Chapter 268
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 268
Chapter Title: Duke Randel (2)
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Randel's body was struck by holy power.
Eleanor's holy power pierced through Randel's void aura—something that not even level 8 holy power could have scratched.
Unlike ordinary holy power, this energy was infused with Ariclothos's true divinity, something no single human could resist.
And for Randel, who had been devoured by a corrupted spirit and lacked a proper ego, it was an even more fatal blow.
Paaahhh—!
The holy power that finally burrowed into him weakened the void energy within.
The bundle of aura tendrils still writhed forth, but Bern was no longer being pushed back.
"Ngh!"
In fact, he now had enough leeway to counter with his battle hammer.
Sensing the danger, Randel retreated, and Maya charged along his path.
"Let's see you block this, old man!!"
[Soul Spirit Rush] + [Shadow Web]
Explosive leap through shadows
She leaped explosively in that instant, combining the two skills.
Maya burst from the shadows right beneath Randel as he floated in the air.
In that sudden moment, Randel couldn't fully utilize the aura tendrils around him, landing a single strike.
Yet even so, his level 8 physique reacted swiftly to the ambush.
He twisted in midair with mystical footwork, swinging his greatsword precisely at Maya's neck.
The massive blade whipped through the air at a speed that defied the laws of physics.
At that moment, Bern and Aiden saved Maya's life.
Kwa-gwang! Ka-gak!
Bern's massive shield shoved Randel's body as he swung, while Aiden's [Ruin Blade] blocked the sword just before it reached Maya's face.
As a result, Aiden's sword shattered helplessly.
Aiden immediately drew the sword from his opposite hip and swung again.
[Ruin Blade]
Crimson aura blade swing
His sword, wrapped in vivid crimson aura, grazed Randel's shoulder as it passed.
"Hahk, hahk!"
Maya, who had brushed the line between life and death in that brief instant, leaped back far, and the party's faces hardened.
Level 8.
The moment they glimpsed a fragment of that realm they'd only heard about, they instinctively knew.
Why Jun had said, 'Just hold on.'
"I shouldn't have tried to show off..."
Maya muttered like a joke, panting heavily.
It felt just like back when they'd first faced the foul old hags and the slaughter monks.
An overwhelming sensation.
A deeply unpleasant, filthy feeling.
"Still... it's way more manageable than before."
Aiden spoke, having seen Randel's aura visibly weaken from Eleanor's holy power.
Now, even Aiden's aura alone could parry it sufficiently.
Of course, without the domineering blood-red magic of the founding emperor flowing through his veins, they never would have found an opening.
But that didn't mean they could match Duke Randel one-on-one equally.
'No way to pierce those aura tendrils.'
They protected Randel like they each had their own will.
Just now, Maya had slipped in only because he'd been hit by Eleanor's holy magic; otherwise, there wouldn't have been the slightest gap.
'But I have to break through.'
What would normally be reckless bravado felt possible now, thanks to the tyrant's essence coursing through his veins, whispering that it could be done.
Still, Aiden tried to calmly understand why the tyrant's essence instilled such resolve.
'If one aura tendril moves like a person...'
He had to accept it as fact.
Not as formless energy, but treat every one like a human wielding a weapon.
Just like in the Black Forest raid, when Jun had read the movements of the hidden piece named monster, Knight Captain Pride of Herinte.
Aiden's mind returned to basics, beginning to read the flow of aura moving around Randel.
What had moved in a similar way?
'Like that woman's whip from the Gilenoi Merchant Guild raid.'
The enemy who had inflicted fatal wounds on Aiden and Maya back then—Ilora.
To break through her whip, Aiden and Maya had to charge forward risking their lives.
Recalling that memory, Aiden's gaze fixed on the tips of Randel's aura tendrils.
He slowly dismantled each writhing strand from the end, reading their movements.
At the same time, he overlaid them with the tendrils whipped like the Stone Dryad's—a monster they'd faced more recently.
Ilora's efficient motions.
The Dryad's instinctive strikes.
As those two merged in his mind, overlapping with Randel's aura tendrils, a lightning bolt flashed through his head, goosebumps rising across his body.
'It'll work!'
His intuition screamed it.
And his body moved on instinct.
"Aiden!"
Bern's voice came from behind, but Aiden had no time to respond as he plunged into Randel's domain.
The most feared thing—Randel's sword—was blocked by Bern's shield.
He slipped into the area formed by Randel's aura tendrils from the side.
A tendril infused with void energy ghosted toward him like a specter, grazing his neck.
His skin roughened as if life were being drained, but Eleanor's holy magic followed immediately to support him.
Just avoid direct hits.
His comrades would handle the rest.
With that trust, he advanced step by step.
Light as the wind, toward the center.
Aura tendrils brushed his arms, legs, waist, neck, forehead, eyes.
No direct hits.
With each step closer, the tendrils' attacks grew faster.
Sssshhh...
But the faster they came, the lighter Aiden's steps became.
A moment of enlightenment after so long.
Wind rose from his toes.
But Randel retreated first.
He recalled the sword clashing with Bern and turned his gaze to Aiden.
Too late.
Wind swirled around Aiden's feet, his form blurring to reach Randel in an instant.
His sea-blue eyes—where were they focused?
They seemed fixed on Randel, but truly saw the flow of magic, wind, everything in the space.
Swooo...
Threads of gaps between energies invisible before.
His muscles moved on their own—for survival, to slay the enemy.
Like the founding emperor, he pressed forward undaunted before a superior foe.
His sword arced like a crescent moon, carrying vivid crimson, slicing through the oncoming aura tendrils in one sweep.
"...!"
Randel's eyes—those that had viewed them as inferior—widened in shock.
Not just Aiden.
Bern, who had mastered his sword path, pursued the recalled blade with his shield.
Even at level 8, a direct hit from a level 7 holy knight's shield would be severe.
Attacks closing from both sides.
And finally.
Swoosh.
The moment all aura tendrils turned toward Aiden, Maya burst from beneath Randel's shadow.
The trio seized every opportunity created in that split second without mercy.
Aiden's sword severed the aura tendrils.
Bern's shield blocked Randel's sword.
And finally, Maya's twin blades deeply slashed Randel's neck and back.
And then.
Jun, who had been waiting for that chance, seized the ambient magic all at once.
"Block it if you can, you bastard."
A word toward someone absent.
Toward 'that guy' surely leering pervertedly at this place even now, Jun smirked and twisted his magic.
The magic circle hidden across the area fell into Jun's hands.
No matter if a 7th-circle mage had prepared it—magic circles with countermeasures overflowed in number.
It was effective only against those lacking magical knowledge, like a frog in a well croaking.
And Jun was someone who, for quite some time, had dissected every structure to escape that mismatched well.
With [Demon God Body], there was no reason for him to break a sweat against something like this.
"Invert."
He modified the magic patterns forming the circle.
Its durability plummeted from the arbitrary changes, but that didn't matter.
He sought one-shot potency over sustainability.
Only overwhelming suppression.
The reversed circle activated contrary to its creator's intent.
Control had long passed to Jun.
By now, the mage who made it had surely noticed.
That his designed magic was crudely shattered and wielded by another.
"That's gotta sting."
Wasn't it just pathetic, the frog in the well beholding a wider world with bulging eyes?
And at its end, the activated circle targeted Randel precisely, binding his arms and legs.
"Graaaaaahhh—!!!"
Randel roared like a monster, a feral beast.
Within his ego-less core, the corrupted spirit thrashed wildly, sensing the magic.
Crack, crack—!
"Whew."
His magic alone was starting to struggle against the monster.
As planned, Eleanor swiftly flew in, channeling holy power through Lament's End to convert it into magic and inject it into the circle.
"Is it working properly?!"
"Probably."
"What do you mean 'probably'!"
"There's still some left."
The circle was collapsing faster than expected.
The price of Jun's forced seizure.
But even this was somewhat anticipated.
[Soul Spirits Rampage]
Threat to corrupted spirits
"Keeaaaaaahhh—!!!"
For the current Maya, it couldn't be a fatal blow due to the vast level gap.
But conversely, it was more threatening to the corrupted spirit than any attack.
At the same time, Jun pulled three items from his dimensional bracelet.
A journal touched by human hands.
A pocket containing a family photo.
And a necklace with someone's ring.
They floated gently before Randel—the only things to awaken his weakened mind.
In truth, the reason the Heavenly Church kept them was to repeatedly rouse Randel's mind, addicting him to drugs in his right state.
Only then could they fully erode his spirit from his body and implant the corrupted spirit.
But Randel had endured this far with one resolve: better to rampage and ruin the church's plans than let his body be stolen by hated enemies.
'But because of me, "that guy's" eyes went blind with greed.'
Abandoning even a level 8 user's body, craving to suppress and use him as a vessel.
That greed created this situation.
"Kuhah..."
Randel's roar—which had shaken heaven and earth at first—and the corrupted spirit's screams within gradually faded.
As they did, the circle's glow intensified.
Finally, Randel's eyes slowly closed.
With a serene expression, like someone who hadn't slept in ages.
Clutching his three children's mementos tightly to his chest.