Chapter 236: The World of Players (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 236: The World of Players (1)
Skrrrch!
A sharp front leg grazed Antrad's body.
At the same time, Antrad's fist slammed into the burrowing spider's torso.
Boom!
A battle between two colossal entities that defied imagination.
Every attack and defense went far beyond common sense.
"Kieeeek!"
With a wild roar, a thick substance erupted from the burrowing spider's mouth.
[The burrowing spider spews Lv.19 'Digestive Acid'!]
It wasn't a wide-range spray, but a highly concentrated stream compressed to its absolute limit.
However, even this unexpected anomaly fell well within Antrad's calculations.
Belying his massive size, Antrad moved with blinding speed.
He dodged the digestive acid by a hair's breadth, and then—
"Foolish creature!"
He swung his sword horizontally.
Slash!
The blazing sword severed the burrowing spider's neck in a single strike.
Thud!
The massive body collapsed forward.
Having dealt with the nuisance, he finally had the leisure to look around.
By now, that human must have fled quite far.
He had wasted quite a bit of time.
Ten minutes was more than enough time to escape the fortress and run far away.
But no matter how far the human ran, Antrad had no intention of letting him go.
Anyone else might be fine, but that human is dangerous.
If I don't snuff out his life here before he grows any stronger...
...he might return one day as a giant blade aimed at our throats.
Antrad's instincts screamed warnings.
If they missed this opportunity, they might be the ones hunted next.
Thud!
His massive frame slowly turned toward the exit of the fortress.
It was time to tighten the reins of the pursuit.
But then.
"...No, this mana is..."
It couldn't be.
This made no sense.
He had never even imagined that the humans would stand their ground and fight instead of running away.
Yet.
Looking at the two players who appeared before him, he could no longer deny reality.
Perhaps in the distant future, after they had grown much stronger...
But to point their blades at him in this current state?
"Did I... did I really seem that easy to you?!"
[Antrad activates Special Battlefield Lv.19 'Borderline of the Demon World'!]
Ruuuumble!
A calamity fire transcending human cognition erupted from Antrad's body.
At the same time, all the ground in sight began to be dyed in a deep purple.
'Borderline of the Demon World'.
An area-of-effect skill that encroached upon the ground to construct a domain solely for the demon race.
* * *
Jinhyuk and Cheon Yu-seong drew their respective swords, facing the heat head-on.
The heat was immense.
So intense that even breathing was a luxury.
Sizzle!
Unable to withstand the calamity fire, Cheon Yu-seong's clothes began to singe and burn.
In their place, the Defensive Coat he had previously worn materialized.
Ah, damn.
A look of regret flashed across Jinhyuk's face.
That thing was expensive...
However, to endure Antrad's flames, an artifact with resistance options was absolutely essential.
"It's dangerous to stay here for long."
"Yeah. We'd better hurry."
Jinhyuk gripped Fang in a reverse hold.
"But can you keep up? I'm going to move fast from here on out."
"Make sure you don't fall behind. If you get in my way, I'll abandon you without hesitation."
"You always have such a lovely way with words."
The trivial banter exchanged before the battle.
It was far too relaxed for a life-or-death situation.
But that was just how much they trusted each other.
No matter how strong the enemy, if two veterans who had climbed this tower joined forces, they could surely bring him down.
Crackle!
A Frost Mist created through 'Glacial Shaping' enveloped Cheon Yu-seong's body.
[Fire resistance increases by +20%!]
Boom!
With the sound of him kicking off the ground, Cheon Yu-seong's figure vanished.
He reappeared right above Antrad's right shoulder.
"Insignificant insects, how dare you strike first?!"
Antrad reacted instantly.
His blazing sword swept across to cleave Cheon Yu-seong's body in half.
However, just before the sword could reach Cheon Yu-seong—
Thud! Thud!
Spears made of Glacial Shaping and the fire element slammed into Antrad's wrist bone.
While not enough to inflict serious damage, it was more than sufficient to slightly alter the trajectory of his swing.
"Don't forget I'm here too."
Jinhyuk grinned.
Seizing that split-second opening, the forms of the 'Soul-Chasing Sword' swept across Antrad's right side.
Crash! Crash!
Screeech!
Small fragments scattered in all directions.
Against the sword qi, even armor enveloped in flames could not serve as a shield.
"Aaargh!"
For the first time, a cry of pain erupted from Antrad's mouth.
...Now.
This time, 'Daylight', condensed to its absolute limit, dyed their vision pure white.
With the addition of the 'Blessing of the Stars', a single flash of maximized divine power sliced through the air.
Kabaam!
The collision of light and fire generated a massive shockwave.
Its power was nearly on par with a Hatchling's minor breath.
Thanks to that, Antrad's balance was completely shattered.
[Cheon Yu-seong activates Lv.11 'Single Point Breakthrough'!]
A blue light connecting into a single point.
Like a heavily armored knight on horseback charging into enemy lines, Cheon Yu-seong surged toward his target with terrifying momentum.
Thud!
The sword, piercing through Antrad's ribs, reached the mass of red flames within.
Crack! Crunch!
Antrad's heart.
It was a crystal of life composed of fire and demonic qi.
"Ugh!"
Veins bulged on Cheon Yu-seong's forehead.
However, though he squeezed out every ounce of his strength to crush the heart, for some reason, the sword wouldn't budge.
As if that was the absolute limit of what was permitted.
"Did you enjoy thinking your attack actually worked?"
A cold voice drifted from Antrad's mouth.
Dangerous.
Reaching that conclusion, Cheon Yu-seong abandoned his attack and quickly leaped back to create distance.
Whoosh!
Instantly, black flames erupted where Cheon Yu-seong had just been standing.
"Where do you think you are right now?"
A mental world formed by the Borderline of the Demon World.
Here, everything bent to Antrad's will.
Their desperate struggles up until now had only been possible because Antrad allowed it.
"I pretended to take damage to buy time for this world to completely encroach upon you, but I didn't expect you to fall for it so easily."
The broken fragments regenerated, and his flickering eyes blazed fiercely once more.
Just like that, Antrad's body was restored to the exact state it was in when they first met.
No, it didn't stop at mere restoration.
[Antrad uses the hidden skill 'Miniaturization'.]
"Still, I will concede one thing. Your strength, transcending that of ordinary humans, was honestly surprising. Most demons would have been obliterated by that attack just now."
It was neither praise nor exaggeration, but the simple truth.
Antrad calmly stated the reality.
"In that sense, I shall show you the respect you deserve as I take your lives."
Antrad's colossal body began to shrink in an instant.
Ten meters... five meters... two meters.
The miniaturization only stopped once he had shrunk to roughly the height of an adult male.
One must never underestimate him just because his size had decreased.
This ability minimized the mana wasted on maintaining a massive frame, concentrating all that gathered power into a compact body instead.
This was Antrad's true form, revealed only when he went all out to kill his enemies.
"Please, do not die too easily. It has been a very long time since I last fought in this form."
Tap!
Antrad moved a beat faster than the sound of his own movement.
Clang!
Jinhyuk swung his sword reflexively to parry the blow.
Rather than reacting to what he saw, it was closer to an unconscious action driven by countless honed instincts.
A red line remained where the sword had passed.
A phenomenon that occurred when heat solidified in the air.
"Oh? You reacted to that?"
"It's always the mediocre guys who get power beyond their station and end up with monotonous attack patterns."
"Hmm. You certainly have a silver tongue. Then, let's see if you can keep that composure when I raise my speed by another level."
Boom!
No sooner had he finished speaking than two red lines were carved into the air.
Jinhyuk and Cheon Yu-seong were blown back nearly two meters.
Throb!
"Ugh!"
"What kind of sword is..."
Not only was he fast, but his power was also off the charts.
Even in a two-on-one situation, merely holding their ground was difficult.
At this rate, we're in trouble...
Though he had bluffed, enduring a few more exchanges was his absolute limit.
It was right then that a familiar voice rang in Jinhyuk's ear.
[It's ready! You can start now.]
Seriously...
He had been waiting so long his neck was practically falling off.
The essential condition to bridge the overwhelming gap had just been cleared.
"Good job."
He truly meant it.
Jinhyuk muttered toward Alice, who would be far away from this place.
* * *
"...!?"
Antrad was also quick to notice the anomaly.
"Indeed, you got me. Was all of this just to eliminate the demonic human?"
"Exactly. You weren't the only one buying time."
"How did you find the demonic human's location?"
"I have a dog with an incredible nose for demonic qi. Since the distance for supplying mana is limited, it didn't take very long to find him."
"Hahaha! To think there was a human who knew so much about demons. How amusing. If not for your appearance, I would feel like I was facing a fellow demon. A highly vicious one at that."
Antrad let out a hearty laugh of admiration.
But it was only for a brief moment.
"So, what do you plan to do now? Even if my source of mana is severed, I still have plenty of time left in this realm. Above all, as long as this world remains, you stand absolutely no chance of winning."
The ground around where Antrad stood was dyed in an even darker shade.
This world was the very reason demons could transcend the floors and unleash their true power.
"Yeah. You're not wrong about that."
But you see...
"Now that the demonic human is gone, we can also create a mental barrier."
A skill that had been locked due to the lack of a mana source was now unlocked.
The skill to seize control of space: 'Battlefield Selection'.
"Laughable. A mental barrier is a reflection of one's understanding of the tower. How well you know this world determines the completeness of the manifested barrier. Yet, a mere human who has been in this tower for less than a year dares to speak of such barriers?"
Antrad let out a scoff of disbelief.
However, his mockery did not last long.
"It seems you're the one who doesn't know... Don't run your mouth about what this tower is like. Your brain couldn't comprehend even a speck of it."
A mid-grade demon stuck in the mere 40s had no right to say such things.
And from now on, he would show him exactly what those words meant.
[Battlefield Selection...]
Instantly, a dazzling light flickered within the darkly dyed world.
[...'Summit of the Solitary Tower' is activated.]
The summit of some nameless place, bathed in the light of countless stars and the moon.
This was the mental world that Jinhyuk remembered and had experienced.
Crack!
A crack appeared in Antrad's domain.
This was absolutely impossible.
No, it was something that should never happen.
It defied all logic for a skill used by a human to interfere with a world created by a demon.
"Cheon Yu-seong."
"I know."
Amidst the shattering fragments, this time, Cheon Yu-seong's mana slowly bloomed.
Crackle...!
Once again, cracks began to form at the edges of Antrad's domain.
[Battlefield Selection 'Haven of Swords' is activated.]
Scattered Fasting Pills and swords unfolded before them.
A place soaked in the sweat and blood shed over a lifetime to achieve a single purpose.
This bleak and desolate landscape was the very space that had forged the current Sword Saint.
And so,
[Special conditions have been met.]
[The Third Battlefield 'The Players' World' is activated!]
The two worlds overlapped into one.
A third concept that broke free from existing laws and shackles.
The mental world created by Jinhyuk and Cheon Yu-seong completely swept away the 'Demon World's Battlefield' that Antrad had deployed.
Their vision changed.
And what changed...
...was not just their vision.
"How can this be..."
A sigh filled with despair escaped Antrad's mouth.