Chapter 102
Chapter 102
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Dream (2)
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[The Demon King's army will arrive here soon. It's their direct unit, led by the Demon King himself. We need to hurry and join the main force.]
"What? The Demon King? What the hell are you talking about?"
[Haven't woken up from your dream yet? Get it together and follow us. We're heading to humanity's final battlefield right now.]
The conversation cut off.
The knights walked away beyond the burning battlefield.
Cardina hurriedly followed them.
Charcoal crumbling under her toes, soot and embers clinging to her skin, the scorching heat of the flames devouring the mountain.
'Everything feels so real. Is all this sensory detail recreated by magic? Incredible.'
Cardina tried to grasp the order within this illusion.
Soon, one of the knights walking ahead asked.
[Which unit are you from? Come to think of it, I don't think I heard your answer earlier.]
"......"
Cardina fell silent for a moment.
Then, she continued in a cautious tone.
"I'm with the Meursault House."
[Ah, right. The northern frontier marquess house that was guarding the left flank until a few days ago. They took heavy losses this time, didn't they?]
The knight accepted Cardina's words without much reaction.
[But why were you there? A straggler?]
"Something like that."
[That's unfortunate. The Meursault main force has already moved north. Most of those with you probably perished. I haven't heard of any survivors from that all-night battle. What a shame.]
"......"
Cardina quietly followed behind the knights.
There was no need to provoke them rashly when she didn't know their identities.
For now, it was better to let them think whatever they wanted.
Right then.
Kwa—boom!
A massive explosion erupted ahead.
One knight shouted.
[It's a demon dragon!]
Those were his last words.
A crimson pillar of fire poured down from the black sky, sweeping the ground.
It was less like flames and more like thick lava cascading like a waterfall.
[O—oooooh!]
A winged beast tore through the curtain of pitch-black clouds hanging in the sky.
Demon dragon.
Ancient dragons that had abandoned their noble pride to submit before the Demon King, reduced to mere pets.
The dignity and intellect of what were once ruling species were gone, replaced only by rage and madness burning fiercely.
Its spine looked like a small mountain range lifted from the earth, black and rugged like hardened lava, with red flames flickering in the cracks.
Cardina had mistaken it for the Demon King himself when she first laid eyes on it.
It was that enormous and ferocious.
Every powerful flap of its wings, forged from some unidentified alloy, whipped up fiery winds that incinerated all vegetation and dried up lakes in the area.
Its sharp horns and upturned jaw seemed to embody pain and fury, while its eyes blazed like burning suns.
[Gu—aaaaaaah!]
Its throat belched flames and vomited lava, causing seismic upheavals.
Its tail stretched long across the horizon, sweeping everything like a massive whip.
"Dodge!"
Cardina shouted instinctively.
But it was already too late.
The knights ahead were engulfed by the fiery winds from the demon dragon's wings and set ablaze.
The following tail strike shattered their bodies into charred fragments.
[Kuh—aaaaaaah!]
One knight who had been beside her just moments ago was covered in lava and melted away.
The sound of flesh burning, the smell of fat liquefying—it took mere seconds for a human to crumble into ashes.
Cardina quickly threw herself to the ground.
Born and raised in the north amid snow and ice, Cardina was unfamiliar with such fire and lava.
Let alone one spewing it freely from the skies while flying about.
'Th-this is just an illusion?'
Cardina thought as she severed the flames singeing the tips of her hair.
At that moment, a knight beside her said.
[Looks like the Demon King's army is right upon us! We need to hurry.]
He remained calm even as his comrades fell one after another right before his eyes.
Unable to hold back any longer, Cardina asked.
"What do you mean by the Demon King's army? What does that signify?"
[......Are you from some other world? Or did the shock turn you into an idiot? You don't know the Demon King?]
The knight turned to Cardina with a baffled look.
Then he pointed toward the horizon beyond the forest.
[See for yourself. What the Demon King is, and what his army is.]
"......!"
Cardina gazed at the demon dragon slicing through the night sky, and beyond the horizon it was heading toward.
There lay a hellscape of utter devastation.
The crumbling sky.
Mountains formed from piled human corpses.
Rivers of blood flowing around peaks of rotting flesh.
Rampaging amid it all were cyclopean giants, house-sized spiders, flying serpents, burrowing centipedes, wall-toppling dragons, and demons spreading wings to blot out the heavens.
Countless humans fought against them.
Apocalypse.
No word captured the battlefield's atmosphere better.
The blood-red sky was shrouded in roaring flames, and the earth split open as if vomiting blood.
Humans battling the monsters wielded dented armor and broken swords, fighting while bleeding.
Kwa—boom!
Cyclopean giants charged headlong at the front lines.
The massive iron mauls they gripped with four arms seemed made to shatter mountains.
Kik—kik—kik—kik—
House-sized spiders blanketed the ground in black.
Their sharp legs swung like swords, and harpoon-like venomous bristles shot from their bodies.
Whenever struck by arrows, the spiders sprayed venom-mixed blood that blackened and killed the earth.
Whoosh!
Flying serpents unfurled leathery wings and dove in unison.
Knight seized by their long tails or fangs were tossed into the air like toys, repeatedly flung until torn into pieces and plummeting down.
Kugugugugu......
From the ground, enormous centipedes tore through the earth.
Their bodies seemed an endless chain of segments, and the putrid steam from their mouths rotted all life.
And.
[Kro—oooooh!]
The demon dragon from earlier was spewing lava at knights atop the walls.
Hundreds of monsters—at least, by rough count.
Cardina stared blankly.
This was no mere clash of humans and beasts.
It was a world line on the brink of annihilation, desperation laid bare.
Soon, a knight's voice boomed toward her.
[Don't just stand there! Fight with sword in hand to the very end!]
At those words—from who knows whom—Cardina instinctively drew her sword.
To survive, she had to move.
That held true anywhere, anytime.
In the forest bathed in starlight.
Queenbits extended her bare feet onto the plush moss carpet.
"Still watching?"
Her gaze lingered on the room fashioned within a raspberry thicket.
Inside sat a large crystal orb.
Federback was currently watching Cardina's real-time image within the crystal orb.
"You've implemented it quite well."
"I delved into your memories and recreated it as closely as possible. But......"
Queenbits glanced at him cautiously before continuing.
"What on earth have you been through to have memories like that? To convey such overwhelming realism, it has to be direct experience. No human imagination, no matter how vivid, could recreate a world they haven't personally seen in such detail."
"I've experienced it directly."
"Don't joke. You're only fifteen."
"I went through it in the previous world before regressing."
"That's even more absurd. Regression requires twisting the timeline—impossible. Not even magic can do that."
"Think whatever you want."
Federback waved her off irritably.
Queenbits didn't believe a word from Federback.
"What is it really? I can't wrap my head around it. How could a fifteen-year-old imagine a world like that? So vividly...... Did you really experience it? That's even crazier. Or regression? That's the most ridiculous......"
Even as she spoke, Federback kept watching Cardina in the crystal orb.
Fire, blood, sweat, bones, flesh, screams, death.
Humans crushed by the onslaught of demons.
And Cardina standing at that final defensive line.
'Here, the Meursault blood factor flowing in Sister's veins will fully awaken.'
Cardina's current realm was an impressive 4th Circle.
However, it was forcibly bloomed through the Meursault secret arts.
The Meursault blood in her body remained woefully underdeveloped.
Federback intended to fully awaken Cardina's body on this dream battlefield.
'To scrape every last drop of blood from her body and awaken it requires real combat experience that seeps into the marrow.'
He had to draw out even the tiniest factors within Cardina's body.
To see what was once unseen, smell what was once unsmelled, hear what was once unheard, taste what was once untasted, touch what was once untouched—extreme conditions were necessary.
'Sister's body has reached the entry of 4th Circle through acquired training. Dazzling for her age, but...... without surpassing her bloodline's limits, she'll stagnate at 4th Circle forever. That won't do.'
To ensure this life's Cardina wouldn't die, he needed to mold her into at least late 4th Circle, early 5th Circle caliber.
'As a bonus, Sister's growth will lead to the knights' advancement, then the soldiers, then the common territory folk, then...... all of humanity.'
If Queenbits completed her research on Garmelda's Equation, it would be perfect.
Federback's plan to turn all humanity into mana users was proceeding steadily even now.
Cardina, charging through humanity's final battlefield in the dream, was that first step.