Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: 7. Monster
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"Cough! Cough!"
Through the acrid dust, Leonidas's silhouette came into view.
Leonidas, who had been approaching from beyond, swung his broken greatsword horizontally.
The wind pressure cleared away the dust, opening up the view.
"It's about time to end this."
Leonidas, saying that, was missing one arm.
His nose and mouth were streaming blood, likely from internal injuries.
I figured that alone was enough to claim the advantage, but...
I looked down at my own body.
Organs and blood were spilling out from the gaping hole in my chest.
My injuries were far worse than Leonidas's. No room to talk about momentum—it was clearly my defeat.
"The ability to possess the corpse of the one you've killed."
I no longer had the strength to stand and dropped to my knees.
Leonidas looked down at me with an expressionless face and continued.
"When possessing, the body is just forcibly revived from death. Without regeneration, it dies again soon enough. It's an unnatural ability, like the Saintess's power."
Leonidas twitched the corner of his mouth upward.
"An incredible power, but in a situation where all the corpses are gone, it's useless."
Leonidas turned his gaze.
Eisenheim had become a barren wasteland.
A scene as if everything had been bulldozed away from the explosion's epicenter.
I let out a scoff at the sight.
"Who would've thought the Empire's Sword would kill his own citizens?"
"But it was a necessary sacrifice. An unavoidable one."
"Do you think the people caught in your technique would agree?"
"Looks like there's a misunderstanding. I'm no apostle of justice. I merely maintain order for peace. Anyone who can't bear a proper sacrifice has no right to peace."
The backlash from drawing on mana and life force to match him hit me.
Moisture rapidly drained from my body, and my cells began to age.
Life force meant lifespan. A human without lifespan just dies.
As Death Phase began to manifest on my face, Leonidas posed a question.
"What the hell are you?"
"...?"
"Skills and experience that overwhelm me. In this era, almost no human can overpower me."
Body Hijacking.
If used well, the ability to swap into others' bodies and achieve immortality.
People who realize the existence of this unknown ability react similarly.
"Who are you?"
The same reaction, as if scripted.
I refocused my blurring vision.
I poured my remaining scrap of mana into a full-power regeneration spell.
Bone and flesh began to slowly grow in the gaping abdomen. But it was too slow.
I'd die before it regenerated.
'This body's done for.'
"What name do you want to hear?"
Not revealing my identity, but asking which name he wanted.
Leonidas's eyes widened as he grasped the implication.
"...So that's why that bastard Kyle tipped me off."
Muttering that, Leonidas aimed his broken greatsword at my throat.
"The Blue Moon guys, the palace raid... and all those inexplicable incidents before that. Were they all your doing?"
I spat blood instead of answering. My body was finally giving out.
"Just how deep does your involvement go?"
"From the very beginning—"
Something snapped in my head.
Not psychological. It was physical.
I slowly collapsed and finished my words.
"—to the very end."
Leonidas stared at the cult leader's corpse.
He'd tried to regenerate to the end, but ultimately died.
[From the very beginning... to the very end.]
Those last words echoed in his ears.
Leonidas gripped the hilt of his broken greatsword tightly. The pressure crushed the metal, stabbing into his palm.
'Body Hijacking.'
Moving by borrowing the bodies of the dead. That was the essence of his ability.
Leonidas's mind raced. Fragmented information clicked together, forming a picture.
Borrows bodies → Original owner is dead → Could be anyone's body.
'Not disguise, but complete replacement.'
Not just appearance, but vital signs, mana patterns too. Things impossible to fake with disguise could be faked.
With the original dead, there was no benchmark left.
'No way to get caught.'
That brief thought sent a chill down Leonidas's spine.
Countless anomalies in the Empire flashed through his mind.
Sudden personality changes in high officials. Unexplained shifts in loyalty.
Internal divisions with no apparent motive. Inexplicable raids and conspiracies.
Considering the possibility of someone replacing them, the scattered puzzle pieces started fitting together.
"...Kyle."
Kyle Redford of the Intelligence Security Bureau.
He'd investigated suspicious deaths tied to the imperial family and proposed a hypothesis.
That the Empire's history was actually made by one person.
Leonidas had firmly denied it then. It sounded like pure science fiction.
"His hypothesis... was actually possible."
Indeed, cult leader—no, this nameless bastard. Just how far did his connections reach?
With that power, he'd surely impersonated the Emperor too.
Leonidas pondered tracing his origins but soon shook his head, dismissing it.
'No. It's over now. He's dead.'
These abilities, so-called Gifts, had restrictions.
The stronger the Gift, the greater the flaw.
The Saintess's power was a prime example. She needed candidates to sustain hers.
'His ability is powerful, but it has a penalty.'
Namely, corpses of those he'd killed needed to be nearby.
Without a body to possess, he'd be trapped in his last one and die.
'That's why he tried to kill the civilians. To use them as spare bodies.'
As he pulled out his communicator to input the mission complete signal,
in the distance, beyond the dusty ruins, a moving figure caught his eye.
One person stood there.
A survivor? No ordinary person could survive this explosion.
But the next moment, seeing what he held, Leonidas's eyes widened.
A sword.
A plain longsword firmly gripped in one hand.
"...Impossible."
His relaxed mind snapped taut in an instant.
Blood surged to every muscle, his body priming for battle.
It couldn't be.
Leonidas had confirmed that body's life fully extinguished.
Life force depleted, regeneration impossible. Aging progressed to death.
Moreover, no corpses within 300 meters. He'd made sure of that.
Yet.
Yet what the hell was that?
'Where did he... No. That's not important. Focus.'
Leonidas cleared his cluttered thoughts and steadied his mind.
No time to panic. An impossibility unfolded before him.
Either a hole in his reasoning, or the bastard had a hidden card.
Suddenly, battle scenes flashed by.
He'd died often.
At first, Leonidas thought it was the body's limits.
Obvious for a weak civilian body overexerting.
But.
What if it was deliberate?
To make him think 'no corpse, no power'?
To induce unconscious thought patterns, leading to a fatal misjudgment at the critical moment...
His thoughts halted there.
"Fuck, you slippery bastard."
The reply came from ahead.
"No one's easier to fool than someone who half-asses their thinking."
A man approached through the sandstorm.
A familiar silhouette.
His face emerged amid the swaying shadow and dust.
Leonidas, mana raised and battle-ready, froze solid.
His pupils dilated, perceived time stretching long.
The figure before him exceeded expectations by miles.
Someone he thought he'd never see again.
The man he'd respected as much as his noble convictions.
The one who subjugated the three great demons assaulting the palace, meeting his end—
"What? Familiar face?"
Silverlane von Stella.
The former Sword Saint grinned at Leonidas.
"...Fuck. Why the hell are you in that state?"
"Long time no see, Leonidas. Grown a lot? Let's check your skills."
"Shut up, trash. He's not someone you can mock...!!"
No more analysis or questions needed.
That's the enemy. Must die. Enough said.
As he raised his broken greatsword, Silverlane moved.
'No holding back. If he's really using that man's body, I'll lose.'
Full power from the start.
Leonidas unleashed his Gift and mana simultaneously.
Heat scorched the entire city.
A second sun rose behind his back.