Chapter 57
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: The Final Battle Begins
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“Ria, I’ll go. Alone.”
I emphasized the word ‘alone.’
Perhaps that was why her response was a little delayed.
[Thank you. The rest of the 3rd Operations Army, gather at Platform 3 immediately and board Train 1701! Any delay will throw the entire operation off schedule!]
[This is Seira. Enemy unit destroyed. Iron Fortress, I’m taking all of the 1st Operations Army and departing.]
[Kaisen, it’s Roveris. If 1701 doesn’t depart, it will collide with 1702 and 1703 on the tracks. Hurry.]
Bloodwind, sorry to put you through this again…
I stroked his mane and climbed into the saddle. Instantly, Bloodwind shot through the sandstorm like the wind itself.
By the time I managed to reach the location, only a deathly silence remained. The Reptilians were devouring the giant soldiers.
Should I turn back…?
No…
Someone might still be alive. Alive, and hoping for help to arrive…
Swallowing a dry gulp of sand-laced saliva, I gripped Gaumris and leaped from Bloodwind.
“This is Kaisen. I’ve reached the destination. If there are any survivors, respond.”
[Here, I’m alive!]
[Ah, aaah, they’re trying to tear open the cockpit hatch!]
In that instant, the earth shook, and the bodies of the Reptilians were all thrown into the air.
At the center of that tremor was the Supreme Holy Sword Gaumris.
The synergy of two Supreme Holy Swords.
Followed by the Supreme Holy Sword Aradamanthel’s Thunder River.
Like streams merging into a great river, a single massive bolt of lightning split the air, its slash creating a form where countless currents of electricity spread around it.
Release.
Sipmunjado 12th Form, Spirit Annihilation Slash.
As the mangled bodies of the Reptilians scattered in all directions, Kaisen gathered the survivors.
[Kaisen, hurry! It’ll be dangerous if we don’t leave soon!]
“I’m on my way.”
[FakeWarrior, please hurry!]
It wasn’t a long distance, but it felt like an eternity.
The sandstorm…
Carving a path through that hellscape, where bloodcurdling screams filled with hatred and agony tore through the air from every direction…
Ancient reptiles giving chase…
Dashing onto the platform, blackened with the soot of volcanic ash…
The armored train, its steam engine already at peak pressure, repeatedly belching smoke…
The time it took, repeatedly swinging my sword until the six giant soldiers I’d rescued were loaded onto the open freight car at the rear.
[1701, final unit has been accommodated. Departing immediately!]
[Your Excellency, the Blue Star, this is Command Adjutant Ria Alter Tassalpo. All trains have boarded their troops as scheduled and have departed.]
[Well done. We now transition to the final phase of the operation.]
Right.
That day, I didn’t even have the luxury of slumping down by the train door to catch my breath.
[All soldiers, once again review your frontline deployments and orders—!]
A deafening roar, as if my eardrums would burst.
Silence.
Ria shouted, out of breath.
[Your Excellency, the Blue Star, Your Excellency! What’s happening? Your Excellency!]
[This is Iron Fortress, it’s a Demon! It’s attacking the engine room carrying His Excellency, the Blue Star!]
[What grade?]
[Not Incarnate-grade! It looks like high-grade or maybe low-grade! I’m just praying it’s low-grade.]
[Shake it off immediately. Don’t let it lay a single finger on His Excellency or the engine. Mern, you’re up.]
[Leave it to me, Captain.]
[Hah! A Demon? The one that was left had to show up now?]
At that moment, Kaisen…
Was sprinting across the roof of the train, sandstorms swirling on either side.
His immensely amplified leg strength carved footprints into the roof, closing the distance between the rear car of 1701 and the driver’s cab of 1702 in a single bound.
“Seira, where exactly is it attached to the engine room?”
[Upper left, 2 o’clock position. Reference point is facing the train from the south.]
“Confirmed. Nobody come out. Mern, please just bind its movements. I’ll take care of it immediately.”
[Alright, let’s give it a shot. Your power is perfect if we want to avoid damaging the train.]
[FakeWarrior, this is the engineer of 1702! The tracks are about to merge, and we will be docking with 1701.]
“Slow down.”
[If we do that, we risk colliding with 1703.]
“I trust your skill. That is all.”
Praise is a powerful tool at any moment.
[…Understood. 1702 will now commence deceleration procedures. Everyone, brace for inertia.]
In the instant I took a deep breath.
I stopped breathing, fixing my body’s state as it was.
[Commencing primary deceleration.]
The movement of the diaphragm during respiration risked disrupting the quiet focus of my stance.
[Commencing secondary deceleration, smoke detected at the rear! Shutting down the tertiary power pipe, prepare!]
With everything still, I moved only my hand, gripping the hilt of Aradamanthel slung across my back.
[Kaisen, I’m ready.]
Sipmunjado 4th Form, Release.
Simultaneously, I threw my body forward with enough force to land precariously on the very edge of 1702’s rear car.
[Kaisen, it’s Seira! The Demon is starting to tear off the engine room roof!]
My footing was unstable as I landed next to Mern, who was waiting with his bow drawn.
From that unstable landing, two forces were born.
The inertia of my body wanting to be flung off the train. The contracting force of my muscle fibers trying to reverse that momentum.
[Commencing quaternary deceleration, docking phase initiated! Engineer of 1703, decelerate on our signal!]
Those two forces.
I condensed them into a single flow.
Just as my body pitched forward and my foot was about to step into the empty air beyond the train’s edge, I created a foothold with magic.
[Out of control! Everyone has retreated from the engine room, so we can’t operate it! We’re going to collide!]
[Kaisen, there’s no time.]
“Kaisen! I’m shooting now! I can’t let it breach the engine room!”
[Kaisen!]
As I stepped on that surface.
My left hand pulled the scabbard back as my right hand drew the hilt forward.
The power that had been swirling to its absolute limit inside the scabbard exploded, launching the blade like a bullet.
Iaijutsu Flash.
A single, dazzlingly brilliant red flash of light that cut across the sandstorm.
That radiance.
The light contained within that blade.
It only began to fade away after it had, in a single strike, cleaved through the flesh and bone of the ancient nightmare clad in volcanic rock and grazed the soul beyond.
*Click.*
I flicked the blade once, dispelling the light, and sheathed it.
The ancient nightmare’s body was thrown from the train, tumbling and rolling away onto the distant sand.
*Phew.* As I finally exhaled the breath I had been holding, I heard Mern’s disbelieving laugh.
[Now you’re felling Demons in a single strike… and you haven’t even used Dragon Spirit Liberation, have you? You’ve come back even more monstrous after just a few days.]
“It was half a gamble. I was only able to do it because you held it down so firmly.”
[This is Ria. Docking phase successful. All three armored trains are on the correct track.]
“Finally…”
[You really went through a lot, Kaisen. The Thunderous Resonance link to headquarters is filled with nothing but praise for you.]
A bridge of blood and corpses.
The Subjugation of the Forgotten King Neigallas (2)
The gathering point was the third car from the rear of Train 1703.
Both the Thunderous Fragrance and the Blue Star were unconscious, their bodies respectively enveloped in a holy golden light and a serene blue glow.
Seira gestured with her chin.
“They said they both have things to prepare for the final operation.”
“The final one.”
Final…
Strangely, the very sound of the word ‘final’ carried a tone that was both regretful and relieving.
Seira seemed to have a similar thought. She stared at Kaisen silently for a moment before giving her characteristic lopsided smile.
“Isn’t it strange? Even in this moment, our time is ticking away, getting closer and closer to zero.”
“…”
“That’s why I don’t think it’s so bad. It’s made me realize how precious each moment is. The days I took for granted… someone else must have desperately wished for just one of those days.”
I could only offer a hollow smile at her words.
A day taken for granted…
A daily life taken for granted…
My mother, father, sister… they were all a natural part of that day, that life. Where did the gears of my life start to go wrong?
“I had a dream.”
“?”
“Hah, a real hero suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was a dream where he told us we didn’t have to fight anymore.”
Such a thing.
Something that could never exist.
As she spoke of such a dream, Seira’s gaze was fixed on some distant place, not here.
“A real hero…”
Just as I uttered those words in response to Seira’s dreamlike musing, the door opened, and familiar faces began to appear one by one.
“To think the sanctuary of the Fire Dragon Vel’dakidun and the Red Dragon Legion would become like this… Hey, kid!”
“You made it, hah! Not bad for a rookie.”
Alidona and Tval.
As Tval struggled to bring the massive Dragonbone Spear into the car, I gave a little shrug with Gaumris.
“…I wouldn’t have made it this far without this.”
That’s right…!
The lowly Kaisen survived thanks to Isla…!
I am permitted to kneel in awe of Isla’s greatness…! A whisper that could never be heard, that no one could hear, reached me, and my hand trembled.
“Hah, same goes for us. The Sure-Hit Corps was wiped out. That old man went out in a blaze of glory, though.”
“The Hero Party, too. They weren’t the kind of people to die so meaninglessly…”
“Our losses are too great. We made it this far, but without the Dragon’s Maw Corps and the Sure-Hit Corps…”
Alidona brought a pipe to her lips, about to pack it with tobacco, but immediately pulled it away upon seeing the Thunderous Fragrance and the Blue Star.
Roveris spoke.
“The Dragon’s Maw and Sure-Hit were merely carrying out the hero’s duty. It’s our mission now to make sure their deaths were not in vain.”
It was around then that Mirngadia’s eyelids began to twitch.
The light enveloping his body slowly began to subside. He appeared to be regaining consciousness.
Seira asked cautiously.
“Your Excellency, the Blue Star, you once said that four heroes were needed to subjugate Neigallas. Does that mean the Black Rose will be deployed in the subjugation now?”
From Mirngadia’s body, tree branches sprouted, weaving letters in the air.
[The Black Rose will not be deployed in the subjugation. She will take command of the defensive line.]
“Then that’s only three of us. What about the last one?”
[You will meet them soon. This is not something that can be explained with words.]
“In heaven?”
[Do you fear death, Seira Alter Solang?]
“I am already prepared to die. But I want to know if my mission ends with this battle, or if it continues on.”
*Gwoooooooh…!*
In an instant, an oppressive presence, like a storm, swept over the sand-covered city of <Aurelinople>, threatening to swallow it whole.
The train shook as if it would derail.
The lanterns inside the train began to flicker erratically, as if shuddering in the face of that transcendent terror.
Cold sweat began to pour like rain from everyone’s foreheads.
This was the oppressive aura of a cosmic being that transcended order.
Mern, who had nimbly opened the hatch and climbed onto the roof, narrowed his eyes and shouted urgently.
“It’s Neigallas! Why is it suddenly roaring like that?”
“It’s found us. Either it found us, or it found Train 1701. A natural result of entering the city’s domain.”
“Neigallas’s attack is coming! A wave of lava!”
“Alidona, we have to block that first. Help me.”
“Okay, Roro.”
As Roveris drew the strokes of a rune in the air and the rune’s resonance flowed from Alidona’s lips as sound.
Suddenly, the Blue Star’s body moved.
The body that had slept for over twenty years creaked like a diseased tree, but even that movement seemed sacred.
There was no incantation.
There was no calculation.
Before the power of Roveris and Alidona, who had begun constructing their rune, could even take shape, the Blue Star stretched out a withered hand.
“What…?”
“No way…?”
“Huh…”
A wall of ice, rising with noble immensity to counter the onrushing tide of lava…
No, that was a mountain range of ice.
The mountain range of ice, completely filling the horizon in all directions, clashed with the lava, letting out a desperate scream like a frozen lake cracking in winter.
‘Impossible…’
I couldn’t even blink.
Having grown up alongside Johan Wolf Frost, I thought I would never see a more incredible display of ice magic.
This was power on a completely different dimension.
‘Is this the power the Blue Star wields himself? It’s on the level of a miracle. Even greater than what I saw at <Kerkunude>.’
Roveris and Alidona, whose knowledge in this field was greater than Kaisen’s, also wore expressions of utter disbelief.
“Now… we begin the subjugation of Neigallas…”
As he spoke, the Blue Star gasped for breath as if his life was about to end.
From the hole pierced deep in his chest, countless abyssal worms writhed.
Realizing their host’s revival, the Abyss was also reawakening with vigor. There was no time.
“I command you once more… Trust me, and die here. I promise… that I will weave your deaths into victory…”
The light that illuminates the final age. The final journey of the one who has cherished and protected that light in his arms.
Perhaps the hole in his chest, the cold sweat covering his face, and his ragged breaths were the medals of those days.
Even amidst the flames of the malady that gnawed at his immortal life, the Blue Star’s dignity was supremely great and lofty.
His unique, pure white aura seemed to repel any and all darkness.
“Your Excellency, it has been an infinite honor to serve you until now.”
For a moment shorter than an instant.
After exchanging glances with the other FakeWarriors, Roveris saluted as their representative.
“Now, use us to fulfill the path you swore to the gods.”
Following her words.
Following her will.
*Thump.* The junior FakeWarriors simultaneously executed the gesture—first striking their hearts, then extending that hand straight toward their superior.
“……!”
This noble gesture.
A vow of obedience to follow in faith until the end, forsaking body, mind, and soul.
A salute originating from the old AuthenticWarriors of the Era of Origin, passed down to the FakeWarriors.
[To have had talents like you by my side was a profound blessing from the gods… May the same blessing be upon you on your final path… Man proposes, but the gods dispose… I now pray for the fortunes of war for you all…]
That moment of vows and salutes.
Was shattered in vain by Mern’s shout from the roof.
“Multiple movements detected inside the city. Looks like the Reptilians that remained in <Aurelinople>!”
“Hah! That so-called king certainly made a lot of preparations, didn’t he!”
“Temperature spike! Currently 160 degrees!”
Even without Alidona saying so, a heat haze was already rising inside the train.
Extreme heat, the authority of Neigallas.
Even though they were supposed to be protected by the Blue Star’s power, they could hear the railroad tracks warping and the armored train’s cannons melting.
[1701, battle stations! Adjutant Commander Ria Alter Tassalpo will now command the outer front!]
[1702, making an emergency stop!]
[The armored division will fill the gap between the trains! Deploy immediately!]
[They’re pouring in endlessly.]
Receiving even those urgent signals was cut off the next moment. Seira said.
“What’s going on? The Thunderous Resonance link has been completely severed.”
“It’s because of the Abyss value! Current external temperature is 210 degrees!”
“So the plan is to jam our signal with the main force. When is our turn?”
“240 degrees!”
“Right now. Kaisen!”
As soon as Roveris’s order fell, I severed the connection to the train with Gaumris.
The three rear cars, disconnected from the engine’s power, began to grind to a halt on the tracks with a grating metallic screech.
The soldiers of the Iron Cross and Iron Fortress who had been waiting in those cars disembarked safely within the Blue Star’s barrier.
“Neigallas is approaching this way!”
“Hah! Just like a lizard grandma, she brings all her little lizard brats with her!”
“Your Excellency, the Blue Star, your orders.”
Era of Origin, Year 1698, March 30th.
The subjugation of the Lizard Lord, Neigallas, begins.
The Central Front forces, humanity’s bulwark in the early days of the ‘Red Summer,’ would vanish from history after this battle.
“I will block the king’s advance… Use that opening to expose its soul core… Then, I will end it all…”