Chapter 44
Chapter: 44
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 044
>Chapter Title: Premonition (2)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Didn't I tell you not to cause trouble like that? Without even knowing where the threat was coming from, so fearlessly...]
[No, Father, Your Holiness the Holy Emperor. Even though I suddenly ended up dying like this, I still protected Delcross from the threat of the demon realm, you know!]
The boy pouted as if he were the aggrieved one. He hadn't even finished half of what he wanted to say, yet now that his head had grown a little, he was learning to argue back against his father's scolding.
Nate opened his mouth to give him another piece of his mind, but in that instant, a single scene flashed through his mind.
It was the sight of Delcross's outskirts wrapped in black smoke. Part of the residential district was completely demolished, with scattered casualties visible here and there. The knights of the Order of Saint Grazie were visible, conducting rescue operations.
On one side, the Orders of Saint Marthias and Saint Aurelion were fighting together against monsters that resembled gigantic moths. Victory was on their side, but the knights' losses were not insignificant.
And far in that sky, a sinister hole enveloped in black swirling clouds was visible. An enormous number of moths continued to pour out from that gaping black maw.
The vision ended in a fleeting moment.
This was a brief image conjured by Nate's premonition. A disaster that surely would have occurred had his son not intervened.
Nate would have learned of the anomaly and returned in the end to close that gate, but the damage incurred in the meantime would have been something even he could not ignore.
In the end, he could only say this with a reluctant expression.
[That was... well done.]
Hmph. Seeing the boy's face turn confident in an instant, Nate realized he had completely missed his chance to lecture him.
As he felt a bit deflated, his eyes caught sight of the small soul cradled in his son's arms. It was now in a pitiful, insignificant state after its fall from grace, but that thing flickering with an ominous red light was undoubtedly one of those wicked beings that deserved to be beaten to death. It was surely this thing that had dragged his son into this mess.
However, just as he had done at first, Nate decided to pretend not to notice the irritating presence this time as well.
A few days earlier, when his son, recovering from a fever, had entered the audience chamber, the moment Nate first laid eyes on him, he had foreseen it. That insignificant thing would remain by his son's side even far into the future.
-Please do not blindly trust your premonitions.
He had said that, but Kornsiim, that old man, could never understand.
Some of those premonitions were not mere prophecies, but events in a future that must inevitably come to pass. The boy's path ahead would continue to involve carrying such wicked beings alongside him.
[Can you tell me now what my soul looks like? How did you know I suddenly died?]
Oblivious to Nate's complicated thoughts, the boy tossed innocent, chirping questions at him with a bright face. You foolish child.
Moreover, it seemed they had lingered too long near the dimensional boundary. Suddenly, a repulsive gaze swept over them thickly, and Nate quickly reinforced the barrier around his son's soul.
It appeared they had caught the attention of one of those ominous entities from beyond that occasionally eyed this place.
Ever since the two prime material worlds had separated and the dimensional walls weakened, those things had occasionally gazed at this side with greedy eyes, as if beholding exceedingly appetizing food. However, the ones that seemed ready to pounce at any moment would poke at the barrier's vicinity a few times before meekly retreating.
Perhaps they were waiting only for Nate, who stood vigilant against them, to die. Their conception of time was something beyond a human like him to fathom.
In any case, the priority was to send his son back first.
[Go now. Don't worry Masain too much.]
That child was surely blaming himself again this time. He hoped that rigid boy wouldn't be too shocked.
Nate reminded his son's soul once more of the designated return location.
[Return. [Mores].]
And you, you rascal, take this one good hit. There's a limit to how much you can worry people.
With a touch of malice, he flicked the boy's forehead sharply.
Thwack.
Guk. The boy's soul vanished toward Delcross in an instant.
Nate watched the direction his child had flown off for a moment, then quietly drew his nutcracker into his right hand and waited. The thick gazes emanating from afar were increasing one by one, and one among them was rapidly approaching the barrier.
The pressure bearing down on his soul grew ever stronger.
Soon, pitch-black smoke-like substance began to creep up around Nate's soul. No, that sticky, heavy texture was closer to mud than smoke. It increased in volume on its own, then began filling the empty barrier like a surging flood.
Grooooaaar.
Following that, a bizarre resonance—whether a groan or a sigh, it was impossible to tell—began shaking the barrier. For whatever reason, the thing was dragging in a portion of its own hell to personally descend here.
Nate spread the light enveloping his soul a bit farther, pushing back the surrounding mud. In response, a phlegm-choked laugh echoed as if to mock him. Guhahaha.
In that instant, the scenery before his eyes shifted. The surroundings had become a vast, deep cavern enclosed by black walls.
In that immense space without end, Nate's soul appeared as nothing more than a single glowing point.
The black walls were wriggling with what looked like tiny cilia protruding unevenly; upon closer inspection, each one was a soul starved to skin and bones. It was a fragment of the hell the thing had brought with it.
The thing was a kin of [Famine].
Soon, a section of the wall split open before Nate, revealing something like a massive black octopus covered in huge lumps. It writhed with thousands of grotesquely formed legs, a form so bizarre that merely looking straight at it would deal a blow to one's soul.
Guhahaha. As the malformed octopus poured out laughter once more, the lumps densely covering its body shuddered.
[Are you the king of this place? I've always been curious since He often took note of you. But though you possess the stature of a king, are you still merely human?]
As expected, it seemed he had deemed him somewhat worth examining. The dimensional boundary was ambiguous even in terms of causality, allowing it to summon its true body without burden. And so it had eagerly rushed here in its corporeal form rather than as a mere spirit.
Over the past few days, Nate had been constraining his soul to the laws of the prime material world, and escaping that had left him a bit drained. Still, it shouldn't be to the point of being underestimated by a creature like this.
Nate sneered and gripped his nutcracker tightly. But at the thing's next words, his face hardened instantly.
[And what was that soul just now? Such a pity you sent it fleeing in such haste. Wasn't that also a most delicious-looking young soul?]
Slurp. The sound of it greedily smacking its lips transmitted without filter.
Nate's eyes cooled to an icy chill. It reminded him involuntarily of Kaien, whom he had left in the western mountains.
He had intended to give a light greeting to this intruder in his home, but now even that leniency vanished.
As he raised his blade to aim, the thing let out a scornful chuckle. Of course, even that light laugh set the hellish walls quaking, and the bound souls screamed groooo.
[To challenge me with a mere spirit body instead of your true self! And that spirit hasn't shed the pathetic human habit of swinging a lump of metal—how laughable!]
The octopus creature extended hundreds of its thousands of legs against the wall, dragging its massive body outward while sneering.
As it said, without his true body now, deploying his aura—his greatest weapon—was tricky.
Of course, it wasn't entirely impossible to draw aura here if he so willed, but he was currently too far from Delcross. Summoning power from here would plunge the entire continent into aura depletion in an instant.
However, shedding his body granted Nate other options as well.
This was near the dimensional boundary, after all. Even if he borrowed an unfamiliar power and caused a bit of chaos, the impact on the prime material world would be negligible.
Once resolved, execution was simple. A small red dot appeared at his blade's tip, slowly growing to envelop the nutcracker. It transformed into a sinisterly glowing red sword, extending in length until it reached dozens of meters.
[......!?]
The thing had no idea.
To Nate, swordsmanship was not some inescapable human limitation—it was merely the most efficient way to wield power.
Swoosh. The nutcracker swung silently, tracing a red line through empty space. It was a long slash crossing numerous legs of the thing, as well as an entire face of the hellish wall it had opened.
Kuuuaaaang!
Then the aftershock surged in. The severed legs flew scattering here and there, souls pushed out dozens of meters to either side, creating a temporary void in the hell wall.
[Wha... what?]
The octopus stared in bewilderment at its severed tentacle legs. It had never imagined a force that could so easily pierce its true body's stature.
Seeing the creature's dumbfounded look, Nate involuntarily chuckled, reminded of Captain Baltazar of the Imperial Guard's reaction the first time he showed this technique with aura. The usually stern old man had gaped like saucers and stammered.
Back then, knights focused solely on intensifying and expanding slashes had nearly fainted at the idea of launching the aura blade's flat to explode the aura itself. Exploding aura could, in a sense, signify poor aura control.
These days, it had become a familiar technique in the palace, one even Masain could roughly imitate.
That said, the one just now had been quite wasteful. Perhaps because the power's nature was inherently destructive, he could afford to conserve a bit more than with an aura blade. Should he narrow the width further?
Swoosh. The next red glow swung was thinned to nearly finger-thickness. In compensation, its length had grown far beyond the first, reaching over a hundred meters.
Kuuuaaaang!
A long gash appeared on the thing's body, the hideous lumps along the blade's path bursting all at once. An entire face of the hell wall was rent longwise, creating a rift.
Through the opened gap, the emaciated souls began spilling out with screams. Aaaaaah.
Only then did the malformed octopus seem to grasp the gravity of the situation. It hastily extended its remaining legs toward Nate and cried out.
[Why? Why are you using the [Calamity] of the vanished world?]
[I borrowed it for a bit.]
He had obtained permission for necessary business. Separating dimensions couldn't be done barehanded, after all.
Hundreds of legs imbued with terrifying power whipped toward Nate. They possessed overwhelming force that could crush an ordinary soul with a mere graze, but to him, they seemed utterly inefficient and self-destructive.
In fact, those legs were shattering the hell it had summoned itself. Far more souls were being struck and pulverized by the thing than by Nate's attacks.
Had each of those legs been swung like a trained swordsman's blade, even Nate wouldn't have handled it so easily.
In any case, since the enemy was wasting power, he would conserve even more. How about drawing it out thread-thin?
An [Calamity] line so fine it was nearly invisible formed. This time, it stretched to hundreds of meters—an enormous length.
Exploding it outright might not yield satisfying power, but for holding and swinging, no form was as efficient. Nate freely wielded the slender, elongated blade to his heart's content. Approaching legs were all severed, and the hell wall began shattering along the sword's trajectory.
Soon, the malformed octopus completely lost its strength and slumped. The hell passage it had summoned was already mostly wrecked and resummoned, with only fragments of the wall propping up its body.
The famished souls clinging to the hell wall were exposed directly to the dimensional boundary, freezing in the bitter cold before crumbling away one by one.
The octopus's form was utterly wretched. Most legs severed, surface lumps all burst, pus oozing in streams—it resembled a rotting pumpkin collapsing. What he had taken for a lump blinked an eyelid, shedding pus like tears.
Should he finish it off? Nate gripped his nutcracker anew, pondering briefly.
But what gave him pause were the multiple gazes watching them from beyond. Especially the gaze of [Famine], who had sent its kin for amusement and now merely spectated.
Eyes awaiting something to happen. Perhaps hoping he would draw more [Calamity] and lose balance. Or was there another trap lurking?
Just then, a scene flashed before Nate's eyes.
A blood-red sky and black earth covered in mud. Amid thousands of tentacles raining down like a storm, a dark crimson flame suddenly surged upward.
The blaze, sweeping all around in a ferocious storm of power, grew larger until it morphed into a gigantic sword, then detonated its blade flat.
The malformed octopus's legs and countless lumps burst helplessly, unable to withstand the searing heat.
This time, even Nate was truly shocked.
Someday, it would not be Nate himself who utterly destroyed this thing.