Chapter 202
Chapter 202
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 202
Chapter Title: Act 38. Those Who Uphold All Evil (2)
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Every disaster that appears in the game is fated to emerge.
In other words, it’s already decided that they will appear, no matter what you do.
A predetermined, unchangeable future.
However, many mechanisms are also in place to ensure they can be conquered one way or another.
For instance.
KABOOM!!
“Wh-what was that!?”
“We’re under attack!”
The more you interfere with the ritual these guys are performing, the more time you get to face the disaster.
“Y-you’re already here…!?”
Visibly flustered, Ada bit her lip and pulled out a bundle of papers.
The warp scroll Jeong Ha-yeon mentioned.
*Screee…*
Ada tried to tear the paper, but…
*Fwoosh!*
Before she could, a black flame erupted and incinerated it.
Startled by the black flame, Ada let out a short scream and hastily pulled her hand away from the paper.
“Ugh!?”
“I won’t let you get away this time.”
“…You have terrifying eyes. Thrillingly so. Is it one of those things? A yandere, or something? I’m not really into that.”
“…”
“Can’t even take a joke. So scary.”
Deciding that escape was impossible, she drew a single shortsword.
Behind Ada, I could see the cultists being swiftly subdued.
It’d be a hassle if they revived, so they had to be merely suppressed.
With only two temples left, the number of cultists was considerable, but they were no match for my Army of Darkness.
It seemed Jun Bo-ra was doing her part as well.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Aargh!”
The daggers that vanished from Jun Bo-ra’s hands embedded themselves in the hands, arms, and shoulders of those chanting some kind of spell.
They weren’t ordinary daggers.
They were weapons specialized for anti-magic warfare, called ‘Magician Killers.’
As long as those were stuck in their bodies, they couldn’t use magic.
She came well-prepared.
The high priest, flustered, was shouting for someone to stop them, but he couldn’t do anything himself.
“Looks like you came incredibly well-prepared too…”
“Of course. Very. I did everything I could think of. Including things to block your attacks.”
“You shouldn’t have had enough coins to afford those.”
“Dwayne gave me all the coins he had back then. It wasn’t just for defense; it seemed like you could track me, so I bought this to throw you off.”
Ada took out a small mirror that fit in the palm of her hand.
‘I knew it.’
Something had felt off.
The main quest was one of the primary sources of coins, and I was the only one who could proceed with it. In that situation, obtaining the ‘Eye of Ra’—one of the few items capable of blocking an attack from a boss-level entity and reverse-summoning it—was practically impossible.
But what was more puzzling than the source of the coins was how she had obtained it.
“You can only buy that from the Angel’s Shop.”
“Yep. That’s where I got it. It’s still available, you know?”
Ada said with a sly smile.
How absurd.
They opened the Angel’s Shop even for someone who did something like that?
“Anyone who’s played for a bit knows you have to walk a fine line between the angels and devils. And that angels are easy to deceive. Do you know how much effort I put into managing things so that not *all* the angels would cut me off?”
Indeed, the Angel’s Shop remains open as long as there is at least one angel who hasn’t cut ties.
Even if the number of items available for purchase is significantly reduced.
‘Even with the reduced selection, they were still selling the Eye of Ra.’
*Clang!*
I parried the dagger Ada suddenly threw at me and slowly began to walk forward.
Could anything be more unpleasant?
Not only did they open the Angel’s Shop for her despite her actions, but the items they still had in stock just happened to include one that could counter my abilities.
“There must have been some angels who didn’t like me.”
You’d have to be an ideal hero to win over every single angel.
So, I never intended to make all of them my allies from the start.
As long as they didn’t interfere, that was enough.
“It seems one of the Salvatio members has acquired a power closely related to the angels.”
“H-Hmph. You think I’d spill any information?”
“Most people say that, and then they end up spilling everything.”
*Wooooo…*
The magic that dominated the area began to radiate an overwhelming pressure.
Ada’s eyes slowly filled with fear.
Even so, she struggled to break free from the pressure.
“As long as you can’t use Lord of Darkness on me, I won’t be at a major disadvantage…!”
So that’s what she was banking on.
The ‘Eye of Ra’ provides a perfect defense against darkness, but only for the possessor.
It couldn’t reverse-summon my Army of Darkness, which was attacking others.
However, for the possessor, it offered what could be called an absolute defense against darkness.
“I don’t need something like Lord of Darkness to deal with you.”
I swung the Black Moon Divine Sword.
With a single strike, Ada’s weapon was split in two. Her face went pale as she instantly created distance.
She must still have had plenty of daggers, as she simultaneously threw several from the pocket on her thigh.
*Fweee!*
Ada’s eyes glowed with a purple light.
[You are being affected by ‘Mental Interference.’]
[You are being affected by ‘Mind Control.’]
[Due to the unique effect, ‘Watcher Beyond the Screen,’ you are unaffected.]
*Clang!*
“You should have realized by now that it’s useless.”
It was a method of interfering with my mind at the moment of attack to prevent a proper response.
Without the mental interference, the attack itself wasn’t even a threat.
As I easily deflected all the daggers, Ada laughed hollowly.
“Seriously, there’s a limit to how broken you can be…”
Ada hesitated and backed away.
It wasn’t long before her back hit a wall, and she spoke with an air of resignation.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
“Was it so hard to guess, knowing your objective?”
I had discussed it with Hwang Chan-jin beforehand.
We decided to eliminate the temples in a specific order to force her into this location.
“You’re not an idiot, so my first assumption was that you wouldn’t be here on purpose. We both know how the other thinks. But you wouldn’t have been able to get to the temple you had your eye on. It would have been swarming with monsters.”
There were two main temples.
Since one of them was rendered unusable, she had no choice but to come here, whether she liked it or not.
Ada looked as if she had seen something horrifying.
“You… don’t tell me you opened the gate there on purpose?”
“If a gate is opened, it can just be closed later.”
The gate at Incheon Airport opens under specific conditions, turning the entire airport into a dungeon.
Ada, who had planned to use the temple built in the airport, would have been forced to come here instead.
“…It was a chance Dwayne created for me. And of all the people to run into, it had to be this psycho.”
With a weary smile, Ada bit her lip and charged.
Her stats weren’t low, and her form wasn’t sloppy.
Even without relying on mind control, her movements wouldn’t be looked down upon anywhere.
But to me, they were completely transparent.
*Swish!*
Her arm, severed along with my sword’s path, flew through the air, splattering blood.
Ada’s gaping mouth seemed to form the word ‘Liar.’
*Thud!*
Immediately after, I grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the wall.
“Agh!”
“You’re different from the people who were brainwashed.”
“Wh-what do you mean…”
“I mean there’s no penalty for me if I kill you.”
I was about to slit her throat, but an ominous feeling made me change the trajectory.
“Ack!”
Ada screamed as I deeply slashed her shoulder.
The shoulder strap of her clothes was cut, revealing a portion of her skin.
Just above her chest.
Seeing the strange symbol drawn there, I understood the source of the ominous feeling I’d just had.
‘Brand of Mutual Destruction.’
An S-grade item that takes the user’s killer down with them.
As its name suggested, once applied to the body, the brand couldn’t be removed.
It also came with a risk: the user would die within a week of applying the brand, even if no one killed them.
So that’s what she was doing when she seemed to resign herself earlier, activating this item.
“…You’d go this far?”
“You… noticed it… haha.”
Ada let out a hollow, deflated laugh, then her head slumped.
Shock from blood loss.
I sighed briefly and set Ada down.
…Despite what I said, I had no real intention of killing her.
If it were just Dwayne, it might be different, but with Ada, who also knew of the Salvatio’s existence, as a hostage, L Team and Pentagon Eagle couldn’t easily ignore it.
I placed her severed arm back on the stump, poured a potion over it, and clasped an ability-sealing cuff on her other wrist.
[The Main Quest has been cleared.]
[You have received 8,000 coins as a clear reward.]
‘So the Madness Chapter is finally over.’
Capturing Ada meant we were completely free from the threat of madness.
But the end is always a new beginning.
A beginning that I wished would never come, if possible.
[A Main Quest has been generated.]
[Ch. 18. Defying Heaven]
It is a monster whose name cannot even be spoken.
A single-line description.
No rewards, no objective, no mention of what happens upon failure—an utterly unhelpful message.
But I knew.
I knew what ‘monster’ it was referring to.
And I knew what would happen if we failed to defeat it.
“Hey, Kim Se-hyeon! The high priest is gone!”
“Gone? He was right there, wasn’t he?”
“It was a switch! A fake just wearing the high priest’s clothes!”
Something had felt off.
So they had a trick up their sleeve too.
“I can find him in a second.”
[Using the skill, ‘Extreme Eye.’]
As long as I have the power to see information, he can’t escape my sight.
I hadn’t received any reports of someone leaving from the dark soldiers I’d stationed outside as guards, just in case he tried to flee the temple. That meant he was still here.
“There he is.”
He was lying among a large group of unconscious cultists, pretending to be knocked out.
Realizing I had found him, his hand, which had been moving slowly, suddenly sped up.
He had been using the blind spot to draw a magic circle on the ground with his blood.
Realizing what the high priest was trying to do, Jun Bo-ra shouted in alarm.
“Stop!!”
“Oh, ruler of all evil! Keuk! …We offer our bodies as a sacrifice, so grant us your grace!!”
Jun Bo-ra’s attack wasn’t enough to stop the high priest from speaking.
If she had aimed for his forehead or neck, she could have silenced him.
But she hesitated, worried about him reviving as an undead, and the result was neither here nor there.
“He has daggers in all his limbs…!?”
“But his mouth isn’t sealed. It’s not impossible if you have the transcendental will to endure the pain.”
More importantly, we needed to worry about the magic circle that had already been activated.
The cultists’ bodies began to melt like liquid and were absorbed into the magic circle.
I grimaced at the sickeningly thick scent of blood and the sound of resentment that echoed in the space, despite their bodies being gone.
“Ha, hahaha! It’s done, it’s done! You will never leave this place alive!! Witness the power of Him! The power of our god!!”
The high priest began to laugh maniacally.
*Swoooosh…*
A bloody energy gathered, creating a gate in mid-air.
At a glance, the ominous spatial passage looked even more connected to hell than a Hell Gate.
A suffocating malice poured out, invading my mind.
I was able to ignore it thanks to the effect of ‘Watcher Beyond the Screen,’ but Jun Bo-ra, who had to endure it with her mental strength alone, had a deeply contorted expression.
[I can feel His power.]
One head emerged and uttered the words.
Soon, another head appeared, and then another.
As the three-headed dragon fully emerged from the gate, Jun Bo-ra muttered.
“I should’ve just killed him.”