Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 067. Beyond the Heavens (1)

Anagin’s fist, packed with Energy(Γι), collided with the club forged from Periphetes’ Energy(Γι).

─!

As fist and club met, a sound that was hard to describe rang out.

It wasn’t just loud, it was heavy and deep.

Like the collision of a rock, or a mountain, or perhaps something even greater.

Startled by the sound, birds took flight all at once, and Anagin reset his stance and tried to throw another punch.

Periphetes, startled by Anagin’s reckless action, nevertheless took up a stance to swing his club. And then.

Anagin’s fist and Periphetes’ club collided once more.

──!

The sound was even louder than before.

Thud. Blood and chunks of flesh fell onto the ground.

Anagin’s fist had failed to overpower the club; it shattered and burst, sending blood and flesh flying.

Ssiik.

Periphetes let out an unconscious sigh of relief in the form of a smile.

It wasn’t that he had thought he would lose, but Anagin’s insane behavior had made him wonder, what if, even if only for a moment.

Otherwise, there was no way this kind of blind, headlong push made any sense....

But there was nothing.

He was just one of the many practitioners who ran wild, trusting only in their paltry strength.

About the same level as those fools who, having faced no real crisis or hardship, grew intoxicated with their inborn power and acted like spoiled children.

Periphetes retrieved his club and took up his stance again.

To beat Anagin to death like the humans he despised.

Crack.... Thak!

Just as Periphetes was about to swing again.

Anagin roughly set his broken hand bones back in place and took up a stance to punch once more.

Chiiiik...!

Driven by concentrated Energy, Anagin’s shattered fist recovered almost instantly, and he hurled it toward Periphetes.

───!

The sound rang out again.

This time, it went beyond being loud; it made one's very flesh tremble.

Anagin’s fist broke again, yet just like before, he set the bones and assumed a punching stance once more.

────!

Fist and club collided yet again, and the thunderous roar rang out without fail.

The sound grew louder than before, and the hand gripping the club began to tingle and tremble.

It was the weakness—or rather, a flaw—of the club as a weapon.

Its simple structure made it excellent at transmitting impact, but if it failed to destroy its target, that impact rebounded. A kind of side effect.

Which meant that this time, Anagin’s fist had not been destroyed.

Anagin reset his stance.

"...What are you doing? Get into your stance."

“?!?!”

Even though his fist had broken several times, Anagin’s expression didn’t change as he calmly took the same stance again.

Periphetes stood there, stunned by the sight of him.

Instead of exploiting an opening, Anagin told him to take his stance.

What was this? Confidence?

Periphetes snapped back to his senses and gripped the club tightly.

He was confused.

Did Anagin really intend to defeat him head-on?

Confusion gave birth to anxiety, and anxiety gave birth to doubt.

Maybe I could lose.......

Before swinging his club, Periphetes took a glance around, for a moment as brief as an instant.

Everyone was watching him.

The New Argonaut Expedition Team, the Western Alliance, and even his own subordinates.

“Ghk...!”

Unable to bring himself to dodge, Periphetes swung his club to meet Anagin’s punch.

─────!

The fist and club rebounded backward from the impact.

Anagin and Periphetes each recovered their fist and club and immediately took up their stances again.

──────!

Anagin’s fist shattered, and Periphetes nearly lost his grip on the club.

───────!

This time, Anagin’s fist did not break. Periphetes staggered back half a step from the shock.

────────!

Periphetes retreated another full step.

Anagin did not stop. He kept throwing punches—again, and again, and again.

────────!

──────────!!

────────────!!!

One step, two steps, three steps! Before he realized it, Periphetes was steadily retreating backward.

With each retreat, the certainty vanished from Periphetes’ swings, and fear and anxiety crept into his movements.

Attacks stripped of conviction gradually lost their power, and before long, he found himself barely managing to block Anagin’s onslaught.

“Ugh, uaaaargh!!”

Overwhelmed by bewilderment, confusion, and the fear that he might truly lose, Periphetes wrung out the last of his strength and swung his club down with all his might—not at Anagin’s fist, but at his head.

Instead of dodging, Anagin raised his fist and struck Periphetes’ club head-on.

Cr-crack!

Periphetes’ hand, which had been desperately gripping the club, finally gave out under the repeated impacts, and he lost his hold.

The club shot high into the air, spinning end over end, then landed in Anagin’s hand as Periphetes tried once more to retrieve it.

But—

Strangely enough, this time it stayed firmly in Anagin’s grasp.

“Huh?”

Smiling, Anagin tightly clenched Periphetes’ club.

Holding the club, Anagin took up a stance—

“This makes no—”

Before Periphetes could finish speaking, Anagin swung the club at his head and, just as promised, smashed it.

Crushed flesh and bone scattered across the ground as Periphetes collapsed, twitching. The surroundings were swallowed by a frozen silence.

Within that cold stillness, Anagin slowly swept his gaze around. One by one, the bandits lowered their weapons and bowed their heads, unable to meet his eyes.

More than Periphetes—the founder of the bandit state, its de facto leader, feared even by his own allies—they now feared Anagin more.

There was only one reason they didn’t flee.

They feared that moving recklessly would make them targets.

The bandits resolved to decide their next move based on Anagin’s actions. Whether to run, beg for their lives, or fight it out to the end. Though whether they could even fight was another matter.

Anagin moved.

He kicked up a spear lying on the ground, caught it, infused it with Energy, and hurled it.

The direction was east, where Irida had fired her arrow—about one hundred meters away.

Sswaaak!

Cutting cleanly through the air, the spear struck the spot where trees had unnaturally erupted, sending up a pillar of dirt.

The roots binding Irida loosened, and she dropped to the ground.

“Kuh—! Cough...!”

On the brink of suffocation, she hacked painfully while greedily gulping in air, and her attendant, Sanchonius, dragged his injured body over to support her.

Step. Step. Step.

Anagin walked toward Irida.

Just as she was about to speak, Anagin passed right by her.

He hadn’t been heading for Irida in the first place.

His destination was Kori and Pais, the siblings cradled in Sphinx’s arms.

“What should I do? Those bandits. Should I kill them all for you?”

At the sudden question, Kori and Pais could only look up at Anagin, unable to answer.

“I don’t really care whether they live or die, but you came here to avenge your grandfather, didn’t you? Just say the word. I’ll kill them all.”

He explained why he had asked, yet even so, Kori and Pais couldn’t answer lightly.

At Paia’s stronghold, they had wished for everyone to die—but now, it was different.

They still hated the Forest Brotherhood, but they no longer wished for everyone to die like before.

Time had passed, they had met other people and formed new bonds, and seeing the bandits trembling, pale-faced and shaking with fear, it made it hard to say, “Please kill them all.”

They couldn’t explain it clearly, but it felt wrong to do something like that carelessly.

After some time, the older sister, Kori, spoke.

“...It’s fine.”

“Really? Weren’t you here to avenge your grandfather?”

“Yes. But....”

“But?”

“Not like this. Grandfather wouldn’t want revenge carried out by asking someone else to kill for him. He probably wouldn’t even want revenge at all.”

Anagin raised one corner of his mouth, clearly satisfied with Kori’s answer.

“Get lost.”

Anagin said to the terrified, frozen bandits.

Only then did color return to their faces, and they hurried to move.

“Ah, wait.”

Anagin suddenly called out.

The bandits froze in terror.

A chill ran down their spines, cold sweat breaking out once more.

“You’re alive thanks to these little brats, so remember that clearly and be grateful. If it were up to my usual temperament, I’d have killed you all. Got it?”

“Y-Yes!!”

The bandits shouted at the top of their lungs, and when Anagin told them they could run, they finally fled like the wind.

After the bandits disappeared, a new silence settled over the area. The Western Alliance, along with the bounty hunters and vigilantes, began to rise one by one, nursing their injuries.

Some groaned as they sat off to the side, while others helped wounded comrades to their feet or pulled allies out from under the debris.

The New Argonaut Expedition Team did the same.

The practitioner Sanchonius moved busily, supporting Irida of the Wind, Lynceus of Farsight, Tramachus of Flame, and Thyreos of Reinforcement.

Checking their wounds with practiced hands and administering first aid, Sanchonius also spoke to Anagin.

“P-Please wait just a little! I’ll tend to you as well, Sir Anagin.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Anagin said as he sat down on a suitable chair.

It had been a while since he’d fought this roughly, and his fists had broken several times, but compared to the past, it was nothing.

Compared to when he sparred with that man he called Master back in his hometown.

Back then, it had been almost one-sided beating after beating. Broken bones were routine. He’d been slashed, stabbed, pierced through, even severed. And yet, he hadn’t received treatment—no, he couldn’t.

His master had forbidden it, claiming it was to increase his natural healing. Even now, thinking back, the man was insane beyond words.

In any case, Anagin refused Sanchonius’ treatment. He didn’t need it, and there was something else that concerned him more.

Something related to Sphinx.

As if sensing it, the New Argonaut Expedition Team silently alternated their gazes between Anagin and Sphinx.

Who would speak first?

“What is this, what is this. So it’s real?”

Chilling...!

A strange third voice. Everyone, Anagin included, froze solid.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch...!

With spines chilled, muscles tensed, and goosebumps erupting across their skin, everyone turned their heads in unison.

Their gazes converged on the direction the bandits had fled earlier.

A man was walking toward them.

Was it a coincidence that the smell of the bandits’ blood clung to his body?

In any case, the man drew everyone’s eyes simply by existing.

For he was far larger than Periphetes, with shoulders broader than two adult men standing side by side, and arms and legs closer to those of a beast than a human.

And that wasn’t all.

His hair and beard were thick and coarse like a lion’s mane, barely kept in order with oil, and his skin was so thick and rough it hardly seemed human.

Most striking of all were his pale, upturned eyes—eerily similar to those of a ferocious beast.

An overwhelming presence that made people shrink back even when he stood still.

Yet strangely, the clothes and ornaments adorning his body were all of the highest quality.

It was as if a lion were strolling upright, draped in silk and jewels—an uncanny, surreal sight.

Thump… thump… thump…

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch...!

He walked while pulling food from a massive horn-shaped bowl and eating it.

Every time the man—who looked at least three times larger than an adult male—took a step, nearby people staggered backward, letting out dazed sounds of “Uh... uh....”

As living beings, their spirits were utterly crushed.

Instinctively, they knew they could never win.

At that moment, Anagin was the only one who moved.

Concentrating Energy into his legs, he swung Periphetes’ club straight at the suddenly appearing man.

Tak!

But the man caught the club without even looking at it.

Casually.

“Was it you who did this, kid?”

The man, human, yet not quite human, asked while looking at the fallen Periphetes.

Anagin couldn’t answer.

Was it because the smell of the bandits’ blood was thick on the man’s breath?

No.

It was because the man reminded him of his Master.

Kwaaang!

With a light kick, the man sent Anagin flying clear past the forest to the opposite side.

Anagin crashed through dozens of trees and slammed into the cliff beyond.

(T/N): Daaaamn