Chapter 403: The Story Left Behind, The Place Departed
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 403: The Story Left Behind, The Place Departed
After the vampires vanished, a blood-soaked silence filled the Cloud Waterfall. It seemed the vampires had taken not only life and blood with them but all the clamor as well. Those who could still move struggled to pull the wounded from among the corpses, but their movements were sluggish, as if robbed of all vitality. The Guardians of Thunder sorted through the living and the dead.
“Thunderarch…”
Of course, some things were harder to sort through than others.
Thunderarch Elkid was dead, her body split in two. Through the dried blood, her parched flesh was visible. She looked less dead and more… broken. Not that fixing her would bring her back to life.
Shei, once her comrade in a time that no longer existed, gazed down at Elkid with bitter eyes and muttered.
“To think Elkid was one of the Crusaders…”
The Crusaders existed in all shapes and forms across the world. Some didn't even know they were members. They were, after all, chosen by fate.
In one timeline, Shei herself had been appointed a Crusader. Thrilled by the sense of belonging, she had truly believed it at first. The power of regression was so mysterious that it could only be explained as the work of a god.
Of course, after a few more timelines, she came to understand just how alien a power it was. Still, the comfort she had found among the Crusaders, a gathering of diverse and powerful individuals, remained with her.
Perhaps that was why she had felt a sense of kinship with Elkid. A bitter feeling washed over Shei as she looked at the dead woman. In a distant past, she might have felt sorrow at a comrade’s death, but after so many regressions, all that remained was a slight sense of regret. It was a common occurrence, and besides, Elkid would return when she regressed.
Instead of staring blankly like Peru, Shei posed a more constructive question.
“Why did she have to awaken now of all times…?”
She had a rough idea. It was hard to believe, but Hughes, the man she’d met by chance in prison, had claimed to be the King of Humans.
The King of Sins was an offshoot of the King of Humans—the dregs left behind as humanity, a chaotic existence, sorted through good and evil. She didn't know the details, but in the future, the King of Sins, an incarnation of a concept, would be born. Probably… through the King of Humans.
That was what Shei knew, and she had been acting according to the Sanctum’s will to prevent the King of Sins’ advent. If the King of Humans had appeared, the Sanctum’s panicked response was understandable. He could potentially be the King of Sins.
“It’s probably not a lie… He did revive Tyrkanzyaka’s heart. Feruel said so, too.”
If that was the case, it was truly a shame. The King of Humans had appeared, and their reaction had ended up provoking Tyrkanzyaka. In the process, Hilde’s scheming had caused a rift between Shei and the others. This timeline, she had planned to stand opposite the Sanctum and mediate the conflict, but things had strayed too far from her plan.
“So, that means Hughes is the King of Humans who precedes the King of Sins. Then his age… Ugh. Wasn’t the King of Sins supposed to be born in the same way as the Beast Kings?”
But perhaps even this was an opportunity. The information that Hughes was the King of Humans was a clue more valuable than anything else. It was more than enough to make up for a slight deviation from her plans.
As always, the Regressor soothed herself, thinking that even this hardship was nourishment for the next timeline. And in truth, it was. As a sliver of hope bloomed, a question suddenly occurred to Shei.
“…But why couldn't the Sanctum foresee Elkid’s death?”
Tyrkanzyaka’s darkness interfered with foresight. But even if they couldn't see what lay beyond the darkness, they would surely know that the darkness was there. Why would they send Elkid and Feruel there of all places?
Unlike her other questions, this one had no easy answer. As the Regressor furrowed her brow, lost in thought, a black shadow approached from behind her.
Clutching a sharp spear with both hands.
“Hah!”
The lightning-infused spear flew toward Shei’s defenseless back. It was a menacing surprise attack, imbued with the subtleties of Qi Art as it shot forward.
That is, if it were the Shei from about eight timelines ago.
Heavenly Counter Domain. A Qi Art that reacted to the future based on experience, its effect similar to combat precognition but with a completely different methodology, moved Shei’s body. She twisted, extending an arm. The spear and her arm crossed paths. Shei reinforced her arm with Qi, coiled it around the spear like a snake, and squeezed. The alchemic steel shaft shattered into three pieces.
Shei spoke in a flat voice to the Guardian of Thunder, who stood there in stunned disbelief.
“What’s this? Why the sudden attack?”
The difference in their power was immense. Her opponent was a formidable warrior capable of fighting a vampire. The Guardian of Thunder trembled with helplessness. The Guardians of Thunder had trained their entire lives, yet they had been unable to play any role in the battle that had just transpired.
All they could do was cry out their emotions.
“The monsters you brought killed the Thunderarch! And my comrades!”
She was used to hearing such resentment. Shei replied nonchalantly.
“If you’re talking about the Elder, I didn’t bring him.”
“It’s the same thing! If you hadn’t been here, none of this would have happened!”
The Regressor was familiar with such hate-filled screams. She had seen more than her fill of mobs looking for someone to blame when things went wrong. As she debated whether to ignore him or subdue him, another Guardian of Thunder appeared and held him back.
“Stop! He helped us.”
“Helped? Claudia treated them as honored guests and served them with utmost care! They repaid our kindness with enmity!”
Thunderarch Elkid had been a Crusader. But she had been the Thunderarch long before that. It was rare for the leader of a group to be well-regarded in their own time, but the Thunderarch seemed to have accomplished that difficult feat. Enough for her guardians to vow revenge.
Blaming Shei, who had tried to save Elkid until the very end, was a pointless endeavor, but no amount of persuasion would get through to them in their emotional state. Ordinary people needed something to cling to. Instead of wasting her effort, Shei answered with a sneer.
“My apologies. You’d only be satisfied if I brought Elkid back to life. Since I can’t do that…”
It was at that very moment.
Flash! Lightning struck. Simultaneously, Elkid’s eyes snapped open. Before anyone could process the situation, Elkid rose, creaking bizarrely like a puppet on strings. She paid no mind to the split flesh visible between the dried patches of blood.
Even for Shei, who was used to her comrades’ deaths, a dead comrade moving again was a bewildering affair. She was so startled she took a step back, feeling a touch of fear. But upon realizing there was no life in Elkid, her eyes narrowed.
“What is this? Black magic?”
Black magic, the biological counterpart to the object-based white magic.
The body of a living creature creates its own small, isolated world. Even if only physical, that world holds sufficient meaning. A black mage shatters that small system of life, using its power to manifest strange miracles in reality.
Naturally, and cruelly, the easiest body for a human to use is another human’s. From ancient times, black magic required a human corpse, or a body that was about to become one, and its cruelty earned it scorn and persecution. It was an entirely natural phenomenon, not one born of any decree.
Shei felt the same. The revulsion of using a human corpse and the thought that her comrade’s body was being desecrated filled her with disgust.
“Did Kavila cast a black magic spell before she left? What a sick sense of humor!”
“…No.”
The answer, strangely, came from Peru. Exhaling a deep breath, Peru raised her hand. At her fingertips, a kite imbued with a mysterious power floated in the air like a cloud. As Peru wiggled her fingers, the kite flashed in response.
A moment later, hundreds of strands of lightning were sucked into Elkid’s wounds. The image of lightning flowing through her blood vessels was starkly visible. As if the lightning itself were her soul, a light seemed to flicker in Elkid’s eyes for a brief moment.
Having finally found the culprit, Shei asked.
“Witherarch? What are you doing?”
“…I’m trying to fix the Thunderarch.”
Shei scowled at Peru, who spoke as if she were repairing a machine.
“What? Fix her? How?”
Peru sensed the power of thunder emanating from the mysterious kite and the Thunderarch.
She had learned alchemy and even mastered her own Unique Magic. Because of that, she’d had no trouble accepting the Golden Lord’s power. The Divine Elixir was connected to her Unique Magic, its power manifesting in a way she could comprehend.
But the Divine Lightning Spool was not hers. The power had chosen her, but Peru had almost no knowledge of how to wield it. At best, she had a limited understanding of where lightning and alchemy intersected. If she wanted to handle the power more skillfully, she needed someone proficient in it, like the Thunderarch.
From this, Peru reached a conclusion. If she could revive the Thunderarch with the Golden Lord’s power, she could overcome the chaos that had befallen Claudia and learn to properly utilize this power.
This was why Peru had asked Tyrkanzyaka to leave. The vampire would have prevented Elkid’s resurrection and brought chaos to Claudia. She had to make her leave, using any excuse she could, and with Hughes’s help, she had succeeded. He had urged Tyrkanzyaka on, making her depart from this land.
It wasn't just a guess. Though he hadn't made it obvious, Hughes had actively handed her the power. More than that, he had even created the environment for her to use it. Others might not have noticed, but she, the recipient, understood it more clearly than anyone.
She didn't know what the King of Humans was testing, or what he wanted her to do with this power. But Peru had her principles. No matter the situation, no matter the expectations, she would only abide by her own rules.
To make the world more valuable.
“…The Thunderarch was made. Alchemy and the power of thunder form her body and mind. It’s complex and esoteric, but with the power of the Divine, it might be possible to restore it.”
If a living person was more valuable than a dead corpse, then the act of reviving someone with alchemy was worth attempting.
Heedless of the stares around her, Peru acted on her sincere belief.
And far, far away, a Saintess closed her eyes.
The present was once the future. In the past, the Saintess had clearly seen this future. She had prayed that the Thunderarch would not die, or that everyone there would die instead, so that a time when human dignity would be tested would never come.
But only a god can move the future as they wish. Regrettably, the Saintess was no god. Foresight shows the future; it does not allow one to control it. The moment she tried to intervene, the future she touched would become twisted.
All the Saintess could do was feel pity and sorrow.