Chapter 139
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 139
Swoosh.
Through the driving wind and rain, Iskan swayed like a ghost. I didn't know what kind of technique he was using, but his presence was so faint he seemed to melt into the landscape.
I focused, straining to separate his form from the scenery. Iskan seized upon that slight shift in my perception to make his move.
He surged forward, his figure seemingly expanding as he closed the distance. Before I could even react, the tip of his spear converged into a single point, aiming right between my eyes.
Clang!
I swung Crucis in a wide arc, barely parrying the thrust. Iskan didn't rush; he backed away, testing the waters.
Creak, creak.
A harsh metallic protest ground from my arm. I had taken the brunt of Paigon's self-destruction. The damage to both my prosthetic and my physical body was severe.
Crucis felt incredibly heavy now. Just holding it up was exhausting, dragging my arms and upper body down. For the first time, I regretted using a high-compression heavy weapon.
...I needed to assess my body. And I needed time—time for the pieces I had set on the board to move.
I wasn't fighting Iskan just to die.
"Do you even know what the Imperial Guard Captain is preparing? That it might be an act of disloyalty and rebellion against the Empire?"
Words spoken just to buy time.
I didn't care if he thought I was cowardly or pathetic. Right now, I had to play every card in my hand to increase my chances of survival.
The greater the uncertainty and the more variables in play, the more effective Akies Victima became. In my current disadvantaged state, I had to use absolutely everything at my disposal to defeat him.
There was no way Iskan didn't see through my intentions. Yet, he would answer.
Iskan likes me. He pities me.
He would want to give me a clean death. So, he would try his best to answer my questions. That way, even after killing me, he could rationalize it to himself, thinking: I did all I could for him.
"Luka, I came here prepared to share Heilas's fate. Whatever Heilas chooses, I will gladly bear it. We've stood back-to-back, protecting each other for over half a century. You know what that means, don't you?"
Iskan actually offered a faint smile.
Of course I knew. That was precisely why the Imperial Family wanted to strike down the Imperial Guard and the military.
For those who had spent a lifetime together on the battlefield, priorities shifted. They began to value the comrades beside them over blind loyalty to the Empire and the Imperial Family. Because they were humans, not machines.
"But Heilas will offer the leadership of the military and the Imperial Guard to the Emperor to ensure the survival of the Custoria family. Will you still follow him then?"
I pressed. Heilas had something more precious to him than his comrades-in-arms. As the head of the family, he had a duty to protect his household.
"Haha, I'm not following him. I'm helping him. Luka, time is a cruel thing. One by one, the guardsmen who were like brothers to me have died or left the Guard. Before I knew it, Heilas was the only one left whom I could call family."
Iskan didn't lose his smile, even as they marched toward catastrophe.
"Whether Heilas succeeds or fails, you will die."
"For a butcher like me who has killed countless people, a fittingly miserable death is only appropriate. I'm not shameless enough to expect to die peacefully in bed."
His resolve was unbreakable. Iskan was a soldier of steel who had lived for nearly a century. He wouldn't be swayed by a greenhorn who hadn't even lived twenty years.
Creak, creak.
I opened and closed my fingers, one by one. I had finished my self-assessment while we talked.
My limbs can move. But their output is less than half of what it usually is.
Even this was a miracle of durability. It had only held up because it was a brand-new, high-performance prosthetic gifted directly by Fransek.
My physical body...
Honestly, I couldn't even tell how many bones were broken. The burns on my back were severe. My heavily injured biological body wouldn't be able to withstand the strain of forcing my failing prosthetic past its limits.
But I had to fight. This struggle was not a choice; it was thrust upon me. It was an inevitability, and the world was just another obstacle to overcome.
Thrum!
I raised Crucis and took a stance.
"With so many companions on the road to the afterlife, you won't be lonely, Luka."
"I don't plan on dying just yet."
"Neither Heilas nor I want to die either. It's just that, like the countless people we've consumed, it's finally our turn to be consumed."
Iskan strode toward me. He looked like a giant. Even though he approached with his spearhead lowered, the immense pressure he exerted was suffocating.
"...You chose death, but it's being forced upon me."
So if you want to die, go ahead and die.
I spun, swinging Crucis from low to high. Lacking both stamina and strength, my movement was wide and sluggish.
Whoosh!
The tip of my blade sliced through empty air. Iskan leaned back effortlessly and countered with a rapid thrust.
Whoosh!
I twisted my head, barely dodging in time. The spearhead grazed my cheek.
Iskan extended his lead foot, attempting to hook my ankle. Weaponry and martial arts descended upon me simultaneously. I managed to retreat, but my balance was shattered.
This is tough.
There were no variables here. This was a battle of pure skill.
Iskan was already stronger than me to begin with. In my heavily injured state, there was no way I could win. My thoughts couldn't carve a path to victory; I was blocked at every turn.
"I don't want to cause you pain, Luka."
Iskan spun and retreated. Having backed away, he coiled his body tight, like a spring, before thrusting his spear forward like a bullet.
A thrust faster than sound lunged straight at me.
Clang!
But I was able to block it. I could only do so because Iskan's spearhead was aimed solely at my head.
A merciful intent to kill.
It was a ridiculous paradox, but it was true. Iskan wanted to end it in a single blow. If my head was crushed instantly, I wouldn't even feel fear or pain.
Thud!
Iskan swung his spear with one hand, slamming Crucis to the ground. Even one-handed, his power output was higher than both of mine combined.
Bang!
Keeping Crucis pinned, Iskan smoothly drew his pistol. The muzzle was aimed right at my forehead.
I kicked upward with the tip of my boot, nudging the gun's barrel just slightly off course. Even I had to admit it was a brilliant feat of reflexes.
The bullet grazed the crown of my head. It felt as though the Grim Reaper had just kissed the back of my neck as he passed by.
Haha.
A laugh bubbled up inside me. I actually felt thrilled in a situation like this. It seemed Iskan felt the same, a fierce smile playing on his lips. We were both terrible bastards.
We derived intense pleasure from life-or-death combat. That was the crucial difference between us and ordinary people. The high-speed cognition fueled by chemical neural processing was trivial compared to this raw rush.
It felt as if the shackles binding my limbs had vanished. Disregarding my injuries, I moved with newfound agility.
My eyes darted around, scanning my surroundings as my perception expanded.
Clash!
I yanked Crucis up high and brought it crashing down. Naturally, Iskan dodged, and the heavy blade embedded itself helplessly into the earth.
Thud!
Letting go of the embedded weapon, I took a sudden step forward. I pinched my fingertips together into a sharp point and thrust them directly toward the space between Iskan's eyes.
Thwack!
The adept Iskan easily deflected my arm with the butt of his spear. He spun the weapon in his grip, attempting to impale me with the blade.
Whoosh!
I ducked to dodge. But before I even realized it, Iskan's foot was already rising toward my head. It was a perfectly executed high kick, packed with an alarming amount of power.
I threw up both hands, intercepting his kick before it could reach its peak velocity. Yet, even with its force mitigated, the impact was more than enough to send me flying.
Grab Crucis.
As I was blown backward, I desperately grabbed the hilt of the embedded Crucis. The heavy weapon was wrenched free, sliding along the ground with me.
Screeeeech!
I skidded backward, scraping against the asphalt. The tip of Crucis dragged along the earth like a giant metal brush.
I survived again. How thrilling.
If I kept enjoying this sensation, I'd pay a heavy price one day. I just had to hope today wasn't that day.
Bang!
I immediately rolled. I had already seen Iskan drawing his pistol to fire in rapid succession.
Ping! Clang!
Protecting my biological body, I deflected the rounds with Crucis and my prosthetic arm.
Zzzt!
I flinched. My right arm suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
Damn it, an electric stun bullet.
The velocity of an electric stun bullet was relatively slow; I could have easily dodged it under normal circumstances.
"I always keep one of these as my last round. Since you've mastered Akies Victima, you must know well the importance of variables in combat, right? Hm, I sounded like an old man lecturing you just now. Not that it matters anymore," Iskan said, smoothly swapping out his magazine.
I can't hold Crucis properly.
My paralyzed right arm wouldn't move as I wanted. The output of my damaged left arm alone wasn't nearly enough to wield the heavy blade.
Assess the situation, Luka. I had to stay calm, especially now.
I widened my focus, tearing it away from Iskan to take in my surroundings.
We were fighting quite far from the Imperial Guard headquarters. It was a testament to just how hard Giselle had worked to drag me all this way.
The fact that Giselle and I had made it this far without any interference meant... the Imperial Guard headquarters was practically empty. This must have been Heilas's doing. He had probably cleared the personnel out of the headquarters to smuggle Giselle and me back to the family estate without drawing attention.
But above all, the decisive reason the headquarters was empty likely had to do with the smoke rising in the distance. Even through the torrential wind and rain, thick smoke and raging flames were visible.
The riot has begun. That's why no one has the luxury to pay attention to this place.
I pulled up a fragment of my memory. When I had contacted Nemesis alongside Kinuan, I had seen their plans and schedule.
Shifting my gaze, I saw smoke billowing from various points along the massive boundary wall separating the Upper and Lower Districts, suggesting that riots had broken out there as well.
Nemesis only has about a hundred troops, but the number of people swept up by their instigation and momentum will only keep growing.
I had no way of knowing the exact details of the chaos unfolding beyond the wall and down below.
My chain of thought felt long, but only a split second had passed in reality.
Catching my breath, I refocused on Iskan. He was coiled in a fierce stance, preparing to charge. Once his body sprang forward like a released bowstring, I would die. I couldn't calculate any possible way to dodge his next attack.
...I had done everything I could. Now, I could only believe and hope.
Back when Enrico Lagan caused trouble in the Lower District, the woman from La Vie en Rose had summoned Grace. Grace had arrived at the scene from La Vie en Rose's territory in just twelve minutes. Let's calculate that distance and her route.
So, how many minutes would it take for Grace to get here? No, would she even come at all? Would she risk danger to help me?
Was the 'pager' in my pocket properly pressed and transmitting? Had Paigon, who brought my luggage, noticed something and tampered with it beforehand?
Even if Grace overcame all these uncertainties and immediately set out to help me... there just wasn't enough time.
It's hopeless.
No matter how I ran the calculations, the odds were zero. No matter how fast Grace hurried, physical time and distance were simply against us.
Unless she's using an aerial vehicle, she'd barely have enough time to reach the boundary wall between the Upper and Lower Districts.
And in this atrocious weather, flying an aerial vehicle was completely out of the question.
My mind was split in two. Even as I continuously calculated Grace's travel time, I was desperately trying to simulate a way to dodge Iskan's attack.
But Akies Victima was not magic. It couldn't conjure miracles out of thin air.
No matter how many times I reviewed the variables, they always arrived at the same grim conclusion. Grace would not make it in time, and Iskan's next attack would pierce right through my head.
You will die here, Luka.
My brain, utterly unable to devise a way out, pronounced my death sentence.
Iskan's foot kicked off the ground. Gripping the butt of his spear, he lunged forward with a long, devastating thrust. The scene unfolded in agonizingly slow motion. Yet, my body completely failed to react.
Boom!
A thunderous roar erupted. Iskan's body violently bent sideways, as if he had been struck by a massive invisible hammer.
Strictly speaking, the impact of a 'shock round' is divided into two distinct stages: the physical kinetic impact of the solid round, followed by a subsequent energy explosion. It only appears simultaneous because it all occurs in a fraction of a split second.
Kaboom!
A blinding bluish energy explosion erupted from his flank, completely swallowing Iskan's body in its blast.
"Hmm..."
Having just lost his left arm and half of his upper torso to the shock round's explosion, Iskan merely staggered. He didn't even glance toward the sniper. His gaze remained dead-locked on me as he forced his spear forward with sheer, obsessive willpower.
Clang!
I swung Crucis to meet him with what little strength I had left. It was incredibly difficult to grip the heavy weapon properly with only one functional hand. But Iskan was in no better shape.
The exact moment my blade and his spear collided, the massive kinetic feedback ripped the weapons from our grips, sending them both flying into the air.
Thud!
I tackled Iskan, shoving him hard with my shoulder. Stripped down to this mutilated state, our physical capabilities were actually evenly matched.
We fell to the dirt, tangling together in a desperate struggle. That was when I spotted the Grakken Boot sheathed at his side. He had confiscated it from me earlier.
Crack!
I pinned his neck and shoulder down with my functional left arm. Then, I buried my face against his chest.
Click.
I clamped my front teeth down hard on the hilt of the Grakken Boot and ripped it free from its sheath. However, in this tangled mess, I didn't have the leeway to transfer it to my hand to stab him.
Thud!
We scrambled and wrestled in the mud, each desperately fighting for top mount. At this point, it didn't look like a clash between elite guardsmen, but a brutal, ugly brawl between street thugs.
Iskan still managed to move despite the catastrophic shock of losing his left arm and half his chest. It was a true testament to the Imperial Guard's tenacious combat prosthetics. No—it was Iskan's sheer mental fortitude that was truly terrifying.
He's probably barely conscious.
Iskan's pupils had been unfocused for a while now. He was moving solely on his duty-bound drive to kill me, fueled by the fierce combat instincts ingrained deep into his muscles.
Kinuan's technique.
My brain instantly extracted the necessary information from my past. Once, I had tried to wake up an unconscious Kinuan. In his sleep, Kinuan had subdued me with a bizarre joint lock. It had felt like being coiled by a snake.
Whoosh!
I mimicked Kinuan's lock. I deliberately relaxed my muscles, baiting Iskan into reacting. Driven purely by his survival instincts, he immediately tried to shift his weight to escape.
I aimed for the exact millisecond the balance of power shifted. Slipping seamlessly behind Iskan's back, I locked my left forearm tightly around his throat.
Squeeze!
I squeezed with all my might, but it wasn't easy. It was incredibly difficult to kill a man like him with a mere chokehold.
I'm sorry, Iskan.
Iskan had tried to kill me painlessly. But I simply didn't have the luxury to return the favor. Compared to him, I was the weaker one.
I finally gripped the Grakken Boot with my right hand, my fingers still spasming and trembling from the electric stun bullet.
Crunch!
I drove the Grakken Boot up into Iskan's lower jaw.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
It was a slow, agonizing execution, closer to torture than combat.
The vicious blade of the Grakken Boot slowly ground through his jawbone, driving straight upward toward the crown of his head.
Crack!
The tip of the blade finally reached Iskan's brain—his sole remaining biological organ. Iskan violently convulsed as if having a massive seizure. I squeezed out the very last drop of my strength and viciously twisted the blade.
Thud.
Iskan's remaining arm fell limp into the mud. He was dead.
"Haah, haah..."
I gasped greedily for air.
Did Grace help me? How...?
Lying exhausted beside Iskan's corpse, I turned my head. In the far distance, I could see the towering boundary wall separating the Upper and Lower Districts. High up, in the exact direction the sniper shot had come from, a faint silhouette was visible.
Click.
I closed my left eye. As I stopped synchronizing my biological vision, my right cybernetic eye whirred, narrowing its focus and zooming its field of view like a high-powered telescope to magnify the distant scene.
"...Haha."
The only reason I had survived was because I had severely underestimated Grace's capabilities. I had logically judged that I would die, but Grace was a far better soldier than I could have ever anticipated.
Akies Victima cannot account for the unknown. It merely calculates the optimal judgment based on the vision and data currently available to me.
Grace stood quietly atop the massive boundary wall. The eye she had always kept hidden beneath her left eyepatch was finally revealed to the world.
It was an unnaturally large cybernetic eye. There was no eyelid; instead, glowing blue circuits spread out from the socket across her skin like a digital spiderweb. Her left eye was clearly a custom-made piece, specifically designed for ultra-long-range sniping.
In Grace's grip was a familiar yet unfamiliar weapon—a Ruina. But this was a Ruina heavily modified for extreme sniping. The barrel was longer than her entire arm, retrofitted with a custom stock and a heavy bipod.
Regardless, the Ruina I was now reunited with looked vastly different from the one in my memories.
...I felt a strange, complicated mix of emotions wash over me.