Chapter 436
Chapter 436
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 436
>Chapter Title: Answer Me
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Skeletons stripped down to bare bone charged across the wasteland.
Clack-clack-clack—the grinding of bones echoed noisily as pale wraiths gathered in flocks overhead.
[Kiiiiieeeeeek—!]
An eerie wail pierced the air.
Hiiiing—!
Ghost horses carrying Death Knights galloped through the sky.
A headless knight, the Dullahan, smashed through skeletons in a headlong rush, while ghouls scrambled along the canyon walls.
If hell existed, this would be it.
It was despair enough to make even nonbelievers cry out to the gods—a horror even the divine might turn away from.
But ahead of it all.
Red hair.
Red eyes.
A woman with snow-white skin gripping a sword as white as her flesh—she was smiling.
‘Impressive…….’
Worthy of the word.
‘Definitely better than that trash from the Hamern Great Forest.’
The “trash” Shine referred to was Solion, the foe they’d faced in the Hamern Great Forest. But this 5th Elder was a necromancer on a level incomparable to Solion.
And yet, she smiled all the same.
Simply because……
It was just impressive.
One step.
Shine took a step forward, tightening her grip on her sword. And she was certain. It would take but a single strike to sever that old Golden Horse Sorcerer’s neck. Nothing more.
Thus, she entered transcendence.
But the situation didn’t unfold as expected.
[Kiiiiieeeeeek—!]
A sudden wail.
No, not sudden. The canyon had been filled with banshee shrieks from the start. But she called it sudden for one reason.
It pierced through time split into instants.
‘What……?’
Shine steadied her momentarily shaken mind and looked ahead. In this finely fragmented time, everything flowed slowly.
Skeletons and ghouls made of matter went without saying, and even Death Knights were the same.
Banshees, being spirits, barely escaped the flow of time, but even they weren’t fully free. Their forms were spiritual, yet their minds were too frail to glimpse this split-second realm.
Then what was it?
‘That’s…….’
Far off, atop the sluggishly moving horde of undead, she spotted one anomalous presence.
Alone, floating freely in the air as if unbound by time’s flow—an bizarre spirit.
Like other spectral undead, it had a translucent grayish body, but it differed in one key way.
Its form.
Unlike banshees whose egos blurred, unable to hold their shapes, its outline was sharp and clear.
And that wasn’t all.
Its pupils.
‘It…… sees me?’
Unlike banshees with unfocused eyes lacking sclera or pupils, this spirit stared straight at Shine with both eyes.
And even……
‘……smiling?’
A smile curved its lips.
It defied all common sense.
Even those who’d reached transcendence could only free their minds in such split time—and only if body and spirit remained in harmony.
Yet an undead, a soulless corpse without flesh, perceived this fractured space. How?
Even Shine couldn’t help but falter, though her shock didn’t last long.
She realized.
‘Whatever it is…….’
……she’d just cut it down.
Her resolve sharpened her dulled aura. Aether swirled within the split time.
Her mind sword……
‘……won’t work.’
It needed warmup. Against Oukan, she’d poured every moment of battle into forging it—not an exaggeration. Her grasp was too shallow for casual use in real combat.
But the mind sword wasn’t everything.
Martial prowess at its peak.
No techniques required.
Just……
‘Cut.’
Her sword cleaved space. In split time, it sliced through time itself, radiating sword intent.
Just as it sought to rend space……
Hee-hee.
The spirit smiled. What had been an old sorcerer’s form instantly became a young woman. Still a sorceress, but utterly transformed.
The change came right after.
[Hee-hee-hee, hee-hee.]
An unsettling laugh echoed as dark mana flooded the space. A repulsion field.
Soon—
Kclang!
Her slash collided.
No ordinary field could block Shine’s strike. But there was more than one.
[Hee-hee, hee-hee-hee.]
The madwoman’s laughter repeated, repulsion fields blooming one after another in the air. Her slash pressed on but was halted.
And so……
Kagagagagak!
After shattering dozens of fields, the slash vanished.
‘……Hah.’
Even Shine was left breathless now.
Not content with perceiving split time, it wielded magic like an archmage.
How in the world……
That’s when she stopped thinking.
‘……?’
Shine halted her thoughts and focused on the change ahead.
The woman-shaped spirit shifted form. Shrinking in size. When the change ended, its final shape was……
A young boy.
Clutching a toy soldier doll, he anxiously scanned his surroundings until his eyes met Shine’s—and screamed.
[No, don’t kiiiiill meeeeee—!]
In split time.
A scream resounded.
Shine drew up her aether, covering her ears and shielding her mind. And she had to admit it.
……Salvatium.
The group that wielded forbidden magic defying reason, lurking for millennia.
They had their tricks.
‘To think…….’
It could shake this body’s mind.
But.
Kiiiing—!
Transcendence released. Shine’s eyes remained listless.
Why?
It surprised her, but ultimately……
It was still just “impressive.”
But her face hardened for another reason.
Shock? No. Her mind being shaken was surprising, but not that much.
Then why?
“…….”
Shine gazed ahead with listless eyes. Far off, the boy-shaped spirit huddled in terror.
Undead surged from all sides, but her gaze never left it. Death Knights descended from the sky on ghost horses, but she parried their strikes without a glance.
As she cut and cut and cut again, Shine stared blankly at the spirit.
Undead lunged, Death Knight slashes flew, but she paid them no mind.
With listless eyes—
Burning with fury.
……Yes, with fury.
Why?
She saw it.
‘Old man, woman, boy.’
Three forms. And a mind perceiving split time.
She neither knew nor cared how it was possible.
But one clear fact fueled her rage.
How many……
“How many?”
Boom—!
One step. The air around her grew heavy.
Kudud! Kagak!
A Death Knight swinging at point-blank crumpled under the pressure. Skeletons and Dullahan slammed into the ground, crushed.
Even spirit banshees writhed in agony from the sheer killing intent.
Shine took another step forward.
“How many souls have you toyed with, you bastard?”
She knew it was countless. She knew all these lost souls had been tormented by the old Golden Horse Sorcerer.
But she’d never questioned it, never made an issue of it, never raged.
Because striking off his head would free them all.
But.
[No, don’t…… hee-hee-hee. Don’t kiiiill…… kiiiiieeeeeek—!]
A low, grating wail. The boy spirit clutched his toy soldier tightly, huddling and whimpering faintly—barely mustering the strength to cry out.
……That child.
No.
……Those ones.
How could she free them?
“Answer me. How many souls you toyed with. How you toyed with them. And…… what mind drove you to such atrocities.”
With those words, Shine advanced step by step toward the 5th Elder. Soon, shadows rose with each footfall.
Nightfall approached.
Kigik, kigigigik—!
Death Knights overcame the pressure and raised their swords, but……
Slash—
Shine cut them down and pressed toward the 5th Elder. Naturally, the Elder didn’t sit idle.
[Don’t…… hee-hee-hee. Don’t……. Kiiiiieeeeeek—!]
The spirit shifted forms incessantly. Dozens, hundreds per second, shrieking and hurling spells. Shine eyed the incoming dark mana spells and took another step.
……And so.
When night fully descended, Shine stood and looked ahead. The horde of the dead still filled the canyon, but she ignored it.
“Answer me. Your answer will become your torment. You’ll suffer as many times as the souls you toyed with, tormented in the same ways you used on them. And with the same mind you held when you did it to them. So…….”
……Answer me.
As those words ended.
The canyon brimmed with the dead, yet none dared move. Only rupture sounds echoed endlessly.
Crunch, crunch-crunch.
Karduk, kaduk!
As if devouring all, dozens, hundreds of maws emerged from the fallen night, chewing the undead.
Before this bizarre phenomenon, the 5th Elder’s eyes twitched faintly.
……That was all he could do.
* * *
Somewhere on the continent.
A young man chopping wood suddenly looked up. Honest face, clear eyes.
He stared at the sky for a long moment, then wiped his brow. Setting down his axe, he sat on a stump.
“Hmmmmm.”
He tilted his head as if baffled, then looked skyward again.
“……Sanctuary? Yeah, Sanctuary. Definitely Sanctuary……?”
The youth pondered deeply. But soon realized pondering alone was pointless. Thinking about it, his mind wasn’t the sharpest these days.
Then he’d contact his other “friends”……
“Wait, wait…… how do I call them?”
He racked his brains. Or tried to—until he remembered.
“Oh, right. They’re all asleep.”
Just a few centuries passed, and he was already forgetting.
Or was centuries a long time? Eh, whatever. Not important.
What mattered was this.
……That Sanctuary.
Something appeared.
Others might not sense it, but he could.
But.
“What is it? What showed up?”
He tilted his head.
No clue at all.
‘Ancient race? Nah? Aren’t they all dead? Any left? What? Reverse Heaven Fragment……?’
No idea.
But he wasn’t without ways to find out.
His eyes and ears were everywhere on the continent.
“Let’s see? Who went to the Sanctuary? 4th Elder and…… 5th Elder? And who else……. But how do I contact them?”
The youth sighed at his sluggish mind. Then his gaze dropped to the mountainside.
‘One bite should be fine.’
He trudged down the slope.
……He recalled the contact method after devouring half the mountain village’s inhabitants.
“Phew, now I remember.”
The youth was one of Salvatium’s three fingers.