Ch.298Chapter 298: Sudden Change (6)##

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How long has it been since I’ve seen this? The master of this palace removing the mask of playfulness and frivolity to unleash such pure anger.

Though twisted, it would be proper to call it divine wrath, coming from a transcendent being possessing divinity.

But the anger emanating from Desire, who painfully winced at the feeling of a knife hand embedded in her crown, wasn’t the kind of fury that unleashes passion like a bolt from the blue.

“That hurts!!”

It was closer to the irritated reaction of a superior toward a subordinate who had caused trouble.

To explain more precisely, perhaps it would be more accurate to describe it as anger emitted by a sentient personality rather than the divine wrath of a personified natural disaster?

Anyway, after briefly expressing this anger, Desire’s next action was swift.

It might have appeared even faster since my accelerated consciousness had returned to normal, making everything seem quicker.

As Desire clenched her right hand—which had been stroking her crown—into a fist and swung it toward Imperfectio’s face, I noticed only a few things.

Bwoong-!!

The near-deafening sound of air being cut as Desire swung her fist.

And how her body moved so excessively fast that it appeared quite blurry to my eyes.

That was all I could perceive.

Judging by her momentum, she seemed poised to deliver a painful counterattack against Imperfectio, who had just landed a blow on her.

But Imperfectio, who had successfully ambushed the Demon God, wouldn’t fail to react to such a movement.

“Hup…!!”

With a well-controlled breath bursting from her lips along with a battle cry.

A brilliant golden light that could only be described as dazzling shot through the visor of her helmet, which covered her entire face except her mouth.

Imperfectio moved her arm in sync with the trajectory of Desire’s swinging fist, blocking every single attack that could have caused her physical harm.

No, she did more than just block.

Kang-!!

“…Ack!!”

A rather unseemly cry escaped Desire’s lips as her fist connected with the black iron armor protecting Imperfectio’s arm.

It was an exquisite movement combining both defense and attack that once again inflicted a moderate level of pain on Desire’s body.

Desire’s expression crumpled far more severely than when the knife hand had struck her crown.

“Tch!!”

Clicking her tongue lightly, Desire smoothed her crumpled expression and once again pressed Imperfectio, using her body as a weapon.

The movement itself wasn’t much different from her first failed attempt, except that it was slightly faster.

Woooong-!!!!

But there was one crucial difference—dark red energy rose from her entire body with each swing of her arm, protecting Desire.

Considering she had just awakened from sleep, the quantity and quality of fighting spirit emanating from her body now was on a completely different level from what she had displayed when I first encountered her after my regression.

Imperfectio must have instinctively realized that if she tried to block this with her black iron armor’s hardness and durability as before, she would suffer a serious injury.

Swish-!!

Instead of raising her arm to block, Imperfectio extended her right hand and drew a sword from her waist with such speed that it seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Woong-!!

The sword, emitting a sound close to a roar, was enveloped in the same golden energy as her knife hand earlier.

It was a sign that the sword she had drawn was Lumen, the holy sword that Imperfectio had stolen from Shizu during their fierce battle at the border between the Northern Region and the Demon Realm days ago.

If caught in the brilliant radiance emitted by this holy sword, any being belonging to the Demon Realm would face physical harm at minimum and possibly lose their life in severe cases.

“…”

Yet Imperfectio, seeing this without disturbing her straight lips, calmly swung the holy sword diagonally downward as if completely unaffected by its radiance.

Swaaak-!!

The holy sword, cutting through the somewhat stagnant air of the great hall with a powerful sound, curved along the trajectory drawn by Desire as she swung her fist imbued with unholy divine energy.

“…!!”

Seeing this, a brief flash of unusual color appeared in Desire’s eyes, but she didn’t stop her movement that had already reached its peak, and collided directly with the trajectory Imperfectio had drawn.

Chang-!!

Along with the crisp battle melody produced by the collision between the incomparably hard divine metal of the gods and the transcendent flesh and blood of the Demon God that had nothing to do with normality.

“Daughter, the price for hitting my head is steep!!” / “Why don’t you stop pretending to be a parent when you won’t even grant your child’s request?”

And so began in earnest the strange conflict between Desire and Imperfectio—the Demon God who owned this obsidian palace and the agent who inherited her power.

“…”

All while leaving me exhausted from forcibly moving my body against Desire’s invisible physical force.

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About three minutes had passed since their conflict began.

In a battle between extreme powerhouses, it should have been decided long ago.

Yet surprisingly, the confrontation between these two who had heated up the atmosphere of what should have been the most serene hall in this palace remained deadlocked.

The irritated reaction to having a knife hand embedded in her crown was momentary.

“…Haaah!!”

As Desire let out a battle cry displaying her innate belligerence, her two fists drew countless trajectories as she pounced on Imperfectio.

“…”

Maintaining her tightly closed lips in stoic silence, Imperfectio received all those numerous attacks with a single clean, efficient slash devoid of any unnecessary movement.

Swaaak-!!

And when Imperfectio, having easily deflected Desire’s attack, swung the holy sword in her right hand toward Desire’s vital points to counterattack, Desire skillfully blocked or evaded it.

Despite this being a life-or-death struggle where the slightest mistake could cost one’s life.

The movements of these two contained a brilliance and mysteriousness that couldn’t be replicated even in a rigged private fighting arena with predetermined outcomes.

Perhaps that’s why, despite having completely healed my wounds thanks to my ultra-regenerative ability, I still struggled to recover my depleted stamina.

“…”

I momentarily forgot what I should be doing and focused all my attention on watching their fight.

Even just capturing it with my eyes consumed tremendous mental energy.

Earlier, during Imperfectio’s surprise attack, thanks to my unexpectedly accelerated consciousness.

I could clearly see each of their subtle movements.

But now that time had returned to its normal flow, my carefully accumulated stamina was rapidly depleting as I tried to follow their movements, which could not be adequately described even as cutting through the wind.

In a normal situation, I should have stopped trying to follow their movements with my eyes and focused on recovering my stamina.

But even if I wanted to, I couldn’t do that because I needed to complete what I had to do.

A golden opportunity had arrived. The Demon God, who was trying to uproot the peaceful lives and futures of countless people in this world, was exposed alone without any guards.

To somehow land a blow on that Demon God and either banish her from this land or make her fall into a long sleep again.

I couldn’t neglect my observation to match the timing to intervene against her at any moment.

…When will it end? I need to recover my stamina before it ends so I can help Imperfectio inflict a fatal wound on Desire.

Kwang-!!

Unlike my complicated inner thoughts, the sound of Desire’s foot stepping powerfully toward her target.

Swish… Chang-!!

The movements of Imperfectio, who had drawn the holy sword stolen from Shizu from her waist to respond, were becoming so fast and sharp that I could barely follow them with my eyes and had to rely on sound to detect them.

If I wanted to, I could squeeze out a bit more fighting spirit to strengthen my entire body and follow their fight with my eyes.

It wasn’t impossible to leave this place immediately and add another stroke to the trajectory formed by their exclusive battle.

In fact, thanks to Desire’s concentration being greatly disturbed by Imperfectio’s surprise heavy blow.

The invisible physical force she had used to prevent me from moving had been completely released.

Not only could I join the fight, but I could also move my body freely, which I had earlier forced to move with great difficulty.

Despite all these favorable conditions, I couldn’t make any movement.

It might sound pathetic, but there was a reason.

The wounds from my earlier movement had disappeared as if they had never existed thanks to my ultra-regenerative ability.

And although pain still remained at the site of those vanished wounds, it wasn’t severe enough to hinder my movement.

As I mentioned earlier, the real cause was that my stamina, which should have moved such a body, was completely depleted.

Tremble-tremble-

My whole body shook uncontrollably, starting from my legs.

Just getting up from my fallen position using the strength of my arms.

And performing the simple action of grabbing the dragon sword at my waist to throw at Desire had left me in this state.

This is the weakness of the ultra-regenerative ability.

It heals wounds as soon as they appear, creating a body without a single wound.

But it doesn’t restore the stamina consumed while moving the body during the time those wounds were created, failing to make the body’s condition completely whole—a disadvantage that was now holding me back at this crucial moment.

It’s regrettable. Even though I realized this weakness as soon as I obtained the ability and worked hard to improve my stamina limit whenever I had the chance.

The exhaustion that hit me as if all that effort meant nothing was preventing me from taking any action at this crucial moment.

“Haah….”

As I let out a sigh filled with frustration at being unable to move despite trying my hardest.

Chang-!!

A loud metallic sound reverberated grandly through this great hall.

“…Not bad. I didn’t expect you to be this good.”

I could see Desire, who had caught the holy sword swung by Imperfectio with her bare hands without wearing any protective gear, praising the agent’s skill with a voice tinged with strange ecstasy and satisfaction.

It wasn’t just words; Desire’s face, which had only appeared blurry before but was now visible, showed excitement steeped in belligerence that couldn’t be easily concealed by her frivolity.

“…Your praise means nothing to me.”

And the holy sword in the hand of Imperfectio, who responded indifferently to Desire’s praise, diligently drew golden trajectories without rest, targeting Desire.

There wasn’t much difference from the other scenes I had observed despite the rapid consumption of my stamina.

But if there was one difference, it was that while Desire’s dark red fighting spirit had shown little change in total volume since she first unleashed it at the beginning of the fight.

Woooong-!!

The golden fighting spirit emanating from Imperfectio’s holy sword was growing increasingly dense as the fight continued.

It reminded me of the unyielding fighting spirit of Shizu before my regression, who would silently swing his holy sword to protect world peace no matter how difficult the situation.

…Why am I reminded of him when looking at her, even though they’re not the same person?