Chapter 645
Kaga gagaga….
A subtle heat bloomed from the swords.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
Velus bared his sharp fangs as he looked at Jinhyuk.
“Did you mess with our company’s precious employees?”
Jinhyuk’s eyes turned cold.
A chilling sensation.
The surrounding air rapidly cooled.
A murderous intent so frigid it raised goosebumps without warning.
“Hoh. That expression. How frightening. So you can’t stand it when someone touches what’s yours?”
“Only the CEO gets to fire employees. In that sense, you’re fired.”
“Hahaha! Since when was I affiliated with you? I never swore allegiance to you in the first place, did I?”
Their first meeting in the hallway had been unpleasant, and of course it ended up like this.
At the same time, Jinhyuk wondered how long the Operators and this guy had been planning everything.
‘Creepy bastards.’
He didn’t know what they were after, but if he captured Velus, he might find a clue.
Jinhyuk steadily poured mana into his newly acquired dagger.
“…!”
Velus immediately pulled his rapier back and widened the distance.
He instinctively understood he couldn’t let a stalemate drag on.
“You’re quite perceptive. I was going to give you a nice stab and make you smile for the rest of your life.”
“That dagger. I was wondering what grand project you were running with the gods. So you finally succeeded in making it.”
“If I’m going to fight guys like you, I need a proper weapon.”
It was a little lacking compared to what he used to wield, but among purple-grade weapons, it was high-class without question.
Jinhyuk lightly rotated First Blade.
The dagger spun into a reverse grip.
It was time to test it.
He withdrew all additional abilities and started with the basics.
Kaaang!
Line and line met at a single point.
“Ugh…!?”
Velus took a step back.
His pupils dilated, and a groan slipped out before he could stop it.
A single exchange decided a lot.
“You were making all that noise, but you’re not that impressive. Don’t tell me you were throwing a fit with just this much?”
“Don’t get cocky over one exchange.”
Velus frowned and immediately shifted into offense.
His forte had always been speed.
A head-on power struggle was for amateurs.
[Velus activates the Unique Holy Spear ‘Black Wings of Dream’!]
Black wings of light unfurled behind him.
Wings unique to vampires—thin and long, like a bat’s.
“Let’s begin.”
Whoooong!
Velus broke the sound barrier and closed the distance in an instant. Black feathers scattered in all directions.
Fast.
Even Jinhyuk, who had experienced countless attack routes, lost track of the afterimage.
Chwaaaak!
The rapier—shot like a wasp’s stinger—grazed Jinhyuk’s cheek.
If his reaction had been even slightly slower, it would’ve punched a neat hole straight through his face.
Before he could even exhale, Velus’s rapier exploded into countless points.
Papat pat pat!
…Kakakakaka… Kakakakang!
No mercy. No vital points spared.
A storm of thrusts swallowed Jinhyuk’s entire body.
Brilliant sparks bloomed, dazzling enough to look almost beautiful.
Kwaaang!
The short exchange ended with the final blow.
“Do you still look down on me?”
Velus licked the blood from the tip of his sword.
“It might be a little fun.”
“Fun… You still have the leisure to say that?”
Velus, his pride wounded, gathered even more mana.
Kwaang!
Twice as fast as before.
Now even his shadow couldn’t be seen.
His movements were so light and smooth they left no footprints.
Kaaang!
But—
Jinhyuk didn’t budge an inch. He parried every attack.
Not only that, he didn’t even counterattack. He simply waited for Velus’s next move.
“You got a little faster once you brought out your wings… but is that all you’ve got?” (T/N: Damnnnnnnnn! )
The nature of a rapier—
A noble’s sword built for thrusting—meant it had abandoned cutting altogether.
‘Which makes the pattern that much simpler.’
Thrusts made of points are harder to defend against than slashes made of lines—at least for those who don’t understand the weapon.
But to Jinhyuk, who had reached the point of directly teaching Alice how to use a rapier, it was laughable.
He provoked Velus with a sneer.
It must have been unbearable humiliation.
Kaaang!
Even Velus’s best thrust was knocked aside. The rapier stopped abruptly, losing its path.
He realized that no matter how much he attacked, the result wouldn’t change.
“Kuaaaaa!”
Velus screamed and hurled his rapier away.
At the same time, the nails on both hands blazed black.
[Black Wings of Dream – ‘Mad Fang’ is activated!]
Long fangs and claws.
And six wings spread wide.
Kukukukukuku!
Sparks of red blood burst in all directions.
Even with the surroundings sealed by a perfect barrier, an enormous amount of mana exploded, the shockwaves powerful enough to be felt outside.
He no longer looked like an Operator, or even a vampire.
He looked like a mad demon driven by the single intent to kill.
“Contractor…!”
Alice staggered forward, trying to reach Jinhyuk.
She sensed it instinctively—Velus’s energy was wrong.
Mutual destruction. Before her mind could catch up, her body moved, fearing he might try to die with Jinhyuk.
To Alice—
“It’s okay.”
Jinhyuk reassured her with a gentle smile.
⁕⁕⁕
The atmosphere trembled violently.
Velus’s pupils turned pitch-black.
“…Kill… you… I’ll send you back… to where you belong… to that pathetic… worthless state you were in before. Along with your filthy True Ancestor and that stupid Saintess!”
His body was collapsing under power that had already exceeded its limit.
But in exchange, he had gained a strike that could threaten even ancient beings.
Jinhyuk drew a small breath.
Then—
He called an ability from the [Memory of the World] .
[Unique Ability ‘Sharing of All Things’ is activated!]
A golden line extended toward Alice.
A clear, bright light connected them firmly.
[Sharing of All Things ‘Alice von Ataraxia’ is set.]
[Unique Holy Spear ‘Apocalypse of Revelation is activated!]
A red ring rose, and the blood of Ataraxia gathered around Jinhyuk.
The pureblooded authority that heralded a new beginning.
Jinhyuk vanished.
Kwaaang!
“Kk… Ugh?”
Velus was slammed into the ground and bounced back up.
His face was drenched in blood from the impact, and his immortal body tried to regenerate.
But the damage Jinhyuk inflicted was far more violent than Velus’s regeneration could keep up with.
Kwaaang! Kwakwakwakwang!
Purple light blazed from the fully opened First Blade.
Velus’s limbs were carved apart.
Regeneration and destruction repeated in a loop, and Velus’s mana rapidly drained.
The composure he’d shown against Alice was gone.
“I-impossible….”
A tremor ran through his pupils.
He had believed that, in this state, he wouldn’t be pushed back even by ancient beings.
But even if Jinhyuk had gained a purple-grade weapon, how could the gap widen this drastically?
Even with energy absorption and the gap stat, it far exceeded expectations.
Or… could it be—
“Because of… Sharing of All Things…?”
If the bond with Alice had peaked and every synergy had been maximized, then the current difference at least made some sense.
Velus’s gaze snapped back to Jinhyuk.
It looked as though he had taken the True Ancestor’s authority and worn it as his own.
Jinhyuk already seemed to have transcended the category of human.
“This can’t be….”
What was even more surprising was Alice herself.
From the first moment they met, she had known her Contractor wasn’t ordinary.
But that had only meant he was exceptional for a human.
Experience, power, and class—
Compared to a True Ancestor born with those things, he should have been insignificant.
Yet the speed of his growth over time was unlike anything she’d ever seen.
From a mere human, he had become someone who could threaten even ancient beings.
‘He might have stood shoulder to shoulder with me at my peak.’
The absolute being of the Tower.
He was more than worthy of that title.
Alice’s heart burned hot.
And at the same time, she was grateful—
That this reliable Contractor was fighting for her.
But then—
Whoooong… Kwaaang!
An arrow imbued with mythic power flew in and smashed into the ground nearby.
“Sorry, but I think we’ll stop watching here.”
Unknown and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse had been observing from a step back.
Unknown, using Nemesis and Crimson Magic Bullet, pulled a necklace engraved with a tentacle pattern from his chest.
Chareureuk!
[Sacred Relic ‘Echo of the Abyss’ is activated!]
Thump!
Purple smoke rose along the ground, pulsing with an ominous heartbeat.
“Krrr….”
“Kroooo!”
The smoke soon took the shape of black goats and sheep.
Originally, it was a force the alliance could barely withstand even after mobilizing everything. Each one was a named figure in the middle and upper tiers.
Worse, mixed among them were new mid-sized monsters that hadn’t appeared in the previous battle.
Even at a glance, they carried more than ten times the mana of the black goats and sheep.
Alice and Jinhyuk alone couldn’t stop them.
No matter how overwhelming Jinhyuk looked right now.
“……”
A shadow fell over Jinhyuk’s face.
“……Tch.”
Alice, who had burned through everything against Velus, still tried to fight to the death, squeezing out the last of her mana.
At that moment—
Step.
Teresa moved in front of Jinhyuk and Alice.
“I’ll try to stop them.”
She raised her sword and shield.
“You’re saying you’ll do it alone? That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
Teresa knew better than anyone how absurd it sounded.
“But it’s the only way.”
This fight wouldn’t end unless Unknown was defeated.
And to make that happen, they had to minimize the waste of Jinhyuk’s power.
In other words—
Someone had to become the sacrifice.
Alice still needed time to recover. That wasn’t an option.
So there was only one person left.
Teresa smiled sadly.
“Please leave it to me.”
A Paladin exists to support allies.
It’s a role that requires the willingness to throw away your life to achieve the goal.
Sensing her resolve, Jinhyuk didn’t stop her.
“……I’m counting on you.”
Now all they could do was trust each other—and do what they could.
As Jinhyuk turned away, countless enemies filled Teresa’s view.
-How foolish. What are you sacrificing yourself for? You know you won’t get any reward for this, right?
The other personality whispered again.
Teresa considered the words for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth.
She had already decided.
“I must….”
There was someone precious to protect.
Someone more important than her own life.
Even if that person’s gaze was never directed at her.
She could be called foolish.
She could be cursed as stupid.
The end might not be a happy one…
“I can’t give up.”
She likes him because she likes him.
No other reason was needed.
The Saintess’s sword pointed to the sky.