Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Chapter 34: Mind Attack
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Hold on, Core Eagle?
A doubt crept in as I descended into the darkness. Core Spirit? Eagle Core? What was its exact name? Suddenly, it started to blur in my mind....
Something exploded.
A scorching blast engulfed the knight order. In a single blow, dozens of knights were sent flying, their bodies torn to shreds and scattered everywhere.
"No...."
I turned my head and saw something like a pitch-black boulder.
Bomb Mine.
It ripped chunks from its own body and hurled them in all directions, the severed parts regenerating rapidly and restoring themselves.
What was this place? The central square of Emperord?
Monstrous gates yawned open in the middle, spewing out countless monsters and Flame Bottles. At that moment, Kyle, covered in wounds, rushed past me at the head of dozens of White Knights.
"Your Highness! Get to safety! The other two locations have been completely breached!"
"Uh, no...."
"Knight Davy in charge of Gate 2 is dead! They'll be here any moment!"
What? Davy died?
What did that mean? What was going on? Wasn't I just descending into pitch-black darkness moments ago?
I couldn't make sense of anything. But I ran. And why did I run...?
Because that's what happened.
No, that's what had happened? When?
Was this reality right now? Or was I dreaming?
"Ughhh!"
"Block them! Hold the line! We have to defend this place!"
"Urk! I-it's no use...."
"Just hold on a little longer and the mage corps will provide support! Just a bit more.... Aaargh!"
Screams and roars poured in from all sides. I felt trapped in a nightmare as I cast Stealth and kept running.
No, too slow.
At this rate, I'd get swept up in the battle and die.
I couldn't die like this. I had to escape somehow. Escape and reach Lua's sanctuary.
Right. This time was a bust.
It had been a mistake to waste time on pointless physical training. I'd invested ten years, but I still couldn't properly handle mid-grade Magic Armor.
Because of my misjudgment, all my hard-working subordinates met pointless deaths.
No, this was a choice I absolutely had to make at least once. Otherwise, I'd have regretted not taking the Power Imprint right before each regression, unable to focus on other necessary abilities?
But for something like that, the result was decent.
It was the first time I'd summoned the third wave. But it was also the first time I'd been so utterly swept away by the otherworld monsters that poured out.
Just like right now.
KABOOOOOM!
One of the boulders hurled by the Bomb Mine exploded nearby.
"Urk!
It hurts!
It hurts! It hurts so much I'm gonna die!
"Uwaaaaaah!"
My left arm! Where did my left arm go!
Even though I was quite a distance from the blast site, I was flung far away and crashed. And then chunks of flesh and metal shards rained down from above.
"Eek!"
My body froze and wouldn't move. No. I had to move. But blood kept pouring endlessly from my severed arm. It hurts, this hurts way too much....
"H-heal...."
But the recovery spell wouldn't activate.
Why?
Did I run out of mana? No, no matter the situation, I should have enough left for one heal?
Oh, right.
I didn't choose the Recovery Imprint this time.
Since I started over from scratch, I couldn't properly use divine magic. Why did I forget that? Get it together, Claude! You'll die like this!
"Fly...."
Fortunately, the flight spell worked.
As my body rose into the sky, I saw the devastated landscape of Emperord turned into a field of devastation.
Everyone was dying.
Or already dead.
I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't look away. I had to watch what my one choice had wrought.
The fifth cycle was already over. I only had five chances left.
"Ugh...."
Tears flowed.
I wanted to jump into the midst of those dying people. Then I wouldn't have to suffer like this.
If I just died.
If I died, I wouldn't have to go through this again....
That's when I saw grown-up Rune engulfed in flames, turning into a pile of black ash.
Tolari, who barely managed to kill one Bomb Mine, was then swept away by berserkers charging in behind and shattered into pieces.
No, wait.
Rune?
Rune shouldn't be here right now? He went out to greet them early and died the moment he was spotted, right?
And Tolari? I personally killed Tolari six years ago. So there's no way he'd be fighting the otherworld army there and dying now.
Which means this is....
I let out a sigh and descended back to the ground.
In that instant, one of the otherworld soldiers charged at me and spewed flames.
Fwoosh!
Hot.
In an instant, my skin melted away, muscles charred black, and I was engulfed in unbearable scorching pain.
But this was an illusion.
It hurt like hell, like I was dying, but it was still an illusion. I raised my remaining right arm and my nonexistent left arm together, deploying a spell.
Pure Magic.
I could activate it at high speed if I wanted, but I deliberately used the old version, slowly.
Of course, nothing formed in my palm.
At this point in time, I couldn't use Pure Magic anyway, and even if I could, it was impossible with one hand.
But the real me in reality was probably forming it without issue.
"Dispel this."
I glared at the otherworld soldier still spewing fire.
"Dispel this right now. If you don't, I'll blow it away."
"...."
"You're a magical creature made from a core, right? But this is Spell Breaker. It'll erase your very existence. Clean, without a trace."
"...."
"I'm warning you. Stop while I'm asking nicely. I'm sorry to the Ancient Eagles, but I can't take any more. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...."
-Stop!
In that moment, the illusion covering the world vanished.
The place I stood was a trap-like space sealed on all sides. And right in front of me sat a golden eagle gleaming brightly.
-I'll give you a chance to explain. This was absolutely not intentional.
"Hoo...."
I let out a long sigh and dismantled the Pure Magic in my hand.
"It really exists. Golden eagle statue."
-I'm not a statue. Even if I look like this, I'm the essence of a noble Ancient Eagle gathered together....
"Save it. Letep already explained everything."
-You've met Letep? So they sent you to rescue me?
"Explain your excuse first."
-Hm?
"You'd better do it right. Because of you, I just relived one of my top three memories I really didn't want to recall. No, not just recall—I experienced it all over again."
-That was....
"If you screw this up, I'll ditch the core or whatever and blast you away. Hurry up and explain the situation."
"Calm down. I thought you were the leader of that bandit group."
At the same time, the Eagle Spirit's body, rigid like a statue, trembled faintly.
-For ten years since falling here, I've waited for today. I couldn't move due to lack of mana, so I kept sending Thought Waves toward any nearby humans I could sense.
"Thought Waves? Telepathy?"
"Similar, but different. I kept pouring negative voices into their heads. Trying to make my presence stand out somehow."
Ah, so that's why the bandit leader was mumbling like a madman.
"You did that steadily to the leader for ten years?"
"Not exactly. I had to conserve mana, so I couldn't target a specific person. I just scattered them randomly. Of course, the closest human was probably the leader, so I figured he'd take the full brunt."
"Hm, and?"
"I believed eventually someone would come down here, unable to endure it. For that moment, over the past ten years, I gathered mana and prepared a single powerful mental attack."
"And you dumped that vicious grudge on me?"
"The door up there opening was the first time in five years. You're the first human to come down. So naturally, I assumed you were the leader and hit you with the mental attack immediately. Sorry. In my haste, I attacked without properly assessing you."
Creak...
It made a sound like an unoiled gear and lowered its head slightly. Ugh, I really couldn't just grab it and snap its neck.
"I'm truly sorry. Stuck alone in this pitch-black place for ten years, I got impatient. I'm not usually this reckless—it's just embarrassing."
"Honestly, I was completely pissed...."
No, better not even think that.
Times like this, think positive.... Yeah, positive thoughts. Switch to good memories to lift my mood.
The scent when I leaned on Meredes before was nice, right? Yeah, it felt really comfortable. Almost made me fall asleep.
The atmosphere during that meal together before leaving was good too, wasn't it? Oh, and before that, when Tolari hugged me and flew up, I was surprised by the unexpected cushioning?
"....Fine. I'll let it slide. But if you pull this crap on me one more time, I'll delete you."
"I swear on the name of the great Ancient Eagle. I will never harm you, not even by a needle's prick, for the rest of my life."
"Hoo...."
The minus memories and plus memories canceled each other out, leaving me in a decent mood. I looked at the still-immobile golden eagle and asked.
"Can't move now because you're out of mana?"
"That's right."
"You said you used the mana gathered over ten years for the mental attack? Why not just use that to escape?"
"That would only let me flap a few times. I'm not a being that absorbs mana from nature. To move, I need the mana of an Ancient Eagle."
"Or a human?"
"Human mana should work fine too. Though I've never absorbed any before."
"What were you planning to do, hit the bandit leader with a mental attack?"
"Once I broke his mind, I planned to control him."
"For real? Like mind control?"
"I've never actually tried it, so I can't guarantee. I was just betting everything on that possibility."
"It would've been fun to see. But I just killed him."
"The leader?"
"Yeah."
"I see. The plan was to control the leader somehow, have him pull me out of here, then select subordinates who could use magic to inject mana into my body."
"The Cluster Bandits do have some mages.... Though they're all pretty lame. Anyway, I'm here to rescue you. There are eagles waiting outside too."
"Ancient Eagles waiting outside? To rescue me?"
"Yeah. If I call, they'll come right in. Or should I share some mana? You handle getting out yourself?"
"If you do that, I'll never forget the favor for life."
"But first, let me confirm something. You said before that when an eagle injected mana, you went berserk and crawled all the way here? Any guarantee that won't happen again?"
"That's not true.
The Eagle Spirit said in a forlorn voice.
"I didn't crawl down to this deep underground cave on my own. I exhausted my mana near the entrance, crashed and passed out, and the bandits dragged me in."
"The berserking?"
"There's a story behind that. As long as the one giving mana has a calm mind, I guarantee it won't happen this time."
"Mind? It depends on the mind of the one providing mana?"
"That's right."
"Hm.... Alright, got it. So how do I share the mana?"
"Just use a wind-element spell."
"Huh?"
"I can absorb the weak wind magic spread around me. So just fire it at me. Like attacking me."
Magic absorption? Didn't know that.
Whumm!
As a test, I stirred up a light breeze with magic, and in an instant, the airflow vanished, wrapping around the Eagle Spirit's body.
"....Good."
It opened its beak and spoke directly.
"Good mana. But the amount is a bit low—could you use it a few more times?"
"As much as you want."
Whiiiiiing!
In a moment, I created over a dozen wind spears. The Eagle Spirit sucked them all in like blinking and shuddered.
"That hit the spot. Human mana tastes truly superb. No, this flavor is...."
"Yeah?"
"It tastes midway between human and ancient species."
"What?"
"It's the first time I've felt it, but it doesn't feel new...."
"Feels familiar?"
"Yeah. Like wolves in the Eternal Forest. A wolf hunting deer, but one that feels familiar."
What the hell, talking like some gourmet. And Eternal Forest wolves?
"Have you seen an Ancient Wolf before?"
"Not directly. But I know through the memories left in the core that forms my body. Hm, and it's not just Ancient Wolf. This is bear? A white bear racing madly through the deep Dark Mountains to get honey...."
"Enough, I get it. It's because I ate those ancient species cores."
"Is that so? How could something like that happen?"
"Too long to explain. So now you can get out on your own?"
I immediately used flight magic to rise up. The Eagle Spirit flapped its wings urgently and shouted toward me.
"Wait a moment! My wings are stiff from being immobile so long—I need to loosen them! And we should go together! Don't you know the way? No, how about we talk more first? And more mana would be great! Give me a bit more!"
....Why was this guy so demanding? Should I just Tempest him from way up there?
Hoo.
But damn, I'm too soft-hearted. Kindly, I laid down wind wall spells at intervals as I shouted.
"Shut up! Hurry up and come up! Absorb the mana on the way!"