Chapter 514: The Plague Dragon Cries Out (1)

Regressor Instruction Manual

Belial, the ruler of many great demons, had told me that it was nigh impossible for me to use all his power. He could forcefully inject me with a large amount of mana, but the issue was that I couldn’t really wield that mana for too long.

I could only wield a small amount of that mana, and it would only last for a minute. I would become stronger, but the power-up wouldn’t be enough for me to fight Kim Hyun-Sung.

‘Shit…’

[Dark Plaguelord - Semi-Mythic]

[A special job given by Belial, the 27th Legion Commander of the 72 Demon Lords.]

[The job is basically a branch of Black Mage, and it allows the job owner to control demon plagues that cannot be purified with ordinary holy power. The job has a few unique abilities, but they are unavailable due to the low job proficiency]

[Intelligence has increased by 7, and magic has increased by 10. You are knowledgeable in plagues and poison. The Semi-Mythic Job, Alchemist of Light, will be deactivated upon activating Dark Plaguelord using the unique ability, Job Change.]

My job demanded me to serve as a part of the rearguard to debuff enemies. It couldn’t be considered a combat-type job at all, so it wasn’t that great.

However, I would be extremely powerful as long as a few conditions were met.

The job’s name was Plaguelord, but it was a branch of Black Mage, so I could use basic black magic as well.

According to the job description, it seemed that I could manipulate plagues, which were no different from bioweapons. In other words, it was a perfect job for me.

Of course, I wasn’t strong enough to use spells that would instantly kill people upon inhalation or skin contact, but my plagues could still turn someone into members of the undead after a certain period of time, or I could also make their skin rot upon contact with my plagues.

However, things would change dramatically if the assumption that my plagues would become extremely powerful using Belial’s mana was true.

After all, I would be able to break through most of their defenses, and I would also be able to control the high-rank demons. Of course, I still wouldn’t be able to put up much of a resistance against Kim Hyun-Sung.

Speaking of Kim Hyun-Sung, I saw him jumping around the battlefield. Ordinary spells and attacks couldn’t pierce the mana surrounding his body. I was sure that there had been many people mocking him about how he was always covered in a layer of mana, but the thin layer of mana surrounding Kim Hyun-Sung was tougher than a tank.

Of course, it also increased his magic resistance.

‘Advanced magic operation knowledge.’

It was a basic passive that high-rank adventurers would have, and Kim Hyun-Sung’s magic operation skills had already exceeded the standards of humans. His personal shield could resist most spells, indirect attacks, or even debuffs, so it was a pretty useful passive.

He was wearing light armor as well, and he was moving across the battlefield as if he had long grown accustomed to wearing light armor.

I couldn’t understand why he was wearing light armor even though he had enough mana to maintain his personal shield throughout the battle.

‘Is that part of his traumas?’

If our lovely regressor had also lost to a plague scum in his past life…

‘I understand why he’s acting that way.’

It was also the best way to ensure that he would remain protected from all kinds of attacks. I reckoned that it would be impossible for me to break through Kim Hyun-Sung’s current defenses even with Belial’s power.

I could break his personal shield using physical attacks, but it wouldn’t be that easy. It seemed that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Kim Hyun-Sung was my natural enemy.

‘Wow, how is he so fast?’

Kim Hyun-Sung jumped here and there like Hong Gil-Dong, but of course, speed had always been his greatest strength. He was a pretty balanced swordsman, but he was famous for being an extremely fast swordsman.

‘Yeah, he’s just that fast.’

The low-rank adventurers couldn’t even see him. A speedy swordsman like him could eliminate the demons before they could even cast reverse summoning to return to hell. I was doing my best to pressure Kim Hyun-Sung, but he was really impressive.

Wherever help was needed, he would appear and swing his sword around.

It hadn’t even been that long since he appeared on the front lines, but he had already sent a few major actors back to hell. If Kim Hyun-Sung were the raid boss of a dungeon, and I was a dungeon conqueror, I would have come to the conclusion that conquering Kim Hyun-Sung’s dungeon was impossible.

He was so impressive that I had to rub my eyes just to make sure that I wasn’t under an illusion or something.

“Miss Dialugia, don’t just stand idle. Use your Plague Breath at him,” I ordered.

- I-It’s not Plague Breath...

“I thought you’re already used to this by now?” I asked.

- Plague Breath… Please don’t call it Plague Breath, please…

Dialugia was protesting, but she still took a deep breath. She released a short, piercing breath that flew toward Kim Hyun-Sung, but it ended up hitting the ground. It brushed past him as if Dialugia had missed.

It seemed that Kim Hyun-Sung was keeping tabs on me, even though he was currently fighting a high priest.

‘He’s a monster…’ I muttered to myself unknowingly. ‘The plague scum from his past life was amazing, all right.’

I was curious about how they managed to corner Kim Hyun-Sung until he got traumatized.

‘It’s pretty obvious. It’s not like they have any other methods than that.’

They probably took the people Kim Hyun-Sung cherished as hostages or made him suffer mentally using wicked and dirty spells. Other than that, they couldn’t have pushed Kim Hyun-Sung into a corner.

I thought about using that method as well, but the ending didn’t need that kind of scene.

‘Honestly, Light Ki-Young himself is the hostage…’

It would be difficult for me to stand a chance against him if I were to not use that trick, and that was why exhausting Kim Hyun-Sung was important.

I looked at Kim Hyun-Sung once again, and I saw him making a few mistakes.

However, it wasn’t his fault.

‘Man, Ji-Hye noona is going into overdrive...’

It was Lee Ji-Hye’s fault.

‘That’s not how you execute the Kim Hyun-Sung tactic, but yeah, I guess it’s understandable.’

In addition to having trouble with the details, Lee Ji-Hye’s delivery of information was slow as well. She was so slow that Kim Hyun-Sung was moving faster than her thoughts.

I was sure that it was the case because I could see Kim Hyun-Sung stopping from time to time or suddenly changing directions. Overall, his pathing was bad. Lee Ji-Hye was definitely frustrated that the Kim Hyun-Sung tactic wasn’t working as she intended.

Honestly, the biggest reason I could execute the Kim Hyun-Sung tactic was my eyes rather than my head. My brain couldn’t see through the details, but my Mind’s Eye allowed me to see the entire battlefield.

Lee Ji-Hye’s perception was better than mine, but she didn’t have my eyes that could extract a ton of information at once. Of course, she was capable of extracting information on her own, but there was definitely a big difference between her and me.

Kim Hyun-Sung was bringing in results, but he was frowning.

I instantly saw through his thoughts, and he was probably thinking along the lines of…

‘This isn’t it…’

Or…

‘I need Mr. Ki-Young.’

A fancy car would perform better in the hands of a veteran driver. I wasn’t really criticizing her for being unable to execute the Kim Hyun-Sung tactic properly because her inability to do so was actually in my favor.

Since Lee Ji-Hye couldn’t quite grasp every detail of the ever-changing battlefield, she decided to multitask.

Lee Ji-Hye would send Kim Hyun-Sung coordinates where a target that had to be eliminated could be found, but the battle was ever-changing, so Kim Hyun-Sung was frequently running around in circles.

As an example, Kim Hyun-Sung received an order to eliminate a high priest near the base, but the high priest had already gone back to hell before Kim Hyun-Sung even reached his destination.

Kim Hyun-Sung also received an order to defeat the flankers that were threatening the rearguard, but upon arriving at the coordinates, the tanks had already secured the perimeter.

He wasn’t always running around in circles, but he was getting exhausted because the orders were often inaccurate. He looked so tired that I felt ashamed about the thought of making him run around for eight hours.

It hadn’t even been three hours since he started fighting, but he already looked extremely tired.

‘Tsk…’

The Kim Hyun-Sung tactic was extremely strong, so he had no choice but to stay on the battlefield. If it hadn’t been for Kim Hyun-Sung, Lindel’s walls would have fallen a long time ago. He was simply that impressive.

- Ha… ha… ha…

His head was covered in sweat. He was trying to collect his breath, so he didn’t even have the luxury to wipe off the blood on his face. He was constantly running around to balance the battlefield.

Time went on, and he got even more exhausted.

- Ha… ha…

Moments later, Kim Hyun-Sung removed his magic armor to save mana. As a result, wounds started to appear on his body. Obviously, the wounds weren’t that serious, so I wasn’t really worried about him. However, those wounds would definitely make him feel uncomfortable. The holy power he received from the priests healed him, but those injuries still consumed his stamina.

“Please use Plague Breath. The penetrating kind…” I ordered.

- I told you that it’s not called Plague Breath, whoo…!

Boooooooom!

“Wait, why did you actually hit him?!” I shouted.

- Y-You told me to fire it…

“You shouldn’t have hurt him! My goal is to exhaust him a bit more, but you actually hit him…” I told her.

- I didn’t want to fire it either. I only did it because you told me to do it. Attacks like the Plague Breath—I don’t want to use them. Ah… thankfully, I don’t think he got hurt. He moved to doge it, but I think he blocked it with his sword. I don’t think it’ll affect his movements.

“Please make sure to barely miss him, Miss Dialugia,” I requested.

- I’m doing my best…

Kim Hyun-Sung was bound to lose his focus the more exhausted he became, and his sharp senses would dull as well.

‘I guess it’s about time I tell them to withdraw.’

He was breathing heavily, and he looked like he was pushing himself to go beyond his limits.

I would have given him time to rest because a catch-and-release method was one of the most efficient methods to fight in a war, but it was absolutely impossible to make Kim Hyun-Sung retreat.

Seeing that, I started fixing my outfit and mask.

‘That’s my sign to enter...’

Lee Ji-Hye wasn’t telling me to enter through the crumbling walls.

I was sure that the crumbling walls would serve as a distraction for the Continental Union troops, so I would enter Lindel from the other side. I had the Plague Dragon, so a wall was useless against me.

Anyway, my plan was to enter Lindel from the northwest, where the anti-air defense systems were disabled.

“Don’t forget to act like you have an actual plague. The script says that you have to roar after descending. I want you to roaaaar or make a sound similar to that,” I told her.

- Please…

“Okay, let’s take out the roaring part. It’s unfortunate, so just please howl louder than usual,” I said.

- Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much.

The stage was great, and it had been four hours since the battle began. Things had progressed quite faster than expected, but it was all because everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally.

The aces of the Continental Union, like Cha Hee-Ra and the members of the Blue Guild, were currently fighting the high priests. The anti-air troops were missing from the northwestern wall, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to make my entrance.

I left the situation room and wore my half-mask. I couldn’t let the public see the disgraceful sight of me struggling to climb on top of Dialugia, so Dialugia lowered her head in dissatisfaction, which allowed me to easily climb on top of her.

- Graaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!

It seemed that she really didn’t want to roar because she howled even louder than usual. When all eyes landed on us, Dialugia flapped her wings and soared into the skies of Lindel.

I could see the despair on their faces. It was a bit funny to see them staring at us in disbelief, but I could understand their feelings. After all, there were people here who were seeing Dialugia’s current appearance for the first time.

There was a loud boom as Dialugia landed on Lindel’s city square. It had been quite a while since Lindel was invaded by enemies, but this time, the invader was much more powerful than any other previous invaders.

The Plague Dragon crushed the Blue Guild’s Guild House and swept her large tail across the city square, devastating everything. She then climbed up the tall clock tower using her large claws and roared at mankind’s small but burning ember.

- Roaaaaaaaaaaaar!

‘I thought you weren’t going to roar?’