Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: S4. Succubus's Disguise / Succubus's Love -6
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Just brushing past is enough to steal one's gaze, to enchant the depths of the heart. What comes next for lovers who have fallen passionately in love?
Ding—dong—!
Ah, the sacred bells are ringing out.
White petals scatter in all directions, and a blessed breeze tickles the ears, asking if they're ready for that kiss.
It asks if their souls are prepared to entwine as one, vowing to gaze upon each other for eternity.
Amid the beautiful singing... tragedy creeps in step by step.
A kind of informational wave, mixed with white petals, emanated from the Queen's center. I fired off a probe fragment, but instead of repelling it, it pierced right through. That radial wave wasn't something you could block.
I had no idea what kind of bullshit ability this was.
I got that it was an exalted ability modeled after a wedding, but what it would actually do was anyone's guess. Until you tested it, you couldn't infer the specifics.
How could I know if a knife fight or some NTR bullshit would break out at the Queen's mental wedding? It was whatever fit the situation—earring if hung on the ear, nose ring if on the nose.
But one thing was crystal clear.
Whether this ability itself or the one chained to it, there was definitely a near-lethal power that would blow the target's head off once they were smitten.
Because for lovers, tragedy makes it all the more delicious.
Only another lunatic could truly understand a madman's mindset.
Vmmm—!
The wave grazed past my body. All the emotions I'd bloated up with True Desire Liberation got infected, swiftly twisting into infatuation. Viral type.
Can't stuff new crap into a full warehouse, so rot the crops inside and take them out that way.
I'd expected penetration. Simply put, this side was exaltation; theirs was super-exaltation. Different weight classes. Unless we perfectly countered the activation mechanism, we'd get pushed back.
Decision made fast. I'd tank it.
"I'll cover you, so smash her!"
"Got it!"
With my superior info-processing, I'd buy time somehow, while Pingbalrez cracked the Queen's skull in the interim.
Using our connected tails, I pulled her afflicted parts into me. It accelerated. Emotions everywhere corrupted into infatuation. I was falling for the Queen.
Making me fall for her, huh? Fine, try handling my love if you can.
I awakened the malice, firing up the abuse-yandere circuit. I'd turn it into a blood wedding.
"Hit her carotid, you bastard!"
"...Oh my? Mimi, were your tastes always this aggressive...?"
The Queen seemed surprised. And toward that surprised face, Pingbalrez's beautiful right straight shot out.
The Succubus Queen was info-based; no signs she'd trained in close-quarters brawling. So this would decide it—
Thud.
A black shadow suddenly rose before the Queen, blocking Pingbalrez's fist. A muscular middle-aged man with shaggy hair. Shadow Heavenly Demon.
Not 100% authentic Heavenly Demon, but it'd stolen some chunk of the martial doctrine. That alone was fine. A martial arts clone with my support? Yuri could handle it.
But... the Queen was compensating for the incomplete Heavenly Demon's predictive shortcomings with psychological warfare.
"Mm, don't just aim for the face like that, Yuri... Scared? Jealous? Think you can't be loved unless you're in that kid form?"
"No. Because smashing your face to pieces is the only thing that'll satisfy me—!"
The Queen hid behind the Heavenly Demon, smiling beautifully. Every gesture, every motion provoked Yuri's emotions, baiting her moves.
Luring others into traps by manipulating them.
Ding.
With the bell toll, the Heavenly Demon's low kick threw Yuri off-balance.
The Queen countered into Yuri's opening. Shadow blades erupting from the white ground aimed to rip her gut— I interfered.
Clang—!
I snapped my fingers, hurling info to shatter the blades. The Queen then turned her gaze on me.
"Making something this vicious just to reinforce the front lines... Impressive. Mind if I borrow it? Forever."
"...Give it back, honey!"
"Kneel and lick my toes, and I'll consider it positively."
"Shut that filthy mouth and die!"
Whoosh—!
With the sound of tearing air, Pingbalrez's fist launched.
The shadow Heavenly Demon brawled with Pingbalrez, while the Queen puppeteering it sprayed pheromones between moves, blocking my checks. Even 2v1, it was even.
I even got charmed once every ten exchanges. Fell for the Queen's bluff that she was finishing Yuri, got rattled. But.
Yuri Lanster's desperate struggle was shifting the battle's flow.
Even when attacks glanced off and countered by the Heavenly Demon, she'd take the fist head-on with her forehead. Bleeding profusely, melting away, yet pressing the savage assault.
That ferocity made even the Queen shrink back a bit.
Yuri Lanster was pushing back the shadow Heavenly Demon inch by inch with her all-out frenzy.
This wasn't desperation or mutual destruction. She trusted me, connected by tail...
"If you don't want to see me die, fix it yourself!"
"......"
She trusted my high-spec info-recovery module. I hurled knife-like info at the Queen, yandere-processed the swelling infatuation, and repaired Yuri's body shattered by Heavenly Demon punches.
If I had a physical brain, it'd be smoking by now.
We turned it. Momentum swung our way. But... no fourth wave. No reason to fake a disadvantageous position.
Ding.
The faint bell tolls continued. Maybe.
The Wedding March—the exaltation assault—was still ongoing? Corrupting the target's emotions into infatuation wasn't the end?
A chill ran down my spine, like ice water dumped over me.
At that moment, the Queen accelerated her offense. Focus here. Yuri might die if you don't? Like she was saying.
That behavior confirmed it for me.
The repeating tolls sounded like a time bomb. Whatever happened, the trigger was infatuation. I had to dump this burgeoning infatuation somewhere. Instinct screamed it.
"Hologram!"
I spawned a gender-flipped me temporarily, shoving the infatuation in. Some data loss? Fine. And my judgment was spot-on.
Bloat.
Bloat bloat bloat.
The clone's chest bulged grotesquely, like thousands of balloons inflating inside. Prelude to explosion. A tad late.
Kabooooom—!!
The infatuation detonated. Fueling the blast with love proliferated inside—vicious ability. Activated after dumping 80%, minimized damage.
But 20% inside plus point-blank blast... took my right arm and a bit more. I spewed blood-like info from my mouth, rolling on the ground.
Fucking hurts.
"Wizard?!"
"Kuhak, hack... I'm alive, so focus there!"
Once casting ended, wouldn't the fourth wave come?
Ominous hunches always hit true. Face sagging with slight fatigue from overusing exaltation, the Queen drew her next authority.
"Shall we end this...? Heroine: One More Time in the Afterlife."
Red threads swayed.
Skin stung, crisis bells rang.
Queen's abilities ramped up lethality per cast. Last one made a person explode-miscarry; this could be conditional instant-death, no sweat.
Queen showed a bit of leisure, spoiling what she'd do if she won.
"If you survive this too... Hehe. Maybe capture you both alive, even if it strains me. Make you fall into someone else's arms. What do you think?"
"You bitch..."
Time to go all-in.
Right now, as Queen prepped a big authority to end the dragged-out fight.
Right now, as Queen went on offense, no spare for defense.
Right now, mid-cast, no room for other bullshit.
Right now, with me critically wounded, aggro off me relatively.
And.
With Yuri and I resolved.
I began preparing to lose it all.
The Queen seemed to wary me more than Yuri overall, but the main threat was Yuri, not me.
The ability manifested by staining Yuri Lanster's soul black was a single strike that burned a tightly bound heart.
Not sinking it to the lake bottom—erasing words to gain power.
Moreover.
The Queen still harbored infatuation for me. Yuri's love, stolen from her and transplanted. So. They meshed.
Burn Yuri's infatuation, simultaneously detonate the Queen's. Like how I'd exploded from her exaltation.
Best strike, but also worst.
Even if cultivated by the Queen's schemes, the root was... our memories. Pessimistically, we might become strangers.
Even the friendship pre-infatuated might burn to wasteland.
If she approached like always, but her eyes held awkwardness toward a stranger... it'd hurt. Deeply sad.
But I'd reclaim it.
We became friends from our first meeting. Second time would be easier.
Here, now, the Succubus's love I'd lose—I'd surely reclaim it someday. Not losing; just letting go briefly.
So... do it.
Half-shattered and ragged, I condensed all my info into one spot. Shake up the Queen's emotions and info, make her unable to dodge Yuri's strike.
"Shadows at your feet."
Do it. Clear the path for Yuri Lanster. Fair trade for her vengeance—not a bad deal.
"Darkness peeking from wardrobe cracks..."
No. Wasteful. Heartbreakingly so. How I earned that heart. How I built those feelings! The surging dark regret, loaded into the arrow.
A black arrow, sucking in all color, floated up lightly.
Don't wanna use it. But I gritted and drew the line. Calmed greed. Trusted myself. We'd escape, laugh and play like always.
"Solitude of the pitch-black night!"
Even at the final release, I hesitated a moment.
Because I trusted Yuri Lanster's promise to return to me.
I let go of my hand,
Did she think she could dodge or counter? The Queen shook red threads, trying to exert some power, but the mage's heart moved faster.
The pitch-black arrow fired and struck instantly. It burrowed into the Queen's heart like being sucked in, tracing a black line.
"Ah... guh..."
The Queen's face twisted. Yuri Lanster shouldered aside the destabilized Heavenly Demon, stepping toward that white nightmare.
Close.
And from the tail came icy black emotions.
The mad mage's feelings overlaid her soul again. The white light had felt so peacefully sleepy.
But this black, wicked emotion stoked all her malice, made it rampage. Vision shifted, heart burned with hate, world seemed ridiculous, love trivial.
Black dots flecked her pupils.
Clankclankclank—.
Violent chains rattled.
Is this malice? She'd held onto sanity well. Yuri Lanster understood the mage's pain a bit more.
Right now, she could lightly, casually toss her love into the trash like garbage.
But no. Couldn't.
It was precious, so properly regret it, grieve, cling pathetically, then send it off. Face it proper.
The mage had steeled himself with far greater stakes in mind. Couldn't waver over this.
Clankclank—!
Black chains manifested in midair, snaking around Yuri Lanster's right arm like a serpent. One strand extended from her wrist to the white Queen's heart.
She felt it. Her own infatuation, and the Queen's stolen one. Both.
That precious, pulsing heart.
Yuri Lanster yanked her arm, drew a deep breath, and sneered.
"I get it. He's quirky but fun, so a woman starved for centuries floating hearts at him? Not weird."
"...Yu... ri...!"
"So... how's it feel firsthand, this trite emotion?"
No reply. No leisure for one. Heart-Shattering Dark Arrow hit, swamped in emotional waves.
She relaxed her whole body. Pre-impact, still as a rippleless pond.
Felt like an endless journey.
Losing her home village, roaming wild like a stray, drifting till nesting by the mage. How many hearts rose and sank.
Now, the period.
Could vent vengeful glee. Taunt the Queen, curse her, maximize humiliation for the finale.
No. Didn't want to end on that.
Clankclankclank—!!
Tss, tick.
Sparks flew. Sparks on infatuation ignited, caught fire. Heart-combustion birthed massive mana flames, spreading along the chains.
The chain-wrapped fist burned pink, proclaiming its fuel as love. Jealousy flashed across the Queen's face watching it.
So that's it...
Power into every muscle fiber. Tense, contract, load complete.
Regretful. Wasteful. Fake emotion grown by Queen's schemes, but also potentially real once. How earned, yet to burn.
But fine.
Learned the mage was more pathetic than thought. He'd surely work to win her heart again.
Trust.
Still... a bit anxious.
Yuri Lanster, loving the mad mage, added final words for her future lover.
"When I return, make me fall properly again—"
"Yuriiiiii—!!"
The Queen's death-foreboding scream, and it swung. Heart-as-powder strike cracked mental space, accelerating with destructive crunch-crunch.
Detonating the Queen's love simultaneously, slamming into her bursting chest amid flames.
Crunch. Grriiind.
Kabooooom—!!
It blasted the Queen's upper body clean off, upheaving the area in explosion. Caster's death collapsed the mental world; the long nightmare shattered instantly.
Yuri Lanster's normalized mental realm judged to expel all foreign matter for self-preservation.
And the mad mage was cast out from her heart.
Afterward, things somehow got cleaned up.
Nest destroyed, Succubus forces missing, fled, or dead. Queen probably toast, but unconfirmed. Mad mage secured the Pleasure Evil God statue.
90% of Nest-captured strike team rescued.
Modern strongest illusion mage, Violet Magic Tower Master Yuna, thoroughly pissed.
Defense Bureau field agent Yuri Lanster in coma recovery. Expected to regain consciousness within a week.
And today marked exactly that week.
The mad mage prepared a lush bouquet and opened the hospital room door. Just then, Yuri Lanster had awakened from her long sleep.
Her unbound hair and glasses-free look felt fresh. The mage stared for a good while.
Yuri spoke first, yawning lazily before greeting as usual.
"You came?"
"Yeah. How's the body? Any memory gaps?"
"Y'know, I'd never known love till now... but I think I get it."
"Go back to sleep. Lie there another week."
No gaps, huh.
The mad mage set the bouquet by the bed, brushed back Yuri's hair, and inspected meticulously. Aside from rebuilding mental barriers from scratch, all good.
Some memory tangles maybe, but minor side effect. Trading blows with exaltation-grade succubus in her head? Miracle she wasn't a vegetable.
Mage checked everywhere after, tested physicals too, then marked the chart clear.
"...Anyway, rest up. No straining for a week."
"Yes. Thinking of milking sick leave for a month."
"Smart. And... no, never mind. Gotta go, honey. Need to soothe Yuna."
"Yes, take care. Dear."
In that brief exchange, mage hoped for... some pink tint? But scrutinized Yuri Lanster's eyes closely. Nothing.
"......"
Somewhat disappointed, the mage slunk out of the room.
After he left...
Yuri Lanster pulled the covers over, lest anyone see, and exhaled long-held breath. Her ears burned bright red.
Remnants lingered.
And with that alone, the succubus had learned love.