Chapter 79
The extreme sense of horror that was not fully conveyed in the novel.
How foolish it is to express her with a simple combination of characters.
What was rapidly moving in Liam’s body was only his eyeballs and heart. The initial chill that ran down the spine made the mind freeze, rendering judgment impossible.
His hands and feet were cold, but sweat formed and dripped down. Barely holding onto the sword.
With rough breathing, Liam looked at Jagan, who had taken on the form of a young girl, a Grand Archbishop.
It may not be possible to see Altif’s status, but even if not expressed in numbers, it can be understood.
Closer to instinctual intuition than a foe, a sense dominated his body that her limbs would be severed just by her light movements.
“Liam?!”
Nikella’s shout could be heard.
Nikella and Ophelia, who were surveying those who had become mannequins, looked up at the being named Jagan.
That being was smiling. He seemed delighted.
With the joy of a child receiving a new toy, the girl giggled as she placed her hand on Liam’s heart, feeling its thumping like a drum.
“You seem quite scared.”
Savoring Liam’s pounding heartbeat, the girl was delighted. To her, a person’s heart was like the mechanism of a toy.
Without its mechanism, a toy wouldn’t function. It made unique sounds with each movement, indicating its operation.
The sound of that mechanism, strong and fast, brought a peculiar pleasure, making her happy every time it resonated loudly.
Except for Jagan, no one was allowed movement in this space.
Even Liam, who was directly beside her, and Ophelia, who was relatively far away, both wanted to exert their power on each other by moving their bodies, but it was impossible.
“I’ll save you…!”
Except for Nichela, who felt the most urgent at that moment.
Fwoosh!
A spirit composed of red flames emerged around Nichela. It burned fiercely, difficult for even a vast amount of mana and a contract holder to control.
This spirit was a high-level being surpassing Nichela’s current level.
Just its appearance emitted a significant presence due to the consumption of mana and the difficulty in handling it, as it had never been used in combat despite forming a contract.
The spirit, summoned immediately, flew straight towards Jagan and Liam. The scorching heat radiating from it made them feel like they would get burned just by its slight approach.
The spirit alone exuded a considerable presence by merely being present.
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Watching it, Jagan smiled deeply once again.
“…!!”
“Long time no see, Ifrit.”
The attack of the flame spirit, Ifrit, of the Duke’s flames was casually thwarted by her bare hands.
Just as a child’s hand holding onto an adult, Ifrit couldn’t make a move.
Huh? Jagan lightly blew like extinguishing the candles on a cake. Ifrit’s flames spread like a radiation beam, causing a substantial loss of flames from its core body.
Ifrit intensified the flames even more.
To Liam nearby, it seemed closer to lava than mere flames.
Fwoosh! The flames, raised to a brightness akin to light, surged vigorously.
Jagan did not release her grip on Ifrit. It was as casual as holding a slightly warm potato.
The output of Ifrit’s flames was merely a defensive measure delayed for counter-summoning, causing no harm to Jagan.
“Seems like you’ve been stuck in the spirit realm for too long, huh?”
Or perhaps, is it that the level of that human woman can’t properly contain you? Jagan laughed long, looking down at Nichela with eyes filled with terror.
She scrutinized Nichela’s emotions through the horizontally split pupils of Jagan.
Even if Nichela’s face turned pale, she didn’t stop supplying mana to Ifrit. On the contrary, she desperately gathered more mana from her body, providing it to Ifrit.
Knowing that she was still lacking in properly handling the Duke’s spirit, Nichela was even more urgent.
Receiving her mana, Ifrit explosively spewed out the power of flames as if enraged.
Jagan watched the spectacle with eyes widened like a child witnessing a fireworks display.
As Ifrit’s fist fell back.
Condensing flames intensely like heating an engine.
Kwagagak???
It shot out like a rocket.
The noise was so peculiar and destructive that it was hard to believe it was merely the sound of flames, and it was devastating.
Caught in this blaze, Liam fell back, and the massive blaze engulfed Jagan.
Ophelia, who came to her senses belatedly, quickly heightened her senses and confirmed her position. She seemed to have not yet fallen, in her judgment.
She swiftly drew her bow and aimed.
In this situation, it might not be helpful, but she had to continue to hit effectively when the monster’s movements were restricted even slightly.
Shade?!
An arrow filled with Ophelia’s maximum wrath left her hand, rushing fiercely.
It pierced through the flames, hitting the wrist of the monster’s extended hand, piercing it through.
Seeing the opportunity, Ophelia immediately prepared the next arrow.
“You, annoy me.”
Clearly, it was Zagan who was at the altar.
She, who should be suffering in the flames, saw his eerie pupils flash before her eyes.
*Thud.*
On Zagan’s palm, lightly swung as if chasing away a fly.
“Ophelia???!!”
The head of Ophelia, a noble of the Lavan Kingdom, fell with a thud. Her severed neck showed a clean cut as blood gushed out.
Liam, with his unfocused eyes, now witnessed the scene unfolding before him.
Ifrid, who was fighting Zagan to protect himself, had suddenly disappeared, becoming an illusion.
Nicola screamed, calling out for Ophelia.
Zagan had a rather displeased look. Even though it was a play with inferior beings, his smile twisted in anger.
And Ophelia?
Ophelia… Ophelia…
*Rolling.* Ophelia’s head was rolling on the ground. Liam faced her lifeless body.
She had the face of a hunter who found a weak prey. The moment Zagan approached to cut her throat wasn’t even expressed.
Dead….
Dead?
She’s dead?
Was she the one who was killed in the first semester final exam?
No, no. Absolutely not. There’s no way she could die here.
Am I experiencing a hallucination?
No, no.
Zagan doesn’t have that ability.
Then really… Is Ophelia really….
Dead…?
“Wait here for a moment. I’ll have fun with that human who dared to dirty my clothes first.”
Zagan, who roughly ordered Liam, approached Nicola, who was sobbing. Liam, still frozen, couldn’t move as if obedient.
Nicola, forgetting that she ran away in fear, sat down with a thud, staring at Zagan with dilated pupils.
Gathering magic.
Summoning spirits.
However, the magic gathered with trembling hands vanished before reaching Jagan’s body. The spirits rejected Nicola’s summoning.
The most powerful entity among the spirits she had contracted, Ifrit, suffered a harsh fate and was reverse-summoned. Nicola’s mental state was unstable, which was transmitted to the spirits as well.
No one responded to Nicola.
No one.
Not even Liam.
“He’s dead… he’s dead….”
His mind couldn’t keep up with the current situation.
Pressured by a sense of suffocation, Liam’s mind, as if being obstructed by something else, drifted further away, wanting to escape from reality.
A world different from reality.
Death in the world of novels.
Liam finally felt the weight he had been avoiding facing.
Liam possessed within the novel.
Ophelia, who had deviated from the original development and turned into a corpse. Now, you probably won’t even see her voice or laughter. …Expelled from the story.
Then, what happens if he dies.
Will his soul cease to exist in reality and within this novel.
Frightening….
Fear.
?…Wake up …now!
With trembling legs, Liam’s mind, fleeing to his own world.
In his blurred vision and distant ears, a figure’s voice and form that shouldn’t be there appeared.
Before Liam’s vision was completely engulfed in darkness.
A man calls out to Liam in intense anger. Using that signal as a guide, Liam could turn back in the dimly lit path.
The voice grows stronger.
Liam’s mind returns.
Eventually, a gradually clearer voice rings in Liam’s ears.
“Get up and fight, you son of a b****!!!”
“…!”
Startled by Lucael’s sudden anger, Liam could barely wake up from the pressure he was experiencing for the first time.
In the smoky space, Liam’s thoughts, which had been at a standstill, finally start to reboot.
Lucael protecting Nicola and Hariana’s figures come into view.
Why are the two of them here? Without a moment’s hesitation, the cruel reality unfolds before his eyes.
The sturdy legs, fitting for a wolf, which were swiftly targeting the enemy, are broken, with their insides empty like a mannequin.
Hariana, who had been casting elemental magic to the best of her ability, was easily blocked and captured by Jagan.
Jagan’s hand holding Hariana’s left wrist.
Snap!
As the sound of plastic breaking echoes, Hariana’s arm is torn off.
Hariana screamed a horrific scream not from pain, but from an unbelievable phenomenon.
Jagan, who tore off Lucael’s legs and Hariana’s left arm, grinned happily as if savoring their ‘bodies’. The fact that their bodies had turned into mannequins indicated that Jagan had tasted that part.
“Move??!”
Lukaiel shouted at Liam once again.
“It’s futile. That human is held captive by my faction’s deity… the peculiar entity you refer to? A strange name indeed. Anyway, he’s in the custody of my subordinate Altiffs.”
Peculiar entity.
It refers to Altiffs among the priest-class Altiffs with special abilities but lacking intellect. Unlike bishop-class, they are inferior in combat prowess and skills and, like other priest-class, move only by instinct in the absence of orders.
With eyes dazzled, Lukaiel gazed at the ceiling where a red monster in the form of a large bat twitched its head. That monster was controlling Liam’s movements.
“Grrr…!!”
Realizing that Liam was not merely subdued by psychological factors, Lukaiel, missing a leg, approached using his arms instead.
After the nest incident, they hadn’t come to rescue the Liams to be killed.
Certainly, they moved more by emotion than judgment, but they came to rescue. They hadn’t come to helplessly face such a senseless death…!
“You’re quite a persistent one, aren’t you? Amusing. If you so desire, I shall devour the rest of your parts.”
Jagan left Harianna behind and knelt before Lukaiel.
Even facing an opponent he couldn’t possibly defeat, Lukaiel didn’t expect the fierce blaze in his eyes.
Rather, he glared as if to kill the opponent.
Jagan liked that emotion.
She reached out. Slowly, she approached Lukaiel’s head. The head, an important part containing the brain.
Lukaiel extended sharp claws in readiness.
Before that hand could reach, he would slice it off at the wrist. If that failed, he would tear it apart with his teeth!
At the moment when the two emotions of interest and anger collided.
As a sound escaped Lukaiel’s lips, like a hiss, a sentence slipped out.
“Liam, you little scoundrel. You’re damn late.”
【Keeaeek??!】
Thud! The huge bat-shaped figure fell to the ground in two halves.
Jagan’s gaze shifted again as she spoke. It was clearly a blaming remark, yet she seemed to enjoy it.
“It was my only remaining peculiar entity. How do you plan to compensate for that?”
The sight of Liam in her gleaming eyes sent a surge through her body.
Zap.
The source of that lightning was intense anger.
*Ding!*
Condition: Overcoming ‘comrade’s death,’ ‘extreme fear.’
Having fulfilled these conditions, the use of the “Special Skill” is now possible.
***
Kwagagang!
Paula, using a compound elemental magic, inflicted significant damage on one bishop-class.
Their wounds would soon heal, but as damage accumulates, the recovery speed is delayed.
“Kkihing!”
An Altiff emerging from the explosion extended sharp arms towards Paula like swords.
Paula hastily raised her staff to block it and simultaneously, caused another explosion to bounce back and escape.
Around her, the other first-year professors were engaging Altiffs, among them, Lucen, a man with dark circles, positioned himself close to Paula.
“It’s become troublesome… I thought there were only five mediocre bishops, but that lad with the hat is quite perplexing.”
Just because they are in the same class doesn’t mean all entities have equal abilities or strengths.
The potential each Altepf possesses is different. Among them, there are those who may not belong to the higher echelons but have the power to break free from their group.
The priest-class Altepf with the eye insignia on their forehead, like Tophat, was also like that.
“Professor Louisa’s situation is also concerning.”
In Lucen’s inherently calm and low voice, tension lingered. Paula narrowed her eyes, focusing more on Tophat Altepf in front of her than the other bishops.
“There’s no need to worry about Louisa.”
This does not mean being neglectful of her bond with Louisa.
“She was ranked 12th in the warrior rankings during her active duty for no reason.”
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Louisa is a strong individual who belongs to the top tier even among the professors at Academia. Worrying about her is…
*Kugugung!*
It was meaningless.
The vast mana emission and gravity waves that spread even to the professors far away from Louisa. Like crimson blood spurting forth as if it were a fountain where Louisa had flown.
That blood turned into rain and fell to the ground.
Louisa’s whole body turned red, receiving that rain.
Her eyes flashed.
Her vitality that made one forget the distance was transmitted as it was to all Altepf and professors.
“If you don’t want to perish, get out. We need to quickly retreat into the nest.”