Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Ch. 36 .｡.:✧ Cologne (6) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The final boss, Draken, had four subordinates.
A necromancer, a druid, a holy knight, and a demon.
Belphegor was one of them, a great demon who called himself Draken’s right-hand man…
“Undecided. Step back.”
“…Okay.”
Why was that bastard popping out here?
Without even giving time to understand the situation, Lawrence’s corpse raised its body and stood on two feet.
The grotesquely distorted, blood-covered face creaked and made sounds.
Lawrence was long dead.
The demonic energy that had dwelled inside him spread out and forcefully moved his corpse.
Possession.
The body of one who made a contract with Belphegor became Belphegor’s, and that bastard could possess it and take over the body whenever he wanted.
I didn’t expect to encounter Belphegor in this way.
Gritting my teeth, I quickly assessed the odds of victory.
“Ha…”
Damn it.
I was wrong.
I couldn’t win against that.
Just from the amount of demonic energy touching my body, the difference in level seemed apparent from the start.
Even if I charged in with full power now, I might barely be able to beat Yerina.
There was no way I could defeat one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
The only fortunate thing was that since Belphegor was using a human body, not his main body, his specs would be greatly reduced.
The question was by how much.
“Ah. Right.”
It seemed our Fourth Heavenly King was quite angry.
Well, I could break a few dungeons here and there.
He shouldn’t make an appearance this early just because of that measly thing.
‘No. Did I awaken him?’
Thinking about it again, Belphegor hadn’t come to find me.
I was the one who woke up Belphegor.
In the game story, Belphegor’s early actions were not revealed.
Even I, who had rummaged through all sorts of places during the past 12 rounds, had never encountered Belphegor early on.
But to think the reason was because he was hiding inside the body of the respected mayor of Cologne, Lawrence…
It had become like poking a hornet’s nest unintentionally.
“Undecided. Run away. Hurry and go up to seek help.”
“…”
There was no answer to this.
The moment we showed our backs, both of us would die.
In other words, one of us had to face Belphegor and buy time.
In the meantime, Undecided had to bring reinforcements.
That had the highest chance of victory.
“…Can’t.”
“Hey!”
But Undecided just shook her head and stood frozen.
She seemed to have been pressured by Belphegor’s ominous demonic energy and couldn’t move.
Being a monster, she couldn’t go against a higher-level monster.
This was bad.
“Ridiculous…”
Thud.
With the sound of kicking the ground, the bastard disappeared from where he was standing.
Leaving not even an afterimage.
Completely vanished.
“Huh?”
I definitely hadn’t taken my eyes off him.
He had a speed that couldn’t be caught even with my physical vision enhanced by Mana Control?
The moment I realized that, my body moved instinctively.
“Ugh?!”
As I lowered my posture as if collapsing, a gruesome energy brushed past my spine.
A blade of black demonic energy narrowly grazed past my eyeballs.
I had no idea where it had flown in from.
I threw my body back and rolled on the dungeon floor.
Barely killing my momentum and stopping, I made eye contact with Belphegor, who was slowly approaching me again.
Well, his face was so horribly disfigured that I couldn’t even tell where his eyes were.
‘Damn it. He’s fast at a bug level.’
In terms of agility, I was confident I wouldn’t fall far behind even Yerina.
It was a stat that had been quintupled by Guardian Knight and then inflated again by Mana Control.
Yet I never thought I would be greatly outpaced in speed.
In previous rounds, when I encountered his main body, he didn’t seem that fast.
That speed was absolutely impossible to deal with.
My hands trembled and a sense of powerlessness washed over me.
‘Huh? Faster than his main body?’
Wait a minute.
Something was strange.
In previous rounds, I had fought against Belphegor’s main body.
At that time, Belphegor was certainly fast, but not to the point where I couldn’t even perceive his movements like this.
Yet Belphegor, who had borrowed a human body and was weakened, was this fast?
Moreover, considering I was much stronger and faster now with Mana Control compared to previous rounds?
It didn’t add up.
“You. That’s not your original speed, right?”
That wasn’t a speed Belphegor could normally produce.
Whether there was a cooldown or a usage limit, anyway, there must be some kind of restriction.
One thing was certain, it wasn’t a technique powerful enough to finish me off in one go.
“Bastard. Come at me again.”
Spitting, I took my stance again.
If that bastard really had a speed that could leave my sight in an instant, it didn’t make sense that he couldn’t cut my neck just now.
Normally, my head should have already been sliced off before I could even recognize it.
In other words, that bastard’s overwhelming speed was an illusion.
Naturally, that conclusion emerged.
“What. Are you scared? Should I go first?”
Sighing deeply, Belphegor released demonic energy again.
Before I knew it, the inside of the dungeon was filled with dark air, stinging my throat with every breath.
That bastard was the main culprit of air pollution.
“…!”
Pop.
The bastard kicked the ground again and disappeared from sight.
At the same time, my instincts screamed.
To immediately roll down and retreat back.
But this time, I didn’t follow my instincts.
Instead, I turned my head and looked behind where I felt the dense demonic energy…
“Ugh?!”
The bastard, who had suddenly appeared behind my back, was swinging a sword of demonic energy.
Precisely sweeping at the height of my shins.
If I had rolled and dodged as my instincts told me, it would have been the perfect angle and height to turn my whole body into minced meat.
As I rolled forward to evade, the bastard’s movements stopped as if startled.
“Now I get it.”
Although his face was smashed, I could roughly tell what expression he had.
How did you know to dodge?
That’s what he probably wanted to ask.
“You. Your speed isn’t fast, it’s teleportation, right?”
The bastard’s body flinched and trembled.
Bingo.
Finally, a clear answer came out.
Belphegor wasn’t so fast that I couldn’t keep up with my eyes.
The action of running and kicking the ground was all fake.
In reality, he had teleported behind me and approached.
Since he really disappeared by teleporting, it looked like he vanished from my sight.
But he used the cheat-like skill of teleportation twice, yet I was still alive?
It meant there was a serious flaw in the skill.
‘Bastard. Using a familiar skill.’
Around the time my thoughts reached this point.
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
Because it seemed like a skill I was vaguely familiar with.
“Unlimited teleportation would mean I should be dead before I could blink. The fact that I’m not means there’s a limit to the ability. And quite a big limit at that. For example, you can teleport to a target, but you can’t move within a 5-meter radius of the target.”
How did I know that?
It’s simple.
Because I’m a veteran who has memorized all the hidden items and traits of this game.
The random trait ‘Jump’.
A trait that allows teleportation to a distance 5 meters away from a hostile target.
Who would have thought Belphegor would have gotten it in this round?
“Yeah? Then how about we fight really close to each other?”
The counter to ‘Jump’ is simple.
Quickly approach and close the distance first.
If I get within 5 meters, that bastard’s teleportation is blocked.
Since I’m the only one hostile to him here, there’s no other way for him to use teleportation to escape.
“Regret my ass.”
The moment I quickly charged and approached.
Belphegor just faltered and strangely didn’t respond at all.
I thought he had some ulterior motive.
But I soon realized.
I was simply too fast.
And that bastard was too slow to react to my speed.
Realizing that, there was no need to be cautious anymore.
Crunch.
A gruesome sound of flesh being torn echoed as the blade rushed in.
At the same time, Belphegor’s arms and legs were severed from his body and scattered in all directions.
Until his limbs were cut off and he fell to the ground, Belphegor could only scream weakly and do nothing.
This wasn’t even at a level that could be called a fight.
“Ha. It was this easy.”
If I had charged in from the beginning without being intimidated, I could have easily caught him.
Ah. If I had done that, would I have realized Belphegor had ‘Jump’?
Anyway, it was a big gain.
Later, when I fight that bastard’s main body, at least I won’t be startled if he suddenly disappears from my sight.
“Would you reveal it if you were me?”
The moment I reveal my name, I’ll be chased to death until the moment I die.
There’s no way I would reveal it.
It’s the end.
The moment I was about to plunge my sword into the heart of the bastard who had lost all his limbs and was struggling.
“Fuck, there’s a 2nd phase…”
Kwaaaa!
Black smoke spewed from the bastard’s body and engulfed me.
My skin felt like it was burning, so I had to hurriedly retreat.
What filled the place of the disappeared arms and legs was demonic energy flickering in black.
Belphegor’s whole body was now filled with dense demonic energy.
His entire body had become a weapon.
“Ha. Even if you bring out your main body, you can’t win, dude.”
I put on a bluff, but I was also reaching my limit.
Was it because I had operated Mana Control at maximum output for too long?
My eyes were already trying to close, and my whole body felt heavy.
It was a symptom of mana exhaustion.
My remaining mana was really only a measly amount.
With a single strike, I had to kill Belphegor, who had entered his 2nd phase and weaponized his entire body.
Could I do it?
“Ha…”
I was saying strange things.
What did it matter if I could do it or not?
I had to do it anyway.
Taking a stance to charge, I gripped my sword.
A charge that didn’t consider retreating or defending after the first strike.
A basic stance that prioritized only the fastest speed above all else.
‘Thakia-style Swordsmanship. 0th Technique.’
Everything would be decided with a single strike.
Whether I die, or Belphegor dies.
Or both of us die.
And the moment I was about to kick the ground and charge.
“This crazy bastard.”
Kwaaaa!
The demonic energy spewing from the severed limbs engulfed my vision and flew at me.
If I got hit by that, my whole body would be sliced up and it would be a bloody ending.
I had to dodge.
But what would happen after dodging that?
I would immediately collapse from mana exhaustion.
I could only move once.
After dodging, there was no next.
There was no choice.
I had no choice but to charge into that demonic energy, prepared to die.
If I didn’t want to die, I had to jump into death.
“…No!”
At that moment, along with Undecided’s heart-wrenching scream, the demonic energy engulfing my vision disappeared.
Undecided, swinging a wooden club at Belphegor, entered my sight.
Belphegor, who had withdrawn the wave of demonic energy aimed at me and was about to counterattack immediately…
Undecided’s movements were dazzling.
She was usually slow and spoke clumsily.
Undecided avoided all the flying demonic energy one by one with swift movements as if doing somersaults in the air.
At the same time, the swung wooden club was constantly striking Belphegor’s face.
“Thanks, dude.”
Thanks to that, an opening was created.
I squeezed out the last remaining mana and charged in like lightning.
With a single stroke, I sliced off Lawrence’s ugly head.
At the same time, the swaying demonic energy was sucked into a single point in an instant.
Until the moment the demonic energy disappeared, that bastard kept babbling endlessly.
Finally, when the demonic energy gathered in one place.
The gruesome voice that had echoed throughout the dungeon also faded away and quickly became quiet.
As if nothing had happened.
Only a corpse with severed limbs and head remained.
Where the demonic energy had condensed, a single stone emitting an ominous light lay alone.
Could this possibly be a mana stone?
“It’s over…”
It’s all over.
Only then, unable to resist the feeling of exhaustion enveloping my whole body, I collapsed with a thud.
I needed to recover a bit first.
[Reputation increases.]
[With no known name, reputation accumulates.]
The system window that appeared then.
As expected, Belphegor didn’t find out my name.
Belphegor would now be unable to move for a while due to the backlash of his possessed body dying.
I could let go of one worry about being chased by that bastard.
“Phew.”
Things went much better than I thought.
There would be traces of Belphegor’s possession left in Lawrence’s body.
So if I took out the dismembered corpse, the justification for the murder would be easily secured.
Then Cornelia would be liberated, and I would gain a reliable backing.
A win-win for both sides.
Everything had worked out well.
But…
“…Haa. Haaa. Haaak.”
“Undecided?”
Undecided’s condition seemed unusual.
Huh?
Why was she acting like that?
Her eyes were flashing and she was snarling?
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