Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: World's Bottomless Pit, Samcheong-dong Investigation (2)
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3.
「IERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.」
Eardrums on the verge of rupture from the muffled roar.
A skull throbbing as if it might shatter.
The moment I sensed mortal peril from its sheer presence alone, I knew right away.
This is the one.
This is the... Subordinate that rules over this wintry land of Samcheong-dong.
“What the hell... is that thing?”
Do Su-jin asked urgently.
I pulled down the visor of my [Gwaeangol Helmet] and replied.
“Probably a Subordinate... but whatever it is, no reason to just stand around.”
It happened in almost an instant.
The moment Do Su-jin placed her hand on the hilt of her curved sword.
───Chaaang!
Jeong Ha-kyeong drew her sniper rifle.
I drew Dawn Sword as well.
Im Yong-gon hefted a massive boulder from the ruins beneath his feet.
“Like when we hunted Erzertra.”
No need to sync our breaths.
The four of us had fought side by side at full throttle, carving through countless asuras.
Our combat rhythm was already in sync.
“Yes. Let’s do it.”
The moment I said that.
Every member of the subjugation team's expression changed. What followed happened in a single instant, within 2 seconds.
“Alright. Let’s start.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong thrust her rifle forward.
The moment I thought that, a barrage of gunfire erupted in unison.
───Tatata-tatang!
A concentrated barrage using my unique skill, 《Super Acceleration》.
───Chwaaaaak!
At the same time.
A clear metallic ring echoed.
Unique skill, 《Black River Performance》.
Do Su-jin unsheathed her curved sword, slashing the air apart with black water sword energy.
“Urriya啊啊啊啊啊!”
Right after.
Im Yong-gon bellowed and spun his body, hurling the boulder skyward.
“Go!”
All actions connected seamlessly.
And delivering the result to those connected actions was my role as subjugation squad leader.
[Using unique skill, 《First Liberation: Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》!]
The world loses all color.
At the same time, it loses speed. Dawn Sword's first authority: space-time control.
I looked up.
At the distant sky.
Everything was crystal clear. The approaching dragon. The bullets and sword energy flying toward it. And the boulder too.
Perfect.
I muttered that.
Then focused. Compressed the space between the boulder and me. Stepped onto the boulder with my left foot.
In an instant. My body becomes light.
The next instant.
My entire field of view flips.
Before I knew it.
I stood in the sky where snowflakes whipped fiercely.
Before I knew it.
An ice dragon filled my vision, spreading its wings.
Before I knew it.
Dawn Sword had transformed into a crimson lotus blade, fiercely spewing dawn's light.
You’re within my range.
No way you can evade at this distance, this interval.
Target: right wing.
If it’s a Subordinate, one hit won’t finish the hunt.
First, drag it to the ground.
Here we go.
Space-time control releases.
At the same time, bullets and sword energy surged toward the dragon’s wing.
At the same time, the crimson lotus spike slammed into the right wing.
...What?
The elongated time.
That time began rushing forward urgently, but I saw everything.
...What is this?
Sword energy that should have torn the wing.
Bullets that should have shattered the wing bone.
Blood-red sword energy that should have burrowed into the wing root...
[Hunt Impossible: Conditions Not Met]
...bounced off, blocked by that info window floating over every impact site.
My mind went blank for a moment.
Conditions not met? What conditions? Nothing like this has ever happened before.
My momentary exposure.
No way a transcendent Subordinate would miss that opening.
Left edge of my vision.
The instant I saw the massive foreclaw slashing in viciously. The instant it struck my left side.
Agony.
The sound of my arm bones crunching.
Distant shouts from the team members.
Wha... how...?
Just as the horizon vanished from my sight, the impact of the fall hit, and cold bugs crawled over my entire body.
How far did I tumble through the snow?
As a ragged breath finally escaped my lungs, blood burst from congested vessels.
“Keuk!”
That spray of blood stretched long across the snowy sky, tinnitus ringing in my ears like a shrill beep, and a chilling updraft felt right on my left.
I barely turned my head... What?
My body was barely clinging to the cliff edge.
Truly chilling.
One more half-roll, and I’d have plummeted below...
“...Baek-jun!”
Then, urgent cries piercing through the tinnitus.
“...Above! Look up!”
I propped myself with my left arm.
Wait... left arm? I heard it break?
There was pain.
But the arm moved fine.
In that instant, I saw five or six plates of the [Eroded Ancient Guardian's Armor] bent.
Did this absorb the impact?
All that immense force?
The moment I snapped my head skyward with that thought, all questions flew from my mind.
The dragon was descending.
Flapping its majestic wings.
Baring its viciously huge maw.
From that maw, a white blizzard-like breath erupting.
Dodge... must dodge...
I remember thinking that. But... Dawn Sword lay three steps away.
Even reaching out wouldn’t touch it.
Worst case. Worst.
Can’t use unique skills.
Only Subordinate gear exclusives available.
Use 《Shadow Ambush》?
But what if it counters like Arishel’rap did?
“...Dodge!”
The frost storm closing in second by second.
In the crisis right before my eyes.
“...Kim Baek-jun, no!”
Who saved me wasn’t Im Yong-gon or Do Su-jin.
It was Jeong Ha-kyeong.
Jeong Ha-kyeong rushed to me in an instant with 《Super Acceleration》, blocking between the oncoming cold blast and me.
And just like that.
An icy blue blade of death swallowed Jeong Ha-kyeong.
4.
“Ha-kyeong seeeeeee!”
That wasn’t the end.
Was it aiming to finish us? The ice dragon dove straight for the cliff where we’d been.
“............Baek-jun!”
A distant scream.
The world-shaking tremor.
A blizzard blanketing my vision white.
───Crackcrackcrack!
Suddenly the ground beneath my feet split, my body floated into empty air, the horizon spun wildly.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
And the stigmata resonating with that ice dragon.
For that one instant, my heart stopped.
At the edge of my vision. Amid the swirling blizzard.
Covered in frost.
Jeong Ha-kyeong plummeting toward the bottom of the world’s bottomless pit.
- Now it’s just us.
My consciousness sharpened in an instant.
But... right now, I couldn’t even manage my own body.
First, find Dawn Sword.
Damn it...!
And I couldn’t open my eyes.
Endless surging blizzard pouring into them.
You think I’ll just sit here?
No, can’t just sit. There’s definitely a way.
A way, a way.
Wait... what if that?
No time to hesitate.
The next moment. I fully unleashed the power of new gear.
[Eroded Ancient Guardian's Armor].
[Using exclusive skill, 《Abyssal Emanation》!]
A bizarre agony surged in instantly.
What is this... like formless worms devouring my entire body...?
[Warning: ?????, 《Abyssal Erosion》 is eroding your flesh]
- Legendary gear, ‘Eroded Ancient Guardian's Armor’ nullifies 33% of ?????, 《Abyssal Erosion》.
- ?????, ‘Ice Dragon King’s Stigmata’ nullifies 45% of ?????, 《Abyssal Erosion》.
The moment the abyss eroded my body.
I felt transcendent power surging through me, unknown until now.
This is... the power of Artsreheid, guardian of the Spirit Wood.
Beyond expectations.
Explosive boost to physical abilities.
This led to mental leeway.
Took less than a second.
To grasp the situation within 50 meters of me.
──Whoooosh!
A storm-like fierce updraft.
I kicked off the empty air within that draft. Precisely, the swirling debris of collapse in the draft.
One. Two. Three.
In just three steps, I pulled Jeong Ha-kyeong into my arms. Then pressed my ear tight to her chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Faint heartbeat.
She’s alive... alive...
Relief hit me just as I kicked off the air again.
Finding Dawn Sword was easy.
Even in the chaos of the fall, the dawn blade shone brilliantly.
The instant I gripped Dawn Sword’s hilt.
I sheathed it straight into the curved iron scabbard on my back.
The fall speed was overwhelming.
The ground below already ghastly. No option to climb back up.
So I returned.
To the ground fragment I’d been on with Jeong Ha-kyeong earlier. The largest foothold in this asura field.
“Ha-kyeong, hold tight.”
Then the ground fragment collided with the surface.
I thought the shock’s rebound would lift us for an instant... but no.
────Chaaaaang!
Because the collision point was the glass window of some ruined building?
Snowflakes...
Rock shards...
Glass fragments...
Evidence of collapse whipping sharply from all sides. The ground fragment plunged straight down, smashing into the surface.
Right before that.
“Ha-kyeong, to me!”
I pulled Jeong Ha-kyeong even tighter against me, then unleashed the [Gwaeangol Helmet]’s power.
[Using exclusive skill, 《Blizzard Refinement》!]
──Pabababababababak!
Wind blades whirling around me. It pulverized to dust all the hazards plummeting in the collapse’s aftermath.
Silence.
An eternity of chaos ended, silence swallowing heaven and earth.
[Exclusive skill, 《Abyssal Emanation》 time expired.]
Perhaps because the amplified physical boost vanished from my body in an instant.
My muscles ached like they’d burst, dry heaves rising from my organs.
Haa...
Haa... haa...
Then my blocked breath burst free.
As I set Jeong Ha-kyeong down from my arms, I collapsed right there.
It hurt.
Truly hurt.
My right knee completely shattered from offsetting the fall’s impact.
Well... still...
I checked Jeong Ha-kyeong’s breathing, then let out a sigh of relief.
Cheap price...
For our two lives.
I immediately drew Dawn Sword.
And melted the frost covering her with its warmth.
My stellar fluid’s all used up.
I pulled a stellar fluid syringe from Jeong Ha-kyeong’s waist pouch.
Wait... lives?
As I injected stellar fluid into my knee, a question arose.
I definitely... saw it earlier.
The ice dragon’s breath swallowing Jeong Ha-kyeong.
So how is she unscathed?
My heart sank then.
From somewhere in the temple’s darkness.
Clack... clack... something approaching grew steadily closer.
As expected... Nightmare Zone, huh.
I shone Dawn Sword around the dimness and could only mutter.
“...World Intersection?”
Not a modern building.
Clearly a medieval cathedral. Right in the middle of its nave.
And that...?
A holy painting etched into the gaping cracked ceiling. No doubt.
Spirit Wood.
Which means... a chill ran across my hand.
Same world.
Then it fits.
That dragon earlier being a descendant of Xerenia... the being I promised rest to.
Clack... clack... clack...
Then something crawled out from the darkness on four legs... and I doubted my eyes.
Ridiculous...
It was a skeleton.
Three child skeletons, blue with frost.
The next moment.
As if their jawbones clattered together, they charged me fiercely.
“Where!”
I yanked the rifle from the holster on Jeong Ha-kyeong’s backpack and fired rapidly.
Sharp gunshots.
Each time, a skull shattered, fragments scattering everywhere.
...Weird.
Can Nightmare Zone Heteromorphs be this easy? And skeletons?
I paused there.
Skeletons, suddenly...?
What change happened?
Definitely same world?
- It was sealing the Spirit Wood’s time with that sun’s power. Even its own time...
I inhaled sharply.
Roheiritz’s explanation flashing in my mind.
Is that it...?
Then in that instant, the world’s time flowed forward fifty years?