Ch.313Chapter 313: The Great Confrontation (4)

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What’s happening now is one-sided violence.

THWACK-!!

I put all my strength into my fist and strike Desire’s abdomen.

“Ughk…!!”

One-sided violence completed with Desire letting out an unrestrained groan of pain after taking a direct hit to the stomach.

To an outside observer, the menacing aura I emit as I throw my punches and the seemingly fragile appearance of Desire trembling from my blows might look like a brutal scene of a man mercilessly beating a weaker woman.

But anyone who truly knows Desire would be shocked to see the master of this demonic realm being rendered so helpless.

Well, since there’s no one watching us here—just the one inflicting violence and the one receiving it—there’s no reason to care about others’ perceptions.

I’m simply mercilessly beating Desire, who is writhing in pain as her entire body seems to twist after thoughtlessly absorbing the divine power within me and suffering the consequences.

THWACK-!!

I’m forced to strike her with my bare hands since I have no time to retrieve the dragon sword I dropped when taking her hit.

THWACK-!! THWACK-!!

As I relentlessly strike various parts of her body, especially her abdomen, the sensation transmitted through my fists tells me I’m definitely causing her pain.

It’s an incomparably different feeling from earlier when I swung the dragon sword and left small cuts on her body.

I had longed to feel this sensation for ages, and I thought I would naturally feel elation seeing this scene realized by my own hands, but…

“You’re making dying sounds when I’m barely hitting you.”

Instead of elation, I pressured Desire with a voice so cold it surprised even me as I spoke.

“…”

And toward Desire, who was in such a dazed state she forgot to respond to my words,

THWACK-!!

I simply threw another punch, striking her abdomen hard.

After beating Desire like this for who knows how long…

“…Nngh…”

Taking her faint groan—beyond screaming and closer to unconsciousness—as my signal,

WHOOSH-!!

I roughly swung my right hand that had been gripping her arm while beating her and threw Desire to the ground.

Making a loud noise as she tumbled across the obsidian floor, Desire showed no notable reaction even after hitting the ground, likely due to the accumulated impact she’d taken from me.

Normally… or at least if she had even a faint trace of consciousness remaining,

She would have executed a breakfall the moment I threw her, or moved her body to avoid sprawling on the cold obsidian floor.

“…Ugh…”

Seeing her only letting out faint groans while tumbling ungracefully across the floor,

I could tell she was now in a similar state to how I had been moments ago when my consciousness was cut off by her brilliant strike.

The difference might be that while my consciousness was completely severed momentarily, Desire’s remained dimly present even though she was too dazed to think clearly.

…Looking at her state, I thought she might have been better off briefly losing consciousness like I did, and I unconsciously gave myself higher marks for my brief blackout.

Ah, this isn’t the time to be evaluating Desire’s collapse.

While this might seem like an ungraceful scene for the final moments of a decisive battle with a demon god,

When fighting a battle that determines not just personal survival but the fate of the world, who needs to distinguish between ugliness and elegance?

What matters is that the demon god who viewed the world as merely a stepping stone for realizing her twisted ideals has been caught by an unexpected counterattack and now lies on the cold obsidian floor.

And what’s important is that I—capable of delivering the blow that will prevent this demon god from exerting influence on this land anymore—am standing firmly on my two legs.

The decisive battle with Desire, brief yet long in its own way, seemed to be ending with my victory.

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Perhaps it was because the tension left my body the moment I sensed the battle with Desire was over.

“Huff… Huff…”

After somehow recovering and raising my body that had taken a fatal blow,

Suppressing the pain that tormented my body regardless of the healed wounds, my body—which I had pushed beyond its limits while mercilessly striking Desire—was sending emergency signals.

The rough breathing I’m exhaling now and,

“Fuck…”

The pain stabbing throughout my body, making curses flow from my mouth as naturally as breathing, were those signals.

It was the price for forcing my body to move beyond its limits, but,

“Kuhehe…”

Even while receiving these painful signals throughout my body, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh tinged with satisfaction.

The decisive battle with Desire that I had envisioned countless times in my mind.

In the fights with Desire that repeatedly occurred in my dreams whenever I slept,

I always ended up collapsing, keenly aware of the overwhelming gap between us.

It was always the same. The conclusion where I would tumble across the floor in an ungraceful manner, defeated by Desire’s martial arts that used her extremely trained body as a weapon rather than wielding an actual weapon.

To avoid such a fate, I sacrificed even my sleeping hours to train my body and sword, but while the time I could hold out increased, the conclusion was always me being the one to fall.

The training itself wasn’t without merit, as I could inflict minor wounds on Desire’s body, but

When you end up being defeated by the opponent you’re supposed to take down, such differences don’t hold much significance.

Even though it happened in imagination rather than reality, it was an unpleasant experience, but

After calmly accepting the gap between Desire and myself, I no longer experienced displeasure when envisioning myself falling to her attacks.

Rather, I more intensely contemplated how to land a decisive blow on Desire as she tried to exercise the victor’s rights over my fallen self.

In a way, rather than fiercely charging at Desire with my sword,

It was more effective for Desire to approach me—feigning defenselessness—to take the divine power within me, only to face an unexpected counterattack.

After intensely connecting thought after thought, the conclusion I reached was this:

After delicately controlling the divine power that I could vaguely handle even right after losing consciousness,

In response to Desire’s energy trying to take the divine power within me, I would pour out an amount of divine power that even Desire couldn’t handle all at once.

Her vessel would be overwhelmed by an amount of divine power it couldn’t digest, causing problems in her body.

It sounded simple, but realizing it was a dangerous gamble that might cost multiple lives, yet…

“My, my, have you gone mute from consuming all that divine power you love so much? Was it so delicious that you’ve become speechless?”

“…Ungh…”

As can be seen from Desire’s current state, unable to properly respond to my taunts, it was a gamble that ended in great success.

With a conclusion that was nothing short of winner-takes-all, how could I not feel good?

“Ptui.”

After roughly spitting out the blood that had risen from within,

“That hurt like hell.”

I had to express my thoughts about Desire’s strike that caused me more pain than intended and knocked me unconscious—the price of victory was indeed steep.

Even with my ultra-regenerative ability constantly activating in this situation, blood was still pooling inside me and rising up.

If it had been someone else… say, Shizu, who had taken Desire’s combo attack that cut off my consciousness, it would have been difficult to guarantee their survival.

“If it wasn’t me, just imagining someone getting up and talking to you after taking that hit would be unthinkable—that’s how impactful that strike was, so there’s nothing strange about it.”

That’s why I needed to show at least minimal respect to the opponent who had delivered such a blow to me.

Even if that opponent is Desire, who is now just blinking repeatedly on her knees, not knowing what has happened to her.

The positions have reversed.

Until just moments ago, I was the one looking up from below after losing consciousness, and Desire was looking down at me from above like I was prey.

Now our positions have switched.

The difference, if any, is that unlike her, I view her not as prey but as a target to be defeated—a small but enormously significant difference.

Still, perhaps thanks to her overwhelming power compared to mine,

I could see reason gradually returning to Desire’s eyes as she lay on the floor.

[She’s regaining consciousness quickly.]

Seeing this, Paphnir commented in a way that seemed inappropriate for the situation…

[But what good will it do her to regain consciousness?]

No, he was simply making a statement that accurately assessed the situation, recognizing that even if Desire woke up, the situation wouldn’t change.

Why was Paphnir so certain?

“How… is… this…?”

From Desire’s mouth, still suppressing the pain caused by the power that should have circulated naturally but was now flowing backward, came a question filled with bewilderment.

“How… could… this…?”

She was trying her hardest to raise her fallen body, but

I wasn’t foolish enough to hand over the sword hilt I had finally grasped to my opponent, so

THWACK-!!

I pushed Desire down with my foot on her chest just as she was trying to get up.

“Kuhack…!!”

The groan that burst from Desire’s mouth as she tumbled across the obsidian floor, unable to endure the pain, cast a shade of suffering over this pitch-black arena.

Since I had never seen Desire in such pain before, not only before my regression but also in all the timelines I knew only through memories,

‘…Did I really hit her properly?’

Even I, the one who had inflicted this pain on Desire, questioned whether I had executed a proper attack, but

The way Desire continued to flail on the obsidian floor even after tumbling, and

“Huh… huuh…”

The way she was forcibly making herself dazed to forget the pain she was experiencing, moaning as if drugged—none of it seemed fake at all.

[If that’s acting, she should have been an actress.]

Even Paphnir, who in some ways knows Desire better than I do, chimed in with such a remark, so there was no need to think that Desire’s current state was false.

Well, I’ve somehow awakened her consciousness. The enemy I need to defeat is now full of openings, writhing in pain.

I needed to seize this opportunity to pierce her heart with the dragon sword and completely shatter her divine body, which she needs to physically interact with this world.

So I moved toward where the dragon sword had fallen when I dropped it after taking Desire’s strike earlier,

And was able to grasp the sword without difficulty.

As if responding to my desperate will to finish Desire off,

WOONG-!!

The dragon sword emitted a powerful blade aura as if eager to fulfill my will immediately.

[Let’s end this.]

Paphnir’s calm voice saying we should end everything was just a bonus.

Step-

I took a step forward.

It was a small yet significant step toward cutting out the massive distortion rooted in this land.