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······The moment Ivonne headed underground was not long before she encountered something.
“Kyaaah!”
Muriel, struck by the blade of flames, writhed in front of the cathedral’s flower bed.
Whoosh─!
The scarlet fan of Ivonne made the crimson flames surge fiercely.
The heat of the intense crimson, pulled to its peak, distorted the surrounding sight.
In order to finish it, she shook her fan.
The sharp blade of flames flew towards Muriel to crush her.
And then.
“······!”
Ivonne’s eyes widened. The blade of crimson flames did not reach Muriel; it was blocked midway.
“Wha…”
The giant hand emanating a sinister aura was blocking the blade of crimson flames.
And, as if absorbed, the blade of crimson flames was sucked into the giant’s hand and disappeared.
Baffled by this unbelievable phenomenon, Ivonne was taken aback when August, who had approached unnoticed, spoke.
“Is this your first encounter with Ivonne? Urghogda. A creature that devours magic.”
“Well······”
Ivonne’s eyes narrowed.
August simply said it devours magic, but this was not an issue of that level.
The blade of flames she had just released was a tremendous weapon, a conglomeration of an enormous flame that even Oma’s executives or the Seven Evils would find difficult to handle lightly.
It was problematic to simply refer to someone who could easily accept that as just a magic-eater.
Moreover, if a creature devouring magic was created by Mine, it would not be difficult to guess its purpose.
As if reading Ivonne’s thoughts, August smiled satisfactorily.
“It’s a grand weapon made by inserting cruto into a human body. It was created to deal with others. This time, I just brought it here for a test, but if you’re so surprised, it seems like it was a success.”
“······.”
Ivonne had no time to respond to August’s words.
Urghog was rushing towards her recklessly.
Despite trying to resist by wielding her fan, her attacks were completely ineffective against Urghog.
The blade of flames was devoured by Urghog’s body one after another, not even allowing her the opportunity for spatial movement.
‘This is bad!’
Her eyes shook as she saw the giant fist approaching.
Boom─!
Ivonne, who allowed the fist without managing to dodge in time, was thrown backwards onto the flower bed.
“Cough!”
The impact of hitting the ground caused blood to spurt from her lips.
At that moment, Muriel, who had risen unnoticed, rushed in and ruthlessly stomped on the fallen Ivonne with her high heels.
“Die, die! You vile woman!”
Since Ivonne had yet to recover from the blow of Urghog’s attack, she had no choice but to endure Muriel’s assault before the impact had even subsided.
August, quietly observing Ivonne becoming covered in blood, finally spoke.
“Maril, that’s enough.”
“But, my lord—”
Maril, meeting August’s indifferent gaze, hesitated and stepped back.
August lowered his gaze to the battered Ivonne, then spoke with a puzzled expression.
“Interesting. The contract hasn’t been severed, yet control seems to slip away. Is this the ability of that child, Ivonne?”
“······.”
Despite Ivonne’s bloodied appearance, she remained silent.
But August seemed satisfied with that silence and smirked.
“The more unattainable, the more desired.”
Greed flickered in his eyes. It was at that moment.
Urugo, who had been standing still like a machine, suddenly turned his head towards the cathedral as if catching a scent, then rushed in that direction.
August followed Urugo’s path with his eyes.
“It seems an odd one has intervened.”
In the direction Urugo had run off to, there was a magic sensation unrelated to him.
As all demonspawn shared the same magic, being children who inherited his magic, August looked down at Ivonne.
“Did you call for him?”
However, Ivonne, clueless about it herself, looked puzzled.
“No? Well, it probably doesn’t matter.”
Since Urugo had gone, August dismissed the matter.
Although the entrance of the cathedral seemed to grow noisy, August’s attention was solely on the escaped Ihaesol.
As August walked into the cathedral, he said, “Maril, handle it yourself. Can I trust you this time?”
“Yes, yes! My lord! I won’t disappoint you! Trust me!”
Maril, who had been shouting tensely, changed her expression as August disappeared.
“I don’t know who these brats are, but—”
Maril’s face contorted with malice, her pupils darkening.
“This time, I’ll definitely carve out their entrails and drink them up.”
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With a gaze full of malice, she glared at the street where the disturbance began.
***
Meanwhile, Urugo, who had rushed off after catching the scent of magic, encountered Han Seyeon.
The moment Urugo saw Han Seyeon witnessing him consume magic, he instinctively realized they were polar opposites.
Usually, encountering an opponent immune to one’s powers would cause panic or fear.
But Han Seyeon’s reaction was fundamentally different.
“Heh, you can eat this too.”
As Urugo enjoyed consuming magic, Han Seyeon continued feeding it to him.
It was a gaze as if discovering a rare animal that ate well.
“Hmm…”
Urugo, having absorbed a sufficient amount of magic, tried to close his mouth briefly for digestion, but the influx of magic didn’t cease.
In the end, Urgo tried to grab and pull out the magi heading for his mouth using both hands, but the magi kept flowing into Urgo’s mouth like a seaweed stem.
“Gr, gr…”
Urgo, whose stomach had noticeably started to swell, was in agony, but Hanseryeon was indifferent to such things.
She continued to feed Urgo the magi, seemingly curious about how much he could eat, even as his stomach swelled like a balloon.
Meanwhile, Urgo desperately tried to expel the magi, but the expelled magi went back into his mouth.
“Grk, grk.”
Foaming at the mouth, Urgo held his mouth shut and stepped back.
“What, can’t eat anymore?”
Hanseryeon displayed a visibly disappointed expression.
“Grgh…”
Losing interest, Hanseryeon stopped feeding Urgo the magi, prompting Urgo to scatter his red gaze.
Thud! Thud!
Urgo charged like a rolling boulder.
Hanseryeon raised her Beretta.
Vvvvmm—
A fist-sized blue magic power accumulated at the Beretta’s muzzle.
Thud! Thud!
She aimed the gun at Urgo’s swollen stomach like a balloon rushing towards her.
Eventually, as Urgo approached, swinging a massive fist towards her head.
──The Beretta was fired.
Kwaaang!
Urgo’s stomach burst, causing a massive explosion. Magi scattered in all directions, shaking the entire cathedral. The ceiling collapsed, and dust swirled.
Given Urgo’s specialization in magi and the fact that he had consumed magi beyond his limit, being hit by a magic bullet without resistance at close range naturally amplified its power.
Originally, it was supposed to be a massive explosion that would bring down the entire cathedral, but the explosion was contained to a slight earthquake and falling ceiling.
The reason the magi, which was about to spread in all directions, was all sucked into Morudo’s ring was due to the ring’s boundless ability.
The ring, intoxicated with magi, emitted an even more ominous light than before.
Originally a red gemstone that should have shattered upon absorbing a certain amount of magi, the ring’s collapse was prevented by Morudo, and as magi continued to be injected, a transformation occurred.
The once inferior Morudo’s ring began its ‘growth’ by feeding on magi.
It had transformed from a regular inferior magic tool to a ‘growth-type’ magic tool.
“We need to find Haesol quickly.”
Hanseryeon, confirming Urgo’s disappearance without leaving a trace, rushed out of the slightly widened room to find Haesol.
***
“…An earthquake?”
As the ceiling shook and then soon stopped, I looked down again.
The massive hole, with hazy dust swirling around, was half-filled with collapsed rocks.
It was the result of my pouring all my strength towards the cement-trapped Seorik.
‘He must be dead.’
Seorik, who might have been buried under the collapsed rocks, was nowhere to be seen, but this needed to be confirmed for sure.
I always feel that at times like this, he always manages to survive.
“Niel. Let’s dig.”
“Yes! I’ll bury it solid by smashing the ceiling!”
“Lidia wants to pour water!”
······.
The progress is too fast.
Once kids learn one bad thing, they master ten, no, a hundred.
Is this the devil’s talent?
Having already mastered the tools, Lidia and Niel, upon my single word ‘bury’, automatically proceeded with their tasks.
Clang!
The collapsed ceiling was solidly filled in, with Lidia pouring water into the gaps.
But the water color seemed strange.
I turned my head, bewildered, to Lidia who was generating the water. My expression turned bizarre.
“Uh, Lidia.”
“Yes!”
“What’s that in your hand?”
“It’s a manticore’s tail!”
Lidia was holding a manticore’s tail in the water she was creating.
The reason for the color change was probably due to the toxic substance on the manticore’s tail.
It seemed like she rushed into the room before pouring the water to get that.
She even wore heavy-duty gloves to handle it carefully, ensuring that the poison wouldn’t affect her.
Why is she so proficient?
“Where did you get that? I mean, who told you about that?”
“Aren oppa brought it when he switched bodies and showed me!”
“Niel learned it too!”
Ah, that guy···
Although the explanation wasn’t entirely convincing, I, having agreed to clear my mind, looked at the gap that had been filled.
“Anyway, now···”
That’s when it happened.
Boom!
A sudden hole burst open, and a single Inyeong shot out.
When I sensed it was Seorik, his fist was already striking me.
Crack─!
“Argh!”
A sound of something breaking as immense pain struck my raised arm.
Grimacing, I looked down at my arm. The way it unnaturally bent inward suggested the bone had broken.
Whoosh!
Summoning the flames of the phoenix to heal the trauma, but reattaching the broken bone in an instant was beyond reach.
I looked ahead.
Seorik, rising from the pit, was in a terrible state.
His flesh was burning, revealing shredded muscles underneath, a chunk missing from his shoulder.
Not to mention his once lush white hair had melted into baldness, his face was burnt, and his entire body was melting, emitting smoke.
“···He really went this far.”
Seo-rik, wiping his disheveled hair, stared at me with eyes full of madness as if he wanted to kill me.
His previous dignified appearance was nowhere to be found; instead, he was filled with anger.
Thanks to my anti-magic, I thought he would have died long ago, but he seemed to survive by expelling the magic from his body.
“This is trouble.”
I frowned.
Until a little while ago, he could have tried to capture me, but now, it seemed like he was full of the intent to kill me, perhaps even forgetting August’s orders.
His eyes were sharp enough to make my skin prickle.
No matter how severe my injuries were, it was difficult for me to win against an opponent with near-top-grade magic.
Especially after expending most of my strength in the previous attack.
Having used up all the Gram’s magic, it was impractical to reinforce my body with magic.
“Do as you wish and kill me.”
Twisting his wrist, Seo-rik rushed towards me.
It was when I had to brace myself for the tremendous speed I had to evade with time acceleration.
Bang!
An abrupt rocky pillar rose from the ground and struck Seo-rik.
“Argh!”
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Seo-rik was pushed back.
Following that, the Manticore’s venom sprayed over Seo-rik’s head.
Ssssss.
Smoke rose from Seo-rik’s body, drenched in the venom turned upside down.
“Don’t torment Hae-sol!”
“Don’t torment her!”
“These darn brats······”
Seo-rik, his face contorted like a demon, glared at Lydia and Niel in front of me as if he wanted to kill them.