Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: To Protect Everyone (10)
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It was a truly desperate crisis, trapped on all sides.
Behind me, Olvis was in pursuit, trying to steal the World Tree Seed.
And right before my eyes, Vespera was staring at me with a somewhat languid expression.
It was the kind of situation that would give you instant indigestion after a full lunch.
No, perhaps I was already half out of my mind from the excessive stress.
‘Vespera, of all people, at this timing…? Don’t tell me she sensed the World Tree Seed, too?’
It was an unfortunate thought, but the possibility was high.
After all, Vespera possessed special eyes capable of seeing through artifacts.
No matter how well the box suppressed the seed’s presence, it likely meant little to her.
If so, the situation was the absolute worst.
The chances of defeating someone stronger than one of the Seven Extremes in just a few minutes were slim.
And if it were just Olvis, maybe, but…
Facing both Olvis and Vespera at the same time… was no different from a suicide mission.
“…”
Clutching the Tesseract hidden inside my clothes, I cautiously looked up at her.
The only desperate struggle I could manage was to borrow the Tesseract’s power.
But using it even slightly rashly would leave me with no hope, so I had to aim for the perfect moment.
However, perhaps Vespera was quite displeased that I was wary of her.
With one eyebrow raised, she strode confidently toward me, closing the distance.
And when we were finally close enough to touch if we reached out our hands…
Vespera suddenly grabbed my cheek as I flinched back.
“…?!”
“Sweetie, relax. Did I come here to eat you? It’s disappointing when you act like this between us.”
“…”
What ‘us’?
No, more importantly, what is she doing!
I tried to escape Vespera’s arbitrary kneading of my cheek, moving my head this way and that.
But perhaps because I was holding the box in one hand and the Tesseract in the other…
I couldn’t break free from her persistent pinching.
Of course, if I immediately used the Tesseract to draw out its power, I could get away somehow.
I couldn't be certain of victory, but that power would be enough to make a fight of it.
The problem with drawing out the Tesseract’s power right now was that I didn't sense any hostility from her.
On the contrary, Vespera’s attitude toward me was one of pure goodwill.
An excessive affection, as if she were treating a long-lost younger sister.
‘Why, why is she like this…? We’re not that close, are we?’
It had only been three days since I met Vespera; in terms of time, barely two.
Therefore, to me, Vespera was a dangerous person who knew my face.
We were definitely not on terms where she could just grab my cheek and pinch it in a situation like this.
To have her pour out an affection I couldn’t possibly reciprocate…
Should I fight back here, or should I just run?
I had no idea how to react, and my mind just grew more complicated.
But perhaps this was no time for such leisurely thoughts.
Just as Vespera was in the middle of tormenting my cheek, a sharp sound sliced through the air.
A sound that made my body, which had relaxed in bewilderment, tense up instinctively.
It was unmistakably an attack from Olvis.
“What’s this, I’m busy… such an interruption.”
But was that terrifying attack nothing more than a bothersome interruption to Vespera?
She scattered blood that had appeared from somewhere into the air, creating a curtain of crimson mist.
And Olvis’s feathers, unable to pierce the bloody curtain, stopped dead in mid-air.
Considering my psychokinesis hadn’t withstood it at all, it was a display of a completely different level of skill.
*Thud, thud.*
The feathers, stained red with blood, fell powerlessly to the ground.
At the same time, Olvis walked leisurely out from the messy depths of the forest.
“That magic… blood magic? What’s a blood-sucking mosquito doing here?”
“Hmph, an alchemist. Now I see why there’s so much trash running around the Sky Garden.”
Vespera and Olvis, facing each other with me between them, spoke as they observed one another.
Were alchemists and vampires natural enemies?
The sheer animosity between them, as if they genuinely loathed each other, was enough to send a cold sweat down my back.
But what surprised me most was the conversation the two women shared.
The Metahuman Liberation Army and Vespera… weren’t just unrelated, they were hostile?
‘…Come to think of it, Vespera isn’t the type to belong to any large faction. In contrast, the Metahuman Liberation Army are… terrorists who will stop at nothing for their cause. It’s plausible they would have conflicts.’
If so, this was excellent news.
I had thought the two forces were on friendly terms, or at least neutral… but to think they were outright hostile!
In that case, rather than joining forces to secure the World Tree Seed…
They would likely prioritize eliminating the competitor first.
Even if they quickly took me out to secure the seed, the competitor would just chase them down and make things troublesome.
Then I, the one who could be easily defeated, would naturally be moved down the priority list!
Quickly grasping the situation, I slyly hid behind Vespera, using her as a shield.
To think this wasn't a desperate crisis, but a chance to profit from their conflict.
As expected, a spirit of never giving up until the very end was important in all things.
Perhaps sensing that things had become a bit complicated…
Olvis slowly spread her half-folded wings, revealing her killing intent along with them.
“Tch, an outsider interfering was unexpected… Can’t be helped. I’ll just have to finish this quickly and go back.”
Her powerful presence settled over the forest.
An intense aura that would make anyone but the most stout-hearted immediately shrink back.
However, Vespera glanced down at me hiding behind her before turning to Olvis.
She looked at the fiercely glaring Olvis and said.
“Aha, so that’s what happened. You’re the one who hurt my sweetie, aren’t you?”
Vespera took off the glasses she had been wearing and let down her tied-up hair.
At that moment, the killing intent she had been suppressing exploded outward, transforming her from her plain former self into a captivating beauty you would never have recognized.
With the perception-inhibiting glasses gone, was Olvis finally able to recognize her?
She stared in shock at Vespera, who was conjuring an enormous amount of blood and turning the surroundings into a sea of red, and shouted.
“Don’t tell me, you’re… Vespera!”
“Well now, I can’t just give you an ordinary death.”
“…Hmph! You inferior species, weak without blood! Just die!”
Enraged, Olvis flapped her wings powerfully, launching a myriad of feathers.
There were so many that the sun was momentarily obscured, and the surroundings were plunged into darkness.
It was a devastating barrage of firepower, enough to reduce a building to ashes.
But Vespera simply smirked as if mocking her, extending a hand toward the falling feathers.
“How foolish… I’ll return it to you. Rapina.”
“What… Aaaargh!”
The meaning of the spell was usurpation.
The blood mist that spread rapidly through the air stained the vast number of feathers a dark crimson.
What followed was a result that defied all common sense.
The falling feathers reversed course, as if time itself was turning back, and shot toward Olvis!
Perhaps she had never expected her own attack to be turned back on her so swiftly.
Olvis screamed as she was hit with a powerful impact that made the very ground sink.
To neutralize an opponent’s attack with a single spell and turn it into her own power.
It was a fighting style truly befitting the Progenitor, the queen of vampires.
“Grh… You, you damn mosquito!”
“Oh my, how crude. I don’t think that’s something I need to hear from trash that can only play with dolls made of corpses…”
“Die! Just die!”
Watching Vespera relentlessly press her attack on Olvis, I thought to myself.
There was indeed an insurmountable, overwhelming gap between them.
It seemed Olvis was less of a combat specialist and more of a scholar-type who created powerful soldiers.
Thus, her own combat prowess was among the lowest of the Seven Extremes, barely at the upper tier of a double-number Fixer, similar to Raven.
In contrast, Vespera, while weaker than Tempest, was a powerhouse who could easily be ranked as a single-number Fixer.
There was a wall between them that could never be overcome no matter how hard one struggled, and this result was perhaps inevitable.
And before long, *thump*, Olvis fell to her knees.
The battle had quickly turned in Vespera’s favor.
“Ghk… My, my body… Wha, what…!”
“What did I do to your body? Hehe, do I really need to explain that? To someone who’s about to die.”
Vespera stood leisurely before Olvis, who was frozen in place, her entire body covered in thin red lines.
Her attitude suggested there was no point in telling her anyway—a natural confidence born from an overwhelming difference in power.
As a reader of the original work, I knew what kind of power Vespera possessed.
Her blood held the power of subjugation. The ability to steal what belongs to others.
Having been doused in the blood of Vespera, who held such a potent ability…
It was a perfectly natural outcome for Olvis to become a slave who had lost control of her own body.
‘It’s over. Olvis can’t use magic now, so she can’t resist at all…’
I watched quietly from a distance as if observing the situation.
Running was pointless. If she wanted to follow, she’d catch up in an instant.
So this was a judgment call to gather as much information as possible to make the right choice.
But as I watched Vespera and Olvis fight, an unexpected variable occurred.
Vespera, who had been restraining Olvis, suddenly frowned and pressed a hand to her forehead.
She staggered as if feeling a bout of dizziness. Did that small opening release Olvis from her bonds?
Regaining control of her body for a brief moment, she… lunged at me with a demonic expression.
“Kraaaah! Give me the seed!”
“…!”
To think she would give up fighting Vespera and charge at me instead.
It seemed Olvis had judged that she had no chance of winning against her.
She intended to quickly snatch the seed from me and somehow escape to complete her objective.
It was a cold, calculated judgment befitting someone who viewed combat as a means to an end, not the end itself.
Perhaps because she was among the lower ranks of the Seven Extremes, she had already fully accepted her own weakness.
Unfortunately, my reaction was too slow.
I never imagined Vespera would lose her grip on Olvis.
And I certainly never thought a freed Olvis would immediately charge at me.
I somehow managed to step back and weave a barrier of psychokinesis just in time, but…
It seemed I was still no match for Olvis’s power in my current state.
“…!”
My vision shook, and my body was thrown into the air.
As the breath was forced from my lungs, the box I had been clutching tightly was sent flying far away.
The only silver lining was that she had also forced her power out, so I somehow avoided a fatal wound.
Losing the World Tree Seed was the worst-case scenario, but there was still a chance.
‘I have to get it back somehow…!’
The lost breath hindered my thoughts, but my concentration wasn't broken.
So if I could just retrieve the box with my psychokinesis…!
In that fleeting moment, while I was still airborne and hadn't yet hit the ground…
The box flying through the sky suddenly evaded my psychokinesis and was pulled toward something as if by a magnet.
Was it Olvis?
My face twisted in a grimace as I fell to the ground with a thud, unable to even use my psychokinesis to cushion the fall.
Without a moment to feel the pain, I shot back up and looked in the direction the box had gone.
And there stood Vespera, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, reaching for the box containing the seed.
At the very last moment, the one who obtained the World Tree Seed was Vespera.