Chapter 176: Counterattack (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 176: Counterattack (3)
Belial slowly looked down at his chest.
There, a slender, beautiful sword had pierced through his grotesque armor and struck his heart with perfect accuracy.
“……”
Belial’s eyes filled with disbelief.
The wound wasn’t healing. He could barely stop the red mana from burrowing deeper.
He understood that the queen had absorbed the unholy power.
But how?
How had she gotten behind him?
How had she avoided his senses?
It made no sense that he hadn't noticed this attack.
“Why?”
Just then, a voice came from somewhere else.
Belial turned his head.
Far in the distance was the insignificant insect who should have been sent flying by a single flap of his wings, smashed into a wall.
But the figure embedded in that wall flickered with static before scattering into a handful of dust.
And then.
Srrk…
From within the shadow of Queen Yu Hana, who stood with her sword through his heart, another figure slowly emerged.
“Something seem strange?”
Only then did Belial realize.
The dagger strike she had thrown amidst the flames had been a feint from the start.
The spectacular, massive inferno those two insects had created was nothing more than a device to capture his attention.
To draw his eyes, blending in with the brilliant flames.
The real move had been the shadow, which had used the chaos to cloak the queen in a veil of darkness, completely erasing her presence and very existence.
This was no simple stealth technique.
To exist, yet not exist.
The pinnacle of assassination, permitted only to those who walk that boundary.
[Footsteps of the Dark King]
A cold smile graced Yu Serin’s lips.
At that moment.
CRUNCH.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Yu Hana twisted the Dongbaek Sword lodged in Belial’s body.
“Kuaargh…!”
For the first time, a scream of ‘real’ pain burst from Belial’s lips.
The blade and mana piercing his heart were now rotating inside him, grinding his very being to dust.
Belial knew with certainty.
He would not be able to carry out the command of The Great Being.
The sacred order to ‘Purge the blossoming flower of the Central Plains.’
The unholy power lodged deep in his heart was, even now, spreading through his veins, carving his existence to pieces.
To think he would meet such a pathetic end at the hands of these worthless insects.
He couldn’t allow it.
He simply could not.
How could he face The Great Being upon His future resurrection?
Madness flared in Belial’s eyes.
SPLAT!
In that instant, the wet sound of something bursting inside his chest echoed through the space.
Belial’s lips curled into a grin, his face twisted in agony.
Seeing this, Yu Hana felt a sense of foreboding.
He had squeezed out every last ounce of his remaining strength to destroy his own heart.
The Apostle's Heart, blessed by the Evil God, held a tremendous power containing a fragment of His Authority.
To detonate it meant sacrificing one’s own life to gain, for a fleeting moment, a strength that rivaled a god’s.
KWAAAAAAA!!
A storm of dark red demonic force, incomparable to anything he had unleashed before, raged from Belial’s body.
Yu Hana’s Dongbaek Sword, which had been piercing him, couldn't withstand the overwhelming force and was sent flying with a shriek.
“Ugh…!”
The recoil sent Yu Hana staggering back, coughing up blood.
With a gaping hole in his chest, Belial slowly rose to his feet, now wielding a power greater than he had ever possessed.
His head turned slowly.
And his gaze was no longer on Yu Hana.
His empty eyes were fixed on a single person far in the distance, barely managing to crawl on the floor in the aftermath of the battle.
Jung Hae-in.
The king of this game board.
He had realized something while fighting the man.
He hadn't understood how Barcus had been killed.
But now, he thought he knew.
The man’s very existence was unholy, an anomaly.
Besides.
A queen cannot live without her king.
He should have just killed the king from the start.
KWAAAAAAA!!
Belial hesitated no longer.
Using the last of his life as fuel, he threw himself toward the defenseless Jung Hae-in.
“No!!”
Yu Hana screamed, belatedly giving chase, while Kang A-rin moved to shield me, bracing for the final impact.
However.
Jung Hae-in, his head pressed to the ground, was smiling.
He had been waiting for this moment.
He quietly opened his mouth.
『Universal Decree.』
Another command.
“Close.”
The moment the word left his lips, a jet-black shadow erupted from beneath Belial’s feet.
Like the petals of a giant flower, the shadow folded upward, forming a perfect spherical barrier with him at its center.
KWAAAAANG!!
Belial’s body slammed into the inside of the translucent, black barrier.
His eyes widened.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He pounded frantically on the inside of the barrier.
But Jung Hae-in’s domain would not permit his escape.
Let me out!!!! You damned insect!!!!
His furious shout echoed emptily within the curtain of darkness.
Universal Decree. A momentary declaration had trapped him.
Normally, it would have, at best, tied him down and bought a little time.
But things were different now.
The man had destroyed his own heart.
He had forcibly drawn out a god-like power, using his own life as fuel.
That power was, even now, running rampant inside his body, incinerating him from within.
Let me out!!!!!!
Belial’s screams echoed from inside the barrier.
God-like power?
Inside there, such a thing was meaningless.
His accursed power would now become a time bomb, set to claim his own life.
“Cough…!”
But Jung Hae-in, too, spat out a mouthful of blood.
He had used his Expanded Authority while his body was already past its limit.
And he had used it twice.
His vision blurred, and the sensation in his limbs grew distant.
But he couldn't close his eyes just yet.
Not until he confirmed the bastard was dead…
Bang… K-thud…
The sounds of fierce resistance from within the barrier gradually subsided.
The man’s movements slowed… and finally stopped completely.
Leaning against the black barrier wall, Belial slid to the ground.
The dark red demonic force that had been rampaging inside him flared up like a final ember before scattering into a handful of ash.
His eyes were still open.
His empty pupils held nothing but rage.
And so, Belial, the Apostle 3rd Seat of the Evil God, was annihilated by his own power.
Jung Hae-in took it all in.
Then, squeezing out his last breath, he managed to whisper.
“It’s… done.”
That was his final word.
Everything that had been supporting him snapped.
The taut string of consciousness, the adrenaline he had been clinging to, and even his willpower.
Only then did the pain that had been crushing his entire body wash over him like a tidal wave.
His ears went numb, and his vision sank into darkness.
But it was okay.
Because he had protected them.
And, at last.
Jung Hae-in, too, closed his eyes.
*
I opened my eyes.
But there was no weight to my eyelids, no sting of morning sun.
I could simply see.
I couldn’t feel a thing.
Not the soft mattress that should have been at my back, not the pain that should have been in my limbs—no sensation at all.
Instead, I could see something before me.
To be precise, only my vision was faintly active.
No, this wasn’t vision.
It was the world, perceived dimly through All-Encompassing Perception.
In other words, my body had not yet woken up.
Only my consciousness had opened its eyes.
I tried to speak, but no words came out. The very concept of moving my body was impossible.
Still, I could see.
The stark white ceiling of a hospital room.
And next to it, the faint outlines of medical equipment.
I’d been in one enough times to remember.
This was Glory's VIP intensive care unit.
In that case…
‘Am I alive?’
It was ambiguous.
I was conscious and could see, but my body wouldn’t move.
It seemed my mind had woken up before my body…
I hoped my body would wake up soon, too.
I stared into the empty air, having lost all sense of time.
Just then.
The door opened.
I could faintly make out the silhouette of a woman.
A white headband… It was Cheon Yeo-wool.
As soon as she entered the room, she closed and locked the door.
As if that wasn't enough, she even slid the deadbolt into place.
‘What is she planning to do?’
I watched her, smiling wryly to myself.
Still, seeing her alive and well like this made me feel good.
Cheon Yeo-wool stood before my bed.
She looked down at my motionless form with a deep, sorrowful expression.
A single, transparent tear trickled from her blue eyes and down her cheek.
And then.
She took off her clothes.
She began to slowly pull her clothes down.
‘?!’
The clothes slipped past her pale white shoulders and fell limply to the floor.
All of them.
I didn’t want to look.
But I couldn’t look away.
The act of closing my eyes was impossible, since they had never been open in the first place.
In that state, Cheon Yeo-wool slipped into my wide, empty bed.
I couldn’t feel a thing, but I knew.
Her soft, hot skin had made perfect contact with my arms, my legs—no, with my entire body.
At that moment, a faint light began to flow from Cheon Yeo-wool’s body, gently illuminating the dark hospital room.
‘Ah…’
This was Cheon Yeo-wool’s healing Holy Method.
The healing effect of her divine power was maximized when transferred through contact.
Meaning, the wider the area of contact, the better…
But did she really have to go this far?
Her pale white skin.
Her slender arms wrapped around my body.
And…
Anyway.
I was taking in the entire spectacle with my own two eyes.
