Book 21 Chapter 9
Episode 203
To the Land of Decisive Battle!
Raphtas, City of Beginning and End, Decisive Battle (7)
“I’ll kill all the humans who dare interfere with my Master!”
Goltabir’s act of crushing boulders into pieces and throwing them was truly a catastrophe (災殃)…!
“Oh yeah, try it!”
Even the physical force of the stone fragments alone was already absurd, but with lava coating their surfaces, their destructive power could certainly be called unrealistic.
“If you can break through this and kill me!”
Friede acknowledged Goltabir’s strength and deployed a barrier from the Divine Aether Scripture, not a magical barrier.
It was light!
The warmth that enveloped all creation within the area with the light of Genesis also bestowed healing vitality upon those it protected.
“I will also lend my strength!”
The stone fragments impacted!
Large and small cracks spread across the barrier, and the bone towers outside the barrier were obliterated by the barrage of stone fragments.
Using the halo of light from the barrier and the dust clouds it created as a blind spot, Lista and Kies sprinted forward at high speed.
‘Good, the bigger it is, the slower it moves…!’
Lista first accelerated by splitting time, then continuously kicked off the surface of the bone tower and magical footholds, leaping upwards.
When she reached Goltabir’s height of 20 cheok (approximately 6 meters) in one breath, the light of the holy sword clutched in both her hands had already reached its peak.
By channeling the gravitational load from the altitude and all reactive forces entirely into the sword strike, she maximized its cutting power.
“W-What is th-this guy!”
“Master will protect us! There is nothing to fear!”
As Golta, the younger brother, swung his violently massive arm, Bir, the older brother, wove a rippling lava barrier around it.
“Do you really think the power of a holy sword can be stopped by mere residual thoughts───!”
The holy sword’s blade pierced even that barrier and severed the arm!
The severed arm was so grotesquely heavy that when it rolled on the ground, the very earth trembled.
As Golta, the younger brother, began to weep sadly, Bir, the older brother, chided him.
“It h-hurts, it hu-urts-aah!”
“Don’t cry, it’ll regenerate. The power Master gave you envelops you!”
Bir’s dark magic caused the resentful spirits (怨念) from the bone towers scattered all around to go berserk.
Souls, unable to vanish into nothingness, twisted dark blue into the abyss amidst pain and screams, now ran forth, howling.
The resentful spirits poured down on Lista, who was in the process of landing, like a carpet bombing, exploding… but they didn't.
“First Thunderclap (第一雷)”.
A brilliance that instantly quelled those chilling screams, a blade of light amplified within the trembling of the Golden Aegis, plunged down from the heavens.
Rin’s ultimate skill, the light of Lightning Blood Discharge!
Meanwhile, Kies was able to approach Goltabir at close range.
“D-Don’t come he-ere!”
Golta, sensing his presence, performed an eccentric act of smashing a boulder above his own head.
No, it wasn’t eccentric.
The stone fragments pouring down like rain caused no damage to Goltabir’s body, but for Kies, each one was a fatal blow upon direct hit.
“The King’s Abyss will swallow you!”
At the same time as Kies’s movements were sealed, resentful spirits howled eerily and poured out from within the bone towers.
All of that…!
Dodging and weaving with movements that could only be called acrobatic, the White Spear Bow in Kies’s hand glowed as he drew closer to Goltabir.
‘A two-headed Ogre Khan?’
If he could blow off both heads at once, he would be able to buy Friede time to deploy the Scripture of Creation.
‘At extremely close range, no matter how much magic is output to its limit, it won't dissipate.’
Refining magic into the form of an arrow is, in itself, an act that halves its power.
‘If magical control spell formulas are added for trajectory control, the power is further halved.’
But what if the distance is zero (0)?
There's no need to refine magic to travel long distances.
‘The maximum power can be delivered raw.’
The moment Kies kicked off his last magic foothold, Goltabir anticipated his trajectory and extended an arm.
“Kyuaaaiiit!”
“Pipi, Pipi, Pipi.”
A song of ice and fire that toyed with Goltabir’s vision!
Sbal and Pipi’s interference sabotaged the accuracy of Goltabir’s thrusting arm.
By a hair’s breadth, the distance between the 18 arrowheads forged above Kies’s White Spear Bow, which had dodged the arm, and Goltabir’s skull was zero (0).
“─────!”
A verdant light exploded brilliantly, so intense that it seared the retina.
“Kies, you crazy bastard!”
Before the afterglow of that light faded, Goltabir’s massive body, with both heads blown off, swayed erratically and then toppled onto the surface.
“A guy who only ever does crazy things, yet somehow likeable! Well done!”
The moment Friede immediately retracted the Divine Aether Scripture and unrolled the scroll of the Scripture of Creation, the bone tower’s residual thoughts wailed and were drawn into Goltabir.
“What is this, unbelievable…?”
Then, Goltabir’s two heads began to regenerate. Regeneration was already anticipated.
The problem was its speed…!
The problem was that it was super-high-speed regeneration, similar to what the Soul Annihilation Squad had shown in the <Langbard> battle.
“This is insane, that kind of speed makes no sense! It's not like it's some ancient noble, damn it!”
Shuan, who had been frantically surveying the area, finally opened his eyes wide.
“This entire bone tower is a device that amplifies his power! And his regeneration too!”
As he shouted, he pulled out an electronic terminal artifact from his pocket. A pen was holographically projected and taken into his hand.
“Please, just hold on a little longer! I will change the entire terrain of this place back to what it was before the bone towers were built!”
Lista, cutting down the resentful spirits so they couldn't be absorbed, gestured to Rin.
“Rin, you and Kies handle the resentful spirits! I’ll stop the heads from regenerating!”
Rin had also already concluded that the principle of that super-regeneration arose from the process of gathering resentful spirits.
“I’m fine on my own.”
Lightning Blood Discharge had already been activated, and its entire range was her domain.
“Second Thunderclap, Third Thunderclap.”
One struck Goltabir’s head, which was trying to regenerate its two heads.
The other struck the resentful spirits that were swarming as if being sucked into the severed part.
The only trigger required to unleash that transcendent lightning was the movement of a fingertip, specifying the coordinates.
“Fourth Thunderclap.”
She tried to strike the fourth lightning bolt into the densely packed bone towers, but realized it was a futile act.
‘When I briefly saw it from the air earlier, how vast this place was…!’
There must be thousands of bone towers, not just hundreds. Does that mean she has to deal with all of them?
Fifth Thunderclap.
Sixth Thunderclap.
Seventh Thunderclap.
She achieved the feat of stopping Goltabir’s regeneration twice by utilizing Lightning Blood Discharge to its limit… but while Rin’s entire body was covered in cold sweat, the number of bone towers and resentful spirits was endless.
“Hmph, I’m fine on my own.”
But what kind of insane composure is this!
No, this isn't Rin’s composure right now!
Tureina had just recited Rin’s line even cooler than her master, and unleashed a Lightning Blade (雷擊刃) magic on one of the bone towers!
“Because this magic Master taught me is [the strongest]…”
*Smack*… Rin, who had slammed the Golden Aegis onto Tureina’s crown, once again deployed the Osarius Rosary with brilliant light.
Lightning Blood Discharge, 2 consecutive uses!
As the thirteenth lightning bolt struck, a new landscape began to overlay this bone tower wasteland. It was the scenery, or rather, the scenery before its degradation.
This was a miracle.
Through the dignified moon, Jeannir’s miracle of embodying painting… taking the world as a canvas, and superimposing a painting drawn on that canvas onto reality, it was truly a fragment of creative authority.
“Alright! The number of vengeful spirits is decreasing, so regeneration is slowing down! Friede!”
Just in time, Friede’s preparation of the Scripture of Creation was also complete.
“Lately, I feel like I'm just a Scripture of Creation shuttle.”
Chains of light, surging forth as dimensional rifts opened, banished beings that defied the decrees of Genesis from this created world to the far reaches of outer space.
“Well, I’m playing the most important role, so I guess that’s fine!”
As the holy sword’s blade and the lightning blade intersected, Goltabir’s two heads couldn’t even regenerate, so he couldn’t even let out a dying scream.
“Is everyone okay?”
Lista came running, with Shurpan hanging on her back.
“My heart is not okay. This brat isn't listening.”
Rin, who was still holding her fists to both sides of Tureina’s head and violently twisting them, as if still angry, replied.
What a copycat!
Isn’t this the ultimate secret technique, Friede’s Hellish Fist Twirl, that she used to punish the boy during their five-year journey?!
“To build towers using people, this bastard…”
Friede displayed a profoundly uneasy feeling all over her face.
The Red Dragon Legion were all her family, and the brutal murder of one of them fueled the sadness in her heart.
However, the reason she couldn't continue to show that pain and suffering was because Tureina was looking at Friede with sparkling, innocent eyes.
“What, you want to use the power of this Scripture of Creation too? But you can't~ To do that, you'd have to abandon Rin and become my disciple, wouldn't you? Tureina is cute, so she's immediately accepted.”
“N-No!”
“Really? Who knows when an opportunity like this will come again? Hey, there's a huge difference in status between a wizard's apprentice and a witch's apprentice. A wizard's apprentice is just one among hundreds or thousands, but a witch's is one-on-one.”
While Friede teased Tureina, Lista asked Kies.
“So, does this look like the place Kies saw?”
Kies shook his head.
[Different.]
Rin tilted her head.
“Does that mean… they just lured us here?”
Shuan, who had been deep in thought, opened his mouth.
“No, Serwebon is a fragment of the World Tree with the power of observation. He didn't show it to Sir Kies to set a trap; the World Tree observed and showed it on its own.”
“Hmm…”
“Still, the safety of the troops advancing into this area has been secured, so it’s not like there was no gain.”
Friede lit the end of her pipe and closed her eyes.
“I’d like to think positively… but no matter how I think about it, the war situation doesn't seem good. The ancient demons keep appearing, and the more time we waste, the more the Jelly guy’s avatars will multiply. Let’s hurry back.”
Just then, Shuan seemed to hesitate for a moment, then adjusted the artifact on his wrist several times.
Then, light erupted from it.
The light drew an illusion in the air, which looked like a 3D map of a city.
“Wow, what is this?”
Rin’s eyes sparkled.
“This is a satellite map. We were able to retrieve this data because the communication line with the satellite was temporarily restored while purifying the sandstorm in this area.”
“Satellite?”
“When this world was devoured by the abyss, the sun and moon were lost. The sun and moon that <The Ones Who Came> bestowed upon us are both satellites. This is data scanned through those satellites. It means our coming here wasn't in vain.”
If Nils had been there, he might have understood what he was saying, but the hero party merely blinked.
As humans, they would probably just have to accept that <The Ones Who Came>'s technology was close to a miracle.
Shuan said.
“Sir Kies, please look at this carefully. Was the scenery the World Tree showed you perhaps like this?”
Kies watched the 3D map intently and tilted his head, whereupon Shuan, surprisingly, slowly rotated the map 360 degrees.
At a certain point!
At a certain moment!
Kies’s eyes widened, and he nodded vigorously.
[City landscape different. But the coastline is the same.]
Shuan’s gaze, as he let out a sigh-like groan, became serious.
“It has to be different. This is Raphtas before the <City of One Hundred Eight Pillars: Larien> was transferred here. It’s data from 6 years ago.”
“……!”
“We must hurry to <Raphtas>! The monster is undoubtedly trying to transfer the Lizard Lord’s palace there!”
Friede blankly took the pipe from her mouth and said.
“<Raphtas>? Hurry to <Raphtas>? How far is that from here! It’s a border fortress! For us, it’s practically the ends of the earth!”
Lista pulled Shurpan closer to the front and carried Tureina on her back.
“Let’s go, Friede. Let Rin and Sir Shuan ride on your broom.”
“Go? Where? From here all the way to <Raphtas>? If we did that, we wouldn’t have the stamina to fight even if we reached <Raphtas>.”
“No, let’s first rendezvous with the Dragon Legion! We’ll deliver this information to General Pyras and go to <Raphtas> at full speed.”
We’re going.
To where our journey ends.
The brilliant resolve contained within that determined smile… the hero party members exchanged knowing smiles.
“Alright. Let’s go, anywhere.”
* * *
“Shuan, what are you doing! Hurry up and get in the back.”
Shuan bit his lip, watching the hero party who had finished preparations to leave in an instant.
‘I can’t say it…’
He simply couldn’t say that there was a direct means of transportation to the <Raphtas> area nearby.
Their opponent was <The Forgotten Kings>.
Although all four of them were masters at their peak, if they were facing the true king of the abyss… it would be difficult to guarantee the safe survival of all of them.
‘The situation is clearly urgent. But sending these people into a death trap… I can’t do it.’
He wished for them to be happy.
He wished for them to enjoy an era of peace, even if it was just a temporary golden age residing in their generation after the war ended.
Perhaps it was because his father, Shurgan, had died without seeing the peace that settled upon this land.
“What is it. Do you want to ride in the front? But this Rin character reads books all the time, so if I put her in the back, she might fall… Wait, what is this presence?”
The White Spear Bow Serwebon began to weep with a clear, calm, and therefore mystical light.
A light identical to that weeping… appeared from beyond the sky, which was once again being engulfed by a sandstorm.
It was the pure white (淸白) legion… the wyverns of the White Dragon Legion, led by the blue true dragon Lagelda.