Chapter 408
Chapter 408
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 408
Chapter Title: 2-31. Disaster from the Future (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Explosion was silent.
Silence descended.
The life force bursting from the destroyed Seniel was brilliantly colorful, like a rainbow.
The waves of power, now without a vessel, rippled and spread outward.
"Seniel...!"
Navardoje's wingbeats halted.
Despair shadowed her face.
The rocks that had formed Seniel's body were shattered without a trace.
After standing there stunned for a long while, I lowered my sword.
"Aura..."
The blade was still dyed in sunset hues.
Beautiful, as always.
I aimed at Akasha once more, but the result was the same.
Its form was enveloped in the sunset glow but refused to take on the color.
It wasn't drawn into my range.
This was a first.
Lyn's tense voice echoed in my ear.
"...Ronan. Something's off."
"I think so too."
Cold sweat slicked my palm.
As I withdrew the aura, the sunset faded.
I was desperately trying to steady my mind when...
Akasha, which had been focused solely on Seniel, finally turned toward me.
"...!"
Thanks to being caught in Navardoje's flames, the cloth scraps clinging to its mask were all gone.
The unadorned mask gleamed with pristine white.
But it wasn't ordinary white.
Its mirror-smooth surface reflected everything Akasha gazed upon.
The fading twilight, Seniel's life force writhing like a living thing.
Even my own dumbstruck face.
Suddenly, a long, thin crack etched across Akasha's mask.
'A mouth?'
The upward-curving ends evoked a crescent moon.
As tension gripped me at this never-before-seen sight...
■■■■■■■■!
A grotesque tone, unheard in either of my two lives, reverberated.
"What the fuck..."
A curse slipped out reflexively.
It sounded like the wail of hell's machinery grinding to life.
People emerging from headquarters clutched their ears and screamed.
"Arghhh!"
"W-what?! Urk...!"
Some collapsed outright or vomited.
Even the resistance fighters who'd battled baldies for over a decade were helpless.
This otherworldly screech wasn't just unpleasant—it shook the mind itself.
"It's mocking us."
My grip tightened on the hilt.
I realized it was Akasha's laughter.
I could picture the bastard behind that mask cackling away.
The thought pushed me over the edge.
Veins bulged on my neck and forehead.
That soul-rending狂笑 paradoxically snapped me back to clarity.
"You fucking bastard! What's so goddamn funny!"
"Ro-Ronan!"
Navardoje shouted.
But my body was already rocketing toward Akasha.
The roar of wind battered my eardrums.
Seniel's life force still lingered in the air.
If aura wouldn't work, I'd just slice it directly.
I closed the distance in an instant and swung.
"Die!"
Akasha stared at me unblinking.
The mouth-like crack sealed shut.
It slowly raised an arm.
My sword was far faster, but no cause for joy.
Kagagagak!
My slash through empty air rapidly slowed.
"Grraaah...!"
Muscles swelled in my arm.
My pounding pulse thrummed through my chest.
This sensation again.
An invisible force gripped my blade.
No matter how hard I pushed, it wouldn't advance.
Ultimately, the blade halted in midair, short of Akasha.
"Fuck."
A fresh crack spiderwebbed across the mask.
Akasha's bony fingers pointed at me.
Index and middle.
The flick that obliterated everything.
"This shit again...!"
Knowing it and having no counter was infuriating.
The moment I pulled my sword into a guard...
Kwaaaaaang—!
A meteor-like shockwave slammed down on me.
"Kahk!"
My vision spun.
Back muscles contracted reflexively.
Hyperdeveloped reflexes weren't always a blessing.
This was a prime example.
In that split-second fall, I foresaw the pain.
Soon, impact and thunderous roar.
Bone-crushing agony would ravage me.
But it never came.
Plop—!
A pudding-soft impact traveled up my spine compared to the ground.
No thunderous boom.
Whipping my head around, I saw a muscle-bound deer cradling me, slumped over.
"Holy shit, Phantasion!"
"Urgh... Y-you okay?"
Phantasion checked on me.
Honestly, not unscathed, but fine compared to him.
His left arm was gone.
Clean cut, like L'Thancie's calf.
His body, already wrecked from Akasha's prior hit, looked like a wagon swept in a landslide.
I couldn't let Phantasion die pointlessly too.
I sprang up and extended a hand.
"Thanks. Come on, up."
"No... Th-this is it for me... Just like L'Thancie, paying for past sins... Urgh. Forget me—save that buried dragon over there..."
"Cut the grim bullshit and get up. If you can't move, at least let me get you somewhere safe..."
Before I finished...
A explosion rocked overhead.
Phantasion and I looked up simultaneously and froze.
"What the fuck is that."
"The life force..."
Akasha was up to something.
Its elongated arm stretched skyward as it chanted incomprehensible words.
■■■■...■■...■■■■.
Seniel's dispersing life force swirled toward it.
The spectacle of billions of particles vortexing together resembled a typhoon's birth.
Its limbs, mangled by Navardoje, had already regenerated.
And then, the moment the particles converged...
Kwaaaaaaaa—!!!
The life force painting the sky turned entirely black.
Night fell upon the twilight world.
The vortex morphed.
A massive pitch-black sphere, devoid of any light, hovered above Akasha.
"...Ah."
Phantasion sighed.
His eyes, blazing with fighting spirit despite grievous wounds, went cold.
The noisy crowd fell utterly silent.
All eyes fixed on the sphere in the sky.
No one knew what it was.
But everyone instinctively knew.
It wouldn't bring anything positive to the world.
The darkness born from Seniel's life force spun madly, radiating destructive energy.
Given Akasha's gaze downward, it planned to drop it on the ground.
One corner of my mouth twitched upward.
"One nasty opener."
Not surprising anymore.
After magic failed to cut and aura didn't work, all shocks were absorbed.
This blob would be the same.
It wouldn't slice cleanly.
It'd stick to my blade like tar and try to kill me.
Still, what had to be done remained unchanged.
"Let's go, Lyn."
"Yeah."
I gripped the hilt.
Odds didn't matter.
I had to cleave it.
Just like always, prove to everyone nothing couldn't be cut.
Phantasion's protests from behind went ignored.
My thighs swelled, ready to launch.
The instant before kicking off the ground...
【Akasha—!】
A thunderous roar echoed from the edge of my vision.
No time to turn.
The black-tinged world flushed red.
A colossal red dragon, blotting the sky, soared toward Akasha.
"Big sis!"
【No more rampage!】
Navardoje in her true form.
It had been ages since I'd seen this shape.
Her wings stretched endlessly.
Flames flickering between her gaping jaws rivaled a miniature sun.
『...!』
Akasha, mid-sphere expansion, thrust its hand out desperately.
Fingers splayed five-wide.
Puuuung!
The shock that crushed even Seniel struck Navardoje.
Red blood erupted from inside her maw.
【Kraaaah!!】
But Navardoje didn't stop.
Overpowering with sheer mass, she clamped onto Akasha.
Then, dragon and calamity alike vanished into the sphere.
Fwoosh!
Crimson flames erupted across the darkness sphere.
"Big sis!"
I screamed.
My heart plummeted.
Power drained from my tensed legs.
"Damn it, why the hell...!"
My fevered head cooled sharply.
I couldn't comprehend.
It was suicide—diving into hell.
Inside that dark sphere, considering Akasha and Seniel's power, it couldn't be serene.
'There has to be a way.'
If it were just me charging in, fine—but with big sis involved, it changed everything.
Suddenly, I realized how reckless I'd been.
Mission haze must've clouded my judgment.
'Failure isn't an option now.'
Time to get cold-blooded.
If grit alone worked, it'd be done already.
Akasha was the worst foe yet, no exaggeration.
I needed a plan.
A surefire strategy, or to grow stronger.
But how?
My overloaded brain reeled.
Every neuron burned nonstop.
Inside the sphere engulfing them, darkness and flames still raged.
As I sifted through every memory since babbling as a baby...
A northern location flashed like lightning.
"Ah!"
"...Ronan?"
An involuntary exclamation escaped.
Phantasion, mired in despair, looked baffled.
I didn't answer, just bolted.
The direction Phantasion had pointed earlier.
Soon, a man buried in rubble came into view.
Orse, in quarter-dragon form, lay unconscious, eyes rolled back.
"Orse! Orse!"
"Kek... Cough, cough...!"
"Damn it, wake up, you bastard!"
No time.
I drew my sword and unleashed slashes.
Kwaaaang—!
The rubble pinning Orse exploded into dozens of chunks.
A few slaps later, his eyes refocused.
"Urgh... Damn it all, what happened to me..."
"What happened? That wizard punked you one-sided and dumped you here. Unless you're dying right now, help me out."
"Cough! Cough! Help...?"
"Yeah. I need you. Fly me where I tell you."
I hauled Orse up by force.
Blood clots spewed with each cough—deep wounds.
Regrettable, but unavoidable.
Every second counted.
No clue what big sis Navardoje was fighting through in that abyss.
Pointing at the pit gouged from headquarters, I continued.
"We're going to the giants' first king. Not far from here."