Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator - Chapter 33
Chapter 33
The ancient empire had an advanced civilization.
There wasn’t enough time in a day to describe it fully, but it could be expressed in one sentence:
All of the cities of humankind were built on the remnants of the ancient empire.
The sentence held many meanings, but it also conveyed the fact that most cities were rebuilt upon the remnants of the empire’s cities.
It was only natural.
Facilities that were built with more advanced technology than the present had many benefits. From water pipes and sewage purification facilities to paved roads and sturdy walls and bridges still used by many today.
There was no reason not to use them. They were readily available, making it much more convenient to repair them a little rather than constructing a new one entirely.
The same applied to cities directly governed by the Reinharts—including Elle Round.
Underneath the city of Elle Round lay an underground waterway. Its vast expanse boasted a potential for the city’s expansion over the next several hundred years.
If someone were to hide there, it would be difficult to find them.
That certainty made the bandits let their guard down.
“We’re under attack! We’re—Kugh!”
They were supposed to be safe. Secretly hiding, unbeknownst to anyone else.
“Boss, boss! Hurry up and do something—Ack!”
“S-Spare me… I didn’t do anythi—”
Whack.
Their little raid was sure to end in success.
“What the fuck are you—Urk!”
It certainly would have…
“Get a grip! It’s only one person—”
“Boss! Hurry up and get rid of him!”
…If it weren’t for Allen.
Stab.
Allen hit the bandit’s head with a sword, smashing the skull into pieces and causing the brain to spill out. Entirely unaware of Allen’s approach, the bandit’s life ended just like that.
The blood splattered and soaked the face of the bandit next to him. Perhaps it was thanks to it that he was able to quickly raise his shield, but to no avail.
Stab!
Allen’s sword easily pierced through the shield like jelly, impaling the bandit’s head.
The thief was subdued before he was even able to get his words out.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Allen’s movements as he subdued the bandits were the same as when he had first acquired the sword.
He swung his arm, piercing through another shield.
Whoosh.
His body spun around and around, his sword drawing a circle faster than even an arrow could.
“Kugh. Cough, gasp.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaack!”
“M-My arm… Aaaaaaah!”
Disastrous. Each of the bandits had some combination of limbs cut off, causing them each to spew fountains of blood. Their groans echoed as their flesh was cut to chunks.
Allen felt somewhat dejected by his opponents, unable to even serve as decent practice partners.
‘Well, I beat those guys.’
No, it must have been because he had become too strong. To the point where most enemies would be no match for him.
Just as Allen was about to continue the bloodshed, a bandit shouted with a frightened expression before immediately turning away.
“I-I can’t do it. You never said there’d be a monster like this!”
“M-Me too!”
“Fuck treasure. My life comes first!”
The moment one of them started to run away, the others around him followed. Bandits had no sense of loyalty, so it was only natural.
Allen laughed as he watched them skitter away like a trail of ants.
“If I could just escape—”
‘Try to.’
Allen hit the ground hard, with all the strength in his body.
Thump!
“What? Huh?”
Suddenly stood face to face with Allen, the bandit who was first to run away wore a bewildered expression, baffled by what he had just seen.
However, regardless of what expression he was making, Allen grabbed him and pinned him to the ground.
Rumble!
The rest of the bandits stopped moving when they saw the person stuck into the ground. His head had been split open like an apple, showing its white flesh. The body that had lost its head convulsed slightly.
As the body slowly fell to the side, it was revealed that the upper body was crushed so severely that it was hard to recognize who he was.
“Aaaaaaaaaah! Spare me!”
“Boss! Please, please, please, boss, save us!”
They shouted for their leader, but they could no longer see where he had gone.
‘These guys are probably pretty well known out there…’
To Allen, they were no more important than stones rolling along the street.
He slowly came to realize how strong he’d become, so he didn’t feel the need to drag it on any longer.
‘I feel like I forgot something…’
⟬Hey, are you gonna practice with me or not? You promised me you’d learn swordsmanship!⟭
“Ah.”
‘That’s what it was.’
⟬I’ve been watching you a little bit, and you’re too sloppy with your movements! Move it! Show me what you’ve got!⟭
“Alright. Well, now that I found the bandits…”
It was time to take out the trash.
* * *
“I think I’m almost done…”
Allen looked around as he wiped the blood off his blade. Apart from maybe two or three bandits, he didn’t see any other survivors around. At least one was pretty much done for, body terribly crushed and moaning horribly.
⟬It’s still hard to control your strength, isn’t it? So then shouldn’t we keep going, enhancing your sword skills?⟭
Allen released his sword, allowing Vestla to rise into the air alone and linger around him.
“Wasn’t I pretty good just now? I thought those were some pretty clean cuts there—”
⟬Who makes such big movements?! What if someone got close to you within that time?!⟭
“No, but it was a pretty good attack—”
⟬It most certainly was not! You want to learn swordsmanship, right? You were just ignorantly cutting stuff up as hard as you could!⟭
Resisting the urge to talk back, Allen silently accepted her comments.
“…Alright, I’ll take that into consideration next time.”
⟬Taking it into consideration isn’t enough. You don’t have anything to do now, right? Then let’s practice all day!⟭
With a prideful voice, Vestla bobbed around.
Allen closed his eyes, half ignoring her. In an instant, he spread his sensing power, embedding the details of hundreds of meters of information into his head.
‘Is their leader already far away? If I were an ordinary sorcerer, I would have quit here. But…’
He had not yet met his limit.
His sensing range spread, expanding further and further away.
One kilometer, two kilometers, three…
By the time he’d gotten a headache from the flood of information, he’d found traces of the bandit leader around the outskirts of his sensing range.
⟬Ah! Your nose is bleeding!⟭
“Ah…”
He tasted iron. Once he stopped using his sensing power, the splitting headache disappeared.
‘It’d be good to have more magic and expand my sensing range…’
However, his body couldn’t handle it.
He was able to withstand the dragon core with the use of the giants’ remains. What a ridiculous thing to say that the owner of that same body was so incapable that he couldn’t even access his own body’s full potential.
‘That’s why I’ll raise my rank little by little.’
His skills were still as low as they were, so he had room to improve exponentially. He just needed to quickly build up his knowledge and skills so he could resolve this imbalance with his body.
One shouldn’t keep one’s cards useless forever.
⟬Are you okay?⟭
“There’s nothing wrong. This is nothing in exchange for superstrength,” Allen answered as if nothing had happened. He then quickly ran to the place he last traced the bandits’ leader.
⟬Where are you going?⟭
“One of those rat bastards ran away. He’s a coward, leaving his people behind.”
Thanks to his retreat, Allen easily defeated all the others. Yet he didn’t like that he ran away despite being their leader.
⟬Shouldn’t you rest a little bit?⟭
“No, I’m fine. If I delay any longer, I might miss him…”
He was planning to keep the bandit in custody to testify about the attempt to raid the manor.
‘It’s better to go after the leader than a few subordinates.’
Allen sped up even more
Crogen flew away, overloading the explosive device that had been embedded in his heart. The ground shattered as he stepped forward, sending pieces of stone flying. A pale-white film wrapped around his body, exuding a glowing light.
“Dammit. Dammit!”
‘This can’t be happening. How hard is it going to be to rebuild the crew? And I’d already tried so hard to return to our former glory.’
“That fucking monster!”
Crogen knew what one superhuman could do.
So when he first saw Allen crush his men’s throats, he ran away immediately.
His group has been destroyed once again. Absolutely destroyed.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!”
He was surprised by the sound of his tantrum and stopped, but he was relieved after realizing that he had run far already. He knew that the monster couldn’t follow his trail at that point.
As he left, he saw an old man on the road to the underground waterways. People weren’t supposed to be on that road, yet a man with gray hair, wrinkles, and a benevolent smile trod it.
The old man looked out of place, but Crogen’s eyes were stained with anger, and he had no intention of noticing the elder. He just needed a target to vent out his anger. It was never too late to think about killing.
After taking a second to decide on his course of action, Crogen hit him with a club that had a sharp thorn in it, waiting to hear a scream a moment later.
No, he was trying to.
“…Huh? What’s—Keugh!”
Stab.
Without knowing what even happened, his head had fallen off.
Only then did he realize that the old man in front of him was some kind of monster, just like Allen.
Gurgle…
Stomp, boom.
Thump, thud, thunk.
Unbefitting of his reputation as the leader of a notorious bandit group, he came to his futile end.
Even after the man collapsed, the old man still wore that benevolent smile.
* * *
Allen finally arrived at the location…
⟬Here?⟭
“Yeah, it’s definitely here…”
…However, nobody was there.
⟬But I don’t see anyone.⟭
“Yeah, me neither.”
They heard a squeaking rat and a bat hanging from the ceiling. The sound of water dripping from a leaking pipe somewhere rang throughout the passage.
There were clearly traces of someone passing by, but those traces cut off at a certain spot. As if the person who made them had suddenly vanished.
The bandit had mysteriously disappeared without any warning. He was only greeted by the familiar sight of the underground waterway that he had seen so many times.
‘Besides, this direction is… Wasn’t this the direction they were originally going?’
Allen closed his eyes and sensed around again. Hundreds of meters of detailed information flooded into his head.
‘I can take it. Just a little more—’
As his radius of detention expanded little by little—
‘…!!’
He found something. Rather, someone.
Tap, tap, tap.
He ran ahead. The unknown person’s presence remained.
‘Why aren’t they running away? And who on earth…? I’ll figure it out myself.’
Turning right up ahead…
“E-Enemy spotted!”
“…Ratman?”
Allen used his senses again, but he couldn’t refute that the presence he’d felt was that of a Ratman, who commonly inhabited the underground waterways.
⟬Why did you start running all of a sudden? What’s over here?⟭
As Vestla—still floating around him—asked this, Allen looked around carefully once more before shaking his head.
“No… I guess I was wrong.”
However, he was certain that he had felt a human being’s presence at that moment.
⟬You didn’t mess up, though, right?⟭
As Vestla yelled this to him, Allen nodded.
‘It’s possible that I did sense it wrong, but…’
If he hadn’t, then who was it?
“Let’s head back. It’s unfortunate, but the bandit seems to have been lucky enough to escape.”
⟬Are you okay? You don’t want to keep chasing him?⟭
“It’d be nice to get to the mastermind, but that doesn’t look possible. I still kept a few men alive to testify, so Father will be convinced.”
Allen stepped back slowly, focusing on his senses to see if there was anything strange.
However…
“Was it really a mistake?”
…He hadn’t found anything after all.
“Let’s go. If the ones that I kept alive die, it’ll have been for nothing.”
Maybe it was because Allen’s voice was filled with regret that Vestla shouted energetically.
⟬Well, let’s go! I want to see the Thanksgiving festivities!⟭
“Thank you,” Allen replied with a bitter smile, entertaining her for having tried to lighten the mood.
⟬I didn’t say that for you!⟭
He turned around.
An entrance to the sewer was nearby.
Rustle, rustle.
As he headed back up, a black shadow wavered behind him for a moment, as if nothing had happened.
The sewers were calm, as usual.
* * *
Flashes of light struck the sky.
Crackle! Boom!
A piercing sound followed the lightning that had fallen from the sky.
As Julius wielded his sword, two bolts of lightning fell from the sky toward the head of the mercenary leader.
He moved quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid the crashing lightning.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaack!!’
Booooooom!
Falling to the floor, he had become nothing but a black lump of charcoal.
“Waaaaaaah!”
“Julius! Julius! Julius!”
With the roaring applause, the winner of the duel had been decided.
It was Julius’s victory.
