Chapter 62
Chapter 62
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Five Steps
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Some people dismiss illusions as laughable. I can declare with certainty that only idiots with malfunctioning brains would think that way.
Does the fact that illusion magic is never left out of the major classifications across countless magical schools spark no thoughts at all?
Illusion is a force that acts on the mind, and ultimately, it connects to the heart's imagery. To stretch it a bit, things like mind sword or mind's eye are all illusions nearing their peak.
And Leone was no fool. Undine sometimes called her stupid or whatever, but even Undine didn't truly mean it.
Of course not. Leone was a genius who had reached Grandmaster in a short time, and even setting aside her talent for the sword, her mind worked on a level far beyond ordinary people.
That was why she couldn't underestimate this dungeon. An illusion of this scale and quality was virtually indistinguishable from reality.
The texture of the wind brushing against her skin, the parched energy of the barren earth, the acrid smell tickling her nose, the sharply honed killing intent—all bore witness to it.
A sword slash would bring pain as real as any. A severed arm would hang limp as if truly detached. A pierced heart would cease to beat, and a sliced throat would end a life.
That was normal. Ordinary people could do nothing about it. This dungeon was no different from reality.
But Enoch pressed on without a care. Even as his shoulder was stabbed, his arm sliced, his chest run through, his throat cut, his head smashed—he advanced step by silent step.
“…I, I can’t watch anymore.”
In the end, Leone bowed her head. Enoch was enduring with bizarre mental fortitude, but she couldn’t bear to look.
How much did it hurt? How agonizing was it?
Each time his head came off, a sensation no different from death must assault him. Yet his steadfast advance, as if unbothered, tore at her heart.
[Should we stop him?]
Undine couldn’t hide her grave expression either. She’d thought he knew when to hold back, but he was throwing his life away on the single belief that he wouldn’t die.
That fresh cut on Enoch’s neck just now. It was a moment when his mental focus wavered, turning illusion into reality. One misstep, and his head really would’ve flown.
“…How could I stop him? He’s so desperate. For my sake. I feel too guilty…”
[You’re overthinking your own importance.]
“You think I don’t know I’m being stupid?”
She knew how much Enoch liked her. She knew that blind gaze, those hurried footsteps chasing after her.
Truth be told, Enoch was lazy. He loved sprawling in the grass to bask in the sun, flopping across the bed, even eating with his face planted down, mouth only moving.
“…What could I even say.”
What had she ever done for him? To make this pathetic big sister worth all this…
Leone forced her creaking head up. The demon’s sword bore down on Enoch.
‘Again…’
At this rate, he’d lose a leg next, then his head. Though it pained her, Leone grimaced and watched Enoch. It was the least she could do.
“One step.”
And Enoch, blocking the demon’s sword, smiled.
*
She got it now. How stupid she’d been.
Kiiing—!
The ring in his left eye spun, capturing the demon’s movements.
“Die already…!”
The lines traced by his mind’s eye, the visible trajectories—all for naught.
His opponent was a swordsman far beyond his level. Thinking he could see through it from the start had been arrogance.
Kwaang—!
Enoch’s hand blocked the sword. The blade bent off course again. Blood poured from his wide-open left eye.
“Found it.”
Beneath the thickly visible line, one razor-thin hidden line. He seized that concealed line and twisted.
Teoreung—!
The sword flew aside. Right, at Grandmaster level, they could hide their intent from crude mind’s eye. He didn’t know how many attacks he’d let through, lured by the blatantly flaunted sword path.
But now he saw it. If he could see it, he could respond.
Shiiik—!
He launched his body through the net of descending sword paths. Lines scored across his body here and there, but it was fine. It was an illusion.
He slammed his fist into the gap revealed by his mind’s eye.
Mein Kampf—a heavy blow warped space as it flew, but
Seok—
It glanced off, slicing his arm. Even if he could track attacks now, the gap was still vast.
Then one more step.
‘That’s what’s causing the bizarre trajectory?’
The mana flowing around the demon. It wasn’t the demon’s own. The ambient qi of nature guided its movements.
So that’s how. He realized. That’s why no matter how he scrutinized the demon, he couldn’t predict its moves.
Like a puppet on strings, it twisted its path using surrounding mana. No wonder—even piercing its muscle movements or the mana flow in its body couldn’t reveal its path.
Seok—
After yielding his neck nine times, his heart twelve, his limbs about forty, he had captured every motion of the demon in his eyes.
“You’re no human…! What the hell are you?!”
Now that he’d seen it, there was no reason to take hits one-sidedly. The number of sword cuts dropped sharply.
He devoured everything he saw and felt. Distinguishing what to learn, what to discard, what to hold in reserve, he melted it into his own movements.
Kwarureuk—!
Crimson-black sword aura whirled around the demon’s blade as it swung. Enoch crooked his hand like a claw. Could he do it? He cast doubt aside. No reason he couldn’t. He willed it fiercely, strongly.
‘Now.’
The instant sword met hand, he yanked his body off course using external mana.
Seok—!
Inexperience cost him a shoulder cut, but it didn’t matter. He flashed a grin at the demon’s bulging eyes.
“Three steps.”
Probably two left.
*
“Shut your nonsense! Impossible!”
One step, two. The human kept closing in without pause. He never stopped, and his speed wasn’t slow. A chill ran down its spine as if human toes were brushing its own.
The level gap was clear. The thing stuck at early Master was climbing fast, but that was it.
‘How, though?’
Manipulating external mana was Grandmaster territory. Talent or not, no Master could do it.
If he’d broken through to Grandmaster here and wielded external mana, it’d make sense—but this mere Master defied understanding.
It swung its sword. Stomped the earth, twisted its axis, controlled external mana to steer the trajectory.
Seok—!
It severed the human’s neck. He staggered briefly, then charged with a spine-chilling grin.
“Uaaah…!”
No fear left. Watching the demigods battle from afar had made it feel like dust, but now, away from that, it felt liberated.
But was it hubris? The unknown presence brought terror. Somehow, its hostility surged uncontrollably, yet each slash against the monster before it only tightened its chest.
“Just die alreadyyy…!!”
Finally, it unleashed its star. The power it had held back flowed into the sword. With overwhelming, all-crushing might, it brought the blade down.
Kwaaaaang──────────!!!
The human’s two arms shattered. Yet they reformed as if nothing happened. No—faint scratches remained on them, but that was all.
“Four steps.”
A low mutter. At the same time, the human’s movements changed.
Its sword no longer reached. A horizontal swing was deflected upward; as it pressed in, he met it head-on, closing distance to zero.
Oosak──────
Their eyes met. Those pitch-black pupils. An abyss without bottom creased at the corners in a smile. The madness packed within was no human thing.
Then the human’s hand moved. It desperately shoved the extending hand outward with its sword. But the trajectory warped bizarrely. Its own swordsmanship unfolded from the human’s hand.
“Uaaaaah…!”
It flailed wildly with its sword, but in that split-second of mental disruption, eyes met with the fast-closing monster.
“Five steps.”
The ring in the hollow eye socket spun. Its gaze was sucked in, mind going distant, and then,
“No more need to see.”
With those words, its vision went black.
*
“Haa…. Haa….”
Enoch steadied his heaving chest and caught his breath. His heart—pierced countless times—ached. No, now it was just a ring, yet the pain lingered like his heart had burst.
“Huh….”
But that pain was overshadowed by euphoria. He’d broken it. With these two hands, he’d ripped out a Grandmaster’s heart.
“Hahaha…!”
He hadn’t become a Grandmaster. But he was certain. Against similar foes, he could win again without dying.
Five steps forward in one battle. At its end, he’d grasped power touching Grandmaster realm.
*
Leone, smile fading as Enoch collapsed, laid his head on her thigh and blankly stroked his hair.
“Why do you keep pushing yourself….”
His sleeping face was angelic. The demon he’d fought like a fiend seemed a lie; gently rubbing his softly drooped eye corner made his lashes flutter.
“…Idiot.”
She muttered it curtly but couldn’t tear her eyes from Enoch’s face. The boy—no, now a young man—who’d wrested victory from a Grandmaster dazzled her.
That final moment, when Enoch pierced the demon’s heart—Leone remembered her own heart pounding faster than ever.
“…Sentimental fool.”
She sighed.
“Don’t get hung up on empty titles. Seize what’s in front of you. While you still can.”
But an unexpected reply came. At the familiar voice, she snapped her head up, eyes widening in shock.
“D… Dad? No, Kyle Estor…?”
“Hm. So in the future, my daughter calls me by name? Not bad.”
Leone’s eyes trembled at the calmly approaching Kyle.
“…H-how?”