Chapter 281: Chapter 282: 15 year old Inglis and the Eastern Front (13)

The blow, seemingly exploding from within the ice prison, sent Raphael and the other two Hyrule Menaces flying once again. Their bodies hit the ground and bounced several times before finally stopping, only after being blown an astonishing distance away.

「Uu…kgh……!! Th- that was…! So that’s—?!」

「Oh no! The Prisma is—?!」

「It-, it’s awake!」

A magnificent giant bird whose entire body shone in perfect prismatic colors —It was as beautiful as it was divine, and never to forget that this was the greatest nemesis of all Holy Knights and Hyrule Menaces— an enemy that required the Hyrule Menaces to show their true power to fight…!

Once they go down that path, Raphael would lose his life. However, he was long since ready for it. Ever since he was designated as a Holy Knight, he was always ready for this day to come. It wasn’t that he yearned for it.

He wanted to see Rafinha and Inglis grow up with his own eyes. He wanted to do his best for Ymir as he showed filial piety to his parents. He had those desires in him, but he had a greater purpose in life—

He was determined to meet the hopes the people had for the Holy Knight and the Hyrule Menaces. And precisely because of that strong determination he had at his core, the next words came out of Raphael’s mouth naturally.

「Lady Eris, Lady Ripple! Now that the Prisma has fully resurrected, we mustn’t hesitate! Let’s weaponize and fight!」

「H-, hold on, Raphael! Don’t be hasty! Open your eyes wide! It’s still not too late to assess the situation!」

「She’s right, it’s not like the Prisma is heading to any particular town! We can still wait until the last minute!」

「But if we don’t take down the Prisma here, there’s a high chance that it’ll cause much more casualties!」

「We don’t want to kill you over chances! You have to understand, this is too early!」

「Yeah, not to mention…!」

At such an emergency, Rochefort only scoffed.

「HAAHAHAHAHA!! You spineless s̲h̲i̲t̲s̲! Watch and learn, you insects! I shall crush the Prisma under my thumb! You’ll be SO grateful, you’ll worship me FOREVAAAHHH!!!!」

Rochefort turned the brunt of his attacks on the Prisma, charging at it with his shining shield.

（RUN—! Leave it to us and get away while you still can—!）

Right then, a voice echoed in Ripple’s head.

「Eh…?! Did you hear that?! That was the same voice—it told us to run away…!」

「N-, no, I didn’t hear anything…!」

「Neither did I!」

Since it said ‘leave it to us,’ then, probably… Was it coming from the Hyrule Menace that had transformed into the shield wielded by Rochefort? Ripple was inclined to ask more as to why she’d asked them to escape, but it seemed that she didn’t have the time.

「HEREYAAAGOOOO!!」

Rochefort was pressing into the Prisma’s enormous body. The Prisma recognized his assault and turned its gaze at him. And, as its iridescent eyes grew brighter— huge, prism-colored crystals protruded from the ground, blocking Rochefort’s path.

「THAT WON’T STOP MEEEEEE!!!」

Rochefort smashed through the crystals the Prisma created. Eventually, his shield pierced into Prisma’s body. His shield jostled with the power of the Prisma, emitting an ungodly radiance as it scratched and gouged at the giant body.

「—He’s dealing damage?!」

「But……! That’s not enough!」

「If anything, that might be bad……!」

「What do you mean?!」

Before Eris and Ripple could answer, the Prisma chirped thunderously, spreading its wings.

「HNNGGGNNHHH?!」

The momentum of the Prisma’s attack sent Rochefort flying, but he quickly regained his position in the air and dared to charge once more. His movement was agile as he accurately hit the same wound he just made, but…

His follow-up attack didn’t succeed in worsening the Prisma’s wound. Instead, the Prisma sucked the power behind Rochefort’s attack, and the visibly healed.

「! WHAAaaaATTT…?!!」

Rochefort’s eyes opened wide.

「YOU DAMN MONSTEEERRR!!!」

Rochefort took a moment to distance himself. His head seemed to be full of hot blood, but that didn’t necessarily hinder the way he fought. Or perhaps, it was more accurate he was following his wild instincts. This was clearly an odd phenomenon.

「I knew it! It’s still the same—no, it’s even worse!」

「Yeah— I’m pretty sure it couldn’t absorb that fast before!」

「Are you telling me it’s grown stronger the whole time it’s asleep?!」

「What’s happening, Lady Eris, Lady Ripple?!」

「That Prisma in particular is an extremely fast learner! It learns our attacks and gradually builds up resistance to them!」

「At the end, it started absorbing our attacks! That was why we couldn’t defeat it last time!」

「That shield will no longer affect it anymore! They need a different means to attack!」

「I’m sure they still have other offensive means, like that light explosion from before! But that attack won’t work twice! The Prisma is learning much faster than before!」

「Which means we need to attack it with full power as well! That’s the only way!」

Eris and Ripple, however, couldn’t immediately agree to Raphael’s proposal.

「No, what’s more important is to stop that man and make a plan to cooperate with him!」

「Yeah! At this rate, all of the attacks that the shield has will turn ineffective!」

「But if we take too much time, he’s going to run out of stamina! He’s already used so much power left and right! If we’re going to fight together, then now is the only…!」

Right then, countless magic stone beasts began to appear in the surroundings. Not only the bird-shaped ones like before —beasts, insects, and all kinds of magic stone beasts were being produced infinitely around the Prisma.

「What is—?!」

「A Prisma is a Prism Flow given form!」

「Its mere presence will turn any and all creatures near it to become magic stone beasts!」

「That means that this place will be overrun!」

The body of the Prisma began to glow with a strong and intense radiance. Its radiance was similar to the glow surrounding Rochefort’s shield.

「F̲U̲C̲K̲E̲R̲—! IT’S COPYING MY LIGHT?!」

As Rochefort spat out those words, the light born from the body of the Prisma turned into countless bullets of light and diffused into the surrounding area.

Those bullets indiscriminately blew magic stone beasts to pieces and punched large craters in the ground, Raphael and the two Hyrule Menaces weren’t excluded. Each of the bullets packed terrifying firepower, unimaginable speed, and unholy density of radiance! It wasn’t an attack that could be evaded!

「「RAPHAEL!!」」

Eris and Ripple threw themselves over Raphael, covering for him!

「——————!」

As the light bullet landed, Raphael’s consciousness was cut off, the sight of hell broken loose lingering in his eyes.