Chapter 177
Chapter 177
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 177
Chapter Title: Deus Ex Machina (2)
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“...Ugh...”
Eliya looked around with a pained expression, clutching her head.
She understood the concept of the second trial well enough.
A battle royale survival in hostile territory.
Just the fact that they were handed a single bundle of basic survival tools and immediately thrown into a monster-infested zone made it crystal clear.
In that sense, the current situation was something that defied her common sense.
“...Where on earth did you get all this stuff from?”
One of the men surrounding her spun a longsword in his grip without a word in response to her troubled question.
“...”
No.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a survival challenge where you’re tossed in naked?
Anyone could see these guys were fully armed with weapons clearly meant to kill, radiating murderous intent.
No matter how you sliced it, they didn’t look like legitimate participants who had entered the hero selection fairly.
So this was what Rana had meant when she boasted that something would happen.
“...”
Eliya glanced down at her own body as sunlight glinted off their longswords and well-crafted armor.
Cloth boots. Cloth pants. Cloth top.
Compared to the opponents’ gear, which wouldn’t look out of place on a battlefield, hers resembled comfortable work clothes for farming.
She had no doubt that anyone capable of inserting people like this into the hero selection mid-trial wielded immense power, and those deployed by such a force wouldn’t be run-of-the-mill amateurs.
Even for her, facing opponents of that caliber in this getup would be a life-or-death gamble.
“Um, could you at least tell me why you’re doing this?”
“You’re not the target, Eliya Chrisanax.”
“...Pardon?”
“Step aside now, and we’ll let you live.”
The man who spoke raised his sword, pointing it at Dawood, whose soul seemed to have fled his gaze even now.
“Our target is that man. Stay quiet and back off, and we’ll spare your life. Messing with a hero candidate would bring too much backlash.”
“...”
Targeting Dawood.
Eliya nodded with a serious expression.
Good. Knowing the goal made it easier to deduce their affiliation.
Targeting Dawood. Suspects who might...
“...”
After a moment’s thought, Eliya spoke up with an even more solemn air.
“...Where are you from...?”
“...”
“There must be more than a couple people who want my teacher dead. If you could just give me a hint—”
“...Last warning. Back off now and hand over that man.”
Ah, they’re from the Holy Kingdom.
Eliya nodded in realization as she spotted the combat blessings enveloping their gear.
That meant they were likely backed by Archbishop Luminol.
Well, given what he did to her daughter, it’d be weirder if he didn’t want him dead.
“...Sigh.”
Eliya sighed and pulled a short dagger from the bundle of tools.
The blade was dull,
and no matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t for combat. At best, it was scrap barely good for skinning hides or cutting meat.
“...What are you doing?”
Someone asked as they saw her draw it.
But the next instant.
-!
The man who’d spoken shot straight up vertically.
It was because Eliya had closed in instantly and driven an upward strike into him with the dagger.
If not for the gap in their equipment, the force would’ve knocked him out cold.
His comrades grimaced as they watched him soar into the air and crash face-first into the ground.
“...What the hell was that?”
Eliya glanced back at Dawood instead of answering, scrutinizing his state.
In combat, his eyes always sharpened with focus, but now confusion dominated.
“...”
As expected, there wasn’t even a sign of him ‘coming back’ yet.
Without her help, he’d die right here.
“...Has she lost her mind?”
More words flew from the front in the meantime.
“Even as a hero candidate, taking on all of us with that pathetic gear is impossible. Do you want to die that badly?”
“I don’t want to die, obviously.”
Eliya spun the dagger with a grin.
“But for my teacher, it’s worth risking my life once, right?”
“...”
Their group drew swords with sighs, blessings igniting on the gear.
“...Your choice.”
At minimum, they were upper-mid-tier combat priests, clearly surpassing Eliya in capability.
Factoring in their underlings around them, fighting here was suicide. Odds of victory approached zero.
“Die here, Eliya Chrisanax.”
“...Sigh.”
But instead of fleeing,
Eliya just scratched her head with another sigh.
What a pain.
This was all because Dawood lacked the luck to attract decent people.
And.
“Falling for him first was my mistake too.”
With that, Eliya clashed fiercely with the armed group.
●
“...Elnor?”
The words slipped out naturally upon seeing the person who’d suddenly appeared in the black space.
[...You.]
The White Devil’s pupils shook as gray aura billowed thickly from Elnor’s entire body, suggesting I wasn’t the only one caught off guard.
Then, its teeth ground together.
[In my lair with my mate... that damned vessel of yours—]
My expression twisted at those words.
‘...Lair?’
I’d never heard of that.
The term felt ominously intimate.
“...”
Ah, I got it.
I understood.
‘...You never intended to let me go from the start.’
A bitter smile tugged at my lips as the realization hit.
All that nonsense about roles and restrictions was to seize ‘control.’
If I followed the role, it would manipulate things to trap me in this world forever, keeping me with it eternally.
If I broke the role, it’d pull the constraint card like just now to steal my soul’s ownership.
Either way, it was hell’s dilemma, forcing me into bondage with this thing.
And apparently, I wasn’t the only one who’d figured it out, as the hitherto silent Elnor finally spoke.
“...Lair?”
Her red eyes blazed fiercely.
She was clearly furious.
“You, from the very beginning.”
Her voice cracked in the following words.
[You planned to hog that person all to yourself?]
“...”
No.
The moment I heard that heavily distorted, noisy voice, instinct told me.
This wasn’t Elnor speaking.
It was another entity speaking through Elnor’s ‘body.’
[Gray...!]
As Elnor’s aura shifted like that, rage surged in the White Devil’s eyes.
[How dare you show that brazen face...! In my space...!]
It hadn’t been amicable before, but now it was like facing an archenemy.
With those words, white energy flickered across the entire space.
The pitch-black void turned snow-white in an instant, proof the White Devil was going all out.
[I’ll kill you—!!]
Demonic energy was always threatening, but the White Devil’s aura here in this mental world was exceptionally potent. In sheer pressure, it surpassed even the gray demonic energy the Gray Devil wielded in the material realm.
“...”
No doubt, these two had history.
This level of hatred didn’t come from nowhere.
As that thought crossed my mind, the white demonic energy surged toward Elnor all at once.
But.
-!!
-!
-...
In one go,
the demonic energy halted.
The white energy froze upon contact with the gray, as if ‘time’ itself had frozen solid.
[...!]
The White Devil’s face twisted slightly at the sight.
[...]
And simultaneously,
time froze.
The surrounding space’s color slowly ‘eroded’ from pitch-black darkness to gray.
The White Devil was losing dominance.
‘...Is this for real?’
Even I stared in stunned disbelief.
All demons held top-tier status across dimensions, so exercising their authority in another’s mental world was trivial.
But among demons, the White Devil led in ‘mind-related’ domains.
For such a being to falter in its own realm of absolute control?
-...
-...!
The gray aura crept out steadily, and the already barren space began to freeze entirely.
The Gray Devil possessing Elnor’s body, me, even the White Devil.
The White Devil could move somewhat as a peer demon, but Elnor as the vessel and I with my otherworldly seal were both immobilized without exception.
[...Haaah...]
Then, something descended from above.
With a rustling sigh.
A figure landed lightly on the floor.
A ‘crown’ atop its head evoking a halo.
The Gray Devil.
Ruler of Pandemonium.
And among them, the strongest.
[Because of you... because of you, my mate, because of you—!]
The moment it appeared, the White Devil screamed those words.
[I know.]
Came the immediate reply.
[I know you hate me. I know you think it’s my fault that man will die later.]
“...”
Words I couldn’t ignore passed by.
‘That I’ll die?’
‘Later?’
“...”
What did that mean, Gray Devil?
As that thought surfaced.
[Still.]
The Gray Devil’s pupils tore horizontally.
Compared to its usual innocent face toward me, this was chillingly different.
Malice.
Pitch-black emotion condensed toward the other.
With that expression, the Gray Devil closed in on the White Devil in an instant.
“...!”
For the first time since seeing it, a truly ‘demonic’ face brimming with evil.
A suffocating sensation hit, and the Gray Devil extended both hands toward the White Devil.
[That man.]
The instant they touched,
the White Devil tore apart in shreds.
Like fed into a grinder. In a split second.
Its entire form blurred and glitched like a signal-jammed broadcast.
Its mouth gaped, perhaps to scream in agony.
But before it could, the Gray Devil seized the one intact part amid the shredded body: its head.
[Mine.]
Then slammed it into the ground.
A full swing to outright ‘smash’ it.
The White Devil glitched again, its face contorting in horrific pain.
[Mine.]
Undeterred, savagery gleamed in the Gray Devil’s glowing red pupils. It lifted the White Devil’s head again.
Slammed it down.
Again.
And again.
Relentlessly.
As if determined to annihilate it completely.
Crack—the ground shattered. White shards flew everywhere.
The area quaked like an earthquake. Yet the Gray Devil’s hostility showed no sign of abating.
As if exacting payment for daring to touch its possession.
[Don’t touch.]
With a crunching sound,
the space shattered. The White Devil’s remains and the ambient demonic energy scattered like broken glass.
“...”
Hey.
Even if they’re both demons,
what was with this overwhelming power gap?
This surpassed even the Gray Devil’s established lore strength.
As if.
It transcended demonic hierarchies entirely, wielding near-transcendent power alone.
‘...How?’
I had no idea what had made it this strong.
But for now.
“...”
Gray Devil, you’re OP.
I thought it sincerely.
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