episode_0005

“Ah, I messed up.”

Just as everyone was dazed by the sudden turn of events, Malcolm or whoever it was, swiftly drew his sword from his waist and lunged forward.

“You attacked first?”

With a swift motion, a line of blood appeared on Malcolm’s neck, and soon after, he tumbled down, barely an average blow.

It was a final blow that rendered the SR grade meaningless.

However, even after committing the act, Yoo Dahee tilted her head in a peculiar manner.

“Hmm… There’s something different about the taste.”

It felt like stopping midway through taking a dump.

Pulling out the blood-dripping hand axe, Yoo Dahee wiped it on the fallen Adikia or Academy, or whatever it was, and then went to return it to the dwarf.

No matter how much she wiped, the sight of blood dripping along the handle wasn’t pleasant.

“…Should I have it laundered before returning it?”

“Maybe ask before taking it back.”

“I’m feeling a bit feverish, so I just roughly wiped it, but um… you can bill the cleaning cost to Dike.”

“Huh.”

Dike, sweating from his forehead, looked at the dwarf with a puzzled expression… It seemed like he was just going to let them take it. “Looks like you found your owner.”

“Oh… really? But that’s an item made by Parashu’s legacy!”

Unnoticed, Dike had somehow stood up behind Yoo Dahee, looking at the axe as if questioning when that happened.

“It’s an item that can’t be bought even with divine power…! Even if you bring thousands of planets, it’s an item that won’t be sold…!”

“Oh? Can I really just take it?”

“Well, other folks won’t be able to use it. They’ll probably just drag it around and end up lying on the ground. My disciples might say something, but well, just listen with one ear and let it go.”

The dwarf was quite cool.

Perhaps further conversation would help build a good relationship.

“More importantly, it’s almost time.”

“What… oh.”

Yoo Dahee, not understanding the dwarf’s words, turned around and then finally realized.

The goddess, whose head was split in half, returned to normal, and Malcolm’s head, which had been rolling on the ground after being cut off, turned into dust and disappeared, then began to regenerate from his neck.

“Bulsah?”

Deke looked at them with an expression that seemed to say he finally arrived.

“In the arena, no one dies… It’s a space designed for that purpose from the beginning.”

“So even if you kill, they don’t die?”

“Is that so?”

While talking with Deke, Adikia, who had risen from her place, had her face back together, though her moving mouth remained eerie.

“Ama-azing!”

A different kind of regeneration from the outsiders’ immortality. There is only one way to kill such an immortal.

To keep killing until they can’t regenerate anymore, until their soul gives up, crush, tear, burn, pulverize, shatter, and dismember, without caring about the time it takes. The immortals eventually die through repeated actions.

There is no true unconditional immortality in this world – that’s the truth. They just seem that way by sacrificing something else. Yudahee, knowing this well, tried to step forward with the axe Parashu given by the dwarf.

A true healer doesn’t just treat injuries but finds and eliminates their source. In other words, it would be right to finish off the goddess and Malcolm here, but…

“D-Don’t…”

It was Deke who stopped them.

“If you cause a commotion here… you’ll get a penalty…”

“What penalty?”

“The penalty you’ll carry in the arena, you piece of s-”

As Adikia, whose face had fully regenerated, raised her left hand shining with blue and crimson light as if she intended to do something, Yudahee’s Parashu flew again.

[Dice roll…!]

[Establishing critical judgment criteria.]

[Rumble… Rolling 1D20.]

[Critical judgment for the goddess Adikia is 4.]

[Rumble… Rolling 1D20 again.]

[…4!]

“Oh, critical hit.”

With 유다희’s words, Adikia’s palm split with a thud, dividing into two, and Parashu pierced down through the arm and shoulder, then slipped out to the right hip.

A clean, perfectly diagonal half-split.

Additionally, the swinging axe separated the neck, arms, and legs one by one.

Not even the finest leek cutter could achieve this; the goddess, now worse off than chopped vegetables, collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

For a moment, Deike’s complexion seemed to return, only to quickly turn gray.

“Hieeeek! I-it can’t be…”

“No, this is definitely a reflex action. We can’t just stand here and take whatever the opponent has in store for us.”

Waiting foolishly for a transformation and simply observing while the opponent prepares was something only fit for TV animations or period pieces.

“I don’t particularly want to interfere if I can just stay still… Look, isn’t that Malcolm over there staying still?”

Malcolm, who had his throat suddenly cut, now sat quietly with a pale face.

Just once, feel the difference in intensity and see how he crumples…

Perhaps Malcolm suddenly recalled Deike’s mention that this primitive exhibitionist SSR might not be all talk.

“D-damn it…!”

If so, it might be natural for his own betrayal of Deike to be relentlessly dealt with in the arena.

No matter how much one doesn’t die, fear and pain don’t just disappear.

“Keheuk, you damn bastard! Malcolm! Tear that bastard apart!”

“Aaah! Please, please!”

The memory of the moment when his throat was cut in an instant comes flooding back.

He hadn’t never encountered another SSR in the arena until now.

Given the nature of the arena where 100 people participate at once, it would be stranger if he hadn’t met anyone.

However, compared to those he had met then, Malcolm was more terrifying than the current Yudahee.

The light vanished from between their meeting gazes.

How could those be human eyes? They resembled the void of the universe, like the abyss itself.

They were pupils that allowed nothing.

Internally pleading desperately to inherit this insane command, he bit down hard, but… there was no way around it.

Malcolm’s body was compelled by the power of Adikia that had taken root within him. As he drew his sword and lunged with all his might towards Yudahee, in that moment—

[That’s far enough.]

“Oh, Socomadea…!” Yudahee exclaimed at the commanding voice that seemed to squeeze the space.

Malcolm’s sword came to a halt.

“Phew, that was close… Hoo-eek!”

Yudahee’s axe blade rested just beneath Malcolm’s chin as he muttered about his relief. The well-honed edge, comparable to the sword, lightly grazed Malcolm’s skin, and a single droplet of blood trickled down his neck.

He had narrowly avoided another potential beheading. Completely caught off guard by Yudahee’s movement, Malcolm’s spirit was utterly broken.

“We will not tolerate any further disturbance in this sacred arena,” a calm voice echoed around as someone descended from the air.

It was Archangel Michael, a member of the Celestial Administration, with twelve pristine wings spread wide, resembling the falling of pure white snow. With a gesture from Michael, both the sword and the axe returned to their places, and Adikia’s unruly behavior subsided.

Despite the return to order, it was almost expected for Adikia to rampage. However, when the angel leaned in, Adikia slowly began to inhale and exhale heavily, repeatedly clenching her teeth and grimacing before biting down hard on her lip.

Even the goddess could not disregard the authority of the Celestial Administration.

“Now, everything has quieted down,” Michael’s gaze swept over the scene of chaos before finally fixing on Yudahee.

“The contract holder of the goddess Dike Astraia, …Yoo….”

Twitch—.

“…dahee.”

Michael’s expression briefly contorted as if something was amiss, but she quickly shook it off.

“You have undeniably caused a disturbance in the sacred arena. Do you acknowledge this?”

“Objection!” Yudahee exclaimed, raising his index finger forcefully. “I object!”

“Do you deny that you first brandished your axe against the goddess Adikia?”

“Well… no, but that’s not—”

In truth, it was undeniable, so there was no way to refute it. However…

“The provocation was initiated by Adikia first.”

“Adikia! This damned primitive brat—!”

“Adikiana, Akidiana, that’s the one.”

It starts with ‘ㅇ’ and ends with ‘ㅇ’, so there isn’t much of a difference.

Since the head, torso, arms, and legs are all separated, it wouldn’t be a problem to call her the goddess Exodia, would it?

“This arena strictly prohibits any physical altercations between participants before the match, regardless of the cause. Furthermore, imposing severe penalties on those responsible for such incidents is our principle.”

Is this what Dike meant by imposing penalties?

“Hey, don’t they have something like probation in the arena laws?”

I mean, in South Korea, even if you cause a fatal accident while driving under the influence, they start with probation if you’ve been drinking.

Yudahee whispered quietly to Dike, “Dike, do you have any alcohol…?”

Why does that sound familiar? If you think you might get caught drunk driving, first turn off the ignition and take out some soju from the trunk and drink it.

If you say you did it in a fit of drunkenness, would it be somewhat mitigated?

“…It’s in the truck… the soju…”

Asking as a joke, poking his side, but it turned out to be true.

“Did you hit me after drinking?”

“…..”

What does this silence mean?

Damn it.

Anyway…

He swung the axe, but since the person didn’t die, wasn’t it justified?

“Although you caused injury to the goddess Adikia and her contractor Malcom… considering that this was your first participation in the arena, we will impose a penalty.”

“Considering what! He tore me to pieces several times!”

Whether Adikia protested or not, Micaela began to do her job.

With a light flick of her finger, a ring of light appeared and stuck to Yudahee’s right wrist.

A strange light source that felt weightless slowly tightened, leaving a small mark on the wrist before disappearing.

A lettering tattoo that encircled the entire wrist.

Originally, Yudahee, being human, couldn’t read the divine language, but Dike looked at it for her and tried to explain.

“It says, ‘[You can only use your main weapon once in this match.]’”

Yudahee was quicker.

“What, how is that fair?!”

It’s a simple new word. I wrote the meaning in cursive to make it look complicated, but the meaning is just the meaning.

Looking at Yudahee speaking as if nothing was wrong, Dike’s eyes were filled with an indescribable curiosity about the unknown.

What in the world is this about?

He was glad to be a golden returnee, so he didn’t bother to check the details and just rammed into the isekai truck, but he didn’t really try to understand it.

Pressing down the goddess with an axe at once and reading the new word. He could never be considered ordinary.

What in the world does it mean to have returned from another world, his contractor…?

Dike’s mind was filled with confusion.