Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 67
Chapter 67: Raphael
As Sora locked eyes with the ?Venom Queen Leviathan?, the creature let out a roar that shook the earth. In response to the cry of the giant serpent, the surrounding space warped violently.
Then, as if to counter the greatly enhanced adventurers, four additional ?Leviathan Generals? emerged from the void. This brought the total number of Leviathan Generals to eight.
…Could this be my fault?
Maybe the game system added more forces to the Leviathan in response to me using ?Lucifer?. However, even in the face of these eight Leviathan Generals, the adventurers, now more hyped up than ever, grinned and charged forward with their weapons.
“With all these buffs, these guys aren’t scary at all!”
“Don’t let them interfere with the commanders!”
“Is the Wind Spirit Princess really here!?”
“Time to show off a little!”
Knights used their taunt abilities on the advancing Leviathan Generals, drawing their attention and creating a clear path directly toward the Leviathan.
“Captain Shino, we’ll continue to handle the Leviathan Generals!”
“Shio-chan, please take care of that big boss!”
The vice-captains of ?Hell and Heaven? and ?Hunters of the Twilight? charged at the Leviathan Generals with their weapons. As battles between adventurers and Leviathan Generals erupted all around, Kuro, standing beside me, looked up at me.
“…I’m starting now.”
“Yeah, I’m counting on you.”
The black-haired girl beside Sora clasped her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, following the system’s prompts. On her left ring finger was the ?Jade Ring? I had given her before we arrived here.
I had learned when I gave it to her that unique items like this special ring have a system that chooses their rightful owner.
When I handed it to her, the ring assessed Kuro as a suitable master and acknowledged her ownership. By equipping the ring, Kuro obtained the unique skill ?Raphael?, which consumed all her MP.
She was afflicted with the ?MP Recovery Disabled? status, which would last until the end of the boss battle.
In exchange for a price, she acquired two skills.
One was a permanent enhancement skill, unique to her, that could be applied to the entire party, and it could not be removed.
The buff, centered on Kuro, appeared beneath every player’s HP as an icon of angel wings. It granted ?Wind’s Protection?, which reduced all damage by 20% during the boss fight.
The second skill was transforming herself into the ?Raphael? aka ?Angel of Wind?.
The skills acquired in the ?Angel of Wind? form were as follows:
?Support Skill?: Wind Attribute Boost EX
?Support Skill?: Auto Regen
?Support Skill?: Status Effect Immunity
?Support Skill?: Perception II
As Kuro unlocked the angel’s abilities, her eyes turned golden, and her hair transformed into a jade color. If I had to name it, I’d call it “Raphael Mode”.
Although this skill is highly specialized—usable only in boss battles and making her unable to use MP—I can cover for whatever she lacks.
More importantly, I was relieved that using this unique skill didn’t consume any of her “Life Point”.
“Big brother, Kuro-chan, what happened to you both!?”
“Oh, it’s Shio-chan.”
As Shio approached, shocked by my transformation back into a man and Kuro’s changed hair and eye color, Sora raised his left thumb, which was not holding his sword, and explained to his surprised sister.
“Well, to put it simply, it’s Angel Mode.”
“Angel Mode… Big brother, you don’t mean…”
Shio understood the meaning of the words and widened her eyes in shock, left speechless.
Just then, Shin and Rou approached from behind her. They both knew about my unique skill, so as soon as they saw me, their expressions turned serious.
“You didn’t… sacrifice your life, did you?”
“You look like you’ve accomplished something big.”
Sora gave a wry smile and nodded in response to his two longtime friends’ sharp observations. That seemed to satisfy them, as they both let out deep sighs and didn’t press the matter further.
But there was another issue. I had been so busy that I ignored a mountain of messages, so now Shino was approaching with a rather intimidating expression.
Sensing this, Kuro stepped in between Shino and me, as if to protect me.
Shino narrowed her eyes at the sight of Kuro, who had grown stronger since their long-awaited reunion in the game.
Just as she was about to speak, Kuro spoke up first.
“Shino, I got to meet Dad.”
“…!?”
The unexpected news from Kuro’s mouth left Shino visibly stunned. Only three of us—me, Shino, and Shio—understood what she meant. Shio also looked at me in shock, silently asking, “What’s going on?”
I leaned in and whispered to my sister, “I’ll explain later.”
Kuro, still holding onto my arm, happily told Shino, “Sora saved me. He even sacrificed one of his lives.”
“…I see.”
“So, please don’t be mad.”
“…Alright, I understand. How was Hart? Is he doing well?”
“Yes, he’s off to look for Mom.”
“…That fool, honestly.”
Shino’s stern expression softened into a gentle smile, with a hint of exasperation towards her old friend visible in her eyes. She then gently patted Kuro’s head and asked her,
“It seems you’ve accomplished one of your goals. What’s your next one?”
“I’m going to get stronger and go bring them both back.”
“I see. That sounds like a good plan.”
“So first, let’s all defeat the boss together!”
“Alright, I’ll be counting on you.”
“Yeah!”
After finishing her conversation with Kuro, Shino turned her gaze to me. With a complicated expression, as if she had lost all her earlier anger, she ruffled my hair.
“Honestly, you…”
“Master, please save the scolding until after this battle.”
“You fool, you saved Kuro. How could I be mad at you?”
Shino shrugged her shoulders and turned her attention to the Leviathan. The ?Hell and Heaven? boss unit had already engaged the monster and begun their battle. The knights were holding the line while the attackers chipped away at it.
However, the ?Leviathan?, now in its true form, was recovering quickly from any delay, making it difficult to land more than one attack at a time. Although the damage was steadily accumulating, the Leviathan’s enhanced HP gauge was only slightly reduced.
I glanced at the angel icon beneath my HP to confirm its presence.
The remaining time for the ?Lucifer? mode is about an hour.
That should be more than enough time to take it down.
Kuro drew the ?Sword of Dawn? and took her stance. Next to her, Aria readied her bow.
“I will focus on healing and providing cover fire.”
“Okay, Aria, make sure the defensive barrier doesn’t go down.”
“Don’t worry. While wearing this dress in this area, I can summon some very reliable allies.”
“Reliable allies?”
Just as I was wondering what she meant, the ground shook violently. For a moment, I thought it might be an earthquake, but then everything suddenly darkened.
Instinctively, I looked up to see a metal golem, about five meters tall, locking eyes with me. ?Lucifel?, my support system, immediately provided information on the golem.
?That is an Ancient Golem, level 100. It’s an ancient weapon made of mithril and magic, serving under a royal figure wearing the ?Dress of the Spirit King?.?
Ah, now that I think about it, I remember hearing about such things guarding the area around the Spirit Village when we first arrived.
As we stood there in shock, one of the Leviathan Generals, sensing Aria’s presence, broke away from the adventurers it was fighting and charged towards her.
This is bad, I thought as I prepared to intercept.
“Ancient Golem, in accordance with the royal pact, protect me.”
Responding to Aria’s command, the golem intercepted the Leviathan General’s incoming slash with its left hand and countered with a powerful right punch.
With a thunderous impact that echoed from the depths of the earth, the Leviathan General was sent flying through the air before crashing to the ground.
The damage was so severe that one of the Leviathan General’s two health bars, which had been at 50%, was completely depleted.
The golem, having displayed its overwhelming power, lifted Aria onto its shoulder and gave a thumbs-up, as if to say, “Leave the princess’s protection to me.”
“Ah, it looks like we’re okay.”
In fact, the golem seemed stronger than me. Shin even suggested that the golem could probably finish the fight on its own, but Aria informed us that only adventurers could deal damage to the ?Leviathan? itself, so we had to dismiss that idea.
“Alright, let’s go, Kuro!”
“Yeah!”
The HP of the players already fighting the ?Leviathan? was down to a dangerous 30%.
With swords in hand, Sora and Kuro sprinted toward the ?Leviathan?.