Capítulo 169: Chapter 169
On a deserted island south of Japan, JiHan and his party looked at Shizuru, who'd washed ashore on the beach.
"That was a close call, Shizuru," the Sword King said, "Obsession was almost gone, so I thought you might have died."
'That damn Obsession…!' Shizuru frowned and instinctively tried to reach for her necklace, but her hand halted before she could reach it.
"You've finally entered my Absolute Domain," JiHan said. He'd been unable to get close enough to her before thanks to her teleporting away. Thankfully, she was so disoriented that he could finally close the distance.
Shizuru tried to open her mouth to say something, but JiHan forced her lips shut again.
"Be quiet," he said. "Let's see…'
Swoosh-
He reached out his hand, and the Aegis Ring slipped off of Shizuru's finger. He took the ring and read the description.
[Aegis Ring]
Rank: SSS
- A ring that can summon the absolute shield, Aegis.
- Has been enhanced with the power of an Akashic page and gone up a rank.
- The shield's cooldown has been reduced from 1 day to 1 hour and has been greatly enhanced.
'The ring… It was definitely SS-rank… Did she use an Akashic page to enhance it?'
Edit was truly an amazing ability, but he couldn't take the risk of allowing Shizuru to live.
"The necklace was quite troublesome too." JiHan decided to take all the items she'd made away.
'The necklace is no longer usable…' Of course, the 'Necklace of Escape' she'd been using was also SSS-rank, but it'd broken in her last teleport and couldn't be used anymore.
Jihan put the necklace in a corner of his inventory in the hopes that he could repair it later before searching Shizuru for anything else with his Absolute Domain.
Swoosh-
A moment later, he managed to pull a book from her. "She managed to keep this book during all of her escape attempts…"
Swoosh-
Though the book had been in the water with her, it wasn't wet at all, and the last few pages of the book contained 10 sheets of paper shimmering with a golden light.
[Akashic pages…!]
"So you still had 10 pages." If they'd caught her earlier, they might have been able to get more pages as well. JiHan put the book into his inventory with a feeling of regret.
"JiHan, are you done?" the Sword King asked.
"Yes. I've taken everything worth taking. It's too bad that we can't take her GP, but I don't want to give her a single chance."
If they wanted to take her GP, they'd have to make her open her inventory and hand it over, but if she were given enough freedom to access her inventory, then there was no telling what she'd do.
The Sword King nodded. "Yes. GP can be earned. Then… I'm going to end this now."
Swoosh-
He'd freed the other hostages before they rushed to the island, so he was able to summon all 100 of his swords.
"Ah, wait," JiHan said. "I have one last question for her." He gave her enough freedom to speak and asked a question that'd been on his mind for quite some time. "Have you heard of the 'Succubus'?"
In his past life, the Apostle of the Apocalypse that'd appeared in the USA had a striking resemblance to Shizuru, and when he considered her use of Enchantment and her other abilities, he couldn't help but suspect that there was a connection between them.
"Ha… What?" she asked. "A succubus? What sort of nonsense is that? Would you spare me if I knew anything?"
"No. I'd just lessen the pain of your death."
"How kind of you. So do you think I know what you're talking about or not?" she sarcastically replied.
"We'll soon find out."
Crack-!
JiHan used Disjoint, a torture technique focused on manipulating muscles and bones.
"AAHH!! I… I don't know!" She couldn't endure the pain for even a moment and immediately answered. "A succubus…? I don't know what you're talking about…!"
"Your Edited face… Where did you get that image from?"
"I made it myself after a lot of thought!"
"Was your Edit Gift originally SSS-rank?"
"That's…" Shizuru hesitated to answer, so JiHan twisted her muscles again and cast Heal at the same time, unwilling to let her die yet.
Tears mixed with snot flowed down Shizuru's face. "Uh… Fuck!! No. It was S-rank! I gradually increased the level with the Akashic pages!"
"How did you know how to use the Akashic pages?"
"Huh…" She was unable to give an immediate answer. There must've been a moment of realization with the Akashic pages, but she couldn't remember how she'd figured it out.
"I don't know…" she answered.
"I thought so." JiHan never expected an easy answer, but it was hard to believe she didn't know. Even until the end, she was of no help to them.
"I'm done," he said to the Sword King.
"Okay."
"W-wait," Shizuru pleaded. "Save m—"
Stab-!
Every single one of the swords impaled her from head to toe and erupted with fierce Sword Ki. Just a month prior, she'd been a woman who had nothing to envy in the world, but not even a proper corpse was left behind by the time the Sword King was done.
"Obsession has been released… Gan Jiang and Mo Ye's traits aren't activating again." With that done, the Sword King collapsed on the beach and looked completely devoid of energy.
"She's… finally dead," Akari said in a trembling voice from behind them.
"Brother-in-law didn't leave anything for you," JiHan said.
"Ah… I'm sorry, Akari," the Sword King apologized.
"No, it's okay. Just seeing her die like that is enough." Akari pointed to the chunks of Shizuru's corpse scattering the beach. "Could I burn those?"
"Yes." JiHan nodded. 'That should be enough for her to be satisfied.'
"Ninjutsu: Crimson Flame." She used a skill with the intent of eradicating Shizuru's remains from the face of the Earth, but her eyes widened in surprise a moment later. "Mr. Sung…! Shizuru's blood isn't burning. Instead…"
JiHan went over to see. Instead of evaporating, the burning blood wriggled in defiance.
"Hellfire." He added more fire on top of Akari's flames and used the Hellfire he'd obtained from the Thunder God. The blood slowly lost its struggle and began to burn, and red smoke rose into the sky.
Ssss…
The smoke soon gathered and formed a figure with the face Shizuru had created with her Edit Gift, and the only difference was that the smoky figure had horns on both sides of its forehead.
It looked down at JiHan and his party from the sky and slowly opened its mouth.
[Do not interfere.]
'That… looks exactly like the 'Succubus Queen'. As I expected, she was somehow related to Shizuru.'
With how similar they were in appearance, there was no way they wouldn't be related. He'd found it unsettling when Shizuru insisted she knew nothing.
[I'm trying to take the soul of the contractor. I won't allow any further intervention.]
"What if I want to intervene anyway?" he asked. Feeling relieved was one thing, but he had to disrupt the Apostle of the Apocalypse as much as possible.
In his previous life, she'd Enchanted the entire LA area, causing the USA to launch a nuclear strike on its own city, so he was determined to prevent such a thing from happening again.
[Hmm… Aren't you enemies with this child? If her soul comes with me, she'll continue to suffer in death. Wouldn't that be good for you?]
"Who are you to say such a thing?"
[I am the Apostle of Desire, the Succubus Queen. This child will come to my palace and serve eternally as my slave.]
"The Succubus Queen?!" the Sword King exclaimed.
"So Shizuru made a contract with such a being…" Akari mumbled.
JiHan quietly nodded and asked, "But if she contracted with you, why didn't she know anything about you?"
[That's what her conditions were when she signed the contract. She said she was worried about voluntarily becoming my slave if she thought of me too much, so she asked me to erase her memory. It was a wise choice.]
"It seems your image remained in her subconscious…"
[Yes. She was a talented child and recreated my appearance quite accurately.]
The Succubus Queen was quite cooperative in answering JiHan's questions.
"Why are you so determined to take her?"
[Because we made a contract.]
"No. It can't be just because of that. It's because of the 'Edit' Gift, right?"
[Hmm… You're sharp.] The Succubus Queen smiled at JiHan. [Yes, that's right. The contractor has a Gift that's considered universally rare, so I need her at my palace.]
Considering Shizuru's Edit Gift was so rare that it could hardly be found anywhere else in the universe, he thought he'd done well to eliminate her.
Swoosh-
He took out the Phoenix Flag. "In that case, I'll have to do everything I can to stop you.
[Why make such a reckless choice?]
"Since she's essential to you, I don't want you to get your way."
BZZT…!
Red lightning rose from the Phoenix Flag, and the Succubus Queen's expression fell.
[What an unusual power…]
"Really? Have a taste of it, then."
Nameless Divine Arts Heavenly Lightning Phoenix Flames Technique: Red Lightning Cannon.
WHOOM-!
Red lightning poured out through the Phoenix Flag and overwhelmed the Succubus Queen, who was, in reality, little more than smoke.
Ssss-
The red lightning passed, and the Succubus Queen's face reformed.
"Brother-in-law, I'll help!" The Sword King used the Hundred Swords, but the Succubus Queen's face vanished and reappeared after the swords passed.
[A contract with a demon is absolute… You're strong, but you cannot stop the process of soul guidance. Stop bothering me and leave.]
No matter how strong the attack was, the Succubus Queen quickly regenerated. She was showing even more tenacious vitality than when she'd appeared in LA.
'Is it because she's in a ghostly form…? Normally, the red lightning should have inflicted damage on her.' JiHan frowned and wondered if he should just let her take Shizuru's soul.
Then he thought about the consequences of the monster taking Shizuru's Soul and descending on Earth in an even stronger form. Humanity would suffer the consequences if he couldn't stop her.
'Hmm…'
He thought of how he could stop her before suddenly remembering a certain martial arts technique. It was the most ambiguous technique within the Nameless Divine Arts, but it was also the most effective against ghost-like, intangible beings.
Unfortunately, it was still beyond his ability to use.
'The goal isn't the Succubus Queen.' Instead of the Succubus Queen, he decided to aim for the soul the demon was trying to take.
"Brother, lend me your swords."
"Okay." The Sword King handed his two swords over, and JiHan kneeled on the ground and stabbed Gan Jiang, Mo Ye, and Eclipse into the soil in a crosswise formation.
Nameless Divine Arts God-Killing Technique: Ten Thousand Ghost Seal.
[Th-this is…!]
Swoosh-!
Smoke rose from the swords, and the Succubus Queen looked afraid for the first time.
* * *
Within the Wandering Martial God's Fight Star, Dongfang Shuo idly stroked his beard and accidentally ended up tearing a portion of it out.
Rip-!
"Longinus…" he said, "I understand how you feel."
"Fufu. You feel that as well?"
"Yes… It doesn't feel good. Is this what it feels to have one's duty stolen from them…?"
Dongfang sighed and looked up into the sky.
"This is hard to endure…"
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