Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Part 27. Apocalypse, The Ball Where Death Dances (6)
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The demonkin froze in shock.
Soon, their eyes turned blood-red.
In an instant, Noah kicked off the air and soared upward. But in a different direction than before. Instead of heading to aid Izel Halifa, he twisted his path straight toward the boss room. He already knew from Yoo Ji-tae that Wei Lian was dead, so BM launched himself almost simultaneously.
With one flap of his wyvern bone wings, BM's body shot forward like a bullet, reappearing right in front of Noah.
Paang!
BM slammed into Noah. A collision near the speed of sound. Noah, who stabilized his stance belatedly, was pushed back over a hundred meters. In that time, BM positioned himself in the direction Noah was trying to go.
'Play it safe.'
Surprisingly, it felt easier than expected, so BM reminded himself.
Winning wasn't necessary anyway. His mission was just to hold Noah back.
From afar, Noah spoke in a low voice.
"If you don't get out of my way, I'll skin you alive."
The calm, archaic demeanor was gone.
"Try it."
BM's taunt turned Noah's eyes an even deeper red.
"Insolent wretch..."
Once more, the "Sword that Devours Dreams" materialized in the air and gripped itself in Noah's hand.
The distance between them was over a hundred meters—the kind where a person looked like a bean.
Noah closed that vast gap in a single step. His blade, shrouded in murky demonic energy, unleashed a fierce slash. It caught the massive arm of the demon baron's sword, carving enormous claw marks dozens of meters long into the ground behind BM.
Kuwaaaang—!
Dust billowed high into the sky, obscuring vision. BM heightened his senses, and piercing through the dust, Noah emerged.
A shield of dark blue demonic energy formed over BM's arm like a barrier. Thud thud thud thud! Over a dozen exchanges followed, and BM's brow furrowed beneath his sunglasses.
'Strong... really strong.'
It was enough to make the famously tough flesh of Ahilia from the demon realm ache in his arm.
And that was without any special skills or stigmata powers.
'He's closing the distance steadily. A close-range power type?'
Every blow landed solidly.
As they clashed frantically, BM pondered.
'Just wrapping himself in demonic energy—no standout skills or powers.'
In such a pressing situation, what did that mean?
'Still far too lacking to be that 'god' the man kept boasting about.'
'If we assume that state is 「Molting」, then he can't use his real abilities without it.'
There were types like that among demonkin.
They seemed weak at first, but once they unleashed their hidden power, their combat prowess skyrocketed uncontrollably.
These types were generally frail in peacetime, leading opponents to let their guard down until the molt.
'Anyway, drag it out. To turn this into a war of attrition, I need distance.'
"Rolling your eyes, you filthy monster heap!"
At that moment, demonic energy erupted from Noah's sword like an explosion.
Even without skills, the sheer demonic energy was overwhelming. A pillar of it soared twenty meters high, shredding the mana particles, air, and everything as it crashed toward BM.
In that instant, enormous monster teeth and jaws appeared above and below BM's wings on his back, swallowing his upper body whole.
It was the head of "Kalravan," the great beast from the otherworld Arandot, adorned with five horns.
The horns on its forehead writhed as they devoured mana. Following his instincts, BM's mouth gaped wide. His cheeks tore open grotesquely, his jaw unhinging massively. The mana compressed into a tiny orb, then erupted as a shockwave that shook the entire room, firing a destructive beam that warped space itself.
For a moment, the beam was so bright the world seemed dark by comparison.
Noah hurriedly deflected the menacing beam with his sword.
The massive impact sent the beam ricocheting away, scorching the ground and engulfing a rocky hill in the wasteland.
Kukukukwang—!
Where the beam passed, rock and earth vaporized, leaving a crater dozens of meters wide. An immense shockwave rippled even through the room's subspace walls.
In the process, Noah's arm and hand skin tore, black blood spraying.
His brow furrowed deeper.
'Bought some breathing room for now... but...'
Not a situation to celebrate.
BM recalled the ability Noah had shown when facing him earlier—the moment the entire vast 67th room turned monochrome.
It was likely tied to his molting.
And those who unleashed power through molting generally conserved energy for it, building it up in advance.
In other words, molting required massive energy.
'He's holding back because he senses that man's presence...'
Meaning, wasting power on someone like me isn't worth it.
A slight bruise to his pride. But that was reality.
Curiosity piqued, but anxiety over the unknown power outweighed it. BM tensed and spoke.
His role was to buy time.
And for his goal, he'd do anything.
"Curious about the taste of my dreams?"
"..."
Noah didn't reply, so BM paused.
The wind swept dust across the wasteland.
"Probably not tasty. Because..."
BM murmured slowly.
"I'm plagued by dull nightmares every day. Hmm, but what does a nightmare taste like? Sweet as honey to you demonkin? Ah, still."
"..."
"Too much sugar makes you fat. You're old too—gotta watch your diet. At your age..."
"Trying to stall, insolent, lowly mortal."
BM's lip curled smugly.
BM heard the chimeras cackling inside him.
They were usually quiet, but sometimes chattered like this.
"Looks like I can't ignore you after all..."
Noah, face twisted in fury, raised his sword. Demonic energy exploded far beyond before. The world rapidly turned ashen.
Shut up, you lot. One slip and we're all dead.
Damn noisy bastards.
Their muttering annoyed him, so BM shut out his ears.
Then, with a deep breath, he closed his eyes. The world plunged into darkness under his thumbnail-sized eyelids. Even the ashen world vanished from his sight.
The bluebird that had driven the otherworld "Arandot" to ruin.
At the same time, the strongest chimera eye in BM's possession.
Flicker—
His eyes gleamed behind the sunglasses.
The cadets and guardians halted their assault the moment they heard the rift entrance had closed. They wouldn't move until they grasped the situation.
But among them, some cadets, guardians, and assault team members broke formation and started running somewhere.
"Huh? Hey? Where are you going, Hidan!"
"Boya! What the hell?"
"Hey! Grab that guy!"
Demonkin with blood-red eyes ran under someone's orders. Dozens of them, swarming together, leaped flea-like across the path Izel Halifa had cleared.
Toward the boss room.
Room 141.
Its name: "Sky Garden."
A beautiful, pristine meadow stretched across low hills into the distance.
Segmented dungeons usually had "settings." Room 141 was likely Melishia's "garden she made directly on her adult form."
"It's time..."
Something approached from afar.
Ri Hwa opened her closed eyes. Murderous intent gleamed in her wrinkled gaze. Hard to believe it was the same person—the old woman's aura turned feral.
Ri Hwa rose and said to Bom,
"You mustn't leave this spot."
Her polite tone sounded like a command.
"Pardon? But..."
"This old hag's temper is flaring. Can't guarantee I won't hurt a pretty young lady. So, do as I say?"
"..."
The old woman walked off without waiting for a reply.
A being flew in, shaking mana, at near-missile speed.
Matching it, Ri Hwa's body floated lightly into the air.
A force that imposed directionality on mana to warp space.
A magic known to vary wildly in efficiency from F to A-rank depending on the user.
Decades after the New Epoch, an S- grade telekinesis—never officially documented in magical studies—unfolded.
Grass was shaved and whipped away; hills deformed into domes under telekinesis.
Ri Hwa shot forward, colliding with the incoming foe.
Pupupupupung—!
Upon impact, dozens of explosions echoed in the air. Bom instinctively shielded her face with her arms. Shockwaves made her stomach churn.
"What the hell are you?!"
A stunned shout burst from Izel Halifa's mouth.
Ri Hwa didn't answer.
The demon who stole her husband, home, wealth, memories, youth—still had the same face after decades.
That made the old woman's feelings strange.
It was too similar to the dreams she often had.
At first, only nightmares of her husband's death and her burning body repeated. Then, suddenly, dreams of confronting Izel in the future.
Of course, being dreams, Ri Hwa controlled nothing.
But when her mind frayed, dreams became near-reality illusions.
She didn't hate it. She could speak to Izel.
In those dreamlike visions, the old woman asked Izel repeatedly.
Why did you do that to me and my husband?
Izel would reply with varied excuses.
Because you were human.
You annoyed me.
You pissed me off.
To survive.
Just killed you.
Bored, so I killed you.
Had to for performance.
To make you despair.
Do demons need reasons to kill?
Don't remember who you are.
Shall I send you to your husband?
What changes if you know?
These were Ri Hwa's imagined responses from Izel.
Hundreds of visions, hundreds of encounters, hundreds of answers. None satisfied her.
Eventually, she stopped asking.
She realized no answer from a demon's mouth would be the one she waited for.
"I'm asking what you are, you old bitch!"
So when the staggering Izel bellowed amid the shocks, Ri Hwa stayed silent.
Kugugung...!
She simply burned her life force to amplify her telekinesis.
The air in Room 141 grew dozens of times heavier.
「Telekinesis (S-) ― Form 103」
「Form of Mountain Pulverization」
Pazzz— Uncontainable telekinesis sparked like static around the old woman's eyes.
Immediately after, from all directions, tens of thousands of "slashes" enveloped Izel Halifa like a storm.
Her drone-like mechs shredded into fragments, then dust. Izel barely dodged.
"Fuck... where'd this crazy old hag come from...!"
But momentum alone didn't end it. Izel's chest tore open, flesh and all—no heart, bones, or organs. Black obsidian spewed demonic energy madly.
The energy ripped her subspace. A ten-meter tear revealed a humanoid giant mech—only upper body.
Thick arms and broad shoulders of S-rank superalloy "Mithrilum" plate.
One of the three mechs owned by Izel Halifa, magitech engineer and puppeteer.
The colossal mech thrust its massive fist at the Mountain Pulverization Form.
Kakakakakakang—!
The blade storm pushed against unbreakable metal.
Simultaneously, dozens of puppets crawled from the subspace, while the old woman's white hair billowed upward, fully enveloped in telekinesis.
Their true battle began.
Around then, from behind the hill, Bom watched their battle with wide eyes.
"..."
Young as she was, she was still a dragon. The race that invented "magic" eons ago, absent from the world before.
Even to Bom, Ri Hwa's telekinesis was astonishing.
Countless mana particles filling the room moved directly or indirectly under her influence.
Awe-inspiring precision and grandeur.
"..."
Bom felt some providence unfolding before her eyes.
In the near future, Ri Hwa would be caught in a massive explosion.
If that killed her, it was irreversible for Bom. As a guardian of causality, a dragon mustn't interfere.
But Ri Hwa's death wasn't fated. Just a perilous explosion.
Fated death versus possible death—the difference was vast.
'I have to do something.'
Her olive-green gaze deepened.
Complex formulas for mana guidance, expansion, contraction, directionality, clustering, disassembly flickered and vanished everywhere.
Bom's lips moved, her white fingers twitching like calculating.
Gradually, the complexities began to make sense.