Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: Thunder Dragon's Assault
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“What...!”
Kwa-gwang!
A chain of blue lightning stretched out in all directions like roots branching from the sky.
The ground shattered like tofu, stone fragments scattered, and a gale whipped through the air.
“Kyaaah!”
Rebecca, standing at the epicenter, couldn’t possibly emerge unscathed.
She took the lightning strike head-on.
Steam rose in wisps from her body. Her face, mouth agape and tilted toward the heavens, was that of someone who had glimpsed death.
However.
Srrrrk.
Rebecca’s eyes rolled.
She was still alive.
“Ugh.”
Thud.
Coughing up a thick clot of blood, Rebecca gripped her mace tightly.
Her bloodshot eyes gleamed with a chilling ferocity.
But Kallias merely snorted dismissively, his expression calm.
“Bibi.”
Vivi became enveloped in thunder.
Vivi’s speed as it charged like a bolt of blue lightning was blinding—pure lightning-fast.
Rebecca swung her flail at Vivi, who zigzagged like a jagged bolt.
Kaang-!
Whirr!
Rebecca’s mace soared into the sky.
Just as Kallias thought the match was decided.
Chrararak!
A massive chain connected to the flail appeared from her hand.
She yanked the chain—God knows when she’d gripped it—and hurled the flail forth.
Vivi dodged with ease, but Rebecca’s target wasn’t the Thunder Dragon.
It was unmistakably aimed at Kallias.
“I’ll drag you back even if I have to smash you to pieces!”
Single-minded obsession, fixated on Kallias alone, heedless of the Thunder Dragon before her.
A tenacity so bizarre it almost deserved applause.
‘It checks out.’
Rebecca’s attack on Kallias stemmed from her obsessive fixation on him, but also from her grasp of the connection between Vivi, Kallias, and Ausser.
Ausser’s pilgrim summons familiars.
Such a pilgrim’s own power is invariably weak.
Destroy the summoner, and control over the familiar naturally unravels.
Her assault had justification.
Whoosh!
But her flail missed cleanly, pathetically so.
“...!”
The man had shifted just half a step, perfectly evading the flail’s arc. Seeing this, Rebecca reeled it back in and shouted.
“Seize him now!”
Nor had she pinned her hopes solely on the flail.
As if lying in wait, the duchy’s knights charged in, each wielding a flail of their own.
All to capture Kallias alone.
It was absurd.
Truly unsettling obsession.
Just like Rebecca.
Had he truly served the whip, he might well have been hers.
Of course.
Only if it were true.
As a dozen knights and their flails surged toward Kallias.
He shed his robe, and a sword gleamed in his hand.
Slash!!
A long line sliced through the center of the flying flail. Rebecca’s eyes flew wide.
Through that gap, Kallias appeared.
And razor-sharp sword strikes erupted in all directions.
“Ha...?”
Sword winds raged around him.
“Urk!”
“Gah!”
The flails, and the knights’ forms, were instantly rent into fragments.
Chunks of flesh sprayed outward.
Blood misted through the air.
Splash!
Kallias shook the blood from his blade, his black hair whipping in the wind.
Rebecca’s eyes burned fiercely at the sight of him, undimmed even amid the burning forest.
The knights’ fates meant nothing to her.
Only Kallias filled her vision.
‘Stronger than expected. Annoying.’
He hadn’t anticipated such prowess from her own power.
And moreover.
Tap.
The Thunder Dragon stood protectively before Kallias, majestic and imposing.
Two upright horns.
Cloud-like fur at its toes, scales rising along its body to glowing blue eyes. Lightning danced around the sword in its jaws.
Crackle, fizz.
“They said you summon familiars... truly...”
And this was no ordinary familiar.
A Thunder Dragon, rarely seen.
A beast inheriting dragon blood.
Its power: thunder.
A force not easily encountered.
A single Thunder Dragon could devour most knights whole.
And with a sword in its mouth.
No room for carelessness.
‘Clearly, he’s the whip if he commands that thing.’
Yet he wields a sword too.
Just as he pondered the man’s elusive nature, a name surfaced in her mind.
‘Karpe of the North.’
Noble guardian of North Karpe.
Distant ties to the duchy had delayed recognition. But his sword grip made it inevitable.
Tyrant of the North.
‘Jervan.’
He was surely of House Jervan.
“Won’t you come with me?”
Rebecca lowered her flail.
Kallias tilted his head at the abrupt words.
“Still talking nonsense?”
“I’ll give you the duchy.”
“How could you presume to give or take a duchy?”
“I’m confident.”
A declaration brimming with certainty.
But Kallias didn’t smile.
‘She could probably pull it off.’
No interest, though.
What use a duchy?
The Empire would extend its claws there someday.
Besides, he was a Sword Pilgrim.
No greed for foreign lands.
Only for the sword.
“Duchess!”
The clamor of approaching knights twitched Vivi’s ears.
“Really no need?”
“None.”
“Can’t be helped, then.”
She jerked her chin.
The knights roared bravely and charged Kallias once more.
But this time, Vivi didn’t stand idle.
With the Thunder Resonance Sword in its jaws, Vivi’s thunder aura had multiplied several-fold.
Power and speed alike.
Slash!!
“Gaaah!”
“You bastard!!”
With the sword in play, few could withstand.
“A well-raised Vivi’s worth ten knights.”
Young as it was, a Thunder Dragon nonetheless.
Its lacking strength compensated by the Thunder Resonance Sword—its skill was astounding.
He’d let it chew on swords lately, and it had learned to wield them so.
Likely from watching him often.
Vivi was sharp, after all.
‘Might suit Vivi better than me.’
Kallias had plenty of other swords besides the Thunder Resonance Sword.
No issue there.
Vivi loved it anyway.
As he reached to don his robe again, his hand halted.
“Is this necessary?”
Did he need to hide himself like this, cowering like a frightened mutt with tail tucked?
Was this true pilgrimage?
‘No witnesses, no revelation.’
Just kill them all.
A princess might be trouble.
A duchess? Not so much.
Fwoosh!
Winds howled fiercely around Kallias. His killing intent surged toward the duchy’s knights and duchess.
Flinch!!
“K-Killing intent!”
The duchess shuddered in raw fear.
Her heart plummeted.
Kallias’s aura was that thick, that sharp.
Unnoticed before, but feeling it now revealed his skill precisely.
“Gurk!”
Thus, Vivi felled a knight.
The severed head tumbled, and Vivi’s lightning pinned their feet anew.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Meanwhile.
Kallias’s form shot forward.
Sword sheath in hand.
Click.
He drew it slightly, and thick blood-scent spread instantly.
Kallias’s sword vanished as it closed in.
‘Fast.’
Rebecca lost sight of his blade. She caught only the draw.
The instant she realized she’d missed the rest.
“Duchess! Danger!”
Two knights lunged to shield her.
Slash!
One knight’s torso parted clean; the duchess’s abdomen to flank was gashed long. Blood spurted. Psh!
“Urgh!”
“Duchess!!”
“Protect the Duchess!!”
“Escort her away now!!”
Tatat!
Kallias’s gaze darkened as he watched the fleeing duchess.
He shook the blood from his Predatory Sword and sheathed it.
“A shallow cut.”
Regrettable, but unavoidable.
Pursuit would tire him.
‘The duchy and Empire will learn inevitably.’
He’d tried to avoid it, but the duchess’s intrusion was unforeseen.
‘Couldn’t avoid it from the start.’
A mere odd woman, perhaps. But ensnared by Duchess Rebecca’s obsession? Evasion impossible. Better to exploit it openly than feign poorly henceforth.
Kreeeng.
He stroked Vivi’s approaching face, lips curling.
“Good work.”
He tossed a hunk of meat from his Subspace; it dropped the sword to gape.
Gulp. Then it frantically retook the blade. Adorably anxious lest it be stolen.
“I won’t take it. Keep it. But never lose it. Give it to no one but me.”
Kreng.
He patted Vivi’s shoulder in reply, then turned away.
Duchess escaped, but couldn’t leave Vivi for pursuit.
Besides.
[Quest completed.]
No need to linger.
Turning from the burning forest, Kallias vanished with Vivi.
* * *
Crackle, crackle.
In the ashen forest ruins.
Charred corpses from the fire giant’s battle.
The princess gazed at the wounded, hollow.
Then, spotting the returning duchess with knights—eyes slit long.
“Where have you...!”
About to scold.
Splatter!
Rebecca collapsed, spilling blood.
The princess rushed over in alarm.
“Rebecca!”
Supporting the falling duchess, she checked the wound at once.
‘Sword cut.’
Cleanly sliced.
So precise it might knit if pressed together.
Skill of near-master.
One step from true mastery.
“Who.”
“The man who stole my heart.”
Absurd reply softened the princess’s face slightly.
Chattering nonsense meant her state wasn’t dire.
“Foolish.”
“No regrets... kuh!”
Pressing the wound incredulously twisted her face.
“Kyaa!”
Poking vengefully, she foamed and screamed.
“That handsome?”
“More than anything in the world.”
“Who is he?”
“Guess.”
Refusing to tell.
Tsk tsk.
The princess sighed, staunching the blood.
Pressing the abdomen firm, she poured a potion from her bosom and fed it to Rebecca.
“Such a treasure. All on me.”
Lactus’s holy water.
Rare, held by few in the royal house or Empire’s Spears.
The princess had two; used one here.
Clean wound, poor location.
Organs sliced neat within; untreated, severe sequelae or disability loomed.
“Must marry someday. I called you, I bear the wound. A disabled duchess shames me. Though my face is lost already.”
The expedition had failed.
Fairy wrath unforeseen in scale.
Bad luck, or poor foresight.
“Big... trouble...”
“So quit whining and rise. I’ll see the face of the man who did this.”
“Pursue?”
The healing duchess’s face changed.
The princess hadn’t given up.
“Can’t be all failures. One squad holding retreat massacred. We’ll learn where.”
Survivors spoke of pilgrims among them.
Arrow-struck, skull-smashed, many speared—but contrasts revealed multiple gods’ pilgrims.
‘Crasion’s hand, perhaps.’
Crasion had apt agents.
“Must fetch that eunuch.”
The ‘soon-to-be-master’ touted by Empire elders.
Divine.
Luteon.
* * *
A week with the dragonkin.
Kallias forged a sword.
Not from a slain foe.
The sword’s grace light had dwelt in a corpse after ages.
“A sword, as expected. But how’d you tame Vivi?”
Ignoring Aldu’s question, Kallias gazed at the blade.
“Detour to Laikiman.”
“Laikiman? On the way, but that dead village—why?”
“Someone to see.”
Long-absent sword grace.
Passing by anyway, no harm.
‘Just deliver it?’
He’d glimpsed the memory it shaped.
Simple grace, he thought.
Though the backdrop irked.
“Sure! Why not. Philo’s safe too! Kahahaha!”
Philo at the fore nodded faintly to Kallias.
Ignored, Kallias eyed the Carcass Sword, stowed it in Subspace.
“Know Rose’s Smile in Laikiman?”
“Rose’s Smile?”
Aldu tilted his head.
“A brothel.”
Kallias’s brow furrowed.