Nightfall - The Time When Everything Ends (6)
In that very moment, every viewer watching the stream stared at Yujin with faces full of pure shock.
They all knew it perfectly well.
Right now Yujin was under the Calamity God’s Curse of Stasis, leaving him completely unable to control his own body at will.
The Calamity God’s curse was on an entirely different level from ordinary status ailments that merely stiffened a limb or sent a sharp tingle through a part of the body whenever you tried to move it.
It was a vicious curse that acted directly on the nervous system itself, throwing every signal inside the body into total chaos.
If an ordinary player got hit by that thing, they wouldn’t even be able to crawl like a worm, let alone stand and fight!
Of course, it wasn’t as if the curse meant nothing to Yujin, or that it was somehow easy for him to endure.
Even after pouring Intent into it to shake the curse off as much as possible, the fact that it targeted the nervous system itself meant the effort barely did anything. All he confirmed was how little effect it had.
So right now, there was only one thing Yujin could do.
Completely memorize and map out exactly how these completely scrambled bio-signals actually work!
When he tried to move his right wrist, his left eyelid twitched instead.
When he moved his left foot, his right elbow answered.
After forcing his body through those mismatched motions a few times, he roughly got the hang of it—how he had to use his body if he wanted to recreate his normal movements.
An ordinary person might have simply despaired at the horror of their own body refusing to obey their will.
But Yujin was different.
To him, the sensation of part of his senses no longer answering him, or his flesh malfunctioning, was basically everyday life.
Over the past twenty years, every demon he had faced had possessed at least one bizarre ability designed to drive people completely insane in exactly this way.
Before long, Yujin succeeded in perfectly mastering and controlling a body whose five senses were running wild on their own.
At this point, the Calamity God’s so-called Curse of Negation might as well have already become completely useless against him.
[I cannot believe it… that a mere mortal could move without being bound by the bio-signals of the brain…]
“If I couldn’t do something like that, I wouldn’t be standing here right now, would I?”
As he answered, Yujin’s sword scattered moonlight in a crescent arc and shot straight toward the Calamity God.
Demon-Slaying Sword
New Moon
Puhwak-!
A single flash of light blazed, and once again fresh blood erupted from the Calamity God’s body.
But only for a moment.
Tszzzzz—
As if time itself were rewinding, the wounds the Calamity God had taken began regenerating back to normal.
The Calamity God even possessed super-regeneration capable of restoring any injury it suffered.
[Pointless… You will never cut me down like this… I recommend you find another method…]
Listening to the Calamity God’s mocking advice, Yujin furrowed his brow.
There’s no way I can win like this.
At a glance it looked as if Yujin was blocking every attack coming his way while steadily stacking damage on the Calamity God.
But the reality was that Yujin’s life force was being shaved away in real time by the Calamity God’s Curse of Mortality, while the Calamity God recovered every single wound with its super-regeneration.
On top of that it had the Curse of Harmlessness that fundamentally nullified damage directed at it, plus its Personal Domain that rewrote the nearby laws of physics in its favor!
If the fight dragged on any longer, Yujin’s defeat was all but guaranteed.
Damn it. If only I could use the Demon-Slaying Sword at full power…
The Demon-Slaying Sword had originally been created to cut down everything belonging to the demonic, so it carried the power to seal undying abilities and shut down regeneration.
But the incomplete version Yujin was forcibly activating with Intent right now contained none of that effect.
What could he even expect from a Demon-Slaying Sword that was barely at half strength—no, not even twenty percent of the original?
In the end, do I have no choice but to gamble here?
Just as Yujin was about to draw the trump card he had been saving until the very last moment—
Wooooong—
The Holy Sword in his hand rang out.
As if it desperately wanted to convey something to him.
[Master… can you hear me…?]
A voice so familiar it ached suddenly echoed beside his ear.
Yuria?
[Right now I am… using the Holy Sword as a medium to deliver my will to you… We do not have much time, so I will speak quickly.]
Yuria continued with a faintly bitter edge to her voice.
[Master… I ask only out of concern, but what is the probability that you can actually win against the Calamity God?]
…That is—
When Yujin could not immediately answer, Yuria let out a small chuckle.
[I thought as much. That is why I have warned you so many times. Consider this the price for ignoring all my advice and counsel until now.]
Yet there was not a single shred of resentment in the way she spoke to him.
[An ordinary hunter would have relied on grimoires or the power of the gods to fight their enemies. And if that had been the case… the chance of winning against the Calamity God would have been almost nonexistent.]
Borrowing the power of a grimoire or a god’s authority could grant tremendous strength, but there was always a limit.
Because the power of a lower god could never reach a higher one.
Especially since the Calamity God stood at the very peak of all Rulers. If Yujin had built his strength that way until now, he would have had zero chance of defeating it here.
[But Master… you were different.]
For reasons she still did not fully understand, he had fought the Rulers using only the strength of a human.
In Yuria’s eyes it had been extremely inefficient and foolish.
Choosing the hard path when an easy one existed was something she simply could not comprehend.
And yet.
[I did not find that side of you so bad. No—truthfully, I found it rather pleasant to watch.]
Yuria’s true nature was that of a puppet doll created by every human of that era pooling their strength together, all in the hope that a hero who would one day save mankind would appear.
To her, even if it was for the sake of saving humanity, the sight of someone fighting by borrowing grimoires or the power of the gods could never look good.
[That is why I… am so proud of you as my master. I am truly glad that a being like you is the one I serve.]
Crack—
A fracture began to race across the Holy Sword Yujin held.
And from within that crack, pure white light started to leak out.
[That foolishness of advancing toward an enemy even while fully aware you cannot win. Yet I choose to pay respect to that decision of my master’s.]
The white light that had been spilling out now wrapped around the Holy Sword and blazed like fire.
The sight was exactly like white flames that looked ready to burn everything in this world to ash—
[May this body become a single ray of starlight that illuminates the world!]
At that exact moment, a message window appeared before Yujin’s eyes.
In that instant, Yujin instinctively understood.
This very moment was the one and only chance he would ever get to bring down the Calamity God!
Take this, Calamity God.
The moment Yujin poured Intent into the blade, he felt the white flames surrounding the sword embrace that Intent.
And the two began to fuse into one, as if they had been meant to do so from the very beginning.
Intent was the power that made a human’s wish real!
Yujin’s Intent answered Yuria’s desperate prayer and was amplified several times beyond normal.
[You dare… such petty tricks…!]
Looking somewhat flustered, the Calamity God deployed dozens of barriers in front of itself.
Each one surpassed the hardness of diamond—the strongest shields the Calamity God knew how to create!
Yet Yujin’s slash punched through every single defense like paper, and at the end of that strike—
Puhwak-!
It cleanly pierced straight through the Calamity God’s heart.
"....."
With that, the entire match was decided.
The tidal wave of light had already vanished without a trace.
Even though Yujin currently had his sword buried in its heart, no hostility toward him could be felt from the Calamity God.
[…Is that so. So this is my… defeat.]
It simply accepted the parting that was this conclusion in an utterly calm tone.
[But how strange… King of Humans. From the beginning you held no particular grudge against me, did you?]
“That’s right.”
[Then why did you throw yourself at me so desperately? Don’t tell me… it was because of that doll?]
Yujin nodded at the Calamity God’s question.
“She swore an oath to me. That she would devote her loyalty to me for all eternity.”
[I see… A vassal has the duty to give loyalty to their lord… and a lord has the duty to protect their vassal.]
As if something had clicked into place, the Calamity God quietly accepted his words.
[For someone who claimed he was no king… you act more like a true monarch than any insect I have ever seen, King of Humans…]
The Calamity God laughed. As if the situation surrounding it right now was truly delightful.
[So that was… the reason for this body’s defeat… Yes, this was clearly my blunder…]
Saying so, the Calamity God looked at Yujin with genuine pleasure, then—
[Then farewell… It was truly entertaining, King of Humans…]
And without leaving a single trace, it vanished from the present world.
That was the true end of this long story.