Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Good Morning
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Good morning.
Before Eliber's desperate lunge could reach her, Mina moved first.
It was Mina's turn now.
Her fear had lasted only a moment.
"In the name of the Lord God, I shall purify this filthy evil!"
Mina raised her mace high, and rose vines formed of holy power bloomed, weaving a barrier.
Area technique. Rose Garden.
My turn.
I carved two new weak points into her body and fell back.
Immediately after, Mina stepped forward in my place, holy power condensed at her fingertips.
"Holy Calling!"
The triple-buffed Holy Calling's power far transcended the concept of a basic attack.
Tzzzzzzt!
[Graaaaaaargh──!!]
Eliber screamed as the orb of holy power embedded itself in her body.
Now that she had monsterized, Mina's holy power inflicted extra damage on her, so the pain must have been considerable.
Eliber's turn.
A venomous breath spewed from her mouth.
Shwaaaaa!
The pitch-black tidal wave melted the villa's walls and ceiling as it engulfed the Rose Garden.
But the roses formed of holy power purified the breath's poison, blocking the attack.
Alicia's turn.
"You vermin bitch, thrashing right up to the end."
Alicia lightly tapped the barrier's surface with her fan.
Daggers forged of mana scattered in all directions from the barrier and detonated.
Iron Fan Blossom.
One of Alicia's few attack arts, much like Holy Calling.
Pabababam!
Without the Blossoming Fury buff, its raw power wasn't overwhelming, but the daggers embedded themselves in the walls and pillars, cutting off Eliber's escape routes.
It was a clear declaration that she wouldn't let Eliber flee no matter what.
Seeing that, Eliber flailed about once more, utterly bewildered.
She truly looked like a fish caught in a net, just as Alicia had said.
[This can't be happening…! I didn't come here expecting something like this…! Then why…?]
"That's where we stand the same. I didn't enter here expecting defeat, either."
Alicia added as she retreated.
"Give it up. You've lost, and we've won."
[You fucking bitch…!!]
Before the profanity could continue, I intervened.
My turn.
Eliber's gem still showed no sign of returning.
For a definitive finish, I added two more weak points with Corner Slash.
That made four weak points in total.
Mina's ensuing Holy Calling slammed precisely into the spider's abdomen.
[Weak!]
It didn't erase the weak point.
Eliber's weak point was there, after all.
Her entire body began to char black under the waves of holy power.
She was burning from the holy power, the antithesis of her demonic energy.
And then my turn returned.
I immediately kicked off the ground and leaped outside the barrier.
At the tip of my moonlit sword, a gray aura began to condense.
Chrono Dive. Corner Slash. Gale Stride.
Three arts unleashed in succession.
Gale Stride struck Eliber's body dead-on, detonating all the inscribed weak points.
But weak points remained.
The innate ones I hadn't carved artificially.
The heart, the fundamental weak point sustaining her life even as a monster.
I raised the sword aimed at her heart toward the sky.
"Halibal Break."
The descending blade traced a path of death.
Kwaaaaaboom!!
Break tore through the air with a sonic boom, cleaving Eliber from abdomen to upper body where her heart had been, splitting her clean in two.
[…Ah.]
A dazed light entered her eight eyes, which had been emitting eerie glows.
Everyone present knew the battle's outcome.
The gems shining above our heads had vanished.
[Blossoming Fury's effect has ended.]
[Holy Enchant's effect has ended.]
[Chrono Dive's effect has ended.]
[The field Red Scales has been released.]
Thud.
"…Fuck?"
My knee hit the ground pathetically.
"Wha… huh?"
I turned at the sound of something collapsing nearby and saw Mina slumped on the floor, trembling.
"S-Sorry… My legs… gave out…"
The stamina inflated by buffs had vanished, and the force sustaining movements beyond her physical limits drained away.
The backlash hit all at once.
No wounds, but the fatigue was worse than any battle I'd endured before.
Apparently, my current specs couldn't handle the movements from Alicia's buffs.
Alicia, who hadn't received any buffs, was the only one unscathed.
Meanwhile, Eliber's body convulsed.
The grotesque spider lower half melted away, her eight eyes closed, and she reverted to her original human form.
Seeing her shallow breaths, Alicia drew a dagger to finish her off.
"You're one tough, filthy bitch."
But I knew.
The fight was over.
She'd die even if left alone.
At that moment, Eliber whispered faintly.
"Ah… I see. So this is… the end you've chosen for us?"
Her eyes weren't on any of us.
Instead, they gazed beyond the hole her breath had torn in the ceiling, at the vast sky.
"If this is your love, then I gladly accept it…"
With those words, her bisected body split fully, the light fading completely from her eyes.
She was dead.
Alicia looked down at the halved corpse and spoke.
"For someone prattling about love, what a disappointingly mundane end."
Silence filled the hall after her voice.
The night breeze washed away the traces of battle.
"Can you stand, junior?"
"…I'll try."
I gritted my teeth and rose.
My muscles screamed in protest.
"That's enough."
*Not even close.*
Once she confirmed I'd stood, Alicia supported Mina and propped her against a nearby wall.
Rifling through the corpse with a suitable stick she'd procured from somewhere, Alicia said,
"But this is bizarre. Turning into a monster voluntarily yet retaining one's sanity."
She turned to me.
"The 4th Bishop, was it? That means there are at least three more like her. Was the one who ambushed you and Cecilia Ren last time transformed like this too?"
"Not exactly… But the one we fought back then called himself a bishop too."
I gave Alicia a suitably edited version of what Marias had revealed in the first loop.
Marias revealing his identity was pre-regression, not current timeline, so I hadn't mentioned it before.
But with Eliber openly declaring herself a bishop in front of the princess and saintess, sharing the info now seemed advantageous.
"The 7th Bishop… Jester, and lover…"
"Yes. If this woman was the 4th Bishop, then there are at least five more like her."
"Bishops would be executive level. So you're saying you took down a church executive and didn't report it to the royals?"
"It was chaotic back then."
"I bet it was."
Meanwhile, Eliber's corpse began crumbling to dust.
"This is odd too. A human body vanishing like a monster's."
"Now that you mention it, it happened then too."
"No, sigh… I can tell you're hiding a lot, junior."
Alicia sighed, then smiled softly.
"Anyway, good work, both of you. I couldn't have won against that alone, dead or alive."
"N-No… It was you and Halibal who did it all."
"No. Holy Enchant made it easy. You worked hard too, Princess."
That was when it happened.
A treasure chest appeared where the corpse had been, just like with Marias.
"Oooh? Loot drops! Being monster-like paid off with this."
Alicia's eyes sparkled.
She began petting the treasure chest like a puppy.
"Um… Isn't it… dirty? Purify the demonic energy first…"
"There's no such thing as a dirty treasure chest!"
"Y-Yes."
Her petting hand suddenly froze.
"Wait. A treasure chest from someone who called herself a church bishop…?"
Then she glared at me.
Oh no.
"Juni…or?"
"…Hm."
I stroked my chin briefly before answering.
"Cecilia told me to."
It wasn't a lie.
Cecilia sold me out once, so now I returned the favor.
Sorry, Cecilia.
Alicia eyed me suspiciously for a moment before turning away.
"Fine. I'll hear that story from her directly later."
*…That's bad.*
I'd get scolded.
"Anyway!"
As if nothing happened, Alicia's eyes gleamed with greed again.
She patted the treasure chest and urged me on.
"You landed the finishing blow, so you open it. Hurry!"
"..."
"Of course, we'll split the contents fairly! Kuhuhuht."
"Uh… Do we not need to report this?"
Alicia replied to Mina's question with exasperation.
"?? I'm basically the royals. Report what?"
*Ah, so telling just her is enough?*
"Hurry up. You're making me dizzy."
I sighed inwardly and opened the treasure chest.
With a purple flash, dozens of shards' lights burst into the sky.
Against the night sky, the shard drop effect looked like a starry cluster adorning the heavens.
"Wow… I've never seen anything like this."
"Whoa, it's like a shard fireworks show."
Mostly Rank 1 shards, but six Rank 2 and 3 mixed in.
A jackpot, plain and simple.
In that instant, amid the shard fireworks, an alien black flame seeped in.
Black shard?
No, an even deeper black.
*Special shard!*
Afraid it'd be snatched like last time, I reached out and snatched it.
"Junior's pretty greedy. I couldn't even track it with my eyes."
"..."
"Kidding."
Ahem. I cleared my throat.
I couldn't resist a special shard.
The black special shards came in three types: [Dark Cloud], [Crescent Moon], [Black Cloud].
I already had the final-stage Black Cloud, so this was one of the other two.
Crescent Moon was a fluid endgame shard.
Dark Cloud was a quasi-endgame one step below.
Either would be a huge score right now.
Let's check.
A waltz from spring echoed in my mind.
[Dark Cloud]
*Dark Cloud, huh.*
Dark Cloud boosted fluidity and crit by 3 each.
I'd swap it later, but for now, it meant more to me than Crescent Moon.
*Not bad.*
Plus, I had special abilities, so expectations were high. Crappy shards didn't mean crappy abilities.
I swapped in the shard immediately, and a message appeared.
[Special ability unlocked from equipping special shard.]
[Special Shard: Dark Cloud]
[Special Ability: Harvest]
[Harvest - When the user parties with someone they've formed three or more bonds with and knocks the opponent groggy, unleash a powerful joint attack.]
The new special ability resembled Jaehwa's 'bond,' but the text differed slightly.
*Joint attack… Like a total attack?*
How powerful was 'powerful'?
But what caught my eye most was the 'three or more' condition.
Impossible to meet right now.
*Maybe after summer break.*
As I naturally pocketed the shard, Alicia narrowed her eyes.
"Why's that your shard, junior?"
"How about investing in my sword sometime?"
"Even so, special shards are crossing the line. Bring it here."
She wiggled her fingers again.
I flinched back, and Alicia burst out laughing.
"Fine. You're right, junior. Keep it. But remember I let you have it."
"Absolutely."
The lights adorning the sky faded, and dozens of shards rained to the ground.
Alicia split the fallen shards evenly with Mina.
"Um, I'm fine without…"
"We're not. And you pulled your weight this time. You deserve your share."
Watching her empty core fill up, Mina's eyes reddened slightly.
After the shard distribution, Alicia's expression turned serious again.
"Now to handle the rest."
She glanced at the soldiers' corpses strewn around the hall.
"My soldiers. We at least need to recover the bodies."
"Check the branch for any remaining intel, then recover the soldiers."
"…It's tragic. If only we'd come a bit sooner."
"Self-blame won't help. We did our best; the rest is up to fate."
We gathered the scattered corpses.
Luckily, their clothes were in one corner of the villa room, so we could cover the bodies.
Transporting them to the capital was the issue.
"Don't worry about that. Someone's probably panicking right now anyway."
Alicia said she'd snuck out Hyperion without telling even her guards.
She hadn't even mentioned coming to Ronwood.
"He'll come to fetch me soon."
Alicia gave a hollow laugh and sprawled out spread-eagled on the spot.
"So let's rest like this until then."
Her undignified pose was probably consideration for our exhaustion.
Accepting it, we lay on the floor like her, staring at the gaping ceiling for a while.
Until the sky turned orange.
⁎⁎⁎
I left the two sunk into deep sleep and descended the mountain alone.
As Alicia said, her guard would arrive soon on the Cyrus Express.
Guiding them was one reason, but more than that, my mind was restless.
From the unease I'd felt in the battle with Eliber.
*…Can't escape?*
That's what she'd said.
Come to think of it, Marias had been weird too. He'd tried fleeing but returned to the alley.
Eliber was the same this time.
Something seemed to bind her; it was palpable in her actions.
And perhaps that something was linked to whatever forced this turn-based battle on me.
*Escape.*
I pulled out the [Escape] blank shard I'd forgotten about.
A colorless blank shard.
Escape effect, but I'd shelved it thinking I'd never need it.
*Duke Grace gave me this.*
Lost in thought, I'd reached the station before I knew it.
As the sun rose over the horizon, a faint horn echoed.
Definitely the Cyrus Express.
I headed toward the station entrance to greet the train.
『Yaaawn… Late, huh?』
An impossibly familiar voice rang in my ears.
I turned, and there stood a girl who shouldn't be here, stretching.
『Good morning, Halibal Belder.』
"…Rene?"
Sheep still milled at Rene's feet.
Her and the sheep's forms were translucent, like holograms.