Chapter 78: End; Death dancing in the Masquerade (6)
– Professor Wei Yan has died…
The demons received a great shock and stopped their feet.
Before long, their eyes started being tainted in the colour of blood.
In an instant, Noah kicked off the dimension and flew off. It was a different direction from before. Instead of going through with his initial plan and going to help Ysayle Khalifa, he headed in a different direction, in order to head straight to the boss room.
Since BM had already heard about Wei Yan’s death from Yu Jitae, he threw his body almost immediately after Noah.
With a flutter of the wyvern’s bony wings, BM’s body vanished and was in front of Noah when he reappeared.
Baam!
BM crashed into Noah at the speed of sound. Due to the unexpected crash, Noah was bounced off and flew around 100 metres behind while BM placed himself at where Noah was facing.
‘Let’s be careful.’
A thought that he was a lot weaker than expected popped up in his head, so BM reminded himself to be careful.
Whatever the case, there was no need to defeat him, because his mission was to halt Noah.
From a distance, Noah spoke with a low voice.
“Step aside right now, or I’ll skin you alive.”
His calm and antique atmosphere was long gone.
“Why don’t you try.”
And BM’s provocation made Noah’s eyes turn a level redder.
“Impudent…”
Once again, ‘Dream Eater’ appeared from thin air and landed in Noah’s hand. The two of them were a hundred metres or so apart, which made a person appear like a bean.
Noah rushed through that distance with one step. He slashed fiercely down with a sword covered in murky demonic aura. It was stopped by the demon baron’s large and black arms, as a large claw mark reaching dozens of metres in length were drawn behind BM from the aftermath.
Kwaaang–!
A cloud of dust rose up and covered their sight. When BM was about to raise his senses to the extreme, Noah jumped through the dust.
[Self-protection of a Baron (A)]
A bluish black demonic aura appeared above BM’s arms and formed a shield.
Kwang Kwang Kwang Kwang!
After ten or so clashes, BM formed a frown behind his sunglasses.
‘Indeed, he’s strong.’
The shock was enough to cause the arms of Ahillia, who was famous even in the demon world for the toughness of his body, to go numb, despite Noah not even using a special skill or the authority of his stigma.
‘He’s constantly trying to get closer. Is he the type that relies on his physical power for close combat?’
Each strike of his was a strong blow. In the middle of the hectic battle, BM pondered.
‘He’s merely covering his body with demonic aura, and hasn’t revealed any skill or authority.’
It should be a fairly urgent situation, so what did this mean?
‘And he’s far from what that man was saying about how he could become a ‘god’.
‘If that referred to his [Extrication], then it seems that he can’t use much of other abilities in his normal state.’
There was that type of demon. They looked weak normally, but once they started explosively using their hidden strength, their fighting prowess would increase exponentially.
These demons tended to be weak usually, so their opponents would put their guards down during their extrication.
‘In any case, let’s buy some more time. In order to prolong this battle of attrition, I need to create some distance.’
“What are you rolling your eyes for, you disgusting cluster of monsters!”
That was when Noah’s sword had an explosive amount of demonic aura shoot out.
Despite not using any real skill, the demonic aura itself was overwhelming. The pillar of demonic aura which soared 20 metres into the sky, shredded the particles of mana and the air of the dungeon as it fell toward BM.
[Heavenly Fantasia (AA+)]
In that instant, the jaws and teeth of a large monster appeared right behind BM’s wings and swallowed BM’s upper body in whole.
It was the head of the great monster of Arandot, Kalyavan, which had five horns on its head.
After swallowing a heap of mana, the horns on his forehead swayed and shook. BM followed where his instincts led him, and opened his mouth. His cheeks were torn apart, as his chin dropped hideously wide open.
Mana started being suppressed to its maximum and formed a small marble. Soon, it created a shock wave that quaked the entire room and shot off as a destructive beam shuddering the dimension.
The beam was bright enough, to make the world appear darker for a split second.
Noah quickly adjusted the trajectory of his sword and parried the threatening beam of light. Along with a fierce shock, the beam bounced off and left traces behind on the ground, as it covered the rocky hills of the wasteland.
Kwakwakwakwang–!
The rocks and sands of the place where the beam had passed by immediately evaporated and created a long crater reaching dozens of metres. From the overwhelming thud, the interdimensional walls of the room also fluctuated like ocean waves.
During the parrying process, Noah’s hand and arm had skins ripped off as his dark blood erupted out.
His frown became deeper in intensity.
‘For now, I can take a breather but…’
It wasn’t something to be happy out.
BM reflected on the abilities Noah had revealed when he was about to fight against him for the first time, when the enormous 67th room had turned into achromatic colours.
That was probably related to his extrication.
And usually, the demons who gained a tremendous power boost from extrication had to accumulate enough strength, in order to be able to release it in full. In other words, they required a lot of energy for extrication.
‘He’s saving his energy after noticing that person’s existence…’
So he’s too reluctant to use his power on the likes of me, huh.
BM felt his pride being scratched, but there was nothing he could do since that was the reality of it.
There was a faint curiosity, but the anxiety against the unknown power was slightly greater than that. Tensing his body, BM opened his mouth.
His role was to buy time, and he could do anything for the objective.
“You said you were curious about the taste of my dream?”
“…”
When Noah remained silent, BM also hesitated slightly, as the breeze carried the dust of the wasteland from one side to the other.
“It won’t be that tasty. Because…”
BM whispered slowly.
“Because I am tormented every night from boring nightmares. Hmm, but what do nightmares taste like? Does it taste good for you demons? Ah, but you know what.”
“…”
“You’ll get fat if you eat too much sweet stuff. You’re quite old yourself, so you need to control your diet. Well, with your age…”
“How dare you try to buy time, you impudent, lowly mortal.”
BM’s lips were slanted up.
– He noticed it lol…
– Dude, why did you make it so obvious?
– This guy is pretty bad at acting kekek.
BM listened to the chimeras inside his body giggling out loud. These guys were generally quiet, but occasionally chatted like this.
“Seems that I can’t just ignore you…”
Wearing a frown, Noah raised the sword. Demonic aura incomparable to before, erupted out, and the world started instantaneously being coloured in ash.
– He’s angry lol.
– That bastard’s gone angry.
Shut up, you guys. We might all end up dead right now.
– And this guy’s scared lol
– kekekekekekekek
– Ohoh, little friend, are you scared? Lol
Damn this noisy bunch.
As their mutters irritated him, BM closed his ears. Then, he closed his eyes with a deep breath. His tiny eyelid covered the world in darkness, and thus the ash-coloured world was no longer seen either.
[Eyes of Abraxas (S-)]
The blue bird that had pushed the alternate world ‘Arandot’ into ruin; at the same time it was the eyes of the strongest chimera BM had.
Flash–
Behind the sunglasses, his eyes revealed themselves.
***
The moment they heard a report of how the fissure entrance had been closed, the cadets and the guards paused the raid. They wouldn’t move until they had a complete understanding of the situation.
But a few of the cadets, guards and noncombatants suddenly left their ranks and started running somewhere.
“Uh? Huhh? Where are you going, Hidan!”
“Miss Boya! What are you doing?”
“Oi, oi! Hey! Catch him!”
With their eyes painted in red, the demons followed someone’s order and ran forward. They amounted to around a few dozens, and after gathering together, they dashed across the path created by Ysayle Khalifa like fleas.
Their destination was the boss room.
***
The 141st room – its name was ‘Public Garden’.
A beautiful and tidy grassland was laid out along with low hills as far as one’s eyes could see. Room-type dungeons usually had ‘settings’ for each room, and the 141st room was probably a ‘garden Melissia would have made in her fortress’.
“It’s about time…”
From a distance, something approached them.
Li Hwa opened her eyes, as her wrinkled gaze revealed her killing intent. The vigour being emitted from the old woman’s body turned violent, to the point she appeared like a different person.
Raising her body, Li Hwa spoke to Bom.
“You cannot come out from this place.”
Despite her politeness, it sounded like a command.
“Sorry? But…”
“I’m old but not old enough to control my emotions it seems. I can’t be sure that I won’t be hurting this wonderful lady. So, could you please listen to me?”
“…”
Without even waiting for her response, the old woman walked forward.
From a distance, they could see an existence flying while causing mana fluctuations in the surroundings. It was as fast as a missile.
In response, Li Hwa’s body also floated up in mid-air.
It was a power that allocated direction to mana and forced a change in the nearby space. At the same time, it was a spell that was known to have a diverse range, going from the F-rank to the A-rank depending on the user.
[Telekinesis (S-)]
Ever since the start of New Era for the past decades, the world of magic being researched by countless scholars still hadn’t seen an official statement of an S-rank telekinesis, but here it was in display.
The grass were all bisected, and a circular hole was being formed in the garden due to the telekinetic ability.
Li Hwa threw her body and crashed into the flying object.
Bababababam—!
Though they crashed head-on, tens of explosive sounds continued in the air. Bom unconsciously raised her arm and covered her face, as a vomit-inducing shockwave repeated one after another.
“Who the fuck are you!”
A shout left Ysayle Khalifa’s mouth in disbelief, but Li Hwa did not give a response.
Husband, house, assets, memories, youth – the devilish demon that had taken everything she had owned, still had the same face even after decades had passed.
Therefore, the old lady was feeling strangely sentimental.
It was because it was way too similar to the dreams she had.
Li Hwa often dreamed. At the start, she had only dreamed of the day her husband died and her body caught on fire, but later, she only saw herself meeting Ysayle in the future.
Of course, it was but a dream and Li Hwa had no way of controlling it herself.
But sometimes when her mind was in a mess, the dream would become a reality and reveal itself in the form of an illusion.
She didn’t hate that, because she was at least able to talk to Ysayle.
In that illusionary dream, the old woman asked Ysayle time after time.
Why did you do that to me and my husband.
Then, Ysayle would open her mouth and give her different reasons every time.
Because you’re a human.
Because you were annoying.
Because you were irritating.
Because I had to live.
Because of nothing special.
Because I was bored.
Had to do it to show my ability.
Because I wished for your despair.
Is a reason required for a demon to kill a human.
I don’t remember who that was.
Should I send you to where your husband is.
What would change even if you know it.
Those were Ysayle Khalifa’s replies, which Li Hwa had drawn in her imaginations.
With hundreds of hallucinations, and hundreds of encounters, she received all sorts of replies, but not a single one of them appealed enough for Li Hwa to understand.
Therefore, she stopped asking Ysayle at some point.
The old woman realised that whatever left the mouth of the devil, would not be the one she was waiting for.
“Am I not asking who you are, you old hag!”
So when Ysayle Khalifa screamed while staggering from the shock, Li Hwa remained silent.
Kugugugung…!
She only burned her source of life and bloomed it in the form of telekinesis. The air of the 141st room became heavier by dozens of times.
[Telekinesis (S-) – 103rd Form]
Buzz–
From an uncontrollable compulsion of the ability, the old lady’s eyes sparked.
[Mt. Tai Pulverising Form]
Soon, tens of thousands of [amputations] attacked from all directions and covered Ysayle Khalifa like a storm. The armoured drones protecting Ysayle turned into fragments, before eventually being ground to dust. Ysayle had to quickly avoid them.
“This fuckin… where did this crazy dotard come from…!”
But vigour alone was not enough. Ysayle’s chest began opening up alongside the skin beneath.
Inside her body, there were no bones, organs or the heart. The black marble inside started furiously emitting an insane amount of demonic aura.
The demonic aura shredded her alternate dimension storage open. Then, a long crevice appeared in the dimension as a human-type gigantic machine with only its upper body revealed itself.
It had a thick pair of arms and a wide shoulder made of the S-ranked superalloy ‘Mithrium’.
[Armoured Giant]
It was one of the three great armours in the possession of Ysayle Khalifa, the demon engineer and puppeteer.
Facing the Mt. Tai Pulverising Form, the Armoured Giant swung its large fist.
Kakakakakang—!
The storm of blades started pushing the unbreakable metal.
At the same time, dozens of puppets crawled through the dimensional gap as the old woman’s white hair was completely enveloped with the telekinetic power and floated up in mid-air.
The full-scale battle between the two thus began.
*
Meanwhile, Bom had her eyes wide open as she watched the battle unfold from behind the hills.
“…”
Although she was young, she was still a dragon. They were the race that had created ‘magic’ which had not existed in the world tens of thousands of years ago.
Li Hwa’s telekinesis was astounding even from Bom’s perspective.
It felt like the countless molecules of mana scattered across the room were either directly or indirectly under the complete influence of Li Hwa. It was an astonishing delicateness and magnitude.
“…”
Bom saw a certain Providence happening in front of her eyes.
In a short future, Li Hwa would be engulfed in a large explosion.
If Li Hwa had died within that Providence, there was nothing she could do. As the Protector of Cause and Effect, a dragon should not touch on it.
However, Li Hwa’s death hadn’t been revealed. It was just that she had been subjected to a dangerous explosion that could take her life.
There was a massive difference between certain death and a possibility of death.
‘I need to do something myself.’
Her olive-coloured eyes became a level deeper.
The control, expansion, contraction, direction allocation, converging and diverging – all sorts of complicated formulae appeared here and there and vanished.
Bom slightly twitched her lips, and her white fingers fidgeted as if she was calculating something.
And soon, she started understanding the complex arrays and formations.