Chapter 415
Chapter 415
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 415
Chapter Title: The Second Purgatory (2)
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Shirone and his party made their way toward the mainland.
Traveling on Zulu's summoned creatures would have been faster, but not knowing the state of conflict in Purgatory, it wasn't a wise choice.
The skies of Heaven, in particular, were swarming with angels, maras, and drones, so they wanted to avoid being spotted from a distance beyond the range of Etella's Spirit Zone.
However, contrary to their expectations, the Forest of the Profane was far too quiet.
It was a surprise to them, who had imagined scenes of angels patrolling the skies, wiping out heretics and rebels.
Kangnan asked.
“How should we interpret this? An unexpected change? Or proof that the rebel forces have been annihilated?”
“Either is a possibility.”
At Sein’s words, Plu tilted her head.
“Is it possible for the forest to be quiet even if the rebels haven't been wiped out?”
“Logically, it’s impossible. But by that same logic, Miro’s disappearance is also impossible. Anything can happen. We have to see it that way for now.”
Sein was once again feeling the same sense of unease he had felt in Miro’s spacetime.
No, the fact that the situation in Purgatory was also different from what he'd expected was making his anxiety grow even stronger.
*‘This was something I planned, holding my breath for twenty years. So why is it going so wrong?’*
Could he really trust his instincts right now?
Perhaps this, too, was a coincidence. Anyone could look at a result and fit a cause to it after the fact.
Sein came to a simple conclusion.
*‘Let’s not overthink it. I just need to calculate for both situations. I can do it.’*
“Someone’s there.”
Etella stopped and looked to her right.
Of course, she hadn't sensed them nearby. A variety of information was flowing in from her Spirit Zone, which spanned a two-kilometer radius.
A group of about twenty individuals was moving with an athleticism that surpassed the normal range.
The clang of weapons clashing and the sound of explosions were transmitted to her through synesthesia.
“They’re fighting. About 800 meters away.”
Plu glanced at Gaold and asked.
“Do we check it out?”
She was asking for permission to increase their speed.
Since the current situation in the forest was unexpected, laying low was one option, but Gaold chose a direct approach.
“We check it out.”
The moment the order was given, the entire team vanished in a flash of movement.
Zulu handled transportation for Kuan and Kangnan, and since everyone but Shirone was a professional, navigating the complex forest was no problem.
Shirone, too, had mastered the advanced difficulty of movement control in his final year, but there was a clear difference in skill level depending on one's class.
In particular, the movements of Gaold, Sein, Zulu, and Armin at the front were like specters phasing through the complex terrain, reminiscent of flying machines.
*‘How much training does it take to move like that?’*
Upon arriving at the scene, the earlier silence vanished, and the forest was filled with clamor.
“Chase them! Rip out their hearts!”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
The Kergo, clad in black armor, let out their characteristic shrieks as they pursued the Mecha.
Their movements, as one with their mounts, were like a gale, but the Mecha were not slow enough to be caught easily.
*‘What is that?’*
The Mecha’s mobility came from mechanical devices connected by a skeletal frame worn on the outside of their bodies.
The frame ran across their shoulder blades, connecting to both arms, then descended from the neck along the spine and extended to both legs.
*Ching! Ching!* The joints rotated with a crisp sound in time with the wearer's movements, and with each push off the ground, their leaps extended by five, even six meters.
“Power-assist devices, Pipers. They’re Mecha combatants.”
The Mecha zipped and flew through the forest as if they had springs on the soles of their feet.
But the Kergo were also exceptional hunters.
They had imperceptibly herded the Mecha into an encirclement when one of them burst from the woods in a surprise attack, swinging a sword.
“Hmph!”
A Mecha soldier raised their Exd.
A holographic shield spread out, creating a shockwave, but the Schema’s physical strength was slightly superior, and the soldier stumbled and fell to the ground.
The Mecha soldiers gathered around their fallen comrade and looked around.
The Kergo, having cut off their escape route, were appearing one by one, surrounding them from all sides.
The Mecha squad leader, a woman with short hair, brought a drone attached to her wrist to her lips and whispered.
“This is Recon Team 2. We are currently surrounded by the Kergo. Requesting backup.”
There was no response.
But given the nature of radio communication, she couldn't be certain the request hadn't gone through.
*‘Please, please…’*
Twenty meters away, Shirone’s party watched the situation unfold.
The Kergo prided themselves on their excellent tracking skills, but they were powerless in the face of Sein’s Equilibrium.
With the ability grinding even the sound of their breathing into silence, their five senses were rendered useless.
Kangnan looked back at Gaold and asked.
“Which way are we going? Kergo? Mecha?”
This was the first crossroads they had encountered since arriving in Heaven.
The subjects were divided into three races—Kergo, Mecha, and Norr—each with different combat methods, cultures, and ways of thinking.
They needed to be cautious, as the race they started with would completely change the path to reaching Miro.
*Rustle.*
The bushes stirred, and a Kergo warrior patrolling the perimeter of the formation appeared.
The warrior’s eyes widened as if his heart had stopped.
It was only natural to be shocked when ten people suddenly appeared in a spot where even his sensory Schema had detected nothing.
His head snapped back toward his comrades, and he swelled his lungs to shout.
“The—...”
Gaold’s hand moved in a swift blur.
“—re…!”
With a sickening thud, the Kergo warrior’s head was torn from his shoulders.
Shirone and Plu stared blankly at the muscular body twitching without a head before shaking themselves back to reality.
If a normal human response was to suppress emotion and act on rational judgment, Gaold's reaction just now had been purely mechanical.
“In any situation, if you judge that you must kill someone, then kill them. I will handle the consequences. Even if it turns out to be the wrong choice, I will consider no situation worse than a team member’s death.”
It was, in a manner of speaking, a Gaold-issued license to kill.
It was an absolutely correct method for ensuring the team's survival, but to not even question the rightness or wrongness of a judgment was something only Gaold, who could crush any situation with force, could say.
This was also almost the sole reason he had been appointed as the team's commander.
Kangnan glanced at Gaold and asked.
“Since it’s come to this, are we choosing the Mecha?”
For humans, there are countless values more important than the death of another, but the Kergo were an organization bound by divine law.
Having already killed one of them, the barrier to compromise was now higher with them than with the Mecha.
“For Anke La!”
Gaold’s eyes twitched in annoyance.
“We’re going with the Mecha.”
As soon as the words were spoken, Kuan shot forward. This kind of job was perfect for a hitman.
“Squad Leader! If we keep this up, we’ll be wiped out!”
The Mecha were barely holding on, taking a severe beating.
The Pipers augmented their strength, but the function was limited to large muscle groups, making it nearly impossible to win a melee against the Kergo warriors, whose entire bodies were weapons.
“Retreat! I’ll handle this!”
The squad leader threw herself into the jaws of death.
She knew what happened to those captured for heresy, but she had to buy even a little time to hope for reinforcements.
“Cut off that woman’s limbs and bring me just her torso!”
The words alone were enough to make one’s teeth chatter.
She wanted to run, but the Kergo warriors had already leaped above her, swinging their broadswords to sever her arms.
*Whoooosh!*
At that moment, a powerful gust of wind swept through, and a blurry afterimage flashed past the Kergo warriors.
“What—!”
The woman’s eyes wavered in shock.
The faces of the Kergo warriors were detaching from their bodies and falling away as if corks were being popped from bottles.
*‘Seven left.’*
Spinning in mid-air, Kuan pinpointed the locations of the remaining enemies.
He had killed six with a single slash, and no one knew that the process of that one slash had involved twelve minute variations.
“Enemy! Kill him!”
Only after losing half their forces did the Kergo notice the attacker's presence and launch themselves forward.
Kuan's body, bound by threads of exogravity extending in three directions, continued its bizarre movements.
He vibrated like a pendulum, then suddenly shot forward. Blood sprayed from the bodies of the four men he passed.
*‘Three more.’*
Another warrior was decapitated.
*‘Two.’*
The enraged Kergo captain’s eyes widened.
They too could use exogravity, but only as a supplementary means to slash an enemy. He had never seen such strange movements that made him feel as if he were being mocked.
“Do not mock the techniques of the Kergo!”
As the captain swung his glaive, Kuan’s trajectory bent as if two like-poled magnets had met, sending him flying past the captain.
“Haha! You’re caught!”
It was a basic Kergo tactic: setting a trap.
A warrior with a ponytail, who had been lying in ambush, brought his sword down on the incoming Kuan.
“Huh?”
But he felt no impact.
When he looked up, Kuan, who should have been within his sword’s range, was floating motionless in the air.
Kuan glared irritably at the ponytail warrior, then slowly turned his gaze to the side.
Simultaneously, his body spun like a top, pulling him toward the captain as if a thread were being wound.
“Captain! Behind you!”
Before the captain could react, Kuan’s sword slit his throat.
Landing on the ground as the exogravity dissipated, he spun and threw his sword.
Flying faster than an arrow, the sword pierced the chest of the falling ponytail warrior and embedded itself in a tree.
With the Kergo annihilated, silence fell over the forest.
It had been a dazzling fight, but it had all happened in the span of a mere five seconds.
Only then did Shirone's party enter the scene.
They were inwardly marveling at Kuan’s skill, which they had only heard about in rumors, but the man himself wore a look of irritation.
*‘Damn it! Just how much of a piece of trash have I become?’*
In the past, he could have cut them all down before a single breath of exogravity had passed.
But now, he had actually left one standing, and the final kill was nothing more than an improvisation using a thrown blade.
“Mr. Kuan, are you alright? Are you injured…?”
As Shina approached, Kuan quickly wiped the expression from his face. He had no desire to receive her pity.
“My apologies. It seems my balance isn't perfect yet.”
Shina tilted her head.
What Kuan had done wrong was something she, a mage, could never possibly know.
After a moment of thought, she simply said what she had prepared.
“That was truly amazing. I haven't seen much of a swordsman's skill, but I feel like I've broadened my horizons this time.”
To Kuan, her words were rather embarrassing.
He simply gave a bitter smile and walked past her. Shina looked back at him.
*‘Did I say something wrong?’*
Meanwhile, as Gaold approached, the Mecha clutched their weapons with tense expressions.
Though these newcomers had saved their lives, it was difficult to clearly distinguish friend from foe in Purgatory.
More importantly, if a single swordsman could annihilate a Kergo unit, they were clearly outmatched in terms of skill.
“Who are you people? Are you heretics?”
Gaold looked at Sein.
Some of the team members had learned the language of Heaven, but more than half needed a translator.
When Sein’s psychic magic finally made the woman’s words understandable, Gaold took another step forward.
The Mecha flinched back in unison.
The Pipers attached to their bodies made a *ching* sound as their joints narrowed to accommodate the movement.