Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: The Nightmare-Devouring Deluge (3)
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sssshhh... throb! sssshhh... throb! sssshhh... throb!
A purple mist drifted through the black forest.
The slow undulations of that mist were occasionally punctuated by the throbbing heartbeat of the colossal spider before him.
[Ooooooh...]
The eyeballs of Zuva Popi rolled around like overripe red watermelons.
Eight ominous gazes fixed on Federback.
Federback cracked his neck left and right.
"I've never lived through the Mythic Age, so I don't know the terror of Kunni Bavin. You're a distant descendant—why don't you tell me instead?"
The ancient spider god Kunni Bavin—what remained of it in the mortal world—roared toward Federback.
[Ooooooh!]
Zuva Popi's eight massive legs swept across the ground.
This creature claimed kingship over the Nightmare-Devouring Deluge.
No greater demon beast existed in these parts.
Kaboom!
Zuva Popi's legs smashed through thick trees and boulders in rapid succession.
Federback dodged the flying debris, moving swiftly.
"Not particularly scary."
As he closed the distance and dove in, Federback drew his sword.
"If this is all there is, your ancestor must not have been much either."
The moment he finished speaking, Federback slashed at Zuva Popi's leg with his sword.
Splat!
The blade sliced into the hairy leg, black blood spraying everywhere the instant it cut through.
Sizzle...
The ground where the spider's blood splattered melted away, staining black.
"Tch."
Federback clicked his tongue as he glanced down at his blade.
Just a few drops of Zuva Popi's blood had already begun corroding the sword.
Moreover, striking the creature's tough exoskeleton had chipped the edge.
'Can't let this drag on.'
Even as he taunted Zuva Popi, Federback coolly assessed the situation.
[Ooooooooh!]
Zuva Popi let out an enraged screech, swinging its remaining legs wildly.
Whoosh!
The wounds on its legs split open, spraying a massive volume of black blood.
This attack covered too wide an area to dodge, so Federback opted to block.
Pop!
The dark iron pavise strapped to Federback's forearm shielded him from Zuva Popi's toxic blood.
However.
Pssshhhh...
Even that sturdy dark iron pavise couldn't withstand Zuva Popi's blood.
Countless holes pitted the roughly finished surface, black smoke rising from them.
"Is splashing blood all you've got? Show me something you've actually honed yourself, beyond that bloodline you got for free."
Federback kept provoking Zuva Popi.
[Ooooooh!]
Whether it understood or not, bloodshot veins bulged grotesquely around Zuva Popi's eight eyes.
Soon, Zuva Popi splayed its eight legs and began a bizarre ritualistic motion.
Whirrr—clack! Clack! Clack! Whirrrrrr—
It looked just like a spinning wheel drawing out thread.
Then, the corpses scattered around began rising like puppets once more.
Clackety-clack—clackety-clack—clackety-clack—
The corpse puppets under Zuva Popi's control charged at Federback.
"A has-been puppet show. Getting boring."
Federback swung his sword, severing the threads connected to the puppets' heads.
No need to fight them one by one—just cut the spider silk linking them to the top, and the puppets lost power, collapsing.
However.
"Oh?"
Federback turned, eyes gleaming as he glanced behind him.
Zuva Popi had circled around to his back in the meantime.
[Ooooooh!]
The beast had used the corpse puppets to distract him, then blended into the forest with its black camouflage, slipping nimbly behind the enemy.
"That was fairly clever."
Federback responded immediately.
He slashed at Zuva Popi's leg with his sword while raising his shield against the spraying blood.
Crack—crunch!
The sharp tip of Zuva Popi's leg clashed with Federback's sword.
The aura blade, surging like a machine, carved through the spider's exoskeleton, slicing a chunk of flesh beneath.
Black blood splattered, coating Federback's body.
...Whirr!
A seasoned Northerner wielded his shield like an extension of his limbs.
Federback spun the 20kg-plus pavise like a small buckler, deflecting Zuva Popi's blood.
Pssshhh!
The toxic blood barely lingered on the shield's surface before flying off.
Shing!
His sword strikes grew even faster.
Despite close-quarters combat with Zuva Popi, hardly any toxic blood touched Federback's sword or shield.
His blade withdrew so quickly after each cut that the blood had no time to corrode it.
The shield was the same.
Federback had strapped the large, heavy pavise—big enough to cover most of his body—to his left forearm with leather straps, allowing 360-degree rotation at the joint.
This let him keep spinning the shield constantly, flinging off Zuva Popi's toxic blood in droplets before it could even wet the surface.
[Ooooooh!]
But Zuva Popi was tenacious.
It spat spider silk at Federback nonstop, restricting his movement, while raining down toxic blood from above.
Gurgle—whoosh!
Eventually, it wasn't just spraying from leg wounds—it vomited blood directly from its maw.
Plip-plop—plip-plop—plip-plop—plip-plop—plip-plop—
Federback had no answer for the toxic blood raining down like a shower from midair.
As he spun his shield to deflect the droplets, Zuva Popi lunged forward.
Bam!
One massive leg, swung like a log, sent Federback flying.
He blocked with his shield, but.
...Kaboom!
The pavise, which had held up so well, finally shattered along the hairline cracks from corrosion.
Shwick!
Zuva Popi's fangs plunged toward Federback.
Clang!
He parried with his sword, but the blade snapped completely.
"Hm."
With his shattered sword and shield, Federback discarded them without hesitation.
[Kekekekeke...]
Zuva Popi's eight eyes narrowed.
From the moment it sensed victory, a strange leisure entered its movements.
But Federback's expression remained utterly unchanged.
"A wise being finds joy in the small things."
And then.
...Thud!
Federback set down the load he had been carrying inside his cloak on his back.
"But a warrior can't afford that. Especially not mid-battle."
It was a pure white longsword, not even sheathed yet.
And a scutum shield shaped like a solid chunk of ice had been carved from, utterly plain without ornament or craftsmanship.
"Because... it turns into this."
Federback thrust the sword straight into Zuva Popi's maw.
[Kieek!?]
Zuva Popi recoiled in shock.
It thought it had destroyed the enemy's weapons, yet new ones appeared.
And moreover.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The new weapons exuded a bone-chilling cold that made its skull ache.
It didn't seem like the enemy's innate ability.
"Dragon fangs really are the best."
Federback marveled at the power of the blade that tore through Zuva Popi's maw.
A crudely forged sword from Ice Dragon Adara's tooth.
No guard, just the blade with leather straps crudely wrapped around the base—a primitive form.
But its power was tremendous.
Shing!
Each swing unleashed not just a slash but a freezing blizzard that frosted bones and brains solid.
The mithril hilt amplified the blade's chill even further.
Enough to terrify Zuva Popi.
[Ooooooh!]
Zuva Popi tried to spew blood from its torn mouth, but it couldn't.
The ultra-low temperatures invading from the blade tip had frozen the blood at its jaws into jagged ice crystals.
In desperation, it sprayed blood from the residual wounds at its leg tips.
However.
Pop-pop-pop!
The toxic droplets were blocked by the rectangular shield on Federback's left forearm.
Drip... drip...
Black blood droplets beaded and slid across the translucent surface.
Yet the shield showed no corrosion.
No—
Crackle-crackle!
The toxic blood froze on contact, turning into sharp spikes.
"The scales do their job well too."
Federback had overlaid mithril on the edge of Ice Dragon Adara's reverse scale from under its jaw to form the shield.
This too was crudely shaped without polish, but its defense surpassed any famed shield.
Moreover, it froze anything that touched its surface—a utility beyond words.
[Graaaaaah!]
Zuva Popi kept spraying blood, but Federback blocked it all with his shield.
Through the ice-like translucent shield, Federback's gaze gleamed.
Unyielding eyes staring straight ahead.
The gaze of a predator eyeing its prey.
Zuva Popi shuddered and retreated.
This tiny human—prey it could swallow in one bite—was far from easy.
No, not just tough.
Kuuuooooh...
Behind the small human loomed the silhouette of a massive ice dragon.
The cunning Zuva Popi finally realized.
It never should have revealed itself before that monster.
...But it was already too late.
"Nothing more to show? Then die."
Federback raised the sword forged from the dragon's fang and the shield carved from its scale.
White hair, white sword, white shield.
Amid them, his crimson eyes blazed a deeper blood-red than Zuva Popi's own orbs.
...Thud!
Zuva Popi's colossal body crashed to the ground.
The difference from when it first appeared: its head and torso were now completely severed.
"Good enough warm-up."
Federback nodded as he surveyed the bisected Zuva Popi.
Of course, if the Empire's knights heard that, they'd faint in horror.
To exaggerate slightly, Zuva Popi was a high-tier demon beast that a small kingdom's capital might pay tribute to three times a day rather than subdue.
Yet Federback, who felled it solo at just fifteen, wore a nonchalant expression.
"Catching Ice Dragon Adara was a huge help."
The sword from its fang had exceptional cutting power.
Beyond the aura blade, it whipped up icy winds—devastating in snow-covered lands or against cold-vulnerable foes.
The reverse scale shield was the same.
Light and sturdy, it exhaled cold toward attackers.
Forming solid ice on enemy weapons or skin, shackling their movements throughout the fight.
And being a reverse scale, it even reflected a certain amount of impact—perfect as a shield.
'...Even before regression, artifacts of this caliber were rare. I can carry and use these for a while.'
Finishing his thoughts, Federback stepped forward.
Soon, he began butchering Zuva Popi's corpse.
First, he shaved off the venomous hairs bristling across its body with his sword, storing them in a small matchbox-sized case.
Each hair from this giant venomous spider was needle-thick, barbed at the tips like torture needles.
'Once embedded, they won't come out easy.'
Next, he excised the poison sac linked to its aorta, flash-freezing it solid.
The dragon's armaments proved handy for such tasks.
Finally, he carefully gouged out just the pupils from Zuva Popi's eight eyeballs, slotting each into its own vial.
'This spider's venom is useful. No harm in collecting it.'
Throughout the battle, not a drop of Zuva Popi's toxic blood had touched Federback.
But if even one drop had landed on him?
'Instant death.'
Federback pocketed some of the harvested trophies and loaded the rest onto his cloak.
'Someday, they'll come in handy.'
Right then.
ssssshhhh...
The purple mist blanketing the area surged violently.
"..."
Federback furrowed his brow.
Black smoke rose from the scattered corpses like exhaust fumes.
Mingling with the purple mist, it began taking human shapes.
Federback let out a quiet sigh.
"...A demon beast like Zuva Popi is just a mid-level manager. What a pain this forest is."
Everything matched his memories from before regression.
The Nightmare-Devouring Deluge was finally baring its true face.