Chapter 76: End; Death dancing in the Masquerade (4)

For him, 'not knowing something' was a negation against his entire life.

So when an unknown hostility reached him from the other side of the Horizon of Providence for the first time – when something 'he didn't know of' was created in his world for the first time, Yu Jitae had to suppress his uncontrollable anger.

Although his thoughts had changed ever since he faced the Hostility head-on while catching Ha Saetbyul, he still couldn't help but get sensitive in front of the unknown.

<Wei Yan of the Seventh Iteration: Wei Yan of this iteration, exists while having an accumulation of the strongest weapon, greatest connections and the best luck of the six previous regressions.>

In the fifth iteration, Wei Yan had gained the Level 3 artifact [Peace Invoker]. This must have been the weapon he had gotten in this iteration.

In the third iteration, Wei Yan had been one of the top executives of the undetectables. Since Noah wouldn't participate in the event of a random demon, this must have been the connection he gained.

However, the 'luck' part was difficult to assess.

Yu Jitae did not know what Wei Yan did in the first iteration, nor the type of person he was. That was proving to be holding him back after coming all the way to the seventh iteration.

If it was referring to the 'luck' given as a demon, it must have been the contract with one of the '31 Lords of the Abyss'.

A human went through the process of awakening and enlightenment to gain a [blessing] before becoming a superhuman. Likewise, demons were also granted with a [stigma], during their contract with a lord of the abyss.

Among them are catastrophe-ranked lords including Noah. They showed themselves in the real world very rarely, and were monsters that distributed ridiculous stigmas fitting its rarity.

If by chance Wei Yan had formed a contract with such lords, the plan he had created to kill Wei Yan had to be reconstructed from scratch. Demon lives were clingy, and catastrophe-ranks were even harder to kill. There were also stigmas that only activated post-death.

Therefore, Yu Jitae decided to watch on.

He watched Wei Yan hold killing intent against someone for the first time, and the resulting demonic aura wasn't that incredible. Thus, he went according to the plan and kept Wei Yan's conduct in the form of a video, in preparation for what would happen after they left the masquerade.

During the process, some people ended up dying, but it failed to ring the Regressor's heart in any way. Death in this era was a very common occurrence, and was more so for someone that could rewind the world's time at will.

It was nothing but an organism's actions coming to a stop. Something that was moving stopped; that was all there was to it.

However, he thought of how Bom had asked him to help survive those who could live. The Regressor was in the middle of remembering the ends of those that had ceased to move, when a curved scimitar entered his sight.

Wei Yan opened his mouth. He, who had been screaming like an enraged beast, was a lot calmer now.

"You're right. It's a difficult life already, so we should smile."

Once his atmosphere changed, the commanders turned their backs and began running away. However, Wei Yan remained on the spot and merely watched Yu Jitae.

"Not going after them?"

"There's actually no reason to. At this point, there should only be my cadets standing outside."

"They must've been brainwashed quite heavily."

"Of course. Now their intellect is at the level of a dog."

"A dog; why did you mess up those normal humans."

"Because they're better than humans. Humans are all foolish, slow and have contradicting thoughts in mind. They tend to betray your trust."

"Would demons be much different."

"No, you're right. So I use half-assed demons as bait. It works fairly decently here and there, but I was slightly disappointed this time because nothing ended up being lured in by the bait."

Wei Yan was talking about his assistant professor, Kwok Pan Wei.

There was a dark serpent inside him. If a normal superhuman had trusted Kwok Pan Wei's betrayal in full, they would have ended up being swallowed by Wei Yan.

Meanwhile, he felt a tremendous demonic aura from outside the tent. It was most likely Ysayle Khalifa who was heading for the boss room, who was found by Li Hwa and Bom, as well as Noah moving to help her after receiving the danger signal from Ysayle.

The way to Ysayle's location would be covered with [Laws of Nature (S)] constructed from the mana of a green dragon acting as traps, which would delay his movement alongside BM, who was lying there in wait.

"You know what?"

It was then. Excitedly, Wei Yan approached Yu Jitae and sat down next to him.

"You were the biggest nuisance while I was at Lair as a head professor. There were a few times… maybe dozens of times where I wanted to kill you."

With his thumb raised up, he pointed at Yu Jitae with his index finger. He then went, "Bang" and pretended to shoot his head.

"One shot would have done it, but it was hard to find that opportunity. You wouldn't understand how annoying you were."

"…"

"Because of Yu Yeorum who looked down on the media, Sophia Vorkova rejected the offer of her entry into the Azure Dragon study group. Because of Yu Kaeul who deceived everyone with an innocent front, the Gong household retracted all their support to the Azure Dragon study group and Cadet Gong Juhee left school. If I think of all that… ah, let me use a cigarette."

With a pant, Wei Yan placed the cigarette into his mouth and lit it on fire.

"And I heard somewhere that Yu Bom was a genius in magic. Isn't that fucked up? Where did all those cadets suddenly come out from, and why did they have to come near me and interrupt my poor self who was just trying to lead a diligent life. Ishouldhavegoneandrippedallofthemtodeath… I used to think something like that."

Huu. Smoke escaped from his lips.

Wei Yan's eyes started being painted in crimson. At the same time, a tremendous amount of demonic aura erupted forth. In between the glimpses of demonic aura were evident traces of an aura that deviated from Providence. The moment Yu Jitae's sixth sense clearly felt it, a message was portrayed by Vintage Clock.

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock(EX)] has confirmed the hostility sent from the other side of the Horizon of Providence inside the target [Wei Yan].>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock(EX)] starts collecting traces of the revealed [Hostility].>

Good.

Just like the fragments he had earned from the cigarette bud given by the 30-man special force team, Wei Yan was giving off fragments himself.

<[Hostility]'s Trace Fragment gathered: 18.1%…>

<[Hostility]'s Trace Fragment gathered: 20.1%…>

<[Hostility]'s Trace Fragment gathered: 22.1%…>

A lot more traces of Hostility were found from him, compared to Ha Saetbyul who had gone through demonification. What was strange was that the fragments had been collected automatically from Ha Saetbyul, while it could only be gathered manually from Wei Yan.

But perhaps because of that, he was collecting the fragments at an extremely fast rate in a short period of time. Therefore, Yu Jitae decided to listen to his meaningless story for a bit more.

"Well, Japan's Royal Family must have been determined to make something happen, I guess. Judging from how they gathered all those fabulous kids to one place."

"So, what are you going to do."

"What would I do?"

Wei Yan pointed at Yu Jitae's head with [Peace Invoker].

"The gates of Melissia Masquerade have been closed."

"…"

"There is no more room for outsiders to intervene. I'll kill you, and once the masquerade ends, I will send those annoying kids to your place."

A faint smile appeared on Yu Jitae's lips.

"What's so funny?"

"You're quite slow at understanding the situation for a demon."

"Guardian Yu Jitae. I think it's you who's slow to the point of being stupid. We were the ones that had closed the gates of the fissure."

"I know that."

Yu Jitae sounded way too nonchalant that Wei Yan tilted his head with a sneer.

"An ant does not know the ways of a human. I don't know what a random superhuman like you would know, but I would like to personally teach you.

"There's a Grand Schema for me.

"It will take 15 days or so to restore the closed fissure. That is more than enough for us to raid Melissia, fulfill my wish, kill you, kill others and finish cleaning up.

"History will remember this as an unfortunate event. My surviving cadets of the Azure Dragon study group will be seen as victims, while also being commended as heros. And I will receive acknowledgement from my lord and be gifted with a tremendous power. Isn't that awesome? Isn't this a perfected Grand Schema?!"

His eyes were filled with madness, as he raised his voice.

"And you will be the one that marks the start of this Grand Schema. Isn't that an honourable thing?"

Wei Yan's eyes shot wide open, and the insanity of a demon that had been suppressed, exploded out in its instinctiveness. Matching that, an enormous amount of fragments of Hostility were conveyed to Vintage Clock.

"You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this day do you? For an extremely long period of time, I have controlled myself; control, control, control, control and controlled myself! All that effort! There's no way alowlyhumancouldevendarecomprehendit!"

Perhaps because of all the fragments that had gathered in a short period of time, Wei Yan rose from his seat with exaggerated movements and threw his arms into the air.

"Ahh–! My lord Seirapuan! Yourfirstlivingsacrificewouldbegivenbyburningthebloodandskinofthisaccursedhuman,"

<[Hostility]'s Trace Fragment gathered: 34.5%…>

<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] has finished collecting all the Hostility of the other side of the Horizon from the target, [Wei Yan].>

"Yu Jitae–!!"

Wei Yan pointed at Yu Jitae with [Peace Invoker].

Suddenly, something smacked him on his face.

—–!

Due to an unknown jolt, Wei Yan flew backwards. His body ripped through the tent and didn't stop even after breaking the shoulder segment of the operator's armour that was hanging outside. Only after smashing through the walls of the underground dungeon and reaching the end of the room – the walls of the alternate dimension separating the worlds, did he fall on the ground.

It was an intense shock and despite him earning a physical body which could stand against disaster-ranked demons, his facial bones had been fractured, with one of his eyes exploding to nothingness.

*

Crumbled on the ground, Wei Yan only came to his senses after a fair bit of time passed.

He couldn't tell how much time had passed, and his body had trouble sensing what was around him. Black blood was oozing out of the seven orifices of his face.

In the corner of the dark dungeon with not a single trace of light, the first thing Wei Yan noticed was the odour unique to the habitats of monsters. Blinking his bleeding eye, Wei Yan faced the world with a hazy gaze.

Inside the dark sewage, an even darker shadow was gazing down at him. There was a scimitar hanging in his hand.

"Ha... fuuckk."

Since his mouth had been crushed, Wei Yan had to mumble his words.

"W… who aree you…"

"You woke up."

The shadow approached him.

"Then get up, actor of this comic act."

Coughing out black clots of blood, Wei Yan shook his head left and right. When he did so, more blood flowed out from his nose, ears and eyes.

Yu Jitae walked up and crouched down in front of him.

"I should have crushed you like this ages ago."

With a dry voice, and a tone that resembled that of a broomstick dusting the earthy ground, the man was looking down at himself with an emotionless gaze.

In addition, there was this incomprehensible strength.

Who, in the world,

"Whoo, are youu…!!"

Squeezing everything he had inside his body, Wei Yan screamed viciously. His cracked voice desperately echoed across the sewers.

"There was no need to close the dungeon gates."

"Whaat…?"

"I was going to destroy it anyway."

It was hard to understand.

The fissure into the dungeon, was in the end a dimensional fissure. By paying a tremendous cost, it was possible to seal it for a short period of time, but the expression 'destroy' was not appropriate for it.

"The rats have entered the trap, so naturally it should be sealed tight."

He threw something over to Wei Yan's body.

"…"

After slowly coming to his senses, Wei Yan looked at the thing that had landed on top of his stomach.

It was a handheld radio transmitter.

– Buzz

Just in time, the transmitter received a signal.

– Urgent news! Urgent news!

A message arrived from the main command centre located at the entrance of the dungeon.

– The Grand Fissure, the dungeon entrance is crumbling down!

His voice sounded at least twice more astonished than before.

In that place near the entrance, there were puppets of the demons,

– The dimensional fissure is being destroyed!!

And at the same time, there were Yu Jitae's puppets as well.

Only then did Wei Yan widen his remaining eye and look up at him. There was not a single human in the world that could destroy a dimensional fissure.

At the very least, that was what he thought until now, but if there was an exception…

"Ha, haha… huhaha…"

After realising something, Wei Yan laughed powerlessly.

They, the undetectables, had 'one single enemy'.

The enemy had an unclear objective, mysterious ability, and a concealed strategy. He was the murderer of Prototype X; the murderer of Hasegawa. Despite those cases having shook the entire demon society, the enemy had not left a single trace behind.

"It was… you huh…"