Ch.162Malice++

# 162. Malice++

It’s often said that the most excruciating pain we can experience in life is burning pain. Some claim childbirth is the most painful experience, while others argue it’s being struck directly in the testicles, but even they wouldn’t deny that burning pain is tremendously agonizing.

That pain—the horrific agony they had barely endured against Iseratio with all manner of defenses in place—the Veritas raid members were experiencing once again.

What’s worse, while Iseratio’s flames had been faced when Yehyun’s water spirits had maximized their fire resistance, now they didn’t even have that advantage…

“Hahaha—!”

“Aaaaargh—!!”

“Hold on!!!”

Among them, Seyeon, who was at the very front taking most of the beams, had forgotten how to think through the pain of her entire body burning. Yet trusting her comrades supporting her from behind, she continued forward without slowing down despite her screams. It was less a conscious decision and more an instinctive action by now.

Whether due to her specs or her mental fortitude, Veritas continued to push against the beam without stopping.

At first, the mage had crossed his arms and mocked them, seeing Veritas’s charge as a futile last stand after long deliberation, a meaningless final struggle…

“By now they should have been completely disintegrated by the Gaze of Destruction, and yet…”

Though naturally weaker than before, the pure white light that seemed about to extinguish but never did continued to approach. The mage finally uncrossed his arms and decided to control the Gaze of Destruction “in earnest.”

Of course, the option to flee had never existed in his mind from the beginning. This was merely like chewing on a slightly tough piece of meat… Yes, this level of resistance was fitting for those called Demon Slayers.

The mage began his incantation.

Through it, he commanded his masterpiece and that of the magic tower, the Gaze of Destruction.

Now that it was time, destroy those boar-like creatures who were ruining the greater cause.

Then, large quantities of blood buried in the floor began to flow into the Gaze of Destruction through invisible lines.

The sight of blood flowing from all directions toward the giant eyeball floating in the air was both vivid and chilling. The mage cackled as he imagined what would happen next, while the raid members shouted with one heart and mind:

“Seyeon!!!”

“Unni!!!”

What if all that blood was absorbed by the eye monster?

It implied that the eye monster they had faced (or rather, avoided) until now wasn’t even its complete form, and that it could become even stronger.

It was horrifying.

Setting aside how such a monster was created, they couldn’t let it drink that blood. More precisely, they needed to somehow deal with the monster, or better yet, take down the mage first.

“It’s weakened!”

“Break through!!!”

Fortunately, truly fortunately, while the eye monster was absorbing blood, the frequency and intensity of the beams decreased. Relatively speaking, of course.

‘Yes, there should be penalties like this!’

But even that was a precious opportunity for them, perhaps their only one. Upon hearing Subin and Yuri’s shouts after quickly assessing the situation, everyone activated every skill they could use without thinking about the consequences.

The mage was taken aback for the first time when those he expected to despair at the sight of the strengthening Gaze of Destruction instead approached with light that seemed about to extinguish but was now stronger and faster than before.

The fear induced by this overwhelming presence and power wasn’t something one could avoid simply by not meeting its gaze…!

Were these people truly boars?

They should be driven mad with fear! They should be self-harming or committing suicide or giving up or becoming lethargic or submitting or fleeing shamefully—that would be normal!

How could they endure, and how could they withstand the Gaze of Destruction that no human should be able to bear?

The alchemy should have been perfect!

“T-this can’t be! Destroy them now! I said destroy them!”

Absorbing blood wasn’t as simple as a person drinking water. It wasn’t merely satisfying thirst or hunger, but receiving the “price” paid by the mage.

The mage had already given his “command” through the incantation, and the Gaze of Destruction was in the process of receiving the “price” for it.

Demons always take their price.

This was also true for the Gaze of Destruction, the masterpiece of Magicant magic. Even if it was an artificial demon created through alchemy. Wasn’t the Magicant Magic Tower’s research on demons, their production of numerous chimeras, and their eventual summoning of a demon all stepping stones toward creating artificial demons?

They had placed various restrictions on the alchemy to use demonic power rather than submitting to it, but a demon was still a demon.

“I thought it was perfect…!”

The mage gritted his teeth and shouted at the Gaze of Destruction, which was expecting a new price for a new command.

“I’ll give you the same price after this battle is over, now hurry!”

He had no choice but to issue such an inefficient command, which showed just how flustered the mage had become.

At his urgent command, the Gaze of Destruction stopped absorbing blood and tried to fire its beams again…

“Aaaaaaah—!!!”

“Die!!!!!”

Pride in creating something perfect. Composure born from pride. Arrogance born from composure. Carelessness born from arrogance.

Led by Seyeon, whose entire body was a mess with armor falling off, the Veritas raid members made a desperate charge, passing right by the Gaze of Destruction and pouncing on the mage in an instant…

“N-no!”

“Yes!”

The battle ended there.

The higher one stands, the greater the fall, and the few “seconds” wasted at the critical moment when the mage’s carelessness turned to panic due to his inefficient command determined the outcome.

It took less than three seconds for the mage to transform into what had once been a mage, and the raid members who had given their all collapsed on the spot.

Seyeon’s condition in particular was quite serious, having had to charge while enduring most of the attacks at the frontline. So Soyu scraped together what little mana she had left to cast Radiance of Salvation on Seyeon, when Subin, her face pale, shouted urgently:

“Get up now!”

“Huh…?”

“That eyeball!!!”

“Ah.”

They had been so focused on their desperate charge that they’d forgotten there was more than one enemy. They all scrambled to their feet as soon as Subin reminded them, but this time those few seconds worked against them.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Unni!!!”

Whether by chance or design, the beam struck Soyu, the party’s healer, directly. Thanks to her managing to dodge slightly at the last moment and her remaining shield, she avoided a fatal wound, but anyone could see she was in no condition to continue fighting.

Main tank and main healer incapacitated.

Plus the absence of Sunghyun, the buffer and main order-giver.

It was a failure. Subin despaired. Sunghyun had trusted and assigned her, and the others had trusted and followed her orders, yet this was the outcome.

“Fuck, what are you all doing?! Run! I’ll try to buy time, so get the hell out of here!”

Yuri, who was protecting Seyeon, shouted while raising her twin axes high, but Subin, judging it impossible to retreat with the injured from a place they could barely escape from even at their best condition, began forcibly gathering her mana that wasn’t properly condensing.

“Argh, fuck!! How did unni endure this?! Hey! Eun Subin! What are you doing?! I said run!!”

“Arang. Yehyun unni. Can you two each take one?”

“Unni!”

“Subin!”

“Yuri and I will try to buy as much time as possible, so somehow get to the fourth floor and get Sunghyun and Danya…”

*Screeeech—*

“Kyaaaaargh! Yeah, come on!! Come at me, you eyeball bastard!!!”

Yuri was somehow buying time by deflecting beams with her axe, showing an unexpected skill, but her armor had long been destroyed, and her hands and arms were burning black. She was barely holding on thanks to her class skills activated by seeing blood in battle and her strong mental fortitude, but she looked precarious enough to collapse at any moment.

Subin spat out dead blood rising from her stomach and cast magic at the eye monster to help Yuri, but it didn’t make much impact.

She had to take responsibility for the failure, and though she felt sorry for Yuri, since she could hold out the longest… shouldn’t they at least save those who could be saved? With this thought, Subin spoke again:

“Evacuate them! Hurry!”

“…Understood. We’ll come back as quickly as possible!”

The moment Yehyun and Arang tried to leave the battlefield carrying Soyu and Seyeon, beams began targeting them, just as Subin had predicted.

Yuri and Subin gritted their teeth and tried to draw aggro and check the monster, but since the Gaze of Destruction was fundamentally airborne, even that wasn’t easy… Eventually, beams struck Arang and Yehyun’s backs.

Arang and Yehyun fell with screams.

Seyeon and Soyu tumbled with them, unable even to scream.

Seeing their backs, Subin lowered her hand. At the same time, Yuri, who had been directly hit by a beam by the narrowest margin, was knocked down.

‘It’s… over…’

She had only cried when she was born and when she was young and learned the secret of her birth and discrimination.

As tears flowed from Subin’s eyes and were about to fall from her chin—

“[Snap out of it! It’s not over yet!!]”

At the sound of his voice, which seemed like a lie, vitality began to return to her body that had given up everything.