Chapter 244

When entering through the door that Athena opened, there was only a pure white space spreading out.

And after all other members entered their assigned areas, the open doors closed on their own.

Then the pure white space began to shimmer, and soon a soft red luxury carpet covered the entire floor.

And walls with luxurious decorations.

The ceiling had distastefully eerie paintings of demons, and multiple dazzling chandeliers that looked expensive enough to live off of for several years were hanging, illuminating below.

"What is this place? It suddenly became incredibly luxurious..."

While saying this and staying alert of the surroundings, over a hundred meters ahead of Athena near the far wall, shallow steps began forming, leading inward.

Then, at the top step, a jet-black throne sprouted up from the floor.

While watching this scene without missing anything, fanfare suddenly rang out from the walls and ceiling.

"This is a noisy room. This time's monster might be quite eccentric."

While searching for the monster that hadn't appeared yet, a hole opened in the ceiling above the throne, and from there, a spiral staircase made of floating platforms without railings extended down to in front of the throne.

As Athena sent a questioning look at what was happening, a large lion-like foot emerged and slowly descended the stairs while revealing its full appearance.

The monster was two meters in total length, walking on two lion-shaped legs, with its lower body covered in beast fur.

From its rear - rather than a snake - a five-meter-long self-standing worm-like tail was writhing.

And while the upper body was similar to a muscular human form, the chest was nearly two meters wide.

The arms had no elbows, replaced instead with three claw-like blades longer than its legs.

The head was exactly like a lion's, complete with a thick mane.

However, from the sides of its head were two silver horns curved like a bull's. From the crown, one straight golden horn stood upright.

When such a monster leisurely descended before the throne, the spiral staircase vanished, and it sat down arrogantly, crossing its legs and leaning back.

"What's with that unnecessarily drawn-out entrance?"

"Kukukuu-- Kuhahahahahaha!"

"Oh-- you can speak human language?"

"Kuhahahahahaha!"

"...Ah. So that's just your cry... Physically impossible... I wonder if someone would switch with me..."

After making a disgusted face at the monster that seemed to have an incredibly troublesome personality, Athena deployed her dragon armor with gauntlets equipped, wanting to defeat it quickly.

And toward the monster playing king, watching from afar while seated, Athena brought out her scythe and released a horizontal slash imbued with lightning and wind magic.

But the monster, still seated in the chair, raised both sword claws growing from its elbows, wrapped them in golden lightning from its golden horn, and fired all six like rockets toward the slash attack.

Then, immediately after firing, new sword claws had already regrown.

".....................Oops, this isn't good."

Of the six claw-swords wrapped in golden lightning, three were destroyed by Athena's slash, but the remaining half were coming straight toward her.

She was momentarily distracted by something and froze, but Athena quickly switched her focus and jumped sideways.

Then the three sword-claws wrapped in golden lightning. They pierced where Athena had been moments ago, destroying the surroundings with lightning.

"As I thought, that lightning. It doesn't seem to be just for show, just regular lightning. And that middle horn..."

The golden horn that had caught Athena's attention.

For some reason, Athena had this feeling about it: "It looks delicious."

For Athena and others who maintain their existence through magical power, food was unnecessary.

While they had experienced sensations of wanting magical power, they were supposed to be unfamiliar with cravings like being hungry or wanting to eat something.

However now. Athena couldn't help but want to eat the golden horn standing like an antenna on top of the lion-faced monster's head.

"What is this sensation? It doesn't feel like some skill or magic..."

Yes. Athena was certain this was undoubtedly a desire arising from within herself.

And if her body wanted it, it must surely have meaning.

"Come to think of it... --Whoa!"

While dodging the fired golden lightning-wrapped sword claws by moving back and forth, Athena recalled something relevant.

Previously, Jeanne had absorbed power into herself by eating a shield item.

At that time, she said she ate it because she felt their wavelengths matched.

But why did she immediately think of eating as the method?

Athena now understood that Jeanne must have felt the same way back then.

"Then, I have no choice but to take it."

Wanting to eat that horn. And wanting to incorporate it into herself.

Driven by such desires she'd never felt before, Athena resumed action.

While dodging the electrified sword claws with just body movements, Athena approached while unleashing a rain of scythe slashes using both hands and the dragon armor's tail - three blades total.

But even faced with this rain of slashes, without standing from the throne, it deflected them by continuously firing sword-claws in all directions.

Irritated by this attitude, Athena released wind and lightning radiation magic at full power.

Then, the monster's tail shot out and began absorbing the magic.

But it exploded from exceeding its capacity limit, scattering flesh fragments around the monster and its surroundings, leaving only the remaining weakened magic.

However, even that magic was broken through by powerful golden lightning released from the golden horn, and it came straight toward Athena.

"Such straightforward magic is no problem."

Indeed, she knew the speed of lightning firsthand.

But its trajectory was simple. Athena didn't even need to waste energy countering it, so she showed off by stepping aside to dodge--at that moment.

Rather than aiming at Athena herself, the monster fired sword claws in front of her as if to check her movement.

Of course, she ignored such an attack that wouldn't hit her and tried to jump over the sword claws stuck in front.

However, she noticed the golden lightning she thought she had dodged was approaching from behind.

"--What?"

She only noticed because she had deployed the amber-colored dragon power smoke around her, but not understanding why this was happening, she jumped to dodge for now.

However, as if predicting this, the monster fired electrified sword claws upward where Athena was.

If she continued ascending with this momentum, she would be skewered.

So she quickly fired wires from the gauntlets Leah made into the ground and had earth magic forcefully pull her down.

While she succeeded in avoiding the sword claws fired upward, Athena saw the lightning she thought she had dodged by jumping pass right in front of her eyes.

While watching its trajectory line in surprise, she witnessed the lightning strike one of the sword claws that was about to pass above her and reflect.

"--So that's how it works!"

"Kuhahahaha! Kuhahahaha!"

When the reflected lightning bounced back toward Athena, she dodged by bending the wire with earth magic, only for it to hit another sword claw and come back again.

Apparently, the sword claws stuck all around had the property of reflecting lightning attacks while maintaining their power.

Athena realized that the sword claws she had dodged weren't attacks but rather positioning to create an advantageous field.

While wondering if Leah would have seen through this immediately if she were here, Athena readied her scythe in a single form, knowing she had to blast away this attack to stop it.

And to the approaching golden lightning, she delivered a great scythe strike imbued with earth magic and dragon power.

This dealt with the immediate crisis for now. But, of course, it wasn't over.

"Kukukuu. Kuuhahahahahaha!"

"You--!"

The monster had prepared a massive amount of golden lightning and fired them all at once from its horn.

Though she struck multiple slashes to destroy some, the remaining electric attacks scattered in various directions, reflecting off the sword claws scattered all around while approaching her.

A true omnidirectional attack. Of these, Athena could only destroy about half before they would reach her.

Athena switched her dragon armor to earth attribute and spread her amber-colored smoke dragon power in a lightning attribute web pattern.

And simultaneously, as the golden lightning arrived, it first flowed through the lightning attribute membrane, spread in a web pattern outside, and weakened, while the remaining portion tried to be deflected to the ground by Athena's thick armor transformed to earth attribute.

"--Guaah!"

However, unable to completely nullify its power and failing to fully deflect the lightning attack, Athena's entire body was burned.

"Kuhahaha!"

"You... I'll KILL YOU--"

She glared at the monster, still lounging arrogantly on the throne.

But as if it were nothing, the monster let out another high-pitched cry similar to human laughter while launching the same attack again.

It repeatedly fired powerful magic attacks like a broken record, as if it had infinite magical power.

However, Athena didn't move from there and began laying dragon power rails toward the throne.

And until they connected, Athena endured the continuous golden lightning omnidirectional attacks fired without restraint.

She thought it would be better to endure like a turtle with heavy defenses and breakthrough at once rather than moving around carelessly.

Smoke rose from her flesh, and a burnt smell filled inside the dragon armor, but she endured through the pain with anger that surpassed it.

Then she loaded the armor with only the leg portion set to lightning attribute onto the dragon power rails, matching their attributes.

In that instant. She began charging toward the throne at lightning speed.

Even then, the monster wouldn't retreat, continuously firing sword claws wrapped in golden lightning, but she deflected them with her scythe while avoiding fatal wounds.

Thus advancing while being pierced by sword claws that penetrated her thick earth armor all over her body, she charged at the monster with that momentum.

"Guhah--Hahahaha!"

"HAAAAAAAAAH!"

The throne was destroyed and the monster was impressively slammed into the back wall, but even then it maintained its composure while firing lightning and swinging both hands' sword-claws.

However, the golden lightning attacks were less powerful than before, and Athena could perfectly neutralize them by swinging her scythe.

So, the heavier strikes from the sword claws became more of a concern.

"........Could it be that throne wasn't just decoration, but some kind of magic enhancement item? No wonder it had such ridiculous magical power."

The magical power contained in the magic the monster had been firing exceeded even Tatsuro's total magical power capacity easily.

Looking briefly at the now broken and tattered jet-black throne, she figured it must have had magic power enhancement and magical power recovery effects at a minimum.

Thinking about it that way, the room's luxury, that showy entrance, that strangely arrogant attitude - it was all likely a kind of stage set to make sitting on the throne not feel out of place.

Athena exchanged slashes and lightning while gradually approaching the monster, pulling out the sword claws that had pierced her body during her charge.

With burns all over and wounds from the sword claws, she was far from unscathed.

However, what she wanted was right in front of her.

As if enduring hunger, Athena cornered the monster against the wall.

However, this monster. Its physical actions were strong, and even though weakened, the golden lightning was still dangerous to take directly, making it hard to deliver the final push.

But combat in the narrow space by the wall was not this monster's specialty.

Indeed, it was desperately defending without even time to let out a cry.

"I didn't really want to do this because it's tiring... But if it can defeat this thing!"

Athena added four more tails to her dragon armor, had them hold smaller scythes, and began attacking with seven scythes total.

The monster couldn't keep up with this and began accumulating cuts all over its body.

At this rate--. When Athena's heart relaxed thinking that, the monster struck that opening perfectly.

"Kuhaha!"

"Hyah--wait, what's this?"

With perfect timing, the monster fired two silver lightning bolts from the silver bull horns growing from both sides of its face.

However, even though she had relaxed slightly, she wasn't slacking off enough to take it head-on.

Athena properly swung the scythes in both hands horizontally to cut through them.

And that attack definitely hit and blasted them away--or so it seemed, but silver lightning remained charged on the scythes in her hands.

However, it didn't make her numb or anything, just stuck there, and the sharpness didn't seem to change either.

While finding this extra creepy, Athena thought it would end once she defeated the monster and tried to attack.

Then, this time, it fired silver lightning at itself, enveloping the monster's body in silver lightning.

"Wha--huh!?"

"Kuhaha!"

At that moment, the scythes charged with silver lightning began repelling against the monster's body, nearly throwing back the scythes in both hands.

And in that brief moment, the monster slipped past Athena's side and entered its advantageous field of planted sword claws that it had created earlier.

Furthermore, ignoring Athena, the monster was busy building its nest, firing sword claws in all directions and charging them with silver lightning.

"This is just like............right. Magnets."

While blowing away the silver lightning on her scythes with her dragon power, Athena realized the nature of the earlier repulsive force.

Yes. That silver lightning had the properties of an electromagnet.

And its poles could be freely controlled. It could both repel and attract.

"Really..."

While feeling frustrated that her prey had holed up again, Athena began laying dragon power rails once more to venture into the enemy's field.