Chapter 93
Chapter 93
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 093
Chapter Title: The Price of Betrayal
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Kieeeek!!!”
The tentacles of the aberrant Medusa were severed in an instant, writhing and sparking as they hit the dirt floor.
The doppelganger's eyes widened at the unbelievable sight.
“What the...!”
It was bizarre enough that he'd suddenly drawn a sword from thin air.
But the tentacles surging toward Kyle like lightning had all been sliced off at once.
What was truly astonishing was that it wasn't a single sword technique.
The doppelganger's pupils trembled.
A single sword stroke unleashing five sword energies?
“What in the...!”
How could such an impossible phenomenon happen right before his eyes?
“Kiiiiii!!!”
The aberrant Medusa let out a hideous screech of agony.
Its tentacles began regenerating once more.
But Kyle had no intention of giving it the chance.
“Hup...!”
He closed his eyes, relying solely on [Super Sense], and kicked off the ground.
The monster lured and devoured people with its light.
Just three steps to reach it.
Like a feather, guided by the longsword in his hand, he glided forward and softly touched down.
His stance resembled an overhead guard, sword raised high.
But the blade's tip was aimed squarely at the aberrant Medusa.
The moment Kyle's form surged into the monster's midst again.
Shing!
A sharp whoosh echoed as if slicing through the air itself.
The target: beyond the severed tentacles, the aberrant Medusa's multiple glowing eyes and hearts.
“Kieeeek!!”
Freshly regrown tentacles shot out to block, but it was futile.
The extended blade pierced between them like an illusion.
“......!!”
The moment the Medusa instinctively flinched.
[Five Shadows]
[Second Strike]
The materialized sword energies flashed as five beams, piercing the beast's entire body!
Thud! Thud-thud-thud! Spurt!
A flawlessly clean quintuple strike.
The sword energies struck true—nothing more, nothing less—carving out only the monster's hearts.
“Kiiiiiiii!!!”
A bone-chilling shriek echoed through the darkness.
Thick black blood sprayed into the air.
The Medusa's reptilian eyes stared at the black-haired human before it, unable to comprehend.
As always.
It had thought itself the predator, and the human in the dark mere prey.
“......!”
Only after peering into the fathomless eyes of its prey did the Medusa belatedly realize.
The true predator here wasn't itself.
It was the human standing before it.
“■■■■■■■...!!”
With its hearts pierced simultaneously, the Medusa wretchedly spewed blood and began to collapse.
Kyle casually flicked his sword with a whoosh! to shake off the blood.
The moment he deftly returned the blade to its sheath.
Click!
As the sheath locked, the Medusa's massive body crashed behind him.
Boom!!
“......”
“......”
“......”
A cold silence enveloped them, as if on cue.
The area around them sank back into darkness, as if it had never been lit.
Mickey and Walter, who had kept their heads down, now lifted trembling gazes ahead.
Their night-vision goggles revealed the aberrant Medusa, dead with its multiple eyes and hearts pierced.
“H-how...?”
“What the hell...?”
They hadn't seen exactly what happened with their heads down, but one thing was clear.
The man before them had heard it took destroying multiple hearts at once to kill it—and he'd done just that.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“My god...”
Mickey clamped a hand over his mouth as chills ran down his spine beneath the hazmat suit.
Walter felt the same.
“That guy...”
He'd actually faced the monster head-on, let alone destroy all those hearts simultaneously.
What was more shocking: he'd done it without even seeing the thing.
Was such a feat even possible?
It felt like glimpsing a realm beyond the five senses, far beyond their comprehension.
And Walter felt a faint thrill.
This guy... could he really be...?
The corner of his mouth twitched.
From the lower levels? Nah, that's gotta be him, not me.
Meanwhile, Kyle stored [Phantom Sword Umbra] back in his [Subspace] and raised his gaze.
“Hic...!!”
Those eyes fixed on the doppelganger masquerading as the 'psychokinetic.'
It hastily shifted to another form and tried to flee at top speed—
Kraaaackle!!
“Aaaagh!!!”
The trap triggered the instant it stepped back, binding its body with jolting electric shocks.
Kyle approached and said,
“Where do you think you're going?”
“U-ugh...!”
How did he get here so fast!!
This man.
His magic activation is insanely quick...!
And that exquisite swordsmanship that slew the troublesome aberrant Medusa in just two exchanges.
A... a monster...!
Where on the surface did a guy like this come from!
In that moment, Kyle's outstretched hand seized its nape and slammed it into the ground with all his might.
Boom!!
“Kek?!”
It was utterly helpless.
No matter how it thrashed to escape, it was pointless.
What kind of strength...!
A chilling voice whispered in its ear.
“I've been wondering about this for a while now.”
Kyle said.
“Honestly, at first I thought it was just coincidence.”
That Scott had simply been duped by the doppelganger by chance.
“But after running into that monster, this thought hit me.”
“W-what...?”
“Was it really just coincidence?”
“...!”
This rendezvous had been planned a month ago.
Logically, it was likely chance.
...But.
His informant for meeting Mickey today.
Had gotten into trouble recently.
And had been replaced by a doppelganger who showed up right in front of him.
And led me straight to the aberrant Medusa.
The aberrant Medusa was a seriously tricky foe.
Not only did it regenerate unless all its multiple hearts were destroyed simultaneously.
You couldn't even see the damn thing.
That was the biggest issue.
Fighting blind was a massive penalty.
If he hadn't had [Nebra's Super Sense], could he have won so easily?
No.
Truth be told, Kyle wasn't confident.
In terms of raw danger, this thing outclassed any demon knight—it could've been a real handful for him.
Which made it even stranger.
A monster like this lurking near the barrier, even if not right on the checkpoint road?
The aberrant Medusa lured and ate humans passing with light.
Would it nest in a place like this, where most traffic uses the checkpoint road?
Or deeper in the lower levels, where people had no choice but to traverse the dark?
No brainer.
Obviously the latter.
So the very existence of an aberrant Medusa here was unnaturally suspicious.
Kyle's eyes narrowed.
What if someone anticipated I'd come to the lower levels soon?
And knew he'd contact George Brockett, figuring he'd use his help.
Too far-fetched?
Maybe.
“Then we just check directly.”
“W-what are y-you...?”
“Shut up and look in my eyes, doppelganger.”
“!!”
Kyle waved his hand as if to turn away, and the sharp-eyed Walter told Mickey,
“Hey, heads down again.”
“Huh?”
“Just lower your head.”
Mickey awkwardly bowed his head again and whined.
“Ugh, this helmet's so heavy.”
“Then lie flat.”
“Feels gross.”
“You're in a hazmat suit—what's the problem?”
“...It's psychologically unsettling.”
“That damn psychological comfort.”
Confirming they'd looked away, Kyle stared straight into the doppelganger's eyes and activated the skill.
“U-ugh, uwaaaah!!”
“Hey, answer me.”
Kyle's eyes gleamed coldly.
“Who told you to devour 'Scott'?”
“A-aaa...!”
In that instant, a memory-like fragment flashed from the doppelganger's soul in his [Spirit Eye].
...!
It was a desolate ruin of utter darkness.
Kyle's brows furrowed.
No way.
When the heart's walls crumbled and the soul was exposed before the Spirit Eye.
Does that mean I can read more detailed info on the person?
At that moment, he saw through the doppelganger's perspective.
The stranger who approached him.
Standing there was a pale-faced man in a high-class suit and bowtie.
He bowed gracefully toward the doppelganger.
- Pleased to meet you, doppelganger.
The man smiled.
- I have a proposal you might find intriguing.
Would you care to hear it?
*
23rd District, lower levels. Demon King's Castle Baukif.
A middle-aged demon muttered before the ornate yet gloomy audience chamber visible from the corridor.
“Looks like Sir Wilhelm is definitely dead.”
He set down his massive jet-black shield engraved with a lion's face with a thud.
The pointy-eared male demon glanced at it and asked,
“No idea how he died?”
“Who knows.”
He reached into the black darkness extending from the throne in the audience chamber.
Squelch! It spread like mud.
As if reading data within, he closed his eyes, then shook his head.
“Can't read it, as expected. The final moments are hazy, like they were severed.”
“Possible?”
“Sure.”
They could vaguely grasp Wilhelm's final actions only because his soul was linked to the Demon King's darkness.
“If that connection was severed midway for some reason... no way the data backs up, right?”
“Hah, you're not saying the Demon King on that throne stole the recorded data from the darkness?”
The pointy-eared one pointed with his thumb; the middle-aged demon scoffed.
“As if. Our noble liege lacks both the power and the guts.”
He nodded toward the throne.
“Look at those eyes.”
Their gazes turned to the doll-like, beautiful Demon King—her eyes utterly vacant.
“Can you really call that thing alive?”
“...Well, fair point.”
“The price of betrayal is always harsh. The Demon King is paying it now.”
Devoured by darkness, reduced to little more than a host.
She had long since devolved into a mechanical entity that only spawned demons and supplied them with mana and darkness.
The pointy-eared demon clicked his tongue briefly.
“Still, severing the darkness link is annoying.”
“The 'Herald' says he's heading to the lower levels now.”
“...Leave him be, and trouble brews?”
“Dunno. But...”
Everything else aside, severing the darkness link grated.
It was as good as handing their weakness to the enemy.
“Nipping it in the bud isn't a bad idea.”
Even if he could sever the link, they could kill him first using 'Rule.'
The pointy-eared demon frowned at that.
“But that human was immune to Wilhelm's 'Rule.'”
“Sir Oud. Remember this: the result of 'Rule' is absolute, no exceptions.”
It was akin to the laws governing this world, temporarily imposed.
“No being can escape it anywhere in this world.”
“So...”
“Exactly.”
Wilhelm's 'Rule' was: 'Any human cut five times by this sword loses all abilities.'
The middle-aged demon narrowed his eyes.
“High chance that guy wasn't 'human' to begin with.”
“...!”
“Whether he was once human and became something else, or never human at all... who knows.”
Otherwise, Wilhelm's 'Rule' would've worked.
Suddenly recalling something, he let out a small groan.
“...Come to think of it, a few days ago the 'Artist' left for the 20th District to negotiate a sacrifice deal with the great blood clan.”
The pointy-eared demon flinched.
“No way, Captain—you don't mean...”
“Think about it, Knight of the Tree.”
The middle-aged demon knight eyed him.
“If he dodged Sir Wilhelm's 'Rule' because he wasn't human...”
He curled his lips.
“Then just kill him with a 'Rule' that works regardless of humanity.”