Chapter 164
Chapter 164
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 164
Chapter Title: The Gift of Truth
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“I bestow upon you the gift of truth.”
As Nariaduk unfurled his fan with the grace of a dancer, the feast of madness began.
Weeping souls.
The staining of spacetime.
A night where insanity rampaged,
The cosmic tones echoing from a graveyard beyond time.
“Obey my will, the vortex of causality… Kya syu bar, the truth of the stars shall rebirth your flesh in its true form…!”
Those who had once peered into the abyss—namely, the black witches—transformed into non-human entities amid horrifying screams.
A third eyeball sprouted on their foreheads… their skin was covered in pitch-black feathers… their very skeletons twisted into avian frames…
In the face of that grotesque and repulsive sight, no small number vomited or collapsed to the ground, clutching their heads.
“Whoever this Lin guy is, he’s definitely a bastard worth skinning alive!”
Azure Sovereign Steps.
Bursting into Nariaduk’s blind spot in a single stride was Reckair, leader of the Martial God Alliance’s investigation team.
A speed and distance that allowed no reaction or counter—two palm strikes plunged into his back, while power drawn to the Manaheart erupted from his fingertips.
This technique completely disrupted the target’s blood flow and breathing… yet the sensation upon contact felt strangely off.
‘It’s not strange. What is it? I definitely executed the form just now. So why is the casting already finished?’
It was the same doubt felt by Datan Karain, who had struck Nariaduk with a multi-stage assault almost simultaneously with Reckair.
The flaming tongue of the Fire Toad Flame Toad had undoubtedly enveloped him just before he could react.
Fatal or not, he should have been engulfed in flames.
But what…?
‘This phenomenon where it feels like the flames never even wrapped around him…’
Consciousness faltered. That single moment of doubt led to death.
“…?!”
“…?!”
In the blink of an eye, the two masters dangled in midair, faces gripped by Nariaduk’s hands.
“You are worthy of darkness’s gift. Devour my flesh and rise as faithful servants of the great kingdom reborn.”
Screams wrung out as if squeezing the last air from their lungs…
“Guh, guaaaaahhh—!”
By the time those eerie shrieks ended, the writhing bodies of Datan and Reckair had already become winged monstrosities.
“My God, the headmaster…!”
“C-Captain…!”
The Rivendel Academy mages and Martial God Alliance ronin who witnessed the unacceptable horror paled.
‘Something happened again…’
Valensidis, cautiously observing Nariaduk’s movements, steadied his ragged breathing.
‘Another unfathomable event beyond human perception.’
Just like how the Rivendel Academy’s Heavenly Flame Strike had vanished like a lie… that ronin’s martial art had undoubtedly activated.
Yet it reverted to nothing.
Not neutralized, not undone, but as if the ‘time of the technique’s execution’ had simply vanished…
‘Wait, what did I just…?’
By then, the humans turned monstrous birds unleashed a hellscape amid the pouring emerald rain.
Crushing living skulls, ripping out spines, tearing limbs…
Only the Rivendel elders and great witches managed to steady their minds, rally formations, and counter the wave of destruction.
“Form ranks! Running means death! Fight back!”
“Chant the incantations! Don’t lose your nerve!”
But the terrified underlings fleeing in panic didn’t hear, and they were mercilessly slaughtered.
“Stop! Thousand Steps, that way turned into a cliff!”
Miria’s frantic cry went unheeded.
Those charging into the darkness tumbled off the cliff one by one or were snatched midair by the monstrous birds and devoured.
The thick, cloying stench of blood permeating the dense night air was chillingly intense.
“This… this can’t be.”
Behind Valensidis’s barrier, Miria bit her lip, clutching the trembling hatchling tightly.
‘If that dragon were full-grown.’
Valensidis sighed inwardly.
Even reborn through Lin’s body, a red true dragon created to vanquish evil could have suppressed it after a fierce battle.
“Take that hatchling and head down the mountain.”
Without time for regret, Valensidis made a cold decision.
“Nariaduk might take root in the Crimson Mountains, but if the cardinals intervene, it changes everything. Your goal is to protect it until it matures.”
“What? Then you?”
“I have something to confirm.”
Valensidis slashed an approaching monstrous bird with wind blades, then spread his palm while chanting a sacred incantation.
Simultaneous casting of magic and ritual.
A feat possible only for Valensidis, trained by Tureina herself in altering providence.
Four magic circles intertwined above his palm as the chant constructed three runes.
“Power of the orb hidden in light’s shadow, sanctity of the wind piercing the forest, power darker than shadow and brighter than light.”
The runes overlaid the magic circles, which flickered brilliantly, sparking with pale electricity.
“By Valensidis’s plea, reveal your power here and now!”
As the chant ended and he crushed the magic circles, a eardrum-shattering gale roared.
‘Now, draw it out again.’
The raging winds coalesced into crescent blades of concentrated force, multicolored half-moons hurtling toward Nariaduk’s rear.
‘Force it out. This power explodes with fire attributes on impact.’
Tearing through the monstrous birds in its path like paper, the blood-soaked crescents engulfed Nariaduk the next instant…
“…?”
Valensidis’s eyes narrowed.
Its reaction was different.
Unlike before, when it arrogantly stood still and nullified the power, it now flapped its freakish wings fiercely.
‘Did it sense my observation and hide its power?’
The storm of poison from its wingbeats easily offset Valensidis’s ability, turning all touched by the wind into rotten pus.
‘No, the Three Wheels of the ancient era wouldn’t hide power against someone like me.’
Amid the wails of the living melting alive in the rain, Valensidis racked his brain behind his wind barrier.
A hypothesis.
Still just a hypothesis.
It wields time manipulation. But it can’t use it infinitely.
It requires a cooldown after each use.
‘I need to relay this. To someone who can take it down…’
Too focused on time, he overlooked Nariaduk’s other powers.
The next instant, Nariaduk stood before him.
Superhuman speed? No, not movement. Valensidis had been forcibly teleported to it.
Hackles rose.
His body instinctively dodged.
He tried to pull limbs back maximally, but the absolute one’s hand reaching for his throat was half a beat faster—
“I am Milone Alter Gaumris.”
—In that moment, the holy sword’s prayer cracked the pitch-black world with light.
“I wish to eradicate darkness and herald the dawn.”
The FakeWarrior’s middle name ‘Alter’ meant proxy. Thus, Milone Alter Gaumris signified Milone, proxy of Gaumris.
From Milone’s hand, the supreme holy sword Gaumris—taking the form of a great hammer—emitted faint light at its proxy’s call, assuming battle readiness.
Milone, appearing from the sky, created mana platforms in midair, kicking off with extreme leg strength to accelerate her descent beyond limits.
“This is…”
For the first time since his return, a hint of wariness colored Nariaduk’s voice.
Gaumris plunged straight into Nariaduk’s—Lin’s—skull at near-vertical angle.
Immediately, the hammer blazed with radiant light, unleashing its legendary ability to vaporize foes with transcendent light pressure.
“Time! It’s time!”
When Valensidis’s shout reached her, Milone flinched, eyebrows rising.
What the hell?
Gaumris was embedded in the ground, not the head, and the light pressure gone.
“It erases time! The time it was attacked!”
A mere human would have died then.
But Milone was a FakeWarrior.
Releasing Gaumris, she twisted her arm unnaturally, condensing mana chain power into her fist.
“…!”
She smashed Nariaduk’s outstretched arm head-on, snapping it and driving deeper into its solar plexus.
The chained mana exploded in golden light from her fist with a boom, blasting Nariaduk far into the darkness.
The aftermath was so fierce Valensidis behind her had to kneel to avoid falling.
“Erases time?”
Milone’s short white hair whipped as she gruffly replied.
“Then what was that just now?”
Her wrist, rotting black from contact with Nariaduk, severed with a dagger; she jabbed a syringe from her waist into it.
Tendons, veins, muscles, skin sprouted from the stump, weaving a new hand in a miraculous sight.
Hyper-regeneration via dragon blood serum.
FakeWarriors, infused with dragon souls, partially embodied absolute lifeforms this way.
“Seems it needs time to reuse. Not precise, but about 10 seconds.”
Ten seconds…
Milone, golden dragon eyes narrowed, slung Gaumris over the shoulder of her heavy plate armor.
“You smashed my unit to bits. Kinda pissing me off.”
By then, Yuliana—who had brought Milone here—dismounted her broom onto the ground.
Broom flight was a privilege of skilled witches in ritual control. Possible now that Tureina’s barrier had vanished.
Yuliana promptly drew a sacred scroll from her waist, chanting the holy words of the Epistle of Divine Love.
“Editsarji Charyeong (遍地結子之菜零), Yeobeomsuso Saenghwaekji Gwa (與凡樹所生懷核之果), Agusai Wisik (我俱賜爾以爲食).”
If the Luminous Psalms bound, the Epistle of Divine Love protected and healed.
A circle of holy script expanded, healing wounds, dispelling curses, shielding from evil within.
Abyssal birds couldn’t enter; touching it rebounded them in agony, slowly incinerating.
Survivors inside lost consciousness as terror faded.
Only elders and a few great witches clung to awareness.
“Valensidis, what happened? Is that Nariaduk? Did the sealing fail?”
Yuliana, hands clasped, long scroll, hair, and robes billowing in the wind, was drenched in sweat.
The Genesis Seven Tomes demanded extreme mana, burdensome even for a great shrine maiden like her.
“No, doesn’t seem like failure. They failed. So it drained Tureina’s life force and returned via Great Mage Lin’s body.”
“What?”
“Then the true dragon’s remains?”
Milone’s question couldn’t be answered with “left to Goblin Slayer…”
Chills ran down his spine. Why was Nariaduk so quiet?
“No way.”
Milone clicked her tongue, dragon eyes scanning corners—illuminating dark, pulling far near. She spotted it.
“Just a moment… Ro o tam, just a moment to tame this flesh…”
Dragging Goblin Slayer—fleeing desperately from endless bird threats—through a spatial rift.
No way…
Unfamiliar with the body, it judged no chance of victory. Planned to hide after dealing with the hatchling.
“But that loathsome kin… I’ll kill it here and herald the true king’s return with its blood…!”
As Miria halted, spatial senses disrupted by sudden teleport, clutching hatchling Aki on her back.
Just as Nariaduk extended an arm swirling with inky winds toward Aki.
In that instant, Milone closed fifty paces with one leap, gripping Gaumris two-handed. But in that instant.
“…As expected, hahahahaha.”
Nariaduk smirked with indescribable malice.
You bastard…
This was the trap…?
Once more, the ‘time when Gaumris pulverized its upper body’ vanished.
“Pathetic human… Al rem, did you think I, Nariaduk, would flee from a fake wielding a false blade?”
From beyond the erased time, a waiting Nariaduk swung his fan.
“Milone!”
It sliced her sword arm like silk.
“U, ughhh…!”
Spewing cosmic winds that rotted all existence on this side in an instant.
“Balpakir! I, Nariaduk, serve wisdom… I know the patterns of barbaric warriors without stellar knowledge!”
Released from Gaumris, Milone tumbled, braking on the ground, vomiting blood.
“You got cocky thinking you knew its power.”
Mana chains deployed across skin to barely protect amid poison vortex… but without the holy sword, defeat was clear.
“Oldos shin, true power springs not from body, but mind honed by knowledge and insight.”
You bastard, never planned to target the hatchling from the start. Just drawing out my weaknesses…
“Hahahaha, offer that troublesome fake as sacrifice to the king…”
At the command, countless birds wailed, high-diving at Milone.
“How long can you last? Sher tas? How long? She geru tas? How long?”
Smashing heads, snapping spines, ripping wings… Milone struggled, but FakeWarriors weren’t sword saints or staff masters.
“Even those irreverent origins of yours were powerless without this blade!”
Valensidis’s aiding spells and rituals scattered powerless against Nariaduk’s poison storm from the fan.
“Don’t go, Valensidis!”
“—!”
“Step outside this Epistle barrier and you’ll melt instantly. Milone endures the storm as a FakeWarrior.”
In the poison gale obscuring vision, as Milone’s breath and stance faltered, birds poured down, and Nariaduk turned to the hatchling.
“—?!”
“—?!”
“—?!”
Crimson blaze erupted, overwhelming flames engulfing all sight and minds.
Incinerating the poison storm that melted the peak to slag, turning dancing birds to char without screams.
The blaze carved a massive crater yet spared Milone unscathed.
Flames spared her spot, burning all else pristine, then surged as a fiery wall between Miria, Aki, and Nariaduk.
“A-about!”
Humanity knew it only as lore, but Nariaduk had experienced it firsthand in antiquity.
“No…”
Thus, his unfamiliar lips twitched involuntarily.
“These flames… could it be…”
The divine inferno spat by the red dragon head of the Three-Headed Dragon Asura, bearer of Karenden’s evilbane authority.
Not burning flesh, but the formation rites themselves.
A power no human could replicate. A power of another dimension.
As a transcendent presence in sedge hat silhouette emerged amid rising heat haze, Yuliana murmured blankly.
“Master…?”
But impossible.
Even Tureina couldn’t wield such flames.
And crucially, the old girl slept eternally in the old boy’s arms.
Clink… clink… clink…
Amid clear metallic chimes, the sedge-hatted figure sharpened until the world held its breath, rain pausing.
‘This presence… akin to the cardinals…’
Milone shuddered.
Her soul’s lesser dragon orbs instinctively revered the higher orb within.
‘That guy… was alive…’
Miria, holding back Aki reaching for the youth, felt her chest ache inexplicably.
Joy of reunion?
No. Despair, inexpressibly etched on that face upon reunion.
“…”
The youth facing time’s absolute sovereign slightly lifted his worn sedge hat, revealing his eyes.
Beneath rain-dripping shadow, eyes burning redder than any blood in this world.
Those dried-tear eyes were no longer the ‘boy’ frozen at eighteen.