Ch.302302 – The Longer It Gets, The More Dangerous

# 302 – The Longer It Goes, The More Dangerous

Giselle realized that the situation was becoming extremely dangerous.

“Can you defeat the hero candidate’s ego?”

“It’s difficult.”

“Why? He’s just a candidate while you’re an active hero.”

“Different times.”

Ishtar couldn’t hide her dismay.

“In my time, the One God Sophemia chose me directly as the hero without selecting other candidates. So there was no reason for candidates to compete and adventure against each other. That’s why my growth stats aren’t as high as the Apostle of Anrage.”

“So you’re saying this man has accumulated such tremendous karma that it negates the advantages of being an active hero.”

“Plus, techniques possessed by his other egos are mixing in. It’s beyond my ability to overcome.”

The hero was blocked.

If that was the case, they needed Oknodie’s help.

Let’s move the doll left on the deserted island to request assistance.

That was certainly the plan, but…

The situation on the other side was no less dangerous.

‘Is he trying to kill her?!’

When she first saw it, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Ice fragments flying continuously through the darkness, and between them, the flashing blade of a dagger.

As soon as she twisted her body in midair to parry the dagger, another pitch-black dagger that didn’t reflect the moonlight bounced off with a sound.

Harmless fragments and harmful daggers.

Daggers that reflected light and daggers that didn’t.

Leaf mixed feints with real attacks, adding danger to every movement and every attack.

One couldn’t let their guard down even when seeing the attack, and if one relaxed thinking something was harmless, they would suffer greatly from an unexpected strike.

Having to respond to every attack at every timing, Oknodie naturally lost her timing and breathing rhythm, and was one-sidedly dragged along by Leaf’s wave of attacks.

Tadadang!

Even knife fighting in close quarters where daggers collided in the darkness!

‘There have been countless allegations of domestic abuse surrounding Oknodie.’

Could the Foundation really be that cruel?

Perhaps we misunderstood something because of Oknodie’s eccentricity.

Such doubts remained somewhere in the mind as a trace of self-restraint.

That trace of self-restraint disappeared.

Wasn’t the truth finally revealed beyond the doll under the visual magic?

The unnaturally familiar responses were telling.

During her time being raised at the Foundation, Oknodie had experienced such brutal combat as if it were daily life!

“What’s that noise?”

The voice belonged to Hestia, who had returned to the warehouse to rest after stopping the hero candidate’s advance once.

Hestia’s face quickly hardened as she was drawn to the visual magic by the sound of weapons clashing, befitting a mercenary.

“Is that Oknodie?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Those crazy bastards.”

What appeared to Giselle as merely a brutal fight looked even more dangerous in Hestia’s eyes.

“These bastards are using mana.”

“Pardon?”

“Look carefully at those daggers. There’s a silver light in the blade.”

“I thought it was from the moonlight.”

“It’s mana light.”

War mercenaries live by bloodshed, so their temperaments are rough.

When conflicts arise, it’s not uncommon for limbs to be severed.

That’s why, even when fighting with genuine animosity, they have an unspoken rule not to use mana to avoid crossing the line.

Those who break this rule are considered the scum of the earth.

They’re treated like ticking time bombs and become outcasts among other mercenaries.

No matter how confident in their skills or how arrogant they might be, using mana is a line they don’t cross unless they’re truly going berserk.

Yet the assassin had casually crossed that line.

And Oknodie had countered it without hesitation.

This meant that the time Oknodie spent at the Foundation was even more brutal than the rough world of mercenaries.

“I’m going back out.”

Hestia picked up a hammer instead of her broken axe and opened the warehouse door.

“Where are you going! You’re exhausted. Your arms are trembling!”

“Oknodie is enduring a much more severe fight than this. There must be something on that deserted island that she absolutely needs to obtain.”

Hestia was furious.

At the maid driving Oknodie into a corner.

At her own foolishness for secretly resenting Oknodie, wondering when she would return while Oknodie was going through such difficult times.

‘I promised to protect you. What am I doing?’

The child who gave trust to an unbelievable berserker, became her friend, and showed her what friendship is.

It was shameful that she had harbored complaints after being eliminated in the very early stages of the deserted island auction, unable to protect such a child by her side.

“The hero candidate won’t kill us. Fighting him is exhausting to the point of death, but that’s all.”

It’s different from Oknodie’s situation.

If it’s just about enduring hardship, she can do much more.

No, she must do it.

If her pledge to protect Oknodie wasn’t a lie.

Even if she couldn’t protect her by her side, shouldn’t she at least protect Oknodie’s friends?

“If we can’t help Oknodie, stop just staring at the doll. Let’s do what we can.”

Hestia’s point also brought about a change of heart in Giselle.

She didn’t want to show it because of the Foundation, but it seemed she needed to reveal a bit of the true nature of the dark world’s magnate rather than just playing advisor.

‘Don’t regret it, Wiheomhae Foundation. You crossed the line first.’

The stagnant shipboard rebellion, blocked by the powerful force of hero candidate Kay, began to change.

* *

Kay felt annoyed.

The Apostle of Anrage is a being completed by twenty personalities trapped in one body.

Even if one personality is powerful, if the others pull it down, that ego is pushed out and loses control of the body.

Like crabs in an open jar, they’re all busy pulling each other down!

Therefore, for Kay’s escape, he needed to convince the other egos that there was a way for them to escape this body too, that he would provide sacrifices to help everyone escape.

That way, they wouldn’t interfere when he escaped into Sing’s body.

Of course, the others didn’t need exceptional bodies.

If he gave them such bodies, what if they destroyed his new vessel?

The grudges among the egos unified in the Apostle of Anrage’s collective were immense.

The longer they spent hindering each other, the greater their resentment grew.

By now, they were practically mortal enemies.

‘I was planning to fill 19 suitable vessels and proceed with the ritual.’

But a problem arose.

The students, despite realizing his strength, refused to back down.

Breaking them, crushing their spirits.

Despite using every means to repel the strong students, others would emerge like substitutes and cling to him.

Eliminating them would be easy.

The problem was the gaze of the other egos.

-It’s unforgivable to subdue them and then let them go.

-Are you planning to monopolize the good vessel for yourself?

-In that case, we’ll drive you out and continue the ritual ourselves.

If they weren’t going to be sacrifices, he shouldn’t incapacitate them.

Rather, even if the students tried to attack until they fainted, he had to drive them away before that happened.

For the sake of what comes after the ritual.

But that was becoming difficult.

[Holy Sword Release]

Hero Ishtar and Saint Yufi.

Surprisingly, the selfish hero party that only cared about themselves began to help the students.

They fought fiercely, determined to help others who had nothing to do with them.

The hero’s vessel was tempting.

He also liked that she was a woman of great beauty.

In life, it’s better to be a woman than a man.

She would also be less suspicious.

Above all, the fact that he, a “hero candidate,” could become a real hero was attractive.

However, to subdue Ishtar, he would have to cross the “suppression line” of his output.

‘I need to divert the power I use to suppress other egos into combat.’

If the first control line is maintained to avoid subduing, and the second control line is suppressed to avoid killing, then the third control line is kept to prevent other egos from opening and to maintain his turn.

No matter how inexperienced, she was still a hero.

To defeat her, he would have to cross the third control line.

From Kay’s perspective, who wanted to lead the ritual proactively and escape into Sing’s body, he obviously couldn’t cross the third control line.

So he couldn’t subdue the hero.

That gave courage to other upper-class powerhouses as well.

Students who could be subdued without effort if fought separately came charging in one after another.

To prevent him from kidnapping other students.

To prevent him from taking other actions.

Kay felt increasingly anxious.

His allotted time was running out.

The power of other egos pulling him down was growing stronger.

Even the berserker who had just collapsed was coming back at him with even more fury, as if she had eaten something wrong.

With diminishing control in an unreasonable fight where he couldn’t and shouldn’t subdue his opponents.

Kay was forced to make a choice.

Should he subdue all the troublemakers and perform the ritual, even if it meant giving strong bodies to his competitors and risking having his opportunity stolen by another ego?

Or should he give up his chance and prevent others from enjoying this opportunity by holding them back?

Or should he promise that everyone would get strong bodies and make a new start, and then knock them all down at once?

“You’ve brought this crisis upon yourselves. I’ll make you regret charging in without valuing your lives.”

Just as Kay was genuinely filled with killing intent, everyone on the ship slipped.

The cruise ship lurched greatly as it began to turn.

The ship had started moving.

Toward the deserted island in the distance, where the fighting was taking place.

“I told them to do something if they couldn’t stop the fight, but they’re planning to destroy the island?”

From Hestia’s muttering, who was now dejected even after her fury had subsided, Kay realized.

Some crazy student had infiltrated the wheelhouse while he was tied up and turned the ship’s helm.

They were trying to forcibly end the deserted island auction and bring Jona, another executive of the Foundation, onto the ship.

‘No.’

If the auction ends, a skilled person who can stop his ritual will return.

His ego as a hero candidate couldn’t overcome this situation.

-Then hand it over.

Among the twenty egos, the one sleeping in the deepest place, the one that all 19 egos had thoroughly restrained, whispered.

-If not now, none of us will have another chance.

Kay conceded.

As the hero candidate’s ego sank, a new ego surged up.

“Phew. It’s been a while. Regaining the sensation of a human body.”

Ishtar, who was about to strike down the fool talking to himself in the middle of an intense battle.

Her decisive blow was blocked by a barrier that spread out in front of the man’s extended hand.

“A mana barrier? And it stopped my strike with a holy sword using dark attributes?!”

“Why so surprised, child? A demon is one who has corrupted even their soul to darkness. Is it not natural for one who has pledged despair in the afterlife to possess such strength?”

Both the deserted island auction and the shipboard rebellion began to escalate in danger.