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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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Chapter 177: The Bard’s Song (3/3)
[TL/N: Peak Chap]
The pungent scent of blood.
The first thing that caught my eye was the Black Scales flag, planted upside down on the slope of the plateau.
As soon as I tried to get up, a sharp pain pierced through my heart.
Lying on the ground, I spat out the rainwater that kept flowing into my mouth.
"Cough."
…What am I doing here right now?
The first thought that always comes to mind when I'm freed from madness.
What day is it?
I can't remember anymore.
"Rest, Ruin."
This is… the voice of the Vice-Commander, Azeta.
I instinctively looked at his right hand.
Another finger was gone.
Only three fingers remained.
Azeta had also pushed his mana circle to its limits.
Suddenly, I remembered what had just happened.
A fork in the road.
The heads of the Divine Clan and their elites, who were chasing after the demon Marquess Vassago and the high-ranking demons, entered the left path.
The Crazy Mage Squad I belonged to, a small number of the White Horse Knight, and some knights from the Arihama clan entered the right path to deal with the remaining demons.
And then, a short while later, we arrived at the top of a vast plateau.
Marquess Vassago was there.
The Heavenly Pressure shields erected by the guardian knights of the Arihama clan exploded along with their bodies.
Then, the moment I saw the commander's body flung into the air after taking Vassago's attack, my madness took over.
"…Commander?"
I turned my head towards where Azeta was looking.
The top of the plateau.
"Damn it."
Vassago was still alive.
He was still rampaging, despite the black blood gushing from his body pierced by the dark sword.
And the one man blocking him.
'He's not dead.'
Thank goodness.
Our idiotic Crazy Mage Squad Commander, Azka.
But looking closely, his right arm was gone.
Swooooooosh—!
The rain poured down like crazy.
The corpses of the knights and mages we had fought with earlier dyed the entire plateau red.
The surviving members of the White Horse Knight were working together to spread a wide barrier on the slope ahead.
7th Circle, Grand Protection.
Every time the demons' attacks shook the barrier, blood spurted from the mouths of the White Horse Knight members.
In the midst of all this, they all muttered the same words.
And a little further up, I could see the Crazy Mage Squad frantically smashing the heads of the demons pushing down from the slope above.
None of them were sane.
Everyone had reached their limit.
They had lost too much blood.
We were outnumbered from the start.
Meanwhile, the Crazy Mage Squad was also muttering the same words as the White Horse Knight.
"Damn song."
Are they trying to find comfort in their impending deaths?
Fwooosh— It was then that a shock wave erupted from the top of the plateau.
An ear-splitting sound pressure.
The Crazy Mage Squad Commander, Azka, who was fighting Vassago, was blown away and flew towards us.
Crack—!
The White Horse Knight's barely maintained Protection shattered from the shock wave.
"Stay put, Ruin."
Bzzzt—
Azeta, who had released an electric shock to disperse the incoming shock wave, immediately leaped into the air and caught Azka.
Azka, landing on the slope, looked at Azeta and said quietly,
"…The youngest?"
"Your right arm is gone, Commander."
"I still have my left. The youngest?"
"Ruin is alive."
"Good."
Only then did Azka look this way.
His entire face was covered in blood.
Azka, whose eyes were bloodshot, stared into mine and nodded once.
Then I understood.
The commander's mana circle was on the verge of collapsing.
In that state, he couldn't cast a proper spell.
Even the slightest shock would cause it to explode.
I said to Azka,
"Stay here, Commander. I'll go."
Azka ignored me.
Damn Commander.
With the commander like that, no wonder the squad members are all over the place.
Trying to force myself up wasn't easy.
Every time I moved, the pain in my heart intensified, as if it had been pierced.
“…”
As if they had promised, the other squad members began to gather around Azka.
They knew it was no use maintaining the barrier any longer.
The White Horse Knight gathered around Azka first, followed by the Crazy Mage Squad.
Stumbling, dragging their feet, crawling. One guy came hopping on his left leg, his right leg gone. It was a diverse sight.
Swooooooosh—!
The rain was still pouring down like a waterfall.
Yet, the atmosphere was strangely quiet.
Did they know the end was near?
The demons, led by the Marquess, also gathered on the slope of the plateau, looking down at us.
"Hold the line here. I'll go."
The Samael bastards ignored me.
They all lined up in front of me, facing the top of the plateau.
I stood up, suppressing the agonizing pain in my heart.
"Are you all planning to die? I said I'll go."
"Don't be rash, youngest."
"You bastards!"
Wheeeeng—
As soon as I reversed all my circles, my mind went blank as if six holes had been drilled into my heart, and I collapsed.
"Cough!"
Meanwhile, Samael had formed ranks.
Facing the demons who were looking down at us from the slope of the plateau, Samael stood their ground.
Azka turned around and looked at me.
"The heads of the clans will be here soon. Let's hold out until then."
"...Don't be ridiculous, Commander."
As if it were the last time, Azka glared at me.
"Live. If I die, you're the Crazy Mage Squad Commander."
Suddenly, Azeta, who was standing next to me, added,
"Oh, what a super express promotion. From the youngest to Commander in one go?"
A collective chuckle erupted at his joke.
One guy laughed, then the guy next to him laughed, and then the next guy laughed.
Damn bastards.
Everyone's faces and bodies were covered in blood.
Even with the heavy rain, the blood wouldn't wash away.
Everyone was in such bad shape that as soon as the blood washed away, more would gush out.
The laughter stopped simultaneously.
Wheeeeng—
I felt it.
The surge of mana as Azka opened his circles.
The mana in the atmosphere was concentrating here, where everything was bathed in a crimson light from the mixture of sweat and blood.
"Remember the crimson rain."
Color momentarily returned to the faces of the Crazy Mage Squad and White Horse Knight members.
Looking beyond the mountain of blood piled up on the plateau, each of them painted a picture in their minds.
"Even if I perish today, atop this mountain of blood..."
"Even if I perish..."
Voices followed Azeta's lead.
Everyone opened all their circles.
The abundant surge of mana in the atmosphere raised the limits of the squad members.
Suddenly, sensing something amiss, the Marquess gestured towards us from the top of the plateau…
And then the demons began to surge down like a tidal wave.
Watching them, Azka took a step forward.
Thud—
"I shall advance."
6th Circle, Bard’s Song.
The song of Samael.
Behind Azka, Azeta, with lightning crackling in both hands, also took a step forward.
Thud—
"I shall advance."
One by one, the Crazy Mage Squad and White Horse Knight members started to step forward.
"Advance."
"Advance."
"Advance!"
Thud—
Samael marched forward.
I just watched their backs.
Walking steadily through the pouring rain, stumbling, hopping, crawling.
The back of everyone's head held the same determination.
“…”
Suddenly, my blood-red vision gradually turned to the color of dirt.
The pain subsided, and the circle in my heart began to rotate in reverse.
I followed in the footsteps of those stubborn bastards.
I didn't utter the foolish incantation.
'I shall advance.'
* * *
"I shall advance."
Was it a hallucination?
Zion walked beside me, on my right.
"I shall advance."
Another hallucination?
Makan walked beside me, on my left.
Swooooooosh—!
Suddenly, the sound of the pouring rain returned.
My blood-red vision also returned to normal.
"I shall advance."
"I shall advance."
"Advance!"
Arin, Palge, Iron, Ain, Taylor, Blair, Cliff.
They walked in line behind me, keeping pace.
As I walked, I looked around for a moment.
Everyone who had collapsed around me was looking at me at the same time.
Haengsu, whose legs were mangled, looked at me.
Chano, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood from his chest with his hand, also stared at me with wide eyes.
Urek, whom I had met in the Section 1’s demon realm, was there too.
The giant and the dwarf I first saw at the tavern in Keplan were also there.
"Remember the crimson rain. Even if I perish today, atop this mountain of blood..."
This was Samael's song.
Not a dirge to reminisce about the past, but a marching song to advance into the present.
"...I shall advance."
The phrase I had only uttered inwardly while watching the backs of the Crazy Mage Squad and White Horse Knights in the past...
Now, the Crazy Mage Squad and White Horse Knights were chanting it out loud as they watched my back.
Samael was the same now as it was in the past.
Each of them envisioned their own image.
The moment the surging monsters came within reach...
The surging mana in the atmosphere gathered at the tip of Makan's spear.
Like a flame that explodes after burning its fuse.
Triggered by the Song, the mana circle in my already saturated heart broke through its limits.
"The intense fighting spirit that overturns deeply rooted fear, Reverse Break."
The incantation erupted from Makan's mouth first.
5th Circle Gravity Magic, Reverse Break.
Cracks appeared along the path of the spear thrust.
With a cracking sound, the cracked earth split open and flipped over.
At the same time, Makan's spear, infused with the concentrated mana of a 5-star Mana core, shot up towards the sky, and qi surged from its tip.
Makan charged, drawing a semicircle with his spear.
"Seismic Wave!"
Fwooosh—!
The pouring rain was pierced by the shock wave, and fragments and spear qi mixed together and extended up the slope.
Boom—!
Then, as if on cue, the others unleashed their 5th Circle spells.
The flames Zion conjured exploded, incinerating the monsters.
Ten streaks of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting the ground.
A flash of light erupted in the midst of the densely packed monsters, melting them in an instant.
A tremendous gust of wind followed, blowing the monsters away.
Meanwhile, other monsters flying in from all directions were repelled the moment they touched the barrier Taylor had spread wide.
Fwooosh—!
Even the self-destruction of the demonic soul human that sprang from the ground had no effect.
A perfect Reflection Shield.
Through it, I advanced.
Over the slope of the plateau.
Towards the demons standing at the top.
The demons, witnessing the now-reversed tide of battle, were clearly enraged.
Their expressions were hidden by the torrential rain, but their trembling bodies alone showed how furious they were.
However, they couldn't move easily.
Because of one man.
At the highest point of the plateau.
Surrounded by countless monsters, a man frantically swung a dark longsword.
He fought against both demons and monsters, yet he didn't falter.
I saw Azka in him.
The man's face, momentarily visible through the pouring rain.
Black hair and black eyes.
A face I'd never seen before, yet somehow familiar.
That was him.
He was the Black Star.
While the Crazy Mage Squad and White Horse Knight dealt with the monsters...
I continued to walk forward.
The demon finally noticed me.
A gray mask covering the lower half of his face.
Black fangs visible between his teeth.
Wheeeeng—
Six circles rotated as if burning.
With Azka's incantation in my mind, I advanced towards the demon.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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