The Virgin Hero Who Fought in the Dungeon for 20 Years Returned to the Surface Only to Find the Population of the World Has Dropped Drastically, with a Male-to-Female Ratio of 1:1000 - 94

Chapter 94: Chiriat of Earth

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“Captain! I will hold him off here. In the meantime, start chanting the spell—!”

“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you actually thought you could bind me with something like this.”

From within the pure-white cocoon came Chiriat’s muffled voice.

Goooh!

A roar like thunder rising from the pit of the stomach shook the cocoon. In the next instant, enormous limbs like great trees burst out from the oval-shaped cocoon, and Loria realized that Ichika’s spell had been broken.

“Run awa—!”

Loria shouted, but it was too late. In the blink of an eye, Chiriat tore apart Ichika’s threads technique and swung Ichika along with them, smashing her against the rock wall at his side. 

Loria sprinted to cover her. But Chiriat thrust out his left hand, gathered magic, and from his palm created a massive boulder which he hurled at Loria. The stone projectile, shaped like a torpedo, came flying at her. It was no mere rock. Each one was coated with powerful magic; even a graze would deal severe damage.

“Tch—!”

Loria twisted her body at the last moment, spinning aside to dodge the stone projectile. If not for the brief time Ichika had bought her, she would not even have been able to move properly. Her decision to cast a healing spell upon herself in those scant seconds had been brilliant, but even so, she was only just managing to evade. 

Neither Loria nor Ichika were weak. On the contrary, as explorers they were first-class, the sort who would never falter before ordinary monsters. But the strength of this creature before them, claiming to serve the True Demon Lord, was on an entirely different scale.

He uses rock. Then there is a way.

Ichika’s thread attack had not been in vain. Proof of that lay in the fact that Chiriat’s reaction speed had slowed compared to the beginning. Naturally so. Her Vajra Mind Silk, given enough time, had the strength to slice even heavy tanks apart. Chiriat had surely not escaped unscathed.

Keeping low, Loria coated her right-hand longsword with water magic. The power of a pure blue stream infused the blade with sharpness. As she slipped beneath Chiriat’s crotch, she swung her sword.

“O-oh?”

Blue magical residue hung in the air. Loria had severed Chiriat’s left leg completely. With a strangely vacant cry, he lost his balance and crashed heavily onto his backside. 

Zuun! 

A thunderous boom shook the ground. Loria skidded to a stop, wearing down the soles of her boots, and this time leveled her blade’s tip at Chiriat’s face.

She began a chant. Moisture in the air gathered through her magic upon the longsword, forming a mass of blue water. Aqua Bullet. Focusing her will, Loria unleashed a seamless barrage. High-speed water bullets pounded Chiriat’s face mercilessly. The air resounded with tremendous shockwaves. Dust and water mist billowed up thickly, obscuring him from sight.

“Ahhh!”

Loria poured her last dregs of magic into one final water spell. White filled her vision. She couldn’t breathe. Oxygen deprivation. But after taking such an onslaught head-on, even Chiriat could not have escaped unscathed. If she could only buy time, reinforcements from the Association would eventually arrive.

“Oh, oh, you really did a number on me, huh? Is that it?”

Startled, she lifted her head. There was Chiriat, half his face destroyed, lips twisted in a fearless grin, holding Ichika by the head in one hand like a dangling doll.

“Ichika! Release her!”

“Don’t screw with me. Still, not bad, girl.”

Though seated, Chiriat seemed utterly unbothered by the loss of his leg. Loria used her sword for support to stand. Her face was pale. Ichika, limp like a broken doll, hung motionless in Chiriat’s giant hand, utterly drained of strength. In such a state, she could not possibly wield magic.

That meant she was completely defenseless. Chiriat, a monster seemingly made of overlapping stone, needed only squeeze a little, and her head would be crushed. While Loria’s heart raced in desperation, the jester who had been watching the fight from a distance sauntered over with infuriatingly mocking movements.

“Ah, I forgot to mention, that young lady is not Ryuuto Sakazaki.”

The clown spoke with a twisted sway of his body.

“You should’ve said that sooner, you damned clown.”

Chiriat’s half-ruined face regenerated in an instant. The recovery speed was astounding. Then he drew in surrounding rocks to restore his missing left leg.

“So? Who is she?”

“One moment.”

The clown touched his chin thoughtfully. Without pause, a high-pitched screech echoed as a three-headed bat appeared from outside the dungeon. 

The bizarre creature alighted on the clown’s shoulder, flapping its wings while shrieking. Likely his familiar. Soon after, the clown spread his arms wide, and in a flat, emotionless voice declared.

“According to my familiar, that warrior is a human explorer of A-rank. In effect, among the very best of her kind. Her name is Loria Himejima.”

“Ha! This is the strongest humanity has to offer? Well, not weak, I’ll grant that, but compared to me, she’s nothing. Oi, clown, you’ve got that look like you wanna say something.”

“No, not at all.”

“Then let’s not waste more time. Loria, was it? If you don’t want this girl’s skull crushed, don’t move a muscle. Got it?”

“Coward!”

“Call it cost efficiency, sweetheart.”

With Ichika as a hostage, she could do nothing. For better or worse, the teachers and staff of the school had all managed to escape during the battle. As she thought this, Chiriat conjured a stone the size of a baby’s head in his left hand.

What is he…?

Before Loria could finish the thought, Chiriat puffed his cheeks and exhaled forcefully against the stone.

“Guh!”

The rock shot forward at tremendous speed, shattering Loria’s right knee. She had instinctively erected a magical barrier, but the destructive power pierced through the barrier easily.

What outrageous power?!

Even as she collapsed, two more stones followed immediately. Pain like lightning burst in her right arm and left shoulder. It was beyond agony. Loria dropped her longsword, rolling and writhing. Yet even amid searing pain, her thoughts did not stop.

Why did he weaken the strikes?

If Chiriat had wished, the blows could have torn her arm or shoulder clean off. More to the point, had he aimed for her head, she would have been dead on the spot. 

But instead, he deliberately lessened the power and avoided vital points. There had to be a reason. Proof of it lay in how he tossed Ichika aside and stomped toward her.

A massive hand seized her by the waist and hoisted her upright, though she had been lying flat on her back. Such was the size, the sheer abnormality, of his grasp.

“Oi, Loria, wasn’t it? That face says you’re wondering why I didn’t go for the kill. The answer’s obvious. A mere human dared wound Chiriat, one of the Five Divine Kings who serve the True Demon Lord. Of course I won’t rest until I’ve made you suffer.”

Chiriat’s craggy, stone-like face twisted into a broad grin. Loria, filled with rage at both the pain inflicted and the humiliation of capture, glared back at him head-on.

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