Mushoku Tensei: A different path

(Third POV)

Paul has been defeated—at least, that was to be believed. Nonetheless, the damage done could only be fatal, and the outcome is unlikely to be sustainable.

The odds of winning were back to when the Sword King fought alone, but a motivation had driven her into fury.

After the attack finished, the demonic insect, crouching and licking the substance in the soil, had a look of desperation on her face.

Thinking that this was an act of disrespect from the monster, the only thing Ghislaine felt she could do was do the one thing she thought she was good at. Fight!

"RAAAAA-"

With a loud battle cry, Ghislaine charged ahead, her form less proper but ferocious no less.

Still unable to recover, the queen blocked the beastwoman's attack—the same weapon that had led to the demise of the two Greyrat men.

There was nothing complex behind her attacks. No specialty other than just brute strength was implemented.

What made this attack so different was the look on Ghislaine's face. The face of an angered beast looking down at its prey.

One hit after another, the woman struck at the demonic girl, the wound on her shoulder neglected but worsening.

Three out of ten sword strikes would hit their target; the queen struggled to evade with her teleportation, only able to block or teleport the relentless attacks, her face revealing her struggle to keep up with it.

From the sidelines, Sylphiette had to witness the events unfold before her.

She knew well enough that her level of Magic prowess was nowhere near sufficient for support compared to what the powerhouses around her unleashed.

So, she did the only thing she knew she could do right now. Use her Healing Magic on the two World Powers lying before her.

North God was healed completely thanks to the blood of the Immortal tribe, but the issue seems to be something else.

Still, she tried to wake him or, at the very least, Sword God up, but it was useless.

"WATCH OUT!"

A warning from Ghislaine alarmed the young elf, reflexively making her head turn to her. The oncoming insect queen flew towards her. The tip of the greatsword reached out to her face, inches away from contact.

Mentally, she already feels like it's over for her. Instead, she was rescued by North God pushing her face away before twisting his back and kicking the queen in the face.

Before the queen knew it, she was receiving a sword slash from the other side, decapitating her in the blink of an eye and letting her body, together with the King Dragon Sword, crash into the remains of the wall.

"Tsk. Not like that killed her," said Gal as he crushed the queen's head with his foot.

He wasn't just extremely pissed over losing to her but also because she destroyed his favorite sword [Windpipe], forcing him to borrow one of the ordinary ones from a deceased soldier.

"Hey, Aleks! You still kicking?"

"Shut up and help me retrieve my sword!" North God yelled, more frustrated than Gal.

It was the second time someone had stolen the King Dragon Sword from him and hit his pride as North God.

"Direct your anger at her, will ya? She is the one who took it from your dumbass."

Gal looked down at the gooey remains of the girl's head, noticing that its regeneration speed had decreased.

'The hell happened while we were knocked out?'

Ready to demand an answer, the sight of Ghislaine with her furious eyes made him choke on his breath.

After seeing how she mellowed out after all the years, he thought he would never see the Black Wolf Sword King bear her fangs again. He was almost grateful for the event that had caused this setback.

On the other side of things, the queen escaped the rubble with another shockwave. Her anger withdrew the moment she saw the two master swordsmen back on their feet, and her anxiety grew evident on her face.

Her fears were validated when she saw a blue kunai flung at her.

She dodged it but fell into North God's line of attack. With one of the black metal longswords he picked up from a fallen soldier, he aimed at her wrist just enough to grab the greatsword out of her hands.

But as he knew it wouldn't be that easy, the queen teleported as far away from him as possible, which wasn't far enough to react quickly on the oncoming beast-woman who managed to slash the arm off that held the King Dragon Sword.

The queen was about to grab the greatsword's hilt with the other hand but was stopped by the monstrous speedster, Gal Farion, who was chopping off the other arm before kicking the greatsword away from her.

Panicked that her state got worse thanks to the white fire from Paul, the little girl started her teleportation ability. But not before Gal and Ghislaine used the shorter distance they had available to execute a [Longsword of Light] from both flanks.

The small window between setup and activation of the teleportation was when the pincer attack finished; three additional pieces of her body were now separated from each other. The only part of the queen that teleported was the flat piece of her torso with the core inside it.

North God, who had already retrieved his weapon, saw the small glimmer of purple light he remembered from the last time.

With years of experience wielding the strongest sword in the world and knowing how to use it properly, he dashed off and unleashed three consecutive slashes, all done in less than a blink of an eye.

Something was hit, and the only thing everyone present could do was stand on guard instead of mindlessly slashing small pieces and hoping to hit something.

As the pieces of the torso fell on the ground, especially North God.

In the background, Rudeus had just finished blending the three other immortal insects with his giant shuriken. The thunder and thrashing did disturb anyone who wasn't at the scene, but others believed it to be a sign of the Magician World Power unleashing his might.

Meanwhile, the queen did go back into regenerating, her flesh coming back together like magnets, but a distinctive change was seen.

Instead of taking solid form, the flesh struggled to maintain shape and kept falling apart as she tried to crawl away.

Devoid of any strength in her, she rolled on her back, the only motion on her body being her attempts to regenerate.

"Finally. That should do it," said Gal as he approached her, confident that this was for her.

"Wait! We should seal her before any other surprises arise," said North God tiredly.

Sylphiette may have healed their wounds and blood loss they have suffered, but anyone with decent enough experience knows that stamina is nonrecoverable with Healing Magic.

The two swordsmanship masters have exerted great effort in battling the queen. It would be an understatement to say that they inflicted nearly as much damage on her as she did on them.

Now that the main threat had been brought under control, he was willing to let someone else handle things.

"She does look like she lost a bit of flesh. And it was easier landing a hit on her this time. Fine then. You're the expert."

With Sword God settled on it, Aleks started what he, as a fellow Immortal, thought would be the best method of containing the queen.

"Elf kid! Get over here."

Startled and slightly surprised to be called race, she is just a quarter of; she ran over to him, wondering what she would be used for.

"Go and seal that thing while it's weakened like this."

Staggering in her path from being dumbfounded, her glasses almost fell off her face when she looked at North God perplexed.

"B-But I don't know how."

"Just freeze it and then encase it in stone with your Magic. I will stay next to you in case something happens."

The young girl understood the man's intention but wasn't confident she could do a good enough job.

Her Earth Magic wasn't on the level of Rudeus's, who could conjure a type of stone she could not make herself, no matter how much she tried in the past few days.

But seeing as she was the only one around who could do it, she reluctantly followed his instructions and made her way to the insect queen.

Meanwhile, Ghislaine retrieved the remains of her friend's sword, consisting only of hilt and crossguard pieces.

Her thoughts roamed to the time she found the corpses of Phillip and Hilda and the sadness she felt that day. It made her afraid to see what remains of the man she once fell in love with.

"The hell is going on over there?" Sword God asked around, looking at the lightning escaping from within the city.

Keeping his hand on his weapon, North God looked from the corner of his eye in the same direction.

'Must be the kid. He sure has some potential if he even defeated Randolf with such Magic. Not to mention the large spell he unleashed with that dragon.'

As Sylphy put her hand on the queen's lower torso, she began freezing her with her Water Magic.

At the same time, Rudeus initiated his lightning tornado, the sounds reaching the people on the west side.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Sword God asked out loud.

"Wait a second. What happened to the other ones?" North God asked.

"What other ones?" Ghislaine replied.

"The other parts of the queen that grew out of her when we weakened her the first time. There were-."

"KYAAA!"

Alarmed over the shrieking, it slipped North God's mind to keep an eye on the queen.

While he was distracted, the queen used that opportunity to gain a little of her power back by biting Sylphy in the arm, draining blood from her like a vampire.

"Shit, not again!"

North God cursed himself for letting something like that happen, masterfully swinging his sword to separate them.

But he reacted too late. The insect queen, regaining enough of her energy back, ripped off a piece of Sylphy's arm before teleporting away at a greater distance than before.

"Gal! Ghislaine! She escaped!" North God yelled out.

But yet again, it was too late. When they located the queen, she had already swallowed the chunk of flesh.

This was one of her special abilities. To convert flesh from people with a high manapool into her own energy via consumption.

It was the same reason she took Rudeus's hands: unknowingly having rejuvenated her strength, she lowered her guard, ultimately leading to her weakened state.

But that is about change as she prepares to regain ALL her power. And to do that, she used her teleportation ability to swap herself with the three insects trapped inside the lightning tornado, gaining even more time from the oncoming beastwoman and her master.

By then, the second lightning tornado collided, the branches of thunder spreading far enough to reach even the swordsman.

It became distracting, making locating the insect queen even harder, especially for Ghislaine, who nearly went blind with her Dempon Eye.

The queen gathered all three insects to her at a spot further away, roughly where Rudeus had launched his initial large spell.

Their state was not at the best, nor was the queen herself, but it didn't matter.

All she needed was the flesh and power she had distributed amongst them, for they were made from the flesh and crystal shards of the queen's body.

With Rudeus's spell done, the insect queen began to become whole again, devouring the muscle insect first.

She enveloped her muscly other self, liquidizing its flesh while it didn't move as if saying it accepted its fate.

A small purple light escaped its chest, coursing to the bigger light inside the queen.

Her form changed slightly, but it wasn't enough to stabilize her critical condition.

From a distance, Rudeus watched as the fairy insect tried to out crawl the queen, not accepting her fate to become a part of someone else.

It was now a fight against time to decide whether the insect queen regains her other part or the other side preventing it.

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