Chapter 189

Re‌​ad o‌n‌ ​Kat​R‍e‌ad​i‌n‌g​C‍​a​f‌e‍

The traces of devastating destruction scarred the earth.

The hospital, which had endured countless storms over the years, crumbled meaninglessly.

Buildings that had coexisted with both old charm and modern sensibilities through repeated renovations and reconstructions collapsed without leaving even a skeleton behind.

If medical staff and patients had remained on-site, it would have undoubtedly led to a major disaster.

Facing the ruins, which felt more desolate than silent, Eugene blinked his blue eyes slowly.

He saw Angelica, his teacher, looking at him with a panicked expression.

Beside her was the captain of the 3rd Division, whom he had met before.

Under her reproachful gaze, asking why he had come here, Eugene had no words to offer.

He looked past them, expanding his view beyond.

The white cloud mask tilted slightly, staring in their direction.

He remembered. How could he forget? Even now, it haunted him whenever he closed his eyes.

The scene of Lucia being torn in half and dragged away was a nightmare in itself.

If not for her super regeneration, she would have died on the spot.

The sensation of forcibly reattaching her severed body and stuffing her spilling organs back in still vividly came to mind. 

He had tried hard to forget, but seeing that mask again rendered all his efforts futile. 

Suddenly, Eugene felt as though his hands were drenched in blood.

“…”

Eugene bit his tongue slightly.

A quick fix to suppress the turmoil in his heart.

A few steps to the left of Murmur stood the woman.

The red fox mask.

A symbol of Astaroth.

But the woman before him was not Astaroth.

He didn’t know Astaroth’s face, but he knew her name.

Conversely, he knew this woman’s face but not her name.

His breath was scorching hot. It wasn’t an illusion. Eugene’s body was gradually heating up. 

Pyrokinesis. 

A supernatural ability to manipulate fire without any heat source. A strange sound crackled from his fingers. 

Gripping the hilt of his sword, Eugene glared at Ereshkigal with bloodshot eyes.

“Where is Lucia?”

He barely managed to ask, suppressing his excitement. Ereshkigal glanced at Alice, who was half a step behind Eugene. 

The same question. Answering wasn’t difficult, but she knew from experience that it would only sound like a provocation to the listener. 

They were already seething with anger; there was no need to pour more fuel on the fire.

Ereshkigal silently pointed her demonic sword.

Her actions were her answer.

If you want to know, fight me.

If you win, I’ll tell you what you want to know.

“…”

Ssshh. 

The sword slid out of its sheath.

A blade dyed red. A sword imbued with heat. The Scarlet Blade.

He stepped forward with his right foot and lowered the tip of his sword to the right.

“Eugene, no! Don’t do something stupid!”

As Eugene’s teacher, Angelica, who knew all of his combat stances, shouted urgently. The woman in the red fox mask, though inferior to Astaroth, was still terrifyingly strong. 

Even she, who had reached the level of a captain, couldn’t guarantee victory against such a monster. 

No matter how much of a genius Eugene was, growing at an astonishing rate, he was no match for her.

“Alice! You too! This is an order, both of you retreat right n──”

“You’re annoying, you know.”

But Angelica’s voice didn’t reach the end.

A small, soft palm had suddenly closed in.

She hastily swung her stone spear to block, but the solid rock crumbled like a twig.

“Do you have the luxury to take your eyes off me? It’s insulting.”

Murmur spoke in a bored tone.

Angelica’s pupils dilated in shock. She could have counterattacked instinctively, but her earlier defense was nothing short of a fluke. If she had been even slightly slower, it wouldn’t have been the stone spear that shattered but her head.

She hadn’t seen it.

At all.

Angelica was a seasoned warrior. A veteran among veterans, having experienced countless battles. She didn’t make the mistake of showing weakness in front of an enemy. 

Though her attention had been divided between Eugene and Alice, she hadn’t let her guard down. A corner of her vision was always on Murmur and Ereshkigal.

Yet, she hadn’t seen it.

As if the intermediate steps had been erased, by the time she realized, Murmur was already right in front of her.

“Are you a captain too?”

“Captain candidate. Not yet.”

It wasn’t Angelica who answered Murmur’s question but Isabella. 

Clink! 

Transparent chains surged from all directions. 

The icy chains intertwined like spider webs, surrounding Murmur. 

The small, fragile limbs of the child in the white cloud mask were bound, and her neck, which looked like it would snap with the slightest pressure, was tightly gripped.

Yet, Murmur remained unfazed. Though her expression was hidden behind the mask, Isabella instinctively realized that this level of restraint was meaningless. 

There was no sign of pain or discomfort.

Hundreds of chains ended in hooks. Hooks meant to tear and rip flesh poured down on Murmur. Isabella clenched her fist tightly. 

She wasn’t just planning to tear Murmur apart with the hooks; she intended to crush her with sheer mass. The chains coiled around Murmur like a snake.

‘Just now, that was…!’

Angelica, who had stepped back to avoid being caught in the chains, saw it clearly.

Before Murmur was buried under the icy chains.

The space where Murmur had been twisted.

She had seen similar phenomena so many times that she knew exactly what it was.

‘Spatial Distortion!’

The supernatural ability of her junior, Si-ul.

An ability to interfere with and distort space.

A versatile ability that could be used for both offense and defense.

‘No, that’s not all.’

Angelica’s mind raced.

The current scene and what had just happened overlapped in her thoughts.

‘She… crossed space. That’s why the intermediate steps weren’t visible.’

It wasn’t that she was too fast to perceive.

If she had been fast enough to outpace Angelica’s reaction, the aftermath would have erupted in a deafening sonic boom.

But earlier, it had been eerily quiet. There had been no warning before Murmur appeared like a mirage in front of Angelica.

Spatial warp and spatial distortion were both space-related abilities.

They belonged to the same category but were distinctly different abilities.

Si-ul, who could distort space, couldn’t teleport.

Conversely, those who could teleport couldn’t distort space.

They could use their abilities to create similar phenomena.

But they were only similar; the principles and outcomes were fundamentally different.

Angelica wasn’t blind enough to miss that distinction.

“Hmm, scattering obstacles to interfere with coordinate calculations? No wonder you made so many chains. Clever.”

Murmur’s voice came from an unexpected place. Dozens of meters away, at the center of the ruins, Murmur pulled her thick padded jacket tighter as if feeling the cold. 

To escape, she would have had to shatter the chains. But the hundreds of overlapping icy chains remained firmly in place.

‘…Is she dominating the concept of space, like I do with the earth?’

Angelica had dominion over the concept of the earth.

Thanks to that, she could control everything related to the earth at will.

The Devil, Murmur had dominion over the concept of space.

Thus, she could freely manipulate all abilities related to space.

‘…This is the worst.’

Spatial abilities are notoriously difficult to deal with.

And if a Devil, one who could control all spatial abilities, was the opponent… the level of danger was beyond measure.

Kwoong. 

The air trembled. Without turning her head, Angelica instinctively knew that her students had started fighting. 

Damn it. These kids never listen. Just wait, both of you. This won’t end with just a reflection paper.

Cursing under her breath, Angelica formed a new stone spear.

This was no time to be intimidated by the enemy’s strength.

She had to act quickly.

She needed to clear the obstacle in front of her and go help the kids.

◈

Sword clashed against sword.

Clang, clang.

The Scarlet Blade, imbued with heat, collided with the demonic sword, steeped in death.

The death energy, surging like smoke, seeped into the Scarlet Blade.

The heat of the Scarlet Blade burned away the encroaching death energy.

Two weeks ago.

Beneath the plaza of District 6.

In the underground exhibition hall, a fierce battle had taken place.

That fight was now being reenacted here.

The environment was different, and the circumstances had changed.

But the people glaring at each other and swinging their swords were the same.

Ereshkigal looked at the boy standing boldly before her.

His body had been torn apart, and his arm had been severed.

Despite such a devastating defeat, he had returned, unbroken, to challenge her again.

It had been the same back then. Even in the face of overwhelming odds, he hadn’t backed down.

She let out a brief sigh of admiration.

But that was as far as it went.

Just two weeks. He had grown somewhat, but it wasn’t enough. The outcome would be the same as that day. The blue-haired girl seemed to have made a revolutionary leap in strength… but even so, it wouldn’t change anything. 

Even if she had achieved awakening, she was still no match for Ereshkigal.

After all, Ereshkigal was growing stronger too.

As they grew, so did she.

Eugene gritted his teeth. The path of the sword. The trajectory of the blade. The sword strikes of the Knight of Death were terrifyingly sharp. 

Each strike was as heavy as a thousand pounds, as free as the wind, and as fast as lightning. 

Blocking even a single attack made his entire body tremble. 

Crack. 

His wrists and fingers felt like they were about to break.

Because they were both swordsmen, he could feel it.

With every clash of their swords, it was etched into his soul.

The woman was a swordsman several steps ahead of him.

On top of that, her physical prowess was superior, making it almost embarrassing to call this a fight.

“Snap out of it!”

Alice—no, Frey—shouted angrily. A strike from below sent Eugene’s sword flying. 

For a moment, Eugene was left defenseless, and the demonic sword descended vertically toward his head. 

But before Eugene could be split in two, Frey’s heat ray exploded. Ereshkigal deftly twisted her body to the left, evading the attack. 

In that brief moment, Eugene regained his stance.

The fight continued only because he wasn’t alone.

But Eugene knew. It had been the same back then. The current balance was precarious.

The opponent wasn’t serious at all. If she revealed her true strength, the balance would collapse in an instant.

‘She’s disgustingly strong…’

Ereshkigal’s movements were light. And fast. Extremely fast. 

It was hard to keep up with her visually. He tried to compensate for his inferior physical specs and the gap in skill with his flames, but the limits were clear. Tricks like this could only briefly disrupt her vision. 

If he wanted to increase his chances against Ereshkigal, he’d have to pour on the firepower from a distance. 

Of course, she’d break through in no time, and it would end up in close combat again.

‘If this keeps up, I’ll lose.’

Again.

Don’t make me laugh.

He had thought about it constantly.

For two weeks, he hadn’t forgotten for a single moment.

The time he had faced death in the underground, where no light reached.

He had replayed it over and over. He had reflected on it, recalled it, and analyzed it. He thought and thought and thought again. 

He split every second into smaller fragments. He dissected the swordsmanship etched in his mind, over and over. 

To win if they fought again. To break through. To get her back.

‘Not enough? Even after all this, it’s still not enough?’

Yeah, in a way, it was obvious.

The gap between them wasn’t shallow enough to be overturned in just a few days.

Deep down, Eugene knew this. He had just been ignoring it. If they fought again, he would lose. 

It was inevitable. He knew from experience. That dark slash. The strike that had severed his right arm in an instant. He couldn’t block it. He couldn’t even dream of countering it. 

He knew, yet he charged in headfirst. Knowing he couldn’t overcome it. It was a foolish act. A reckless move that would lead to his own destruction.

It was a waste of the life Lucia had sacrificed herself to save.

‘Don’t make me laugh.’

Eugene’s eyes were bloodshot.

Veins bulged on his forehead.

Blood trickled from his lips.

‘Don’t you dare laugh.’

Eyes like the sky.

Calm, lake-like blue eyes.

A faint light flickered in those clear pupils.

‘If the opponent is strong, if they’re much faster than me…’

Then I just have to become faster.

Click. 

The sound of gears meshing echoed. A sound only Eugene could hear. But he paid it no mind. 

His focus was solely on the swordsman before him. 

Crack. 

The sound of bones breaking echoed. This time, everyone heard it. But Eugene didn’t care.

“…?!”

For the first time, a look of panic appeared on Ereshkigal’s face.

A subtle change occurred in her expression, hidden behind the mask.

The Scarlet Blade and the demonic sword clashed.

Countless clashes by now.

Eugene had always been on the defensive.

He couldn’t compare in strength, speed, or technique.

His only way to cope was to stubbornly hold on and cling to the fight.

The sword was deflected.

Not the red sword.

It was the dark sword.

‘I was pushed back?’

Me?

For a moment.

Just a brief moment.

Eugene’s sword accelerated sharply.

Faster than sound.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
I’ll stop here because it’s getting too long.

It’s hard to write battle scenes, but strangely enough, the word count increases a lot when I write them. It’s Amazing.

In this story, Alice (Frey) is described as a monster-level genius, but Alice herself is like a bug character.

A bug that gains experience by doing nothing.

And Eugene is your standard cheat character.

The main character adjustment is basically a cheat.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Let’s sue Eugene!