Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Words Can Be Both Shackles and Salvation (3)
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Suddenly, one of the Troll Lord's characteristics flashed through my mind.
The Troll Lord possessed regeneration several times greater than that of an ordinary troll.
For example, even in a situation like that—skewered by spears and swords, pinned to the ground...
Woodduk! Keuduk!
...it could rip its own body free and recover fully in an instant.
"Krek!"
"Veronica! Left! Left, 500 meters!!"
The moment I spotted it recovering, I immediately sent a transmission to Veronica.
It had disguised itself as a troll impaled on a spit, diverting attention away from itself.
All to slip away in the meantime.
It had even positioned itself subtly near the forest for an easy escape.
Incredibly meticulous.
Was this thing actually insane?
A mere monster predicting its defeat and devising an escape plan tailored to our strategy?
"(Okay, that bastard's the Lord.)"
Veronica grasped the situation in an instant and charged straight at it.
But the thing bolted toward the forest at an astonishing speed.
A speed that wouldn't lose out to Veronica—even among assassin classes, where she was top-tier in pure velocity battles.
Testimony from the B-rank party, 'Catknife'. Location: Forest outskirts of the Ode Swamp. 'We let one troll slip away. It didn't even properly join the fight from the start. Once the rest were down, it started running. Fast for a troll.'
Fast for a troll?
No, this was ridiculously fast...!
"(Hmph...! Fast or not, it's still just a troll...!)"
Veronica accelerated even faster, pursuing it into the forest.
We couldn't let it get away here.
If we did, it would regroup somewhere, sustain the troll horde with nutrients.
And come back with an even more cunning plan.
Our bomb strategy wouldn't work then.
Not when it had solved its nutrient supply issue.
Why would it order trolls to dodge mere bombs or AoE attacks?
It'd just send them charging straight in.
And it knew that would annoy us the most.
We had to take it down here.
That would eliminate the hassle—and above all...
"Huff... huff... I-is it almost over?"
"Veronica shot off somewhere."
"Please let it end here. I can't hold out much longer."
The soldiers and adventurers were hitting their limits.
Thanks to the massive bomb usage, direct casualties were minimized.
But herding them per the plan, constant movement, prolonged combat—the mental and physical fatigue had to be brutal.
If it didn't end here, casualties would skyrocket afterward. Obvious.
All we could do now was trust Veronica.
We'd done everything we could.
"Knight Commander! Heroes, can you hear me? It's heading your way! Any troll charging at insane speeds—that's the one! Take it down immediately!"
Viscount Straus grasped the situation and sent out a transmission too.
The heroes and Knight Commander.
Normally, you'd trust them over adventurers.
But I saw it differently.
If anyone felled it, it'd be Veronica for sure.
#
"Huff, huff...! Y-you damn troll!"
Veronica was sprinting toward the Troll Lord at the fastest speed she'd ever mustered.
It was so quick that she was sure anyone else would have lost it.
And that meant...
"Fast or not, you're still just a troll...!!"
Kwajik!
"Kre-e-eek?!"
...Veronica could catch it.
She'd closed right up behind it and plunged her dagger into the base of its neck.
An artifact infused with lethal poison mana.
Its instant paralysis poison began spreading through the Troll Lord's body.
"Krek! Kkik!"
But as expected of a Troll Lord—the wound healed almost instantly.
And it kept trying to flee.
Yet somehow, its body wouldn't move properly.
"Mana poison doesn't detoxify easily."
Veronica smirked and swung her dagger again at the stumbling beast.
"Krik!"
In the end, the Troll Lord gave up escaping and chose to fight.
It barely dodged her attack with its faltering body and swung its arm at her.
Normally, it would have connected—but the poison slowed it just enough.
Shiiik—
Veronica slipped past the strike unscathed.
"...Hmph."
She'd evaded thanks to the paralysis poison's spread, but she didn't relax.
'Still a Lord-class monster, huh. Base specs are no joke.'
Without the poison, she wouldn't have fully dodged that counter.
And even grazing it would have shattered a few ribs.
Just a troll.
But a Lord.
An S-rank disaster-class monster.
Its prestige came from the infinite troll horde, but as an individual, it was plenty strong.
If it'd fought her head-on from the start instead of running, the battle would've been far tougher.
But now...
"I've got the advantage!"
Shiiik—!
.....
About a dozen minutes passed like that.
The battle that would end this war was finally drawing to a close.
"Huff, huff..."
"Kre-eek... Kik..."
Both heavily injured.
By raw injury alone, Veronica looked worse off.
Her black leather armor was torn in multiple places, flesh exposed with blood flowing or deep bruises.
One arm dangled, likely broken.
Her face was covered in blood from her left eye to her cheek.
The Troll Lord had wounds everywhere, but nearly all were regenerating.
To anyone watching, it'd look like the Troll Lord's victory.
But factoring in internal damage...
"Huff, huff... Lethal dose, you bastard."
"Kk... Heuk..."
Poison stacking.
Paralysis, bleeding, ongoing organ damage.
Those negative effects layered and layered until...
...the body reached a fatal threshold.
"Kkieek..."
The Troll Lord finally collapsed, its body rotting black from the poisoning.
That was it. Over.
No matter how disaster-class, it couldn't escape Veronica's 'Black Death'.
"......"
Confirming its total silence,
Veronica pulled out her communicator.
"Situation clear. Troll Lord down. What's your side li—"
With the Troll Lord dead, the remaining trolls would wander aimlessly.
Mere rabble—exhausted soldiers and adventurers could mop them up.
But just in case, she checked in.
Then—
"Kk... Kkreeeeeeek—!!!"
"...?!"
The supposedly dead Troll Lord abruptly jerked its upper body up, unleashing a deafening roar.
Veronica startled into combat stance.
But after one roar, it collapsed again.
This time, its body crumbled to dust, scattering as black ash.
"Wh-what the hell."
Stunned by the sudden turn,
Viscount Straus's voice came through her communicator—the lord of Hasler.
"(Ah! You took down the Troll Lord! Perfect timing—the trolls suddenly froze up. I was worried, but great wo—huh?)"
But then, Viscount Straus's tone shifted to bewilderment.
"(Huh? Wh-what's that? The, the trolls...)"
"...? What happened?"
She wasn't answered by the viscount.
"Kaaaak!"
But by a scream from the front lines, far off in the battlefield.
#
'Hail the new sovereign.'
The freshly born troll heard the absolute command echoing in its mind.
And understood instantly that the sovereign in question was itself.
The birth of a Troll Lord.
But this one was starkly different from all prior Troll Lords.
The sole directive given to normal Troll Lords: one supreme command.
'Bring great glory to the troll horde.'
They lived their lives inscribed with just that.
Yet this Troll Lord's mind brimmed with vast knowledge.
The memories of its predecessors.
All the experiences of Troll Lords who failed to bring glory to the horde—fully inherited.
Memories of defeat by human strategies.
Human records of Troll Lord traits, and how they exploited them.
Memories of annihilation by elves.
Of daring to defy a dragon and being wiped out in seconds.
Countless memories flooded its mind.
Confusion.
Why did it have these memories?
Were all Troll Lords like this?
No, probably not.
It seemed unique.
Why?
Asking the knowledge within yielded one answer.
'The end draws near. To those who call themselves light, deliver the iron mace of darkness.'
'To those who call themselves light, deliver the iron mace of darkness.'
Guided by those memories and compulsions, it plotted to raze a nearby human city.
Humans had fought Troll Lords based on historical records—so turn those records against them.
It went smoothly at first.
The foolish humans fell for its plan.
But midway, it started unraveling.
As if some omniscient being who knew everything about it had intervened.
So it decided to flee.
As long as it survived, it could revive the horde's glory anytime.
Humans were easy to fool anyway.
Pretend to take hits, slip away subtly.
But even that was seen through.
It fled desperately, but too late.
It hadn't anticipated a human who fully understood it—despite its own full grasp of humans.
Nor one fast enough to match its speed.
That was why it fell. Died.
Death meant the end.
Nothingness.
No great glory. No iron mace of darkness.
Or so for ordinary monsters.
Not for it.
It was different.
It had prepared for this possibility—with a contingency plan.
'Even if I perish, bring great glory to the troll horde!'
Its genetically inscribed absolute command,
and
"Kk... Kkreeeeeeek—!!!"
the directive from whatever in its mind made it special.
'To those who call themselves light, deliver the iron mace of darkness!'
The Troll Lord devoted its body to them.
Burning all its life to smite with troll supremacy.
🔥 BERSERK MODE ACTIVATED 🔥 Remaining ~10,000 trolls
gone berserk
The surviving ten thousand or so trolls...
...began rampaging madly.