Chapter 91
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: 각성 전부터 네크로맨서-91화
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: The Vatican Paladin (4)
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In an instant, the battle situation swung entirely toward Kang Sa-hu. Adelaide bit her lower lip.
Staring intently at his rippling eyes, she raised a single finger.
"I'll accept. But in return, answer me this. How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Adalberto."
Adelaide pointed at Adalberto, who lay pinned beneath Kang Sa-hu's foot.
His body was rigid as if time itself had frozen, utterly immobile, while his wide eyes darted frantically in sheer horror.
Her perpetually squinted eyes snapped wide open in deadly seriousness, golden irises gleaming as they fixed on Kang Sa-hu.
"You're clearly no longer able to use poison."
Her voice trembled faintly as she posed the question.
The fact was that crucial.
After the Holy Grail had stripped Kang Sa-hu of his power, could he still wield poison?
If even after being filled to the brim, some residual strength lingered, then this crisis was far from over.
A divine relic brimming with the might of God.
Among them, the sacred vessel that had held the blood of God's son during the Last Supper—could it truly fail to contain the power of a single necromancer?
Imagining the ripple effects of that possibility, she bit her lip.
'Holy war...'
It carried a thick risk of escalating to blasphemy, and she envisioned the war that would surely follow. Silently, she glared at Kang Sa-hu.
'Please.'
Kang Sa-hu met her gaze wordlessly, her eyes trembling as they bored into him.
"......"
He had sensed it even before the fight began: for all her venomous words dripping with hatred for necromancers, the captain's spirit wavered unstably, her demeanor restless and anxious.
Watching her closely, Kang Sa-hu reached a firm conviction.
'She talks a big game about loathing necromancers, but there's no real conviction behind her actions.'
He felt Adalberto's furious glare, eyes bulging as the man lay unable to twitch a muscle or even his lips.
Kang Sa-hu slowly unfurled his hand.
Traces of sparkling powder in a rainbow of colors shimmered across his palm.
It came from finely grinding the wings of Protother, a monster from the gate cleared during the Giant Hound's evolution into a Hell Hound—but of course, Adelaide had no way of knowing that.
"You're right. I can't produce poison on my own anymore. But."
A thick, venomous rage seeped quietly into his words, though Kang Sa-hu made no effort to hide it.
"That doesn't mean I can't use poison at all."
"...I see."
Adelaide gave a bitter smile and reverted to her signature squint.
"Impressive. Since it's not generated by your own power, the toxicity should affect you too. And the poison's potency itself must be far from ideal. Fighting with gums instead of teeth, then?"
"Gums are plenty."
Kang Sa-hu replied flatly as he ground his foot harder into Adalberto's chest.
Crack—
The iron armor, locked in a tense equilibrium with his kick force, began to buckle and emit ominous creaks.
As Kang Sa-hu shifted his hand, the massive scythe gripped in it nicked Adalberto's throat.
"We could always test it. Though you'd have to deal with the consequences yourself."
"......"
Blood streamed freely down without resistance, and her mouth snapped shut.
"Now hold up your end. What are your awakening abilities—and his? And what ranks?"
"...I'll answer. But can you even trust that I'm telling the truth?"
Adelaide made one final attempt to shake him, but he simply nodded without a word.
"Don't worry. Lies don't fly in front of me."
His eyes rippled with dark intensity, and she wet her lips with her tongue.
She'd been bested by a necromancer once before, and given who he was, she'd come prepared with intel on Kang Sa-hu. She understood exactly what he meant.
'Eyes that see spirits.'
She knew he could discern truth from lies by observing the fluctuations of spirits. Resigned, she committed to nothing but honesty.
"Yes. Adalberto's an A-rank Awakener. He awakened to S-rank."
The mention of S-rank sparked irritation in Kang Sa-hu's eyes.
Of all the rotten luck—an S-rank Awakener, no less.
For a fleeting moment, the option of killing him right there crossed his mind, but it vanished even faster.
Kang Sa-hu had no intention of killing them here and now.
If he had, they would've been dead long ago.
He had plenty of ways.
No matter their strength, his summons—now debuffed into Debasers—had already surpassed his expectations.
And their numbers alone could rival an entire gate's worth.
Hell, even just summoning the freshly minted Death Knight Katakuman would let him crush those two in seconds. Kang Sa-hu knew that much.
With such an overwhelming gap, the reason he spared them was simple.
'It'd be pointless.'
Captain and vice-captain or not, they were just two paladins.
If offing them could dismantle the Paladin order, he'd have done it from the start.
As the incident seven years ago proved, they could just appoint replacements.
Besides, their positions posed a bigger issue.
Killing a couple of rank-and-file paladins was one thing. But taking out the captain and vice? That was a straight-up declaration of war on the Paladins—and the Vatican backing them.
If the Vatican mobilized, their massive organization would be thrust into the open.
And if they officially branded necromancers as enemies of the world, his kind—already marginalized—would face universal backlash from the get-go.
It'd be like forfeiting any chance to step into the light.
More than that, these two were gunning solely for him, not necromancers at large.
Plus, sensing that quiet gaze from afar, Kang Sa-hu made up his mind.
'Not the right time yet.'
He flicked his eyes toward the source of the gaze for a moment before turning back, picking a nit.
"You forgot class."
"Slo—ow!"
At Kang Sa-hu's clipped word, a garbled bellow erupted from Adalberto beneath his foot.
Seeing faint light gather around the man, Kang Sa-hu clicked his tongue.
'Mouth and eyes frozen, chest crushed in the thick of battle—and he still pulls off a silent prayer? Figures he's no ordinary vice-captain.'
It took peak focus even in perfect condition. Kang Sa-hu pressed the scythe's blade to Adalberto's nape and hurried Adelaide along.
"Stalling? Your spirit's shaking."
"......"
She let out a deep sigh at his actions before finally speaking.
"My class is Crusader."
"......What?"
The word 'Crusader' rang a vague bell, and Kang Sa-hu's brow twitched.
As he rummaged through his memories for the source of that familiarity—
She continued.
"Adalberto's awakening class is Berserker. That answer your questions?"
"...Hm."
Crusader and Berserker.
Once her answer wrapped up—
He felt the man underfoot starting to purge the toxin, thrashing to move.
Kang Sa-hu glanced sidelong at one spot, channeled mana into his foot, and booted Adalberto like a soccer ball straight at Adelaide.
"I spare you. But I decide how. I swear this: any more pointless nonsense, and the Vatican pays the price."
Adelaide caught Adalberto and gently set him down. Regaining her poise, she smiled with squinted eyes at Kang Sa-hu.
"Worried, are we? That like seven years ago, your Judas might lead God's light into your gloomy underworld?"
Betrayer.
That word halted Kang Sa-hu mid-turn.
His horn-shaped eyes blazed like roaring flames.
"Wasn't it you lot who turned her into that?"
"Huh? What're you talking about?"
Seeing his reaction, she piled on.
"That lamb sought God's mercy on her own. Even if she was once your closest friend, denying the truth doesn't help anyone."
"......"
Kang Sa-hu's heart thundered as he half-turned.
Without realizing, he'd pulled out his soul core pouch, ready to summon at a moment's notice. He bit the inside of his cheek.
Crunch.
Pain bloomed in his mouth alongside the metallic tang of blood.
Barely calming the blood rushing to his head, Kang Sa-hu exhaled deeply and tucked the pouch away.
As he finally stepped back to leave—
"Die, you Satan—!"
Adalberto, shaking off the paralysis, hurled his hammer wreathed in white lightning in a hammer-throw stance.
Rumble—!
The hammer blazed fiercer than the rising sun, hurtling toward Kang Sa-hu with world-shattering force.
"To the bitter end..."
Veins bulged on Kang Sa-hu's forehead, his eyes snapping open with murderous intent.
"You just keep pushing my buttons."
His rage had hit its breaking point.
Of all people, from the Paladins—the very group that had hounded them into the shadows.
Right there, in front of the Necromancer Society no less.
Mocking his Myeongwang, ripping open the raw wound from seven years back.
Overhyping their feeble power with blind faith, daring to charge him without fear.
Taunting his 'weakened' state after he'd turned their Holy Grail ploy against them and claimed the power meant for his Myeongwang.
And capping it off by dredging up the friend he'd desperately tried to forget for seven years—just to mock her.
Special Effect Restriction Released: Unstoppable Bleeding
He'd deliberately burned mana to suppress the special effect, Unstoppable Bleeding—but now he let it loose.
In that instant, blood erupted like geysers from Adalberto's neck and the nape of Adelaide's neck.
"Gah, hack—?!"
"Hic?!"
Panic echoed from the pair, but—
To slurp their blood via the skill Psychokinesis, Kang Sa-hu flung his scythe and prepared to Blink.
But.
"Sir Kang Sa-hu, if I may intrude."
Boom!
Someone wedged between Kang Sa-hu and the hammer in a flash, thrusting a lance to intercept it.
Rumble rumble rumble—
The hammer roared like it would rend heaven and earth, but the lance tip struck dead center.
To any onlooker, blocking a hammer with a spear screamed folly.
Yet astonishingly, Agravain—Knight of the Round Table—held his ground with lance in hand, not budging an inch.
Bang!
The clash ended as abruptly as it began, the hammer ricocheting off the lance and cratering into the ground.
Agravain dusted off his hands and eyed the flung hammer with amused surprise.
"Now that's unexpected. A Paladin playing at knight actually packing that much punch? Good thing I came aura-clad."
He swept his lance horizontally into position, training it on Adelaide and Adalberto.
"You've been through enough, Sir Kang Sa-hu. I'll handle it from here."
As a Knight of the Round Table, Agravain knew full well the utter dominance of paladins over necromancers.
Two paladins ganging up on a lone necromancer?
And sneaking into this land—Her Majesty's domain, no less?
'Can't let this slide.'
True to his knightly code—protect the weak, ensure duels remain fair—he burned with fury at the blatant injustice.
'Saw some nasty bleeding from afar. Hope Sir Kang Sa-hu's alright.'
Only now did Agravain squarely face Adelaide and Adalberto.
"......?"
His steadfast stance wavered in bewilderment at the sight of the two paladins clutching their napes, desperately stemming the flow.
Glancing between the three, Agravain pieced it together and recoiled in shock.
'This even possible?'
Adalberto bore a clear slash from a blade on his neck, but Adelaide's bleeding wound was pathetically minor—too trivial to pass as battle damage.
Like a mere paper cut from a utility knife.
Yet from that tiny gash, blood didn't just trickle—it surged in violent spurts. Agravain whipped his head toward Kang Sa-hu, face etched in horror.
'Is this the power of the strongest necromancer in history?'
Despite the 2-on-1 odds and the matchup nightmare, Kang Sa-hu showed no fresh wounds beyond the chest gash. A shiver ran through Agravain.
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