Chapter 53

Siheung 8 Dungeon (6)

Han-Seol’s body lost its strength and fell.

The light of the Mana core disappeared from the torn heart.

It was ironic that the end of the person who wanted to own me all to herself faced death in the form of absorption.

Thud!

The corpse rolled on the floor. Her eyes were staring at me even after she died.

‘As expected, there it is! It was a curse.’

I could see it clearly.

The threadlike energy left the empty heart where the Mana disappeared.

Like the last time with Park Chang-Hee, I quickly leaped away from the corpse before the curse that lost its host goes ballistic.

What…?!!

As soon as she died, the red hand connected to Han-Seol’s head disappeared.

Angelica, I mean, the alien being, which had not yet decided on a name to disguise itself as a human being, seemed baffled. The telepathy carried its emotion.

No way! It’s a race without a defense against this! What kind of powerful brainwashing agents is there that’s left to interfere···?!

In that short time, it seems to have acquired knowledge of humanity from the memory of Han-Seol.

Boosh!

The alien being did not give up and activated its skill once again. I then saw a much bigger hand that was stronger than the two red hands. It came to my head and opened its palm to grab my entire head. This time, it gave its best.

But then.

‘That is a critical mistake.’

If it doesn’t work once, one should give up immediately and try to bring out another method.

However, the mediocre knowledge gained through Han-Seol seems to have instilled false confidence.

It was a good thing for me.

The sword spoke in a soft voice while the red hand was fiercely hovering around my head.

It certainly seemed to know something about that alien race.

“An immortal? Does immortality mean a limitless life span? Or some kind of resurrection that brings it back to life? Which one is it?”

It didn’t answer immediately, unlike before.

It thought it was shocking that I have perfect immunity to mental type skills.

A strategy for a person like me was to keep trying the [Whisper of the Sword] for years, which was an attack to the mind, to induce action and to let me consent to the proposal, aiming for a weakened state in mind or when I’m careless.

It found out that the strategy would never work for me.

“Shutting your mouth? At this moment… of all the times?”

This kind of shitty tactic wouldn’t work for me.

I vaguely knew why the devil’s sword is so afraid of people with brainwashing skills.

“Are you going to let me die here and let it hold this handle? Are you okay with that?”

Although there was a physical thing called the sword, the demon sword is more like a cognitive being that cannot control its own will.

The possibility that someone else could take over the will, which was the only factor that proves its existence as a cognitive being, was equivalent to its presence being erased, so it must have felt fear towards death.

The answer came right back.

‘The immortals are parasites.’

The current host is Nicole.

“When the host dies, it moves to another entity or changes its species to continue its life. No one knows how old it is. The secret of immortality is the ability as a creature to change the body and the unique skill of manipulating the target and being able to read memories. There is no better defense than being read and manipulated.’

What, then, “It means I can kill it.”

If the brainwash doesn’t work, and, “If I don’t give it a chance to move on to another object.”

On the other hand, this thought came to mind as I listened.

Parasitism and brainwashing.

It was too similar to the skill effect of [Mercadius’ Seed].

What’s the connection?

‘The only way and purpose of its life is to reign over all beings of the species and to make fun of them by manipulating its fate from the shadows. Depending on the tutorial’s progress, if it is believed that the life span of the species and society has expired, it discards them and transfers to another dimension. If the race has the means to fight against a mental attack, it runs away. If it thinks that civilization’s level is too low to be interesting, it also throws it away. It’s rare to find a species that fits all of these conditions and that is also in the early stages of the tutorial and are connected to the dungeon.’

I remembered what Angelica said in my previous life.

‘I told you. A year ago, too many died than I expected. That’s all.’

Did it lose interest in Earth, which was so crumbled that it could not sustain civilization, even though the tutorials had started?

It said this,

‘I’m not going to break the egg. When the egg hatches, the gate and the dungeon do not disappear even after the tutorial ends. Rather, it will link this place to more dimensions. With more choices!’

If we had broken the Dimensional Bird’s Egg, all dungeons would have been closed, and Angelica would have been trapped on Earth.

So the reason for it to climb the Tower of Choice to the 100th floor, instead of running away to another dimension through the dungeon, was so it could connect to more worlds?

To increase its chances of finding the right species?

‘Angelica indeed predicted in my previous life that the Tower would rise, but the system explained the meaning of the Tower anyway.’

Humanity would have somehow climbed the Tower in that situation. Even without Angelica’s prophecy.

Is that why she climbed together with us and intervened?

I grimaced.

An uncontrollable rage rose within me.

In the end, it pretended to save humanity, but when it lost interest and did not need it, it simply threw them away.

Spark!

Angelica gave up and retracted her skill.

This skill, which continues to consume Mana while it is activated, has already consumed a considerable amount.

The Devil sword asks, ‘Are you really going to fight? No one has ever beaten that monster!’.

There was something that the devil’s sword can’t see right now.

Nicole’s body, which was probably thanks to Han-Seol, did not have a single defensive artifact. It did not have a battle backpack or items such as a Mana potion.

In other words, it was impossible to recover the consumed Mana.

Without the Rune Stone, magic became less efficient.

‘The odds are good enough.’

I rushed right into it.

Swish!

Boo-boom!

The purple sword energy rips the Earth.

It used its skill right away.

It avoided the attack and hid as if it was melting into the air.

‘It would need this type of skill to escape the Hunters’ eyes and return to Earth with Han-Seol.’

[Stealth] of SS-Rank.

However, stealth skills must also use Mana, and the Mana that spouts from the heart and fills the body does not disappear just because it becomes concealed.

I stiffened and waited breathlessly as if I had missed it in sight. I looked around intentionally and watched out.

Once separated from me, the alien kept its Stealth and approached me again quietly.

The highest level of skill, having completely eliminated sound and presence.

It created a blade by restructuring its hand.

It must have believed that I wouldn’t be able to respond to it, as it approached quietly to my side without a clue.

I stuck my knife in it without turning my head!

Pshk!

K-aaargh!

Terrible telepathy reaches my mind—a manifestation of terrible pain.

It managed to appear when [Stealth] was broken. I aimed for the heart but pierced its shoulder as it must have twisted its body at the last second.

H-How! How!

Now that it knew that [Stealth] doesn’t work, it won’t approach him like this.

It was the first and last chance.

I didn’t mean to drag this to a long war.

I needed to end this before it learns more about my abilities.

Thuff!

A storm-like shock wave blew up inside Angelica’s body using the devil’s sword as a medium.

As it lost its right arm, it made distance while having lost its balance.

But still, its heart was fine. The Mana core remains in shape.

And.

Blgh blgh!

The severed arm sprang up in an instant to form a sword again.

It freely manipulated its flesh.

I caught up and attacked.

A heated battle came and went. Angelica poured all her skills on me and attacked me by concentrating her arm with Mana, which she shaped like a sword. Every time the two of us clashed, the atmosphere shook. In a single moment, 3333 pieces of light needles poured from the surrounding area.

– Tsk!

It must have been hard to withstand the power amplified by the sword. It ran away quickly, making distance. I intercepted before there was more space.

[Lightning Buster!]

The Lightning type rune stone sparkled, and a whirlpool that housed lightning poured out from my hand. Heavy current, pouring like a waterfall, hits the opponent.

Paht!

The immortal clustered the Mana together to defend itself. I kicked the ground and followed.

I continuously activated several skills while I was in motion.

Even if it was impossible to cast several simultaneously as Hibiki, I could cast them continuously.

[Overture for the resentment]

[Gravity Compression]

[Magma Field]

Dozens of opaque hands appeared in the air, wrapping the immortal’s body, and the rapidly strengthened gravity in a certain area weighed it down. Then the land in the direction of its escape suddenly melts into magma, boiling and blocking its retreat.

– This…!

He used a counterspell without a rune stone to get rid of the hand that held him. Risking her bones being crushed, it turned direction in the compressional force and leaped to a high altitude in a place where there is lava. No, to be exact, it flew by using magic to the middle of the fog.

‘Levitation without a rune stone! The Mana consumption will be enormous.’

The sight of its back as it flew in the air as if it was going to get away…

It’s too slow to miss.

Immediately, I spread the [Stardust Wing] and flew to catch up.

Whip!

This would not have been expected.

The distance that she ran away with all her might returned to zero in an instant.

I see Angelica’s face distorted by embarrassment in front of me.

What… Is this!

I didn’t miss the flow.

I kept swinging the sword without giving it the leeway to run further away.

I then guided it in the direction so that it could not go down to the ground. To let it consume Mana without being able to stop.

Also, it needed several times more Mana than I had used to prevent my amplified attack through the devil’s sword.

Every time the sword cuts through the air, the purple sword energy pushes out space, creating a shock wave, and blares out the air with heat. I shuffled a series of attacks. Every time I sliced the air, some of the arcs of light left behind following the trajectory stayed still, while others fiercely attacked Angelica with varying speed. Others were shot forward like a remote-controlled missile.

– What the hell!

It is gradually being pushed back as if it was unbelievable.

I blocked its path when it tried to get down to the ground.

‘It’s the heart.’

I was looking at the embedded core in its heart, what was once Nicole’s, waving in a strange form.

A sight not seen in Angelica in my previous life. Has it not been fully established because of the short time it was used as a host?

At first glance, it is no different from the normal human core, but whenever a shock was applied, it scattered like light smoke and gathered again.

‘It was said that it was a parasite.’

I presumed that’s the real source.

Poof!

A storm created by several layers of sword strikes intertwined with each other and cornered Angelica.

Magic followed.

[Titanium imprisonment!]

Dozens of titanium metal bars intersect in the air, horizontally and vertically, covering the immortal.

Then they tightened towards Angelica, who was located in the center.

Paht!

And another counterspell.

In an instant, the prison of metal rods disappeared.

Angelica’s Mana disappears in chunks.

Stumble!

It began to affect Levitation.

‘Now, it’s enough!’

It was enough to de-energize the prey.

Now it was time to pierce the neck.

Wooong!

On the blade of the devil’s sword, a mountain of sword energy was clustered together.

High-density energy is drawn to the limit and concentrated at a point. Along with the sword, the light and atmosphere are distorted and effervesce. The hands holding the hilt felt numb.

Angelica’s face is ruined as it directly faces it.

This was the critical shot.

The opponent no longer has the power to escape.

I struck it without hesitation!

Goooong!

The shockwave spread in all directions.

Angelica, who barely managed to block it with her hand, was thrown away without withstanding the force’s weight and shock waves on the sword.

-Aghhh!

This time, as I intended, to the ground!

Bang!

Angelica fell to the ground at a dreadful speed.

The crash site created a crater of enormous size.

Between the clouds of dust, there was a shadow wriggling in the cracks of the Earth.

‘It’s over.’

Quietly, I got off next to it.

It was pathetic to see how a being, which had been avoiding all risks by relying on its skill of mental control, was responding when it met an enemy that was immune to it.

The secret of living long enough to be named immortal was not because it was strong, but because it was only against enemies whose minds could be controlled, and when it was impossible, it was evident that it ran away and saved itself.

Angelica’s body, which is stuck on the ground in a bizarre form, as if all the bones in her body had shattered.

‘Its regeneration is slower than before.’

It moves slowly as if it fitted a broken bone.

Mana was also needed for physical manipulation.

W-wait!

Just before saving the Earth, the faces of my colleagues, who had died because of Angelica’s betrayal, flashed in front of my eyes.

‘The bad luck of my past life ···.’

I took a step closer.

‘Sees its end, here.’

Wait, wait! Don’t kill me! I’ve lived a long time that you can’t even imagine! Knowledge and secrets such as treasure acquired throughout many dimensions must be useful to you, too! I swear my loyalty, please! If you’re with me, you can read the memories of all the humans in your world and control them as you please!

It was the last struggle for its life.

– I can’t die like this. To think of how long. How long I have ········!

It was a physical injury to the level that even if one’s a Hunter, it is natural that one must die, but Angelica is still alive.

Still, whether the ragged state affected it, the core is the heart was not maintaining its shape and was shaking as if it was about to collapse.

Instead of human cores that look like crystals, it tries to change into smoke-like forms.

‘In the words of the devil’s sword, immortals are beings that are at the border between matter and non-materials.’

The human-like species held Mana cores in the heart, but the body of the immortal that I see now is almost integrated with the Mana core.

The Mana core itself is part of the body, not the Mana core inside the body.

“If I leave it like this, it may find another body and move on.’

A way to completely extinguish this body that is neither material nor nonmaterial.

There was a much simpler way.

‘Mana Drain.’

Crush!

My hand that broke the rib stopped right in front of Angelica’s heart.

In that state, I didn’t use my skills just yet.

There was one question that was not answered yet. From a being called immortal, I found something too exquisite in common to be a coincidence between ‘brainwashing’ and ‘parasitism.’

“I don’t want to let this kind of alien roam around Earth anyway.’

Every man, every hunter, was like a weapon in the hands of the immortal. It was impossible to neglect such a monster and let it free in the human world.

Such an ulterior motive is kept only in the heart.

As I felt my finger touching the heart wall, I asked it.

“Tell me everything you know about [Mercadius’ Seeds].”