Chapter 52
Chapter 52
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Pavane for a Dead Dwarf (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The incantation replaced the fuse, and the twisted mana stood in for the gunpowder.
The moment Dawn's sword turned toward Horse Head, and the corpses littering the ground swelled up all at once.
A flower bloomed.
Petals made of blood unfurled, and pollen formed of bone and flesh scattered.
"It's over."
Seeing the world dyed red, Horse Head the Shepherd was certain of victory. He quickly chanted another spell, wrapping himself in a new protective barrier.
Right after that, the translucent barrier was dyed red.
He could feel shards of bone clattering against the blood-soaked barrier. Horse Head gathered more mana, thickening the barrier even further.
There were so many corpses that the explosion dragged on.
Only after the barrier thinned to a razor's edge did the explosion finally end.
The finale of the explosion was the sound of swept-up trucks flipping over and crashing down.
Boom!
Feeling the ground shake, Horse Head released the barrier. And in the next moment, his face twisted in horror.
"...How?"
Dawn was not dead.
His combat suit was in tatters, and his exposed body was covered in wounds.
Yet he was alive, holding his sword and stepping toward Horse Head.
Step.
Sticky blood trailed long from his footsteps. And with each step, his wounds regenerated at a visible speed.
The blood flowing down his forehead stopped. The hole in his thigh closed up, and his sunken shoulder returned to normal.
A monstrous vitality.
Wasn't this the very power the Shepherds had craved enough to abandon their humanity?
"This guy is... No. Whatever he is, I have to kill him here and now."
Horse Head the Shepherd raised his hand, a trace of jealousy and respect in his gesture.
Twisted mana condensed at his fingertips, rippling with red light.
"Immortal King! I borrow Your hand!"
Soon the incantation was complete, and a bundle of red beams burst from his hand.
As the sky turned red, Dawn—who had finished regenerating his leg—leaped into the air.
The mana loaded into that short leap was immense. From his toes to the tip of his sword, the elongated mana rippled like waves.
Crackle!
The sword cleaved through the beams as it fell. A clash of repelling forces.
Horse Head gathered even more mana at his fingertips and poured it into the beams.
"Hiiiing!"
The moment the thickly glowing beams succeeded in pushing back the sword.
Dawn released his sword. The now power-less beams shot high into the sky, and Dawn hurled something from his waist.
"A grenade?"
Seeing the grenade falling toward his head, Horse Head was speechless. For someone who wasn't a superhuman, it was an attack he couldn't dodge no matter what.
Boom!!
Before he could even raise a barrier, the explosion blasted both Dawn and Horse Head away. Horse Head's body floated up and flew backward.
"Kek, cough, cough!"
Horse Head rolled across the ground but still managed to chant his next spell.
The pain from grenade shrapnel in his chest and thigh made it hard to focus, but he completed the barrier spell without delay.
Crack!
Dawn's blade struck down on the barrier. Despite taking the same grenade hit, in the time Horse Head finished one spell, Dawn had retrieved his sword and run right up to him.
"What... the hell are you?"
Horse Head asked, staring at Dawn beyond the barrier. Despite the fierce battle, not a trace of fatigue showed on his face.
Instead, Dawn's eyes grew even more ferocious as he poured more power into his sword. The sword and spell repelled each other, mana sparking off with a hiss.
Only then did Horse Head realize the source of that insane vitality.
The astonishingly dense mana.
The mana emanating from him beyond the barrier far surpassed that of Horse Head, who had abandoned his humanity.
"How is this possible?"
Even if he was the one who cut a dragon's ribcage, Horse Head hadn't imagined he was hiding this level of power.
The higher-ups had judged similarly. They believed Dawn survived his fight with the dragon thanks to the Saintess, divine blessings, and the dragon's whim.
It was a reasonable judgment. Who in the world would think a rookie mercenary possessed such power?
"Rookie mercenary... Saintess... What if they've been in cahoots from the start?"
The moment that thought flashed through Horse Head's mind, the barrier shattered. Hiss! The bloodied sword cleaved straight into his shoulder.
Splurt!
His right arm was severed, blood spraying. Horse Head screamed and staggered back, but Dawn did not stop his sword.
He raised it high, aiming to behead Horse Head in one stroke. The shadow of death loomed over the guy's neck.
But in the next moment, his sword failed to sever Horse Head's neck.
***
"Something's off."
The Saintess, who had been feeding bullets to the motorcycle-riding freaks, turned her gaze toward the distant plain.
An inexplicable unease clawed at her neck.
"Should I use Foresight? No, if I use it twice in a row already, my mana..."
The moment she unconsciously bit her lip.
Whoosh—a wind blew in from the distant plain. A fierce gust that sent her snow-white hair flying.
Soon her expression hardened.
The repulsive stench of blood lingered in the wind's wake.
"...No way."
The Saintess swallowed hard and looked in the direction the wind had come from. Amid the blood smell, she sensed unfamiliar mana.
It was twisted, corrupted mana she'd never felt before in her life.
She couldn't comprehend what it would take to produce such mana. Was this what a necromancer's mana was like, as described in stories?
Whatever it was, it was definitely bad news for Dawn, who had charged in alone.
"Captain! I'm heading ahead!"
She shouted to Kwon Captain, who was still fighting the motorcycles.
In that moment, one of the motorcycle riders aimed a pistol at her, but Kwon Captain's machine gun turned him into Swiss cheese.
"Go on ahead! Kim Mansu! You take the guys without rifles and follow the Saintess!"
The Saintess bowed quickly to Kwon Captain, then righted a motorcycle lying on the ground.
She started the bloodied bike. As the engine roared roughly, she sped off toward Dawn.
Vrooom!
While the other mercenaries looked for intact bikes to follow her, she tore across the plain. Her long-honed biking skills shone through.
Fortunately, Dawn wasn't far away.
After a short ride, she spotted overturned trucks and blood-soaked ground on the horizon.
Standing on that ground... were just two figures, for some reason.
Dawn, covered head to toe in blood, and a strange mage wearing a Horse Head mask.
Fortunately, Dawn had the upper hand in the fight. Through the sharp vision hidden beneath her eyepatch, she could see him pressing down on the barrier.
But for some reason, the unease didn't fade. If anything, it grew stronger.
"Why?"
The answer to her question came from above.
An incomprehensible ripple of mana.
The moment the Saintess looked up with her eyepatch-covered eye, an unbelievable sight entered her view.
"...What the hell is that?"
A person was walking through the sky. Dressed in a black winter coat, with golden short hair fluttering... a girl? A boy? An androgynous appearance whose gender was impossible to tell.
The Saintess narrowed her eyes, pondering how the figure was walking on air.
Flying through the sky was possible with magic, sure... but the speed was the issue.
Each leisurely step as if strolling through the air propelled the figure forward at tremendous velocity.
Not quite matching the divine speed of a holy sword, but far too fast for a motorcycle to catch.
Only after being overtaken did the Saintess realize the source of her unease.
The familiar dwarf slung over the figure's shoulder, the incomprehensible mana waves, and... the direction those steps were heading.
"Dawn, no."
The Saintess leaned forward to cut air resistance and wrenched the throttle wide.
Vrooooom!! The motorcycle engine screamed, and the accelerating wheels kicked up clouds of dust.
***
The moment Dawn moved to behead Horse Head, something flew toward the back of his head.
An attack with no warning, no precursor.
The instant he sensed the thick killing intent, Dawn twisted his sword to deflect it.
Clang!
Magic? Martial arts? The moment he blocked whatever it was made of mana, his sword hummed sharply.
Dawn immediately turned to identify the attacker.
High in the air—so high he had to crane his neck—someone in a black winter coat extended a palm toward him.
"Oh, you blocked it? Not bad senses."
A clear, androgynous voice whose gender was indeterminable. But regardless of the voice, Dawn furrowed his brow.
The reason: a familiar dwarf was limply draped over the figure's left shoulder.
Darulma Dun. The dwarf who should have been with the mercenary trucks—why was he there?
"Either the mercenaries lost, or only Darulma was kidnapped... Neither is good."
Dawn took a long, deep breath and checked his body's condition.
"Still good to fight."
Fatigue had built up from the back-to-back battles, but the expanded mana from absorbing the World Tree Crystal was sustaining him.
While Dawn prepared for battle, the figure stepped lightly through the air and descended to the ground.
"For someone from this world, you've mastered proper martial arts, huh..."
An dissatisfied expression crossed the androgynous face—boy or girl, impossible to say.
"Too bad. No time right now."
With those words, the right hand moved. The exact same attack that had targeted the back of his head moments ago.
The mana-loaded palm struck the air, sending a fierce blast of mana slicing through the atmosphere.
"...Palm wind?"
It was a familiar technique to Dawn. For some reason, its structure matched exactly the swordsmanship he had realized in the bunker.
Clang!
This time, instead of blocking directly with his sword, he fired mana from it as well. The two blasts collided in midair, canceling each other out and dissipating.
Dawn didn't miss that moment, etching it into his eyes. A new martial art—a potential stimulus for his talents.
He poured mana into his sword once more, gauging the opponent's next move.
But the battle he anticipated didn't continue. Instead, an absurd voice pierced his ears.
"Wave Yang Art?"
"..."
"There's someone in this world using Wave Yang Art?"
The one who pierced through the martial art and the one exposed. Their stiff gazes locked in the air.
* * *