Book 18 Chapter 36
Episode 148
<Orwardan> Fierce Battle, The Prelude to That Farewell Story (6)
“I admit it. The quality of your power is almost complete for a mortal. After your life draws to a close, I will make you the first in my blood slave collection.”
After dozens of clashes with Berom, but unable to find a significant breakthrough against his future foresight, Rista was increasingly cornered!
‘Blood-spear Army Berom… such ferocious power! That composure is confidence in his future foresight ability!’
No matter how fast he ran through time, that third eye… ‘Lunan’s Eye’ definitely followed Rista.
No, it knew and followed.
It knew exactly where he was going and where he would stop, and its gaze went ahead to wait for Rista.
‘I have to shake off that eye… To do that, I have no choice but to push myself, but even that gets read.’
Even if it couldn't read Rista's attacks, it could read the damage those attacks would inflict on Berom.
Berom just had to prepare. Which part would be cut, which part would be pierced.
That's why he only needed to quickly regenerate those parts with [King's Flesh] and the power of the abyss obtained through assimilation with the old nobility.
‘No, it can't be that there's absolutely no method. Let's try to exploit a flaw in his thinking.’
Rista did not give up!
At that moment, in that single instant, the best possible move!
Hundreds of blood-needle attacks; 30% were dodged, 20% were used as footholds to push off, 40% were blocked, and the remaining 10% were…!
“What────?!!”
…He neither dodged, blocked, nor parried, but simply ran! The body lost to the blood-needles was compensated by regenerative abilities through dragon-blood serum injections.
“────Kuheok!!!”
The explosive acceleration born from that act of doing nothing allowed him to plunge into Berom's embrace and pierce his heart in an instant! A master, a mad master, a truly mad master!
“…Did you think that’s what I’d say?”
However, ah, how could this be!
As a result of that deadly offense and defense, it was Rista whose face turned pale, while Berom was smiling.
“You fool! Did you think you would succeed? How many times have I told you that I can clearly see the future of all your attacks?!”
The holy sword wouldn't come out!
As if Berom's body itself had turned into a giant rock…!
“I instantly coagulated the blood in my heart itself! If this were a one-on-one battle, you might have lifted my body with the sword still in it, but look! Thousands of blood slaves are supporting my body, Berom! I am reading all of your attacks!”
Berom jabbed his hand forward, blabbering thus.
It was pierced, Rista's neck!
Was he dead? The hero?
No, in that instant, Rista turned his head, narrowly escaping instant death. But Berom was not easy to deal with either. He pulled out the carotid artery located on the outer part of the neck, near the sternocleidomastoid muscle.
“Look at this taut carotid artery here! From now on, I will inject my blood into it and make you the first blood-slave hero!”
At that critical moment, what, what was this! An overwhelmingly powerful electric shock blacked out Berom's consciousness for an instant.
“?”
Berom's eyes shook.
What was that?
Just now, it felt like my consciousness itself momentarily shut off…
“!”
Rista did not miss that single instant.
He twisted Surphen’s blade and pulled it out.
He had left a significant blow on Berom's heart and then retreated.
‘What in the world just happened…?’
Even in such a moment, an endless torrent of golden power raged, countless branches reaching from the sky and plunging into the ground—this was truly divine punishment!
‘Why, despite being continuously exposed to such attacks, is the future not being read…?’
The source of the attack could be immediately identified.
It was the young boy mage, arguably the youngest member of the hero’s party. Was it the power emanating from the rosary of light, brilliantly rotating around his left hand?
Or was it because of the stone staff strapped to his back?
‘Come to think of it, that kid couldn't even summon the future. What kind of guy is he?’
This was the result of an explosive burst of ideas, hidden in Lin's mind under the name of imagination.
That was it!
The equation of the providence of creation, connecting the past, present, and future!
- Lin, do you know why life is possibility?
Once, Dean Atlante had told Lin this.
- If you view the future as a result, the past is already an inserted unknown, and the present can be seen as the unknown that must now be inserted to solve that equation, right? Everything changes depending on what the number of unknowns is. And you are the one who determines that number.
Lin drew inspiration from that story.
‘Then what if I change the unknown in that equation in an instant?’
With a number I hadn't thought of at all in my mind?
This was the final stage of Rune Engraving Alteration!
It involved improvisational substitution of runes that he himself hadn't even thought of.
‘Like finding a new mathematical equation through reverse calculation and correction, before magic is disrupted by encountering an incorrect mathematical equation.’
This was truly the future!
A future that neither the boy himself nor the eyes of the old nobility could read!
What unrealistic genius!
It wasn't because the Black Sun Karenden chose him as his successor that he possessed such talent.
He was chosen as a successor because he had already been gifted these abilities from the light at the moment of creation!
“H-how dare you…!”
Amidst the electrifying shock that pierced him to the bone, Berom's body convulsed with physical and mental humiliation.
“A human brat more insignificant than a parasite on an ape dares to do such a thing to me, Lord Berom…!”
The blood-needles that had transformed the Southern Star, <Orwardan>, into a city of blood, all simultaneously changed their trajectories in the next moment.
Their target coordinates were… Lin!
Truly thousands of blood-needles! With such numbers, one would have to contend in a pure magical power-level confrontation.
But Lin!
With his spontaneous rune engraving alteration, using all areas of his brain to attack Berom’s main body and assist Rista right now, it was impossible to use high-tier magic!
“This is the end!”
However, in that instant, the darkness that shrouded the boy’s soul, the darkness of death, was brilliantly illuminated by the light of the holy sword!
Strong! Fast!
Behold Surphen, swung hundreds of times at a speed invisible to the eye and unobservable by light waves, deflecting all those blood-needles!
“That monster…”
Berom narrowed his eyes in disbelief and muttered.
He had already confirmed this future.
He had confirmed it, but he couldn't help but let out such a compliment, or rather, an involuntary expression of awe.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
Indeed, for this very act, which seemed so natural, Rista had to pay an enormous price to overcome overwhelming impossibility!
That was the 144-fold division of time!
Fragments of time, cut into twelve pieces, were then each cut into twelve more pieces! Therefore, there was nothing he could do about his disordered breathing.
‘Every single muscle membrane feels like it's tearing. My bones feel like they've turned to powder… I want to collapse right now.’
Still, Rista did not fall. He didn't even show a hint of it.
Except for his ragged breathing, except for the cold sweat pouring down like rain… that is to say, apart from things he couldn't control with his will, he acted as usual.
As usual, he wore a brilliantly clear smile. For he was the Hero, the sole remaining light of hope in this turbulent era.
“Lin, you've found a way to defeat Berom. Then just open the path. I'll finish it. As the Hero.”
Berom was instantly put at a disadvantage!
Lunan's future prediction did not work against Lin's power.
Moreover, weren't the blood-needles that had made the entire city a fortress just shattered by Rista?
“Finish? Finish it? Don't get ahead of yourselves! I'll make all of you food for my blood slaves and retainers!”
The blood kin, who had been awaiting the king's command, appeared on the battlefield.
“My name is Kanji.”
“My name is Hovg.”
“My name is Kgaz.”
“My name is Bessege. We four are the Blood Butlers who have served Lord Berom’s Kasmos family. We shall punish your insolence.”
As the number of controllers increased, the movements of the blood slaves naturally became more vibrant than before.
“I knew you’d come out like that, Berom… that wicked nature that emerges when your composure is gone!”
However, there was a power that instantly melted the blood slaves with scorching heat: the martial arts of the Yilyang Seonpa (泆陽璿派)!
“I’ll stop the small fry flocking to Lin, so don’t worry and go!”
“Ryuminique-ssi! Your body!”
“Do you intend to inflict the humiliation of being a burden until the very end? Go quickly!”
Berom, due to constant exposure to lightning, made a fatal misstep: he summoned the future Aserba.
He judged that a new mobile fortress was needed as the blood-needle fortress crumbled.
However, because of that judgment, it was as if the shackles firmly holding the hero party back had been released!
[Link and I will hold back the future hero, both of you go!]
Frida and Kiese came and stood on either side of Rista and Lin.
Already, the scroll of the strongest scripture, the Creation Scripture, was unfurling with a melody of light, and the radiance of the World Tree was being woven into the form of arrows in the Serwebon, the White Spear Palace.
It was the moment of reassembly for the strongest hero party, Rista’s party!
“We'll go as usual, right?”
[↖(>ㅂ<)↗]
“Yes, then I'll leave it to all of you.”
There was no need to ask or answer what was being asked or requested.
True "No Questions Asked" (問答無用)!
For them, who had already overcome dozens of battlefields together, everything could be communicated with just a brief exchange of glances.
‘Judging by Lunan's Eye, the most dangerous are that brat and the hero. The other two are nothing to worry about.’
The hero's movements are quite disadvantageous to defend against without a fortress of blood… but if he can hover in the air through this Blood Dragon, he can evade with minimal movement.
Is that all?!
With this fellow's power, turning their flesh and bones into dust would also be possible in an instant!
“Don't get arrogant! I'll squeeze all four of you simultaneously! Your vibrant blood!”
Climbing onto Aserba's back, Berom shouted as he soared above the old city.
“No, the moment you summoned Sval because of the pressure from Lin, your future was closed.”
Surely… by now… he should have reached the sky…
But… it's strange…
The world… why… is it… so… breathlessly… slow… And yet… why… are those guys… so… bewilderingly… fast…?
‘No way.’
"No way" was precisely "no way."
This power was the Mingse Scripture.
It binds all beings that defy the providence of creation to the rules of providence. In simple terms, area-wide deceleration.
“The spell-version application of rune engraving alteration, figured out by grilling and roasting Lin! It’s the chant alteration of the scripture! How does it taste, you bastard!”
This ability, which replaces the longest verses of the Creation Scripture with those of the Mingse Scripture, individually reassembles each rune forming a sacred verse and substitutes it with a sacred verse of the Mingse Scripture, is truly a divine skill!
What violent genius!
Could she, who had directly trained in draconic language and the language of the <Ones Who Came> from the fire dragon Bel'dakhidoon, truly make even such impossible things possible?!
“Dodge, dodge it───!”
Aiming for the gaps created by the deceleration, World Tree arrows rained down like a meteor shower, carving brilliant trails across the night sky!
He could dodge them, for now!
However, he couldn't dodge!
The reason was one: suddenly, the atmosphere began to freeze!
“Common scientific knowledge: electric shocks possess thermal energy, and if you amplify this heat, you can use it to cause vaporization in the atmosphere.”
The freezing atmosphere couldn't completely halt the future ice dragon, but it was enough to act as an obstacle and put a brake on its movements.
“And freezing the vapor thus generated! With this useless Sval, it’s easier than picking a booger stuck deep in your nose!”
“Kyooong!”
The future was clearly being read.
He was reading it, but couldn't evade.
His body, too slow. No, the entire world was speeding up at a pace he couldn't follow.
“Your filthy ambition, built upon the blood of the innocent, I will end it all right here, right now!”
Thus, what his companions created was time and a ‘path’. A straight road advancing towards the marker of destiny.
“Don't mess with me, mere human!”
At Berom's roar, the blood forming Aserba's body instantly surged into blood-needles.
“Humans daring to defy our blood kin is like…!”
That, instantly froze.
“Don't you even know that it's the same as an ape challenging a human?!”
Due to that freezing phenomenon, the sharpness and solidity Berom's blood-needles originally possessed were enhanced tens of times, raising their power level by several tiers.
“I've won! In my future observation, all of you are pierced and die here!”
In Rista's current state, deflecting all of that and reaching Aserba was certainly impossible. That future might be true.
Of course, only up to a point!
Rista was not remaining in the ‘current state’ that ‘Lunan’s Eye’ had perceived.
“Swallow, Surphen.”
Behold!
The blade of the holy sword Surphen, burning with a noble red light!
“Fire? Flames?”
It was the dragon's flame created by the priestess Frida!
It is said that the true sacred sword Shalilion of Enuel, the strongest Eldia hero, possessed the ultimate ability to swallow an opponent's power, amplify it, and then redirect it.
It was impossible for Surphen, a replica of Shalilion, to reproduce that power. However, Rista and Frida's prodigious talents made it possible to imitate that power similarly!
“What is it, what on earth is that flame… that abnormal thermal energy that instantly vaporizes my freezing blood-needles?”
While swallowing and reflecting power was impossible, imbuing the blade with a companion's power in an instant was!
Frida's flame was a dragon's breath!
In other words, Surphen's current slash was like the thermal burn that a dragon's flame leaves on an entire dimension!
“Such, such a future is not visible even to Lord Lunan’s Eye, where on earth does this future come from?!”
Rista set Surphen’s blade on a lofty and noble trajectory. At that moment, his eyes appeared even more lofty and noble.
“You foolish ape! I saw the future where you use that technique! That brat gave me a hint! I will freeze your body just as it is in the air!”
The atmosphere seemed to freeze crimson and envelop Rista, but wings of flame did not allow it!
“Kyah, refreshing, that’s our PPG!”
Meanwhile, even as this happened, the countdown to the dimensional rift was underway!
“There is no such thing as a predetermined future───!”
The prelude was a shimmer!
“───If only you have the courage to move forward!”
The faintly wavering dimension, slowly, surely, began to violently writhe like a shimmer, to the point of causing a headache!
“Because human potential is infinite────!”
At the moment the power to shatter providence was fully concentrated, the arrows that had been constantly circling Berom, waiting for an opportunity, struck!
“─────Spatial-Temporal Annihilation (時空殲)!”
Extending branches of the World Tree, it bound the limbs of Berom and the future Aserba, fixing them in the center of the rift!
The number, a whopping 16 shots.
What simultaneous impact firing, what magical power control ability, what precision shooting! A master, a completely insane master!
“No, no! I can’t escape, I can’t escape───?!”
The Spatial-Temporal Annihilation imbued with flames had a different way of manifesting its power and effect than previous Spatial-Temporal Annihilations.
“────I, it’s impossible for me, Lord Berom, who observes the future, to end like this!”
The dimension, like a single canvas, began to burn black, and beyond it, a dimension outside of providence opened!
Even before the rift spread!
Even before the dimension tore!
An abnormal and unrealistic heatwave first engulfed Berom and Aserba! Thermal energy sufficient to completely melt their entire bodies and then some!
“My body, my body is burning, Kkkkuaaaaaaah────!”
That was merely a prelude.
“───How dare you, how dare you do this to me, who has gained the ability to forever rule at the apex of the ecological pyramid as the ruler of the future!”
The moment after the heatwave raged, the dimension, burning black and open, began to suck in everything in its rift even more ferociously than before!
“You like eternity so much? That’s good then.”
As the light of the scripture scroll, which had been brilliantly rotating around them, subsided, Frida put a pipe in her mouth.
“Because from now on, in the ‘eternally’ unquenchable fires of hell, you will be able to ‘eternally’ atone for the lives you took.”