The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 790

Episode 790: I’ll Take It Hotly (2)

Naktura, struck several times in an instant, had only one thought in his mind:
‘Hey, I need to keep my distance.’
He knew absolutely nothing about physical techniques. He had dedicated his life to studying magic.
Therefore, even as an 8th Circle mage, he was fatally vulnerable in close combat. Even if those clung to him were superhumans, it wasn’t easy to shake them off with magic.
This situation was a true nightmare for Naktura.
“Ugh…! My legions…!”
He hastily summoned the undead, but even that was meaningless.
Naktura looked around and couldn’t contain her shock.
‘How can they use the spirits so obscenely!’
The spirits summoned by Erenes were all hanging by the ankles of the undead. Even the flying wraiths were being embraced and even headbutted by the spirits.
The earth elemental continued to shake the ground, preventing the undead from moving easily.
It was a ‘practical survival spirit magic’ that threw away all prestige.
Osval took advantage of the gap created by the spirits to smash the undead with his hammer.
“Ahhh! Don’t come! I’m scared!”
Boom! Quah! Quah!
The undead captured by the spirits fell, their bones shattering with each blow from Osval’s hammer.
And Naktura’s bones, continuously struck by the superhumans, were gradually cracking and breaking.
Quah! Quah! Quah!
Crunch! Crunch!
The incessant sound of bones breaking kept Naktura from coming to his senses.
“What, what are these guys doing? What have they been up to? Do they just specialize in beating people?”
Individually, they were clearly weaker than him. Yet, he was the one being beaten.
In all his years of existence, he had never seen such systematic and effective beatings.
No other knight order could possibly have worked so well together. It was a truly admirable joint attack.
Naktura felt as if the world had changed so much while she was trapped here.
‘If this continues, my bones will truly be reduced to dust!’
This wasn’t a metaphor.
Bone dust was literally flying around her, little by little. The endless beatings left her feeling uneasy.
‘What should I do? How can I escape this maddening violence?’
She attempted several counterattacks, but each spell she cast resulted in a powerful magical interference.
Enduring the blows and casting powerful spells proved difficult, as she was being beaten so relentlessly.
Though weaker than herself, her opponents were all superhumans, dodging any spells they could cast quickly or using her body to defend herself.
‘Oh, no. If this ends, my freedom will be… …’
With the superhumans now allowed to engage in close combat, she, as a mage, had few options.
She was holding on because she was a lich. Any other mage would have been killed long ago.
If she continued in this state, her mission would fail. Far from freedom, only endless bondage awaited her.
‘I’d rather… … .’
In an instant, hatred and madness filled Naktura’s eyes.
He was a lich. He had one last resort that other wizards did not have.
“You insignificant mortals! Do you know who I am?”
KAAAAAH!
An incredible amount of magical power poured out from his body.
A light flashed like the sun near his heart. A huge storm of magical power began to swirl through his body.
Naktura tried to detonate its own existence, burning the entire area around it.
If it was going to disappear anyway, it would be better to self-destruct and kill everyone here.
That alone would be a success and freedom would be regained.
“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!”
With a wild shout, the magical power he unleashed exceeded its limit.
At the same time, Giselle also unleashed all her magical power and shouted loudly.
“Get back!”
KAAAAAHHHH!
A powerful shockwave erupted from Naktura as if it were exploding.
The group quickly pulled away, but the force was so powerful that they couldn’t completely dodge. Everyone was swept away by the shock and flung far away.
A huge crater had been dug where Naktura had been. If the attack had hit directly, even a superhuman would have been torn to pieces.
In reality, the group was deeply shocked. Their bones were broken, their insides were convulsed
, and they
were vomiting blood .
Even that wasn’t a direct hit from the explosion, but rather a result of being grazed by the aftershock.
Ss
…
Giselle also summoned all her magical power to shield the Death Knights and their party.
Nevertheless, the Death Knights were all shattered, and the party was injured by the residual shockwave alone.
Amidst the scattering debris, the Death Knight leader, Gascott, muttered,
“Ugh… This damned thing… Doing this again…”
He’d been blown away like this before.
Come to think of it, he’d only fought once. The Death Knight, the terror of the battlefield, had always acted as a shield like this.
“Hey… This…”
Gascott tried to argue, but before he could, his body vanished. It would take a long time for it to regenerate.
In any case, thanks to the Death Knights, they’d managed to stop the explosion.
Lionel clutched his aching chest and said,
“Ugh… It’s over? Is it really over?”
Giselle lay on the ground, breathing heavily.
“Yeah, it’s nothing, right?”
“…I, I wonder?”
Despite being a formidable foe, they’d defeated him surprisingly easily. The aftermath of the final homage was too terrifying to dismiss as trivial.
Had they failed to prevent the explosion, they would have vanished without a trace.
It was clear that Naktura had been annihilated on the spot. The surrounding undead were all crumbling to dust.
“Gisselle! Are you alright?”
Erenes rushed to the fallen Giselle.
Giselle, who had been at the front, had expended all her magic to block the attack, and was the most seriously injured.
Erenes, who had been at the back and suffered less damage, immediately summoned a spirit and enveloped Giselle.
While not as effective as divine power, spirits also had healing effects.
Only then was Giselle able to catch her breath.
Kyle groaned at the sight.
“Please hurry up and do it for us… We’re dying…”
The only ones who had been as close as Giselle were Yulien and Kyle. They had been hit hard by the explosion.
“Just wait a moment!”
Erenes said urgently, pouring all his spirit energy into Giselle.
Kyle muttered, clutching his broken ribs.
“This is… It’s a shame… without Deneb… it’s always like this.”
Deneb, who was in charge of healing, was currently absent.
Consequently, the party had to rely solely on Giselle’s magic and Erenes’s spirits to recover.
Their high level of skill meant the recovery was quite effective, but it was no match for divine power.
Erenes busily moved about, infusing the fallen party with the spirits’ energy.
It wasn’t enough to instantly restore them, but they would gradually improve over time. Even though
the battle was over, no one was able to get up easily.
It wasn’t simply because of their injuries. They were exhausted from the long, arduous journey.
As they lay there, recovering, Arterion’s voice echoed from beyond the blizzard.
“… Excellent. I think you’re the first to endure this much here.”
His voice sounded truly satisfied.
Soon, waves of magical energy surged, and the fiercely raging blizzard began to part. And then, warm sunlight seeped through the gap.
“Ah…”
A warmth that thawed frozen bodies.
Relief escaped everyone’s lips.
Giselle stood up, leaning on the pole. He looked back and smiled.
“Let’s go. I guess the test is over.”
The group mustered their last bit of strength to stand up. They slowly walked along the cracked snowy road.
There were no more monster attacks. It was almost as if they were wondering where all those countless beings had disappeared to.
After a while, they finally reached their destination.
“Wow…”
Without a word, everyone exclaimed in awe.
The sight before them was overwhelming, leaving them speechless.
A massive crystal tower rose from the endless snowfield and frozen earth.
The tower’s surface, so massive it resembled a mountain, was covered in clear, blue mana crystals.
Within the crystals, ancient runes and dragon symbols floated, glowing.
The surroundings of the tower were eerily quiet. The blizzard had ceased, and even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Yet, within that silence, an overwhelming sense of oppression permeated the air.
The reason no living creature dared approach this area was clear:
this was the Dragon Lord’s Lair.
Even Giselle, who rarely flinched, exclaimed in awe at the sight of the Crystal Tower.
“Wow! It wasn’t a cave. How did they build this here?”
It was the only trace of civilization standing in the barren, frigid land. It was hard to believe how anyone could have constructed such a structure.
Creak… …
The giant door opened on its own. It seemed as if welcoming guests.
The group walked towards it with awe-filled expressions.
And a moment later.
“Julian!”
Deneb ran out, her face beaming with joy.
“Deneb!”
Julian also ran over, his face brimming with joy. The two, reunited, embraced each other tightly.
Kyle, seeing this, crumpled his expression as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen and clicked his tongue.
“Now they’re really showing it so openly.”
Everyone already knew that the two liked each other.
However, they were careful not to show it, mindful of the reactions of others.
However, after the uproar in Valscrum, the two became a little more honest with themselves.
“Aaaah! Everyone has finally arrived!”
The other mercenaries who had been waiting also came running out.
Their faces were filled with emotion. If the group didn’t arrive, they would all die.
Osval shouted with a solemn expression upon meeting the mercenaries.
“Osval, the man! Wetting the frozen ground with blood, with thunderous steps, I have finally defeated the master of death, Lich, and proudly arrived here! Now to defeat the evil dragon… No, that’s not it. Anyway, what a thrilling and revolutionary journey this has been!”
“Wow! Osval!”
“This bastard is alive!”
“Amazing! Amazing!”
The mercenaries grabbed Osval and gave him a shower. Today, even Osval’s boasts sounded like shining tales of heroism.
Then Arterion appeared. He looked around for a moment and then smiled gently.
“Good work. It’s truly amazing that not a single person died. This time, I will acknowledge you.”
Only then did the group finally realize that they had arrived. The tension eased, and one by one, they sat down and then lay down.
The mercenaries who were resting here carried them. Seeing this, Deneb hurriedly ran over and unleashed her divine power on everyone.
Paaaaah.
A bright light spread, enveloping and permeating the group.
The group, having endured immense hardship, unconsciously fell into a slumber, enveloped by the warmth.
Giselle slapped her cheek several times, forcing the sleep that was creeping up on her. Then she asked Arterion,
“Is the test over now?”
“Yes, I can say I have the minimum qualifications I desired.”
“A qualification for an emergency?”
“Just think of it as something necessary for various reasons.”
The two engaged in a cryptic conversation. However, the others were uninterested.
The priority was to transport the sleeping group into the tower.
Giselle, who had held out until they were inside, lacked the energy to continue the conversation. The group, relieved for the first time in a long while, fell into a deep, restful sleep. Only
after a full day of sleep did the group finally regain their senses.
Arterion spoke to the disheveled Giselle.
“Now, tell me what you desire. I will provide you with everything you need for your training.”
“That’s refreshing. Then I’ll take it with a bang. What I want is…”
Giselle spoke freely, her thoughts flowing.
Her training was rigorous, but she made sure to rest and prepare herself as thoroughly as possible.
True to her convictions, she demanded everything she could during her training: exquisite cuisine, equipment, a large quantity of runestones for creating mana clusters, high-level magic books from each school, and monsters for actual combat.
Her demands were so numerous that even pouring the entire treasury of a kingdom would have been difficult to meet. But Arterion nodded gently.
“Don’t worry. I will provide as much as you need. If it’s not enough, I will collect from every kingdom on the continent.”
The dragon’s primary duty is to fight the demonic realm and maintain the balance of the world.
This was the reason dragons were created, and it was the duty bestowed upon them by the goddesses from the beginning.
So, there was no way the Yulien Mercenary Corps, with the saintess by their side, would refuse to grow stronger.
Giselle smiled happily at Arterion’s willing acceptance.
It was because she could now handle all the tasks that had been difficult due to various issues at once.
Since it had come to this, she planned to spend time here and become even stronger than before.
Everything Giselle requested was for the sake of the party’s training. However, she had one personal wish.
“There’s something I’d like to have.”
“Ask me anything. I’ll grant it if I can.” “That’s
fortunate. Lord Arterion can grant it.”
“What is it?”
Giselle said, her eyes sparkling.
“Give me that lich.”
“…….”
Arterion stared at Giselle for a moment, speechless.
His expression seemed to perfectly embody the words, “What kind of person is this?”