Chapter 27: Successor of the Dark Lord (1)

“Are you a hamster?”

Astora questioned the grand master of the temple. Indeed, her assumption was not wrong. White fur with long beard almost touching the ground below the chin, the grand master was a rodent with slanted and tired eyes. Two round ears pocked out of his gentle face.

“So, you have heard of my race, child? Good good! For someone who only arrived a month ago into our world, you have learned quite a lot.” Said the grand master. His soft words concealed the shocking truth behind them. Valanor stepped up in front of Astora and drew out his brush.

“Is this a trap?” Valanor grumbled menacingly.

The grand master, holding his tiny wooden cane in his hands, spoke. “At ease, young fox. I mean you no harm.”

“What do you mean, master?” Karuma asked hurriedly.

“Calm down, Karuma! Everything has its time. It would be more appropriate to hear it from the miss, not me.” Said the grand master.

“…How do you know?” Astora asked softly. Her hand clenched, preparing for any possible event that might come. Not everyone in this world was kind enough to let a stranger like her roam free in their world. She was aware of this fact. But some were much more dangerous than others. What she feared at the moment was that this old hamster was linked to this Regent of Scyentia she was warned about. Or it might be some elusive enemies she was not aware about. Either way, it was not a situation she was fond of.

“Someone told me.” Said the old hamster.

“Who?”

“Even if I tell you, I don’t think you know this person yourself. It won’t do you any good.”

“I will be the judge of that. Just tell me!” Astora raised her voice. “Who is this person?”

But just before Astora could get her answer, a loud noise accompanied by a violent tremor that shook the whole garden broke the scene. From the entrance, a column of smoke rose, signaling the coming of a disaster. One of the disciples in yellow robe rushed into the garden. His eyes filled with fear and dread. Whatever he saw, he wanted to get away from it as fast as he could. Then he stumbled in front of the grand master and got on his knees.

“Master, we are under attack!” the disciple reported, sweating profusely.

“What? By who?” Karuma asked.

“I don’t know..it is just a little girl…then…monster!”

“Look out!”

The grand master quickly kicked the disciple to the side and used his cane to deflect an incoming sudden attack from behind: an acute spear connected to a rosy lump of flesh. Failed to achieve its kill, the spear retracted itself to its owner. It was never a spear but just an enlarged finger of a monstrous claw hand belonging to a girly figure. Long blue hair with a military hat on her head, the girl wore a military long wool coat. The coat had a deep blue backside with a dark front adorned with white buttons. The girl’s set reminded a high rank official in the military, only it was accustomed specifically for someone of a small and feminine stature like her. She had big round eye, the color of the sky while the other concealed by a black eyepatch. But her charming appeal was not enough to hide her ruthless nature behind that sadistic smile.

“Nice one! For a tiny little old mouse, you are quick.” The blue hair girl spoke. Her outfit and hair were stained with a crimson liquid dropping to her feet. Her smile sent shiver to the spine. The contrast between a young girl who was in her early teens and the carnage that surrounded her was frighteningly obvious.

“Who are you? Why are you attacking us?” the grand master changed his tone. For a moment, his mere presence suddenly changed to that of a giant.

“I have no quarters with you. You and your temple just happen to be in my way so blame your own bad luck! In fact, if anything, you can blame her for coming here.” The devilish girl pointed at Astora. “Impostor!”

“What?” said Astora confusingly.

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“You think you can go around pretending to be the one who will inherit his legacy? You piece of shit!” the girl spoke with anger. “I am the one who is his legitimate successor, not you, not anyone else!”

“Just who are you?” Valanor inquired.

“I am Dark Lord Cornelia, successor to the will of Dark Lord Alastor. And you who claimed to be Astora, are not worthy of that name!!!” Cornelia charged at Astora.

“Karuma, we must protect the girl!” Hearing his master’s orders, Karuma urgently appeared in front of Astora, charging his attack.

“Don’t stand in my way!!!” Cornelia raged, baring her monstrous claw at the former Hero.

The two clashed, creating a shockwave that pushed both of them back. But before Cornelia had the luxury to recover, her hand has been ensnared by strange hair entangling themselves. The strands of hair came from the weapon of the fox beastman Valanor, trapping his foe.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Using her beastly strength, Cornelia’s sharp claw shredded the hair of the brush, shocking the painter. “My turn! ”. A black void appeared between Cornelia’s hand and started to suck in everything around it into oblivion.

“Stand your ground!” shouted the grand master. Hitting his cane onto the ground below, the old hamster created a barrier of stones rising around them. But could it stand against the mighty suction of the black hole? Unfortunately for them, the disciple was the first one to go along with a piece of the earthen wall.

“AAAA!” upon contact, the unfortunate man was crushed into bits. First, it was his leg. The, his body. Finally, his head. All of those parts were compressed so much they turned into mush under the immense pressure to fit the small black orb.

“” Through the crack, Astora fired a stream of blue fire at Cornelia. However, they were all sucked into the void.

“Pathetic! You call that a flame? This is a flame! ” Cornelia charged an intense fireball into the sky that enlarged rapidly until it became almost like a second sun in the sky before busting into a rain of fire, engulfing the entire temple in its flame.

“” Clapping his hand together, Karuma exuded a transparent force barrier made of an elusive energy: Ki.

Among the few types of energy in Valhalla, mana was the most common one to be used in battle. Sorcerers, or fighters gifted with magic, were aware of this energy circulating through every being in the world. By focusing their mental power and controlling the flow of mana, one would be able to use magic. However, magic users were uncommon. The cruel truth was that if you were not gifted with mana since birth, it was unlikely that you would develop it in your life. Mages could spend years to improve their levels as they accumulated more mana but if someone had none to begin with, their fate was as much as sealed already. For thousands of years, this was the reason why mages were so well regarded as the most competent fighters in the whole world while the rest were simply those with abnormal brute force or some gimmicks which were deemed unreliable. It was why the talismans were so popular when they were first introduced to the people, for it gave the weak hope.

That was until a few centuries ago when a certain, wholly new, energy was discovered. Similar to how mana came into existence within one’s own body, this energy could also be produced in a similar fashion through physical and mental trainings. However unlike mana itself, it was not limited to only those who were born with it. In short, anyone could potentially become strong with this newly discovered energy. The rest was a question of personal efforts. While indeed some developed much faster than others, this meant that the warriors and those who were not gifted with magic have gained another weapon, granting them a place in the world on par with the mages. This energy was later called Ki.

By releasing the Ki within his body, Karuma has created a forcefield to stop the rain of fire from reaching the group, saving them. But now the battlefield scenery has taken a turn for worse, with fire burning down everything around. The grand master decided to join in together with his disciple and took on the demon. In contempt with his size, the grand master of the temple was a force to be reckoned with. His speed surpassed the common norm greatly while his small size made him much harder to hit. One would be mistaken if they thought size meant everything. Furthermore, his attack was no joke. A small punch of a hamster was nothing. However, a small punch of a hamster imbued with Ki energy was something different. The sheer force of a palm strike of the old master was able to push Cornelia on her back or break a rock into pieces easily. But despite their strengths, Cornelia was not so easy to deal with.

“” Drops of water appeared out of thin air, swirling violently around Cornelia and converged into a water tornado, dragging all around her. “” the demon channelled her sorceries. In an instant, the enormous body of water around her froze into ice. Have it not been for their agility, both the old master and Karuma would have been caught in that ice. But this was not yet the end of Cornelia’s rampage. “”. The frozen water began to break apart and a rain of massive blocks of pointy ice spears fell down onto the group. “DIE DIE DIE!”

Using his skilful footsteps, Valanor carried Astora in his arms as he jumped from an icicle to another, dodging them while protecting the girl from the debris. The landscape, within such a short time, has changed drastically from a peaceful green mountain to a blazing ground then a snowy scenery. All because of Cornelia who was a bit annoyed by these martial art moves that managed to dodge her explosive attacks. Her insane magic combined with her monstrous claw made her a tough foe for anyone. Not to mention her psychotic mind still hiding plenty of tricks up her sleeves. Even against two veterans, Cornelia showed no sign of being oppressed. She was smiling the whole time, occasionally staring at Astora with hatred. Even though this was the first time the two have met, somehow, Cornelia was able to gather this much hate against the girl. What could have happened to make things this way? Astora thought hard but couldn’t find the answers. The only thing she saw was the temple collapsing along with the people in it. All because of her.

‘No’ Astora hit herself in the face. ‘I must not let her get to me. Whatever happened, I must defeat this person.’ Astora snapped back to reality.

“Miss Astora, what should we do?” asked Valanor. “Make a run for it?”

“No, we stay and fight.”

“Fine with me. But what do you propose we do against that?” Valanor seemed disturbed by Cornelia’s unusual fighting style. The blue hair teen concentrated all on attack with very little defense in regard to her own. Even if Karuma and the old hamster managed to deal a strike on her, her body appeared to rebound right back despite the pain and injuries she received. In addition, her claw posed a problematic issue with it standing in the way of most of their attacks and continuously firing magic.

Using her power, Astora wished to scan Cornelia in hope that she could find her weaknesses. However, the result she received was quite shocking.

“Unable to scan! Too many targets at once! Please focus on one target only!”

Believing that there was some kind of error, Astora redid the power with her esper power but it always came to the same result: there were too many targets. How could it be possible? There was definitely only a single person she saw and it was Cornelia. Why was she considered ‘too many targets’? Unable to obtain an answer, Astora had to resort to a more visual analysis rather than relying on her power. Observing the battle, Astora came to her conclusion.

“The claw…we must get the claw!” Astora said.

“Why do you think that?” asked Valanor.

“The claw is her main source of attack. Every time she cast magic, it came from the claw and only there. Either when in melee, she used the claw much more often compared to the rest of her body. Meanwhile, her body seemed unfazed by all attacks. Perhaps she has accelerated regeneration. Either way, if we can remove her ability to use her claw, she will be severely debilitated.” Astora analyzed. There was one more detail that did not escape the girl's attention: Cornelia's dark aura that was enveloping her giant claw. Something felt familiar about that darkness. If her guess was right, then it would be the key to defeat Cornelia.

“I see. If that is the case, I have a small proposal.” Grinned Astora.