Chapter 169
Chapter 169
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Foresight
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At Loan's murmur, Mario froze, his skin trembling.
Had the unfamiliar word struck a nerve?
Suppressing his urge to leap forward, the white mouth on his thigh asked with a phlegmy gurgle.
“A specimen? What do you mean? What's your intention?”
“Oh…”
Loan let out a small gasp of admiration.
He had read a will distinct from Mario's in that voice.
The mouth on the thigh had clearly overreacted to the word 'specimen'.
“You interfere with each other. One, but not whole. Are you even in complete control?”
“What nonsense. I am the master of this body.”
“Answer my question first!”
Immediately after Mario's reply, the mouth on his thigh screeched.
Then the black mouth on his side shouted, “Why aren't you killing him already!” The mouth on his thigh retorted, “You idiot! Wait! Do you want that to happen again?” and the red mouth on his elbow muttered, “What a load of bullshit,” and snickered.
The chaos reminded him of a past memory.
Like Decarabia, used to create the fallen monks, perhaps the demon constituting Mario's skin had also been captured by Le Tell and Brien and forced into this form. Perhaps that was why the demon had recoiled at the word 'specimen'.
‘He sought power even through such means…?’
As the thought settled, a sneer naturally formed on his lips at Mario's weakness.
“What a mess. A complete patchwork. You looked down on Enzo, but I find you even more pathetic.”
“What did you say?”
This time, the human Mario's brow furrowed deeply.
He looked furious, and perhaps because of it, the other mouths snapped shut.
“At least Enzo resisted. You have no right to condemn him.”
“Bullshit…”
“Just like your current appearance, your very essence is in tatters.”
Loan ended his sentence with a sigh, as if genuinely finding him pathetic.
This completely shattered Mario's pride.
As if he had no intention of wasting any more words, he lunged forward, his fury unconcealed.
A flash of black demonic energy erupted in an instant.
The moment he confirmed the man was using his full power.
The fluttering necktie straightened, cloaked in an aura larger and longer than before.
Its presence was utterly menacing.
And its speed.
He had thought he was used to it, that he could handle it without issue, but that was no longer the case.
A beam of light descended boldly, as if there was nothing it couldn't sever.
The aura made contact with his richly clad Convection first.
*Vmmm—*
The instant a subtle interference occurred in his circulation, Loan reflexively retreated before he could even think.
His sense of touch had compensated for what his eyes couldn't follow.
As if surprised that Loan had dodged the blow, Mario didn't press the attack, instead staring with his many widened eyes.
Soon, the mouth on his side shouted loudly.
“He dodged it!”
Loan, too, was inwardly relieved and impressed. That had been a close call.
“You've gotten faster.”
He could tell from that single movement.
Fortunately, their top speeds were similar.
If he hadn't dramatically improved his lower body control by developing the second circle, and if he hadn't been inspired by Archbishop Fabian on how to use his body, he would have surely been cut down.
But he couldn't let his guard down.
‘It’s too close.’
He wasn't at a level where he could overwhelm his opponent.
Above all, his eyes couldn't keep up.
He was too fast to predict his movements by reading the flow of mana.
To control the flow of the fight, his vision needed to be clearer.
Right now, he could only perceive the phenomenon and react instinctively, seizing fleeting moments.
So, the countermeasure was.
‘I can’t be sloppy.’
He had to simplify the magic and techniques he used after making a judgment, and minimize his movements. The moment he resolved to do so.
The elbow shouted.
“This is fun! Let’s see how far you can go!”
Mario's sword strikes rained down again.
Dodge with the Narrow Path, aim for an opening. If the opponent gets too close, delay them with the Domain, block with Convection, deflect, and attack.
He responded using only his most basic techniques, the ones most ingrained in his body, committing Mario’s movements to memory until they became familiar.
And so, they were evenly matched.
The eye on Mario's shoulder seemed flustered by the unexpected development.
“This is insane!”
In contrast, the words from the mouth on his side were tinged with delight.
Loan, too, felt a thrill of excitement.
This sensation, this feeling.
As he struggled on the brink of life and death, pushing his limits and desperately yearning for more—he had a firm conviction that his opponent would help him improve.
Both his body and mind.
“I think I'll get better thanks to you.”
“Bullshit!”
“This is fun! So much fun!”
“Shut up and focus!”
“Boy, you’re definitely one of us.”
They were all just saying whatever they wanted.
Loan continued to push his abilities to their limits.
The furiously spinning circles, the necklace constantly drawing in mana from his surroundings, the mana coursing through his entire body, and the path of the third circulation gradually widening with the flow.
Feeling as if his body might explode, Loan put more weight into his attacks.
He mixed ice into his Domain to bind his foe's feet, projected earth into the Narrow Path to create stalagmites, and wove flames into his Convection.
As he did, he read the subtle, moment-to-moment changes in Mario's movements as he reacted to the altered environment.
If one sense wasn't enough, he used two. If that was still lacking, then three, four, five.
He mobilized all his senses—sight, touch, smell, hearing, and even taste—to read him.
With the focus of one counting hundreds of millions of marbles that had split apart inside a box, he lost himself in their exchange of movements.
Every sense was focused solely on survival.
The five became one.
Coexisting.
All his senses lent their power to the act of 'seeing'.
It was synesthesia.
The sole desire to see became a wish, a driving force and lubricant that governed the flow of mana within him.
In response.
The mana in his body swirled, helping to heighten all his senses.
Finally, the desired path of the third circulation opened completely.
Mana filled every nook and cranny of his body.
Thus, it was opened, and his eyes were opened—
‘Huh…?’
The ever-changing necktie, dangerous if he didn't keep his distance; the materialized aura extending from its tip; the shining blade—Loan dodged it half a beat faster.
“Hmm?”
Sensing something unfamiliar in that single movement, Mario suddenly stopped, narrowing all of his eyes.
As puzzled as his foe was, Loan was just as surprised.
He wanted to confirm what he had 'seen'.
He beckoned with his finger, as if to hurry him.
*Come on. Try again.*
Immediately, a faster barrage of strikes poured down.
‘Ah…’
As he dodged, he realized.
What he was now seeing and perceiving was no longer limited to the 'phenomenon' itself.
It was only for an instant, but he was clearly reading the next move, and the one after that.
This wasn't 'preparation', where one readies an action in a subjective sense of slowed time, making the opponent's movements seem slower.
It wasn't 'anticipation', a vague hope or low-probability guess without any clear basis.
Nor was it 'prediction', a judgment inferred from experience and evidence.
“I am foreseeing you.”
“What?”
“You are already foreseen.”
He confirmed it himself as the words left his lips.
“Nonsense!”
The strikes rained down again.
The trajectory appeared first. Drawn out like a line. The direction of the attack reached his mind as a mental image.
Killing intent is a desire imbued with powerful will.
Therefore, it is 'intent' with a clear target.
It reaches the mind in advance, like a telepathic message.
I wonder if the saying 'true feelings get through' applies here.
*Fwoooosh—?*
As he spun his body, his eyes followed the grazing sword strike to the very end.
He found it incredibly interesting.
In other words, he had become comfortable enough to have such thoughts.
He saw his opponent's next move. Room in his vision meant room in time, which meant room in his mind.
Enough to create a domain of his own.
Loan knew the exact spot and the exact moment Mario would step, and he manifested his magic accordingly.
[Sphere of the Void]
A densely woven Convection instantly ensnared his foe's limbs, straining to pull them in every direction.
Reading the subtle shifts of the twisting body, he distributed the tension and finally bound him from all directions without any loss.
Inside the perfect sphere, even the one who had moved like a beam of light was helpless.
Or so he thought. But then.
The ensnared body squirmed and resisted. To be precise, it wasn't the body, but the clothes—no, the skin—that was resisting.
One shoulder, sprouted like a horn, strained to break free, while the other went limp. A large, clear eye, like a cow's, drooped downward.
“Kieeeeeek!”
The mouths on his side and elbow shifted their positions, resisting the invisible threads of Convection. It was practically a rampage.
Then, unable to withstand the sharp tension, it tore.
The torn skin fell to the floor before being sucked into the sphere by the flow of Convection.
The sphere was not static; an infinite current of Convection was flowing at immense speed within it.
Mario's black skin was peeled away like a shed snakeskin, again and again, until finally, it came off with flesh still attached.
The sphere was stained black and red before gradually returning to its original transparent color.
Inside, only Mario remained, floating, his skin and chunks of his flesh completely stripped away.
A sight that made death seem preferable.
“…”
Mario, who had been unconscious for a moment, rolled his eyes, scanning his surroundings.
Unable to support his own head, he couldn't see his body. A groan escaped him, followed by fragmented words amidst the excruciating pain.
“What… what happened… Zagan…”
“Zagan? Was that the demon's name?”
“…”
“It was annihilated.”
There was nothing more to add. So, he slowly raised a finger.
He had no intention of showing mercy, but there also seemed no need to prolong it.
Lowering his eyes, Mario stared at the tip of Loan's finger, his cheek twitching where bone was exposed, and forced a smile.
“Do you… think… you’ve… won…?”
“Doesn't feel like I've lost.”
“No… before… you… came… I already… succeeded… So… I… win…”
“What are you talking about?”
“Or not… In the end… I just… did someone else’s… work for them…”
Mario couldn't finish his sentence.
His neck, held rigid by the Convection that had sapped his strength, remained upright, but he was no longer breathing.
Loan mulled over Mario's words as he released the sphere.
*Thud—* Turning away from Mario as he fell to the ground, Loan looked around.
What did he mean by 'succeeded'?
Keeping him tied down here? He said he succeeded *before* he came, so that couldn't be it.
Come to think of it, something did feel off.
Mario's rank was 'unnecessarily' high just to hold a position here. The number of personnel stationed was also 'unnecessarily' large. With this kind of force, wouldn't it have made more sense to target the Magic Tower?
Something succeeded before he came.
Loan's gaze fell upon the fallen villagers.
Could he be talking about killing all these people?
It was a sizable village for such a remote location.
Despite there being no signs of major resistance, it was clear that an 'unnecessary' number of people had been slaughtered.
It was close to a massacre.
‘Unnecessary…’
A strange feeling suddenly came over Loan, and he rushed into a nearby building.
A pile of fallen people.
He used Convection to slowly lift and move them aside, then pushed away the pool of blood.
Blood was still pooled in a large groove carved into the floor.
Looking closer, he saw that it resembled some kind of symbol. Extremely artificial, as if someone had intentionally carved it.
After memorizing the shape, Loan immediately entered another building.
There, too, he moved aside the piles of bodies and searched for marks on the floor.
The next building. And another alley.
The symbols carved throughout the village began to combine in his mind.
Symbols became shapes, and the shapes gathered into a specific form, connecting with one another.
The image of the village naturally overlaid the pattern.
Along with it, thoughts began to surface.
Could there be other villages like this one? Were the residents there massacred as well? Was their death some kind of requirement?
Then, his thoughts arrived at a certain possibility.
That they were constructing a massive magic circle across all of Schwerin, with the Magic Tower at its center.
‘This is bad.’
Loan immediately extended a Narrow Path in the direction of the Magic Tower.
He had no time to register the fact that he had just defeated Nostra's second-in-command.