Chapter 363

Chapter 363. The Hunter and the Hunted (5)

Witnessing the moment when a piece of divinity perished was the third time for me. Eliminating one that wasn’t a proper god could be excluded.

‘It’s twice.’

I had captured two gods.

Thanks to that, absorbing the fading status was not difficult. I absorbed Agnotia’s divinity without letting even a drop go to waste.

With the aftermath of the hunt neatly concluded, a satisfying breath naturally escaped.

“Haah.”

The amount of absorbed divinity and divine status compared to Meforoseta was less, but the feeling after this hunt was far more exhilarating and light.

Perhaps it was due to the accumulated grudge towards Agnotia.

Indulging in the satisfactory mood, I took repeated deep breaths.

Beeeeep!

「The system is under attack!」

A piercing noise sounded, and a bright red system screen appeared. Not only my entire body’s muscles but even the intangible thoughts in my head turned rigid all at once.

During that moment of stiffness, I heard something.

– Kyaaa!

Was it because I was a god tethered to Earth? I heard the primordial god’s scream in my mind, no, from within my soul.

I couldn’t tell if it was really audible or just an hallucination. However, it was far more painful than Agnotia’s scream I heard earlier.

The sense was overwhelming and my body froze momentarily, but I quickly caught my breath and shouted urgently.

“Where is it?! Share your location now!”

I needed that to go and provide support!

After desperately crying out for what seemed too long, an arrow appeared.

“Gilenios!”

“What is it? You’re already calling me back after chasing me away not long ago…”

“If you waste my time with nonsense, I’ll break your neck! Move to the nearest Hole immediately!”

I yelled at Gilenios to move to the area with a Hole, and from there, went beyond the causality to the given path.

In the seconds that passed while madly following the arrow that appeared in my sight, the journey to the system felt unbearably distant.

To make matters worse, the arrow blinked, disappearing and reappearing several times.

Each time, my heart sank, and it felt as if my soul was being shaken.

The fear of losing my roots was beyond description.

Although I hadn’t seen my reflection in a Mirror, if I had, I would have seen myself as pale as a blank page.

Even though I never thought fondly of the system, that was the case.

The scream resonating in my mind only amplified the unbearable fear.

Clenching my teeth, I sprinted towards the system.

In the distance, I began to see a massive shadow.

Initially, I couldn’t discern what it was, with its spiky, branch-like form jutting skyward.

All I could see was its back from my direction.

However, as I drew closer and could recognize its form, every hair on my body stood on end.

The body standing on four legs was covered in a hard shell like a tortoise.

There were ten holes in its shell, from which an equal number of heads protruded.

This bizarre creature, with ten snake heads, dragged its swollen belly across the ground and thudded its thick tail.

I deduced that this monstrous entity was the long-ago foe I faced.

‘Angramoti.’

The aura it emitted was incredibly similar to the one I sensed when the Damned System attacked from behind inside the gate.

It was the creature I once chased out of the gate, now attempting to enter Earth through the path beyond causality.

Even though I had planned to hunt it, I didn’t expect to encounter it so quickly.

– Kuwahhh!

The moment I clenched my teeth, Angramoti’s body shook mightily with a fierce roar.

Through the bulging gut covered with greedily swollen flesh, something was revealed.

That glowing white sphere was undoubtedly the system!

Without hesitation, I readjusted the grip on my spear.

Then, moving my weight backwards, I twisted at the waist.

In that brief moment when Angramoti’s body rose and fell, the space quivered like an echo.

Thud.

A heavy vibration transmitted as if the space trembled.

The white sphere underneath its claw gained a crack.

The screams resonating in my head became even more intense.

Simultaneously, the glass puppet smoothly covered Vetroban’s spear.

Using every ounce of strength in my arms, waist, and thighs, I hurled the spear.

Swoosh.

The sound piercing the space was subtle.

As if defying any resistance from the wind, the spear flew fiercely, aimed at Angramoti’s body.

Did it sense the attack?

The fourth of its ten heads turned back and hastily moved.

– Kuwahhh!

Shortly after, vetroban’s spear, encrusted in golden glass, disappeared into that head’s maw.

It swallowed the spear with a gulp.

The initial target, its body, was never reached, causing the attack to go awry.

However, the creature wasn’t entirely unharmed.

Boom.

The head that devoured the spear exploded.

– Kyaaa!

The rest of the heads began to screech in unison.

From the severed neck, black blood splurted like a fountain.

The white sphere that had been crushed under its foot used that gap, rolling slightly to the side.

“Kerax!”

Seeing that, I grabbed Kerax with my empty hand and dashed forward.

Stepping on its massive tail, I began to climb its colossal body.

Moments before another head lunged from the side to swallow me whole; its maw opened wide.

I leaped high to avoid it, descending once more with the spear pointed at another head.

The seventh head, chasing after me with its neck extended, opened its maw wide.

I twisted in mid-air.

Barely brushing past the seventh head’s jaws, I landed on its nape area.

Immediately, I swung the brilliantly lit Kerax horizontally.

Screech!

The slicing sound was oddly bizarre for cutting through reptile skin.

A fountain of black blood erupted from beneath the serpent’s split skin.

Meanwhile, a different head crept behind me, trying to engulf me.

I set the spear upright and quickly positioned it as another wide-open maw filled my vision.

– Kyaaa!

The sixth head, which intended to swallow me but ended up with a spear lodged between its palate and tongue, jerked violently.

Attacking heads nine and ten emerged from below, and I poured glass puppetry onto them.

The same way I destroyed the barriers on the Mage’s Island.

As a result, heads nine and ten began to shred into pieces.

Meanwhile, the sixth head violently thrashed, attempting to pull free the spear embedded in its maw.

I let go of Kerax’s spear, reaching out into the air.

“Vetroban!”

Kerax had absorbed Vetroban’s spear, utilizing its unique summoning function.

As I summoned the spear, the sight unfolded before me couldn’t help but evoke a swear word.

“Damn it!”

The flesh of the neck that should have been empty was swelling grotesquely.

Within moments, what emerged was…

“Isn’t it crazy how fast it regenerates!”

Another head, identical to the one that burst just moments ago.

Seeing the fully regenerated head was shocking.

But for now, my main urgency was elsewhere.

I had to exclude the system from the battle.

As it loudly claimed its incapacity for combat, asserting that defense was its limit, it seemed best to assume it was useless in battle and step in directly.

Also, having the system nearby meant I couldn’t fully utilize my puppetry, as it would be exposed to its power.

“If I make a mistake, I might land a suicide blow myself!”

For me to fight freely, the system had to be excluded.

Fortunately, most of the heads were focused on me since I intervened.

While withdrawing my body to avoid the black smoke, I used the tangled snake necks as structures to hide and observed.

While searching for my vanished figure, the heads glanced around.

Several times, the necks tangled with each other while observing each other’s gaps.

After a few seconds, the ten heads all screeched in unison again.

I snuck down to Angramoti’s foot and embedded my spear into it.

It was its foot, pressing down on what seemed to be the system.

Pushing in and embedding the spear in the foot, the white sphere began to roll away again.

I couldn’t stand the torturous pace, so I intervened.

“Get out quickly!”

I gave the white sphere a hefty kick.

– Kyaaa!

Hearing a feeble scream, I once again aimed my spear at Angramoti.

My spine tingled with an icy presence, causing me to flinch and tremble my shoulders instinctively.

Thanks to that, I narrowly avoided a black blade thrusting up beneath my chin.

If I hadn’t moved, my head would have been skewered.

I retreated a step back with a shiver.

Meanwhile, a figure emerged from Angramoti’s shadow where the spear had been.

It dawned on me that until moments ago, the system wasn’t struggling against Angramoti, but this being instead.

Approximately two meters in size.

Eyes slit like a cat’s, running vertically.

A tightly closed, single-line mouth.

Skin a pale cyan hue.

Ears’ shapes were long and pointy, yet slightly droopy.

And eyes not yet fully red.

It was a creature I saw for the first time, whose aura I hadn’t encountered before.

Yet, even without introductions, its identity seemed apparent.

– Avoid obstinately, will you.

Unlike Karklein, whom I had hunted earlier, or Angramoti, which I was dealing with until recently, this being still possessed some self-awareness that allowed speech.

“… Omby.”

As I faced the final outlier, strength automatically surged in my grip on the spear.

‘Can I win…?’

When I charged towards Angramoti, I hadn’t even given it a thought.

I wasn’t confident in a sure victory.

But there was at least a belief that I wouldn’t go down easily.

I considered Angramoti to be at least my equal.

But against this being, I sensed that it was beyond me.

‘How foolish I was.’

In that moment of feeling dwarfed, radically challenging my notion of excluding the system and confronting it head-on.

Not realizing the sky, another sky loomed over the heavens.

At the slightest shiver when I swallowed dryly, omby lunged at me.

The tension from the day I first encountered a nemesis-rank returned vividly.

In the instant I frantically tried to block its assault with all my might.

Another presence burst out from Angramoti’s shadow where Omby emerged moments earlier.

The aura belonged to Senoa, who had appeared out of nowhere in the past and vanished with Temoria and Agnotia.

With a striking golden sword in hand, Senoa fiercely charged at Omby.

– Perseverant, you.

As the black sword and golden sword clashed, a tremendous impact occurred.

Damned System

TL’s Corner:

Ohhh, it’s almost over!!!

And Senoa as back-up!