Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: Scales-Covered Empress, Sadarkelia (1)
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He could claim with confidence that he had experienced more deaths than any other mortal. And so, no one was more keenly aware than him of what was happening to his body in this very moment.
He was dying. Sadarkelia's petrification didn't merely stop time. A vast, lethal corruption seeped into every corner of her influence, every region she touched.
Time's suspension meant her corruption hadn't yet manifested in any tangible way. But that was only because she hadn't acted.
‘Damn it.’
Had Loft's plan failed? Or was the archdemon more powerful than he anticipated? In his past life, even the final heroes of civilization, gathered to defy a world's end, had needed to rebuild their souls entirely to fully escape hell's corrupting mana.
He felt poison coursing through his veins, his wildly throbbing heart slowing to a crawl. If others remained untouched by the corruption due to frozen time, then he—the only one free within it—was facing it head-on, without any filter.
-Fernandez.
‘Hng….’
A shallow breath escaped him. His lungs hardened, breathing growing labored. Fernandez couldn't tell if his reddening vision burned from the flames blazing before him or from his bursting veins.
But surrender was not an option.
-Sruk.
His barely outstretched fingers bent one segment. [Construct]. The first mudra, foundation of all magic. Amid his withering divinity and crumbling soul, his blurred vision formed the seal.
Distortion intensified in his sight, his hand heavy as if chained. A glance revealed black vapors coiling around it. Without pause, he twisted his left hand, folding it once more. [Construct] again.
-Chak.
Vapors burrowed into both arms. Acrid scorching followed, wrists turning to stone.
[I know you.]
From Yggdrasil's burning summit, a voice echoed across the sky. Soul-crushing noise began forming words directly in his spirit.
[I know you. Sadarkelia remembers you. From the moment you first defied her, your birth, and all that came after.]
With a hissing crack, one of Yggdrasil's branches shattered. The massive limb crumbled slowly, like an ancient rampart collapsing.
The branch struck the ground without sound. The earth warped, a chunk of Jotunheim's legions vanishing beneath it.
[Beyond the line of the horizontal worlds. Sadarkelia has dreamed long dreams. Dreams of worlds burning. Of a single mortal struggling...]
Amid the sky-rending shriek, Fernandez thought with cold clarity. She wanted conversation? Why? If her power could freeze even time, why bother talking instead of incinerating this world right now?
-Bluffing?
‘Half right.’
No matter how mighty an archdemon, no being preserved full power within the seal conjured by the Holy Pantheon of Good Gods. There was still hope.
‘Help me.’
-Sruk.
An ethereal body extended from his back. His trump card, held in reserve through endurance upon endurance. Prepared from the moment he lost use of his right arm, for exactly now—it unfolded.
Auxiliary incantation: Triad Hexarms. His signature spell from his past life strained this body, but Triad Hexarms was feasible. The protruding hand formed a seal. [Construct] once more!
[Your struggles are futile. Devouring you torn apart would be simple, but Sadarkelia wishes to converse. Do not test my patience.]
-Kwaduk.
The coiling vapors tightened, hell mana igniting his veins. Fierce mana flowed from fingertips and toes, creeping upward, eroding his body.
His senses rioted. Itching, burning, icy as a blade—all churning through his gut. His heart's beats slowed to a halt.
Death loomed close.
‘Heartbeat.’
-Fine.
The heart wasn't merely a blood pump. It was one of the finest mana vessels. The arm rising from his back plunged into his chest, fingertips materializing.
-Kuduk.
“Krgh…!”
[Do not resist.]
Ignoring Sadarkelia's whisper, he focused on his fingertips' sensation. Though they tore organs and muscle, that was secondary damage. Slowly clenching, he forcibly gripped his heart, sustaining its pulse!
-Thump, thump, thump!
Blood surged anew with vigor, reason returning to his fevered brain. Fernandez glared at Sadarkelia's eyes with bloodshot ones of his own. Far away. Her gaze from Yggdrasil's peak...
The peak?
Her seal was inside Yggdrasil... in Karadpellin's sanctuary?
‘Feizashi! It's an illusion!’
-But the mana is real. The surroundings may be illusory, but this dense mana... the archdemon's presence is no illusion.
‘The seal is broken, yes. But she's not fully liberated yet!’
[Destroyer of worlds. Sadarkelia has dreamed long dreams. Of your world ablaze. And of the wish you desire... I shall help you achieve your dream. Submit to Sadarkelia. I will grant your wish.]
Her gaze intensified, the burning world around him taking vivid shape. Olive-drab sky, shattering earth, marching demons... Familiar scenes from his past life.
Beyond them, a spire... the Crimson Spire. Feizashi's old stronghold from back then. Demons blackening the sky, countered by a handful of heroes' desperate stand.
Sadarkelia whispered amid it all.
[Tyban was a fool. He knew not what you truly desire. But Sadarkelia is wise. Your blood kin's soul, adrift beyond the horizontal worlds. Sadarkelia can save it. Was that not your wish?]
Vapors writhed around his arms, vast mana flooding in. Divinity in his veins burned away, arms necrotizing black below the elbows, sensation lost. Yet mana overflowed.
[All this power shall be yours. This world too, I give to you. Serve Sadarkelia alone. Burn thousands of worlds, and atop their ashes, I shall overlook a child's plaything or two for you.]
“Why such generosity toward me?”
[Sadarkelia admires your way of thinking.]
-Kwaduduk.
Her gaze rolled downward like a landslide. Fernandez looked to the shadow seeping at the burning Yggdrasil's base before him. Twin red eyes gleamed within.
-Charuluk.
Vapors from his arms stretched long into the shadow. At their end, a serpentine woman emerged with a venomous smile.
[Your resilience, your tenacity—they please me. Dragons collect rarities by nature, and Sadarkelia has gathered the rarest from thousands of worlds. A mortal who brought worlds to ruin, who betrayed an archdemon, reborn bearing divinity—you alone among them. Sadarkelia covets you.]
She approached lightly to his front. The closer she came, the more sweet... viscous mana eroded his mind. Hell's corruption none could fully evade, an archdemon's temptation transcending reason and will.
Fernandez's pupils slowly blackened.
[Had Sadarkelia wished you dead, would you have reached here?]
“First off, I hate being bound.”
[What did you say?]
Fernandez glanced at his blackened hand. Soon, ethereal arms burst from his back, forming mudras. [Construct].
“And unearned rewards...”
Rewards gained without effort vanished just as easily. That was why Fernandez distrusted and avoided abusing divine blessings.
Another ethereal arm extended slowly. [Construct] again. The hand stretched skyward formed its seal, a long thread linking to his blackened left hand.
Next, Drafting. Distortion. Three mudras intertwined seamlessly in one hand. Delicately, yet without the slightest error. Perfect angles, perfect calculations—one move—
‘With this much mana supplied, it's practically a gift.’
Like a puppet, his threaded left hand formed seals at the ethereal's gesture. [Reversal]. It spun, more arms emerging from his back—
‘Aid the calculations!’
-Focus on your part.
Three pairs of arms unfurled like wings from his back, a form slowly manifesting above. Heads—an elder's, a child's—warping the air...
[What do you dare... resist Sadarkelia? My offered mercy ends now!]
“Mercy, my ass.”
Fernandez chuckled shortly. He gazed at the rippling mercury lake at his feet. The mercury lake linked to Sadarkelia's seal lapped there.
His reflection in the silver surface, and the serpent hissing at him. Like stepping on a mirror, the world unfolded in decals.
Thus, [Reversal]. Here in Yggdrasil, Asgard was Bifrost's heart to horizontal worlds, where dimensional rifts raged fiercest—gateways to other realms opening even now across this world.
Forcibly prying fragile dimensional rifts, tearing them—[Reversal]. Overflowing hell mana as fuel, he gripped his fading heart, detonating mana through his body!
-Yes, yes! This sensation, this fullness...!
‘Quit yapping and calculate straight.’
-Haha! Calculate? You tell me to calculate straight? I am Feizashi!
Beneath his feet in the mercury's reflection, the surface rippled, Fernandez's image blurring. Distortion in his vision grew, steadily—
Burning earth, crumbling world, the serpent staring at him... and the elder facing the serpent!
-I am Feizashi Wildcast! In life, not one in a thousand of my chants ever missed!
‘You were impressive, sure.’
Fernandez smirked, one eye closed. Hell mana boiled from both hands; sealing arms moved not by sense but calculation. Triad Hexarms support, countless threads puppeteering his hands—each move, each seal manifesting as consummate spell components—
[Cease this. Your struggles are meaningless! Sadarkelia shall tolerate no more!]
The serpentine woman shed skin flakes, scales revealed beneath. Savage aura erupted to burst forth, yet he didn't stop. Even as soul perished and divinity withered.
Never halting. Another seal. [Construct]. Signaling all magic's beginning.
[Drafting]. Magic's first phase, structuring the field.
Again. [Conduction]. Linking hell mana radiating everywhere—[Distortion]. Dimensional rifts, worlds beyond mercury's screen, to here and now in Asgard's dimension. Frozen time, fixed coordinates—channel the power!
“Reversal. Cut the pieces, splice defeat to victory...”
The final mudra formed in empty air. Precise as a surgeon's scalpel, intricate as a craftsman's saw. Slow, unhurried... inexorable as a judge's gavel...
-Ting!
A clear note rang like a plucked lyre. Sadarkelia's eyes widened, staring ahead. Both of Fernandez's eyes were shut. The world remained frozen. Her gaze had petrified even him.
Though this moment was mere illusion. Her influence was real, her true form manifesting ceaselessly even now. She had failed to blunt the enemies' spearhead, failed to sway their key figure...
[Foolish wretch.]
Sadarkelia sneered at the stone-still Fernandez. A pathetic mortal's end. She advanced slowly. Splash—the mercury lake squelched unpleasantly underfoot.
[Sadarkelia valued your talents. In the end, you achieve nothing and perish here. Is this what you wished?]
-Splash.
As she raised her arm to claim his life. From beneath the mercury lake, a low voice sounded.
“Appreciate it.”
[...!!]
-Ting!
The lyre note rang again. Sadarkelia stiffened, peering below the surface. There, her mirror image, the burning world... and the elder.
The elder looked down at her, slowly raising a hand.
“Feizashi's Crimson Spear.”
-Ting!
From below upward. An object burst through space, piercing Sadarkelia's brow and rocketing skyward. One, then another. Dozens of crimson pillars shredded her flesh, surging beyond the heavens.
[You... bastard!]
“To a mage, give mana, time, and leeway... what becomes impossible?”
Fernandez laughed, watching Sadarkelia tear apart. From beneath the mercury, Feizashi's laughter erupted too.