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He cut the hands dozens, hundreds of times. The hands reaching out to grab his body, and the massive grip that seemed ready to pierce through everything it touched when gathered together.
Despite falling into this endless cycle, Rohan moved calmly, and thanks to this, he realized that there was a certain ‘pattern’ to the hands that seemed to dig in irregularly. In fact, ‘gap’ might be a more fitting word than pattern.
The dark blue grip would regenerate from the cut surface even if sliced. The peculiar point was that not all hands regenerated.
‘The presence or absence of magic power.’
This difference stemmed from the presence or absence of magic power.
If he cut off a hand after only reinforcing his ‘body’ with magic power, the hand would regenerate from the cut surface. However, when cutting a hand with magic power imbued in the ‘sword’, the severed hand would completely disappear, and another hand would appear in its place.
He thought there were two reasons for going through this cumbersome process. Either they couldn’t regenerate when touched by magic power, or even if they did regenerate, they couldn’t be controlled because the magic power didn’t disappear.
This suspicion was possible because he had directly seen the cross-section of hands that began to bubble up to regenerate the moment the magic-imbued blade grazed them, only to stop unnaturally.
When he had such doubts, Arpel said:
<Rohan. Infuse magic power into the sword.>
It was a suggestion that had been done many times before, with no particular difference. Nevertheless, Rohan followed Arpel’s words obediently without any complaint. As magic power surged into the pitch-black blade, its color deepened slightly. A noble light flickered as if the night sky had been hung entirely on the blade.
And, at the moment when that color changed slightly.
Rohan began to cut through the hands still targeting him, moving like lightning. What fell to the ground in droves turned to powder and scattered into the air, but the severed hands quickly regained their original form, regenerating at some point.
Some might despair at a situation that seemed impossible to end. Others might have given up and willingly become prey to the dark blue grip.
But not Rohan. After cutting countless hands, when the man’s attacks became even fiercer, he concentrated magic power on his toes. As the magic power evenly spread throughout his body gathered in one place, his movement speed doubled.
When he finally reached the man, he smiled at him, who had misunderstood his intentions exactly as he had hoped.
Kwaang—!
Immediately after, an explosion of magic power swept the area. As several nearby houses were torn apart and blown away, it literally became no different from ruins.
‘As expected… amazing.’
The storm of magic power imbued with divine power did no harm to Rohan. It just felt like facing a strong wind head-on.
A little earlier, Arpel, who had conveyed his opinion to Rohan, overlaid the power of ‘specters’ on the magic-infused blade. As soon as Rohan felt this movement, he planted magic power hidden by the power of specters on each cut surface as he sliced through the hands.
The hands, unable to notice the planted magic power due to the spectral power covering the surface, regenerated fully. They had become a kind of time bomb.
The man, who failed to notice this intention, was engulfed in the explosion. So it could only be described as amazing. In that brief moment, Arpel had utilized everything given to him to devise an ingenious plan to navigate the situation.
“Urgh…”
A short groan was heard from the sunken pit. Rohan, not relaxing his tension, tightened his grip on the sword.
He had to endure somehow. No, enduring wasn’t enough. He had to defeat that man to protect Arpel.
As the dust settled somewhat, the scene inside became vaguely visible. The man, covered in dust, could be seen lying on the ground. It was natural. He had taken a frontal hit from an attack that would be fatal even to ordinary people, while possessing the power of ‘specters’. It was rather remarkable that he wasn’t dead.
I need to cut off its neck. As killing intent filled Rohan’s eyes, his body moved towards the inside of the pit. Or rather, tried to move.
<No, don’t go.>
“…You’re telling me not to go?”
<Yes. That is…>
Shudder. The pitch-black blade trembled briefly. Rohan narrowed his eyes at that clear trembling. Although he didn’t have the ability to read Arpel’s emotions, he could still clearly understand.
Arpel was anxious right now.
“Heh, hehe. Amazing, amazing…”
Was it a groan of pain, or laughter of joy? The man uttered an incomprehensible sound that was so mixed it was impossible to distinguish properly, and added a brief appreciation.
It was a pure appreciation without any sense of crisis, a calm reaction that was hard to believe came from someone who had just narrowly escaped death from an explosion. His eyes, which had thrown away boredom, sparkled and shone.
At a glance, he seemed to be sprawled defenseless, but Rohan couldn’t move towards him. Along with Arpel’s voice, his own instincts were also shouting.
Don’t approach that. That monster wearing a human skin.
‘The mask…’
As he carefully examined the man’s appearance, a streak of discomfort raised its head. Unlike the clothes that were torn to shreds and covered in dust, making their original color unrecognizable, the mask remained intact without a speck of dust. It kept catching his eye.
“Kehehk, it’s been a while since I’ve been caught off guard like this while ‘testing’. What a waste, what a waste… To exert such power with such a worthless body. If only you’d throw away that shell, you could reach the heavens.”
The eyes that had been gazing at the darkened sky blocked by the wall of specters swiftly turned to stare at Rohan.
“Child. Won’t you come with me? You have the qualifications to go with me.”
The man’s voice trembled slightly. Despite the tone that seemed to carry genuine regret, Rohan kept his mouth shut.
Instead, as if to give an answer to that proposal, numerous shadow thorns that shot up from the ground pierced the man’s body. A chilling sound followed, but no pain-filled groans or screams were heard.
A cool wind blew. It even created an illusion as if the surrounding air had settled heavily.
Crack.
A strange noise was heard from somewhere. Rohan, who instinctively turned his head towards the source of the sound, bit his lip.
The mask had cracked.
***
Unlike before when the buildings at least retained their shape, they had now completely turned to powder, leaving no trace, and the blackened earth continuously spewed out fog of the same color. Although it didn’t reach Rohan, who was protecting his body with magic power, it was clear that the air surrounding the village had become much heavier.
“Urgh…!”
With each step he took, the ground behind him sank deeply. Kwoong, kung. A loud noise followed in tandem.
As soon as he twisted his body sideways, something pounced on the spot where Rohan had been. The sword that struck down at a terrifying speed cut a dark blue tentacle that was half-stuck in the ground, unable to pull out.
The shadow undulating on the ground surged up. Transformed into sharp thorns, it pierced numerous tentacles, and some of them changed into swamp-like terrain to prevent the tentacles from escaping by blocking their movement. Rohan, who took a light breath, began to cut through them.
Like a dance of swords, it was truly an artistic movement.
The vast magic power emitted from the sword swept over the tentacles like waves, drawing patterns, and also completely drove away the power of specters that had been writhing in the air.
When this mysterious scene, like dark clouds clearing, ended, strands of tentacles fell beneath it. The sight of them falling like raindrops was incredibly bizarre, but Rohan didn’t have the mental capacity to pay attention to that scene.
“Hup!”
From bottom left to top right. Another sword strike, slashed diagonally, created a massive sword energy that seemed to split the sky. The mixture of vast magic power and divine power turned the area to powder, but the result was the same.
“It’s useless.”
Like the shadow hands he had broken earlier, these tentacles were also entities that regenerated endlessly. As if determined not to fall for the same trick, they completely disappeared and regenerated again whenever they received even the slightest attack, which was extremely annoying.
“…Thank you.”
In the brief respite that allowed him to catch his breath. The black magic power rising from the sword somewhat restored his fallen stamina and magic power. It wasn’t perfect, but this was good enough. Rohan smiled gently and brushed back his sweat-soaked hair.
His eyes looked upward. The man who had been in human form until just moments ago. No, the ‘being’ that could no longer be called human was targeting Rohan with numerous tentacles sprouting from its entire body.
A wave of disgustingly dark blue tentacles starting from the holes in the clothes where arms and legs should be. The situation had changed like this immediately after the mask he was wearing shattered.
‘It’s not human.’
It couldn’t be called human from the point it was attacking him with tentacles, but he could clearly recognize this after the mask came off.
He had thought that the voice it made was strange. The vibration of air that couldn’t be produced by a human voice, and the booming voice as if speaking inside a cave. The cause of that inhuman voice was simpler than expected.
Because it had no mouth.
The only recognizable feature was its eyes, gleaming with madness. Other than that, there was nothing left that could be called ‘human’. The skin had melted, the shape of the nose was crushed, and the lips had completely melted away with the skin, leaving no trace. Along with that, tentacles extended from its limbs.
That was the true identity of the seven executives of the Salvation Church, who had accepted specters into their bodies, which they so praised.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
