True Vorpal Bunny (Danmachi SI) Ch.13 (Patreon)

Chapter 13:

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Iru cursed, running like a scared rabbit chased by a wolf. He jumped to the side just before one of Alfia’s sonic blocks hit the dirt, making it explode.

Iru kept dodging as the spells kept raining like an artillery barrage.

Apparently, calling her old and mentioning the collective single status of the Hera Familia was a double combo on her temper. The Silence was completely focused on the Collared Beast, almost ignoring the Astraea Familia and Ardee.

Almost being the operative word as she kept weaving between their strikes and casting magic in Iru’s direction.

Her Silentium Eden just ate any area-of-effect spells like Ryuu’s Luminous Wind without any issue.

Meanwhile, Ais, Gareth and Riveria were still hammering Delphyne, the name given to the Nightmare by Erebus. Iru actually caught sight of the god watching the show while dodging Alfia’s rain of spells. The cheeky fucker even waved his stump at Iru while two Evilus members guarded him.

The black dragon was kept at bay thanks to Ais’s Avenger-boosted wind being especially effective against draconic foes, but its regeneration kept it from going down while Ais was slowly killing herself with her own Skill.

The situation seemed desperate. The only way for them to win against the Nightmare would be to group up and allow Riveria enough time to cast her longest and most destructive spell, digging a direct way to its magic stone before finishing it off. But Alfia was too dangerous to leave alone and needed to be taken down before the dragon.

Yet, Iru knew there was hope. While the dragon could continue regenerating and keep going all day, Alfia was very much a sprinter instead of a marathon runner thanks to her disease. The more she fought, the more her stats decreased. Hell, the only reason she wasn’t already down was because she consumed a branch from an elven sacred tree, one of the few things that slowed down her illness.

So, Iru’s team needed to exhaust Alfia faster than Avenger was wrecking Ais’s body.

And the best way was to piss her off.

“You’re not hitting me! Your sight is going bad, granny?!”

He was bluffing his ass off. While Alfia’s spells had not hit him directly, the shockwaves of their impact on the ground was enough to rattle his body.

In fact, he was glad to be facing away from everyone else because he was actually coughing blood.

Ardee’s heal and buff spell was the only thing keeping him going.

But, the strategy was working. Alfia was slowing down. Where before she dodged like a leaf in the wind before, now she was showing some strain and visibly putting effort into avoiding being surrounded.

Finally, Lyra was able to get a hit in with the shield she had been carrying around. The enchanted weapon shattered Alfia’s Silentum Eden, the anti-magic barrier that had been covering her this whole time. 

“Ghana Avimutta!” Ardee came in clutch once more, her magic now able to affect Alfia. The debuff spell was unable to paralyze the Silence, but the stats lowering effect did activate.

Alfia coughed as her condition worsened faster than she had expected.

The Astraea Familia took the opening their ally gave them.

Ryana Lietz’s fire magic, Alyse’s own blazing blade and Ryuu’s Luminous Wind slammed into the grey-haired Level 7, creating a combined explosion.

Alfia came out of the dust cloud singed, but still able to fight. Lowered endurance or not, a Level 7 was a Level 7. But, the sight of the wounded Monster of Talent raised morale.

Alfia glared at the adventurers.

“Very well, then. If you wish to face the same despair we faced. If you think your justice can stand in front of absolute power and still stand, I shall give you what you want.”

“Ha! Without your magic barrier, we’ll get you, you old bat!” Lyra jumped in, clearly seeing that provocation was a valid strategy.

Alfia dismissed the Pallum’s words, and instilled fear with her next sentence.

“Silentum Eden’s purpose isn’t to keep the outside noise out, it is to seal away my own bothersome noise. It reduces my magic as much as it nullifies other spells.”

“She’s bluffing!” Ardee called Alfia out.

“Gospel.” A sonic impact far more powerful than the ones Alfia had used until now rocked the whole of the 18th Floor.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” Delphyne roared as the shockwave itself was able to injure it.

Ardee pursed her lips.

“She’s not bluffing.” She corrected herself.

Iru could have told her that. And what Alfia didn’t mention was that her robes also had a magic resistance enchantment on it that lowered Alfia’s magic even further. That was how much she hated her own “noise.”

Alfia ignored the blue-haired girl and started chanting.

“Blessing of the root of evil, curse of birth.”

The Astraea Familia’s instincts blared like a siren cry. Until now, Alfia had been slinging the equivalent of artillery shells with a single-word, ultra-short spell. A spell’s strength was generally related to the length of its chant.

So if a monster like Alfia had a long chant spell, they couldn’t afford to let her fire it off.

“My original sin that devoured half of my body. Not hard.” The issue was that now, Alfia was taking them seriously, and dodged while continuing her concurrent chanting.

“Collapse, Star Crown!”

Iru tried to rush back into the fray, but he had gotten pretty far away while running from Alfia’s earlier barrage.

“There is no purification. There is no salvation. The resonance of this heavenly sound is my sin. The trumpet of gods, the lyre of spirits. Melody of light, the seal of the sin. Loved by the miniature garden, my destiny is shattered. I hate you. The compensation is here. Destroy everything with a proof of my sin. Cry, holy bell tower. Genos Angelus.”

A bell appeared above Alfia. It rang, and with it came destruction.

This was the spell that had taken down Leviathan. This should have turned the Astraea Familia to dust.

Instead, Lyra stood, her shield gleaming. Aegis, an artifact of the Zeus Familia repaired by Asfi Andromeda. Its special effect was the ability to steal magic.

Lyra had used it to prevent Alfia from using Silentum Eden, but she was also able to release the stolen spell. With it, she had protected her Familia and Ardee from Genos’s Angelus.

“Iru!” Ardee screamed when she realized that the Hume Bunny had not been close enough to be under the Aegis’s protection.

An explosion of purple and black lightning bolts revealed Iru’s state.

The Hume Bunny had blood leaking from every orifices, but he was still standing, covered in his magic, the visual effect of his gravity magic stronger than it had ever been despite the state of its wielder.

Even Alfia turned toward the source and was astounded. She could understand the Astraea Familia’s survival thanks to her own stolen magic. But Iru had no such protection.

Lyra using the shield, the Astraea Familia beating Alfia and then joining the three Loki Familia members to take down Delphyne. Those were the events as they should have been.

Iru refused to just be a mob in the background.

Consuming Erebus’s ichor had unexpected effects. When he had updated his status with Freya the day before, he had seen a great rise in his abilities, but also the birth of a new Skill. Maybe it was because Erebus was the god of darkness and it was a close enough theme to gravity, but his new skill worked perfectly with his magic.

Mistilteinn: adds magic drain to spell effect. Adds the Development Ability Spirit Healing. Adds the Strength ability to magic power.

So right now, Iru had just devoured Genos Angelus. He had all the syphoned power of the strongest spell of one of the strongest people of the setting flowing through him.

He couldn’t take a step forward though. He had absorbed most of the magic, but it still hit him hard.

With his enchant magic, he was unable to launch long range attacks outside of throwing rocks, or at least that was how it normally was.

All this time he had practiced magic control was to prepare for later, a technique he knew of, but was unable to cast at his level.

But right now, he had all the power he needed.

He raised his axe high, and compressed all the stolen power on the edge of his axe.

Iru smiled wildly as gravity rose around him, cratering the ground he was standing on.

Alfia’s eyes widened. She recognized what the crazy bunny was doing. It was a technique used by high-ranked members of both her Familia and Zeus’s.

Afterglow.

A strike that focused an offensive Skill or strengthening Magic into a weapon that was then released as a cutting shockwave.

An heroic strike that destroyed everything in its path. It was also called Castle Cutter for doing exactly what the name implied.

Iru brought the axe down.

“Ataraxia!” Alfia cried with a panic she hadn’t felt for years. With Lyra using Aegis, it released Silentum Eden and Alfia was able to cast her barrier.

However, Iru’s target wasn’t Alfia.

The purple black crescent of destruction released by Iru’s strike flew above The Level 7’s head.

Encased by Ais’s black wind, Delphyne didn’t see the blow coming.

The scales that had been resisting Riveria’s magic were shorn apart by the projected edge of gravity magic, pulled and pushed equally in all directions like they had been put in a shredder. The flesh and bones below fared equally badly and gave way.

Iru gazed upon his work.

Delphyne’s head was separated from its body, and there was a giant scar cleaving the 18th Floor in two.

Iru feared a Juggernaut appearing, but birthing Delphyne apparently took out enough from the Dungeon to not have enough energy to spawn its countermeasure, or the cut was clean enough to not count as excessive damage.

Anyway, Iru grinned, flipped Alfia off and fell on his butt.