Chapter 523: Conservation
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
“Long time no see! Or should I call you Conservation now?”
The soul vision between us was mutual. I had immediately identified Conservation as Zero through her familiar soul wavelengths. But right now, she was a troublesome individual that I really didn’t want to see.
“Indeed, long time no see. But if at all possible, I would have preferred not to meet you here… Yongye.”
Soul conversations felt rather subtly strange. Her voice managed to directly reach me despite the great distance between us. She also appeared in the far distance at the end of my soul vision, making it seem like the entire world livened up.
The gra.s.s was green and the clouds were white. But, everything seemed even more vivid than usual, just as if someone had given the scenery another coat of paint. As Conservation stood there, the entire world became brighter in color.
She was sitting on top of a tremendous bone giant, which was the size of a mountain. On top of this behemoth bone giant’s head was a tremendous throne made of bone. Conservation sat there quietly as her ancient clothing which resembled both royal style and a mage robe casually flowed in the wind.
Although Conservation’s size was nothing more than an ant’s in comparison to the bone giant she rode on, all attention was on her instead. n.o.body paid attention to the giant undead creature she rode on. This wasn’t because of anything as ethereal as her aura or physical appearance. This was her specialty that she had been born with.
“…How truly ridiculous.”
Her appearance seemed almost perfect but for a slight flaw. Her soft and tender skin seemed split right down the middle, with the left half of her skin being pure white, while the right half was bright red. The left half of her hair was silver, while the right half of her hair was a fiery red.
As for her physical appearance, if she didn’t want anyone to know about it, no mortal would possibly be able to even directly view her.
Seeing Conservation like this, my eyes immediately transformed without me even needing to intentionally use my ability.
One of my eyes remained as a normal black pupil with eye white, but the other became a white pupil with eye black, making my eyes seem like two halves of a Yin Yang diagram. My Stare of the h.e.l.l G.o.d ability could see through any soul and its original form.
This strongest natural talent ability of mine was something I had only obtained after a.n.a.lyzing and dissecting Zero’s astral projection, which I’d captured in our previous battle. Her understanding of energy as well as the world had given me the foundational theoretical understanding required to bestow my eyes with this ability.
“…She’s even stronger than Aso was. No, Aso isn’t even close to her level anymore.”
However, I wasn’t the only one who benefited from our previous battle. It seemed likely that Zero (now Conservation) had benefited even more than I had.
Since I had dissected her astral projection at that time, it was only natural that I could a.s.sess her power level back then. The last time I’d met her, she wasn’t anywhere close to being this powerful.
In my soul vision, her existence appeared as overwhelming as if she was the sun which shone over everything, and just the radiance she gave off caused all the scenery around her to be painted with her colors. The quality of one’s soul and how strong you would be as an undead were directly proportional. And, from what I could see, Conservation’s soul’s potential seemed to be almost limitless.
Of course, it was impossible for any existence to have truly infinite energy potential. That would violate one of the most fundamental basic natural laws in Eich. Yet, there were always special existences out there that were capable of violating such maxims.
“Undead Emperors have no upper limit to their power level! It’s possible for them to be at any power level. But, Zero’s incarnation was clearly nowhere near this power level when we lost fought. This is too ridiculous! She’s basically, basically…”
“…At a Main G.o.d’s power level.”
The silly cat’s a.n.a.lysis was absolutely correct. It would take a Main G.o.d’s power level to be able to break the fundamental natural laws of the world. And, judging from the pressure that Conservation was able to give me just by sitting there quietly, she was in no way any weaker than the Main G.o.ds that had fought against me back in h.e.l.l.
“Astrya, how could the mortal plane allow a Main G.o.d level existence to descend here! What’s going on with the dimensional protection system?”
[I can no longer sense Cynthia’s existence. All the dimensional laws have become chaotic now that she is missing and likely dead. Don’t treat previous dimensional laws as ironclad maxims anymore. Also, this Undead Emperor’s abilities are incredibly unique. I doubt that dimensional laws are capable of limiting her. Be careful. Since she’s now capable of magnifying her presence limitlessly, she can naturally make her presence infinitesimally small as well. She gained critical knowledge from you and took the most important step necessary to improve her power level.]
Although Astrya no longer had a physical body or most of her abilities, she still had her expert knowledge. Her a.n.a.lysis would be absolutely trustworthy. The current Conservation was probably the most difficult opponent I had ever met.
But even if I was facing a Main G.o.d, I had already prepared a trick up my sleeve, even if this time was like accidentally fis.h.i.+ng up a shark.
“Yongye, you’ve become weaker. The toys you’ve showed me this time are so embarra.s.sing to even bring out…”
While I was still hesitating, Conservation finally spoke up first. Her seemingly taunting words were actually stated in an incredibly calm tone. I could sense through my special soul vision that she didn’t mean to look down at me at all. She was simply stating it as a fact.
She was simply stating the facts—that I was weaker than she’d expected, that my Yongye City and half-finished Ice Aeon were only toys that weren’t anything in her eyes, that she didn’t consider me a worthy opponent.
‘d.a.m.n it, she’s just unintentionally bragging now! If I had her current power level, why would I need any tricks? I’d just push forward with overwhelming force.’
But even though that was what I was really thinking, I would never say such self-demoralizing things to my enemy out loud on the battlefield. Who cared even if I was nowhere near her power level? Even if I would lose a battle, I would never lose a verbal fight. It wouldn’t cost me anything to smack talk!
“Ahh, I really am so weak right now, but didn’t a certain Undead Emperor not dare to show herself until I finished my spell?”
I was confident that she had her reasons for only showing herself like this in front of me after all this time. The several dozen kilometer physical distance between us would be nothing to an Undead Emperor like her. It was likely that she had been calmly watching her cannon fodder being destroyed several times over, ascertaining that the current me was far weaker than an Undead Emperor’s standard before she finally decided to show up.
“Sly, cautious, well-prepared, with many backup plans. Those are all qualities that any Undead Emperors considered the heretical mortal enemies of all other dimensions should have. But, when such qualities appear in an enemy, not to mention if this enemy is far stronger than I am, it’s truly such a headache.”
While I was still thinking about how to deal with this, the humans of Starwood City had already begun panicking as Conservation had stated her last sentence that I was Yongye in a physical voice that everyone could hear. Although she had been stating my current weakness, “Yongye” and “Undead Emperor” were words that were far too influential on ordinary people.
I didn’t really have the time to manage the humans’ panic at this time due to the threat of Conservation right before me. However, it wouldn’t do to allow morale to be shaken and ma.s.s panic to spread.
“Idiots! Does it make a difference who the enemy is? And who cares about those ancient legends? He’s helping us right now, can’t you all see for yourselves?”
Salima’s angry roar echoed throughout the entire city. As she was now the highest-ranking commander of Starwood City, her support helped me to really calm down the situation.
Of course, many people would still be looking at me with fear or respect in their eyes. It would seem that I would need to contact the fairies later to ask them to spread some propaganda and help improve my reputation.
“Don’t even dream about it. Even today, Yongye is considered the scariest demon king in all the stories. It’s your fault for going too overboard back in the day.”
“…Tsk. Then, let’s make up a story to fool people that Yongye is dead now, and that I’m just an ordinary person who inherited his soul’s memories.”
“Would anyone believe such a ridiculous story?”
“In this day and age, as long as you’re willing to spend enough money, it’s quite normal to be able to change public opinion. Not to mention, all I’m doing is bending the truth.”
“…I feel like you’re insulting something from your previous world. I keep telling you that you’re constantly shooting yourself in the foot.”
I was able to relax slightly due to the banter with the silly cat. She had taken her elf form again, giving me her solid support. Perhaps my personal power level was indeed nowhere near Conservation’s now, but I had my mage tower, and Harloys who was equal to my power level helping me. And, Conservation was all by herself. If my guess was on the mark, this battle should be winnable.
“…Even if you’re stronger than me, are you certain that you’ll obtain the final victory? You contracted your body to fit into the cage of the mortal plane, but aren’t you afraid that you’ll use too much force and break the cage, directly being thrown out?”
Conservation didn’t reply. But, the undead armies that suddenly appeared were the best indicator of her att.i.tude.
Whenever two Undead Emperors fought each other, the clash between endless amounts of cannon fodder undead would only be the beginning.
At this moment, I finally started missing Amelia and Reyne, who were still who knew how far away right now. At the very least, the current Amelia and Reyne were probably highly capable fighters…
“That’s just how men are like. They only think of their women when they need help. But in all other times, they hide as far away from their women as possible. How heartless.”
[I agree.]
“Shut up! If you’re so free to gossip about me, why not try thinking of some idea to help me deal with this instead?”
———————————————————————————————————-
There was no light in the dark ruins apart from some dim direction indicators which were flas.h.i.+ng. This was because the residents here didn’t require any physical lighting to guide their vision.
Yet, this wasn’t an area where no life could survive as people had thought of these ruins. It was just that the residents here were rather unique.
“73242342342, A, 3452423… 22D34!”
“dsada2312, BB, 450!”
The mechanical residents here communicated with each other using a combination of numbers and letters rather than a typical language.
Most of these mechanical residents had strange outer appearance. They were widely varied, with guardian gargoyles, janitors, and children’s toys all appearing as mechanical puppets. But, right now, they were all communicating simply and efficiently, with only strange lights flas.h.i.+ng on their bodies and electrical sounds being constantly emitted.
They were currently busy working with metal and dragonbone. They were building war machines, with the strange mechanical and undead bone giant hybrid being the most common product. Some of their newer models no longer even resembled anything remotely humanoid.
There was a sword-wielding praying mantis with six arms, wielding a sword in each hand. There was a half war chariot and half skeleton general, with its entire lower body being strangely shaped like a large wheel plus two giant hands. As long as the design was effective enough, all sorts of slaughtering war machines were being created here.
No matter what this s.p.a.ce had been previously used for, it had now been developed into numerous independent works.p.a.ces for creating war machines. With many mechanical noises, countless strange and wondrous parts were brought here, and countless slaughtering machines left after being produced. No matter who it was that controlled these ruins right now, it was certain that existence was no pacifist.
“…If these things manage to reach the battlefield, we’ll probably have no more hope left.”
“Of course, you idiot. That’s why we’re here right now. We’re saving the world!”
In the pitch-black darkness of the ruins, some people were whispering to each other.
“If you don’t want to die here, shut up!”
Barton’s angry roar (in a whisper) successfully shut everyone up. He was making no empty threat, as everyone was currently within a clattering guardian gargoyle machine which was slowly walking amongst all these mechanical puppets.
It was only thanks to all the mechanical clamor around that the mechanical puppets hadn’t discovered these humans yet.
Timlad’s plan for infiltration had been quite simple yet effective. They caught a mechanical puppet, and Timlad reprogrammed it to follow his orders. Everyone hid within the mechanical puppet, and they would go as far down the Sky Tower in their new disguise as they possibly could.
What if they were discovered midway, or stopped and questioned? That wouldn’t matter then. They would go as far down as possible, and then fight the rest of the way down.
Although this plan seemed rather reckless, there was far too much unknown information about the ruins. A plan that tried to calculate too much or was too complex would actually be more likely to run into problems. This plan which could be adjusted as things went on would actually have a greater chance of success.
For the time being, this seemingly unreliable plan had worked quite well. Timlad had simply given the mechanical gargoyle everyone was riding in a command to go to the lowest level. Not a single mechanical puppet had tried to stop them even after reaching the tenth layer.
And even though some “people” occasionally stopped the mechanical gargoyle, it would also stop and gargle in that unknown machine language before being allowed to continue. The mechanical gargoyle didn’t even realize that there were humans within its stomach.
Naturally, this unexpectedly easy way down made everyone overjoyed. However, Barton was highly on guard with nerves constantly on end. Meanwhile, Timlad who had remained abnormally silent so far finally spoke up.
“It’s finally here.”
“What’s here?”
The next instant, Barton learned that he had asked for nothing. When their mechanical gargoyle transport turned around a corner and walked into an empty clearing, an array of magical cannons and other guardian gargoyles awaited everyone. This was a trap!
“…You must have known long ago!”
“Of course. You thought that it would be possible to enter the Sky Tower’s most highly guarded area by simply rewriting a single machine’s command? Ridiculous. We were discovered from the very start.”
Although it was too dark inside the mechanical gargoyle to see Timlad’s face, how proud he sounded made Barton really want to punch him right now.
“Then why did you bring us in here!”
“Why wouldn’t I? We have something that they want, so of course they’ll let us in. This is far easier than fighting our way past every level. These machines were far more patient than I’ve expected. They let us directly pa.s.s through ten levels without any hindrance, just as I planned. Hahahaha, I’m such a genius.”
Barton and the others could hardly believe that this legendary mythic hero was actually laughing so loudly and narcissistically about having pushed his allies into a pitfall. Mary, the mercenary from the Northlands, was the only one who sighed since she was the only one who already knew what Timlad was really like.
“…As expected of one of Beifeng’s best friends, who’s one of the highest-ups in the Gentlemen Alliance. Although Timlad is trustworthy, he won’t even hesitate to push allies into a pitfall.”
The moment that Timlad heard this, his proud expression instantly collapsed.
“Who said that! I don’t know who that b.a.s.t.a.r.d is. Don’t just make things up! If people think that I’m one of Beifeng’s followers, I’ll be burned alive! I’ll turn into a ghost and haunt you for eternity! Right, wasn’t Beifeng previously the general leader of the Gentlemen Alliance? That would make you into his subordinate…”
“…Please don’t go on anymore. That was the darkest history of our mercenary group that we have all decided to bury in the past. If you insist on saying this, you’ll be challenging the oath that the current twelve leaders of the Gentlemen Alliance swore.”
If Roland had been here, he would have surely asked what it was that Beifeng did so that one of Beifeng’s few friends, Timlad, didn’t even dare to admit to knowing him anymore, and why Beifeng’s former subordinates were doing their best to erase all traces of him.
“From today onwards, we don’t know who that person is.”
“Yep. He’s not from the Northlands at all.”
Alright then, even though everyone was under threat from the surrounding enemy, they actually reached an accord regarding this matter first…