Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: Shattering Maya's Remnant Will
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The battle of those who had ascended the jade throne was earth-shattering in itself. Maya's mercury shifted with near-infinite versatility, Paolo's arrows each carried the intent of certain death, and Rampang's strikes felt like the embodiment of the continent's most terrifying beasts all rolled into one.
If it had been back when he'd faced Hatan and Makgora, Jerome wouldn't have even dreamed of jumping into a fight like this.
But now was different.
'I can see it.'
Yes, he could see it. The perfect moment to intervene. That's why he'd blocked the mercury that had first targeted Paolo.
And right now.
This instant, as Rampang's monstrous bear paw demolished Maya's mercury wall—that was Jerome's cue to shift from defense to offense.
Enveloped in the aura of the Golden Diamond Warrior, he unleashed a merciless barrage toward Maya standing beyond the crumbling wall.
Kwajik!
Shattering the remnants of her mercury and pulverizing her shoulder.
Kwaaang!
Gripping the crushed shoulder, ignoring the mercury coating his body, he slammed her down toward the ground.
Kagagagagak!
Clutching her neck, he relentlessly stomped the earth, embedding Maya's body deep into the dirt.
Maya didn't just take the onslaught amid the torrent of pain.
Shuwaaaak!
The mercury that had been attacking Rampang transformed into countless silver blades, flying to shred Jerome's body.
Taat!
Leaping into the air to evade the mercury, he clasped his arms together, channeling rotational force, and plunged mercilessly toward the spot where Maya was pinned to the ground.
A spear hurled from the heavens—Longinus Throw. Even Maya, cloaked in mercury, couldn't easily withstand this attack's absolute destructive power.
Sensing the threat, the widely spread mercury thickened in front, enveloping Maya in a spherical barrier.
Kiiiiing!
Sparks flew as his arms clashed against the front. From behind the mercury, Maya's mocking laugh echoed.
"Haha! If you wish for your hands to rot, what wouldn't I do? I'll destroy every nerve in those hands of yours!"
Foolish bravery, they said. Not content with blocking her mercury barehanded earlier, now he was charging in with his body like an ogre's femur.
Against her mercury, no less.
Mercury, the natural predator that devoured the life of all living things.
Knowing its dangers full well, even the elf beyond the wall and the leader of the Pure Stream had avoided directly attacking Maya.
Yet this greenhorn, who hadn't fully crossed over despite standing right before it.
Getting cocky after coincidentally blocking mercury once—what an arrogant pup.
Maya intended to make this immature brat pay for his poor choice.
However.
Jjeok!
"What?!"
Contrary to Maya's thoughts, cracks began spiderwebbing across the mercury wall.
Pachang!
The tiny fissure grew uncontrollably, shattering like a glass pane.
Kwaaaaang!
With the explosion, Jerome crushed Maya's torso and leaped to land beside Rampang.
Shiiiiiik.
His body, hardened with steel and aura tougher than any sword or armor, trembled faintly where the mercury had touched, discolored like rusted iron as if mocking its defenses.
'...Nerves damaged.'
To pierce through stage three, Iron Organ—which steel-coated even his internals—and strike the nerves. What terrifying power.
Any ordinary person would have had their nerves completely incinerated without surprise.
"Priest, you alright?"
Rampang asked without dropping his battle stance. That said enough about how dire Jerome looked.
"Well, as you can see, not exactly peachy. But hand me over to Luna the Archbishop, and she'll fix me right up, yeah? Haha."
Unlike the World Tree, tormented by prolonged poisoning over ages, this was acute exposure to mercury's toxicity in a split second.
Luna's overwhelming healing should suffice.
Rampang shot him a glare at the carefree laugh.
"Tch, so reckless... What if you lose the use of your arms?"
"Eh, then we just finish off that thing. Thanks to you guys, the fight's already wrapping up, right?"
Whether from long dormancy or simply because it was a remnant thought unable to unleash full power, he couldn't say.
But Maya wasn't exhibiting the terrifying might recorded in history.
Of course, vaporizing three elf elders was shocking enough.
Still, contrary to expectations, she wasn't an insurmountable foe.
Just look at how his attack had landed. Historical Maya wouldn't have let him breach her mercury wall so easily.
"Kuh... Keok!"
Finally, Maya staggered to her feet, vomiting blood.
"Kuh... Even if I'm just a remnant thought and not the original, I shouldn't be this helpless. Could it be...?"
Maya, deeming her situation odd even as blood flowed, calmly assessed it.
Then, as if realizing something, she burst into mad laughter.
"Aha, ahahaha! So that's it! An heir to my will, my power, has appeared! Yes, then this remnant is nothing but an empty husk!"
Muttering incomprehensible words, Maya glared at him—at Jerome—with blood staining her lips.
"Yes... your power. If it keeps growing, it'll surely become a massive obstacle to my heir's path."
Kkumulok!
The mercury reshaped, radiating thick killing intent.
"Since my heir has appeared, as a senior who's walked the path first, isn't it my duty to pave the way for this promising junior?"
Chuwaaaak!
Mercury tentacles and blades viciously targeted his life.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
He elegantly dodged the brutish mercury assaults—like the moon slipping behind clouds.
"You think we're just ornaments! Dire Wolf, Fang!"
Chaak!
Fearsome energy extended in four prongs, slicing the mercury.
"In elven lands, how far do you plan to rampage unchecked?!"
Pipipipit!
Even as Paolo's malice-filled arrows targeted every inch of Maya's body.
Maya responded minimally to all attacks, obsessively fixating on Jerome alone.
As if she had to kill him here.
Puk!
Finally, Paolo's arrow pierced Maya's chest through an undefended gap.
Chaak!
Rampang's saber tiger-infused brutal strike tore into her lower abdomen.
"Kuh!"
Having taken direct hits from those who reached the throne one after another, Maya finally dropped to one knee.
"Haa, haa... Dealing with two who crossed the wall isn't easy, as expected."
Maya spoke as if helpless, but had she not fixated on Jerome, suppressing her would have taken far longer.
"Kukuku! What irony? The descendant of the one who blocked my path now thwarts my plans again."
Maya kept laughing amid the blood, as if it amused her greatly.
Then, looking at Jerome, she said.
"If this is fate, then so be it. My heir will surely clash with you."
"Fate? What nonsense is that?"
Rampang grimaced and retorted at the cryptic words, but Maya only laughed.
"Huhu! With my heir appeared, how could I leave this remnant to block their bright path? Go on, do as you please."
Fussusu!
Unable to withstand the trio's onslaught, Maya's body began crumbling into powder.
The remnant thought had exceeded the shock limit it could endure.
"Kuku! Regrettable, but my dream passes to my heir. Yet wielding the same power as I, they'll inevitably walk my path."
Even in death, Maya's remnant wore a relieved expression despite the World Tree pollution failing.
"Well, still. Ending like this feels too anticlimactic, no?"
Unlike the disintegrating thought, the mercury beside her didn't scatter.
Shurururu!
Paolo and Rampang warily eyed the swirling mercury vortex, but the exhausted Maya's mercury wasn't targeting such powerhouses.
Its target was Milias, approaching belatedly—neither Jerome nor the others.
"Oh no!"
"Damn!"
Paolo and Rampang were stunned. Even as a past Turbid Flow leader, they hadn't expected such pettiness from one at this level.
Kwaeaeaeak!
The mercury tentacle flew precisely at Milias's forehead as she approached.
One second from now, a red flower would bloom on her pretty face—a moment of absolute crisis.
Kaaang!
A dull, metallic clash reverberated across Elunheim's outskirts.
Kik, kig.
His prayer-clasped hands trembled, gripping the launched silver tentacle.
The hands belonged to Jerome.
From the moment Maya's mercury stirred, he'd subtly shifted toward Milias's direction.
"Kuh!"
A groan escaped as he held the hardened mercury.
Damn. Normal poison, he'd burn away or expel with aura.
But mercury directly assaulting nerves rendered aura useless.
"J-Jerome, Young Master?! What is this...!"
Perhaps rattled from nearly suffering disaster upon arrival, the slow-to-react Milias panicked and tried to check him.
"Princess, get back now! We'll just get in the way!"
Her escort, Lena, snapped to first, hoisting Milias and retreating.
At that distance, even Maya couldn't strike easily.
Plus, with Paolo and Rampang now beside him, it'd be even tougher.
"Tch, damn. Am I getting old? Can't even land one hit. In the end, my companions are those pathetic old elves?"
Maya clicked her tongue regretfully, half her body already crumbled.
"You there, greenhorn—how'd you notice? I perfectly hid my killing intent toward that elf."
"Guys like you bad eggs all think alike..."
Feeling the mercury lose tension between his hands, Jerome roughly flung it aside and snapped curtly at Maya.
It was exactly that.
Not just any Turbid Flow Black Lion, but one who dominated it and once terrorized the continent.
Such an infamous figure wouldn't cleanly retreat over some "heir."
"...Haha. Not letting your guard down till the end—you're the spitting image of that guy back then. Truly, nothing likable about you."
Maya shook her head incredulously until the end, then faded.
Only after Maya's form fully powdered and scattered did Jerome finally relax and collapse.
Plop!
* * *
He dreamed.
Maya, who wielded mercury's power and plunged the continent into terror. Nations across the land knelt to his atrocities.
A world ruled by Black Lions. That was Maya's dream—and the man who thwarted it right before his eyes was ironically a Black Lion himself. Maya's mercury, his signature, had no effect on the man.
Neither its horrifying cutting power, penetration, nor even the nerve-destroying poison.
None worked on him.
In the end, Maya lost everything and crumbled. Enraged by the man's claim it was all "natural order," Maya sought to destroy the World Tree, architect of the continent's natural flow.
"Uhk..."
Forcing open heavy eyelids, the first sights were a wooden ceiling and an elf nursing him.
"Young Master Jerome, you're awake?"
Slap! Slap!
Milias, the elf tending him, urgently slapped his cheeks to check.
"...Since I'm awake, can you stop slapping? It hurts."
The slaps weren't gentle; he even wondered if he'd unknowingly upset her lately.
Fortunately, that wasn't why.
"It hurts? Really? Does it hurt a lot?"
Slap! Slap!
Of course it hurts like that. His cheeks were numb.
"Yes... It really hurts, so please stop..."
"Thank goodness...!"
What the—
Instead of explaining, Milias buried her head by the bed, sighing in relief.
"Young Master Jerome, your nerves were half-burned by the mercury— you were in real danger. Good thing Yggdrasil shared life force, or you'd have been half-crippled, forget martial prowess."
...Was the neurotoxin in mercury that vicious? Far worse than history books described.
But her words held the answer: he'd nearly become crippled—but didn't, meaning he'd been healed.
"Rest well. Once you're recovered, we have somewhere to go."
Milias rose, speaking. Had she gone to announce he was awake?
Knock knock!
"Priest, got a moment?"
"Yes, come in."
After Milias left, Rampang soon knocked and entered.
Sitting by the bed, he checked Jerome's condition.
"How's the body?"
"Still aches here and there, but no sense of lasting damage. I'm fine."
"That's a relief."
Confirming all, Rampang finally relaxed and got to the point.
"Priest, that remnant thought of Maya we took down."
"Why Maya's remnant?"
Had it revived? It had even materialized—what a creepshow.
Fortunately—or not—Rampang shook his head side to side.
"What're you on about? No way. It's not that, but..."
He continued, sounding deeply uneasy.
"Maya. The Heterogenous Power that guy used feels way too similar to the one Veras wields."