Chapter 107: The Beast, the Beast King, and the Human - 3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 107: The Beast, the Beast King, and the Human - 3
A battle that shook heaven and earth was unfolding before Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz's eyes.
The Dog King, the Cat King, and the Progenitor.
It was truly a confrontation that would decide the fate of the world. Even if that wasn't literally true, from Callis's perspective, it might as well have been.
Her fate hung on the outcome of this fight.
The clanking leash yanked her forward. Callis instinctively threw herself forward, but she couldn't keep up with the speed at which the chain was pulled. She had to tumble gracelessly across the ground.
Even as the chain tightened around her neck, causing her pain, Callis repeated one thing to herself.
‘I can't give up on life. I will live. I'll survive, no matter what. I'll survive… rise to the top… and claim my father's legacy…’
But could she do it?
A moment ago, the Progenitor's fist had slammed into the frenzied Nabi's chest.
It was far too lethal to be dismissed as a mere punch.
The moment the clenched fist met Nabi's chest, a sickening crack of something breaking echoed out. From the point of impact, crimson blood energy erupted like a sun.
Afterward, Nabi was sent flying like a bullet, hurtling down the corridor without even being able to flail her arms and legs.
If Nabi had been an ordinary creature, her chest would have caved in and she would have stopped breathing the instant she was hit.
But her opponent was the Cat King.
As she flew, Nabi's red eyes snapped open, and she let out a ferocious roar. Mid-flight, she twisted her body acrobatically to land on the wall, then licked her forepaw while glaring this way with sharp eyes.
Then, she vanished into the darkness.
A cat that had hidden its presence was no different from one that had vanished from the world. No one could see her, no one could hear her. Nabi only existed in the world when she chose to reveal herself.
Because of this, the Progenitor and Azzy were forced onto the defensive. Each of them was shackled.
The Progenitor, because she was protecting the laborer...? Or whatever he was.
And the Dog King, because she was protecting Callis. To be precise, she was making sure Callis didn't die in the crossfire.
‘The Dog King… is trying to save me. Perhaps even more than I'm trying to save myself.’
And yet, here she was, only holding the Dog King back. Tied to a leash, with her own life as a hostage.
It was a ridiculous situation, enough to make her laugh bitterly, but there was nothing Callis could do.
‘If I resist here… what will change?’
What if I resist? What if the Cat King is defeated?
The people in Tantalus are criminals, captured and thrown away by the Military State. Siding with them would only lead to a bleak future.
Instead, if the Cat King wins, and the Human Regime achieves its goal, what Callis would gain was….
What she would gain was….
What was it?
As Callis pondered, Rasch's right thumb suddenly came into view. She reflexively moved to grab it, but—
Clank.
The heavy chain wrapped around her neck pulled her back.
‘…The chain.’
Only this chain, which had pulled her, choked her, and tried to kill her.
It was the only thing she had gained from following the Human Regime.
The medal she once wore with pride, which turned out to be utterly useless.
The suicide packet that wore the mask of hope.
The chain wrapped around her neck, disguised as an order.
The Cat King, too.
All of them had only tried to kill her.
In contrast, Rasch and Azzy, who had tried to save her, were now in a miserable state, rolling on the ground. They were bleeding to save her, in her place.
Callis quietly recalled Rasch's words.
‘…My father's legacy… is me.’
She may have been a precious daughter to her father, but Callis was precious to no one.
She'd made it to Lieutenant Colonel, yet she knew nothing.
What the Human Regime was planning, who they were using as disposable pawns.
Despite being a Lieutenant Colonel of the Military State, she was no different from a level 1 citizen. No, she was even more insignificant than a level 0 laborer. At least that laborer...? had been prepared to strangle a colonel to death.
…Though she wasn't sure if he really was a level 0 laborer.
Like him, for Callis to survive right now, she had to follow one simple rule.
“I have to break this chain.”
There was no need to think about later. Callis was such an insignificant human that even the rank of Lieutenant Colonel was wasted on her. Thinking about the future or prospects was as futile as trying to read the waves while watching a storm rage over the sea at night.
Such things were the exclusive domain of those with the ability to do so.
For the Callis of now, not even the next second was guaranteed.
She had to do her best to survive, moment by moment.
“Starting now.”
Callis gripped her belt.
The packets were gone now. The special packets bestowed upon her by the Human Regime had long since been used up. Instead, all she had left was a trivial memory tucked deep inside.
The legacy her father had passed down to her.
A house, an automaton carriage, a gold-leafed sword, and a combat arm.
The only part of that legacy she could carry with her... the combat arm. It was hidden deep in a pouch on her belt.
The reason Callis wore a belt with pouches was to always keep that combat arm with her.
It wasn't particularly impressive, it was an old model, and it only covered a part of her left arm, so the Military State hadn't even recognized it as a proper combat arm and had discarded it.
Thanks to that, it became a legacy, the only weapon in Callis's possession.
“Call to Arms.”
Muttering softly, Callis plugged the combat arm packet into the bio-receptor on her left arm. Immediately, an alchemical glow flared as the compressed steel unfurled strand by strand.
An officer is completed by their combat arm.
The Military State, a nation with a short history of only twenty-five years since the military government took power.
The reason the Military State—which had seized power by overthrowing the monarchy in a coup—was able to solidify its position among neighboring countries was its rapid military expansion, achieved by incorporating all sorts of technologies.
Clank, clank.
A sleek gauntlet made of metal scales materialized, covering her arm from elbow to fingertips. Once it was equipped, Callis clenched her left fist. A harsh metallic sound rang out as the metal plates scraped against each other.
The ability of this combat arm was simple: protection of the body.
It was an insignificant combat arm, nothing more than a high-performance glove.
Callis wasn't disappointed. A tool was only as good as its user. Even with a better combat arm, Callis wouldn't have been able to draw out its full power.
But this combat arm, which had been with her for half her life, would surely help her achieve her goal.
Trusting in it, Callis grabbed the lock that fastened the chain.
The chain was level 4 alchemic steel. With her abilities, Callis could never break it.
But the lock that fastened it was another story.
Lieutenant General Ebon, whom Callis had thought dead, had intended to put this chain on the colonel's neck. Therefore, the lock was merely a fastener to keep the chain from coming undone. There had been no reason to use something valuable.
Of course, that didn't mean the steel lock on the chain could be easily broken.
But if she could dismantle it without having to break it...
Callis gripped the lock with her gauntleted hand and drew up mana from her entire body.
The State's standard magic.
“Set, Re, Re, Re, Re….”
Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz of the Magic Corps.
The one chosen by the Human Regime from the Magic Corps, which was composed entirely of officers due to its unique nature.
Like most mages, she wasn't very useful in small-scale battles, but the true essence of standard magic lay in its versatility.
The gauntlet, wreathed in mana, grew scorching hot.
Body mediation magic was an old-fashioned method of manifesting miracles using one's own body as a medium.
It was a method often used by mages of old, but it fell out of use because of the problem of the user having to bear the full backlash created by overwriting the world's rules. It left behind only the saying, 'The stronger the mage, the sooner they die.'
However, after the Military State invented bio-receptors and Clothing Packets, making it possible to offload some of the cost the body had to bear onto the packets via an Arch-Avatar, standard magic proudly became its own branch of magic.
“…Re, Re, Realke, Decay, Munde.”
The mana gathered, and the spell began.
De-alchemization, Corrosion, Fracture.
Three spells, each reaching Level 2, manifested simultaneously.
A combination spell: Alchemical Deconstruction. Provisional rating: level 3.
The level 3 spell, which crumbled any alchemical material it touched, slowly ate away at the lock.
When the lock was sufficiently weakened, Callis squeezed the gauntlet.
CRUNCH.
The lock, cracked, corroded, and deconstructed, shattered to pieces inside her fist. As a price, the palm of her gauntlet disintegrated into dust. Because she had set it up in a hurry, some of her skin was deconstructed as well, and blood trickled from her palm.
Regardless, she was free from the chain.
The chain felt lighter. Her throat, which had felt so constricted, now felt wide open.
Feeling a refreshing sense of liberation, Callis threw off the chain from her neck.
“Dog King!”
Completely free, Callis shouted to Azzy.
“I'm free! Don't worry about me anymore, just fight!”
“Woof? Woof! Woof…”
Azzy, who had turned her head at the clattering sound of the chain, barked happily upon seeing Callis free.
“…Good girl! Woof!”
Callis felt dizzy for a moment, but she quickly composed herself and shouted.
“Focus on the cat!”
“I know, woof!”
Nabi shot out from the darkness. The Dog King, sensing it by instinct, prepared to counterattack while trying to defend.
But instead of rising, Azzy's right arm dangled uselessly from her shoulder. Puzzled, Azzy looked down at her own arm.
“Woof? Yipe!”
Nabi lunged like a wild beast at the desperately twisting Azzy. Azzy ducked hastily. The forepaw, which had aimed for her head and missed, smashed the concrete wall as if it were tofu. Amidst the scattering dust, Azzy rolled on the ground to evade Nabi.
The chain was off, but the ordeal wasn't over.
The bestial roar that emerges when one's life is on the line.
When it must kill its enemy to survive, a beast unleashes pure killing intent. Stripping away everything else, it uses every ability at its disposal to kill the 'enemy'.
At this moment, the Cat King was a beast with the will to kill, trying to eliminate her foe in the way she knew best.
“Yipe, yipe!”
Azzy, wounded from protecting Callis all this time, could only be beaten one-sidedly by Nabi's hit-and-run attacks from the darkness.
The Progenitor took a step forward to help Azzy... but each time, Nabi hid in the darkness. It was a clear move to keep the Progenitor in check.
Unable to move far from the laborer, the Progenitor bit her lip and stepped back again.
A dog cannot unleash a bestial roar. For all ferocity is borne by the wolf.
The Progenitor cannot move. If she leaves her spot, the laborer...? will be in danger.
Right now, the only one who could help Azzy was Callis.
And Callis had to help Azzy.
If only to survive.
“Set.”
The gauntlet clanked. Callis drew up all her remaining mana and chanted clearly.
“Re, Re, Re, Re. Fahrenheit, Celsi, Kel.”
Set mana, condense, condense, condense, condense. And then, heat.
In an instant, Callis wreathed her left arm in the mana that had been condensed fourfold.
What manifested was Overheat. The gauntlet glowed red-hot. The steel scales, expanded by the heat, all stood on end, and crimson flames flickered through the gaps in the steel as if it were breathing fire.
Callis gritted her teeth against the excruciating pain, as if her arm were being cooked. The gauntlet offered some protection, but the heat it couldn't block seeped through her exposed palm. Her blood began to boil.
An intense heat that went beyond the combat arm, destroying even her own body.
But she couldn't stop.
Azzy falling was a bigger problem than her arm being burned off.
Callis layered more mana onto the arm already raging with it.
“Set, Aqus, Re, Pascal…!”
Add water and compress air. The heat gathered in her left hand greedily swallowed the water. She compressed the screaming droplets of water to their limit, and then...
Just before Nabi attacked Azzy.
She released the power.
“Steam Stream!”
A violent burst of steam was unleashed.
Overheated steel, a single drop of water within. The boiling steam repelled itself, erupting outward. Callis gathered that power to its limit and fired it from a single point.
It was steam, water that had become wind.
HIIISSSSSSS!
The steam shot out fiercely. Accompanied by a loud noise, a blast of searing, visualized white heat erupted with enough force to overturn the world. A Level 2 spell, possessing a decent amount of offensive power and utility.
It was just a Level 2 combat spell. It might work on a real cat, but for the Cat King, it was a trivial trick that wouldn't harm a single hair on her body.
However.
“Hiss!”
Startled by the unexpected attack, Nabi leaped back and fled.
When one gives in to the bestial roar, they lose their reason and follow instinct. To the Cat King, who hated both water and heat, hot steam was something indescribable.
Even if it was a trivial trick, magic was about twisting and deceiving the world. Callis drove Nabi back by spraying hot steam.
“D-don't come any closer!”
She screamed, not as a command, but as something closer to a plea, spraying the steam near Azzy.
Azzy herself didn't seem to welcome the white steam either, thumping her tail on the ground in annoyance, but Callis ignored it and stood by her side.
“She's already wounded. We just have to hold our ground! If we just buy time, the bestial rage is bound to subside!”
Shouting as if to convince herself, Callis kept the spell active and aimed it in all directions.
A dreadful silence consumed the Abyss. No one made a sound. Any noise might cause them to lose track of the cat hiding in the darkness.
Whenever Callis heard anything resembling a sound, she immediately shot a blast of steam. She didn't know if she hit her mark or not. She just hoped it would help.
And so, time slowly passed.
Beads of sweat trickled down her hair. The heat that had seeped into her body spread, drenching her in sweat. On the verge of exhaustion and dehydration, Callis barely held on to the spell.
Meanwhile, the Progenitor was raising dark knights to fill the darkness. If the Cat King tried to launch a surprise attack using the shadows, she would be noticed immediately.
Azzy, who had been licking her wounds, regained enough strength to move again. She placed both paws on the ground and crouched, ready to dash forward at any moment.
‘Good. If things keep going like this…’
I'll live. I'll survive.
Having defied a lieutenant general, she could never return to the Military State. She would never see what she had left behind again.
But if she had another chance, if she had time...
This time, she would build better memories.
As if hearing her wish, the thumb Callis was holding twitched.
A premonition, something close to foresight, came to Callis.
“I have returned!”
It was a voice she hadn't heard for long, yet already missed. For a moment, Callis's expression brightened.
Rasch, the Undying. What a welcome name.
His existence—undying even in death, always returning—was nothing but reassuring to Callis.
With this, they had one more ally. The chances of surviving the Cat King had increased.
And she was one step closer to the future she envisioned.
Just as Callis let her guard down for a moment, feeling a hopeful future draw near...
“Look out!”
When the laborer shouted, her reaction was too slow.
Shunk.
A tearing sound was followed by excruciating pain.
Callis tried to groan in pain, but even that was difficult. Something seemed to be holding her body tight, refusing to let go.
The heat that had been circulating inside her body escaped through her abdomen. With great effort, Callis lowered her head to see what had pierced her stomach.
Three blades were protruding from her abdomen.
They looked familiar. Three blades, spaced a finger's width apart.
They had to be... the lieutenant general's claws.
“For a traitor… there is only death. You know that, don't you, Lieutenant Colonel?”
Lieutenant General Ebon, his right arm now gone, whispered coldly to Callis.