Chapter 39
If there was a hell on earth, this would be it.
Kwaaaaaaaa—!!
“Kyaaaaaaaak!!”
“R-run! Hurry and ru— ghhk!!”
“Why the fuck is the Fierce Dragon attacking us?!”
The <Silver Snake Group>’s headquarters had turned into pure pandemonium.
From the sky, the Fierce Dragon rampaged freely, sweeping the area with Poison Breath.
On the ground, members caught in the breath melted away without leaving even a corpse.
They were receiving the exact same treatment they had inflicted on the residents of Riter Village.
“B-branch Leader! What the hell is this?!”
“What kind of fucking bullshit is—!”
Bruno furrowed his brow as he looked around at the scene that had become hell itself.
The Fierce Dragon, which was supposed to move only under their control, was now attacking their own organization.
In other words,
“Goddammit. Someone’s controlling the Fierce Dragon with the Demon God Stone.”
“Pardon?”
“That idiot Alfonso must have had the Demon God Stone taken from him!”
There was no other way to interpret it.
Bruno’s mind was in complete chaos.
Alfonso wasn’t weak. He wasn’t on Bruno’s level, but he was still one of the strongest in this branch.
That was precisely why he had entrusted him with the Demon God Stone.
He wasn’t the kind of guy who would lose to some sewer rats.
‘This must be the work of an outsider, not a Riter resident. Someone strong enough to defeat Alfonso and use the Demon God Stone… Wait a second.’
How the hell did they know the incantation for the Demon God Stone?
There was no way they could have tortured Alfonso to get it. The man’s soul had an imprint of a restriction spell on it.
“B-Branch Leader! Please save me!!”
“Save us!”
“Hiiik!! It’s coming! It’s coming for m— ughk.”
The chain of questions was temporarily buried under the screams of the members coming from outside.
Now was not the time to be lost in thought.
Bruno turned sharply to the executive beside him and shouted.
“The Demon God Stone can’t be used from a long distance from the Fierce Dragon! The culprit must be nearby! Find him quickly!”
“Y-yes!”
The executive hurriedly answered and rushed outside. Bruno also kicked off the ground.
Kwaaaaang—!!
The red aura that shot out from his fist spiraled like a rising dragon and shattered the ceiling.
Having created a long hole straight to the top of the building in a single strike, Bruno leaped up to the roof and
‘Where are you.’
Spread his senses widely, searching for the bastard controlling the Demon God Stone.
***
Meanwhile, the bastard Bruno was desperately looking for—Ruth—was currently
‘I kind of miss Earth.’
Feeling a slight wave of nostalgia.
The reason was simple.
Fwoosh—.
Controlling that massive monster freely with the Demon God Stone felt… very similar to controlling a game character with a controller.
He suddenly remembered his old self, an ordinary gamer who used to stay cooped up in his room, and felt a bit melancholic.
Of course, it wasn’t just melancholy.
Watching the Fierce Dragon he controlled sweeping through those human trash made him feel incredibly refreshed.
“Thrilling.”
<……You’ve finally gone insane.>
Ignoring the voice beside him, Ruth briefly checked the situation at the headquarters.
It hadn’t even been three minutes since he deployed the Fierce Dragon,
Yet it was already easier to count the surviving members than the dead ones.
This was practically annihilation.
‘Even for me right now, taking on an entire <Silver Snake Group> branch alone would have been difficult.’
But thanks to the Fierce Dragon, he was farming them effortlessly.
If he could just finish off the branch leader like this—
Saaaak!
“……!”
At that moment, he felt a chilling gaze on the back of his neck, as if a blade had been pressed against it.
An enormous killing intent.
Ruth flinched and turned toward the direction of the gaze.
“…….”
On the roof of a building in the middle of the headquarters,
A man with muscles as hard as stone was staring at him with eyes flickering with ghostly flames.
‘His name was Bruno something, right?’
Ruth was about to move the Fierce Dragon with the Demon God Stone to deal with Bruno, but stopped.
The instant the man’s figure vanished from the roof like lightning, covering over 200 meters in a single leap, Ruth had already let go of the Demon God Stone.
Concentrating on anything else in front of a monster capable of such a jump was
Suicide.
“So you were here, you cute little son of a bitch.”
Bruno walked out of the dust cloud with a savage grin that tore across his face like a demon.
“I have two questions I want to ask before I smash your brain, kid.”
“…….”
“How did you learn the incantation to control the Demon God Stone? There’s no way Alfonso would have told you.”
“I just did.”
“……What happened to Alfonso?”
“By now his face is probably caved in and he’s become food for the crows.”
“Caved in… his face. With those tiny hands? Fine, I’ll believe you.”
Kugugugu—!!
The killing intent flowing from Bruno’s body swelled in an instant and unleashed a shockwave.
He had merely raised his aura, yet the ground around them cracked open like dry rice paddies.
<Should I help?>
‘No. Stay back. You already used plenty of magic today blocking the Fierce Dragon. Any more and my mental strength will take a hit.’
<He doesn’t look easy…… Don’t forget that if you die, this body will be in big trouble too.>
Entur gave the warning and suppressed her cold energy.
Ruth fully received the aura emitted by the superhuman before him and reached one conclusion.
‘He’s around Walter’s level.’
Now that his <Rank> had risen quite a bit, he could gauge an opponent’s realm just from their aura.
Walter, the top knight of <Argon> he had sparred with once before challenging <Trial of Entur>.
Bruno was around that level, or perhaps a little stronger.
Of course, Ruth had won that spar against Walter.
But that had been a ‘spar.’ This was a fight to the death.
If their fight back then had been a real life-or-death battle, the one who would have lost without question was Ruth.
By that standard, Bruno—who was burning with the desire to kill him right now—
‘Makes for the perfect opponent.’
To test just how much progress he had made after completing <Trial of Entur>.
‘But before that.’
Swish!!
Ruth quickly snatched the Demon God Stone that had fallen to the ground and dashed out of the narrow forest path.
After putting distance between himself and Bruno with movements as fast as light, he moved to the center of the now-ruined headquarters.
To deal with such a powerful opponent smoothly, an open area would be far better than a cramped one.
“……You’re a seriously insane brat.”
Even as fury boiled all the way to the top of his head, Bruno couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
He had clearly released his aura with the intent to crush the boy’s lungs.
Yet the kid had casually pierced through his killing intent and escaped.
Now he understood how Alfonso had lost. There was no way someone like Alfonso could have handled this monster.
“This is it! Now this is worth killing!”
As Bruno burst into mad laughter and launched himself toward Ruth,
“Si-on Nephitie Eshilin.”
Fwoosh—!
Ruth recited the activation incantation for the Demon God Stone once more and moved the Fierce Dragon.
While he had briefly let go of the stone, the Fierce Dragon had regained some of its senses and was now circling in the air before flying toward the Riter Mine.
It soon squeezed into the peak and entered the mine.
‘This should keep it quietly asleep deep inside the mine for a while.’
He had avoided the catastrophe of having to face both Bruno and a rampaging Fierce Dragon at the same time.
“Who the hell do you think you’re looking away from, you brat?!”
Shiiiing—!!
A fist flying at near-sonic speed.
Ruth explosively pushed off the ground with his legs. The moment he barely dodged Bruno’s punch with a narrow margin,
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!!
With a deafening explosion, his body, which had been backstepping, was suddenly sent flying backward as if hit by a shockwave.
Bruno had simply slammed his fist into the ground, yet it created a deep crater as if a meteor had struck.
Crunch!!
Ruth stabbed his blood sword into the ground to stop his momentum as he was being hurled back by the shockwave.
The blood-red blade gouged the earth wildly, sending fountains of dirt into the air for a brief moment.
“Impressive. You dodged that?”
“Huu…….”
Having finally stopped his flight, Ruth let out a long breath and suddenly muttered.
“I see now.”
“What did you see? That you’re going to die today? What, barely surviving made your eyes finally open—”
“I need to get defensive equipment as soon as possible, not just a weapon.”
“…….”
At the remark that sounded as if he were already certain of his own victory, Bruno’s insides boiled with rage.
“You should probably make plans like that after surviving today, you fucking insane brat!”
Boom—!!
Without any proper stance, Bruno charged like a whirlwind using only leg strength.
As the distance closed, Ruth created space by pulling back and raised his right arm.
Right after,
A blood-red hexagram spun like gears around him, followed by an eerie wail.
[Secret Blood Sorcery]
[Devouring Spirit Summon]
Graaaaaaaaah—!!
Hundreds of Devouring Spirits poured out of the hexagram and instantly surrounded Bruno.
“Cheap tricks!”
Despite the extremely threatening sight, Bruno roared in annoyance and raised his aura.
Dududududu!!
What followed was a barrage of strikes.
His fists, leaving afterimages and raining down like bullets in every direction, exploded the Devouring Spirits.
Not a single one remained.
The Devouring Spirits exploded like balloons one after another, splattering blood everywhere.
In less than five seconds, a vast pool of red blood had formed around Bruno.
“Next is your tu—?!”
The words that came out of Bruno’s mouth as he completely broke through the encirclement of spirits were stunned.
Swish—.
Because Ruth, who had been standing right in front of him, suddenly vanished.
It wasn’t that he moved quickly or used teleportation. He had simply disappeared without any warning, as if erased from the world.
‘What the—?’
In a life-or-death battle where even a moment of carelessness could be fatal, the instant one side thinks ‘What the—?’,
The tide of battle flips in the blink of an eye.
Slice—!
“Ugh?!”
Ruth appeared from the right like lightning and slashed Bruno’s side and thigh with his blood-red twin daggers as he passed by.
Blood gushed from the wounds. Bruno staggered, losing his balance.
“Keuk! You son of a bitch!”
Bruno quickly regained his senses and swung a heavy fist at Ruth.
But once again,
Swish—.
Ruth vanished like an illusion without any precursor.
This time it was from the right.
Slice—!!
“Keuk!”
One of the twin daggers slashed diagonally across Bruno’s chest.
Crunch—!
The other severed the muscle fibers in his calf.
With both legs injured, even a high-realm superhuman could not remain standing properly.
Thud!
In the end, Bruno’s knees slammed into the ground.
“S-stop…….”
Ruth naturally ignored the nonsense and activated <Chasing> for the third time.
With so much blood from the exploded Devouring Spirits scattered everywhere, this place was practically a stage made exclusively for a Blood Mage.
Ruth, having taken Bruno’s rear with <Chasing>, crossed his twin daggers and aimed for the back of his neck.
However,
Clang—!
The blades failed to pierce Bruno’s skin.
A thick aura shield, now as solid as steel plating, had enveloped his entire body and pushed the blood-red daggers away.
A twisted laugh leaked from Bruno’s mouth.
“Kuh, kuhuhu…… You should have gone for the neck from the start, or at least aimed for the meridians. Stupid bastard.”
Crackle—!
Sparking aura burned fiercely as the wounds on his side and calf healed in an instant.
A martial artist who had reached a certain level of aura resonance could temporarily amplify their stats simply by raising a large amount of energy.
Of course, the backlash afterward was extremely severe, so it wasn’t something to abuse.
“I’ve been generous enough. I’ll rip out your guts and strangle you to death, you fucking—.”
As Bruno tried to stand after recovering his body, he suddenly froze.
No. He didn’t just freeze.
His body wouldn’t move at all.
Creak—!!
“……?!”
The cause was simple.
From behind. Specifically, the terrifying pressure pressing down on the back of his neck.
Ruth was currently pushing down on Bruno’s neck with his crossed daggers.
Aura shield or not. It was pure, brute force.
‘N-no way. What kind of strength is this……?!’
Bruno stopped cursing and tried to force himself up with all his strength, but
He couldn’t budge.
It felt less like two daggers and more like a mythical giant stomping on him.
“You said it yourself earlier. I should have gone for the neck from the start.”
Crack—.
Cracks spread across the seemingly unbreakable wall of aura.
To Bruno, those cracks meant death.
To Ruth, they were proof that all his achievements so far had not been in vain.
“I’ll cut it now.”
“N-no! Stop! Stop! Stop! No! No—!”
Slice—!!
The twin daggers tore through the aura shield, and Bruno’s head soared into the air.
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