Chapter 326: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth – Dicondra
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 326: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth – Dicondra
Some absurdities are so commonplace that they cease to be recognized as absurd at all.
Such was the life of a girl named Billina.
She was born in one of dozens of model gardens, created from a witch's wicked sense of humor.
A civilization where humans live like beasts and beasts live like humans—wouldn't that be amusing?
For that reason alone, Billina and her people were forced to endure endless suffering.
They were hunted like toys, died meaningless deaths, and on the rare occasion a chance to break free arose, monkeys calling themselves messengers of heaven would mercilessly crush that opportunity.
And yet, they were never allowed to die easily.
For the screams and suffering torn from Billina and her people were also elements that composed the model garden.
Agony was too common, misfortune was like a flowing river, and because everything she faced in life was absurd, it became, paradoxically, ordinary.
In this life, one closer to that of livestock, Billina met a witch.
The witch was beautiful, strong, and noble.
In a single day, the witch completely overturned Billina’s life of predestined suffering, transforming the narrow, suffocating model garden from the ground up.
Billina now knew how to live like a person.
Billina now understood what had been done to her.
Billina could now recognize absurdity for what it was.
Billina was no longer livestock in a cage, but a person.
It was a miracle.
It was a grace so profound that it could never be fully repaid, yet the very act of trying to repay it became a joy in itself.
Having learned language, academics, and history, Billina knew.
She knew that the witch who had saved her and her people was someone far removed from the ‘goddess’ of their legends.
But it didn't matter.
Billina didn't believe in Dorothea because she was a goddess; she simply used the word ‘goddess’ as a fitting honorific to express her gratitude.
If Dorothea called herself a queen, Billina would follow as her subject. If she called herself a master, Billina would gladly become her servant.
That was what Dorothea meant to Billina.
Therefore.
The doppelganger’s actions—defiling Dorothea’s name, her appearance, and even the memories she had left deep in Billina’s heart—were something she could never forgive.
“─Die!!”
Billina charged forward, her entire body radiating a vicious killing intent and a torrent of curses.
The nobles, soldiers, and servants of the Ionian Kingdom felt their knees buckle at the terrifying aura, but the doppelganger Dicondra, who received the full force of her killing intent, was nonchalant.
‘Good spirit, but that’s all.’
Her grip on the sword, her footwork as she charged, the way her mana pointlessly leaked out, uncontrolled—everything about her screamed amateur.
Dicondra once again transformed into the likeness of King Alonso and powerfully thrust the lance in his hand.
It was the spearmanship of Alonso, one of the eight generals. Even by the standards of Dicondra, a transcendent being of the underground, Alonso was a skilled warrior.
It was more than enough to deal with a clumsy girl who couldn't even properly handle her own power.
That was, until Billina’s aura suddenly changed.
Black curses gathered around her Mak-kal, forming the shape of a longsword.
Her messy posture, breathing, and gaze instantly sharpened to that of a first-rate warrior, and she met Dicondra’s orthodox spearmanship head-on.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Sword and spear clashed, showering the air with brilliant sparks.
A flicker of doubt entered Dicondra’s eyes.
Objectively speaking, Billina’s swordsmanship was not superior to the spearmanship of Alonso that Dicondra was using.
The tide of battle was still clearly in Dicondra’s favor.
But Billina wasn't being overwhelmed to the point of being pushed back instantly.
Her movements, which had been utterly clumsy at first, had somehow transformed into those of a first-class knight.
‘Was she hiding her abilities?’
Logically, that was the most reasonable assumption.
Dicondra’s specialty was reading and replicating the abilities and memories of others, but it wasn't perfect.
He could mimic a simple appearance with ease, but memories required more observation the older they were, and he couldn't copy a being more powerful than himself.
Moreover, with his power degraded by an incomplete resurrection, it wouldn't be strange if he had failed to see through the girl’s disguise at a glance.
Besides, it didn't matter.
The skill the girl had hidden was, in the end, still inferior to the Alonso he was replicating.
After twenty exchanges, just as Alonso’s spear was about to pierce Billina’s body, the form of her Mak-kal changed once more.
From a longsword to two axes, one in each hand.
The problem was that Billina’s own movements changed along with it.
CRASH!
The clean, perfect swordsmanship Billina had displayed moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by the most savage and ferocious axe swings imaginable.
An overhead chop, swung with all her might, sent Dicondra staggering for a moment, even as he wielded the massive lance.
As he tried to regain his posture, the Mak-kal’s form shifted again.
This time, it became a very short, reverse-gripped dagger.
Billina’s body slid toward Dicondra as if gliding.
Dicondra tried desperately to shake her off, but Alonso’s spearmanship, while adept at fighting larger and stronger opponents, was relatively clumsy against this kind of assassination technique.
Of course, his fundamental capabilities were high enough that he could beat down an average assassin with his bare hands, but the dagger technique Billina now displayed was, by all accounts, that of a first-rate killer.
In the end, a bloody gash was carved into Dicondra’s body.
Szzzzzzzzzz!
The wound was just a shallow cut on his forearm, but the result was devastating.
With the point of contact as the epicenter, a tremendous curse and poison spread, beginning to erode Dicondra’s body.
Dicondra’s eyes narrowed.
‘It’s not regenerating.’
He could perform a similar healing technique by applying the transformation ability shown by the Witch of the North, Mombi. But the wound inflicted by Billina wouldn't disappear, no matter how he tried to transform or erase it.
Far from disappearing, the wound clung tenaciously to Dicondra’s body, as if it had a will of its own.
Deciding it was pointless to maintain Alonso’s form any longer, Dicondra changed his appearance once more.
A werewolf.
Armored in fur tougher and more durable than most metal armor, Dicondra snarled and charged. The assassin, specialized in killing humans, was powerless against it and was forced to flee.
However.
The reverse-gripped dagger changed its form again, this time into a crossbow.
Simultaneously, Billina’s movements, once like a stealthy snake, became like a nimble leopard.
Tumbling backward as if flying, Billina instantly created distance and fired a barrage of bolts made from mana and curses.
Dicondra’s two knees and ankles were pierced with precision, forcibly halting his body just as he was about to charge.
And then, Dicondra found his certainty.
‘…I see. I wasn’t wrong in the first place.’
When Dicondra first saw Billina, he had judged her to be an amateur who didn't even know how to fight properly.
That judgment was correct.
The reason why such an amateur could wield enough power to threaten him…
‘All of this woman's abilities are borrowed from others.’
In the first place, Billina’s mana had been awakened by Dorothea’s influence, and the catalyst for her gaining power was her affinity with an artifact Dorothea had created.
It was only natural, then, that her ability was rooted in necromancy.
Channeling.
One of the many branches of necromancy, it involved accepting another’s soul into one’s body to borrow its power and knowledge.
Just as Dorothea had once made laborers in the City of Clockwork more efficient by having them possessed by skilled workers, Billina was replicating the feat by allowing various powerful spirits to possess her own body.
An old knight who had served one family for ages, a pirate who had sailed across the seas, an assassin who had vanished into the shadows of history, a hunter who had reigned supreme in the forest.
The Witch of the West, who had a great interest in ‘powerful life,’ had gathered the corpses of all sorts of powerful individuals who had died within her sphere of influence to use as research material. Their bodies were reborn as homunculi, but their souls, unable to escape the Witch of the West’s barrier, remained trapped.
And Billina had claimed all those souls within the barrier as her own, allowing them to inhabit the artifact Dorothea had left behind.
Billina didn't know how to summon the undead. Nor did she know how to wield all sorts of convenient magic.
Unlike Dorothea, who was basically capable of anything, Billina’s talent was skewed in a single direction, sharp as a needle.
But that specialized talent had, in this moment, become a blade that could threaten even one of the eight generals.
“─Ha, I see. So that’s how it is.”
As one who copied the forms and abilities of others, Dicondra always tried to maintain a calm and calculating demeanor, but even he couldn't suppress a hollow laugh at this situation.
If his opponent had been someone like Adelaide, strong in direct combat but lacking wide-area attacks, Dicondra would have mimicked Lilium’s ability to thoroughly avoid a direct confrontation and attempt a war of attrition.
If his opponent had been someone like Franka, skilled in swarm tactics but with a weak main body, Dicondra would have mimicked Borealis’s ability and attempted an assassination via spatial movement.
Trying to mimic the abilities of his peers would only result in a degraded copy, but by exploiting his opponent's weaknesses, he could seize victory with that inferior power.
But against Billina, that was impossible.
Thousands? Tens of thousands? Perhaps even more?
It was unlikely that every soul hovering around Billina was a master, but if even 0.1% of them were a ‘hit,’ from his perspective, it was effectively infinite.
The souls weren't one-use consumables, either. She could reuse them, mix them, and create all sorts of variables. How could he possibly grasp all the combinations?
The way to counter Billina was clear.
Don't bother with flimsy strategies like exploiting weaknesses. Just crush her with pure stats or a single, focused breakthrough.
In short, the very thing Dicondra was worst at.
“Ha, haha, hahaha! This is absurd! Pitting a borrower against a copier… isn't this taking a joke of fate too far?!”
“Cut the crap and pay the price for insulting my goddess!!”
If his opponent were a more normal type, he might have tried some deception by changing his appearance to an acquaintance or a weak civilian, but the girl before him was clearly not the type to fall for such tricks.
Frankly, he doubted she was even properly listening to what he was saying, so crazed were her eyes.
Channeling was inherently dangerous magic, with the risk of the host’s consciousness mixing with the spirit’s. It was a spell with powerful side effects unless one used workarounds like putting the body completely to sleep.
The fact that she could accept souls with a clear mind, without any proper filters or safety measures, and her ego remained unshaken, meant her mind was anything but ordinary.
Still, Dicondra had no intention of admitting defeat so helplessly.
When Billina used a sword, Dicondra used a spear. When Billina tried to close the distance with her fists, Dicondra created distance with a crossbow.
His paper to her rock, his scissors to her paper, his rock to her scissors.
Dicondra and Billina, constantly changing their abilities, tearing at each other.
And in this endless game of rock-paper-scissors, it was Dicondra who gained the upper hand.
The title of ‘Eight General’ was not just for show. Even with his primary tactics sealed, the Dicondra of his prime was still powerful.
If there was a problem, it was only one thing.
In his current state, he couldn't maintain that peak power for long.
Just as he was steadily accumulating points and overwhelming Billina, right before he could deliver the checkmate, the time limit for him to exert his peak power ran out.
His right arm, no longer able to maintain its existence, crumbled into dust. Billina, covered in wounds, did not miss the opening and shoved her Mak-kal into Dicondra’s chest.
“…My great king. Do not forgive this unworthy servant.”
The curses that had entered his body through his wounds merged at once, consuming Dicondra’s body.
Royal Capital of the Kingdom.
Doppelganger Dicondra vs. Billina.
─Winner: Billina.