Hilda!
"Good, show me more of that fierceness! Fight! Battle for your world! It wouldn't be fun if we simply took it all for granted! Without battles, we will never grow stronger ourselves."
Agares enjoyed Hilda's fierceness, both of them clashing weapons. Explosions of darkness and crimson demonic energy, along with Hilda's flames, spread across the endless corridors, blowing them away constantly.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
"{Fire Wyvern King's Breath}!!!"
Hilda, taken over by her rage, let out all the rest of her mana as she tried to kill Agares with a single hit, pointing into the area where his armor had been broken.
Her bracelet, imbued with a fragment of the Mana Crystal of a Fire Wyvern King, absorbed her Aura and unleashed its powers in totality.
"ROOOAAR!"
A gigantic wyvern's head emerged in front of her, unleashing a devastating breath of pure flames, blasting Agares!
"S-So much power…!"
BOOOMMM!
Hilda couldn't count how many rooms she ended up destroying, falling to her knees, and feeling her entire body slowly become paralyzed. She was bleeding from her ears, nose, and eyes.
She was a capable blacksmith who could work for days, but while fighting, due to needing so much energy for everything and a lot of micromanaging, she put a tremendous amount of pressure on her mind and body.
"Urgh… Did… did he… die?"
She wondered as she collapsed on the ground, vomiting blood.
"That was a splendid battle…"
However, to Hilda's surprise, Agares was not dead.
He slowly walked towards her, missing two of his arms, with an enormous wound, but still alive.
"Y-You bastard… How tough… are you?"
"Tougher than you, it seems."
Agares pointed his sword at her, aiming at her neck.
"You've given me a wonderful fight and shown me the strength of humans. I will remember your kind's bravery and courage after we conquer your world and make it ours."
His sword quickly descended towards her neck, about to behead her!
"I wholeheartedly thank you for that! GAHAHAHAHA!"
Although he acted chivalrous, he couldn't help but let out his demonic, bloodthirsty side. Merely thinking about tasting the sweetness of victory against a strong foe made his blood boil!
FLUOSH!
However, before his sword could go any lower, an enormous blizzard surged from behind him. His arm froze on the spot, black and purple-colored ice growing over it, stopping him from moving.
"W-What…?!" Agares muttered. "What is this?!"
Crack, crack… CRASH!
He freed himself from the ice and quickly rushed to kill Hilda before anything could stop him!
"DIE!"
CLASH!
His sword only pierced the wooden floor, however.
Hilda had disappeared from there in a single blink of an eye!
Agares crimson eyes glared with fury at the origin of this trickery, finding several figures emerging from the nearby corridors.
"YOU…!" He roared. "How dare you take away my PREY from ME?!"
"Your prey?" Anna asked, squinting her eyes. "You're the only prey here…"
RUMBLE!
A powerful and intimidating pressure surged from Anna, a convergence of her energies and powers into a single and strong Aura!
"Ugh?!"
Even the brave Agares felt a chill down his spine…
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