WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 56: Gilly - 3

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In his previous life, after the Demon King began its rampage, everyone on the continent came to know that red light.

It was an ominous light that made one's survival instinct scream merely by approaching it. A light that inevitably brought the end to mind.

Vera was certain.

It was the light borne by the Demon King and its followers. The light that appeared whenever monsters who had cast aside their humanity rose to their feet.

Yet there was something he could not understand.

'Why?'

Why was someone bearing that light appearing already?

There were still several years left until the Demon King's rise.

There should not have been anyone with that light yet...

'...No.'

It was not impossible.

If the Demon King had already been preparing, if it had already been lurking across the continent, it made perfect sense.

Vera tightened his grip on his sword and looked toward where the burst of light had subsided. Fortunately, it had not spread beyond Sanctuary. Its effects were confined within the Sanctuary.

What remained was Gilly standing tall, and the Noier crumbling into ash.

Vera narrowed his eyes and looked at the staggering Gilly, then at the dagger lodged in the center of Gilly's chest.

That was likely the cause of all this.

'Questions later.'

First, he had to defeat Gilly and inspect the dagger.

“Hup...!”

Vera drew a deep breath, withdrew the sword screen he had maintained until then, and rushed at Gilly.

Divine power erupted. The divine power wrapped around his body and sword let out a deep, weighty roar.

He drew the sword held in both hands toward himself, then thrust it out.

Booom!

It struck Gilly's right arm with an explosive sound. It was not the sound a sword made when it struck flesh.

Vera clicked his tongue and stepped back. When he looked at his sword, he saw the Demon King's light boring through the divine power around it and causing rust to form on the blade.

When he looked again, he saw the ground around Gilly withering into ash.

Vera knew someone who used such power. The question he had decided to set aside was one he could not endure this time.

'...Marsha.'

Marsha the Life Devourer. One of the legion commanders who led the Demon King's armies.

Gilly was probably not Marsha. Those who had seen Marsha in Vera's previous life said she was a mermaid who had come ashore.

His doubts deepened. A short breath escaped his lips, and his face twisted into a frown.

It was power that could not be dealt with through ordinary means.

Just as Vera began considering another method...

Thump!

Gilly stepped forward.

It was fast. Sharp, too. Vera's eyes widened, and his sword moved before him on instinct.

A fist shot toward him. The flat of his blade blocked it.

Another explosive sound followed.

Booom!

* * *

In Gilly's dazed state, a crooked smile formed at the omnipotence coursing through their entire body.

Gilly could not feel a heartbeat. There was no sensation in their body, either. Yet exhilaration rose within them.

This would be enough.

That Apostle, the brothers behind him, and Freide among them. Gilly could tear them all apart, seize the Saintess, and head for Aidrin.

They could see the end of this long, long wait.

Gilly swung a hand again. The red claws formed by drawing out the life coursing through their body steadily gnawed away at the Apostle's sword.

The Apostle dodged quickly, but it was futile in the end. Gilly would win.

They stepped down. Through that foot, Gilly felt the life of the land seep into their body.

Their brothers' cries rang in their ears. Gilly thought those resentful cries were hatred toward the mother who had abandoned them.

'Ah... loathsome Aidrin.'

Poor brothers. Gilly would sever every shackle and build a new land.

Thump!

Gilly shot toward Vera once more.

* * *

Rene completed the prayer she had been maintaining, the divine art she had been weaving, and spoke to Norn.

“How is it going?”

“Well...”

Alarm crossed Norn's face. His entire body was stiff with tension.

How could he explain this situation? That a red light had suddenly erupted, the Noier had all dried up into ash, and only Gilly and Vera remained alive to continue fighting? That Vera seemed to be losing?

How could he say that?

Norn's lips moved, but no words came out.

“Norn?”

“It is unfavorable.”

Freide was the one who answered.

With a devastated expression and a low voice, Freide spoke blankly.

“...Gilly has used some sort of trick. It seems they sacrificed their brothers to do something. None of the brothers are alive. Your guard and Gilly are fighting, and from what I can see, Gilly has the advantage.”

Freide delivered only the essentials.

As Freide spoke, they desperately wished Rene would order them to flee.

Freide wished Rene would tell them to turn their backs on Vera and run, to sacrifice that guard and plan for tomorrow.

However.

“We can win.”

No such words as the ones Freide had hoped for came from Rene.

Freide's expression crumpled even further.

Rene lifted the divine power she had been weaving above her palm.

'I can do this.'

She did not want to be helpless like she had been three years ago, when she had fled from her pursuers. That was why she had refined this divine art.

As someone blind, she could not lead the charge or protect others from their enemies. Even so, she had practiced this art while believing there had to be something she could do.

“Freide.”

“...Speak.”

“Please prepare a bow.”

Confusion settled over Freide's face.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I am going to help Vera.”

“You cannot.”

The reply was tinged with emotion. Even so, it had clear grounds.

Freide could feel the force imposed by the Sanctuary spread out in the distance. The golden regulations suspended in that ash-gray space were the sort that could never be broken.

“Even if you fire from here, it will not reach Gilly. The currents are too turbulent. And the moment you enter that space, you will have to fight whichever one of those two survives. You would only get in the way.”

That was not the only problem.

“...Besides, are you not blind, Saintess?”

What could a blind person do with a bow instead of a sword?

At Freide's words, Rene smiled faintly.

“It is all right. I won't be going.”

“What...?”

“Will you prepare it for me?”

Freide said nothing further. Instead, Grit! they ground their teeth and handed over the bow slung across their back.

It was a bow offered with the intent of saying, Then go on and try.

Rene accepted it and rose to her feet.

“Norn, tell me the direction.”

“...Turn about fifteen degrees to your right from the direction you are facing, Saintess.”

Rene turned. She held the bow out before her and set an arrow to the string.

The divine power she had been weaving entered the arrow.

“Phew...”

She let out a long breath.

Rene drew the arrow back and made her wish once more.

'An arrow that will surely strike.'

An arrow that would surely hit even when fired by someone blind who did not know how to use a bow. An arrow that would ride the currents in every direction, happen by chance to travel toward Gilly, and strike Gilly.

In the truest sense, Rene created a blind arrow.

It was not an arrow meant to harm an enemy. Rene knew that such a small arrow could not threaten the enemy driving Vera back.

She only hoped.

She hoped this arrow would create the slightest opening, and that Vera would use it to cut off Gilly's breath.

Chance upon chance, woven into inevitability. A miracle born from that.

With the most exalted Authority, she wished for it.

She did not worry in the slightest that the arrow might strike Vera.

The prayer she had already placed within Vera would protect him from this arrow.

Rene held her breath, drew the string with all her strength...

Then released it.

* * *

Vera countered Gilly's attacks while blocking the endless assault and moving his feet without rest.

He did not consider the depletion of his divine power or his stamina.

As long as an enemy remained, he could stand.

As long as there was something behind him to protect, he could not stop.

Boom!

Another explosive sound rang out.

A strike laden with divine power tore through the center of Gilly's chest, but the wound healed in an instant, leaving no trace.

Vera charged.

He sharpened his divine power once more. It was a technique imitating the knights, an Energy Burst that drove aura into an opponent's body and detonated it.

He did not care that Gilly's hand came before their chest to block his path, nor that Gilly burst forth with light and absorbed the life around them.

There was only one thing.

Vera swung his sword with the sole thought of driving divine power into that wound before it healed.

The divine power shot toward Gilly. Sharpened more keenly and solidly, it pierced Gilly's arm shielding their chest and seeped into the wound.

Splurt!

Yet all it did was burst a few drops of blood.

Thoom!

Vera charged again and swung his sword. Gilly caught it with a hand covered in red light.

Clang!

The sword broke.

Vera quickly released the sword, clenched his fist, and drove it toward Gilly's face.

Boom!

This, too, created a sound impossible for flesh striking flesh.

It was not an effective blow.

Vera swiftly retreated and readjusted his stance.

It felt as if the skin on his hand were burning away. When he turned his gaze to inspect the injury, he saw the skin over the fist that had struck Gilly peeling away.

“Haa...”

A long breath escaped Vera's lips. It hurt. Worse, he could see no chance of victory.

Still, he could not stop.

It was right to say that he could not stop because this was a fight to uphold the most basic duty.

It was only natural for it to hurt, because he had never done anything like this even once before.

He was fighting for an Intent that was still unfamiliar and clumsy. It could not help but hurt.

He had no sword. Gilly had not fallen.

Even so, he could not stop.

Vera steadied his stance and assumed the strongest combat-arts stance he knew.

It was an imitation.

Myriad Transformations.

The art he sought to attain.

Among the countless battles he had reviewed over the past three years for that goal, there had certainly been a duel against a master of combat arts.

Balak, king of the eastern orcs.

Vera imitated Balak's combat arts.

Some said it was an art that could only be imitated by one who knew how to wield battle aura.

Vera disagreed.

Vera did not refine battle aura. He merely sharpened divine power.

The divine power throughout his body sharpened itself and coursed through him.

The muscles in the places touched by divine power awakened and swelled.

Thump!

Vera charged once more. Gilly covered their body in red light, clenched a fist, and answered Vera's attack in kind.

Gilly could feel irritation and anger slowly rising.

Their throat burned with thirst.

They only had to get past this bastard of an Apostle. Their long-held wish was right before them if they could just get past this Apostle.

Yet the Apostle would not fall.

No matter how often Gilly crushed him, broke his sword, or stripped the skin from his fists, he came at them again.

That cockroach-like Apostle was still standing stubbornly in Gilly's way.

“Enough!”

Gilly unleashed the life force stored in the dagger in their heart.

They gathered life into a single point.

They formed the resentment condensed to destroy one target alone into a sphere.

Vera gathered all the divine power in his body into his right fist.

To recreate Balak's signature ultimate technique, the blow that had once truly made him think of death, he abandoned all defense.

They both rushed toward one another.

Vera's fist shot forward, and the resentment resting above Gilly's hand flew out.

Gilly was certain. A smile stretched across their lips.

'I have won...!'

No matter what the Apostle tried, Gilly only had to regenerate. In contrast, the Apostle could never block this attack.

Victory, finally obtained.

As Gilly felt that sweetness, that exhilaration, climb their spine...

Whoosh!

Their face went blank at the arrow flying toward them.

The arrow raced in the direction of the sphere Gilly had fired.

The sphere overlapped with the arrow.

Sssss...

The arrow crumbled into ash. The sphere disappeared as well.

Alarm rose. Emptiness followed.

Then, the Apostle who had already closed the distance arrived before Gilly.

Vera planted his feet shoulder-width apart.

He drove all his divine power into his drawn-back fist.

Then he threw a straight punch and poured divine power forward.

Crushing Fist.

The ultimate technique that had made Balak the king of the orcs, the race of struggle.

Boom!

Gilly's entire body burst apart upon meeting Vera's fist.

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