Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Sleepwalker V - Shin Noah 7
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An obvious fact to point out: Homo sapiens don't have wings.
In other words, most people lack any real intuition for flight.
Unless you're a pilot who mistakes an airplane engine's roar for their own heartbeat or a paraglider who feels the parachute as an extension of their arms, humans don't get much thrill from soaring through the air, even if they manage it.
And where intuition is absent, fear is born.
“Uwaaaah! We're flying! Flying!”
“How high do we have to go?!”
Seven hundred Awakeners shot into the sky clinging to flimsy broomsticks, screams erupting here and there.
“Mom! I really hate this!”
“We're falling! Faaaalling!”
“Euuungheongheung!”
Of course, we'd held joint training sessions multiple times beforehand. Awakeners with acrophobia had been excluded from the combat teams long ago.
Even so, no one could look at these cheap broomsticks and trust them as humanity's new wings.
An owl flying through the night sky stared at us with eyes that said, 'What the hell? Are these new suicide hopefuls?'
['Saintess of National Salvation' announces.]
[The vanguard has now broken through 300 meters above sea level.]
In a way, the owl's eyes were spot on. What else would you call a group charging in with makeshift wings to topple a special-grade anomaly if not a suicide squad?
Only the Three Thousand Worlds guild members demonstrated skilled flight maneuvers.
[600 meters.]
Oh, and for the record, I was pretty damn good at broom flying myself. Back in my Three Thousand Worlds days, I'd even snagged second place in the guild's flight competition.
I led the vanguard at the front alongside Dang Seo-rin, a perennial winner of those flight contests, our screams trailing like shadows behind the horde of Awakeners.
[1,500 meters.]
It was starting to get cold.
“Aah——.”
But it didn't matter. Dang Seo-rin was already singing another verse of her Song Enchantment.
Fourth Melody: Body Reinforcement.
A comprehensive package she'd developed by combining 'Temperature Control,' 'Breathing Assistance,' and the like. It helped endure harsh environments like frigid ocean depths, scorching deserts, or the Void—places unfavorable to humans.
Sure enough, the moment her incantation ended, a pleasant warmth spread through my body.
[2,200 meters.]
Higher. Even higher.
[2,900 meters.]
Glance—
Looking down, the ground was already tiny far below. I lightly ignored the instinctive vertigo and turned my gaze back upward.
There it was: the Meteor Shower.
From below, those stars had seemed ready to plummet at any moment. But from takeoff until now, no matter how high we flew, they hadn't grown any larger.
An optical illusion. A glitch in the world. Staring up at those stars made it feel like my brain's sense of distance and scale was breaking down.
But that was just an illusion within an illusion. We were undoubtedly closing in on the Meteor Shower.
[3,500 meters.]
Finally.
[4,100 meters. Enemy detected. Approaching.]
[Penetration.]
Shwaaaaa—
A noise like crashing waves echoed out. At 4,100 meters above sea level, it was a sound you couldn't hear—and shouldn't hear.
Piercing through that noisy surface, suddenly everything turned pitch black.
Not so much 'night sky' as 'dark ocean depths'—inky blackness enveloped heaven and earth.
Shwa, shwaaaa—
Each time Awakeners followed me up, the darkness rippled like waves. They lowered their brooms and hovered in midair.
Awestruck by the bizarre sight, the Awakeners gaped.
“My god, this is...”
“The Void!”
Before the combat team's confusion could spread, I grabbed the radio and barked.
“We've just entered the Meteor Shower's domain! No need to be shocked or tense! It's just the Void we've experienced to death, now spread across the sky!”
“Ah.”
“Resume the operation! Reform your formations! Group up with your combat team squad mates! Realign and charge as trained! You have 40 seconds!”
“Team 8, assemble! Team 8!”
“Team 11! What are you doing over there? Get over here, you punk!”
The Awakeners' formations, briefly disrupted by the ascent into the night sky's Void, quickly reformed.
Amid it all, I kept my eyes locked on the direction of the 'Meteor Shower' without a gap.
Those stars that tricked the eye into thinking they'd drop any second. No—hallucinations that they were already falling.
Yet right now, that thing was undoubtedly crouched still, glaring at us.
My instincts as a regressor, honed over dozens of rounds transcending instinct and reason, fiercely detected its malice.
Unlike my instincts, the surroundings were eerily serene.
A sensation like being dropped into the dead center of a calm night sea horizon.
“...This place is weird. Undertaker.”
Dang Seo-rin maneuvered her broom tip right next to mine and muttered.
“The air's pretty heavy. Breathing's gotten a bit harder. Feels like we dove into shallow water instead of the sky.”
“The monster's water-attribute, so maybe rain's brewing. What'd you expect? It's just the Void being the Void.”
“True. Fair point.”
“One last song. I'm counting on you.”
“Yeah. Leave it to me. ...You too—take care. This op falls apart if you go down.”
“Of course.”
Just then, the Saintess's voice whispered softly into my ear.
[Be careful, Mr. Undertaker. The altimeter's broken.]
Broken?
[It read about 4,100 meters right before entering this Void, but now it's jumping to 7,182 meters, -9,699 meters, 21,337 meters, 0.01 meters—wildly fluctuating in real time.]
“......”
[It's not just altitude. Pressure and other readings are fluctuating nonstop too. Good luck.]
I nodded.
Exactly 40 seconds.
I glanced back. Seven hundred flying combatants in perfect formation stared at my back.
“Resume operation! Charge! Charge!”
“Waaaaaah!”
Boss fight phase two: underway.
With me at the tip, the 700-strong flying combat team followed like an arrowhead. Dang Seo-rin, who'd been up front with me until now, shifted to the rear as planned, forming up the formation.
The stars still showed no reaction.
Our golden opportunity.
“Aah—aah aaah—aah——.”
Dang Seo-rin's voice from the rearmost position awakened the night sky.
Fifth Melody: 'Mirror of Ten Thousand Phenomena.'
A relatively new high-difficulty grand magic she'd developed. Combining [Focus], [Absorb], [Reflect], [Amplify] into a single song—her masterpiece.
Its effect was immediate.
Chrrrrrr—
Semitransparent mirrors formed around the 700 Awakeners. Like planets orbiting the sun, countless mirrors swirled around our flying combat team.
I issued the order without hesitation.
“Everyone, pour everything you've got!”
The Awakeners unleashed their auras and mana at the mirrors as if they'd been waiting.
The mirrors reflected the Awakeners' auras perfectly toward 'other mirrors.'
Chaaang—
The mirrors shattered after fulfilling their reflective duty. Countless shards scattered like white spring cherry blossoms in the air.
The chain of auras starting from the rear reflected off forward mirrors, larger and larger ones, in wild ricochets.
Chaaang—chaaaang—chaaaaaaaang—
Each time, mirrors shattered, and auras overlapped and overlapped again, passing forward.
The glass took on the colors of the auras, like stained glass spilling rainbows into the pitch-black night sky.
The radio crackled noisily.
[Team 12, charge complete!]
[Team 11, charged up!]
That's right.
The 'Mirror of Ten Thousand Phenomena' role in this battle: firepower concentration.
Though there was some variance, the 700-strong raid averaged about 60 per team.
That is, up to 60 Awakeners were concentrating their auras, their strikes, into the mirrors.
[Team 6, done! Complete!]
[Loss rate, about 5%!]
Grrrrrrrr!
Clashing auras of different colors and wavelengths boomed like thunder. Like a massive beast growling.
From Team 12 to Team 1.
Through 12 serpentine chambers like the twelve zodiac meridians—the Korean Peninsula Federation beast's roar now boiled up to its throat.
[Team 4, complete—.]
[Loss rate under 3%. Within projections. Transmitting.]
[Team 3! Passed!]
The aura stormed like a gale.
Hik—occasional screams burst out. Awakeners unaccustomed to flight staggered in the aura storm.
We'd anticipated that. That's why I placed the greener Awakeners in rear teams and veteran elites up front.
No issues.
Dang Seo-rin controlled everything from the rear, and I commanded from the vanguard.
[Team 2... passed! We did it somehow!]
[Go! Go! Go!]
Some Awakeners gasped in awe. Like ancient Egyptians worshiping the pyramid they'd built, they couldn't help trembling at the aura torrent they'd created.
And.
[Team 1! Complete, Your Excellency Undertaker!]
The Team 1 leader shouted. Yoo Ji-won. An Awakener who'd served as my adjutant back in my Three Thousand Worlds days.
[Right—now! Transmitting!]
[Loss rate under 1%! Under 1%!]
[Your Excellency Undertaker!]
Kwarrrrrrrrr—!
Finally, the 700 auras reached right in front of me.
Dang Seo-rin's mirrors all shattered. The magic mirrors scattered fragments plummeting to the ground.
All except the massive one engulfing my vision.
A transparent concave mirror swirled with an aura typhoon.
“Hup......!”
My body shuddered.
Euphoria like becoming an omnipotent god surged up my spine. Who among mortals could be granted such power? Who could wield it properly?
That's why I stood at the forefront.
I injected my aura into the torrent that seemed ready to explode beyond my control.
Inky black. The hue of my soul.
The churning rainbow aura torrent infected black in an instant, like water in a beaker dyed by a single drop of ink.
Pop—skin peeled from my right hand up to my forearm. Unable to withstand the aura output.
“......!”
My ears rang deaf. No sounds reached me. Endless thunder boomed around, and my vision drowned in black, seeing nothing.
Pain of bursting veins.
But still, no problem.
“Saintess! Position—.”
[Adjust 3 cm to the right.]
A calm voice echoed directly in my mind.
[Again, 11 cm down.]
[Too low. 2 cm up.]
The 42nd round me didn't know, but the Saintess was using 'Time Stop' to meticulously correct errors.
Reviewing and calculating from countless Awakeners' viewpoints whether firing the aura now would hit the Meteor Shower—perhaps over days.
That endless time was a blink to me, and to endure that blink, I bore all pain.
[Yes, just a bit. A little more.......]
[Now.]
Softly.
[Now, Mr. Undertaker.]
The Saintess's time crossed mine.
In that instant, I roared and unleashed the gathered aura storm ahead. My own roar inaudible to me.
Kwarrrrrrrrrrrrrr—!
Just the massive beast's bellow.
The inky roar piercing 700 souls and 12 zodiac layers shook heaven and earth.
-Wh?at?
Only then did the silent Meteor Shower react. Like a deeply sleeping being just awakening.
Boss fight phase three: underway.
-Tw?inkle, twinkle, litt?le star.
I felt the Meteor Shower writhe.
-H?ow I w?onder what you ?are.
-Up ab?ove the world so h?igh,
The familiar melody. From round 23 to 41, the Meteor Shower's lullaby that always led the ground to ruin pierced the storm.
Intending to put us to sleep just like this.
“Aah—ah, aah—ah, aah aaah——.”
And for exactly this moment, Dang Seo-rin played her final card.
The song echoed simultaneously from the night sky's this shore and that shore. But the instant the two waves collided head-on at the center.
-Wha?t?
——The song vanished abruptly.
Sixth Melody: Anti-Resonance.
By emitting soundwaves precisely countering the opponent's emissions, neutralizing all noise—an application of [Silence] magic.
I shouted in ecstasy.
“The power to work miracles with song isn't your patented specialty!”
The intersection of the Meteor Shower's Void and Dang Seo-rin's magic was exactly my flight position.
The black waves from the Meteor Shower clashed endlessly with the white waves from Dang Seo-rin. Black and white. The colors of humanity's song. The hues painted by the anomaly's tune.
Amid the night sky battlefield filled with human and Void songs, only I raced along the front of silence.
Guided by the Saintess, perpetually aiming the aura storm.
-Wh?at? Wha?t?
Panicking that its trump card failed? Indecipherable noise seeped between the Meteor Shower's lullaby.
But too late.
For this one strike, this ambush to plunge into you—700 combat team members and 900 non-combat trained relentlessly.
Dang Seo-rin developed three high-tier spells, prepped the radios, and enchanted each with conduit magic.
The Saintess lurked in shadows, hiding her existence to earn the constellations' trust in their messages.
The time she poured into rallying the Federation's Awakeners over 7 years must've neared eternity. The days just spent on precise aiming were merely the final seasoning.
And my 150 years.
The optimal route. The perfect攻略.
-Wh?at? Wha?t? Wha?t? Whaa?t?
Thus, this was the first and last strike.
The one instant the Meteor Shower let its guard down. The moment with the least experience: never fallen to earth, never wiped out a nation, never killed an Awakener.
Literally, the regressor's sure-kill.
-Whaa?t? Wh?at? Whaa?t? Wha?at Whaa?t?
You can't complain it's unfair.
That's how you've fought all this time.
Die in your sleep too, anomaly.
-Aaaah aaa a?aaa a?
Flash——.
Starlight soaring from the ground pierced the starlight falling from the sky.
무한 회귀자인데 썰 푼다