Chapter 247: Jealousy (18)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 247: Jealousy (18)
To be honest, not everything went exactly as calculated.
There were more variables than I expected, and I had to walk a tightrope that felt more like a gamble. Even the fact that she revealed her true form—she was far more massive and powerful than what I had experienced before the regression.
But even if there were slight discrepancies, the end result was a picture close to my ideal, so wasn’t that enough?
I forced her to play her strongest card, and though it wasn’t entirely intentional, my friends were pushed far away. Frankly, considering what I was about to do, it was a relief that the others weren’t around.
I had actually considered a scenario where I’d take down the Demon King by cooperating with my comrades, but since the enemy went out of her way to send my friends away, there was no reason to refuse the favor.
The massive sea dragon, eyes gleaming beneath the surface, made no move yet. She just stared at me.
She was likely convinced that I was frozen in terror.
She probably believed that soon, the emotion called fear would shatter the mask of my frozen face, and I would scream and flee in a distorted mess. She believed she could toy with me as I struggled in vain before finally claiming me.
However, the emotion I felt toward her right now wasn’t fear.
“Hey, Leviathan.”
[What is it, human?]
“If the one I had to face wasn’t you, but another Demon King, it might have been a bit troublesome.”
[Nonsense.]
No, it wasn’t nonsense.
If it were any other Demon King, whether out of pride or efficiency, they wouldn’t have played their ultimate hand—True Form Release—so easily. At the very least, if I were isolated like this, I would have had to push myself considerably.
But it was because it was you—someone who would rush and make mistakes because you hated taking the long way around, someone who would stubbornly try to crush me with raw power just to obtain a single human—that I could win without overexerting myself.
Seeing no change in my demeanor, the sea dragon seemed to realize I wasn’t afraid. She let out a roar and began to move her colossal body.
That movement alone caused the surrounding sea to churn, turning into a tsunami-like natural disaster that threatened to swallow me whole.
Honestly, just keeping my body anchored and enduring it was quite difficult.
It is a bit tougher than before.
Back then, did she say it was impossible for a mere human to possess such power?
I wondered what kind of scream she would let out this time.
I severed a portion of the Innate True Qi within my body and reached out.
The all-purpose supernatural power that shatters the status of all things turned into light, swirling around my hand. That light, imbued with life, moved toward the target I desired.
[What are you doing?]
Yes, straight toward Leviathan.
Having realized the nature of the light enveloping her, Leviathan began to voice her confusion.
Reinforcement.
Literally, my talent for making something stronger.
It is an absurd power that can elevate a target to a realm difficult to reach even with a lifetime of effort, all with a single reinforcement. Since I had used such a power on an enemy, she must have been wondering what I was thinking.
However, I didn’t stop at one. I reinforced her a second time, then a third.
[Have you gone mad?]
“Not really.”
I was grateful she stayed still and took it like an idiot until the very end.
Everyone tends to mistake this power of Reinforcement for a simple buff. To be fair, even I, the owner of the power, took quite a long time to realize this particular application, so I couldn’t really blame them.
The sea dragon burst forth from the water, creating massive ripples, and roared with her maw wide open.
[Paltry power. I can’t even tell what has changed.]
“Is that so?”
[It seems your final resistance is over. Stay still, and I shall cleanly sever only your limbs.]
“Ah, actually… if you hadn’t blown the kids away, I might have chosen a different method.”
[What nonsense are you spouting now?]
She still hadn’t realized.
Perhaps because she had grown larger than before, she was duller than I thought.
Well, maybe I should stall for some time.
“People accept Reinforcement without resistance because they think it’s unconditionally positive. But if they knew it could be used like this, they might actually be a bit scared.”
[It seems it was just gibberish after all. Resist all you want. It will only increase your pain.]
“Can you really afford to use your power so recklessly? You can’t stay in your true form in the human realm forever.”
The vast amount of water created when she appeared was something she produced by paying a price. It was her means of attack, but at the same time, it served as a timer for how long she could maintain that form.
The more massive the power she used and the more she moved, the faster the water made of demonic energy would vanish. Once the water was gone, she wouldn’t be able to maintain her true form and would be left with almost no demonic energy.
[…You even know about that? No, I suppose it’s not strange if that fellow told you.]
Well, she probably thought I heard it from the devil I contracted with, but this was something I found out by fighting her directly before the regression.
Back then, no matter how many times I tried to kill her with ten or twenty stacks of Reinforcement, she would turn the area into a sea and flee whenever she felt like she was losing. While I was agonizing over how to catch her, one of my subordinates at the time mentioned that the amount of water seemed to decrease whenever she moved. That was how I came up with this method.
This was a tactic that could be used against other Demon Kings as well, but most of them wouldn’t reveal their true forms for the sake of a single human.
“I’m warning you. If you try to use any technique other than physical combat, you’re going to regret it.”
Naturally, she must have thought my words were a bluff. She began to draw up her demonic energy, and a blue aura started to surge in front of her gaping mouth.
A water-attribute breath.
Well, it was hard to call it a breath. Anyway, it was her signature technique. Regardless of the principle, having actually been hit by it before, I could say it was an attack that could easily reshape the surrounding terrain. It was incredibly difficult to withstand even back then.
Since she was larger this time than in the 1st Timeline, it would likely be even more powerful.
[!?]
Assuming she could actually fire it, that is.
When the energy gathering in front of her mouth failed to condense and instead scattered, she furrowed her brow in confusion. But she soon realized the catastrophe that had occurred and screamed.
[What have you done…! Human…!]
“I told you earlier. Reinforcement doesn’t always act positively.”
Yes, this was another application of Reinforcement that I wanted to keep hidden from the kids. It was also a technique I devised while struggling to defeat enemies stronger than myself in the 1st Timeline.
“To put it simply, people usually think that if you reinforce your legs, your jumping power increases and you get faster.”
[What are you talking about?]
“But if you think about it, Reinforcement isn’t that simple. To handle increased muscular strength, sturdy durability is essential. If you can’t control the recoil or endure it, Reinforcement immediately turns into a poison.”
It seemed our stupid Demon King still couldn’t understand my explanation, just like in the 1st Timeline.
“So, even if you reinforce your legs, it’s actually a complex reinforcement that includes durability along with muscular strength. Now, what if I intentionally adjust the Reinforcement to greatly enhance everything except durability?”
The answer is simple.
It puts a strain on the body.
Of course, a single reinforcement wouldn’t matter much. Whether it’s a superhuman or a devil, their basic durability is absurd.
But what if two or three reinforcements are stacked on top of that?
Or, conversely, what if I focus the Reinforcement specifically on the side effects from the start?
“What I’ve reinforced right now is ‘the function that absorbs surrounding demonic energy when you use your power.’ To put it simply, you’re now a mana-eating pig that consumes demonic energy just by breathing.”
Of course, if this were the Demon Realm, where demonic energy is everywhere, this would have acted as a massive buff.
But this was the human realm, a place where the only demonic energy available was what she had brought herself.
The result?
The amount of water, which had been rapidly decreasing since she started moving, hit rock bottom the moment she tried to use her technique.
In a few more moments, she wouldn’t even be able to maintain her true form.
[This… is impossible…!]
“Reinforcement can be a debuff depending on how you use it. Don’t go around telling people, okay? I’m trying to keep this a secret.”
As time passed, the massive dragon floating in the air vanished. I drew my dagger and approached the mermaid, who had returned to a human-sized scale.
Seeing how she couldn’t even maintain the veil of water she used for protection, she must be severely lacking in demonic energy.
“Then again, this is the end for you, so you won’t have a chance to tell anyone anyway.”
Therefore, what stood before me now was an empty shell that had used up almost all of its demonic energy.
I wasn’t exactly in top condition myself after using multiple stacks of Reinforcement, but I wasn’t so far gone that I couldn’t handle an empty shell.
“I was a little surprised.”
“Yeah, you should be. It’s a trump card I’ve kept hidden away.”
“I never imagined a mere human would prepare a trap capable of handling a Demon King. I’ll admit it. You aren’t just a toy; you’re a dangerous existence capable of harming me.”
The atmosphere felt strange.
Usually, when someone set the mood like this, something very bad was about to happen to me.
I rushed in to finish her off quickly, but the Demon King of Jealousy merely looked at me with a calm expression.
“Because of you, my plan has crumbled. I thought I could finally deal with Lucifer today, but that’s gone now. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life as a fugitive, running from Lucifer once I return to the Demon Realm…”
Petals of black camellia scattered, and my swung blade severed the Demon King’s neck.
I couldn’t be complacent just by taking her head, so I plunged my blade into her heart and churned my energy to ensure she couldn’t regenerate through natural healing. Yet, the Demon King’s head, spinning in the air, slowly broke into a smile.
“…I won’t be able to escape my fate as a fugitive. You can feel proud. You have brought down a Demon King, after all.”
— Avoid it…!
The moment a will was transmitted through the Touch of the Devil, Leviathan’s fragmented body turned into demonic energy and began to reform instantly.
And then, a reaching hand grabbed my throat.
The woman who reappeared was no longer in the form of a mermaid.
On her previously bare head, a single goat-like horn had sprouted. Her lower body also had scales on the legs, but otherwise, she had taken a form nearly identical to a human.
“It would have been a disaster if I hadn’t joined hands with Belphegor. Vessels capable of receiving a Demon King’s soul are rare. Killing you and controlling your body was the right answer after all.”
The sight of a mermaid and a humanoid devil merged together wasn’t pleasant to look at, but the power felt through the hand squeezing my neck was far too excessive for just breaking a human’s throat.
* * *
Several hours ago.
The Demon King of Pride, who reigned at the highest point of the Demon Realm, was engaged in battle with a certain entity.
A beauty with a single broken goat horn.
She had the same face as the opponent she had brought to her knees not long ago, but the contents were like a hollow doll.
“Hmm, how pitiful. If I knew it would turn out like this, I would have handled you a bit more gently.”
Belphegor, the Demon King of Sloth.
She was now a hollow doll, so she could no longer be called a Demon King, but that didn’t mean the power of her physical body had vanished, nor did it mean the amount of demonic energy the body could hold had decreased.
Since her precious and cute contractor was also in the middle of a battle, Lucifer wanted to finish this as quickly as possible and go help him.
But it wasn’t as easy as before.
Every time she tried to draw up her Holy-Demonic Energy, something the enemy was trying to use gave her an ominous feeling, so she was fighting using only demonic energy.
Lucifer was overwhelming in terms of demonic energy manipulation and total capacity, but Belphegor’s raw physical ability had always been formidable. In her current state, she seemed unable to feel pain, and she pressed her attack relentlessly, leaving no opening for Lucifer to use a major technique.
Well, while it was annoying, it was at a level where she could manage if she just accepted a few minor injuries.
The real problem was something else.
Lucifer thrust her arm forward, aiming for a counter, as the doll charged in, crudely blocking a beam of demonic energy with her arm. There was absolutely no intelligence in the doll’s movements.
Lucifer was certain she had taken the doll’s head, but as if time had flowed backward, the doll was back to the state just before the attack landed, already in a defensive posture.
This was it.
For a while now, every time she tried to land a finishing blow, things would return to the state just before the strike as if she were experiencing time reversal, and the doll would already be prepared to defend.
She knew that whatever was constantly interfering the moment she tried to use Holy-Demonic Energy was causing this, but the problem was she couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.
The closest thing was something similar to the Authority used by gods, yet it was something different and alien.
What was that power? How much of it was there? Was it really okay to use Holy-Demonic Energy?
Various thoughts clouded the Demon King’s mind, but the moment she saw the expressionless shell of Sloth, Lucifer decided to set all those thoughts aside.
This kind of petty probing wasn’t the way of a Demon King.
As the most noble and arrogant Demon King of Pride, it wasn’t the attitude she should take while looking at the desecrated corpse of a comrade.
Whether for the contractor who might seek her strength at any moment, or for the comrade being controlled like a puppet, there was only one thing to do.
The Demon King prepared to release her true form and mix the energies of holy and demonic.
Suddenly—truly suddenly—the doll in the form of Sloth vanished from before her eyes.
And through her exceptional intelligence and the demonic energy suddenly felt around her contractor, the Demon King of Pride was able to grasp the situation.
“Avoid it…!”
She hurriedly sent her demonic energy to protect her contractor, but she was just a little—a little too late.
If she had realized even one second earlier, she wouldn’t have been late.
Something that had become a mixture of Sloth and Jealousy was now strangling Kang So-hyun.