Chapter 234: Traitor (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 234: Traitor (9)
The arrow… struck home.
Time slowed to a crawl.
The unknown power Ha Sion wielded… a flame that burned demonic force.
And upon that black ember, the moonlight shone.
The power of Artemis's Bow became fuel for the flame.
Pssssk….
The moment the arrow landed, the area around the arrowhead began to oxidize, turning a stark white.
A split second passed.
Fwhoooosh!!
Black and silvery-white flames intertwined, spiraling as they burned with a mad intensity.
“Grh…!”
Alexei, still in my grasp, gritted his teeth and quickly reached out, but…
…it was no longer a flame he could approach.
It blocked his advance as if it were a barrier, completely sealing him off.
It was in that very instant, as he faltered in panic, that he showed an opening.
Shing….
A red arc of a sword flashed before my eyes.
And then.
Shhhlick!!
Alexei's torso was split open in a long, diagonal gash.
A fountain of blood erupted from his body.
Through the gap in the flames, a woman walked in, her sword held loosely at her side.
She was wreathed in a red sword qi.
It was Yu Hana.
“Sorry I'm late.”
She flicked the blood from her sword and smiled coldly.
Awoooo!!!
With Yu Hana's arrival, the howls of wolves echoed through the secret chamber.
“What… is this… now…”
Alexei's shadow, which had been trying to mend the wound from Yu Hana's blade, suddenly began to twist on its own.
Crunch! Splat!
Wolves with jet-black fur burst forth from the shadow.
They mercilessly tore at Alexei's arms, legs, and the gash on his torso.
While still in my grip, Alexei tried to blast the wolves away with an explosion of black mana, but they refused to release their jaws, even as their own flesh was torn.
Behind the pack of wolves.
Parting the dust cloud from the collapsed entrance, another figure emerged.
Thud… thud….
“Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.”
Kang A-rin's eyes, dyed red, were fixed on Alexei.
Someone else brushed past me from behind.
A familiar scent grazed my nose, and long, orange hair fluttered in the air.
It was Yoon Chae-ha.
She paused as she passed me.
Her gaze locked onto the massive blade piercing my abdomen and the red blood flowing from the wound.
“……!”
Yoon Chae-ha's eyes trembled. She clenched her jaw and whipped her head around to glare at Alexei. Then, she clenched both fists in the air.
“Eclipse.”
With her cry, orange flames began to wreathe the fangs and claws of the shadow wolves Kang A-rin had summoned.
Fwhoooosh!!
Two opposing attributes, shadow and flame…
…merged perfectly under Yoon Chae-ha's control.
The wolves' bodies were engulfed in fire, reborn.
“Cerberus.”
As the hounds… of hell.
Each time they gnawed on Alexei's flesh, black shadows and red flames erupted.
At the same time.
Kwoooaaaaar!!
A massive pillar of red fire erupted from beneath Alexei, engulfing him completely.
“Graaaaaaah!!”
Alexei's scream burst from within the flames.
I was right in front of the inferno, yet I felt no heat.
The shadow wolves summoned by Kang A-rin and Yoon Chae-ha tore at his limbs, while Yu Hana's red sword qi relentlessly shredded his defenses.
This should be enough….
I released my grip on his clothes and his body.
And I pulled myself back, off the massive crescent moon blade that was piercing my abdomen.
Shluuk….
“Kgh…”
The sensation of the blade scraping against everything inside my abdomen.
A gush of red blood poured out, soaking the floor.
He was already immobilized, even without me holding him.
I turned my head to look at the center of the room.
The corpse, burning.
Toughened by the transplanted Apostle's Heart, it was taking some time for it to be completely annihilated.
But it was, without a doubt, burning away.
It was only a matter of time.
Kang A-rin and Yu Hana had Alexei pinned.
Can they… kill Alexei?
He probably has no intention of letting it end here today.
Stopping the Evil God's plan is enough.
We've killed Aria, after all.
My role ends here.
As the tension left me, the pain I'd been suppressing washed over me like a tidal wave.
My legs gave out, and I was about to collapse.
“Hae-in!”
Cheon Yeo-wool rushed over to me.
Her face went pale when she saw the fist-sized hole in my abdomen, and she dropped to her knees.
Her white fingers, trembling, covered the gushing wound.
“Hk…! Just hold on a little longer….”
With tears welling in her eyes, she placed her hands on my abdomen and began to heal me.
Paaah….
Divine power poured from her palms.
It enveloped me and my wound.
Fat tears dripped from Cheon Yeo-wool's eyes, soaking my thigh.
“……”
Incredible.
Torn organs were mended, blood vessels reconnected.
I could feel new flesh knitting together.
It was warm.
I raised my blood-stained hand and wiped the tears from Cheon Yeo-wool's cheek.
The blood on my hand smeared her pale face, but she didn't care, pressing her cheek against my palm.
“I'm okay.”
Normal holy methods couldn't heal a fatal wound like this—a pierced abdomen and ruptured organs—in such a short time. There are limits.
At best, they could only stop the bleeding and delay the inevitable.
But Cheon Yeo-wool was surpassing those limits.
The hole in my abdomen was completely filled.
New flesh grew, and skin covered it.
Now I can fight again.
“Thanks.”
I swung my arms.
My body felt light.
Now I can fight again.
Gripping Catastrophe, I got back on my feet.
Fwoosh….
I turned my head.
Seong Si-woo's corpse had already been cleanly incinerated by Sion's arrow.
In the spot where it had vanished without a single bone remaining… only one thing was left.
A charred black heart.
Aria's heart.
But it wasn't beating.
Thwip!
Just then, another silver arrow flew down through the hole in the ceiling.
It struck the very center of the heart, as if to confirm the kill.
Another black pulse spread out from the arrow….
Pop.
The heart exploded.
Alexei was watching the entire scene unfold.
Where Yoon Chae-ha's pillar of fire had died down and Kang A-rin's shadow wolves had retreated.
Alexei stood there silently, a wretched sight with his entire body charred black and his flesh torn away.
“Hoo….”
He slowly raised his head.
“…I had a feeling this would happen. It's why I didn't want to come…”
But he didn't seem particularly angry.
Nor did he seem disappointed about failing his mission.
He was smiling.
“Don't act so high and mighty.”
Kang A-rin spoke in a low voice from behind Alexei.
“You think you're not going to die?”
Her eyes glowed red.
“It seems…”
Alexei slowly nodded.
“Yes. For today.”
Alexei nodded, a relaxed smile playing on his blood-stained lips.
Flick!
At the same moment, Yu Hana leaped up from behind him, in his blind spot.
A perfect decapitation, her killing intent concealed.
Shnk.
With a sharp sound, Yu Hana's sword sliced cleanly through Alexei's neck.
However.
“……”
The expression on Yu Hana's face, having swung the sword, hardened.
It was likely because she hadn't felt the sensation of cutting through bone and flesh that should have traveled up her arm.
And then a bizarre scene unfolded.
As his severed head was about to fall, Alexei calmly caught it with his own hand.
“Since I've failed… I suppose I should at least save myself.”
Even as black smoke rose from the cross-section of his severed neck, he was smiling cheerfully, the corners of his mouth turned up.
“But it feels a bit wrong to just leave.”
He winked at me.
“I'll leave you an arm.”
Crr-unch! Crrr-ack!!!
As soon as he finished speaking, the left arm he held out began to twist with a grotesque sound.
Bones crushed and muscles contorted as the perfectly fine arm instantly turned a shade of purple.
Necrotic… would be the right word for it.
Just as I thought.
He had no intention of finishing this today.
Alexei's left arm rapidly contracted.
From the size of a forearm to a fist, from a fist to a ping-pong ball.
It grew smaller and smaller… transforming into what looked like a hard, black sphere.
“You should dodge.”
With those words, he stepped backward.
“Get down!”
Cheon Yeo-wool immediately deployed her sanctuary.
She formed a massive, dome-shaped barrier, enveloping us.
And then.
KABOOOOOM!!
A massive mana explosion erupted where the black sphere had been.
A black shockwave slammed into the sanctuary's barrier like a tidal wave.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Cheon Yeo-wool screamed in agony, her hands outstretched.
Craaack!
In the end, the sanctuary couldn't completely contain the wave, and the explosion leaked out.
It shattered like glass.
Through the cracks in the broken barrier, I narrowed my eyes and watched the swirling black smoke beyond.
At the center of the explosion.
A jet-black black hole opened its maw.
Alexei let the blast's aftershock carry him, falling backward and being sucked into its mouth.
His eyes met mine.
‘See you next time.’
Alexei winked at me one last time and vanished.
“…”
That was Alexei's Authority.
Constraint.
He can sacrifice a part of his own body to instantaneously unleash an unknown power.
In any form he desires.
In exchange, the lost body part… can never be regenerated by any magic or miracle in this world.
Absolutely.
Never again.
Vwom….
The black portal closed completely.
Aria… lay fallen, not getting up.
With her heart torn out, she had to be dead.
I staggered and turned my head.
Cheon Yeo-wool, Kang A-rin, Yu Hana, and Yoon Chae-ha.
The other girls had all collapsed to the floor.
But there were no signs of bleeding or pain.
They lay peacefully, as if in a deep sleep.
“……”
My own eyes were growing heavy.
He made the explosion look powerful…
…but it wasn't meant to kill.
It was sleep magic.
I tried to fight off the encroaching drowsiness…
…but I let my slowly closing eyes drift shut.
Just before my consciousness faded.
The last thing I saw…
…leaping down from the gap in the collapsed ceiling.
…was a goddess holding a silver bow.