Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Emperor of the Skies (5)
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A fear and helplessness like sinking into an endless abyss. Death never becomes familiar, no matter how many times you experience it.
The time granted to me was four days, and I hadn't wasted a single one of those days.
After repeating those four days a total of thirty times—finally overcoming countless failures and deaths—I had made it this far.
The most troublesome foe was the Sky Emperor, as expected. He shielded himself with magic while personally taking command.
Because of that, it wasn't a fight against a mere beast that charged at the sight of humans. It was a battle against a predator that far surpassed even the most intelligent of men.
A simple spear throw couldn't bring it down. Only a spear infused with Death Force could pierce the magic and deal damage.
The problem was that no matter how cleanly you landed a hit, it would immediately soar to an even higher altitude.
Not that the opponent was some pushover you could kill in a single blow.
"Master Grandel."
"What is it?"
"Could I hear more details about the legend of the founding emperor?"
No matter how I thought about it, it was insane. Throwing a spear and then riding it into the sky...
But with no other clever options at hand, I had no choice but to go through with that madness.
Yet as the saying goes, every mountain has another behind it. Even after dragging it down to the ground, the gap in power still remained.
I'd had one lingering question for a while.
What if I crossed the regression point with my limbs less than intact...? What would happen then?
Would they be lost forever? The answer to the question that had tormented me for so long came right then and there.
Muscles tearing, bones and nerves twisting in agony. It felt just like someone had hacked my limbs to pieces with an axe.
But I gritted my teeth with the ferocity to shatter them. It was the only way to endure the pain.
My goal was singular. I swung my greatsword solely to kill the enemy right in front of me.
Crunch!!
But my limits were clear. My grotesquely twisted arm was a miracle just to lift—swinging the greatsword was out of the question.
In the end, my arm burst apart, unable to withstand the greatsword's weight. Blood poured out endlessly, like a breached dam.
With my arms and legs broken, unable even to move properly, I was nothing more than easy prey.
Crunch.
Sharp teeth pierced my flesh and chewed on the flowing blood. How long did it chew? How long was I being chewed?
"...Kuh!!"
The pain surged once more, like being hacked apart by an axe all over again.
The agony stabbed into my brain even before my eyes opened. Thanks to it, I realized I was alive again.
Yet even after Defeat Regression activated, my arms and legs remained twisted.
In contrast, the Sky Emperor had a torn wing and a chest wound, but its condition was still far better than mine.
And yet, Defeat Regression had judged this moment as having the higher odds of victory.
"You fucking bastard. Fucking regression!!"
I spat a curse close to a scream and tried to lift my greatsword again. Or rather... I tried to.
Crunch!!
With a gruesome sound, my tattered arm finally tore free. It couldn't bear the greatsword's weight.
Having lost my only means of attack, I was devoured by the Sky Emperor once more.
[Even without talent, if you can just manage to reinforce your body with mana, you'll be several times stronger than you are now.]
Even as I kept getting eaten by the Sky Emperor, I continually reviewed the lessons Master Grandel had taught me.
Reinforcing the body with mana. For now, that was the only thing I could bet on.
Of course, I had no mana. But I did possess a power similar to it.
'Death Force...!!'
If mana is the root of life, then Death Force is the power built upon death.
Until now, I'd only been able to use it to heighten my killing intent,
but this time was different. By endlessly repeating death, I'd learned from Master Grandel again and again.
The reason I could knock the Sky Emperor from the sky this time, the reason I could ride my spear and launch a surprise attack—all of it was thanks to that.
'Just like wrapping Death Force around the spear... this time, wrap it around my limbs instead...!!'
Surprisingly, Death Force was easier to apply to inanimate objects like spears than to a living body.
At first, I thought it was aura, but Master Grandel said it wasn't.
Of course not—I hadn't even reached Sword User yet. There's no way I could wield aura, the mark of an Expert.
'For now, my top priority is reinforcing my body with Death Force somehow. Otherwise, I'll never win.'
Fortunately, time and chances were on my side. I just had to keep repeating until I won.
Until I killed the monster before my eyes. This time, too, I gladly charged toward death.
For just that one victory.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Has there ever been a human who pushed Us this far? That obsessive tenacity bordered on madness, to the point of exhaustion.
The power that man wielded was utterly alien from the start. Black flames of death that devoured living flesh.
A force of death that boasted absolute dominance over mana, the source of life.
'That repulsive deathly aura overwhelms even that disgusting necromancer... What in the world is that human?!'
But even more terrifying was the madness bordering on obsession. Charging in by riding a spear was utterly insane to begin with.
And yet, despite somehow dragging Us down to the ground, the man's own limbs ended up twisted.
One wrong move, and he would've died right there. Was he unafraid of death? But the moment their eyes met,
the Sky Emperor realized it. The sole thought dominating the man's mind was the intent to kill his enemy.
'If I let him live, he'll surely become a threat someday. Better to finish him off here for certain...'
Suddenly, a sharp noise tore through the air. The Sky Emperor instinctively spread his torn left wing like a shield.
The instinct he couldn't fully suppress, even with the intelligence honed over long years of experience, saved his life this time.
Slash. The sensation of bone being severed hit at the same time as searing pain like being branded with fire.
"Graaaaaah!!"
His left wing was cleanly sliced off. For a human, it was like losing an arm. In truth, this was no big deal.
The Sky Emperor's magic was 7th class. A wound like this could be healed easily. If only... those black flames weren't there.
The Sky Emperor gnashed his teeth. He had already taken three hits, and the black flames were corroding his body.
'This unidentified power keeps devouring my mana... I can't use magic because of it...!!'
Magic. The power that had allowed him to reign as Emperor of the Skies for over a century.
It was his pride, his throne, and his crown. And now, that pride was shattering pathetically.
Death. The sensation of the reaper's scythe touching his neck—something he'd never even considered before.
"You think I'm going to die like this?!?!"
Was it the terror of death he'd felt in ages, or his pride crumbling at struggling against a mere human?
The Sky Emperor erupted in rage and swung his remaining wing with all his might. That alone should have been enough.
Even without magic, a wyvern was a top predator.
Its steel-like scales and bones were beyond what most heroes could challenge.
But it seemed the Sky Emperor had momentarily forgotten who it was that dragged him from his heavenly throne...
Even that last wing, which swept the surroundings like a mace of destruction, was ultimately severed cleanly.
'What... are you...?!'
From the start, it was like he saw through every move, neutralizing strengths early and dragging the fight to favorable ground.
Looking back, it was an absurd strategy from the outset. Riding a spear to fly in? Utter nonsense.
Did he even know exactly where We were? The sky was Our domain.
"If We hadn't let Our guard down... If We'd known you'd pull this, you would've died long ago...!!"
"I know."
Gazing quietly at the Sky Emperor screaming in desperation, the man parted his firmly shut lips. It wasn't mockery.
He'd been through it countless times already. What the man did was simply remember death and counter based on that memory.
Without sealing the magic, he couldn't win, so he jammed Death Force in at the battle's outset to block the mana.
But even with magic sealed, fighting in the sky meant certain defeat, so he targeted the wings to force it down.
After that, he kept repeating death until victory, remembering each past failure and correcting it.
And finally, after surmounting countless deaths, the man's greatsword reached the Sky Emperor's neck.
If there was any consolation, it was that he'd slain the Sky Emperor before his own death toll exceeded a hundred.
It meant even an ordinary person like me could grow in the end...