Chapter 136: True Awakening
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 136: True Awakening
Arachne looked down at him. Looking up at Arachne, Yohan assessed his own strength versus his enemy's.
All he had was his body and his suit. Elesis was here, but she had to protect Beatrice, so she couldn't join the fight.
His opponent, on the other hand, was an ancient monster, immensely powerful even on her own. A beast strong enough to tear a dozen Yohans to shreds by herself.
‘I can do this.’
But looking at Arachne, Yohan saw a possibility. To be precise, he saw it in the monster's legs.
One of Arachne's legs was half-broken, dripping green blood. She had wrapped it so tightly with translucent thread that it appeared stark white.
‘Her regenerative abilities must be weak.’
Moreover, having just committed the nonsensical act of dragging an entire city with her, the human torso attached to the spider's body was panting heavily.
The enemy was wounded and exhausted. He, on the other hand, was not just fine but overflowing with power—this was a fight he could win.
─Human, human- my cute little human.
As if reading Yohan's thoughts, Arachne grinned and beckoned with her finger, summoning the monsters in the distance.
Frowning at the monsters suddenly charging toward him, Yohan leaped aside to dodge.
But the monsters, which had seemed to be targeting him, paid him no mind. With tears in their eyes, they shrieked and rushed toward Arachne.
“Moooooo!”
Watching the monster approach, Arachne opened the maw on her spider body wide.
And then—
Crunch.
Crack.
Chomp.
─Fuu, that was a good meal.
Having devoured the monster in an instant, Arachne smiled brightly and pulled at the thread wrapped around her leg.
The leg that had been dripping with monster blood was now completely healed.
"...Dammit."
Yohan finally looked around. The monsters, terrified of Arachne, weren't charging at him, but they were circling, watching him.
The monsters, too, had been dragged here by the unprecedented event of the entire city moving.
These monsters would serve as emergency rations for the injured Arachne. And even if Yohan somehow managed to defeat her, they would ferociously attack him in his wounded state.
This meant he had to constantly pressure Arachne, giving her no time to heal her wounds, while also avoiding any serious injuries himself.
To do that, he would have to be so powerful that Arachne herself was a trivial concern.
─How is it, human? Are you in despair?
“—No.”
Yohan forced himself to deny Arachne's words, glaring at her. This monster had a human torso, and its intelligence seemed to be on a human level.
Which meant it knew exactly how to hunt him.
Yohan knew all too well that if he acted like a beast now, he would simply be hunted down.
‘Heart burning.’
And head cool.
Yohan's brain analyzed Arachne. His heart pounded like crazy, ready to spring into action at any moment.
‘She's bluffing.’
Arachne acted as if she feared nothing, as if she could snatch Yohan up at any time, but that wasn't the truth.
The entire area was covered in the rubble of buildings. Even if Yohan tried to run, Arachne could eventually catch him.
The fact that she wasn't doing so meant there was a reason she couldn't.
‘She might look healed on the outside, but she's still severely injured internally, or this is a trap to lure me in...’
Either way, Arachne seemed to have no intention of approaching him. In fact, she was the one who didn't need to.
Neither of them could leave this place, and as time passed, the injured Arachne would heal.
Ultimately, Yohan was the one who had to make the first move.
"Hey, you ugly bitch."
─What?
"For an ugly bitch like you, a good beating has always been the best medicine."
Hearing Yohan's words, Arachne's body trembled as if he'd struck a nerve. Then, with a flick of her finger, she set the surrounding monsters in motion.
The monsters were coming for him, and judging by their path, if he dodged, they would just become Arachne's next meal.
So—he wouldn't dodge.
“Kweeeek—!”
“Kiyaaaaaa!”
Yohan stared directly at the monsters charging him. They writhed and resisted, as if moving against their will.
‘Wait.’
He could avoid them, but he wouldn't. He would wait until the very last moment. Yohan waited until the absolute last second, to a point where even Arachne must have thought he was about to be crushed.
Finally, the monsters swarmed him, and Yohan's figure vanished from sight.
"Yohan!"
Elesis, who was protecting Beatrice from a distance, was horrified. Arachne, who had been watching Yohan intently, let out a subtle smile.
─You little shit, what trick are you trying to pull?
The eight eyes on Arachne's main body rolled, spotting Yohan clinging to the underside of a monster, and she let out a snort of amusement.
She belatedly squeezed her threads, causing the monster to explode. Yohan quickly landed on his feet and charged at her.
The energy sword erupting from his hand shot toward her. That painful tool, the thing that had crushed her body, was coming closer.
Gulp—! Swallowing unconsciously, Arachne grew furious with herself for being afraid of a mere human.
─You're just a human—!
Threads burst forth from Arachne's entire body. Countless threads that instantly covered the area, obscuring his vision.
The threads flew toward Yohan, but he dodged them nimbly, closing the distance to Arachne.
When Arachne finally spat a clump of thread from her mouth, Yohan used Magic Nullification to erase the projectile flying toward him.
─What!?
In her excitement, Arachne had forgotten about Yohan's strange ability to erase the threads. She belatedly swung a leg at him—but Yohan moved his body with his signature technique, accelerating from 0 to 100 in an instant to evade the attack.
Szzz— The concentrated energy of the sword sliced through Arachne's leg, cauterizing the joint.
At the horrific pain of her leg being severed and burned, Arachne began to let out a heaven-shattering scream.
─Kyaaaaaaaaaaak—!
A creature in pain will thrash about. The more intelligent the creature, the more sensitive it is to pain.
With an intelligence similar to a human's, Arachne was just as vulnerable to pain as one.
─Human, humaaaan!
As Arachne flailed her legs wildly, Yohan calmly swung his energy sword.
His body moved with unprecedented speed, aided by the power of his suit.
Fast. He moved so fast the eye could barely follow. But any shortcomings in his movement were captured and corrected by the suit's built-in cameras.
"Hup!"
Yohan took a deep breath and tore into her legs, throwing Arachne off balance. Having lost three legs in an instant, she collapsed, falling right in front of him.
‘A chance!’
Seeing the spider's head right before him, Yohan swung the energy sword. This weightless weapon didn't feel heavy to swing, but it still gave a satisfying impact.
The sensation of a dense mass of energy tearing through flesh. The feeling traveled up Yohan's arm.
"Did I get her...?"
Yohan muttered, cautiously observing Arachne. He saw her human torso slump to the ground the moment her spider head was severed.
So, even with two heads, losing one was a fatal blow.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Yohan turned to face the other monsters.
And then—he saw a single leg flying toward his face.
"Keuk!?"
The moment he saw it coming, he caught the leg with both hands, but it still pierced through his chest.
It didn't go all the way through, but it penetrated several centimeters. Just a few centimeters might not sound like much, but a person can die from a three-centimeter stab wound.
─Kik, kihihik! Kyahahahat!
Hearing Arachne's cackling behind him, Yohan belatedly realized the leg was tied to a translucent thread.
It was the weakness of his magic, his Magic Nullification ability.
He could nullify any direct magic, but he couldn't defend against or nullify attacks that used magic.
─Pathetic, so pathetic! This is why you humans are—!
Arachne shrieked, lifting her remaining legs with threads as if having a seizure. Yohan tried to dodge, only to realize he couldn't move because of the leg he was holding, which was being pulled toward him.
"...Go."
"...No, that's—"
He squeezed his eyes shut. Yohan closed his eyes to brace for the pain that was sure to come. But no matter how long he waited, the pain never arrived.
Was she trying to humiliate him now instead of just hurting him? He cautiously opened his eyes—and saw Elesis, who had rushed in front of him, blocking the legs in his place.
"Are you... okay? Yohan."
"That's not—something you should be saying...!"
Yohan stared at Elesis, who was riddled with holes. She seemed to have tried to block them, but her entire body was still punctured.
Despite that, Elesis grinned as if it were nothing.
"It's fine. I... am a Holy Knight... who serves God—"
Divine Power erupted from her body. An aura that monsters instinctively recoiled from. In the moment Arachne flinched and paused her attack, Elesis threw herself forward, swinging her energy sword at Arachne's human torso.
The energy sword, cloaked in Divine Power, tore through Arachne's body diagonally, from shoulder to waist—
And even with her torso shattered, Arachne used her threads to control her legs and slam Elesis into the distance.
─Kihik, kihihi.
It was absurd.
How could such a creature exist?
‘It's absurd.’
A monster that could still move even after its legs were cut off and one of its heads was split in two.
Such a thing shouldn't exist.
At least, no monster like that had ever existed on Earth.
─Kik, kkk- kihihihihi!
The monster's mocking laughter echoed endlessly into the sky. He had to kill it. He had to destroy this monster.
‘You—You are a creature that should not exist in this world.’
Yohan's emotions reached their limit, triggering a sudden, drastic growth.
Magic Nullification.
Awakening.
"...Disappear."
Yohan's magic began to erase the monsters.
Magic, monsters, everything fantastical.
They were things that should not exist in his universe.
─Gack, guh-heok—?
Arachne's body began to fade, vanishing in an instant. Realizing the immediate threat was gone, Yohan dragged himself over to where Elesis and Beatrice were.
Reaching the unconscious women, Yohan pulled a spatial movement spellbook from his pocket and teleported them back to the city they had come from.