35. Hey, you. You’re finally awake.
Penelope transformed into a streak of meteor, soaring down to the surface.
The sky turned crimson, and the earth cracked open—a divine punishment, a strike akin to the embodiment of a sorcerer’s meteor or a staff of godlike power born from the culmination of science and technology.
“Guuuh…!”
Demon Lord Shub intercepted the attack with just his index and thumb, looking at it with apparent interest.
The mastery of empty-handed disarming.
It was practically the ultimate blow using all of one’s power, but why—
“An excellent sword. The essence embedded within, the contained power…”
[Barisada – Unique ability, material penetration.]
Attempting to penetrate through the captured fingers to target the heart, Penelope bit her lip as Shub effortlessly withdrew, as if anticipating, and looked at her with a sly smile.
Then, in her mind, Penelope unleashed a barrage of curses towards Yudahee.
– There was no story about being this strong to the point of losing one’s mind!
– No, with a finger? Seriously?! How is this even possible?!
Trying desperately to follow up with a subsequent attack, she swung Barisada with all her might, but there was no way such a move would be effective.
The dark cloud surrounding Shub’s body almost missed dispersing the blade, and she barely managed to regain composure after holding it with both hands.
However, giving up to this extent wouldn’t preserve Penelope’s dignity.
Twisting the direction of the remaining gravitational force on the sword, she forcefully propelled herself forward under an excessive load on her body.
Truly a radiant spectacle.
The barrage of Barisada, unleashed towards Shub’s face, seemed to pass through the black clouds intact, but this was a paint motion.
In an instant, the gravity contained in her body and the sword reversed abruptly, causing Barisada, who was advancing forward, to seem like it was trying to strike down Shub like a double-edged sword.
The sword, flickering like a rising crescent moon, exerted pressure to the extent that not even the black clouds could easily approach and disperse, yet Shub smiled and extended his hand.
“If you can’t grasp the sword, just swing your hand, that’ll be enough.”
It was a maneuver to twist Penelope’s hand down instead of Barisada, similar to what Yudahee had done before – but Penelope was no fool.
“I won’t fall for it once, let alone twice!”
Penelope also let go of the sword and confronted Shub, assuming a stance against his hand.
There was a saying.
[Is it not the end if the swordsman loses the sword?]
No, what nonsense is that?
If you let go of the sword, it’s not like your wrist, which was holding the sword, will detach and escape like a rocket punch! It doesn’t just fly away like that.
Being ignorant of martial arts as someone who handles a sword was one of the misconceptions.
Rather, as someone who held the sword, one had to learn even more about the movement of the body and the martial arts associated with it.
Yudahee had incapacitated Penelope to an abnormal extent, but she was by no means weak.
Now, with gravitational fields swirling around her body and preheating occurring, even if it were the past Yudahee, she wouldn’t be easily touched.
Gravity distributed with each step, and the fist swung had piercing power.
However, the opponent was a bit tricky.
From Noble mtl dot com
The extended fist met Shub’s palm, but it was Penelope’s attack that twisted instead.
As soon as the first blow was blocked, Shub shook his body, and with the force that could make the muscles all over his body burst, he swung his leg down-
“Kyaak?!”
Not lifted in mid-air while caught by the ankle.
It was Penelope hanging loosely in an instant.
In a situation that couldn’t last even a minute…!
The signs of defeat were evident on Penelope’s face.
“How can I… how can I endure this…!”
If one minute was considered excellent, thinking about the caster of the same grade as himself who lasted only 10 seconds, it was truly an unthinkable record…
Compared to what Yudahee wanted in 10 minutes, it was barely touching the tip of the toe.
From the moment of inserting the meteor nail into the Demon King, he had a hunch.
It wasn’t just about being strong; there was interference from something else.
Black clouds wrapped around his body, but there was no longer even the strength to activate the ability to resist.
A perfect defeat.
Penelope, who anticipated her imminent end and closed her eyes tightly, felt the need to say something at the last moment.
“Damn you, Yudahee!!! Seriously! Just die!”
A scream mixed with various emotions! And a sensation of controlling the entire body-
“E…?”
… No, the reversed body slowly turned back and stood up.
Gracefully settling from the tip of the toe, the Demon King’s black clouds gently dissipated from the shoulders to the head.
“….?”
As I raised my head in bewilderment, I saw the warm smile of the demon king, Shub.
“Hoho, do not worry. I will not harm you.”
Oh…!
What is this feeling?
Penelope blinked slightly and looked back at the demon king.
The sunlight pouring down behind her spread like a huge halo, radiating brilliance.
Truly, it was a dazzling and radiant aura, no different from the grandiosity and self-indulgence of Nazzareth Monkey Spanner’s aura at birth, shouting for independence from heaven and earth.
And the composure, along with the compassion shown to the one who attacked her.
This… truly is the ideal paradise I dreamed of, isn’t it, Mamang! Mamang… isn’t it!
“Yes, what did Yudahee say?”
“She… told me to… hold him off for 10 minutes.”
Penelope, with a vacant look as if possessed, blurted out even the unasked questions.
“That scoundrel… the pure scoundrel… attacking from above… sniff-!”
“Yes, yes, how heart-wrenching it must have been. Hoho.”
Penelope, embraced by Mamang Shub, buried her face in his large chest and shook back and forth.
“So… if I give myself 10 minutes… there is a way to… defeat the demon king… Shub, by any means…”
“10 minutes… just 10 minutes…”
In that meaningful time, Shub Niguras briefly reconsidered Yudahee’s actions.
However, throwing Penelope as bait to herself, what else could she do besides attacking the remaining survivors?
And if she did that, the twelve pairs of bodies that would emerge.
In the grotesque memory, Yudahee recalled what she had done in the last game, flowing through her mind like a ghostly lantern, realizing what she had summoned.
“Just three of them, Atlaq Nacha.”
In normal circumstances, she would have casually shrugged it off with a light laugh, but now, in this state where all abilities were severely limited. If the events of that time were to repeat, she would inevitably fall without any resistance, but Shub was not worried at all.
The barriers piled up throughout the entire arena would never allow that.
She claimed to have entered through the back door using the authority of Yog-Sothoth, but if Yudahee tried again, the recoil of the failed consciousness would be overturned.
Refusing to deal with the uninteresting matter that would end that way, Shub began to move again.
Just a half-bluff thrown to increase Yudahee’s participation rate.
[If defeated, I might take you away?]
…but if Yudahee really proceeded with the work in a boring manner, there was an intention to take her away, even if it meant going to extremes.
She had been aware of Yudahee’s whereabouts.
About 5km ahead.
A grassy field with no place to avoid or hide.
At the moment of curiosity about what she was up to, a pillar of light descended from the sky.
—–
“Mo, monster…”
Those contractors who thought there was a slight possibility if they could make Yudahee release Shinki, Parashu, were only deluding themselves with their own fantasies.
However, that was nothing but their misguided illusion.
The moment Parashu was embedded in one contractor’s face, someone else froze them entirely with an ice magic.
“Done! Sealed it with divine power!”
Although Yudahee had been hanging a corpse limb by limb on Parasu, he quickly let go and pulled out the sword from the dead guy’s waist.
…But everyone thought it was too late.
The remaining contractors, as well as the divine beings in the waiting room watching the screen.
When Yudahee gripped the sword, the weapons of the five contractors were already aiming for his head and flying towards him.
It seemed like Yudahee’s head would shatter then and there…
“Slow, even in falling.”
“Huh…?”
Instead, it wasn’t the five heads flying into the air.
Above the flying heads, hooks were piled up.
A miraculous technique where not a single drop of blood was shed.
After cutting through the body on the ground, blood started to spurt out from the cross-section, truly a horror story in itself.
What on earth… happened?
“Oh, the sword is broken.”
The one who could answer that question just sighed while holding the broken sword, as if saying, ‘This is why you can’t use anything other than Parasu.’
Taking advantage of that moment, someone tried to bind Yudahee, but this time, pulling the bow tied to the dead guy’s back swiftly added a beautiful flower pattern to his forehead.
“ㅇ-“
The contractor lay on the cold floor with his friends without even leaving a last word.
This time, the bow broke and the ceremony was completely interrupted.
Since each weapon could only withstand one blow, what is this, can they even be called weapons?
Disposable items are the same.
Yudahee was no different from a wolf that had leaped into a pack of rabbits.
Five people left.
But their opponents had already lost all composure.
All of this happened in less than 10 seconds.
Resistance? It had to be of a certain caliber, and challenging it now would only lead to a dog’s death for Yudahee.
While the remaining ones were despairing internally, Yudahee turned his eyes towards the distant scene where Shub and Penelope were colliding.
They said it would take 10 minutes… Would it be fortunate if they could endure even a minute?
In reality, Yudahee knew very well that the 10 minutes were just a figure to draw out Penelope’s motivation.
Well, there was some expectation when facing Yuseongrak, who had put all his abilities into it, but the situation had completely collapsed…
In fact, he had no intention of keeping the promise of 10 minutes with Penelope, but he still secretly hoped for it.
Though he never expected the perennial underdog to suddenly go wild and turn the race into a spectacle, like tearing betting tickets into pieces…
“Huh…?”
Something seemed to be wrong.
Rather than running along the course, the racehorse seemed to be escaping beyond it, physically sweeping through the spectator stands.
What… What on earth…
It was good that it lasted for over a minute, but why was it sticking so closely to Shub Niguras’s side?
Even pressing its face against his chest.
“…..Mamang.”
Ah, this is so messed up.
I’d rather have died than deal with this, seriously, that bastard…
“This cliché is really not fun at all…”
A comrade presumed dead suddenly appears as an enemy, having lost their memory, and blocks the path?
＜＜Uhyo, brave warrior. Are you watching? Your precious comrade is about to be corrupted and turned into an enemy from now on.＞＞
Damn it, this is NTR.
This is the peak of messed up, isn’t it?
Still, it’s fortunate that we bought some time… but from a long-term perspective, having one hero unit directly taken over by mind control is pretty much the same.
In that case, we had no choice but to quickly prepare a countermeasure.
Swish.
Even though the rest of the five were wearing armor, their chests burst open in an instant, spewing out blood.
Nothing more to see. Instant death.
With their bodies lying beside, Yoo Dahee slowly began to form a new contract.
Until now, it was a method to fix and lead the form of existence beyond the observable universe…
But now, it was different.
Not an outsider like the Outsiders, the Great Old Ones, or the Elder Gods, but an existence belonging to this universe.
Now, what Yoo Dahee was summoning… was just one goddess.
Except for her body, a goddess so utterly incompetent…
Struck by the divine power of Adikia’s anger, she collapsed.
＜＜Dike Astraea＞＞
Finally, it’s your turn to pay for the meal, JOAT goddess.
Clang.
“Ah, ow…!”
Dike, who clutched his throbbing head as it hit the ground, looked around with dazed eyes.
Wondering where on earth he was, Dike, still in a blurry state of mind after waking up, reached out his hand to Yudahee.
“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.”
“….?”
Author throwing games references left and right