Chapter 245
This is an abbreviated version. Since the main text begins immediately afterward, I decided to translate the entire passage rather than omitting the first sentence, which overlaps with the title._TITLE: The Fourth Archangel Thought He Knew
The Fourth Archangel seemed to have decided that Yujun already knew who she really was. That would explain why she had announced, without a flicker of hesitation, that she was the Golden Goblin.
"So you're going to kill me?"
"Yes. Aside from that summon, I see no witnesses. Dispose of you, and the summon resolves itself."
"Huh. Clever."
Yujun raised a barrier around them with Ancient Magic. It was a formidable working, the sort that would not so much as flinch under an ordinary blow, and for the time being no one could force a way in. The Fourth Archangel would not be getting out, either.
Barriers were remarkably convenient, once you knew how to use them. Without Ancient Magic, I couldn't have dreamed of this. The art was already ranked EX++, and the Genius trait multiplied its effect several times over. The barrier's strength went without saying.
Even faced with a working that powerful, the Fourth Archangel did not flinch.
"A barrier? Sealing off your own retreat. How foolish."
Yujun didn't bother answering. Smiling, he walked toward her at an easy pace, and his unhurried manner did nothing to shake her absolute conviction that the victory would be hers. Haughty expression held firmly in place, she thrust out a long spear fletched in white feathers. It came in like lightning. Yujun simply tipped his head and let it pass.
He could have stopped it with the sword, but then her spear would very likely have been destroyed beyond saving, and that would not do. Nothing good would come of putting the thought of flight into her head. Better to take her alive, for now.
To Yujun, she was already caught prey. Still, it was possible she had confessed to being the Golden Goblin only to throw him off, so he couldn't kill her too readily. If he killed her at all, it would be after he had wrung out every scrap of information she had. He kept the sword in check as much as he could and did nothing but evade.
I'll have to pin her with magic alone. The Planet Destroyer's Sword was powerful—far too powerful. To say that a graze meant death would not have been the slightest exaggeration. No matter how strong I've gotten, this is ridiculous. Have I really reached the point of having to go easy on my enemies? More precisely, it was the gear that had advanced. Even a fine weapon had a proper measure of force, and the Planet Destroyer's Sword had none. Ninety million attack power is well past the line. With power like that, unless killing was the point, you couldn't afford to strike at all. Doesn't matter.
The Ancient Magic he carried was nothing to dismiss, either. It only suffered by comparison with the sword; the art was still EX++, and his magic stat was absurdly high.
The moment Space Domination unfolded, the Fourth Archangel threw herself aside. Yujun's eyes went wide. I cast it with no tell at all, and she dodged? Honestly, he was a little stunned. His magic had come a long way—growth born of stats and items, yes, but incomparable to what it had been. Calling it an evolution would not have been a waste. And yet she had slipped an ambush spell cast without warning.
That was when he saw the gold gathered in her eyes. A smile touched his mouth. So that's her ability.
He seized the space several times more. Each time she caught on with uncanny instinct and moved first. Something like foresight? Nothing else could explain dodging a Space Domination that gave no sign before it appeared. She wasn't even in constant motion. She shifted her feet at the precise instant the spell manifested.
The Fourth Archangel spread her wings and fled upward. The barrier kept her from climbing very high, but she was still well above him. She formed spears of light and began to hurl them. One was in front of Yujun in a blink.
Doesn't look like a shield would stop that. It was already too late to raise one. He had no choice but to use the sword.
Shhk! Skk!
The golden spear that met the Planet Destroyer's Sword was pulverized without a trace. Dozens more followed, and not a single one so much as grazed him. He deliberately refrained from raising a sword barrier, watching each spear and meeting it with the blade. Dokgo Minsu's words had come back to him—hone your swordsmanship. Leaning on skills and traits was all well and good, but you couldn't neglect the training meant for growth. That was the lesson he had taken from their spar.
It does seem to help, a little. Seeing spears that fast and stopping them with the sword himself was anything but easy. Without his stats behind him, it might have been impossible. That was without Super Concentration, of course.
The Fourth Archangel showed no sign of tiring, and the spears kept coming. Yujun didn't bother dragging her down. He stayed where he was and simply kept blocking, because it was genuinely useful and he didn't want the moment to end. This is insane. I can see them this clearly? To answer speed like this without activating a single skill—without a shred of exaggeration, his reflexes and kinetic vision matched what Super Concentration used to give him. It was a plain measure of how far his stats had climbed since then.
When she failed to get the result she wanted, the Fourth Archangel grew flustered, and the spears came faster. Her breathing roughened with them. Then, all at once, she stopped throwing entirely.
Yujun looked up at her, unmoved.
"What are you doing? Done already?"
"You—you! What are you?"
"Hm?"
"How can a mere human..."
The look on her face was a sight. The gold was gone from her eyes, and bewilderment sat plain on her haggard features. He could see no will left in her to fight. The moment he registered it, Yujun kicked off the ground, reached her in a single bound, and hurled her downward. Her wings beat frantically as she tried to climb again, but his strength was hardly ordinary. She plummeted.
KRAAANG—!
She drove her head hard into the earth, blacked out for a moment, and came to. Yujun came down after her and slammed his fist into the back of her skull.
KWANG!
Once again, without fail, it sounded like a bomb going off.
"Oof. Head like a rock."
Her defense was no joke.
"Three pieces of Mythic gear? I'd better grab those before you die."
He was just about to strip the equipment off her when her form began to change. A body of gold—but not the goblin he had been expecting. A Golden Elf. The shape was not so different from the Fourth Archangel she had been. Only the color had turned to gold.
"You're a goblin?"
"I'm not a goblin! Don't kill me!"
She had come around at some point, and the shout burst out of her in a panic.
"Then what are you?"
"Killing me won't change the event at all."
"I'm asking what you are."
"I—I'm a decoy."
"Doesn't seem like it."
"...I really am!"
Desperation showed plain on her face, the look of someone who very much wanted to live. Yujun let out a short laugh.
"Cut the crap."
"I said it's true!"
"You already turned yourself into a celestial. You telling me you can't turn into an elf?"
"Argh, this is so unfair! It's the truth!"
"Mm. Not buying it."
Thuk!
Without hesitation, Yujun drove his sword into her head.
You have defeated the Golden Elf!
75% remaining until the birth of the Golden Goblin.
You must defeat three more of the Golden Race.
Contribution increased by 10%.
"Huh?"
So there had been a reason she sounded so wronged. She had not been the Golden Goblin. She wasn't lying, after all. That didn't mean he'd had any reason to let the Fourth Archangel live. If anything, killing her was what it took to see the event through. It was a shame he hadn't drawn any word of the other Golden Race out of her, but did he truly need it? He would find them soon enough.
For now, I'm the only one who knows the Golden Goblin isn't even in the Golden Garden. The Golden Goblin had not even been born. In a sense, the players were all busy digging empty holes, and trusting the Fourth Archangel—Golden Race from the start—and following her had been the mistake to begin with.
This event feels pretty brutal. Four of the Golden Race, all bent on preventing the Golden Goblin's birth, and they had gone so far as to disguise themselves as celestials to muddle the players. If he hadn't suspected the Fourth Archangel, how long would he have wasted hunting a Golden Goblin that wasn't there? The thought alone was grim.
Yujun sent word of it to his party. None of them had much reason to betray him, and even if one did, it would not be the sort of knife in the back that truly hurt. When the time came to find the Golden Goblin, it would be him.
I'd rather take the Golden Race myself, but I can't turn a place this huge inside out on my own. This was a moment for borrowing every hand he could get. Telling them what he knew would let him put his companions to use, so he told them.
Next target's set. Find the three of the Golden Race still left. Honestly, he had a feeling they would not be easy to find. If the others were prodigies of transformation like the one he had just cut down, and if they were hiding even more thoroughly, then even Yujun, sharp as he was, would be short on options. Nothing for it but to search the ground himself.
Even so, I'm clearly the furthest ahead. By his own hand he had brought the Golden Goblin's birth a full quarter closer. Of course, if Do Jiyun had not given him the information, he never would have crossed the Fourth Archangel at all. He couldn't claim he had managed it without her.
"Master."
"Yeah?"
"I have found one more."
"What?"
"One of the Golden Race, I mean."
"How did you manage that?"
"Ahem."
Paranet cleared his throat, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. If what he had just said was true, the attitude could be forgiven.
"In truth, before we made use of Space Movement, there was one giving off a scent quite like this wretch's."
"And you didn't say anything?"
"I did not know! I had no idea it was of consequence!"
"Do you have to say it in that phlegm-rattling voice? Anyway. Where?"
"Within the company the Fourth Archangel commanded."
"...What. Two of them in one group?"
"Sharp, are they not? Without my peerless nose, you would never have searched that quarter a second time."
"An undead with a good nose is its own question, but... you're right. Without you, I'd have checked everywhere else first."
Yujun could all but hear Paranet's nose lift into the air. He laughed and stroked the skeleton's head.
"Impressive. Good work."
"It is nothing at all. Hehe."
"We ought to call that ability of yours Witcher—no. Paranet Sense. How's that?"
"Ooh! It sounds rather splendid!"
"You like it?"
"Yes!"
"Paranet. Then track the scent with that Paranet Sense."
"I have already found it."
"Nice. I really am fond of you."
At the sincerity in Yujun's voice, Paranet pressed a hand over his mouth, overcome.
"Take us there."
"Would it be acceptable to arrive directly before them?"
"Yeah."
He always accounted for the unguarded instant right after a spatial shift. Even if he were dropped in wide open, his defense was nothing ordinary, and he didn't need to worry much on that score.
"We go!"
Pak!