Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Entrance
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"Nabatgahar, bear it."
Bison, radiating surging killing intent, pulled his sword-shield up to his chest before thrusting it straight back. From the edge of the shield erupted an orange glow like a sunset unknown to this world, spinning ferociously as if ready to pulverize anything in its path.
And then, he unleashed it.
Justice Without Patience.
The shield hurtled forward in a furious spin, literally shredding every living thing in its path. It tore through skin and shells, ground flesh and muscle to paste, and shattered bone.
The light pouring from Bison's sword devoured the heretics like massive teeth. One survivor of that savage onslaught began swelling up just like before, charging straight at him in preparation to explode.
"You who slaughter my kin!"
Bison caught his whirling shield mid-dance-like arc and spun once more, this time driving it forward like a fist without letting go.
"Die!"
In that instant, his fury detonated.
Justice Without Patience.
Boom!
The bloated heretic burst apart, leaving no trace of its form as the light shredded every scrap of flesh. Blood sprayed in all directions, soaking the sand. Bison was drenched in it too, of course.
"Knight Bison!"
"Hold up!"
Gil caught sight of the gruesome scene and raised his sword to rush to his aid, but Gaon blocked him and jerked his chin toward the rear. Bugs were starting to swarm near the entrance.
"Looks like the impact shook 'em loose from the sand. Godel's hunters'll keep crawling out from the entrance now, and behind us is a bug-infested desert. If I'd known the plan I busted my ass explaining would kick off this quick, I wouldn't have bothered."
Gaon raised his sword again and stretched lazily as he spoke.
Gil glanced back at Bison. He was staring at heretics churning up through a hole in the middle of the desert-the presumed entrance-before striding toward them with sword in hand.
"What the hell is that sword..."
Bison relentlessly unleashed his justice without restraint. Flesh sprayed, sand flew, blood splattered. The sand hell drank it all in, swelling ever larger.
"Even manifesting swords can't save 'em, huh? From the name and form, it sure looks influenced by you, though. Beastmen, right? Bet those kids were in the shipment."
"Kids?"
"You said you plant seeds in kids. I did too. Beastmen... nah. Anyway, when you hit the seed cultivator's warehouse to burn it, there'll be a lab. The truth's in there."
Gaon strolled slowly toward the bugs as he explained.
"Soon as we're in, beastman knight handles evacuation, you bolt for the tower. I'll hold the bugs and follow right behind, so punch through Godel's entrance first. We gotta move while I pin down the queen. Alright, let's hustle. That young beastman knight's gonna wear himself out alone and drop dead at this rate."
Gil watched Gaon walk away, then turned back to Bison.
Bursting blood, seething rage. The one who'd become a beastman knight out of fierce love for his kin's children-a child himself.
His rage.
It felt so much like his own.
Like the heart of an eldest sibling or a father, Bison had watched his faltering justice from the sidelines and now inherited it, letting it explode. In other words, without his influence, that fury would be a lie.
"That won't do."
That trembling justice was no different from his own.
"But..."
But why wasn't he burning with the same rage over the beastmen?
When he'd learned seeds were tangled up in human affairs, he'd wielded a blazing sword and justice just like Bison now-fueled by conviction to incinerate his foes.
Yet here he was, feeling like he had to stop Bison. If their justice aligned, did he even have the right?
What purpose did justice serve in this land? Who were the true victims-and who had twisted them into this?
No, then... what was he?
"2nd Knight Order Senior Knight Gil!"
Did he have to raise his sword? Was that what being a knight meant?
[Exploding Justice].
Bang!
Gil erupted flames from his blade in an instant, soaring into the air before slamming back down beside the blood-drenched Bison.
Flame and sand fused and melted on contact, the black sludge thicker than blood-those implanted with seeds-even stickier, incinerated. Melted. Slain.
"Bison! Get a grip!"
Gil steadied his stance and bellowed at Bison, who was gearing up to charge again. The shout snapped Bison back to his senses momentarily, and he yelled back.
"They said they killed my kin's children! For the beastmen!"
"I've got no right to block your rage! But right now, you need to head for your enemy!"
"They said it was for our children! For the beastmen!"
"Bison!"
Gil seized the juncture of Bison's upper armor and neck with his massive hand.
"Where's your enemy right now?!"
Bison panted raggedly under Gil's gaze, eyes boiling like lava, and scanned their surroundings. Godel's hunters crept forward with curved swords at the ready, bugs slithered up from the sand, and the endless blood-soaked sand hell was hardening around them.
Godel's entrance.
"Th-there!"
Gil released his grip on the armor and spoke again.
"Just head there."
Bison nodded and stared at the crimson pit. Toward Godel, deeper into the churning sand.
The two knights assumed their stances to enforce their justice. Gil would ignite his flames and leap like before; Bison would charge with sword raised and dive into the pit like a sacrifice. Reading each other's intent, they surged forward.
[Exploding Justice].
Justice Without Patience.
A colossal blaze trailed like a tail, an overwhelming light crowning its head-like a cannon shell rocketing forth. Heretics and monsters rushed to intercept.
Godel's hunters chomped bugs, severed limbs, and hurled them into the pit; they swung blades and loosed arrows. The bugs tried to clog the pit with their bloated flesh, twisting and shrieking under the sand's pressure. Shells cracked briefly before flesh clogged the sand, blurring sand from blood in that fathomless abyss.
"Here we go!"
Gil and Bison plunged.
Boom!
Crimson sand and corpses erupted higher than a sand mountain, darker than soil.
The desert exploded in chaos. But Gil and Bison sank even faster, piercing the non-sand depths to unleash greater fire and blinding light. This so-called Godel entrance surely wasn't a proper path for others-just a dune's collapse forming a momentary sand hell, filled by Godel's stalactites. That was when the entrance opened.
So even for hauling out shipments, only the queen's spellbound hunters could pass-explaining why the beastmen outside had just waited.
Gil mulled his theory, sword drawn back, and shouted to Bison.
"Break through, Bison!"
"Yes, sir!"
Blasting straight through earth and stone would reach Godel's edge, just as Gaon described from outside. Then what? Rescue the refugees right away?
"Uwaaaah!"
No, that didn't matter. First into Godel, then judge those who'd flung children to their deaths. Bison ignited an even greater light.
And at last, Godel's entrance shattered.
Boom!
Godel, the city without a sky.
From the ceiling's edge plummeted a scarlet comet, crashing into the city's fringe-where the central tower loomed distant-with a massive explosion.
"Gahk!"
Bison couldn't withstand the pressure; his right arm shattered as he vomited blood. Had Gil not veered them sideways on the descent, he'd have been crushed beneath.
"You alright?"
"Yeah... so what now?"
Bison let his mangled arm hang limp and surveyed the area. This vast underground city glowed with night-like light from spell marks etched on the floor, wounds of lava pits, and stalactite drips oxidizing on contact.
"Really like a tree."
The central tower-and the seed cultivator atop it-looked just like that. Minus the tower and its swaying bridges connecting here and there, it was straight out of the sun fairies' forest: the queen's tree. And down below where Gil and Bison stood-where the tower roots should be-came fearful eyes trembling from uneven cave-like burrows.
"Someone's spotted us by now, so stay put. Hold out till Gaon arrives. Best to hole up in that tunnel first. Per his instructions, I head straight for the tower..."
Boom!
And that was when the queen appeared.
"Mir?"
Bigger than a castle, longer than a fortress-spanning river, the queen coiled the tower like a colossal serpent and lunged toward the hole Gil and Bison had breached. Toward her rained countless corpses-and from afar, Gaon plummeting amid them. Too distant to make out his face, but they knew it was him.
"The escaped prince has returned!"
And why not-he was swinging a massive blade forged from corpses.
"Godel's Ashen Queen, my mother!"
Boom!