Regressor of the Fallen Family Chapter 139
As I had already told my close associates, we expected that Bifrost would leak information and that the enemy would come seeking us because of it. However, I never imagined the timing would be so soon, nor that it would be an army of superhuman.
“Damn it, does this mean they’re okay with their main base being attacked?!”
Had McLaine held even the slightest affection for the Second Prince’s faction, he would have communicated with them right at this moment, to attack the First Prince’s faction’s castle immediately with the Storm Sword and his elite forces. The extent of damage that would ensue was difficult to imagine. No matter the size of the military forces, the value of a superhuman in battle was immeasurably greater in terms of tactical utility and morale, incomparable to a hundred regular soldiers. In short, the First Prince’s faction regarded McLaine far more significantly than Logan had anticipated.
“Damn, even the timing is…!”
Just as one battle had come to an end, the scattered and unaccounted-for soldiers were ill-prepared for another engagement.
“Form ranks quickly! Hurry!”
Despite his incessant urging, it seemed that the enemy would pierce through their rear before even half the troops could be regrouped, especially considering the speed of their approach, particularly Wicken Callian.
“As soon as groups of soldiers can assemble, begin a volley fire! Launch timing is to the sergeants’ discretion! Target the approaching superhumans!”
The urgency in Heinckel’s voice quickened the troops’ movements somewhat. And then,
“Fire!”
Pa-ba-ba-bak!
The first organized squadron of crossbow cavalry, a thousand strong, aimed their crossbows at ‘one man’.
As McLaine’s forces gradually formed their ranks, the number of crossbows trained on the enemy continued to grow. But a relentless barrage of death rained from them, indubitably a potent attack not even a superhuman could disregard.
‘Any other superhuman, that is.’
The Storm Sword, Wicken Callian, grinned confidently despite seeing thousands of quarrels pouring down on him. He imagined his rival caught in such a situation would have become nothing but a large target forced to stand still and defend because of his size. If he didn’t receive external assistance, even he might end up hurt or in a worse state.
But Wicken Callian was different.
Whooooosh.
The wind attribute, a power beyond human limits he had acquired, temporarily created an impregnable fortress around him.
‘At least, when it comes to projectile weapons, it’s a perfect barrier.’
As expected, the thousands of quarrels veered off, intercepted by the wind barrier he conjured, clashing and shaving against each other.
Seizing the opportunity, he closed the distance, reaching the enemy lines before the soldiers could release a second volley.
“Let’s have some fun!”
The wind attribute that enveloped his body now assisted in his swift movements, and his beloved sword Transfixio began to glow bright white. His signature thrusting attacks, refined from the traits of a rapier, had been his forte since his inexperienced days and had evolved into a secret technique that could pierce through countless enemies in a straight line upon becoming a superhuman and infusing his wind attribute.
‘Vortex!’
As he confidently prepared to release a spiraling surge of white light from Transfixio, a giant golden greatsword suddenly clashed against it.
Gwaaaaaaang!
“Cough!”
Logan staggered back, dazed by the shattering impact of his Earth Cleaver technique, a different sensation than anything neutralized by an equally powerful or stronger strike.
Whooooosh.
It was as if his attack had been forcibly extinguished, placing a heavy burden on his heart’s Core.
Trying to regain his balance, Logan was confronted by the gleaming rapier, which was now close enough to touch his armor.
“McLaine!”
At the sound of the enemy’s voice, filled with hostility and blurred at the edge of his hearing, the tip of the adversary’s blade was already at his breastplate.
Fortunately for him,
Kwaang!
“Cough!”
His father, spurting blood from his mouth, forced the blade away in a last-ditch effort, but the cost was severe.
At a glance, it was clear the injury was grievous, and there was no time to assist his father. A grimace crossed Logan’s face as he saw the enemy thrust his sword at both himself and his father as if he had doubled in capability.
‘Not yet!’
Even as a superhuman, Logan could not allow himself to be defeated without resisting. Ignoring the incoming sword thrust, he thrust his own blade directly at the enemy.
A golden beam emitted from his sword tip, its velocity reflecting his urgent will, outpacing all and aiming directly for the enemy’s torso.
Paaang!
Though the ray passed just through an afterimage of the enemy, Logan’s countenance hardened. But the sight of his faltering father correcting his stance brought a sigh of relief, albeit briefly.
“You’re even more skilled than I heard. Quite the impressive young man.”
The enemy, a lanky superhuman with a cold smile, approached fast. With their shouts near, and those of Logan’s allies rising to meet them, a battle that could shape the fate of the house was taking shape. Logan could not afford to observe all that unfolded before him; his current adversary could take his life in an instant if he lost focus even for a moment.
“Ugh!”
Pushh.
Despite thinking he had dodged in time, he couldn’t prevent his left shoulder from being pierced.
But to the enemy’s surprise, he managed to avoid another deadly thrust that came with an ever more contemptuous smile.
The illusion seemed like countless repetitions of the same motion. The thrashing, deadly point looked poised to pierce through every part of his body regardless of how he defended.
Logan tried to resist the barrage of thrusts by releasing 16 layers of golden waves from his body.
Pushush.
“Ugh! Damn it!”
Despite his efforts, only painful puncture wounds across both thighs, right side, and right shoulder were the consequences.
“Ho-ho. You still protected your vitals despite that? Not bad… Where do you think you’re going!”
Pwooook.
“Father!”
In that critical moment, as his father struck, a grievous blow was dealt to his abdomen.
Logan, amidst the dire moment, ruefully acknowledged his own hesitation to play his last card and drew upon it.
Woooooong.
A spray of white light issued from his left wrist, healing the five puncture wounds in an instant, and launched consecutive golden beams. His much-improved Iron Cutter technique, bolstered by recent enlightenment, targeted the superhuman before him repeatedly. However, satisfaction eluded him.
Jeeereng! Chang!
Bang!
Despite leveraging his trump card, the enemy effortlessly parried Logan’s full-force attack without any apparent damage. His expression did harden, and his air of leisure seemed to vanish, but there was no sign of crisis. His face bore the certainty that Logan’s sword could never touch him.
‘The difference is this significant…?’
The confidence Logan had developed upon mastery of the Snake Blade was steadily eroded. Furthermore, it wasn’t only his confidence that was being diminished.
Bang! Chang!
Each clash between his Force Blade and the bright rapier further shook his heart, not with a shattering force but with an alien and violent sensation as if force itself was being ripped away.
Considering that Wicken Callian was known to have weaker singular strike power among superhumans, preferring to focus on attributes and speed, it was a maddening situation.
‘It makes no sense! How can there be such a disparity…?!’
As despair crept into Logan’s mind, the radiant Force Blade, continually siphoned yet reforming, was completely extinguished.
‘No!’
When he realized his error, the enemy’s sharp blade had already closed in.
The vivid image of the blade piercing his eye, skewering his brain, and exiting through the back of his skull, flashed through his mind.
‘Move!’
In the midst of crisis, his heightened consciousness ignored the agonizing pain and the tumultuous unnatural force, coercing his body to move by a fraction.
Compared to the opponent, however, he was still unbearably slow.
Regret over having already used Lux’s time acceleration ability for the day tormented him when he suddenly felt Wicken Callian’s encircling white aura weaken.
‘An explosion?’
The moment he saw his opponent’s features distort and head turn away, an opportunity unfolded.
‘What…?’
This unimaginably perfect timing granted Logan yet another miraculous chance.
Wicken Callian’s body and weapon, which had been shrouded in white light, lost that protection, and the aura of the rapier faded. The sensation was akin to witnessing the aura’s manifestation process in reverse, revealing the conversion back to a lower energy form, the force—an intuitively understood yet inexplicable process for most aura users.
It was vividly imprinted in Logan’s elevated consciousness. And more so,
“What’s happening now?!”
As Wicken Callian’s movements visibly slowed with bewilderment in his voice, Logan seized the rare chance.
Flash.
‘If aura dissipates force, it won’t reach if I avoid it!’
Logan’s Force Blade, bending like a snake, dodged the wind aura and aimed for the enemy’s life.
* * *
“Prepare to charge!”
Chang! Chang!
In lieu of the lord and his heir, who were preoccupied with a superhuman adversary, Heinckel’s command prompted the knights to clash their weapons in response.
Daring not to intrude upon the near-untrackable battle between superhumans, the knights refrained from action. But even after consecutive battles had taken their toll, reducing their ranks, over 160 knights stood ready, exuding a turbulent presence while awaiting orders.
The morale of the knights, bolstered by successive victories, held strong. Even knights from Feretta, who had survived numerous battlefields, had naturally assimilated into the tight-knit comradeship that had arisen among them.
Bordering them, McLaine’s soldiers, grouped tightly, continued to fire crossbows relentlessly at the approaching Callian knights. Nearby, golems from the golem tower kept casting Liberatio, creating distant explosions even if they couldn’t reach them directly.
Kwaaaaang!
Pa-ba-ba-bak.
“Screams intermittently erupted from the enemy’s ranks, but the advance of the Callian knight’s didn’t slow. At one point, the screams almost ceased as around ten knights within their ranks began throwing objects to intercept the bombs falling overhead.
Among them, one knight at the forefront of the knight’s, wielding a three-meter-long red Force Blade, stood out as he defended his comrades from crossbows and bombs. Heinckel took notice from afar, feeling the knight’s sinister aura.
‘Callian’s Knight Captain, Jorge.’
With little exposure to external affairs and therefore lacking a fanciful nickname, he was nonetheless renowned as the second strongest knight in the Callian viscounty. Heinckel scrutinized his formidable opponent with tense eyes, searching for weaknesses.
Despite his vigilance, the only thing he could truly rely upon became apparent.
‘We’ve been bombarding them with successive crossbow and bomb volleys, which should have exhausted them by now. We can do this!’
No matter how prepared they were to defend, the constant barrage from crossbows and bombs was dealing steady damage to the enemy. Moreover, there wasn’t anyone else among the allies capable of stopping him.
Currently, those who could perhaps engage them with leisure were all embroiled in a clash on a level beyond most people’s reach.
Heinckel forcibly refocused his attention, continually drifting towards the site of a spectacular battle involving the lord’s family and a superhuman. He knew better than to haphazardly interfere and become a hindrance. Instead, confronting a top-tier knight was the role he had to fulfill. With that thought, he steeled his resolve.
– Father!
The familiar voice’s high-pitched exclamation reflexively turned his head—a sight he couldn’t resist. There, he saw his lord, spewing blood from the abdomen and collapsing powerlessly to the ground.
In that moment, everything in Heinckel’s mind went white.
– I may have already transferred all authority, but you should support Logan too. You need to show your firm support so that he can assert his authority as the successor.
– Huh? Ha ha. But my lord is still you, your lordship. Of course, I will also be loyal to the young lord…
– Ha ha. This man… From now on, prioritize Logan over me.
– I cannot do that. I will retire when your lordship does.
– That’s problematic, you see. You are still…
– Your lordship is still in good health. Have you forgotten? When I was knighted, you said you would let me rest when you retired.
– …My memory seems a bit idealized. That meant I would exploit you until death. At the time, I didn’t know I’d have such a wonderful son.
– Then stay as my lord until I die, too. The young lord still lacks experience.
– Ha ha. Right now, you’re the only one in our territory who could say that.
– For me, there’s only one lord, yourself.
– Ha ha. Just in case something happens to me…
– …Why would you say that?
– Just a feeling. It’s just in case. Anyway, make sure you fully support Logan then.
– I will take that as if I didn’t hear it.
– Ah, what a person…
A hollow laugh ended the conversation. As these words floated back into his mind, Heinckel’s body moved on its own accord.
Editor’s musings:
Damn, this kind of sacrifice makes me sad. Loyalty and stuff. It’s just sad.