Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: I Will Break Your Legs
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“W-What is that?”
From atop the charred Artabus, people’s gazes were stolen by the sunset line etched into the empty sky.
It was the world’s most perfectly dead line. Anything inside the path it traced—even a single feather—had been utterly annihilated.
That phoenix, a massive fireball visible even from this distance, had been perfectly oxidized by the sunset slash. Did... did they win? People glanced at one another.
They’d won this easily? It had ended just like that?
“Is... is this even possible?”
Even Pope Nergal couldn’t believe what he’d seen. But he’d witnessed it with his own eyes, so he had no choice but to accept it.
“Even if it were possible, something like this...”
For the impossible to become reality, there was always a price. No one could look at this and think Roca had the power to bear it.
It was a force far beyond what she could produce. Even if the cost was burning her own life to ashes, it was still off the charts.
“No, wait. You, what are you...!?”
At that moment, the apprentice’s voice boomed across the deck. People, lost in the fading sunset, finally snapped to attention and looked toward the source.
Fences meant to stop people from tripping and falling couldn’t stop someone who wanted to fall. Kyle had climbed onto the fence. His eyes saw only Roca, plummeting far in the distance.
“Get down! Get down right now!”
“I have to go.”
“W-What? Huh?”
The apprentice clicked his tongue at the man leaping from the ship without hesitation. Now he understood who that reckless wolf had learned it from.
Birds of a feather flock together, and this priest Kyle was just as fearless as Roca. Of course, unless he was trying to die, he’d have some flight ability.
And he did. How else could a priest keep up with that hero party without being able to fly?
But did flight ability change anything? The atmosphere right now was downright insane.
Whoosh!
Whooooosh!
The wind howled like blades ripping through the air. After the tornado formed and vanished, after the heat wave surged and faded, the atmosphere had gone beyond unstable—it was practically broken.
As the air currents thrashed to regain their former calm, even the massive Artabus struggled to stay steady. The great airship rocked constantly, nearly capsizing at times.
Venturing outside in this was like charging headlong into a raging typhoon. Everyone watched anxiously as the priest departed.
“The atmospheric disturbance will settle soon. The cause of the anomaly is gone, after all. No matter how bad the turbulence gets now, this is the peak—it’ll weaken gradually. Once the winds calm a bit, we’ll follow.”
Everyone nodded at the pope’s words. The ship’s condition wasn’t great. A sudden maneuver could tear it apart, leaving them all to meet a collective end.
*****
The girl lay collapsed, gasping for breath. In reality, it was a frail sound that could stop at any moment.
Time splits, revealing its cross-section. What might be a single second in reality stretches into far more in the realm between unconsciousness and awareness. Time flows slower there.
Even so, it only delays the inevitable. By all appearances, this child had no hope of survival.
Shaking a dead person’s shoulder and yelling at them to wake up would be just as pointless. Heron knew that well.
But still, shouldn’t he at least try?
Fortunately, the conditions were already in place.
‘What happened in the meantime?’
His last memory of her main body was that her foundations were still sorely lacking.
Now, she’d somehow completed those foundations, however roughly. It didn’t make sense. How much time had passed? A few days at most. Even being generous, less than a month.
‘Not even a week, from what I can tell.’
To solidify her foundations in that time? It had to be shoddy work.
There was no other explanation but shortcuts. The way a masterless swordsman guarded against most.
He pursued only the righteous path. It might be slower, but it led to the fastest results in the end.
Like a tree with deep roots shooting up tall, it was about laying the groundwork for the future—that was his idea of proper growth. Growing the trunk before the roots meant selling the future for the present.
Such methods weren’t truly stronger. Just faster, easier, more tempting.
Suspecting Roca had taken that path, he carefully examined her realm, but found no flaws.
Was this even possible? The girl had exploded in growth across every aspect. It wasn’t just a bloated shell like a balloon—her core had ripened fully. She’d built real substance.
‘I’m not sure this qualifies as training, but... still.’
Even so, it was a shortcut. Just an exceptionally sophisticated one!
A shortcut was still a shortcut. Though he didn’t know the Lineage Sapling or its principles, the masterless swordsman could roughly infer what had happened to Roca.
In the end, she hadn’t grown on her own power—she’d borrowed someone else’s. But if it was the only choice against that bird, he couldn’t blame her.
‘To face that phoenix, it was unavoidable.’
The price of that choice would only show when she knocked on the door of first-rate. That day was still far off. In fact, if she didn’t survive now, first-rate or not, she’d die here.
Having completed the third-rate realm, even by shortcut, qualified her to advance further. But qualifications weren’t a certificate you could hold—they didn’t count if you died unaware of them.
The human form of ‘Heron’ was now useless, so it melted back into lingering will. The masterless swordsman’s remnant slithered slowly into Roca.
It was as natural as mist enveloping a forest, but Roca groaned.
Even collapsed, she twitched uneasily. Her instincts sensed the intrusion and roused her mind. With a dazed expression, the girl opened her eyes. In some vast, unreal place, she blankly looked around.
Where am I? Who am I?
Illusion or hallucination—it was all indistinguishable now. But soon, memories began to surface. Roca’s memories walked slowly down the corridor of time, reviewing her own life.
People dead so long ago she couldn’t even recall their faces.
Her family. The members of the Blue Wolf Tribe rose in her mind. The brain might forget, but the heart doesn’t. Roca gazed blankly yet calmly at those she’d never see again.
The days when happiness was by her side, yet she hadn’t recognized it, had passed.
She saw the conflict between humans and her tribe. Humans attacking the tribe. This time, the girl didn’t turn away or hide from the past. Eyes wide, ears perked, she faced it all without fear. She watched the moment her tribe fell.
‘Ah.’
No anger rose. No rage stirred. Just sadness, and more sadness.
She knew why the dead came to mind first.
‘I’m dying.’
Her final moment in reality flashed back. She hadn’t overcome the phoenix after all—defeated as fate decreed, dying as it decreed. She wasn’t dead yet, but it was only a matter of time.
“Child. Child.”
A voice woke the dazed Roca.
“I will break your legs. Is that all right?”
“Heron...?”
This voice, surely...
The moment she thought it, blue light flashed. No sword was visible, yet her legs were cleanly severed.
As if they’d never existed, there was no sensation where they should be. Roca’s body rolled across the ground.
“Why... why...”
What are you doing? Her bewildered gaze turned to the blue light clump.
The light simply hovered, utterly unmoved.
“You can’t walk without legs. So now I’ll tear off your arms.”
The pale blue flicker danced before her. As she reached for it, Roca realized: she had no arms.
Without arms, she couldn’t reach out. An unfamiliar helplessness enveloped her.
No pain. That made it more terrifying. It felt natural, as if she’d never had limbs to begin with.
She couldn’t remember how to move her arms or stand on her legs. Common knowledge had evaporated.
The body she’d used for nearly seventeen years was something she could forget that quickly.
Because the body isn’t the true self.
All he could do was hope she realized it.
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