Chapter 65: Night of the Hunt (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 65: Night of the Hunt (3)
“—So, it’s fine and all that you’re spouting crazy nonsense again—!”
“…”
Aiden’s face crumpled at the casual verbal abuse, but the relentless sharpness spewing from Noel’s mouth showed no sign of wavering—even as she sprinted at full speed, carrying both him and Katya.
“What exactly is your crazy plan to put that crazy talk into action?!”
“…I have feelings too, Dame Noel.”
Aiden grumbled timidly, surveying their surroundings as he spoke.
Honestly, even thinking about it for a second… the current situation was pretty bizarre.
— Quest Info
♠ Main Quest
◈ Act 1, <Imperial Capital Rift>
— Chapter 2, <Night of the Hunt>
▶ Difficulty has skyrocketed due to external intervention.
▶ Content has changed from the original event ‘Large-Scale Raid’ to the subjugation of a ‘Highest-Rank Demonic Beast’!
▶ Due to the difficulty change, rewards upon quest completion will be enhanced!
Looking at the quest window, it definitely wasn’t time to face such a monstrous opponent yet.
There weren’t many creatures in this entire world that could shrug off attacks from Noel and Katya as if they were nothing but a tickle.
…Highest-Rank Demonic Beasts don’t usually leave the Void Zone.
Highest-Rank Demonic Beasts stood at the pinnacle of the ecosystem even within the Void Zone, an environment optimized for the survival of the fittest. Naturally, such monsters spent their time hunting inside and paid no mind to the outside world.
The reason was simple. Demonic beasts existed solely for destruction and predation, and that inner realm was the ultimate haven to satisfy those desires.
For such a monster to burst into the outside world meant one thing: the Puppeteer—Rad—had pulled some kind of trick before Aiden crushed him.
To be more precise…
It was highly likely that the ‘Berserk’ state currently affecting this creature, Soul River, was that very trick.
It had dragged the reasoning of a beast that would normally never leave its sanctuary down to that of a purely instinctual animal, luring it outside.
If so, summing up the current situation…
That demonic beast was currently incapable of ‘rational thought’—which would have originally been its greatest strength—and Aiden himself held two Skill Copy Tickets belonging to the guy who pulled off the trick to reduce it to that state.
If that was the case, a path forward was bound to open. It had a clear weakness, and he had the means to exploit it.
For instance…
While it might look like they were merely running away, he had already managed to drive all the stakes he’d brought along into the ground, however roughly, during their flight.
As Noel sprinted and Katya intercepted Soul River, Aiden had been tossing stakes from his supplies one by one, lodging them into the earth.
Anyone could see that doing such a thing while fleeing meant he was plotting something, but that demonic beast—which normally would be an intelligent entity—had no idea what was wrong due to the influence of Berserk.
And the way to capitalize on that…
Aiden placed a hand on the shoulder of Noel, who was sprinting at full speed. He tapped her lightly, indicating he had a proposal.
“Dame Noel.”
“…No.”
“Dame Noel.”
“I don’t know what it is, but the answer is no.”
“…”
When Aiden’s expression turned sullen, Noel caught a glimpse of him and closed her eyes tightly.
Nothing in particular had gotten worse, but she had become keenly aware of her own situation once again. Ultimately, having come this far, she knew she would end up acting according to whatever plan this man put forward.
Goddess Carva, why on earth did you place such a reckless man by my side…?
“…Fine. Let me at least hear what you have to say.”
“Let’s jump.”
At an instruction that was clearly out of the ordinary, Noel forced down the harsh curse that almost burst out of her throat. Had this been a social gathering abiding by conventional manners and common sense, the words were harsh enough to earn her uncomfortable glares.
“Jump? Where to?”
“Down there.”
Aiden pointed toward the cliff running alongside the slope they were currently traversing.
It was the exact spot where Aiden had rappelled down with a rope earlier to hammer in stakes.
“…”
Noel glanced downward past the edge of the cliff.
…She couldn’t see the bottom.
It was so deep that the razor-sharp wind howling upward sounded like a human scream beating against her eardrums.
“…Down there?”
“Yes. Don’t worry. I have a plan—”
Before he could even finish his sentence, a curse Noel couldn’t suppress escaped her lips.
This time, it was a curse so severe that at any social gathering respecting etiquette and common sense, she would have been soundly beaten and thrown out.
While Aiden was left bewildered—unsure how to process the fact that the most vicious insult he had heard lately came from his betrothed—Katya tilted her head. She had been continuously firing streams of Divine Power at Soul River as it menacingly pursued them.
“We just need to go down there?”
“Yes. If we want to tame it, we need to break its temper first.”
A question reached the tip of Noel’s tongue: wasn’t there a massive difference between breaking a temper and committing suicide by jumping?
The reason she couldn’t voice it was because an interruption intervened.
“Is that so?”
That is to say…
“Then let’s go.”
The moment Katya heard those words, she fired her Divine Power into the ground at maximum output. Like an igniting engine booster, the repulsive force launched their bodies into the air.
Naturally…
Their bodies, launched forward, began a rapid plunge down the cliff driven by the laws of physics.
“…I swear, this fucking—Your Highness Aiden—!”
“…”
Just how angry is she to mix formal honorifics into the middle of a rant?
Let’s make sure to apologize to Noel once this is over…
As Aiden came to that resolve, Soul River caught sight of them falling down the cliff and locked its glaring eyes onto them.
Soon after…
It threw its body over the edge, following right behind them.
That movement, packed with primal murderous intent that paid no heed to its own safety, was more than enough to send chills running down the spines of everyone in the group.
Of course, even so…
He had a job to do.
With a deep breath, Aiden hurled the final stake from his backpack. Though he couldn’t drive it in deeply, he clearly saw it lodge into a crevice in the cliff while they were falling.
“…By the way, what on earth have you been throwing and driving into the walls since earlier?!”
It was a question asking why he was leisurely doing such a thing while free-falling down a cliff, all while a Highest-Rank Demonic Beast leapt after them to tear them apart.
…Honestly, Aiden thought Noel wasn’t quite normal either, having enough composure left to ask such a question in the middle of a free fall.
“Blasting explosives.”
“…Pardon?”
A trivial piece of trivia about the Aslan Grand Duchy: this region was unexpectedly famous for its mining industry.
Which meant obtaining high-quality explosives developed for breaking rock and altering terrain wasn’t difficult at all.
And…
Even while desperately running away, they had just driven enough blasting explosives to supply a decent-sized mineral vein for an entire month straight into the ground.
“…Why did you drive that massive quantity into everything around us…?”
Instead of explaining with words, showing her directly would be faster.
First, he pulled a spare rope from the backpack still slung over his shoulder. It was a specialized tool equipped with a grappling hook at the end. Its strength had been inspected multiple times to ensure it could easily support the weight of several people.
When he whipped it outward, the hook caught onto the canyon wall opposite the cliff they had jumped from, drastically arresting their endless downward momentum.
Anchored, the group swung like a violent pendulum before slamming against the opposite cliff face.
It was a brutal impact that only avoided causing injuries because Katya conjured a barrier with Radiant Brilliance, but the real issue was that there was a target scheduled for an even more violent collision.
Had even a sliver of intellect remained, it would have at least attempted to halt its descent. But Soul River was currently free-falling in a state of pure, ferocious hostility, flailing its limbs toward them without a single thought.
Granted, watching its body draw closer just from flailing in midair was enough to leave one open-mouthed at its absurd physical specs, but the outcome had already been decided from the beginning.
Fwooosh—!
With terrifying acceleration, Soul River crashed straight into the bottom of the cliff.
“…”
“…”
Noel and Katya fell silent as they watched the scene unfold.
Dangling from the rope, Noel narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
“…Mr. Aiden.”
“…Yes.”
“In the future, whatever you plan on doing, please at least consult with me first.”
“…”
“Do you understand?”
“…Nobody got hurt, right?”
When he refused to give a direct answer, Noel glared at him with sharp eyes. Aiden merely did his best to avoid her gaze.
Well, I mean…
It wasn’t over yet.
Aiden tried his best to ignore Noel’s glare while fumbling through his coat to pull out a detonator.
“…What is that now?”
“We have to blow it up.”
The ‘path’ along which he had driven all those blasting explosives…
Was a path designed to drop an entire cliff directly onto Soul River at the bottom.
Beep—
The explosives embedded along the cliff detonated in rapid succession.
Amidst the roaring explosions that shattered the night sky, Katya’s muttered words could be heard.
“Did you plan all of this from the very start?”
“Of course.”
“… This?”
“…”
To lure a beast of that magnitude…
Drop it down a cliff…
And blow up the entire cliff to drop it on top of the monster from the very beginning…
“…Mr. Aiden, what on earth goes through your head on a daily basis?”
As Noel spoke in a tone mixed half with fatigue and half with sheer disbelief, Katya added her own commentary.
“Honestly, watching him… his mindset is a bit dangerous.”
“…”
“Don’t you just think about blowing things up and killing them first, no matter what?”
Aiden grimaced at Katya’s sharp critique and pressed the button.
Hearing that coming from her, of all people, was undeniably quite hurtful to his soul…
BOOOOOOM—!!!!
Of course, whether he was hurt or not…
Accompanied by a massive explosion, the aftermath of a cataclysm that completely reshaped the landscape swallowed up the surrounding scenery.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of rock tumbled down directly onto Soul River’s head.
* * *
As dust billowed in all directions and the deafening roar that engulfed the area finally began to subside…
Aiden let out a sigh and checked the state of the rope.
Hmm, so…
“…Dame Noel. You’re the heaviest right now, so if you don’t hold still, the rope will break—”
Smack.
“…I don’t mean your body weight! I mean you’re wearing the heaviest equipment, so you’re the heaviest—”
Smack.
“…”
No matter what, never tell a woman she’s heavy. Note taken.
As he chewed on that piece of wisdom…
Suddenly, a chilling sound reverberated from below the cliff.
“…It’s still alive even after that?!”
Looking in that direction, Noel gasped out the words in shock.
Soul River was digging its front paws into the cliff face one after the other, crawling up toward them.
Of course, Soul River was hardly unscathed. It was battered so thoroughly that finding an intact spot anywhere on its body was a challenge. Falling from a cliff of this height and having the mass of a small mountain dumped on top of it, the fact that it was still breathing was astonishing enough in itself.
“This is a complete disaster—”
“—No, it isn’t.”
However, Aiden’s thoughts were completely different.
If it could die from something like this in the first place, it wouldn’t even deserve the title of Highest-Rank Demonic Beast.
Above all…
“It would actually be troublesome if it died. The whole point was to tame it.”
And then…
Saying so, Aiden immediately let go of the rope he was holding.
Rather than retreating, he plummeted downward, approaching Soul River as it crawled toward them.
Ordinarily, pulling a stunt like this would have gotten him turned into paste the instant he entered its range, but the attacks of a creature this severely injured were easily manageable for him.
Deflecting its swinging forepaw once with Radiant Brilliance, Aiden landed directly atop the creature’s head.
And right here…
He copied the two skills the Puppeteer must have used to reduce Soul River to this state.
— System Message
▶ Imitating ‘Skill: Demonic Energy - Water Control’.
▶ Imitating ‘Skill: Demonic Energy - Divine Command’.
— Skill Info
◆ Demonic Energy: Water Control
Analyzes the flow of energy manipulated by a target possessing Demonic Energy. Once the flow is grasped, ‘Divine Command’ can be used on the target.
★ A skill copied via ‘Imitation’. Its power is lower than the original!
◆ Demonic Energy: Divine Command
Infiltrates the mind of a target whose analysis is complete and embeds a ‘command’. A target affected by Divine Command will yield absolute obedience to that command until another entity dispels it.
★ A skill copied via ‘Imitation’. Its power is lower than the original!
Watching the lines of text stream rapidly past his vision, Aiden let out a dry laugh and placed his hand against Soul River’s head.
Perhaps because the supernatural ability known as Demonic Energy was a power derived from a sealed god, it was chock-full of all sorts of insidious abilities, and these felt like a prime demonstration of that nature.
However, for now at least…
Aiden himself had to be grateful for such details.
In the first place, abilities of this kind couldn’t be converted into clear numerical values when measuring their power. Even if the potency was reduced compared to the original, it was barely noticeable.
Above all…
— System Message
▶ Activating ‘Skill: Demonic Energy - Water Control’.
▶ Analyzing the flow of Demonic Energy within the target’s body!
▶ Analysis complete.
A pulsating black flow was visible inside Soul River’s body. Pinpointing where it was unusually concentrated, Aiden reached out his hand.
— System Message
▶ Activating ‘Skill: Demonic Energy - Divine Command’.
▶ A duplicate skill is already active on the target. Unable to use—
Even before that sentence could fully manifest…
Aiden drew forth a supernatural ability from his hand, perfectly suited for a moment like this.
▶ ‘Supernatural Ability: Purifier’ removes the ‘Skill: Divine Command’ embedded in the target.
Would that fellow Rad ever realize?
That all the tricks he pulled to put Aiden in a bind… had instead served him a lavish feast on a silver platter.
The skills that guy had used were worth far more than a fortune to Aiden right now.
After all…
— System Message
▶ Target’s ‘Berserk’ state is dispelled.
▶ ‘Skill: Demonic Energy - Divine Command’ activates successfully.
▶ Target obeys your command!
That was it.
Looking at the text popping up before him, Aiden flashed a flawless, radiant white smile.