Chapter 176: Showdown (3)
-Aaah!!!
The sword, which emits a pure white light, falls towards Murka’s throat, only to be blocked by Murka’s shield.
Zetto’s vision reveals a faint red line, a ‘weakness’ in Murka’s shield.
-Kagagak!!!
Zetto twisted the trajectory of his sword in an instant and slashed down at the weak spot.
The shield shattered in an instant.
“……”
The shield shattering was surprising enough, but Murka saw that the flow of mana in Zetto’s body was distorted at that moment.
‘Something’s coming.’
Murka predicted Zetto’s subsequent sword path.
‘He’s aiming for… the neck.’
Zetto twists and turns in midair.
In the blink of an eye, Zetto’s series of slashes continued but as Murka had predicted, Zetto’s red sword was aimed at his throat.
‘I wonder if there’s any chance I’ll be able to unleash my katana again…’
But Murka, who had predicted the path of the sword, used telekinesis to twist Zetto’s sword slightly.
-Knock!
Murka’s throat is slashed. However, the cut was so shallow that it was only a scratch on his neck.
As the blade twisted, Murka stuck out his neck, narrowly avoiding a fatal wound.
-Ouch!!!
Murka immediately struck Zetto in the abdomen with a powerful blow of telekinesis, creating distance.
Zetto, who was moving away, slashed the ground with his sword before crashing into a tree, landing safely.
Murka was in a hurry to react, so Zetto was similarly unharmed.
“…Not easy.”
Zetto wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as his body was strained by the force of Reverse Heaven and Sheddie.
“……”
Murka did the same, wiping his neck and looking at his bloodied palms.
“Ha…”
He smiled weakly.
It had been years since he’d been hurt by a human.
‘Not since the war?’
Murka paused for a moment, remembering the sinister, snake-eyed man he had met in the past.
“Funny… Funny.”
Murka finally blurted out.
He didn’t deny it.
It was such a fine line.
The slightest misstep, and his throat would have been cut deeply and he would have bled profusely.
For a brief moment, he felt ‘fear’.
It had been a long time since he had a battle where he felt the fear of death so he laughed.
Since he had gained power and stabilized his position, he thought he had nothing to fear anymore.
But the blind man who had appeared out of nowhere had rung the alarm bell in Murka’s carefree life.
“I see. It was always like this…’
…To live as a demon.
“…”
On the other hand, Albed, who had remained silent by Murka’s side, was stunned.
‘I couldn’t see it.’
There was no way for him to know what Zetto and Murka had exchanged in that short period of time, less than a few seconds ago.
“…I see you know my name.”
Murka said as he dismounted.
Zetto, who had been stalking toward him, spoke up.
“I do, Murka, and next to you is Albed.”
Zetto nonchalantly points his finger at them in order.
“Hmm… I don’t recognize your face… How did you get the information? Is it Aizel?”
“…If I tell you, will you praise me or something?”
“Yes. I will personally give you death.”
“Haha…I’ll pass on that.”
With that, Zetto straightened his stance.
‘There is no reason or need to hide anymore.’
Murka looked around quickly, assessing the situation.
He analyzed Zetto thoroughly.
His swordplay was strangely aimed at weapons, breaking them and the shield that had shattered just a moment ago.
There were too many things he was reluctant to chalk up to luck or coincidence.
If the shield hadn’t shattered immediately, Zetto would have been twisted from head to toe by Murka’s telekinesis.
‘He was confident.’
Confident that he could break the shield.
No, the move had been made with the idea of a shield in mind in the first place.
“Hmph…For a blind one, you fight strangely well…”
Murka continued to analyze Zetto.
‘This is not a foe to be trifled with.’
If his hypothesis is correct, the blind man in front of him is an outrageous monster, an out-of-scale powerhouse that could threaten his life.
He wasn’t like other demons who spouted nonsense on human subjects to stroke their egos.
Murka recognized Zetto and accepted the situation.
Only then did he begin to see clearly how to deal with him.
‘I’ve already acted as he wanted.’
Murka glanced at the ugly spheres of flesh.
Zetto could have easily defeated them, but he had crushed them with his own power.
‘…But at the same time, I’ve discovered his weakness.’
Murka continued to replay Zetto’s movements, analyzing him.
Of course, Zetto, who knew this, didn’t want to give him that time, so he lunged at him, but Murka had already reached his conclusion.
-Aaah!!!
Murka then parried Zetto’s rapidly approaching sword, deflecting it with telekinesis, and opened his mouth.
“Albed, how long are you going to stand idly by?”
“Ha, but… I can’t match his speed…”
Albed swallowed hard on his trailing words.
He had already lost the battle.
Murka knew his limits.
He hadn’t been a hand-to-hand combatant in the army.
In the first place, Zetto had been relentlessly targeting Murka, as if Albed’s presence posed no threat at all.
“…Scatter Matan around. As many as you can. That’s all you need to do.”
Murka, who had already gotten used to Zetto’s speed, dodged Zetto’s shots and hit him with another telekinetic spell as he spoke.
‘Matan…?’
The basic magic of demons, a simple sphere of condensed magic.
It might shock, but it would be far too weak to kill such a monster.
The thought crossed Albed’s mind, but he had no time to question Murka’s judgment.
After all, no matter how bad he was at fighting, it was still a black horn, not to mention the amount of magick it had…
-Pah-bah-bah!!!
…Albed scattered an unfathomable amount of magick around the forest.
Murka then used telekinesis to pick up the nearby Matans and threw them in Zetto’s direction, bombarding him indiscriminately.
-Aaah!
-Boom!!!
The impact of the Matans shattered the old trees in the forest, and the ground caved in.
Unable to dodge anymore, Zetto leaped backwards, increasing the distance.
“You…You see a lot.”
Murka grinned, feeling the joy of battle for the first time in a long time.
“…What do you mean?”
Albed merely shuddered.
He had a bandage around his eye, as if to say that he was blind.
The idea that a blind man could see so much sounded quite strange.
“He sees through the fabric of magic. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he sees through the fabric of everything in this world.”
“The fabric of magic…The fabric of magic? What…?”
Albed found it hard to believe that there was such a thing, but he had to believe it.
He had seen it with his own eyes how Murka’s shields shattered so easily.
“He knows the structure, so he’s simply tapping into a structural weakness and breaking it. It’s like a dispel. Maybe it’s the ability he got for losing his vision, but…He definitely has weaknesses.”
As Murka spoke, he hurled the Matans at Zetto, who was nowhere in sight.
Before he has a chance to catch his breath, Zetto sprints out of the way.
“Quantity.”
“Matan?”
“He only has one sword, doesn’t he?”
Zetto breaks magic by striking at its structural weaknesses.
It was very similar to dispel, but Zetto’s method was different in that it was a physical act.
He could only break the spell if he swung his sword directly at the spell’s weaknesses.
“But isn’t he fast, he should be able to hit them all…”
“I thought there was a limit. What is the structure of the Matan?”
“It’s just condensed magick…”
As Albed rambles on, he realizes something.
The structure is simple.
Because it’s simple, it can be sophisticated.
With sophistication, weaknesses fade away.
“Ha…!”
After realizing this, Albed is amazed.
‘In such a short amount of time, he analyzed it and found a way to counter it…’
He wasn’t exactly smart, but he couldn’t match Murka’s combat sense, intelligence, and quickness.
Zetto, meanwhile, could see the Matan coming for him in his eyes.
Murka was right.
The Matan’s weaknesses were faint, and it would take a lot of concentration to cut through them.
‘I expected the dispel to be read, but…’
It was the sheer number of them scattered throughout the forest that was annoying.
As he moved forward while being hit by them, the amount of them was overwhelming.
The impact would quickly take its toll.
But if he tried to take out Albed first, it would take too much time.
This could not be a war of attrition.
With that, Zetto calculated the duration of the protection and quickly rushed towards Murka.
“Now, what will you show me this time?”
With a relaxed voice, Murka floated in the air with Albed.
Murka thought it would be an easy victory if he could lead Zetto into a battle of attrition.
Nevertheless, Zetto strode toward Murka without hesitation.
There was still more power he hadn’t analyzed.
“You’ve slowed down, are you tired already?”
Murka threw the Matan without missing a beat at a much slower target.
At the same time, he twisted his hands.
“Spiral.”
He casted Spiral.
-Kugugung!!!
The area around Zetto twisted as Murka’s invisible hand wrapped around him but Zetto wasn’t really slowed by exhaustion.
He hadn’t cast two cards, and he wasn’t even running, just casually walking towards Murka.
“Sierra Reverse Heaven Chapter 3…”
Zetto muttered in a low voice.
-Kwagakak!!!!!!!
The red sword light defied causation and began to rampage.
Under the countless sword strikes, Matan, Spirals, and other weaknesses are cut and shattered.
Soon, the shattered magick scatters into the air and disappears.
Zetto walks leisurely toward Murka, who is now airborne.
“How did that happen…?”
Albed trailed off, unable to comprehend the situation.
Neither did Murka, who squinted.
“Not that again. A bizarre sword technique triggered by distorting the flow of mana…’
A sword strike appeared from thin air, even though no sword was swung.
There is no cause, but there is an effect.
The blind man below was clearly defying cause and effect.
Kwagak!!!
Zetto, who had been walking while grinding all the Matans in the air, finally arrives beneath Murka.
There’s no point in throwing Matans anymore so Murka stops attacking for a moment and looks down.
Zetto’s sword, which he hadn’t swung since he walked up, still glowed with a pure white light.
The power of that light was dangerous, his instinct told him so.
It was an instinctive fear carved into the very fabric of the demon race.
‘There’s no way he could be the reincarnation of the hero…’
But the only thing that could be is the strength of the hero.
‘…I just can’t figure out who he is.’
Murka shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and turned to Zetto below.
“…So what more can you do, your sword doesn’t seem to reach this far.”
True to Murka’s words, Zetto’s Chapter 3 was not able to travel through space like Chapter 1, so it had no chance of reaching Murka in midair.
There were no allies to intercept him, as there had been in Edward’s vision.
Zetto could only stare helplessly up at Murka.
At least that’s how it seemed to Murka.
But Zetto wasn’t looking at Murka, he was looking at the sky.
‘It’s almost time…’
He was waiting for the punishment that would soon befall him for defying cause and effect.
Zetto stomped on the ground and sped toward Murka in midair.
‘I never thought you would come…’
Already accustomed to Zetto’s speed, Murka decided to see the end.
He was in the air, and Zetto was no longer able to dodge.
Murka summoned as much of his magick as he could and aimed for Zetto.
At that moment, a light flashed in the sky. It was a lightning bolt, a penalty of Chapter 3.
The lightning bolt fell to the ground where Zetto was but it hit Murka, who was directly above him.
No one can react to the speed of light.
Zetto couldn’t react either. He simply calculated the time and timed it perfectly.
“Boom!!!”
The impact of the lightning bolt had been manageable, but the unexpected damage had broken Murka’s concentration.
Thus, Zetto was able to approach Murka unhindered by the telekinetic magic.
-Keying!!!
Zetto’s red sword was already swinging at Murka’s breastbone.
“Lord Murka…!!!”
Albed shouted and scattered Matan to intercept Zetto, who was aiming for Murka.
Zetto swings his sword and is intercepted by a Matan.
Lucky for him, it kept Zetto’s sword from reaching Murka but in that moment, Albed doubted his eyes.
‘I only threw it because I was in a hurry… How did I manage to hit him when I couldn’t even keep up with his speed?’
Another moment of doubt.
-No!!!
Zetto’s sword slashes across Murka’s chest, causing black blood to gush out.
Zetto has utilized a trick he’s been saving up.
For the moment he swung his sword, Zetto had only cast one Chapter, not two.
This allowed him to travel through space and slash at Murka.
However, even in his momentary lapse of concentration, Murka had a strong shield around his neck.
He even placed the weak point of the shield in the opposite direction from where Zetto was coming from so he could only aim for the heart.
“…Boom.”
It wasn’t easy to go straight from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3, so he was forced to use the easier Chapter 1, and then Zetto was struck by Albed’s Matan just as he was about to cast Chapter 3.
-Aaaaahhh!!!!
Thunder rumbles in the sky and the trio crash to the ground.
Even the mortally wounded Murka can no longer levitate with his telekinesis.
-Thud.
Albed, who was falling with Murka, picks him up.
‘His chest is deeply cut. He won’t die immediately, but he’ll die soon…’
Frowning, Albed examines Murka’s condition after being cut by Zetto.
‘I’ve put some distance between us, but… Against such an outrageous monster, we won’t stand a chance without Lord Murka.
With that judgment, Albed turned his head to look in the direction where Zetto had been blown away by the Matan.
With the forest all around him, he couldn’t see it yet.
‘Now is our chance to save our lives.’
Albed swallowed hard but alas, he could not act.
He knew that if Murka, the Legionnaire’s right-hand man, died and his failure to deal with Aizel came to light, he would be hunted to death by demons and humans alike.
He might as well go on a rampage but the moment Albed had that thought.
-Aah.
Suddenly, Murka grabs him by the throat.
“…Cur… Kirk… Moo…Lord Murka…?”
Soon, magick was being pulled up by Murka’s hand, which was clamped around Albed’s neck.
Murka could not die like this so he made a decision.
-Thud!
The gruesome sound of someone’s throat being cut echoes through the forest.
***
“Hah… Ha…”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, Aizel was running in the direction of Zetto.
She was feeling strange that Murka didn’t appear no matter how long she waited, when she heard the sound of lightning.
-Crackle!!!!
Another lightning strike.
‘Something must be going on over there.’
Lightning strikes in a dry sky are so strange.
As she ran, she stared at the distant portal, at the cage.
‘That can’t be Zetto…’
She pushed him in herself so there was no way he could crawl out fast enough.
Gasping for breath, Aizel thought.
‘If Murka really is there, then who the hell is that blocking him…?’
***.
“Saint…?”
Inés tilted her head to look at Bernice, who hadn’t been moving and Bernice began to walk again.
“…Is something wrong?”
Inés asked, noticing that Bernice’s expression was particularly unhappy today.
“…No, it’s nothing, I just have a feeling something ominous is about to happen.”
“Something ominous is…?”
“……”
Unable to formulate an answer, Bernice glanced back at the empty room.
She felt like someone she knew was going to die but she didn’t want to say those cursed words.
“……”
Unable to lie, the Saint chose silence.