Chapter 131: Strength to Uproot the Heavenly Mountain, Snake Energy to Cover the World
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 131: Strength to Uproot the Heavenly Mountain, Snake Energy to Cover the World
Seriously, why does my Snake Queen always fall for mental attacks?
The situation looked bad, so I just fired a Gaegaek Death Beam without thinking. It'll be fine, right?
She looked a lot like Baek Yeon-yeong.
And a bit like the Snake Queen, too.
…Right, it was that woman I saw in the Snake Queen's mental image.
I don't know the details, but I'm a hundred percent sure I made the right choice.
“Gek-ge-ge-gek!”
I let out the roar of a valiant lizard.
“This… you vulgar lizard, how dare you….”
Gaechalgoatal raged in a sinister voice.
It seemed its plan was on the verge of success, only to fail because of my interference.
“Gek gek.”
I dashed off at full speed.
To the safest place.
In other words, right next to the Snake Queen.
To be honest, it was nonsense for me to even be part of this battle.
I knew the Snake Queen and the King of Birds were overwhelmingly strong. I couldn't even see their levels, after all.
But seeing the aftermath of their battle, I realized they were even stronger than I'd imagined.
The surroundings were literally decimated.
Huge trees were reduced to stumps, and solid rock hills had crumbled.
A battle between mythical beings.
And caught in the middle was another divine beast, Gomodo-Lania.
Is this what a shrimp caught in a whale fight feels like?
“Gek-ge-gek.”
Still, one of those whales is on my side.
“…My companion.”
The Snake Queen seemed to have come to her senses immediately.
“You are safe.”
“Gek.”
“I was so worried something had happened to you.”
The Snake Queen stroked my body once with her tail.
“Kyaaaak!”
Gaechalgoatal's minions immediately charged toward her and me.
Just as I gathered my strength to respond…
Swoooosh.
The Snake Queen took a deep breath.
And then.
ZHWAAAAAAA!
She unleashed a Destruction Ray of incredible power.
It was the same technique she'd shown at Argentavis's nest.
She didn't stop at a single blast but continued to pour on the attack.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The beam's trajectory changed with every movement of her head.
The swarming forces of Gaechalgoatal melted the instant the beam touched them.
No, they literally evaporated before it even made contact.
Not just the small fry, but even elite troops like the Gogadurisu and the Jian Bird.
I'd been a little freaked out seeing their faces as I rushed over.
I was sure I'd dealt with them myself, so why were they alive?
Just dealing with those two would be tough. Could I really help the Snake Queen?
KABOOOOOM!
That worry was erased in an instant by the Snake Queen's Destruction Ray.
The enemies hit directly by that attack turned into a black liquid.
A black liquid. An alien substance that, at a glance, could be mistaken for a black shadow.
It was similar to what I'd seen when fighting the Rakshasa Bird.
An ability that prevented death no matter how much they were attacked. A power of infinite regeneration that defied logic.
The source of that power was Gaechalgoatal.
It must have used this power to resurrect the Jian Bird and the Cockatrice, too.
But for some reason, their regeneration was extremely slow.
Was it a different type from the one in the Rakshasa Bird's body? Or was the Snake Queen's attack just that devastating?
It's probably correct to assume that if they take more than a certain amount of damage, they can't regenerate for a while.
After all, the Snake Queen's attack was enough to kill them a hundred times over.
Even so, seeing them squirming about meant they couldn't be killed completely.
But it was possible to take them out of the fight for the time being.
“Training the mind is no easy task. The years have passed and my flesh has grown mighty, but my heart has not grown at all.”
The Snake Queen said in a lonely voice.
Even with such immense power, her mind had been swayed again.
“Gek gek.”
I gently stroked the Snake Queen's tail.
How can a person—no, a snake—be perfect?
I just have to help her, like I did just now.
“…Yes. That is what it means to be companions, to fill in what the other lacks.”
RUUUUMBLE.
A tremendous gust of wind swept through.
The source of the gust was the King of Birds, Gaechalgoatal.
“To think you couldn't even handle a single lizard….”
Gaechalgoatal took an aggressive stance, fuming.
“My companion.”
The Snake Queen's tail touched my scales.
“The Jian are two that are one, and one that is two.”
VMMMMMM.
I could feel a powerful energy.
The Jian Bird's inner core that I had eaten began to run wild.
“Are you ready?”
We practiced countless times for this battle.
Meditation to gain enlightenment. Experience from mock battles with the Snake Queen.
The snake and the lizard joined forces to face the King of Birds.
“Gek!”
Before Gaechalgoatal could attack, the Snake Queen moved first.
FWOOSH!
The Basilisk charged the King of Birds with tremendous force.
She had used that big technique just now to neutralize the minions, including the Jian Bird and the Cockatrice.
Unable to use the Destruction Ray again so soon, she opted for melee combat.
But that didn't mean it should be taken lightly.
Her charge alone had enough power to annihilate an opponent.
Even the King of Birds wouldn't be in for a good time if it got caught by the Snake Queen.
“Kuhk!”
The King of Birds stopped its advance and immediately chose to fly up into the sky.
But the Snake Queen's attack didn't stop there.
At the tip of her tail was a sword. A greatsword larger than my entire body.
SWOOOSH!
It was a sword made from the feathers of a Golden Winged Great Peng.
With swift movements, Gaechalgoatal dodged the queen's sword strike as well.
“This kind of melee is… meaningless…!”
Indeed, close-quarters combat might not be very meaningful.
If the Snake Queen specialized in attack and defense, Gaechalgoatal specialized in speed and mobility.
After all, no matter how strong an attack is, it's useless if it doesn't land.
But our attack wasn't over yet.
[Using 「Reverse Scale LV5」.]
There was another sword hidden on the Snake Queen's tail. The famed sword, Gomodo-Lania.
To be more precise, it wasn't so much hidden as it was me clinging tightly to her tail so I wouldn't fall off. But Gaechalgoatal, focused only on the Snake Queen's attack, didn't notice.
The moment it dodged the sword strike, I leaped into the air.
A black lizard that had suddenly appeared.
The human-faced bird's expression twisted.
[Temporarily acquiring 「Nine Yin White Bone Claw」.]
How could it have possibly predicted this attack?
Just as I swung my hand.
“A good try.”
A dark-colored beam shot out in a narrow range.
Unlike a normal Destruction Ray, it required no preparatory motion.
So it couldn't predict it, but it could react?
The human-faced bird gave a triumphant smile.
Right now, I was airborne. In other words, no matter what tricks I tried, I couldn't evade that attack.
[Using 「Reverse Scale LV5」.]
…If it were the old me, that is.
Now that Reverse Scale's level had risen, I could copy skills I couldn't before.
The skill I would copy was old man Compy's technique.
Little Dragon's Heaven-Ascending Steps.
To be precise, it was the technique the old man used to dodge my attack.
[Temporarily acquiring 「Bow Body Elastic Shadow - Modified」.]
Bow Body Elastic Shadow.
It's known as one of the highest-level movement arts, along with Transposing Positions.
A movement art that lets you bend your body like a bow and simultaneously move in a way that defies the laws of physics.
It was the technique old man Compy had shown me.
Even though Reverse Scale's level had increased, copying this technique put a huge strain on my body.
The resource cost easily surpassed that of using the Nine Yin White Bone Claw three times.
It couldn't be called efficient, and its difficulty was high.
If I hadn't learned the Little Dragon's Heaven-Ascending Steps, I wouldn't have even been able to attempt it.
But it was a technique worth the cost.
WHOOSH!
I barely managed to evade an attack that was physically impossible to dodge.
A perfect evasion is an opportunity to attack.
Grind.
I gritted my teeth and drew upon my internal energy, which had reached the Peak Realm.
The lower dantian, the middle dantian.
And the internal energy circulating throughout my body gathered in my front paw.
Fwoosh!
Blue flames erupted from my blood-soaked body.
The strongest strike I could currently muster.
Pierce the enemy's head with five fingers.
KABOOOOOOOM!
Nine Yin White Bone Claw.
“Keo-heok!”
Gaechalgoatal coughed up blood and plummeted to the ground.
“Saaaaak!”
The Snake Queen charged straight at it, simultaneously twisting her body to catch me as I fell.
Even though it was the Nine Yin White Bone Claw, the damage probably wasn't that great.
The gap in power between it and me was immense, after all.
But the mental shock must have been considerable.
Because it had been looking down on me.
KABOOM!
The Snake Queen's body slam crashed into it.
“Keuhaaaak!”
The human-faced bird vomited dark red blood.
“How dare you, how DARE YOU!”
Here it comes.
The desperation phase.
Indiscriminate beams of light.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
It didn't stop there, as all sorts of attacks rained down.
KABOOM!
Together with the Snake Queen, I focused on evasion, dodging its attacks.
Tap!
These were techniques I could never have dodged on my own.
But with the Snake Queen's help, I could somehow manage to move.
Above all, the Jian Bird's inner core was resonating.
“By the likes of you, by the LIKES OF YOU!”
The human-faced bird couldn't contain its rage.
Its grotesque face twisted even further.
It seemed my attack had been more effective than I thought.
“My companion. I believe the time has come to end this.”
She was right.
The human-faced bird was now attacking recklessly, without any thought for the consequences.
It would be relatively unable to focus on defense.
We had to strike now.
“I shall show you first.”
RUUUUMBLE.
The Snake Queen's body shimmered with a golden light.
The source of that energy was the Golden Winged Great Peng's feather wrapped around her tail.
It was an energy that was the natural enemy of Gaechalgoatal.
An immense internal energy pressed down on every being in this space.
It looked similar to 'Strength to Uproot Mountains, Spirit to Cover the World,' but it was her own unique technique, different in nature.
She called it, Cheonsan Sase (Heavenly Mountain Snake Force).
Not to be outdone, I also unleashed my technique.
[Using 「Reverse Scale LV5」.]
[Temporarily acquiring 「Strength to Uproot Mountains, Spirit to Cover the World」.]
CRACKLE.
The Jian Bird's energy further amplified both her power and mine.
Our internal energies were resonating with each other.
The two techniques, different in nature, became one.
Yeokbal Cheonsan Sagi Gaese (Strength to Uproot the Heavenly Mountain, Snake Energy to Cover the World).
Its power uproots the Heavenly Mountain, and the great snake's energy covers the world.
VSHHHHHHHHH!
The Snake Queen's overwhelming power gathered into a single point.
ZHWAAAAAAA!
A golden beam shot forth.
And then.
ZHWIIIIING!
A blue spiral wrapped around the beam.
GRIIIIIIIND!
Our joint technique with the Snake Queen pierced through Gaechalgoatal's head.
KABOOOOOOOM!
BOOOOM!
A massive shockwave.
I was nearly blown away, but the Snake Queen's tail caught me.
“Ge-ek….”
I don't have the strength to move a single finger.
The effect of Gigantification has also ended.
Right now, I'm in no condition to continue fighting.
I had hoped that last attack killed Gaechalgoatal, but it seems it didn't.
My level didn't go up.
Or maybe it was counted as the Snake Queen's kill.
Even if it's alive, it can't be unscathed.
On the other hand, the Snake Queen was still going strong.
Our victory is certain.
Thanks to the resonance of the Jian Bird's inner core, I was able to exert more power than usual.
Without it, my attack probably wouldn't have worked on it.
“Gek gek.”
I looked up at the Snake Queen.
My meaning was clear: Let's finish it now, don't give it any time.
“…My companion.”
But the Snake Queen didn't continue her attack.
Did she think this was enough?
No, that couldn't be. It wasn't like her.
The Snake Queen I knew would have finished the job for sure.
Tremble.
The Snake Queen's massive body was trembling.
“Run. Run right now.”
Run? A word I never expected to hear.
“Kekekeke….”
A voice came from within the dust cloud.
“Snake Queen, you truly are one of a kind.”
The human-faced bird spoke with perfect clarity.
It must have suffered a fatal wound from that last attack.
It usually spoke with a stutter, so what on earth happened?
My instincts are screaming at me.
I have to get out of here, now.
My body is trembling like an aspen leaf.
But my feet wouldn't move.
Because the Snake Queen was blocking the path between me and the human-faced bird.
“Run… hurry and run….”
She was terrified herself, yet she urged me to retreat.
I can't do that.
If we run, we run together.
SWISH!
Gaechalgoatal emerged, walking through the mist.
It was no longer in the form of a bizarre bird, but had taken on a human shape.
Disgusting tentacles covered in hundreds of eyes.
A grotesque face that looked as if it had torn off a human's face to wear as a mask.
The bird-like features were gone, replaced by two arms and two legs.
“I wanted to walk the path of a dragon, you know. Well, this isn't so bad either.”
At a glance, it had the appearance of a human.
No, it was something mimicking a human.
“To think you would guide me to the path of metamorphosis. How should I ever thank you?”
The King of Birds was a weak snake.
How could such a snake have killed all of the Snake Queen's family?
How could it have harmed her master?
How could it wield a power that defied logic?
Now, everything made sense.
【 H҉u̧m҉a̧n-F҉a̧c҉ȩd B҉i̧r҉d - T҉a̧i S҉u̧i 】
The true mastermind who gave power to a weak snake.
The Evil God, Tai Sui.