Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Dream (4)
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Cardina had realized three things through her repeated regressions.
No matter how many times everything reverted to the moment she first entered the dream, three elements remained unchanged.
First, memory.
Second, the body.
Third, mana.
It took Cardina a hundred and eight rounds of trial and error to uncover these three factors.
#1. Memory.
She had learned first that her memories were preserved even after regressing.
Though some memories faded amid the countless pains and deaths, others grew even sharper.
For instance, memories directly tied to survival.
Like when and where an attack would come from, who was launching it, how her body would tear and shatter, how much it would hurt— all of it.
The agonizing memories leading up to death were preserved without erasure, which was excruciating...
But in a way, it was also a blessing.
Once she learned something, she could retain it almost perfectly, without any loss.
#2. The Body.
More precisely, her "muscles."
Through her repeated regressions, Cardina realized her body was gradually changing.
The wounds she suffered before dying healed cleanly, but the muscles built from desperate running and struggling carried over intact into the next dream.
She didn't know if they would persist after waking... but at least they were a huge help until the following dream.
'What a convenient setup.'
Cardina couldn't help but let out a wry chuckle as she looked down at her arms, now corded with lean muscle.
#3. Mana.
The final element was mana.
There was an old adage for those who hunted monsters: Beware of becoming the monster yourself.
It was only natural for the power and temperament of a beast to seep into one's body bit by bit when drenched in its blood.
Through endless clashes with the monsters, mana had gradually infused Cardina's body.
And that mana accumulated within her fully into the next dream, refusing to fade.
A body growing ever tougher, mana steadily rising, and a spirit fearless of death.
After enduring a hundred and seven deaths, Cardina had become an entirely different person in less than a single night of real-world time.
'...I smell blood.'
The 108th dream, and challenge.
Cardina scanned her surroundings.
Through a hundred deaths and revisions, her nose had been trained to react more keenly to blood than anything else.
Now, she could sense it.
The thick, cloying stench of blood that she couldn't detect in her first dream.
The wind, brushing past charred dead trees, carried the sticky, metallic reek straight to her.
To avoid needless encounters and chatter, Cardina hid herself in an ash pit.
Soon, the voices of passing Dunkirk knights reached her.
[It's a demon dragon!]
At that instant, Cardina leaped out of the ash pit.
[O— Ooooooh!]
The first to appear was, as expected, the demon dragon.
Kwarrr rumble boom!
The dragon's breath, unleashed from the black sky, scoured the ground.
The very next moment.
Spluuurt!
The demon dragon's wing tore open.
[Grk!?]
The dragon whipped its head around in panic.
A massive, jagged dead tree had suddenly toppled into its flight path, which it couldn't dodge in time.
Impaled through the wing by the tree, the demon dragon plummeted to the earth.
Waiting there was Cardina, sword drawn.
Clang—clang!
One strike.
With a casual thrust, the dragon's head severed clean.
Ignoring the thrashing headless corpse, Cardina advanced on the knights.
"Dunkirk, Bulge, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Midway, Normandy, Kursk. Follow me from here on out."
[W-Who are you...?]
"Execute!"
[Ex-Execute...!]
Cardina's gaze was already fixed on the horizon.
Dooooooown!
The horns blared, and the invading forces surged forward.
Cardina swiftly left the forest and plunged into the battlefield.
[Gr—aaaaagh!]
A house-sized spider lunged at her, fangs bared.
"I've died to you thirty-four times."
Cardina's single eye flashed crimson.
... Splat!
Her blade sheared off the spider's venomous fangs and sliced through its throat beyond.
In time repeated over a hundred times, Cardina had memorized every attack pattern of every monster on the battlefield perfectly.
[O—oooooh!]
The cyclops giant swung its rusted, blood-crusted flail.
The initial swing was a diagonal slash from upper left to lower right.
Kwarrr rumble boom!
Twisting low to the left to dodge, Cardina watched the flail smash into a nearby demon dragon's head.
As the dragon's skull shattered and the cyclops faltered in confusion, a three-second gap opened.
In that window, Cardina swept her blade low, severing one of the cyclops's Achilles tendons.
... Snap!
With its heel severed, the cyclops bellowed.
[Gr—oh...!]
That roar was a signal to summon allies—dangerous.
Cardina targeted the kneeling cyclops's jaw.
With one knee down and clutching its heel, its chin hung low and exposed near the ground.
Splurt!
The cyclops's head split like a watermelon, spraying blood and brains skyward.
Even amid the gore, Cardina's eyes kept scanning.
Let her guard down here, and it was back to square one.
Swoosh—
Cardina snapped her head back.
A serpent's maw from the sky clamped shut with a clamor.
A split-second later, and her head would have been crushed.
She had fallen that way a few times before.
Without pause, Cardina flipped backward through the air.
The blade protruding from her boot's tip pierced the winged serpent's brow dead-on.
—Grip! Thud!
The serpent's massive body gouged the ground savagely before halting.
Once smashed into the earth, it never lifted its head again.
"......"
Cardina shook the serpent's blood from her boot.
Blood scattered everywhere.
But there was still plenty more to spill.
[Keeek! Kiiiik!]
[Grrrrrr...]
[O—ooooooo...]
The sounds of other monsters closing in.
Exactly thirty-four seconds from now, a mountain-sized centipede would erupt from underground.
No escaping death then.
Cardina sprinted with all her might toward the opposite hill.
[Kyaaaaaaa!]
An ogre's log came flying from the 11 o'clock direction.
She ducked without even looking.
Whoosh!
The frontal barrage of spider venom, she evaded by hurling herself left.
From 3, 7, 10, and 12 o'clock—four demon dragons spewed lava breath at the spot.
Splat splat splat!
Cardina dodged them all and charged ahead.
At that precise moment.
Kwarrr rumble boom!
The ground she'd just kicked off crumbled, and a colossal centipede thrust its head out.
The cyclops giants swinging hammers and flails tumbled into its maw.
Cardina leaped from there, bounding off a giant scorpion's tail.
'Upper right diagonal from here. One upper demon dragon.'
Crunch!
Mid-leap, she drove an aura blade into the demon dragon's eye.
[Graaaaaaaa!]
The dragon slammed into the ramparts with its momentum.
Skull fragments rained amid the collapsing debris.
But Cardina bounded off the falling rubble, landing atop the walls.
'Death Knight at this point.'
A black-armored knight charged her back.
Without turning, Cardina gripped her sword reverse and thrust.
The Death Knight recoiled in shock, twisting aside.
Splaaat!
Her immediate roundhouse kick launched it airborne.
It shattered to pieces upon hitting the base of the wall.
Tap tap tap!
Cardina vaulted parapets, slashed two winged serpents, and dropped onto the burning turret.
She yanked a sword from a sprawled knight's corpse there, then crossed her blades to decapitate a troll clambering up from below.
"......"
Drenched in blood, Cardina turned.
[Heavens...]
[A war god among us.]
[Are you with the Hero Party?]
The knights behind her gaped in awe.
Among them was Dunkirk, the first face she'd met.
Right then.
[O—ooooooo...]
A sinister roar echoed from beyond the thunderheads.
Dunkirk, entranced by Cardina, snapped to.
[It's a supreme demon! Fall back! Without the Hero Party, we can't win!]
In that instant.
Flash!
Crimson light erupted.
It plunged straight for Dunkirk, as fated.
The very next moment.
Claaang!
A silver aura blade blocked it before him.
Cardina.
She had deflected the crimson bolt hurtling toward Dunkirk.
The knights behind cried out in shock.
[Impossible! She bounced a supreme demon's attack!]
[A Hero! She must be the Hero!]
[No! The Hero doesn't look like that!]
[Th-Then who the hell is she...?]
Meanwhile, Cardina scowled deeply.
Sizzle sizzle...
The supreme demon's crimson bolt.
It was so potent that deflecting it once was all she could manage.
Even that melted her sword like wax and charred her arm to charcoal.
"Not this time either."
Cardina bowed her head bitterly.
She still hadn't found a way to escape that colossal monster's magic.
'Hundreds more loops until I ascend realms? No other way?'
Soon, crimson flashed again, and Cardina's consciousness snapped.
Flash!
This marked precisely her 108th death.
The moment the 108th light faded from Cardina's eyes in the crystal orb.
"It's about time."
Federback rose.
Queenbits asked,
"Have you thought it through? No matter how strong Cardina's mind is, it's too dangerous now. Time to stop."
"Stop what? We're just getting started."
"Eh?"
Queenbits blinked wide-eyed at Federback's response.
He continued.
"The supreme demon I threw into this dream is one I know well. It gave our old party a real run for our money back in the day."
"That regression or Hero Party nonsense again? Who'd believe that?"
"Believe it or not, doesn't matter. Seems Sister's starting to harbor real hatred for that bastard too."
Cardina's rage toward the supreme demon burned like a volcano.
Now was the time to feed that hatred like kindling and raise a pillar of flame.
"Time to open the path for Sister."
"What? What are you planning?"
"Open a channel to intervene in Sister's dream."
Federback peered into the crystal orb and declared,
"I'm going in myself."