Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Lightning, Ice, and Life
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In the deep underground tunnel where everything had collapsed and crumbled.
From the darkness amid the cracks of the ruins, Sponsor No. 2—wrapped head to toe in bandages—sobbed and clawed at his chest.
“Hic… No… This can’t be happening.”
But Sponsor No. 2 had no eyes left to shed tears with, nor a chest to tear open.
All that remained was excruciating pain and utter emptiness. Sponsor No. 2 clutched the slightly exposed remains of the earthworm protruding from between the crumbled rock walls and screamed.
“Uwaaaaaah! You damn Claude!”
How in the world had he known?
Even Sponsor No. 2 himself hadn’t known until he received the handover. That Sponsor No. 1 had come to this deep underground, pierced through the long barrier of communication, and granted the earthworm queen’s wish.
“Claude! You ghostly bastard! You dog of a man! Rot away and die!”
He couldn’t contain his shattered mentality. Sponsor No. 2 crushed the earthworm shell in his hand and shrieked.
“Uwaaaaaah! Late again! Late once more! And he even took the Ice Core, which was the queen’s wish! Haha! Hahaha! Overseer, I’m sorry! I was late again! That damned Claude beat me to it again! How on earth!”
He wanted to rip off the bandages binding his body right then and there, to vent the overwhelming rage and despair surging within.
But if he undid the bandages, he would no longer be himself.
Only a select few Cyke could enjoy the privilege of wrapping their bodies in bandages. Sponsor No. 2 barely suppressed his emotions and crouched down into the narrow crevice.
“No. This won’t do. I had everything prepared for this earthworm queen. She was truly special… That’s why No. 1 barely managed to learn her wish and gave her the Ice Core…”
To create that very Ice Core in question, No. 1 had to invest a significant portion of the resources allocated to him at the time.
“It was that twisted. She hated all surface life, and her hatred for the Ancient Bear went beyond distortion—it held the potential to engulf the entire Ald Dimension. I had everything ready and came here… but… ha, ha, hahaha…”
A hollow laugh escaped him. He had already poured most of his allocated resources into the kit for modifying the queen.
He had been that confident.
No matter how formidable Claude was, he wouldn’t crawl all the way here to eliminate the queen.
To begin with, not only Claude’s homeland, the Payud Empire, but every nation on the continent was oblivious to the earthworms’ very existence.
The only ones who knew were the dwarves who had dug the tunnels, but they regarded it as their shame and never spoke of it to outsiders.
“No way the dwarf lord… Did that short bastard spill it? Kidnapping him right now and turning him into a centipede monster with hundreds of legs wouldn’t even sate my rage…”
The problem was that the dwarf lord no longer had any emotional distortion worth exploiting.
Of course, he could forcibly inject fear or disgust like No. 1 had, but the dwarf lord’s potential was too low for that to matter.
“It’d be pointless anyway. That leaves just the two…”
But would that demon-like Claude leave those two alone?
He was a devil who had inevitably tracked down and killed even the earthworm queen, whom they’d deemed the safest. Naturally, their elimination was only a matter of time.
“At least those two were alive before I came here… But I can’t move for another 20 days this time too. By 20 days from now, they’ll surely be dead as well. No… That can’t happen… Damn you, Claude… Eek!”
Now, just thinking of Claude made his body shudder.
After a moment of silence in the darkness, Sponsor No. 2 gripped his left arm with his right hand and muttered.
“If things stay like this… the Overseer’s fear might really come true… That can’t happen. Even if I have to sacrifice myself like No. 1 did…”
In an instant, Sponsor No. 2 tore off his left arm.
Splurt!
From the torn stump, a pitch-black shadow without form leaked out.
“Gah…”
Sponsor No. 2 bowed his head with a cry of agony.
This was an irreversible, permanent loss of his existence.
Yet despite that, Sponsor No. 2 had no choice but to stake everything on this self-mutilation.
“I have no choice but to sacrifice myself… To compensate for my insufficient dimensional power… Ngh!”
In that moment, the bandages on his severed left arm unraveled, and the black shadow inside began transforming into a new dimensional gate.
“Khk. Hic… Claude, you son of a bitch… Because of you…”
Beyond the dimensional gate sat an old man with snow-white hair. Sponsor No. 2 forcibly held back tears that wouldn’t come and instantly teleported through the gate, landing atop the old man’s shadow.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he greeted him in a calm voice.
“Hello. Master Baia. My apologies for the intrusion. We’ve left the empire’s greatest Arch Wizard unattended for far too long. We should have come to grant your second wish by now.”
“…A Sponsor?”
The old man turned his head with half-lidded eyes. Sponsor No. 2 placed his right hand lightly on the old man’s shoulder and smiled.
“Yes. I am Sponsor No. 2.”
“No. 2? Not that previous guy?”
The old man scanned Sponsor No. 2 up and down and frowned.
“Now that you mention it, something’s off. You’re missing an arm.”
“I regret that deeply myself. Nothing is as painful as dissolving one’s own existence.”
“Hm? What’d you say?”
“It’s not important. Ah, pardon me. I actually prepared a special poison to subdue the earthworm queen.”
Without warning, Sponsor No. 2 jabbed his fingernail into the old man’s neck and smiled.
“Hehe… It doesn’t matter anyway. Your original form won’t remain.”
“Gurk…”
The old man rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness in one go. Sponsor No. 2 dragged the man down into the shadows with a sigh.
“It’s a shame, but no helping it. It wasn’t made for you, but I have no choice but to repurpose the existing kit… Ah!”
Sponsor No. 2, who had been vanishing, halted and let out an exclamation.
“That’s it! That’ll work! The large kit made for the earthworm queen! A little tweaking, and it can easily fit two humans! Ha! Ha! Hahaha!”
* * *
That night, I watched the once-again erupted Ancient Bear festival and said to Babdal.
“I’ll bring you some Hair Growth Elixir later. Your singed fur will grow back in no time.”
“Have humans made such a potion? Thank you. I’ll gratefully accept it.”
Babdal bowed his head. With all his fur burned off… he looked so pitiful it tugged at my heartstrings. Why did I like this guy so much?
-Ancient Wolves and Ancient Bears have a custom of exchanging cores between chieftains.
Suddenly, Regal’s old words flashed through my mind.
“Ah, that’s it.”
“What is?”
“You hate humans, right?”
“Of course. I despise them. But you were fine.”
“What about that guy over there, Dabi?”
“Dabi? You mean the strong human. He was fine too. Very good vibes for a human.”
“That’s because he ate an Ancient Wolf core.”
“Oh, was that it?”
“And you did too.”
“Me?”
“Don’t Ancient Bears and Ancient Wolves have a custom of chieftains sharing cores?”
“Uh…”
Babdal blinked his large eyes for a while before nodding with a gasp.
“Right. That’s it. When I officially became chieftain, I exchanged and absorbed cores with those wolves. It was 50 years ago already.”
“So we’re all connected by Ancient Wolf cores. Of course we like each other.”
“I see. Indeed.”
Babdal nodded in surprise. He was so quick and ferocious in battle, but in everyday life, he had this somewhat dim side.
“So you’ve been chieftain for over 50 years?”
“Yes. Not exactly, but close.”
“Cores form after 300 years, one every 10 years, up to five max? So you have four more inside you?”
“Two more.”
“Why only two?”
“I gave one to the wolves before, and another to you yesterday. I only had four to begin with. In about a year, another should form.”
The timing worked out perfectly. I nodded quietly and asked.
“Then, could you give me the remaining two?”
“The cores? Who for? The strong human over there?”
“Dabi? Yeah, maybe for him. Or I’ll keep them safe and pass them to someone truly in need.”
Dabi wasn’t confirmed as the next owner yet. Babdal gazed at the night sky with deep, profound eyes for a moment before speaking.
“Cores mustn’t go to bad humans. But I trust you, Claude. Queac!”
And with that, he spat out two cores at once.
“Phew. Here. I hope two more fine Ancient Bears are born from these.”
Great. Spare cores acquired!
But my requests weren’t over. Now came the far harder one.
“Thanks. But before you go, one more favor.”
“Ask anything. We’re friends, comrades, and kin.”
“…Remember when I first came here, I told you about the eclipse gate?”
“Yeah. Monsters from another world poured out. I don’t get it fully, but like those earthworms popping up everywhere?”
“Exactly. In a year, way more will come. Enough to shatter the whole world.”
Precisely 10 months and 14 days. A year here is 11 months.
“Will you help me then? With your Ancient Bear warriors…”
“Got it.”
Babdal nodded before I even finished.
“You’re deciding that easily? You might die. No, many Ancient Bears will definitely die.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t?”
“If what you say is true, we all die if we don’t stop it, right?”
True. His brain worked fast when it counted.
“We’d help you anyway. You helped us. And we’re all one tribe.”
“…Thanks.”
“No need.”
“I’ll be back in 10 months—no, 9 months. We’ll prepare together. To save the world.”
“I’ll wait. Bring lots of honey if you can.”
“Honey? Right, you need honey to fight properly.”
“I could fight that hard today because I ate tons of honey.”
“Got it. I’ll prepare several times what you had today.”
“Really? That much?”
Babdal’s eyes widened as he asked again. I thought of the trade ships probably returning from the eastern continent even now and nodded.
“I stockpiled a ton for you guys. Imported from across the sea.”
“Oh… Understood. I’ll look forward to it. So, Claude, where to next?”
Babdal licked his chops as he asked. I gazed toward the distant western sky and answered in a low voice.
“Now that I’ve gained sturdy allies like you… Next, I go to judge a traitor.”
“Traitor?”
Yeah. Humanity’s traitor.
There were still plenty of humans in this world who had betrayed their own kind.
* * *
This was a small rural village in a remote corner of the Albius Kingdom.
I stood before a large warehouse on the village outskirts—precisely half of it burned away.
Arch Wizard Trombone.
Integrating the info I’d heard from that booze-loving uncle over multiple regressions…
Around this time, Trombone had been brewing liquor here.
But what the hell had happened?
I had no way of knowing. All I knew for sure was that during the eclipse gate incident, a volcano mine had appeared with Trombone’s face on it.
In the end, that man had turned into humanity’s traitor.
But Trombone hadn’t fallen even once in the previous nine cycles. And barely past the first year of regression?
That didn’t add up.
Probably a Sponsor ambushed him here?
And forcibly injected him with a monster-transformation serum or something?
“Yeah… That would explain it.”
It made sense, but it still hurt. Not just his skill, but his connections, and purely as a person—he was a really good guy.
But lamenting a missing Arch Wizard changed nothing.
Instead, I had to eliminate the harmful one as soon as possible.
I hadn’t flown all the way to this distant Albius Kingdom just to chase Trombone’s trail. This was just a quick detour on the way.
Zect.
Like Tolari in the past, the unequivocal traitor Arch Wizard Zect was hiding somewhere in this kingdom.