Chapter 458
Chapter 458
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 458
Chapter Title: 2-128. Akasha (5)
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With a burst of light, Akasha was flung backward. His bent body pierced through five rocky peaks in the blink of an eye.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!
Akasha, who had burst out into the sky, gasped for air.
「Hur■!」
He had lost consciousness for a moment.
The mask creaked and shattered. The surrounding scenery was receding at high speed.
It was a shock unlike anything he had experienced in his fight with Ronan.
「■■■■…」
It felt like being punched by the world itself. A grinding noise like gears meshing echoed through his entire body.
He had to find some way to cope. Just before colliding with the sixth rocky peak, Akasha donned the mask again and unleashed a shockwave backward. A crater formed in the middle of the cliff with a deafening explosion.
His body, which had been flying uncontrollably, finally came to a stop.
「■■!」
Blood spurted from the cracks etched into the mask.
He staggered, clutching his head with his remaining arm. Forget counterattacking—he could barely avoid falling. Beneath his feet stretched the dizzying abyss of Dakonya Gorge.
Akasha, who had somehow regained his senses, was about to take his next action.
From beyond the hole in the rocky peak he had smashed through, a red flash glimmered.
「■?」
The moment Akasha's gaze reflexively shifted.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A shadow fell over his face.
Lifting his head, he saw Ronan gripping his sword with both hands.
「■…!!」
He hadn't even perceived it. The sound of air tearing ripped through the air belatedly.
A flight path woven from life force threaded through the holes in the five rocky peaks like a needle through silk. That was Ronan's trajectory. His thighs were swollen to the point of nearly bursting his pants.
The holy sword was dyed in the same dusky golden light as before. Only then did Akasha realize that this technique was a derivative of the World.
The scenery of a hill at sunrise shimmered like a mirage around Ronan.
"Daybreak."
Ronan smirked faintly. The blade's glow grew ever more vivid.
Iron chains slithered from beneath his sleeves, urgently wrapping around Akasha's body. This was very bad.
The moment Akasha extended his five fingers and fired telekinesis.
"Pretty good name, right?"
Ronan lunged forward and brought down his sword strike. A ring of light was drawn.
Daybreak erupted once more, smashing down on Akasha from above.
「■…!!!」
The telekinesis lost form and collapsed the instant it touched the light. The chains shattered. Akasha plummeted into the thousand-foot abyss below. Blood from his body rose into the sky in droplets.
「■■…■■!」
He had no more options left. As he fell, Akasha desperately flicked his index finger. The rising blood droplets poured down all at once.
Splash!!
The fresh blood pooled on the ground and turned into fissures that gaped open like maws.
「■■. ■■■■■.」
It was his final decision. Far within the fissure, another fissure rippled.
The moment Akasha's body was about to be swallowed by the fissure. Crimson light exploded from where he had been.
Ronan, charging like a meteor, drove his sword deep into Akasha's chest.
「…···…!」
"I said I'd finish it."
Akasha's eyes widened. Ronan twisted the hilt. Blood erupted once more over the shattered mask.
The two, entangled, vanished into the fissure.
***
A cool breeze brushed my forehead.
The sky visible through my eyelashes was covered in red clouds.
「…···Hah!」
I bolted upright the moment I opened my eyes.
A landscape utterly different from Dakonya unfolded before me.
'A forest?'
I stood in the middle of a dense broadleaf forest. Strangely, every tree was either snapped or uprooted.
Judging by the dim surroundings, it seemed to be around dusk.
I muttered while clutching my bangs.
"Where the hell is this?"
I had no idea where I was. I remembered driving my sword into Akasha's chest and then being swallowed by the fissure. There was no doubt that my fight with the bastard had ended in my victory.
After the conclusion, we tumbled entangled in the fissure for a while… and then what?
"Cough! Hack! Heuk!"
Sudden violent coughing erupted. It was mixed with a bit of blood. My body felt weak, as if I'd been dunked in water for too long. Even the life force I'd borrowed from Seniel seemed to be depleted.
Suddenly, I noticed my waist felt unusually light and looked down.
"Fuck, where is it?"
And spat out a curse.
Only the scabbard hung from my waist. Neither the sword nor Akasha was in sight.
I hurriedly pulled out the mana tracker. Fortunately, the needle wasn't spinning wildly but fixed in one direction.
"I'm not letting you get away."
Grinding my teeth, I started walking. The needle pointed toward the razed forest. While hacking through fallen trees to advance.
I narrowed my eyes upon spotting dark red liquid splattered everywhere.
"Blood?"
The liquid stretched in sticky strands.
Blood. Human blood at that. Scattered throughout the entire forest without rhyme or reason, the amount increased with every step I took. The wind blowing through the trees carried a thick stench of blood.
'This isn't good.'
Something ominous hung in the air. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't just blood—chunks of flesh presumed to be human body parts and bone fragments littered the ground. My pace quickened.
The moment I emerged from the forest where red outnumbered blue.
"What…"
A thick wave of blood stench hit me.
A vast plain opened up below the slope. Or rather, what used to be a plain.
Scattered across the field wide enough for a dragon to land were massive craters gaping open.
"…···This."
Traces of some enormous explosion. I now understood why all the trees had been felled. The craters were blanketed in corpses. Easily tens of thousands. The mana's tracker's needle remained fixed.
"My god."
A helpless sigh escaped me. I moved forward like a man possessed by a ghost.
There were scarcely any intact bodies. Beneath chunks of torn and burst flesh, dark red blood formed rivers. Flocks of crows, seemingly gathered from across the continent, gorged themselves greedily.
'An illusion? How could this…'
My head spun. It felt like a nightmare. With every step, blood mixed with entrails splashed underfoot. No voices of survivors reached me.
Suddenly, I realized all the corpses were clad in Imperial Army uniforms.
'No way.'
I peered into the nearest crater. The pit, dozens of meters in diameter and depth, emanated a strong sense of déjà vu.
I had once been to a place like this.
"Ah."
The answer hit me suddenly.
This crater was a scar from the light spears hurled by the giants. The soldiers who died here had all perished fighting the giants.
But I killed all the bald bastards myself.
"What the… ah."
I was clutching my head, which refused to think straight.
Following the needle, I stopped before a certain pit.
The exceptionally large and deep crater was too vast to take in at a glance. In its shadowed center, white light flickered.
"Found you."
Even amid the chaos, one corner of my mouth lifted. Akasha lay at the crater's center. The holy sword was deeply embedded in his chest.
Incredibly, it seemed like I had made this pit.
"Brutal, huh."
I muttered as I slid down into the crater.
Dust rose beneath my soles. Akasha didn't move. No trace of vitality or mana emanated from the bastard lying with his black hair splayed like a pillow.
Akasha was dead.
"…You fucker. Finally croaked."
I pulled out the sword. No more blood came out—he'd already bled enough.
Without the slightest hesitation, I severed his head. The masked noggin came off smoothly, belying all the hardship. I grabbed it by the hair and lifted it.
"Let's see that face."
The moment I'd been waiting for. Figuring out how this mess happened could wait until after seeing Akasha's face. Peeling off the mask revealed his features.
"What… Who's this old guy?"
I frowned. Akasha's true identity was a middle-aged man I'd never seen before in my life.
The bearded man's face was contorted in terror. No matter how I racked my memory, it wasn't familiar.
After staring at his face for a long while, I let out a deep sigh.
"Huuuuh…"
A sigh half relief, half emptiness.
Truth be told, I'd been worried it might be someone I knew.
I'd kept open the possibility of it being corrupted Asel, Erzsebet, or even Rorhon—but it was a total stranger, which was somewhat fortunate.
'Guess I should figure out the situation and head back.'
Mission accomplished. Open the vial from Sarante and go home, done.
But after witnessing this carnage, I couldn't just kick back without uncovering the truth.
The giants were extinct in the original world, not to mention the other three parallel worlds.
So where the hell was this?
"Whew."
Tossing Akasha's head aside, I climbed out of the crater.
The gruesome scene unfolded once more. Definitely not a dream. The death permeating the land was sickeningly real.
"Goddamn…"
It was a sight that forced curses from my lips. I closed the eyes of a fresh-faced young soldier sprawled at my feet and kept walking. Crows cawed noisily. As I scanned for any clues.
"Save… me…"
A human voice rode the corpse-reeking air.
"What."
My shoulders tensed. Goosebumps prickled my skin.
It wasn't far. Forgetting my exhaustion, I sprinted toward the voice. The faint but persistent pleas for help continued.
About five minutes of running later.
I arrived at the source. Piles of tangled corpses littered the area, just like everywhere else. The voice's owner writhed among them.
The faint cries for rescue scattered into the wind, now too weak to hear.
"…Save."
My steps halted. The survivor was a female soldier in dire straits.
A major's insignia on her cap lay rolling on the ground. Her black hair was soaked in blood, hanging like willow branches. Shrapnel had torn into her—blood flowed from her eyes and ears.
But the worst wounds were to her legs and abdomen. Intestines spilled from her torn uniform like ribbons. Her legs were blown off so gruesomely that even reattachment surgery was impossible.
Even standing right beside her, she hadn't noticed me yet.
Tears streamed down my rigid face.
"No."
My legs gave out.
I staggered toward her, using every ounce of strength not to collapse.
"No. No. No. No…!"
It was a face I knew.
Kneeling beside her, I pulled the woman into my arms.
"Adeshan. Adeshan!"
"I-Is… there no one…?"
No mistake. It was the woman I loved.
Adeshan, unaware even of being held, kept repeating her pleas to be saved.