Chapter 136 - Ruphas Used Ember[1]
Raw link: (2016/11/27)
Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2020/01/01)
Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (2020/01/07)
Editor 2: Keii (2020/01/11)
Translation link:
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The flagship of the heroic spirits, Argo.
It was an enormous ship which flew in the sky with a length of 350m and width of 52m.[2]
It could only be manifested when both Castor and Pollux were together and it used mana as fuel to move around.
The wooden material which had been used to build the Argo was a single branch taken from the fairy siblings’ "real body". Perhaps due to that, the flagship possessed high self-regenerative abilities, thus even if it were to be shot down by the enemy, it possessed the cheat-like feature of being able to make a comeback after a few days.
This time, the ones who would be piloting the ship were the heroic spirits called forth by Pollux, therefore we did not have to do anything in particular.
The one who would be serving as our navigator was Pyxis of the [Compass] constellation.[3] The single-eyed bandana-wearing man boasted that he knew everything there was to know about the skies of Midgard.
The heroic spirit who named herself as our chief engineer was Suhail of the [Vela] constellation, a female pirate who wore a white overcoat.[4]
Although her countenance was not bad, due to her trained steel-like thick and muscular arms and legs and extremely split abdominal muscles, she did not come across as feminine to others.
There was also a pack of three dwarves, Naos, Tureis and Azmidiske of the [Puppis] constellation, who would apparently be serving as our engineers, but I couldn’t distinguish them apart apart from each other.[5] This was why I had previously said they should at least dye their beards.
Our helmsman, Avior of the [Carina] constellation, was a man who did not look like a human no matter how I looked at him.[6]
Or rather, he was an undead monster known as a dragon skeleton. I wondered if there was not a better helmsman.
Besides them, a wide diversity of Argonautai were assigned a range of different roles and would be supporting us in our subsequent journey.
For some reason, there were also two heroic spirits wearing black robes which flew away from our location. Nevertheless, as the one who summoned them was Pollux, I doubted she would have summoned someone suspicious.
The flagship could reach a speed as high as Mach 5 and, if given six and a half hours, it was said to be able to take a lap around Midgard.[7]
But because the appearance of how fast the ship seemed to be going and its actual speed did not match up however I thought about it, I could only say it truly felt like a fantasy.
... Although it was irrelevant information, I wondered what was up with the crew members, as some of them were staring intently at Aries.
"Oh, if that’s what you’re wondering about, it’s because, in the past, we travelled around the world on the Argo in search of a rainbow sheep. But in the end, we weren’t able to find it."
That explanation was given by Castor.
Due to the fact that he was the captain of the Argo, the pirate captain cosplay that he had been wearing now appeared to be truly fitting.
So that appearance wasn’t just for show.
"That’s the first time I’ve heard about this."
"I mean, it’s a story from a few thousand years ago."
A few thousand years ago, huh. I suppose if that was the case, there wouldn’t have been a reason for him to tell us.
The rainbow sheep at the time wouldn’t have been Aries and I wasn’t even born back then.
Oh well, it doesn’t really matter anyway.
"If anyone looks at Aries in a weird way, I’ll use my discretion to throw them off the ship."
"Of course, I understand."
When I said that as a joke, Castor replied with a bitter smile.
At the same time, every crew member who was looking at Aries hastily went back to their respective jobs in a flustered manner.
Now then, let’s have a journey in the sky.
... We might have done something bad to the citizens of Laegjarn. They must have been the ones who were the most surprised about the Argo materialising.
First, we dropped Pollux, Castor, Terra and Luna off at Alfheim. As a bonus, I also dropped the Hero’s party off there.
Additionally, as a mode of transportation from now on, I decided to lend them Suzuki once again.
The next location the Argo headed to after Alfheim was an unexplored land that we had not stepped foot onto until this point - in other words, it was outside of the humanoids’ domain.
We had already determined that Aquarius was residing in Muspelheim, thus we decided to drop off Aries’s group here.
Furthermore, as a way for Aries’s group to return to us, we left Tanaka with them. As we had previously arranged, a few heroic spirits who would take care of the ouroboros’s seal in Aquarius’s stead were also dropped off.
It was decided that the two individuals who would fill in Aquarius’s shoes would be the Water Snake Hydrus and Immortal Bird Phoenix.[8]
Hydrus was a level 800 water dragon, which was a species of dragon. In his current humanoid form, he was a handsome bastard with blue-hair which reached down to his knees.
Phoenix was renowned to be the strongest of the bird-type monsters and was immortal. He possessed high regenerative ability, resistance to heat and aerial combat ability. Similar to Hydrus, he was a level 800 handsome bastard with a red ponytail.
Although both of them were magical beasts that had been tamed by me, in actuality, I had not raised them at all from the moment I captured them. After all, those two were strong from the beginning.
"Ohh, Ruphas-sama. It makes me deeply emotional to be able to meet you like this once again in the realm of the living. It has been worthwhile waiting for you even after my death."
"I appreciate the miracle of this reunion."
The two handsome individuals, who were sparkling needlessly due to the handsome-character effect, took hold of my hands.
Even their lines are superficially fine. Did they end up in the wrong world?
If anything, these guys feel like the kind of handsome bastards that might show up in shojo manga.[9] I mean, they’re even unnecessarily shiny and all.
Or more like, were they dead all this time? I don’t remember sending them out in that battle back in the game...
"So the immortal bird died?"
"Uugh... When you ask that question, I feel ashamed. I might be called an immortal bird, but it’s not like I can’t die. If I’m cut into finer pieces than my regeneration can manage, even I can’t..."
If I considered that the immortal bird had died and turned into an Argonaut, it was amazing in a way.
But the thing that I could not understand the most was the Carina (dragon skeleton).
Since he was supposed to be a dragon skeleton, it would mean that he was dead from the very beginning. Yet what was with him dying and then turning into an Argonaut?
Or rather, if he was going to resurrect at all, then he should at least properly resurrect with the same appearance as before he died. Why did he even remain as a skeleton?
"Ruphas-sama, we’ll soon be leaving the humanoids’ domain. I predict that we may be attacked by demons. Please prepare for such an outcome."
I acknowledged Libra’s warnings and then looked outside of the ship.
When I did, I saw a bunch of demons rushing towards the ship and aiming for us.
If it was against just those guys, now that we had a heavily concentrated amount of significant war potential, even if I did not do anything, Libra and the crew would be able to do something about it, but... since it was a good opportunity...
I thought that it would be better for them to experience firsthand the resurrection of Ruphas Mafahl.
"There’s no problem. I will go."
I cut in front of Libra and hopped out of the ship before taking flight.
By doing this, I was able to see the swarms and swarms and swarms of demons.
This is pretty amazing. They’re filling up the whole sky.
In terms of numbers... there’s so many that I can’t count them all, but maybe there’s over a hundred thousand of them?
Either way, if you think normally, we’re significantly outnumbered. If you think normally, that is.
"Heheh! There are idiots that came out from the humanoids’ domain!"
"Phew, it’s a chick!"
"Ain’t she a good woman? I wanna do her."
The demons, who were impressed by my appearance, started jeering and the likes, yet I simply pointed my index finger upwards.
On top of my index finger, a small marble-sized ball of light was created, illuminating my face.
"Ohh? Looks like she wanna fight."
"What a brave lady she is. She probably doesn’t realise our levels. Ignorance is so scary, isn’t it?"
"Alright, before we fight, I’ll teach you despair... hopeless despair. Listen well and be amazed, for all of our levels are 250! Those Seven Luminaries that you guys are desperately fighting against are, you know, actually not that much stronger than us. In this Dark Continent, there are people with those kinds of abilities everywhere!"
"You can’t even say anything cuz you’re scared, right? Of course you are! After all, there are so many enemies with the same strength as the ones who are tormenting you guys. You must be so scared that you can’t even squeak and you’ve leaked yourself, right??"
Ahh, yeah, they’re raising flags.
There’s a lot of these guys in RPG games, aren’t there?
These kinds of enemies show up in the early or mid-game as enemy officers or commanders and even though they’re overwhelmingly stronger than other enemies, for some reason, in the late-game dungeons, they only show up playing the role of a small-fry mob.
When I was playing games, I wondered why they didn’t go and become officers elsewhere. I was quite curious back then.
At this point, when I took a quick glance at the ship, perhaps after losing all interest in what was happening, Benet was yawning with complete indifference.
But it could not be helped. Although level 250 was indeed somewhat strong if you wanted to think of it that way... but from Benet’s and my point of view, they were nothing more than enemies which were lacking.
"Alright. Let’s scare them with arcane magic first."
"Heheh, aren’t they gonna leak even more?"
"Don’t kill them, alright. We’re going to enjoy them afterwards."
The demon, which was at the very front of the pack, said something and fired arcane magic in my direction.
I looked on as the arcane magic was closing in on me, yet the corner of my mouth curled up.
Well... I guess it’d be something like this... they’re level 250, after all.
It would have been fine if I received it directly, but that would mean my clothing would get a bit of dust on it.
As such, I poured mana into the ball of light which was at my fingertip, expanding it in one go.
The ball of light, which gigantified in an instant, swallowed up all of the arcane magic which was flying towards me, yet it still continued to expand in size.
In front of the demons who were in a state of shock, it continued to expand until it turned into a miniature sun with a diameter of 50 metres before the expansion calmed down.
In truth, I could make it even bigger, however, Midgard would turn into a scorched planet if I were to go too far.
So I decided that this was enough.
"E...... a......?"
The demons, who were howling until just a moment ago, became petrified and their pupils became constricted to a point.
Their nether regions were stained yellow and they were shaking vigorously.
Well, they made a mistake in who they picked a fight with.
I couldn’t blame them for not knowing who I was since I had my wings hidden, wore glasses and was under a disguise, but next time, they need to pay attention to who their enemy was.
Subsequently, I moved my fingertip and lightly shot the [Solar Flare] which I had completed in the demons’ direction.
It was impossible for them to avoid it. It was because the miniature sun possessed a strong gravitational pull of its own.
One after another, demons were sucked into the sun whilst their screams turned into a despair-filled chorus of agony which struck my eardrums.
- That instant, an explosion.
A firework to commemorate the first step out of the humanoids’ domain was shot and a resulting mushroom cloud ascended into the air.
I had limited the area of effect quite significantly, but even then, it was still quite flashy.
Well, I supposed the demons would have learnt a lesson from this and would not carelessly pick a fight with others in the future.
Due to the effect of [Blunt-Edge Strike], the demons still had 1 HP left. Those demons were now rolling on the ground in tears and rejoicing that they were still alive.
... I would be happy to just defeat them, but because there was that incident with Terra, I decided it would be fine to let them go just this once.
If his dreamlike goal of transmigrating the demon race could be realised, then it was possible that we might not have to quarrel with the demons anymore.
But if I were to exterminate the demon race before then, it would never even get to that point.
So just this once. If it was just once, I was willing to let them go.
At this moment, I (ore) still have that much naivety left in me, even if just barely.
"As expected of you, Ruphas-sama! That single attack of yours was as grand and magnificent as the sun, it was truly splendid! As I thought, the lustre of a flame which burns all creation is the most supreme. Something like water is worthless, worthless!"
"That was amazing, Ruphas-sama! Truly a brilliant display of the use of ’Sun attribute’ arcane magic! The yakitori seems to be under some misunderstanding and thinks it’s the same attribute as him, but the Fire attribute can’t even compare to this! I mean, Fire is nothing but a degraded version of the Sun, in the end!"[10]
"Huh?"
"Nnn?"
When I returned, Hydrus and Phoenix were openly head-butting each other, however, somewhere in their words was toxicity towards each other’s elemental attribute.
Perhaps, they must have felt that toxicity directed towards them. The two of them threw away their shining-character effects and suddenly seemed to resemble hoodlums with bloodshot eyes, staring each other down.
"Nnn? What did you say, you little shit? Don’t get cocky, eh? You’re just a Water Snake. Are you picking a fight with me, huh?"
"Huh? You’re just a yakitori. Stop clucking and chirping already, eh? Do you want to get eaten, huh?"
"Nnn?"
"Huh?"
The appearance of them taking hold of each other’s collar and trying to mince the other party was just like what one would expect of small-time hooligans.
They might look like pretty boys, but in the end, they’re still magical beasts, huh. Their true nature is still fairly violent, after all.
I ignored the two individuals who started punching each other without a cue and rested my back on an armrest.
As I had been told the humanoids’ right of existence was within the demon race’s sphere of control, I stayed quite vigilant and thought it would be dangerous to enter their domain until I gained sufficient war potential... but it seemed I was thinking too much.
Although it was possible that these demons were just the scouts and the probability of stronger guys being on standby was not zero, it seemed their threat level was far less significant than what I had predicted it would be.
Having said that, with the way things were currently, even if stronger enemies were to show up, it would be no problem.
I decided to let the Argonautai handle the enemies the next time.
"Aries-sama! You’re also Fire attribute right!? Let’s beat him up together!"
"Wha, that’s dirty! Don’t call others into your personal fight! Your fire’s completely useless to me, but his grace’s fire is effective even if I reduce the damage by half! Because it’s per cent damage!"
After Hydrus took a mounting position on top of Phoenix and punched him until he was bleeding from his nose, Phoenix sought assistance from Aries.
Well... if it’s Fire VS Water, it’s no wonder it’d end up like that.
Aries, who was called upon for help, was looking a bit flustered, but Scorpius lightly knocked on his head.
"You can ignore it, Aries. You can leave a bunch of idiots like that to their own devices."
"That’s right, fights are supposed to be done one on one."
"Sagittarius, go and wear some pants..."
Although what Sagittarius said was spot on, because of the arrow dangling down from his crotch, everyone was exasperated.
You... didn’t I create pants for you...? Why are you still naked?
Fortunately, the mosaic censorship skill cast by Dina was still in effect, but it was still an unsightly scene.
Benet in particular looked at Sagittarius as if she was looking at some filth and was cracking her knuckles.
I had been told that 200 years ago, Sagittarius almost never appeared in front of even his allies and whenever he did show himself in front of people, he would be under some kind of a disguise.
I originally thought it was due to him specialising in assassination... but unexpectedly, the real reason might have been because of his exhibitionism which made it unsightly for him to appear before others. Therefore, it was likely that he might have been ordered by Ruphas to keep himself from appearing before others.
"Oi, Mafahl. Can I kill that guy?"
"If it’s only halfway to death, I permit it."
"Alright."
"Ruphas-sama!?"
Sagittarius looked at me with pleading eyes, but – I don’t see it.
Looking at Sagittarius who was kicked out of the ship and abandoned on his own and Libra who had fired a rocket punch to retrieve him back up, I smiled bitterly.
What a rowdy bunch we were.
But it seemed that we were sure to have a journey which would not be boring.
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(Author note)
Ruphas: "（#゜Д゜） From today onwards, you’re going to specialise in nothing but sniping from a long distance away. Also, in case you need to appear before people, make sure you wear your pants and disguise yourself."
Sagittarius: "W, why..."
Ruphas: "（#゜Д゜） Because you’re always dangling that around and it’s unsightly."
* The truth of the matter that was made clear, which no one wanted to know about.
The Immortal Bird Phoenix
One of the magical beasts which was captured by Ruphas 200 years ago and swore loyalty to her.
The strongest class of bird-type magical beast which rivals even the dragons.
He possesses high regenerative ability, aerial manoeuvrability and flame attacks, therefore, it is very strong.
Furthermore, his blood itself possesses a strong healing effect and is a recovery item. Therefore, even as a material for alchemy, it is of the highest tier.
If an individual possesses even a single feather of his, the holder will automatically regenerate a small amount of HP in intervals. Judging him based solely on his strength, it would not have been strange for him to be named as one of the Tyrannical Twelve Stars. However, because Ruphas had captured him for the sake of alchemy, he was not raised at all.
His special techniques are [Leer] and [Fire Spin].[11]
Honestly speaking, because he is someone which will be traded for Aquarius, he is a character you don’t really need to remember.
His HP is 65 000. He has the personality of collecting shiny things.
The Water Snake Hydrus
One of the magical beasts which was captured by Ruphas 200 years ago and swore loyalty to her.
A kind of dragon, which is known to be the strongest category of magical beasts.
Its true appearance is that of a water dragon with a length of 80m. It possesses a strong defensive ability and manipulation over water.
Hydrus is a complete physical-attack type. The destructive cannon howl attack that it releases from its mouth can turn a 1km radius from the point of impact into ash.
His defect is that he is unable to learn the majority of the Water attribute skills because he ran out of memory.[12]
Due to that, he reached a sad point where he does not possess many powerful water-type skills despite being a water dragon.
Honestly speaking, because he is someone which will be traded for Aquarius, he is a character you don’t really need to remember.
Judging him based solely on strength, it would not have been strange for him to be named as one of the Tyrannical Twelve Stars. However, when it came to the Water attribute, because there was already Pisces and Aquarius, he drops down to the second tier.
His HP is 67 000. Although he is a dragon of the sea, he possesses the ability to fly.
Whilst he is Water attribute, he has two more [Weakness: Lightning] as part of his unique passive skill. Therefore, some Wood attribute arcane skills (Lightning types) are insanely effective against him.[13]
Amongst some of the magical beasts, on top of their base weakness, the Goddess may specify additional unique weaknesses. He is one such individual.
So please do not use Thunderbolt on him.[14]
Honestly speaking, I’m sorry that they’re essentially Hu__ of the Wind and Shu__n of the Flames.[15]
Because the Argonautai have become allies, from now on, we won’t be short on dogs that bite anymore. Convenient![16]
(Author note end)
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[1] "".
[2] 350metre = 1148.3ft = 0.22 miles.
52metre = 170.6ft.
Since it didn’t seem THAT enormous... I did a quick Google search and according to Wikipedia... (well.. credibility/reliability aside... I got lazy lol), the longest aircraft carrier has a length of 342m (1122ft) and the largest cruise ship has a length of 361m (1184ft), so it’s actually massive.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_naval_ships".
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cruise_ships".
[3] "A small and faint constellation. Pyxis, also known as Pyxis Nautica, Latin for "mariner’s compass", is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Pyxis is located close to the stars that formed the old constellation of Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts." - Wikipedia: Pyxis
Pyxis of the Compass (『羅針盤座』のピクシス): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyxis".
[4] "Vela is a constellation and its name is Latin for the sails of a ship. It was originally part of a larger constellation, the ship Argo Navis, but was later divided into three parts, the others being Carina (the keel and hull of the ship) and Puppis (the poop deck of the ship). It ranks 32nd of the 88 modern constellations in size." - Wikipedia: Vela (constellation)
Vela (帆座): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_(constellation)#".
Suhail (Gamma Velorum) (スハイル): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_Velorum".
[5] "Puppis is a constellation that represents the poop deck of a ship. It was originally part of an over-large constellation, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, Argo Navis, but was divided into three parts, the other two being Carina (the keel and hull) and Vela (the sails of the ship). Puppis is the largest of the three constellations and it is one of the 88 modern constellations."
Puppis (艫座): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppis".
Naos (Zeta Puppis), Tureis (Rho Puppis), Azmidiske/Asmidiske (Xi Puppis) are stars within the Puppis constellation.
Naos (Zeta Puppis) (ナオス): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Puppis".
Tureis (Rho Puppis) (トゥレイス): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho_Puppis".
Azmidiske/Asmidiske (Xi Puppis) (アスミディスケ): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Puppis".
[6] "Carina is a constellation and its name is Latin for the hull or keep of a ship. It was part of the constellation of Argo Navis (the ship Argo) until it was divided into three pieces, the other two being Puppis (the poop deck) and Vela (the sails of the ship)."
Carina (竜骨座): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carina_(constellation)".
Avior (Epsilon Carinae) (アヴィオール): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Carinae".
The Japanese name for the Carina constellation (竜骨座) literally means "dragon bones". This new character, Avior, is thus described as a dragon skeleton (ドラゴンスケルトン).
[7] Mach 5 = 6174km/h OR 3836.35 miles/h
Based on this sentence, assuming it is a complete lap, the circumference of Midgard is estimated to be around 40 131 kilometres (OR 24 936 miles).
By comparison, the circumference of the Earth is calculated as 40 070 kilometre (OR 24 898 miles) by NASA (and 40 075km [24 901 miles] by another site)
NASA (40 070 km): "".
Space.com (40 075 km): "".
For reference, the fastest plane Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird clocked in at 3529.6km/h or 2193.2 mph (approx. Mach 3). And a NASA space shuttle is stated to travel at approximately 28 000 km/h or 17 500 mph (approx. Mach 22.7).
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird".
"".
"".
[8] Water Snake Hydrus (水蛇のハイドラス): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrus".
Immortal Bird Phoenix (鳳凰のフェニックス): "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(constellation)".
[9] Shojo manga (少女漫画) is a manga aimed at a teenage female target-demographic readership.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Djo_manga".
Shojo translates to young girl, so in this category, you would see series like Ouran High School Host Club, Kaicho wa Maid-sama, Vampire Knight, Cardcaptor Sakura and Special A. Yeah, you get the idea.
In the slightly exaggerated POV of Ruphas, this category *typically* has handsome men, a shallow story, cutesy girls, etc
[10] Yakitori, literally meaning grilled bird/chicken, is a popular food in Japan. In English, you can call it a skewered chicken.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitori".
[11] Leer (にらみつける): "".
Fire Spin (ほのおのうず): "".
[12] Hmm... in the Pokémon games, you can only "learn" 4 moves at any given time even if that Pokémon can actually learn like 100 moves. I think the author’s saying that Phoenix only has 2 skills so it was no problem for him, but Hydrus has so many skills it could learn but can’t learn because it’s limited to 4.
[13] Another Pokémon reference, Water Pokémon take double damage when hit by Electric type attacks. So I’m guessing it’s x2x2x2, so he takes 8 times the damage of what he should take when hit by Lightning type attacks.
[14] Thunderbolt (10まんボルト): "".
[15] Huey of the Wind (風のヒューイ) and Shuren of the Flames (炎のシュレン )
"".
"".
[16] Err... wasn’t sure what "dog that bite" was, but apparently, it’s a famous quote from some literature (... prob not "some", but since I’m not familiar with Japanese classic literature, I can only say "some"). I think it means a fodder character/guinea pig character that will first fight the enemy so the actual important characters/readers can get a feel for the enemy’s strength.
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