Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: Rubia (3)
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“Cardac’s… poison…?”
Rubia said as if she couldn’t comprehend it.
“Th-that’s… impossible… Cardac’s poison… isn’t something anyone can handle…!”
The poisons of the Myriad Poisons School were incredibly complex, requiring specialized knowledge to use properly.
If an ignorant person tried to handle them, not only would the poison’s effects vanish entirely, but they might unwittingly poison themselves and lose their life.
“I guess I’m not just anyone.”
Demian said as if it were no big deal.
Demian’s mind contained knowledge about poisons—more than enough, overflowing, in fact.
“If this… is Cardac’s poison… then why… why are the symptoms only showing up now?!”
“Because I adjusted it that way.”
Demian hadn’t used Cardac’s poison in its pure form.
Using his own unique knowledge, he had mixed it separately. So that the symptoms wouldn’t appear during battle, but later.
“If I’d just used it straight, you would’ve noticed early and expelled the poison.”
The Frenzy School wielded their bodies with complete freedom. People like that wouldn’t fail to counter poison. Worst case, they could gather the poisoned area and cut it off.
That was why Demian had delayed the poison’s onset.
To strike when Rubia was at her weakest, in a situation where she couldn’t detoxify it.
“Honestly, you were a pretty tough opponent.”
Rubia was a formidable foe.
During the War of Ruin, all of Archfiend Sla’s disciples were called the natural enemies of knights.
Because of their ability to spread pheromones that seduced regardless of gender?
That was one of Sla’s disciples’ strengths, but not their main power.
The reason Sla’s disciples were known as knights’ natural enemies was their exceptional combat prowess.
The black mages of the Frenzy School were thought inferior to knights.
Mocking that very notion, Sla’s disciples held the upper hand against knights of equal rank.
And among them, Rubia was particularly outstanding. She was one of the few disciples who could face Master Class opponents.
Of course, the current Rubia wasn’t at a Master Class level.
But her talent hadn’t gone anywhere. At this point, she was far stronger than other great black mages.
“What was really annoying was your regeneration more than anything. An Aurablade could deal you a fatal wound, but Aura alone couldn’t.”
In his fight with Rubia, what Demian had been most wary of was her regeneration ability.
Strength? Agility? Stamina?
He could overwhelm her in all those areas somehow. But regeneration had no easy counter.
Then Cardac’s poison had come into Demian’s hands.
A gruesome, revolting item, but one that could kill Rubia easily if used right.
“Thanks to you, I gained a lot.”
Demian had never fully unleashed his power as a knight until now. The knights he’d fought were mostly weaker than him.
Because of that, he hadn’t been able to gauge exactly how strong he was at this point.
But fighting Rubia had let him measure his full strength.
“With my current power, I could hold my own against a Master Class to some extent.”
Demian’s final words didn’t reach Rubia.
The poison had spread through her body, rotting her almost completely.
“N-no… way…”
Rubia muttered softly, then breathed her last.
Her soul rose from the rotting corpse, visible to the naked eye.
“Aaah…”
Freed from her flesh, she looked utterly liberated. Rubia ascended toward the sky with a face full of ecstasy.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Of course, Demian wasn’t about to just watch.
Demian reached out and seized Rubia’s soul.
“…Huh? Wh-what?”
Rubia looked at Demian in bewilderment. She struggled desperately to escape his grasp.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break free from his hand.
“N-no way… Y-you… you’re… a kn-knight. H-how… are you… grabbing… my soul…?!”
Demian felt no need to explain. He simply tore Rubia’s soul to shreds.
“Kyaaaaak!”
After annihilating her soul, Demian headed to the Mercenary King’s hideout.
* * *
“Damn it! Why won’t it pierce?!”
Inside a vast cave.
A man spat out rough curses.
“This is an awl made of rare metal! I even coated it with Aura, so why the hell is it bouncing off?!”
At the man’s feet, bent awls lay piled up.
“Even for the Mercenary King, is this really okay?”
Fabio bellowed toward someone lying on a stone bed.
A youthful face with blindingly white hair.
A beautiful boy who didn’t fit this place at all.
Anyone else seeing this scene would have been shocked.
The boy on the stone bed was none other than the being called the Mercenary King.
“Damn it! Let’s see if this one bounces too!”
Fabio pulled out a new awl. Black Aura coated its entire surface.
He immediately slammed it down toward the Mercenary King’s palm.
But the moment it touched, a sharp sound rang out, and the awl snapped upright.
“Damn it!”
Fabio cursed again.
The Mercenary King was a transcendent being, higher than even the Master Class.
His body was so sturdy that High Class Aura couldn’t even scratch it.
“I need to insert the sealing spike before he arrives…”
Fabio was biting his nails in worry when it happened.
The Mercenary King stirred. Fabio’s face instantly went pale.
Fabio stared at the Mercenary King with a face full of terror.
How much time passed like that? When the Mercenary King showed no sign of waking, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew, phew… I thought he was waking up.”
The young man checked the lamp placed beside the stone bed.
The enormous lamp, shaped like a dragon’s head, was childishly large.
Pink smoke poured endlessly from inside the lamp. The pink smoke slithered into the Mercenary King’s nostrils like a living thing.
“Yeah, as long as this is still working fine, he won’t wake up.”
The young man was cackling when it happened.
With a scraping of stone, the door blocking the cave entrance began to open.
The young man looked toward the door excitedly. Few knew this location.
“No way, Rubia? Did you miss me already and come visit? A woman coming alone at this shady hour is trouble.”
Fabio grinned lecherously. His face soon hardened.
The one entering wasn’t Rubia. It was a tall young man.
“Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not Rubia.”
At the young man’s words, Fabio asked sharply.
“Who are you?”
“You don’t need to know. Where’s the Mercenary King? Ah, there he is.”
The young man walked deeper into the cave. Fabio immediately drew his sword and aimed it at him.
“Don’t come any closer. Or I’ll smash your head.”
The young man didn’t stop at Fabio’s warning.
Fabio summoned dark mana. Black Aura surged along the surface of his blade.
“Fool. Ignoring my warning.”
Fabio was a Dark Knight who wielded dark mana, having reached High Class.
Dark mana was rougher and more ferocious than ordinary mana. That was why Dark Knights were inevitably stronger than regular knights.
“Do you know who I am? I’m Fabio. They call me…”
“Don’t know.”
At the young man’s words, Fabio scowled and asked.
“What did you just say?”
“Why would I know some nobody like you?”
The young man said irritably, slinging his sword over his shoulder. Seeing that, Fabio tilted his head.
“When did you even draw your sword…?”
Fabio’s throat split open. Blood sprayed wildly from the gash.
Fabio clutched his throat, but it was futile.
“N-no… way…”
Fabio’s eyes rolled back white, and his body toppled backward.
“What a pain.”
Demian sheathed Dawn and approached the Mercenary King.
The Mercenary King was sleeping so soundly no one would notice if carried off.
“Some of us suffered hell because of you, and here you are sleeping like a baby.”
He wanted to smack him but held back. It would only hurt Demian’s fist.
“Anyway, what did they do to you? How’d this monster get taken down without a fight?”
Looking around, Demian spotted the large lamp beside the bed.
A lamp shaped like a dragon’s head.
The moment he saw it, Demian’s eyes widened.
“…Isn’t this the Dragon Hunter’s relic?”
In modern times, dragons were beings from legend only.
But in the distant ancient era, it was different. They weren’t common, but dragons could be encountered now and then.
Thus, among ancient relics were those made to hunt dragons.
This lamp was one of them.
A relic that stimulated a dragon’s sleep desire and neutralized them.
It was impressive, but not terribly useful. Too finicky to use.
First off, a dragon had to be exposed to the lamp’s scent for a long time.
“Even if you put them to sleep with effort, they wake right up if they sense a threat to their life.”
Demian knew so much about this relic because, as a Death Knight, he’d watched Dorgo research it.
“Now I get why you fell to Rubia so easily.”
Rubia was the Mercenary King’s favorite woman, so she’d had endless chances for contact.
She must have collected the lamp’s scent and made him inhale it every time he sought her out.
Demian extinguished the lamp’s flame. No more smoke came out.
Yet the Mercenary King didn’t wake. He remained deep in slumber.
“It’ll take some time to shake off the relic’s effect.”
Thinking it might come in handy, Demian stored the lamp in his interspatial pocket.
Then he hoisted the sleeping Mercenary King on his back and exited the cave.
He had to stop dead in his tracks there. Someone was waiting outside.
A gaunt man.
Skin clung to his facial bones. His bare upper body clearly showed his ribs.
Thick iron chains coiled around his emaciated limbs.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry~?”
The man asked Demian. Demian clicked his tongue briefly at the sight of him.
“This is unlucky.”
Demian recognized the man.
A villain from Pandemonium.
A criminal hunted by the imperial duke’s family.
One of Archfiend Sla’s lovers.
A Dark Knight who had reached Master Class.
The Iron Spider, Valentino Michele, stood before him.