Ch.11639. The End of the Struggle (1)

Soso ran desperately.

Never in her life had she run this fast.

Well, actually, there was that time when she ran just as desperately when Ainz’s convenience store got the spring-limited strawberry cake she had been looking forward to so much.

Anyway, it was different from back when she was chubby. Soso’s physical abilities had improved dramatically now that she could skillfully use the Heavenly Demon Technique at will.

But the path to the observatory felt excruciatingly long.

Even though she was already close to the observatory. There, Minsu had already begun fighting the Hell Blood Demon. That’s why her heart was racing with urgency.

‘That explosion must be the sound of Minsu’s spell. Please let it be! Not Lee Seonwoo’s sorcery.’

What if Minsu had been injured by the Hell Blood Demon’s sorcery? What if his life was in danger beyond just injury?

And what if he were to die? Soso couldn’t imagine the world after that.

‘That absolutely cannot happen. Minsu… is my entire world.’

For him, she could even give up her position as the successor to the Heavenly Demon Sect. Since realizing her feelings were love, that thought had never changed.

‘No. Don’t think negatively. I need to believe in Minsu right now.’

Minsu never fights battles he can’t win. If he had sent her away, it meant he had some plan in his head to buy time even without her.

‘But the Hell Blood Demon is too dangerous.’

From the beginning, a mage cannot face a swordsman one-on-one. In the history of hunters, mages who accomplished this were extremely rare.

Of course, there were cases where mages defeated swordsmen of much lower levels by unleashing their firepower. But against hunters of equal rank, mages were clearly at a disadvantage.

Lee Seonwoo was an S-class villain. In fact, according to Flame’s intelligence team’s analysis, he was an S+ class villain or higher.

She had heard he had committed many murders where he left no trace by killing all witnesses. Realistically, Minsu, currently an A-class hunter, was no match for him.

‘Moreover, when we encountered him at the observatory earlier. That man’s eyes…’

As a fellow martial artist, Soso could tell. The Hell Blood Demon, a villain who had turned to dark arts after hitting the wall of the Heavenly Demon Technique.

But perhaps abandoning the Heavenly Demon Technique was the right answer for him. The madness in his eyes as a master of the Hell Blood Sorcery was undeniably that of a powerful being.

Thinking objectively, even the current Soso would have to risk her life against a villain like the Hell Blood Demon.

‘But if it’s Minsu…’

However, Minsu’s hunter rank was also currently underestimated. He had already been performing as well as S-class hunters like Soso and Yuri on Flame’s missions.

And recently, Minsu had been growing stronger at a pace reminiscent of his Ainz days.

‘No, he’s already regained his Ainz-era skills and even surpassed them.’

His growth wasn’t by chance.

Sometimes to a concerning degree, Soso knew well that he had been training his magic while reducing his sleep hours.

‘Even though I’ve been treating his meridian points daily, his energy channels are twisted every time. That’s how much he’s been overworking his mana heart…’

And she also knew vaguely what magical theory Minsu was researching, from what she had heard from him.

Resonance Compression, a new combat magic theory.

Light, a legendary guild renowned in the hunter world. Choi Seunghoon, who was a mage in that guild, which was the predecessor to the Hunter Association.

Now the Secretary-General of the Hunter Association, he had passed on his magical theory to Minsu, who was intensely focused on it.

‘Choi Seunghoon… That famous hunter gave his thesis to Minsu without any conditions…’

After mastering that theory, Minsu’s Blue Flame had become unimaginably powerful. With that Blue Flame, he might somehow be able to hold his own against the Hell Blood Demon.

‘Damn it. Still, faster, I need to go faster…’

Since Soso and the other two had eliminated the shadow puppets, the demonic energy flowing to him had decreased, but she still couldn’t forget those ferocious eyes.

Ten minutes had already passed since Soso left. Even if Minsu was alive, he would certainly have sustained injuries.

BOOM-

Consecutive explosions echoed from the observatory. Minsu’s evolved Blue Flame was very powerful, but it also consumed a lot of mana.

In an awakened being’s battle, ten minutes was already enough time for a mage facing a swordsman to be completely exhausted.

“No. Absolutely not!”

Even if alive, he might be on the brink of death. Tears welled up in Soso’s eyes without her realizing it.

‘If Minsu dies, I’ll die too!’

She desperately accelerated her mana to move her body even faster.

Finally, she reached the observatory. Soso leaped into the observatory, which was already more than half destroyed, with its iron walls dangling at the edges.

“Don’t touch Minsu!”

Shouting with desperate determination, she searched for Minsu. And at that moment, Soso stopped in her tracks on the floor of the observatory.

Minsu was completely unharmed. Rather, it was the Hell Blood Demon whose body was in shambles.

***

I hurriedly looked at Soso.

Her entire body was soaked. She must have been in such a hurry that she ran all the way here without even using mana to block the falling rain.

So her face was also drenched with rainwater, making it look as if she had been crying profusely when she entered.

‘There’s no way she would cry in this situation.’

Rather than such sentiments, seeing her enter confirmed that my choice had been correct.

‘Sending Soso after the shadow puppets was indeed the right decision.’

The time I confronted Lee Seonwoo was very brief. In fact, I had to risk my life just to buy that time.

But during that short period, Soso seemed to have eliminated all the shadow puppets in the cliff area. It was somewhat of a gamble, but Soso had accomplished more than I had hoped for.

As a result, Lee Seonwoo was now clearly weaker than when I first confronted him.

‘I’m glad everything went according to plan. If we had been even a little late…’

He hadn’t been in Busan for long. The Sacrificial Domain was a spell with a wide range, but it took time to activate due to its extensive area of effect.

So now was the perfect time to disrupt that spell midway. If the start of the resistance had been delayed by even one day, I might have already been killed by the Hell Blood Demon.

At that moment, Lee Seonwoo shouted.

“Soso, don’t interfere! This uncle will duel with that cowardly rat!”

And realizing his sorcery had collapsed, he glared at me with eyes full of rage.

‘He doesn’t realize that I would have died instantly if he had simply swung his sword.’

It was really close. The Blue Flame embedded in the formation could increase its power, but the mana consumption for setting the spell was high.

Moreover, I had used all of Parma’s holy fire to block the Hell Blood Sorcery.

In fact, it was a miracle that I had managed to hold out without a scratch against a higher-ranked villain, especially a swordsman.

‘Damn. And I couldn’t afford to hold back against Lee Seonwoo.’

My psychological warfare worked because I showed the full power of the Blue Flame. I felt dizzy, as if I had anemia.

The fatigue from exorcising the demon at the container yard during the day had already accumulated.

If I were to use more spells from now on, especially mana-intensive spells like Resonance Compression…

I would have to be prepared for serious primal mana leakage from the mana heart that Hong-ok was holding.

‘Even if that happens, I must capture Lee Seonwoo no matter what.’

I hurriedly called out to Soso.

“Face him directly!”

Soso’s black sword glowed with aura. Simultaneously, her sword drew a crescent in the air.

Soso’s Destruction Heaven God Sword. That sword strike traced a much faster and more precise path than the swordsmanship I knew from her.

CLANG-

At that moment, the Hell Blood Demon barely blocked the sword strike by manipulating the blood scattered around. However, his expression had already lost its composure.

“Damn it! How can someone your age already reach that level of the Destruction Heaven God Sword… Soso, you too… are truly that Sehwi’s daughter!”

After shouting that, Lee Seonwoo suddenly rushed toward the wall of the observatory.

CRASH-

Then, after breaking through the wall with his blood technique, he jumped onto the coastal cliff beyond.

“What is he suddenly doing…”

Soso was bewildered by Lee Seonwoo’s perplexing action. But I had figured out his intention.

“I lied about setting up a formation in this observatory. He probably thought he had no chance if he continued to face us here.”

But the Hell Blood Demon had made the worst possible choice.

The storm-swept coastal cliff. That place was the worst battlefield for him.

I felt the trembling of Wind Cutter in my hand.

***

Soso caught up with Lee Seonwoo first.

The coastal cliff was very slippery and steep due to the storm, and the darkness made it impossible to see even a step ahead.

But Soso ran along that coastal cliff as lightly as if it were the yard in front of her house. Lee Seonwoo also seemed quite surprised that she had caught up so quickly.

“How are you already…”

Though I hadn’t yet reached where they were, I could hear his astonished cry from where I stood.

‘To think she’d take the word “pair” so seriously…’

And Soso was now more focused on combat than ever before. Although her mastery of the Heavenly Demon Technique had been increasing daily since coming to Busan…

That one word had changed her morale.

‘Right now, you and I need to work as a pair to take down Lee Seonwoo. He’s a member of the Red Lake.’

If the words that motivated me were “Red Lake,” then the word that motivated Soso was “pair.”

During the academy exchange competition at Ainz, the cadet I chose as my pair was Yuri, not Soso. It seemed Soso still held that incident close to her heart.

Just as Yuri and I had won the world championship as a pair in the exchange competition, Soso also wanted to accomplish something that surpassed that with me, just the two of us.

And thinking about that fact made me feel strange.

‘In the original story, Soso was clearly burning with killing intent due to her grudge against Lee Seonwoo.’

But now, Soso was clearly wielding her sword for me. Even when she jumped into the observatory earlier, she had looked for me first.

I almost found myself pondering that changed priority, but now was not the time for such luxury.

‘No matter how focused she is, it’s difficult for Soso alone.’

I ran straight ahead without looking down. Although the cliff was steep enough that falling would mean certain death, I trusted Wind Cutter.

Wind Cutter lived up to my expectations. It used the wind to protect me from falling or slipping on the cliff.

So even though I was slower than Soso and Lee Seonwoo, I could run across this terrible weather as if it were flat ground.

‘He probably thought I wouldn’t be able to move if he shifted the battlefield to the cliff.’

But the current bad weather and coastal cliff were actually the optimal battlefield for me with Wind Cutter.

Even the poor visibility wasn’t a problem. I just had to follow where Wind Cutter led me.

Suddenly, I heard Wind Cutter’s laughter in my ear. She seemed pleased that I had completely entrusted my body to her.

‘And now that using Blue Flame is becoming difficult, it’s a situation where you can be more unrestrained than Hong-ok.’

I answered her.

“Yes. I’ll let you run wild. Wind Cutter.”

At that moment, sparks flew as Soso’s and Lee Seonwoo’s swords clashed in the distance.

CRACK-

Even the current Soso’s aura was being pushed back by his sword using the Hell Blood Sorcery. Moreover, her black sword was an A-class gear, while the sword Lee Seonwoo possessed was a sacred artifact of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

‘Yes. The Hell Blood Demon stole the Heavenly Demon Sect’s… no, the gear that should have eventually become Soso’s sword!’

In the original story, that Broken Shadow Sword eventually ended up in Soso’s hands. Though I had disrupted the original story, I could now return that sword to Soso.

A single moment’s opening. If I could target that opening, I could take down Lee Seonwoo.

I aimed Wind Cutter at the Hell Blood Demon. Soon, the inscriptions on Wind Cutter’s short blade began to change.