Ch.275Next Step (1)

After my first kill, the creature kept charging at me repeatedly, dying over and over as its body instantly regenerated.

Even when I minced its entire body into tiny meat pieces, smashed its head and corpse into fragments with a blunt weapon, or even stopped its heart after neutralizing it with the Evil Eye of Cessation, the result remained largely the same.

Each time, Delil Fantrien would consume just a single soul to restore not only himself but also repair all his equipment damage, returning everything to its pre-battle state.

‘….Huh.’

To be honest, souls are actually far too valuable and superior as spiritual resources to be described as “just” anything.

With dozens of souls, one could theoretically perform a crude version of resurrection magic, and with hundreds, there would be fewer impossible feats than possible ones when using them as magical resources.

Of course, souls are precious precisely because the only way to obtain ownership is through the consent of the original owner, and no matter how remarkable souls may be, they are ultimately just immense sources of energy.

Therefore, when souls are consumed purely as energy sources, their limit is typically just providing tremendous output to exert power beyond one’s normal capabilities….

From this perspective, using a single ordinary criminal’s soul to grant physical form once again to this bastard child of “Gluttony” violates the fundamental principle of magic: equivalent exchange.

The foundation of all magic and mystical phenomena is none other than equivalent exchange. It’s a power that only works when input and output values are completely identical—in other words, to produce an effect of 100, one must consume 100.

When comparing the value of an ordinary person’s soul to the material life of a bastard child of “Gluttony,” could these two elements possibly be considered equal in worth?

So apart from my personal doubts about that creature’s resurrection ability, the current battle situation wasn’t particularly favorable to me either.

On the outskirts where summoned demon hordes were engaging our allies, support bombardments were raining down heavily, but facing dozens of mid-tier demons was extremely challenging for just three mid-tier fighters.

Since I had already eliminated all the twisted knights that had been guarding this creature, I’d sent the remaining Blade Shields to help, which at least kept the battle in a tense stalemate, albeit with us at a slight disadvantage.

Meanwhile, unlike at the beginning, the frequency with which I was taking the creature’s life was gradually decreasing.

While I might have been able to sever its head with every swing at first, as time passed, the creature seemed to recognize its disadvantage and began consuming souls to strengthen itself.

Of course, merely boosting physical abilities recklessly would normally just result in its head flying off my blade due to its lack of technique and skill.

But… as if aware of this, it not only enhanced its physical abilities but also gained and strengthened various special abilities.

—CRACK! SLASH!

For example, at some point it acquired special abilities related to tenacious vitality and regeneration, making it persistent like a cockroach.

Even with a blade lodged in its neck, its body would continue moving unless instantly killed; it would rise again even after its internal organs were shattered by blunt force impacts; it would even keep moving after its limbs were severed or its head was crushed.

In short, it could withstand attacks that would normally cause instant death and still counterattack, and each of these small variables ultimately led to completely unexpected outcomes.

‘….What should I do?’

Honestly, this situation exists in a realm I couldn’t have predicted.

A monster with approximately 10,000 lives, casually using all sorts of powers. My intuition had been reacting strangely, and now I faced an enemy against which I had no effective countermeasures.

During the approximately 10-minute battle, I had only managed to kill it 73 times, and frankly, if I had to do this 10,000 times, I would collapse from exhaustion first.

…And this calculation assumes it doesn’t consume those 10,000 souls it seems to be saving as spare lives.

While I can’t deny that the urgent situation requires me to continue engaging in repeated combat, even if such a situation arises, fundamentally this cannot be considered advantageous for me.

The initiative fundamentally belongs to the other side, and honestly, as someone who hasn’t yet fully reached high-tier status, if that thing becomes high-tier, I would have no way to deal with it….

‘….Wait. High-tier?’

※ ※ ※

Thinking about it, despite my ambiguous and intermediate aspects, I was definitely a human who could at least touch fragments of the high-tier realm.

Though I might be called an incomplete high-tier, I had undoubtedly surpassed the mid-tier realm long ago, and beyond just having one foot in that domain, I even had experience wielding some of that power.

Separate from all this, wasn’t I already high-tier since I completed the “Titan’s Mighty Strength” factor?

Among humans who love categorizing tiers, the definition of high-tier is still not precisely established, but one thing is certain: one must cross a specific threshold in any field to reach the next level.

A high-tier warrior completes their mental image. A high-tier magic user can overlay their mental image onto reality. And some, by whatever means, obtain a high-tier physical body.

By these standards, doesn’t my possession of the body of a “Titan,” an ancient giant race, correspond to having a high-tier individual’s body?

In other words, even if I’m at the lowest seat, I have one foot in the high-tier realm, which means I have reached the high-tier domain….

‘….Ah.’

If that’s the case, using this as a foundation to elevate my skills and challenge the high-tier realm once more isn’t impossible at all.

Gripping my sword, I expand my “Eye.” I direct my gaze toward what lies beyond what can be seen, what I couldn’t even contain due to the unconscious fear it demands, and I stare directly at it.

My eyeballs hurt, my head hurts. The backlash of deliberately looking at what should not be seen instantly overwhelms my body. I forcibly hold onto my fading consciousness and stare directly at the enemy.

One enemy. One. While staring directly at “something” that was surrounded and wrapped around some central core, I drew the sword forged in my mind and pointed it at the “enemy.”

Cut, cut, and cut again. The flag-like cloth part of the aura he was wielding like a whip. I cleanly cut it, break the spear shaft, easily bisect his auxiliary weapon, the sword, and then stab my blade into his neck and hack away.

Despite these actions, he instantly regenerated and consumed several souls to perform short-distance teleportation while summoning powerful black magic flames above his hand.

Consuming no less than 10 souls to cast the ultimate black magic, Soul of Darkness. In terms of area-of-effect black magic, it represents the absolute pinnacle—the “ultimate technique of black magic,” so to speak.

Its power is literally murderous, and normally it would likely fail even with ritual incantation… but consuming 10 souls naturally changes the equation.

If activated, it would at minimum obliterate and devastate this entire vicinity—something neither Hanna nor Corin could ignore—and upon witnessing it, I… let go of my restraint.

The distance between me and that creature is about 250 meters. The time remaining until the spell is cast is merely 0.5 seconds.

No matter how swift a high-tier body might be, closing such a distance instantaneously to launch a counterattack would normally be impossible.

But I am different.

I aim my sword and swing. The invisible. I precisely capture what cannot be seen or cut and swing. What the tip of my sword touches is the “distance” between myself and Delil Fantrien.

In an instant, my field of vision changes, and the distance between us narrows to barely 5 meters.

My sword slices through the structure of his “black magic,” cutting it apart.

The magical sphere dissipates into black particles and vanishes without a trace. Having lost his offensive capability, he momentarily flinches.

Seizing this opening, I precisely “see” his soul and “cut” to liberate some of the absorbed victims that were clinging around it—

—KUGUUUUUUUUU!!!

At that very moment, as part of the souls surrounding him dissipated, some kind of space unfolded from him and swallowed me whole.