Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Part 27. Demise, The Ballroom Where Death Dances (7)
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The puppets stomped forward roughly.
The beautiful garden's grass was uprooted en masse.
The problem was the endless waves pouring in.
How many were there? At least a hundred mechs and puppets kept spilling endlessly from the subspace. Machines resembling scorpions, spiders, bats, hornets, and more unleashed attacks from every direction.
Poisons scattered everywhere, flames spewed forth. Over a dozen bats screeched in unison. It was an ear-shattering ultrasonic wave. The moment Ri-hwa's psychokinesis control faltered even slightly, blood burst from her ears.
"Even a full army would fall short. And yet here comes some doddering old hag and a little girl trying to take on me?"
Izel let out a mad cackle.
"Die already. Stop getting in my way!"
A particularly dense silver metal materialized in the air. It unfolded like a crossbow.
Izel loaded a grotesquely barbed arrow onto the string, like plucking a bug's leg, and fired.
Whiiiiiing—!
She could dodge it. She could block it.
But in the end, the problem was the numbers.
Overwhelmed by the mechs and puppets charging from all sides, she couldn't respond properly.
The old woman belatedly raised her hand. The arrow glanced off her shoulder.
Dull magic grazed past. Her cheek and ear were scraped raw, skin peeling away as blood sprayed.
"……."
Ri-hwa slammed into the ground, rolling several times before regaining her balance and floating back into the air.
Even then, the old woman didn't so much as blink.
'…….'
Watching from a distance, Bom furrowed her delicate brow.
Ri-hwa's psychokinesis technique.
She understood it.
She really did understand it.
But trying to mimic it herself felt utterly daunting.
It wasn't unreasonable for Bom to feel that way.
Psychokinesis was a rare ability to begin with. Only one in ten thousand started with D-rank psychokinesis.
And among them, Ri-hwa was exceptional. The power she awakened after her husband's death was,
A truly astronomical rarity. A pinnacle talent with no contemporaries to compare. That's why the 30-year-old Ri-hwa was dubbed the "Superhuman Blessed by the World" in media outlets, including TTA.
Ri-hwa then moved to America, where psychokinesis research was most advanced, receiving full support from the Amerca Cypher Academy—the only place teaching A- rank psychokinesis. Living for war, she stepped into a realm humanity couldn't touch.
Her ranking: 5th.
'To imitate that, it'd take at least a century. So let's think this through step by step.'
Bom bit her lip.
Even for a dragon, 100 years. That's how refined Ri-hwa's control was.
Some things in the world couldn't be achieved with desperation or momentum alone.
Handling mana particles with such precision was realistically impossible right now.
'Think.'
The matchup was poor too. Izel Halifa's every mech was made of mystrium, which blocked mana. Products of 20 years locked in a room right after the Great War.
So destroying just the cores was impossible. The advantage of fine psychokinesis was halved.
'Think.'
Izel Halifa's Giant Mech Armor's elbow and wrist joints opened. Air began gathering madly in the wrist fans, compressing along the narrowing fans into the wrist.
The compressed air converted into explosive energy in the forearm combustion chamber.
Passing through turbines and nozzles, it spewed unprecedented propulsion from the elbow.
Izel Halifa shouted something. A massive fist brimming with unimaginable power flew at Ri-hwa.
'Think….'
The fist that shoved the entire room aside came flying. Kwaaaaang—! With a massive explosion, the old woman's body burst apart. She succeeded in defending with psychokinesis, but once down, she'd be overwhelmed by the numbers.
The ground was buried, grass whipping about.
And the moment she saw the grass, Bom's eyes widened.
'Ah…!'
There was no need to handle mana particles directly.
'That could work….'
Bom shot to her feet.
The Green Dragon's core began pounding: thump, thump.
Bom clasped her hands as if in prayer. Then she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.
It was the language that compelled creation as a dragon.
This was the Aerial Garden.
The only place in the dungeon where the power of "nature" reached.
The Green Dragon commanded "nature."
Poison-melted grass, burning trees. The fragments of nature whittled away. The vast garden wounded so.
Somewhere in there. Between the tiniest blades of grass.
Pop—
A small blue flower poked its head out.
'Privoa', Ascalifa's flower that scatters vast pollen. During pollination season, the skies near the hills turned blue.
And while Bom couldn't handle mana particles, she was confident in the drifting pollen.
At the following Dragon Word, the flower shook its head.
Blue powder as light as air scattered high into the sky.
The Green Dragon's mana coated every single grain.
Suddenly, the garden's sky was blanketed in blue. An ominous current flowed; Izel scowled and turned.
"You insolent bitch!!"
"……!"
The killing intent in that momentum made Bom flinch and open her eyes.
Even having faced Providence and Hasegawa, Bom feared such intense malice.
But in that hesitation, Ri-hwa's forearm tore, her wrist bone snapped.
She couldn't waver.
At Bom's gesture, mana particles laden with pollen surged like waves.
Imperfectly mimicking Ri-hwa's psychokinesis, it swept through Room 141.
The pollen-held mana was like sharpened metal filings; the puppets wasted output deploying barriers against the sudden assault.
Bom's role was fulfilled.
Pzzt!
The rhythm overwhelmed by numbers returned to Ri-hwa.
The old woman's eyes widened to tearing.
Pzzt, pzzztztzt!
Once more, psychokinesis grated far more roughly along her eyelids.
The old woman gathered her psychokinesis into one.
An absurd amount of mana crumpled into one spot. The gathered psychokinesis sphere rotated as if sucking in space.
Guidance (B-) / Compression (A-)
Guidance (B-) / Compression (A-)
Guidance (B-) / Compression (A-)
Guidance (B-) / Compression (A-)…
Repeating the process, like a tiny black hole, nearly all scattered mana in Room 141 gathered and fused.
"You damnable! You mad old crone—!!"
Izel Halifa, regaining her senses after dealing with Bom, yelled.
Pzzt! Pop—
Unable to control the vast mana, blood vessels burst around Ri-hwa's eyes.
From where blood and tears mingled and flowed, the old woman unleashed ultra-compressed psychokinesis.
Psychokinesis (S-) — Form 108
Form of Annihilation
The world's flow slowed.
A tiny psychokinesis sphere flew.
Ignoring everything it brushed past.
Invisible to the eye, but starkly visible through the warping world, the sphere.
Reached Izel Halifa.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah—!!"
Her body shredded whole and sucked into the tiny sphere. The shock was so intense her head tore off and flew.
The incomprehensible psychokinesis sphere devoured everything within a 10-meter radius. All mechs protecting Izel Halifa, totems she'd scattered—everything sucked in.
Then, as if nothing happened, it vanished silently.
"Hah…."
Only then did the old woman sink to the floor.
The area grew eerily quiet.
With Izel Halifa gone, the dolls linked to her magic began creaking into motion.
Creak.
Creeeak….
The puppets shook like broken toys. Like nerves twitching in a dead animal.
Fortunately, their movements seemed aimless.
"Haa… haa… oh dear…."
Panting, Ri-hwa collapsed.
She wiped the blood trailing down her cheek with her sleeve. Then, with a wrinkled smile, she turned to Bom.
"Told you not to butt in, didn't I? Heh…."
But Bom's expression remained grave.
The explosion Providence foresaw hadn't happened yet.
It couldn't. 'Providence' was immutable. It shouldn't change with actions, nor was it something easily altered. Providence had an intricate flow.
For that reason, the explosion had to occur.
'……!'
Bom's eyes widened.
Come to think of it, one thing was missing from the battle's flow.
Had Izel Halifa molted? (脫殼)
…No?
The thought struck; Bom drew up mana and moved.
She wouldn't die in the explosion. Per Yoo Ji-tae's orders, she'd pre-memorized Guard Memorizing (A+). If caught in the blast, Teleport (S) would auto-activate, sending her out of the dungeon regardless of her will.
But the weakened Ri-hwa would die!
Bom had overexerted with Dragon Words; a prickling pain throbbed in her dragon heart.
Still, she moved. To save Ri-hwa.
Almost simultaneously, Izel's severed head flew at Ri-hwa. The dancing puppets charged.
"Ah, no…!"
The exhausted old woman widened her eyes.
The incoming head of Izel Halifa tore at its eyes and mouth, grinning grotesquely.
"BOOOOOOM—! You old hag—!"
To begin with, this wasn't Izel Halifa.
It was one of her three great mechs.
The incoming head began swelling like boiling.
"No—!"
Bom embraced the old woman's small back.
And soon. Like a nuclear missile detonating.
Room 141 filled entirely with a massive explosion.
— Crackle, crackle.
— This is 67.
— Lost Noah. Fucking strong.
— But bought plenty of time, so I did my part. Handle the rest yourselves.
— I'm resting.
— Click.
It was absurd.
Noah trusted her millennia-honed senses.
Nothing threatening near Wei Lian existed. No matter how skilled this 'X' was, her senses couldn't be fooled—she was certain.
Thus, when the emergency signal came from Izel Halifa, Noah moved to aid her.
…And Wei Lian died.
This hinged entirely on Wei Lian ascending and gaining disaster-class power.
The moment that young demonkin died, all plans crumbled to dust.
Demonkin don't mourn individuals. They live for self and kin; a dead comrade means lost combat power—rage at that, but no deep personal attachment.
So Noah calmly planned next.
Black Cabinet
Power that binds space-time upon death.
Among the stigmas granted to Wei Lian was this.
A collapse-class demonkin's stigma. Even against strong X, it'd buy time by grabbing his ankle.
The problem: the dungeon entrance sealed.
X must have prepared thoroughly. Destroying dimensional rifts required immense energy like "Melishia's Tear."
Conversely, reaching the boss room for Melishia's Tear let Noah escape with all demonkin. He had that ability.
Thus, Noah summoned the demonkin here.
Arriving at Room 179 'Ballroom,' Noah slaughtered obstructing monsters. Then boldly stood before the massive door.
Urgency gripped him. Noah shoved open the sky-high door.
The long-awaited Room 180, boss room.
'The Noble Lady's Chamber.'
A towering, colossal room unfolded before him. Lavish decorations. Blurry artworks and statues. Giant bed, vanity, etc.
It felt like a land of giants. Everything immense. The floor slippers taller than Noah.
So where was the boss?
Where was Melishia?
As Noah expanded his senses.
Creeeak… clunk.
The door he'd opened shut on its own.
"……!"
Sensing presence, Noah looked up.
Several stadium-sized chandeliers hung from the ceiling; the center one dangled a corpse.
A massive gray-skinned, human-like thing.
…Boss 'Melishia.'
Noah's eyes turned blood-red.
Melishia's limp giant arm. Between slightly curled fingers sat a man.
One hand holding a jewel the size of a human head.
That was Melishia's Tear. He sensed it.
This bastard arrived first, killed the boss, and waited?
Utterly illogical.
So before rage, Noah purely admired.
"I'm dreaming nightmares myself…."