Chapter 129 – Pollux Sent Out The Seven Heroes!

Chapter 129 – Pollux Sent Out The Seven Heroes!

Raw link: http://ncode.syosetu.com/n2211cx/130/ (2016/10/31)

Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2019/11/26)

Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (2019/12/12)

Editor 2: Keii (2019/12/12)

Translation link: https://twomorefreethoughts.wordpress.com/awlba-c129/

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(TLN: Reminder that I/my/me with “ore” is MC Ruphas and I/my/me with “yo” is the real Ruphas)

The skill [The One Who Left First (Alkaid)].

I would say that it was a skill that should never have come into existence in this world in the first place.

It was only natural. After all, that skill was bugged.

The reason was because it shattered the level 1000 ceiling set by the Creation Goddess.

By using the skill that I gained… no, that I recalled during the battle against Benetnash, I was able to surpass level 1000 and fly into the realm beyond.

My sensations were enhanced and my consciousness became warlike. I entered a state where hurting others arose no response from me, making my thoughts more violent.

I became less of me (ore) and turned more into me (yo).[1]

Unfortunately, as expected, I was not able to ascend as high as I previously had and my level stopped increasing once it reached level 1500.

It was a lot lower than I was expecting it to be… however, it was still enough for this situation.

After all, the Twelve Stars’ levels would also jump up when my level went up.

The only one to not have her level increased was Libra. Nevertheless, she had her very own method of powering up.

“Armament Selection! [Astraea]!”

Libra’s additional armament was ejected from Blutgang and came flying towards her. It then undertook a docking process with Libra midair.[2]

With this, Libra was fully armoured and everyone else was level 1000.

The enemies that we were opposing were between levels 700 to 1000, numbering at a few hundred units.

If the Dragon King was also considered in the calculations, the enemy’s fighting prowess was so astronomical that it was not even funny.

….. Or at least, that’s how ordinary people would probably think.

But I would be troubled if you were to underestimate us. The Tyrannical Twelve Stars were a bunch of the strongest individuals that I (yo) specifically gathered for the purpose of challenging the Goddess.[3]

I did not include anyone that wouldn’t be able to prevail through this small disadvantage.

True, if one were to only add up the numerical value of each side’s levels, then the difference between the two was quite significant. After all, even if one were to include me, our side would only be at 7600.

In comparison, the sum of the opposing side’s levels would easily surpass a few hundred thousand.

But how unfortunate for them. Our side’s combat power is not additive but multiplicative.

Now that I (yo) had regained a fragment of my power, the Twelve Stars were finally able to display their serious side.

Looking back retrospectively, I did feel sorry for them up until now. Because I was so worthless until now, they were forced to fight while being restricted.

But now… there’s no need to worry about that anymore. Their chains have already been undone. Therefore……

“I command the Tyrannical Stars that obey me. Now is the time to show me your full ability and entertain me!”

Argonautai? It would be a different story if the elites that had served me two hundred years ago had been summoned, but since Alovenus feared a rebellion and summoned only the average heroes, it’s nothing more than a mishmash gathering of individuals.

It seemed like the ones that had been obeying the Seven Heroes came out, but…. don’t make me laugh. These guys were not even worth counting as part of the enemy’s number.

I had heard that it had been passed down that they combined their power to defeat me, but that’s completely and utterly wrong.

The truth was that they’re nothing but a bunch of cowards that stood far, far away in the back and provided supporting fire.

They were a bunch of terrified weaklings who pushed the role of directly fighting me onto Alioth and the rest whilst they themselves stood at a safe distance and attacked timidly.

What happened to them in the end again?

… Ahh, I remember now. If I recall correctly, because they were such an eyesore, I ended up incinerating the whole bunch.

“Your feet are shaking, heroes. Even after death, you can’t forget your fear towards me, eh?”

“Wh, what did y…!”

“Ahh, by the way… you lot, who are you again? I can’t recall your lot’s faces or names at all. Forgive me, alright? You see, I have a bird brain where I forget the faces of the people that leave no impression on me after three steps.”

“Yo.… y….!?”

After I ridiculed them, the heroes’ faces warped in anger and shame.

Well, I suppose that should be enough for provocation.

I mean, although I said that, it’s actually a fact that I could not recall their individual faces.

Truthfully, they were not worthy enough for me to remember them. In the end, they’re just a pack of small fries who raised “only” their levels with the golden apples.

Did they really think that after being defeated by me 200 years ago, if they showed up this late in time with their lingering attachments and made a small clique, they would be able to win against me?

Nothing would change just because they came back from the realm of the dead. It’s a promised feature that reanimated apparitions would be weaker.

Here, quickly scram.

“Skill, [Ex Coalesce].”[4]

Needless to say, when it came to being able to do things that I previously was unable to, I was also the same.

There were also a number of skills that I previously was not able to use because I did not fulfil the prerequisite for them. Let us unveil the destructive power of one such skill: [Ex Coalesce].

The usage prerequisite for this skill was that the user must be over level 200 in both the Monster Tamer and Alchemist classes.

And the effect of this skill was… a fusion of skills.

For example, let us assume there were two skills and they were both activated at the same time; one would “stun the enemy upon a critical hit,” while the other would “always inflict a critical hit”.

The final result would be that the skill’s effect would be changed to “always stun the enemy”.

Originally, it was a skill where the tamer and the magical beast’s skills would be merged together. However, there was no such restriction in this world.

Back in the game, this skill’s feature would only trigger upon a limited pre-programmed number of combinations. However, that was also irrelevant in this world. If I thought that it would work, then it would work.

I couldn’t care less about the restrictions as specified by the Goddess nor do I have an obligation to follow them. I determine the rules that I have to abide by.

Observe carefully with your own two eyes, the powers of the Twelve Stars who are finally at the realm they should be.

…. Okay, Alovenus?

*

The moment they received Ruphas’s orders, the Twelve Stars all charged in.

Their whole bodies were overflowing with power whilst their master’s voice pushed their backs.

We might lose. – They did not think even for a moment in that way. They had nothing but conviction for their upcoming victory.

It was because, behind them stood the absolute existence, the Black-Winged Supreme Ruler. And she had commanded them to show their full power and entertain her.

If they could not even answer that expectation, what a joke the title of the Twelve Stars would be. What a joke it would be to claim to be her subordinates.

In front of the enemy forces which numbered many times their own number, Aries and the rest all activated their signature skills without any hesitation whatsoever.

“Let’s go, Libra, Scorpius!”

“Don’t order this mistress around!”

“I’ll match with you!”

Sagittarius roared and to him, Scorpius and Libra responded.

In that brief moment, the heroes who were opposing them must have seen it clearly.

Brightly lit stars forming the constellations of the Archer, the Scale and the Scorpion behind the three of them.

And those constellations overlapping each other for an instant.

“Fly!”

First, Sagittarius fired his arrow, which was grabbed by Libra as it teleported to the middle of the enemy lines.

Matching the brief moment the enemy’s attention was pulled away by Libra, Scorpius released her [Venomous Breath (Graffias)], covering everyone including Libra with her poison.[5]

However, this attack did not have any effect on Libra. It was only natural, after all. Libra was a golem and not an organic being to begin with.

All the heroes, who were inflicted with the poison, were then enclosed by a field of light. What was fired upon them was a blast from the Scale.

A destructive light which did not permit the weak to even bear with it. The name of the skill was –

“[Brachium]!”[6]

It was a grand opening initiated by a largest scaled annihilation skill being used.

In the face of the Twelve Stars’ strongest firepower, all enemies with less than 99 999 HP were exterminated without question.

Absolute defence skills were irrelevant. Absolute evasion skills were not permitted.

This radiance of destruction was the signature attack of the Guardian of the Sanctuary. It had a higher priority than any other skills and penetrated through any defence. It was a first-class skill. It dealt a fixed damage of 99 999 at all times and could not be mitigated by any means.

With just that attack, the originally countless number of Argonautai were reduced to where only about 20% of them remained. However, even though the attack had ended, there was no time for them to relax and collect themselves.

“Aigokeros!”

“We’re going in, Aries!”

This time, Aries and Aigokeros stood together as if they were protecting each other’s back, overlapping the Ram and Goat constellations atop each other.

What was being released from Aries’s back was a rainbow-coloured flame.

Those flames were entangled by Aigokeros’s black waves, turning into a black flame and dispersing into the surroundings.

The effect of this skill was a combination of continuous per cent damage as long as the flames persisted and a curse which rendered the damage unhealable on ones affected.

In other words, not only did this flame penetrate the enemy’s defence, thus able to deal damage upon any enemy, it did not even permit the enemy to heal themselves.

This was essentially equivalent to destroying the enemy’s maximum HP. Meanwhile, the heroes which were affected by the flames started dropping one after another.

“What are you doing? There are only a few enemies, you know!”

“Get on them! Drown them with numbers!”

The heroes did not just take the beating without doing anything back.

A bunch of dragons, which were historically known as the strongest race, used their breath attacks whilst the level 1000 Swordmasters used their slashing attacks which could even crack the ground apart.

However, what stood in front of them to block their attacks was the Twelve Star’s wall, Karkinos.

He used the skill [Covering] to pull in all attacks, stopping them by himself, before proceeding to smile evilly.[7]

“Welcome to hell! Sagittarius, are your preparations done?!”

“Leave it to me!”

Sagittarius activated the [Ascella] skill and endowed it upon Karkinos.[8]

At the same time, the constellation of the Crab and the Archer overlapped with one another, causing the reflecting shot to multiply and reflect back on all enemies, including the ones that had not attacked him.

“[Acubens Extension]!”[9]

Karkinos multiplied and reflected back the received attacks on all of his enemies.

Originally, Karkinos could only attack at a melee distance. However, after receiving Ruphas’s push and being enhanced by Sagittarius’s attack, he no longer had such a restriction.

Karkinos swung his pincers widely, releasing many rays of light that further fragmented into arrows of light, overrunning the enemy camp.

After this unreasonable attack, the number of heroes was further culled down, yet the nightmare had not yet ended for them.

After all, the party had just begun.

“Match with me properly, Karkinos!”

“OK!”

Scorpius and Karkinos both readied their pincers simultaneously and proceeded to attack a dragon.

What happened next was a storm of super-fast slash attacks.

Stemming from the fact that both of them used the same weapon, they must have nicely complemented and matched with each other.

The dragon, which was supposed to have hard scales, was shredded in an instant, turning into miserable pieces of meat.

“Sagittarius, provide support!”

“I figured it was coming so I was preparing for it!”

The next constellations to cross were the Scale and the Archer.

Libra opened all of her gunports and Sagittarius prepared his bow.

Then it was fired. A blizzard of arrows and destructive lights.

Due to the effect of the skill [Ascella], the destructive lights and arrows scattered then branched out.

Several thousand, several tens of thousands of shots burned away at everything in their path.

“Aigokeros!”

“Acknowledged!”

Castor stabbed his beloved Anchor Lance into the ground, causing a tornado to rise up.

Against all the heroes who were sucked up into the air by the tornado, rays of light came down from above and penetrated them.

Yet it still was not the end. Just before they landed back down onto the ground, Aries turned into a giant cluster of flames and charged into them, denying them from even landing back down and launching them back up into the air.

Following this, Aries fired flames from his palms, took flight and started to kick one enemy after another by repeating the former process.

Finally, when the enemies landed back down, there were Libra, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Castor and Aigokeros on standby waiting for them.

“We will be attacking simultaneously. Is everyone ready?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to? I’ll turn you into a piece of scrap if you want?”

“Match my timing!”

“Let’s clean them up all at the same time!”

Libra opened her gunports and Scorpius breathed in deeply.

Aigokeros’s eyes shone and Castor raised his anchor up.

Aries intensified his flames and Sagittarius readied his bow.

And when all of those were simultaneously fired, even the heroes who were already long dead felt their impending “deaths”.

“Full Fire!”

“[Graffias]!”

“[Deneb Algedi]!”

“[God Who Possesses Fifty Names]!”[10]

“[Mesarthim Version 3]!”

“[Alnasl]!”

The six attacks mixed and fused with one another due to Ruphas’s skill, turning into a certain-hit aurora attack that penetrated the enemy camp. 

Meanwhile, Crab-san, who could not initiate an attack on his own, was lacking a role to play during this crucial moment. Therefore, for now, he decided to throw a pincer at the enemy.

Once that ray of light had finished passing through, there were no longer any heroic spirits left.

The only ones left were the Dragon King and the Fairy Princess who rode on it. Notwithstanding this situation, her composure had not diminished.

When the Fairy Princess snapped her fingers, all the heroic spirits which were just defeated a moment ago came back to life and then stood in front of the Twelve Stars once again.

However, seeing this, Ruphas sneered.

“Hmm. This time, it’s my turn to show off.”

After saying this, she moved her fingers.

When she did, the heroic spirits, who were just brought to life, rose up into the air at once. Without even able to resist, powerful telekinesis pulled them up and trapped them mid-air.

Ruphas then held her hand up, gathering mana which shone in a golden colour next to her.

What it formed was a bow which shone in a golden colour like a sun.

…. However, as the size of the bow was ridiculously big, there might be a reason to wonder whether there existed an arrow which could be used with it.

But it did not necessarily have that an arrow which had to go with this.

After all, the effect of this skill was quite surprising in that, even though it’s the biggest arcane magic within its attribute, it’s actually not a skill which directly attacked the enemy but instead, could be categorised as a support type.

Its effect multiplied the power of the next magic activated by a few times. In other words, what should be used with this bow was arcane magic.

And the rate of the multiplier was determined by the time spent until the activation of the next skill.

“– [Prophet with the Golden Bow]! And burn them all, [Solar Flare]!”[11]

Upon Ruphas’s invocation of the skill, an offensive arcane magic, which was in the upper ranks in terms of destructive power and temperature even amongst the Sun attribute skills, was released.

A small-scale golden-coloured Sun swallowed up the heroic spirits, passed through the stratosphere in a flash and flew far away into empty space beyond.

The speed at which it travelled surpassed even the speed of light as it forcibly sent away all the enemies caught up in it to the far end of the solar system.

No, that was not all that it did. The [Solar Flare], which was fired, was enhanced by the [Prophet with the Golden Bow] such that even that was amplified.

This monstrous skill’s diameter surpassed 100m, it surpassed 1km, it surpassed 10 km and even surpassed 100km. Although it did not reach the extent of the real Sun, it possessed overwhelming heat and gravity, becoming a small-scaled planet-sized pseudo-star.

A countless number of natural satellites, comets and planets in its path were destroyed and pulled apart and eventually, after escaping the solar system and travelling further beyond into faraway space, exploded.

Even if they were the Argonautai, after getting hit by such an attack, they were unable to survive.

Solar Flare alone had already vaporised many of them, yet there was the added effect of being carried far into space and being caught up in a small-scale sun’s explosion at the end.

There were a few brave individuals who had an HP surpassing the value of 99 999. In fact, out of the dragon race, 90% of them had an HP stat surpassing 100 000.

But even still.

Even still, they were erased by a single attack.

“Now then, haven’t you had enough, Goddess? No matter how many enemies you gather, you wouldn’t be able to defeat me, you know?”

“I suppose that is indeed so. Seriously, you really are such an astounding monster. To even be able to ignore the damage cap, what kind of logic is this?”

What the Goddess had just said was exactly the correct response to the unreasonable event that had just taken place.

Exactly, Ruphas, who had activated [Alkaid], was able to ignore the maximum limit of damage one could deal at once.

In the Goddess’s eyes, she was able to clearly see the several hundreds of thousands of damage dealt to the heroic spirits in numerical values.

Notwithstanding that, her relaxed composure did not collapse. She had a reason why it did not need to collapse away.

“However, I hope you haven’t forgotten? There existed heroes that managed to defeat even you.”

Pollux smiled warmly and proceeded to summon once again.

But this time, what she summoned were not ordinary soldiers like the previous times.

They were the four stars that rivalled even Ruphas in terms of brightness.

They possessed a reputation which was in line with that of the Vampire Princess. They were the strongest of heroes in history, who had managed to put a stop to the Supreme Ruler’s ambitions 200 years ago.

First to appear was a peerless warrior who was clad in armour.

He had mastered all sorts of sword skills such that when it came to the ability to handle the sword, he was reputed to even surpass Ruphas. He was the Sword King, Alioth.

The next to rise up was a giant bear beastkin, Dubhe, whose body was enveloped in white hair.

The third was an individual in full body armor known to be Midgard’s greatest alchemist, Mizar.

The last to appear was a small-framed individual known as the Adventure King, Phecda, who possessed a battle prowess contrary to his small appearance.

All four of them were formerly known as part of the Seven Heroes.

They returned to the land of the living once more and pointed their sword tips at Ruphas.

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(Author note)

Mizar: “Mine is an axe, you know.”

Dubhe: “Bare handed bear~.”

Phecda: “It’s actually a bow and arrow.”

Incorrect: They returned to the land of the living once more and pointed their sword tips at Ruphas.

Correct: They returned to the land of the living once more and only Alioth pointed his sword tip at Ruphas.

Alioth: “Can you stop doing things like thattt already!? It looks like I’m the only fool that’s being controlleddd!?”

[The One Who Left First (Alkaid)]

An original skill that did not exist back in X-Gate Online.

Can also be used by Benetnash.

By breaking past the level 1000 cap set by the Goddess, the maximum limit of the level becomes infinity, thereby allowing the user to display their true battle prowess which was previously suppressed by the system.

Furthermore, due to the activation of the skill, the upper limit of the damage dealt shoots up, therefore it becomes possible to deal up to 999 999 damage. However, the damage of the real Ruphas in her prime was not this measly.

Originally, it was a skill which would allow the user to bring about 100% of their power, however, because the all-important “Ruphas” had forgotten her real full power, she only increased up to level 1500.

(If she unleashes her full power, she will increase to above 4000.)

In other words, even right now, she is still completely leagues away from her prime. What is wrong with this monster?

Although this is irrelevant, 200 years ago, this skill did not have a name. It only gained the name Alkaid after the battle with Benet.

In respect to Benetnash, Ruphas named it [Alkaid] which is another name for Eta Ursae Majoris of the Ursa Major, Big Dipper asterism.

Demerit: It destroys the world’s system and overcomes any existing boundaries, therefore, it places quite a significant burden on the world.

Using game-related terms, it would be something like one person using so much data that it starts lagging in one go.

(Author note end)

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[1] From this point onwards, I/my/me is written with “yo”.

[2] Tp: But Blutgang is not even close… So the author didn’t account for Astraea to travel to Libra, either that, or it teleports :X

Vecna: Yes, it’s basically Gundam Seed, where they shoot out dockable parts from the mother ship (even though it’s nowhere near the gundam… Blutgang is nowhere near here.)

[3] Since above, it’s the “real” Ruphas that’s narrating. Also… the author’s inconsistency with naming the Twelve Heavenly Stars is driving me crazy…

[4] Ex Coalesce (エクスコアレス)

[5] Venomous Breath (Graffias) (猛毒のブレス (グラフィアス))

[6] Brachium (ブラキウム)

[7] Covering (カバーリング)

[8] Ascella (アスケラ)

[9] Acubens Extension (アクベンス・エクステンション)

[10] God Who Possesses Fifty Names (五十の名を持つ神) is possibly a reference to Marduk who was mentioned in Enuma Elish as having fifty names.

“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marduk”.

“http://www.piney.com/EnumaSpeis6a7.html”.

[11] Solar Flare (ソーラーフレア)

Prophet with the Golden Bow (金の弓番える予言者) is possibly a reference to the Greek god Apollo, who has a golden bow and is associated with prophecies.

“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo”.

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