WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 88: Struggle 3

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“Hmm...”

The transmission had succeeded, but moving the body still felt awkward. It was not a major problem. The soul naturally followed the body, and with Orca’s abilities, she would soon finish attuning it.

Orca blinked several times as she searched through her memories. The magic was still incomplete, so she could not share every memory and understanding, but she could recall the recent memories needed to grasp the situation.

“A connection, huh.”

At Orca’s will, Lacey’s lips moved. She let out a low laugh and slowly nodded.

“As you said, we do have a connection.”

Agwi, caught in the raging lightning, clacked his teeth and stamped his foot. But the Blade Storm, now even larger than before, shook off the lightning.

“Orca Dersia?”

It was difficult to comprehend, but he had to force himself to assess what had happened. He did not know what kind of magic had caused it, but the one before him was not Lacey Yuzha. It was Heavenly Thunder Orca inside Lacey’s body.

‘Possession...?’

Had she recreated possession through magic? As Agwi forced his thoughts onward, Orca removed the white gown she was wearing.

“It has been nearly twenty years, but it is still a memory I cannot easily forget. Even in my long life, it was one of the most unusual experiences I have had.”

That day, Orca had fallen into a trap and nearly died. If the Faceless Killer had not intervened, she certainly would have died. That was why she could not help feeling so much upon finding herself in this place.

“This trap is inferior to the one you prepared to kill me. I suppose you never planned for a Mage Tower Master to be your opponent?”

She was right. None of the mages at the exhibition were archmages worth worrying about. Facing a Mage Tower Master could not be contemplated in the first place. Constructing a sacred domain for that purpose would compromise the Rift Attunement and leave it vulnerable to outside interference.

Instead of answering, Agwi stepped back. Fighting Heavenly Thunder Orca under these conditions would mean risking too much. Above all, when it came to combat, Heavenly Thunder was unquestionably among the three strongest Mage Tower Masters.

“Well...”

Orca curled one corner of her mouth into a smile.

Crackle...!

The lightning energy coiling around her hands formed black gloves.

“Even if this trap had been built to the same specifications as before, you alone could never have killed me.”

Crack.

Veins stood out in Agwi’s neck.

The one before him was not the real Heavenly Thunder Orca, was it? Her soul had merely flown here and settled into another body. If so, was this not the perfect chance to kill Heavenly Thunder?

‘There’s no way she can use her full power in someone else’s body.’

Even if Agwi could not use divine power either, there was no reason to fear this seemingly incomplete Orca.

No. It did not matter even if Orca was at full strength.

More than fifteen years had passed. The power Agwi had built during that time was not so insignificant that he would hesitate simply because his opponent was a Mage Tower Master.

‘I’ll make you regret coming here.’

If he could kill Orca here, it would be a tremendous achievement that the other Saints would have no choice but to acknowledge. Even if creating the Rift ended in failure, killing Orca would be enough. A Mage Tower Master’s head was worth that much.

His decision was made.

He would kill Orca.

Agwi’s massive body vanished from everyone’s sight.

It was completely different from the way he had moved when fighting Yuri. This was not the leisurely movement of someone playing with an insect to inflict pain worse than death. Agwi no longer cared about pain. He moved only to kill, only to win.

Orca did not move from where she stood. There was no need to.

The moment Agwi vanished, Orca’s magic had already unfolded.

Crackle!

Lightning erupted in the empty space. Agwi appeared at that instant.

“Gaaah!”

Agwi thrashed within the lightning with a scream.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Orca watched him calmly and tapped the air with a black-gloved finger.

Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death.

The intuition born from senses affected by lightning energy went beyond prediction and reached precognition. At the same time, the lightning energy flowing through space observed even the faintest movements of mana, driving lightning into every approaching calamity before it could arrive.

It was magic Yuri could not understand. The mana within the sacred domain was tightly tangled together, but that posed no obstacle to Orca.

Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death struck again and again, yet Agwi did not retreat. He pressed forward instead. In his beastly transformed state, he possessed resistance to magic of various attributes.

‘It’s weak...!’

The lightning would have turned most opponents to ash in a single blow, but Agwi could endure it. It was proof that Orca’s firepower was weaker than it was in her own body.

Then he would take the hits and push forward.

Agwi gritted his teeth and leaped. In that single leap, he closed the distance in an instant.

Orca’s body shot swiftly backward. The lightning she had been holding was drawn into the lightning energy drifting around her.

‘Looks like you can’t use Thunder God’s Mirage.’

Orca possessed Thunder God’s Mirage, a spell that made her immune to all physical attacks. Yet Thunder God’s Mirage transformed both body and soul completely into lightning energy. She could not possibly use such a highly advanced unique spell while she was not even in her own body.

Even if she could, it did not matter. He had plenty of methods that worked against such an opponent.

‘Hmm.’

Her output was certainly weaker, Orca thought as she watched Agwi move.

‘It seems he cannot use divine power either.’

Borrowing someone else’s body came with various limitations. Her soul was here. It was not merely her consciousness that had crossed over. Her soul had crossed over as well.

A martial artist in the same situation would have been limited by their inner power and the body’s abilities, but Soul Power resided in the soul. The formulas were in Orca’s memories. That allowed her to use unique magic, but she could not bring out her full strength.

If she pushed too hard, Lacey’s body would be damaged. The body was a vessel that held the soul. Lacey’s vessel was still too fragile to contain Orca’s soul.

“Even so, what a stupid beast.”

Orca chuckled.

If it had been another Saint, she would have needed to steel herself. She did not need to now. To Orca, Agwi rushing at her because he thought he had found an opportunity was little different from a fat pig. She did not know the name of the Divine Grace Authority he possessed, but she knew it was a tree that took root in humans and harvested souls.

Agwi consumed other people’s souls through Divine Grace Authority and strengthened his own. He had artificially built up his Soul Power that way. There was likely no one among the Mage Tower Masters with as much Soul Power as Agwi.

But having a great deal of Soul Power did not automatically make one’s magic strong. It was the same as having more inner power not guaranteeing stronger martial arts.

Heavenly Thunder Orca.

She was a true archmage who had ruled the Dersia Mage Tower for decades. She had never received a miracle from some godlike being. The magic Orca had accumulated was what she had achieved over her entire life.

To Orca, Agwi’s magic was shallow and pathetic.

That contempt became lightning.

Agwi was approaching while enduring Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death. That was enough. The Lightning Imprint had already been carved deeply enough, so Orca’s lightning would never miss.

Rumble!

Agwi’s hand sliced through the air. With the precognition of Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death, Orca had already moved beyond the attack’s range. At the same time, dozens of lightning bolts rushed toward Agwi.

They looked like simple, ordinary bolts of lightning, but Agwi knew better.

He could not respond.

He did not even hear the usual crackling. The lightning reached him before he could perceive it, knocking his consciousness away.

That was how it appeared to Yuri and Haryeong as well. Orca’s lightning was far too fast. All they could see was Agwi suddenly wrapped in lightning and convulsing.

His thoughts kept breaking apart, but Agwi forcibly connected them again.

His Blade Storm had an overwhelmingly favorable matchup against physical attacks, but elemental magic like this, especially lightning, was a poor matchup for it.

That only applied if it was Blade Storm alone. Agwi was currently transformed. The stats created by this transformation magic were affected by Soul Power. That was why Agwi had chosen the Soul-Eating Tree, which increased Soul Power through Divine Grace Authority, and why he had added Gears on top of Divine Grace Authority.

The problem was that he could not use divine power right now. He had sworn an oath to the God of Chaos and gained greater power, yet he could not use that divine power because of the Rift Attunement.

‘If I can just get close somehow...’

As if mocking that thought, Orca raised her hand.

Crackle!

A huge spear of lightning appeared. With it in her hand, Orca looked like a lightning god.

The moment the spear entered his sight, it had already pierced through Agwi’s body.

“Guhk!”

The thoughts he had barely managed to connect snapped apart again.

Too fast!

Fragments of that thought drifted beyond his consciousness. Agwi struggled to pull the spear from his body, but the lightning drawn in by the spear repeatedly stabbed through him.

“Agwi.”

Orca smiled as she spoke.

Crackle.

The area around Orca had already turned completely gold. Though she stood in the middle of the Pseudo-Sacred Domain, where only unsettling darkness drifted, the lightning radiance released by Orca’s Soul Power was bright enough to hurt the eyes.

“You played around for too long.”

That was the only assessment she could make of this situation.

Agwi should not have played around. The moment he first considered the variables, he should have eliminated every one of them. He should have killed Yuri in one blow instead of playing with him, then killed Haryeong and Lacey too.

If he had, Orca could not have come here.

“But I don’t play around for long.”

Orca did not have much time. This transmission magic was still incomplete, and the vessel called Lacey was not ready to contain Orca’s soul.

If it went on too long, the vessel would break. If the vessel broke, what it held inside would spill out.

The backlash would not only strike Lacey. It would strike Orca as well.

She had no intention of paying that price. Orca looked up at the sky. The thickly pooled darkness brimmed with a sinister aura. An artificial Rift. There was much she wanted to interrogate Agwi about, but Orca had no time for that.

“No...!”

Agwi reached out to stop her, but he was too late. Against Orca, no matter what he thought, attempted, or did, it was all too late.

Boom!

A massive lightning bolt appeared without warning, tearing through the black sky and piercing the Rift.

“Gaaaah!”

The divine power pooled within the Rift scattered under the lightning. It could not return to Agwi and instead burned in the lightning.

Orca was not careless. She thoroughly burned away the divine power while continuously driving lightning into Agwi’s body.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each lightning strike drove Agwi’s body lower. Even the Blade Storm he had maintained in that state gradually faded.

Rumble...!

The vibrations from outside had drawn closer. As divine power scattered and great magic repeatedly struck Agwi, the center of the sacred domain shook. The enemies outside did not miss that tremor.

Within the flashing lightning, Agwi looked beyond the sacred domain. He first saw a woman with a crimson dragon at her back. Directly behind her stood the Iron Fortress, concentrating on magic, along with priests kneeling in prayer.

‘Cruel Mayhem...!’

So it was that brutish muscle woman?

His gaze was read.

Elleia outside the sacred domain met Agwi’s eyes. Her lips twisted into a smile.

Boom!

Her greatsword shook the sacred domain violently as she swung it.

The Pseudo-Sacred Domain began to collapse. Agwi could only grow more desperate.

The Rift!

He thought of it again and again. The lightning that had struck the Rift had not disappeared. It continued spreading through it.

‘Lightning Flame of Annihilation...!’

A unique spell that burned intangible things like mana, Soul Power, and divine power. Once Lightning Flame of Annihilation struck, it kept erupting with lightning and brought everything to annihilation, just as its name implied.

‘She can even use a unique spell of that level?’

Agwi could endure in his current state. But enduring did not offer him an answer. If it had only been him and Orca, he could have stayed alive and searched for an opening. Once the sacred domain collapsed, though, he would be exposed to the enemies outside.

The Sect of Earth’s archbishop was absent, but the Iron Fortress, the Habert Mage Tower Master, was outside. Cruel Mayhem was there as well.

If they intervened, it was over.

The sacred domain had already begun to collapse. Agwi hurriedly retrieved the divine power from the Rift. He could not allow all of it to burn away in Lightning Flame of Annihilation.

“Are you planning to stop?”

Orca asked with a smile.

Crackle, crackle!

Simply retrieving the divine power began restoring his resistance to lightning. But it was not enough yet. He had poured in a great deal of divine power, so recovering it would take a little longer.

And the Soul-Eating Tree.

He had no intention of giving up the hostages’ souls caught in their dreams. It did not matter that they had not reached enough happiness to harvest.

Creating the Rift had failed.

Killing Heavenly Thunder had failed too.

Then he had to kill the hostages, at least. Only then could it be called terrorism. Only then could he cause chaos. If he could not even kill the hostages, everything he had attempted would be a failure, and he could not avoid punishment.

Agwi’s thoughts were so obvious that Orca did not need to predict them carefully. In truth, Orca did not care how many hostages caught here died today. But since she had come all this way, it would be troublesome later if she did not even pretend to save them.

“I can’t allow that...”

Should she blow his head off with lightning?

That absurdly tough bastard might not die even if his head was destroyed. His body was under transformation magic, after all. High-ranking priests who wielded a power called miracles often accomplished things that even a mage’s flexible mind could not understand.

Still, destroying his head would be effective. At the very least, it would stop him from thinking.

Just as she was about to fire lightning, Orca saw Yuri move behind Agwi, who was curled up within the lightning.

‘What is he trying to do?’

His body was covered in blood. His injuries were serious enough that bone showed through, but he was somehow moving. Judging by his wounds, he seemed to have poured potions over himself to recover enough to get by. Even so, he was too severely injured to force himself to move.

There was no need for Yuri to move anymore.

The situation was already over. Unable to handle Orca, Agwi had chosen to collapse the sacred domain and the Rift. Before long, outside reinforcements would arrive.

Yet Yuri was moving.

Why?

‘That son of a bitch.’

Agwi.

That bastard had done too much fucked-up shit to him. Yuri had been forced to have a pathetic, unpleasant dream that left him unsettled.

He had nearly died. His entire body had been shredded while he desperately tried to figure out what to do about that damned Blade Storm. He had poured potions over himself and drunk them, but even now, every movement hurt so much it felt like he might die.

There was another fucking thing about it.

‘He benefited because of me.’

Yuri had no intention of claiming copyright over a strategy guide. Still, the thought that Agwi had become a Saint with the strategy Yuri posted, run wild, and caused this whole shitshow filled him with complicated anger and irritation.

If that were all, he could somehow let it go.

Yuri knew well enough that he did not need to move right now. Once Orca arrived, the right to decide how this situation ended had passed to her.

Agwi was the culprit behind the Raspion Family tragedy.

He was an enemy Bakerd had spent decades searching for after becoming the Fist Wolf.

Yuri had never heard Bakerd speak directly of revenge. Yet Yuri knew about the Raspion Family tragedy, and he knew Bakerd wanted revenge.

He already knew, and he did not want to pretend otherwise just because Bakerd had never said it aloud. It did not matter that Bakerd had not asked him to.

Yuri himself had already done more than enough, far beyond his own capabilities. Still, he did not want to sit in the back clutching his wounds, telling himself he had already done enough and did not need to do anything more.

He did not want to let Agwi go like this.

He wanted to drive his fist into that son of a bitch one more time.

[What are you trying to do?]

Unable to tell just by looking, Orca asked him directly.

[Please help me hit him just once.]

Yuri made his request just as openly.

Orca’s lips twitched at the answer.

[All right.]

There was no reason to refuse.

The lightning radiance around Orca grew fiercer. Lacey’s purple hair flew upward. Orca extended both hands and crossed them.

Crackle!

Lightning, raised to an output that nearly pushed the vessel to its limit, swallowed Agwi. The fading Blade Storm vanished completely, and lightning pierced through Agwi’s limbs.

“Gaaah!”

He had been about to retrieve the souls held by the Soul-Eating Tree. Agwi drew in even the increasingly violent divine power to shake off the lightning, but Yuri rushed in front of him at that moment.

‘This bastard...!’

Agwi’s face twisted.

The sacred flame gathered in Yuri’s fist slammed into Agwi’s chest.

Footnotes:

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