Miss Hebe Is Charging Through the Lostbelts! [41]

The earth shook.

A sandstorm crept in from the distance. Cracks split the ground, houses swayed, and walls collapsed.

Memphis was coming apart in the sudden earthquake. Across the city walls and gates crumbling between them, Hebe and Nitocris looked at one another.

The flaxen-haired girl smiled and waved, her eyes sparkling like gemstones washed clean by fresh rain.

Nitocris stared at her in a daze.

She said nothing. She only watched Hebe’s smiling face.

All around them, the earth quaked and sank, yet that face grew clearer and clearer.

Nitocris thought that, for the rest of her life, she would probably never forget those dark-green eyes.

The female pharaoh turned and left.

The corners of Hebe’s mouth dipped slightly. She was still smiling, only now there was a little more relief in it, a little more feeling.

This counts as deception, of course, the girl thought. But with no more lingering attachments, this is fine.

Think of me as a liar, then. Or as a treacherous minister bearing every sin and every wrong.

Then we can each walk our own road, without fearing blades, wind, or frost.

Hebe turned around. She spread her arms wide and laughed aloud in that ruined world.

“Ozymandias has brought down nine disasters. He will end the suffering of the first nine with a tenth, using it as his ritual to declare that even the Ennead has been defeated before his divine might. He will accomplish an unrivaled deed, unprecedented and never to be surpassed.”

“But the Priest has brought another possibility, declaring that Ozymandias will ultimately die by his own regret…”

[YOU WILL COMPLETE THE REVERSAL AT OZYMANDIAS’S GOD-ASCENSION RITUAL. THE FATE BY WHICH DECEMBER CONSUL: DUKE OF SIGHS IS BORN CANNOT BE AVOIDED, BUT THEY NEED NOT NECESSARILY BE OZYMANDIAS. IF THAT IS TRULY SO, THEN EGYPT WILL BE SPARED THE ENDING OF DESTRUCTION, AND THE WORLD AND THE HISTORIES WILL ALSO BE RENEWED.]

[CURRENT PROGRESS]: 90%

…

The clouds pressed lower and lower. If someone could have looked down over all Egypt then, they would have seen that the great river surging north had already turned a turbid red. This time, whether tiny fish and shrimp or enormous crocodiles several meters long, every living thing in the river had died, their corpses mingling with the blood-colored water.

One of the Nine Calamities, Blood-Water Calamity: Blood of Isis.

Or rather, the influence of July Consul: Holy Grail.

…

The sky trembled, as though enduring immense pain. After a brief silence, hailstones as large as human heads fell from the clouds amid thunder and lightning.

When they struck the desert, they left terrible craters behind. When they fell upon Abydos, they destroyed every building in the city.

RUMBLE. RUMBLE.

The thick sand and dust covering the city walls came pattering down as well.

A few hailstones landed on the walls, and the walls that had stood there for centuries collapsed too, leaving only low remnants behind.

Dense herds of beasts shrieked and howled as the hail smashed down on their heads like heavy fists.

One of the Nine Calamities, Hail Calamity: Fist of Tefnut.

The influence of June Consul: Pearl.

…

An east wind suddenly blew in from another part of the desert. Then countless black shadows appeared within the wind.

With ominous buzzing, they hurled themselves through the gale at every living thing, monsters included. The tiny insects swiftly devoured everything in sight, then laid eggs and hatched at an even more terrifying speed.

This swarm should have become the most troublesome enemy for Memphis. Yet now, what covered the earth was not the living, but herds of beasts.

The swarm and the beasts tangled together, beginning an exceedingly bloody slaughter upon the earth.

One of the Nine Calamities, Insect Calamity: Horus’s Myriad Hosts.

The influence of February Consul: Scar-Father.

…

With a violent roar, the earth began to sink. Desert and oasis alike dropped amid the fierce tremors, while terrifying whirlpools tore open fissures and swallowed everything in sight.

Beasts, insects, and the hailstones left on the ground all fell toward the bottomless depths.

That terrible rift began in the west of the African continent and stretched straight toward the northeast. After passing through the river valley, it split into two branches, forming a vast, man-shaped crack. From this day on, it would continue to exist, and in later ages, it would even be named the East African Rift.

The terrible abyss forced the beasts back, and the rising sandstorm also died halfway. For roughly half an hour, heaven and earth fell silent.

One of the Nine Calamities, Earthquake Calamity: Birth Pangs of Geb.

The mighty power of September Consul: Skyflint.

…

Including the disasters that had already been raging before this, all nine Calamities had now arrived.

Just as Hebe had predicted, the Nine Calamities were not gathered together simply to ravage Egypt. In some cases, the Calamities were even wholly opposed to one another, locked in mutual resistance.

Even so, these influences from the Consuls themselves still objectively destroyed every city of Egyptian civilization, ravaging, crushing, and annihilating the great red sea of sand and every oasis.

Clouds gathered and circled, like a deep sea hanging upside down in the sky.

Hebe moved through the constantly collapsing city. Every road was breaking apart, only for new roads to appear immediately after. Everything in the city was letting out a dying wail. Memphis was dying.

The Red King Ozymandias did not want to see her, and so Memphis itself was trying to block her advance.

Even now, a king’s majesty could still command a city and force it to submit.

She came to a stop. She stared fixedly at the pyramid not far away, while the ruined city still pressed toward her from all directions, trying to bury her completely in the earthquake.

The girl took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

With her sight gone, her other senses grew even sharper. She could hear Ozymandias’s wild laughter carried on the wind, feel the anger brewing deep within the earth, and even sense the bone-deep chill about to descend from the clouds.

Her fingers once again touched that cold radiance.

From somewhere impossibly far away, there seemed to come a familiar soft laugh.

And so Hebe gripped the Sword in the Stone and drew it inch by inch from the earth.

The girl stepped onto the rubble with her right foot, her left leg bending slightly forward.

She raised the treasured sword high above her head.

The Sword in the Stone was a relic of the Path of Authority. According to legend, February Consul: Scar-Father had forged it personally, and the one chosen by the Sword in the Stone would become Scar-Father’s Heroic Spirit, stepping onto the battlefield when Ragnarok arrived.

Countless nights ago, Arthur had shared the secret of the Sword in the Stone with her: it would take on different forms according to the heart of its wielder.

When Arthur went to war, the sword was always radiant and resplendent, its might overawing all directions.

When Arthur was bound to the Iron Throne, the sword always burned like furious magma.

When Arthur stood at the edge of corruption and was about to choose to walk alongside Morgan, its blade became pure black.

Hebe had never truly held this sword, but in her imagination, it was supposed to shine with boundless light, imposing and majestic.

The blade fell, and a pure pillar of light surged forward from Hebe’s palm, splitting dead Memphis clean in two.

The Red King’s majesty was canceled out before another king’s Authority, and the road to the great pyramid was now unobstructed.

The illusion of the Sword in the Stone faded from Hebe’s palm. She coughed softly twice, and blood snaked down from her eyes, nose, and mouth, a truly horrifying sight.

Without pausing for even a moment, the girl continued forward, not daring to stop in the slightest.

This was Egypt, the Red King’s land.

A king’s Authority was strongest only within his own country. That the Sword in the Stone could briefly suppress the Red King’s majesty was already a heavenly achievement. How could she ask for more?

As she advanced, blue-green flames ignited in Hebe’s pupils. Soon, those blue flames spread like living things, wrapping around Hebe’s entire body until she seemed like a blaze in human form.

The flames had not the slightest heat, and burned nothing at all.

—[SECOND MARK]: “LORD OF FIENDS”.

This is a fan translation of 赫柏小姐正在杀出异闻带！ by 青散人 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!