Chapter 157 : Chapter 157
Chapter 157. Plague City (7)
'Viscount, I don't say this often, but don't overdo it.'
That was what Randal had said a few months ago, during one of our usual near-real-combat training sessions.
He was right.
I was definitely overdoing it.
I had limited my sleep to the bare minimum for survival and used all my remaining time for city development, battle reviews, military training, and personal image training and sparring.
A schedule that would have made my earthly self die of overwork or give up in less than a month was made possible by a body that surpassed human limits and the miracles and potions I poured into my body every day.
Of course, potions and miracles couldn't erase mental fatigue.
Even [Lord’s Unyielding Mind] couldn't completely resolve the fatigue that accumulated in the mind over a long period.
But.
'Still, I have to do it.'
I'm sure that's how I answered.
'Why?'
'Because the enemies I'll have to face in the future are strong. Stronger than me, of course, and even stronger than you are now.'
'Is that so?'
'The Orc Great Chieftain Ulruk. Do you remember when we fought him?'
After thinking for a moment, Randal nodded.
'I remember.'
'What if you had to fight an enemy even stronger than him?'
'Just thinking about it is exciting.'
I remember the northern warrior had grinned and continued.
'Then there's no time to rest.'
The Orc Great Chieftain Ulruk.
He was originally a hero between level 7 and 8.
But in the face of death, he had surpassed his limits through the trait given to him by the church, [The Darkness that Writhes Under the Skin].
Level 8.
Perhaps even level 9.
If we had made even the slightest mistake, my comrades and I would not be of this world.
We were able to seize victory only because the abilities of Randal, the Dwarven Hold's artillery, the mad fire witch who held back the Orc army, the other heroes, and the sacred relics all came together in harmony.
Since it was my clone that fought the Great Chieftain, I wouldn't have died even if I had lost the battle, but at the very least, the foundation I had built as Viscount Ash would have completely crumbled.
Since that day, I had thought.
Perhaps the main enemy of 4.0 was an upgraded version of the church, or an unknown mastermind hidden behind the veil of the church.
Even a hero not affiliated with the church had gained a higher level of power.
Wouldn't other heroes who were even slightly entangled with the church have gained even more power?
There was no law saying that other enemy heroes wouldn't gain unexpected powers.
After the eastern expedition where I fought Ulruk, I did image training against every enemy I knew.
On the premise that they were stronger than before, and possessed unknown, mysterious abilities.
Among them was the Archpriest of the Weird Priesthood, Rakkash.
“Chiiik! Are you running away! Human mage! Chitter-chitter!”
The creature was chasing me.
Shouting with a mocking tone.
His voice was frivolous, but the power of the destructive beams fired every time he waved his six hands was by no means light.
Chwaaaaa-!
A beam fired on an unavoidable trajectory grazed my clothes.
The hem of my clothes began to disintegrate from the edge in an instant.
I immediately created a blade of wind and cut off the hem.
With a laugh that was close to a scream behind me, I leaped into the midst of the creature's Ratman army.
[[Wind Spirit's Aid] deployed.]
'Be careful.'
I maximized my airtime with the help of the spirit's power and then landed.
Thud!
Chiiik?
I dealt with the creature blocking my way with a single fireball and rolled to the side.
Chwaaak-!
Another destructive beam, with a sound like spraying water, grazed past where I had been.
It was Archpriest Rakkash's signature spell.
Its name was [Anomaly of Corroded Time].
It was a beam that disintegrated everything it touched, and like the church's skills, there was no particular way to deal with it unless you countered it with a spell of the same level.
Its flaw was that it had a complex hand seal, a long incantation, and high mana consumption.
Chwaaaaa-!
The creature had omitted the incantation.
He had also minimized the hand seals.
Yet its power had not diminished at all, and it was firing several beams at once.
He had solved it purely by pouring in mana.
A feat that was normally only possible for a high-level mage casting a low-level spell.
Without infinite mana, it would be impossible to fire that level 7 spell like a semi-automatic rifle.
It was probably the ability of the sacred relic he had embedded in his own body.
From the opponent's perspective, it was a ridiculous situation.
But it was fine.
Since Randal joined my domain, my body has experienced real combat almost every day through sparring with him.
When I did image training against mage heroes, I devised strategies that included various unknown abilities.
Infinite mana was one of them.
The plan was already prepared.
Booooom!
From the front.
A powerful shockwave struck my body.
The destructive beam that had missed me had hit a mutant rat monster, exploding and sending me flying with the shockwave.
It seemed that a large amount of gunpowder had been embedded in that monster's body.
I could have pushed through the blast pressure, but I deliberately relaxed my body.
My body flew like a leaf in a whirlwind and crashed into the ground.
“Well, human spellcaster. Are you done running?”
The Archpriest approached me as I lay fallen, chittering.
“According to the records… yes, a mercenary captain, right? You have two sacred relics. I didn't expect you to have realized the authority of the Warrior. To be honest, I was quite surprised by the size of the army you have.”
There were a few rules that applied to any fight.
One of them was that the one with greater physical strength was more likely to win.
On the other hand, another rule was that even if one's strength was relatively inferior, if their skill was much better, their chances of winning increased.
What the more skilled side usually aims for is the moment the opponent, trusting in their physical strength, lets their guard down.
Like in mixed martial arts, when a fighter who was dominating the early rounds gets knocked down by a surprise low kick followed by a jab and a straight.
For this purpose, I had been conserving my full strength throughout the fight.
And in doing so, I had figured out what the Archpriest knew and what he didn't.
“The Maiden Who Heralds the Time is also a noble member of the Outer Gods, but the Nameless Tentacle holds a particularly high position among the Outer Gods. Sacred Relic Bearer, the position of His guardian is not one that suits you.”
Master of two sacred relics.
Mage.
Mercenary captain.
I didn't know how he obtained it, but the data he had was close to the time just after the Imperial civil war, when I had just obtained my second sacred relic.
Before my abilities as a swordsman were revealed through the sparring trend in the punitive force.
Before I was granted a title and became a lord.
And before I obtained the third sacred relic from the Lumer ruins beneath that domain.
“Hand over the hidden sacred relic. I will kill you less painfully.”
Then the card I could play was decided.
'Eyeball, now.'
'Anytime!'
With the authority of the fourth sacred relic, I leaped through space and took up a position behind him.
“Now then… chitter?”
[[Phantom Step] deployed.]
[[Covert Action] deployed.]
[[Shadow Kill] deployed.]
[[Constricting Darkness] deployed.]
While extremely reducing my presence to confuse his senses, I simultaneously drew my sword from the subspace.
[[Imperial Green Flowing Sword] deployed.]
First, I aimed for his arms.
The attack spells of the Weird Priesthood had a characteristic.
The incantation could be omitted, but the hand seals, even in an abbreviated form, were essential.
The reason he had six arms dangling was for this purpose.
“Gaaaah! You, you, where…!”
I cut off three of his arms.
I teleported again.
With my presence concealed, I swung my sword.
This time, I aimed for the two hands on the opposite side.
[[Swordsmanship of the Red Bud] deployed.]
The reason I deliberately used a different type of swordsmanship was because mages, as a species, tend to react intuitively in moments of crisis.
Sure enough, a defensive barrier that was difficult to penetrate with the flowing trajectory of the Green Flowing Sword had been deployed.
It was likely the product of his experience fighting many swordsmen.
But he had probably never faced a swordsman who used completely different sword styles together.
“Kyaaaak!”
I severed both of his wrists.
The remaining one tried to fire a destructive beam at point-blank range, but.
[[Olif's Straight Knightly Sword] deployed.]
A master's sword is faster than a mage's hand seals.
I twisted the sword that pierced his palm, splitting the hand vertically, and tore off his forearm as I pulled it out.
All that was left was his heart.
“Kill him! Kill the human!”
At the shout of the creature who had lost his ability to attack, his Ratman army rushed in to protect their master, but I had an army too.
As the vampires, the Lumer Legion, the Beastmen, and the Orcs blocked the wave of Ratmen, I thrust my sword.
Avoiding the sacred relic implanted in his chest, the tip of my sword pierced his heart.
“Do you think… I'll die… alone…!”
At that moment, mana flowed explosively from the sacred relic into the creature's body.
I instinctively closed my eyes at the bright light.
I felt a sense of languor.
A strange feeling, as if time had stretched.
A sensation I had experienced before.
'Marquis Ricardo's lord's castle.'
In the domain of the creature who had turned his lord's castle itself into a trap, when he had recreated an old nightmare, it had felt like this.
A fleeting moment.
Even with my eyes closed, scenes flashed before my eyes just like then.
A schoolyard. Me running on a track. A motorcycle. A hospital.
The accident in the army. The days and nights I lay in bed, having lost control of my body. The cold wooden floor when I returned. The lonely ossuary.
The deaths of soldiers. The mountains of corpses in Burken Fortress, Wolfskrig, Berenburg, and the eastern wastelands.
And the fourth nightmare.
[[Lord’s Unyielding Mind] deployed.]
A notification window that appeared before my eyes after a slight delay.
Yet the nightmare didn't end immediately.
I didn't know why.
Was it because of the total amount of mana the creature had poured out?
Had the near-infinite mana enhanced the spell's hierarchy to the point where it could temporarily bypass that cheat-like trait?
I couldn't know.
But the nightmare wasn't over.
I faced the battlefield.
The clash of two armies filling the vast plain, with flags waving.
The sky opened, and the shadow of an Outer God fell upon the battlefield.
Humans were being crushed and killed like ants.
Among them were faces I knew.
They were looking at me with eyes full of resentment.
There was another gaze upon me.
I raised my head.
Beyond the open sky, in a space as empty as the universe, there was someone.
Its form was indescribable.
But because of the gaze upon me, my mind perceived it as a giant eyeball.
That eyeball flashed, revealing an emotion.
Joy? Competitiveness? Anger? Ecstasy?
[[Lord’s Unyielding Mind] deployed.]
Well.
I couldn't know.
And I had no intention of finding out right now.
I wasn't living to see that future.
I was fighting to change that scene.
I opened my closed eyes.
A gaunt Ratman was looking up at me with trembling eyes.
It was the Archpriest.
Had his body become so emaciated in that short time?
Was it a side effect of the sacred relic?
“U-unwavering core… Who are you… Could it be… the Emperor?”
There was no need for long words.
I swung my sword and took his head.
I roughly carved out the sacred relic, which was embedded deep beneath the skin, along with a chunk of flesh, and tossed it into the subspace.
I could figure out how to use this thing later.
By the way, it seems that abilities are gained or upgraded upon obtaining two sacred relics, so this guy should have one more…
'Aphid that Consumes the Universe, welcome. Did your previous master not have another sibling?'
'Om-nyom-nyom-nyom…'
'Ah, the Emperor took one back?'
'Om-nyom-nyom. Nyam.'
'Master, this one says it wants a cute name.'
“?”
'Hmm, how about Crusty? It's a cute and fitting name.'
'Om-nyam?'
'It likes it. What do you think, master?'
“……Do as you please.”
Anyway, it was time to go rescue the Emperor.