Chapter 172
Chapter 172
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 172
Chapter Title: Gordius Takes the Great Ashurada
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Great Ashurada felt pain inside its mouth.
At first, it didn't pay it much mind.
The Ashurada had swallowed countless things with its maw.
Monstrosities and divine beasts beyond number, insignificant mortals in equal variety and quantity, occasionally other dragons, and even the apostles of gods.
No matter how viciously they struggled in their final moments, once they were clamped in its jaws or shoveled into its mouth, their fate was sealed.
A flick of the tongue or a shake of the head, and they would thrash about inside before losing consciousness and sliding down its throat.
The mage in its mouth now would meet the same end as all those other lives it had effortlessly converted into its own power.
But before the Ashurada could even shake its head, it sensed something foreign beyond mere pain.
The bone connecting its palate to its nasal cavity wasn't just transmitting pain.
Thanks to the intricate, hypersensitive nervous system it had created through magical self-modification—something no ordinary creature could possess—...the Ashurada realized something was burrowing into its nasal passage.
The dragon opened its mouth wide and flicked the Mazdari leg away with its tongue, abandoning its attempt to crush it with its jaws.
The Mazdari leg had no means to resist and plummeted to the ground.
The Ashurada nearly crushed it outright, but even after spitting out the mage, the sensation persisted. Worse, whatever it was had already burrowed into its nasal passage and was climbing "higher."
The mage wasn't the source of the sensation.
The Ashurada casually hurled Katuru from its left hand and scratched at its palate with one claw.
The dragon's keen sense of touch located a tiny, bleeding hole in its palate.
Even the Ashurada was powerless against it.
Furious, the Ashurada tried to stomp the Mazdari leg flat again.
It didn't know what would become of whatever was in its skull, and it was already too late to stop it anyway. At least it could take revenge on the Mazdari leg, the root of this mess.
But one of the Ashurada’s hands was still gripped by the hand summoned by the Mazdari leg's magic circle.
Thanks to its light body and wings, the Mazdari leg had stabilized after falling and was pulling away from the Ashurada.
The Ashurada snarled viciously as it grabbed the Talajin hand with both claws, snapped it, shattered it, and twisted the broken stump until it dangled uselessly. Only then did the Talajin hand release the Ashurada’s claw and get sucked back into the magic circle.
And in that interval, the Ashurada felt whatever was in its nose burrowing into the space between its nasal cavity and brain—a place it had never even named.
Only then did the Ashurada realize it still had one option left.
The Great Ashurada gathered its breath magic.
As it inhaled, the fire sac beneath its jaw, its mouth, and its nasal passages blazed with scorching flames.
The movement hesitated.
The intense heat filling its mouth was affecting it.
But it couldn't be stopped.
The Ashurada was a dragon.
It never gave up.
The Ashurada began devising a new spell.
For a dragon, reviewing magical frameworks to invent entirely new spells on the fly was no great feat.
Whatever was inside its skull was tiny, moving to a spot that could be fatal if mishandled.
To destroy it precisely, it needed a spell that didn't exist yet.
Even if it meant half-destroying its own skull, the moment the Ashurada conceived of a spell that could stop it, a voice rang out.
The Ashurada thought it was its own voice.
And then it became reality.
Flames burst from the Ashurada’s nostrils, followed by a torrent of blood.
At the sight, Basen Rak Orzan—who had been reforming ranks to order another volley—raised his hand to call it off.
The Ashurada staggered and collapsed, catching itself on both hands.
Its head shook as if about to smash into the ground before lifting again.
Its pupils dilated into dark, glassy eyes that stared blankly at the night sky, then regained their sharpness.
─┼
Seong-un dismissed the alert window with a casual wave and said,
"Good. On to the next phase."
─┼
A shocking rumor spread among the Rakshasas.
Their ruler, the Great Ashurada, would no longer interfere with the Rakshasas or accept sacrifices.
This sparked massive controversy among the Rakshasa tribes.
The prevailing view at first was that the Ashurada was testing them.
The news that foreigners from across the sea and Pengolians had attacked Mobility was already common knowledge.
Many Rakshasas had died in that battle, and the tribe directly tied to the Ashurada—known as the "Ashurada Tribe"—had been wiped out.
Yet the Great Ashurada remained unharmed.
Moreover, rumors said the foreigners and Pengolians were helping rebuild the shattered Mobility for the Ashurada.
The Rakshasas had all perished honorably in the fight, but in the end, the Great Ashurada had emerged victorious and subjugated the foreigners and Pengolians.
However, with Mobility having veered from its original path across Pengolian lands, there was no way to verify this.
The Rakshasas argued that the Ashurada, having triumphed over the foreigners, had no reason to abandon them—the strongest Rakshasa nation—and that they must preserve the current order for the Ashurada's eventual return.
Opposing views existed too.
Some claimed the Ashurada had merely survived but ultimately lost.
Rakshasas found the idea of a dragon losing incomprehensible, so this opinion was initially dismissed.
But as time passed, its practical benefits became clear.
No need to hunt minor tribes for sacrifices to the Ashurada anymore. No risk of Rakshasas themselves being offered up.
Plus, the Ashurada Tribe—elevated only because it caught the Ashurada’s eye first—was gone. Who would claim that top spot next was obvious.
There was fear the Ashurada might return someday, but even then, whoever seized hegemony would serve closest to it.
Tribal wars breaking out among the Rakshasas was inevitable.
They began in two major factions but soon fractured internally, spawning even more conflicts.
The Rakshasas had only united as one tribe out of fear of the Ashurada, so they splintered further.
Meanwhile, minor tribes seized the chaos to fight for freedom and form alliances.
On another front, a single player was on the move.
'This is my chance.'
Player RD, in the form of a rubber duck.
RD had watched Seong-un and the Pantheon closely after the Oguri rout.
Right after the battle ended, he mobilized Fabiran Union's elite forces.
'This is my one and only shot.'
He'd conditionally promised not to fight, but RD figured that meant little among players.
Besides, failing to fight now left him no future.
'Damn 1st Continent bastards.'
RD had become an outcast on the 1st Continent due to flawed strategies, forcing him to develop tech in isolation.
He'd made unique inventions, but they couldn't win wars.
No—they were beyond that; he'd already been losing.
'How long are you gonna screw me over?'
Purely by tech level, 1st Continent players lagged behind the 3rd.
But endless wars had boosted their divinity levels.
By the time RD realized, rubber-powered tech couldn't compete.
The 4th Continent's discovery was his only breather, but...
'I lay the groundwork for a counterattack, and now the 3rd Continent jerks...!'
Even without the 3rd, 1st Continent players had sent ships hunting the fleeing RD, leaving him no escape.
Staying put meant getting hammered by both until his civilization collapsed.
'But I won't lose!'
RD judged now was when 1st Continent players were weakest.
Drained from fighting the dragon, Mobility, and Rakshasas.
Personnel losses were lighter than expected, but recreating their creations must've burned through faith resources.
Rumors of the dragon surviving sounded like fakes to stir Rakshasa infighting.
Maybe a 3rd Continent creation hijacked the dragon, but luck like that didn't come easy.
'Mobility's the problem, though...'
RD had countermeasures.
Mobility was ravaged from the dragon fight, slashing its strategic value. Fortifying it quickly as a mobile fortress would be tough.
'They're probably rushing workers from the 3rd Continent to patch it up. Gotta smash it first.'
If Mobility showed on the battlefield? Even better.
Hit it with the spiral-wing dives the 3rd Continent players demoed.
Spiral wings were his Oguris' invention anyway—he'd do it better.
Reclaiming Mobility would guarantee Fabiran victory.
'Wars turn on timing...!'
Player RD pulled even the coastal forces waiting for a 1st Continent invasion inland.
Over 10,000 troops total—a massive army rare on the New Continent.
Besides the Oguri mechanized units he commanded, there were dwarf knights for anvils, and human forces handling cavalry to archers for versatile warfare. Fabiran Union's full might.
RD saw the siege of the Pengolian city Siol as the biggest hurdle, so when a massive shadow stirred behind a "mundane" rocky hill he'd dismissed as flat terrain, he jolted in shock.
"W-What?!"
It was Mobility.
And this Mobility wasn't some oversized dud.
Clearly hastily repaired, but cannons lined the hilltop.
Splints braced its legs, and from the tallest tower, Basen commanded,
"Fire."
The order echoed through the ranks of gunners arrayed on every tier of Mobility's walls.
"Fire!"
"Fire at once!"
"...Shoot!"
Cannon fire rained down on the 10,000-strong army.