Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Forced Breakthrough (7)
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The squad leader’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. The iron gate, which should have been impervious to all but the most powerful siege weapons, had been breached.
“Dammit! Fire directly at him!”
It was an order born of desperation. With the gate already broken, the tide of battle would shift dramatically in their favor if they couldn't stop him here.
Knowing this, his subordinates aimed directly at Shirone and drew their bowstrings.
“Fire!”
Forty magic-infused bolts, shot with all their might, flew toward Shirone’s position.
Even as the arrows rapidly closed in, Shirone didn’t move. The radius of his teleportation wasn't large enough to escape the blast range.
But spatial movement was another story.
The moment the forty arrows struck, Shirone’s body transformed into a flash of light and shot toward the sky.
*Zzzzzzzing!*
As the hum of spatial movement spread, a powerful bombardment obliterated the spot where Shirone had been standing.
Tess stared at the explosion, dumbfounded. The thunderous echo in the valley made her feel as if she were at the heart of a battlefield.
“Sh-Shirone…”
The explosion was massive, and the roar was enough to rattle one’s senses. Because of this, no one realized that Shirone had used spatial movement.
Amy, however, was an exception. It is said that to an archer, the sound of a flying arrow is the clearest, and to a swordsman, the clash of swords is the most distinct.
Thus, to Amy, a mage, the unique sound of spatial movement was perfectly audible even amidst the deafening blast.
“Shirone’s fine. Let’s go in, too.”
Amy pushed forward through the smoke. Just as she expected, Shirone was standing in front of the gate, beyond the point of impact.
Spatial movement bends light. Therefore, the sight of a flash of light shooting into the sky was merely an optical illusion.
In reality, it wasn't Shirone ascending, but space itself warping.
Besides, such an illusion was only observable from a distance. From up close, it would have simply looked like he had vanished.
This was why mages identified the use of spatial movement by its sound.
“Hahaha! It’s over! It’s completely over!”
“Not even a trace left! Nothing to be scared of now. Alright, everyone, prepare to charge!”
Falcoa’s men lowered their bows and readied their weapons. With the mage who had displayed the most threatening power now dead, they had nothing left to fear.
Watching this, Tess tilted her head in confusion. Shirone was standing before the iron gate like the grim reaper, yet the enemy was cheering.
“What’s with them?”
“They didn’t hear the sound of the spatial movement like you did. They must think Shirone is dead.”
It didn’t take long for Falcoa’s men to realize their mistake.
As Shirone slowly stepped back, revealing himself from the wall's blind spot, they all stared as if they had seen a ghost.
“L-Leader! Over there…!”
The squad leader’s face flushed red. Shirone, who should have been blown to pieces by the bombardment, was looking up at the fortress wall as if to taunt them.
“You… you bastard!”
Before commencing a full-scale siege, Shirone decided to give the enemy one last chance.
“Release Jis’s sister. If you do, we will leave.”
The squad leader stared blankly at Shirone. After all this chaos, he would just leave? Leave to where? Did he think this was an amusement park where you just pay an entrance fee?
“You think we’ll let you leave alive? The real siege begins when the gate is breached. Do you have any idea how much that magic circle you destroyed costs? It’s more than your life is worth. I’ll make you beg for death.”
“I don’t want to continue this meaningless fight. This was your mistake from the start. So I’d appreciate it if we could end it here.”
“Hahaha! What? End it? Do you know who we are? We are the Parrot Mercenary Corps, who live and die on the battlefield! Let’s go, men! Slaughter them all!”
“Uwooooah!”
The soldiers roared, brandishing their swords with bravado.
Seeing that words were useless, Shirone sighed and walked into a blind spot by the fortress wall.
“How nice of you to walk right in! Men, go down at once and… huh?”
The squad leader stopped mid-sentence. A scene flashed through his mind.
It was the strange magic that had pulverized the rocks falling from the top of the valley. Could he truly claim that this fortress wall was stronger than those rocks?
“H-Hey, wait a minute…!”
The leader ran to the stairs and looked down at the gate. As he feared, Shirone had slipped through the hole in the iron gate and was lowering his fist.
“Hey, hey, you punk, you’re kidding, right? Don’t tell me you’re…”
The leader’s voice trembled with fear. His mind went blank.
“Hey! Don’t do it! Do you know how much work went into building this wall? Hey!”
Shirone finished pre-charging his spell and glanced back at the squad leader standing on the landing.
Meeting that gaze, the leader finally understood. The decision had already been made.
“Get away! Everyone, jump!”
The moment the leader shouted as he ran up the stairs, Shirone muttered under his breath.
“Rampage.”
*BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!*
A Rampage with a twenty-meter diameter pulsed at a rate of fifteen times per second. The fortress wall shook as if in an earthquake, and Falcoa’s men lost their balance and fell.
As expected of a massive structure, its durability was considerable. But Shirone didn’t stop the Rampage. All matter had a limit to its endurance. It was a law of physics that if you hit something until it broke, it would eventually break.
The iron gate clanged as if struck by a hammer, and cracks raced across the fortress wall like lightning.
The cracks continued to branch out, infiltrating the entire wall, until finally, the ground began to tremble, showing signs of collapse.
The squad leader’s mind was in chaos.
He was a veteran and had experienced his fair share of sieges, but while he had seen gates destroyed, he had never encountered such a brutish tactic of bringing down the fortress itself.
“Aaargh! I get it! We lose! Stop!”
The squad leader screamed, but with the photons laden with mass beating against the fortress as if it were a percussion instrument, his voice couldn't travel more than a meter.
‘Dammit! This can’t be happening!’
This was truly dangerous.
If the fortress collapsed, the fate of forty lives would be left in the hands of the gods.
“Ughhhh!”
Shirone furrowed his brow and focused on Rampage. With a uniform rhythm, neither accelerating nor decelerating, it was pushing everything around it outward.
From a position with a clear view of the fortress wall, Tess watched the scene in a daze.
First, the center of the wall was partially destroyed, and then hysterical cracks spread along it. The left side seemed to sink slightly, and then the right side settled as if to balance it.
And finally…
*Ruuuuuumble!*
The entire fortress came crashing down.
“My god… He’s just a human weapon, isn’t he?”
Rian agreed with Tess’s assessment. Until now, Shirone had mostly used his magic to protect others.
He was now realizing just how different the outcome could be when that same magic was used with the true intent to destroy.
“It’s certainly incredible. It seems I didn’t know the real Shirone either.”
Amy smiled in agreement. Combat wasn’t everything for a mage, but it was undoubtedly a matter of pride.
“Shirone doesn’t usually escalate things. But when he sets his mind to it, his combat abilities are outstanding. At this rate, he could easily rank among the top of the graduating class.”
Tess let out a small laugh. She understood what Amy was getting at.
‘So she was worried about him, whether she knew it or not. She’s not as tough as she looks.’
Amy was genuinely happy about Shirone’s growth. At this rate, perhaps graduating alongside Shirone wouldn't just be a dream.
‘You’ve caught up, Shirone.’
When the Rampage ended, the fortress wall had completely collapsed. The section built on the valley side managed to retain some of its shape, but the center had caved in as if a giant boulder had rolled over it.
“Ughhh…”
Soldiers buried under the rubble groaned and stirred.
Not a single person was left unscathed. The squad leader who had tried to stop Shirone hadn’t escaped the collapse either and had a broken arm.
But he was too stunned to even feel the pain.
The years of hardship he endured to establish their northern hideout over the past five years flashed before his eyes like a panorama.
“Impossible. Wiped out by a single person? The Parrot Mercenary Corps?”
The sound of Shirone’s approaching footsteps made the leader flinch and turn his head. When he met Shirone’s intense gaze, an irrepressible fear surged within him.
“Bring me Jis’s sister, now! Or else you’ll regret it!”
“Eek!”
The leader instinctively covered his face. As he did, his broken arm swung down like a pendulum, dangling before his eyes.
“Guuuh…!”
Upon seeing his own grotesquely bent arm, the leader’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
Shirone’s party.
First gate, cleared.
***
“Wow. That’s amazing, Shirone.”
Marsha had been watching Shirone’s battle from 200 meters away.
Sitting on a handkerchief spread on the ground, she looked as carefree as a girl on a picnic.
It was sad that her men had been defeated. But wasn’t enduring such sorrow part of a mercenary’s life? She was someone who had lost hundreds after being deceived by the schemes of politicians.
“To be that strong and hide it so perfectly. Or maybe he was so confident because he was strong?”
She knew he was a talented kid when it came to magic, but she never expected him to perform to this extent.
What was most impressive was that all of Shirone’s magic was applied from his own unique foundation.
‘An Un-locker…’
Marsha was in a good mood.
She liked that Shirone was strong, and she also liked that he was a hypocritical human who tried to embrace the pain of others.
But the most exciting part was the fact that this pure and beautiful boy would soon be crushed by her own hands.
“You’re ten years too early to catch me, kid.”
Marsha stretched and stood up. Her bracelet glowed intensely, and in an instant, her body was sent flying to the northern cliffs.
Second Encounter (1)
Shirone’s party continued north. Since most of Falcoa’s men were injured at the first gate, there were no more battles.
“This way.”
Navigating the forest was Amy’s responsibility.
It was easy to lose one's sense of direction when running blindly through a natural maze.
But such common sense didn’t apply to Amy. Tess, following behind her, realized that Amy had a real talent for espionage.
‘I see. So this is another way to use Red Eyes.’
Amy’s self-image memory could perfectly restore her state to a specific point in time. Therefore, as long as she didn't lose consciousness, she could pinpoint her direction no matter where she was moved.
“Amy, there’s a mountain path over there.”
Hearing Shirone, Amy immediately changed direction and left the forest.
A winding mountain path snaked its way to the top of the ridge.
Tess checked the ground. Though some time had passed, the tracks of a wagon were still visible.
“Their living quarters start from here. In siege terms, I guess this means we’ve entered the inner castle?”
It was welcome news for the group, who were exhausted from running through the forest.
However, it wasn’t a situation where they could relax just yet. Although they had dealt with most of the troops, they hadn't seen a single one of the so-called executives.
“If we follow this path, we should find their hideout. Let’s push on a little more.”
Amy said it as if it were a fact, but she couldn’t be sure. It was a statement born from her sense of duty as the leader to boost her friends’ morale.
Currently, combining the combat movements and the curved travel distance recorded in her self-image memory, they had moved approximately 12 kilometers since the battle began. Converted to a straight line, that meant they had advanced more than 7 kilometers on the map.