Kapitel 168: Chapter 168
"Is this… a leaf?" the Sword King asked.
"Yes, it's an item that cures abnormal statuses."
The Sword King fiddled with the leaf and shook his head. "Then I can't eat it now. I need to maintain this abnormal status."
"Which one is it?"
"It's 'Obsession'. It's how I knew Shizuru was still alive. On top of that…" The Sword King pointed at Shizuru's ruined residence. "'Obsession' is probably what led me here in the first place."
"What do you mean?" JiHan asked.
"How else could a blind man such as myself have found her mansion so accurately?"
"Ah… So you think it was due to 'Obsession'?"
The Sword King nodded. "Everywhere else I look is fine, but looking this way fills me with rage, and I only realized it was Shizuru's house after we got here."
Obsession turned out to be the worst possible outcome for Shizuru.
JiHan put the leaf back into his inventory. "Let's get rid of Shizuru."
"Thanks for caring."
Swoosh-
"Let's get down there." The Sword King descended toward the devastated building and landed first.
Shizuru's employees and servants trembled in fear.
"Ugh…"
"What's going on…?"
Though the house was almost entirely destroyed, the dozens of employees working there appeared to be unharmed.
"Are they okay?" JiHan asked.
"They're fine," the Sword King replied.
"Good. Ordinary citizens shouldn't get hurt…"
Everyone was safe due to the Sword King using some of his swords to protect the people as he destroyed the building.
"Shizuru isn't here… Leave," the Sword King commanded.
As soon as he told them to leave, everyone evacuated in moments.
"Th-thank you!" someone yelled.
"Let's go…!"
"U-ugh… I… I thought I was going to die!"
JiHan, who'd gotten down from his thundercloud, watched them leave. "Akari, is there a hiding place here? Even though we destroyed it all, I can't sense Shizuru anywhere."
"I remember she used to conduct experiments underground… That's where she tried to turn me into one of her copies."
"Good, guide us."
"Understood." Akari, who'd once been Edited into one of Shizuru's copies, led the way, and they soon arrived at Shizuru's underground hideout.
"There are multiple security measures in place," Akari said in dismay as she looked at the massive door blocking the way.
"We just have to break it," the Sword King said.
"Yes, that's the simplest way," JiHan agreed. No matter the door's strength, it wouldn't be strong enough to stop two of the world's top Warriors.
BOOM-!
Right after they broke the door, they saw Shizuru standing defensively with the Aegis shield up on the other side.
"Wasn't that my sister's?" JiHan asked.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't in my right mind when I gave it away," the Sword King explained.
"Haa… Let's get it back."
"Yes. I'll take that woman's head."
Upon hearing them, Shizuru, who was on the other side, shouted, "Wait! Let's talk!"
"Shut up."
Swoosh-!
The Sword King launched every one of his swords at her at the same time, but…
BOOM-!
"It won't be so easy to break through this time. I've Edited Aegis."
"How annoying…" The Sword King's tone dripped with killing intent.
Just how versatile was her 'Edit' Gift?
"JiHan, my Edit Gift is SSS-rank. What do you think of it?"
"It's ridiculous."
"Fufu… I'll use it to help you guys," she said.
"What…?"
Shizuru smiled at JiHan. "In exchange, please forgive me, just this once."
"Do you seriously believe I could forgive you?"
"Although we started on the wrong foot, in truth… nobody got hurt, right?"
"Nobody got hurt…?"
"That's right. You're fine, and your nephew is also doing well. Ah, okay, the Sword King lost his eyes, but I can fix them with my Gift." Shizuru kept talking. "With your strength and my Support Gift combined, no force in the world could threaten us. We've been enemies so far, but we can become the strongest of allies if we just change our mindsets a little."
Shizuru gave him a seductive look, and JiHan was awestruck by the sheer audacity of her attempt. 'Is she trying to Enchant me right now?'
Her Gift was certainly convenient, and she could be useful when the Tutorial Season ended, but…
'I just have to work harder.'
"Let's get rid of her," JiHan said.
"Good. I've been waiting for you to say that," the Sword King said, and he sent another barrage of swords down on the Aegis shield. Although the shield had been reinforced, cracks appeared beneath the Sword King's onslaught.
"How unfortunate… Fufu." Shizuru watched with a relaxed expression. "Let's never see each other again." She took out another teleportation necklace.
"You won't escape!" the Sword King screamed as he attacked even more furiously than before.
Flash-!
Unfortunately, Shizuru vanished just before her shield broke, and the nearby supercomputer started to explode at the same time.
BOOM! BOOM-!
The explosions were so strong that the breakdown must have been orchestrated with Shizuru's Gift, but she wasn't after the two Warriors.
"The Sword Prisons… are going to melt!"
She was after the Sword King's hostages. She'd realized that special forces weren't able to intervene due to the hostages, so she was determined to remove them.
"This fire… It isn't easy to stop…!"
"Let me help."
The flames, which seemed to have been optimized for use against the Sword King's abilities, refused to go out, but the flames died down as soon as JiHan stepped in.
"I didn't think she'd try to kill the hostages.'
"Special forces would be able to intervene if the hostages were gone, so she was probably after that.
The casualties would be immense if JiHan and the Sword King had to fight a full-on battle against Japanese forces, and it also helped her make her escape.
"She only thinks of herself."
"If she could choose between a million people surviving or herself, she's the type of person who'd choose herself," Akari said as she gritted her teeth.
The Sword King nodded. "Yes. She's that kind of woman. We have to eliminate her. Brother-in-law, I'm sorry, but could you go back first? I'll follow you soon." He didn't intend to return to Korea until Shizuru was eliminated and gave JiHan an apologetic look.
"No. I will help. We need to eradicate the problem at its root."
"Shouldn't you be leveling up…? Isn't this an important period for you?"
"I can rest a bit." JiHan was planning to stay in Platinum until December anyway, so he had time to focus on killing Shizuru.
"What about the Korean team?"
"We can't go to the Champions League this season anyway thanks to a certain someone."
"Cough, right… but what about Sae-ah?"
"YeonJu is taking care of her. Don't worry."
"YeonJu… Then she's going to be okay."
The Sword King knew YeonJu. She'd been his fellow team member, after all.
"Good. Then let's make sure to eliminate Shizuru."
"Okay."
"Then…' The Sword King left the underground hideout and looked around before turning to the west. "She's over there."
"How do you know?"
"When I look in that direction, I can't help but feel an intense surge of anger."
The abnormal status, 'Obsession', kept guiding him toward her. Not even her teleportation could escape from it.
"Let's go." The Sword King set off first.
A week passed.
- Where are JiHan and the Sword King? They haven't turned on Battle Tube, so we have no clue.
- I don't know. Last time, they were spotted in Nagoya, but now, nobody knows.
- They only have three hostages now…
- Yes, the rest were released. They're a nuisance during chases.
They were moving so secretly that there were only internet rumors regarding their whereabouts, and nobody knew for sure, but the Sword King's Hundred Swords was spotted from time to time.
- Ah, the Hundred Swords have shown up in Osaka!
- He was bombarding an area with swords before suddenly stopping.
- Did Shizuru escape again?
- How does she manage to escape every single time? Hahaha.
- Does she have unlimited teleports?
A hotel in Hiroshima…
Shizuru, who'd reverted to her ordinary face, shouted as she angrily read the comments. "These crazy bastards…! How far are they going to follow me?"
Didn't they have anything else to do? Wasn't that too much?
Shizuru bit her nails. "I'll be in danger at this rate…"
Her teleportation necklace was originally made to only move short distances, but she'd Edited it to escape from the Sword King. Unfortunately, such a modification was far from free.
Shizuru had used several Akashic pages and used most of her Edit Gift, and that was only to escape once. She'd already used it 30 times that week, so…
"If I escape again… I'll have to release the rest of my Enchantments…"
More than 70% of her Enchantments on Japan's influential figures were already gone, and all she had left were the most important ones, including the prime minister.
That's when the prime minister called her.
- Shizuru… Are you okay?
"What the heck are the special forces doing? Why haven't they deployed yet?"
- They did deploy, but the opponents were too evasive… It's hard to pursue them, and there are still three hostages in their hands… so we can't attack recklessly.
"Three?! You can just ignore three people and push forward!"
- But those three are the most important players…
"Ha, I have the highest-ranking Gift in Japan, not those SS-ranks! You should have been protecting me, but you're letting these ruffians fly around chasing me like this?"
- I… I'm sorry.
"Do something about it!"
Shizuru lost her usually calm composure, tired from the constant escapes. Her Akashic pages were slowly being used up, and she felt her influence crumbling.
"Do I have to leave the country?" She fiddled with her teleport necklace. Using it to teleport around Japan seemed useless. The Sword King continued to chase her, after all.
'Yes… I should concentrate all my power and head to the USA. I still have plenty of GP.' She needed to cross the ocean to escape from the Sword King's damned 'Obsession'.
As soon as she tried using the teleport necklace to go overseas…
'Can I not modify it to go that far?' The Pacific Ocean was too vast. Even if she invested everything she had, the necklace couldn't be Edited to that extent. It was only intended to be used over short distances to begin with, so the effects weren't very good compared to how much she had to invest.
'I think I can at least make it to Guam…' If she made it to Guam, she could take a flight to the USA from there.
'Edit.' Soon after she started…
Crash-!
A sword flew through her hotel window. The Sword King was getting even better at tracking her location.
"Come on…! Teleport!" She hastily tried to use the necklace, but she ended up in the middle of the ocean instead.
Splash-!
"Ugh… I… Can't die…!" Maybe she'd failed to set a proper landing spot because she was in too much of a hurry. She clenched her jaw as salty water splashed into her mouth.
She couldn't possibly let herself die after everything she'd struggled through.
'I'll somehow… Survive…!' She desperately struggled against the surging waves and used every item at her disposal. If she could just get out of the water, she'd be okay.
"Haaa… Haaa…" Finally, she managed to find solid ground, and her efforts paid off despite the original misplaced teleport.
"Heh… hehe…"
She'd succeeded. Since she was out of the water, she could find a way to survive. If she just waited a bit, her Edit Gift would recover, and she could use it to get to the USA.
Despite the hope filling her heart…
"So this is where you were."
The voice she least wanted to hear reached her ears.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein