Chapter 289 Independence -18
Chapter 289 Independence -18
Jiha folded his wings and descended to the ground after defeating the chimera.
"Hoo."
He was drenched in blood, which was only to be expected. Fighting a monster that size without getting covered in gore was impossible.
He should be grateful he'd come through without a single wound. Tonight's battle wasn't over yet.
'If Alex gets away, it'll be a pain. I need to kill him today... but I've used too much Mana.'
Trying to suppress it in one go had forced him to overuse the Wind Blade.
Two more uses and his Mana reserves would bottom out.
Resting would replenish it. A full night's sleep would restore it completely.
'That's the real problem...'
Jiha was strong. Having steadily absorbed Mana and acquired numerous Special Abilities, he could now easily overpower a Unique.
Pairan? She was certainly powerful.
Yet Jiha had already subdued Lowchen—while holding back—despite Lowchen outclassing Pairan. By absorbing Mana continuously, Jiha could grow stronger in a remarkably short time.
Did mentality and intelligence matter in battle? There was no way Jiha fell short there. Even when his Mana ran low, he had always overwhelmed his enemies by controlling the situation.
'The problem is extended combat...'
It was practically his one and only weakness. When battles came one after another, his Mana didn't recover fast enough.
An ordinary person would consider that normal, but didn't Uniques recover almost instantly?
"Are you alright?"
Barjet approached and asked.
She couldn't bring herself to look at the chimera's corpse, and the bodies scattered everywhere had left her pale. Still, she walked toward Jiha.
'Should I bite her?'
Jiha studied Barjet as the thought crossed his mind.
Biting a woman restored his stamina and healed his wounds. His Mana recovered too, which meant Jiha could use women as potions on the battlefield.
When Jiha stared at her wordlessly, Barjet, despite her frightened expression, carefully wiped his arm and face with a handkerchief.
Her meticulous touch erased the blood from Jiha's cheek, and the clinging bits of chimera flesh fell away.
"What are you doing?"
Why wipe off the blood in the middle of a fight?
Barjet didn't answer. She simply jerked her chin toward the other side.
The people watching Jiha wore terrified faces.
Survivors of Alex's rampage and the chimera's attack—over two hundred of them.
Their expressions mixed awe and fear toward Jiha, who had slain the chimera.
"You were covered in blood. It was scaring them."
"Think they'll stop being afraid just because I'm tidy?"
Still, he hadn't expected Barjet to do something like this.
Jiha smiled, then asked her,
"Gashiel?"
"...She was in the central underground chamber. I just caught a glimpse before that thing and other monsters burst out. I couldn't catch the chimera because I was dealing with the others, so I came here in a hurry."
"Alex must have gone there, then."
Alex, who had brushed off Jiha's provocations about Gashiel's virginity, had realized someone really was getting close.
So he'd dropped everything and headed straight there.
"Good, then..."
Now he just had to go and kill him.
But Lowchen remained, first.
Lowchen, meeting Jiha's eyes, pressed his flank and rose to his feet. His face was calm, resigned to settling this.
'I do need to kill him now...'
But this wasn't a man who'd die easily. Above all, turning someone who died by his hand into a Shade was a trick Jiha had to guard against.
Lowchen, reading Jiha's thoughts, glanced sideways at the survivors.
If things went badly, he intended to kill people, summon Shades, and use them against Jiha.
'If I waste time, Alex will escape. But...'
Leave Lowchen to Barjet?
She lacked the experience to handle him. Even injured, Lowchen would overwhelm her without question.
Alex or Lowchen—he could only catch one.
Jiha was frowning when the sound of running footsteps reached him. He turned to see Pairan.
"I brought the healer to the barracks and came back. The situation is..."
Pairan stiffened at the sight of the chimera's corpse and the countless bodies.
Realizing Lowchen was still breathing, her expression grew complicated.
"Can you handle it?"
Jiha asked flatly.
He meant dealing with the injured Lowchen. Pairan drew her sword and answered bluntly.
"...I have to."
"Barjet, help Pairan kill him."
"Excuse me? I told you clearly. Killing people, I..."
"Then stop him from killing anyone. Because he'll try."
At Jiha's order, Barjet nodded, though reluctantly.
She was clumsy in a fight, but she was still a Unique. She'd manage at least the minimum.
"I'm going. You two clean this up."
"Next time, I'll kill you."
Lowchen, who had been listening, spoke calmly.
"If you survive this one."
Jiha replied curtly and turned away.
He'd memorized the mansion's floor plans beforehand.
Running toward the location Barjet had given him, Jiha frowned.
'They've all run off. Not a single woman in sight.'
As long as Lowchen was present, he couldn't drink Pairan's or Barjet's blood.
No—he couldn't perform Bloodsucking in front of Lowchen at all, no matter who it was.
Direct Bloodsucking required minutes. It was absolutely impossible with an enemy right in front of him.
'...I won't be able to catch Lowchen.'
Jiha coolly predicted the outcome.
Lowchen was gravely injured, but his experience was exceptional. Even though Pairan was strong, facing her own flesh and blood would make her hesitate somewhere.
And Barjet, assisting her, would be lucky just to keep herself safe.
'But Lowchen is also badly wounded. He'll prioritize escaping. He won't be able to interfere with me.'
He'd planned to catch both, but he abandoned one. For Jiha to successfully achieve independence, Alex had to come first.
In the great mansion, now eerily silent, only Jiha's footsteps echoed.
A twisted iron door. Summoning his Mana, Jiha burst into the underground chamber.
The interior was vast.
Nearly the size of a banquet hall—large enough to hold hundreds of people.
No wonder chimeras and other monsters had been sleeping here.
Darkness filled most of the space, with light shining from only one spot. As Jiha approached, a man's back came into view.
It was Alex.
Hearing Jiha's footsteps, Alex spoke calmly.
"Isn't she beautiful?"
What Alex was looking at was ice.
Inside the cold ice, a platinum-blonde woman lay with her eyes closed. Pure white wings, the white clothes she wore—the word angel sprang to mind just by looking at her.
Even with her eyes shut, the moment you saw her, you knew she was a tremendous beauty, a loveliness sculpted by a god.
"I saw her from a distance during the Summoning War... but up close, she really is beautiful."
Jiha deliberately voiced his admiration.
Empathy—he was mimicking Alex's favorite technique.
Even between enemies, if there's something you both share, the other person tends to soften unconsciously.
"I've never seen anyone more beautiful than my elder sister. No, such a being doesn't exist anywhere in Warsland. There never has been, and there never will be."
"That's because you're a nutjob who's lost all judgment."
Pretend to sympathize, then betray—a perfect pattern for making someone lose their mind.
Sure enough, Alex turned his head and glared, then eventually gave a bitter smile.
"I suppose it's impossible for a mongrel to properly appreciate my sister's beauty."
"Is that why you drop your pants and jerk off?"
"..."
"Looks like you've done it twice already. It stinks."
Jiha sneered.
Alex's face twisted at Jiha's words insulting his idol.
"Only filthy thoughts fill the head of a lowly mongrel."
"Ah, sorry. You're impotent, right? So you've never even slept with a woman."
"..."
Alex's face contorted even more grotesquely.
Not the face of an elegant prince, but that of a murderer desperate to kill.
Jiha, ignoring him, looked at Gashiel again and admired her.
"She does look good."
A beautiful angel trapped in ice and asleep—anyone's eyes would be stolen by the sight.
Well, not an angel, but a celestial.
In the middle of his anger, Alex's expression relaxed. Jiha tsked at the unexpected reaction.
"This guy really is a moron."
The situation had gone to hell, yet his face relaxed just because someone complimented his sister's appearance?
Alex paid no mind and raised his sword.
"The fact that you made it here means Lowchen and the chimera are dead."
"So you think if you just kill me, everything's sorted?"
"Once you're dead, the rest are a rabble. I'll simply sweep them away."
"How do you plan to suppress several Uniques?"
Alex laughed as if the question were absurd.
"I, who am borrowing my sister's power, can't imagine losing to other Uniques."
"You're not even Gashiel herself. What the hell are you babbling about?"
Alex shook his head, his expression bright.
"It may displease you, but let me say this in advance. The thawing of this ice can only be done by me. And I have no intention of doing so."
"Really?"
Wham!
Jiha moved his hand with Blink and smashed it against the ice. The punch was packed with Mana, so the force was more than enough.
But only a sound rang out. The ice was undamaged.
"It's hard. Let's try something else."
"..."
Alex's mouth fell open.
"W-what are you doing?"
"Breaking the ice."
"A-are you insane! It won't break, but what if it does!"
Gashiel was trapped inside that ice. What would happen if it shattered?
Jiha answered without a care.
"One more corpse, I guess."
"Wh... what kind of fucking lunatic..."
Alex's jaw trembled with rage.
His mask had slipped in front of Jiha many times, but this was the angriest he'd ever been.
"You're furious at me like I'm the only crazy bastard in the world... but that's my line right now."
A man who had casually massacred hundreds of people was now shaking, eyes wavering, mouth hanging open, because his sister might die.
Only what he treasured was precious. He didn't have a shred of ability to empathize with anyone else's heart.
"Back on Earth, they call people like you psychopaths."
Considering his twisted mind, his strangely high intimacy and sociability proved Alex's ability was no joke.
His reason only evaporated whenever Gashiel was involved.
If Jiha hadn't persistently provoked him by bringing up Gashiel again and again, Alex wouldn't have shown this opening.
'No, normally, no one dares to mention a Unique while blaspheming them. That's how Alex has managed so well until now...'
People who hurled curses as casually as Jiha were rare, and rarer still when the target was a Unique.
Who would dare do such a thing, especially to a relative of that Unique?
Everyone Alex had ever dealt with must have only ever praised Gashiel, spoken well of her. That's how Alex had been able to live while hiding his twisted obsession.
Alex's body trembled, but he couldn't move quickly. His face was deeply anxious, terrified that the fist Jiha had moved with Blink might strike the ice again.
'It's not absolute...'
Jiha extracted information from that expression.
Contrary to Alex's words, the ice wasn't completely safe. If enough force was applied, it would break.
Bang!
"I wonder how long until it cracks."
Jiha grinned and kept pounding the ice with his Mana-clad fist.
Alex bit his lower lip, anxiously looking back and forth between the ice and Jiha.
Anyone but an idiot could tell this was a provocation.
And he knew Jiha was no pushover—he'd been pushed back earlier, so he understood he had to handle this with extreme care.
Craaack!
"Oh, a little crack."
"Graaaah!!"
Alex, who had been forcing himself to hold back, screamed like a banshee and lunged at Jiha.
An idiot who couldn't control himself even knowing it was a trap. Jiha laughed.
Time to kill him miserably.