Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: The Crumbling City, Ptahah (1)
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*
The city was screaming. The wails of the specters pouring through the shattered rift in the spirit world tore the city's howling across the night sky of the Great Wilderness.
-Hoo...
Fernandez glared at Angela through the strands of hair clinging to his sweat-soaked face. She trembled violently, her hands frantically forming mudras. Even amid rage and exhilaration, his mind analyzed her magic with its usual cold precision.
‘Imperial blasting spell.’
A spell crafted for maximum efficiency with simple mudras and incantations. Accessible to anyone regardless of talent, it guaranteed a baseline performance for novices.
-Kwaaaang!
The spell struck near Fernandez's shoulder. The precisely predicted impact rocked his body.
-Lacks dignity.
‘Right. Their magic lacks grace and beauty.’
Made for war, refined solely for efficiency as its highest value. Their spells were no different from bows or crossbows—no mystery lingered between.
Yet magic must always be mysterious. Always noble, always dignified. Despite her attacks, Fernandez took another step forward.
“Die, die, dieee!!”
-Kwaaaang!
Once more. The blast's shock hit his shoulder. Amid the shaking like an earthquake, she unleashed spells at him without missing once. Frenzied gestures, sloppily executed—
‘That makes it easy.’
He could disrupt her spellcasting or wedge in an incantation spike to induce backlash. That would be the simpler way. But it was too easy, too straightforward. She deserved a more horrific despair.
Dying from incantation backlash was too merciful. Fernandez took the incoming spells with his body.
Their magic wrought only physical destruction, nothing more. And physical damage wasn't enough to harm a Religiosa Demonica's flesh.
Fernandez sensed the numerous mages aiming at him within this collapsing mansion. Most were suffering backlash from the shocks interrupting their incantations. The remaining mages...
-Puk! Khek!
His Demonica-sensitive hearing caught the sounds of them collapsing. The Shaxisi lying in ambush nearby had prepared for the quakes. Seizing the moment as the mansion's barriers crumbled, they infiltrated and assassinated the Ironside elites.
-Step.
Thus, only one remained to bar Fernandez's path now. Not Angela's feeble flailing there on the ground...
But the specter noble watching him with amusement.
[Enough. Mortal. I was merely enjoying the feast at that woman's invitation.]
“Decided to drop the act, have you?”
That way of distinguishing between living and dead was not how specters spoke. The specter chuckled and glanced around.
[The fun's spoiled. Even if I wanted to continue the play, the stage has collapsed and the audience fled. What value remains in deceiving only myself?]
The specter fixed him with eyes flickering blue soulfire.
[Your doing?]
“I won't deny it.”
[Overkill for merely slaying one woman. Other motives?]
Merenre slowly drew his sword as he spoke. Amid the screams and explosions echoing through this street and the entire city, he remained composed.
-Impressive.
Yes, impressive. Angela gazed at Merenre with trembling hope in her eyes. Pathetic.
[Someone among us is a traitor. Foolish. Infighting among us holds no meaning...]
“What other meaning do the dead seek in the living's time?”
[Well said. Haha.]
Merenre laughed heartily and shrugged. Soon, he sheathed his curved sword at his waist and slowly headed out of the street.
“Come back, Your Highness!!”
Angela's scream tore through the air. Merenre the prince was her last hope. For him to abandon her before the assassin who slaughtered her guards!
[Settle your own grudges. Foolish woman. We are not your proxies.]
“Your Highness!!”
[And you. Unknown mortal.]
Merenre turned, glaring at Fernandez with burning eyes for a moment.
[Foolish act. Whoever dared rebellion in this great city will face retribution. And so will you. You won't survive.]
Fernandez shrugged at the words. Merenre clicked his jaw and departed. Now, only Angela remained in the mansion's courtyard with him. Fernandez resumed his steps toward her.
-Smarter than expected.
‘Neferka's rebellion won't be easy.’
-True. Not without us.
That meant his time was short. Fernandez smirked at the trembling Angela. She glared at him, spewing curses nonstop.
-Kurrrrung!!
Once more. Vibrations engulfed the city. Buildings collapsing. Fernandez slowly aimed his greatsword as he approached her.
‘When have we ever had ample time?’
Fleeing pursuers, allying with devils to manifest hell on the world—time had always been scarce.
-Pukeok!
Angela's spell collided with his shoulder and fizzled. A simple incantation hurling raw mana. No mystery, pure physical assault.
And even physical blows couldn't halt a Demonica.
“Damn it. Damn you! You'll die miserably. Your plans will fail! Look what you've done! Every specter will hunt you, crave your life!”
Angela shrieked hysterically, sobbing. Fernandez advanced another step. Now, just ten paces between them.
“Yeah! Betraying the Empire? My bad. Fled to the specters? Guilty! But so what? I did it to survive. To l-live!”
“Selina Kaselhof.”
Angela shuddered, steadying herself. Not for attack anymore, but pleading outright. His silent advance through every strike had terrified her completely.
He could tell her it wasn't mere survival. Her own ambition and greed. Reviving specters to incite war was a cardinal sin by religious law. Countless victims of her actions still suffered in this Great Wilderness.
Instead, Fernandez slowly raised his sword and said,
“No more chances for your defense.”
-Kwajik!
Pray not. To gods or me. Fernandez swung the greatsword down before her eyes.
Angela let out a shrill "Heek!" and toppled backward. Realizing she still lived, she stared up at him in stunned shock. Hope and confusion mingled on her face.
‘Too easy.’
Severing her neck with the greatsword was too simple. Fernandez slipped his empty hand into his bosom and drew a dagger. The Necropolis dagger flowing with murky green curse.
“Your sentence is death alone. By my personal authority as Inquisitor, I suspend your execution.”
“W-what?”
-Clack.
Fernandez seized Angela's head with his left hand. He felt her trembling. He slowly laid the dagger atop it—
-Slash.
And sliced his own hand. Blood soon trickled from his hand onto her head. Like a baptism, he gripped her kneeling head and looked down.
“What are you...”
“No judgment awaits your future. Even reaching the Myriad Gods' hall for divine trial is denied you.”
The curse seeped from his wounded hand, fragmenting his soul. Simultaneously, Feizashi's soul slotted into the gaps of the shattered one. A method honed countless times this past month.
The Bronze Throne's mana circuits aligned and activated. A black halo ignited behind his head. Angela blankly gazed up, not even wiping the blood dripping onto her face.
“All deaths in the Great Wilderness belong to Munto's spirit realm. Thus, I won't kill you here. Nor will you aid his power in Munto's spirit realm.”
“Y-you're sparing me? Yes, yes! I-I...”
“Silence.”
-Kwadeuk!
His grip on her head tightened. Strength to crush wooden chair arms barehanded. Under Fernandez's force, Angela screamed piercingly. Amid her cries, he intoned in a low voice.
“Thus, I suspend your execution. Yet in the material world, you shall breathe no more, act no more, laugh or weep no more... All such acts denied you. Hence, I banish you.”
“What...?”
-Clack.
Fernandez's right hand formed a mudra. [Consecration].
Feeling her terrified gaze.
-It's been a while.
Feizashi chuckled stickily. One of the basic incantations.
[Inscription], [Sacrifice], [Banishment], [Vault].
-Hwaruruk!
A red magic circle began manifesting before Fernandez's eyes. The halo blazed fiercer, warping the air strangely.
-Hoooong...
A viscous wind flowed over their bodies. The final mudra formed at his fingertips.
[Hell].
-Kurrrung...!!
A rift tore open in the void. Through it, yellow eyes glared at them. Purple hell mana seeped out, polluting the air.
The ground twisted, plants mutated. Noxious fumes replaced the air, corroding this material world.
Hell's fissure yawned wide. Fernandez felt countless gazes upon him. Curiosity, hatred, rage, pleasure. Emotions in those stares brushed past them.
Then, black hands reached out toward them.
“A saint doing this...”
“I delegate your punishment.”
“Please...”
Angela looked up at Fernandez with tear-filled eyes. That was her last. Fernandez lightly shook his hand, shoving her away.
-Chwaruruk!
“Kyaaaaak!!”
Arms from the hell fissure coiled around Angela's body, dragging her in. Her hands clawed the air, body thrashing.
Soon, silence fell. The hell fissure sealed shut. Fernandez shook his hand, feeling the numbing contamination of hell mana that had invaded his body in that brief moment.
-Can't let her die easy.
Feizashi's giggling echoed. Yes. Trial concluded. Fernandez eyed the greatsword embedded in the floor, fatigue clouding his gaze.
Hell mana scorched the vicinity. Ominous, foreshadowing this city's doom.