WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈
Chapter 71: Garthea - 2
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People often say that weight class is absolute in a fight.
Naturally, Vera did not agree.
Thud!
A deafening impact rang out as the Demon Sword collided with Garthea’s forepaw.
Without yielding an inch, Vera bore Garthea’s weight from where he stood and drew forth divinity.
Ash-gray divinity formed behind his back, sharpening into thin, elongated spears.
There were seven completed spears in total. Each began to spin, letting out a Kiiiiing.
Without changing the stance in which he held Garthea back, Vera fired the spears.
Divine Art [Holy Spear].
The seven spears flew toward the opening in Garthea’s face: its mouth.
Boom!
The Holy Spears burrowed neatly inside before exploding.
“Grrroooar!”
Blood burst forth like a fountain. Garthea spat out a lump of flesh that seemed to be its tongue, then suddenly began slamming its face against the ground with loud impacts.
An opportunity.
Thinking so, Vera readjusted his grip on the sword and rushed toward Garthea once more.
The difference in weight class mattered only in ordinary cases. It was a factor that only applied to regular people, whose limits of strength were clear and who could not wield mana or other supernatural abilities.
Of course, not everyone who could wield such abilities could overcome that difference.
But Vera could.
He coated the Demon Sword in divinity. He did not enlarge it. He merely compressed it, honing a sharper and more vicious blade to crush through Garthea’s tough hide.
The knights called it [Sword Aura].
The divinity that imitated it swept across Garthea’s right foreleg.
Screeech!
An unpleasant sound like iron scraping against iron rang out, and another fountain of blood erupted.
However, the effect was minimal.
Vera clicked his tongue and rushed forward again.
The cut was already regenerating. Unless he pressed the attack swiftly, he would never be able to settle this.
Just as he formed Sword Aura again.
“Won’t... forget...”
Garthea erupted with demonic energy.
Whoooosh.
The ground heaved as demonic energy surged upward. A crimson glow, the Demon King’s light, spread beneath the Sanctuary. Vera saw it and leaped into the air at once.
Booom!
The demonic energy spread across the ground exploded in an instant.
Vera briefly held his breath as his thoughts continued.
‘If I hadn’t jumped, I would have been hit.’
Everything below his ankles would have been blown apart.
A chill ran down his spine. When Vera raised his head again, Garthea’s left forepaw filled his vision. He pointed his sword forward and wove divinity once more.
Divine Art [Guardian’s Wing].
A huge white wing rippled into being and wrapped around Vera.
Baaang!
Garthea’s forepaw struck it.
Still suspended in midair, Vera was hurled far away through the trees, dispersing the impact.
After being pushed back for a long while, Vera drove the Demon Sword into the ground.
Scrrrape.
His body finally came to a stop.
The first thing he checked was the sword’s condition.
‘It’s fine.’
Was this what it meant to be a masterpiece? Though it remained unfinished, its durability had already reached another realm.
Creak.
Vera tightened his grip on the Demon Sword just as he was about to charge at Garthea again.
“Won’t forget...!”
The opening in Garthea’s face widened. Before the mouth, opened so wide its skull seemed distorted, red light began to gather.
Vera’s eyes widened. His body reacted first, shooting rapidly to the right.
The condensed red light fell where Vera had stood.
Space was erased.
There was no explosive sound. No, there was not even the faintest sound of impact.
The place where the light had fallen and expanded simply began to vanish, as though nothing had ever been there.
“Tch.”
Vera safely avoided the demonic energy and watched it, then clicked his tongue and charged at Garthea again.
‘I can’t give it distance.’
It was an attack he could not block once fired. But if he interfered with the gathering of energy from nearby, he could stop it.
Vera’s expression twisted.
‘...Troublesome.’
There were its mace-like forepaws when he drew close, the demonic energy it spread across the ground and detonated, and the demonic energy it fired when he moved away to avoid them.
Vera gritted his teeth and drew forth divinity again. He wove ash-gray divinity and marked it over the soles of his feet.
Divine Art [Sky Step].
Vera stepped on empty air and approached Garthea.
Garthea raised its forepaw.
With his first step, Vera flew high into the air. With his second, third, and fourth steps, he walked through the air and evaded Garthea’s forepaw.
The fifth step.
He drew close to Garthea’s face.
As demonic energy gathered before its mouth once more, he used his sixth step to twist his direction through the air.
[-----.]
After avoiding the sphere, Vera used his seventh step to shoot toward Garthea’s mouth again. He thrust the Demon Sword into its lower gum and drove divinity inside.
The art he had used most often since leaving the Holy Kingdom.
The knights’ ultimate technique [Explosive Thunder], imitated through divine arts.
The divinity forced in through the Demon Sword seeped into Garthea’s body before exploding.
Booom!
The explosion pushed Vera back. When he raised his head, he saw Garthea with its lower jaw gone.
Had he found a chance of victory?
As Vera focused on where its jaw had vanished, he saw Garthea regenerate bone and muscle all at once, rebuilding its jaw.
“Grrrk.”
Drops of blood fell from the tip of its long tongue.
Vera’s expression twisted again.
‘You tenacious bastard...’
It was obvious, but it was nothing like Gilly. Its regeneration, strength, and explosive demonic energy all far surpassed Gilly’s.
Vera let out a small breath as the attacks he had made while constantly spending divinity came to nothing. Soon, he steadied himself.
He had enough divinity. As long as he did not give up, this Sanctuary would replenish it endlessly.
Victory was nowhere in sight, but neither was defeat.
Then all he had to do was win.
Vera drew forth divinity again. He stimulated the vitality throughout his body. His muscles swelled. His blood flow accelerated. His thoughts, five senses, and the sixth sense beyond them sharpened.
Once more, Vera charged toward Garthea.
* * *
Todd screamed at the pain coursing through their entire body and flailed their arms.
Even then, those words continued to spill from his mouth.
“Won’t... forget...”
I will not forget. I will not forget the great unification, nor you all who were sacrificed for the great cause.
Repeating those words within, Todd thought.
They could not remember what it was they would not forget. Their thoughts were too thoroughly distorted for it to come to mind, yet they kept trying to recall it.
But once again, they could not remember.
“Grrroooar!”
They did not know what sound that was. They only knew that they were in pain, that elation swelled within them, and that they were dizzy.
There was so much strength overflowing from their body that it felt as though fire were rising inside them.
No matter how hard they tried to shake off that heat, it surged up again, making their frustration grow.
Booom!
An explosion rang out. Todd did not know what caused it.
They did not know why they could not see anything. They only sensed an irritating presence, and whenever they chased it, explosions kept erupting like this.
‘Ah...’
They were hungry.
They were so hungry that they could not bear it.
If they could bite down on that irritating thing and eat it, perhaps their hunger would ease. But why could they not catch it? Even that made the heat inside them surge more fiercely.
Nausea rose.
The heat inside them was too hot. Thinking they had to vomit it out, Todd expelled it without trying to hold it back.
The heat gathered. It was expelled. It flew.
The released heat flew toward Vera.
Vera accelerated toward Garthea as another condensed mass of demonic energy flew at him.
He twisted his body greatly, gathered divinity at the sword tip, and swung.
Garthea’s left hind leg was cleanly severed.
It was only possible because its hind legs were pitifully weak compared to its forelegs.
Watching Garthea fall to the side with a Thud!, Vera formed [Holy Spear] again.
He aimed for its mouth once more.
The flesh inside its mouth was notably softer than its hide elsewhere.
The Holy Spears flew, but Garthea clamped its mouth shut, apparently unwilling to take the attack this time.
Boom! Boom!
The Holy Spears rained down upon its face, but it suffered no damage.
Just as Vera was about to form Sword Aura again.
“Won’t... forget...”
Garthea’s body glowed crimson. It had covered itself in the very demonic energy it had spread across the ground and detonated moments ago.
Vera’s breath stopped.
He had already charged in. His sword was aimed at Garthea’s tightly shut mouth.
In that inescapable moment, an explosion erupted.
Booom!
* * *
White feathers scattered, then faded away.
The [Guardian’s Wing] Vera had activated at the last moment was disappearing.
“Cough...!”
Vera forced out a muffled cough and looked at the dark blood that came with it.
‘Internal injuries.’
He had somehow protected the outside, but the impact had shaken his insides.
His gaze turned to his surroundings.
The forest, once packed thick with trees, had become a devastated clearing.
Beneath the ash-gray Sanctuary, only Garthea and Vera remained intact.
Far away, Garthea rose to its feet. It was healing the wounds inflicted by the explosion it had caused itself.
Vera frowned at the sight and pushed himself up, using his sword as support.
His insides churned. Blood surged up whenever he breathed. Nausea rose, followed by a headache.
Even so, Vera thought.
‘Losing...’
Was not an option.
Had he not slipped away alone, come here without telling anyone, so that he could win?
Was this not why he had come? Because this was the only thing he could do to approach the light he so desperately longed for?
Vera raised the Demon Sword.
Boom!
An explosion erupted with every step Garthea took.
Vera stepped forward once more.
The Sanctuary remained intact.
If he did not lose his fighting spirit, if he did not betray the faith he wished to hold, it would remain intact forever.
He could keep fighting until the moment of victory.
The hand gripping the Demon Sword tightened, tendons standing out on its back. Vera placed his empty hand over the hilt as well.
He drew forth divinity. Ash-gray light rose.
Watching Garthea abruptly stop and lower itself into a charging stance, Vera spoke.
“I swear.”
Beneath the Sanctuary, he placed a covenant upon himself this time.
“I will not fall. I will not retreat. I will not be afraid.”
He swore that he would never break a covenant he had made again.
“By doing so, I will be able to drive my sword into my enemy’s heart exactly once.”
He would win. Since he had resolved that, he had to see it through.
Garthea charged. Vera’s sword tip pointed toward it.
Vera lowered his stance.
His feet rooted firmly into the ground.
Garthea opened its mouth wide.
At that moment, an Authority was engraved into Vera’s body.
Vera shot forward.
He swept past its gaping mouth, past its jaw, then beyond its Adam’s apple. When he drove his sword into Garthea’s fully exposed chest, brilliant golden radiance imbued the Demon Sword.
Squelch!
A soft sound rang out.
The Demon Sword had pierced the chest that he could not cut no matter how many times he struck, the chest that had regenerated again and again until it seemed impossible to reach.
Vera drove divinity into the Demon Sword.
“Cough...!”
At the violent movement once again, blood surged up and spilled from his mouth.
“Won’t...!”
Vera clenched his teeth and swallowed the blood pouring out. Then, with a broad grin, he detonated the divinity he had forced inside.
“Shut up.”
After giving those words to the dimwit who had repeated the same thing all this time.
Fwoooosh!
The divinity that had penetrated Garthea’s body exploded, dyeing the Sanctuary gold.
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