Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 411

411

Beyond Hope

The top-tier entry that Zion had painstakingly assembled.

Had Zion, the director, witnessed their fight against the enemies firsthand, he might have blinked in disbelief, wondering, ‘What is this?’

It wasn’t that the entry, meticulously gathered by recalling every detail from the novel, turned out to be unexpectedly weak. On the contrary, the enemies they faced were far too weak.

In truth, Zion had overlooked one thing.

His constant disruption of the Celestial race’s plans—diverting personnel meant for them, maintaining the eastern, northern, and southern parts of Hispania in their original state when they should have collapsed, and preventing them from manipulating Nudia as they pleased—these actions forced the Celestial race to invest more time and effort in those areas.

This resulted in the belated discovery and preparation of the Saint-Mark bearers, who were originally supposed to become as strong as the top-tier Celestials with their help in the novel.

Originally, in the novel, the Saint-Mark bearers, the ‘Seven Wings,’ were portrayed as being on par with Kim Yuhyun before his full recovery, maintaining a balanced power dynamic.

In the novel, due to the author’s hasty insertion, explanations were omitted, but when Nudia and Hispania were collapsing, the Celestials found them, prepared them to be more adept at handling the Saint-Marks, and then deployed them in the holy war to complete their mission.

However, now, due to Zion, all the plans the Celestials had prepared, were preparing, and were intending to prepare were completely disrupted, leaving them unable to even devour Nudia, let alone Hispania.

Naturally, they were so busy dealing with those issues and finding solutions that they couldn’t even focus on finding the Saint-Mark bearers, let alone training them.

Enri and Ryu, who had already been killed or captured, were somewhat prepared because they were found in advance, but Friedrick, Bade, and Shantz, who were currently fighting the Allied forces, were far below the power they were portrayed to have in the novel.

“Kuaaaak!”

The Saint-Mark bearers, the ‘Seven Wings,’ who appeared in the novel, were powerful figures residing somewhere between the upper and top tiers of the Celestial race.

But now, due to Zion, the Celestials had failed to prepare them properly. They were capable of handling the Saint-Marks, but they lacked practical experience against opponents of equal or greater strength.

In simple terms, the ‘Saint-Mark’ was a powerful weapon, but the ‘bearer’ wielding it was not properly prepared, so it was only natural that they were losing in battle.

“Kkeueuk!
Aaaagh!”

Shantz, a Saint-Mark bearer, trembled in agony, gritting his teeth as if stabbed by a knife.

Clearly, the attack that touched his body was just a tiny flame, but at that moment, he felt as if lightning had struck him, and his mind was completely shaken.

Chwaaaak!
Chwaak!―

The Saint-Mark flickered as if to wake him up, but Shantz was too tormented to think.

‘He was clearly a Saint-Mark bearer like myself, so why was there such a difference!’ he thought. ‘There was supposedly no strong or weak Saint-Mark, so why was he losing!’

“What is this?
The Ryu guy I fought last time seemed stronger.”

Jjwaaaak―.

Tricia muttered in a chilling voice, pulling the whip made of flames she held in her hand.

She also knew from her Saint-Mark that there was no difference between Saint-Marks, so she was more nervous than usual for this final battle.

If she were to be careless and lose or die to the enemy, she would have no face to show Zion.

‘But why are they so weak?
This isn’t what I was expecting,’ she thought.

Tricia couldn’t hide her dissatisfaction and clicked her tongue.

In fact, it was only natural. The members of ‘Zion’s Entry,’ including Tricia, had been thoroughly trained by Kim Yuhyun for a long period, ranging from over a year to at least half a year.

Unlike the original novel, thanks to Zion, they didn’t have to suffer mentally or get injured. Instead, with a very stable mental state, their recovery speed was twice as fast, already far surpassing Kim Yuhyun in the original storyline, that tactical nuke ‘Kim Yuhyun.’

Rishikia, who reached the level of a high-ranking knight in her 20s; Lucia, who inherited Raido’s talent; Lia, who could be considered a Saint-Mark bearer of the Beastmen; and Tricia, who also possessed a Saint-Mark; Jaan, who had been trained in the harsh north and gained a stroke of good luck, becoming as strong as a high-ranking knight—all those women were trained and honed by Kim Yuhyun and then released onto this battlefield.

The result was obvious. Safe assets were exactly like this.

It was only natural.

If someone who knew everything prepared this thoroughly and still faced a crisis, that would be a true ‘balance collapse,’ wouldn’t it?

“Uaaaaaagh!”

Shantz attacked Tricia by creating countless water sprays as he used to do.

It might look like ordinary splashing, but if hit properly, it would deliver an impact greater than being hit by a carriage, and it would also lower the opponent’s body temperature in an instant, literally freezing them to death. That was his Saint-Mark.

Not a focused point attack, but an area attack coming from all directions.

Shantz, who used to be a fisherman, found it easier to create water sprays like spreading a net than eating, and the Celestials, who had barely found him recently, were relieved after seeing him handle the Saint-Mark.

They believed that if he went into battle like this, he would be able to subdue the enemy without much difficulty and prevent them from interfering with the holy war.

“Annoying.
I came here to catch some amazing guy.
I wanted to brag to Zion that I could catch someone like that, but why am I stuck with this kind of pathetic brat!
This sucks, seriously!”

But for Tricia, that attack was less threatening than Kim Yuhyun sneezing.

It was truly a pathetic sight that could be considered child’s play, just as she said.

What good was having the strength to fight and the ability if they didn’t even know why they had to fight or have the will to fight properly!

They had already found dozens of reasons why they had to fight and win!

Chwaaaaaak!―

It might seem like she was just cutting through the water, but the power within clearly delivered a heavy impact to Tricia’s body.

Yet, Tricia remained unfazed, simply turning the flames around her hand to burn all the granules that were absorbing her body temperature into ashes.

‘Getting hit by Kim Yuhyun would hurt about 20 times more,’ she thought. ‘This isn’t even hitting, and it’s not really playing around, it’s just irritating me more, you know?’

Everything had already gone completely wrong. The only reason they were able to hold on was that Zion hadn’t started moving in earnest.

Zion had taken away all the justification, social standing, and support the Celestials had held until now.

The Elves, who should have blindly obeyed the Celestials, were divided and opposed, and the Beastmen realized that the world the Celestials wanted was different from the paradise they desired, and they immediately turned their backs.

Hispania, which should have been staggering and lost everything, was not only intact but overflowing with power, and Nudia, which should have burned and disappeared long ago, was waging a resistance right before their eyes.

It was ruined, yes.

That one word would sum up everything.

If there really was a god in this world, they would have already handed everything over to Zion after Zion Clausel was replaced by the new ‘Zion Clausel.’

“Don’t come!
Don’t comeee!”

Shantz frantically threw spears made of the power of the Saint-Mark, as if throwing harpoons.

But even if he threw them with all his heart, the other side would scoff, ‘Kim Yuhyun’s fingers are faster.’ It was only natural that he couldn’t achieve anything with his already shattered mental state.

“Ah, shit.”

Tricia tried her best not to use this kind of language in front of Zion, but once she entered battle and the Saint-Mark went wild, she couldn’t control herself anymore.

Flames and lightning raged in her chest, and black dragons rampaged alternately in her right and left hands.

She thought that if it weren’t for Zion, she would have surely died, and she wrapped her body in crimson flames to offer a gift to the man she had to live for.

“Just die.”

Chiiiiik!―

The water sprays disappeared as soon as they touched the heat.

Bright yellow electric shocks spread like capillaries through them.

Tricia worried that she would be tied down by something insignificant and fail to offer more merit and more gifts, so she plunged her flames and lightning into the heart of the last remaining Saint-Mark bearer.

―

It definitely went in properly.

As she had practiced many times, she grabbed the opponent and slammed them down.

Even a skilled person would grab their head, shaken by the impact, and show some signs of faltering.

“Hat!”

Sensing a chilling sensation, Lucia desperately rolled away, and at the same time, Ru’s touch brushed past the spot where her neck had been.

At first glance, it might look like a gesture to pluck a flower, but Lucia, who had gained some sense of a strong person’s aura through sparring with Kim Yuhyun, instinctively knew that that seemingly light gesture alone could twist her neck.

She thought that if she had been caught by that hand, she would have been killed without even realizing it.

“…I never thought I’d fall like this.”

Ru brushed the dirt off his body and muttered as if he was in a very bad mood.

It was already humiliating enough that he, a top-tier Celestial, was briefly bound by human magic, but now he had been grabbed by a human woman and even dislodged from the air, so even the relatively mild Ru couldn’t help but feel rage rising within him.

‘Shaiella,’ he thought.

Ru, having found his younger sister and the culprit who had deceived him and inflicted this humiliation, could see Shaiella already leaving this place and plunging back into the Holy Prussian army, slaughtering Elves and Celestials.

Seeing her slaughtering not only the soldiers of the Holy Prussian Empire and the Elves who had supported him, but even the Celestials who were once his kin, Ru could only sigh in disbelief.

“Why the sigh?
Why?
Are you feeling sorry for yourself because you’re about to die?”

Eкатерина [Ekaterina], who had been withdrawn from the battlefield by Kim Yuhyun because she hated distinguishing between friend and foe once she entered a fight, revealed her fangs.

After being thoroughly defeated by Kim Yuhyun once, she turned her attention to another delicacy that was still delicious even if it wasn’t as exquisite as the one that would make her burst from overeating.

“I see.
I heard there was a Dragonkin mixed in, and I wondered why she wasn’t showing herself.”

Ru smiled, readjusting the spear that had been in Shaiella’s hands but had returned to its original owner’s hands because she had given it up.

Sha’s words of persuasion were still lingering in his ears and in his mind, but now he couldn’t admit all their past mistakes and bow his head.

Now, all that was left for them was to embrace everything and either be scattered while fighting, or win and be remembered forever as light.

Cha must have sensed that Sha was hesitating considerably differently from before, so instead of entrusting her with the front line, he ordered her to wait in the rear.

He seemed to have judged that it would be better to pull back a wavering person and take the sure personnel to compete than to push them.

‘Thank goodness,’ he thought. ‘I stayed behind just in case, but if these guys had attacked the humans, Elves, and even the Celestials of the Holy Prussian Empire, it would have been a disaster.’

The women who were slowly gathering around, starting with the Dragonkin, were all on par with the upper-tier Celestials, or even slightly stronger.

If he had left this place to face Kim Yuhyun like his other comrades, those skilled individuals would have swept through their allies.

Cha himself said that five of him would be enough for Kim Yuhyun, so Ru decided to trust him.

Cha, who was superior to him in combat, had said so.

Chwaaaak!―

Eкатерина’s side was torn apart by Ru’s first strike.

Even though he had launched a light attack and she had gritted her teeth and twisted her body, it was still at this level.

It was definitely the power of the top force possessed by the Celestial race.

Ru was well aware that the Dragonkin had excellent recovery abilities.

But with this level of damage, she wouldn’t be able to recover immediately in the blink of an eye.

So, he pushed her away with the spear shaft and shot magic at the blue flash that was rushing towards his back.

“Nyaang?”

Thanks to that, Lia had to panic and desperately evade it.

No matter how much she was chosen by lightning and how strong her body was, she would naturally get hurt if she received more damage than that, and if the injury was severe, she would die.

In that sense, the magic that Ru shot was at a level where one of her arms would completely disappear if she collided with it head-on.

“Lia!”

She had been running at an incredible speed and twisted her body to avoid it, so naturally, her balance was disrupted.

Lucia quickly caught Lia, who was being thrown off in a strange direction, and patted her back to ask if she was okay.

“These humans are quite troublesome.”

Ru clicked his tongue and readjusted his spear as if to eliminate Lucia and Lia at once.

And at the moment he was about to throw it with all his might, he couldn’t help but tilt his head when he saw something flying straight towards his face.

‘Already?’ he thought.

He had definitely inflicted an attack imbued with magic.

Her side wasn’t just torn, but even the recovery was delayed by the magic collision, so how was it that Eкатерина had already recovered and was rushing at Ru?

In the end, Ru gave up attacking the two women and grabbed Eкатерина’s fist with his hand.

Kwaaaang!―

A huge magic explosion occurred in an instant, and a tremendous shockwave was transmitted around them.

Eкатерина, who was gritting her teeth and struggling in the center of it, unknowingly smiled.

“You’re definitely worthy of the name of a top-tier Celestial.
You’re so cool.”

Crack, crack―.

Unlike Eкатерина, who was gritting her teeth, Ru still had a calm expression.

With that calm face, Ru slowly moved Eкатерина’s fist away from his face and opened his mouth.

“You’re overconfident because you’ve caught a few of our descendants of light.
You barbaric creatures, caught up in your pathetic instincts, can never surpass us.”

“We’ve surpassed all the guys who said that.
Don’t worry about us, worry about yourself.”

At the same time, Eкатерина opened her mouth wide!

And bit down on Ru’s arm, which was blocking her fist.

Ru frowned as if he hadn’t expected her to do something like this, and he stuck his spear into the ground and slapped Eкатерина’s face with his bare hand.

Crack!―

With the sound of something breaking and twisting grotesquely, Eкатерина scattered blood and fell backward.

At the moment Ru was about to launch a follow-up attack on that Dragonkin woman, he frowned and clicked his tongue at the movement that kept bothering him.

‘Her speed is definitely fast,’ he thought.

A movement faster than Friedrick, who was a Saint-Mark bearer, and a Beastman who was very familiar with hiding his momentum and throwing feints to deliberately reveal it.

And not only that?

Even the human woman who was sparkling her eyes in the middle of them, preparing to inflict another humiliation on him, Ru didn’t like the current situation at all.

“Where are you looking?
You pigeon bastard.”

Even Eкатерина immediately got up again and poured out attacks.

Ru had to wonder how this Dragonkin woman could get up so quickly while dodging all those attacks.

And after a while, he was able to understand the reason after confirming another magic residing in her body.

“How did I end up doing this!
I want to throw some punches too, you damn bastard!”

Raido, who was screaming and constantly casting healing magic on Eкатерина.

The grand mage who made his talent known with that healing magic was giving dedicated support to the Dragonkin’s body, which already had excellent recovery abilities, so naturally, her recovery speed was beyond imagination.

Adding the best healing magic to Eкатерина’s specialty, recovery ability.

It was one of the strong enemy countermeasures that Zion had devised, the zombie shield strategy.

―――――――Author’s Notes―――――――

I’m not dying, augh, it hurts, aughhhhh