Ch.54Lower Level (4)

“I’ve got a good idea.”

“May I hear what it is?”

I looked at Cecilia with worried eyes. No, rather than worried, it would be more accurate to say I was terrified.

My reaction wasn’t simply because she was stronger than me. If that were the issue, I would have thought of a way to persuade her.

‘With Cecilia, it’s not her strength that’s the problem, but her personality…’

To explain her personality simply, she could be described as an “extreme sadist.”

Cecilia enjoyed seeing others suffer, whether physically or mentally. She had a sadistic fetish.

Despite fulfilling her duties as a dragon well, the problem was that when it came to things outside her responsibilities, she did whatever she pleased.

‘And making me suffer isn’t something dragons are forbidden from doing.’

If I had some treasure to stimulate her collector’s instinct, it might have been possible to reduce her sadism, but I didn’t have any suitable treasures prepared.

I looked at Cecilia with the certainty that she was preparing something terrible for me.

And as if rewarding my gaze, she answered my question.

“Fight that thing alone.”

“By myself…?”

I looked at Cecilia with an expression asking if she was serious. Rather than saying I couldn’t do it, I was requesting more explanation.

It didn’t seem like she would want to see a fight with a predetermined outcome.

“Yes, alone. If you show me something that pleases me, I’ll heal all your wounds before sending you off.”

“You need to tell me what scene you want to see!”

“That’s something you should figure out yourselves. I don’t think I need to tell you that much.”

Lilly seemed angry at Cecilia’s attitude, but I stopped her. It was too obvious what scene Cecilia wanted to see.

I stroked Lilly a couple of times and then stepped forward with my sword.

“I’ll be fine, so please just watch.”

“I’ve told you so many times to be more careful, seriously!”

Was it because my stamina was depleted?

Staggering. My body couldn’t walk straight, swaying left and right with each step forward.

Lilly sent me a worried look, but Cecilia instead showed a gaze full of joy and anticipation.

‘From now on, I’ll struggle as desperately as possible.’

In a fight I couldn’t win, I needed to keep moving forward even if my body was crushed and broken. Cecilia had no interest in seeing someone suffer while giving up.

So I needed to fight the ant queen with all my might, thinking I could win.

‘Anyway, it’s better to spare Lilly as much as possible, so this works out.’

Staggering forward, I finally arrived in front of the queen. The queen was still watching Cecilia cautiously.

She wanted to capture me but wasn’t sure how Cecilia would react. As if to alleviate those concerns, Cecilia spoke.

“If you don’t show me a scene that pleases me, I’ll give her to you. I’ll even heal her completely. So capture her with all your might.”

She was saying that if the queen caught me, Cecilia would even provide after-service care.

Being treated like an object wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but it was great news for the queen who had been careful not to damage me.

“■■■■—!!”

“You seem pleased.”

Thanks to having nothing to hold back for, the queen let out a roar of joy as she looked at me. In response, I gripped my sword and faced the queen.

Bang-!

The queen’s leg shot out instantly. It was too fast to dodge like before. So I held my sword at an angle to deflect the leg shooting toward me.

“That’s incredibly heavy…”

Despite deflecting the attack with nearly perfect timing, my palm holding the sword stung. If I had applied even slightly less force, I would have lost my grip.

The queen, seemingly unconcerned with my condition, continued her next attack.

Bang

Bang

Bang

Bang bang

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang

The queen’s attacks came faster as time passed.

After the third attack, the ground was so destroyed that not only deflecting but even standing was difficult.

“Hah… hah….”

Ragged breaths escaped my mouth. Only then did I realize too much time had passed since I’d last hydrated.

It was natural that I hadn’t had time to drink while continuously fleeing.

My breathing became rough and my stamina approached its limit. My vision gradually blurred, but I felt my senses becoming sharper.

Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. Left. Right, Right.

My eyes moved constantly, scanning the entire space—the queen’s legs raining down on me and the ground breaking beneath them.

The areas I couldn’t confirm visually were processed by the enhanced senses from gripping my sword.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Clang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Clang. Clang.

Among the attacks that initially could barely be deflected, I somehow began to counterattack.

Clang-

However, cutting through the queen’s carapace with a sword not even wrapped in blade aura was beyond my ability.

‘I have too little aura.’

My aura was so depleted that I couldn’t even wrap it around my blade, let alone use it for body enhancement.

The only reason I could deflect the queen’s attacks was thanks to my sword, which remained undamaged even when directly clashing with the queen’s legs.

‘Left and right, syncopated.’

Once again, the queen’s attacks continued. I deflected the queen’s first leg with minimal movement.

For the next attack, I twisted my body to create time. I tried to deflect this attack as well.

However, my body couldn’t keep moving as I wanted forever.

Stagger-

My stamina, approaching its limit, caught my ankle. The arm trying to raise the sword suddenly felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and my legs wouldn’t move.

Crack-

A different sound from the ground-striking ones reached my ears. Simultaneously, severe pain surged from my side.

“Kuhup—!!”

“Frey..!!”

The pain felt in my heightened senses. I reflexively tried to grab the wounded area. Or rather, I tried to.

“Oh no… I got hit…?”

The wound was bigger than I thought. The hand I moved to grab my side caught only air.

Drip- Drip drip.

Instead, drops of blood from the wound fell onto my hand. Only then did I realize a hole had been punctured through my side.

“Cough…”

A mouthful of blood was spat out through my mouth.

With a major wound and blood loss in an instant, my consciousness began to fade. It was a state that could rightfully be called a fatal wound.

Seeing me like this, Cecilia sent emotions of extreme joy. But I was still one step short of satisfying her.

Thud. Thud.

The queen approached me. As if knowing my tenacity, she launched an attack intending to put me in a completely dying state.

“Cecilia will heal me, so you’re attacking quite recklessly… Well, I would do the same.”

The attack’s speed was very fast, and the target point was the upper body, slightly to the right.

I had no way to completely avoid that attack. My stamina and aura were both depleted, and my body was in the worst condition with a hole in my side.

So I had to sacrifice part of my body. Knowing what was needed to evade, my choice was extremely quick.

Crunch.

In an instant, my right arm flew off. I didn’t know if it was completely crushed or flew through the air somewhere, and I had no energy to find out.

‘Even with bleeding resistance, I can’t last long like this…’

One last bit of consciousness. I was given only one chance to act.

Survival instinct screamed for retreat, but I suppressed that instinct and took one step forward.

Going forward, not backward, was the only way to survive here.

Swish.

Squeezing out the last bit of my aura, a very faint blade aura swirled around my sword. I could probably maintain it for only 1-2 seconds.

“I’d like to… pierce your heart… but that’s too difficult now.”

The queen’s heart area was surrounded by the hardest carapace. With this level of blade aura, I couldn’t pierce it.

I didn’t have the stamina to reach near the heart either. So I had to compromise and be satisfied with this much.

“The carapace is hard… but the joints are slightly weaker.”

The queen’s legs that had tried to crush me repeatedly. I stabbed my sword into one of the joints.

Considering her enormous body, it was close to just a scratch, but the fact that I had landed a hit remained unchanged.

“■■■■■—!!!!”

The queen, seeming to know this fact, let out an angry sound. Even as she did, I twisted the sword stabbed into the joint as if exhaling my last breath.

At my action, the queen seemed to have completely lost her sanity and was raising her leg to strike me down.

‘Ah… I can’t go on anymore…’

Twitch. Twitch.

I tried to dodge somehow, but my body wouldn’t move anymore. No, rather, it was abnormal that I had been moving until now.

Nevertheless, I sent signals to my body to move until the end.

It was just stubbornness.

The stubbornness to mess with the queen who had presented a difficulty dozens of times harder than expected when entering this mine.

But despite that stubbornness, my body wouldn’t move, and the queen’s leg coming down on me appeared in slow motion.

Just as my life was about to flash before my eyes, the queen’s leg stopped, unable to come down from the sky.

“Your performance was satisfactory. If not for my promise, I would have kept you in my lair forever to adore you.”

“That’s a bit disturbing…”

With Cecilia’s disturbing gaze as my last sight, I lost consciousness and closed my eyes.

I think I heard Lilly crying somewhere behind me… but I had no strength left to comfort her.

* * *

[A fragment of the Goddess of Hardship looks at you.]

[The fragment of Hardship makes a decision.]

[‘I too, like the War God, will bet on you.’]

[The fragment of Hardship prays for your suffering.]

[The fragment of Hardship consumes its last power.]

[You have acquired the trait ‘Indomitability’.]

‘Who could it be?’

In my sleeping consciousness, I wondered about the voice I heard.

Neither the War God I encountered before nor the Goddess of Hardship I just met were gods that could be found in the game.

‘This world should only have the main goddess and the gods of each main race…’