Chapter 127
Chapter 127
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: The Seventh Thunder
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Even as Rain Ludwig bought them time, nightmares assailed them from every direction.
In the blizzard, things that had become slaves even in death without finding rest surged endlessly alongside grotesque primal creatures.
The warriors devoured by that tide soon became the same undead, baring their fangs at those who had once been family and friends.
"The flanks are collapsing!"
"Burn them—burn them down!"
"That's a huge one!"
The only reason they could somehow push through that hellscape was the presence of four reversal heroes on the scene.
Frisvia, Griffion, Barlzen, Opus.
Even to Frisvia, who had just decapitated an undead's skull, the state of the battle seemed utterly hopeless... but still, hmm.
Boom—!
Griffion soared into the sky, leading his raptor beastkin in a sharp dive that slammed the massive ancient Brookkudum straight into the ground.
As the earth quaked and the undead swarmed that way, Barlzen and the wolf beastkin threw their heads back in a chilling howl, causing the undead heads to explode one after another and weakening their charge.
Then Opus and the polar bear beastkin formed the vanguard and rushed forward, their massive arms ripping six or seven undead apart with every swing.
'These beastkin... heh, their coordination is way better than I thought.'
Thanks to those four's teamwork, they somehow managed to form a defensive line, but that balance shattered helplessly in the next moment.
"Huh...?"
A massive shadow passed overhead, and with a earth-shaking roar, their bodies were flung upward against their will.
The warriors who turned around felt despair drain the strength from their limbs one by one.
The being glaring at them, snorting thick malice from its nostrils, was none other than... their former guardian, Alakish.
* * *
「Let's see, shall we test just how much you can do.」
It might have been in that instant—when every hair on his body stood on end and his forehead slicked with cold sweat—that he instinctively realized it.
This is it. I'm going to die here...
No matter how many times I die and revive, I won't beat this ancient royal...
He wiped the sweat from his brow and downed his fourth potion.
'At the very least, just some time...'
If he could inflict a fatal wound like Alakish had, he could buy them at least a little time, however insufficient.
- Lin.
- Shabu.
- Lin.
Sorry I kept you waiting so long. Just hold on a bit longer—I'm coming right there...
"Fluid Sovereign: Alert."
He formed the Alert mudra, and the center circle of the mental barrier scattered brilliant radiance, transforming into five chains that shot upward with force.
「Chains?」
In that moment, the chains pierced Shar'kas's soul, sealing his movements for an instant.
Thunder.
Field.
Hurl.
Fall.
Edge.
Why had he instinctively formed that particular mudra? Even he didn't know. Was it just his plan to use his strongest spell?
The seal of the ultimate magic he'd created back in his Lin days.
"Rune Amplification: Thunder Field Defense."
The northerners, who prized practicality in battle magic above all, favored the minor elements over the four great ones for their faster casting speeds.
Electricity, ice, steel, poison... And among them, the Osarius Academy—or rather, Lin's specialty—was none other than electricity.
As the Venerable rune began to emit a gorgeous glow, the air trembled explosively, and the crack of lightning echoed from above.
「───?!」
No need for calculations now. No need for mudras. No preparatory motions at all.
A pentagon with a fifty-meter radius centered on him—this was the domain of falling thunder. Every enemy within would be devoured by the thunder's roar.
In the era three hundred years ago, when battling overwhelming foes was daily life, magic demanded speed and power that transcended limits.
And in that era, born from sheer necessity, came this spell designed solely for slaughter.
"First Thunder."
Like the shriek of thousands of birds, a piercing high-frequency screech vibrated the heavens as a wedge of light plummeted from the sky to the earth.
Pure white.
Shar'kas's pupils filled with it first, then the entire world drowned in white. The ground shook, and terrifying heat swirled.
"Second Thunder."
The explosion of white light didn't end there. With the next mudra, pure white wedges chained toward the target pinned by the chains.
"Third Thunder."
"Fourth Thunder."
"Fifth Thunder."
"Sixth Thunder."
"Seventh Thunder."
If Juyeo Soge Daeban was the 5-star spell that capped Lin's legend, then Thunder Field Defense was the 5-star spell emblematic of the great mage's brilliant exploits.
It's said that its seven falling thunders, amplified to the extreme for lethality, obliterate the target without a trace, dyeing the world in silence.
Ears rang with deafening successive blasts... vision scraped away to pure white... thick smoke blanketing the deep crater... the silence right after hell.
"......"
Amid the crushing agony wracking his body, Rain dropped to one knee and uncorked his final potion with trembling fingers.
Was it over?
No, it couldn't be that easy.
He forcibly summoned mana to redden his vision. Bell Sidias's tendrils parted the fog, detecting the presence of abilities beyond.
"Huh?"
But... nothing.
Nothing?
There was nothing anywhere his vision reached—no equations unraveled by Bell Sidias.
「Interesting.」
That voice from behind was the last thing he heard.
「After waking from slumber, I've killed nearly a hundred of you so-called wizards of Karenden.」
He whipped around at once, erecting a magic shield in his palm, but—
"Ugh—?!"
A sharp pain exploded in his shoulder, and in the corner of his vision, his right arm flew off, spraying blood.
Spider threads...?!
His arm had been severed by five strands oozing from the creature's fingertips, wriggling like maggots.
'I definitely pinned it with the chains...?'
The chains that should have halted Shar'kas's movements, sealed his ability's manifestation—they had all rotted away, melting into thick liquid.
His vision went dark. A 5-star spell crumbling so futilely... Had it all been meaningless thrashing from the start?
The stump was already turning black and festering, a stifled scream rising as the abyss's corrosion spread.
「Attribute conversion and form alteration... You're the first to mimic Karenden's power this closely.」
He had to create distance... He spread his left hand to build a magic circle, but his fingers wouldn't move.
Spider threads had already coiled around his left arm, burrowing into his wrist and severing tendons—the metallic tang of blood filled his mouth.
It didn't end there. The threads now bound both legs, too, leaving him unable to even step back.
「A little carelessness, and you'd have landed a fatal blow.」
As he stood immobilized, Shar'kas strode straight toward him and plunged a dark-glowing fingertip into his chest.
The hand sliced through flesh, shattered ribs, and parted arteries like paper... only pulling back after clutching his heart.
Thump, thump, thump... He could feel the blood circulating through his veins with each faint twitch of the heart dangling before his eyes.
「But a human is still just human.」
His vision hazed white. Strength slowly ebbed from his limbs. He couldn't breathe. His pulse weakened.
「Pathetically weak.」
In that final moment, what the boy saw wasn't terror of encroaching death. Nor his own heart.
A series of equations.
A line of ability stretching from Shar'kas's fingertips far off to where heavy clamor rose.
'Could this be... linking to Alakish...'
In his dimming consciousness, the flower in the boy's eyes rotated quietly, its four petals blooming into seven.
This is repayment.
Maybe a gamble.
I can't escape alive anyway. So, with this last mana, at least you...
「……Hm?」
Sensing some anomaly, Shar'kas glanced sharply at Alakish, then narrowed his eyes.
The spider threads snapped.
What? What just happened?
No more wasting time on this one... In that instant, the heart pulsing feebly in Shar'kas's grip was crushed into a bloody pulp, spraying blood and membrane everywhere.
"Cough...!"
Scalding blood surged up his throat like fire, gushing from nose and mouth in wet hacks.
In the snowfield reddening with blood, the boy's eyes collapsed—the seven petals shrinking to four, then withering away. Snowflakes settled unnoticed on his unblinking gaze.
Amid the mental barrier's fragments scattering like cherry blossoms in the wind, what landscape had passed before those eyes one last time?
- Rain!
- Rain.
- A-woo!
A scene he'd never witnessed: walking a southern silvergrass path with Alakish, Alakish's daughter, and Kasena, laughing and chatting together...
* * *
When Alakish gaped its maw, what it vomited forth was no flame of life.
A wave of abyss so thick and putrid it numbed the senses... The warriors swept up in it melted away in agonized screams, their bodies rotting beyond rot.
Witnessing the horrific sight, Kasena slumped to the ground and clapped her hands over her ears, as if that could make this nightmare unreal.
'Alakish... Alakish is... killing people...'
The noble one who had earned all beastkin reverence for a hundred Angel years... The ever-so-gentle Alakish... The one who had clutched her egg and smiled so tenderly...
"Heh, so this is how it goes. Slower and clumsier than when alive—way easier."
Frisvia, drenched in undead blood over her mechanical armor, gestured to her subordinates as if this weren't so bad.
"They're all valuable specimens. Collect them with minimal damage."
As Barlzen hauled the slumped Kasena to her feet, she felt a faint pulsing against her back.
An illusion? Hallucination?
No, no... The basket holding the dragon egg trembled mournfully. The egg was wriggling vigorously.
"Get up! Fall back to safety!"
"Get up, get up, get up."
Led by Barlzen and Pitch, as she tried to pull away from Alakish, the egg's wriggling grew uncontrollably violent. Like a child throwing a tantrum.
Did she sense some will in it then? Kasena halted blankly.
Then, leaning slightly toward Alakish in response, the egg calmed serenely, emanating a mystical warmth.
'Take me... there?'
"Come on already, you little brat!"
"Come on, come on, come on."
"Barlzen, Pitch. I... I have to go to Alakish."
At those words, Barlzen stared at her as if asking what that could possibly mean.
"Alakish is calling me."
It was a judgment born of unshakable conviction, inexplicable to others.
Whether from the blood Karenden had loved like her own daughter, or thanks to this black-sheep Lin... She could clearly feel and know it. The soul's tremor calling to this dragon egg...
Barlzen shook his head firmly.
"That's nonsense. The moment you become undead, it's over! The soul corrupts! Killing and burning is the final mercy!"
"Mercy, mercy, mercy."
"Please... help me get to Alakish. Barlzen, Pitch."
Barlzen started to shake his head wearily, then shuddered at the scream from behind.
Five warriors bisected by the massive inertia of Alakish's tail... Frisvia exploiting the opening to rip at its wing.
Alakish let out a mournful roar and gaped at Frisvia, spewing putrid blood.
"I get it, your feelings... but Lady Alakish is already..."
Muttering that as he turned to Kasena, Barlzen fell silent at the clear, resolute light shining in her eyes.
"She upheld her duty for a hundred Angel years. But... but... to end up like that... it's just too sad..."
How to describe it? A star of hope?
In those eyes, Barlzen felt something beyond words... the same dazed heart-tremble as when he'd seen Rain's tears for them upon arriving in Rabenfel.
And so, moments later, he found himself grinning unwittingly. And saying this.
"Fine. Let's give it a shot. Worst case, we die."