Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: The White Mask
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It was a strange feeling.
Sein faced off against the masked foes.
Clang.
He deflected the sword with both sets of claws.
In that opening.
Shlick!
The blade tip pierced through.
He spun his body around.
To onlookers, it was a speed that left afterimages.
He didn't forget the counterattack either.
Stab.
A long-grown claw impaled yet another body.
But in that instant.
Thrust thrust thrust!
Swords burst through the back of the foe he'd just felled, hurtling toward Sein.
"Ha, I've never dealt with lunatics like this before."
Sein let out a disbelieving chuckle.
Such brutality hadn't existed in Sanctuary, the game.
Even in this reality, it was rare.
They exploited a comrade's death.
Those who knew it would work.
Stab!
They even threw themselves at Sein, trying to grapple him.
Shuuuk!
Of course, things didn't go their way.
Their movements were bizarre, to put it simply.
Unlike anything he'd felt before.
*They move as one.*
No, it was a sensation just like something from the past game days.
"Tricky bastards."
In that moment.
Crunch!
Black thorns erupted from beneath Sein's feet, skewering all the charging foes at once.
Dark thorns, akin to Felpero's.
A top-tier ability tied to the Last Demonkin's perk.
From his shadow, he could summon as many as needed.
Crack!
Sein snapped one of the rising thorns.
He'd naturally left Bastion behind.
"Round two."
The dark thorns would serve as his blades.
Sein with a sword was another level entirely.
They'd thought they'd grasped his patterns, but his movements had completely changed.
"Massacre."
They could only falter and retreat before the utterly transformed destructive power.
One thorn broke after a single strike.
However.
Crack.
He simply shattered another and gripped it.
The number of masked foes had dwindled sharply.
"......"
Yet from start to finish, Sein fixated on just one.
At the very back of the masked group.
The white-masked one.
Who hadn't budged an inch, merely watching the entire battle.
And another thing.
*Unreadable.*
This was the first opponent who couldn't be read to this degree.
That's why Sein hadn't acted rashly, observing the situation.
But that was wrong.
He should have charged ahead recklessly, as always.
Humm.
The Titan's frame began to hum.
The moment it fully awoke from slumber, freed from its bindings.
Ziiing-!
Red lines etched across the Titan's entire body.
"......!"
Sein was genuinely shocked.
"...Your doing?"
He called out to the white mask at the rear.
"...You even know the rampage code?"
Not only had it activated the Titan normally, but it knew how to force it into rampage.
Those things were definitely.
-You'll never face these creepy bastards again.
The ones Sein had personally eradicated.
But now, much time later, someone could have deciphered the Titan's activation formula.
If not for what happened next.
Humm.
At last, the white mask moved.
A raised hand, golden light gathering there.
Kakakang!
The masked horde charged as if on cue.
In the next instant.
Flick.
The white mask opened its palm toward Sein.
Grooo.
Golden laser line.
Drip.
Blood trickled down Sein's cheek.
A thin hole pierced the dark thorn he held.
If he hadn't anticipated what the white mask intended and prepared.
Drip.
The blood would have flowed not from his cheek, but his forehead.
"...This is insane."
He meant it.
How many times had he been this shocked since starting the final round?
Maybe when he first saw Tezera?
"Divine Retribution...?"
What the foe had just used was the highest holy attack spell of Paladins.
Or.
Zing!
Saints.
Another golden laser flew at him.
He stomped urgently, conjuring layers of dark thorns.
But it merely deviated the trajectory at best.
Drip.
Another gash on Sein.
As if cooldown was negligible, it fired Divine Retribution wildly. The moment Sein steadied himself.
"Ha."
He could only chuckle again.
As if it knew exactly what he'd do, what he'd think.
Woooong-!
The white mask's hand brimmed with golden light far stronger than before.
Another Divine Retribution.
But unlike prior ones.
Kwaaaaa-!
Its destructive power was on another level entirely.
The golden beam bore down on Sein. He twisted away, wrapping his body in demonic energy, but to no avail.
Boom!
Dodging vitals was all he could manage.
Bounced back by the immense force in the golden ray.
Only as consciousness blurred did he finally see clearly.
Crunch.
The foe gripping Teyndra, embedded in the Titan's frame.
Normally, he'd scoff.
Grabbing Teyndra unprepared would make the holy sword's rejection incinerate the body.
But after what he'd just endured.
"...Fuck."
Sein couldn't help cursing.
That white mask.
"We're screwed."
Was a Saint.
*
*
*
It felt like his arm might rip off.
His back ached as if torn by a troll.
"......"
Drag drag drag.
In fact, Sein was being dragged by someone's hand.
"What're you doing."
Sein asked in a parched voice.
"You're awake?"
A childish voice.
"What're you doing, I said."
At Sein's words, Cecil released his arm.
Thud.
Sein hit the ground without resistance, fresh agony shooting through his already sore back.
"Fuck... this."
He wanted to smash Cecil's skull with his fist right then.
But his body wouldn't obey, managing only to lean against a rock.
And then.
"Why're you such a mess."
Seeing Cecil's state erased any thought of punching her head.
Covered in wounds.
Body pallid like poison-ravaged, face swollen with bruises everywhere.
"You wouldn't wake up..."
The standing Cecil collapsed.
"Worried..."
Sein barely caught her before she rolled like he had.
Sein surveyed the surroundings.
"......"
No trace of the darkness.
Likely, while he was out, Cecil had hauled him out of the vortex.
Unconscious.
"...Fuck."
No one knew better than Sein how dangerous losing consciousness was.
The trial upon entering Demorus succeeded only because he'd yielded his will.
But this time...
"Fuck...!"
He'd truly blacked out.
Fuzzy memories surfaced in fragments.
When the white mask drew Teyndra, the Titan went fully berserk.
A rampaging Titan was beyond exhausted Darkkin or Paladins.
Moreover.
Fwoosh!
The white mask ignited the world in flames as if it had always wielded Teyndra.
His own fall.
Memories ended there.
What of the Immortals.
What of the Paladins.
"Kek."
One thing he could guess.
"That Zegar fucker's half-dead at least."
Cecil looked like this after facing Zegar, so Zegar couldn't be unscathed.
Even so, Sein's expression darkened.
*Got cocky, huh.*
He'd thought he knew everything, so he'd thrive in this new world too.
With a cheat-infused body, nothing could block him.
In truth.
-First defeat.
This was Sein's first defeat.
"Urgh."
Sein rose.
*No pointless thoughts.*
Not arrogance, not anything.
He'd given his all.
And he would continue to.
"Light as fuck..."
Unlike Cecil, Sein hoisted her onto his back.
She seemed deep in sleep, breathing faint.
"I..."
Sein trudged forward heavily, murmuring.
He'd lost this time, but next would differ.
In the end, all would kneel before him.
He was certain.
"A cheat..."
He'd seal away even tighter that which he'd hidden in his heart.
Before long, Sein's eyes returned to normal.
"Fuck. Gonna die."
His body wasn't cooperating easily.
*
*
*
The vortex had one entrance, but apparently multiple exits.
Otherwise, plunging into Zone 7's vortex wouldn't land them in Zone 8.
Cecil's state ruled out her dragging them from 7 to 8.
The city they finally reached.
"Halt."
Guards blocked Sein.
Ting.
A gold coin flicked naturally.
Their eyes gleamed.
"......"
Ones paying toll in gold without a word.
And with years of starvation etched in their wounded, ragged forms, one word came to mind.
*Fugitives.*
Fugitives were golden geese for guards.
*Plump ones too, tossing gold instead of silver.*
Handled right, months of whoring and boozing.
"Insuffi—"
But the guards faltered.
"Enter."
They cautiously stepped aside, opening the gate.
The pair entered wordlessly, girl on his back.
Long after they vanished inside.
Creak.
The gate shut its jaws again.
"......"
The guards were speechless for a while.
Shaking down fugitives was their side hustle.
They pulled every trick for a good haul.
"Haa... haa..."
But some must never be touched.
"That glare was unreal."
"Thought we were dead."
Like they'd just faced a dragon.