Within the Cult of Ruin, Nepas possessed the most overwhelming physical strength. He was also the most impatient and violently unstable of them all. Quietly sitting still while the Church’s grand undertaking was being interfered with was never an option for someone like him.
Still, he knew that charging out openly and throwing a tantrum would only get him restrained immediately, so he played the obedient little saint for a while. He watched and waited. Then, at just the right moment, he slipped out.
I will claim the Star’s glory with my own hands.
And as luck would have it, fortune smiled on him. Right in front of him stood a mage who looked very much like the one who had just sabotaged the Cult of Ruin’s carefully prepared plan.
I knew it was smart to stay in hibernation until I came outside.
Nepas had kept replenishing calories even while sleeping. He had even eaten the priests dragged along from the church.
I mean, I got hungry, so there was really no choice. I’m sure they must have gone to join the Star.
Nepas twisted his neck from side to side, murmuring a mock prayer for the souls of the priests who had shared the cramped space with him before becoming his meals.
“It’s you, right? Even if you say no, it doesn’t matter. I’m killing you anyway.”
His tone sounded calmer than before, as if the madness had receded just a little. That was exactly why Do-Jin didn’t let his guard down. When Nepas sounded like this, it meant he was right on the verge of exploding.
Out of all of them, it had to be Nepas. If I face him head-on, there is basically no chance of winning.
Then again, among the Cult of Ruin, Nepas was the one most likely to show up in a place like this at a time like this.If he could, Do-Jin would take any other way out without hesitation. However, in this situation, he was forced to make a last stand.
Whatever is inside that carriage, if someone like him came personally for it, it’s definitely not something I can afford to let go.
No matter what it took, he had to stop this here. Do-Jin forcibly shoved aside every negative thought about this monster in front of him. There was no room in his head for fear when he should be trying to recall useful information.
The Six Star Children are the ones most deeply influenced by Laves.
The power of Laves was effectively their power. As catastrophe approached, Laves’ light would only grow stronger. Hence, this very moment was when that power was at its weakest.
And even if the system has no conscience, it probably gave some kind of quest correction. It’s nowhere near enough to fight that monster outright, but still.
Do-Jin had already lit another spark of hope. The moment he recognized Nepas, he had sent messages to Theresa and Chun Ji-Hyun.
Do-Jin: I’m on the outskirts of Kula. Gather as many raid members as possible and come to the pinned coordinates immediately. Top priority is securing the item inside the carriage. If possible, assess the situation through the stream before entering.
Even after the Galante raid, the group chat was still active. A raid team that had taken down a powerful enemy together tended to stick around, forming its own kind of community. If Theresa posted a single message, people would show up without asking questions.
Do-Jin: I’m going live to relay the situation. Set things up on your end.
The message to Chun Ji-Hyun was a heads-up about the streaming. Every time he went live, people flooded in, so a notice in advance was necessary.
Even for people who can use long-distance spatial movement, it will still take at least fifteen to twenty minutes to reach this place via Kula.
That was his reality for now. Having laid out every countermeasure he could the instant he saw Nepas, Do-Jin clenched his teeth and braced himself.
“Then...” Nepas’s lips stretched upward, tearing into a grin that looked ready to split his face in half.
I have to survive, no matter what.
When Nepas stomped once, the impact alone detonated into a shockwave. The attack that followed was nothing more than a crude punch with terrible form, but none of that mattered when the raw power behind it was overwhelming. Even though Do-Jin had been bracing for it, the speed still pushed his limits. He barely managed to react in time.
“Kgh!”
“Do-Jin!” Sensing the danger, Anemone tried to force herself out on her own, but Do-Jin reversed the summon.
“You have something else you need to do later.”
“That is not fair. You always—” The rest of her words vanished under a series of thunderous impacts.
Nepas rampaged without even pausing to breathe, flattening everything around him as he tilted his head in confusion.
“That is weird. You’re supposed to be a mage.” He looked genuinely curious that Do-Jin kept dodging his attacks. “Then how about this?”
Nepas spread his palm. With a wet tearing sound, his hand burst open and a monstrous limb exploded out from inside it. The only saving grace was that the grotesquely oversized hand was attached to a small body, which slowed it down just enough.
“Fireball.” Do-Jin fired the spell while maneuvering to evade.
“Haha! What the hell are you going to do with a spark like that?”
Nepas didn’t even try to dodge. He took the spell head-on. That confidence came straight from his traits.
Yeah. His regeneration is disgusting.
Flesh that looked scorched for an instant healed almost immediately. It looked less like regeneration and more like the damage was being rewound.
“At this rate, I won’t be able to give you a quick death,” Nepas said cheerfully. “I will rip off your legs first, then chew through your fingers one joint at a time.”
He hounded Do-Jin like a child playing with a toy. Do-Jin dodged with everything he had, but Nepas treated him the way a cat torments a mouse, or the way a killer whale batters its prey for fun.
“I’m getting bored. Maybe it’ll be interesting with more hands?”
Multi-jointed spikes erupted from Nepas’s back. Each spike looked easily five or six meters long. Nepas’s shredded body was dragged around as those massive spines moved, puppeteering his flesh.
“Right foot! Right foot! Right foot!” Nepas chanted.
The relentless assault resumed. All Do-Jin could do was roll, scramble, and evade, squeezing out a spell whenever he found the smallest opening. Even that was only possible because Nepas was still treating this like a game.
When Nepas stomped again, a human foot split open and a monstrous leg burst out. The ground shattered violently, and Do-Jin’s footing slipped for just a moment.
“Right... hand!” As Nepas shouted, one of the multi-jointed spikes abruptly changed trajectory.
“Kgh!”
Do-Jin’s right arm was torn clean off.
“Haha!”
Nepas snatched the severed arm out of the air and shoved it straight into his mouth. His small mouth opened like a snake’s jaws and swallowed the arm in seconds.
“You thought I would take your leg first?”
The shock of losing a limb locked up Do-Jin’s body. It wasn’t something he could overcome through willpower alone, since the system itself had triggered paralysis. Nepas reverted to a normal human form and started beating Do-Jin senseless.
“Damn. You’re tough. Are you really a mage?”
Do-Jin’s right arm had been severed along with part of his Magic Circuits. He was only still holding together because of layered traits and the Psychokinetic Enhancement Formula arrays supporting Psychokinetic Artistry. Even so, if Nepas applied a little more force, his body would be torn apart piece by piece.
“Kgh—”
After playing with him for a while, Nepas slammed Do-Jin into the ground and pinned him there.
“So how does it feel,” Nepas asked, “to stand against the Great Star?”
If you want an answer, ease up on my chest. I can’t even breathe, you psycho! Fuck... It hasn’t even been five minutes yet.
It felt like more than an hour had gone by, but in reality, just over three minutes had passed.
“Kgh...!”
“Yeah. You’re hanging in there. Then let’s start having some real fun.”
Nepas grinned wider. “I will open your chest first.”
Nepas raised his hand. It looked absurdly clean, like a delicate, flawless hand that had never taken on a monstrous form at all. Nepas thrust that hand straight toward Do-Jin’s chest. He intended to plunge his bare fingers into living flesh and pry open Do-Jin’s rib cage by force.
I’m at my limit. Do-Jin thought as he tried to react.
At that exact moment, a violent surge of fury erupted, and Anemone burst free. Sheer force ripped apart the spirit’s body in Do-Jin’s stead. Even so, Anemone ignored the pain, threw open her massive jaws, and lunged for Nepas’s head.
“What the...?” Nepas muttered.
Her desperate, all-or-nothing ambush failed with a single flick of his hand. Nepas expanded the hand he had stabbed into Anemone’s body. Her chest and back detonated outward in a violent burst. The entire exchange took less than a second.
“Aaaagh!”
Do-Jin watched as Anemone’s blood and spirit energy mixed and fell through the air. As long as her master didn’t perish, Anemone wouldn’t truly die. Given time, she would return. But the pain and shock of death were real, and she had to endure them every time.
Do-Jin didn’t care if he died himself, but Anemone was different. He couldn’t allow that to happen to her, which was why he had never sent her out during the most dangerous moments until now.
She had already experienced death once, and he didn’t want her to face it a second time. He knew that was an unrealistic hope as long as they continued adventuring together, yet he still tried his best. However, the damage to his Magic Circuits had weakened his control, and in that brief opening, she had managed to rush out.
“This is really fucking awful,” Do-Jin muttered under his breath as a red flash ignited around him. “Flame Cannon.”
His Magic Circuits didn’t exist only in his arm. The Grimoire of Truth, Silent Night, and the Dragon Heart could all function as Magic Circuits as well. The spell that was fired at maximum output without warning scorched Nepas’ shoulder.
Nepas didn’t even react as he thought it would regenerate anyway, but when blue light flickered from Do-Jin’s body, his eyes widened at the disgusting wave of power that surged outward.
“Bella...?”
The Star of Ruin and the Star of Creation constantly restrained one another. Their balance was extremely delicate. If one side expended even a little power, the other gained an opening.
Because this was still an early stage, and because Laves hadn’t yet secured overwhelming dominance, the movement of a Star Child was enough to disrupt that balance for a brief moment. That gave Bella just enough breathing room to glance down at her apostle, if only for a split second.
“Limited Reversion.” A second after Do-Jin whispered it, his whole body was completely restored to its original state.
[Transcendence]
He activated the relic without any thought for what came after. The reopened Grimoire of Truth and the wings of mana unleashed by his transcendent state layered over one another and engulfed his body. Fully prepared to burn everything he had, Do-Jin lifted his gaze and fixed it quietly on Nepas’ shoulder.
His regeneration slowed.
He didn’t know whether he had grown stronger or Nepas had weakened. Perhaps the damage over time from the Executor of Ruin had finally caught up enough to match Nepas’s regeneration. Whatever the reason, Do-Jin had no intention of letting this thing walk away alive.
Even if I die, I will endure. I’ll see this to the end.
Five minutes had now passed since the raid-wide distress call went out.
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