Chapter 336: The Song of Wither And Fireblast - 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 336: The Song of Wither And Fireblast - 4
There is an old folktale about a man who tasked his three daughters-in-law with filling a room using only a single coin. As is common with old tales, several answers have been passed down, but most involve filling the room with intangible things like sound, light, fragrance, or heat.
If that old tale were true, then the Abyssal Wastelands were now filled to the brim.
Bombs, blasts, smoke, explosions. The entire area was saturated with bombs and their byproducts. The explosives scattered by the Fireblastarch detonated indiscriminately, anytime and anywhere. Dust and dirt were swept up in clouds of smoke, and the ground was mercilessly gouged. The once-flat plains were now etched with historic contours.
Watching the carnage, Azzy barked.
“Woof woof! Bad humans! What a ruckus!”
“They’re not all bad. That guy is the bad one.”
While Azzy dragged me and the cart out of the blast radius, the Regressor confronted Rocket with Chun-aeng. After blocking the searing winds with a storm of her own, she glared at Rocket and shouted.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“This!”
Rocket slammed his bare hand on the ground. Instantly, metal spread through the earth like tree roots. The mana of alchemy was transmuting the dirt and sand into metal.
Though hastily made and thus soft and weak, even such low-grade metal could create value in the hands of a Primarch.
“Die in a blaze of glory!”
The metal that had burrowed deep into the ground exploded all at once.
The earth was torn apart and overturned. A whirlwind of smoke and dust blinded us completely. Only the vibrations traveling through the ground gave any sense of the explosion’s magnitude.
Terrified by the indiscriminate destruction, Azzy pulled the cart harder and howled.
“Awooooo! Damn humans!”
“My apologies, on behalf of all humans.”
“Woof!”
The combination of alchemy and Unique Magic cheated the natural order of value. Transmuting a pile of dirt would normally only result in a cheap scrap of iron, but the Fireblastarch could use it as a bomb.
Rocket, the Fireblastarch, who skillfully combined his Unique Magic and alchemy, was certainly strong.
But…
“You’re that eager to die?”
The Regressor was stronger.
She cut through the storm with Chun-aeng and severed the earth with Jizan. The tremendous explosion couldn’t even singe a single hair on her head, and she sliced through the metallic roots approaching her through the ground. Holding her twin swords horizontally, the Regressor muttered with cold, murderous intent.
“Alright. I'll grant your wish right now.”
And when it came to temper, she had more, not less. The moment she was certain he was an enemy, she swung Chun-aeng.
“Skyblade Art, Dragon Slayer!”
The smoke and dust were split diagonally. The elongated blade of Chun-aeng slashed through everything between the Regressor and Rocket. Slashed by an invisible blade from shoulder to flank, Rocket staggered violently.
“Keuk…!”
He stumbled and then collapsed onto his four-wheeler. The Regressor muttered, her eyes cold and placid.
“Hmph. Pathetic.”
Although their focus was different from the Military State’s, the Primarchs of the Fallen Dominion were skilled enough to be compared to the Six Generals. Of course, they were somewhat lacking in pure combat compared to the Six Generals, who trained for nothing else. Still, for the fight to be this one-sided…
It must be a matter of compatibility. The Regressor, who wielded a far greater Arcane than theirs, could devour any lesser Arcane but was ironically weaker against pure Qi Arts and martial skills.
Good thing I left it to her… Wait.
“Shei-ssi! Don’t let your guard down!”
The moment I shouted, having read the thread of his thoughts, dozens of bombs flew into the Regressor’s vision. Fortunately, even before my warning, she had reflexively taken a defensive stance. The Heavenly Counter Domain moved her body before her mind could even think, and Chun-aeng, rising like a serpent, precisely split the center of the explosion.
She succeeded in defending, but the sight that followed left her speechless.
As the smoke cleared, Rocket was hovering in the sky, looking down at her. He was equipped with wings dozens of times larger than those of the Winged Assault Squad, but unlike the mass-produced models, countless small thrusters were embedded in them like feathers. A large thruster on his tail feathers spewed crimson flames, keeping his body afloat, while launchers on his talons, ready to fire rockets, glowed with a menacing blue light.
It was the Fireblastarch’s Juggernaut, the Wyvern. The large four-wheeler he had been riding was merely its pre-transformation form.
He spread his flame-spewing wings wide and gasped for breath.
The Regressor’s eyebrow twitched.
“What? You’re alive?”
“Hah! Did you really think an attack like that could kill me?!”
That was close! If I didn't have my rebound armor, I would have died…!
Rebound armor. Reading his thoughts, I learned it was a type of armor that surrounded his body with directional explosives, which would detonate upon impact and push him away with the reactive force. It was a similar principle to Qi Deflection.
The difference was that it worked without him consciously activating it. Thanks to that, I hadn't been able to detect it beforehand, even with my mind-reading. On top of that, the shock of the explosion had knocked him out for a moment, so I really thought he was dead.
He’s a Primarch, after all. It makes sense he’d have a way to save his own skin.
“Hmph! So you were hiding a trick up your sleeve!”
“No, I wasn’t really hiding it.”
“But I won’t be careless anymore! I will kill you with all my might!”
With his shout, the Wyvern’s talons opened. Countless bombs rained down on her.
The explosions were ceaseless. Rocket flew through the sky at high speed, hurling all sorts of bombs at the Regressor. She ran to evade them, but Rocket kept up with her pace.
“Ugh, seriously! How annoying!”
The Regressor struck the ground with Jizan. The shattered earth flew up, and she used the rising chunks of rock as steps to leap into the air. Pointing Chun-aeng behind her, she propelled herself with a storm, launching herself toward Rocket like an arrow.
It was a truly acrobatic maneuver. In the blink of an eye, she was soaring through the air.
“Ha! Too slow!”
But no matter what she did, she was slower than Rocket, who was flying with thrusters. By the time she had launched herself high into the air, Rocket had already made a wide turn and was pulling away.
The Wyvern’s speed was as fast as an arrow, if not faster. He was too far to catch. The Regressor gave up the chase and fell back to the ground. Instead, she swung Chun-aeng at his retreating figure.
“Tch! Skyblade Art, Sundered Sky!”
“Not a chance!”
She swung Chun-aeng, but an explosion erupted in response. The Regressor steadied the recoiling sword and muttered.
“A barrier?”
“Hmph! This is the Wyvern’s Storm. Your stupid head wouldn’t understand even if I explained it!”
The Wyvern’s Storm, my ass. It’s just iron dust. A function of the Wyvern that scatters leftover iron dust into the air.
They were just tiny particles of iron, small enough to be carried by the wind, but Rocket’s ability turned them into miniature bombs. These tiny iron particles, designed to explode on contact, protected Rocket from the Regressor's attack.
Rocket spread his wings even wider and shouted.
“A blade of wind? You carry quite a precious item! But it’s still no match for me!”
“That bastard…! All he can do is run away!”
“It’s not running away, it’s being strategic!”
Having flown to an unreachable altitude, Rocket unleashed another barrage of bombs. Since she had just swung Chun-aeng, the Regressor couldn't dodge. Instead, she enveloped her entire body in Qi Deflection.
Kabooom. A massive explosion followed. Thick dust filled the air. Rocket looked at the scene and shouted in satisfaction.
“Haha! I got her!”
“What? With an explosion like this?”
However, bombs were not a very effective weapon against her. The Regressor, who had consumed all sorts of elixirs to build her strength, possessed a formidable amount of Qi. Her clothes were a bit sooty, but she had withstood the entire blast purely with Qi Deflection and now rested Jizan on her shoulder.
“You’re nothing but a fly buzzing around, thinking you’re special just because you can fly! Don’t get cocky with your pathetic little ability!”
“Pathetic ability?! You’re the one groveling on the ground with nothing but a sharp tongue!”
Rocket soared even higher and yelled.
“Everyone laughed at me, just like you! But in the end, the one who wins! The one left standing will be me!”
The battle that followed was loud but a little tedious.
The Regressor threw rocks or attacked Rocket with blades of wind. But Rocket was too fast, and she missed most of her shots. The few attacks that could reach him were blocked by his rebound armor. Even if she managed to hit a wing, the Juggernaut was unfazed by such minor attacks. Lacking any effective means of attack, the Regressor could only stomp her feet in frustration.
The same was true for Rocket. His lighter bombs couldn’t even scratch the Regressor’s Qi Deflection. His only option was to make more powerful bombs, but when she intercepted them in mid-air, he was the one caught in the blast. And he certainly didn’t dare get any closer. Rocket changed his strategy to one of attrition, aiming to wear down her Qi.
‘He's annoyingly fast! Tch, if I were the Gunmaster, I could've gotten him with Zero In. No, if Chun-aeng just had lightning imbued in it, this would be nothing! Is there no good way to handle this?’
‘Damn it. She's throwing rocks and blasting wind while maintaining her Qi Deflection? Does she have Qi to spare?’
With both sides lacking a decisive move, time just dragged on. The only one who could break this stalemate was…
Tyr wouldn’t be much use against a flying opponent like Rocket. It wasn’t the right time for Hilde to appear. That left only me.
Ugh, I don't want to steal his Unique Magic here... If others found out, they'd start suspecting my true identity.
“Azzy. Don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Woof? About what?”
Well, it’s not like a dog would understand what I’m doing anyway. I reached my hand toward the open air. The iron dust scattered from the explosions stuck to my hand, feeling heavy.
Maximilien’s Unique Magic was the power to turn gears. Gears could turn left or right, and by turning them in reverse, I could neutralize his power. You could say we were a good match.
Rocket’s Unique Magic, however, was the ability to grant metal explosive properties. Therefore, even if I stole his Unique Magic, I had no way of stopping his explosions.
But, on the other hand, I can trigger the explosions he's preparing. At a moment he doesn't intend.
I read Rocket’s mind.
Born with a physical disability, he had been a bundle of inferiority complexes from birth. The fortunate thing was that his disability wasn’t so severe as to render him immobile; the unfortunate thing was that, because of this, he was constantly getting into fights. If anyone so much as mentioned his deformity in his presence, he would attack them without hesitation.
Kicked out of Claudia as soon as he turned ten, Rocket became a Dhole. But his congenital deformity was an even greater obstacle in the life of a Dhole. If his vehicle so much as passed over a small stone, the tiny impact felt like a violent blow to his spine.
Rocket was enraged. At the stone that caught his wheel, at his own body, and at his powerlessness to overcome any of it.
One day, as he seethed with constant rage, he had a fateful encounter.
The Floating Castle of the Mage Federation.
The greatest Juggernaut ever created by the Golden Lord, the celestial castle where the Mage King resided. Conscripted for the castle’s maintenance, he was given the chance to fly.
And he was reborn.
Flying was fast and exhilarating. Most importantly, he didn’t feel any of the spinal pain that had tormented him endlessly.
He desperately wished to live on the Floating Castle, but it was practically impossible for a mere Dhole to reside in the heart of the Mage Federation. However, in the process, he received a piece of advice from a certain mage.
‘The Floating Castle doesn’t fly. It is merely a piece of land that rose into the sky long ago and has yet to fall. If you cannot realize that difference, you will never be able to stay here.’
He didn’t know if that was the literal truth or if there was some hidden meaning. But it didn’t matter. The mage’s words had moved him.
Returning to the surface, Rocket built a cannon. In the Fallen Dominion, cannons were considered the stupidest of weapons—a way to gift precious steel to someone at high speed—but the dreaming Rocket became a fool whenever he had a spare moment.
Watching the cannonballs fly until the very last moment before they fell, Rocket constructed his own Spiritual World.
What if the explosions continued endlessly? What if he burned everything in his body to soar upward?
Then he would never fall.
Because he would burn up and vanish in mid-air before he ever had the chance.
Unique Magic, Fireworks.
I've read it all. Having grasped his Spiritual World, I reached my hand out toward him.
KABOOM. One of Rocket's wings exploded.