Chapter 364

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‘Strange? Why am I even fighting?’

Murmur thought, dodging the jet-black sword energy.

Something felt terribly wrong.

It started with a light heart. She had only come to coax a subordinate who had lost their master. 

Of course, depending on the perspective, it was an action that could provoke backlash. Murmur had played a part in the death of Astaroth, Ereshkigal’s master.

However, Astaroth’s death was undeniably her own fault.

It was her mistake to prepare for betrayal first and then actually try to carry it out.

While Ereshkigal served Astaroth as her master, the period was not that long. How much loyalty could she have? 

Moreover, considering Astaroth’s unpredictable personality, even the loyalty she had would disappear. Murmur approached Ereshkigal with a reasonable judgment.

‘…No, seriously, why are you attacking me?’

A demonic beast attacking a devil god, is she out of her mind? 

There are types like Surtr who openly declare they will kill devil gods, but that’s because they were created from birth for ‘that purpose.’ 

An experiment of Belial. A destiny given from birth that even Surtr cannot refuse. So, he acts like a brainless idiot. Does Surtr even know? 

That his actions just look cute to the devil gods. The only reason Surtr is still alive is because of that.

Ereshkigal, unlike Surtr, was not artificially created.

Her way of thinking is not restricted.

Unlike Surtr, there’s no reason for her to challenge a devil god.

‘Is she this loyal to Astaroth to go this far? Why? What reason is there to be loyal to someone like that?’

Or is her loyalty just an excuse, and she just wants to fight me? Does she underestimate me because I’m in a child’s body? Is she really desperate to die?

Such extreme thoughts crossed her mind, but Murmur shook her head and brushed them off. The situation was so unexpected that all sorts of thoughts came to mind. She was starting to get annoyed.

‘To seize control of space in front of me, who dominates the concept of ‘space’.’

It was the ultimate provocation. Murmur’s face, hidden behind the white cloud mask, contorted in anger. 

For a moment, she even genuinely thought about killing her. However, just as quickly as the heat rose to her head, it cooled down, even faster.

‘Annoying. Really, extremely annoying.’

Perhaps it’s because they were born from the same source.

She would never admit it, but Murmur and Astaroth had similarities.

They are honest with their emotions.

The most intense emotion for the original Astaroth was hatred. She hated humans and the four seasons so much that she didn’t even mind losing ‘herself.’ 

As a result, the direction of her hatred changed, but the fact that she was honest with her emotions did not change.

Murmur hated annoying things. She got bored of everything quickly, so she couldn’t concentrate on one goal. 

The only goal she pursued consistently was the recovery of Paradise. But even considering that this was due to the hatred inherited from ‘Ancient One’, so shee really got bored of most things quickly.

Still, she has a sense of responsibility, so she does things she has to do, even if she finds them annoying.

In other words, she didn’t bother doing things she didn’t need to do.

The battle with Ereshkigal was one such thing.

‘…Should I just run away?’

Should I try again later when I’ve cooled down? Who knows? Maybe Agares will hold her accountable and try to kill Ereshkigal too? 

If I help her then, wouldn’t she be grateful? I want to have a loyal subordinate too. I wish I had a competent subordinate to do the things I need to do. 

Sigh, I should have taken her first. Astaroth found her first…

Murmur rolled her eyes. The entire space was dyed with death. Not a figurative expression, but the literal truth. 

The gate to the Underworld opened. All living beings were rejected and contaminated by death. A place where being alive is denied. 

In reality, nothing is visible. Darkness. Darkness that devours even light spread out like a thick fog. It was hard to see even an inch ahead.

‘Immature. Maybe 70 out of 100. The foundation is shaky. Does she think she can just seize control with brute force? Space needs to be handled delicately. If even one minor thing goes wrong, it collapses like Jenga. You have to build it from the bottom up, block by block. With this, the durability is terrible, right? Maybe 70 is too high. 60.’

Still, if she refines it a little more, she can grow.

Murmur could see that potential.

The more she looked, the more she wanted her.

She is a raw gem with a guaranteed future.

‘…Should I just kill her now?’

Her growth potential is high.

If left alone, she will definitely grow steadily.

If she remains hostile, it will be annoying, if not dangerous.

Should I just kill her now while she’s still growing and cut off future troubles?

‘After all, that woman is dangerous.’

There was one more person in this place who had similar thoughts to Murmur.

The current leader of the Sacred Knights, Johan.

Johan had done nothing since the opening of the Gate to the Underworld. More precisely, he couldn’t do anything. 

The Underworld is not good for any living being, but it was especially incompatible with Johan. Even just breathing, his lungs were rotting. The holy sword lost its light, and his energy was quickly depleting.

If he wasn’t a captain-level powerhouse, he would have died instantly when the Gate to the Underworld opened. 

Johan gripped his holy sword tightly with his sweaty hands. He would have a hard time fighting unless he activated a sword barrier that also dominated the area. But that would cause its own problems.

‘If I activate the sword barrier here, that woman will weaken.’

Ereshkigal’s target is the child with the white cloud mask.

Murmur was also an enemy that Johan had to deal with.

Both are enemies.

He hoped they would fight and annihilate each other.

‘I felt it when we fought before, but…’

Ereshkigal’s growth rate is too rapid. Watching her swordsmanship become more precise by the second sent chills down his spine. It can’t be explained simply by talent. 

It was a little different from Alice, who is a monster of talent. It was as if a blocked dam had collapsed. 

She had enough experience and skill, but she couldn’t grow because she was blocked by the dam, and then the dam collapsed, and she became stronger rapidly.

Johan’s guess was accurate. Until now, Ereshkigal was unable to withstand her own death energy. 

Her overwhelmingly strong death energy corroded Ereshkigal’s body. She couldn’t control it and would self-destruct if she didn’t seal it with armor, so her growth stagnated, and no matter how much she honed her skills, her body couldn’t properly embody them.

But now.

The situation has completely changed.

Ereshkigal had obtained a vessel that could withstand her own power.

The obstacle that had been blocking her growth disappeared, and her efforts so far were bearing fruit.

‘If it’s right now, I’ll somehow win. Right now.’

The future is uncertain.

The Sword Saint of the era.

If limited to swordsmanship, the strongest swordsman in humanity.

Johan asked himself a question.

How long can he maintain the title of ‘strongest swordsman’?

‘If there’s a chance, it’s now. We have to cut off the bud before it grows more. It will become a monster we can’t handle later.’

The holy sword glowed softly.

It illuminated Johan, driving out the darkness.

The darkness of the Underworld was like sticky mud.

It clung tenaciously even when pushed away, stealing warmth.

Even the light created by the holy sword could not completely shake it off, and it was constantly aiming for Johan’s breath.

“Hmm.”

An invisible strike comes.

A technique that cuts through the space itself.

Blocking it is out of the question.

It’s too fast to dodge.

In the end, Ereshkigal chose to endure the damage and deflect it.

Blood splatters.

Minor injuries gradually increase.

Clean wounds were etched into her body.

Ereshkigal frowned.

A few minutes since the opening of the Gate to the Underworld.

She roughly figured it out.

Lucia’s flesh, and the vast sea of death energy contained within.

The body, which had pushed its output beyond its limit, creaked.

Her condition now was the best ever.

Both physically and mentally, she had reached her peak like never before.

Her opponent is a devil god. The ruler of space. Murmur.

A smile spread across Ereshkigal’s lips as she derived the odds of winning.

‘Yeah, it doesn’t look like I can win.’

After all, the 1% chance was too low.

Fate smiled upon the 99% probability.

Of course. It’s a probability of winning once out of 100 fights.

Even that is a generous 1% chance.

It was obvious that it would actually be less than 1%.

As the master of the Underworld, she could have summoned undead monsters, but she didn’t. 

Those kinds of rabble would be of no help to fighting a devil god. It was a waste of energy to summon them for no reason. 

She focused on weakening her opponent and strengthening herself with the functions of the Underworld. 

Since she had seized control of the space first, there was an error in Murmur’s spatial ability, which allowed Ereshkigal to continue the battle more easily.

But Ereshkigal was aware.

She could not keep up with Murmur in terms of precision and sophistication of her abilities.

If the child with the white cloud mask was determined, the Underworld would collapse in an instant.

To begin with, to try to seize space in front of the ruler of space.

Isn’t that like showing off wrinkles in front of a silkworm?

‘Unlike other devil gods, Murmur is a specialist in space with no equal. It wouldn’t be hard for her to destroy my Underworld.’

Knowing that, she opened the Gate to the Underworld because there was no chance, not even 1%, if she didn’t do this.

The smile on Ereshkigal’s lips deepened. It was a fact she knew from the beginning. From the moment she decided to challenge Murmur, she knew it would be hard to win. 

Nevertheless, she attacked because she just wanted to. If there was no chance of winning at all, she would have given up cleanly, but since there was a glimmer of possibility, she wanted to compete.

‘I’m not afraid of dying.’

If she valued her life, she wouldn’t have dared to challenge a devil god.

From the moment she decided to challenge Murmur, she was already prepared for death.

‘I see it.’

The closer death came.

Something flickering was visible.

She is a Death Knight.

Even if she evolved into a demonic beast, her essence does not change.

A contradictory existence that lives by death.

Therefore, the closer death came, the closer she got to her essence.

‘My death.’

And beyond that.

A new realm.

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Ere is a gambler.

Winning leads to growth.

Losing? Well, what’s to lose?

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Battle junkies are noobs, let’s sentence her to the same fate as Belial and watch her go from admiration to lovesickness for the noob sword idiot.