Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: The Second Trial
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[System Message]
[ The host maintaining the ritual has been subdued. ]
[ ‘Event: Sweet Play’ is forcibly canceled! ]
[ The mental space is collapsing! ]
[System Message]
[ You have directly witnessed the process of the ‘Demon’ being routed. ]
[ The ‘Otherworldly Seal’ automatically records the target’s weaknesses and countermeasures. ]
[ You can unlock the ‘Subjugation Method’ for the ‘White Demon’! ]
Messages like that scrolled by in succession.
Then the space began to crumble.
It was a space maintained by the White Demon’s authority to begin with. There was no way it could stay intact after that thing got smashed by Gray.
But that was one thing.
‘...What?’
My eyes went wide at the message window floating in front of me.
I could accept everything else, but because of what was written in the last line.
‘Subjugation method?’
If I sorted out the nuance conveyed by the sentence.
It meant that through the Otherworldly Seal, I could now ‘subjugate’ a ‘Demon.’
I could already borrow their power and mimic it as closely as possible.
But subjugation?
“...”
I had no idea how that was possible, but I could tell for sure it wasn’t a bad thing.
In the original story, there were only three things you could tag with talk of subjugating a demon.
A fellow demon, a cherub maxed out on divinity, or Eliya after completing her final growth and equipping her holy sword.
Even then, it was a comedy that the best they could do against Gray Demon or Eliya was fight to a draw—they couldn’t gain the upper hand.
“...”
Come to think of it, Eliya didn’t make sense either.
How could something like ‘this’ have the same max potential?
With that thought, I stared at the Gray Devil standing rigidly still in front of me, giggling away.
Shaking hands or petting my head—it was total chaos.
Just like always, an innocent childlike appearance.
“...”
I barely managed to flick my gaze back to glance at the White Demon behind him, shattered to pieces but somehow clinging to its form.
Of course.
From my position of having just watched it casually demolish a fellow demon, it was hard to simply find the sight cute.
Like how you couldn’t just see a tiger acting cute as purely adorable from a human perspective.
“...”
But.
Even if it was a tiger I’d faced barehanded by human standards, I could clearly feel its ‘genuine’ concern for me.
Taking in that gaze filled with ‘affection’ with my body naturally brought that sensation.
As I thought that, its mouth opened.
[...Did you do well?]
“...”
Suddenly.
I noticed something odd.
The noise always mixed in this guy’s voice felt reduced.
A little clearer, even—its voice sounded ‘clean.’
“...Huh?”
The moment I realized it, my body became somewhat movable.
As if I’d gained some ‘resistance’ to the Gray Devil’s power.
[That’s a surprised look.]
Seeing my trembling eyes, it chuckled and said that.
It floated over lightly, unaffected by gravity, and stroked my chest.
The spot with the Otherworldly Seal.
[...This is why. Just now, I absorbed the ‘knowledge’ about White.]
“...”
[The seal grows the more you meet us. Your ‘resistance’ will keep rising too.]
With those words, it clenched a fist and thrust it forward in a pose complete with a whoosh sound effect.
A comically amateurish boxer’s punch.
[Next time that White bugs you again, hit it back just like that.]
“...”
[Just in case you don’t know how, here’s this too.]
With that, another window popped up in front of me.
[It’s an ability no one but you, Dawood, can use.]
[System Message]
[ The ‘Otherworldly Seal’ gains a ‘Synthesis’ function! ]
[ You can synthesize the accumulated demon energy in the seal to produce additional effects! ]
“...”
My pupils narrowed.
Clearly.
It had popped up in sync with what it said.
It had shown this kind of thing many times before.
The Gray Devil seemed to know all the system windows that appeared only for me.
Sometimes it even felt like it was manipulating them at will.
“...”
Of course, separately from that.
‘...Synthesizing demon energy?’
The concept alone was some insane ability.
The scale was so massive I couldn’t even gauge how overpowered it was.
“...Thanks. I’ll gladly accept it.”
As I expressed my gratitude, Gray beamed and pulled me into a tight hug.
As a spiritual body in the mental world, there was no physical force, but the gesture felt so nurturing, like a parent checking on their child.
“...”
So.
Thanks to this guy’s mercy right now, there was one thing I needed to handle.
At least it didn’t feel like it would kill me just for doing this.
I peeled the Gray Devil off and took a few steps.
Over there was the White Demon, barely holding its form after getting smashed.
“...Later.”
I said that to the White Demon, still sparking and fizzing from the brutal hit.
“Show me everything.”
[...?]
“What you were gonna show me of Yuria’s past. I was just being stubborn because the timing was off.”
I sighed and continued to the White Demon with its eyes slightly widened.
It wouldn’t have shown me Yuria’s past without reason.
It must have had some intent behind it.
I couldn’t guess what, but there was surely something it wanted to ‘convey’ by showing it.
It was just that the situation didn’t let me live up to that expectation right now.
Outside, the hero selection event tied to the main quest was in full swing. One slip-up and the whole scenario headed straight to ruin.
“Then, I’ll hear everything.”
But put another way.
If it weren’t for that, I’d respect this one’s will.
If my thinking was right.
‘Demons’ were existences to be handled with as much care as the ‘vessels.’
I had no intention of ignoring their feelings or thoughts.
[...]
As I said that to the White Demon still staring at me with wide eyes, the Gray Devil floated over again.
Its mouth was twitching. It looked extremely displeased.
[...Not to me. You don’t need to be that nice to other colors.]
“...Let’s all get along. Get along.”
[More than me?]
“...No.”
I answered the Gray Devil puffing its cheeks, sweating bullets inside.
Any other answer right now and I might die.
To begin with, this one.
It probably hadn’t guessed I was seriously planning to collect ‘all’ the demons.
“...”
But seriously, how do I pull that off?
Long-term, I can only survive by spreading my tentacles without this one finding out.
How the hell...?
‘...Ah, whatever.’
Inside, a wail escaped at the utterly disastrous future, but outwardly I just smiled at the Gray Devil.
That’s a problem for later.
I’d survived so far by patching things up at the last second, either dying or fainting.
Somehow it’d work out.
-I love you.
As those thoughts crossed my mind.
As always, the Gray Devil cupped my face with both hands and spoke.
The voice it made at the very end, when parting, was perfectly clear.
As if no matter what else, it was determined to convey this.
-See you later.
-To the ends of the world, just you and me.
-Alone, forever.
Lines I remembered.
Each time we parted after being together, the follow-up grew a bit.
This time.
-To the end of this repeating ‘story.’
It was a sentence that contained an ending.
One with a very clear goal.
-So.
-Until we meet again, don’t die, okay?
With those words.
My consciousness was abruptly pulled away.
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“...Quite persistent.”
Those words dropped toward Eliya, who was gasping for breath.
Unarmed except for a dagger and thin clothes, she’d held out freakishly well, no doubt.
Of course, put another way.
Even with the ‘Eye of Truth’ she’d awakened under Kwon Sung’s tutelage, holding out was all she could do.
‘...I thought I might be able to take down one or two if I played it right.’
The initial plan was to intimidate them that way, then somehow hoist Dawood and escape.
But.
It didn’t work a bit—the opponents were too skilled.
The more the fight dragged, the clearer it became.
These people were top-tier operatives any nation would treat as core forces.
In the Empire, they’d be ‘knight order’ level, right below the Imperial Guard.
“...”
And the man commanding such people was undoubtedly Imperial Guard-tier himself, no question.
A group crawling with monsters that even the continent’s top swordsmanship house, Tristan Ducal House, had to yield to.
A man whose skill didn’t fall short compared to them.
“But looks like you’ve hit your limit.”
Indeed.
Holding out was at its end. Her body was covered in accumulated minor wounds. Dodging major ones this long was a miracle.
“Don’t know what value you saw in that man to go this far, but your fate is death here. More foolish than I thought, Eliya Chrisanax.”
“...Ah, that’s mostly my fault.”
It really was mostly her fault.
“If I hadn’t thought about spending a hundred years with Teacher, I wouldn’t have gone this far. If I hadn’t dreamed of a blissful married life popping out kids left and right, enough for a sports team, there’d be no reason for all this suffering.”
“...”
“If I hadn’t lived a life of being toyed with by that insane playboy who seduces women like breathing...! If I hadn’t had to clean up the messes he made between women because he begged for cooperation...! And yet Teacher didn’t hate me for it, but got happy relying on me—that sucker play wouldn’t have happened...!”
“...”
“My fault for falling for that trash first! Really!”
As Eliya spat it out in a voice thick with resentment, the opponent stared at her, momentarily speechless.
“...Your inner energy is rather complicated.”
A voice tinged with rare sympathy.
Of course, that was that.
They were pros. They had to finish the job.
“Time to wrap it up.”
With those words.
The man’s sword surged toward Eliya.
‘-Danger...!’
With her accumulated injuries, she couldn’t react to that speed.
This strike would be impossible to dodge without a major wound.
-!
-!!!
With the sound of a bomb exploding, the man’s body went flying dozens of meters back from someone’s fist.
“...!”
“...!”
The nearby men raised their weapons with shocked expressions.
For battle-hardened veterans, pulling off a scene like that with pure martial arts was unheard of.
But someone had seen this scene drilled into her relentlessly.
A person who suddenly powered up this drastically in a crisis moment.
As far as Eliya knew, there was only one.
“...Teacher?”
She called out to him in a dazed voice.
He’d been blankly watching from behind her until now—what was this?
“...”
And as their eyes met, Eliya instinctively realized.
This man.
He was back.
Perfectly. To his usual slightly obnoxious Dawood self.
“Te, Teacher, you came to?”
“...Yeah. Just now.”
Damn.
This damn...
‘...Good that he’s back, but I’m dying to know how...!’
But there was something more urgent than that right now.
Eliya stammered it out, her face beet red.
“Di-did you, ju-just now, he-hear th-that...!”
“...What are you talking about?”
“...”
From his demeanor, he hadn’t heard.
Thank goodness.
Really thank goodness...!
She’d felt a terror greater than the threat to her life just now...!
“...I don’t know the situation.”
As Eliya mulled that over, Dawood expressionlessly scanned the surroundings.
Several seasoned combatants. And one extremely powerful combat priest overseeing them.
“Perfect.”
“...What is?”
“Got something new. Wanted to test it out.”
With those words.
Gray-and-white-mingled demonic energy erupted fiercely from Dawood’s chest.
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