Chapter 212
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: Goodbye, My old friend.
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Whirr.
Julia, who had rushed out in a hurry, drawn by Rimon's performance, her usually neat appearance disheveled with messy hair and dust-covered clothes.
Yet her melody overlaid Rimon's without a single tremor.
The moment their two performances harmonized in the air...
Whiiiirrr—
Rimon's melody sank even deeper and calmer, and the horrific noise—like screams tearing through the fog—abruptly quieted.
Seven Arcs.
Its mystical power, capable of melting even fragments of stars, exploded exponentially, devouring the constellation's strength.
Only then did Yuna Kyung breathe a sigh of relief. She could tell at a glance that it was only a matter of time before the noise vanished completely.
But that relief was premature.
Rumble rumble rumble!
As if instinctively sensing that the end of the noise meant the end of everything.
Or perhaps affected by the power of the Seven Arcs.
The shadow monsters, already endlessly spawning, suddenly doubled in number, surging toward them like a tidal wave from both directions.
Half toward Viscountess Cisspenth's castle, where Julia was.
And the other half toward the mage tower where Rimon played.
Splat!
[Eek! Viscountess sis?]
The moment she saw it, Rose moved on instinct.
She leaped down from the pillar guarded by the witch's soul and dashed toward the mage tower.
Blocking her path was a wave of thousands, no, tens of thousands of monsters.
Even steel would be crushed if swallowed by the swirling shadows, yet Rose didn't stop.
She simply pushed her psionics to the limit.
72 Martial Flows: Five Ultimate Techniques
Sea Wave Sword Sever
Boom boom boom boom boom!
A rift along her blade tore everything apart, creating a gap hundreds of meters wide in the pitch-black monster wave.
It was a sword that parted the sea.
A strike that rent space itself, possible only for her, princess of the Azure Dragon Clan among the Azure Dragons.
But like slicing water, the endlessly emerging monsters rushed to fill the gap in an instant.
As Rose prepared to draw up her psionics again...
Groooan!
A translucent blue wave sliced through the monsters about to refill the gap, carving a path as blue as the sea between them.
In the blink of an eye it took to be startled by the blue-cloaked knights charging in like a human wave...
Rose flashed a faint smile and advanced along the path opened by the souls of the Azure Dragon Clan.
Employing Shifting Shadows Style to its extreme.
Leaving afterimages with every step.
Slicing obstructing monsters.
Stubbornly piercing the overflowing monster waves toward the mage tower.
But by the time she finally reached the tower, the grand structure was already more than half engulfed by monsters.
'As expected...!'
Biting her lip at the sight of the tower shaking as if it would collapse any moment, Rose steeled herself.
Unlike Viscountess Cisspenth's castle, the center of the defense, or the witches' pillars, the mage tower was nearly defenseless.
Even reinforced with all sorts of skills as the Mager's Guild headquarters, it had limits against this endless horde.
She couldn't rely on the Azure Dragon souls either, with monsters rising behind to grab at her ankles.
Rose didn't hesitate.
She simply leaped into the monster waves again, pushing her psionics to the limit once more.
Slicing space with Sky-Cleaving Sword Style, widening the gaps with Air-Spinning Style.
Gathering water ki with Sea Dragon Water Jewel Style to fill the twisted space, fixing it with Body-Protecting Aura Style.
Thus, dividing her body across eight spaces per Shifting Shadows Style, and firing herself like arrows with Falling Star Finger Snap Style...
72 Martial Flows: Six Ultimate Techniques
Sea Dragon Eight Races
Kaboom boom boom boom boom!
Rose's body vanished behind her sword, and in her place, eight massive sea dragons surged up, sweeping away the monsters covering the tower.
Eight streams of water coiled around the tower, climbing upward.
The monsters clawed and rammed their bodies, but it was futile struggling.
The vortex formed by the interlocking eight sea dragons shattered, tore apart, or hurled far away tens of thousands of monsters.
Just as the grand mage tower seemed swallowed whole by the dragon's vortex...
The vast waters lost their draconic form, pouring down like a flood, and atop the mage tower appeared a blue-haired woman.
"Cough!"
Rose spat up a mouthful of blood.
Using a six ultimate technique amid this dusky fog had wounded her internally.
Yet even then, she propelled herself forward again, leaving afterimages.
Swoosh!
With a blade slicing the air, a shadow monster lunging at Rimon was cleaved, spraying blood.
She had barely cleared the monsters outside.
But in that time, monsters that had slithered inside were pouring out through the stairs.
Whirr.
Whether unaware of the crisis.
Or trusting in something.
Letting out a sigh at Rimon, who continued his calm performance with eyes closed, hands unwavering...
Rose held her sword upright before her chest.
Protecting Rimon, she stared down the monsters head-on.
As Rose, despite her internal injuries, prepared to draw up her psionics again and face the monsters...
"...?"
Rose flinched.
A figure had appeared between them and the monsters.
Amid ghosts who had regained their forms, however faintly, in this fog, why did this one still appear as a shadow?
As Rose watched suspiciously, the figure stepped lightly forward.
Swish swish swish.
And.
The fog rippled.
Like the sea when a dragon dives in.
The fog, which had begun flowing gently across all of London, now gathered into a massive vortex centered on the mage tower where Rimon and Rose stood.
At the same time, the shadowy ghost began taking on a clear form.
"You...!"
Lion-emblazoned armor.
Tall stature, robust build.
Lush, beast-like beard.
Jeweled golden crown.
And an abnormally large, thick two-handed greatsword planted in the ground.
Though she'd never seen him in life, the achingly familiar man made Rose unconsciously swallow.
The man lifted the two-handed greatsword he had planted upside down in the ground.
The monsters growling warily at the suddenly appeared man finally bared their fangs and charged all at once.
Lionheart Sword Annihilation Form
Roar of the Lionheart King
Boom!
The massive sword roared.
The boundaries of all things shook.
And every monster atop the tower exploded.
The same went for monsters inside the tower or nearby.
Hundreds of thousands—no, within thousands of meters radius—all burst like balloons.
Simply because this crowned man swung his sword once.
Shrrr.
Perhaps from the recoil.
The sword crumbled to powder, leaving only the hilt, reverting to fog as the man turned his head.
Gazing at Rimon, still focused on his performance behind the stunned Rose, he smiled faintly and spoke.
[Goodbye, my old friend.]
As if declaring his role complete.
Leaving only that archaic farewell, the man dissolved into fog.
As Rose froze, replaying the voice of the greatest king and knight in Great Britain's history, Rimon continued playing.
Performing his farewell in melody.
Deep and serene, quiet and wistful.
The melody, growing ever more fantastical as time passed, finally reached its climax.
Whirr—
From the hundreds of items that had spewed noise moments before, the violin melody now flowed.
Rimon had seized control of the star's power echoing everywhere and resonated it with his performance.
Thanks to that, the originally disrupted dusky fog grew even clearer, and now the monsters writhed in agony instead.
[TeSev.]
[Abrao.]
[isyka.]
[Umar.]
Seizing the opportunity.
The witches at the 22 pillars chanted in turn once more.
And finally, succeeding the chant, Siel recited in a languid voice while turning her pouch inside out.
"Ajyaka sis KarSh orga na eXsebT."
⟨ Final Binding ⟩
As the contents Siel dumped out—white hairs, nails, and such—melted into the magic circle all at once...
The fog surged like waves.
And London changed.
The shadows that had endlessly spewed monsters turned golden, now instead sucking them in.
Shrieeeek—!
The monsters thrashed.
Clawing into the ground, wrapping tails around trees to resist the suction.
But it was meaningless flailing.
Far from cooperating, the shadow monsters shoved and pushed each other to escape alone, only accelerating the suction.
Above all, what they had to endure wasn't just the golden shadow's pull.
The magic knights and witches' souls.
The dogged Mager's Guild members.
Countless Azure Dragons from past and present.
Above all, Julia and Rimon's all-out performances.
Ruthlessly drove the clinging shadow monsters, rendering their struggles pointless.
A few minutes later.
The millions of monsters that had blanketed London were utterly crushed or sucked into the shadows beyond.
"Waaaaah!"
"We survived! We made it!"
As the battle, which seemed eternal, ended and cheers erupted from those who fought atop the walls...
The witches' souls curtsied elegantly by lifting their skirt hems and dispersed.
The Azure Dragons and magic knights' souls planted their swords upside down toward the mage tower in salute before melting away.
Rimon, still playing his violin, finally stopped his bow when the bell tolled and the dusky fog over London lifted.
Gazing silently for a moment at the spot where the man who swung his sword had appeared...
Rimon turned his head.
Looking down at the city left in ruins by the monster rampage, he quietly spoke.
"Goodbye, my old friend."
Was it longing, or bitterness?
Feeling a complex emotion he couldn't quite define, Rimon closed his eyes and immersed himself in old memories.
Gazing for a long while at Rimon's back overlooking London, her expression complicated...
Rose raised one hand.
Gently pressing her chest, she circulated her psionics and murmured inwardly.
'As expected.'
She hadn't noticed at first.
And dismissed it as imagination.
But now she was certain.
In this dusky fog where even four ultimate techniques were her limit, the five ultimate technique had come far too easily.
The internal injury from the six ultimate technique ended far lighter than anticipated, with power not diminished but amplified.
Her internal wounds were nearly healed already, and her psionics flowed more calmly than usual.
Above all, her heart still pulsing fiercely confirmed her suspicions.
'No doubt.'
Why his performance had felt so comforting.
Why she craved it so unnaturally, growing anxious.
Why she rushed to his aid, heedless of her own safety.
Now she understood.
Her mind hadn't realized it.
But her instinct as princess had known all along.
The resonance she felt, if only for an instant, when his performance peaked.
'...Dragon Psionics.'
Impossible to believe, unsure if she wanted to, yet she had no choice.
In this dreamlike reality, Rose could only wear a complex expression blending longing, frustration, and anger.