Chapter 446
Chapter 446
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 446
Chapter Title: Mental Armament (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Two iron rings interlock to form a world, and within it, everything changes.
That is the Sun-Moon Light Wheel.
It is the technique that made Sein the strongest of the Black Line's mental-type users, allowing him to perfectly control the environment within the horizontal limits of Equalizing.
In other words, if the horizontal value is 100, it's possible to reduce speed to 1 while increasing power to 99.
The actual mechanism isn't this straightforward, as the variables are infinite depending on the settings, but it holds the formidable potential to defeat even opponents far superior to oneself, depending on how it's wielded.
-New program detected. Searching.
Babel's light wheel immediately recognized the change in the world.
The most significant change was that Sein's speed now surpassed hers.
It wasn't that Sein had gotten faster, nor that Babel had slowed down.
To be precise, it was the result of Equalizing the relative velocity between the two entities.
The number of Babel's kill-response protocols, which had reached 2.7 billion, plummeted to a mere 2 million.
It had been a long time since Babel had performed calculations to this extent for a single entity, let alone a human.
Of course, there were still 2 million possibilities remaining to instantly kill Sein.
But what made Babel truly terrifying was that she was a completely emotionless program, incapable of feeling even a sense of relief about that.
No carelessness, no impatience.
Babel simply repeated her existing calculations, relentlessly pressuring Sein.
‘Truly troublesome.’
Having Equalized hundreds of environmental factors to his advantage, Sein had lowered his mental power to balance the horizontal value.
As one of the most prominent mental-type mages, his Spirit Zone was as vast as Zoner's, but it had now shrunk to a mere 20 square meters.
Babel immediately closed in for close-quarters combat.
She had no reason to refuse if it meant increasing the number of kill-response protocols by 830,000.
‘A monster. Not a single opening.’
It was a level of martial prowess that left even Sein, who had faced countless powerful foes, speechless.
It wasn't a transcendent ability, but her combat power, derived from a flawless algorithm, was comparable to that of an angel.
Kiiing! Kiiing!
Each time Babel's hand-blade grazed Sein's cheek, a sharp roar pierced his eardrums.
‘I'm already caught in a trap.’
He felt that Babel was beginning to grow certain of something.
I can't hold on.
If this continued, Sein's head would be severed in the next ten seconds.
-Kill-response protocols: 32,564.
Cause leads to effect, and that effect in turn becomes the cause of a new effect.
Every causal link since the start of the battle contributed to the current outcome, causing the number of response protocols to drop exponentially.
And that meant only one thing.
‘I'm going to die!’
Even at the moment Sein was certain of his death, the rebels couldn't move.
Only Sein was aware of his clear and impending doom.
KWAAAAAANG!
Just then, a massive steel pillar slammed down before his eyes.
Before he could even check on Babel, who was pinned to the ground, Sein looked up.
A 30-meter-tall mech stood in a pose, having struck the ground with its arm.
It was a Titan, part of the Mecha Combat System, Stage 3.
The rebel command had only three of these units. With a mass of nearly 3,000 tons, its formidable physical power and the might of its Thermal Flash Cannon, generated by magnetic pulses, were the pinnacle of mecha technology.
Producing a single unit required hundreds of thousands of elixirs and thousands of tons of minerals, and not just anyone could design the programs that made up its system.
If a Piper was needed to operate a Guroi, a Titan could not be controlled without boarding a Guroi.
This was because moving a single arm of the Titan required 10 tons of physical strength.
Power was transferred in the order of Piper, Guroi, and then Titan, making it an extremely sensitive piece of equipment for its size. As such, its combat effectiveness varied greatly depending on the pilot's skill.
The one piloting Titan Unit 1, which had crushed Babel, was the genius pilot and rebel commander, Crude.
He hadn't intervened because he knew Sein was in danger. It was confidence that he could definitely finish her off now.
But that confidence was shattered moments later by the immense force pushing back against the controls.
“Kughhh!”
With the sound of scraping metal, Babel was lifting the Titan's massive palm with both hands.
As Crude pulled on the controls, the plasma engine roared as if it would explode, transferring power.
The more he did, the faster Babel's light wheel spun.
Eventually, it spread out like a nova, pushing away the impossible weight as she pulled her body free.
KUUUAAAAANG!
As the Titan's palm crashed down again, the ground ruptured, and a pillar of earth dozens of meters high shot up.
Sein retreated smoothly, taking in the entire battlefield.
A web of fire from the Guroi decorated the sky, while the two remaining Titans fired their Thermal Flash Cannons at the flying Babel.
Among the squad members fighting frantically were Kanya and Lena, who had lost their father.
“Die!”
Kanya pulled the trigger, tears streaming down her face.
But it was impossible to hit an object faster than a bullet.
-Babel Program: Activating Area-of-Effect Combat System.
-Target: All enemies.
-Combat Pattern: Massacre.
-Kill-response protocols: 7.
Applying a new algorithm, Babel tore across the battlefield at a terrifying speed.
Every Guroi in the path of the silver flash exploded and collapsed.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each time the three Titans struck the ground, the vibrations reached Sein's feet, even from dozens of meters away.
‘The Guroi can't defeat her. She's an enemy beyond any category of comparable strength.’
Crude used his exquisite piloting skills to pursue Babel.
Her speed was difficult to follow with the naked eye, but Babel's trajectory was still being drawn on the radar.
However, it was only measuring her inertia; hitting the target was entirely up to the pilot.
‘There!’
VWOOOOOSH!
The Titan's shoulders opened, and dark, cave-like muzzles emerged, firing the Thermal Flash Cannon.
-Evasion probability: 0 percent. Shifting to defensive posture.
Babel stopped flying and crossed her arms in an X-shape. Simultaneously, a tremendous flash of light slammed the metal body to the ground.
KWAAAAAANG!
On the spot where the earth had turned dark red and melted like lava, Babel stood on bended knees, emitting smoke.
‘Damn it! What in the world is she made of?’
It was definitely not pure mineral.
But he couldn't imagine what kind of alloy could possess such thermal durability.
‘Ten seconds.’
If they could focus the Thermal Flash Cannon's energy for just over ten seconds, even the mighty Babel would have no choice but to melt.
But having calculated that far, Crude gave a bitter smile.
It was only natural when he considered what Babel could do in ten seconds.
As time passed, casualties mounted.
Even though Sein had Equalized all environmental factors to Babel's disadvantage, they were still being pushed back.
‘Strange. This is really strange.’
It was only after taking a step back from the battle that Sein realized it.
That machine was by no means made by humans.
It merely looked like a machine; its internal programming was far beyond the entirety of human knowledge.
The work of an angel? Or something more?
That was the extent of the strangeness Sein felt from Babel.
-Changing combat system.
Once the number of rebels had been reduced to a preset amount, Babel finally stopped moving.
“Now! All units, attack!”
Crude immediately gave the order, and thousands of bullets struck her.
Sparks flew from Babel's body, which was like a flame itself.
-Map weapon activated. Codename: Babel.
At last, Babel revealed her true purpose.
She bent her upper body back like a bow, her neck detaching and flipping behind her back, and then her chest opened.
A cannon barrel embedded with a glass sphere was revealed. With her entire torso now behind her legs, her arms and legs dug into the ground to act as supports.
KRRRRRRRRR!
An electrical phenomenon occurred in front of the glass sphere on Babel's cannon, which was aimed at the Titans.
“Thermal Flash Cannon! Fire directly at her!”
Sensing the crisis, Crude focused the six muzzles of the three Titans.
Firing an area-of-effect weapon directly at the ground was against combat protocol, but this was no time to be picky.
Just as six streams of the Thermal Flash Cannon surged toward Babel, a massive photon cannon fired from her glass sphere.
When the two energies collided, the entire command center lit up as bright as day, and the world filled with the sound of burning.
Crude's Titan, a hole blown through one shoulder, staggered as if it would collapse at any moment.
“Kugh! Damn it!”
-Babel test fire complete. Activating rapid fire.
From Babel's cannon, particle beams were fired in all directions, as if mocking the power of the previous shot.
A map weapon, literally.
It was enough firepower to annihilate the entire command center within a minute.
“Damn it! I have no choice!”
Sein rushed toward Babel and attempted his final method.
As he slammed the Sun-Moon Light Wheel's Equalizing into Babel's system, Vwoooong! his mind vibrated and his consciousness scattered as if in a dream.
‘What in the world is this…’
A system so vast and complex that even he, who had trained his mind countless times, felt himself sinking into a swamp of oblivion.
And at the center of those countless circuits, a stream of blue light was piercing through.
***
“Hah, hah.”
In the desolate Niflheim, where everything was frozen, only the guide's panting could be heard.
Even he, who had a contract with an ice spirit, seemed unable to last for more than a few hours like this.
It was only natural, as even the Tier 2 monster, a Salamander, could no longer raise its flames.
They hadn't frozen to death yet, but the shadow of it was slowly creeping up their ankles.
Gangnan barely managed to open his frozen mouth.
“Where in the world is Hel? We didn't take a wrong turn, did we?”
The guide answered in a dying voice.
“I just came the way I was taught. Anything more… I don't know…”
The guide was paying a heavy price for his greed.
His dream of taking a mountain of Black Elixir and becoming the ruler of the mainland was nothing but a mirage in the face of his current reality.
“I… I can't go on…”
Just as the guide was about to utter his last words, Zulu stopped walking.
The harsh cold was pushing her body into a terrible state, but her face remained calm.
“Gaold, over there.”
Beneath the ice sheet where Zulu was pointing, a massive shadow was moving.
Smaller shadows flowed in from all directions and merged, rising into a convex, bell-like shape before emerging above the ice.
An enemy?
In any case, it was the first change they had seen since dealing with the horde of Grim Reapers.
And that was precisely why Gaold had patiently followed the guide this far.
For a moment, no one moved.
It was an utterly natural scene in Niflheim, but the moment the risen darkness began to reveal its true form, everything changed.
KUKUKUKUKUKUKUNG!
As the ice sheet shook, Gangnan steadied himself and glared at the darkness.
Something ten meters tall, wearing a black robe with a white sash, was rising into the sky.
Its legs were not visible, and the end of its robe was split into dozens of fluttering strips.
‘This is… incredible!’
Gangnan gritted his teeth and took a combat stance.
The sun itself was darkening.
Chiiik!
Hearing a sound from below, he turned his head to see the Salamander's flames completely extinguished as it began to freeze over.
“Uh, uhhh?”
The guide let out a surprised sound.
A wave of ecstasy spread from his toes. But by the time the feeling reached his head, he had already become a solidly frozen corpse.
“That's incredible magic power.”
Zulu erased the Salamander's corpse and focused her mind.
What kind of counter she would employ would depend on the opponent's nature.
“I am Hel, the God of Death.”
Gaold's eyebrow twitched.
“Wanderers of Niflheim, I shall collect your lives.”
“Kukuku.”
Even facing an opponent incomparable to the Grim Reapers, Gaold strode forward without hesitation.
With the Salamander gone, he would now have to create fire with his own body.
“I see, so that's what it was. It wasn't a place.”
The king of Niflheim, the land called Death.
That was the true identity of Hel.