Ch.51Ep.51: Hell Training

“Huff… Huff…”

“You’ve stopped already? How useless! Get up and keep running!”

“I-I’m going to die–“

“You won’t die with the goblin mask on anyway, so run, you bastard! Run!”

“Ugh… Aaaaargh!!”

Radios felt such resentment toward his past self that he wanted to beat him to death.

Why? Because Rin’s training was truly hellish!

‘Seriously, how can someone make a person run 100km without any mana!’

And it wasn’t even paced running—it was full-speed sprinting.

No matter how superhuman Radios might be, was it possible to sprint 100km without mana?

And without a single break?

He had already run nearly 50km without stopping, and he was finally reaching his limit.

Arsia had been crawling along for a while now, but strangely, Rin seemed fixated on Radios.

“Run, run! How do you expect to perform in bed with stamina like that!”

“W-why are you concerned about that?!”

“You look sturdy enough, but your endurance is pathetic? Perhaps you can’t get it—”

“Please shut up!”

To think he’d hear sex jokes from the mother after hearing them from Brina.

While he couldn’t talk back to Brina because of her age, he couldn’t respond to Rin because she was married.

Especially since her husband was Kraud… saying the wrong thing could be disastrous.

Now he understood how Brina could make such sexual jokes at her age.

It turned out to be like mother, like daughter. With a mother who spoke like that, what would the child learn?

Of course, he didn’t know that Rin and Brina were the same person.

“Huff… huff… please… let’s rest… okay?”

“Shut up and run! They’re chasing you from behind! There’s a traitor right in front of you—run with the determination to kill them!”

“..!”

“You can do it! Don’t limit your own potential! If you collapse here, you’ll have nothing!”

“Daaaamn it!!”

With someone constantly pushing from behind, how could he not run?

“I’m going! Yes, I’m going! Even if it kills me, I’ll go!!”

Radios finally used his last resort—the goblin mask.

Immediately, the pain throughout his body began to subside.

The pain itself had accumulated, but the mask perfectly realigned his muscles damaged from running 50km and the slightly stretched ligaments.

His bones, which had been creaking, were now perfectly aligned.

Though his stamina remained the same, Radios was now in optimal physical condition.

Of course, after recovering his body, he immediately deactivated the goblin mask.

To obtain an Order, one shouldn’t rely on shortcuts. Using the goblin mask, which was essentially doping, was even more out of the question.

“Aaaaargh!!”

But that didn’t mean the remaining distance would be any shorter.

The next 50km would be far more hellish than what he’d experienced so far.

“Let’s see who wins! Aaaaargh!”

“…Has he been triggered? Pfft.”

Behind Radios, who was running without stopping while repeatedly psyching himself up,

Brina smiled with satisfaction, her expression one of surprise.

Even goblins with superior physical abilities couldn’t run 100km without mana on their first day.

They would frequently vomit and demand to know why they had to train this way.

Of course, Brina didn’t pay any attention to such complaints.

After giving them a sweet rest the next day, she increased the distance to 150km on the third day.

At that point, half of the goblins gave up their positions as disciples, saying they couldn’t take it anymore.

After that, she increased it to 200km, and then made them run 300km with sandbags.

Why did she keep making them do this?

Running has the effect of rapidly circulating blood throughout the body.

Some might say that superhuman beings with mana don’t need blood circulation?

That’s nonsense.

As much as they use mana as a new power source, living beings must pay attention to their fundamental essence—blood circulation.

All physical abilities come from blood, not mana.

Of course, even if blood circulation improves, one can’t suddenly gain powers like mana.

But one thing is certain:

No matter how miraculous mana might be, it’s useless if the user can’t handle it.

Brina had held this belief even before obtaining her Order.

She continued running without mana every day without fail.

And as days passed, she showed explosive growth.

With a solid foundation, handling mana became easier, and she could output more power.

Imagine drawing mana to use Meteor.

You extract a large amount of mana from its source and use it to realize the spell.

If the mana that filled the source leaves the body instantly without any control,

The user will inevitably feel a recoil, and something else must quickly replace the void left by the mana.

That’s why blood circulation is necessary.

Brina, who had a keen interest in medicine, had made several discoveries.

She found that when using mana, blood activity slows down momentarily.

Also, through numerous experiments, she discovered that people with robust physiques have faster blood circulation.

Mana exhaustion is also based on this principle.

When extracting an overwhelming amount of mana, the blood throughout the body stops moving, causing strain on the body.

This immediately leads to a critical condition.

However, Brina didn’t reveal this theory to the goblins.

The reason was simple.

No matter how much she cared for her kind, goblins were ultimately magical beasts.

They act for their own benefit rather than to help others.

Therefore, Brina wanted to teach her disciples the importance of the physical body.

The problem was that they became furious when she started training without revealing the secret.

‘That’s good enough for a passing grade.’

A human with more tenacity than goblins is welcome.

And with Kraud buying time, teaching would be enjoyable.

If he could master Subduing Dead, which was designated as forbidden alchemy within the clan…

“A truly unmanageable madman might be born…”

Wasn’t it exciting already?

The thought of that fragile human awakening his Order and walking the path of divinity.

The image of herself standing beside him, herself awakening her Divine Order and rejoicing.

Brina couldn’t contain her joy.

“So you should start running too.”

“Ugh… I-I’m going to die–“

“I won’t accept the same excuse, so run.”

“…Grr! Aaaaargh! I’ll kill the captain when I catch him!!”

Arsia, who had been running as if she were barely walking, spotted Rin.

She chased after Radios, the cause of her falling behind, cursing him with all sorts of profanities.

“This is good.”

Meanwhile, the person who had caused the friction between them was simply smiling.

***

“Hahahahahahaha!! What did you say? It was an illusion? What nonsense is that?!”

“Kuh, kuhup! Apostle! P-please calm down!”

“You clearly said it with your own mouth! That they were advancing! And now you say it was an illusion?!”

“Aaaaargh!”

Unable to contain her rage, Namgung Ihyun cut off Mir’s right arm in a fit of anger.

He screamed in agony, sprawled on the floor.

If it were just an arm being cut off, it wouldn’t matter, but he was now wounded by an Order.

Namgung Ihyun’s unique Order of Heavenly Killing.

A malevolent ability that inflicts hellish pain on its target, driving them insane.

This power of hers had manifested on Mir.

“How dare! How dare! How daaaare!! A mere goblin, how daaaare!!!!”

Boom.

Her fury was so great that the entire temple shook.

Mir instinctively knew.

If he didn’t stop Namgung Ihyun here, even at the risk of his life, something terrible might happen.

“Apostle..!”

Just as he rose, determined to stop her even if it cost him his life.

Grip.

“Who–“

“Stay still.”

With a familiar voice, a woman stepped forward, pressing down on his shoulder.

It was Serena Tolos, the approaching archbishop of the Chaos Cult.

“What are you trying to do!”

“Move aside or die.”

“That’s!”

Mir was shocked by the object in Serena’s hand.

And for good reason—despite being something no mere human should be able to handle, she was holding it.

“H-how can you use that–“

“Now you understand why I sit in the archbishop’s seat?”

“Shining Trapezohedron!”

The Shining Trapezohedron, commonly known as the Shining Irregular Polyhedron.

A weapon possessed by the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep.

The worst item that can manipulate all laws existing in this world.

Naturally, it can’t manipulate causality beyond its control range, such as time or space.

What it can manipulate are things like “fire is not hot” or “all debuff spells grant buffs instead.”

Or “my body becomes invincible for a certain period.”

Even with such limited manipulation, it could be called overpowered.

The cost is the user’s mana, but Serena Tolos possesses part of Nyarlathotep’s Order.

Naturally, she has more than enough power for the manipulation.

“Activating Shining Trapezohedron.”

Click. Whirrrr.

“Target: Namgung Ihyun.”

Finally, Serena smiled as if she was about to return everything she had endured, and shouted:

“As of this moment, I seal all of Namgung Ihyun’s mana.”

In sync with Serena’s activation command, a red aura gradually emerged from the Shining Trapezohedron.

“How dare you!”

At that moment, Namgung Ihyun regained her senses and glared at Serena.

A mere jackal trying to seal her mana?

She couldn’t allow that!

“Fall into hell! Serena Tolos!!”

As Namgung Ihyun swung her arm, a blood-red energy reminiscent of blood shot toward Serena.

Boom!

A massive explosion engulfed Yog-Sothoth’s temple.