Chapter 346
Chapter 346
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 346
Chapter Title: Interference (1)
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'Why has it come to this?'
Theodor stared at the javelin embedded in his arm and the massive beanstalk sprouting from it, lost in thought.
No matter that it was a being from outside this world, he himself had encountered such entities several times before, fought them, and even absorbed some.
Yet he couldn't understand why he was being pushed back now. He hadn't let his guard down, hadn't held back...
'Is it because it's such a rare, unprecedented case? ...No, even so, this shouldn't be happening. It can't. For me to be cornered by some punk like this...!!'
Even at his young age, Theodor raised his arm, denying the reality of being overwhelmed by Dave, who brimmed with boundless talent and potential.
Countless arms sprouted from it, forming a massive tentacle, and Theodor swung it with the intent to sweep away the flies in one blow.
They had shattered his magic barrier with an astonishing combo, but that was their limit.
Once he cleared them out and ripped off the beanstalk, he was certain he could seize the advantage again.
The momentary setback was just Dave's unexpected move. Now that he'd seen through it, the punk had no chance of victory.
As he prepared to lash out with his tentacle arm, Dave stepped forward without any defensive spells on his body and cast black magic.
As Dave chanted, the beanstalk transformed.
It writhed like a living creature with a will of its own, sprouting mouths that sucked up the various energies within his body.
Regardless of Theodor's will.
Even though he'd applied spells to suppress pain, Theodor felt excruciating agony, and not just that—he tasted the unknown terror of being gnawed from the inside out.
The body he'd crafted to surpass Merlin, escape death, and lead humanity through the apocalypse was crumbling under mere black magic.
But what shocked Theodor even more was what happened next.
The beanstalk had stolen his emotions, life force, and magic power, and Dave absorbed them all in an instant, using them to strike back at him.
"Gah! ......Urk!"
A shock and pain unlike anything before spread through his body.
'Why this much... Because it's my emotions and life force? Even so, this is—'
—Bam!
Before he could even organize his thoughts, Dave struck him again.
The raw pain, felt for the first time in ages, caused Theodor to lose his composure.
No, it wasn't just losing composure. It was terror.
Terror that he might lose, that he might die.
'No... I don't want this... No way!!'
The terror stimulated Theodor's survival instinct, which in turn activated the genes from countless wizards, black mages, and mana users implanted in his flesh, sending their power into overdrive.
Arms sprouted all over Theodor's body, firing indiscriminate magic in every direction.
The result of his survival instinct meshing with the instincts of the genes embedded in his flesh.
Thanks to that, he unleashed wild attacks without any power allocation, but it wasn't a big problem.
Though the beanstalk had siphoned off considerable energy, plenty remained—emotions, life force, magic power, and more.
If anything, the situation had improved.
The mad-dog charges from Dave and the corpse puppets had halted, forcing them to fall back.
Seizing the opening, Theodor gathered all his power into his fist and swung with hope of victory reignited.
The reversal blow.
In that moment, he saw it.
Dave, who had taken his emotions, life force, and magic power, combining the three to forge an artificial soul once more.
Something even the Magic Tower hadn't achieved—a feat beyond providence—and the punk succeeded twice with his bare hands, reinforcing the black magic armor around him before swinging his quarterstaff with all his might.
The world's sounds vanished for a moment, and along with the torn sky and the lake split in two, Theodor's arm was shredded to pieces and vanished.
One word lingered in Theodor's mind.
Death.
Overwhelming, absolute death.
The death that rendered all human effort and achievement meaningless, reducing everything to dust in the end.
The curse God inflicted on humanity.
'No.'
When the corpse puppet—Batori—pierced him with a blood stake, Theodor thought.
'No.'
When the corpse puppet—Duncan—shattered his flesh with tonfa, Theodor thought.
'No.'
When the corpse puppet—Sheamus—smashed his face with nature-infused fists, Theodor thought.
'I said no!'
When the corpse puppet—sniper—blasted a massive hole in his body with a sword-off shotgun, Theodor screamed inwardly.
He didn't want to die.
Then, among the genes transplanted through hundreds, thousands of surgeries, the ones Theodor considered most core surged to his center, reaching a stage beyond any previous fusion.
Surpassing fusion of the many into one—a primordial unity as if they'd always been one.
The impurities he'd clumsily absorbed to boost raw power were expelled outward.
Much like refining iron by removing slag and quenching it.
At over eighty years old, Theodor leaped to a higher dimension, tasting the ecstasy of his youth once more before exploding.
The vivid pain of his body bursting alive.
Yet his consciousness didn't waver. If anything, it sharpened.
He couldn't control the torn flesh, but the growth ecstasy he'd felt wasn't a lie—he could move the fragments of his true body, purged of impurities.
Theodor focused his increasingly clear mind, slowly gathering his true flesh into one. Just as it neared completion, he pierced the back of Dave, who noticed too late.
Just as he'd done to his own grandson.
"I... I won't die!"
Theodor bellowed in mad laughter, certain of victory.
Then he looked at the punk's face. He wanted to see the bewilderment and terror he himself had felt.
"........."
But contrary to expectation, the punk's expression was blank.
Only faint curiosity gleamed—no bewilderment or terror. Like eyes gazing at something a step below.
With that, Theodor tasted anew the inferiority and absurdity from long ago.
When his friend Merlin overtook him and was chosen for the Archive.
Merlin's pitying gaze after abandoning human experiments.
The insurmountable wall between the Archive and himself.
The years wasted without achieving even half of half his goals.
The absolute death drawing near.
The fate of mortals with finite lives.
The absurd, contradictory fate looming over the human world.
All that overwhelming absurdity and injustice compressed into one sensation.
For a moment, Theodor even thought the source was right before him, channeling explosive rage and hatred to infiltrate Dave's body with his emotions and life force, seeking to absorb his mind and flesh.
Just as he'd done to his grandson.
He was dying to know if the punk could keep that poker face after his consciousness was devoured.
Even beings from outside this world bared their ugly depths before death.
To absorb Dave, Theodor invaded his inner self, delving into his memories, and further, toward the essence beneath.
Into an endless abyss of pitch-black darkness.
An eerie darkness that sent chills, but soon Theodor realized something even more chilling lurked at its deepest core.
It opened its eyes and looked at him.
Opened its eyes and looked at him.
Opened and looked at him.
Looked at him.
Gazed.
Watched.
......
"......!!"
Theodor, who had precisely stabbed Oliver in the back, suddenly released his grip and began screaming silently.
His emotions, steeped in intense survival instinct, were swiftly devoured by terror and fear, driving him mad and stripping his reason. The vast magic power, emotions, and life force within him thrashed to separate, reverting to their original forms.
"Gurk...!!"
Oliver touched his chest where a hole should have been, watching the rampaging Theodor.
No physical hole like when Theodor devoured his grandson, but he remembered the sensation from moments ago.
Theodor had injected refined, high-quality emotions and life force into Oliver, aiming to seize control of his body and even his mind.
Just as Theodor interfered with Oliver's mind, Oliver glimpsed his in return.
In that process, Oliver partially understood why Theodor had done this and caught fragments of his knowledge and memories.
Like skimming a book at high speed.
A short but informative glimpse.
The more he read of Theodor's memories and knowledge, the deeper Oliver was drawn in, nearly reaching the deepest memory—the essence beneath—when Theodor yanked back, entering this state.
His absorbed emotions, magic power, and life force now separated, churning wildly as he lost reason and rampaged.
Oliver couldn't fathom why. What on earth had he seen?
Perhaps it related to beings from outside the world.
'The problem is I don't know what it was...'
Oliver considered asking, but seeing Theodor's frenzy, he judged it pointless.
No communication possible—even pulling teeth wouldn't satisfy his curiosity.
Besides, he wanted to observe this state longer.
'This madness... Have I seen it? Heard of it somewhere...?'
As Oliver observed Theodor's anomaly, he noticed something odd.
Theodor's body, exploded and regenerated, was being torn apart by the rampaging separated emotions, life force, and magic power.
Like the puppet's flesh in the basement under the contaminated zone, chunks of Theodor's flesh took humanoid shapes, struggling to escape his body.
But due to prolonged fusion or partial genes, most failed to emerge. Even those that did collapsed into mere meat and sank below the lake surface.
Then Oliver spotted a familiar figure trying to break free.
Theodor's grandson, Carl, who had fused before his eyes.
Like his grandfather, he'd lost reason, instinctively thrashing to escape Theodor's body.
"Grraaah... Help... Save...!!"
The corpse puppets, back in position, signaled intent to attack, but Oliver hesitated, then raised a hand to halt them and approached Theodor alone.
He activated the mechanical arms synthesized from mana—Ptah's Assistant—around Theodor, donned similar gauntlets himself, and attempted surgery at the junction of Theodor and Carl.
Using knowledge gleaned from Theodor earlier.
Rough due to inexperience, but countless mechanical arms moved with precision, slowly separating the tangled flesh like dough. Not perfect, but he managed to divide them.
The corpse puppets tilted their heads, baffled by Oliver's inexplicable actions.
They weren't the only ones baffled.
"Why did you save him?"
Oliver turned toward the voice. There floated Gretel, suspended by mana.
"To punch him once... And say a few things."