Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 28: The Priest of Regeneration [Part 2]
Why had Lizred said that the flames might be stronger than Dragon’s Breath? Why had Ren appeared here, and how had he erased the wave of power that Vayne and the others had struggled to withstand?
They stood in the vast temple’s open colonnade. Wind from Windea blew in through the rows of pillars and stirred the seven students’ hair.
“Is it Ren?”
“Yeah.”
Perhaps Vayne was simply rattled. He had been so focused on how badly he and his companions were hurt that he had not been able to think clearly—much less process the strength Ren had just displayed.
“He’s dangerous…”
“Oh I know.”
Vayne and the others should have been able to defeat Orphide. Ren could not help wondering why the priest was standing again.
“But don’t worry.”
Ren answered briefly, with a smile.
But the smile soon vanished.
“Leave the rest to me.”
As Ren turned from Vayne toward Orphide, the smile disappeared from his face.
To Vayne, the expression on his classmate’s face was unlike anything he had ever seen before. This was Ren not merely as a classmate, but as a Sword Saint.
Ren drove the Flame Magic Sword in his hand into the paving stones.
He drew the Mithril Magic Sword at his waist and stepped forward.
“…Who you are doesn’t really matter.”
Orphide snapped a leg through the air. A compressed mass of mana shot forward—far more destructive than the magic bullets he had used before he fell.
The projectile trembled as though it were shaking the space around it, flashing black and red.
Vayne tried to shout, “Ren!” but the word died in his throat.
Their classmate was showing them a side of himself none of them had ever seen on a battlefield.
“…I’m curious about why you got back up, too.”
It was almost like an unexpected event battle.
In Legend of the Seven Heroes, Ren Ashton had occasionally appeared to aid Vayne’s party in a crisis. This was exactly that kind of moment.
Against Orphide’s attack, he showed no fear at all.
The Mithril Magic Sword swept sideways at a speed the eye could barely follow. Orphide’s magic bullet scattered like mist, astonishing the descendants of the Seven Heroes even more.
There was silence for a few seconds.
Vayne and the others were speechless at Ren’s strength. Orphide, newly revived, grew visibly more wary of the powerful stranger who had appeared before him.
Kaito was the one who finally broke the silence with a burst of disbelief.
“No way! Ashton, are you serious!? You—!”
He had tried to protect Ren, but his body did not move as he wanted it to, and he was momentarily delayed in his reaction.
But it was clearly unnecessary.
More than unnecessary—Kaito even felt that interfering carelessly might only get in Ren’s way.
“That uniform is from the Imperial Military Academy, right? Did you come to help your friends?”
“…That’s not all.”
Ren answered succinctly and moved.
The paving stones melted by Dragon’s Breath crumbled and rose into the air as mana gathered among the debris.
At the center of the violent torrent of mana, poised to erupt at any moment, was the Mithril Magic Sword.
Sanctuary Destroyer.
The technique once used by the Sword Demon was now in Ren’s hands.
“But I have one more thing I want to ask you!”
Ren brought down the Mithril Magic Sword, unleashing Sanctuary Destroyer at Orphide at the same time.
The descendants of the Seven Heroes could only stare at the overwhelming force Ren had released.
“………….”
Unable to block Sanctuary Destroyer completely, Orphide was hurled away. In the instant he lost track of Ren—
Ren’s presence appeared behind him.
The Demon King cult priest was seized by an emotion he had never felt while fighting Vayne and the others.
This was different from facing those seven.
An unmistakably superior opponent.
Even with his absolute regenerative ability, Orphide could not help acknowledging the threat posed by Ren’s attacks.
He tried to defend himself by covering both arms with magic, but the Mithril Magic Sword easily cut through Orphide’s magic without hindrance.
The slash drew a single line from Orphide’s neck to his lower abdomen. No blood flowed, and the wound vanished at once.
But the regeneration cost him heavily. He was expending far more mana than the visible wound alone suggested.
“I won’t hold back, Orphide.”
Sword of Authority—a special Art that only Sword Saints among Mighty Sword Style practitioners could wield. Its waves differed in color from user to user, and each wielder’s version was said to possess properties beyond sheer destructive power.
Ren’s Sword of Authority produced two colors: a pure silver-white reminiscent of Licia’s power and a jet black reminiscent of Fiona’s. The personal property of Ren’s version was still unknown, but its destructive power was exceptional.
Ren raised the Mithril Magic Sword.
“A student possesses this much power!?”
For Ren, this battle was about extracting information from Orphide.
He hoped to learn about the mysterious girl and perhaps get closer to the reason behind the tragedy in Legend of the Seven Heroes—the killing of the White Saint, Licia.
There was no need to hold back in this fight.
Silver-white and jet-black mana surged from the Mithril Magic Sword like lightning as Ren released its full power.
“Haaaaaaaah!”
With a roar, the torrent of power and the sword’s flash crashed toward Orphide.
Against Giant God’s Messenger Wadatsumi, this attack had carried enough force to nearly take his life in a single blow. Orphide could feel its overwhelming power, but even so, he had not expected it to threaten his life.
His regenerative ability was special. Vayne’s hero power had been exceptionally effective against it, but Ren’s power should have been different—or so Orphide had believed.
“Impossible…!”
But when it came to the Sword of Authority, it was a different story.
Ren still did not understand the nature of his own Sword of Authority, yet for some reason it affected Orphide’s regeneration just as Vayne’s power had.
The silver-white and jet-black force pouring from the Mithril Magic Sword carved multiple wounds across Orphide’s body.
Blood flowed—bright red blood.
“That is not the hero’s power… So why can you negate my power!?”
Orphide’s involuntary words caught Ren’s attention.
“…Maybe the only explanation is that I’m already using some kind of special power imbued with divinity.”
Chronois’s words from the headmaster’s office passed through Ren’s mind.
Divinity.
Divinity was also a property of the mana that had filled Roses Caitas. Apart from exceptions such as heroes, it was something a human could not house within their body through ordinary means.
It was a property equal or close to the mana of a god itself.
Without some special method, it simply could not be contained in a human body.
If Orphide’s regeneration was also imbued with divinity, that would at least help explain why it was so far outside normal limits.
Divinity was that far removed from common sense.
The hero’s power contained divinity of an especially high order, allowing it to contend with other divine powers.
But Ren had the impression that his Sword of Authority had denied Orphide’s divinity—just as Orphide himself had phrased it.
Could negating divinity be the special property of Ren’s Sword of Authority? It might even be a property superior to Mighty Sword Art: Star Slaying.
(Well, whatever it is.)
If it could suppress the enemy’s divinity, Ren had no reason to complain.
All he needed to think about now was stopping Orphide.
“The hero’s descendants—and you as well—were both beyond my expectations!”
“So what!?”
“I kept the Sword King, the Witch, and the director of the Lion’s Holy Office far away! I simply never imagined matters would still end like this!”
Having finished speaking, Orphide distanced himself from Ren.
And then the priest adjusted his glasses.
“Then I have no choice but to stake my life on proving my worth.”
Orphide pierced his own chest. Instead of red blood, black mana began pouring from the hole like mist.
Orphide spread his arms wide, looking up at the sky.
He was about to do something.
Just before Ren could step in to stop him, Orphide’s power raced across the paving stones faster than the wind, burst out of the colonnade, and spread into the square. It began eroding Windea’s natural power—even its water.
Ren swept the Mithril Magic Sword through the black mist.
“Darker than night—become darkness.”
Orphide’s mana made the evening sky darker still. The Demon King cult mark between his collarbone and chest spread across his entire body.
He was literally burning away his life, combining every bit of power it produced with the Demon King’s power sealed within the cult’s mark. The resulting mana was vast enough to make all of Windea tremble.
“Ashton-kun! The mana around us…!”
Nemu stared at the readings on her magic tool. The mana of wind and water was changing, gradually becoming a corrupting miasma that could eat away at people and the land.
Seeing this, Squall used his magic and said.
“…Are you trying to destroy Windea itself?”
“Kufufu… This is a place overflowing with sacred power. Let us make the end suitably magnificent.”
The Demon King cult priest raised his fists for the final stage of the battle.
As they fought, Windea continued to transmit tremors from within.
It was easy to imagine what would happen if this continued.
Considering that Windea was known as Where Water and Wind Sleep, the damage would surely spread into the surrounding terrain as well. It might transform the landscape as drastically as the Baldor Mountains at the climax of Legend of the Seven Heroes I.
Ren had an idea. He looked back at Vayne and the others, confirming that they had recovered somewhat, though fighting was still clearly difficult for them.
“Vayne, look over there.”
The floor at the rear of the temple had broken open, revealing a staircase descending underground. It was a hidden stairway that appeared only on the night of Water Saint’s Day when Vayne approached; on any other day, there would be nothing there but paving stones. It had appeared only minutes ago, and no one had noticed it yet.
“What is that…?”
“It looks like his power has seeped underground. I want you to go down and see what’s happening.”
He said it simply, though to the exhausted seven it must have sounded like another lash of the whip. Ren was not asking merely because he needed help; he was also thinking about what lay ahead for Vayne and the others.
“What are you going to do, Ren!?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Ren charged forward.
If Vayne and the others were going down those stairs, Ren had to keep Orphide from spreading any more of that evil power.
He brought the Sword of Authority to bear and swung the Mithril Magic Sword at the transformed priest.
When Orphide caught the Mithril Magic Sword on both arms, a high metallic clang rang out. The priest’s combat ability had risen several levels beyond what it had been before.
“Hurry!”
Ren kept insisting that he would fight alone, urging the hesitant seven onward.
Miasma chased Vayne and the others as they moved toward the staircase, but a swing of Vayne’s sword erased it. Vayne looked back at Ren once more on the way down, then disappeared below with his companions.
Orphide, who was ready to fight to the death, shouted.
“Is there something beneath those stairs?”
“I don’t know! I’ve never seen it before!”
“But your voice sounded so confident!”
As sword and fist clashed again and again, the black shadow covering Windea continued to spread. Orphide was now using almost all of his regenerative power purely for the battle. He had stopped considering what might come afterward and devoted everything to killing Ren here and now.
A sharp and swift punch grazed Ren’s side.
The blow had only grazed him, yet the impact was tremendous. Ren’s face tightened, but he endured it.
Orphide’s black power spread into the temple square. Miasma crawled toward the sacred spring, threatening the holy water, and even the water seeping from the surrounding mountainside and rock was being contaminated.
Ren tried to stop it all while continuing to fight. Defeating Orphide as quickly as possible was one part of it, but another thought had entered his mind: the Water Magic Sword.
It wasn’t like he was trying to think about anything unnecessary during the battle.
Something seemed to call to him from deep inside, and the answer that came to mind was the Water Magic Sword.
(I should be able to do something…!)
It was power left by the Goddess of Water, and Windea was a land imbued with her power. Perhaps this Magic Sword could protect the land’s water and mana.
Ren summoned the Water Magic Sword into the air and gripped it tightly.
Orphide frowned upon seeing the newly appeared sword.
Ignoring Orphide’s reaction, Ren drove the Water Magic Sword into the paving stones.
“This is…”
Orphide’s voice was filled with surprise.
Clear, faintly blue water spread outward from Ren’s feet like a thin curtain across the stone floor.
“Show your power!”
Ren commanded.
“Oh? You can use water magic as well!?”
The water rapidly purified the corruption Orphide had spread.
A beautiful, shimmering film of water soon covered the entire floor of the colonnade.
Ripples spread every time Ren or Orphide stepped across it. The water itself moved as though it were a servant of water-aspected mana.
Ren pulled the Water Magic Sword free and slid its tip across the surface. Glowing ripples followed the blade, making it obvious even to Orphide that this was no ordinary water.
It was even stopping the waters flowing through Windea from being polluted.
Orphide kicked off the paving stones and lunged. He closed the distance before a ripple could even form where he had been standing.
As Orphide swung a fist to release another wave, Ren raised the Water Magic Sword.
“Haaah!”
Ren had been certain the blade itself could block the attack even without any special effect, but as he swung, something unexpected happened.
“This is…?”
“Kukuku! I’ve never seen water magic like this before!”
Water surged up from the paving stones as Ren raised the sword. A vivid blue wall formed in front of him, separating him from Orphide.
The water wall swayed in the wind and looked far too soft to withstand a physical blow. Yet it was remarkably resilient, much like the water barrier once used by Giant God’s Messenger Wadatsumi. It blocked Orphide’s wave of mana, then collapsed back into the water covering the floor.
Droplets drifted down on the breeze, sparkling in the starlight. Ren and Orphide met each other’s gaze through the fantastical scene.
…I cannot allow someone with this much combat power to leave alive.
…At this rate, we’ll fight until one of us falls.
There would be no chance to interrogate Orphide after the fight was over. If Ren wanted answers, he would have to ask while they were still locked in this one-on-one battle.
Wary of the water, Orphide retreated onto a massive piece of rubble and looked down at Ren.
“Orphide.”
If Ren wanted to ask, now was the time. He was certain that another chance would never come if they kept fighting.
“Do you know a silver-haired girl with black streaks in her hair?”
“…!”
Orphide answered with both his words and his reaction. “Why… do you know of that person…?” he muttered, staring deep into Ren’s eyes as though trying to read his intent.
As Ren had suspected, Orphide knew her. He unmistakably knew the girl from Ren’s dreams.
“Where is she!?”
“Where is she, you say?”
“Yes!”
“…Hah.”
It began with a short laugh.
“Haaah-hahahaha! I do not know where you learned of that person, but to say you wish to meet her—”
Composure returned to Orphide’s face. His strange smile held both madness and fierce resolve.
“How extraordinarily arrogant of you.”
Starlight flashed across Orphide’s glasses, hiding his eyes. At that moment, a small gemstone fell from his clothing.
Unlike in Legend of the Seven Heroes, there was a reason Orphide had been able to stand again. During a recent attack on a temple in another country, he had obtained a sacred relic: a rare healing gemstone capable of restoring vitality almost instantly.
It dropped from his trouser pocket.
The gem sank into the water spread across the floor and sent out a ring of ripples.
Ren realized that this sacred relic was probably what had allowed Orphide to return to the fight.
“I have a question of my own.”
“…For me?”
“Yes. You were the one who removed the Ring of the Goddess of Water, weren’t you?”
His tone sounded certain, but Orphide possessed very little information. It was ultimately intuition.
Ren certainly was not going to answer yes. He remained silent and refused to engage, but that silence only made Orphide’s suspicion feel more real.
Who had created this situation? Who had driven him this far into a corner?
The priest arrived at an answer amid the fantastical colonnade covered in water.
“You people… No.”
He remembered how unnaturally fast Leomel had reacted throughout the attacks, then considered the water power Ren had just displayed.
There could be no other answer.
“You have driven us far more thoroughly into a corner today than I ever imagined.”
Within the fantastical, water-covered colonnade, Orphide finally understood what kind of mastermind had been behind everything that happened that day.