Chapter 51
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: The Behe-ric Offensive (4)
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[The target has swallowed the Trojan horse! Second Battleship Squadron, we are switching to attack formation!]
The operation proceeded as planned.
But if I had known then what sacrifices would be required to make that operation a success…
Would I have wished for it to fail from the very beginning?
[Negative. The Second Battleship Squadron will now cover the evacuation of the remaining ground troops at the landing base. Dragon's Fang Corps, what is your status?]
Was this the esophagus, or inside the intestines…?
A fog and mucus thicker than lard covered everything.
Even the high-performance flashlight beams emanating from the shoulders of ten giant mechs couldn't penetrate more than twenty meters ahead.
Everywhere the light touched, objects swallowed in a distant age lay abandoned, melted into grotesque shapes.
What made this possible was the absurd, murderous heat… was this digestive heat?
It was far too hot.
I immediately understood why Halbaron had given us the latest model mechs.
[Unit 701, communication systems normal.]
[Unit 702, same here.]
…
…
[Unit 709, no abnormalities with the unit.]
[Unit 710, minor damage to the left arm, but no issues. A standard mech's steam engine would have overloaded, but the heat dissipation on these is incredible.]
As the Dragon's Fang Corps units finished their reports one by one, a reply came from Halbaron.
[Acknowledged. We are currently engaging the Glutton from above sea level, but we can't afford to be gentle. Brace for impact and keep moving!]
Kaisen also checked his equipment.
The helmet would clearly be unbearable, so he decided to leave it behind.
“Understood. Dragon's Fang Corps, we're clearing a path to the heart.”
“The Dragon's Fang is Isla's! Isla will give the orders!”
“Alright. You do it again.”
“Dragon's Fang Corps, to the heart… whatever, let's go!”
The tide of the counterattack,
The Behe-ric Offensive (4)
[Another one's coming! Hurry! If you don't take it down, my main force will be wiped out here!]
Everything within Behe-ric felt like a sinister, ominous creature.
It was like being caught in a spider's web.
With every step forward into the squirming stomach, even breathing became a struggle.
“We are hurrying. We will communicate as the operation progresses. Over.”
The air, the air is too humid…
It’s not just humid.
It's filled with a toxic fog. I could feel my lungs being infected by ancient pathogens.
[Warning, multiple heat signatures detected! Numerous Reptilians have appeared inside the body!]
The ancient demon, this space that swallowed the world and melted it with venom, had its own inhabitants.
Repulsive creatures, part primate, part reptile, were chewing on the demi-humans.
Perhaps from living in this darkness, ancient parasites writhed in their atrophied eyeballs.
In exchange, their senses of smell and hearing were extremely developed. They charged, letting out piercing screams.
[Be advised! Multiple mutant Reptilians have appeared!]
[What's going on? How can there be so many Reptilians inside its body!]
[Dragon's Fang Corps, its weakness has already been exploited in the old histories. It wouldn't be strange for it to have stationed guards.]
The ancient reptiles lived in swarms within its body.
Was that why?
Was that the reason for this endlessly exploding, nauseating stench?
“Tortoise formation! We don't have time to deal with them one by one. Break through while firing.”
Unleash. A thunderclap that stained this ancient darkness with the color of crimson flame.
A single line.
Upon the dazzlingly drawn line of death, murky blood entangled, completing the tableau of demise.
[Got one!]
[One's on my back! Somebody get this lizard off me! Quickly!]
“Isla is on her way!”
[More of them are coming!]
[Attack from the left!]
[Got it! Nice!]
[Shells reloaded.]
I hear the sound of a sandstorm.
Wiping the sweat from my brow, calming my heart, I pressed forward, lighting the way with the gleam of Aradamanthel.
Countless ancient artifacts of unknown eras were visible, as were the demi-human ships that had just been swallowed.
Were all the sacrifices, across all ages, gathered here?
Even now, when I try to close my eyes and recall what I saw then, all the information is a blur.
That day, everything was so chaotic that I couldn't retain a single piece of information about my surroundings.
[Emergency! The internal digestive organs have begun to contract!]
If the parasitic Reptilians had been the only enemy, how easy the operation would have been.
As the digestive organs contracted, the vast space began to shudder and shrink.
And it began to spew digestive fluid, which, chillingly, was molten lava…
[This is Unit 9. I don't think I can keep up in time. Go on ahead!]
The mechs covering the rear had no way to escape the contracting wave of lava.
“No! I won't leave you behind!”
[Isla, if you stay here, you'll be buried in lava and die! Hurry!]
“No!”
[FakeWarrior! Please hold onto Isla! Don't let her come this way!]
“Let go! Kaisen, let go of me!”
[Thank you, FakeWarrior.]
Was my action at that time, holding Isla back, the right one?
The entire situation…
All the voices…
The chaotic echoes that intersected during those eternally long five seconds were whispering this:
Let them die…
The bond must be broken, the mission must come first…
Most of the members of the Dragon's Fang Corps were those who had served under the previous Ryunel. They must have been like family to Isla.
Just as the White Bone Corps was to Kaisen.
…Gurgle…
As we climbed the slope, the lava's pursuit stopped.
The sound of the lava rising and falling like a tide on the other side of the slope sounded like a funeral dirge.
Units 707, 708, and 710 never made it out from beyond the contracted walls, out of sight.
Isla fell to her knees and collapsed.
[Kaisen, I don't know how much longer I can hold out. Get to the heart and plunge the Changmyeonggeom into it! Once you stick the Changmyeonggeom in and shut it up, I'll send a rescue team immediately.]
“Your Majesty, it has contracted its inner walls and blocked the path!”
[That thing is overexerting itself. Then we have no choice but to do the same. Observation team, where is the FakeWarrior's unit now? Pinpoint them by their communication coordinates.]
Just as hundreds of hazy eyes were approaching through the fog, a powerful impact shook the interior.
Gwoooooh…
With a scream like the world tearing apart, a crack spread across the wall, and a giant hand broke through to where we were. It was Unit 49.
[Fortunately, that was the weakest part of its armor. We wouldn't have been able to break through otherwise. Now hurry and move.]
As a price, Unit 49’s right arm joint was damaged, and it would lose that arm in the subsequent battle.
[Kaisen, from what we can see externally, if you go just a little further from that point, you can reach the heart.]
They said the heart was right ahead, but no matter how much I ran, it felt like I would never arrive.
[Your Majesty, the Naga have appeared! We must split our forces.]
[The Naga front is delegated to Colonel Ernst Gede. The Steel Fleet and Unit 49 will focus on dealing with the Glutton. Colonel Ernst, act according to operational doctrine.]
[Yes, Your Majesty. I will make those Naga bastards dance in the sea.]
[Kaisen, our situation is at its worst. I know you're doing your best, but hurry to the heart.]
Chaos, a series of chaos…
After frantically clawing our way through the intestinal walls, was the place we finally reached truly the heart?
It was completely covered in volcanic fog, and the surroundings were pitch black.
The fog was alive, trembling and writhing, and within it, giant shadows moved.
Isla bared her fangs and growled.
“Ahead!”
Like a monster from myth, a massive form covered in scales of lava emerged from the fog above.
Then, in an instant, it grabbed Unit 703 and vanished back into the fog.
As if tempting us to follow it inside.
“What do you think you’re doing! How dare you, how dare you touch Isla’s subordinate!”
Isla, unable to control her excitement, leaped into the fog. There was no time to shout, “Wait!”
[More Reptilians have appeared from the rear!]
[Isla, we'll handle the rear! Find the soul core and stick the Changmyeonggeom in it while you can!]
No sooner had I hurriedly followed Isla inside than my eyes widened in disbelief.
‘What in the world is this…?’
It was a soul avatar.
An incarnation created by the noble that commanded this vast body, by splitting its own soul and placing it within.
‘To protect its own weakness?’
I see.
There’s only one reason to protect it like this.
That disgusting tumorous mass over there, engulfed in lava, is the core.
Ting…
Before these avatars of ancient power, the might of the Light Dragon descended upon a mortal body, making him, too, an avatar of the Light Dragon.
It is said that the Light Dragon Haraderiman illuminated the world's darkness with celestial lightning, establishing a golden age.
Searing crimson on the blade, its power and authority cut sharply through even this ancient darkness.
Thunderclap’s Edge.
*Crackle.* With the sound of arcing electricity, a flash of light tore the avatar's body apart, scattering it into clumps of lava.
And yet, no…
The lava flowed down and surged up again, mending the severed parts and reforming its shape.
‘It’s just like the Reptilians.’
My breath hitched for a moment at the despairing realization.
Can't be cut with a single strike.
But I can't simply butcher that body like I did with the Reptilian grunts.
‘The matchup is the worst…’
It had to be Isla.
Isla had to be the one to shine.
The problem was that Isla had lost her composure.
“You lowly thing, give me back Isla’s subordinates!”
As if mocking Isla’s shout and charge, the avatar flung the captured mech in front of her.
A mech covered in lava.
The lava melted the unit's outer surface and flowed into its crevices, melting the mech pilots alive.
[Guh, guuaaaaaah…!]
Their last, struggling screams erupted from within.
“Isla, calm down!”
Isla charged.
The collision with Gaumris shattered the lava body, scattering it everywhere, but it bubbled and surged up again.
The surge took shape, reaching for an opening in Isla's defense, about to grab her body, when—
Sword draw.
Aradamanthel moved as if it were alive.
Faster than light.
A draw so fast that even its afterimage was a blur, repeated twelve times in less than an instant.
“—!”
The lava being staggered back painfully, as if vomiting blood foam from its severed sections.
It works…
But Aradamanthel is a sword that uses lines. To deliver a decisive blow, Gaumris, which uses surfaces, has to be the one.
“See, if we attack properly, it works! So we have to attack together. Fighting recklessly will get us nowhere!”
Meanwhile, behind us.
[Ammunition depleted, ammunition depleted! Cannot fire any further!]
[Block them with your bodies if you have to!]
[Please take care of Isla, FakeWarrior. Unit 705, out.]
Could I have been faster? If I were a real Yongsa, could I have ended it all before it was too late?
I don't know.
Always, I don't know anything.
Only unknowable questions torment my mind, running wild in this moment after everything has ended.
[Steel Fleet, Unit 49 has sustained critical damage! Provide support!]
[We will support you, fall back! Your Majesty!]
[Lower body of the unit is damaged! Uncontrollable! This bastard…!]
*Chhhzzzzk…*
An eardrum-shattering static crackled from the communicator.
“Halbaron? Answer Isla.”
[…Isla, this is Ernst Gede. His Majesty has been shot down along with the mech Unit 49.]
“Halbaron always helped Isla, so why couldn't Isla help Halbaron?”
[Isla, this is Fleet Commander Gustav. We can no longer tie down the Glutton. Without the super-giant mech, a rescue operation is also impossible. Destroy the core and escape on your own, quickly!]
The news of Halbaron's death triggered Isla's rampage.
Isla possessed the body of a dragon, and therefore had the potential to become the strongest FakeWarrior in history.
She had a dragon's body but no soul, but upon becoming a FakeWarrior, she received a soul, fulfilling the condition.
Unlike a typical FakeWarrior, she could regenerate from most wounds without the need for dragon's blood serum.
All she needed now was experience.
Only time, to be sharpened like a single blade.
With a dragon's body, her lifespan would be long, and if that happened, she could truly become the strongest FakeWarrior in history.
“I’ll, I’ll devour everything! Isla is angry!”
*Pachatsut—!*
With the sound of shattering light, a storm of light erupted from Gaumris.
“Isla, move carefully! This isn't an opponent to be taken lightly!”
A simple, brutish presence that defied all common sense exploded forth.
Along with a physical transformation.
Above the horns that sprouted from both sides of her head, a golden radiance blazed and overlapped. Light sprouted like a tail from behind her pelvis, and her fangs grew longer.
Did she amplify her power by becoming closer to a dragon?
“Isla is the strongest, nothing can stop her! The strongest—!”
I don't know why.
But with that power…?
“—No one can stop me! But, but why! Why do you let them all, all die!”
Gaumris, wreathed in a vortex of light, completely swallowed the black fog, clearing the surroundings.
“Isla didn't have a dragon's soul! That's why she became a Yongsa—!”
The lava being that had been hiding in the black fog was caught in Isla’s sight.
“—The age of dragons is peaceful! Dragons protect everyone!”
*Paat!* With a roar of exploding light, Isla leaped high, raising Gaumris above her head.
“But why—!”
Is she planning to strike down with the added force of gravity from Gaumris’s massive weight?
“—Why always!”
A gamble, investing all her power and posture into the attack, with no thought for defense.
“Do lowly humans die beside me—!”
Was it because she was crying?
That it sounded less like a dragon’s roar and more like a child’s scream at this cruel world.
—Sipmunjado Fourth Form: Unleash.
Did Behe-ric’s avatar see through the flaw in her gamble?
The lava writhing in the area shot up like tentacles, aiming to pierce and melt Isla’s body from all eight directions. But I won’t let that happen.
Of course I won't let that happen.
—Sipmunjado Eighth Form: Thunderflame Sword Dance.
I draw the blade with the repulsive force of magical energy condensed within the scabbard, pushed to the brink of eruption.
This time, instead of ending this concentrated power in a single slash, I swing it a total of thirty-six times.
Among the Sipmunjado, which weaves single-strike techniques into a dance, the Eighth Form is the only one that uses consecutive attacks, typically as a finishing move for the kill.
“I—!”
It was a vortex of slashes.
A violent song of the sword that slashes wildly at enemies from a firmly planted position.
While this song of the blade is sung, the swordsman is fixed in place for a time, a flaw that throws him into a momentary flicker between life and death.
“—sla—!”
Right now, that was the power I needed.
Above all, in my current Dragon Spirit Liberation state, this technique would begin and end in a single instant.
“—is—!”
One, the blade of Aradamanthel reveals itself from the scabbard for the first time.
“—a—!”
In that moment, six slashes rush forth first, cutting and mincing the lava body.
“—dra—!”
Two, the blade of Aradamanthel fully emerges from the scabbard, drawing a horizontal line of death.
“—gon—!”
In between, fifteen slashes soared like a blade wind, dicing the severed lava chunks again in mid-air.
“—but!”
Three, the blade of Aradamanthel, having completed its horizontal slash, returns to its scabbard.
*Click.*
As the sound of sheathing concluded, another fifteen slashes brutally tore apart the weakened lava body.
“—!”
To summarize this action, performed in the instant before Isla’s short cry could even finish:
The lava tentacles that had lunged into the gap in Isla’s breath were all severed by a barrage of red flashes.
And the body that had tried to move out of Gaumris’s falling trajectory was also momentarily cut to pieces, losing its physical cohesion and slowing its movements.
—Finish it, Isla.
With a dragon's roar, the light of Gaumris reached its zenith.
The physical forces of gravity, inertia, and rotation, and the magical power from the intersecting rampage of the Dragon Spirit and the holy sword, surged forth.
The lava body is crushed by the hammer… and even the scattered lava that splatters is swept away by the light pressure, disintegrated into particles.
A rampage of light.
The special ability of Gaumris, the power of light pressure, unfolded in the form of a storm, completely disintegrating and annihilating even all the fog in the heart into light particles.
“Hah, hah, hah…”
As one knee buckled from the backlash of power, the location of the soul core became clearly visible.
Isla, her mind more battered than her body, was staring blankly behind her.
The horns and tail formed by the shimmering light gradually shrank.
“…”
The mechs of the Dragon’s Fang Corps lay fallen, mere heaps of stone.
Their cockpits had become their coffins.
Mutant Reptilians were swarming over the tragic tomb of sacrifice.
“Isla, I’ll handle things here. Use your Gaumris to clear away the lava on that heart's outer shell and plant the Changmyeonggeom. Then escape.”
[This is Unit 101, all forces retreat! The line cannot be maintained, rescue any survivors possible and retreat! Retreat!]
“You heard them. No rescue is coming. With your power, you can plant the Changmyeonggeom there and get out of here. Do you understand?”
The Dragon Spirit’s power, how much is left?
About 30 seconds, maybe.
That should be enough. Until Isla can finish that and get out of here.
‘The gamble is how I’ll survive after that, I suppose.’
I’m already about to exceed my limit, but can I really…
“—?!”
In that single moment, so many things happened at once.
My vision suddenly went black.
What, what happened…?
It took a considerable amount of time to realize that a powerful force had struck the back of my neck, and that my consciousness was fading.
‘An avatar? No…’
I should have been paying attention to my rear, but no, there was no killing intent, so I couldn't read it.
The culprit was Isla.
The physical and conscious shock severed my connection with the Dragon Spirit. Isla caught my falling body, and our eyes met.
“Isla is a dragon. Unlike lowly humans, she always keeps her promises. Casena said so, and Ryunel said so too.”
“You, now, what…”
“Isla promised to protect Kaisen. She couldn't keep any of the promises she made so far. She couldn't protect anyone.”
Hey, Isla, what kind of joke are you playing at a time like this…
What in the world…
My protesting outcry couldn't force its way past the gap of my fading consciousness and out of my mouth.
“But Isla will keep her promise to Kaisen.”
Isla smiled brightly.
In that smile…
For a fleeting moment, the smiles of my mother and master, who died when I was young, overlapped.
‘Don't.’
I knew intuitively.
Something, something dreadful was about to happen. Something that could never be undone.
‘Please, don't do it.’
In the silence of that unvoiced plea.
Isla wrapped Kaisen's body in a curtain of light and then placed him before the soul core.
The mutants were now right in front of us.
“Then, goodbye, my lowly friend, Kaisen.”
From the tip of Gaumris, a light.
The light exploded, tearing and burning everything with its pressure.
And it burned my consciousness white.