WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈
Chapter 55: Gilly - 2
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The leader of the Noier had entered the Great Forest.
The moment he heard this, Vera had tried to send Rene to Aidrin's roots.
It was only natural. Setting aside the scale of her Authority and divine power, Rene was a girl whose combat ability approached zero. Wouldn't it be dangerous to bring her along?
However...
“I can at least help.”
At Rene's words, Vera had no choice but to relent.
More accurately, Rene's resolve was so firm that he could not imagine her listening to him.
Vera assessed their forces.
Mari could not be deployed. They had to allocate forces to Aidrin in case of an emergency. Once the battle began, Norn and Hella would need to remain at Rene's side.
In the end, only some fifty elves and Vera himself could fight.
“How many Noier are there?”
“...More than a hundred, I would say. Around two hundred brothers followed Gilly, and we have cut down about a hundred of them so far.”
Fifty against a hundred.
They were outnumbered two to one, but Vera considered it fortunate.
“Once the battle begins, pull all the elves back.”
“I do not understand.”
“They'll get in the way.”
Vera spoke as he looked at Freide.
“I'll fight alone.”
Freide's expression stiffened at Vera's words.
* * *
Sanctuary was not an Authority that always worked to one's advantage.
How could it be? If the restrictions imposed to create a battlefield favorable to oneself also hindered one's allies, what greater disaster could there be?
Its restrictions were so severe that it became a poison in group battles.
That was Sanctuary.
Therefore, Vera thought this.
If he had to create a battlefield that might disadvantage his allies, it would be better to withdraw them all beyond Sanctuary and have them provide support from the rear.
A force of one hundred might be twice their number, but that difference meant nothing to him. It was better for him to fight alone and have the remaining fifty protect Rene.
As Vera ran while carrying Rene, he stopped at the sight of figures in the distance.
Vera narrowed his eyes.
The group approaching them were unmistakably Noier. The vagabond with long gray hair in the center was likely Gilly.
“Saintess, I'll be back.”
“...Vera.”
“There is nothing for you to worry about. This Vera will not fall to a force like that.”
Clench!
Rene's hand gripped Vera's collar.
Then pure white divine power rose.
Rene said nothing more and imbued Vera with a small measure of her Authority.
What she wished for was luck. She gave him the slightest blessing, so Vera would not be wounded by a stray arrow.
Feeling the strange sensation seep into his body, Vera looked at Rene.
“...Thank you.”
“You must be careful.”
“Yes.”
Vera looked once at Freide, checked the elves following behind them, then drew his sword.
“Look after the Saintess well.”
Those words were for Freide.
The moment he spoke, Vera launched himself toward the enemy without looking back.
* * *
As Gilly made their way toward Aidrin, they frowned at the lone figure blocking their path.
A figure wrapped from head to toe in a dark robe.
Gilly immediately knew who it was.
'An Apostle.'
It could not be Abundance. His build was different from the start.
Considering the information gathered by their brothers, this was likely the Apostle of the Covenant who had recently entered the Great Forest.
Gilly's gaze moved behind Vera. They saw their beloved brothers and a girl in white.
“...How fortunate.”
A crooked smile spread across their lips. What luck. If they had the Saintess as well, their homeland could return to that beautiful time.
That lush and abundant land would return.
Gilly trembled with rising joy before looking forward again.
Gilly's hand went inside their clothes. Their fingers touched a dagger. It was a dagger Gilly had prepared for this day, honing it for nearly thirty years.
Click.
Gilly drew the dagger.
“Brothers!”
With a resounding shout, Gilly stepped forward once more to fulfill the wish they had waited so long for.
* * *
The enemies were approaching. As Freide had said, there were around a hundred of them.
It was a battlefield overwhelmingly unfavorable to him, but Vera did not shrink back in the slightest.
Vera had always fought alone.
And he had always won those fights.
That was not all.
Vera focused on the presence he felt behind him.
'Something I must protect.'
It was behind him.
The exhilaration that had always swept through his entire body whenever he fought was absent this time.
This was not a battle for himself. It was a battle to protect what stood behind him, to uphold the most natural duty. It was a battle for the light he had always pursued.
Vera did not consider retreating or negotiating.
He merely gripped his sword tightly and tensed every muscle in his body.
The enemies drew near.
The enemies who had been two hundred paces away came closer.
They pushed through the withered vegetation, scattering fallen leaves with every running step.
One hundred paces became fifty, then thirty.
Watching the enemies approach, Vera opened his mouth.
“I declare.”
His voice reverberated through the entire space. Ash-gray divine power enveloped the area.
At the same time, the Noier reached Vera.
Slash!
Vera cut down the three Noier rushing at him first and continued his proclamation.
“From this moment onward, none who enter this Sanctuary may leave it.”
Hummm.
A restriction imposed in the name of a god. Even elves who had lived for countless years could not escape it.
Deflecting arrows flying from afar and cutting down two more Noier who rushed at him, Vera continued.
“Furthermore, every person within Sanctuary must continue fighting until only one living person remains.”
Vera continued swinging his sword as he spoke.
“Accordingly, all who continue fighting within Sanctuary shall gain tireless vitality. They shall also receive aid in their swordsmanship.”
The space resonated once more. Vera savored the feeling of his body and swordsmanship becoming sharper than before, then cut down another Noier.
“If these Rules are broken, the offender shall pay the price with the end of their life.”
The sensation of cutting flesh and severing bone made the battle all the more vivid.
His senses were honed sharper than ever by the killing intent constantly aimed at him.
“All these Rules shall be enforced in the name of Lushan.”
Slice!
A Noier's neck was severed.
The Rules were complete.
Golden Rules appeared within the ash-gray space.
At the same time, Vera abandoned the defensive stance he had maintained until then and charged straight toward Gilly.
Boom!
His steps carried a weight unlike before.
* * *
Freide could not understand any part of what was happening.
'Why...?'
Why had the Saintess come this far? Why had that guard gone forward alone?
Why had he made such an irrational decision?
Freide's gaze turned toward Vera as he cut through the Noier.
He had always judged rationally. He had considered countless factors as he looked upon Freide with suspicion.
Then why was such a person making this absurd decision and fighting a battle from which he had nothing to gain? Freide could not understand it at all.
It felt as though the thirst rising within them was burning their throat.
It felt as though the unanswered questions were turning their insides over.
With a terribly twisted expression, Freide looked at Rene, who stood with her hands together in prayer.
Pure white divine power faintly surrounded Rene's body. Freide was not foolish enough to fail to realize that Rene was preparing something.
Freide passed a trembling hand over their face.
Then...
'...Am I trembling?'
Only then did Freide realize they were shaking. Their expression twisted even further as they stared blankly ahead.
'Why?'
Freide did not know why they were trembling.
Yes, Freide did not know.
Not the situation unfolding before them.
Not this Saintess, nor that guard.
...Not even Freide.
The elf who had gathered countless experiences over thousands of years felt as though the emotion sweeping through their entire body had turned them into an idiot who knew nothing of the world.
* * *
Screeech!
It was the sound of Vera's sword colliding with Gilly's dagger.
After blocking Vera's sword, Gilly ground their teeth hard enough for them to Creak.
'What...?'
What kind of absurd strength was this? Feeling their knees slowly buckle, Gilly quickly invoked a spell.
Mana flowed.
The moment thorns rose from beneath the fallen leaves at Vera's feet...
Whoosh!
Vera leaped into the air. Even as he did so, his sword swept past another brother's neck.
Gilly quickly retreated. Their eyes swept over the battlefield.
Less than half of the nearly one hundred brothers remained.
They wished that man would simply grow tired and collapse, but the damn ash-gray space continued to grant vitality to both that Apostle and the Noier.
Gilly instantly understood Vera's intention.
Confidence that he could cut them all down as long as his stamina remained infinite. That was why he had activated this barrier.
Clench!
Gilly tightened their grip on the dagger. They did not think of humiliation.
Did they not know what an Apostle was?
They were people wrapped in a god's power, a power that rendered meaningless the innate limits of age and the superiority of one's race.
'Normally...'
It was natural that Gilly could not win.
Gilly examined the characters engraved on the dagger.
They flickered with a faint red light.
Gilly's brow furrowed.
'...Too soon.'
It was still too soon.
It was a dagger meant to sever Aidrin, the shackle Gilly had once considered their mother.
It was a dagger Gilly had to preserve until they reached that place.
However...
“Argh!”
“Ahhh!”
There was no time to hesitate.
Gilly's brothers were dying.
The brothers who had endured hardship together for their long-held wish were being torn apart by that Apostle.
With bloodshot eyes gleaming, Gilly gripped the dagger in a reverse hold.
'This cannot...!'
Their long-held wish could not end in a place like this.
Gilly did not want to, but they had to use it here. If they tore that Apostle apart and killed him, the Saintess would be waiting behind him.
If Gilly seized the Saintess, they could fulfill their long-held wish even without the dagger.
Watching Vera rush toward them once more, Gilly twisted their face into a grim expression and drove the dagger into their own heart.
Thrust!
[-----!]
A ringing filled their ears. Their vision stretched endlessly.
The Apostle approaching them lengthened out. He was clearly coming closer, yet his body seemed to stretch backward, making it look as though he was retreating.
Thump.
Gilly's heart gave its final beat. The dagger stabbed through the center of their heart devoured their life.
At the moment Gilly's remaining life seeped into the dagger, Gilly felt the souls of the brothers buried in this land.
Within that endlessly stretched instant, as vast as eternity, Gilly spoke.
'Brothers...'
The time had come to fulfill their long-held wish.
* * *
An ominous red light burst forth.
As Vera charged toward Gilly, he sensed the anomaly and raised a screen of sword strikes.
Booom!
The explosive sound of the sword screen and light colliding.
“Kh!”
A groan slipped from him under the impact, but Vera had no time to care about that.
All his attention was focused on the phenomenon before him.
The red light surrounding all sides. That was what had seized his focus. His eyes widened, and his breath caught.
He was not afraid.
He was not startled by his opponent's unexpected move, either.
'This is...'
A red aura.
It was the aura itself that startled him.
Vera knew this red aura.
No, it would be more correct to say that not knowing it would be strange. He was likely the only person on the present continent who knew what this light meant.
Vera's pupils trembled.
The light of the war that had plunged the entire continent into despair in his previous life.
The light of doom that had ultimately destroyed half the nations on the continent.
'...The Demon King.'
This ominous light was the Demon King's light.
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