Chapter 251: Jealousy (END)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 251: Jealousy (END)
As the price for coveting what she could not handle, Jealousy became a monster.
Her flesh melted away, corroding everything it touched. Even as she tried to scream from the unbearable agony, only a curse-laden demonic energy spilled out in place of a voice.
In the midst of her monstrous thrashing, a question flickered through her fading mind.
Where did it all go wrong?
When a hand that could miraculously win a losing battle was dealt to her, she thought her luck had finally turned.
Did it go wrong the moment the Red Butler intervened? No. Even if she hadn’t stepped in, I would have used my Authority. Even if I had escaped this place, I would have eventually been killed by Lucifer.
Was it because I underestimated Lucifer’s contractor? No. It wasn’t a matter of such simple mistakes. There was something else—something far more complex.
Yes, there were too many reasons to point to just one, but if I had to choose, it was because I couldn’t wait. I was too impatient.
The problem was reaching out for that hand—the one that promised to achieve the impossible right then and there.
In my haste, my judgment faltered.
To be precise, I was lured into making that choice.
I was deceived into thinking this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she knew that in my desperation, I would lunge for it.
— Did you only just realize? What a shame, it’s far too late.
Ah.
— Why are you trying to collapse already? You have to fulfill the contract.
Ah… ah…
— I gave you possibility, and you gave me results. We agreed that if you failed, everything you are would belong to me.
How dare a mere god, born so recently, mock a Demon King?
— Get up, Leviathan. You can still do more. Corner him, be defeated, and become his nourishment. Become the foundation for his growth so that he may overcome even greater trials next time.
Leviathan could feel her last shred of self-awareness sinking beneath the surface of her blurred consciousness.
Her final possession.
A deal had been struck with her status as a Demon King as the price, granting her immense power. However, it was a contract enacted regardless of her will, and the body wielding that power was no longer hers.
As her consciousness vanished completely and she became a monster in the truest sense, the creature instinctively turned its head toward the thing it desired most.
With the singular obsession of crushing everything in its path to take him, it lunged forward.
* * *
An unpleasant stench wafted from the ground, corroded where the melting flesh had touched it.
The sight of the mountain-sized monster thrashing about, spreading destruction with every movement, was enough to be called a disaster. Yet, as always, the heroes were responding to that disaster with remarkable skill.
As if displeased by their resistance, the monster opened its maw and exhaled once more.
A breath laced with poison, acid, demonic energy, and curses—something visibly lethal to any human—surged forward. But it never reached the heroes.
Though his nearly invincible defense had crumbled under the drenching poison, Ban Gi-san let out a boisterous laugh as he blocked the breath. Immediately after, the War Demon leaped into the air and slammed his fist into the monster’s jaw.
The moment the attack was forcibly interrupted and the monster’s mouth snapped shut, the heroes, led by Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak, poured out a barrage of attacks. The monster staggered, letting out a shriek.
Whenever someone was injured by the monster’s flesh, supporters like Ju Ri-ra retrieved them, and healers like Lee Yu-na mended them with divine power.
Though only instinct remained, the monster realized after several repetitions that it needed to break the backline to collapse this balance.
It tried to ignore the damage dealers and charge the rear, but Aisha, Woo Jae-hee, and the other shield-bearing tankers immediately stepped in to intercept the thrashing creature’s strikes.
They were facing an irrationally powerful monster.
Even with superhumans joining forces, the sheer destructive force of its mass could not be ignored. They could only hold out for a few seconds.
But those few seconds were enough.
A raging storm pinned the monster’s massive frame, while overflowing golden light and a tiger of flames cornered it.
Unable to withstand the concentrated fire from the long-range dealers, the monster finally gave up on attacking the rear and chose to retreat.
However, there was no safety in flight.
What awaited the retreating monster was something even more terrifying than a baptism of magic.
The whip of a one-horned girl, her body wreathed in demonic energy, ensnared the fleeing beast and drained what little energy it had left.
Then, a swordsmanship created by humans to slay the inhuman stripped away the monster’s hide.
Finally, as a martial artist’s fist—moving like a flash of golden lightning—plunged into the exposed flesh, the monster writhed, unable even to scream.
It wavered.
The monster’s body shook as it desperately scattered its demonic energy, but not a single hero collapsed from the poison. The energy being emitted by that creature—which had lost its Authority and was no longer even a Demon King—was something the Touch of the Devil could easily control.
The creature shrieked as if it were aggrieved and sorrowful.
It screamed at me, as if throwing a tantrum.
What did it expect me to do?
In a final act of spite, it began to vomit out everything it had left, converting it into demonic energy and curses.
Was this its final blow? The aura was so foul that if left alone, the entire surrounding area would likely become a dead land where no life could ever grow again.
But of course, I had no intention of letting that happen.
The moment I used my Reinforcement with the meager life force I had left…
Lilac, sensing my intent, nodded.
Things had changed a bit.
The timing was different, and the process was entirely different.
But we had made it this far.
As the light of Reinforcement dwelled within the Holy Sword, the savior of this world raised the blade high.
A light far more brilliant than when we first met spilled from the Holy Sword.
This was the moment the fruits of his training and all the fortuitous encounters he’d had finally came to light.
The Spirit of the Holy Sword manifested, and the radiance incinerated the curses.
And Lilac wasn’t the only one I had reinforced.
The professors, my friends, and even my elder sister—everyone touched by the light of Reinforcement was using their strength to ensure that the fragments of the melting monster and its curses did not touch the ground.
Combined with the light of the Holy Sword, the radiance emitted by the heroes shattered the darkness and began to illuminate the entire area.
It was a sight to behold.
I felt a sense of accomplishment.
To be honest, though I had desperately wanted this, I never truly thought I would see it.
Those who had died for me, those I had killed, and those who had died after being used like mere tools.
To see everyone alive, joining forces to defeat the Demon King, and then chatting noisily about how difficult it was once it was all over…
A scene I had longed for so much that I had secretly given up on it, thinking it unrealistic, was now right before my eyes.
The monster fell, its massive body slowly crumbling.
Cheers erupted to signal the end of the battle, and as everyone laughed and celebrated their victory…
I was the only one not smiling.
In fact, I pushed my alertness to its absolute limit.
Because I had the scene I so desired right in front of me, the approaching chill felt even more vivid.
Is it too grand to call it intuition?
It was just a vague sensation.
The world had always been a cold, harsh place for me.
One might call it paranoia, but based on my experiences so far, I couldn’t help but think that things wouldn’t be allowed to end as a simple happy story.
I hoped my premonition was wrong, that I could laugh it off as another bout of mental instability.
That hope was shattered all too easily.
A magic circle, having swallowed the curses of the melting monster, began to glow.
If it were summoning something, that would actually be better; we could overcome it together.
But this wasn’t a spell to bring something from the other side to here.
It was a spell to send something from here to the other side.
How cruel. This was clearly a trap laid by someone who knew me all too well.
If it were a summoning spell aimed at me, I could just break it.
I could resist with demonic energy.
That was why I wasn’t the target of this spell.
Countless hands reaching out from the magic circle seized the people precious to me.
The professors, Ha-ni, Ga-eul.
They knew all too well that if it came to this, I wouldn’t be able to resist.
Lilac and the others resisted, slashing at the hands, but in their exhausted state, they wouldn’t be able to catch every single one of those numerous reaching arms.
— You know what you have to do, right?
I really didn’t want to do it this time. I had come this far by being careful and not overexerting myself.
But it seemed some things just weren’t meant to be.
I offered up my remaining life force and requested a trade.
Since I was already at my limit, I couldn’t perform a miracle to erase all those hands.
Instead, I could intervene in the summoning magic just enough to change its target.
So that every remaining hand would turn toward me.
I had endured everything else, but I couldn’t bear to see them in danger.
Countless hands shifted their target to me, clutching my body, as the glowing magic circle prepared to swallow me whole.
Will everyone be angry?
Rather than wondering if I could survive being dropped into the Demon Realm in this state, the first thing that came to mind was the image of them scolding me for overdoing it again.
Even I have to admit, I’m a hopeless case.
However, no matter how long I waited, the hands never snatched me away.
I was standing apart from the others, so I should have been easy to take.
When I opened my closed eyes, I saw a truly surprising sight: the hands that were supposed to grab me were being held back.
“…So-hyun, why did you close your eyes? As if you’d given up.”
Other hands were ensnared by a whip or sliced down by a single-edged blade.
Led by Professor Cathy, who looked quite furious for some reason, almost everyone I knew was dealing with the hands in my stead.
Wait, this is strange.
I’m not an idiot; I made this choice because there were clearly too many for them to resist.
“If you get yourself kidnapped alone again, it’s going to be a total buzzkill. You know that?”
“Seriously, are you a princess or something? Why are you trying to get carried off again?”
“Even a princess doesn’t get kidnapped after the Demon King is defeated. You’re worse than a princess.”
It seemed everyone was genuinely angry, but honestly, I felt wronged this time.
You guys looked like you couldn’t block them all either.
Wondering how this was possible, I looked closely and finally understood the full story.
Behind the furious group approaching me, a red light—presumably what had held back the hands they shouldn’t have been able to resist—was slowly fading.
It seemed the world’s strongest being had lent a hand once again. While I was grateful for the help, I couldn’t help but think…
…If you were going to help, couldn’t you have done it just a little bit sooner?
For instance, saving me before I closed my eyes and surrendered myself to the hands like I’d given up on everything would have been nice.
“So-hyun. I believe we have something to talk about?”
Ah, the Professor is extremely angry too.
…I’m truly screwed.
* * *
While the incident appeared to have reached a happy ending, two entities stood facing each other in the background.
A red butler wearing a white mask, and a small girl with a very cute appearance.
The girl slowly smiled and bowed her head.
“Hello? I’m Luna.”
[Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you. Unfortunately, I have no name to introduce myself with.]
“Where are you planning to take that?”
[I intend to take it and use it where it is needed. Saving him and recovering this were both part of the request she made.]
“Hmm, my Dad needs that too. Could you give it to me?”
[That is difficult. Could you not consider it the price for saving your father?]
“I would have saved him even if you hadn’t intervened.”
[If you had, you, who are not yet complete, would have lost even more of your strength.]
A long silence followed.
The unstable silence, which felt like it might explode at the slightest ripple, was broken first by the red-haired butler.
[Very well. I shall concede to some extent. Since the story has reached a happy ending, I shall consider it a reward for him. I will give you what we do not need. Would that satisfy you?]
Fortunately, the Red Butler’s proposal was very much to the small deity’s liking.
“Yes, thank you for your understanding. I didn’t need the ‘body’ anyway.”
The deity, having secured what she wanted, was still smiling brightly.
The Red Butler, noticing the hidden emotions behind that smile—which glowed as softly as the moon in the sky—cut away only what was necessary and handed the useless remains to her.
And seeing her radiant face as she took possession of that useless thing—the ‘mind of Leviathan’—the butler could only guess.
Though she didn’t know the details, she was certain that the being once called the Demon King of Jealousy would never meet a pleasant end.