Chapter 364: The King Who Kills Others, The God Who Kills Himself (18) |
The path in front of the Golden Lord crumbled, creating a trail for Peru.
She, who wielded the power of Wither, spurred her mount forward.
Her body was tossed around on the galloping Aurea, but she still shouted in a strained voice.
“…Golden Lord!”
Even at that moment, Peru bore no hostility towards him.
If anything, her stance resembled that of a loyal subject risking her life to oppose her king’s rash decision.
The Golden Lord was the Divine of Alchemy, the undisputed ruler who had established the very structure of the Fallen Dominion.
Whether willingly or not, he was the origin, teacher, and deity to all alchemists—including Peru, despite her power to deny alchemy.
In truth, her devotion to alchemy ran so deep that it had led her up to this point.
She shouted, hoping to bring him back to his senses.
“…Please reconsider! The people are not guilty of any crimes!”
But her plea did not reach him.
The Golden Lord acknowledged Peru’s presence, but only because her power posed a significant threat.
To him, she was a destroyer who possessed the power to wipe out his vision of the Golden Empire.
She was a top priority to eliminate.
Shifting his focus to her, he unleashed his godlike might for the sole purpose of eradicating one individual.
As Peru charged toward the city, a massive structure of pitch-black steel emerged along her path.
Its circular shape and ominous presence made it impossible to discern its purpose.
Even I couldn’t identify it, leaving me on high alert.
The thoughts of the Golden Lord were unreadable.
But… my primal instincts still warned of danger.
Peru must have sensed it too, as she directed her ability at the dark structure.
The Wither power began corroding the steel from its edges, but the moment her ability touched it, the black surface reacted violently—expanding outward as if exploding.
“Be careful!”
The Regressor shouted urgently, but it was too late.
The black sphere detonated with force far exceeding even the Fireblastarch’s Unique Magic.
Waves of pressure visibly rippled outward as the sphere expelled its contents—a deluge of sharp steel fragments.
Hundreds of thousands of shards scattered in every direction, each carving its own trajectory as they rained down on the ground.
Death blotted out the sun.
The razor-sharp rain of steel shredded everything it touched.
While most of the shards harmlessly struck the ground, the remaining few were more than enough to claim countless lives.
Even as Peru used her power, it would only dull their sharpness slightly. It could not stop their speed or weight.
The sound was deafening, like torrential rain hammering the earth.
Those caught in the storm had parts of their bodies ripped apart.
Dholes fleeing the city met a grim end under the deadly downpour.
Against a Divine’s wrath, the lives of ordinary people disappeared like garbage in the wind.
It was a horrific tragedy.
What made it even worse was that all this death was merely collateral damage.
The Golden Lord’s sole target was Peru.
The steel rain fell with unmatched intensity over Peru’s head.
It was as if drops of water were pouring out from a bursting balloon.
Without any special equipment or defenses, she had no means to block it.
Even Aurea, startled, raised its front legs in fear—but what good would it do?
The shards closed in to end Peru’s life.
Then—
“Woof.”
Azzy darted in like the wind.
With fur bristling, Azzy took the brunt of the steel rain head-on.
While the shards were deadly enough to kill humans, they were far from sufficient to harm Azzy.
Thanks to her being on horseback, even the deflected fragments bouncing off the ground spared Peru from harm.
In that fleeting moment of assistance, death just brushed past her.
Peru, saved by sheer luck, whispered her gratitude to Azzy.
“…Th-thank you.”
“…Woof.”
But Azzy’s expression was grim.
The Dog King stared blankly at the distant scene of humans dying en masse.
For a creature that loved humans, it was a harrowing sight.
While Peru faltered, the Regressor charged forward and landed in front of her, shouting.
“Witherarch! Stay alert! There’s more coming!”
A second attack from the Golden Lord followed immediately.
The fallen steel shards darkened and began to crumble, transforming into a cloud of dust that rose into the air like smoke.
Carried by the wind, the powder spread rapidly, obscuring our vision.
The Witherarch’s power could easily break down structures, but it was less effective at countering particles this small.
Breaking apart the dust was easy. Dissipating it, however, was another matter.
The fact that the Golden Lord targeted Peru’s weaknesses so much suggested he saw her as a significant threat.
“Is he trying to block our vision? Damn, and it’s iron dust!”
The Seven Colored Eyes couldn’t see through metal.
While the Regressor grumbled, I felt vibrations in the ground and shouted urgently.
“Mr. Shei, something’s coming!”
“I know! Terra Firma Art: Furious Strike!”
Through the storm of steel came a massive iron sphere.
The Regressor reacted instantly, striking it with Jizan.
A deafening clang rang out, and the sphere—larger than a person—was sent flying like a baseball.
For a moment, silence reigned, but then the ground began to tremble, the quakes growing in number until they were impossible to count.
“Mr. Shei! There are hundreds more rolling toward us!”
“Tch! The Golden Lord must feel personally threatened now. He’s throwing everything he has at us. We need to regroup for now!”
If this were the Golden Lord that role-played back in the Golden Palace, he might have relied on his homunculi for combat.
But the current Golden Lord wielded all the Unique Magic of the Primarchs by himself.
The scale and complexity of his powers were unmatched, surpassing all the other Primarchs combined.
Without Peru’s Wither nullifying much of it, the projectiles and spheres would’ve been far deadlier.
What the Regressor endured in the previous timeline to survive this level of assault remains a mystery.
How did she live through it?
I still don’t know.
The Regressor grabbed Aurea’s reins, but Peru held fast, refusing to move.
“…There are still people there.”
“Peru, focus. Anyone who could escape has already fled. The rest… it’s too late.”
Those left in the city couldn’t run—either because they lacked mounts or had been critically injured and abandoned.
There was nothing more we could do for them.
Peru understood this logically
However, she couldn’t accept it emotionally.
Her determination wavered, though her heart remained resolute.
Noble sentiments alone wouldn’t suffice. I delivered a cold dose of reality.
“You’re free to charge into the Golden Palace without a plan or resources if you like, Peru. That’s your choice, but remember this.”
The Fallen Dominion wasn’t built on unity or loyalty.
Few cared about saving this fragmented nation. Furthermore, only Peru had the strength and will to try.
If Peru died, the Fallen Dominion would truly be finished.
No one—not even the Regressor—could stop the Golden Lord after that.
“If you fail, Peru, the devastation in Claudia will be hundreds of times worse than this. Be pragmatic.”
If you can assign value to an object, you can assign value to a life.
Peru, a citizen of the Fallen Dominion, instinctively calculated the worth.
A few dozen lives already as good as lost?
Or the countless children and the foundation for their future in Claudia?
It was no contest.
The latter outweighed the former.
Claudia wasn’t the entirety of the Fallen Dominion, but losing it would erase the Fallen Dominion’s future.
Peru lowered her head and turned Aurea around.
The nervous mount, sensing its master’s resolve, obediently followed.
While the Regressor covered us, Tyr shrouded us in shadows, shielding us from the Golden Lord’s sight.
Once his focus shifted, the attacks ceased.
From a safe distance, the Golden Lord returned to his “city mopping,” and within minutes, all thoughts emanating from the city disappeared.
Not that there had been many to begin with.
Finally distanced from the Golden Lord, we had a moment to catch our breath.
Unlike Peru, Aurea hadn’t been completely shielded by Azzy and was riddled with steel fragments.
Peru dismounted and gently stroked the injured horse.
While trained horses can survive being pierced by shards without fatal consequences, wounds were still wounds.
A full-speed run was out of the question.
Examining Aurea, I remarked dryly.
“Even if we retreat now, it’s pointless without a way to stop the Golden Lord. The horse is hurt—what now? If Peru is to catch up to the Golden Lord, she’ll need a mount…”
Does she have to ride Azzy?
It’s possible, but I doubt a dog would let a human on its back.
While I mulled it over, Peru muttered softly.
“…The Golden Ark.”
“Huh?”
Peru placed the lives of the Dholes on one side of the scale and Claudia’s fate on the other.
Primarchs might deceive the scales in their alchemy, but that only applies to their craft.
Peru made the hard choice and the scales tipped honestly.
But that didn’t mean the lighter side vanished without a trace.
Peru would carry the weight of the abandoned, the lives sacrificed for her decision.
A king who takes lives must use them as foundation to nourish both themselves and their kingdom, no matter how repugnant it may seem.
That is the burden of a king.
Freedom from responsibility belongs only to the Divine.
The Golden Lord, already dead, bore no such burden.
Peru, on the other hand, had chosen.
To fulfill her duty, to those sacrificed by her decision, she sought a sliver of hope to stop the Golden Lord.
It wasn’t perfect.
It might fail.
But even in its imperfection, Peru reached out for that slim possibility and with unwavering resolve, she turned to me and made her demand.
“…With the Golden Ark, I can reach the Golden Lord. Help me.”
For her country, she asked me to die alongside her.
Of course, I have no intention of dying.
I’m just a beast, and every human has wished to be like me at some point.
What kind of foolhardy beast walks willingly into a lion’s den?
“The Golden Ark is a Juggernaut built by the Golden Lord. How do you plan to oppose him with that? Are you going to ram him?”
“…Yes.”
I love this plan.
If it weren’t reckless, it wouldn’t be worthy of a beast.
Fine, I’ll help—so long as I don’t have to die.
***
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