Chapter 289
Chapter 289
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 289
Chapter Title: Chapter 6-4. Blue Spear Knight
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The moment her arm flew off and blood sprayed, Organ furrowed her brow. The stinging pain in her chest hurt more than the pain from the severed arm's cross-section.
"Didn't I tell you there wouldn't be a second chance like this?"
Judah sneered at her. He could almost see her distorted face through the visor of her helmet, and it started to excite him. It felt so refreshing. The moment his extended right foot touched the ground, chains were summoned. Mana was depleting rapidly, but it would recover soon enough.
Clank!
The sound of the chains was beautiful to his ears. The summoned chains wrapped around Organ's neck, waist, arms, and both ankles. Just as the chains moved like living snakes to bind her body, a system message framed in red appeared before Judah's eyes.
[The Eighth Fragment, Lusen Ardahan, has taken heavy damage and will be reverse-summoned in 30 seconds.]
[The Eighth Fragment, Lusen Ardahan, reverse-summoned to the sub-space, will immediately begin self-repair.]
[Partial summoning possible in 168 hours; full summoning possible in 338 hours.]
Already?
Even though it couldn't function properly without two fragments, it was still a fragment. He couldn't believe it had fallen so quickly, so he reflexively turned his head. The massive arms were nowhere to be seen, and in the place where the head should have been stood the frail-looking saintess he had seen earlier.
It was quite a distance away, but he could see the saintess clearly. The veil she had been wearing was gone. Instead, her golden hair fluttered in the wind. The woman he had thought was frail and protected by the holy knights had apparently defeated Lusen Ardahan herself, as she held a sword in her hand.
He couldn't tell exactly, but it was a pitch-black sword with black haze swirling around it. The lines engraved on the blade seemed to glow red.
'A demon sword...? The saintess?'
The saintess who had been with the Holy Empire's holy knights—something flashed in Judah's mind. And that certainty came when a beautiful black-haired woman appeared behind her back. The bewitching beauty, exuding a demonic aura, laughed with a hazy, misty body heaving like fog.
'Carvenia!'
It was undoubtedly the First Fragment, one of the twin demon swords, <Carvenia>. A Carvenia that should have been stored in a hidden sacred temple in the remote regions of the Holy Empire was here. Judah felt his lips curl up.
'Things have gone terribly off track.'
He had come to pick up a single ownerless fragment, and this was the mess he ended up in.
Judah suddenly realized that quite a few fragments had gathered on this black land. He himself had six. Calicther had one, Organ had one, the saintess had one, and Iris had one too—that made ten... no, eleven. Judah increased the count as he saw a man hopping over to the saintess's side. Calicther's friend and possessor of the Twelfth Fragment, Gaia, the basilisk, stood there.
Eleven fragments were in this place. He thought it would be amazing to obtain all of them here, but he had no confidence in winning against them.
'No, if I hadn't summoned Bel-Terza from the elf forest, I might have had a chance.'
Was this what regret meant?
In the brief 1-2 seconds, Judah thought of many things before turning his head back to Organ. As he turned, his gaze caught on her spear. The conical spear stained with his own blood had intricate patterns engraved on it, and he saw Organ's hand on its handle. Then he saw her release the starfish she held.
The lance was much heavier than it looked, falling quickly. Before the spear hit the ground, Organ thrust her gauntlet-clad hand forward with ghostly speed. Watching it from start to finish, Judah tilted his head back.
Whoosh!
The fist grazed right past his eyes. The heavy whoosh of air was chilling. But the extended fist opened wide and grabbed his face, pulling him in. The chains began pulling her body, but her movement was faster.
"!?"
Startled, he tried to escape, but the gauntlet's edge dug into his skin, feeling like it would tear the flesh off. He saw her knee rising toward his face. Her metal-covered knee approached.
────!
Before Judah could think, his head exploded. It was gruesome. Blood and pale brain matter oozed out like crushed watermelon from the shattered head. Seeing that, Organ let herself be pulled back by the chains without resistance.
Her expression relaxed, thinking she had killed Judah. Thanks to him suddenly turning around, she had killed him more easily than expected. No matter how many fragments he had, he was human... no, even most demons and fiends from the demon realm couldn't survive a shattered head.
"No────!"
Before the headless corpse hit the ground, a shout rang out. He looked up to see Iris, the troublesome opponent from before, approaching.
There were still opponents left.
Organ exhaled and endured the pain in her arm as she resummoned the starfish she had dropped.
"...?"
But something was off. A fragment without an owner should lose its power and await a new master, but these chains were still pulling her body with full force. Feeling displeased by the pulling strength, she tried to snap them with brute force when she witnessed something unbelievable.
Judah's supposedly dead body, the blood and brain matter scattered on the ground, the caved-in head and severed arm—all turned into black smoke and gathered right in front of her, reconstructing in an instant.
"What!?"
Shocked, Organ widened her eyes and thrust her chain-wrapped arm forward, trying to strike Judah with the starfish, but the spear passed through the smoke like mist. From within the black smoke, Judah emerged unscathed, as if stepping out of a dark cave.
[Revived by the authority of the Sixth Monarch, Bel-Terza.]
"Ah."
It had been so long since he died. It felt like ages since he was killed by Quake, the chieftain of the Red Bear Tribe in the minor nation of Lizen. Reviving by Bel-Terza's authority was pure unpleasantness. In instant deaths, consciousness faded, then returned with the surroundings snapping into view at revival. The sudden shift from the last scene to the current one created a huge disconnect.
Judah extended his left hand, grabbed Organ's face, placed his left foot behind her right heel, and shoved hard. Organ tried to counter, but with the chains pulling from behind, she lost balance, staggered, and fell backward.
Thud!
Looking down at her on the ground, Judah gripped Yakal in reverse grip and plunged it into her abdomen. Holy power gathered to push the blade away, but the hastily made barrier couldn't block it properly. Yakal's blade pierced her armor, went through her abdomen, and sank deep into the ground. A gurgling sound came from inside her helmet. Watching her wriggle like a bug, Judah let out a laugh.
"I thought it was pointless venting, but it's not entirely useless."
Finding out the saintess with the First Fragment was here was a decent achievement. Learning how many fragments were on this land was satisfying enough. Now it was time to revive Arhil.
Judah summoned two Artemias into his hands and stabbed them into his own body. He winced at the feeling of the blades tearing through his clothes and digging in sharply. It hurt. Feeling the Artemias greedily sucking his blood, he didn't stop there and summoned two more, throwing them at Organ on the ground. They embedded into her body.
"See you later."
Uttering words Organ could never understand, Judah unleashed Artemias' authority right there. Bracing for the horrific pain to come, he closed his eyes.
'Sorry, Iris.'
He couldn't even say thanks for holding them off well. With that thought, Judah felt the gruesome pain of his body being sliced apart as his consciousness faded.
The Artemias embedded in Organ and Judah's bodies emitted red lines and diced the two spirit sword owners right there. The gruesomely mangled corpses soon melted into bloody water and were absorbed by the Artemias.
What remained were fragments of Organ's armor, a scrap of Judah's clothing, and seven fragments.
─Fifth Fragment, Valentin of Glory.
─Tenth Fragment, Artemias, One Yet Ten.
─Thirteenth Fragment, Beast of Wrath Yakal.
─Seventeenth Fragment, Greedy Starfish.
─Twenty-second Fragment, Ludmilan of Restraint.
─Twenty-fourth Fragment, Carpediem of Subjugation.
Finally, the Eighth Fragment, Lusen Ardahan, forcibly summoned from the sub-space in its destroyed state, collapsed there. With a heavy thud, dust billowed up thickly.
"Ah... Ahh."
Iris stared at the scene with disbelieving eyes, her mouth agape in a hollow expression. Then, seeing the Blue Spear Knight and others approaching from afar, she snapped out of it, rushed into the dust, grabbed the seven fragments, and fled. At the same moment, the world began to turn ashen.
Looking down from the sky at the world dyeing gray, Sian wore a deeply satisfied smile. Nodding his head repeatedly with a pleased expression,
"Excellent."
And eventually, the world was completely shrouded in gray, and Sian vanished from the spot.
========== Author's Note ==========
1) Ah, finally Thursday. I finished all my exams from 9 AM to 7:30 PM this morning and came home.
Feels great, my ass. I have to run more exams until next Thursday. Boo hoo.
2) You might say I should do consecutive uploads since I missed two days...? (Go to sleep without waiting!)
Ah, and the reason I can't change the cover right now is because it's been 45 days since I participated in Banbanmu, so I can't edit the work.
3)
Q1. Author-nim, I have a serious question! Are you doing free serialization, or do you have a schedule but can't keep it due to circumstances? Waiting is hard!
A. I usually do daily uploads, and the upload time is occasionally midnight or, if not up by 3 AM, it goes up in the morning.
And missing two days was unavoidable, as I mentioned in the note—three exams on Thursday. I woke up at 7 AM, took one at 9, one at 3 PM, and the last at 6:30 PM. My head's killing me for the first time in a while.
Q2. Isn't Judah too weak?
A. Some seem puzzled that Judah isn't rampaging freely. First, I want to say I included a level system in the novel.
There are stats, traits, and skills. In Calicther's case, his stats have declined due to aging, and due to the fragments and moonlight trait, his offensive power is almost nil.
I didn't specify Organ's stats, but she was chosen as an apostle and seized a fragment a hundred years ago with the Holy King's help—bare-handed. There's a big stat gap with Judah.
But if you're asking how he can lose with more fragments, or if the fragment balance is off, I don't think the fragments are imbalanced right now.
Lusen Ardahan is an independent entity with no stat boosts to the owner, and it needs the other two fragments to function properly.
Valentin is hard to use effectively unless you're a magic swordsman. Judah's mana stat is low, so total capacity is low, and even if power increases, it's from a low base, so not a huge effect.
Carpediem... yeah, it's pretty trash for a fragment. I made it for lewd purposes originally, but then readers said make the story better and less scenes, so with the constraints, it got especially weak.
Artemias and Yakal are fulfilling their roles well. But Artemias needs a lot of blood absorption, which is tricky.
The starfish just needs to absorb nearby iron, though.
That said, Judah's been fighting pretty strong opponents nonstop. Against fragmentless troops, it'd be a one-sided massacre. He'd kill them all alone, without caring if allies die behind him.
I don't think showing parity against Organ—who's higher level, advanced class, and superior stats—is wrong.
Hmm... maybe because I didn't show Organ's stats.
(1. I edited earlier that I couldn't check Organ's stats because her gender wasn't revealed. I previously said you could check with approximate name even without gender... that was a mistake, so I deleted it.)
(2. Ludmilan was originally 21, not 22, but marked as 22, so I'll fix the early parts where I noted a few. Once Banbanmu penalty ends.)
You might feel frustrated with the pacing, but personally, I think Judah is handling opponents at least 20 levels above him... adequately, if not well.
With my low upload stamina and slow story flow, it might feel stagnant..