Masquerade (4)
The moment his eyes met with a pair of odd eyes, the executioner flinched involuntarily.
And then, right after that, he realized his actions and gritted his teeth.
‘···You were nervous? Me?’
It was something that could not have happened, something that should not have happened.
He is the undefeated fighter that the Buncheonhoe is proud of.
He wasn’t the master of the Heavenly Sword, which he had acknowledged long ago, so how could he be so nervous when making eye contact with an enemy of similar level to himself?
‘···Yeah, it was just a moment of confusion. I was just a little surprised by the unexpected situation that suddenly occurred.’
Rationalizing himself like that, he opened his eyes wide and took another step forward, glaring at the beast-man.
And he quickly analyzed the cause of the problem that had made him flustered.
‘The only thing that changed was the pupils. The rest is still bound to time. … But how did it follow my timeline without any contact?’
Then suddenly I was able to discover one thing that was different from before.
The suspicious aura he had been giving off just before.
That thing that had been encroaching on space had spread out to where he was.
‘Could it be because of this energy?
Nothing was certain yet, but it was clear that delaying it any longer would be dangerous.
Right now it was just the pupils, but if this variable grew any bigger, I didn’t know when it would spread beyond that.
And if that happens···.
‘···This is going to be a little difficult. I need to finish this as quickly as possible.’
Let’s leave it alone before the variables become bigger than they are now.
He quickly changed course.
Originally, I had planned to completely subdue the guy for interrogation, but now was not the time to be so relaxed.
Even if it’s a bit of a stretch, it’s better to finish it once and for all.
As he made that decision, a lava-like energy gathered in his right hand.
‘I should try to avoid overdoing things in this timeline, but… I can’t help it. I have no choice but to somehow deal with the guy and then leave.’
As a huge amount of energy moved within the stopped timeline, the load on his body that had been maintaining its unique skills began to grow like a snowball.
Up until now, he had been able to use his abilities without much burden thanks to his great distance and the flesh of the great devil, but once he crossed a certain safety line, the absolute law called ‘time’ began to reach out to him as well.
‘I’ll rip off one of your arms with this!’
If you cut off each limb like that, even a monster with excellent reflexes will be unable to respond.
The greater the accumulated damage, the longer it would take to regenerate, so what followed was only one-sided destruction.
Phew!
A hideous hand, glowing like lava, dug into the giant’s chest, causing blood to spurt out.
However, the expression on the face of the executioner who actually carried out the attack was not very good.
The pattern that the opponent has shown so far is to react immediately when a vital point is attacked and let it pass with minimal damage…
‘You gave me the vital spot on purpose? …Oops!’
But that realization came too late.
Kkuddeuk—
As if they had been waiting from the beginning, the living tissues that arose around them covered the right hand that had dug into his chest.
The bones that grew in an instant tightened around his wrists like handcuffs, tough muscles wrapped around his arms like chains, and the endlessly growing flesh stuck to him like glue.
Of course, the amount of necrotic cells was greater due to the destructive energy contained within the hand, but it was inevitable that the body of the executioner who carried out the attack would stop for a moment.
Snap!
And that brief moment was enough.
“Khuh-huh! Got him!”
Until Harley’s large hands caught his right arm, which was just about to fall off his body.
Time, which had stopped, slowly began to move again.
[Ugh— This crazy guy! No matter how great your regenerative powers are, you won’t be able to recover easily from this attack! And you just got hit in the vital spot?]
When the time axis, which had slowed down, finally returned to its normal orbit.
All that remained was a beast-man with a large hole in his chest, and a demon with one arm held, unable to break free as before.
[Ha! If you thought you could keep me like this, you were mistaken. Do you think I’m a brat who runs wild only because of my unique skills?]
Gooooo—!
A genuine aura emanated from the executioner’s body.
Even though he is using the skill now out of necessity, didn’t he usually prefer to use the abilities he had accumulated as a demon?
No matter how great Harley’s vitality was, there was no way he could be his opponent when his vital points were hit and his vital organs, including his heart, were destroyed, leaving his abilities diminished.
“Hahahaha! A vital point? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Of course, Harley didn’t do it without thinking.
“Hey~ What a coincidence! I was just trying to change the internal structure of my body to change the mood!”
[···What?]
“Oh my, I had a feeling I wanted to do that, what a coincidence! Hahahaha!”
Because he had never been attacked in a vital spot in the first place.
Heart, liver, stomach, lungs, etc.
The organs that would normally be located in the chest were already scattered to other areas such as the lower abdomen and thighs.
As if they had anticipated where they would be attacked.
‘Huh, I felt something strange at my fingertips. Did I overlook it because of the special nature of this body?’
Only then did the executioner realize.
The fact that this monster only had a human-like appearance, and did not have even a single thing in common with a human-like creature.
While acknowledging the bastard’s body, he was unconsciously trapped in stereotypes.
Kookookookook!
Two beings who face each other at a distance where their bodies touch.
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The energy rising from both sides clashed violently.
No, it wasn’t just energy that was colliding.
[Let go! You leech!]
“Hahaha! Don’t give up, buddy! I also really enjoy fighting. Let’s have some fun together!”
[You bastard···!]
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you want a fight to the death? A showdown between flesh and soul, with bloodshed and death! Ugh! This is a fight between men.”
An ultra-close combat using all of the limbs, wings, and even the tail.
There was a tenacious battle between those who wanted to escape and those who wanted to hold on.
Even without his unique skills, the Executioner was not an easy opponent, as he had promised.
Not only was the accumulated combat experience worth it, but the fiery energy boiling from her entire body was enough to melt Harley’s hardened skin, and the demon’s body, optimized for actual combat, was no different from a weapon in itself.
“Okay, then first—”
However, his only misfortune was that his opponent was a force to be reckoned with in this field.
Like a boxer caught by a wrestler, he struggled to escape somehow, but unlike him, Harley, who had all the mysteries concentrated in her body, took all the resistance with her body and gradually crushed the enemy who had fallen into her hands.
“—Shall we start by taking a bite while it’s still fresh?”
[Ugh—! This monster!]
Because of you, my stomach skin is stuck to my back.
As he spoke, Harley’s mouth opened wide, and his sharp, serrated teeth dug into the hard demon’s scales.
***
This wasn’t the first time I’d encountered a time-related ability.
This was something they had already experienced once before, during the process of defeating the Burning Clan that had invaded Auterica.
‘The details are different, but when you look at the big picture, there are many similarities.’
Heinrich, who had then plunged the holy sword into the bastard’s chest, was able to share a brief moment of time stoppage before the lord used his supposed ability to reverse time.
Thanks to the divine power that penetrated into his body through the holy sword.
‘Nothing is different from before.’
Instead of divine power, he uses abyssal madness, and instead of directly injecting it into the body, he instead erodes space.
Of course, if it were just that, it would have been impossible, but the experience of having already succeeded once against someone much stronger than the executioner was a great help.
‘Since it is an ability used by a being of equal rank, the hurdles are also lower.’
Strictly speaking, the bastard’s unique skill was not to stop ‘time in the world’.
If that were true, his avatar, spread across other dimensions, would have detected the anomaly.
The mechanism of the ability he used was to escape the timeline that flows through the world.
In reality, there is not much difference either way, but in terms of ability, there is a lot of room for intervention and forcible extraction.
‘The physical burden from using the ability must have been considerable. The method chosen to alleviate that was probably demonization.’
Heinrich, who had been quietly watching the fight between the executioner and Harley while calmly analyzing, narrowed his eyes.
Kurururung—!
The artificial space was twisted and screamed repeatedly by the storm of energy rushing in from all directions.
Even though a being who could be called a mid-level transcendentalist had built it using all kinds of magical tools, it was unable to completely withstand the aftermath caused by a collision with a higher-level energy.
‘I got hit once, but… it wasn’t that easy.’
The executioner who had to allow Harley to prey on him while his right arm was blocked.
But even though he was forced to stand at such an unfavorable distance, he did not easily fall.
The moment Harley showed an opening to prey, he immediately cut off his own arm that was caught and used time stop again to escape.
‘That arm also regenerated quickly. Also, since then I’ve become more cautious about activating my abilities, so the same method doesn’t work either… Well, even so, the resistance I gained by using the “Food Soul” is a pretty good result.’
Of course, that resistance also included resistance to ‘time stop’.
Thanks to that, Harley no longer has to worry about it anymore, because she can leave her consciousness in that timeline the moment the guy uses his power.
Of course, he still wasn’t able to move his body like his opponent, but considering that the possibility of doing so was gradually increasing as time passed, his primary goal had already been sufficiently achieved.
‘I will use this opportunity to build up my tolerance for time as much as possible and prepare countermeasures.’
In fact, that was the biggest reason why Harley kept insisting on one-on-one time with the executioner.
Since the opponent is a demon, it would be easier to deal with if Heinrich himself steps forward.
However, in order to build up the know-how and tolerance to deal with ‘time’ as she wished, it was much more efficient for Harley to fight like that, hitting it with her body.
Because that was his identity as the “ultimate evolved life form.”
‘The power that the Heavenly King controls is probably space-time. It’s just good luck that I got to deal with the executioner, who is a lower-level version of him, before I could properly confront him.’
The Executioner had no choice but to continue using his abilities in order to deal with Harley, who was charging forward recklessly.
As the battle progressed, Harley’s body gradually became more and more damaged as her resistance had not yet been fully built up, but considering that the ‘adaptation’ progress was increasing rapidly in proportion to her, it wasn’t such a bad situation.
“Hahahaha! What the heck? You’re so skinny when you can fight so well? Let’s hang out a little more, buddy!”
[Huh! No matter how much I cut, there’s no end to it. Where on earth did such a horrible monster as you come from?]
“You’re a devil yourself, but your words are a bit harsh! Aren’t monsters and devils all the same?”
[Ha! This time, I’ll cut off your throat for real. I’ll see if you can still move your tongue after doing that!]
The Executioner is actively using his transcendent ability to stop time and is gaining the upper hand against Harley.
Even though the ranks themselves were similar, it seemed that the presence or absence of unique skills determined victory or defeat.
Unlike Harley, whose very existence was a product of the unique skill of “Avatar”, he didn’t have any special moves.
“Struggle… struggle….”
Heinrich, who was looking at him with cold eyes from outside, let out a sneer.
As I watched this, I realized how ironic those words were.
‘I guess he didn’t want to fight, but just wanted to enjoy a safe thrill.’
From the beginning, his abilities themselves were a bundle of contradictions.
Is it even possible to risk your life while having insurance that will ensure your safety in any situation?
It was just like riding an amusement ride with all the safety features and enjoying a brief thrill.
‘Maybe that’s why I enjoy more dangerous situations.’
He glanced at you for a moment, then turned around.
Since both sides are optimized to hold out, it doesn’t seem like there will be an immediate outcome, so there’s no need to keep watching yourself.
Heinz II alone was enough to monitor the situation in case of an emergency, as he could grasp the flow of cause and effect in real time.
“Let’s see, then I’ve been···”
Harris had already begun analyzing the means of sealing off this space by utilizing the “Muyu Palgwae Bigong (改)”, which was the opposite of the Jinbeopryu boundary.
With the magical avatars like the Immortal King Hans and the dragon Horus putting their heads together, there’s bound to be some kind of result.
“···I guess I’ll have to clean up the rest of them.”
A large blade of light emerged from the holy sword he held in his hand, emitting a dazzling light.
At the same time, three pairs of large wings spread wide and a halo emanated from its entire body.
A divine power so thick that even the aftermath of the demonic fight on one side of the battlefield melted away and disappeared.
Some of those who had been blankly watching the transcendent battle at the sight of his massive presence turned to look in his direction.
“I have to move quickly. There are still six left.”
He looked around at them briefly and shrugged his shoulders.
This was Heinrich’s first real battle as an angel from another world.
***
“What the heck is this···.”
An muttered blankly as he was faced with the sudden change in situation.
When I used ‘Fate Manipulation’, I was just giving up, but who would have thought that things would really turn out like this?
‘···Masquerade?’
I thought it was great that I was able to help Ken.
It wasn’t an ordinary task to thoroughly look into information from this far away place.
But now, isn’t this far beyond what she had imagined!
‘You’re capable of standing up to the executioner? And there’s no one strong enough to do that…?’
She swallowed without realizing it.
The hope that had dried up just a moment ago began to spring up little by little.
And as if symbolizing the anticipation sprouting in her heart.
Hwaaaaak—
With a dazzling light.
An angel descended upon the earth.
