Ch.23Chapter 23 – Re-Item

Shin Jaehyuk maneuvered acrobatically to avoid the translucent hands. His movements were surprisingly nimble despite wearing heavy armor.

“An amorphous demon! A slime—!”

“How DARE you compare His Majesty’s power of deception to such a lowly creature—!!”

Shin’s words seemed to provoke the demon’s anger. Dozens of translucent tentacles erupted from Lee Jaeyeon’s small back, reaching out more violently, resembling sea anemones.

‘Actually, it looks more like a cordyceps fungus parasitizing an insect!’

Shin’s senses detected eight tentacles trying to block his escape route. He twisted his body to break through, but realizing he would be caught, he chanted the aria of holy explosion.

“Radiance that repels the unholy—!”

As the light shockwave struck the air, the translucent hands that were about to engulf him regained their peach color and were repelled.

KAAARRRGGGHHH-!!!

While the demon screamed in agony, Shin quickly distanced himself. If caught by those hands, he would be buried in rapidly multiplying flesh with no escape. But even if he avoided being caught, could he keep it up?

‘I can’t just keep running because of these statues…’

It was an unreasonable situation—like having to defeat a boss in a room filled with instant-death traps without getting caught once. In a game, this would have earned the developers a barrage of complaints about unfair difficulty balancing.

For now, he was managing to avoid both the statues’ and demon’s attack ranges, but soon he would be cornered with nowhere to run. Then the demon would swell its body to block his escape route. That would truly be the end. He needed to do something before that happened.

Shin scanned the plaza, looking for a safe place from both the slime demon and the statues: altar, stone path, statues, pile of corpses, stone pillars.

‘Yes, there!’

Shin spotted a half-collapsed giant stone pillar. He slung his shield onto his back and gripped a dagger instead. He lowered his stance, bending his knees. His calf and thigh muscles tensed as strength concentrated in his toes.

BOOM-!

As holy power reinforced his lower body, Shin launched upward. Invisible hands reached out to grab him, but he spun his body in midair, shaking off the demon’s grasp. Using the momentum of his rotation, he swung both his spear and dagger simultaneously, embedding them into the pillar.

The spear and dagger, made of hellish iron, smoothly pierced the pillar’s side. Hanging from the weapons gripping the pillar, Shin wrapped his legs around it to stabilize himself. Once stable, he pulled out the dagger in his left hand and drove it higher up. Then his right hand with the spear.

Shin climbed the pillar like a rock climber, alternately embedding his spear and dagger. Unlike normal rock climbing, it was arduous work, having to pull up not just his body weight but also his armor and equipment using only arm strength. It would have been impossible without the physical enhancement from his holy power.

“Ugh…”

Fortunately, his initial jump had taken him more than halfway up the pillar, so he soon reached the top.

“You can’t climb up here!”

The demon’s hands seemed unable to reach this height. Plus, this position was an excellent hiding spot outside the statues’ line of sight. Shin smiled with satisfaction.

Indeed, when Ri-tem arrived at the base of the pillar pursuing him, it hesitated momentarily before extending long tentacle-hands from its back. The tentacles stretched upward, becoming progressively thinner. Eventually, they could extend no further and trembled, then began pounding the pillar in apparent rage at failing to catch its prey. A furious roar followed.

“Come DOWN, you insect—!!!”

Shin exhaled a small sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness…”

With this breathing room, Shin began to think. Many questions remained unanswered. He wanted to organize the situation first. Combining the inscription’s content with Ri-tem’s words should clarify what was happening.

According to his theory, this temple was a ruin protecting a massive energy source. And that energy source was the demon Ri-tem. By extracting mana and demonic energy from the imprisoned Ri-tem, they both weakened and sealed the demon while charging the ruin’s guardian golems—an ingenious two-birds-with-one-stone approach. Whoever designed it was quite clever.

‘If Ri-tem was truly Satan’s closest aide as it claims, it couldn’t be this weak. It was probably an upper-class demon originally but lost most of its power after being sealed for so long…’

The current Ri-tem seemed like a mid-level demon, at best high-level. After escaping its sealing box somehow, it had used its “power of deception” to transform and disguise itself as a puddle of water, seeking a host to recover its strength.

‘It probably consumed all other living creatures moving inside the gate during that process, and Hunter Lee Jaeyeon who stepped in the puddle became another sacrifice.’

Shin approached the edge of the pillar and glanced at the demon raging below in Lee Jaeyeon’s form. Despite the commotion, the statues showed no reaction, merely watching. Why weren’t the golems attacking it? Wasn’t this ruin’s system designed to guard the sealed Ri-tem?

“So this too is the power of deception.”

Shin nodded, recalling Ri-tem’s words.

The power of deception granted by Satan, the Demon King. As the name suggested, it seemed specialized in deceiving things. No wonder the rune of demon detection, which could sense demons from miles away, only noticed this demon’s presence from just two steps away.

‘And those statues too.’

The golems’ role should have been to shower intruders or escaped demons with magical energy beams, but the opponent had proven problematic. Ri-tem must be using its deception power to fool the golems’ detection system.

‘Then, as I thought, those statues have nothing to do with the gate’s clearing condition,’

The condition for clearing the gate was defeating the boss that functioned as the gate’s core. Regardless of the statues, simply killing Ri-tem should clear the gate. That was more hopeful for Shin. Defeating both the statues and Ri-tem alone would be nearly impossible.

But against just a demon—the kind of creature Shin had fought his entire life—there was a chance. The opponent was a weakened demon, and Shin possessed holy power, a demon’s natural enemy. Hope flashed in Shin’s eyes.

The hopeful paladin prayed to his Lord.

“Eloah, Your light, through my hands. Its form a spear, its holy name lightning.”

Holy spell: Lightning Spear.

A holy spell that borrowed the power of Eloah, God of Light, to create a spear of lightning. It was one of the holy spells he had become proficient with again after months of training to thaw his frozen holy power before entering the gate. Currently, it was his strongest ranged attack technique.

Shin mentally visualized the spear’s form. Responding to his will, holy power gathered in his palm, weaving together like threads to form a long spear. Crack, crack. As sparks flew from the extremely condensed spear of light, lightning flashed, casting long shadows beneath Shin.

Shin took a javelin stance and aimed precisely at Ri-tem below. The angle was perfect.

“Take this-!”

THWOOM-CRASH-!

The lightning bolt thrown vertically from the pillar struck exactly in the center of Ri-tem’s body. Only after the spear hit did the thunder sound belatedly.

RUMBLE-! BOOM-!

KKRAAAEEEIGGGHHHHH-!!!

Accompanied by the majestic thunder, the most piercing scream yet erupted. As the demon with the lightning spear embedded in its torso twisted in agony, dozens of tentacles extending from its body convulsed in all directions.

“Good!”

This attack was definitely critical. The paladin observed his inner self. Visualizing his soul as a round flask and holy power as holy water within it, the water sloshed at about four-fifths height. His remaining holy power was still plentiful. A few more lightning spears like this should be enough to defeat Ri-tem…

‘I was worried about facing a big shot, but with this space defense strategy, it’s surprisingly simple.’

Just as he was about to summon another lightning spear—

BOOM-! BOOM-!

The pillar began to shake with heavy impact sounds. Shin quickly looked down to assess the situation.

A massive tentacle resembling a club, hammer, or perhaps an axe was rhythmically pounding the stone pillar from Ri-tem’s back. It had merged dozens of tentacles into one thick appendage. With increased mass came more threatening destructive power.

“Damn it, nothing’s going my way today..!”

The giant tentacle continued pounding the pillar. Now the pillar was starting to tilt, its base about to crumble. He needed to act quickly.

‘Should I hit it with another lightning spear? Or prepare for landing since the pillar will collapse soon?’

Shin briefly struggled between the two options.

‘I’ll sneak down while it’s distracted with axe-swinging. If the stone pillar collapses while I’m losing balance, I might attack not just Ri-tem but the statues too. That’s too dangerous. Better to escape first.’

Having made his decision, Shin gripped his dagger again and descended the pillar from a direction invisible to Ri-tem. Normally, going down would be easier than climbing up, but now the pillar was wobbling back and forth from Ri-tem’s attacks, making descent much more difficult. His body, clinging to the pillar only by his arms, swayed precariously like a small boat in massive waves.

THUD-!

‘Made it! Now I need to quietly escape..!’

Having finally reached the ground, Shin moved away from the pillar without the demon noticing, hiding behind another pillar. The clanking of his armor was drowned out by the sound of the crumbling stone pillar.

Right after Shin took shelter behind the pillar, the half-destroyed stone pillar tilted heavily and began to fall slowly, like a tree cut at its base by a lumberjack.

CRASH-!!!

When the massive stone mass hit the ground, an explosion-like sound erupted as stone fragments flew everywhere. Ri-tem, having toppled the pillar but unable to find Shin, could be heard raging.

“WHERE are you—!!!”

Hidden in the thick dust cloud, Shin quietly recited an aria. Your light, through my hands. A new lightning spear formed in his hand. As soon as it materialized, Shin threw it toward the dim silhouette visible through the curtain of dust. A scream followed.

KKRAA=

The scream stopped abnormally short.

It was an ominous sign.

“So THAT’S where you are—!!!”

Having figured out Shin’s position from the direction of the lightning spear, Ri-tem began charging through the dust cloud.