The first to notice the change was none other than Wever himself.
The sudden gigantification of the cursed spirit startled him, but Roy's strength was no less formidable. As he watched with a heavy heart the mindless, colossal monster have its arm severed by Roy's blade, he abruptly sensed something amiss within his own body.
An irreversible transformation surged from the depths of his soul.
In that instant, Wever's heart sank to the abyss.
"Sorry, Rider... It seems this is as far as I—"
Before he could finish his bitter farewell with a wry smile, his body was forcibly transformed into a long, slender steel arrow. Seized by the cursed spirit, it was thrust toward Roy like a spear.
"Weber!"
Roy's gaze sharpened at the sight.
No sooner had he dodged the giant cursed spirit's lunge than he heard Iskandar's furious roar.
"Turn to dust, you damned curse!"
The Conqueror's eyes burned crimson as the aura gathered around him erupted like a volcano.
In his rage, he drew the short sword at his waist once more. In an instant, thunder descended from the heavens, striking the cursed spirit squarely on the head.
The cursed spirit staggered, its body scorched by the searing heat. Pain seared through its senses, provoking a furious howl.
"ROAR—!"
"MOO—!"
Before the roar could fully escape, an enormous chariot came crashing down from the sky.
Mighty, divine bulls, as if treading upon the heavens, descended from the horizon. Their hooves crackled with violet lightning as they pulled the thunderous chariot, shattering the barrier overhead with a single stomp before ramming headlong into the cursed spirit's skull.
BOOM!
The enlarged cursed spirit was caught completely off guard by the chariot's direct impact.
The sheer physical force, combined with the violet lightning akin to the wrath of a thunder god, struck its head simultaneously, sending it toppling backward. With an earthquake-like rumble, it crushed the church behind it into rubble.
"Ugh... Ooooh...!"
The colossal monster let out a low, guttural growl, like a wolf provoked by its wounds.
"It's not over yet!"
Iskandar, his bloodshot eyes blazing, leaped onto the chariot. The bulls' hooves kicked off, sending the chariot soaring into the sky amid a shower of sparks.
He maneuvered the chariot in wide arcs, the violet lightning-clad hooves and thunderous wheels trampling the cursed spirit over and over again.
At first, the cursed spirit's roars were filled with fury, but soon they turned ragged, then pitiful—like a wolf pup robbed of its prey by a tiger.
Had it retained any semblance of reason, it might have asked again:
Why were there so many inhumanly strong beings in this world?
"If it had just done nothing, it wouldn't have suffered such humiliation before death."
Roy stood atop another building's rooftop, gazing down at the cursed spirit, now utterly defenseless under the trampling of the Divine Might Chariot, and murmured softly.
But now, bereft of all reason, only instinct remained—a fitting end, true to its nature.
"ROAR!!"
The giant monster was trampled relentlessly by hooves and wheels, its grotesque tumors bursting in great swathes, only to evaporate instantly under the scorching heat of the lightning.
He endured for quite a while, flailing his arms wildly like a child trying to shoo away flies. But no matter how he struggled, he couldn't rid himself of the buzzing in his ears, finally letting out a furious roar.
With a sudden slap to the ground, his swollen body abruptly contracted.
His nearly twenty-meter-tall frame visibly compressed at an alarming rate, shrinking from the height of a building down to that of a small house in just two or three seconds.
His body remained completely hairless, but his muscles grew even more compact. The toxic tumors covering his skin became densely packed like goosebumps, nauseating to behold.
"His energy hasn't diminished. Iskandar's attacks ineffective?"
Roy focused his gaze on the now two-to-three-meter-tall Mahito.
The total amount of energy hadn't decreased, meaning the trait that only soul-based attacks could harm him remained unchanged.
Moreover, with mass remaining constant, the smaller body indicated that Mahito's power was now more concentrated.
"Roar!"
The shrunken Mahito became several times more agile than before. As the Gordius Wheel charged toward him again, he roared and spread his arms wide, charging forward like a sumo wrestler attempting to embrace the chariot head-on.
Boom!
And once again, he was sent flying.
His feet plowed trenches over ten meters long in the ground before he was knocked flat, tumbling end over end.
This performance was far better than being beaten like a schoolchild earlier—the shrinking tactic clearly worked. But actively challenging the impact force of a chariot accelerating midair was downright idiotic.
"Alexander alone can suppress him."
Roy reached this conclusion.
However, without any means to target the soul, Iskandar ultimately couldn't kill Mahito.
Right now, Iskandar was in a rage—letting him vent a little wouldn't hurt.
Yet Iskandar's fighting spirit didn't seem as formidable as Roy had imagined. Was it just his misconception?
"Waver..."
Roy's gaze shifted to the other side of the battlefield.
After being struck by the Gordius Wheel, Mahito had instinctively discarded the arrow—or rather, spear—that Waver had been transformed into, leaving it embedded in distant red bricks.
Roy leaped down from the rooftop, landing before this arrow.
At its tip stretched an elongated human face, now devoid of any recognizable features. Only the barest traces confirmed it had once been human. Listening closely, one could detect faint, shallow breaths.
To keep these modified humans ready for weaponization, Mahito avoided killing them outright—without souls, he couldn't freely reshape them. Thus, he compressed all life-sustaining systems to their absolute limits, preserving them in a state just shy of death.
Even in his deranged state, Mahito retained some instinctive knowledge of this technique. Combined with Waver's inherent resilience as a magus, he hadn't died instantly.
"Not sure if it's possible, but worth attempting..."
Roy placed his hand on the arrow that was Waver.
As magical energy flowed in, his body-modification ability activated!
Wever's body had been altered to the point where it bore no resemblance to its original form. Fortunately, human cells inherently possess a certain memory capacity. Roy exerted all his strength to stimulate the cells' memory instincts, striving to restore Webber's body to its previous state.
Meanwhile.
Iskandar roared at the war chariot that had circled in the distance and was now accelerating toward Mahito once more.
Then Mahito turned and fled.
After being knocked over several times in a row, even with what little intelligence he had left, he finally understood that brute force wouldn't win against that chariot. He turned and sprinted toward the church's backyard.