Ch.153Subjugation (5)

It was a strange sensation.

It reminded me of strategy games or the MOBAs I used to play.

Watching myself fight from a third-person perspective felt like that.

No, not even third-person?

If we’re talking about viewpoint, it was more distant than a typical third-person view. More distant than the MOBAs I enjoyed, comparable to Grim Darker.

I was looking down from a perspective high in the sky.

Yet it wasn’t so chaotic that I couldn’t see everything properly, including myself.

Thump.

I heard my heartbeat.

And with each beat, golden ripples spread through space, revealing many things to my eyes.

Normally, seeing so much at once would be overwhelming or indistinguishable.

Yet strangely, I knew everything the ripples of my heartbeat swept over.

Small movements, approaching enemies, mages gathering magical energy, and even the Owl-Bear shapeshifter closing the distance with its massive presence among them.

And beyond that, the entire Divine Mountain Range where this pantheon stood.

My sister was fighting.

She deflected a general’s sword strike, then swung her elbow to dent his helmet before kicking away another enemy who tried to rush in.

Her swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat were in perfect harmony.

That wasn’t all. She used any weapon the enemy dropped.

Seizing a spear to throw it, taking an axe to split a shield.

Grabbing a hammer to impale an enemy, then pulling them in to break their neck with her knee.

Despite this, she couldn’t come to my aid.

Desperation showed on her face, and though she kept looking toward the peak where I was, as if sensing my location.

She was pinned down by countless enemies rushing at her.

There were too many enemies.

There were many allies too.

There was no opportunity for her to use her unique skill. If she didn’t mind burning everything, she would use it, but my sister was a kind person.

She couldn’t bring herself to do it.

So she couldn’t help me.

Eshatherna was in the same situation. She was pinned down just like my sister, though in her case it wasn’t numbers but optimized violence.

Eshatherna thrust out her leg. It was blocked by a buckler, demonstratively.

Her dagger thrust was blocked by an identical dagger thrust, like a decalcomania.

I couldn’t hear it, but I could see it. It was a sword breaker.

A dagger designed to catch enemy blades in its notches for defense.

Eshatherna seemed irritated, deepening the darkness in her eyes as she unleashed a flurry of attacks.

But none of her attacks connected.

Fists, elbows, legs, followed by jumping knee strikes that turned defense into offense, nimble dagger throws and retrievals, thrusts.

All were blocked.

Beyond the ridiculously skillful defense was a familiar face.

The one who had arrested Eshatherna in Grim Darker 1 and imprisoned her in the Imperial prison.

The Empire’s greatest magistrate.

The creator of Imperial martial arts, Faber.

Just as he had arrested Eshatherna before, he was now keeping her pinned down.

So Eshatherna couldn’t help her master, my sister, nor could she come find me, her master’s brother.

That wasn’t all.

Valterok was held back by the Empire’s Greatest Sword.

Lorian couldn’t escape from the combined assault of the knights and their commander.

Isla was barely managing to dodge spells aimed at her while returning fire.

Melody was rushing toward enemies, trying somehow to help me despite her exhausted and worn-out body.

And beyond them, countless troops charged at the people, while the Inquisitor, the Mourner, and the mixed-blood vampires who had received some military training from Lorian fought desperately to protect them.

It was absurd how enemies were everywhere I looked.

The number of enemies filling this mountain range, and their quality, was extraordinary.

Even for a large monster, they wouldn’t normally assemble such a subjugation force.

Even in all-out war, they wouldn’t organize troops with such composition.

This was, truly, a cold determination to kill me.

So I understood.

No one could help me.

I had to help myself.

I narrowed my vision to focus on myself.

Enemies swarmed toward me. I held my longsword at an angle and swung.

The flame-coated blade accelerated in a semicircle, severing the waists of three elite soldiers caught in its path.

The smell of burning humans and magical energy racing across skin.

An explosion. I knew it well. So I swung the hand axe in my left hand.

The wind that blew through the axe pushed my body, and I surrendered to it. By the time my rotating body landed on the ground, the fallen corpses exploded in succession.

RUMBLE!

The mountain range shook. The explosion caused snow piled on the peak to cascade down. Even amid this avalanche that could be called a hailstorm, the enemies didn’t stop.

Amidst this, war school magic flew toward me.

And there was an enemy approaching me in a straight line.

A massive form with no head and wounds covering its entire body.

A peculiar limb that seemed like a combination of bird wings and bear forelegs fell toward me like a guillotine.

The moment I dodged, there was a thunderous sound and my vision shook. I moved desperately amid the barrage of attacks raining down on me.

CLANG!

I swung my sword to deflect the foreleg.

SWOOSH!

I swung my axe to regain balance while thrusting my longsword to cut through muscle.

Even after being cut, its movement didn’t falter. Rather, its attacks accelerated. The foreleg with exposed bones fell to the ground with a thud, but the Owl-Bear struck me with that severed arm.

CLAAANG!

The impact resonated through my armor and my head shook.

Bile rose from within. Desperately crossing my weapons, what flew toward me was the Owl-Bear’s still intact arm.

I was hit by that foreleg and flew through the piled snow.

In my vision, the white line my body drew left a milky white trace in the sky like the Milky Way.

It couldn’t be called beautiful.

Because the pain that followed was immense.

“Kuh…!”

I landed back-first on a cliff. Rock edges tore into my waist, and beyond the seeping blood, my spine broke.

The blood gushing from my mouth meant internal injuries, and the bones breaking through my chest meant my ribs were shattered.

I desperately held my neck and rolled down the cliff.

I enveloped my entire body with divine power pumping from my heart. Breaking and regenerating, then breaking again as soon as I regenerated.

The Owl-Bear rolled down the cliff after me.

Its life-disregarding attitude. If it had been like this when alive, I would have been terrified.

Now I just felt sad.

It probably chose death to avoid such a fate.

Now, it was being dragged into an unwanted fight and used.

Even after being cut repeatedly, it kept moving.

Already dead with no physical limitations, it fought until its body broke apart.

It was the same now. The Owl-Bear rolled down the cliff, suddenly closed in on me, and grabbed me.

The headless Owl-Bear was bringing down its raised foreleg on me.

RIIIP!

My head turned. My neck was almost torn off. Even amid the cold whisper of death, I gritted my teeth.

Fuck, I can’t die like this.

With surging defiance, I swung my fist gripping the sword hilt to pound the Owl-Bear, and it pounded me with its severed foreleg.

We tumbled together and eventually reached the bottom of the cliff.

CRASH!

The ground caved in. The Owl-Bear’s heavy weight pressed down on me.

Blood gushed from my mouth, and I felt the pain pressing down on me vividly even beyond my mourning.

My consciousness was already drifting far away.

The very vision my intuition provided was making me that way.

Though it was clearly my body, I was becoming numb to the injuries and pain.

It was a dangerous perspective. But I needed it.

I gritted my teeth and tried to move my body to respond.

The Owl-Bear, still on top of me, grabbed my forearm.

At first, I thought it was going to tear off my arm.

That would have been dangerous. I was still somewhat awkward with kicks.

I was using them decently, but that was only because the Dragon Drop I’d acquired was a powerful martial art even for beginners.

So I had to shake it off. My combat power required my arms to be intact. As I struggled desperately to shake it off.

The Owl-Bear gripped my forearm and froze.

It didn’t attack. A brief moment, less than two seconds.

It could be a misunderstanding. I know that.

It could just be a misinterpretation, or perhaps the sorcerer had moved away or some confusion had caused the commands to stop.

It could be a convenient interpretation, an optimistic observation.

But now I looked at the Owl-Bear shapeshifter whose name I couldn’t even remember.

I thought this will was mixed into its stillness:

‘End me.’

I hesitated.

I hesitated because it felt sad to kill an opponent I had already killed, and I struggled to be angry at someone I had mourned.

But then I had another thought.

The thought that it was too cruel to leave this being without peace, allowing it to become like this.

My vision returned. Returned to my eyes. And looking at the hideous monster in my sight, I exhaled deeply.

What followed was more like dismantling.

CRUNCH!

[Critical Destruction]

[When landing a critical hit, you can destroy objects or body parts.]

[Adds 2 points to Strength.]

I destroyed the Owl-Bear’s body with Critical Destruction.

The Owl-Bear didn’t resist.

That made it much easier. My punches, kicks, and Star Blade dismantled the Owl-Bear shapeshifter’s body piece by piece, and the dismembered body no longer moved.

I moved even faster. I didn’t focus on myself or look around.

I recalled a warrior I had fought on the ship.

I remembered his pride as he chose his own death at the end.

I swung the Star Blade faster than his body could regenerate, dismantling flesh, feathers, and muscles.

And if it still moved, I completely pulverized it with my legs, fists, and dragon claws.

His will was fading. Resistance returned. Broken bones attacked my body, but I gritted my teeth and continued attacking while shouting.

After the thorough destruction, I stood there feeling like I might collapse from exhaustion.

My breathing was rough. My heart was beating wildly.

This breathing, this heartbeat.

They had nothing to do with my physical activity, yet they were like this. How absurd.

As I let out a hollow laugh, my vision widened again. The places where my heartbeat had spread entered my vision.

And that’s how I saw.

Countless soldiers positioned on the cliff, and a mage holding his lost shoulder socket.

“Don’t be naive.”

A somewhat crooked statement. I stared at him blankly, and he smiled as if he had read my thoughts.

“You’re probably thinking if you hold out, reinforcements will come, and somehow you’ll manage.”

Not now, but until just a moment ago, I had.

“That’s naive thinking. The Empire, or more precisely… His Majesty has been preparing for this moment.”

I could understand what he wanted to say. But I didn’t interrupt.

“Personnel selection suited to persons of interest, matching strategies, priorities and preparations…”

The mage smiled gently. He said:

“It’s somewhat flexible for improvisation, but a broad plan with good information from the three clans.”

Information. I thought of those who had been Isla’s compatriots.

“It was data from a failed subjugation force, but it was considerably helpful. Thanks to that, we could prepare thoroughly.”

He was trying to break my will, my fighting spirit.

“What you’ve gained, what you will gain, your means and methods. We analyzed everything. Of course, this kind of potential was unexpected.”

He held his lost shoulder socket, and looking at his forearm, I had the same thought as him.

“Just now, you should have aimed for the neck, not the arm. Even if your waist was severed, you should have done that. That was your mistake—”

“Blah blah blah, shut up.”

I felt my body filled with divine power. My body was rapidly regenerating with divine power spread throughout every corner.

He wouldn’t be able to see it because of my armor, and counting on that, I composed my rough breathing and said:

“Is talking with your mouth your way of fighting?”

In the mage’s silence, I looked at him and declared:

“I’m still standing here.”

“…Impressive.”

That the fight wasn’t over yet.

The mage flicked his hand, and the soldiers all drew their bows and aimed at me.

The feeling of countless killing intents directed at me made my skin tingle.

I said those words, but the fact that I was cornered hadn’t changed.

I couldn’t expect reinforcements.

My mind was becoming worn out, and my strength was reaching its limit.

Divine power still remained, but once it starts to be depleted, the balance will collapse in an instant.

So what I needed now was one thing.

One bold and massive move to turn this situation around.

The ultimate martial technique built up by warriors, Mind Image.

The optimal method devised by those who handle magic, Ideal.

The end reached by those who borrowed bloodline and power, Origin.

In common parlance, a Unique Skill.

That was my only way to victory.

Feeling the divine power filling my entire body, I was certain.