Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 177
Chapter Title: Home Ground
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Thud.
The simple act of the one-armed man, who had collapsed, slamming his left hand into the floor and beginning to rise.
That alone changed the air inside the sealed banquet hall.
The sticky, sunken arrogance and mockery of the demons froze cold.
A fierce wind blew from somewhere, chilling spines, and the movements of the bugs crawling in search of prey stiffened.
“…….”
The Archdemon Magan, watching him closest, felt a prickling at the back of his neck.
‘Am I tense?’
He realized he had instinctively recognized that the man before him had returned, and his body had tensed because of it.
He pulled out the soul he had been chewing on inside his mouth and examined it.
Even though it looked identical, the fading soul in his hand was not the Necromancer he knew.
Moreover, he had been fooled by this utterly worthless soul.
He was certain of that much.
“So you were the real Deus Verdi.”
Staring at the man slowly rising, Magan licked his drying lips with his thick tongue.
He had no idea how the mechanism worked. But Magan didn’t care at all.
He’d just kill and devour both anyway.
“Magan.”
A flat voice echoed, chilling to the bone.
Just one word.
Merely uttering that single word.
Yet it confirmed that he was the true Necromancer, Deus Verdi.
It was almost laughable that he had been fooled by the crude fake’s act until moments ago.
Thus, Magan grew even more irritable and tried to devour the soul in his hand entirely.
Crunch!
A flying spear of blue flame pierced precisely through his wrist.
A surprise attack from Deus, who could barely steady his own body.
Magan hadn’t even imagined he could cast magic in that state, so he clicked his tongue in disbelief at the ticklish strike.
But a hole pierced his wrist, loosening his fingers’ grip. Grinding his teeth, he watched Deus yank the soul toward him with mana.
True to bearing the name of Necromancer.
Facing his sworn enemy right before him.
The monster who severed his right arm, the Archdemon who had kept the former Saintess’s left arm as a trophy.
Yet he moved first to save the fading soul.
“How dare you…….”
To Magan, it felt utterly humiliating. In a way, it was the one chance for a perfect ambush, squandered to save that pathetic soul.
It felt as if the Necromancer valued that soul far higher than himself.
[……Ah.]
The fading soul of Deus, riddled with holes from Magan’s teeth, took in his face.
An atmosphere so different it hardly seemed the same face.
He had no choice but to admit the man before him was a different being, sharing only the name.
And so, perhaps.
Deus could accept his own dissipation more easily.
[It was just as you said.]
Slowly closing his eyes, Deus smiled—not the smile tainted by alcohol, drugs, and lust after so long.
A smile as pure and bright as a child’s.
[I was a human who could change.]
For souls, there are two endings prepared: repose and dissipation.
Repose, lying on this land, closing one’s eyes, and sleeping eternally.
Dissipation, leaving nothing behind, becoming mere nothingness.
The man who awoke from repose, fought for his family, and discarded himself.
Did not lose his smile at the moment of dissipation.
“Just.”
The last remaining Deus Verdi in this world mourned his departure.
“Thank you.”
* * *
Originally, since Deus’s soul occupied the body, I had no way to return.
I could only sigh at being unable to respond to the tragedy unfolding outside.
“Just.”
Deus Verdi’s noble will and sacrifice allowed me to stand here once more.
Just as I had said at his funeral with no mourners.
“Thank you.”
He was the kind of person who could sacrifice for others. If there had been a chance, a trigger, he could have changed.
I would never forget him, embracing me at the end, sacrificing himself for his family and me, departing proudly.
“Whew.”
Slowly lifting my head, I faced the Archdemon whose face flushed red and purple right before me.
My body felt drained of energy, breath ragged, shoulders slumped, but my senses were sharper than ever.
The mana throughout my body, dormant until now, awoke and welcomed me back.
“How dare you bid farewell to that trash soul right before me.”
“It was far more valuable than you.”
“You compare me, an Archdemon who’s lived centuries, to garbage that didn’t even live a few years.”
“He wasn’t good.”
I slowly concentrated mana in my left hand. Without my right, even standing steadily was difficult.
“But he wasn’t someone who gave up on change like you.”
“Ridiculous. It wasn’t giving up—it was simply unnecessary.”
The conversation couldn’t continue.
I was human, he was a demon.
The innate positions and preconceptions were the kind that could never be bridged.
Thus, there was no future where Magan and I both left this sealed banquet hall alive.
One of us had to die.
Magan felt it too, but absolute confidence swelled within him.
“Foolish.”
Clicking his tongue and shaking his head, Magan sighed.
“There’s little as sweet as the soul of one who throws away their life for others.”
My eyebrow twitched slightly at his mention of Deus just now.
“But that man just now? His taste was so pathetic it couldn’t even overturn that.”
“…….”
“But ones like you now, struggling under threat of death? They’re a dime a dozen.”
It was natural not to give up and struggle to the end when one’s life was at stake.
And Magan had savored that naturalness to the point of boredom.
“The choice isn’t over yet.”
Strength returned to the hand gripping Deia and Darius.
“Choose, Necromancer.”
He hoped I’d make the same choice again. Not the bland taste of squirming while sacrificing others.
But the delicacy called sacrifice, throwing away one’s own life.
“This banquet hall cannot be entered from outside.”
Magan gave a puzzled look at my sudden words. But it piqued his interest; he curled his lip as if to say, keep talking.
“Planning to resolve this with outside help? If even moonlight from the night shines in here, I’ll kill these two.”
Meaning he’d kill them the instant any outside movement occurred.
With a sneer, I shook my head.
“They’ve already arrived.”
“Lord Magan!”
At the secretary’s urgent cry, Magan whipped around. But it was too late.
No matter the sealed chamber.
No matter the thick walls.
They were meaningless before her.
“I’m a Necromancer.”
[Master! I was so worried!]
The Black Necromancer, who had hidden avoiding Magan’s eyes, sensed my return and joined me.
A guillotine-like sword formed from her mana sliced through the wrists of the giant hands gripping Darius and Deia.
The two fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for breath. I wanted to catch them, but there was no time.
Magan, realizing he’d been had, jerked his head and glared at me. Grinding his teeth, his bloodshot eyes and bulging veins around them showed the magnitude of his rage.
“Deus Verdi. You truly wish to be eaten alive.”
The demon’s growling warning.
Even as Darius and Deia regained their senses beside him and rushed desperately to me, he paid no mind.
No, it didn’t matter to him.
No human could escape his grasp while in here.
Because this was his table.
“You’re very different from our first meeting, Deus Verdi.”
Thud!
His heavy footsteps stomping the floor as he approached. That single step sent a tsunami of fear prickling our human nerves.
The apex predator surpassing humanity.
“I am the Archdemon of Gluttony, Magan!”
Thud!
As he drew closer, an oppressive pressure crushed our bodies, as if it would pulverize us.
“You dare oppose me at my banquet! You pathetic humans, mere lumps of meat!”
Deia and Darius couldn’t withstand it and knelt; the Black Necromancer clung desperately to my side.
[Th-there’s a way to escape, right?]
“None.”
[Huh?]
“No way to escape. Nor do I intend to.”
I’ll kill him.
Adding that, the Black Necromancer’s eyes widened in bewilderment as she stared at me.
Glancing at her unexpectedly, a chuckle escaped me.
“It’s good to see you after so long.”
[Uh…….]
I shoved the stiffened Black Necromancer away with my left hand, warning her.
“Keep your distance. This isn’t a human battlefield.”
[Wh-what are you……!]
Before her words could finish, a disgustingly ecstatic laugh echoed from my empty right hand.
[Kihahahahahaha!]
Crackle-crunch!
My right hand burned hot.
Though nothing was there, my skin swelled as if something existed, blood flowing.
Souls hold mana.
The mana remaining in the Archdemon soul inside me swirled like helical particles, forming a grotesque hand.
“Belica.”
Magan named his long-unseen kin. In response, Stella’s soul with horns on her forehead projected behind my back.
[Magan! That flabby gut’s still the same, huh!]
“A cripple Archdemon who parasitized a Saintess dares to flap her mouth.”
[Foolish! I was just true to my nature. Archdemon of Mutation Belica! My demonic tendencies just twisted! Unlike you psycho bastards!]
“Yeah, you sure can talk.”
Magan’s tongue flicked out, unable to hold back, adding, “But.”
“You think you can fight me on my table? So foolish your brain’s mutated too? This is my stage! Forgot no Archdemon challenges me on the banquet table!”
Until now, as if it had been amusing, Magan’s mana exploded, shaking the world.
A power that could turn even humanity’s top forces into mere courses on his table.
Facing such a foe, Belica was already a dead soul, so practically no match for Magan.
[Overeating made your brain fatty?]
Belica laughed instead. Not empty provocation, but laced with deep trust and certainty.
Magan’s eyes narrowed slightly, sensing it.
[Forgot what kind of Archdemon I am?]
Belica’s energy surged behind me, something about to pour out.
Accepting it without resistance, my mana mixed with Belica’s, spider legs forming like wings on my back.
[I’m the Archdemon of Mutation Belica! And this bastard with me now!]
Smack-smack!
Belica slapped my shoulders heartily, grinning brightly.
[Right hand’s gone! Emotions worn out! Body’s not his own! Soul even from another world!]
It sounded like cursing.
But from Belica’s view, it was the highest praise.
[A human utterly malformed! That’s what he is, you pig bastard!]
The crude introduction wasn’t to my taste.
But on this continent.
If asked who suits the Archdemon of Mutation Belica best.
It had to be me.
All parts twisted freakishly.
[Is this Stella’s faith reward extending to me? How’d a guy this perfect for me show up!]
Belica flipped him the bird, flashing a confident grin at Magan.
[Let’s fight on each other’s home grounds!]