Chapter 281
Chapter 281
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 281
Chapter Title: Shuddering Ataraxia
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She spoke leisurely, but Ataraxia was surprised in her own way.
'Growing at an abnormal speed.'
Just two nights ago, this human had been felled by a mere compound spell.
His demonic eye could read elemental mana, but he hadn't been able to fully dismantle the fusion of all five elements that Ataraxia unleashed.
Yet in a mere few dozen days, Han Shin's realm had ascended to a level incomparable to before.
This wasn't something achievable just by devouring the Doppelganger's core.
"Chains of Despair."
Ataraxia opened her mouth.
Currently, she had only about 10% of her power unlocked.
Releasing all her mana risked alerting the Karmic Fire Demon King.
But 10% was more than enough.
After reciting the spell's name, Ataraxia spread both hands wide.
Sssshhh!
Dozens of black iron chains burst from her palms.
Chains of Despair.
A "certain-hit" spell that could never be dodged!
'I wonder if he can dodge even this.'
She was deeply curious.
In her eyes, Han Shin's two eyes were specialized for reading mana.
The left one was a demonic eye.
An innate eye that read mana.
An ultra-rare talent, even within the Abyss.
But the right eye was unpredictable.
One thing was clear: it seemed to read the "result" of magic.
It was undoubtedly a "special eye" superior even to the demonic eye.
Could that special eye even evade a "certain-hit" spell?
"Devour it."
Han Shin raised his sword and thrust it into the ground.
The moment he did.
Clang!
The "eye" at the center of the blade turned gray.
It had become the same "Death Command Eye" as Han Shin's.
And that wasn't the end.
"……Oh ho."
Ataraxia let out a small exclamation of admiration.
The Chains of Despair had bound not Han Shin, but his sword.
She had altered the target of the result.
No.
'Should I say he overlaid himself onto the sword?'
It was a fascinating technique.
The sword and Han Shin were one.
But it wasn't the typical sword-heart unity.
He had momentarily overlaid his own existence onto the sword.
'He transferred his mana pattern to the sword. The Doppelganger's ability must have combined with the effects of his exclusive equipment.'
Impossible for ordinary races.
But Han Shin was half-human, half-Doppelganger.
Doppelganger.
The cursed race that mimicked and imitated others.
He seemed to have evolved that innate ability in this way.
"Annihilation."
The moment the spell's target shifted to the sword.
Han Shin tossed the sword aside and charged at Ataraxia.
And when he closed in right before her.
Boom!
His hand exploded.
It burst like a firecracker, literally.
Blood splattered everywhere.
Bang! Bang!
Kaboom!
The blood exploded wherever it touched.
Annihilation.
The unique skill of his hidden class, "Annihilator."
As the name implied, a vicious finisher that erased everything around him.
Since it required exploding his own body, he never used it unless he was willing to sacrifice flesh for bone.
'He can't block this.'
The opponent was an Archmage.
The one who had already defeated him once.
The true mastermind who had tormented him endlessly.
A being who had bankrupted even the Moon's Lord Aheta—he couldn't afford to take her lightly.
If he failed to kill the Archmage here, he'd regret it forever.
Even exceeding his limits wasn't enough.
Moreover, Annihilation didn't just erase physical matter.
It incinerated mana itself, causing greater explosions against those with stronger mana.
As proof.
"Wall of Gold."
Ataraxia deployed a defensive spell.
But the instant Han Shin's blood touched it.
"……!"
The spell... vanished.
It was pierced through with ridiculous ease.
Han Shin's blood soon reached Ataraxia's body.
And at that moment.
Kabooooom!
A massive explosion erupted.
Even though she had manifested a defensive spell.
A mushroom cloud rose, shaking the entire ground.
"Did I... kill her?"
Han Shin stared piercingly at one spot, too tense to even care about his missing left arm from the blast.
He had baited carelessness to unleash his finisher.
There was no way she could survive.
He knew that, but his opponent was an Archmage.
Who knew what outlandish method she'd pull out next.
Whoosh...
The smoke cleared.
Soon, Han Shin's brow furrowed inevitably.
'She's alive.'
She was alive.
He had squandered a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
But.
"...Impressive."
Ataraxia finally spoke.
Her entire body was in tatters.
Flesh torn away in places, bones exposed.
Blood streamed down, looking utterly irreparable.
An ordinary human would have died long ago.
"I acknowledge it. You've definitely grown stronger."
Ataraxia said to Han Shin.
But it wasn't an admission of defeat.
-Press him just enough.
Her master's—the great one's—command was something she had to fulfill even in death.
She wasn't sure what "just enough" meant, so she'd been holding back.
Smirk!
"But I've grown even stronger."
Crack!
Crack crack!
The vanished, shattered bones began regenerating.
It took barely ten seconds for new flesh to fill the gaps and restore her to normal.
Not quite super-regeneration, but on the level of "special-grade regeneration" just below it.
By following the great one, Ataraxia was truly entering her second prime.
She grew stronger every day.
Because she willed it so.
'I'm still weak. To stand by that one's side, I must become far stronger.'
With the single-minded resolve that she couldn't stagnate if she wanted to properly serve the great one at her side, she ceaselessly sought to grow.
Thanks to that, faintly but surely.
"Wish."
She had attained Wish.
The realm where magic served its master of its own accord.
She had finally reached the position achieved by only a tiny fraction of the dragonkin.
Special-grade regeneration was also an effect of Wish.
And not just that.
"Try erasing this, if you can."
Ataraxia raised one hand.
In an instant, a pitch-black vortex formed in her palm, swirling round.
The black orb continued to grow.
The mana contained within it.
"……!!!"
Was enough to stun Han Shin.
Ataraxia smiled.
How much despair would he feel knowing this was less than 20% of her full power?
The magic she wielded now was neither a "compound spell" fusing countless elements nor a "certain-hit spell" that definitively shredded foes.
Pure power.
Based on pure mana refined through Wish, simply gathered and hurled.
A spell she couldn't have used without Wish—one she had just created for the first time.
If she had to name it.
"Hope of Despair."
Sssshhh!
Mana swirled madly within the black orb.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Like a black sun, it expanded—and she hurled it at Han Shin.
Han Shin blankly gazed up at the sky.
He felt no sensation in his body.
Powerless.
He didn't even know if he was alive or dead.
One thing was certain.
'I lost.'
His second defeat.
Against the Archmage, he had lost again.
He couldn't perceive the final spell she unleashed.
It existed in too high a dimension.
'Wish.'
She had said it clearly.
Wish.
A word he'd never heard, yet he somehow understood what it meant.
The magic moved on its own.
As if the magic possessed a will of its own.
It had generated an entirely new mana pattern to protect its master.
Because of that, Han Shin was powerless to resist and suffered defeat.
He could only shudder in awe.
Even mobilizing both his demonic eye and Death Command Eye, Han Shin himself hadn't ascended to the realm of Wish, leaving him unable to react.
"I..."
...lost again.
It was simply unbelievable.
Defeat shouldn't exist.
No more, not anymore.
Moreover, one doubt lingered.
Why was the Archmage so overwhelmingly strong?
'Because she's the incarnation of the Demon God?'
Did the Demon King's incarnation yield to the Demon God's incarnation?
Even that didn't make sense.
If not that.
'...Unless she's contracted with one of the great nine lords.'
It was incomprehensible.
But there was an even more humiliating truth.
"She... deliberately let me live."
She hadn't killed him, as if mocking him.
Utterly different from their first defeat.
Back then, she had truly tried to kill him.
But in their second clash, the Archmage had thoroughly toyed with Han Shin.
Yes, toyed with him.
She hadn't gone all out.
She had merely played with him, deeming him unworthy of her full power.
Why?
Why did she spare me?
To show the gap between us?
Grind!
"How dare she...!"
This was a first.
No one had ever toyed with him like this in his life.
He couldn't grovel like some beggar.
If lacking, he would fill it.
If weak, he would grow strong.
"Hah, hah!"
Han Shin barely rose to his feet and looked around.
The Archmage was nowhere to be seen.
Her "dual contract" hadn't applied to her either, but if she was an incarnation contracted with a being higher than the Demon King, that made sense.
But it was fine.
All the demi-fiends except the Archmage.
"All of you—"
Toward every demi-fiend on this land.
"Become my prey."
Han Shin declared.
Rumble!
The ground shook.
"S-Spare me!"
"Beta!"
"Why us...!"
The demi-fiends on the surface rioted.
They screamed and fled in panic.
Because Beta—Han Shin—had begun slaughtering all demi-fiends indiscriminately, regardless of faction.
Kill, devour cores, grow stronger.
"...Has he truly gone mad?"
Queen Alpha clicked her tongue.
Unless Han Shin had suddenly lost his mind, there was no reason for him to devour even his own allies.
The problem was the "dual contract."
He held the authority to manipulate contracts at will.
"Han Shin is the Demon King's incarnation."
She realized the truth.
The dual contract wasn't a blessing for evolution.
As a result.
"This world is a fake land created by the Demon King."
One by one, the demi-fiends awakened.
To the fact that it was all a stage set by the Demon King.
With faith shattered, the facade of reality peeled away.
The power of miracles gradually weakened.
And as a result.
Craaaaaack—!
...The sky cracked.
Fissures widened, and finally, it began to shatter.
In that moment.
Splash!
Splaaaash!
Divine holy water.
No—Demon King's bile poured down like a waterfall onto the land.
A hole had been pierced in the Demon King's innards.
And the shockwave didn't end there.
The Karmic Fire Demon King's hidden incarnations.
Numerous creators had finally found their incarnations.