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Last Embryo Volume 2 Chapter 7 Part 8

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Contrary to all the other Divine Spirits, she was not as famous as the rest of them, and her exact origins were shrouded in mystery due to her being born from the concept of Ancestral Spirit Worship that was widely practiced in the times of the ancient Celtic civilization, but to add yet another layer of weirdness to the lore that surrounded her, her nature as a Goddess was special even among other special cases like her in the pantheons of the Nordic and Celtic mythologies.

As the Divine Spirit who ruled over death and the shadows cast by the sun, she awakened her personal Gift, 『Dun Scaith』, which allowed her to control the shadows that have been cut away from the Queen Halloween’s castle, and also served as a proof that she was responsible for ruling over the Celtic world throughout the night when Queen’s watchful eyes were closed when she slept and was a sign that in her Land of Shadows Scathach was equal to Queen Halloween, bur right now, when the sun was still in the sky, even when it was being obstructed by the storm clouds made by 『The Bull of Heaven』, so she was unable to use 『Dun Scaith’s』 to its fullest potential.

(Since it is still not the time when Scathach-sensei is at her absolute best, I guess the responsibility of seeing this thing to a close falls onto me.)

Ayato prepared herself to face whatever was waiting for them in the Labyrinth, even though she knew that the statement about not being at the peak of her condition applied to her just as much as it did to Scathach. If she was in her optimal condition from back when she was still Faceless, then she could have defeated or severely wound all 3 of the enemies along with Suzuka’s Paopei, but since she was out of the battlefield for so long, her skills have become too rusty, and she hated herself for it, but there was nothing she could have done about it since in comparison to the Little Garden the Outer World was just too peaceful. Of course, she knew that wars and conflicts were present even in that world, but they were limited ti very specific areas, so her own life would have never been in danger unless a natural disaster struck or a new World War happened. But here, on the other hand…

The Minotaur, Chinease Sendou, A Divine Beast of the West… those were just the right kind of opponents she needed to get herself back into shape, so she took up her sword one more time… but before that, she heard the voices of Suzuka and the others coming from inside of the Spirit Train.

While brushing off all of the dust and rubble that got into her clothes and hair which she shook just like a cat, Suzuka came out of one of the wagons, with Homura and Scathach following closely behind her.

「Oh man, I thought that this time we would be goners for sure! That was my third time almost dying ever since I first came to Little Garden, so I think that qualifies for a work-injury compensation? Where do I fill a form for that? What do you think, Bro? Will Queen Halloween do something about it if I go complain about it to her?」

「You wanna know what I think about it, Sis? I think she’d do jack shit.」

「And to that I retort: I don’t think so. As long as you asked her politely and argumented your claim properly, I am sure she would have given you what you wanted. Despite her fickle disposition, Queen is always quite generous when it comes to money, you know?」

「…. Suzuka, Homura-senpai, Scathach-sensei, can you please learn to read the mood just a little bit better?」

Although she just triumphed it a deadly battle, hearing her friends an mentor spout such idiotic nonsense at a time like this made her hang her head down dejectedly.

But it was still too early to get all relaxed when the biggest challenge yet was still before them.

Inside of the Labyrinth, some distance away from the Gian Spirit Train 『Sun Thousand’s』 crash site.

Hiding themselves in the shadows of the Labyrinth’s walls, Shen Gongbao and Byakko were talking with displeased voices while keeping themselves hidden in case any of the warriors from the Spirit Train was already out looking for them.

「…. Damn it! It’s no use, those Paopei were completely stolen from me! I tried it over and over again, but no matter what I try to do I cannot operate them remotely from here! They’re just not responding!」

「Is that so? *Sigh* As if the Queen’s Knight herself wasn’t enough of a problem for us already, now we also have to deal with someone whose Teleportation ability can only be described as overpowered… this is starting to get really troublesome.」

「Yeah, you can say that again. I don’t think I need to explicitly state this, but if we Sennou do not have our Paopei with us, then we are not all that strong…. But enough about that! Have you seen what that Queen’s Knight was capable of?! Repelling my Paopei attacks with martial arts and weapons alone, that’s gotta be the first time since Huang Feihu (TL Note: A character from a Chinese epic fantasy novel Fengshen Bang and the leader of the rulers of the Five Sacred Mountains who oversees the fortunes and fates of mortals and the Eighteen Levels of Hell.) isn’t that right, Byakko?! That segmented sword of hers was just a normal iron sword, right? there wasn’t anything magical about, right?!」

「Yes, it is exactly as you say. It might have possessed quite an unusual form, but I didn’t sense any Gifts or other magical properties residing in it. I can agree with you that the display of her abilities cannot be called anything less than magnificent, but as I was saying, it is also extremely troublesome for us. It is clear as day that she is the kind of opponent that I am the least compatible with.」

Byakko said so unpleasantly while gnashing his teeth in frustration. Shen Gongbao also waved her hand around in a gesture that seemed to imply that she has lost all hope .

「Same here. As long as we were in a place where my field of vision was nice and unobstructed I could have somehow managed to hold my ground against her, but I cannot afford to carelessly use my remaining Paopei in a place such as this where there are so many places for the Teleportation girl to hide and snatch the other ones from me. I already lost 3 of them, and I refuse to lose any more. If only we could just slaughter them all indiscriminately, it would have been another story entirely, but with the way things are right now… hay, Byakko, can we be sure that this Teleportation girl and the shadow-using woman are not Queen’s Knights as well?」

「I cannot say anything about that Teleportation girl, but I think it would be safe to assume that the shadow-using woman is a Queen’s Knight as well, or maybe even someone with an even higher position. Also, if those shadows she used to stop that… Spirit Train, was it called, from falling onto the Labyrinth, then we are most definitely dealing with Scathach.」

「What? Scathach? That Divine Spirit rumored to have her roots in both Celtic and Nordic mythologies? If those shadows of her have been summoned by her using her Celtic Magic, then we should definitely be on the lookout for her famous Runic Magic as well if we happen to bump into her again, right?」

「I don’t think that 「being on the lookout」 would be the right thing to do here. After all, just like with that golden-haired Queen’s Knight, Celtic and Runic Magic is not something I would like to fight against since they are the types of magic that I have no way to counter at all. However, what worries me the most is the fact that as someone who is supposed to exist ever since the BC era, she should have no connection to or knowledge about Runic Magic at all, and yet there she is, commanding it as if it was the most obvious thing to do under the sun.」

Byakko carefully analyzed all of Scathach abilities.

Nowadays she was counted as one of the members of the Celtic pantheon, but if all of the technicalities were to be taken into account, then strictly speaking, Runic Magic native to the Norse lands in the Outer World had nothing to do with the magic used by the ancient Celts…. and more importantly, the thing now known as the Runic Magic didn’t even exist at the time when she was incorporated into the Celtic mythos.