Free Web NovelChapter 266: ICISEI Episode 252
Episode 252: The Somewhat Embarrassed ’Magician of Flowers’ After Being Praised
『 Looking at the partners before him who had been constantly running and fighting for human history, a hint of tenderness and warmth gradually appeared in Merlin’s eyes.
"Merlin..."
Perhaps due to feeling this care, or simply out of gratitude for the support he provided at this critical moment, expressions of heartfelt joy appeared on both of their faces.
At the same time, a delicate and exquisite flower suddenly appeared out of thin air and landed in Merlin’s hand.
"This is the moment for the true display of skills by me, the one known as the Magus of Flowers!"
"Please, everyone, praise the great me once again!"
"Yes! Mr. Merlin, I’m so happy to be able to meet you again!" Faced with such a shameless request, the honest and kind-hearted Mash still responded with a full face of smiles.
"Thank you so much for being willing to come and help us... Merlin..."
Besides Mash, even Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was usually introverted and reticent, and the cute little beast Fou, joined the ranks of expressing their gratitude.
Faced with such an overwhelming scene, even Merlin, who was usually quite conceited and proud, couldn’t help but show a hint of shyness. 』
『 .....』
〜Dimensional livestream, Chat Room〜
[ Umaru Doma (Himouto): Although it’s a bit strange, it’s very good that he could come to support at this time. ]
[ Keqing (Genshin Impact): "New support, will there be new changes?" ]
[ Gabriel (Gabriel DropOut): "Do your best!" ]
[ Paimon (Genshin Impact): "Really, is it okay? Although it’s very magical." ]
[ Rimuru Tempest (Tensura): "There’s no other way, we can only trust them." ]
[ .....]
〜One Punch Man World〜
At this very moment, Genos felt extremely skeptical.
Even he, facing such an enemy, would surely be defeated. If his teacher and that invincible King were added, perhaps they would have the strength to fight.
However, even so, that troublesome setting made Genos feel extremely headache-inducing.
And the current situation: a human with depleted magical energy, a Servant with basically no offensive capabilities, a silly and sweet goddess of the Underworld, and finally, what could be called the most reliable yet also the most unreliable person at the moment, the Magus of Flowers, Merlin.
With a setup like this, can you defeat Tiamat? Then you, Tiamat, the Goddess of Creation, might as well stop showing your face.
—
『 After Merlin quickly adjusted his state, he immediately entered a combat state.
"The decline in the Underworld’s output has stopped. With this..."
Before Ereshkigal could finish her words, the earth of the Underworld once again emitted a sky-shattering roar.
This deafening sound seemed as if it were about to tear the sky apart.
Accompanied by a tremor that shook the earth and mountains, that feeling of the world collapsing once again surged towards everyone like a giant wave, making them feel a chill.
"It seems that this is not the time to celebrate our reunion..."
Merlin sighed softly and said this, then stared straight at the Goddess of Creation before him, his eyes filled with determination and steadfastness.
"Tiamat! Spread her horn wings!"
Under Dr. Romani’s urgent report, a few of them quickly realized how urgent the current situation was.
Tiamat, after all, was not a creature of the Underworld. After feeling intense discomfort, she was the first to want to escape from here.
That enormous body seemed to be trembling, clearly unable to withstand this pressure.
After dragonifying, Tiamat slowly spread the huge horn wings behind her back, preparing to leap high, attempting to escape this place that caused her pain.
"Is she planning to fly again?"
Fujimaru Ritsuka’s gaze was tightly locked on Tiamat, very clearly realizing that if she were allowed to leave the Underworld, then...
Even the last glimmer of hope would be completely extinguished.
Those sacrifices of the goddesses, those deaths of humans, and the tremendous efforts made by Kingu and King Gilgamesh would all be in vain, falling short of success.
Therefore... no matter what, they must keep Tiamat here and stop her.
Even if this task was despairingly arduous.
Although they were thinking this, Mash, Fujimaru Ritsuka, and even the master of the Underworld, Ereshkigal, all fell into anxiety.
They all knew that preventing Tiamat from escaping was an almost impossible task.
At this very moment, whether it was Fujimaru Ritsuka, Mash, or Ereshkigal, they were all anxious and at their wits’ end.
At this moment, everyone felt a huge sense of frustration.
That feeling of powerlessness weighed on everyone’s heart like a mountain, making almost everyone feel suffocated.
Could it be... that they could really only watch Tiamat leave?
Such a question lingered in the hearts of every spectator, making people shudder.
While everyone was in a state of extreme anxiety, only Merlin remained calm.
His composed demeanor formed a sharp contrast with the panic of others, quickly attracting everyone’s attention.
Merlin was worthy of being the wise man who came all the way from Avalon. At this moment, he stood high up with confidence, his gaze firmly fixed on Tiamat before him, without a trace of fear.
"AAAAAAAA!!!"
Tiamat continued to emit low and fierce roars, her voice filled with anger and unwillingness.
At the same time, she kept moving her huge and clumsy body, looking as if she was desperately suppressing some emotion about to erupt, and the expression on her face looked extremely painful.
In this Underworld, which was forever shrouded in darkness and would never have a ray of sunlight, accompanied by Tiamat’s beast-like roars, it added to the terrifying and oppressive atmosphere, making people’s hair stand on end.
"Not needed by human history, thus born from hatred and sorrow... This is the essence of Tiamat, right?"
Merlin said slowly, his tone carrying undeniable certainty.
His words seemed to possess some kind of magic, causing Tiamat to stop her frantic roaring for a moment and quiet down.
"...Dissatisfied with the ecological state of the world after being abandoned, thus becoming the mother of all things in the world once again, and feeling joy for this... It is precisely because of this belief that her class was confirmed as such."
Merlin continued to analyze, his tone calm but profound. "Mother of Creation... this is just a code name, not her true name!"
As these words fell, Tiamat seemed to be enraged; her enormous wings spread out again, her momentum even greater than before.
Following that, what appeared before everyone’s eyes was the pitch-black mud surging endlessly beneath her feet, as if it would never dry up.
At the same time, the video screen shifted to Ishtar.
At this moment, she was speeding toward the place where the others were fighting. 』
『 .....』
〜Dimensional livestream, Chat Room〜
[ Paimon (Genshin Impact): "Great, she’s also fine." ]
[ Gabriel (Gabriel DropOut): "I thought she was already gone, but it turns out they are all fine." ]
[ Umaru Doma (Himouto): "This is also good news, they are all fine." ]
[ Paimon (Genshin Impact): "Exactly, exactly!" ]
[ .....]
〜Demon Slayer World〜
"Wow... The Goddess of Venus, Ishtar! She’s actually not dead yet!"
Tanjiro looked at Ishtar, who was still alive before him, and a smile couldn’t help but appear on his face.
—
〜KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World〜
"It looks like I really underestimated this useless goddess before, or rather, the name ’useless goddess’ will have to change hands in the future."
Aqua was speaking brazenly at this moment.
However.
These words made Sato Kazuma, on the other side, unable to sit still.
"There is and can only be one useless goddess, and that is you, Aqua! I absolutely will not allow any goddess to take away your title of ’useless’!"
Then, between the two of them, there was another chaotic scene~
—
〜Naruto World〜
Hidden Leaf Village—
Uzumaki Naruto looked at the Goddess of Venus before him, seeing hope for victory for a moment.
Different from just now, the situation has improved a bit.
At least, with the addition of these few, as long as they could drag Tiamat into the Underworld, they had hope for victory.
Yes... Just dragging Tiamat into the Underworld, what a simple yet highly difficult task.
—
『 Merlin was still chattering away: "This is precisely the great catastrophe abandoned by humanity, the one least needed by human history... one of the Seven Evils of Humanity, the Beast that possesses the Principle of Regression!"
After Merlin finished this sentence, Tiamat, who had been crouching, seemed to have finally shaken off the control of the Underworld.
After feeling the invisible pressure on her body disappear, Tiamat’s horn wings kept flapping.
The powerful air pressure forced everyone back several meters in an instant, making them appear powerless in the face of such tremendous strength.
"No... way..."
Ereshkigal no longer had any way to continue blocking her.
Seeing those huge wings completely spread out, only anxiety and helplessness remained in E’s heart.
This sense of powerlessness surged in her heart, making her almost collapse.
Of course, Fujimaru Ritsuka on the side and Dr. Romani watching from Chaldea also felt extremely anxious.
Facing the crisis before them, they were helpless. Even if they wanted to do something... but what could they do?
One was an ordinary human with no power to truss a chicken, and the other was thousands of miles away, not even in the same time and space. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
If they couldn’t stop the Goddess of Creation, Tiamat, from returning to the surface, then the moment she stepped onto the land of Mesopotamia, she would return to her immortal body.
In this way, no matter what they did, it would be too late; time was a luxury for them.
"Fujimaru... Mash..." ƒreewebɳovel.com
At this critical moment, the Magus of Flowers, Merlin, softly called out the names of the two human saviors.
"...According to theory, your experience in this Singularity must be the most difficult one among all Singularities. That Beast crouching in the Underworld must also be the strongest enemy to date, right?"
"After all, we needed two goddesses to hold back her true body, and used Uruk as bait to push her into the Underworld. However, now... even the Underworld will be unable to trap her... Her strength almost exceeds the scope of all conventional understanding."
"The binding of the Chains of Heaven..."
"The punishment of the Underworld."
"And those superficial flowers of mine..."
The petals in Merlin’s hands slowly drifted in the sky of the Underworld.
He seemed to sigh deeply, as if he had been relieved of a burden, and then closed his eyes.
In this instant, the audience’s mood rose and fell with his retelling; every experience, every effort, and sacrifice of every character from before appeared in their minds again at this moment.
This journey was indeed exceptionally arduous.
As Merlin slowly opened his eyes, he turned his head under everyone’s gaze and revealed a gentle smile to the two of them.
"Along the way... you’ve really worked hard."
Driven by Merlin’s words, the audience’s emotions reached a climax once again.
At this very moment, listening to Merlin’s sincere words, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash couldn’t help but feel a soreness in their noses, as if tears were about to slide down.
But... since they had already come this far, how could they give up so easily? The Goddess of Creation, Tiamat, before them, how could they let all these efforts go to waste?
When Merlin’s voice completely disappeared in the Underworld, a breeze slowly blew the corners of their clothes.
An invisible aura also quietly appeared in a corner of the battlefield before people could notice.
Everyone just watched Tiamat before them, approaching step by step, and everyone was nervous to the extreme.
The air seemed to have solidified, and everyone felt a strong sense of oppression coming from all directions, as if it were silently recounting the impending terror.
Merlin’s voice became exceptionally impassioned at this moment, like a horn of war inspiring morale.
His voice was filled with an unquestionable power and determination.
Such a voice spread to every corner of the Underworld’s land at almost the same time.
Whether it was the dark caves or the vast wilderness, that heart-stirring power could be clearly heard.
"Coming to this step, everyone has exhausted all means," Merlin’s words revealed a deep helplessness and unwillingness, "but it’s still not enough!"
"That guy still doesn’t know fear, doesn’t know natural enemies... even doesn’t know what death is!" Merlin’s voice grew higher and higher, and every word was like a sharp sword, striking the deepest despair and powerlessness in everyone’s hearts.
Tiamat’s enormous body, which seemed capable of splitting the heavens and the earth, continued to advance.
Every step she took caused an earthquake, making the entire land of the Underworld tremble.
Such a scene, even for those watching across the screen, felt unprecedented terror; that panic from the depths of the soul made them unable to restrain themselves.
At the same time, as Tiamat pressed on step by step, a figure wearing a black robe appeared vaguely in a corner of the screen.
However, what was puzzling was that although the figure of that person was vaguely visible, no one could clearly see their true face.
This haziness made people feel even more uneasy. 』
『 .....』
『 Viewers of Countless World 』
Accompanied by Merlin’s continued impassioned and firm words, the audience’s hearts were deeply infected.
Expressions of excitement appeared on their faces, as if they were experiencing this life-or-death battle themselves, feeling unprecedentedly inspired and encouraged.
.....
『 "However... all of this should come to an end!" Finally, Merlin said these words, and the firm meaning in his words seemed to pierce through the screen and reach everyone’s hearts.
"It is not King Gilgamesh, nor the Holy Grail held by the King of Magecraft... the one who summoned him here is not anyone else, but you—Fujimaru Ritsuka!" Merlin announced with a clang, his tone revealing a bit of reproach as well as anticipation.
At this very moment, this great magician slowly turned around.
He saw him looking with a gaze like a torch at the young man standing on the side—Fujimaru Ritsuka.
His eyes contained not only recognition of the latter’s ability but also the entrustment of beautiful hope for the future.
He, Merlin, was very sure that Fujimaru Ritsuka had the ability to create miracles once again.
"The enemy is the Evil of Humanity—Beast... Since that is the case, then the conditions for him to appear on this land have been met!"
At this moment, Fujimaru Ritsuka, staring at those bright and dazzling eyes that seemed like purple gemstones, felt unprecedented trust and support.
And at the same time, with Merlin’s words, Tiamat was stepping on the path away from the Underworld step by step, and it seemed that nothing could stop her footsteps.
Although Fujimaru Ritsuka wanted to take action immediately to stop this disaster, Merlin, before him, still appeared exceptionally calm and composed, like an old man full of wisdom, constantly giving Fujimaru Ritsuka encouragement and confidence, making him feel strength.
"The world’s weapon that can fight against the existence known as the Beast of Counter Force, that is, the existence of the Grand class, has officially appeared in this world!"
Upon hearing the title "Grand Servant," Dr. Romani was shocked, looking at Merlin with disbelief.
After he swallowed a mouthful of saliva deeply, the shock and tension on his face gradually faded, replaced by a more focused and calm expression. 』
『 .....』
