Jealousy Dungeon - 5
Think of a meteor impact.
An asteroid drifting through space collides with Earth. As it falls and punches through the atmosphere, the meteor burns a brilliant scarlet. In this other world, a smaller-scale version of the same phenomenon could be produced through the magic known as Meteor.
The meteors Leviathan conjured, however, were something else entirely. Meteors that ought to have plummeted wreathed in fire instead came sheathed in lightning, ice, water, wind, grass—every element imaginable. It was a bizarre, almost impossible sight to accept. Leviathan’s warning not to try understanding it suddenly carried real weight.
Yeah… this is power that sits way outside common sense.
Could I cut them down with Frach? I ran the numbers, but given the sheer size of the meteors, anything short of reducing them to powder would leave me unable to handle the aftershock. In the end, the only option left to me was “dodge.”
“This body has visualized the landing points and sequence of each meteorite so that you may more easily evade them, Contractor.”
Oh! Thanks.
A current of electricity flowed from the arm holding Frach straight into my eyes. Instantly my vision filled with impact zones colored to match each element. If I wanted to dodge every last one, I would have to move like hell starting now.
There’s no single safe spot that dodges them all.
“The opponent calculated the drop points with meticulous care. This is no foe to take lightly.”
Ugh… what kind of attack comes after the meteors…?
“There will likely be nothing greater than this.”
The sheer scale of the opening salvo already left me clicking my tongue. How many more absurd things were waiting further down the line? I couldn’t even begin to guess, and a hollow laugh slipped out.
Crackling—! Crunching—! Splashing—!
Sounds that had no business belonging to a meteor impact rang out one after another. The spectacle felt uncanny, yet the shockwaves that erupted the moment they struck the ground were identical to those of a true Meteor. I was shoved back by the blasts, legs trembling as I fought to keep my center of gravity.
“Hoh. You managed to evade every single one of them?”
“Yeah… barely…!”
“Then how about five times that volume?”
“Ah, for fuck’s sake.”
Unfortunately, Leviathan’s tentacles tore open even more of the surrounding space. From roughly twenty yawning voids, countless lights erupted. It wasn’t bluster—she meant it.
You said there wouldn’t be anything worse than this.
“…This body was foolish. Forgive me.”
Even dodging a single meteor was already a struggle for a human body; now they were coming in rapid succession. I couldn’t afford to get swept up in Leviathan’s rhythm. This was no time to hoard my trump card.
“…World of an Instant.”
For one full second, time across every domain froze. Even the unknown power Leviathan wielded fell under the influence of Bern’s unique ability.
“I dive in at once…!”
Wrapping electricity around my legs, I kicked off the ground and charged straight toward Leviathan. Agony flared through my legs as if they were on fire, but I clenched my teeth and endured. All I had to do was endure the pain. I possessed regenerative power on par with a troll’s; even if my entire legs turned to ash and scattered, I was certain they would grow back.
“When did you—?!”
“My turn now.”
Naturally, not a single meteor was flying toward the spot where Leviathan stood. Before, their trajectories had been so cunning that approach was impossible. But by carving out that absolute one-second of my own time, I had slipped right into her embrace.
“Hup…!”
I swung the arm holding Frach in a wide arc. The blade bit into the flesh of a tentacle, slowly and surely drawing a clean line.
Pssshhh—!
From the severed cross-section, some unidentifiable bodily fluid sprayed like a fountain. Leviathan’s sticky ichor clung to the entire sword and began pushing back against the force I was applying.
“Ueeeegh! Disgusting, utterly disgusting…!”
“It’s splattering on my face too, you know? Just bear with it for now!”
It felt like we were fighting some alien life-form; both Frach and I screamed in pure revulsion. Even as we recoiled from a sight no biology could accept, I cleanly severed one of Leviathan’s legs. The cut piece continued to thrash and twitch, drawing a second round of screams from us. From a distance it had been tolerable; up close it was grotesque in every possible way.
“Mmm…! That blade is rather sharp. To think you would sever one of my legs in a single stroke.”
“Th-then how about we call the test finished right here?”
“Hahaha! Preposterous…!!”
As if ending things now would be a waste, Leviathan laughed grandly—then her eyes flew wide open. Madness began to frost over the pupils that held my reflection.
“I cannot simply take hits and end it like this!”
Leviathan stretched her tentacles wide and shoved them into the voids that had spat out the meteors. A bad feeling crawled up my spine. Using her thick body as a foothold, I leapt high. I unleashed every scrap of sword aura I had gathered in Frach along with the magic I had prepared in advance—slicing, burning, smashing, freezing, and pulverizing tentacles. Yet I still could not clear the countless thrashing limbs.
“A fine attempt, yet somewhat lacking.”
The tentacles I had failed to finish each drew weapons from within the voids—spears, axes, swords, hammers, great scythes, even shields. Like the meteors, every armament brimmed with elemental power.
“Let the banquet begin.”
“We’re screwed….”
Leviathan’s tentacles began to move in perfect unison. The weapons gripped in their coils closed in on me one after another. First came an axe crackling with electricity. The moment I stepped back to avoid the descending blade—
“Ghk…!”
Crackling—!
Current spread across the ground in a wide net, and my legs went numb and tingling. In that brief paralysis, Leviathan swung a warhammer forged of massive stone. I swept my sword skyward and fired a jet-black sword aura that sheared the hammer apart. Before I could even catch my breath, a great scythe and a longsword pressed in from both sides at once. I formed magic circles left and right and raised walls of steel to block them, but—
“How conveniently you stand in a straight line.”
A spear wreathed in flame shot forward. The walls I had created left me nowhere to dodge left or right. I drew on the mana stored in the Dragon Heart and formed a colossal iceberg high overhead, intending to crush both the spear and Leviathan beneath it. Yet she protected herself with a shield clad in light.
“Truly astonishing. To think there exists a human capable of fighting me as an equal. It feels as though I am witnessing the return of the First Hero.”
“Really? I’m that good?”
“I jest. The First Hero was a madman who fought every Archdemon of the Seven Deadly Sins at once. You still have a long way to go.”
“That doesn’t sound like a level I can ever reach.”
The First Hero who supposedly faced all the Archdemons of the Seven Deadly Sins simultaneously—strength so great one had to doubt he was even human. Even Kang Junhyuk at the final chapter couldn’t manage that.
“Is that so? I am far stronger now than when I fought the First Hero. And yet you are matching me as I am today. Therefore you may freely pride yourself on limitless potential.”
“Then we can end the fight right here, can’t we?”
“That will not do.”
“You just said you saw my potential.”
“That is a separate matter. Personally, I do not yet wish to end this battle. Is a bloodier fight not far more enjoyable?”
Leviathan, who had prioritized conversation over combat, ironically hid a thoroughly warlike nature. Once the fighting started, some switch flipped inside her. I should have just talked it out without getting greedy. A train that has already left the station never comes back.
I clenched Frach’s blade tightly. Blood welled from my palm and stained the sword. Ordinarily the technique required the opponent’s blood, but since she was no human I had no choice but to substitute my own.
“This body knows your regenerative power is exceptional, yet do not spill excessive blood. This body would prefer not to use your blood if it can be helped.”
“Yeah, got it.”
Blood Magic—using crimson blood as a medium in place of mana. Frach’s scarlet runes darkened to a deep blood-red and began radiating a sanguine aura. At the same time my vision tinted red and heat flooded my entire body.
“You have even mastered Blood Magic? Fascinating. Drawing that magic in this situation means you wish to finish things swiftly, does it not?”
“Exactly.”
“Very well. Then I too shall reveal my trump card.”
Leviathan dropped every weapon she held and gathered her tentacles into one mass. She thrust the bundled tentacles into the void-hole that reached the ceiling, then spread them to force the empty space wider still.
“If you block or evade even this, I shall acknowledge defeat and follow you.”
From the greatly expanded hole, high-temperature energy radiated. Judging by scale, it was a large-scale magic that would engulf the entire space. Leviathan had cloaked her own body in darkness; she clearly intended to erase the option of simply dodging. Light and darkness are opposing elements. She meant to pour light-forged energy from the void and incinerate everything with searing heat.
Frach, can we do this?
“No problem. Your body has temporarily transcended its limits through Blood Magic.”
Good to hear.
I gripped the sword tightly. My target was neither the ultra-high-heat ray nor Leviathan herself. I would completely sever the very space that filled my vision. The dark-crimson energy wrapping Frach surged. I compressed the keenly honed sword aura into extreme density. In the process the blood vessels of the arm holding the sword bulged grotesquely and began pouring blood.
“It seems we are both roughly prepared. Shall we test each other…!”
“…….”
Leviathan kept her mouth shut and offered no reply. Perhaps she, too, was pouring every scrap of focus into this final blow.
“Huh…?”
Contrary to my expectations, the massive hole that had yawned overhead suddenly began to shrink. The high-heat energy I had felt only moments earlier vanished as well. What on earth was going on?
I looked at Leviathan. Every one of her pupils had lost focus. She stared blankly into empty air, trembling from head to toe in pure terror. It was a bizarre sight—an Archdemon seized by fear.
“What? What’s suddenly wrong with you?”
“Th-that One has delivered an oracle…!”
“That One?”
“That One has spo-spoken of you!”
Leviathan fell silent for a long while, then began showing abnormal signs. Her teeth chattered, foam flecked her lips, and her breathing turned irregular. She looked like someone in the grip of a seizure, clinging desperately to the fraying thread of reason while wracked with pain.
“Who is ‘That One,’ and what’s this oracle that’s got you like this?”
“L-L-L-Lo…!”
“Lo?”
“Lord of the Voi—”
At last Leviathan gurgled and lost consciousness. Yet the single word she had squeezed out at the end made something click into place.
Lord of the Void.
The very cause of Kang Junhyuk’s death on Earth—the original protagonist of Adokchoe—and a term that should not exist in this other world. The fact that it had left Leviathan’s mouth could mean only one thing.
The “That One” she spoke of was none other than the god who had summoned Kang Junhyuk to this world. And perhaps the same being who had possessed me into Bern’s body.
I still had no clear idea of that entity’s true identity, so for now I decided to call it the Void Lord.