Chapter 136 Pain And Malice



Mana has unlimited possibilities; it can create gods blessings that may be beyond human reason. That's why the battle between mana users is always a battle of information; as much as possible, you have to hide information about your god's blessing before you can make a surprise attack.

One of Ivaylo's abilities is pain and malice, a combination of Mary's rampage skill and Ivaylo's god's blessing. This ability can make her enemy die 100% tortured inside Mary's body. But the conditions for using it are too strict. He had to create a doll similar to his opponent's. If the opponent wears different clothes, the ability will not activate, so the only way to create it is while fighting. What about the percentage of resemblance? The resemblance between the puppet and the real person is only based on Ivaylo's preference. If Ivaylo thought it was the perfect result, his god's blessing could work. So Ivaylo has to take each doll seriously.

Since activating it was difficult and took time, Ivaylo used his other god's blessing. Ivaylo's other god's blessing, desperate seamstress, can make him sew quickly. Even so, he needs at least one to three minutes to finish one doll to achieve perfection. That one minute is more than enough for his opponent to attack Ivaylo while sewing.

To overcome this, he had another god's blessing, A Doll's House. An ability that allowed him to control people's corpses into obedient dolls. This is how he bought time to activate his blessing.

Ivaylo always hid how his ability worked from others, even if they knew they would usually die immediately after dealing with him.

Now when dealing with Eldritch, he revealed everything, including the matter of Mary, who turned out to be his adfeqtus reliqua.

The battle between mana users is ultimately a battle of information, and since no one knows what the opponent is doing, they will usually wait or go straight ahead to defeat the opponent before they can activate their abilities.

"Humans are afraid of the unknown, so they will choose to act immediately before it happens."

Ivaylo now felt lucky because Eldritch was an ordinary human who immediately charged toward him.

Eldritch must have been wary of Ivaylo's god's blessing, that's why he immediately intended to strangle him before Ivaylo could get a chance to activate it, but it was a boomerang.

Ivaylo felt a sense of relief as Eldritch closed in on him. For Ivaylo, this attack was an advantage. He had been waiting for this moment to activate his god's blessing, which required the opponent's blood. However, he knew from previous fights that taking it from the Eldritch was impossible. So he decided to be blunt and show the process of his god's blessing, hoping that Eldritch would take the bait. To his surprise, it worked. Eldritch approached him, unaware that Ivaylo was plotting behind the facade of his desperation. Ivaylo reached out, snatching at Eldritch's arm and using the opportunity to draw his blood.

"Taking my blood, huh? Does this mean the conditions for using your blessing have been completed?"

"Yup, you could say that if I escape from your grasp, I can win."

"Then I just don't have to let go of this hand of mine."

"I can't guarantee that."

Ralph used his whip to pull Ivaylo's body but failed because Eldritch's grip was so strong. Then he switched to attacking Eldritch's body. Because the whip was not a hard object, Eldritch could not simply ward it off with his sword, as a result Eldritch wrapped the whip around his hand and pulled it hard, causing Ralph to be pulled forward.

Norman used his armacar's rampage skill to attack Eldritch. Ralph and Norman united to attack him.

"You think an attack like this can break my grip?"

"Of course not," Norman replied.

Coming in like a cannon, Adam was suddenly in front of Eldritch, his presence immediately looming before Eldritch. With the quick functioning of his two parallel minds, Eldritch swiftly acknowledged the situation. Glancing towards Clarissa, he detected a peculiar energy radiating from her, activating a non-attribute amnis. "So that's how she did it," Eldritch muttered under his breath, piecing together Clarissa's cunning plan of deceiving his vision to allow Adam to approach undetected.

"PERSESS TANTRUM!" shouted Adam.

Adam lunged forward, his mighty fist poised to strike an earth-shattering blow. Eldritch could feel the raw power emanating from his opponent and knew Adam's fist was full of mana. Just as Adam was about to unleash his devastating attack, something unexpected happened. With a sudden burst of strength, Eldritch released his grip on Ivaylo and swiftly snatched the wrist of Adam's clenched hand.

'Even a surprise attack like this doesn't work on him?!' thought Adam.

-BAM

He drove the muscular limb down toward the ground with incredible force in a lightning-fast maneuver. The earth trembled beneath their feet as the ground crumbled and fractured, unable to withstand the sheer power of Eldritch's strike. However, just in the nick of time, Adam managed to temper his immense strength, holding back just enough to prevent the impact from ricocheting throughout his body.

"After receiving Howl's full power, you're still alive; I'm impressed. You guys are probably the most powerful humans I've met besides Leofric and the academy principal."

"And we will be the last humans you see," Ivaylo said.

Ivaylo stuck a needle filled with Eldritch blood into his doll, and then he pulled the threads on the doll.

"Dai Abare: Marisa, Pain and Malice."

Suddenly the air grew heavy with a sense of unease; a large and creepy doll emerged from behind Eldritch, its eerie presence sending shivers down to Eldritch's party. The numerous hands protruding from its back made it even more unsettling, as though some unseen force controlled it.

As Eldritch took a step back, he noticed something even more disturbing: she started to hold his hand and open her own womb. Seeing that doll, the Noctem Dolls party realizes that the main doll that Ivaylo always carried with him had a face uncannily similar to Mary's.

"So this is the rampage skill of your adfeqtus reliqua," Eldritch said.

Eldritch's lightning-speed move attempted to flee from the sinister Mary doll. However, the doll seemed to hold an inexplicable grasp over him, steadily approaching him with outstretched arms. Knowing his run will be in vain, Eldritch uses his sword and ruthlessly aims for the doll's fragile hands. Yet with each slicing motion, the doll remained unscathed, her grip on Eldritch unwavering.

Struggling to break free, Eldritch grimly realized the doll's unimaginable power—it represented mana itself, an unbreakable law. He was trapped, unable to move or break free from the doll's grip.

"I can't run, and this doll also can't be attacked in any form, meaning she is the concept of mana itself, a law that can't be broken. Unfortunately, this ability doesn't suit me," said Eldritch.

'Not suit?' thought Ivaylo.

The doll ended up holding both Eldritch's hands, and the other hands also joined in holding Eldritch's stomach and legs.

Surprisingly, a curious glint sparked in Eldritch's eyes. Rather than cowering in fear, he surveyed his surroundings intently, as though locked in an unspoken battle of wits with his captor. What plan was forming in his mind? Even though he knows he will die?

Eldritch muttered, "Veniverum, Howl. Veniverum, Crestfaren."

Eldritch's sword and armor shone, transforming into their human forms, leaving Eldritch only with his shirt and long pants. It turns out his armor was also an adfeqtus reliqua called Crestfaren; among other weapons, Crestfaren alone had a different form. All of them had the form of children, while Cresfaren was more of a strapping old grandfather.

pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ "MASTER!" shouted Denia who was worried about Eldritch. Especially after seeing Eldritch remove his armor and sword.

"Denia, don't come here; you have to guard the king's body."

"But!"

As Mary's stomach suddenly tore apart, an agonizing scream, like that of a wounded animal, escaped her lips. To her utter horror, a massive spear suddenly came out of her stomach and impaled Eldritch's abdomen. He hurled out a seemingly endless stream of blood, staining the ground around him and leaving behind a ghastly pool of crimson.

"MASTEEEEER!!!" Denia voiced her desperate cries.

The grotesque Mary doll, a twisted creation of her own making, was inside her stomach, filled to the brim with instruments of torture and unimaginable horrors. As the doll slowly devoured Eldritch's body, it was clear that he would never be able to escape the torment that awaited him.

"No way... Eldritch is dead?" said the other-worlder.

In their stunned disbelief, the girl and Denia could hardly believe what they saw. It was a nightmare that they couldn't hope to wake up from. The realization that Eldritch was gone forever left Denia feeling numb and helpless.

…

"It's finally over, Leader. Now we just need to take the king's body," said Norman.

Eldritch was already dead.

But something was wrong.

Ivaylo couldn't help but feel odd about the reaction of Eldritch's adfeqtus reliqua.

The only one who had a normal reaction was Denia, then the other-worlder girl. The others didn't look surprised, scared, or angry at all. They just stood there as if waiting for something.

"Norman, tell Clarissa to activate the shooting star for all members."

"Eh? Why?"

"Just do it."

"CLARISSA! ORDERS FROM THE LEADER! SHOOTING STAR FOR EVERYONE! FAST!" Norman shouted.

"A-alright!"

Ivaylo was still thinking,

'Not only the behavior of the adfeqtus reliqua, but what Eldritch did was also odd. He doesn't look desperate when facing death, I guess he's that type of person, but the weird thing is, his words at that time...'

'Unfortunately this ability doesn't suit me'

What did he mean by that?