Chapter 216: Residents of a Ruined World (12)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 216: Residents of a Ruined World (12)
I should clarify: the mask turning red the moment I used Synchronization wasn’t my doing.
I’m telling you, Sun Wukong did that!
-If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it properly, shouldn’t we?!
…Seriously, why is he so excited?
Is it some kind of competitive spirit from facing a strong foe? No, that doesn’t seem like it.
-Well, I am excited, but I cannot afford to be careless given who the opponent is.
Sun Wukong said the identity of that ominous aura was Death itself.
In other words, Sun Wukong had just performed the feat of scattering the very concept of death with her staff techniques.
Against any ordinary opponent, the match would have been decided in that single exchange. Unfortunately, the being Sun Wukong and I were facing was anything but ordinary. He simply cast aside his battered, broken armor and began emitting an even denser aura.
“That was a bit different from what I expected. But I like it. I like it a lot. The scent of death has grown even thicker.”
-That was just a light strike to test the waters. He could have dodged it, but he chose not to. Whether it’s another ability or because of that aura, we’d best avoid half-hearted attacks.
“Come on, it’s still not enough.”
The bastard took his stance again and raised his sword.
“Get serious. Show me more.”
the moment he abandoned the sword as a medium, an even more intense wave of death rushed in from all directions.
Since it was the manifestation of death itself, it had no fixed form.
It was simply an energy that felt viscous and infinitely ominous.
Yet, it was something close to a concept—absurd, cruel, and inescapable.
Death is something that no human—no living creature—can ultimately avoid, no matter how much they resist. Thus, for a mortal, it was a strike that meant certain death and a certain hit.
-Hah.
However.
If death is a fate or a concept that no living creature can escape…
-How pathetic.
Then there are also those known as Transcendentals, beings who have surpassed the limitations of biological species.
He was a deity born with the blessing of the stars, a brat whom no one could restrain since birth, and a nuisance that no one could handle.
He was one of the beings furthest from the concept of death.
A Great Sage of immortality, a Demon King who lived as a deity who had overcome death.
Because he had lived such a life, death was not a particularly fearsome concept to him, even if he wasn’t in his original body.
The Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal.
The Demon King who claimed the epithet of the brightest star in the heavens sneered at the rushing tide of death and thrust his staff forward.
The first thrust scattered the death, and the following flurry of strikes battered the Hero’s sword.
-Seize him. Ruyi.
The staff shifted its form into shackles to attempt a restraint, but the Hero quickly slashed his own throat. The moment he escaped the shackles in that bizarre fashion, death erupted from his severed neck. The Demon King extended the length of Ruyi, vaulting high into the sky to avoid it.
Then, an Iron Flower bloomed in the hand of the Demon King floating in the air.
-Divide.
Like a flower in full bloom, the mass of iron split into multiple branches, all aiming at the enemy simultaneously, waiting for the Demon King’s command.
-Break. Ruyi.
This, too, was a command close to a concept, though slightly different from death.
Normally, these were commands that fragments of Ruyi—inferior to the original—could not execute.
However, the talent latent within the body the Demon King had borrowed made it possible.
Imbued with the light of life, the antithesis of death, Ruyi momentarily matched the performance of the original and lunged forward to carry out its master’s order.
The moment the Hero clad in death perceived the attack, he immediately chose to evade.
To be precise, it wasn’t so much him as it was the contract with death that kept him from dying, forcing his body to move.
Realizing this, the Hero smiled.
Normally, the contract rarely moved his body by force since it could simply heal any injuries he sustained.
If it forced him to dodge, it meant only one thing.
It meant that the attack was something that could be fatal to him.
It was the moment his hope—the hope that you are the one who can finally end me—grew even stronger.
The boy in the red mask stood atop the single remaining long pole, looking down arrogantly at the world, while the Calamity in the form of a Hero was being dyed deeper in the color of death.
“Good, good. It was worth holding on by force after all.”
-Indeed, this is perfect. A fine opportunity to show this fellow how Ruyi should truly be handled.
The battle between the two Transcendentals had only just begun.
* * *
Fine, whatever.
I appreciate that thanks to Synchronizing with Sun Wukong, I can understand combat knowledge and concepts that were previously incomprehensible. I also realize that since my body is experiencing this directly, the experience will remain with me.
I know very well that this is a fortuitous encounter that couldn’t be bought for a thousand gold pieces.
I get all that, but…
…Even if it’s not as bad as Multiple Reinforcement, isn’t my life force draining way too fast?
The Synchronization state itself only consumes a massive amount of stamina, but every time Sun Wukong reinforced Ruyi to neutralize that power of death, an amount of life force incomparable to what I usually use was being sucked out.
It wouldn’t be a problem if we were overwhelmingly dominating, but unfortunately, the current situation was only slightly in our favor; it couldn’t be called an overwhelming victory.
While our power was finite, the other side was getting stronger the more he was hurt and wounded. Honestly, I was feeling anxious.
-There is no need for concern. I have finished my assessment.
‘You’ve finished your assessment?’
-Yes. Wielding death is a threatening power, but that fellow is currently unable to exert his full strength. I scouted to see if it was a trap, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Wait, so that’s not his full power?
-Do not worry. I did not say he is holding back; I said he cannot use it. Those who lend him strength are preoccupied with something else, so it is fine.
…For some reason, I feel like Sun Wukong is looking at me with pity?
‘What are you going to do about the fact that our attacks aren’t working?’
-Attacks aren’t working? What kind of novel nonsense is that?
‘Huh?’
-Did you truly think that the playfulness I showed during the scouting phase was an actual attack?
…That was playfulness?
-Indeed. Come to think of it, I haven’t had a proper chance to show you until now.
‘Show me what?’
-Exactly who I am.
‘…You’re Sun Wukong, right? Also known as the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal, Pilmaon, and the Victorious Fighting Buddha.’
-Yes, but knowing it with your head and experiencing it are two different matters.
Sun Wukong, who had been playfully spinning the staff, cut away a portion of the Innate True Qi within the body.
-Even if I am nothing more than a remnant of thought discarded by the original body.
The severed energy took shape and became a clone.
A blonde woman wearing a red mask appeared, still wearing the Golden Hoop and holding a replica of Ruyi.
-The weight of the name Sun Wukong is not so light.
My body and the Sun Wukong created as a clone.
The moment the two of them vanished and reappeared simultaneously, the Calamity’s body was sent flying upward.
“…!?”
The Calamity’s eyes widened as if he couldn’t even perceive what had hit him, but that didn’t change the future that was coming for him.
The woman in the red mask, already waiting at the peak of his trajectory, burst into laughter and swung Ruyi.
-Break. Ruyi.
It wasn’t so much a technical strike as it was a primal, fundamental blow. Yet, for that very reason, the strike dealt massive damage to the Hero-turned-Calamity.
-Haha! Where do you think you’re going…?!
The Hero tried to evade as death drew near, but the woman refused to give him any distance, continuing the relentless thrashing as if she would never let him go.
The first strike shattered bone; the second ruptured every muscle.
By the third hit, his form was so mangled he looked more like a lump of meat than a human.
But none of that really mattered.
As long as the contract with death existed, such wounds could be torn away and healed indefinitely.
The problem was the command given to Ruyi. To faithfully carry out the master’s command to “Break,” Ruyi, imbued with the light of life, was shrouded in the concept of destroying everything about the opponent. It began to strike, bit by bit, at the Hero’s very source—the contract he had made with death.
Death approached every second, and the moment he tried to flee from the ensuing flurry of blows, the other enemy chased him down and landed an additional strike.
Seeing his body begin to break under the continuous assault, as if they wouldn’t give him even a moment to resist, the Calamity who was once a Hero smiled.
Strong.
He couldn’t win against this.
When was the last time he had fought such a powerful opponent?
His body was suspended in the air.
-Break. Ruyi.
And because he knew all too well the power of the death rushing toward him, the Calamity felt a sense of regret.
Just a little more.
Just a little more would have been enough.
In the end, I’m still lacking.
Just before Siegfried’s body could be smashed to pieces by Ruyi, a giant of a man stepped in and blocked the staff.
In exchange, the giant’s body was blown apart, but immediately after, hit by a downpour of black light, the giant’s body reconstructed itself and stood up with a mechanical creak.
The moment we lunged to deliver a follow-up, an arrow shrouded in death came flying. As we widened the distance to evade it, magic was unleashed.
“…What a shame. Truly a shame. You’re just a little short. You might have won against me alone, but at this level…”
The Calamity—no, the Calamities—muttered with genuine regret as they stood up.
“You cannot win against us.”
As if to demonstrate what it truly meant to wield death.
Not a single one of them possessed a hint of life.
-…Are they all just corpses that couldn’t stay dead?
“Watch your damn mouth. These are all my precious comrades. Though it’s true they’re all dead.”
A giant warrior, half of his face consumed by the energy of death, stood before the Hero, shield raised.
An Elf Princess, her hair faded to pure white, aimed an arrow imbued with death and moonlight toward us with unfocused eyes.
A mage, one of his arms made of bare bone, was preparing a spell while chanting incantations.
A sightless Saintess, smiling with an impossibly beautiful face, was scattering the energy of death toward them.
And.
“Really.”
The man at the center of all that death drew his sword with a lonely expression.
“It’s one hell of a shitty curse.”
-…This might be a bit difficult.
It wasn’t just the Hero; it was the appearance of the Hero Party.
The moment the Saintess let out a scream, an even more intense power of death enveloped them, and they all charged at once.
“If you have a trump card, you’d better pull it out fast. Now that my comrades are out, things are going to be very different from before.”
We parried the hammer swung by the warrior.
We kicked off the ground to dodge the fired arrow, used Ruyi to maintain balance after the warrior’s ground-stomp nearly threw us off, and neutralized the incoming magic.
And while repeating this entire process, the recovered warrior and archer attacked again. When we tried to block them with the second body, the Hero, now fully prepared, swung his sword clad in death.
With a screeching sound, Ruyi and death collided.
Against the infinitely strengthened power of death.
Tick.
A tiny crack appeared on the Ruyi that had blocked the attack.
“…How is it? It’s a bit different from before now that I’m with my comrades, isn’t it? After all, a Hero is only as good as his party.”
[Is that something to brag about?]
“Yeah, it is. I really hope you still have an ace up your sleeve. Because if you don’t…”
The concept of death dug a little deeper into Ruyi.
“I’ll have no choice but to kill you.”
* * *
“Ah.”
Feeling a slight sting, I looked at my hand and saw that I had accidentally nicked my finger while chopping carrots.
It wasn’t the first time I’d made such a mistake while working in the cooking club, but it was the first time I’d been this distracted.
“Oh my, Ga-eul, are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. Senior, it doesn’t hurt as much as I thought.”
“It usually doesn’t hurt right away when you cut yourself with a knife. Let’s disinfect it and put on a bandage.”
“Ugh, yes. I’m sorry.”
The senior, who had brought out the first aid kit, spoke while carefully preparing the supplies.
“You’re usually so focused. Are you worried?”
“…Yes. I probably wouldn’t have been much help if I went with him, but being unable to do anything like this makes it even more frustrating.”
“I know. Dungeons are places where you never know what might happen. It must be even scarier.”
“Will So-hyun be okay?”
“Well, honestly, being a Hero is such a dangerous profession that I can’t give you an irresponsible answer.”
“…I suppose so.”
“But that’s exactly why we should make sure to greet him brightly when he returns, don’t you think?”
“…Yes. I think I feel a bit better thanks to you, Senior.”
“Good. When he gets back, make him the dish you learned today. I’ll even share some of the special seasoning I prepared.”
“Hehe, okay.”
Right, the professors went with him too. Nothing dangerous will happen.
When he gets back, I’ll surprise him by showing him how much better my cooking has gotten.
…So, I hope he comes back soon.