Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: To Protect Everyone (2)
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The Sky Garden was a space akin to paradise.
A gentle breeze, like a soft caress, always flowed, and there were no fights, no struggles for survival.
The forests and lakes, teeming with creatures from another world, were as beautiful as a painting.
If a heaven for the selfless existed, would it not take this form?
Therefore, it was no exaggeration to call the Sky Garden an ideal that transcended reality itself.
“Hmm, it’s become a dreadful sight in such a short time.”
“Damn it… How could they do something so horrible! Liberation Army, you bastards, do you have no conscience?!”
But the Sky Garden of now was clearly different from before.
The gentle breeze that once rustled through hair had become a biting wind that tore at the skin.
The lake, once shimmering in the sunlight, had transformed into a stagnant pool where chunks of rotten flesh drifted.
And then there were the skeleton soldiers and giant zombies taller than trees roaming about.
The Sky Garden had completely lost its original beauty, becoming a veritable hellscape.
Witnessing this scene, Peacekeeper, the second-round examiner for the White Team, shed tears of rage.
The reason was simple. Though he was a muscle-bound man full of bravado, he also possessed a deep appreciation for the beauty of nature.
He was so enraged that his overwhelmingly large pectoral muscles were trembling.
“Uwooooh! I can’t stand to see this beautiful scenery ruined any longer! Peacekeeper Dash!”
“Ah, wait, you muscle-brained idiot! …Damn, he’s gone. Good grief, I told him protecting the examinees was the priority.”
Mira Valentia, the first-round examiner, couldn't help but frown.
Peacekeeper, his patience having snapped, had crossed his arms and charged recklessly toward a distant horde of skeletons.
The priority right now wasn't to drive out the enemies who had invaded the Sky Garden.
She had told him time and again that their mission was to rescue the examinees trapped inside the garden…
To think he'd forget his objective the moment he stepped outside.
She had the strongest urge to smack him hard on the back of the head.
Still, it was fortunate that Peacekeeper wasn't much of a strategic asset anyway.
Even as a Triple Fixer, he was at the very bottom of the ranks, so low he could be kicked out of the top 1000 at any moment.
For Mira, who wielded magic that made it difficult to distinguish friend from foe, it was actually much more comfortable to work alone.
‘…Are the signals being jammed? The watch’s communication isn’t working properly. This defeats the purpose of giving watches to all the examinees. Tch, the details of the Fixer exam are supposed to be confidential. Just how much information has been leaked?’
Checking her watch, Mira pondered this for a moment before lightly shaking her head.
Wondering who the traitor was wasn't something she could afford to dwell on in such a tense situation.
With every second counting, she had to focus on the task at hand.
So, after confirming the skeletons stealthily approaching her,
she put on the sunglasses from her breast pocket and lightly gathered her magic.
“Premere Manu Gigantis.”
Its meaning: to crush with the hand of a giant.
The moment Mira’s incantation finished, an immense pressure descended, as if space itself were being crushed by a hydraulic press.
“Kkigik…”
“Ka, kagagak…!”
Crack, craaack!
The skeletons, which had been radiating killing intent, couldn't withstand the force, their bodies creaking and collapsing.
To a master-class gravity magician like Mira Valentia, a swarm of weaklings meant nothing.
Soon, all the skeletons, along with a giant zombie that had been stealthily hiding underground, were flattened into a single, disgusting mass.
Mira dispelled the magic around her, brushing her bangs aside in annoyance as she muttered,
“Hmph, you’ve ruined all the precious ingredients in the Sky Garden. You’ll pay for it with your lives, you damn pests.”
Truly befitting a Triple-Number Fixer.
She dispatched the undead with an effortless, fluid grace.
I'll just keep clearing out these skeletons, find the isolated examinees, and send them to the Leviathan.
Just as Mira was thinking this and casually walking toward the sounds of commotion, a huge figure suddenly emerged from the forest, trudging toward her.
Another undead?
Her guard raised, Mira’s eyes twitched in disbelief at what came into view as it stepped out of the shadows.
“That… idiot…. I wasn’t expecting much, but I didn’t think he’d be this incompetent…”
“What’s this, a woman this time? Hehe… I like women. This is perfect.”
The figure that appeared was a massive, obese man with what looked like severe skin problems.
The upper part of his face was grotesquely swollen, giving him a truly repulsive appearance.
The huge man drooled as he looked at Mira, then casually tossed aside what he was holding in one hand.
“Ugh, kkeueuk…”
The object was none other than the bloodied muscle-man… Peacekeeper.
He was coughing up blood and breathing raggedly, so he was thankfully still alive.
But judging by the bruises all over his body and the way his eyes were rolled back, he had been through a severe beating.
‘I don’t sense any dangerous magic, but Peacekeeper was taken down this quickly? He might look like that, but… he must be a formidable opponent.’
Even if his skills weren't top-tier by Fixer standards, Peacekeeper was trained enough to handle most opponents. To think he'd be defeated so easily in such a short time.
Quickly assessing the situation, Mira didn't hesitate to gather her magic and cast a spell that powerfully compressed gravity in a small area.
“In Cofinum Condere!”
“Huh? Ugegek!”
The meaning of the incantation: to put the opponent in a coffin!
This was an ultimate gravity magic technique that crushed a target by raising gravity to its absolute limit within a radius of several dozen centimeters!
Of course, while this spell boasted immense power, it had the major drawback of consuming an enormous amount of both magic and concentration.
However, Mira judged it to be more than enough to at least inflict a fatal wound on her opponent.
“Kh, khuh? This is… magic! Gehehe! Something like this won’t work on me, Brugus!”
“What…!”
What unfolded next was the complete opposite of what she had expected.
Brugus, who had been struggling on one knee, suddenly seemed to realize something and opened his mouth wide.
And with just that, the powerful gravity magic crushing him was completely nullified!
He didn't counter with opposing magic, nor did he use a special artifact. How could he nullify magic so easily?
Unable to comprehend the situation, Mira froze, her eyes wide with shock.
While her magical skills were exceptional, she lacked extensive combat experience, and this was a situation she had never encountered before.
Perhaps Brugus found Mira’s bewilderment highly amusing.
A grin spread across his hideous face, distorting it as he spoke with newfound leisure.
“I am Brugus, a modified human created by the great Creator, Lord Olvis, and a member of the Seven Extremes Royal Guard! By her grace, I have gained the power to absorb magic from spells themselves! Geheheh! This power is more effective against more complex magic. In other words, the more skilled the magician, the more of a natural enemy I become!”
To Mira, his words were utterly absurd.
Absorbing magic from a spell itself—it was an incomprehensible phenomenon that defied all common sense, and she couldn't help but feel bewildered.
An enemy like a nightmare for any magician, Brugus let out a disgusting 'gegegeh' laugh.
An utterly unpredictable ability. This was the terror of the modified humans who had attacked the Sky Garden.
This was the greatest crisis of her life.
***
“Hoh? Is that so? Could you explain a bit more?”
“Ack, ghk… L-Lord Olvis… created… a total of 31 modified… humans… But among them… only five… have truly joined the Royal Guard… The rest… are all… defective… products…”
Somewhere in the Sky Garden.
In a place that seemed far removed from the surrounding commotion, a woman and a hideous fiend were sitting close together, conversing.
But a closer look revealed a truly revolting scene.
The woman was using a grotesque creature that looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a human as a chair, her fingers plunged into its head.
She was Vespera. The world’s only pure-blooded Progenitor Vampire…
And in this Sky Garden, she was the most dangerous being after Tempest.
“Heeh, why are the rest called defective products?”
“Th-that is… because… compared to their special abilities… their durability is too weak… or they can’t use… magic… or their intelligence… is low…”
“I see. So, are you a defective product?”
“I-I am… the Third Knight… who officially… joined the Royal Guard… My role is… to command the other modified… humans…”
“Hmph, then you were just unlucky. Really, why did you have to bother me when I was just watching, little one?”
“Kkik, kiiiiiiik!”
Splat!
The head of the mantis-faced modified human exploded like a watermelon.
It was because Vespera had lightly gathered magic at her fingertips to create a small shock.
Still, my curiosity is satisfied now.
She stood up and lightly licked the blood and brain matter from her fingers.
“Mm, so this is what food made with alchemy tastes like. It’s all strangely mixed together, it’s disgusting. Haaah, I guess unless it’s a dragon…”
A crimson glint flashed through Vespera’s eyes for a moment.
Was it killing intent, or was it interest?
She hummed lightly to herself and muttered,
“This won’t be enough to fill me up.”
Beyond Vespera’s gaze, as she observed the situation,
was the presence of a dragon, its aura palpable even from a distance.
Still, I'll be the one laughing in the end.
Thinking this, she wore an intrigued smile, as if watching a fascinating fight.