Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Black Whale (4)
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The experience of mounting such a massive creature wasn’t something you could do every day.
Even Carlyle, who had regressed countless times, had only done this twice.
In truth, the reason he had failed to tame the Black Whale in previous loops was simple.
Thanks to the Hero, the world’s strongest force, subduing it was possible—but it was far too feral to serve as a mount.
Rather than let someone ride on its head, it would prefer death. That was the Black Whale’s default attitude.
And Carlyle’s group, standing atop it right now, could feel that attitude plainly.
Black mana, incomparable to what they’d sensed when approaching earlier, now blanketed everything around them.
How to describe it? If the earlier aura had felt more like a warning to stay away, now it was unmistakably thick with murderous intent.
Panhima seemed to share the sentiment, steadying a staggering Vespa—who couldn’t even keep her balance—and shouting at Carlyle.
“Was getting on this thing really a good idea?!”
“Yes.”
“⋯⋯.”
Panhima shot him an incredulous look at his curt reply.
But he meant it sincerely.
He knew for sure because he’d once ridden a Black Whale that was in its right mind.
‘—As expected.’
If the Black Whale truly harbored killing intent toward them, it wouldn’t end with something like this.
This wasn’t a precise attack.
It was closer to a panicked frenzy.
This mana beast was incapable of rational thought.
[⋯⋯Wait a minute. Isn’t this a bit strange?]
‘Yes?’
[Mana beasts are beasts driven purely by instinct, without emotion. But what you’re describing⋯⋯]
It sounded like he was talking about an intelligent being with emotions.
Almost human-like, in fact.
‘I thought so too, originally.’
Carlyle had shared Gray’s exact thinking until now.
Except for one thing.
If not for the legend Panhima had told him, he’d still believe that.
How to put it?
The details preserved in that legend recorded habits of the Black Whale that could only emerge from some form of ‘interaction.’
Not a beast stripped of emotion and left with only instinct.
But an intelligent being with ‘intellect,’ capable of ‘conversation,’ and above all, able to ‘feel’ things.
What he was attempting now was based on the assumption that this was true.
“Kin, we need to act fast—!”
Even as he recalled that, with black mana closing in moment by moment, Panhima urged him on—but instead of replying, Carlyle simply crouched down.
“One moment.”
Diagnosis first.
Carlyle placed his hand on the Black Whale’s head where he stood.
He made contact while channeling the Holy Sword—now reshaped inside his body—into mana form.
At that instant.
—A repulsive sensation surged through his entire body.
“⋯⋯.”
Carlyle yanked his hand back as if he’d thrust it into lava.
Right. At this point, there was nothing more to see.
The Holy Sword held properties antithetical to the energies of Hell. With such power inside its body, the immediate sensation of skin blistering on contact could only mean one thing.
The smell of brimstone flames. Demonic death aura.
‘It’s been brainwashed.’
[Brainwashed?]
‘Those bastards must’ve force-fed it something like “your kin are threatened” or “they’ve been kidnapped somewhere.”’
So, the destruction the Black Whale was causing now wasn’t out of hostility toward anything.
It was simply rampaging in fear due to the implanted brainwashing.
Believing its family was in danger.
[⋯⋯Then what do you plan to do?]
‘We’re the Hero Party, aren’t we?’
Carlyle sighed and stood up.
‘We can’t just let it slaughter innocent people.’
[⋯⋯.]
‘⋯⋯Ah, sorry.’
Not something to say in front of someone who’d slain more innocents than anyone.
Especially when he needed her help right now.
‘Can you do it, Hero? We need to break the brainwashing.’
Demons’ machinations usually involved the vilest of vile methods.
Normally, brainwashed targets had no cure but death.
And the same applied here.
‘⋯⋯They’ve planted a bomb in its head.’
Carlyle concluded after examining the structure.
‘It’ll blow if we try to disarm it, if the brainwashing breaks, or even if the Black Whale dies.’
[⋯⋯A familiar tactic. No matter what you do, it’s designed to screw you over—twisted malice on full display.]
Demons’ handiwork.
Carlyle asked with a sigh.
‘Can you handle it?’
[⋯⋯Hm. Well, somehow.]
The one here wasn’t ordinary either.
Carlyle gave a small smile and nodded.
“Vespa, please look after yourself with Panhima somehow.”
“⋯⋯Pardon?”
He gave a strained smile to the dazed Vespa.
“Honestly, this is my first time trying it, so I don’t know what’ll happen.”
Three seconds.
The time he could endure after injecting the mana-formed Holy Sword and merging consciousness.
What could be done in that span? Carlyle didn’t know.
The Dean hadn’t explained in detail, and the Holy Sword, which understood, hadn’t elaborated either.
So, he’d just have to experience it firsthand.
‘⋯⋯Hero.’
[What?]
‘Don’t do that thing this time.’
[What thing?]
‘Don’t pull out anything weird that only angsty teens would like.’
Meaning, no embarrassing technique names.
Next, he activated Tear of the Stars.
And merged with the mana-formed Holy Sword’s consciousness.
“⋯⋯!”
And then, it felt unmistakably different from before.
A bizarre sensation like his body’s outside and inside flipping. For an instant, his perception blurred entirely, and his consciousness flickered.
The next moment.
Carlyle had become the Holy Sword.
[⋯⋯.]
What was this?
As he blinked, he perceived himself swinging the Holy Sword around.
He realized intuitively.
⋯⋯The one inside was the Hero.
‘This.’
⋯⋯Their consciousnesses had swapped.
Carlyle was the sword, and the Hero was in Carlyle’s body.
In other words.
He could manifest the Hero into the world for three seconds.
“This state can actually last a bit longer than three seconds. About twenty?”
Seeing the Hero say that confirmed it.
She’d known this would happen all along.
⋯⋯No, before that.
[Why’d it suddenly get longer than three seconds?]
“I slowed down the flow of time.”
[?]
“In spaces where I spread my mana, it’s locally possible. It’s so advanced I can’t maintain it long.”
[⋯⋯???]
What was this madwoman saying?
She was casually shattering common sense.
No, looking closely, a gray hemispherical field had indeed spread around Carlyle.
Everything inside moved sluggishly.
[⋯⋯Are you actually a god?]
The Dean had complained about her twisting laws, but he hadn’t imagined this was possible.
“Not a god, but among humans, I’m the closest thing.”
Gray stretched in Carlyle’s body as she replied.
“With twenty seconds, there’s so much I can do. I’ll handle everything while I have the chance to move again.”
[What are you talking about? We have urgent business right in front of us.]
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
A Hero could upend an entire region in a single blow within three seconds.
Twenty?
“I can do anything.”
With those words, Gray snapped her fingers.
The gray hemispherical domain expanding nearby grew even further.
[⋯⋯.]
Suddenly gripped by unease, Carlyle spoke up.
[Hero, I said don’t do it.]
⋯⋯He’d interjected sensing she was about to utter some ominous phrase, but the Hero ignored him and spoke.
Her voice low and solemn.
“Ultimate technique, domain expansion—”
[⋯⋯I said don’t, so don’t—!]
Despite the childish bickering, the effect of manifesting the Hero into the world was plainly visible.
-⋯⋯
The gray hemisphere bursting from Carlyle’s body.
Began devouring the entire area.
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Few knew the true extent of the physical force unleashed by a Hero at full power.
But surely no one but a Hero could lay waste to surroundings just by ‘running.’
With each step, the earth shattered. Shockwaves roared around her blurring speed, sweeping away everything in her path⋯⋯
“⋯⋯.”
Yet even as she wrought this surreal devastation, anxiety filled Gray’s face.
Because an uncontrollable variable was unfolding inside the barrier where the Black Whale now stood.
‘⋯⋯If those fools dare die needlessly.’
She’d kill them.
⋯⋯Even if they were already dead, she’d kill them anyway.
Carlyle or Lionel might have smiled, saying it was so like her to worry this way—but that was all Gray could think.
So, when she sensed a ‘vast power’ pulsing from within the barrier.
It was natural to tense and look that way instinctively.
“⋯⋯?”
But.
Confusion soon mixed into her gaze.
Even her relentless legs halted for a moment.
‘Not the Black Whale?’
No mana beast of calamity could emit this much power.
It was something entirely different.
The gray mana exploding from within—distinct from the Black Whale’s black hue—made it obvious.
Even without the Hero’s superhuman sight, it was swelling massively in an instant.
“⋯⋯.”
And.
That aura felt dreadfully familiar somehow.
“⋯⋯⋯⋯Mine?”
What erupted from there was unmistakably her own mana.
Gray instinctively traced the source of this ability, even in her dazed state.
Her eyes sought the target.
It didn’t take long to spot the orange-haired man.
“⋯⋯.”
No.
More precisely, to spot what was using that body as a ‘medium.’
That form.
The figure scattering her mana everywhere.
It was a shape she’d seen before.
Somehow resembling her own.
No—beyond resemblance, an exact spitting image.
But this time, unlike before, it was clearer.
Because it wielded power directly, its form stood out vividly.
That was why she could be certain.
That appearance was familiar.
Familiar to the point of being seared into her brain like a branding iron.
“⋯⋯.”
The logical conclusion was only one.
⋯⋯And she knew it couldn’t be right.
Because that person was already dead.
No reason for them to appear here suddenly.
But a ‘large person’ who looked exactly like her.
Gray knew only one.
“⋯⋯Mom?”
The word slipped from her lips unbidden.
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-System Message
▶ Target 'Gray' recognizes 'herself within the Holy Sword'.
▶ Related event will be generated later!
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