Epic Of Ice Dragon: Reborn As An Ice Dragon With A System

Chapter 2348: Oda Nobunaga’s Endless Castle [66]

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Despite how they always depended on Root for most battles, this time he was the one being protected by Alma and the rest. The powers of Toyouke-Ōmikami, a Kami from Zipangu, were beyond their expectations, a complete counter to all of Root's powers and abilities. She could quite literally corrupt and transform all nature that reached her into decayed forms: aberrant and more monstrous, withering yet still alive, stronger than before, now fueled by corrupted divine energies.

The power she wielded was so overwhelming that Root was nearly overtaken. The worst outcome would have been him turning into her slave, but he managed to tear himself apart. However, the half he tore away was already gone, corrupted into a giant, evil version of himself, roaring furiously and attacking Alma's crew with several of his abilities.

Deadly, explosive dragon breaths, beams of corrupted nature energy, and cursed power bombarded the team with constant explosions.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

"Uuugh! This damn thing! It won't stop shooting at us!" Alma groaned, releasing more and more Mana, forcefully destroying the Cursed Miasma around it by using so much Mana that it dispersed.

She created Mana Barriers with her Endless Mana. Even though her Cultivation Level was the weakest of them all—unable to refine her magic power or her body due to the "lock" caused by having Infinite Mana—she was capable of crafting very powerful and complex spells, although they never had any element.

Indeed, Alma's "magic element" was none. Zero. Complete nothingness. She was a rare wielder of an "element" that wasn't really one, simply called "No-Attribute Mana." This "element" had no weakness, but also no advantage over other elements, making it the ideal power for someone like Alma.

By constantly releasing Mana and stacking it together, she transformed what some would deem an amateur spell—the simple "Mana Barrier"—into a powerful shield capable of tanking attacks from gods themselves. Through intense training, she had learned to compress Mana to levels nobody else could accomplish.

Thanks to this and her relentlessness, everyone was still safe, though exhausted. Toyouke-Ōmikami pursued them mercilessly, even as they tried to build distance. She rode the corrupted other half of Root, spreading her Dominion everywhere, as a giant wave of Corrupted Nature came rushing toward them.

"Shit, it's coming again!" Hermes said. "Haaaahhh!"

He quickly pushed all his power once more. Thanks to Alma learning how to dissipate the Cursed Miasma to an extent, he wasn't as contained. He unleashed a shockwave of dimensional and spatial energies, clashing against the wave of corrupted nature, plants, trees, grasses, flowers, and more, all black and purple, with fiery red eyes, roaring furiously.

CRAAASH!

Hermes' Spatial Magic seemed vastly superior to the corrupted nature, rapidly disintegrating it as his shockwave devoured matter and space expanded.

However—

RUMBLE!

A giant black tree surged from underground, piercing Alma's barrier where it was weakest and shattering it from the inside out. The tree grew hundreds of branches with sharp, spear-like tips, rushing toward everyone inside the barrier.

"Shit!"

Alma screamed, her barriers expanding from her hands like shields as she tried to defend herself, tanking several blows. But a few branches slipped through, piercing her legs and her left shoulder.

"Agh!"

"Alma!"

Hermes panicked, releasing his space magic to its limits and shaking the surroundings with a powerful, invisible shockwave. The tree stopped attacking, but Hermes quickly noticed the twins had punctured stomachs, vomiting blood, their eyes dizzy and unfocused. Callon's entire left arm was destroyed, blood and metal splattering everywhere as he groaned in agony.

"Oh fuck! No! Guys!"

Hermes panicked, glancing at Alma as more and more black trees surged from the ground, stretching their branches toward them from every angle.

"Aaagh! G-God damn it, my fucking legs hurt!"

Alma groaned, her Mana erupting with immense force. An invisible aura surged, shaping into giant hands that protected everyone around her.

"R-Root! Root! Heal them! Root!"

"Ah! Yes!"

Root, who had been lost in his own thoughts while constantly fighting back against the brainwashing influence of Toyouke-Ōmikami, quickly released a healing wave of nature energy that began mending their wounds.

The twins had suffered too much damage, however, and fell unconscious as they bled out. Root focused his healing on their stomach wounds but noticed cursed miasma interfering, slowing him down considerably.

"Girls? Girls?!" Alma screamed as she saw the Psychic twins fall unconscious, panicking. "Oh shit! Fuck! Don't die girls! Please don't die!"

Despite how formal they were with Alma, Elma and Elena had known her since she was a child. Both girls were employed as her personal maidservants, and Alma had helped them grow to this level by nurturing their rare affinity with psychic energy.

They were perhaps the first friends Alma ever had in this new life and had been with her ever since, helping her adjust to this world, watching over her behavior, and guiding her to fit into society.

In a way, they were like sisters. Alma looked devastated at the possibility that they might not make it out alive.

"Hahaha! It looks like your end is closer than I imagined! Is this all you can do now?! Did you really rely so much on that dragon made of plants? I can't believe this! And I thought the allies of the Dragon King would pose a sizable threat, or perhaps a fine challenge..."

Toyouke-Ōmikami mocked them, her hands spreading open as more corrupted rice fields surged. From them, masses of purple plants and rice emerged, giant golems made of corrupted nature and rice. This Kami's original divine authority had been a harmless one, but once corrupted, it could do far more.

The golems rushed forward, attacking Alma's Aura and breaking through with sheer physical strength. Hermes gathered his spatial power into a long, spear-like shape, piercing their bodies and holding the line.

"You won't get through me! Over my dead body!"

Hermes roared furiously, destroying the golems, only to see their remains rapidly recombine into the same creatures. The ruthless Kami tormented him with unkillable foes, pushing Hermes to his limits.

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