Chapter 206
Chapter 206
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 206
Chapter Title: The Price of Regeneration
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The only one to react to Loan’s sudden attack was the demon whose legs had been severed.
Despite the massive body tumbling to the ground, the dwarves remained with their backs turned, engrossed in their work.
Without letting his guard down against them, Loan approached the demon.
It was the only source of useful information here, so his intention was to render it incapable of resistance without killing it.
But then.
The thick malevolence radiating from the creature suddenly expanded in all directions.
“Kuaaaargh!”
The demon began to thrash on the ground, lashing its whip wildly.
It was a reckless flailing, done without even confirming why its legs had been cut off or who had done it.
But there was a strange sense of unease about it.
Confirming it wasn't a simple physical attack, Loan frowned and reinforced his sphere.
And to observe the creature's mana flow more clearly, he extended a mana storm from himself, spreading it throughout the entire space.
Whoooosh—
Using the sealed end of the tunnel as a turning point, he created a cycle of magical power to concentrate mana on himself.
The four circles achieved a perfect balance, allowing for a seamless deployment.
With this, Loan secured a more stable supply of mana while simultaneously lowering the dense, murky mana concentration around the creatures.
At last, their magical power became clearly visible.
The demon's servants, the dwarves, all uniformly possessed dark mana.
It was hard to tell if they were a separate species that was naturally like this or if they had been corrupted by this place.
Their killing intent and malevolence were not strong, but their magical power was considerable.
‘Are they brainwashed? They’re not reacting at all.’
For one reason or another, it seemed he didn't need to worry about them for now.
The problem was the demon, which didn't seem particularly affected by having all four of its legs severed.
Perhaps because two demons inhabited one body, its mana concentration seemed denser than any other demon he had seen before.
Meanwhile, the whip, shrouded in a foul magical power, was lashing out in all directions, but surprisingly, the attack was not aimed at Loan.
It was directed at the dwarves, who continued their work in silence despite the sudden commotion.
Fwip—?!
In an instant, the whip wrapped around the body of a dwarf near the demon.
Simultaneously.
Crrrack—
The dwarf's body, still in its pickaxe-swinging posture, turned to stone along with its equipment.
“...”
It happened in an instant, but there was no discernible magical process that could be called petrification magic.
It was as if the process had been skipped, and only the result manifested.
It was akin to Loan's own ability to see and manipulate mana, or Archbishop Fabian's omnipotence in purifying darkness. By conventional standards, it was something Loan could neither analyze nor counter on the spot.
However, in the moment the dwarf's clothes, pickaxe, and body of flesh, blood, and bone were petrified, there existed a change in the properties and combination of light particles, or a flow that seemed to propagate the phenomenon.
‘Now I’m seeing all sorts of things...’
A strangeness that seemed to be the result of his synesthesia and mana-seeing eyes, now at their peak, interacting with each other.
In short.
When Loan used water-attribute magic to gather mana from the atmosphere, create water vapor, and then change it into liquid and solid forms, a process similar to the bonding and transformation of mana occurred within the dwarf's clothes and body.
And now, Loan was witnessing this unfamiliar process firsthand, gaining insight in real time.
But what the demon intended to do did not end there.
Nor had it chosen the wrong target.
Soon.
Pssssshhh—
With a soft sound, the body of the whip-ensnared dwarf crumbled into dust.
As if in an equivalent exchange, the demon's four severed legs abruptly grew back, restoring it to its original state as it shot to its feet.
‘So the petrification attack was for regeneration.’
Even in this process, it was difficult to find any magical aspect.
Conceptually, it seemed the petrification occurred as the dwarf's life force was completely extracted, and the demon used that life force as the source for its regeneration.
It was a truly curious ability and phenomenon.
In many ways, he had encountered a demon that would serve as an excellent textbook.
And so.
Loan launched another slash of Convection. This time, he aimed for the four legs and the lion's neck simultaneously.
He figured one of the two heads would be enough.
Fwoooosh—!
The whip lashed through the air with a harsh whoosh, neutralizing Loan's Convection.
It was rare for something to react and directly counter the invisible Convection, so Loan was inwardly surprised and impressed.
Only then did the demon finally turn to face Loan.
“A human… How are you here…”
“And in such good condition…”
“What… what kind of bizarre attack was that…”
“Did he just fire Aura without a sword…”
The horse and the lion spoke alternately, their faces contorted in astonishment at Loan's very presence.
Loan, too, furrowed his brow.
But his emotion was different from the creature's.
It was an automatic reaction upon seeing the demon head-on.
It was simply two large animals stuck together; there was no sense of aesthetics or practical reason to it.
The grotesque, malevolent form was simply unpleasant to look at.
“How vile…”
His inner thoughts slipped out.
It was no different from intentionally provoking an attack. And sure enough.
Fwiiiiip—
The whip shot out.
Of course, he had foreseen this.
Having confirmed the creature's ability, the priority was to avoid being touched by the whip.
But Loan had no need to counter it the way the demon had.
He was already enveloped in the [Sphere of the Void], which he himself considered perfect.
Fwaang?!
The whip never reached Loan, repelled in mid-air.
The demon, though surprised, did not stop its barrage of attacks.
Perhaps it had intended to do so from the start, as it was already charging toward Loan.
Clip-clop—the short sound of horse hooves.
Kwang—with the sound of a powerful leap from the ground, gravel scattered in all directions.
Loan stood still, watching the demon that filled his vision.
Through the swirling dust, a massive horse's hoof soared.
It intended to find out with its own body why the whip had been useless.
The already massive creature reared up on its hind legs, making it seem as if a building were about to collapse on him.
Two large hooves descended precisely toward Loan's head.
But it was slow.
Loan had a wide range of options. The possible scenarios were endless.
And all of them were unnecessarily complicated.
Giiiiing—
Loan chose not to dodge, but to expand and strengthen his sphere.
The moment he thought it, it was done.
Pwoof—the sphere swelled in size.
But the creature did not know this.
That was why it brought down its hooves with all its weight and magical power on the opponent who was just standing there blankly.
As expected.
Kwaaaaaang!
Action and reaction occurred sooner than the demon had anticipated.
A powerful shockwave erupted from thin air, sending the demon flying back to where it started at a speed far greater than its charge—the aftermath, a concentric cloud of dust, even swept away the dwarves who had yet to stop their pickaxing, knocking them down all at once.
As the echo of the roar raced through the tunnel—
Loan gave the demon no time to regroup.
Toward the massive demon, now somersaulting in the air from its misplaced kick.
He launched twelve Shevilles, a slash and javelin of Convection, fired a mana bullet from one hand, and touched the ground with the other to extend a thorny bone.
Kwang? Kwakwang?
A few of the Shevilles were knocked to the ground by a volley of whip strikes that distorted the air.
“Kraaaargh!”
“Keng!”
Most of the Shevilles pierced through the creatures' bodies.
The slash of Convection rode the widespread flow of mana within the tunnel, returning like a boomerang to graze the lion's left forearm.
The formless javelin simultaneously took out the horse's newly grown right foreleg and hindleg.
The mana bullet gouged out a chunk of the lion's waist.
But the greatest blow came from the massive stalagmite that suddenly erupted, crushing the ground.
Resembling the tunnel's geology, its tip was sharp, but its body was jagged and uneven, allowing it to completely pierce the descending horse's bulging underbelly, inflicting a near-fatal wound.
Keeping the horse's remaining two feet off the ground was an added bonus.
And yet, the creature did not lose its will to fight. It screamed out of necessity, but it didn't seem panicked.
Instead, with brute force.
The moment its belly was pierced, it spread its whip even wider.
This time, it split the whip into dozens of strands, targeting several dwarves at once.
Fwip-fwip-fwip—
But Loan's primary interest from the beginning had been to prevent its regeneration.
He had been waiting to witness the phenomenon one more time and dismantle it.
He launched the Shevilles that had drifted from the creature's attention after the initial piercing—but were still floating nearby—and severed most of the whip strands.
By the time the two remaining strands wrapped around a dwarf's body.
‘Now.’
As if needing to solve a problem presented in an instant even faster than that.
With his concentration heightened to its absolute limit, he extended Convection to envelop the body of the dwarf caught by the whip.
Recalling his initial attempt to undo the human tree's formula.
‘[Mana Structure Analysis], [Mana Pattern Comprehension], [Mana Bonding Interference], [Mana Decomposition Acceleration], [Mana Imbalance Amplification]...’
Simply by imbuing his will into the fine tendrils of Convection, he could influence the phenomenon itself—the way the light particles separated, intertwined, and attempted to shift from their existing structure to a new one.
It was a conflict between an authority and his will, an interference and obstruction that further subdivided an instant to nullify the intention itself.
‘So this is possible, too...’
In a span too short to even be called time.
While Loan gained enlightenment in that imperceptible gap.
The dwarf's dark red leather work clothes, on the verge of losing their texture and color, could not progress a single step further.
Since no transformation process could proceed, it naturally had no effect on the body within.
“What?”
“Huh?”
The demon was bewildered, unable to understand why its ability wasn't activating.
Loan, knowing the creature still possessed considerable magical power, moved to prevent it from attempting regeneration altogether.
Shhhk—
He severed the creature's remaining limbs.
Like a wooden doll impaled on a pillar, all that remained of the horse and lion was a single torso and two heads.
Their intact eyes widened at Loan, more in surprise than in pain.
Loan simply executed what he had simulated long ago without hesitation.
‘There might be other means of regeneration.’
He poured tendrils of Convection into every corner of the creature's remaining body to restrain it, expanding the center of his sphere from himself to encompass the bound demon.
Thus, the [Sphere of the Void] became a natural fortress, fulfilling its original role of restraining enemies within while defending itself from external attacks.
That it could grow this large meant what was once impossible was now possible.
After confirming the demon was completely bound, Loan decided to seize its mind as well to extract the necessary information.
His personal achievements had been substantial; it was time to focus on the mission.
“Aul!”
Aul, who had been watching from a distance while drooling profusely, flew toward the sphere with its characteristic silent flight.
Loan momentarily opened a gap in its path to let Aul in.
Without a word, Aul perched atop the lion's head and draped itself over it.
The lion's mind was completely subjugated by the [Mask of Truth], leaving only its large mouth free.
“W-what is this? Stoli? What are you doing?”
The relatively free horse head began to shake its head back and forth, screaming.
“It's not your turn yet.”
Loan completely bound the creature's long snout with Convection.