Ch.10234. Something Trying to Devour

“So what if what you’re holding has changed? Is your body normal? It’s not, is it?”

Kariel’s physical condition was so dire that he could die at any moment.

There was no way it had suddenly improved.

When Ases lunged at him like an enraged bull with anger rising to the top of her head,

Kariel surprisingly received her without much reaction.

Her body wasn’t in normal condition either.

Until just moments ago, she had been fighting Mines, accumulating damage from various attacks.

Perhaps because of that, her movements and momentum seemed slightly diminished compared to before.

‘Anyway.’

That wasn’t what mattered.

Their swords were drawing different trajectories that shouldn’t have intersected.

Yet somehow, Ases’s sword curved as if magnetically drawn to the flat of his blade.

“?!”

How could the sword move as if space itself were bending, and beyond that, as if targeting something specific?

Even seeing it with her own eyes, she could hardly believe it.

Yet at the same time, she immediately understood.

‘Is this…’

The absurdity others feel when facing us?

That feeling that your sword is being pulled in, strangely swinging differently than intended.

Once you reach a certain level, you can control even that process from the moment you swing your sword.

Strictly speaking, that was a kind of deception achieved through the extreme of technique.

Making the opponent perceive it that way, creating an illusion.

But once contact is made, it’s a different story.

From that point on, like magic, the opponent’s sword and bodily control begin to falter.

If they resist by applying force, squeezing their muscles, infusing and manipulating mana,

They get pulled deeper into the quagmire.

‘The principle is…’

The difference in mana utilization method.

For instance, by completely emptying internal mana, one maximizes the instinctive, natural principle and process of wanting to refill it.

Then, depending on the desired timing, one can absorb natural mana or absorb and apply another’s mana.

The disadvantage is that compared to other mana utilization methods that store and use mana for explosive functions, this approach is more limited in many ways.

Limitations begin from the very act of strengthening the body.

However, since the body is emptied, as long as mana is abundant in the surroundings, it can be rapidly filled. But without anything special to serve as an internal mana reservoir, the entire body ends up being used for this purpose.

Thus, while advantageous in terms of circulation and operation,

It allows for rapid absorption of vast amounts of mana and intentional control of instantaneous power output without restrictions by manipulating circulation and reverse circulation at will.

In other words, if the river channel is properly open,

It doesn’t matter whether the water flows up or down.

‘But.’

This is different.

Similar yet fundamentally different.

This is like…

The principle of flowing from top to bottom?

That must be it.

Why am I only noticing this obvious thing now?

Everything is pulled downward.

Not falling, but being pulled in.

Suction force? Gravity?

Something is different.

Yet also the same.

“Huh?!”

As her center collapsed, her body was easily pulled along with just a tug.

When Ases helplessly tilted her upper body, Kariel grabbed the opposite side of his blade.

Then, as if shaking something off, he flipped the sword upside down.

Caught in between, Ases had to either roll her body along with the trapped sword or let go of it,

unless she wanted her wrist bent 180 degrees.

Her choice was to let go of the sword.

She was neither a stuffy knight nor a madman who would risk her life for a weapon.

In truth, it wouldn’t have been impossible to follow along while holding the sword, but.

‘That’s not the issue.’

It was just a sword this time, but she could have lost control of her entire body if she wasn’t careful.

If she had been a moment slower to realize, she would have been swung around bodily.

Clang!

The fallen sword made a loud noise befitting its weight as it dropped onto the frost-covered ground.

Along with it.

“Enough.”

As if sliding, or rather traversing through space itself,

Kariel dove between Mines and Leo just as they were about to clash, swinging his sword with one hand to strike the holy sword,

while deflecting Mines’s arm with his other hand.

Just before that, his empty left hand brushed his waist, drawing out a small dagger.

Moreover, black darkness enveloped the dagger once again.

Kariel threw it toward the ground where Mines was standing.

“?!”

Just as a pure white frost wind was about to swirl,

The moment the dagger pierced the ground, like water draining through a hole in a jar,

all the results of her power began to be sucked into the darkness surrounding the dagger.

“Lord Riel?! Why are you stopping me?!”

Ignoring Leo’s protests through action,

Kariel gripped his sword with both hands again and drove Leo back as if manhandling him.

Despite the futility of resisting with force, Leo’s sense of balance and responsiveness were extraordinary, allowing him to stand his ground tenaciously.

But even that was temporary.

Thanks to Kariel’s movements that were both familiar yet somehow unfamiliar, Leo also lost his balance and had the holy sword wrested from him, just as helplessly as Ases had been.

No, his situation was even worse than what Ases had experienced…

In an instant, Kariel gripped the blade with both hands and struck Leo’s knee with the grip and pommel like a short spear, then lifted upward to hit his chin.

And that wasn’t all.

Somehow advancing during this, he tripped Leo’s leg and pulled, making it impossible for him to maintain his stance or remain standing.

He landed on his backside, but remarkably didn’t hit the back of his head on the ground.

Had even that been calculated?

“This is our problem! Why are you interfering?!”

Even Mines seemed to have moved beyond confusion to frustration.

Having finally pulled away from the dagger, she tried to activate her power again, but.

This time, Kariel suddenly transformed the sword in his hand and threw it.

“?!”

Mines quickly raised an ice barrier in defense.

Strangely, the projectile Kariel threw seemed to distort space itself, piercing through the barrier and impaling Mines’s abdomen in one go.

“Kyaaah!”

Mines was half-thrown to the ground, pulled by the projectile.

Only then could one see that the projectile had taken the form of a spear.

“……”

Kariel, having caught the holy sword that he had kicked up into his hand, stared at it intently before walking toward where Leo had fallen.

“……”

He had changed, drastically so.

He still staggered and struggled, but he moved as if accustomed to such conditions, without any hesitation.

In less than ten seconds, silence fell over the surroundings again.

Those watching, unsure of how the situation was unfolding, experienced a mix of inexplicable expectation, chills, and anxiety as they saw Kariel half-kneeling to hand the holy sword back to Leo.

What were they discussing?

By the time Ases hesitantly picked up her fallen sword,

Kariel had moved away from Leo and was now walking toward Mines.

As he walked, he extended his hand, and the dagger embedded in the ground flew to his grasp as if it were alive.

He then secured it somewhere at his waist? Behind his waist? His thigh?

Having placed it somewhere, he now approached Mines who, despite being impaled through the abdomen, showed no signs of having suffered a fatal wound.

He lowered himself to meet her eyes, which were heavy with resentment, melancholy, anxiety, and despair.

Ases.

She hated her powerless self who had to watch this scene.

“I told you not to do this.”

That damned meddling.

Please just…

What are you trying to do?

This shouldn’t end like this.

‘This isn’t right.’

Who dares to arbitrarily control another’s life?

Who dares to twist the trajectory of another’s existence?

Those two were originally destined to fight and fight until they reached a conclusion, or even if delayed, to eventually settle things.

That was how it should have ended.

But a greater fate had swallowed all of that whole.

Yes.

Like that darkness he wields.

It’s something that strangely devours and swallows everything.

And now, even Kariel has become such an entity.

How should I describe this?

A trick of fate? Mockery? Deception?

Why are these steps toward them so slow and heavy?

Is this just futile resistance?

“Cough!”

Wondering why breathing was so difficult, she realized her nose was bleeding.

And not just bleeding.

Some had clotted, blocking her nose.

Breathing through her mouth, she strangely smelled the scent of blood.

Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Why can she smell with her nose blocked?

She couldn’t understand.

“You crazy woman. Will you stop struggling now?”

Venus taunts her again from a short distance away.

“You should know by now, right? Do you think you can face that in your current state?”

“Must be nice only picking fights you can win? You dirty, underhanded bastard.”

“Why do you always conclude… Haah.”

Even that expression of complicated feelings and sighing now seemed like deception to her.

She has talent, but she’s still hungry.

She has many skills, but nothing she truly wants has come to her.

No, she wanted and obtained things before, but.

The thirst was never quenched.

It only grew endlessly.

The more she learned,

The hungrier and more difficult it became compared to when she knew nothing.

Some say they knew from birth.

Some say they had to learn to know.

Some say they had to experience hardship to know.

Some say they only knew after overcoming trials.

Though the processes differ, the realization is the same, someone once said.

‘Ah.’

It was him who said that.

Kariel.

I wanted that wisdom of yours.

More than your gallantry,

I wanted that carefree mindset of yours.

Even now,

At this age, it’s something I still can’t attain.

What’s the difference between you and me?

I thought I might understand if I lived like you, taking losses, so I tried.

But as expected,

I gained nothing.

I only lost every time.

It was all meaningless and useless days.

But,

Are there truly useful actions in this world?

“It’s unfair.”

While Ases muttered this,

The conversation between Kariel and Mines had already come to an end.

As he retrieved the black spear from her abdomen, as if she had never been stabbed or impaled,

she stood up perfectly fine.

“……”

In that silence heavy with tension,

She looked at Kariel with trembling eyes,

Then at Leo and the rest of the people.

“……”

With her eyes closed intently,

She froze in that posture.

As if a new ice sculpture had been created.

A pure white frost wind stirred up a gust,

And now, even that sculpture cracked and shattered.

In the end, only scattered ice fragments and frost dust

Vaguely filled that void.