Chapter 440 – Release

I didn’t really know what Yureena and Chel meant, so I asked.

「A little? You can release the curse?」

『Yes…』

「Hm, can you explain what you mean?」

『Okay…』

And then, Chel jiggled a little bit.

I wondered how it was going to explain things.

So I waited a bit.

『Um, a bit is zombie』

「Wait? A part of this is zombie?」

『Yes!』

Chel bounced up and down on Cruz’ shoulder, apparently happy the point was made.

As a zombie, even though you’re completely aware, you can’t control your body at all.

Also, it pained the soul, and even with the bitterest of pain, you could everything but die.

It was a horrible curse when you thought of it.

『The curse is zombie』

With a Death Lord like Chel saying that, it made it so.

「But the beast isn’t a zombie.」

『The shiny part zombie! Inside okay.』

Yureena looked confused.

「So you’re saying that the metal parts are zombie?」

『Yes! Like you say.』

「I see.」

I nodded, and Cruz asked,

「So, what does that mean?」

「Well…」

I tried to explain it with the magical examination I had done.

The flow of the metal on the beast was slightly different than usual.

「However, if I can’t get very close, I can’t sense the difference in the beast and it’s armor.」

「So it’s almost the same as skin?」

I thought at first that it was a beast with shining metallic skin at first, but now it was clear that the metal skin was a coating of some sort.

「Yeah, almost the same. But that metal part seems to be a different being.」

「Hm?」

「And Chel said that the metal part is zombified.」

「So the metal part is alive?」

「It must be a very rare beast, but it exists. Maybe I should ask Luka.」

I had never encountered anything like it before.

It was very resistant to danger and magic, but until I attacked it, I wouldn’t know.

I bet if I did destroy it, I’d get a lot of rare items.

It was the type of beast that I bet if you’d encounter, you’d avoid, ordinarily.

Well, maybe it wasn’t even a beast, but something more like a plant.

「There’s no way a metallic thing like that could be zombified, Alra…」

I would have thought it impossible before as well.

「It might have been made to increase a beast’s attack by giving it more defense.」

「And maybe also it could surround and threaten the beast into doing what it wanted as well.」

「Yeah.」

「With that in mind, I’ll take an even closer look, Alra.」

「Thanks, Yureena.」

Yureena looked at the beast seriously and lifted her staff.

She began examining the curse.

Even though I knew it was cursed, I didn’t understand the details of the curse.

Just leave all the dispelling to her.

So I tried to make Yureena feel safe so she’d get done quickly.

I could tell she was done analyzing, and had begun to try to release it, when,

――――ＧＵＲＡＡＡＡＡ

The beast cried out and tried to attack her.

Seems that the curse forced the beast to attack when broken.

The beast was quick as well. It opened its large maw and in the blink of an eye tried to bite Yureena.

「Time for you to calm down.」

I used magic to tie up the beast’s four legs and stop the attack.

Then I used magic to close the beast’s mouth and keep it closed.

――――ＵＧＵＵＵＵ……
The beast groaned, but couldn’t move.

It seemed that Yureena was done with her preparations.

「Here it goes. I have to touch it, so please, Al.」

「Sure.」

I put a strong gravity spell on the beast to weigh it to the ground.

And then I opened the beast’s maw and forced it into the ground.

It looked like it had six feet, with four real ones and two sizes of its mouth in the ground. That way I had six places where I was forcing it down.

And it was all through gravity magic. It goes without saying that gravity is possibly the strongest magic out there.

「Are you okay, Al?」

Using seven gravity magical spells at once made Yureena worry that I might quickly expend all my magic.

「I’m fine. Leave it to me.」

Since Chel had solved the pain in my knee, it never became very difficult to cast multiple magics again.

「Good to hear. But don’t push yourself too hard.」

Yureena said with a smirk. Chel also was on her shoulder, getting closer to the beast.

She reached and touched the metal part with her left hand and the tongue of the beast with her right.

「Chel, do it.」

「PIGGGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!」

Yureena asked, and Chel began to glow immediately.

It was a bright light that soon also covered the beast.

It was Yureena’s release spell, while Chel used its ability with the metal zombified beast.

――ＧＵＵＵＵＵＵＵ……

The beast made a pained cry, but then we heard something like metal cracking with a CRINK!

The beast’s metal armor…living zombie…thing dispersed into a powder around it, and we could see the beast’s real form.

It was pretty clear that it was a…wolf.