TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 73
The 8th floor of the Demonic Bastion.
A loud explosion resounded fiercely.
Boom!
“Evling!”
With a shout, Pendal narrowly pulled Evling, who was holding a sword, away.
Then, an explosion occurred in front of them, and the two barely escaped the blast.
A soldier-like weaponoid had fired something like a cannon.
“Ugh, thanks, Captain!”
“Fall back!”
With Pendal’s shout, the team members quickly gathered around him.
“Hetoria!”
“Yes, Captain!”
As soon as Pendal called out, the woman with dark red hair immediately picked up her staff.
Then, an ice block infused with red color shot forward explosively from her staff.
Bang!
With the sound of the explosion, the ice block that flew in smashed the weaponoid that looked like a sword-wielding soldier standing in front.
Seeing this, Pendal landed in front of it.
“Whew.”
With a small sigh, Pendal quickly scanned his surroundings.
Everyone seemed a bit tired, but no one appeared to be injured.
Thud-thud-
Meanwhile, the sound of rattling echoed around them.
When Pendal looked up, there were busy scenes moving outside the window.
‘It’s hard to get used to seeing this every time.’
It was a wide space and rows of seats made of wood, reminiscent of a carriage.
Pendal recalled that until just moments ago, soldiers were standing on those seats, and he made a disgusted face.
The Carriage Zone of the 8th floor.
The area is divided by carriages, and as you move forward, the number and quality of soldiers increase.
Each carriage has a total of four doors.
Without someone with special abilities like a Scout, it’s an extremely malicious place where the number of soldiers in the carriage resets from the start.
“Captain, it seems like we’re almost there.”
Then, the Scout in charge said, lifting his goggles.
Nakcheon is right in front of us.
Upon hearing this, everyone made tense expressions.
“We’ve made it this far.”
Pendal clenched his fist and looked around at everyone.
“This time, we’ll capture Nakcheon.”
The eyes of all the Pendalord members shone brightly.
It was at that moment.
Thud-
With a very short sound, the carriage shook for a moment.
When Pendal finally looked up, there stood a woman.
With tiger-patterned ears perked up under her crimson hair and a single eyepatch.
The woman, armed with weapons all over her body, glanced at the people inside through the open door.
“Why are you all huddled up so annoyingly?”
The moment she muttered briefly, Pendal felt goosebumps all over his body.
“Everyone, run!”
And at that very moment, Pendal shouted.
Thud!
A very short sound of something bursting was heard.
When Pendal turned his head, there was the body of the man called Evling.
“Let’s clear this up.”
It was a body with its head completely empty.
“Evling!”
When one of the team members shouted in anger, someone covered her mouth and ran out through one of the doors with all their might.
And that action was correct.
The other team members also immediately fled through the nearest door without time to retrieve Evling’s body.
Even Pendal, the strongest among them, told them to run.
Everyone knew well what that meant.
“Oh, running away?”
When the woman smiled as if she was annoyed, Pendal was raising his arms high into the sky.
Crackle!
At that moment, sparks burst from Pendal’s hands and spread throughout the carriage in an instant.
Boom!
At the moment Lioner exploded upon meeting the Aura, Pendal immediately drew Jade Heaven.
Simultaneously, he burst forth with the Aura rising from it and charged at her.
Clang!
But the sword he swung was easily blocked by a small dagger she drew.
“You’ve got quite a nice toy there.”
At the same time, her eyes between the eyepatch gleamed as she looked at Pendal’s Jade Heaven.
As befitting the name Armed Princess, her obsession with weapons flared up once again.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, Pendal narrowly dodged a dagger swung at his chin and rolled on the floor.
Then, blood trickled down from under his chin.
He thought he had dodged it, but his reaction was too slow.
“What’s the name of that toy?”
When she asked, Pendal felt a chill and gritted his teeth.
Evling was killed instantly, but all the other team members had escaped.
“Find out for yourself!”
So, Pendal once again exploded Lioner and without hesitation, jumped through one of the doors.
As soon as he entered another area, the soldiers noticed him and started to rise, but he didn’t care.
The danger signal in Pendal’s body was ringing louder than ever.
If he didn’t want to die, he had to run.
This woman was beyond any standard.
Thud!
But the woman kicked open the carriage door Pendal had entered.
Ignoring her, Pendal ran with all his might, and at that moment, the Armed Princess smirked.
“If you want to save those team members, you shouldn’t run.”
It was at that moment.
When she raised a gauntlet with thorns on her hand, her figure blurred.
Then, five shadow humans that looked like the Armed Princess appeared.
Though not as powerful as the Armed Princess herself, the energy emanating from them was stronger than Pendal’s, one by one.
The name of the gauntlet is Marfalga.
Although it only possesses 30% of the main body’s power, it is a weapon that summons shadow humans with the same pattern as herself.
At that moment, her shadow humans spread out without hesitation through the carriage doors.
Realizing what that meant, Pendal’s eyes widened.
This woman was planning to kill all his team members.
“Stop!”
When Pendal shouted, she twirled the dagger in her hand.
“That depends on what you do, kid.”
With a sharp tongue, she smirked with one eye, as if to signal him to figure out what she wanted.
She had come looking for Rain Thunder Prime, but never expected to meet another new kid.
She couldn’t be more satisfied.
Pendal was not unaware of her intentions.
She had been keeping her eyes solely on that side ever since she saw Jade Heaven.
Seeing that, Pendal gripped Jade Heaven tightly in his hand.
“…If I hand over Jade Heaven, will you spare us?”
“Hmm, we’ll see.”
Upon hearing the Armed Princess’s words, Pendal lowered the hand that was about to open the carriage door.
Then he began to walk toward her with heavy steps.
Cold sweat beaded on Pendal’s forehead.
The Armed Princess, who had appeared suddenly, was undeniably a dangerous monster.
There was no guarantee that handing over Jade Heaven to her would spare them.
As he did so, Pendal began to gather Lioner within his body with all his might.
Doing this might prevent him from even challenging Nakcheon, but surviving here was the priority.
‘Just once.’
He had to kill the Armed Princess with that one strike.
It was a secret technique he had intended to use against Nakcheon, but it didn’t matter now.
Right now, he needed to focus solely on killing her.
“You.”
At that moment, a smirk spread across the Armed Princess’s face.
“Scattering your killing intent like that, do you think it’s funny?”
“Damn!”
At the moment the Armed Princess mocked him, Pendal unleashed Lioner without hesitation.
Flash!
At that instant, jade light poured out from Jade Heaven’s sword.
It was a technique that, except for the caster, obliterated the senses of those around it with Jade Heaven’s effect.
Even the Armed Princess couldn’t help but grimace with one eye due to Jade Heaven’s effect.
In that white space.
Pendal converted his Aura into Lioner and poured all his strength into Jade Heaven.
As his Aura was forcibly converted into Lioner, he felt the pain of his body being torn apart, but he gritted his teeth and endured.
At the same time, Pendal thrust Jade Heaven forward with all his might.
Crackle!
The Thunder Energy that started from Jade Heaven was propelled by Pendal’s thrust.
Thunder Wolf Sword Strike.
It looked just like a wolf.
The lightning wolf, rushing forward like a bolt, aimed to bite into the Armed Princess’s neck, whose senses were numbed by Jade Heaven.
Crunch!
As Pendal intended, the Armed Princess’s neck was clearly torn apart by the lightning wolf.
When Pendal sensed victory upon seeing this.
The Armed Princess’s one eye slowly began to open.
“I told you.”
“Ugh!”
At that moment, Pendal clutched his own neck.
On his neck, there was a wound identical to the one that had just torn the Armed Princess’s neck, as if reflected in a mirror.
With blood gushing out, Pendal’s both eyes widened.
On the Armed Princess’s torn neck, only black smoke swirled; she seemed completely unaffected by the pain.
“Do you think it’s funny?”
As she finished speaking, Pendal’s body flew through the air.
Because the Armed Princess’s gauntleted fist had clearly struck Pendal’s stomach.
Pendal felt his insides being ripped apart as he crashed into chairs, smashing them to the ground.
Seeing Pendal like that, the soldiers foolishly got up and swung their swords at him, but the Armed Princess easily knocked them out with a sweep of her hand.
“Where do you think you’re going, staining our kid with more blood?”
It wasn’t to save Pendal; she just didn’t want Jade Heaven to get any more blood on it.
As she did so, she reached Pendal, who was unable to stand up.
“Why did you bite someone else’s neck? You just got blood all over the kid.”
It was at the moment she regretfully tried to lift Jade Heaven.
Pendal suddenly grabbed her wrist.
As the Armed Princess opened her eyes slightly, Pendal spoke with his barely open eyes.
“If I give you Jade Heaven, you won’t touch my team, right?”
His voice barely came out due to his torn neck, and she tilted her head.
“Oh, that.”
Then she said, as if it was no big deal.
“By now, they’re probably all dead, aren’t they?”
Her tone suggested she never intended to spare them from the start.
Hearing that, Pendal, filled with rage, gritted his teeth.
“You, bitch, I’ll definitely kill you.”
“Really?”
Seeing Pendal like that, she raised her gauntlet.
Aiming for his head.
With a bright smile, expecting his brains to soon spill out.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Without any expectation, the moment she swung down.
Boom!
With black flames erupting from behind, the Armed Princess smashed through one side of the carriage door and rolled away.
“Ah, damn?! It’s hot!”
As she rolled on the ground, screaming from the black flames spreading over her body, Pendal looked up with a dazed expression.
Then, a boy slowly walked past him.
With black hair, a pitch-black sword in his hand, and a crow flapping its wings from the boy’s shoulder.
“Kraush Balheim?”
As Pendal muttered blankly, Kraush glanced at him and then passed by to where the Armed Princess was rolling in the carriage area.
As Kraush passed the broken carriage door, it began to repair itself with the Demonic Bastion’s self-repair ability and closed.
Kraush, who had walked through the door, soon saw the Armed Princess, who had extinguished all the black flames.
She seemed to have suffered some burns, but there were no other visible injuries.
‘Even after using the Sky Annihilating Draw with my Ki-gathering technique.’
It was absurd that it only caused such minor damage.
In any case, what a monstrous creature.
“What are you? Why did I get hurt? Eguardium is supposed to protect me!”
Swinging her dagger around, she shouted at Kraush, unable to understand why she was injured.
‘Well, Eguardium can’t reflect World Erosion.’
But instead of answering, Kraush lightly stretched his neck.
It was his pre-battle warm-up routine.
He had planned to either wait for the right moment to clash with Nakcheon or give up and watch things unfold.
But the Armed Princess’s attempt to kill Pendal forced him to move early.
‘Tsk, I can’t lose Lioner before stealing it.’
Especially when every skill counts.
He had no choice but to accept some blood loss.
Kraush glared at the Armed Princess.
‘That stupid-looking face hasn’t changed, from back then to now.’
Yet, befitting a feline, she acted surprisingly cautiously until she was sure.
Of course, if the difference in skill level is visibly significant, she is unrestrained.
However, against an opponent with many suspicious aspects, she does not move rashly.
Thus, the Armed Princess conceals her moves as much as possible.
She probes the opponent with other armaments, excluding her true armament, the Thirteen Armaments.
But the moment she assesses them as being below her.
She will attempt to kill them like prey without a shred of hesitation.
‘And that habit will work against you as the biggest disadvantage today.’
I will show you that caution can sometimes be poisonous.
“…Damn, you, you’re from the Balheim Direct Line.”
Upon seeing Kraush’s appearance, eye color, and hair, she realized he was from the Balheim Direct Line.
In response, Kraush decided to add one more thing to that.
“Armed Princess, Shua Delphia.”
The moment he called her full name, the eyes of the Armed Princess slowly narrowed.
“…Why didn’t Eguardium work? You bastard, you’re a World Erosion Being. Did you disguise yourself as a member of the Balheim Direct Line?”
Then, as if she had completely seen through Kraush’s true identity, she reacted.
It’s a common probing remark from the Armed Princess.
But her eyes, which shone sharply, regarded Kraush with unusual seriousness.
Because she knew well that facing another World Erosion Being is not easy, her caution responded.
Kraush did not answer her, instead, he ignited black flames on his Dark Sword.
Those black flames confirmed the Armed Princess’s misconception that Kraush was a World Erosion Being.
“Rain Thunder Prime is mine. Get lost.”
How dare you covet someone else’s.