Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: ACT.41 Angra Mainyu (3)
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[Descendant, use that sword. It will be able to inflict a great blow upon that fiend.]
After speaking, the Sea Dragon turned back into light and entered the sword.
A distinct dragon-shaped tattoo was now engraved on the hand Hwang Chan-jin used to grip the sword.
As long as he has that, his attack power against Angra Mainyu won't be any less than mine.
‘My own power is considerable, too.’
The Manpasikjeok's main feature could be seen as this wide-area buff rather than its own performance.
Wooooong…….
Mana coursed and squirmed throughout my body.
Power so immense it felt as if all my stats had entered a transcendent state.
A surge of confidence washed over me, making me feel I could easily defeat three players of Cier's caliber if they came at me.
“I'm going first. Follow me!”
Chwaaaak!
When Hwang Chan-jin stomped his foot, the mud in front of him froze all at once, creating a path of ice.
He was fearless, despite the life-stealing mud lying just beneath the ice.
I clicked my tongue lightly and jumped onto a rock floating in the air.
“What's this, Kim Se-hyeon? You don't trust me?”
“No. I just wanted to be above you.”
“……”
Hwang Chan-jin's eyebrow twitched slightly. He instantly created a pillar of ice and ascended to a position higher than mine.
“Now I'm higher.”
Ah, yes.
“Wait! Me too! ...Ugh!?”
Having joined the Disaster subjugation, she wanted to raise her contribution score.
Cier, who must have been thinking just that, came out late and tried to follow Hwang Chan-jin, but she couldn't move easily due to Angra Mainyu's continuous arm attacks.
As for Seon Woo-jin, he looked as if he could finally breathe, thanks to the Manpasikjeok's buff.
I never thought Seon Woo-jin would be of much help in the first place.
Looking at him now, he seems useless, but…….
‘There's one thing Seon Woo-jin needs to do.’
Kwaaaang!
Hwang Chan-jin and I moved in all directions, continuously swinging our swords.
Freezing, slicing, and annihilating.
Even when the ice shattered from the impact of our attacks, revealing the mud beneath, it refroze much faster than the smoke could spread.
Giant hands, fitting for its massive body, tried to attack Hwang Chan-jin and me, but the arms were severed from the main body almost as soon as they appeared.
‘The next pattern should be coming soon.’
Every action consumes energy.
But if the situation doesn't change despite expending energy, one has no choice but to try a different method.
[Ooooooh……!]
Angra Mainyu roared.
It was a cry that seemed to be searching for its loyal right hand, wondering where it was while it was taking such a beating.
But no army of the undead, nor any other powerful entity, appeared from anywhere.
The corners of my mouth twitched upwards.
How could I not be pleased when it was weakening itself of its own accord?
“The undead are pretty much a no-show since you cut off the Song of the Dead. What happened to Azhi Dahaka?”
“The Punishment of Sisyphus.”
“Then we have nothing to worry about.”
Hwang Chan-jin smirked and sliced off the Disaster's left wing.
The wing, which had just begun to shed its muddy coat and reveal its true form, was buried back into the mud and disappeared.
On the opposite side, I sliced off the right wing and smiled.
It was important to cut off the wings from time to time.
If the wings managed to shake off the mud and reveal their true form, a troublesome pattern would emerge. So, we were preventing it from being used at all.
“That pattern will be coming soon. Do you have enough mana?”
“I haven't been using any major skills. I have enough power to break it. However, even with the power of the Manpasikjeok, our combined attacks will be borderline without the Sa-in Sword and the Sa-jin-cham-sa-geom.”
“It's fine. It'll be enough if we include Cier.”
“You know I'm not talking about the barrier, right?”
“I know.”
I subtly glanced over at Seon Woo-jin.
Hwang Chan-jin's eyes widened slightly, and he clicked his tongue as if finding the idea absurd.
“A thought worthy of a devil.”
“It's a thought a devil would like, all to get some coins.”
Hwang Chan-jin fell silent without another word.
He must know that there are virtually no devils leisurely enough to offer sponsorship, so he wouldn't be unaware of the contradiction in my words.
Yet, he didn't point it out.
It was a tacit acknowledgment that this method was the best one in the current situation.
[Ugh… Ooooooh……!!]
The Disaster slammed its two main arms into the ground as if collapsing.
Then, it stretched its neck forward and opened its mouth.
“Hwang Chan-jin!”
“I know!”
The moment I saw that, I turned and distanced myself from the Disaster without a second thought.
The Disaster of Apostasy's first wide-area wipe pattern, the Nether Void.
It was a pattern used only when the Disaster itself judged the situation to be truly dangerous.
Gooooooh…….
From an unseen distance, gray dust shot high into the air and gathered around the Disaster.
It wasn't just from one or two spots.
The dust flew in from all directions at a constant rate, as if constructing a giant birdcage.
“...Ugh.”
Hwang Chan-jin suddenly staggered as if struck by anemia and grabbed his head.
He turned to me with a frown, his gaze asking why I was unharmed.
Since I had no clear answer myself, I just shrugged.
[The effect of 'Great Hero's Resolve' has nullified the effect of 'Life and Death'.]
It hadn't just nullified the miasma of impurity.
That unknown effect was essentially nullifying all the negative influences from the Disaster of Apostasy.
This was insane. This wasn't just some boss-level monster; it was a Disaster.
To think there was a power that could completely nullify a Disaster's abilities, even if it wasn't dealing damage.
‘Disaster Eater…’
The slightly unsettling feeling I had when I first obtained it was long gone.
This skill was S-rank in name only; in reality, it was far beyond that.
I could dare to call it EX-rank.
If I could gain such an effect just from absorbing the remnants of two Disasters, what would I obtain if I defeated the Disaster of Apostasy and absorbed it as well?
Kwaaaaaaaah…!
Right in front of Angra Mainyu's open mouth.
A pitch-black sphere appeared, as if a different dimension had opened up, and it gradually began to grow.
The pattern was named Nether Void precisely because of this appearance.
From all the undead, the power of immortality.
From all the living, the power of life.
It was a mass of profane energy, created by robbing all of that.
“I-Insane…! What is that! Is it going to fire it forward!?”
“Just look at its posture. It's fully prepared to fire.”
“Then we have to stop it before it does!! Wait, you're strangely calm. Do you happen to know how to deal with that thing, too!?”
Seon Woo-jin grabbed my shoulder, his face stiff with tension.
I deliberately avoided his gaze.
If I kept looking at that face, I felt he might notice I was trying to hold back my laughter.
“Of course, I do.”
“W-What is it! Then this is no time to be standing around! We have to do something!”
“It's not that easy.”
I ordered one of my dark soldiers to approach and swing its sword.
The soldier obeyed without hesitation but was blocked by something invisible. Before it could even complete its swing, its form shattered as if it had taken damage.
All the color drained from Seon Woo-jin's face.
“There's a powerful, invisible barrier around it. Dealing with that is the first priority.”
“Then…”
“Hwang Chan-jin, Cier, and I will handle that.”
Cier, who had been listening quietly, narrowed one eye.
She probably knew the strategy for this pattern as well.
She must have noticed something was off, but it seemed she hadn't yet figured out my true intentions.
Then, when I gave a slight smirk, hidden from Seon Woo-jin's view, she mirrored Hwang Chan-jin's earlier reaction.
No, she actually showed a deep smile.
“If you look closely, there's a spot above the Nether Void where space seems distorted. A cloaked core exists there. Your role is to destroy it. When we focus all our power to create a crack in the barrier, you use every means at your disposal to do it. Somehow.”
“...What happens if I fail?”
“We all die. Maybe the world ends.”
Seon Woo-jin's face turned deathly pale.
I was trying to scare him, but it wasn't a lie.
If we failed to stop Angra Mainyu here and it reached the surface, it would absorb an enormous amount of life force, become a demigod, and be unstoppable.
“That's why your role is crucial. This is the reason I told you to cooperate in the Disaster subjugation.”
“I-I understand. I'll definitely do it.”
Seon Woo-jin nodded with grim determination.
Right. It is crucial.
In so many ways.
“Let's begin!”
I dismissed the Army of Darkness, keeping only Alpha.
The moment this pattern was activated, all the undead in the area would have been absorbed anyway.
There was no point in continuously consuming mana to maintain the Army of Darkness.
“Focus your attacks on one point! Spreading them out will be meaningless!”
“Where should we aim!?”
“Where else.”
I cloaked my sword in black flames and, standing side by side with Alpha, swung with all my might.
“Right in front of that sphere!”
Kwaaaaaah!
A storm of sword energy clad in black flames battered the barrier.
Not to be outdone, Hwang Chan-jin's white sword energy, filled with chilling frost, and a bolt of lightning that looked painful just to see, surged forward.
Crack.
A fissure slowly formed on the barrier that had seemed impenetrable.
The sound of Seon Woo-jin swallowing his saliva, sword gripped tightly as he stood ready to dash out at any moment, was audible even from here.
Crack, craaack.
The fissure began to spread.
As if growing anxious about the barrier breaking, Angra Mainyu let out a strange cry and accelerated the rate at which it gathered energy.
Accordingly, the crack that had formed on the barrier began to mend itself.
After gauging the speed at which the barrier was repairing itself, I was certain that now was the time.
“Seon Woo-jin!!”
I shouted his name at the top of my lungs.
Simultaneously, I instantly raised my output, which I had been controlling, to its maximum.
Kwaaaaaaaah!!
Seeing the damage coming into the barrier, the Disaster diverted a certain percentage of the energy it was absorbing to repair the barrier.
I knew the Disaster would do that, so I acted desperately as if this was our best shot.
As a result, the barrier couldn't withstand the sudden spike in damage and shattered in an instant.
“Uwoooaaah!!”
Seon Woo-jin let out a war cry and shot forward like an arrow.
One person prepares to destroy the core while the others focus their attacks to create a gap in the barrier.
This was, in fact, the correct strategy.
With just one exception.
The difference between whether the one destroying the core possessed the Sa-in Sword or the Sa-jin-cham-sa-geom, or not.
‘If someone without them destroys the core…’
Kwajik!!
Seon Woo-jin's sword pierced the core.
Was it relief at having successfully completed his task?
A wide smile spread across Seon Woo-jin's face.
However, it didn't take long for it to twist into a grimace.
“…Huh?”
Seon Woo-jin struggled to pull his sword out, but it wouldn't budge.
Instead, smoke seeped out from the shattered cracks of the core, grabbing onto him as if refusing to let go.
Like outstretched hands, it slithered, crawling up Seon Woo-jin's sword and hand, getting closer and closer.
Sensing something was terribly wrong, Seon Woo-jin let out a bewildered scream.
“W-What is this! What's happening!?”
“The Disaster of Apostasy has several patterns. This one is a sort of 'take-one-down-with-me' pattern that's guaranteed to claim one person.”
“…What?”
“I already gave you two chances. You answered both with betrayal. You even went so far as to try and get rid of me using the Phoenix, didn't you? Anyone can make a mistake. That's why I tend to give one more chance. But not two.”
His pale gaze met mine.
As if he had only just realized the situation he was in, blood vessels slowly began to bulge in Seon Woo-jin's eyes.
“But when you atone by sacrificing your own body like this, I have to accept it. Don't you think?”
“Kim Se-hyeoooooon!!!”