R4STWH - Chapter 142
Chapter 142
I run.
I cut, swing, and stab.
I retreat and leap again, twisting my body to dodge, and then strike down.
I didn't have any time to think about the most efficient movements, or what I needed to do to make the battle work in my favor. There was no room to analyze strength and estimate the outcome.
The Monarch of Famine sucked away life force just by touching it.
Just as we had barely managed to kill it, the Monarch of Betrayal appeared and confused us with a barrage of illusions. I reflexively paused at the sight of the illusions of Elias or Baeksa that suddenly appeared where I was about to swing my axe. Unlike the Monarch of Famine, this was an opponent that needed to be faced carefully. As a result, and unfortunately, the Monarch of Deceit was summoned before we could eliminate the Monarch of Betrayal.
'It's okay.'
I gritted my teeth, gripped my axe, and dove in again.
'I can do it.'
Then suddenly, my body was pulled sharply backward. “That was dangerous!”
The one yelling while panting was, surprisingly, Zero.
“An illusion……?”
I looked at him, frowning, and the corner of his mouth twisted upwards.
“Did you miss me that much, that you see me as an illusion?”
Hearing those annoying words, I was certain. It wasn’t an illusion.
“Why are you here?”
“……I made the wrong choice. Why I even bothered to do this, thinking that I could win against you in the first place.”
“……?”
“I’ll… help.”
“Why?”
I quickly leaped away, dodging the torrent of black poison, and asked him.
“Why are you saying you’ll help me now? You’ve never listened to me before.”
“Why? Obviously, because I….”
He stopped speaking and glanced somewhere.
“……”
He saw Elias cutting off the octopus-like limbs with a blank expression, then he stared at something in the air, and sighed deeply.
“Because it’s more fun that way.”
“What a funny guy.”
I scoffed and swung my axe horizontally. Honestly, right now, I didn’t have time for any ridiculous conversations. After that brief conversation, Zero also joined the attack.
'What on earth is he thinking?'
During the process of binding him earlier, I had clearly realized that Zero's soul was about to be ejected from Leonard's body. As I had guessed, it seemed that he had forcibly taken over Leonard's body. Probably, he had taken control while Leonard's soul had lost its power due to the impact on his body during the attack. Of course, that was not a way to completely take over a body that wasn’t originally yours. From the moment Leonard's soul attempted to reclaim its body, the fusion would become increasingly incomplete, and eventually his soul would be ejected. Luckily, I had found a solution for that in the relic storage of the Amern Temple, but Zero wouldn’t even have any idea about it. In other words, in his situation, he would’ve chosen to return to our world to avoid death.
‘Why would he join the monsters at this time? He must know that would put our side at a greater disadvantage.’
If Zero hadn’t pulled me just now, the poison would have splattered and melted my left elbow.
‘Why does that guy always……’
Like Yumi, perhaps he had something very important that he wanted to reclaim, so he had tried to rewind the time of our world, even destroying a world in the process. And yet, he was giving up on that now, and was helping us, even risking his own life, just because it was more fun? It made no sense.
'I'll have to ask him.'
Once the battle was over, I would find out that guy’s secret that he had kept so well hidden. There were many suspicious aspects, but Zero’s joining was a big help. They were colleagues who had worked together for a long time. Without asking or speaking, they were precisely where they needed to be. Thanks to that, I had a moment to look around to see if Elias was alright.
‘Huh……? What are they doing?’
I wondered how Zero came back, but it turned out Crow and the knights had also returned to the field. And Elias, who couldn’t approach us, was giving a large sack to them, and giving them some kind of instruction. I couldn't afford to look away any longer, so I didn’t see anything more. “Finally, just one left,” Baeksa muttered in an exhausted voice.
The Monarch of Betrayal (SS) has been defeated. The Monarch of Betrayal (SS) will be reverse-summoned to its original dimension.
“Haha…… Bye, and good riddance…….”
All three of us looked terrible. Our bodies were soaked in blood, from head to toe, thanks to our give-and-take fighting style. The 70-second stat-restriction removal time had long since ended, and Zero and Baeksa seemed to be in a similar situation. However, the hope that it would be over after taking down one last one was evident on everyone’s faces.
‘I’ve roughly figured out its weakness.’
The most difficult part when facing a boss monster was to figure out its attack patterns by taking the hits yourself, and then finding a strategy to deal with it. There had always been a lot of damage during the process. These boss monsters with ‘Monarch’ in their name were ones we were facing for the first time, and it was nothing short of a miracle that no one had died until now. My arms and legs felt as heavy as if they were weighed down with iron bars, but I, as well as everyone else, didn't stop. There was no point in holding back when this was the last one. I brought my mana to its limit and unleashed my skills, attacking with the determination to lose an arm.
The octopus-like monster would suddenly spurt out poison from the suction-cup like holes all over its body. Its legs were so thick and tough that, after the stat restrictions had returned, I couldn’t cut them in one go. However, from its perspective, we were probably just as annoying. Judging from its bizarre form, it was definitely a demon-type monster. The parts of it that Baeksa’s Holy Sword touched were burnt and could not heal. Zero, who had been given the title CODE NO.0 in our world due to his outstanding talent, used everything around him as if it were his. He even ‘interfered’ with one of its legs, causing it to slam itself into one of its poison-spewing holes, and then he snickered. Elias, whom I had worried about the most, was surprisingly the most composed. It seemed that his fighting style in other worldlines was quite different from what he was showing now. Judging from the way the octopus’s body was slowly turning into a sheath of blades, that was probably the case. As we gritted our teeth and endured, unleashing our attacks, I finally began to see the end.
‘Just a little more… just a little more….’
My axe, dragging my battered legs, buried itself in the monster’s gaping jaws. I pulled with all my might, but because the axe head and shaft separated, I was sent flying backwards. Zero hurriedly cut off an octopus tentacle that was about to hit me. Seeing that, Elias changed his course just before he was about to come to me, and leaped over the octopus’s head. And then, Crunch!
He kicked the monster's jaws, where the axe head had gotten stuck, with all his might.
“Kieaaaaak!”
The monster’s sharp scream, with its head split lengthwise by the axe head, caused tinnitus and shook my brain.
The Monarch of Deceit (SS) has been defeated. The Monarch of Deceit (SS) will be reverse-summoned to its original dimension.
A translucent window appeared, but my vision was blurry, so I couldn’t see the contents well.
‘Is it over…?’
I thought there couldn’t be anything else, and was about to roughly clear it away, when I noticed that something was off with the feeling in my arms. My right arm was twisted at a strange angle, following the left arm that had been battered long ago. I had survived, so that was enough. I could just have the Saintess treat these wounds.
“Hayang-a!”
Just as I was about to relax and slump to the ground, I heard Zero’s shout, which sounded almost like a scream, piercing through the remaining tinnitus.
‘What, why?’
I blinked my eyes, which were stinging from sweat and blood, and lifted my head. Then, I saw a familiar back in front of me. It was the body of Princess Selena, possessed by Yumi. I stared blankly at that girl, who stood with her back to me.
The final boss monster, Evil Dragon-Ermitar (SS), enhanced to its limits, is appearing.
“So, it has come to this.”
Even as I heard Elias’s sigh, I couldn’t take my eyes off Yumi. Something sharp was poking out of her back.
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