Chapter 562 - 552: If I Don’t Suck ’Em, Who Will?!

Chapter 562: Chapter 552: If I Don’t Suck ’Em, Who Will?!

"Issei!"

"Big brother!"

Right after Rias and Saji took down the dragon-type familiar, Alice and Miu rushed over to my side. Both of them were battered and bruised, but thankfully, neither had suffered any major injuries.

Miu placed her hand over my chest, expanding a magic circle. It was first-aid recovery magic. Even for someone as skilled as Miu, replicating Asia-level healing was a tall order, and my wounds were closing painfully slowly. Then again, Asia’s healing factor—surpassing even Miu in her Divine Princess form—was just absurdly high to begin with.

As Miu tended to my injuries, she spoke up.

"Asia-san has her hands full treating the others, so... please make do with this for now, okay?"

"Yeah, I appreciate it. Even basic first aid makes a world of difference."

I couldn’t expect a full recovery, but taking the edge off the pain and stopping the bleeding was a huge help. I owed her one.

While Miu was healing me, Alice moved to provide cover for Yubelluna-san.

"You’re Yubelluna-san, Riser Phenex’s ’Queen,’ right? Thank you for protecting our master."

"Think nothing of it; these were my master Riser’s orders. Besides, on a battlefield like this, survival would prove difficult without mutual cooperation, wouldn’t you say, ’Queen’ of the Red Dragon Emperor?"

"Yes, you’re absolutely right."

Wreathed in white lightning, Alice charged at the familiars at the speed of light. Her fiercely wielded spear and high-output lightning reduced the beasts’ flesh to scattered ashes in an instant. Yubelluna-san provided long-range bombardment against the beasts targeting Alice from behind, beginning to fall back toward Riser alongside the other peerage members.

Meanwhile, Saji—who had been gravely wounded by the dragon-type familiar—was currently getting chewed out by Sona, who had arrived with her own peerage.

"Saji! You always throw yourself into danger without thinking...!"

"I-I’m sorry..."

Despite the scolding, his wounds were completely healed thanks to the Phoenix Tear she carried. As for Sona... well, she was furious, but her relief at having Saji back alive was plain to see. After wiping away a stray tear, she gave Saji a brief, tight hug.

Saji... man, you two are looking real cozy right now!

As for Riser, who had saved me from a dire spot earlier: though drained, his injuries had fully regenerated thanks to his innate trait. He must have burned through an immense amount of magic power, leaving him slightly depleted.

"Tch. To think a single one of them pushed me this far..." Riser complained, scanning the battlefield. "Just how many more of these monsters are there? I’ve had just about enough of this."

I felt Riser’s pain. Knowing there were still plenty of those calamity-class creatures roaming around was enough to make anyone lose heart. Though, thankfully, the gods and warrior-class fighters on par with them were taking care of those heavy hitters.

"Hyoudou Issei!"

Just as my name was called, a massive shadow loomed over us. Looking up, I saw a giant dragon floating in the sky—it was old man Tannin!

"Old man Tannin! You made it too?!"

"Of course. Every dragon under my command is here as well."

In the direction he pointed, dozens of dragons were plunging straight into the swarm of familiars, bathing them in devastating breath attacks. Looking at it now, it was a total giant-monster brawl.

"Whew... looks like we managed to regroup for now."

Landing beside us with a heavy exhale was Tiamat. Naturally, she wasn’t entirely unscathed, but she was still full of vigor—as expected of the strongest Dragon King. Come to think of it, Tiamat was already used to fighting these familiars, considering she had traveled with us to Ast Arde.

With a simple snap of her fingers, multiple magic circles expanded in the sky above, unleashing colossal beams of light. The emitted rays annihilated a horde of familiars in the blink of an eye.

Tiamat sighed. "If only all our opponents were this easy to deal with. I don’t mind fighting, but relentless flies get tedious... Though seeing my master battered to a pulp right after regrouping is surprisingly disheartening."

"Ah, well... it’s not like I dropped my guard or anything!"

"Whether you dropped your guard or not makes no difference if you are this heavily injured."

Ugh... our Dragon King is harsh! She wasn’t wrong, but... come on, give me a break! Don’t throw salt on the wounds of a guy who’s already broken to pieces! Wrap me in that big-sisterly warmth, Tia-nee!

Suddenly—

"M-mmph! You really are hopeless, Issei."

"Eh?"

With a slightly flustered expression, Tia-nee wrapped her arms around me!

"There, there. If you want to be spoiled, you may indulge yourself as much as you like. Let your Tia-nee pamper you."

Whoaaaaaaa! Tia-nee’s chest! Her breasts are being pressed right against meeeee!

Wait, she really does love being called ’Tia-nee’! And she totally just read my mind! Ah, but getting my head patted by Tia-nee felt so ridiculously good... It was the same with Risha, but is this just what having an older sister is like?!

As I was being embraced by her big-sisterly warmth, Tia-nee spoke up again.

"By the way, when are you going to turn into a toddler again? I would love to see it one more time. It was the only invention of Azazel’s I actually liked."

"Please, spare me from that!"

Toddlerification?! She meant that device Miu had Azazel-sensei build for her, right?! Just how much did she like that thing?!

"...Tiamat, you truly have changed."

"Old man Tannin! Don’t look off into the distance and mumble like that! She’s just been infected with the poison known as ’Serious-Break’!"

Just as old man Tannin returned to his dragon forces, Rias and the others finally reached my location. It seemed old man Tannin and Tiamat had cleared out the lower-tier familiars before landing here.

Kiba explained the situation to us. "Once Saji-kun and the others took down that dragon-type beast, the enemy’s movements slowed down a bit. That’s how we managed to make our way over here."

So that dragon-type familiar really was acting as a command unit for the lesser beasts. My hunch had been spot on.

When asked if taking out the command units first would make clearing the rest easier, the answer was a resounding yes—but the difficulty was sky-high. Every single command-type familiar was on par with a deity. They weren’t things you could just casually defeat. Even now, the gods and their subordinates were locked in ultra-fierce combat with them.

And there was one more issue. Even if we managed to wipe all of them out, this battle wouldn’t end.

"This is insane...!"

Rias’s voice turned grim as she stared off into the distance. There, Asem was taking on multiple gods at once. The deities were firing everything they had at him—mastering lightning, fire, water, and earth to launch a relentless onslaught. Among them was a young god radiating a terrifying aura, engaging Asem in close-quarters combat. The shockwaves from his kicks alone blew the surrounding earth away... yet Asem effortlessly blocked it with a single finger.

Kiba muttered, "Ragnarok... Seeing this makes me feel like we’re truly witnessing the end of the world."

Ragnarok, huh? The very catastrophe Loki had tried to bring about—even going so far as to attack Odin, the chief god of his own pantheon. Just as Kiba felt, it really did seem like the world was coming to an end right now.

"Calling it Ragnarok is generous. It’s practically a one-sided slaughter."

The voice came from above. Descending from the sky was Azazel-sensei.

Azazel-sensei was breaking into a cold sweat as he watched Asem overpower the gods. "Gods from Asgard, the Asura clan, the Hindu pantheon... Gods with that much divine power, working together, and they can’t even put a dent in him? I’d like to think this is a sick joke—or a nightmare."

Kiba asked him, "Sensei, is it really hopeless at this rate?"

"Yeah, we’re in deep trouble. The frontlines are getting pushed back... I’d love to concentrate our firepower on Asem, but these familiars are getting in the way. On the flip side, if we divert forces to handle the familiars, a single attack from Asem will blow us all away. I’d like to call in the vanguard holding the defensive line, but they’re stretched to their absolute limits too."

In other words, we had no more backup to deploy. It was so hopeless it made you want to laugh.

"Man, what a total mess."

A cluster of familiars was suddenly blown sky-high. Fighting smack in the middle of the horde was old man Maurice... with his bare hands. He redirected a massive descending claw, grabbed the beast by the arm, and executed a flawless shoulder throw.

Kiba’s eye twitched. "Um... where is your sword...? More importantly, are you even fit to be moving around yet?"

"More or less. As for my partner here, well..." Old man Maurice drew his sword from its scabbard. The blade inside was shattered, snapped clean in half.

Azazel-sensei remarked, "Even you and Strada in your prime couldn’t beat him, huh?"

"Well, we aren’t invincible supermen who can handle everything. Just so you know, I don’t have the stamina left to jump back into that divine melee over there," the old man said, kicking away a familiar while pointing toward Asem. A short distance away, old man Strada was pulverizing familiars with his holy fists... Yeah, those two were definitely cheats.

"If even cheat-code old men like them can’t win, just how absurd is this guy...?"

"Bu-But what should we do? At this rate, winning seems impossible... and retreating to regroup isn’t an option either."

"Doing that would just give the enemy time to recover. If we’re going to defeat him, it has to be now... though that’s easier said than done."

-------------------------

If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced Chapters on Patreon!

Webnovel will keep getting 1 new Chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.

Maybe it’s not a big deal now... maybe it will be later.

[email protected]/Greyhounds

"And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"