553
[Chapter 149]
[Belphegor (5)]
Crack!
The situation was already tough with just one person.
Now another skilled person appeared.
"─Five."
A man with a presence no less than the young man wrapped in flames.
The man who gave the illusion of facing a giant bear calmly pulled out the mountain goat's horn and muttered.
"...I wish this was a dream."
Belphegor couldn't help but mutter.
But he knew better than anyone that this wasn't a dream.
So he had no choice but to accept reality.
"─Six."
As if counting down,
The man who bumped his fists wearing gauntlets said, leaving behind the mountain goat with its entire face caved in.
Just who the hell are these guys!
Belphegor hurriedly deployed magic and shouted the question that had only been rising from start to finish.
He shouted countless times.
Why on earth did such strong people appear before him?
"...Kuhek...!!"
Of course,
The two didn't answer Belphegor's question at all.
They enveloped their bodies in golden mana and attacked at an impossible speed.
Papapapat!!
Each attack brings a shock that shakes the skull.
He's being beaten helplessly.
Defense is all he can do.
Inferno V, II, X, IV
Prominence Dance
Fists that exist only to kill, causing flames by friction with the air.
And two-sword style drawing ever-changing trajectories wrapped in surging flames.
The moment he blocks one, the other immediately aims for an opening.
But he couldn't block all attacks either.
So Belphegor had no choice but to choose the lesser evil over the worst.
That became the trigger─
─Winter Crawling with Snow
The other side whose attack was thwarted delivers an even more powerful blow.
It was truly instantaneous.
Though summoned hastily, the giant with mountain goat horns vanished too easily.
Kuooooo!!
Yet the snake made of flames wasn't satisfied with eating the mountain goat, and persistently rushes to devour him.
Just as he barely blocked it,
Bestia feroce I, IV, III
Ignoring his burning body,
The man charging straight through the flames.
The man who took a guard stance gathering his fists activates magic.
Boom!!
Like a bear sweeping through a mountain,
The man with a fierce gaze stretched out his fist as is.
The ground splits.
The explosion sound grows louder and was swollen massively by the time it reached Belphegor's eyes.
The explosion engulfs him, and fists fly in from the explosion.
Iron fists flying from various angles.
The attack didn't stop there.
─Uboshin
Blast Counter
Switch.
In the moment the man retreats, the young man appears ignoring distance and swings his sword.
The cracked ground bursts, and sharp fragments rush in.
Damn it...
He blocks attacks with his tattered body.
That was all Belphegor could do.
☆
It was Eunha's first time coordinating with Bruno but,
─It's not awkward at all.
Eunha didn't feel any discomfort.
Though their coordination wasn't perfect, it wasn't out of sync either.
When Eunha swings his sword, Bruno distracts Belphegor's attention.
The opposite situation is the same.
They move as the other wishes anytime, complementing each other's lacking parts.
Blaze Crasher
So he felt like he was using three swords instead of two.
There's leeway in swinging swords.
He could breathe easier.
He retreated and decided to focus on recovering mana with Mana Drain.
Moreover─
"─Eunha."
"Thank you." "Hmm."
Unlike himself, Bruno still had potions left.
Bruno frequently handed potions to Eunha who had run out.
...The burden on the body is no joke.
Of course, he couldn't rely too much on the potion's function but,
While potions played a role in recovering mana on their own, they also promoted mana activation so the body could quickly produce mana.
In the end, frequently drinking potions could cause problems for the body producing mana.
"─Eight."
In fact, Eunha felt abnormalities occurring in his mana circuits.
He had already been overworking his mana production and manipulation functions in pursuit of efficiency.
In that situation, with additional burden, he couldn't draw out mana as he wished.
Moreover, he was using the Gift <Amplification > that enhances Gifts along with the power of Gifts.
"..."
Though he's pretending to be fine as much as possible while facing Belphegor,
His body is crumbling.
Nevertheless, Eunha swung his sword.
And so─
"─Cough cough...!"
Nine.
Eunha seized the moment Bruno blocked the giant's movement to deliver a blow.
The giant protecting Belphegor disappeared into mana particles.
And he who lost his ninth avatar coughed up blood.
It's almost over.
Belphegor falls to his knees.
Just as Eunha's body is in bad shape,
Belphegor's body was in tatters too.
His body recovery speed is slow, and his magic deployment speed is slow.
"You bastards... What on earth did I do wrong for you to do this?"
His composure had completely disappeared.
Belphegor who coughed up blood asked while clutching his heart.
Curled up inside a barrier, he looked like such a fragile child.
But he was a demon.
A demon who would try to put all humans living in the world to sleep if given the chance.
A disaster trying to give them unforgettable nightmares.
No matter his outward appearance, his identity hadn't changed.
Therefore─
"─Why don't you summon the tenth one already? We'll kill it for you again." "..."
Eunha didn't listen to the demon's whispers.
You die in a moment of carelessness.
That's what Mayins are.
Eunha who lost comrades including Bae Su-bin to their tricks in his previous life didn't waver.
"Heartless bastard..."
"I can be heartless to you."
Just kill the demon.
Eunha pointed his sword at him.
Belphegor finally bit his lip and sighed.
"...Hahahahaha!!"
Then for some reason,
His shoulders shook.
The demon who laughed for a while looking up at the sky wiped his tears and spoke.
"─I finally came out to the world I longed for so much, but I'm leaving like this without doing anything in the end." "..."
"I wanted to kill the humans who made me like this, and live comfortably without experiencing such pain again..."
"Just die comfortably."
"Fine, alright. I'll die as you wish. But I won't die alone. Even if I die, I'll definitely kill you before I go."
"...!"
At that very moment,
Did he still have power left?
Belphegor explosively drew out his internal mana.
No─
"─Dreams dreamt alone are no fun."
He was burning his soul.
A life-or-death struggle.
He scraped together all his remaining power prepared for death.
As proof, his existence began to shake unstably.
His existence collapses.
Like a dam breaking,
The existence constituting the demon Belphegor continuously bursts out.
""...""
Something that seems to be souls.
They cover Belphegor's standing body shedding bloody tears.
Souls stick thickly creating a black mountain goat.
─I am your nightmare.
A black mountain goat with huge horns.
He flashed golden eyes.
The souls constituting the mountain goat's existence drip to the floor, and they become a herd of small mountain goats rushing in.
"─Uncle!"
"Hmm!"
Overwhelming pressure.
Even Eunha was overwhelmed by the presence of over a hundred souls.
Eunha shouted loudly to wake Bruno up.
Winter Blooming Coldly
Souls rush in.
As if to counter that, petals swirl. At the same time, flames surge up burning the souls.
Yet the souls keep rushing in─
─Meeeeeeeh!!
The black mountain goat bleated loudly.
He charged into the storm in a posture to ram with his horns.
The storm was torn too easily.
"─Kuk...!!"
Blast Burst.
Eunha tried to block the black mountain goat's charge while using counter magic.
But the black mountain goat prepared to die wasn't much affected.
Rather, he got more excited and rammed his horns with all his might to break the barrier.
Cracks appear in the barrier.
Finally, it breaks.
However─
─Colosseum
Though he's often mistaken for a Dealer,
Bruno is actually a Guardian.
His true nature lies in defending, not attacking.
He stepped in front of Eunha and plunged his iron fist into the ground to activate magic.
Rumble
A barrier reminiscent of a colosseum rises.
A barrier that rose forming a circle centered on the black mountain goat.
The black mountain goat paws the ground with his front legs and tries to break the barrier with all his might but,
"...Kuk...!!"
The solid barrier didn't budge.
It only made Bruno take one step back.
Then as if he wouldn't be pushed back, he poured mana into the magic.
The barrier rises higher.
And a tall colosseum blocking the black mountain goat's view was completed.
It's useless anyway!!
Inside the unbreakable colosseum,
The black mountain goat rampaged.
Even if he couldn't see the opponent with his eyes, he fired magic outside the barrier.
No matter how solid a wall,
Walls eventually crumble.
The black mountain goat's momentum keeps intensifying, and Bruno is gradually pushed back.
Kuuuu
Finally the colosseum shakes.
The black mountain goat's mana goes berserk.
The colosseum walls gradually break.
And at last─
─Crack
One side of the colosseum wall collapsed.
But just as a colosseum is a life-or-death battle between beasts and gladiators─
"─So you're the tenth one?"
The gladiator hasn't entered yet.
And now Noh Eunha enters.
As if certain of his victory,
He crosses over where the wall collapsed.
Whoosh
As if announcing the start of a life-or-death match,
Flames blaze like a sacred fire.
As if determining the winner,
All flames gather on his blade.
White, red, platinum.
The blade's color changes moment by moment.
─I am the nightmare you created!!
The black mountain goat charges with all his might, wrapped in magic.
Eunha raised his sword above his head.
Soon he swung down the platinum sword with flames swirling.
─Blast Cross
A trajectory that seems to split the earth in half is created.
The trajectory
Becomes a cross.
The cross covered in flames burns away all his magic.
Too easily.
Techniques burning away.
Without stopping there, the trajectory bares its teeth towards him.
Boom!!
The cross devours the souls.
Violently, greedily, as if leaving nothing there.
The world is dyed platinum─
"─Have a good dream."
A platinum world.
Eunha muttered facing the world where light was spreading.
Dreams always end.
Therefore nightmares also end.
There are no eternal nightmares.
Even if such nightmares exist─
"─..."
─I'll shatter them all.
With these hands, directly.
☆
The world after Blast Cross passed through.
The pitch black night sky was growing dim as dawn approached.
...Ugh...
Belphegor was there.
The black mountain goat who lost over half his presence lay collapsed on the ground.
There was nothing around him.
Just pitifully,
Buried in the black mountain goat fading into mana particles,
With only his upper body exposed, he now looked up at the sky as if tired.
Ah...
No strength left to move.
Just waiting for annihilation,
Belphegor endlessly looked up at the brightening sky.
This is... dawn, huh.
Marveling purely,
The child buried in the black mountain goat's body smiles bitterly.
The black mountain goat completely disappears.
Now only one young child existed on the barren land.
That child kneels.
He closes his eyes.
My nightmare ends like this.
Finally... it's over.
Satisfaction. And regret.
The boy felt two emotions as he finally recognized even his own existence disappearing from the world.
His body changes into mana particles and dissolves into the air.
Now I don't have to suffer anymore.
When I open my eyes next, everything will be a lie.
This was all... just a dream.
And so the nightmare disappears.
☆
Belphegor disappeared.
...The timing was close.
Just at that moment, Eunha realized he could no longer fight.
The Gift's effect disappeared.
Amplification's effect too.
And the backlash came.
The first backlash was still bearable.
"...Ugh..."
"Pipi!"
Fire Chicken flies around worrying about his condition.
But Eunha gritted his teeth and walked to where he disappeared.
Whether he was really subjugated.
He couldn't be at ease without checking directly.
"..."
Where Belphegor disappeared.
A blue mana stone lying there.
Eunha confirmed he was really subjugated.
And─
"─This is..."
Eunha picked up what was lying next to the mana stone.
A sphere small enough to fit in one hand.
It was soft for a bead.
─It's not a soul stone.
Mayins drop soul stones at the moment of disappearance.
Soul stones called that name because it looks like souls are swimming inside the blue bead.
Soul stones containing a Mayin's power were treated as top grade among material artifacts.
If you make a weapon with a soul stone, you could make a living weapon.
"Pipi pipi?"
"..."
In other words, an ego device.
You could make an artifact that can send intentions to people and has infinite potential for growth.
But the spoils Eunha held weren't a soul stone.
It resembled a soul stone.
So if we had to say─
─The stage before a soul stone is created?
Unlike his previous life,
Belphegor hadn't been reborn as a complete Mayin yet.
So it seemed right to say the item that came out when Belphegor disappeared was the stage before becoming a complete soul stone, not a complete soul stone.
But even so─
─I can eat it.
Its appearance is truly like an inner pill.
Eunha instinctively sensed.
The spoils similar to a soul stone are edible.
And if he eats it─
"─Is that so..."
Belphegor became a Mayin as a result of human experiments.
Different from other Mayins who changed naturally.
In that case, the essence related to human experiments may be dissolved in the inner pill Belphegor left behind.
In other words─
─If I eat this, I can become a Mayin.
He couldn't be certain.
And he couldn't guarantee his life.
But the moment he eats this inner pill, he could become a Mayin.
"..."
Mayin.
According to them, beings that are the crystallization of humans achieving the most ideal evolution.
If Noh Eunha becomes a Mayin, his body will be reconstructed into a better body and change into a Mayin.
That is, he can eliminate the difficulties he had in battle due to lack of internal mana.
Because a better heart will be seated in his body.
If I eat this, I can become stronger.
Though I can't guarantee my life.
It will probably be much more stable than causing mana explosion to become a Mayin.
Eunha stared at the inner pill for a long time.
Then─
"─...!!"
"Pipi pipi!!"
Terrible pain struck.
The backlash began in earnest.
Eunha could no longer endure the pain and collapsed to the ground.
Bruno runs over from far away.
Fire Chicken is making a fuss in the slowly closing world.
Damn it...
His body won't listen.
A pain that cannot be expressed in words.
Noh Eun-ha lost consciousness.