Chapter 79: End; Death dancing in the Masquerade (7)
With coarse steps, the puppets strided forth. The beautiful garden was overturned.
The problem was with their endless numbers.
It was unclear how many there were, but armoured golems and puppets flooded out from the alternate dimension without an end. They amounted to at least over a hundred, and machines in shapes of scorpions, spiders, bats and bees attacked from all around.
All sorts of poisons were scattered, as fire was breathed out. Dozens of bats screamed simultaneously, and their ultrasonic waves threatened to rip one’s eardrums. When Li Hwa lost slight delicacy in her telekinetic control for a split second, blood exploded out from her ears.
“A strong army wouldn’t even be enough. How dare a fucking dotard and a young chick try to get on my level?”
Ysayle broke out into a maddened laugh.
“Die, and don’t bother me!”
A comparatively deep silvery metal appeared out of thin air. It stretched out like a ballista. Ysayle placed a horrendous-looking arrow that resembled a fresh leg of an insect in the string, and shot it.
Shrrrrrk–!
It was dodgeable, and blockable.
The problem once again, was the sheer number of threats.
Due to having to deal with the armours and puppets running in from all directions, she was unable to properly deal with it. The old woman raised her hand slightly late, as the arrow scraped past her shoulder.
A stuffy demonic aura followed suit. Her cheek and ear were grazed as blood oozed through her skin.
“…”
Li Hwa fell on the ground and rolled a few times before she could regain her balance and float back up in mid-air. Despite that, she did not blink a single time.
‘…’
Meanwhile, Bom who had been watching the situation unfold from a distance, frowned with her delicate face.
Li Hwa’s telekinetic manipulation.
She could understand it. She understood it, but when Bom actually tried to copy it, she was met with an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
It wasn’t strange for Bom to be feeling this way.
Originally, telekinesis was a rare ability, and there was one in ten thousand, who could use D-rank telekinesis from the beginning. Even amongst those people, Li Hwa was a special case. The ability she was enlightened with from the start, was:
[Telekinesis (B-)]
It truly was an astronomical chance, and was a talent that couldn’t be compared with anyone else during her time. Thus, the media including TTA referred to the thirty-year-old Li Hwa as the ‘superhuman that was blessed by the world’.
Li Hwa then went over to America, which was the most active in terms of research into telekinesis, and received full-on support from America Cypher Academy, the only place that educated A- ranked telekinesis. She crazily lived through battlefields and was able to put a step into a world which humanity was yet to see.
The worldwide rank she was given, was 5th.
‘Even imitating it would take a hundred years at least. So let’s think step by step.’
Bom bit her lips.
It was 100 years even for a dragon. That was the level Li Hwa’s manipulation had reached.
There were things in the world that couldn’t be resolved with just eagerness and vigour. Having a delicate control over mana molecules in such a manner was realistically impossible for the current Bom.
‘Let’s think’.
What was worse, was that it was a bad matchup. Ysayle Khalifa’s armoured golems were all created from Mithrium, which completely shut off external mana. She must have been holed up in a workshop, creating them during the 20 years after the Great War.
Therefore, directly messing with and breaking the core of the armours was impossible, and the benefit of a delicate telekinetic control was halved.
‘Think.’
Ysayle Khalifa’s [Armoured Giant]’s wrists and elbows opened up. There were fans inside the wrists which crazily turned and gathered the air to one place and compressed it.
The compressed air was processed through the elbow’s combustor and was exchanged to energy. It then travelled past a turbine, and left the elbow through a nozzle with an unprecedented force.
Ysayle shouted something out loud, as the unidentifiable power propelled the fist forward at Li Hwa.
‘Think…’
A fist shaking the entire ‘room’ flew forward. Along with a loud thud, the old lady’s body was flung away. She had barely succeeded in protecting her body with telekinesis but she would be unable to avoid the physical impact once she landed on the ground.
The ground was overturned, as grass fluttered.
And the moment she saw that grass, Bom’s eyes turned into circles.
‘Ah…!’
There was no need to bother controlling mana molecules.
‘If it’s like that…’
She urgently stood up.
The core of a green dragon started thumping fast and loud. Bom held her hands together as if in a prayer, closed her eyes and heaved out a deep breath.
What then left her mouth, was the dragon’s language that forced creations.
[Dragon’s Voice (S+)]
This was the Public Garden, the only place inside the dungeon where the power of ‘nature’ was present. The Green Dragon ordered ‘nature’.
[Bloom–]
Stalks of grass were melting away from poison, and the trees were on flames; the fragments of nature were scattering away in the wide wounded garden.
Somewhere within that garden, between tiny stalks of grass,
Plop–
A small, blue flower raised its head.
‘Frivoa’ – it was a flower of Askalifa that scattered an enormous amount of pollen. During cross-pollination times, it would fill the sky of a nearby hill in a deep bluish colour.
Although Bom couldn’t manipulate molecules of mana, she was confident in controlling the fluttering pollen.
[Disperse–]
In response to the next words of the dragon, the flowers shook their heads and blue powders, as light as the air, scattered across the sky. Each and every pollen was covered by the mana of a green dragon.
In an instant, the garden’s sky was covered in blue. Feeling the strange atmosphere, Ysayle turned around with a frown.
“You audacious bitch!!”
“…!”
Her gaze and aura were heavily packed with killing intent, and Bom flashed her eyes wide open in surprise.
Although she lived while facing Providence, and had stood against Hasegawa once, Bom was still afraid of such intense hostility. However, she knew that during her hesitation, Li Hwa would have her arms ripped off, and her bones broken.
She must not hesitate.
[Rage on–]
The slight gesture of her hand initiated a flood of pollen, and molecules of mana that were surrounded by it.
It was far from perfect, but it mimicked Li Hwa’s telekinesis and began storming across the 141st room. The pollen containing mana within were like sharp powders of iron, and because of the addition of another set of attacks, the puppets had to waste energy by deploying shields.
Even with just that, Bom had fulfilled her role.
Buzzz!
The flow of the battle that had to be given up due to the sheer number came back to Li Hwa, as the old lady widened her eyes into circles.
Buzz, buzzzz!
Yet again, her telekinetic powers caused a rough friction near her eyes, as she gathered her power to one place.
[Induce (B-)] [Synthesise (B+)] [Compress (A-)]
An unbelievable amount of mana was crumpled down to one place, and the ball of telekinetic energy that gathered as the result, revolved rapidly and sucked the dimension into it.
[Induce (B-)] [Compress (A-)] [Induce (B-)] [Compress (A-)] [Induce (B-)] [Compress (A-)] [Induce (B-)] [Compress (A-)]…
After repeating that process several times, a mini black hole was created as it gathered almost all the mana present inside the 141st room.
“This damned! crazy dotard–!!”
Ysayle Khalifa, who realised it half a second late due to dealing with Bom, screamed out.
Buzzz! Drop~
Due to the vast amount of mana that she couldn’t control alone, a small vein in her eyes popped. As blood and tears mixed and fell together, the old woman released the heavily suppressed telekinetic energy.
[Telekinesis (S-) – 108th Form]
[Form of Annihilation]
The world started flowing slowly, as a small ball of telekinesis flew forward, ignoring everything it grazed past. The ball, which was invisible yet clearly identifiable due to the fluctuation in the nearby space, touched Ysayle Khalifa.
“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—–!!”
Her physical body was ground to dust as a whole and began being absorbed by the small ball. The shock was so intense, that her head popped out from her body and landed on the ground.
The incomprehensible ball of telekinesis swallowed everything in a 10-metre diameter. All the armours and totems she placed, that were trying to protect Ysayle Khalifa followed her into the ball.
Then, it vanished silently, as if nothing had happened.
“Haa…”
Only then, did the old lady fall to the ground.
The place became oddly silent.
When Ysayle Khalifa disappeared, the dolls that had been synchronised with her demonic aura, started creaking when they moved.
Creak.
Crack…
They appeared broken and twitched, similar to the nerves twitching after the death of an animal. Fortunately, their movements seemed to be without any purpose.
“Haa… haa… egugu…”
Collecting her breath, Li Hwa sat down. Then, she used her sleeves to wipe the blood flowing down her cheek, before turning to Bom with a wrinkled smile.
“I told you not to intervene, and yet…”
However, Bom was still wearing a grave expression. The explosion she had seen via Providence had yet to occur.
It was impossible.
Providence was unchangeable. It must not be changed by any action, and wasn’t something that could be changed easily, because there existed a structured flow in Providence.
Thus, the explosion had to occur.
‘…!’
Bom’s eyes became wide open.
Thinking back, there was something which was missing in their previous fight.
Did Ysayle Khalifa, extricate?
…No?
The moment she thought that, Bom pulled all her mana up and moved.
Even with an explosion, she herself wouldn’t die, because she had followed Yu Jitae’s orders and had already set [Guard Memorising (A+)]. When she was subjected to an explosion, Bom would leave the dungeon whether she wanted to or not, with [Teleport (S)] which would be automatically casted.
However, the weakened Li Hwa would definitely die!
Bom had pushed herself by utilising Dragon’s Voice, and felt aching pain from the dragon heart.
Yet, she moved in order to save Li Hwa.
Almost at the same time, Ysayle’s head that had popped out from her body, started flying towards Li Hwa, and the dancing puppets began dashing forward.
“Ah, this…!”
The old lady, who had been feeling lethargic from exhaustion widened her eyes, as the flying Ysayle Khalifa’s head formed a strange smile with crescent eyes and a mouth.
“BOOOOOOM-! You old dotard—!”
In the first place, she wasn’t the real Ysayle Khalifa.
It was one of the three armoured golems created by Ysayle Khalifa.
[Ysayle Khalifa No.2]; a puppet she had made with herself as the model.
The head started expanding out, like a closed pot with boiling water,
“Noo–!”
And Bom hugged the old woman’s small back.
Soon, the 141st room was filled with an immense explosion, similar to that of a nuclear missile.
***
– Buzz, buzzz.
– It’s me. In 67,
– Noah’s gone. Strong as fuck, damn it.
– But I still bought a fair bit of time, so I played my part. You do whatever you guys want to do now.
– I’m gonna rest a bit.
– Beep
***
It was ridiculous.
Noah believed in his own senses after living an almost eternal life.
There had been nothing near Wei Yan, that could have been of threat to him. No matter how strong and great that ‘X’ was, Noah had been certain that he would never be able to dodge his senses.
Thus, when a warning sign had reached him from Ysayle Khalifa, Noah had moved in order to help Ysayle Khalifa.
…And Wei Yan was dead.
All this, had been carried out with the premise of Wei Yan rising to a Seat, and receiving the power of a catastrophe.
The moment the young demon died, all the plans had turned into mere bubbles.
Demons did not mourn for others’ death. They lived solely for themselves and their organisation, and when their comrades die, they would be mad from the organisation’s loss in strength, instead of being emotional at an individual level.
Therefore, Noah calmly pondered what was to come next.
[Black Coffer]
A power that sealed the time and space, straight after death.
It was one of the abilities Wei Yan’s stigma contained. He had the stigma of a demon that had reached the disaster-rank, and no matter how strong X was, Wei Yan should be able to buy some time.
The issue, was that the dungeon’s entrance had been closed.
Apparently, that X had been greatly prepared for this, because destroying a dimensional fissure required a tremendous amount of energy, reaching that of [Melissia’s Tears].
In other words, as long as he could head to the boss room and take Melissia’s Tears, Noah would be able to take all the demons here and escape.
He had that ability with him.
And thus, Noah called all the demons to this place.
After reaching the 179th room, the ‘Masquerade’, Noah massacred all the monsters that bothered him, and stood in front of the large door without hesitation.
He was feeling rushed. Noah pushed open the large gates reaching the skies.
It was the long awaited 180th room, the boss room.
‘The Room of the Esteemed Noble Lady’.
A large room, as high as the heavens was unravelled before his eyes. He could see all sorts of high-class ornaments, hazy artworks and sculptures, as well as a large bed and a dressing table.
Looking at it made one feel like they were at the country of giants. Every single thing was enormous, and even the slipper on the ground was longer than Noah’s height.
So, where’s the boss?
Where is Melissia?
Noah expanded his senses.
Creakk… Kung.
That was when the door he opened, came to a close by itself.
“…!”
Feeling a presence, Noah looked up at the ceiling.
In the sky, there were several chandeliers the size of football fields, and the one in the middle had a corpse hanging on it. It was that of a large human, with a grey skin.
…It was the boss, Melissia.
Noah’s eyes started being painted in a bloodish light.
Melissia’s large arms were hanging down powerlessly, and on top of the slightly bent fingers, a man was sitting down with his hand carrying a gem the size of a human head.
That was Melissia’s Tears – he could feel it with his senses.
That guy arrived here before himself, killed the boss and waited for him?
It was hard for him to understand logically, and thus, Noah felt sincere admiration before rage.
“Even I am having nightmares…”