Chapter 53: Ragnarok (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 53: Ragnarok (5)
Knight Ragnarok.
The spot where his head plummeted caved in heavily.
\----------!
A piercing explosion roared through the air.
Humans, the departed, and demons alike snapped their eyes toward the epicenter. They reacted as if a meteor had just crashed onto the earth.
A brief stalemate ensued. Soon, the insect demons' expressions began to darken, while warmth returned to the faces of the living and the departed alike.
Rumbleeee...
Right on cue, the colossal 50-meter-tall golem collapsed. The ground trembled violently, sending a plume of sand and stone dust swirling up to their ankles.
Judging by this alone, the battle seemed settled. The insect demons remained where they were, their sinister aura unchanged, but their enemy commander was dead. From time immemorial, when the general falls, the army surrenders.
Whether that common sense applied to insect demons remained unknown, but the gloom of defeat was undeniably spreading among their ranks.
"...At last..."
Then, someone uttered that line—the one that should never be spoken aloud.
"...Did we... get him?"
To protect his or her identity, I shall leave them unnamed.
Crunch.
A light-green arm burst through the dust. It stretched out endlessly like taffy, possessing multiple joints like the leg of a giraffe.
Slide.
Another appeared. It had the same shape, but its color was stark white.
Whooosh!
The two mismatched arms swept across the area in a wide arc, instantly dispersing the dust.
=Haaa...=
An elongated skull lifted its head. The light burning in its eye sockets flared furiously as it stared down the heroes.
=My forces have been exhausted.=
Ragnarok straightened his bent knees. His long shadow stretched across the drill grounds, splitting it in two.
Though not as massive as the golem, he was still huge. In terms of sheer presence, he easily surpassed the titan.
Bubbles gurgled and churned inside Ragnarok's body. His limbs were composed of a translucent liquid.
=...Children of the earth...=
A greenish, poisonous mist leaked from the jaw of his skull helmet. Ragnarok was speaking not to the humans, but to the demons.
=It is time to return to your father.=
Ragnarok opened his chest and spread his arms wide. The demon legion tilted their heads in confusion before...
"Kieeeeeeeek—!"
"Kkue, eeee, eeeeeek!"
Screaming hideous shrieks, they were sucked into Ragnarok's body. One demon reached out an arm as if pleading, only to be swallowed whole by the green liquid.
The demons had no choice in the matter. They writhed in agony, dragged not into a father's embrace, but pulled down into the depths of hell.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Fungus-like claw marks tore through the dirt before abruptly ending right beneath Ragnarok's feet.
=Huuup.=
In an instant, Ragnarok absorbed the entire demon legion. His size remained unchanged, but...
"Th-That... inside his body...!"
Mikellan pointed a trembling index finger.
Inside Ragnarok's translucent form, the demons tangled together, forming a skeletal frame and grafting flesh upon it.
As Ragnarok's bone density thickened, the demons shriveled. Withering away, they shrank into dot-sized grains floating within his body—like cells.
Creeeeak.
A giant with unnaturally elongated limbs cast a heavy shadow. Ragnarok wriggled his fingers disgustingly, like spider legs.
=I suppose I shall have to make do with this for now...=
Ragnarok turned his head, dragging darkness in his wake.
=Pay the price for defying the natural order.=
Before he could even finish speaking—
Saaaaaaa...!
A torrential downpour of sashimi knives descended. Countless in number, thin and sharp like a sudden summer shower.
[Sword-Control Technique: Heavenly Thunder]
Ragnarok whipped his light-green arm like a lash. Moving faster than sound, he batted the blades away.
"Everyone...! Drive your weapons into the ground and hold on...!"
Orion von Nibelung shouted into the gale. Standing idly meant being swept away by the winds.
Thud, thud, thud!
The departed drove the tips of their armaments into the soil. Mikellan was among them.
"Aaaaghh! Someone—no, an undead—no, a departed—no...! Argh, just save meee! Ah! Wait, I'm already dead anyway, aren't I?! Ahahaha!"
However, lacking combat training, he flew parallel to the ground along with the fluttering banner.
=To think a mere physical attack would prove effective...! This is a disgrace to my title as an Apostle of the Counterforce...!=
The skull's teeth chattered furiously.
=You—this world—must come to an end! Why do you deny it, Apostle of Destruction?!=
KABOOM! CRACKLEEE!
A bolt of lightning struck down precisely upon Ragnarok. In the next instant, the light coalesced into a human figure with black hair.
"If I am meant to destroy..."
Starting from the tips, his black hair began to bleach pure white. Kang Geomma pressed down on Ragnarok with two sashimi knives and spat out:
"...then it will be you, and the entity lurking behind you."
=Do you truly not know your own end...? How tragic... How tragic indeed... If not for the constraints of probability, I would have told you...=
"Your last words are too long."
Swish. Switching Murasame to a reverse grip, he swung. The blade struck the light-green arm like a stinging bee.
Slice—!
The arm fell away effortlessly, belying the fact that it had been fashioned from an entire demon army. Thick, lava-like blood surged from the severed surface.
Drip, drip, drip.
Everywhere the blood touched, the earth melted away. Because of this, the heroes could not easily approach. The departed also intuitively felt it: meddling carelessly in that battle would only hinder the King of the Dead and erase them without a trace.
They did not fear death—they were already dead.
The departed heroes feared becoming a burden to Kang Geomma. They dreaded becoming a stumbling block to humanity's hope. Furthermore, a battle between transcendent beings inherently barred the intrusion of mortals.
The two were battling within the Divine Domain.
Squuelch.
Two arms sprouted from the severed stump, and simultaneously, Ragnarok thrust his white arm outward.
The stark white arm stretched with lightning speed, instantly reaching the solar plexus of the collapsed golem.
Swish.
The Sword Emperor twisted his upper body aside. The sharp fingers grazed past his chest.
"!!"
By the time he realized it, those hideous fingers had plucked Gae Bolg from the golem. The Sword Emperor raised his blade, intending to sever the arm in one strike.
It ended as a mere attempt. Leaving behind only a lingering afterimage, the arm retracted instantly.
The moment it came into range, Ragnarok pierced the sky with the tip of the spear and ripped it open—Riiiiip!
Rumbleeeee...
The eyelid of the sky opened. A dark orifice—an abyss. A dismal, suffocating blackness seized the heavens. As everyone stared blankly upward for a brief moment—
Something opened its eye inside that black void. A vast pupil pushing aside the clouds, filling the sky.
Thud, thud.
Warriors who had just been fighting with all their might collapsed to their knees. Fear, helplessness, self-loathing—all manner of negative emotions wafted from their skin like black smoke.
=O Counterforce!= Ragnarok screamed, desperately parrying Kang Geomma's onslaught. =Do not be angered by the damage to probability! One of your apostles has committed the folly of violating a far greater probability!=
The colossal eye listened in silence.
=So please, grant me power...!=
Kang Geomma's sashimi knife cut him off mid-sentence.
"What kind of villain waits for Power Rangers to finish transforming?"
Tens of thousands of sashimi blades surged toward Ragnarok once more. Taking advantage of the distraction, Kang Geomma transformed into light and spiraled upward like a tornado.
"You're the host behind all this chaos, aren't you?"
[ ... ]
The eye was sunken and hollow.
"Not just today, but everything that's happened to me."
[ ... ]
"The God of Sword, my adoptive father, Lycan... all of them played by you—"
"Geomma!"
Ryozo's sharp voice cut through the air. Amidst the complete chaos, she alone had retained her composure.
"Look down!"
For Kang Geomma's sake.
"Look below you!"
Just as she had during the Joaquin Disaster.
"...Below."
Thanks to Ryozo's shout, Kang Geomma finally lowered his eyes. Ragnarok's translucent arm had grabbed him by the ankle.
=You cannot approach our King! One who should have been a subject has committed mutiny! Such is the law of probability...!=
Crunch!
A sharp blade erupted from the back of the skull's neck. Ragnarok shifted his faltering gaze.
"To our King..."
Orion, who had thrust his sword forward, thundered with fury:
"...How dare you speak so insolently—!!"
The blade split through the skull as it pulled back out. Blood spattered. The moment the blood splashed, Orion's form began to fade into dust.
Consequently, the black steam wafted by the living also ceased. They shook their heads, piecing their fragmenting souls back together through sheer willpower.
"Father!"
Abel tried to rush forward, but the Sword Emperor held her back. His heart ached at his granddaughter's tearful face, but he shook his head.
"...Yes..."
Abel could only nod. Though his eyes were composed, her grandfather looked sadder than ever before.
As if that were a signal, the army of the departed launched themselves forward in unison. Casting aside their armaments, they swarmed over Ragnarok. A mound of bodies piled over him until only his arm poked out—like a grasshopper leg dangling from a frog's mouth.
The hand binding Kang Geomma's feet quickly lost its strength. Ragnarok roared in desperate resistance.
Rumbleeeee...!!
The mound of spirits writhed so violently that it caused a localized earthquake.
Yet, binding their hands together in solidarity, the legion briefly—if only for a fleeting moment—reached the Divine Domain.
"Heave-ho, heave-ho."
Mikellan stubbornly clambered up, using the armor of his allies as footholds. At long last, he planted the banner at the peak of the mound.
Heavenly Sword. The two plainly written characters fluttered in the wind.
"Lord Geomma! It has been the greatest honor of my life to stand beside you! Never before—nor ever again—will my heart swell with such pride!"
Mikellan bellowed at the top of his lungs, lightly tapping the hill with his foot.
"The probability this monster speaks of is merely the conclusion of a story! Which means... your story doesn't have to end here!!"
=Silence!=
The split skull burst through a gap in the mound. Crunch! It bit deeply into Mikellan's trapezius.
"Ngh, ghh... Lord Geomma!"
Biting his lower lip through the agonizing pain, Mikellan carried on his rally.
"It is time to bring this to an end!"
"...Mikellan..."
"Is it not the duty of the preceding generation to sacrifice for the future?! Please, grant us the privilege of fulfilling our duty!!"
"..."
A long silence fell. In the end, Kang Geomma had to nod.
Sssslid.
Kang Geomma raised Murasame. Hemp cords wrapped around his body like thistles, sealing him entirely like a mummy.
To unleash a power exceeding what the world could tolerate, he had to temporarily extinguish his own existence.
His now completely bleached-white hair swayed down to his hips. Everyone gasped at the sight of Kang Geomma, transformed with flowing long hair.
"Geom... ma..."
Even his wives, Ryozo and Abel, had never seen him like this. Their lower lips trembled slightly.
W-Why...?
Are we...
...feeling fear toward our own husband...?
No, more than that, what is that...?
Only the faint outline of his eyes showed through the bandages. Space and time warped around him as pitch-black pillars spun rapidly with Kang Geomma at the center.
"I am the wheel of providence, and the blade that slashes providence."
Chakra.
The Wheel of Fate. To draw out his latent power, he had to chant his True Name.
"My True Name is..."
The source of his hesitation. Seeing this, Mikellan offered a reassuring smile with his eyes.
"The world will understand you."
Kang Geomma squeezed his eyes shut.
"..."
He brought the sashimi knife down like crushing an aluminum can.
[Slashing Domain]
A red line was drawn across Mikellan's pupils, which mirrored the giant eye in the sky. The line extended far beyond the horizon.
One, two, ten, a hundred, a thousand... countless branching red lines sped outward.
Erasing the existence known as 'Kang Geomma' to manifest a demon god—an act defying heaven that brought the Slashing Line into reality.
=Apostle of Destruc—!=
■■■■■■■■■■■■
Ragnarok, the Knight of Conquest and Pestilence.
"Be severed."
■■■■■■■■■■■■
R/a/g/n/a/r/o/k.
He was shredded into nothingness along with the monumental monument built by the departed heroes.
■■■■■■■■■■■■
Down to the molecular level.
R/a/g/n/a/r/o/k
■■■■■■■■■■■■
The eye that filled the sky eventually closed its eyelid.
...
...
...
This was the moment when the concepts of Conquest and Pestilence were erased from the universe—
"That is..."
—and simultaneously, the moment the world came to a realization.
A horror that had gathered a thick layer of dust from being left forgotten for so long. Yet, it was more than enough to send tremors through the entire world.
For he had demonstrated it in person:
"...The Demon King."
That he alone was the absolute evil capable of destroying the world.
– Gigantomachia. END.