Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint
Chapter 352: The King Who Kills Others, The God Who Kills Himself (8)

“Why are you here? And right in front of the Golden Lord too.”

The Regressor broke through the barrier surrounding the Golden Palace and questioned my presence with a puzzled expression.

That carefree face, devoid of any hint of worry, probably has no idea what kind of suffering I’ve been through.

For the Regressor, if there’s a problem, the solution is to smash it.

If smashing it doesn’t work, just die and try again.

But that’s fine.

It’s okay if she doesn’t understand.

She’s here to save me and that’s all that matters.

For the first time in a long while, I welcomed the Regressor with all my heart.

“Mr. Shei, I’m so glad to see you I could cry.”

“Huh? I’m not. We just saw each other a little while ago.”

This bastard.

I take back my feelings.

You don’t deserve even a shred of gratitude.

“But seriously, why are you here? Weren’t we supposed to find the Golden Lord tomorrow?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Shei.”

“Just in case the Dominarch lied tomorrow, I decided to look ahead of time.”

“Same here. I was just scouting the area when I found it.”

“Not bad, but if you found it, you should have told me! I was searching for ages. Who knew it’d be this close?”

“I didn’t know where you were and I didn’t have the chance. Look around.”

While the Regressor and I were sharing our joyful reunion, the others at the scene were also getting a handle on the situation.

The Golden Lord stood in front of Elric as if to shield her.

He pointed at us and shouted.

“Who are you? How dare you trespass into this sacred place?!”

His voice radiated hostility and wariness.

Even if he hid in his little world, a broken wall was something even he couldn’t ignore.

He likely considered me a minor nuisance, but the Regressor — someone powerful enough to smash down those walls — was a threat he couldn’t overlook.

The Regressor, oblivious to the conversation that had transpired between me and Elric, dusted off her clothes, trying to look presentable while sheathing both Jizan and Chun-aeng.

It’s ridiculous.

She’s the one who made such a grand entrance with a meteor and now she’s straightening her outfit as if that’s going to make a difference.

“Golden Lord? Looks like we’ve found the right place. I’m a peace envoy. Let’s negotiate a truce between the Fallen Dominion and the Military State.”

Unbelievable.

Even if I commend her for trying, that delivery is hopeless.

Even if she’d phrased it perfectly, they were never going to listen.

I shook my head and tried to stop her.

“Mr. Shei, that’s pointless. They’ve already made up their minds to fight.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“They have no intention of accepting a truce! We should get ready to run!”

At the same time, Elric shouted as well.

“Demo! Those people are the enemy!”

“T-The e-enemy made it all the way here?!”

“Yes! For me and for this kingdom! Eliminate them!”

The Golden Lord hesitated but ultimately obeyed Elric’s command.

He pressed his hand against the ground and the surface of the earth was instantly transmuted into steel.

Then, with a single sweeping motion, the surface rolled like a wave and came crashing toward us.

“Wait! Hold on a second! We’re not here to fight!”

Despite her protests, the Regressor’s body moved on reflex.

She drove Jizan into the ground, dragging it from side to side, causing a tremor in the earth.

The incoming wave of steel clashed with the vibrating ground, shattering and splintering as the shockwave disrupted it.

“I said, we’re not here to fight! Just stop for a second!”

But it was already too late.

With the curtain of steel torn away, we saw the sight of a cannon aimed directly at us.

“Apologies. I didn’t want to resort to this.”

The voice belonged to Dominarch Hector, his tone laced with regret.

With a click, he loaded a steel ball into the piston-powered cannon he was holding.

“But the Golden Lord is our god. If he orders it, I must obey.”

“Tch!”

- Boom!

With a low, heavy thud, the steel ball was launched from Hector’s cannon, rocketing toward me and the Regressor.

I had seen it coming.

Hector is the only human here, so I could read his thoughts.

I rolled on the ground as fast as I could.

The Regressor, on the other hand, stayed put and activated Heavenly Counter Domain.

Without even flinching, she dodged the incoming steel ball by a hair’s breadth.

“You think something that slow could hit me?”

Her presence was awe-inspiring.

Unlike me, who was rolling on the ground like a dog, she stood tall.

She was a master in every sense of the word.

But then Hector opened his palm.

“Suppression, release!”

The steel ball, crafted from compressed Alchemic Steel, suddenly began to expand.

The pressure that had been suppressing the ball was lifted, causing it to balloon outwards like an inflating balloon.

Steel expanding like this was a rare sight — and it was aimed to kill.

The Regressor, who had dodged the narrow steel ball with a paper-thin margin, was caught off guard.

The now-expanding steel smashed into her head, shoulder, and waist with a series of thunderous impacts.

See?

I might not look as cool as her, but at least I’m safe.

If you don’t want to get hit, you should dodge like me.

｢Heavenly Counter Domain - Defensive Style: Counter Mirror! ｣

…Well, if getting hit doesn’t matter to you, then I guess doing it her way makes sense too.

The moment the steel touched her body, the Regressor infused it with Qi.

The expanding force of the steel ball was suppressed as her Qi overtook it, pinning the steel back down.

The moment the Primarch’s power faded and the Regressor’s Qi took control.

She had turned an attack comparable to a cannon blast into something no more threatening than a punch.

The Regressor snarled.

Her anger had reached its boiling point.

“So you really want to fight, huh? Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll give you one!”

Terra Firma Art: Furious Strike!

The Regressor gripped Jizan with both hands and swung it hard at the incoming steel ball.

With insane levels of control, she pulled the ball towards her with Qi Gravitation and just as Jizan connected with the sphere, she launched it with Qi Deflection.

The sudden shift in properties created an unimaginable force, sending the steel ball flying back.

The air itself was ripped apart as the ball flew through it.

Its sheer weight was incomparable to that of a cannonball.

If it hit someone, their limbs would be ripped clean off.

But then…

“Eliminate them.”

With those words, the steel ball disintegrated into dust in midair.

The one who had spoken was none other than the Golden Lord.

He had turned steel into metallic dust with nothing but his voice.

His dull, lifeless voice echoed once more.

“Eliminate. Eliminate. Eliminate.”

The once-innocent demeanor of the Golden Lord was gone.

Now, he resembled a machine, his monotonous voice repeating Elric’s command.

If they were mere words, the sight would not have been so terrifying.

But in this world, the words of the Golden Lord were equivalent to the commands of a god.

The silent farmers who had been standing as mere background props in this miniature garden suddenly sprang into action.

The farmers, who had once seemed no more than set pieces, had now become warriors carrying out the Golden Lord’s orders.

Their straw hats tilted, revealing artificial eyes gleaming with light.

Some had faces partially covered with steel plates, while others had branches of steel protruding from their fingers.

Each farmer had their own unique form, but they all had one thing in common.

They all had steel embedded in their bodies.

The Regressor, noticing the approaching homunculus army, tensed every muscle in her body.

“Those are Guardians, aren’t they?!”

“Guardians?”

“They’re homunculi modeled after past Primarch! The Golden Palace uses them as Guardians! Be alert! Each one of them is probably at least as strong as the Fireblastarch!”

“Being alert won’t solve anything!”

She was absolutely right.

The moment they raised their hands, all sorts of steel began emerging from the ground, air, and surroundings.

The Fireblastarch, cloaked in flaming steel, soared down from the sky like a shooting star.

The Mirrorarch, carrying mirrors of steel, turned them toward the Regressor, reflecting her every move.

More figures emerged and brandished their own signature weapons, each aiming at us.

“These homunculi can use Unique Magic too!?”

Unique Magic? No, that’s not quite right.

If they were Unique Magic formed from a person’s own Spiritual World, I would have been able to read it.

But those weren’t ordinary Unique Magic.

These were Unique Magic ‘crafted’ by the authority of the Golden Lord!

The Unique Magic of the Primarchs are rooted in alchemy.

The Golden Lord took control of that root and created them.

…This is bad.

We have to escape.

I can’t read their thoughts.

I can’t tell where or how the next attack will come.

To navigate through this onslaught of incoming strikes, I’d need a whole new plan.

But to escape…

“Mr. Shei! Go for the Golden Lord! Even if we kill them, they’ll just come back!”

“Fine! You give me no choice!”

The Regressor held Chun-aeng in her left hand and Jizan in her right.

With the sky in one hand and the earth in the other, she brought their ends together, making heaven and earth bite each other’s tails.

Jizan is nearly invincible in close-range combat, but it lacks any kind of range—unless it’s thrown.

So, just throw it.

If you don’t have enough power, use Chun-aeng to give it a boost.

“Aerith Blade Supreme!”

The Regressor spun Jizan like a hammer throw, using Chun-aeng as the chain.

At first, Jizan only traced slow circles above her head.

But soon, its range expanded, and it swept through the ground, leaving trails of destruction.

It moved at the speed of a jump rope, but the issue wasn’t the speed —

It was Jizan’s mass.

No one could resist it.

Steel, earth, stone — anything caught in its orbit was shattered into pieces and scattered like sand.

At the peak of the rotation, the Regressor forcefully swung Chun-aeng, letting Jizan loose.

“Satellite Crash”

- Whoosh!

There were no tricks or techniques here.

Just sheer, unstoppable weight, smashing through everything in its path toward the Golden Lord.

Unless something of equal mass stood in its way, nothing could stop it.

Not even the Golden Lord…

But the Golden Lord was no ordinary opponent.

“Pressurearch. Wedgearch. Plasterarch.”

The moment the Golden Lord uttered those words, a force beyond comprehension took effect.

The ground around him trembled violently and a large section of it rose in a dome shape to shield him.

Within the span of an instant, 50 meters of earth had been reshaped to create an impenetrable fortress of stone and steel.

The mass of earth that had been pulled up clashed with the force of Jizan.

The ground-turned-steel was a construct transmuted by the Golden Lord himself.

Despite Jizan’s immense weight and force, the steel only bent slightly.

The very same Jizan that could shatter mountains with ease was losing its momentum.

“What the hell…? It stopped Jizan?! That’s cheating!”

“You’re the last person who should be complaining about cheats! This is our chance! Run!”

“For once, I agree with you!”

The Regressor yanked the extended chain of Chun-aeng and Jizan like a fishing line.

The Regressor grabbed it mid-air and immediately spun around, bolting for the exit.

Thanks to the overwhelming destruction of Jizan, even the Golden Lord and his Guardians had to focus on defending rather than chasing.

By the time the homunculi realized what had happened, we were already running for our lives.

“Haha! You slowpokes! Catch us if you can—“

“… Eliminate.”

- Thud!

A massive steel spear fell from the sky, blocking our path.

We skidded to a halt, looking up.

Above us, suspended in the air, was the Fireblastarch along with countless other homunculi.

They floated atop platforms, gazing down at us with cold, emotionless eyes.

They each held dozens of weapons in their hands.

The Fireblastarch muttered coldly.

“You will not escape.”

“What the hell?! How do we beat that?!”

This wasn’t Unique Magic anymore.

The real Fireblastarch could never have done something like that.

We were completely surrounded from above, below, front, and back.

Not only that, but I couldn’t read any of their thoughts.

They may have human forms, but they weren’t human.

They were systems built by the Golden Lord.

It was a checkmate.

The Regressor was trying to break through the steel spear, but if our legs were caught, we’d be trapped in the Golden Lord’s world.

A crisis.

Life or death.

What do we do now…?

At that moment—

Shadows flowed in like ink through the cracks of the shattered space.

The tendrils of shadow probed the area, seeping into the gaps, spreading like a fog until…

They condensed into the form of a woman — Tyrkanzyaka.

“Hu… I finally found you. Where on earth did you run off to?”

That’s MY line!

Where the hell have you been?!

I brought you here as a bodyguard, but I looked away for a second and you disappeared?!

Still, now wasn’t the time to scold her.

I clenched my teeth and shouted desperately.

“Tyr! Not now! We need to run! Look behind you!”

“Behind me?”

Can’t you see it?

There are homunculi right behind you too!

I can’t read their thoughts, but if they’re anything like the others, they’re also Primarchs.

If we get surrounded on both sides, it’s over!

But Tyr glanced back nonchalantly, laid eyes on the homunculi, and spoke casually.

“No need to worry.”

｢Those are my limbs. ｣

What?

I froze, my brain unable to process her words.

At that moment, the homunculi behind Tyr…

…creaked, then turned around.

They charged… past us.

Towards the homunculi chasing us from behind.