WeTried Translations x Flame Comics

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 117: 16. The Person Who Travels Abroad to a Conflict Zone During Vacation (8)

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A hissing voice rang in his ear. Even its manner of speaking resembled Aviditas's. Its voice did too.

Though it contained no divine power, a fear-inducing curse blanketed the factory district like thick fog.

Fear was little more than a neurological response. Like every other emotion, it was a hormonal mechanism triggered by a threat to one's life.

If one could regulate the body's functions well enough, there was no reason to experience the illusion called fear. Ivan looked up at the enormous evil dragon with sunken eyes.

“Is this all you prepared?”

[What did you say?]

“Stop playing around and give it everything you've got. Only the weak use fear as a weapon.”

Ivan scattered the curse of fear that wrapped around and shook his body. The mana rising like a heat haze shattered and faded away.

Making oneself seem larger through fear was nothing more than a prey animal's means of survival. Predators did not use fear as a tool. Their mere existence was enough to prove what fear was.

He had to find the right moment. It would keep spitting out spells without end, so he had to slip through the gaps between them. That was where this fight would end.

Ivan gripped his axe tightly and lowered his stance, ready to charge at any moment.

At the same time, he saw every dwarven cannon in the area turn toward him.

The evil dragon growled as it met his gaze.

[I had hoped you would prepare better last words. Your end today deserves to become the first chapter of an epic that will endure forever. If that is all you have, I shall carry out your reprieved death.]

-Kiiiiing!!

Mana radiating from the evil dragon engulfed the dwarves all at once. The terrified dwarves stared in shock.

-Kwaang!!

Their skulls exploded in unison.

Amid the horrific sounds of spraying blood and twisting metal, blood surged upward like a storm. From behind that crimson shadow, the evil dragon's voice echoed.

[The most valuable way to use these insignificant dwarves' lives is...]

As the mana swept through the air, Ivan had already leaped upward.

Now. The moment a spell was being woven was, paradoxically, when a mage was most vulnerable.

Ivan's axe split the air. Scattering the gathering mana, he kicked off the wall and leaped toward the ceiling once more.

Then, like lightning, a red flash struck Ivan in the chest.

[Death must be repaid with death. This is Aviditas's Tribute Collection!]

The red flash burrowed into Ivan's skin and bound his heart. The bundles of cardiac muscle that formed its core failed all at once. Blood flow stopped, and his nervous system convulsed in confusion.

Aviditas's Tribute Collection. An instant-death spell that consumed the lives of terrified people as sacrifices, inflicting unavoidable death upon a specific target.

The number of sacrifices that could be prepared was limited, the conditions for selecting the type of sacrifice were demanding, and at best it was only useful against warriors without magical protection.

Still, there were more than enough terrified dwarves, and Ivan was one man charging in without a mage. It had opened the battle by driving its strongest single-target spell into him.

Of course it would use that.

Ivan thought as he felt his stopped heart and seizing nerve bundles. His blood flow had ceased, and heat was already draining from his extremities.

He had expected it. If it used one of Aviditas's spells, this would have been the most effective offensive spell at this moment. Aviditas had killed three agents instantly with this spell at the start of their battle as well.

-Crack!

People who suffered cardiac arrest typically twisted in pain, clutched their chests, and died. Their bodies reflexively reached for their hearts before they collapsed.

Ivan clutched his chest in midair too. It was a natural motion. He placed the burning mana at his fingertips directly above his solar plexus.

-Crack, crack!

He drove mana directly into his heart, forcing stimulation into the stopped cardiac muscle bundles. Simple contractions and relaxations, repeated over and over.

Thump, thump. His heart began to beat slowly. Its spell was a [curse]. It did not simply stop his heart. Until he broke the spell, it would keep inducing cardiac arrest.

Ivan was not well versed in magic. He had no skill for elegantly dispelling spells. Therefore, there was no way for him to escape this curse.

Yet like most spells, this curse would unravel with the caster's death.

In other words, if he could keep applying the appropriate level of stimulation to his cardiac muscles until it died, this curse was effectively useless.

[What...?!]

‘Sergei, Nikolai, Polina.’

He had devised this countermeasure while remembering the three agents who had died instantly from Tribute Collection.

Ivan steadied himself in midair, redirected his falling momentum, and kicked off the wall again.

As he rushed to within arm's reach of the evil dragon, Ivan raised his axe and swung it wide.

-Kwajik!!

The next spell descending on him shattered. Perhaps because it had been fired in haste, Chains of Decay was limited to physical damage. It could not cause decay without touching him, so it was useless.

Two people had died to that spell.

‘Anna, Valeria.’

He reached the thighbone of the beast as it stood planted on the ground. A dense curse climbed Ivan's body, sticky and heavy. Toxins burned his skin and burrowed into his blood vessels.

But that was fine. He had already taken antidotes for every toxin likely to invade his body once he entered point-blank range.

‘Alinya, Leonid, Visali.’

Those three had died when they reached this point. At the time, there had not been enough time or preparation to administer immune boosters and antidotes.

Countless spells struck him. Curses flowed through his body, tried to burn his soul, and shoved his planted foot toward the pit of despair.

But that was fine.

Every agent who had died back then had already experienced it once.

It seemed they had restored nearly all of Aviditas's legacy. They had had enough time, and they were the sort who could do it.

But that was fine.

Having faced Aviditas once, unless they had surpassed it, a mere imitation could not defeat a trained agent.

He had experienced it all already. For countless days, he had prepared by reliving those times.

Sasha, Anatoly, Yuliya, Victoria, Kserinya, Valiya, Yelchina, Roman, Artem....

In the order they died, Ivan remembered every agent's name, life, and cause of death.

[Die! Die...!! Diiiie...!!]

The evil dragon convulsed and twisted. Its draconic form collapsed, and human skeletons laced with curses exploded like shrapnel, battering Ivan's body.

But that was fine.

He could not allow himself to struggle with doing something again after experiencing it once.

Even if he had to face Aviditas at full strength again, Ivan could not allow himself to struggle. That would be an insult to those who had gone before him.

He could not bring the dead back to life. The comrades who had died because of his mistakes and shortcomings would never return. His regrets could never be undone.

Still, there was one thing he could promise them.

He would never forget that day. Never.

Dozens of spells, powerful strikes from its massive body, venomous insects rushing at him, and illusions that scrambled his senses.

Even facing all of it, that was fine.

Ivan tore open and crushed the evil dragon's chest. As he withstood the collapsing skeletons striking his body, he walked toward the necromancers staggering back behind it.

That was fine. He had experienced it already.

He could almost feel their fear trembling in his grasp.

That was fine. Their master had died in that same fear.

He was only experiencing what he had experienced before. Perhaps this was no more than a review of a grand match played over a long time.

You are now facing the Annihilation Unit.

“I've seen enough of what I failed to achieve.”

[I-Ivan, you bastard...!!]

“I hope you did too. I hope you've seen what you failed to achieve.”

Ivan raised his axe.

As long as even one person remained, the Annihilation Unit had never truly perished.

So he would show them what the surviving Annihilation Unit, which even Aviditas could neither take away nor destroy, could do, how it could accomplish it, and how far it could go.

[Get up...!! Stop him...!!]

The necromancers' mana writhed, and the headless, collapsed dwarven bodies began to rise again, weapons in hand.

They were corpses that had lost their fear of Ivan, yet still clutched dwarven armor and weapons. Lively corpses that had not even lost their warmth yet.

Ivan gave a quiet nod, then immediately threw himself forward again.

When one could not destroy a phylactery containing a soul, the best way to kill the dead again was this.

Destroy their bodies continuously, relentlessly, until the destruction of the main body placed a burden on the phylactery itself.

Fortunately, he had done this before. And these were easier opponents than the enemies he had faced back then.

A disciple resembled their master, so it was only fitting that they imitate even that form of annihilation.

Ivan crushed the approaching dwarves and moved forward.

Shattered corpses, ruined armor, and broken weapons formed a trail behind him.

That was fine.

His heart, arms, and legs were still moving.

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Footnotes:

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