Chapter 138

“Fufu, so there are only two of you. It seems you’ve paid quite the price in sacrifices to reach me.”

“Who exactly are you?”

“Curious about my identity, are you? Raise your head and look up.”

“Those are black hooves… N-no way!”

“It has been hovering over your heads since long before you trampled the corpses of your comrades to get here. A future by the name of ‘Despair’!”

An overwhelming magical pressure felt as if it were crushing the very space itself.

Sensing it, Moon Ah-rin spread her wings and floated into the air. Her expression was solemn, as if she had resolved herself for death.

“We might have to risk our lives. I’ll block its vision with my wings, so in that moment, Hayan, you… Hayan?”

“One second, I’m just clearing the story in New Monster Wars.”

On the other hand, I was calmly fiddling with my smartwatch.

After hearing what Yeon Parang said, I had a rough idea of who would be waiting next, and as expected, my guess didn’t miss the mark by an inch.

The moment I saw that triumphant face, all my tension evaporated.

Though she had regained her horns and power—granting her strength comparable to an Archduke—Velada was still Velada. I knew her far too well to tremble in fear at this point.

“Behold! And crave! The trembling of the earth’s axis that once tore through the skies of the Demon Realm! The true power of this body that even the Outer Gods feared…!!”

“Come to think of it, I’m hungry. Ah-rin, didn’t you miss out on eating anything today either?”

“Now is not the time for that!”

“I happen to have a few snacks left; shall we eat? Hmm… do you want one too?”

“You’re giving it to me?!”

Unlike the games I played, reality didn’t have a skip function for a mid-boss’s dialogue, so I used something else instead.

A Choco Pie.

I had prepared it as a reward when I posted on the Special Unit Bamboo Forest to find Mala-nim, but since no one showed up, it had just been taking up space in my pocket.

The moment Velada saw the Choco Pie emerge from my robe, her eyes went wide, and she forgot what she was saying.

Since I wasn’t Patel right now, she didn’t lose her mind and charge, but her shod feet twitched unconsciously several times a second.

Gulping down her saliva with effort, she barely managed to regain her high-and-mighty attitude.

“H-how insolent. To think I would be tempted by a mere mass-produced item with a suggested retail price of 354 won. How lowly do you view me? I can get those at a 15% discount if I go to the mart every Wednesday evening.”

“For someone who says that, you sure know the price in detail. But you have one piece of misinformation.”

“Misinformation? What is it?”

“This is a limited edition. It’s a limited collab product for New Monster Wars, so there are no discounts.”

“Is that true?!”

She couldn’t hold back this time.

I held the Choco Pie up high so it remained out of reach of Velada’s hand as she rushed toward me like a bolt of lightning.

The wrapper read: ‘Black Goat Veladatrix (SSR)’s No. 1 Treasure: Choco-Choco Choco Pie.’

There was a coupon code for 15 Blue Mana Stones on the back, but I had already used it.

What kind of people are the developers of New Monster Wars to be so well-versed in the biology of magical creatures?

Leaving that fundamental question behind, I grabbed Velada by the horns as she tried to jump and snatch the treat.

“If you trample us, you won’t get to eat it.”

“Ugh, uuu… but…”

“Besides, you know, don’t you? That if a Choco Pie is subjected to intense pressure, its properties and form change to look exactly like animal droppings.”

“N-not that! Anything but that!”

Tsk, tsk. She’s gotten spoiled.

The old Velada, back when she lived in the sewers and stole Choco Pies from the dead, would have happily eaten it even then. Just because the appearance gets a bit messy doesn’t mean the taste changes.

Anyway, thanks to that, I found a way to keep Velada from attacking. I handed the Choco Pie to Moon Ah-rin.

“Ah-rin.”

“Y-yes?”

“I’m going to head up to the next floor, so please stay here and play with her. Once she finishes eating that, she might turn hostile again and drop those feet of hers from the ceiling, so give it to her as slowly as possible.”

“I-I understand. You said your name was Despair? Despair, do you want to come over here…?”

“It’s Velada! Hmph, just remember that the moment that Choco Pie runs out, your head will fall too!”

After leaving her with Moon Ah-rin.

I headed for the next floor alone. Climbing the complex, spiral staircase, only one thought occupied my mind.

What do I do?

Flauros was undoubtedly waiting up there. Unlike Velada, she wasn’t someone who could be handled with tricks. She even knew my face as the Apostle of the Outer God, so she would likely try to fight me immediately, just like in Daegu.

If I fought the Archduke of Flames, who had grown even stronger after absorbing the Star Scar of the Outer God of Salvation, the tower wouldn’t be the only problem—all of Ground Zero might evaporate.

‘I can’t think of a single clever solution.’

If Mala-nim were here, she surely would have given me a better plan. Then again, she might have stationed the members of the cult here precisely because she wanted me to come to her directly.

Dragging my heavy footsteps, I arrived at the Circumpolar Layer of the Magic Tower.

As expected, a woman wreathed in roaring flames greeted me.

“Welcome. I’ve been waiting.”

“You knew I was coming?”

“Of course you would come eventually. After all, the God you serve is here.”

That wasn’t what I meant.

As if reading my inner thoughts, Flauros let out a smirk.

“That’s the most interesting expression I’ve seen on you yet.”

“Move aside. Let me go up.”

“We both know that isn’t possible. Being trapped in this cramped tower wasn’t my intention either.”

Not long ago, after returning from dawn prayers, Sebas and Margaret had apparently made a huge fuss and relocated the children to the Magic Tower.

Flauros clicked her tongue, muttering that she had knocked on the Tower Master’s door for days out of sheer annoyance, but it never opened.

She should have recognized the appearance of the Incarnation, but based on her reaction, it seemed she hadn’t come face-to-face with Mala-nim yet.

However, since we were meeting like this, there was one fact that was bound to be exposed.

Namely, my current whereabouts on Earth.

“The Special Unit, is it? You’re playing a rather interesting game. Does a monster like you actually miss the embrace of your own kind?”

“I could say the same to you, joining hands with the Council.”

“There were deep circumstances behind that.”

“It’s the same for me.”

I had expected my tail to be caught eventually while acting as the Light Mage, but this was faster than I thought.

The moment word spreads at the next Council meeting that the Apostle of the Outer God is within the Special Unit, the destruction of Seoul is as good as guaranteed.

However, there was one solution: to dispose of Flauros right here and now.

I began forming hand seals beneath my robe, preparing my Extreme Magic.

Singularity, Endless Outer Path, Karmic Recognition, and Causal Severance.

Since Flauros had experienced four of my spells firsthand, she would undoubtedly be prepared for them, but she hadn’t looked into the very bottom of my magic yet.

I had two spells left.

And one ultimate essence of Extreme Magic that I hadn’t perfectly realized yet.

Just as I was about to trigger the fifth and sixth spells simultaneously, Flauros suddenly extended her palm.

In a calm voice, she declared she had no intention of fighting.

“Stop. Though I have long desired a duel with you, the time and place are ill-suited.”

“The time and place?”

“I haven’t fully absorbed the Star Scar I obtained from the Outer God during the Great Invasion. Furthermore, your comrades and my younger siblings are on the floors below, are they not?”

If a battle broke out between us here, it was a given that the surrounding area would be scorched to ash.

I was stunned to hear such words from an Archduke—who usually viewed human lives as mere flies—even if I had been the one to suggest it.

To call those orphans her “younger siblings.”

She must have grown quite attached to them.

“Just because of that?”

“I’ve already identified your residence anyway. I can fight you whenever I wish.”

“Do you think I’ll just let you go, knowing that you have that information?”

“If you want my silence, I shall enter a contract with you. How does this sound?”

If I could go up to the Tower Master’s room without fighting, that was exactly what I wanted.

But on top of that, she would keep the secret of my identity?

The conditions were almost too good to be true.

Truly, a beautiful tentacle always hides poison.

As Flauros’s proposal made me think of the “Digestion”, she added the catch, just as expected.

“Of course, it isn’t free. There is one promise I must receive from you.”

“A promise?”

“It’s quite simple. You only need to leave a record stating that you were defeated by me here, today.”

Suddenly, an ominous chill crept down the back of my neck.

Surely, it couldn’t be that.

When Flauros was defeated in Daegu, I had approached her wearing Patel’s mask and swore that if she ever triumphed over the Apostle of the Outer God, I would break my blood pact with Gamigin and become her subordinate.

At the time, I couldn’t choose between Velada and Flauros, and since I never thought I would lose, it was a “blank check” I had issued lightly.

No, surely not.

The Flauros I knew was an Archduke whose pride burned hotter than the volcanoes of the Demon Realm.

It was unthinkable for her to demand a “win” from the Apostle of the Outer God just to make a single Black Mage her subordinate.

What she truly desired should be a blood-spattered battle where both sides clashed with all their might.

I didn’t doubt for a second that she wouldn’t use such a petty trick.

“There is someone I’ve been concerned about lately. To make him my subordinate, I need to defeat you. I did promise to win in my name, but I never said I’d risk my life to do it…”

“For something like that…”

“Hmm?”

“Are you really okay with something like that?!”

My expectations were utterly betrayed.

Tilting her head as if my outburst was confusing, she slowly unraveled the bandages wrapped around her fists.

“Anyway, I didn’t originally plan on using such a shortcut, but my mind has changed recently.”

“Why, exactly?”

“Flies have started swarming around him. They’re just low-class witches and succubi, but they belong to races born with the instinct to seduce humans.”

If I accept her offer, I can go straight up to the Tower Master’s room.

However, accepting the offer meant putting another rope around my body, which was already on the verge of being drawn and quartered.

If the number of people obsessed with me increases any further, I might be split apart not just as ‘Sae Hayan,’ but into individual consonants and vowels.

“I decided that taking this opportunity to put a collar on him wouldn’t be a bad idea. A subordinate’s blood pact is canceled upon death, so I’ll have to enshrine his body in the Eternal Sepulcher afterward.”

No, some of those letters might be completely burned away.

Flauros bent her flaming finger as if preparing for a flick and blew on it—hoo~.

It was the exact same posture as the strike I had used to finish her off in the Demon Realm.