Ch.188188. Untangling What One Has Tied (9)

Dozens of photon shells rain down on Demian.

They vary in shape, with inconsistent patterns and power.

After Renias’s barrage ended, Demian was already on the verge of retirement.

“Huff, huff…!”

Still, he endured. If this attack itself was Renias’s test, then surviving it was quite an achievement.

‘Could Junon withstand something like this? No, she would have retired long ago!’

Demian was convinced.

No one could respond to Renias’s attacks as well as he had.

That he, who had endured this much, was the true powerhouse, unlike that fake.

‘Yes. This test is to vindicate me!’

Demian widened his eyes, as if demanding praise from Renias, believing that still standing on two legs was proof enough.

However, what greeted him was not vindication but cold mockery.

“How amusing. Is that all you can do?”

“W-what…!”

“How pathetic. Senior Junon is someone who endures for well over 30 minutes in the combat simulation room, not with just 16 attack patterns like now, but with 40.”

That’s impossible.

‘Junon can withstand such attacks, more than twice the patterned attacks?’

It’s a lie. It can’t be.

Junon must have lied to the innocent Renias.

“That’s nonsense. How could anyone withstand such varied attacks, different in both quality and quantity?”

“Senior Junon does it just fine.”

“She must have lied! Told you an impossible lie to deceive you…”

“I’m sorry, but I saw it myself. It wasn’t a lie to deceive me.”

Renias showed all the formations she had just used in her attack.

It was as if she was telling him not to doubt his eyes but to realize it himself.

“1st-4th, 5th-8th, 9th-12th, 13th-16th. For each attack, I linked fire, water, wind, and electric attributes and fired them as beams. Since positions, unique magic, and magical power each have affinities, that’s what the senior would have exploited.”

In terms of magical affinities too.

“I fired D+ grade attacks for even-numbered sets and C- grade attacks for odd-numbered sets. Senior Junon would have targeted the even-numbered magic and deflected them with her magic shield.”

In terms of magic grades as well.

“After considering affinities and grades, she would have found an opening and counterattacked me. Considering the weakness of projectile magic and the slight gap that occurs during rapid-fire attacks, she would have slipped in around the seventh attack.”

Not just in defense but in counterattack timing as well.

Demian hadn’t noticed any of it.

“This is just from my perspective, but Senior Junon knows even more. She would target attack paths or exploit the weakening between repulsive attributes. If this had been a duel, it would have been a flawed attack, so I would have lost to Senior Junon.”

And what condemns him as a loser is:

“But you just took hits like a punching bag. I don’t see anything better about you than the senior, so you just look like a loser with an inferiority complex.”

Her sharp criticism, which starkly reveals how miserably he falls short compared to Junon, without any filter.

“That’s… impossible… Me, a loser…? You’re being deceived! You’re the one being fooled!!”

“How disappointing. For someone who boasted so loudly while knowing nothing, you’re far too weak.”

“Aaaaargh!! How could that be possible, why do you believe such nonsense?!”

Crunch.

As strands of light bind his limbs, the monster gradually gets buried under a pile of debris.

“It’s mine, it’s mine, so why does it go to someone like him!!!”

His ugliness shows itself until the very end.

He had been endlessly craving for the silver girl who always shines brightly everywhere.

“It should be me…! The one by your side should be me!!”

A twisted desire.

Both the direction in which he sought power and the direction that one with power should pursue.

That twisted desire finally made him break free from his restraints briefly, sending sparks flying in an innocent direction.

Whoosh!

“What are you throwing?!”

Crash!

The glass bottle shattered due to the girl’s response, but an acrid smoke covers their vision.

“Smoke? Tch!”

Realizing her mistake, Renias immediately became aware of Demian who would attack Junon.

But when all the smoke cleared, the culprit had only moved a few steps toward where the hostage had been.

“What, what’s going on here!”

She thought, ‘Could it be?’ But realizing it now was useless.

Currently, Demian had only created a huge opening by forcibly wasting his strength.

Junon immediately exploits this opening. Demian, who belatedly noticed, swung an ampoule, but Junon quickly recognized the threatening weapon and kicked away the madman’s wrist.

The ampoule clattered across the floor, and Demian’s face was pressed to the ground as well.

“Ugh. You, what are you doing…”

Demian, plunged into confusion, had never been quicker to grasp the situation.

Forced magical circulation.

Inside, one by one. Magic power colliding in reverse is breaking unstable circuits.

“N-no way… are you breaking my circuits…!”

“Humans are beings that maintain balance according to the circulation method of magical energy. So, the circuit you forcibly took obviously doesn’t fit your body!”

“Ugh…! N-no… my power, my power…!”

“Your power? Don’t make me laugh. You’re just a loser who arbitrarily stole another human’s power!”

“Aaaagh!! No!! I said no!!!”

The monster struggles and thrashes.

He tries to hold on by forcibly using magic power, but it snaps off like an overstretched rubber band due to the reverse-circulating magic.

Without exception.

It sweeps away all the foreign magic circuits that existed throughout Demian’s body.

“Ugh, uweeek…! Noooweek!!”

Bursting. Breaking. Snapping.

All the magic power he had swallowed disappears in order.

And he vomits it out.

Splash!

Foreign objects soaked in slippery liquid that comes out in succession.

Each foreign object leaving his body was a signal of the weakening of the body of one who had unrighteously stolen power—the severing of connections with the magic circuits of people who had been sacrificed to Demian.

“Kweeeeek…!”

Slurp.

As everything is extracted to the last one, the monster withers away.

“My… my magic… re-turn… n-no…”

When Junon withdrew the magic from his hand that was wrapped around the back of Demian’s neck.

The magic circuits of the one who had once rampaged like a monster were pitifully weak and empty.

Now he’s just a criminal drooling and gesturing at the air.

“Senior! Are you okay?”

“Phew… I pushed myself a bit. Not exactly fine.”

“Let me support you. Can you stand?”

“Then we can’t take Adel. Now we just need to call someone to help.”

“Alright. I’ll bring them right away, so stay like this, okay?”

I thought it was over.

But not yet.

“Heh, kehehehe!!”

What a persistent bastard.

Is there still something left? It’s quite irritating how he keeps getting up every time I hear that laughter.

Even so, his body is buried under debris, his magic is depleted, there’s nothing he can do.

Maybe he’s just gone insane.

Both Junon and Renias thought so.

Beep. Beep. Beeeep.

“…Senior. Didn’t you just hear something being pressed?”

“I heard it too. But if it wasn’t yours, then…”

Both of their gazes converge on Demian.

“If worst came to worst… I was planning to bury just you here, Junon. Miss Renias shouldn’t get hurt.”

But now the situation has reversed.

“With this, even if I die, you won’t be able to survive…! I wasn’t wrong!!!”

“This bastard, what is he doing now!”

Demian’s body becomes colorful again and expands. However, this time it wasn’t the same power-up as before.

“…”

“My goodness… did he just self-destruct?”

He was torn to shreds. To the point where no human form was visible.

Now only a pool of blood soaked the floor.

And the moment Demian’s self-destruction became certain.

─────!!

A violent explosion shakes the entire building.

A chain explosion incomparable to the previous one is occurring.

Whatever device it was, Demian had pressed the self-destruct switch with the terrible resolve to not let the two escape alive even if it meant his own death.

“The building…!”

It’s collapsing.

Even a shelter won’t be safe.

If the entire building collapses, they would obviously die trapped in this narrow space.

‘What should I do?’

I need to find a way.

I need to think of a way to escape this place safely.

But at the critical moment, his body had already reached its limit.

“Senior!”

Thud.

“Oh no…!”

In the meantime, rock fragments that had sprung up overhead were falling.

If Renias hadn’t thrown herself to push him away, it would have hit him squarely.

I don’t even know when she used magic. When I came to my senses, she had already brought the unconscious Adel.

“Senior.”

Renias silently, with clear eyes, just stares at him intently.

Without saying more, Junon seemed to understand.

She is waiting.

Believing that he has a plan to safely escape from here.

‘That’s quite an overestimation.’

But how could he disappoint Renias who believes in him?

Besides, with her, it would be possible.

“See my finger? Fire one beam in the direction I’m pointing.”

Where he’s pointing is the shelter ceiling. If magic is used and causes a crack, it might make the situation worse by causing more collapse.

If such a thing happens and the shelter ceiling also sinks, then there would be no way back. Rather, it might be a better choice to take the two and escape toward the entrance.

But Renias believes.

The senior in front of her is not someone who would make a reckless attempt.

He’s someone who always calculates possibilities and stays one step ahead.

“Just enough power to penetrate those rocks and make our position visible. Can you do it?”

“That’s as easy as pie!”

A beam of light created a small light but was soon buried in debris. But it doesn’t collapse.

The beam, which precisely avoided the building foundation connected to the shelter ceiling, served as a signal that people were buried here, and immediately called people from outside.

-How is it, is this the right spot?!

-The angle isn’t wrong. It means they’re buried a bit deeper inside, so their voices should reach us!

-Junon, Renias! Are you okay?

It was the voices of Aris, Senia, and Goden.

Soon they would see the light shining from outside the shelter. For that too, he tries to make his voice heard.

“We’re alive, so hurry up and help us…”

“I’m here too! And Sister Adel!”

-Phew. This is the shelter, if we blow up the building on the opposite side, we can rescue them easily!

-Got it!

Goden instructs with a sigh of relief.

With him there, and Tembris nearby, they won’t die trapped like this.

It’s as good as being rescued.

“Senior? Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“Sorry, Renias. Just let me… let me close my eyes for a bit.”

“What? Oh no! W-what should I do…”

With the thought that it was finally over, Junon, who had exhausted all his energy, collapsed into Renias’s arms and fell asleep as soon as the tension was released.