Chapter 146
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: Total Assault (2)
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"That one said you've reached a realm twisted by intense hatred and rage toward him."
Berggren spat out a ragged breath and ground his teeth as he glared at Bellona.
By now, Bellona had extended all four of her arms, pointing four swords at him while a dark blue energy rippled across her entire body.
"Is that really all there is to it? In the end, once your target of hatred vanishes, you can no longer burn?!"
Berggren couldn't understand it.
He, who had only talent but was called a reckless prince, had staked his life in battle, trained, and gained enlightenment all for something he needed to protect.
To protect from the orcs before, and now from the ants.
The sword he wielded was one of guardianship.
It was fundamentally different from the sword of asceticism wielded by his master, Scrumm.
And so, he couldn't structurally comprehend the sword of slaughter that Bellona wielded.
A blade swung solely to kill, slash, and topple.
Of course, Bellona couldn't understand what Berggren was saying now or what values drove him to fight.
But one thing was certain: the current Berggren made for an opponent who sparked the thrill of battle in her, just like the Scrumm of old.
"This is fun."
"...!"
He flinched at the voice leaking from behind the mask.
Anyone could tell from that single word—it was purely and genuinely sincere.
"Fine. If that's your essence."
Berggren hardened his expression and regripped his sword.
In truth, he had anticipated defeat in this war.
Even if he defeated Bellona one-on-one, the ants filling every direction would remain.
The Orc Kingdom lacked firepower and troops. For a powerhouse like Berggren to shine, he needed essential support.
Bellona had far too many such allies.
Not only Seira and Arie, but her sister Asmore was watching everything from behind.
'Even so, I fight. Because that's my sword.'
His body glowed even brighter as he steadied his breath. This was his realm: Extreme Soul Slash.
Ironically, this power could only awaken without an absolute evil like Bellona, forged and perfected through clashes with overwhelming foes.
"...What a beautiful sight this is."
It was a moment that might even move the deity Urmark, who had been watching the final stand of his own subordinates unfold in this Edellion, to genuine admiration—the birth of yet another hero. When such heroes underwent countless growths, they would finally attain transcendence and awaken as deities.
"Your Majesty! Isn't this dangerous?!"
Seira panicked at the sight of Berggren shining brilliantly.
To her eyes, Berggren's power was perilous.
He had shown sharpness and solidity capable of slicing through Bellona's power moment by moment, even with far less output.
"That's why it's even more entertaining."
Asmore, however, wasn't worried at all.
She could feel Bellona growing more delighted the stronger the opponent became.
It didn't matter if Bellona was cut or even killed.
She'd regenerate quickly anyway. Unlike Asmore herself, Bellona didn't care about damage to her body.
And there was precedent: she'd survived having her throat slit. As long as her head remained intact, she could be transplanted onto a new body and live again.
Even if her head were completely destroyed, preventing full revival, she wouldn't grieve much.
Regret was regret, but Asmore thought she could just have another little sister.
The issue was that it would bruise the ant horde's pride and mean the death of a special subordinate named by Jin-hyuk himself.
So, if that happened, Asmore planned to repay it with the thorough, brutal extermination of every force in the Orc Kingdom. Not a single breathing soul left.
"Your Majesty...! I've already forsaken any path to survival. And you'll join me on that path!"
Berggren fueled his own power, becoming a fierce blaze itself as he charged at Bellona. True to the flames, he was burning himself right now. If he dragged it out, he'd eventually burn to death in agony.
As if determined to end it before then, ferocious blue slashes erupted one after another, hammering Bellona's body.
Her barrier shattered, and Bellona's swung sword barely canceled them out.
'I can't tell. Who's winning?'
Jin-hyuk, watching from afar, grew even more anxious.
Lacking any insight into martial arts, he couldn't gauge who held the advantage in the fierce clash between Bellona and Berggren.
Pacing with his eyes fixed on the screen, Jin-hyuk gulped down water while watching the powers collide in flashes.
"...!"
In that moment, the sword energy whipping from Berggren's thrust finally pierced Bellona's defense, engulfing her body.
It was a force powerful enough to half-demolish a three-story stone building behind them.
"Is that the power... for protection?"
"You..."
Mana still raged uncontrollably, blazing fiercely.
Berggren grimaced at the pain surging through his body and widened his eyes at Bellona.
One arm gone, along with parts of her shattered upper exoskeleton, and half her mask broken—revealing a beautiful woman exposing her face and body.
Yet, unlike Asmore, she didn't have a fully human face.
Including two lines crossing her face from her eyes, she looked somehow alien.
Her eyes, like Asmore's, were pitch black with vertically slit red pupils gleaming sharply.
"...If it's for protection."
Bellona faintly lifted the corner of her mouth.
She raised her swords with her remaining three arms.
"Why not use that power for us?"
"Wh-what?"
Berggren faltered at the unimaginable words.
It was an obsession different from the intense hatred Scrumm had shown him.
"What nonsense is this? Now you're using words to shake me!"
"I'm serious."
Berggren was dumbfounded, his mind racing, but Bellona truly lacked the verbal skill for such psychological warfare yet.
In other words, everything she said to Berggren now was sincere.
She coveted his power and saw potential in his heart.
She merely wondered what if that heart—transcending for protection, sacrificing for it—turned toward her and the horde.
Then, he'd become as reliable a queen's knight and legion commander as Seira and Arie under Asmore.
"I want it."
Bellona twisted her lips further and naturally licked them with her red tongue.
Berggren unwittingly stepped back at the sight.
It was a terror utterly different from before.
The masked Bellona had seemed an incomprehensible disaster, a monster beyond reason. But this woman approaching while savoring her lips exuded danger in her gaze alone.
'Both Asmore and Bellona are still so young. If they see a toy they want, they throw a tantrum until they get it.'
Jin-hyuk sighed and shook his head.
The queens' obsessions and desires were indeed their very essence and driving force for growth.
The problem was that powerless children were harmless, but queens were different.
They had the strength to turn their desires and obsessions into reality.
"Cut the nonsense! I'll die here. With you, Queen!"
And that was the scene unfolding now.
Bellona danced another sword dance, fiercely exchanging blows before finally batting away Berggren's sword. With her remaining arms, she seized his body, slammed him to the ground, and mounted him.
From the crushed, shattered floor, Berggren and Bellona stared into each other's faces from inches away, gripping each other in a desperate contest of strength.
Bellona's exoskeleton cracked and broke piece by piece, while Berggren felt his power reaching its limit and vomited blood.
In truth, Bellona, having already secured a decisive victory, could have killed him anytime.
No need for a contest of strength—she could morph her exoskeleton and crush his head in one go.
But she didn't. She wanted to subdue and break him.
"H-how..."
Berggren's eyes finally wavered.
His rampaging power seeped into Bellona's body, shattering and hurting it, yet she smiled widely. That broke him.
"Kuhuk..."
In the end, Berggren's strength gave out first. Bellona's power began flowing into him in reverse.
The kair flowing through his shoulders and chest that she gripped suppressed and extinguished the blue mana flames burning his body and life as fuel.
Then, Bellona slung the unconscious Berggren over her shoulder and walked out of the crater.
Her body too was broken and fractured in places, leaking fluids, but the expression uncovered by her shattered mask was radiant and bright.
"That's so you."
Asmore's assessment was just that one phrase.
Crushing and smashing with pure power—that was Bellona's way.
No apt compromise or persuasion like with Arie.
No inescapable deep despair like with Seira.
She just fought and won. Bellona claimed her spoils.
"The defensive line is collapsing..."
"Run now! It's over!"
Berggren's defeat wasn't just crucial for his fate of being captured alive by Bellona.
On a larger scale, it meant the Orc Kingdom's downfall.
Even great warrior-class fighters were being overwhelmed by coordinated assaults from Seira, Arie, and Askalon specimens.
The regular soldiers despaired in a war with no hope left.
Uncontrollable slave troops fled, while orc warriors who valued fighting to the end battled until death.
"Your Majesty, the horde from the east is nearly upon us. We can already hear their wings in the sky."
"Fr-from the southwest too—the ones crossing the sea are racing straight here."
Even the Orc Kingdom's capital, the royal palace where Orc King Gorzan resided, was no longer safe.
Gorzan sighed, rising from his seat to grasp the weapon he'd left untouched until now.
"The deity says he's proud of us."
He gazed heavily at his weapon.
In truth, they had already foreseen the end. They themselves, and even the deity Urmark.
"Despite his immense aid, we have one regret we couldn't repay."
Faint wingbeats echoed from afar.
It was the sound of the hornet ants, infamous as "Screaming Wings."
Among flying types, their massive wings were said to herald death and doom upon hearing them.
"So how could our end be ignoble?"
"No, sire. We'll follow you!"
The Orc Kingdom's final resistance, including Gorzan, resolved to fight to the death.
With the dawn breaking, a black wave devastating the land rushed toward them.
Gorzan ground his teeth, confirming the wave dominating sky and earth alike.
For honor, pride, life—all staked in their final bloodbath, to show their deity.
"Ah."
And in that instant, an intense beam of light fired from the faintly visible massive spine swept over them.