I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse - Chapter 25

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 25: I Said I’d Return It Soon

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025.

-Hmm, the ring's seal has been broken. Did someone invade the Dungeon?

He looked like Pelerian had been shrunk into a chibi character.

He was only as big as a person's palm, with a huge head and large eyes. He should have looked adorably cute, but he didn't.

That was because Pelerian looked just as ugly as he had in the hologram.

He was also terribly old. Calling him bald felt a little off, but the M-shaped hairline on his forehead was unmistakable. His face was packed with nastiness too.

Shouldn't something like that be called a gremlin rather than an elf?

His eyes alone were strangely clear, which somehow made him look like a lunatic with clear eyes.

-That crazy Iris, she killed my Pafnacha, my adorable child...

Pelerian huffed angrily.

More importantly, adorable child? That Chimera?

His sense of beauty had gone completely around the bend.

Well, it wasn't that strange.

Everyone had different tastes.

Pelerian kept muttering to himself, as if he didn't care about my existence at all.

-Why is some snake brat wearing my ring? Tsk, tsk.

'That's pretty harsh. Racist old man.'

I hadn't said that to Pelerian.

I had only muttered it in my head. Ever since becoming a snake, I had no way to speak human language.

Yet Pelerian's expression changed with startling speed.

His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped.

-Aah! The snake spoke!

I cried out internally too.

'Can you hear me?'

-W-was I imagining it? Yeah, I must've imagined it.

What? Now he couldn't hear me again.

What had been different from before?

I put more force into my inner monologue, as though I were actually speaking.

'I'm asking if you can hear me!'

-Ugh! The snake really is talking!

Pelerian was shocked again.

For a mad mage who conducted Chimera experiments, he seemed more timid than I expected.

-What are you? Are you really a snake? No matter how I look at you, you're just a tiny creature.

'How can you call a person a tiny creature?'

-A person? You're a person?

'No, I'm not a person. I am a snake, but...'

-A snake that thinks they're a person... This is driving me mad. Has the world changed?

Pelerian looked just as bewildered.

-Why are you wearing my ring?

'Well, it just happened. I found it and picked it up.'

Talking to an illusion felt strange.

Pelerian probably felt the same way.

-This is absurd. A mere monster is wearing my signet ring... and talking like a human.

'Who are you, anyway? Are you really Pelerian?'

-Who else would I be if not Pelerian? Though I am only a fragment of his soul, I am the mage known as Heaven-Defier.

The moment I asked who he was, he suddenly became long-winded and solemn.

What did he mean, a fragment of a soul?

'Then can you use magic and stuff?'

-Hmm... What a low-level question.

'Why is asking a mage whether he can use magic a low-level question?'

-Oh, over there!

Pelerian suddenly pointed in one direction.

It was an obvious attempt to distract me, but I decided to play along.

I looked that way.

Every scale on my body trembled.

A chill ran through me.

It was a shock incomparable even to when I had seen the Guard Captain again.

Why was that man here?

The monster who had cut off my mother's head in one stroke.

Hero Gunter was walking toward us with his knights.

* * *

Iris could not believe what she had just seen.

She had naturally assumed she could cut down the snake in a single stroke.

But there had been a powerful recoil from her sword.

Iris had failed to cut through nothing more than a lump of flesh.

Fine. That much could happen.

There were plenty of monsters with tough hides.

But what came next?

She had clearly coated her short sword in Aura.

Then she had used her skill, Hundred Flash.

Like the Thornbone Parrot, the snake should have been sliced into dozens of pieces.

Instead, the snake raised their tail to block.

More precisely, they blocked with the ring worn around their tail.

Her Aura could cut through even steel armor.

Shockwave erupted, launching the snake high into the air.

When she looked at her broadsword, its blade was chipped.

All because of a single ring.

Why would a snake be wearing a ring in the first place?

More than anything, the pattern on that ring was...

"...Pelerian."

She could not be certain at a glance that Pelerian's symbol was engraved on the ring.

But there was a Chimera created by Pelerian here.

'Could that snake be a monster Pelerian made as well?'

If so, the snake had to be an even greater masterpiece than the Chimera.

She needed to pursue the snake that had been flung away.

First, she had to retrieve the Chimera's corpse with Spatial Storage Magic.

As Iris bent down, she abruptly straightened.

Then she turned around.

"..."

They were not even trying to hide their presence.

The clattering of heavy plate armor was deafening.

This was an open clearing beneath the sky.

Then a group emerged from the western brush.

They were knights wearing heavy armor.

None of them carried an ordinary presence.

Every shoulder plate bore the carving of a roaring lion.

Anyone with knowledge would have recognized them as the Iron Lion Knights.

Iris was knowledgeable enough to recognize the short-haired man leading the Iron Lion Knights as one of the Eight Heroes.

They approached with a clatter, then lined up in formation.

All the knights stopped moving, leaving Gunter as the only one to advance.

He approached Iris alone.

After stopping before her, he spoke.

"Gunter Frihansen, commander of the Iron Lion Knights."

"...Iris Selena, Golden Leaf Investigator."

Iris answered as well.

She did not sheath her sword.

Gunter did not seem to care.

"So you are the elves' envoy. I've heard of the Selena family. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"This is hardly a pleasant situation, considering I'm surrounded by knights."

"You are not surrounded. Since this is the Great Forest, we have simply maintained military discipline."

"So what do you want with me?"

Iris's clear eyes fixed on Gunter.

Gunter glanced at the Chimera's corpse.

"Did you kill it?"

"...No. It was already dead."

"Then that is fortunate. You did not hunt it."

"What do you mean?"

"We need to retrieve the Chimera's corpse. I ask that you yield it to us."

Iris frowned.

"An absurd demand. Do you know whose creation this Chimera is?"

"Heaven-Defier. It must be a remnant of that mage."

"...So you do know. Then you should also know that it is the elves' duty to deal with it."

Iris raised her sword.

At once, the Iron Lion Knights behind Gunter drew their weapons.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The thunderous chorus of metal rang out.

Gunter raised a hand to stop them.

The disciplined knights sheathed their weapons again.

Iris had not raised her sword to fight.

Using the wrist of the hand gripping her sword, she brushed up her bangs.

A long scar stretching from one eye to her forehead was revealed.

"It was a wound Pelerian gave me."

"..."

"I am the direct proxy for vengeance, a formal investigator appointed by the Council of Elders. If you are a person of the kingdom, respect Elvenwood's will."

Naturally, the kingdom was on friendly terms with the elves.

Iris used that fact to pressure Gunter.

After that explanation, he would surely back down. Iris thought so.

"I'm sorry, but we need that Chimera corpse."

Things did not go so easily.

A Chimera corpse made by Pelerian.

What could something like that possibly mean to humans?

"Can you handle the consequences?"

It was her final warning.

Gunter smiled at the question.

"I have always handled them."

He raised his halberd.

At this point, there was no choice but to fight.

Gunter gestured to the Iron Lion Knights not to interfere.

Iris glared at Gunter.

The eye crossed by her scar was clouded gray.

That eye gleamed strangely.

In this incomprehensible situation, she tried to see through Gunter.

Why would a man praised as a righteous knight rob an elf?

"...You."

She reached a conclusion.

"You're evil."

Contrary to the public's evaluation, Gunter was a monster with a cold heart.

"Oh? Do you possess some sort of insight skill?"

"..."

"The Eye of Judgment? Scales? It does not matter."

Even at the beautiful elf's assessment, the Iron Lion Knights' expressions did not change in the slightest.

"An evaluation from someone about to die means nothing."

The halberd tore through the wind.

Iris swung her sword to meet it.

* * *

-What are those human knights? They're putting on quite the show.

As I trembled at Gunter's imposing presence, Pelerian made that assessment.

-I especially hate the knightly sort. They work hard at acting cool, but most of them have no substance at all.

'...'

-When the time comes for them to die, they stop posturing and beg, 'Please spare me, Master Mage.' I've seen dozens like that already.

They said people got more talkative with age. Was he like this because he was several hundred years old?

Pelerian kept rambling on about things I had not even asked.

Seriously.

My mother's enemy had just appeared.

I was trying to feel some solemn determination, but he was ruining the mood.

I hid behind a rock and watched the confrontation between Gunter and the elf.

It was not because I could afford to relax. My condition was awful.

Blood was still streaming from my neck, and my mana had run dry.

I needed to recover quickly.

I took out the potion I had stored inside the ring's spatial storage.

Using my teeth, I pulled out the cork and drank carefully.

I could probably divide this into three drinks.

-Oh my. You can use spatial storage too? What an incredible mutant... And you drink potions as well.

Pelerian's eyes held interest as he watched me.

It felt unpleasant. His gaze had changed from the way one looked at an earthworm to the way one looked at a valuable test subject.

Wait.

In web novels, wasn't this about the time the protagonist got a spirit or some pet like that?

'Then is Pelerian my pet?'

-What did you say? Pet? Me, yours?

Pelerian became angry in disbelief.

Had I muttered too loudly? It was a little difficult to distinguish between thinking and speaking in my head.

Ah, I felt much better after drinking the potion.

Its effects were excellent.

My wounds slowly closed, and my empty mana began to refill.

Good.

I had survived once again.

Turning around and running away right now would make me an amateur.

Watching Gunter and the elf meet would make me a master.

-Oh, why are those two acting like that?

Pelerian was already watching over the rock.

I poked my head out too.

Then I froze.

The two were facing each other with weapons drawn.

Why were they suddenly trying to fight?

The elf had her sword raised, and Gunter had drawn his halberd.

That halberd.

I had watched it cut through Medusa Mom's neck right before my eyes.

It had been too easy.

The halberd split through Medusa Mom's flesh and spine as though it were slicing tofu.

And it was only a weapon a human could hold and swing.

-This will not do...

The psychopath mage Pelerian did not seem to like the situation.

Was it because she was a fellow elf after all?

Personally, I hoped both sides would destroy each other.

If I got lucky, maybe I could land the final blow again... Ahem.

I could not pass up an accomplishment like Hero Murder.

But mutual destruction seemed far off.

The elf was clearly at a disadvantage.

-How dare a human...

Huh? Wasn't that knight over there?

Zain, the knight I had saved, was among them.

Zain looked pale. After getting beaten so badly, had Zain already returned here?

Suddenly, I became curious.

What would Gunter's status window look like?

He was a little far away, but it might be worth trying.

I focused my mind and strained my eyes.

Then...

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【Hero Gunter Lv. ???】

...

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Ugh, I could barely see it.

Barely.

It seemed my ability to see through things had improved after evolving, but it was still difficult to make out.

Even his level was a question mark.

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【Traits】

[Hero], [Knight], [Ironblood], [???]...

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I could only see some of his traits too.

-Little creature, what are you doing?

Ignore Pelerian and focus.

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【Skills】

[Valarian Halberd Technique Lv. 50], [Commanding the Vanguard Lv. 10], [???]... [Heavenly Thunder Decree Lv. 10]... [???], [Moon-Cleaving Slash Lv. 10]...

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Grrr.

Huh!

The moment my concentration broke, the status window scattered away.

But my heart was already pounding.

What was that?

Weren't skills things like Slash and Hold Breath?

What were things like Heavenly Thunder Decree and Moon-Cleaving Slash?

What if...

I used Surpassing Horn?

And combined it with Billy's Horn?

Could I temporarily "borrow" one of Hero Gunter's higher-tier skills?