Chapter 182
Chapter 182
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 182
Chapter Title: Overwhelming Power
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A silence so heavy it was suffocating settled over the area.
As the brightly shining starlight faded away, the sight of corpses torn to shreds came into view.
Tairon, the tribe chief, the elders who had been alive moments ago, and even the guardians who had appeared with such imposing presence.
Nearly forty warriors had met their end, their bodies ripped apart by Suh Woo-jin's Twelve Heavenly Swords.
Amid the corpses, only two figures remained standing on their own two feet.
One elder and one guardian.
Incredibly, these two had survived Suh Woo-jin's attack.
But they were barely clinging to life.
Their bodies were covered in wounds, and both Dark Elves were missing one arm.
The bleeding was so severe that pools of blood had formed beneath their legs.
"...Fine. I acknowledge you."
Suh Woo-jin nodded and gave them a clap.
But that was it.
Before they could even speak, Suh Woo-jin swung Karaniel, severing both their necks.
Thud—
Blood splashed from the pooled crimson on the ground as the Dark Elves' corpses collapsed onto the earth.
"Hmm."
Suh Woo-jin looked around.
A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Today alone, he had slain nearly two hundred Dark Elves.
Yet Suh Woo-jin felt no particular emotion about it.
'This feels a bit off too.'
Even if he had grown somewhat accustomed to taking lives...
Killing two hundred Dark Elves—who looked so much like humans, not mere monsters or demonic beasts—and feeling no shock whatsoever.
On top of that, Suh Woo-jin was disappointed that he hadn't leveled up despite claiming so many lives.
The very fact that such a thought crossed his mind left him feeling uneasy.
'Surely there's no problem with me?'
He had reached a realm where he could create Chaos Energy and maintain his reason even in Demon King Transformation.
So it couldn't be some mental issue.
In the end, Suh Woo-jin decided it was simply because he had adapted to the slaughter.
'Anyway, going back to how things were is impossible for me now.'
The ordinary young man in his twenties from South Korea was gone.
Even if he won the Descent War and returned home, he could never live the same life as before.
"No helping it."
He couldn't exactly spare his enemies for that reason.
Suh Woo-jin turned away with a bitter smile.
'If I catch that one too, I should level up, right?'
He moved forward with vague expectations.
Boom—
Toward the battlefield where Briani and Behiamus were locked in fierce combat.
* * *
"Hah, hah—"
Briani breathed heavily.
"Urgh!"
But she couldn't afford to keep doing that forever.
She urgently ducked her head to dodge three demonic energy bullets fired at her face.
'Damn it, my mistake!'
A curse slipped out.
Right in front of her lowered face, Behiamus's knee shot up rapidly.
Crack!
She tried to evade quickly, but this time she was too slow.
"......!!"
A massive impact struck her right cheek.
Crunch!
She heard her molars shatter.
Briani was launched into the air by the enormous force, unable to even scream.
'M-Move!'
Even in her dazed state, she barely managed a spatial jump to create distance.
"Ptooey—!"
After a few seconds, her blurred vision steadied, and her mind cleared.
Briani spat out the blood pooling in her mouth and let out a sigh.
"Ha...."
The fight was evenly matched.
She had just taken a hit, but she had dealt plenty of damage to Behiamus in return.
Yet astonishingly, he had recovered from the wounds she inflicted at an astonishing speed.
In just a few seconds, he was back to his original state.
She had fought countless monsters and demonic beasts before.
Some regenerated faster than even trolls.
But Behiamus was on another level entirely.
Rather than wounds simply healing, it was as if time itself was rewinding for his body.
"So, you manipulate time, huh?"
As her head cooled, she pieced together the nature of Behiamus's ability.
Time.
Behiamus undoubtedly wielded the authority over time manipulation.
"I thought that was something only gods could do."
There were surprisingly many who handled space.
She and Gerald did, and several of the emperor's guardian knights had similar powers.
But time?
She had never heard of any being who could wield it.
Even the records of the old Descent War made no mention of it.
Though Behiamus's ability seemed limited to his own body, that alone was a headache.
Her stamina and mana kept draining, but not his.
He could simply rewind his body's time to restore his initial state.
'If I drag this out, I lose.'
They were dead even so far, but if the battle continued like this, she would be the one overwhelmed.
'I need to find a way somehow....'
That was when Briani furrowed her brow in thought.
"Need a hand?"
A familiar voice came from behind.
Startled, Briani whipped around to see Suh Woo-jin standing there with a smile, just as expected.
'...Already?'
The fight hadn't been going on long.
They had traded intense blows enough to disrupt her breathing, but the actual time elapsed was short.
She hadn't even considered Suh Woo-jin's help.
With so many enemies, she figured it would take time to deal with them all.
And he was done already?
Glancing back, she saw chunks of meat scattered everywhere.
Flesh that had once belonged to living Dark Elves.
Seeing that, Briani let out a hollow laugh.
She had felt it when he slaughtered 150 Dark Elves along with the stockade, but Suh Woo-jin was far stronger than she had imagined.
Briani nodded.
"You should've come sooner."
"Sorry I'm late."
Suh Woo-jin played along with her joke.
"But it looks pretty tough, huh?"
Suh Woo-jin glanced at Behiamus, who stood dazed at a distance.
"It's strong. It wasn't kidding when it said it's beyond me. But there's an even bigger problem."
Briani explained how Behiamus wielded time authority and launched attacks too fast to even perceive properly.
"Time?"
Suh Woo-jin's eyes widened.
It was his first encounter with a being who manipulated time.
Some heroes had similar skills, but they weren't particularly useful.
'If the Grand Duke says that much, it must be more than just decent.'
At minimum, this thing could probably wipe out a kingdom single-handedly.
Suh Woo-jin tightened his loosened resolve.
'I thought the two of us together could take on anything.'
He still believed that.
But his premonition that this would be far harder than expected grew stronger.
'Tch.'
He clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had hoped to finish quickly, level up, and check the Otherworld Demon King Chronicle.
'Doesn't look like that'll happen.'
He needed to find a way to break through that authority.
"Let's team up for now. We'll figure it out as we go."
Briani said, eyeing Behiamus approaching slowly.
"Yes, joining you."
Suh Woo-jin drew up his Chaos Energy.
As she said, solving it through thought alone was nearly impossible.
He had to experience it firsthand and find the weakness.
"Alright. I'll go first?"
Briani's form vanished.
At the same time, Suh Woo-jin kicked off the ground.
Boom!
Was it because he circulated Chaos Energy furiously?
He charged at Behiamus with speed incomparable to his fight with the Dark Elves.
Rumble—
The ground where his foot landed exploded, kicking up a massive shockwave.
Clang!
Karaniel halted against Behiamus's arm.
It wasn't perfectly blocked.
The blade had dug halfway into the arm.
Even without aura, it was impressively tough defense.
"Now!"
Suh Woo-jin grimaced, leaped back, and shouted.
The space around Behiamus's head warped.
Crack— crunch— craaack!
Unable to withstand the pressure, his head began to crumple.
Briani's ability had activated.
It looked like his head would burst any second under the immense pressure.
But...
Swoosh—
Incredibly, Behiamus's crushed head began reverting to its original shape.
'So that's what manipulating time means.'
It truly looked like time was flowing backward.
It felt different from Briani's verbal explanation.
Before the head fully restored, Suh Woo-jin swung Karaniel again.
This time wreathed in gray aura.
"Let's see how far it can recover."
Slash!
Behiamus, focused on Briani's attack, offered no resistance as Karaniel's blade took his neck.
His bald head floated up lightly.
Suh Woo-jin didn't let his guard down and activated Swiftness.
Flash— whoosh— flash flash flash—
Dozens, hundreds of lines etched across the head.
All traces of Suh Woo-jin's sword paths.
The head, shattered into hundreds of pieces in an instant, fell to the ground.
But Suh Woo-jin wasn't satisfied.
'Oblivion Flame.'
Black flames engulfed the fragments of Behiamus's head.
Roar— the all-consuming blaze swept through the surroundings.
And then,
"...Looks like normal attacks won't cut it."
Suh Woo-jin gave Briani a wry smile.
"See what I mean?"
Briani, who had appeared beside him, bit her lip with a look of dismay.
Swoooosh—
Incredibly, Behiamus was regenerating.
The flames of Oblivion Flame, which seemed unquenchable, died down.
The hundreds of head fragments raced back to their places.
And just like that.
The severed head reattached to the neck, returning perfectly to its original form without a scar.
Watching this, Suh Woo-jin realized.
This thing couldn't be killed by ordinary means.
"What do we do?"
At Briani's question, Suh Woo-jin shrugged.
"If normal attacks don't work, we use abnormal ones."
"...What does that mean?"
Briani narrowed her eyes in confusion.
"Overwhelming force."
Time, authority, whatever.
Shatter it with overwhelming power that nothing could block.
"You can do that?"
When Briani asked, Suh Woo-jin pointed to the bracelet on his finger and replied.
"If I push a little, it seems possible."