Chapter 335: The Song of Wither And Fireblast - 3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 335: The Song of Wither And Fireblast - 3
Just as I thought, the Fireblastarch seemed to be a truly hot-headed man. He didn't even have a shred of self-control.
His spiky hair was adorned with countless round, iron rings. His hair, shoulders, even his clothes were so full of them that they clanked and rattled with every movement. His back bulged as if stuffed with something. He shot me a nasty glare and immediately pulled out a bomb.
It was a small cylinder, about the size of a finger joint, with a short fuse. It looked small, but my opponent was a Primarch of the Fallen Dominion. This wouldn't be easy.
He held an overflowing handful of bombs in both hands and shouted.
“I am Lord Rocket!!! If your ears are clogged, I'll drill you new ones. Listen up!”
“People are calling you the Fireblastarch.”
“That’s! What the idiots of the world! Call me whenever they damn well please!!!”
“Isn’t the function of a title to give people something to call you when they don’t know what to say? In that case, it seems fitting.”
The moment I finished speaking, the fuses on the bombs in Rocket’s hands lit up all at once. Hmm. That settles it.
I don't know who came up with the name Fireblastarch, but… they must have done it on purpose. Absolutely.
“The function of a bomb is to blow bastards like you to smithereens!”
Unable to contain his anger, Rocket furiously hurled the bombs.
The Fireblastarch Lord Rocket’s unique magic turns iron into a combustible material. Normally, steel only scorches and doesn't burn, but when touched by Rocket's power, it explodes violently like popcorn.
Being iron, its destructive power was surely incomparable to popcorn. And if he had ground it into a powder and packed it in there… even more so.
Oops. This isn't the time for that. I quickly shouted.
“Azzy! Dodge!!”
“Mwooooong!”
Azzy, sensing the danger first, shook her head.
The large cart spun in a circle around her. The sudden evasive maneuver nearly sent me flying. It was a good thing I had braced myself beforehand; otherwise, I would have been thrown far away.
After tossing me and the cart aside, Azzy bolted. A massive explosion erupted behind us. Dozens, hundreds of bombs detonated simultaneously, sending a wave of scorching air against my back.
“Whew. He gets pissed off and just explodes. I guess the name Fireblastarch really fits.”
“Shut uuuup! A punk like you dares to provoke me?!”
Rocket reached a hand toward the four-wheeled vehicle he was riding. The mana extending from his hand reshaped the vehicle’s structure.
The cover came off, and hidden propulsion units popped out. Eight in total. An excessive number of thrusters all aimed backward and spewed forth violent flames. A long, foghorn-like sound blared from the glowing pipes.
“A dogsled?! The speed you caught up to was only a quarter of my full power! Let’s see if you can dodge me at my best!”
KABOOOOOM! With a sound like a raging storm, Rocket tore through the air.
How is that a vehicle? He’s practically flying from the explosions. At top speed, he might even be faster than Azzy. Faster than the Beast King. Has humanity really reached that level?
Of course, Azzy is a four-legged beast. If she made agile evasive maneuvers, she could easily shake him off, but…
“Mwoooong! Dead weight!”
If she did that, I, the passenger, wouldn't be able to hang on. A sharp turn would send me and the cart tumbling across the ground into a bloody mess. Unable to risk injuring a human, Azzy had no choice but to keep running straight.
But it was fine. I didn't just have Azzy. I yelled at the top of my lungs toward the sky.
“Hurry up!”
“I’m on my way!”
The voice grew closer. Soon, the Regressor landed with a thud in front of me. Signaling Azzy to a halt, I shouted at the Regressor.
“What took you so long?”
“I came running the second I saw you! You’re the one who should have told me you found a Primarch!”
“Did I know I was going to find one before I found him?!”
“You could have at least said you were looking!”
Grumbling, the Regressor took out Jizan and struck the ground. The earth touched by Jizan’s trajectory buckled and rose, forming a low wall. It wasn't hard to climb over, but it was an awkward height for a wheeled vehicle.
“And who the hell are you?!”
Rocket’s four-wheeler changed the direction of its thrusters as it faced the earthen wall. The eight units turned toward us, creating a wall of fire. Killing his speed with a reverse thrust, Rocket shouted noisily.
Facing the screaming Rocket, the Regressor answered calmly.
“You’re the Fireblastarch, right? I have something to say.”
“Don’t call me the Fireblastarch! How many times do I have to tell you my name is Lord Rocket!!”
“Ah, sorry. Got it. Lord Rocket.”
There was no hidden meaning in the Regressor’s reply. She was just calling him by what she assumed was his name. Upon being called by his preferred title, Rocket’s demeanor softened considerably as he sat back down in his seat.
“Alright. Speak.”
What’s with this guy? Is he as easy to cool down as he is to heat up? It’s like his emotional specific heat is close to zero.
Perhaps there was a special connection between abnormal people. The Regressor proceeded to have the most amicable conversation I had ever seen her have.
“If you’re a Primarch, you must know the location of the Golden Palace, right? You also said you received an order from them.”
“Hmph! Of course!”
“Perfect. Tell me where the Golden Palace is.”
“What? For free?”
Rocket waved a hand as he asked.
“If you place your offer on one side of the scales, it’s only right to place something on the other. If I give you information, what do I get in return?”
‘Ah, right. The Fallen Dominion haggled over the price of every little thing, didn’t they? I almost forgot.’
The Regressor rummaged through her clothes and held something out. It was a multifaceted piece of gold—the Gold of Understanding.
“Here. This.”
“…Do you not know what scales are? You want to trade the right to be personally executed by the Golden Lord? You can’t even distinguish between what’s rare and what’s valuable. Get that cursed thing away from me!”
Rocket recoiled in disgust. As the Regressor hesitantly put the Gold of Understanding away, Rocket sighed and said.
“What you desire is information. Therefore, the other side of the scale must hold information of equal worth! Speak. If you have none, there is no deal!”
“Ugh. Wait a second…”
The Regressor frowned, recalling events from her previous timelines.
‘Information, information. I don’t remember meeting a Primarch called the Fireblastarch in a past life… Ah! That’s right! I saw in a propaganda leaflet that he was shot down and killed by the Gunmaster!’
Is information from a past life the only kind you have? That hasn’t even happened in this timeline. How on earth do you plan to persuade him with that?
The Regressor just went for it.
“You. You’ll die if a war breaks out.”
“…What did you say?”
“The war with the Military State. If a war breaks out as things are now, you’ll be the first to die.”
Hey. That hasn’t happened yet. Are you sure you should be saying that?
“We’re actually on our way to sign a ceasefire agreement. If the war stops, you won’t have to die. How about it? Kills two birds with one stone, right?” the Regressor replied with a shrug.
That was true. If the war stopped, the Fireblastarch wouldn't have to die. To the Regressor, who had personally experienced the tragedy and returned, a ceasefire was a win-win situation with no downsides.
However, the truth doesn't always move a person's heart. Like Lord Rocket, who was now glaring silently at the Regressor.
“A ceasefire? Is that a proposal from the Military State?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“And that’s why you attacked my Winged Assault Squad?”
“I didn’t exactly kill them, did I? Besides, they were indiscriminately killing the people of the Fallen Dominion.”
Rocket looked around.
Indeed, most of the Winged Assault Squad had simply fallen to the ground. The Regressor had only shut down their thrusters to stop the slaughter, and while Tyr was taking out her anger on them by dragging them around, she wasn't killing them either.
The ones attacking the Winged Assault Squad now were the enraged Dholes. But since they had clashed while fleeing, the squad’s losses were still minimal.
Having assessed the situation, Rocket rose from his vehicle.
“Hundreds of people have threatened to kill me before. They all scoffed at my power, calling me an idiot for throwing money at the ground. Do you know what I did to them?”
He didn't wait for an answer. Rocket stomped his foot hard. The back of the four-wheeler opened, and hundreds of rockets shot into the sky in formation.
“I shoved a rocket in their mouths and blew them up. Every single one of them.”
The rockets, embroidering the dark sky, exploded in mid-air. Tens of thousands of steel fragments contained within them rained down like fiery sparks. The steel, imbued with the Fireblastarch’s power, burned for no reason, swept up by the winds they themselves created.
It didn't matter if the thrusters had run out of fuel. With the Fireblastarch’s power filling the space, this land was now Rocket’s domain.
“This power of mine, united with the alchemy of the Golden Lord! A power to blow away everything that pisses me off!!”
The extinguished thrusters ignited all at once. The fallen Winged Assault Squad rose back into the air, powered by Rocket’s ability. They used the burning, scattering steel as fuel.
Standing against that backdrop, the Fireblastarch Lord Rocket was the very image of the conflagration of war.
“War?! Death?! Don’t make me laugh! Nothing has ever been able to kill me!!”
But the Regressor replied without much emotion.
“Then you’ll die next time.”
‘The Gunmaster’s Re, Zero In, is a perfect hit. Even if he flies, he’s slower than a bullet, so he’ll definitely get hit. And if she’s mastered the Consensus of Gun and Sword… that unit would be wiped out in an instant.’
The Regressor had it all figured out, but unfortunately, Rocket couldn't read minds. No, he was so hot-headed that even flattery could serve as kindling for his fire. The Regressor’s words were more than enough to ignite his rage.
“Go on!!! Just try and kill me!!!”
Rocket flung his hands out. The iron powder scattered in the air erupted into flames. The Regressor quickly created a barrier of wind with Chun-aeng and shouted.
“What, what?! Why all of a sudden?!”
Frankly, she had knocked on the wrong door.
“The war will happen! And it will begin with your deaths, growing ever fiercer!!”
The Fireblastarch Lord Rocket was a warmonger. He was someone who wanted war more than anyone else.