Once called the Branch Master of Jade Rust, and from now on destined to be called the Golden Branch Master—though that too was uncertain. So simply Peru being Peru, she trembled at the tragedy unfolding before her eyes.
Values are crumbling. The principle of value that once delighted her, drove her to despair, and became her faith now proclaims tragedy. The Thunder Guardians are losing their lives like Alchemy Guards engulfed in Jade Rust.
"...Gone."
Even counting only the dead, there are already dozens. The wounded number around a hundred, but they are all bleeding from wounds that will not close. At this rate, the tragic statistic where the number of casualties equals the number of fatalities would become reality.
"...This can't be."
Since life must be removed from a human to make a corpse, a corpse is worth less than a human. A simple calculation, but precisely that clear. So clear that one cannot ignore or confuse it even if they wanted to.
Though the appearance of the vampire had given them a chance to flee, Peru wanted to use that precious respite for the values she believed in.
Peru staggered to her feet. Compared to the vampire, her appearance was so fragile it was pitiful, but Peru did not care. With trembling hands, she did what she could.
Grasping the Golden Bell, she shook it with earnest heart.
"...O Golden Mirror."
Jingle—the small bell chimed in response to Peru's will.
Unbelievably, Runken was winning his match against the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut's advance had halted at some point, and the front wheels that were trying to crush Runken were slightly lifted off the ground, spinning uselessly. Runken, having become utterly confident, shouted.
"Ku-ha-ha-ha! Light as a feather—!"
Blood circulated violently through his body. His powerful hind legs swelled like those of a beast. For a normal human, these would be signals the body emits right before death, but for Runken who had died once before, they were proof of life. The closer to death, the more he reclaimed life—a true berserker.
Blood-armored Runken pushed back the Juggernaut, drenched in blood. A mass of iron comparable to the weight of Mount Tai defied gravity. Runken was literally radiating power to uproot mountains and overturn heaven and earth.
The Thunder Guardians screamed. The Juggernaut, the essence of alchemy, and Claudia's thunder. The combination of the two was being overwhelmed by a single Elder. Along with the Juggernaut, their faith was about to be overturned. Runken made a meal of the humans' terror and screams and took another step forward....
At that moment, Runken heard the small bell chime. He paused to listen to the alien sound spreading through the chaotic battlefield.
The Juggernaut activated.
Every Juggernaut is a work of the Golden Mirror. It is the pinnacle of alchemy that draws out the branch master's unique demon path to its极限. When the Iron Worm Branch Master who owned the Juggernaut died and his legacy was modified, the Thunder Guardians could only produce less than thirty percent of its original performance. However, the Golden Mirror, the progenitor of alchemy, can manifest their unique demon paths.
It is not using the dead branch master's unique demon path. It is reproducing the exact same function and performance of that unique demon path through alchemy. The progenitor of alchemy makes it possible.
The heart of the Juggernaut, which had died with its former master, beat again. When the Juggernaut moved on its own, the Thunder Guardians were greatly flustered. But probably not as much as Runken.
The Juggernaut, which had been rolling on wheels, suddenly stretched out like a caterpillar and slammed down to crush Runken's body. Blood splattered from beneath the iron carriage.
At the same time, Cabila slipped.
Cabila had been sitting on the Dragon Fang Soldiers as a chair, watching the massacre. While she elegantly partook of blood, the Dragon Fang Soldiers supporting her disappeared. Cabila felt gravity in a different sense than Runken and fell to the ground.
Cabila, who fell flat on her backside, wore a flustered expression. She hadn't withdrawn her power, so who had destroyed the Dragon Fang Soldiers from such a distance? She didn't question or feel wary of the unknown force....
"How dare you make me look unsightly...!"
Enraged by the mere fact that she had fallen on her backside, Cabila surveyed her surroundings. The Dragon Fang Soldiers crumbled powerlessly, and the Thunder Guardians roared as they charged at Cabila. However, mere underlings didn't even enter Cabila's eyes. Cabila's senses, sensitive to magical power, discovered Peru beyond them.
Peru, holding the Golden Bell, was the beginning of all these changes. Realizing this, Cabila extended her arm and shouted.
"The price for breaking my Dragon Fang Soldiers—I'll squeeze your blood to fill it!"
Cabila, aiming at Peru, clapped her hands sharply with a piercing cry.
The Thunder Guardians, who were finally about to attack Cabila past the Dragon Fang Soldiers—the bone fragments and blood scattered at their feet exploded. Hundreds of bone fragments scattered, trying to pierce holes in human bodies.
However, the bone fragments quickly lost their qi, and their bursting momentum was weaker than calculated. The power of Jade Rust had eroded even the explosive force. The bone fragments couldn't penetrate the Thunder Guardians' rebound qi barrier and bounced off.
"Aaaargh! So annoying!"
While stomping her feet like a child, Cabila assessed the situation with instinctive coolness. She didn't know exactly what that power was, but it was breaking everything from the Dragon Fang Soldiers to the spears the Thunder Guardians were carrying. A collapse that didn't distinguish between friend and foe. Cabila considered it a power that neutralized weapons, which was a somewhat reasonable deduction. If so, the countermeasure was simple. She just needed to attack directly with her body.
However, not wanting to move directly, Cabila shouted toward Runken.
"Runken! Now there's finally a use for you! Grab that bitch!"
"To interfere in a cowardly fight—!"
Runken, who had suffered a crushing defeat against the Juggernaut and crawled out, charged blindly with his eyes rolled back. The Juggernaut hurriedly pursued, but it was too slow. Originally, that was because Runken had been engaging in a contest of strength he didn't need, but with similar strength and a body hundreds of times lighter, Runken was fast enough that the Juggernaut couldn't catch him. In the blink of an eye, he reached right in front of Peru. The startled Peru inhaled sharply.
"Branch Master of Jade Rust...!"
A Thunder Guardian blocked his path. It was because he had instinctively realized that Peru's power was the only way out. Ironically, that led to an action inviting death, but the Thunder Guardian thrust his spear at Runken.
It was a feeble resistance. Runken snorted and charged as if being hit by the spear didn't matter. Whether the spear hit or not, Runken would have trampled both Peru and the Thunder Guardian in an instant.
If only an interference hadn't come from the side.
Runken was shot down. An unidentified attacker struck Runken's flank hard, causing his body to bend sharply. The attacker didn't stop there but pushed further, sending Runken's body flying far away.
While rolling as one mass, the attacker bit down hard on Runken's shoulder and tossed him around. Like a beast.
"Hrrrrgh!"
Even while upside down and confused, Runken clenched his fist. He extended his thick arm and struck the attacker's abdomen twice with tremendous force. Yet when the force biting his shoulder didn't loosen, he grabbed the attacker's leg, prepared to tear off his own shoulder entirely, and slammed him down. Bang. The attacker, crashing to the ground on his back, yelped and rolled across the ground.
Ears and a tail that were clearly different from a human's. A dog therianthrope. But rather, this only left questions. What kind of dog therianthrope could send Elder Runken, the strongest boar therianthrope and the terror of humanity, flying like a toy?
In the meantime, Runken widened his eyes and saw the therianthrope who had attacked him. Runken, who instinctively recognized the opponent's identity, roared joyfully at facing his rival.
"King of Dogs—!"
Ptui. Azi, who spat out the vampire's blood, howled as if in displeasure.
"Awooooooooo—!"
"You're my rival! Good, you should be at least that much!"
All therianthropes are descendants of the Beast King. Creations born from the terrible sin committed by Martial Empress Agarta long ago. It must be because of their roots that therianthropes feel inexplicable longing when seeing the Beast King.
However, such emotions were far from Runken. Runken's blood had undergone an irreversible change long ago. Runken raised his blood qi to the maximum and shouted at Azi.
"My king is not you—!"
"Woof! Grrrrr!"
In response, Azi also growled violently.
He turns away from fights between humans. He doesn't interfere because he can't let either side be hurt. But he applies a harsher standard to vampires. Is it because vampires are alien, or because they won't be hurt no matter what?
Because he loves all humans, the King of Dogs joined the battle to stop the tragedy of humans dying.
Azi and Runken fought, tearing up everything around them. Every time their bodies collided, it sounded like beating a house-sized drum. When Azi tore off Runken's limbs and crushed the bones, Runken smashed Azi's head with his remaining limbs. When the enduring Azi tried to tear apart his body by crushing it with his front paws, the newly regenerated arm swept across and sent his flank flying. Both of them, soaked in blood, clashed again. Ferocity and madness raged like a storm.
If Runken had been a little more cunning, or a little more cowardly, the fight would have ended quickly. If he had just picked up any human nearby and used them as a shield, Azi wouldn't have been able to do anything. But Runken stubbornly fought. As if the fight itself was a blessing to him.
The Red Blood Duke Valdamir understood the situation but didn't stop Runken. All Elders are equal. Just as children of different heights are the same to their parents, among the Elders who received true blood directly from the Progenitor, there may be an order but no ranking. Since that was Runken's life and death, Valdamir respected him.
Instead, he asked the Thunder Branch Master he held in his hand.
"King of Dogs. A pitiful being who becomes powerless just by using humans as shields. That can't be the move you've prepared. What else is there?"
[Y-You... mere vampire...!!]
"Pointless question."
There was no need to ask. If he intended to kill, he would know immediately. If the prepared move didn't appear, he could just die as is.
Valdamir immediately put his thoughts into action. Like chopping a chicken's neck, he gripped the Thunder Branch Master's neck tightly and swung his greatsword with his other hand. A greatsword as large as a person tried to cleave the Thunder Branch Master's body.
"Heaven Sword Technique, Lightning Strike!"
At that moment, a bolt of lightning fell. Lightning taken from the Thunder God struck both the Thunder Branch Master and Valdamir. Power to the Thunder Branch Master, an attack to Valdamir. He could have taken it with his body, but after briefly hesitating, Valdamir changed the direction of his sword and deflected the attack.
"Is this it? What you've prepared?"
The regressor, Shei, was still confused. The situation that had flowed without her knowing was spiraling out of control. Tirkanjaka and Peruel were fighting, and right after, the vampire of the Mist Principality attacked Claudia. Perhaps both could have become allies—she couldn't reconcile them, but she could have mediated between them so they wouldn't encounter each other until the King of Sin was defeated. The picture she had drawn in her head turned to foam and vanished.
But that's okay. Shei, she is a regressor. She just needs to learn more and do better in the next iteration with that information. Then, in this iteration...
"...Red Blood Duke. Don't act rashly and wait for Tirkanjaka. We can still turn this around."
Even without knowing anything, she does what she believes is best right now. Shei intervened to stop the fight first.