Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: For the Next Page
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Some stories,
demand a life for the next page.
Watching the seven heads of the 'Apostle' rise endlessly, that thought crossed my mind.
“Now I see.”
The world crumbles from beneath your feet.
“That was the root.”
The largest of the seven heads.
The one standing tall in the center, spewing a kind of powder from its entire body like a cloud.
Those ashen 'spores' were blanketing everything, seeping into the earth and corrupting it all.
Like the roots of a tree digging into a levee, collapsing a reservoir that was once someone's lifeblood, it was now crumbling this world from the ground up.
“So this is how Roverland was born.”
The sight of the land corrupted by the spores. It was a sight all too familiar to me.
The ashen land.
A land where everything was ash, a land of monsters where life could not survive.
The land steeped in spores turned to ash and continued to expand.
As I realized this, another truth soon followed.
‘If I don’t kill it now, the future—at least the future I know—will disappear.’
What Sea had repeatedly warned me about.
- Past events can drastically change the future.
That was what was happening right now.
Because of this 'historical alteration' caused by some unknown entity, the Apostle had been fully resurrected.
What would happen if this thing, which was slowly recovering from its exhaustion and still growing stronger, regained its full power?
What if it continued to take root here, endlessly expanding the ashen land?
The future would change.
Perhaps enough to redraw the map of the continent.
So,
‘I have to kill it and move on.’
Only then can I see what comes 'next'.
The identity of 'that thing' eating away at the world.
The secret of the Book of Fate.
And, most precious of all…
“My siblings. I want to see them.”
For that,
‘I have to risk my life.’
It was almost laughable.
Why is my life like this?
I fought for my life, got broken, and lived as a wreck until just a few months ago.
Now that I'm finally getting back on my feet and trying to dream again, why do things like this keep happening?
‘Can I even survive this?’
The inevitable fear that arises when facing a being so immense, so transcendent, so monstrous.
Of course,
I'm not without a weapon.
Even now, the dragon's aura was stirring within me.
However,
‘Just five seconds.’
That was the limit.
The amount of time I could control this insane dragon's aura.
Within that time,
could I pour out all of this aura?
That ferocious power,
could I control it?
And survive,
to see my siblings again?
An unexpected answer came to this seemingly unanswerable question.
*Vmmm— Vmmm—*
It was the King's Sword, Vanroah.
Vanroah spoke of the courage and fighting spirit I hadn't even realized I possessed.
That I could do it.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
I'll bet it all on a momentary sprint to reach the tomorrow that lies beyond.
*CRACK!*
I gripped the hilt of Vanroah tightly.
***
Some moments contain an eternity.
There are such moments. A single instant heavier than a lifetime.
[Please.]
The dragon's consciousness spoke. Its tone was markedly different from before.
[Kill that thing.]
Right.
That's the plan.
The dragon's consciousness and my will are one.
I grip my sword and pour my will into it with all my might.
The Book of Fate.
The world's secrets.
My siblings.
I will tear open tomorrow and see the end of this story.
Upon that single line of will, I place my everything.
*Grrrrrrr—*
Was it my imagination?
The aura roared.
The moment I released the momentum I had been suppressing, the 'Apostle' noticed my presence.
looks down at me.
Its power to twist space is the most troublesome.
I had to cut through the space it twisted, and even beyond that.
It was in that moment, as I steeled my resolve,
*ZHWAAAAAAANG—!*
a blue horizon unfolded before my eyes.
‘Lorraine!’
This was her message.
That now was the chance.
The very instant the 10-lepim mana cannon landed a final, desperate straight punch on 's face,
*KWAAAAANG!*
I kicked off the ground.
spewed ashen blood like a waterfall as it fell, and the path I had to take opened wide behind it.
I launched myself down that path.
I think of nothing else.
I fully awaken Vanroah's Sword Spirit to form the sharpest Sword Ki,
concentrate all of the dragon's aura erupting as if to explode my body into an Aura Blade,
and to maintain it all, I lay my entire life and the dragon's consciousness upon it.
And for just five seconds, I pour it all out.
.
The source that creates the ashen land.
*SHWAAACK!*
The dragon's aura tore its massive head horizontally from one end to the other.
The head, burning, soared into the air.
『Kieeeeeeeh—!』
『Krarararara!』
The moment the central head was severed, all the other heads writhed and screamed.
The sinister energy that had menacingly stained the surroundings was instantly ventilated, as if a breeze had entered through a wide-open window.
I blasted aura to change direction in mid-air.
Next was .
A truly detestable foe.
*KWAJIJIK!*
Another head flew through the air. Ashen blood erupted like a volcano and scattered into the atmosphere.
Was the central head the core after all? The other heads flinched, but their reaction wasn't as dramatic as before.
They were just trembling, unable to shake off the previous pain.
Good. Just stay still.
.
I had seen clearly how people's spirits broke every time this thing spat out its orbs.
*SLISH!*
I cut.
*THUD! THUMP—!*
Hearing the heads I'd just severed hit the ground, I once again blasted aura to change direction.
.
This bastard I could chew to death and still not be satisfied…!
*KWAAAAANG!*
By the time I swung my sword at , my Aura Blade was already distorted beyond recognition.
A strike where I gave up on precise control and just scraped together all my remaining strength to slam into it.
's neck was gouged out, as if struck by a giant mace or bitten by a beast.
And that was it.
My five seconds were up.
‘Ah…’
The strength drained from my fingertips. I felt like I was about to drop Vanroah, so I quickly shoved it into my subspace.
It was a good thing I did.
‘I… didn't know it would be… this bad…’
A shadow fell over my vision.
My consciousness faded into the distance.
A sudden question arose.
‘…I’m going to live, right…?’
In my fading consciousness, I thought I heard the dragon's consciousness whisper.
[Thank you.]
Something warm enveloped me.
***
It was more like a prayer.
The final mana cannon, fired by sacrificing the chance to raise a final shield.
That brilliantly blue prayer.
At the end of that prayer—which some had disbelieved, some had wished for, and some had agonized over—
came a thunderous answer.
A bolt of lightning that shot up from the ground to the sky. No, could it even be compared to mere lightning?
Everyone present was a researcher, so they could recognize it with even greater clarity.
That was, rather, 'Principle'.
Like an avalanche on an unstable snowy mountain, like new sprouts blooming in a burnt forest, like a scab forming over a cut and new flesh growing… that kind of 'Principle'.
A searing flame that corrected the absurdity devouring the world.
In the command and control room, filled with stunned silence, Lorraine suddenly asked.
“Observation team. Did you record that…?”
“Ah, ah, yes! It’s been recorded.”
“Good.”
Lorraine shivered once in ecstasy. She could see the 'Apostle' writhing in pain.
*THUD!*
Just now, the head of , which had been barely hanging on, also fell to the ground.
Only three heads remained.
, <summon>, <gluttony>.
Even they had lost their strength, and their pained state didn't look threatening at all.
“Director. I think it's safe to retreat now!”
one of the senior researchers exclaimed with a joyful face.
Lorraine, who had been smiling contentedly, scowled.
“Retreat? What do you mean by that?”
The senior researcher broke into a cold sweat and backed away from the harsh atmosphere.
“Ah, no. We don't have the strength to fight anymore… Even if they're like that now, once they regain their senses, we won't be able to handle them…”
“Ha!”
Lorraine scoffed coldly.
“Can't you see?!”
She pointed to where the injured were gathered.
They were called injured, but in reality, every one of them was in a ghastly state.
“Ugh… Aaaah…”
“Kuh! It's no use… The mutation has progressed too deep inside my body…!”
A researcher whose entire body was covered in eyeballs and writhing limbs.
“Krrrk! Ugh… Please. Please… save me. No, kill me, rrrrk!”
A researcher undergoing monsterization due to .
Their conditions were so severe that even magic was powerless to help.
Lorraine looked down at all the researchers and said forcefully.
“The basis of a cure is to kill the source of the curse! To save our colleagues, we must annihilate that 'Apostle'!”
The researchers' gazes toward Lorraine turned strange.
‘That woman… I thought she only cared about money and had no interest in us…’
‘Was she actually thinking of us? Was she just not interested in our health…?’
That was Lorraine, alright.
She loved money and was crazy about research, but she was someone who knew how to protect those within her fold.
The pride she had built as the heir to the once-prestigious Scottvin family.
But that wasn't the only reason.
No matter what, Lorraine had to take down that monster here.
‘Besides. If we leave now, what about Lansen?’
Lansen, who had fulfilled his duty by sacrificing his own life, was lying collapsed beneath the Apostle.
She couldn't run away and leave him.
And,
‘This might be the first and last chance I get. A chance to learn the secrets of this world!’
Why did the brilliant Age of Myths fall to ruin?
What is this world made of, and where does it end?
Perhaps the clue to solving that ultimate secret lay just beyond.
A single chance to peek at the next page of a story that happened in the past and might one day repeat itself.
*Fwoosh—*
A deep green flame once again blazed in her pupils.
“Look!”
Lorraine pointed at the 'Apostle' in front of all the researchers.
“Beyond it! Lies the 'Truth'!”
A person of research,
never retreats in the face of truth.
Even the senior researcher who had suggested retreating was deeply moved by her words.
However…
he had his reasons for suggesting a retreat.
“But Director. We're out of shells.”
Then the head of the heat dissipation team added.
“The mana spring just died. We can't revive it.”
They couldn't kill that monster without the mana cannon.
As everyone said so, Lorraine shook her head.
“A shell just needs a structure where mana can be hyper-condensed and inscribed with a formula, right?”
“Theoretically… Yes. That's right.”
“Go scrape together every sample and prototype of magic armor we have, right now! Just what's here in the academic hall should be a considerable amount.”
“Ye-Yes?!”
“We'll use those for shells. And for the mana spring, we'll combine all of our mana to replace it. I'll write the formula.”
She said it nonchalantly, but to the researchers, it was a shock like a mana cannon exploding before their eyes.
Was this really Lorraine, the money-grubber?
“D-Director! Those are our laboratory's core assets! We've already lost so much research data, if we lose those too, we'll be…!”
“Is money the problem right now?! I'll just go broke, so bring them all out!”
Money, what was something like money.
Lorraine glared at the writhing 'Apostle' with fiercely burning eyes.
And she thought of Lansen, who must be somewhere nearby.
‘Don't die, Lansen.’
I held on… You have to, too!
A short while later,
blue mana cannons, fired by burning magic armors and the mages' mana, rained down all over the Apostle's body.
Although their power was much weaker than before,
their color was even bluer, like the horizon, like the dawn, brightly blanketing everything.
***
Darkness.
In the deep darkness where nothing could be felt, a voice brushed past my ear.
[The Apostle is annihilated. It will 'never' exist again.]
[Absorbing a large quantity of twisted worldlines.]
[The twisted worldlines have reached a critical point.]
[The Book of Fate blooms a new possibility. Level 2 achieved! 'Search' function unlocked.]
[You have escaped the grasp of ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛. Acquiring a Broken Causality.]
What is it saying… I just want to see my siblings.
But then, I heard another voice.
Unlike before, it held a certain tremor.
[A crisis transforms into a miracle. You have worked hard… Thank you.]
[Consuming Broken Causality to acquire 「1 Prologue」.]
And,
*Flip—*
from somewhere,
came the sound of a page turning.