Chapter 919

919: Fran's Dormant Power

Sophie and Urushi appeared along with a large number of people.
Her――or rather, their――song turned the tide of battle. The song of adventurers, sung by thousands.
I don’t know if it’s affecting the air or the space itself, but the entire battlefield emitted a faint golden light with each verse, slowly healing everyone’s wounds.
Ignoring the effects of the divine attribute, Fran, Mea, and I began to recover. That must be due to the divine attribute contained in this magical song.
It seems she was healing the backlash of the divine attribute by using the divine attribute herself.
On the other hand, the antidemons ceased their movements with puzzled looks. As if they didn’t know how to act after being enveloped with such powerful mana.
Kinda like how an AI bugs out at an unexpected situation and stops moving, but this happened over the entire battlefield. The range of effect was simply ridiculous.
「Sophie! Urushi!」
「Sorry for being late, but I’ve brought some amazing reinforcements!」
「Woof woof!」
We saw many people standing behind the smiling Sophie and Urushi. They had ordinary clothes, although a few equipped armor over it. A couple even wore a literal pot on their heads.
Their weapons also varied, with some holding frying pans and wooden planks, as well as some rusty spears and swords. The only similarity was that everyone looked completely out of place.
They were ordinary citizens by all accounts.
Still, everyone lined up behind Sophie with courageous expressions on their faces. I felt strangely reassured just looking at them.
There were so many people who were willing to stand on the battlefield with us. That fact was important.
『Good boy, Urushi! We’ll have to give you a treat later!』
「Woof woof!」
However, that was not the only thing out of place. Fran glanced at Sophie’s surroundings and tilted her head.
「Sophie, what’s that?」
「My…… partner, I suppose?」
Sophie smiled, looking at the numerous musical instruments floating around her. Keyboard instruments, stringed instruments, percussion instruments. Some of them I didn’t even recognize. There must be close to thirty in total.
Did she have some ability to control instruments? The problem was that all of them radiated tremendous amounts of mana. Adding up all of them together would get a mana amount that exceeded even me.
These were no ordinary magical tools. If I had to say the one thing I’ve seen that was most similar in mana amount, it’d have to be the divine sword, Gaia. However, unlike that blade, these instruments didn’t have an intimidating atmosphere.
No, wait. Aren’t those instruments emitting a faint divine aura? Right after I noticed that, Sophie spoke the name.
「It’s called Oratorio. A divine sword…… the Holy Songblade, Oratorio.」
『What?! A-A divine sword?』
I quickly appraised it, and found that it was definitely labeled as Oratorio.
Appraisal Information
Name: The Holy Songblade, Oratorio
Attack: 1000
Mana: 30000
Durability: 30000
Mana Conductivity: SS
Skills
Performance Boost (Super), Summon Instrument, Chorus Enhancement (Super), Effect Range Expansion (Super), Steel Thread Enhancement, Steel Thread Manipulation, Divine Selector, Perfect Tone, Simultaneous Performance, Unknown
I didn’t manage to see everything, but this was more than enough to recognize its extraordinary abilities. Compared to the stats of Gaia we saw previously, it had lower attack, which would be expected for a musical instrument.
Actually, it had 1000 attack, but how are you even supposed to hit stuff? Do you just bludgeon people with the instruments or something? Also, the mana conductivity was a little lower than Gaia’s too.
In exchange for Oratorio’s lower attack power and magic conductivity, it had over 10000 more mana than Gaia.
Combined with the vast selection of skills, there could be no doubt that it was a divine sword just like Gaia.
「You have a divine sword?」
「That’s right. I forgot about it until just a moment ago, but now I’ve remembered.」
The last time I checked Sophie’s stats, there was a skill marked as “■■■■”. It seems that her “Divine Sword Release” skill was hidden there.
The reason why it became invisible was not because she hid the skill, but because Sophie had lost her memory of it.
「I know you have a lot of questions, but we have to take care of the antidemons first!」
「Nn. Okay.」
「Fuhahaha! To think you had a divine sword! What a reliable ally!」
「A saintess with a divine sword no less? ……That’s amazing.」
Mea and Velmeria regained the composure to open their mouths again. Standing next to the other girls, Sophie spoke with a solemn look.
「The antidemons have stopped moving for now, but they will soon get accustomed to it. That’s why I’d like to use a certain trump card……」
「A trump card? You mean other than Oratorio?」
「I’ll be using Oratorio’s power to amplify my song, I suppose?」
It seems Sophie had the ability to write her own scores, and create new magic songs instead of just playing existing ones. She could also modify the score of an existing song, turning it into a magical one.
Apparently in such cases, the effects depended on the emotions contained in the song, and not even Sophie herself could predict the results.
「I’ll convert the song of adventurers into a magic song.」
「But we got healed by that song just now, right?」
「There can be different scores of the same song. Besides, I made the previous song for recovery, but that’s not where its true potential lies.」
So Sophie planned to compose a new magic song, with the same tune but with a different effect.
「The feelings contained in the song of adventurers are for cheering and inspiration.」
Therefore, her new song would apparently be capable of awakening the latent power in the blood and souls of Fran and her companions.
That sounds to me a lot like bestowing “Potential Release” on someone else.
「However, the amount of emotion poured into the song throughout the ages goes far beyond the realm of my imagination. I have no clue how much power it might contain.」
Fran and the others would undoubtedly be greatly strengthened. The issue was that we had no idea how great of a strain it would put on their bodies.
「It might put you into a coma for days, or even worse. Are you willing to accept that?」
I’m honestly kinda worried, but we all knew that relying on her song was the only way we could combat the antidemons here and now.
「Nn. Got it.」
「Bring it on!」
「Very well.」
「If the lady says so, then……」
「Woof!」
「Kwoh!」
Everyone nodded instantly.
「……Okay, then let’s begin. Please take care of the city…… No, that’s not quite right. Let’s protect this city together!」
「Nn!」
Sophie pulled out a harp from Oratorio and began to play. The tune was the same song of adventurers from before, but the song itself was not as important as the mana infused into it.
「We are adventurers~…♪ The golden adventurers~…♪」
「No foe shall make us falter!」
The townspeople began singing again in response to Sophie’s music. They must have gotten used to it by now, since all of them started singing immediately.
Their voices rained down upon us, as if seeping into our very beings.
『This song is kinda starting to grow on me.』
（Me too.）
It’s so uplifting, but that’s not all.
「I feel…… power!」
So this is Oratorio’s power!
The Fran’s presence suddenly magnified in pressure. This much……? Her aura reminded me of guys like Ashwrath and Weena Rhyn.
Moreover, isn’t the divine attribute growing in magnitude too?
「Urgh……!」
『Fran! You okay!?』
Fran grunted in pain, and I could sense the mana going wild within her. We’re barely at the beginning of the song! Sophie managed to heal her earlier, but was the burden still too great?
「This is…… my power……?」
『Fran?』
「Master, I…… I feel it……! The words are coming to me!」
Fran murmured nonsensically, as if in a fever.
「O raging might of the godly beast lying dormant in my blood……」
Out of Fran’s mouth came words I’ve never heard her say before.
「Awaken now! Divine Beast Form!」
As soon as Fran spoke the words, a tremendous amount of divine mana erupted from her body.