Chapter 89
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Anridal's Spacetime Garden
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[Karenden: I've found the six ley lines in the mountain range that control the dimensional field. It seems these are what's distorting it.]
Even in such a nightmarish situation, Karenden was always level-headed. He always found a breakthrough with cold reason.
Even though he must have been in a bloody battle himself.
Soon, the target's coordinates appeared on the map. Simultaneously, they overlaid his vision, flickering translucently.
[Alkaios: Vassals exterminated. I will take Field 1. Ryukael, go to 2.]
[Ryukael: Leave it to me.]
[Meian: Then I'll take 3!]
[Tervel: I'll take 5. Kaduel, Enuel, you two handle 4 and 6, which are right next to each other.]
The next thirty minutes felt like swimming through a chaotic dream.
I only remember the frantic and chaotic communications that came in fits and starts, the sight of spacetime twisting and distorting, and the howling of the hounds.
It was hard to believe that this place would one day become a sacred mountain, a blessing to humanity.
[Logistics Monitor: Grade 2.5 Abyss detected at coordinate 5. Caution is advised.]
[Tervel: Strange. The vassals were so strong, I thought it had concentrated its power into three of them. Why are there so many others?]
[Ryukael: The rest are just Grade 2.5 grunts. I think you were right.]
[Meian: No, that's not it! If that were the case, the Triple Hyun shouldn't have been that strong. The math just doesn't add up.]
The reason I could only listen and not participate directly in that exchange was because I was being chased by another vassal at the time.
[Kaduel: We've lost the target!]
It didn't have the power to interfere with the past, present, or future, but its ability to freely traverse spacetime was a threat in itself.
[Logistics Monitor: Warning, Grade 2.5 Abyss approaching. Distance 30, 20, 15, 1...!]
A sallow demon burst out of the rainbow-hued, distorted space. Its name was Dugyana.
[Kaduel: It's aiming for the transport's engines! I'll suppress the surrounding space to reduce its possible jump coordinates!]
The dimension Dugyana was about to emerge from was pierced by Hisgibid.
As the tearing dimension distorted in reverse, its grotesque body struggled in agony, unable to escape spacetime.
And it was that very body that was pierced by Sharrilion's silver-white flash, skewering its dimensional and spiritual core whole.
“Kuaaaaaaaah—!”
Even as Dugyana's body vanished into the saturation of light, the communications continued to pour in.
[Alkaios: Mission to eliminate the field is complete.]
[Karenden: Well done, Alkaios. The field has stabilized considerably.]
[Ryukael: You bastards, taste hell!]
[Karenden: Ryukael is done, too.]
[Tervel: Come on! I have more than enough lightning to share with all of you!]
[Karenden: Tervel and Meian are finished as well. Kaduel, Enuel. Hurry.]
[Meian: Hurry up and get rid of that thing!]
[Kaduel: Target generating the field has been located! Commencing elimination procedure.]
The tower built of human skulls was pierced by Hisgibid's orange flash.
In that moment.
Above the mountain range, water vapor began to swirl eerily. Unseen stone structures with incomprehensible outlines were newly revealed.
No, to be precise.
Beyond a dimension torn open to an immeasurably vast size, a bizarre, provocative, and frenzied space had appeared.
[Meian: Alright! The dimension is open again!]
[Tervel: Meian, enter with caution!]
[Karenden: Eldia, all units converge there before the dimension closes again. I will stop that bastard from destroying the dimension outright and wiping you all out in one fell swoop.]
The path into the nightmare known as 'Anridal's Spacetime Garden' had opened. It was time to bring the curtain down on this subjugation mission.
The Age of Myths,
Tarhye Rondel ㆍ Eldia ㆍ Rebirth (10)
[Alkaios: Elimine, Eldia Armada. Converge on the True King's coordinates as quickly as possible.]
Anridal's Spacetime Garden looked like a conglomeration of nightmares.
So bizarre.
So diverse,
So exotic.
To borrow Kaduel's expression, it looked as if the remnants of countless destroyed worlds had flowed here and sedimented.
[Kaduel: On my way, Commander.]
Like a memorial hall for fallen worlds.
[Kaduel: What's the situation?]
Stairs floating in midair with no sense of balance, retaining walls made of human bone, pillars, side paths, passages, and bridges scattered across the sky.
[Ryukael: Late again, Enuel? Just kidding. Everyone's here but you two.]
Everything in sight was moving and tangling erratically, governed by the providence of a world other than this one.
[Tersia: The dimension is unstable, be careful! That thing manipulates spacetime at will!]
[Meian: You're safe, sis!]
[Alkaios: Kaduel, Enuel. Hurry back. The engagement with the True King has begun!]
[Meian: Tervel, where the hell are you shooting?!]
[Tervel: I haven't used my power. What is this?]
It was incomprehensible. I thought as I shook off the hound chasing the transport.
Why are they struggling?
Tervel and Tersia, the strongest of The Ones Who Came, are there, plus Meian and two Eldia Warriors.
[Ryukael: What the hell is this damn thing? Kaduel, where are you?]
[Kaduel: Arriving in forty seconds.]
Kaduel transformed a murderously narrow canyon into a path by distorting the dimension.
[Meian: What is that... Is that me?]
[Karenden: It's Anridal's power. It has pulled out your past selves. That's its ability.]
[Meian: I know. Who else could be that cute? Just tell me how to beat it!]
When I finally arrived before the dimensional rift, Karenden was waiting.
His hands were clasped as if in prayer, and the corners of his pale, drawn lips were torn.
He was keeping the dimensional rift from closing.
[Karenden: Kaduel, go with Asura. Asura, focus on providing cover.]
The three-headed dragon, Asura.
It had grown much larger since the Kelek-Shak subjugation, and was beginning to take on the majesty of a divine dragon.
[Tervel: Anridal is attacking Tersia!]
I threw myself into the dimensional rift.
As I traveled through the rift's passage, the space repeatedly and crazily shifted between high gravity and zero gravity, and I was overcome with nausea.
A moment later, my body was flung out into a distorted space somewhere beyond the sky.
New Area: Anridal's Spacetime Garden.
A phenomenon even more incomprehensible than this head-splittingly incomprehensible place was occurring.
Everyone there was fighting 'themselves.'
Ryukael against Ryukael, Tervel against Tervel, Meian against Meian.
[Kaduel: This can't be.]
Kaduel's stunned murmur could be heard.
Amidst the violently howling wind and nightmarish visual shifts, something rose up before him.
Something with the same armor, the same Hisgibid, and the same height as Kaduel, but corroded a dark, bruised blue by the Abyss.
"I am Eldia Vete. Kaduel. Unauthorized entry confirmed."
And the power of Hisgibid, which had until now cleared our path, was aimed at us.
[Kaduel: Get back!]
As he shouted, Kaduel also unleashed the power of Hisgibid, and as the two flashes collided in midair, spacetime roared in agony.
[Karenden: Enuel, go up and help Tersia.]
[Enuel: Understood.]
[Ryukael: Then what about Enuel's past self?]
[Karenden: Enuel is forty days old. He has no past to speak of, so it can't be summoned. The same should be true for Asura.]
[Ryukael: Fantastic. Why didn't you have me born a little later?]
Indeed, Enuel's past self appeared as a larva, its organs rapidly growing inside a test tube.
There was no need to even fight it.
Asura's past was also summoned, but it was nothing more than three baby dragons, toddling about...
[Light Dragon Haraderiman: Lord Enuel, get on our backs!]
Moving forward wasn't easy, as the ruins of destruction were constantly tangling and shifting.
Just as an alley seemed to twist chaotically, the floor would suddenly disappear.
Every time, the chilling sound of a flute could be heard.
"Hee heehee ha haha heh heh ho. So much fun."
Anridal was the only one of the five True Kings to possess a human form.
It is said that all True Kings receive a blessing of Beauty, granting them an otherworldly loveliness that surpasses any beauty praised by mortals.
Anridal had the form of a young girl, wearing a mask of a twisting, spiral frame, and she sat atop a Hound of Andalos, giggling eerily.
[Karenden: At this rate, my strength will give out first. Tervel, what's the situation?]
[Tervel: I can't shake my past self. No matter what I do, it's a stalemate!]
[Karenden: Asura, take care of the past selves. If you can't defeat them, at least hold them back. You need to tie up at least two of them.]
As Asura took on the past selves of Tervel and Meian, the two monarchs were freed up.
[Tervel: Alright!]
[Meian: Sis!]
[Karenden: Enuel, go up with Tervel and Meian and help Tersia.]
[Ryukael: Enuel, make sure you transmit a video of the glorious moment you take that bitch's head!]
Anridal, who ruled even eons, partially transcended and controlled the spacetimes of the past, present, and future.
How many times did I fail?
How many times was I thrown to the ground?
How many times did I have to regenerate my body?
While Tervel's lightning and Meian's moonlight intersected dazzlingly to hold back Anridal, I had to protect Tersia's side.
[Meian: The scenery keeps changing! Ugh, so annoying! I feel like my head's going to explode!]
[Karenden: Enuel, I can't maintain control of the dimensional field for more than sixty seconds. Take care of Anridal. You can do it.]
Sixteen pairs of wings sprouted from Anridal's back.
The battlefield distorted and shifted madly amidst the feathers scattered from those wings like a torrential downpour, leaving no gaps.
The moment one of those feathers grazed my head, half of it was blown away with a sharp crack.
A frenzy of blood and brain matter.
The helmet's armor, my hair, flesh, skin, skull, and brain were sucked into another dimension...
[Alkaios: ...Timer for the primary target has been set to 55 seconds. Enuel, hurry...!]
...My consciousness vanished for a moment before returning amidst super-speed regeneration. Without my regenerative abilities, it would have been instant death.
Truly, it was a nightmarish pandemonium.
What would have happened if the two from The Ones Who Came hadn't been watching my back?
Spacetime would shift to an ancient abyss, or a primeval forest from the past, but the worst was when it changed into a volcano of the past.
[Meian: This time it turned spacetime into a volcano!]
Was it the past, or the present?
There, the Blood-Red Sun, Shurigan, was found, recovering its body.
"Found you."
Amidst an eardrum-shattering, sharp, and eerie cackle, Shurigan's past self blocked the way.
[Meian: That bitch summoned Shurigan's past...?!]
[Tervel: It's pulling out the pasts of the entire clone army!]
As I blankly watched the clone armies form a phalanx and create a wall, Tersia shouted.
[Tersia: Help me, Enuel. Don't look anywhere else. Just me, just what's in front, just watch my back.]
It was a single ray of light shining into the darkness.
No, it was the flash of dawn, illuminating the lowest places of the world and heralding the morning.
Just by hearing her voice, my consciousness cleared. I knew exactly what I had to do, what task I had to perform.
[Enuel: I will obey.]
Tersia spun Berkensia around once before raising it high into the sky.
[Tersia: Grace.]
Light gathers beneath it.
One by one, the lights that had been hiding under the dominion of darkness rise like droplets, converging into a massive whole.
[Tersia: Peace.]
Beneath a single milestone.
In the arms of their creator.
[Tersia: Truth.]
Gathering and gathering above Berkensia, the small, insignificant particles of light gradually become a grand blade of light, brilliantly illuminating this nightmarish spacetime.
[Tersia: Justice.]
A sense of thrill?
Awe?
Or nostalgia?
[Tersia: Embracing all of that, and the highest among them, Love.]
How on earth could I describe this trembling?
No miracle of The Ones Who Came that I had witnessed so far had ever stirred such a primal tremor in my heart.
No one had told me, but I felt as if protecting that light was a mission given to me from the moment I was born.
One against a thousand.
In the flow of my battle, I cut down, deflected, and shattered the dimensions of past, present, and future that rained down like meteors.
Sharrilion lets out a great cry.
No, the sword kneels and worships.
Before a light more sublime than itself, it immolates its own body to protect that light, as a single piece of kindling.
[Meian: Enuel, what in the world is he? I can't even see the afterimages of his sword!]
Finally, the blade of Berkensia was complete, and it reached the heavens.
The blood-red of the Dawn.
The golden-hue of Life.
The color of the primordial light, created as those two lights swirled, embraced, and wept... why was the mere sight of that light so tear-jerking?
[Tersia: Bring the dawn to this land.]
That tear-jerking light was a light unlike any other in this world, though jade was perhaps the closest color.
[Tersia: Tarhye Rondel.]
Within the resonance of that light, swung wide to cleave the darkness.
The nightmare that had swallowed this world of creation, and even the laughter of the stars that had mocked this pitiful, wretched world, were all swept away in an instant.
Only something full of grace, peace, truth, justice, and love dawned.
That something is called the dawn.