Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Descent into Alata
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"Kallias! You trying to die together with me here? How stupid can you be!"
"That's not a bad idea either. My knights and I have no way to handle your Ames."
The performance of the Explosive Spear was practically fraudulent, and there was nothing the current Kallias could do about it.
Naturally, no knight present there had any means to stand against Luteon.
Thus, Kallias chose to fall together with him.
‘The orcs and earth dragons have fallen by half at least. Losing their supplies means the orc horde has taken a massive hit.’
They had won the battle.
"You, the selfish bastard who only cared about himself—how did you end up loving the North so much!"
As they plummeted off the cliff.
Luteon's spear screamed again, radiating crimson light.
In response, Kallias enveloped his Devouring Sword in sword aura.
BOOM!!
Kallias blocked the Explosive Spear, but the recoil from the blast sent him flying back.
Whoosh—mid-fall, he flipped in the air, kicked off the opposite cliff wall, and charged at Luteon once more.
"Haaah!"
In the endless abyss.
Kallias's sword spat silver sword aura, shaking in the darkness as his swift blade wove intricate feints.
"Slicing at empty air now?!"
Luteon sneered and thrust his spear, but his expression twisted for a moment.
He had thought it was a moth flying into the flame, but something intricate formed behind him.
‘In the air?’
It was the Silver Flower Sword Wave: White Mist he had seen before.
Drawn in midair.
White Mist channeled sword aura into the ground and reversed it into a surging blade formation.
To manifest it in the air made Luteon tense.
No matter how superior his spear, the Silver Flower Sword Wave had once been a sword art the Empire feared.
RUMBLE!!
Lethal sword aura surged from behind Kallias.
BOOM!!
Luteon gritted his teeth and swung the Explosive Spear Ames, shattering the incoming sword auras one by one.
They rose at speeds invisible to the eye, but unlike underground where they were hidden, blocking White Mist in the air was far easier.
Crash!
The smoke cleared, revealing the falling Luteon and Kallias.
The moment they clashed again.
Silver petals had already bloomed around Luteon.
‘Damn.’
He had focused on deflecting Kallias's sword while blocking White Mist.
Kallias promptly removed Vivi’s Bracelet, unleashing tremendous holy power.
‘His Silver Flower Sword Wave carves away sword aura and claims it as his own.’
Then unleashes it all at once like a swelling wave.
The Saintess's sword art.
Silver Flower Sword Wave: Flower Breaking Path.
The flower path of lethal sword aura shards surged to tear Luteon apart.
"Kallias! Don't think you're the only one who's gained something all this time!"
Luteon's spear spun fiercely in the air before gripping it.
An intense crimson light he had never shown before dwelled in the Explosive Spear.
Blinding holy power.
When it converged to a single point.
"Lord!"
His spear pierced one point in the crashing Flower Breaking Path.
The single point slicing through the wave exploded.
BOOOOOOM!!
With an enormous blast.
The two figures vanished into the darkness.
* * *
Whoosh.
Heavy smoke settled to the ground, layering like stacks as memories not his own slowly sank into his mind.
‘Kallias. Do gods really exist?’
A boy voicing the doubt nestled in his heart.
‘If gods exist, why create spears and swords? They only bring war and death….’
Even knowing it was blasphemous, he couldn't endure without speaking it. He was a boy who harbored doubts and suspicions about the gods' existence.
Luteon, the youngest of the great southern noble House Luidren, lacked devout faith but enjoyed various studies.
The talented child, gifted in wisdom and martial prowess, grew into a young man over the years.
And the young man became a man. But changed.
Holding a spear in one hand.
‘Why. Why her and you….’
Luteon's face paled white.
And the woman in his arms, turning her head away. The memory blurred like ink dropped in water.
Then, his eyes snapped open.
Darkness.
Whoosh—!
And the abyss.
"Urgh… Did I black out?"
Regaining consciousness in the endlessly falling abyss, Kallias gripped Roas in reverse grip.
"Hup!"
He thrust it into the nearby cliff wall.
RUMBLE! The crumbling rock wall and straining arm muscles desperately anchored his fading mind.
But only for a moment.
Drip.
Hanging from a single sword, Kallias's breath formed white puffs.
"Hah, I'm alive."
He couldn't see an inch ahead, but the chilling pain from his back and shoulders confirmed he lived.
Numerous bruises and mild burns made his whole body ache and sting.
Thanks to the Twilight Cloak, it was only this much; otherwise, he'd be gravely injured.
As an artifact cloak, it blocked some of the explosion. Proof was that it was merely singed, not torn anywhere.
Worth every penny spent.
That aside.
"Was that a dream just now?"
Likely Kallias's past.
In his memories, Luteon was a boy, then a young man.
Right up to the end.
The last day as he departed as a pilgrim.
Luteon, minus the lifeless eyes of one who had cast everything aside, unlike the curious boy.
‘Luteon….’
A being with quite a tumultuous fate.
A great noble of the Empire's four houses who defected and served Lactus.
I even knew why he defected.
The reason for his betrayal was…
"A woman?"
That was when.
Flinch.
Shaking off the thought, I scanned my surroundings.
Eyes adjusted to the dark soon realized it was a place teeming with foliage, unseen before. Gathering holy power, I lit a small flame.
What came into view.
"I've come all the way down."
Right below where his sword halted in the cliff was the end of the sunken forest.
The bottom called the Abyss.
Untouched by human hands for ages, it overflowed with dense undergrowth.
"I thought reaching here would be much later…"
I knew I wouldn't die even if I fell somehow, but it was a place I had no desire to reach lightly.
The forest floor housed a brutal ecosystem worse than the orc-infested surface.
Over long years.
Maintaining an independent ecosystem, this place like the ocean depths harbored long-extinct creatures.
Dragons from legends, or what were once called monsters.
Trolls, cyclopes, goblins, and so on.
This was where they built territories and lived.
Land forsaken by gods.
The Abandoned Valley. Alata.
Falling into the heart of their domain meant even footsteps required caution.
Otherwise…
Grrr.
"Already caught my scent."
Thus, they would come.
‘Loupgarou.’
A malformed hybrid born between pack-living wolves and goblins.
Small, grotesque monsters resembling bipedal, hairless wolves.
They had scented him.
Stronger than goblins in power and fangs.
Possessing keen smell and hearing, they hunted in packs with high intelligence—scavengers of the Abandoned Valley.
Gleaming red eyes emerged from the dark, one by one.
‘About sixteen in number.’
Could he handle them in his current state? His bones throbbed.
The wounds weren't shallow.
Caught in the blasts multiple times, unable to properly position midair, he had forcibly used White Mist and Flower Breaking Path.
His body was in shambles as a result.
Yet more movable than expected.
Kallias eyed his sword.
Devouring Sword—Roas.
"Against old man Bernard, and now Luteon—this thing."
Was it imagination that the damage felt less than anticipated?
Devour.
As he pondered its meaning again, killing intent approaching made him dismiss the thought and regrip his sword.
Rustle.
That was when.
A faint footstep sounded from somewhere. The Loupgarou's gazes shifted elsewhere.
Bushes rustled, and a human figure emerged.
A man holding a spear in one hand.
"Kallias, you're alive."
"…You too."
They eyed each other with mutual regret and clicked their tongues.
He thought he might have died falling straight down, but apparently not.
Life-lines truly long.
Luteon.
The bastard was still alive.
Hard to see in the dark, but he didn't look normal either.
Good news, but the situation wasn't great.
"Kallias, picked up some mutts while I wasn't looking?"
He seemed to refer to the surrounding Loupgarou.
His sneering tone wasn't pleasant, and I couldn't yet grasp his intent.
"Luteon. With you alive, why would I waste time on that?"
The Loupgarou alternated glares between Luteon and me, baring teeth.
Those between us were caught in the middle.
Their encirclement of me had turned awkward with Luteon's arrival.
Light blazed around Luteon.
Holy power emanating from his entire body.
Thick crimson holy power like twilight.
Kyaaah!
As it illuminated the surroundings, the Loupgarou shrieked in agony as if seeing light for the first time.
But I saw his condition.
"You're not normal either."
One of his hands was grotesquely twisted, blood flowing from his forehead.
He too had been wounded in the fall and our clash. The broken arm likely from a failed landing, unlike mine.
Yet his fighting spirit pricked my skin like needles—commendable.
He was still eager to fight.
"Kallias. Just to check, you don't know a way out of here, right?"
"Even if I did, you think I'd tell you?"
"Good. Would've been a shame if you knew."
"Because you can't kill me."
"Obviously."
Heh.
His smile evoked memories of the old monastery days.
But then.
Not taking kindly to the blinding holy light, one Loupgarou lunged at Luteon.
"Scram, you bald mutts."
Thud, boom!
A small explosion instantly killed one Loupgarou.
As one charged, the others howled and rushed in.
Luteon clicked his tongue, bursting several with his Explosive Spear.
"You should stop."
Having brutally exploded four or five Loupgarou, the rest hesitated in fear.
"Jerban's wastrel, scared now? The you I knew had shit swordsmanship but never cowered before anyone."
"Just don't want the hassle. Shut up."
"What're you on about?"
Frowning as if confused, Luteon scowled.
"Making that much noise. It'll come."
The starving denizens of the Abandoned Valley appeared.
Always hungry, always craving food—Alata's gluttons.
Rumble. Thud!! A massive quake heralded a colossal presence.
Remnants of the fallen giants.
[Sub Quest]
[The Giantkin Bastard Begins]
"Troll."
The arrival of the forsaken king. A troll.