Chapter 214

Evan D. Sherden, straighten things out. (2)

"Hyeong!?"

An overwhelming amount of light poured out, and Evan's vision turned white for a moment. In a panic, Evan cried out Raihan's name. However, no answer was heard. Instead, the voice of a stupid witch could be heard.

"The moment is now!"

Seeing the Devil Rune Chimera, who had stiffened in its place, thought that the gap was revealed, Ctheasil decided to arrest him again. She had just forgotten the fact that her life had just been saved, and yet, here she was, taking over once more.

"Rune of Order and Discipline, ordered in the name of Ctheasil, the Master of Raido! Worship your Creator, move according to the goodwill!"

[Kha......!?]

The moment the Rune of Ctheasil was declared, the pattern of a huge magic circle flashing on the ground arose once more.

The magic circle of the workshop, which had been destroyed as the subspace was broken, was rebuilt in the real space, pouring out enormous magical power and temporarily revealing the gap, grabbing the Chimera's entire body.

[Ugh, it isn't just one of them that is starting to tick me off......!]

But it was only a temporary bondage. The moment after the Devil Rune's pattern flashed on the Chimera's ugly melting skin, Ctheasil's bondage was completely broken, and the giant magic circle was lost.

No, rather, the Devil Rune began to suck the magical power that made up the magic circle in reverse.

"How stupid!"

[My order, my ruler! He is the demon! You witch just found the path he had laid out, and now your role is over!]

"S-s-t-t-op...!"

[Now, I will kill you! I will kill everyone blocking the way to Him!]

When the Devil Rune, which absorbed all of the witch's runes, fired again, Ctheasil rattled in place. Her magic, which bound the Chimera's movement with magic, was now being used against her. That was the new balance created by the Devil Rune.

[Die!]

"Nuna!"

At the very moment the Chimera attacked with a movement that could not be read by human eyes, Default covered Ctheasil, who had been dumbly standing there, because she could not overcome her sense of loss.

[This is the first tribute to the demon!]

However, there was no way that the Chimera's movement could be prevented just because of Default's interference.

The Chimera's rugged, gigantic thorns protruding from his arms' tips sprung up like a drill and hit them both!

"I told you to attack me!"

[Ouuughh!?]

Shortly after that, Raihan appeared once more.

His armor was tattered, but his shield was still shining brightly, and even though his helmet had cracked, his eyes remained locked onto the Chimera.

"You... Aren't you dead!?"

"I was trained by Master Evan."

In fact, it was painful enough to die, but as Evan said, there seemed to be quite a difference between the amount of damage inflicted on the body and the pain humans normally felt.

'It's probably because of the artifacts Master Evan gave. If I had been holding the Echo Shield, I would have died two or three times.'

Moreover, Raihan's head was still a little messy. This was because his mana dropped to a dangerous level while receiving that terrible attack, and he needed to continuously heal himself.

"Are you okay, Master!?"

"...... Ah, yes. I'm okay. Thank you for taking care of me, Hyeong."

It was Evan who stood there blankly for some reason until Raihan stepped out and stopped the Chimera's attack, but when Raihan raised his voice, he was able to regain his senses.

"Are you really okay?!"

"I just need to organize my thoughts a little. Hold the Chimera off alone for a minute."

Evan's voice sounded strange. Was the Chimera a manifestation of mental magic? Raihan shook his head and decided to follow his master's orders.

Was it possible that his shield skill had just grown while blocking his special moves? It felt like the defense became easier compared to before.

[So annoying... Stop bothering me!]

The Chimera, furious at Raihan, who managed to block his special moves, quickly stretched out dozens of arms from his torso like tentacles to attack him, but the more he lost his temper, the easier it was for Raihan to stop its attack.

"Sorry to bother you. Perhaps Master Evan will come and finish you soon."

[The insolent creature!]

"Young Master, we have arrived!"

"Huh!?"

"Witch! It's a witch!?"

The moment after Raihan successfully stopped the Chimera from running out, Shine and Anastasia finally arrived.

The witches who were just looking at the Monster War were confused by the appearance of a new witch. Likewise, Anastasia was surprised to see twenty witches just like her gathered in one place.

"What can I do, Master Evan!?"

"Uh... You don't have anything right now. Why don't you prepare some popcorn? I think the battle will be over by the time it's ready!"

At the time the reinforcements arrived, Evan had completely turned sane and took a step forward. The reason his condition was weird wasn't specifically because of the Chimera's attack. Rather, he felt grateful to the Chimera.

'I understand everything now.'

When the Chimera used the Devil Rune to steal the witch's rune, the captured rune and the devil rune were mixed and reborn into a stronger rune.

At the last moment, the rune's power was revealed.

All those moments inspired Evan to awaken. It was only then that he could learn how to deal with the Devil Rune.

'Thanks to that, I learned how to adjust the Devil Rune in my boots...... All right, let's end this.'

Evan boosted mana and activated Heaven's Press.

It was even more natural to control the power thanks to the use of Heaven's Press while fighting strong enemies after a long time. After all, if there was no threat of life, fighting with the strong was the best practice.

"Hyeong, you covered me well. I'll finish it now so that we can have some rest."

"Yep!"

"Shine, you watch over Ctheasil as well as the other witches to make sure they don't do anything foolish. Whatever you do, you show them what they deserve."

"Default, you have suffered a lot too. I'll finish your quest now."

"Evan...?"

Evan raised his left foot. The spirits of countless Devil Runes engraved on the boots he wore shone all at once, and surprisingly, the invading Magi temporarily harmonized with the power of the heavens.

At this moment, Evan was not affected by the curse, even though he was wearing the cursed boots. This was possible because the Devil Rune was activated by fully controlling the Magi. In other words, he was able to demonstrate his astonishing status fully.

However, to someone who did not know such a situation at all, it would have seemed as if Evan's power suddenly increased more than two or three times.

[You were hiding that power!?]

"Thank you, Chimera. This is all thanks to you."

When the Chimera trembled and tried to emit Devil Rune again, Evan appeared above the Chimera's head.

[I will suck it up as it is!]

"Ooof!"

At the very moment the Chimera triggered the Devil Rune, Evan stepped out and shot the Chimera's head. This was a foot technique that contained the power of Heaven's Press 5!

However, it wasn't just that. The magi united with the Heaven's Press quickly spread throughout the Chimera's entire body, forcibly pulling the activated Devil Rune and sucking it into the boots!

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]

Depriving the Devil Rune, which had been firmly embedded in the body, would feel more painful than having raw flesh torn apart. The Devil Rune Chimera rallied with a terrible scream.

However, the degree of the aftermath of the runaway was resolved with the power of the witches without Raihan.

[My God!]

"When I was playing the Yo-Ma Great War Series, I could never hear the monsters' last words," Evan said as he calmly gave a few more strikes at its head using his feet. Each time, the absorption of the Devil Rune accelerated.

The boots shone into a gloomy purple hue, and Evan's power grew even stronger. Around that time, Devil Rune Chimera began to curse Evan, knowing his defeat.

[This isn't the end! A witch may have created the Devil Rune, but from now on, the Devil Rune's blessing will be handed down to all chosen monsters!]

"I knew it would be like that. It appeared once, so it will continue to appear again."

It was not surprising that there were many similar things in the game. For example, when playing some zombie games, a new type of zombie created by a maniac scientist appeared on the subject that appeared with great impact as an early-stage boss. It was the same thing that appeared casually, even though it was a stage that had no relation to the scientist when it moved onto the second half.

This was a common occurrence not only in zombie games but also in RPGs.

Evan called it "The rule where this happens" or "The crew has forgotten the game scenario."

"It seemed that demons had quite the ability to learn, accepting man-made civilizations. I'm just grateful that I have more to collect from."

[The demon...... will.......]

"Oooof!"

It was over. Evan lifted his feet as much as he could, and with all the power he could gather, he brought his foot back down.

It was as if a bolt of purple lightning fell.

[Kaaa, Whhhhhoooo.......]

"......Whoo."

That was it. As all the Devil Runes covering the Chimera's body were successfully absorbed into Evan's boots, the Chimera lost its vitality and became silent.

The Devil Rune was the first thing he could maintain, so after the rune disappeared, his body quickly decayed and began to melt. Without waiting for it to become mana, it disappeared naturally.

"It's finished."

"...... Master, did I even need to come here?"

"In the first place, your job was to bring the princess. Who said you had to battle?"

"Ah..."

Evan, who jumped lightly over its body, exchanged jokes with Shine and checked his boots.

In an instant, the boots' magic was showing that the Magi might run away again due to the inhalation of an enormous amount of Devil Rune. However, as long as Evan realized how to deal with the Devil Rune, there would be no problem.

"On his own..."

"There must have been some sort of blessing from that demon..."

"You are a human, right? You sucked in the Devil Rune."

"No, the boots sucked in the Devil Rune."

Perhaps it was because of the incredible majesty that the people around Evan had begun to see him as someone who was no different from the Devil Rune Chimera. Despair, fear, and similar emotions that arise when facing a monster could be seen on their faces.

'It wouldn't have been like this if they were people from the dungeon city.'

They shouldn't be staying in a foreign land for too long anyway. When Evan turned around with a bitter smile at such futile thoughts, Melonia approached Ctheasil, where she had collapsed in vain.

"Hyeong."

"I know."

It was ridiculous to let the witches do team kills after such a successful battle. Raihan grabbed his shield and prepared to block Melonia.

However, Melonia had no intention of attacking Ctheasil despite Ctheasil's attempt to attack Melonia by raising the Devil Rune Chimera.

"You still want to try?" Melonia said quietly, acting as if she had been the one to defeat the Chimera!

There were times like that in the game. Even though the player party was the one who had defeated the boss, the NPCs still acted as if they were the real heroes of the day!

"I...... you...!"

Without noticing Evan's resentment, Ctheasil blankly looked up at Melonia.

In the next moment, she put her hand in her arms and pulled out a silver-colored dagger. However, she soon dropped it.

"Now that's it....... I lost the rune with that."

"I have become like a human."

"From now on, I will live a short human life with Default. For all the other witches... I'm sorry..."

Default couldn't help but breathe out a sigh of relief as he heard this. Perhaps the one who suffered the most, in this case, was Default. He had gone back and forth between heaven and hell many times today by being dragged by Ctheasil, and if he hadn't asked Evan for help in the first place, Evan wouldn't have been able to arrive on time.

"Haggish Witch, are you satisfied with this? Seeing me so frustrated..."

"I don't know who the hell you're calling haggish. You created that monster. Moreover, because of you, that cursed power could have taken the root of this continent, so you indirectly hurt countless lives."

"I feel bad about that. But I have no intention of redemption. I still have to live with Default."

Evan corrected his idea that Ctheasil wasn't the villain. Ctheasil was definitely the villain, or at least, Melonia seemed to think so.

"You haven't changed at all on the subject of planting the seeds of destruction, putting myself and countless other people in danger, holding and wielding even your most precious brother, and putting the guests' life in danger."

"I have no intention of denying my fault. But I can't die. I... I have to live."

Ctheasil stood up as she stumbled over her words. As Default supported her, she gave strength to the hand that held his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for not giving you eternity. And to everyone else..."

"That's okay, nuna."

He almost died many times today trying to protect her, but Default was not to blame Ctheasil at all.

"But, my nuna..."

"Huh?"

Though he loved his sister, this didn't mean that he didn't have the capacity to feel angry.

"I'm not sure if they will forgive you."

Ctheasil unconsciously looked back in the direction Default was pointing finger to, where Evan could be seen smiling.

"Is the game over only if you two have a nice conversation?"

"Ga... Game?"

"I haven't received the quest reward yet. However, you guys are already sitting there and comforting yourselves."

"Ah, Master Evan. Here's your popcorn."

"Thank you for the popcorn, Princess Anastasia. Perfect timing."

Evan took an envelope of popcorn from Anastasia and poured some of the pieces into his mouth.

"Ah, Melonia, you should also stop trying to escape. You should know that I came and saved you. Why are you trying to slip away?"

"That's... Thank you. I am saved because of you."

"Yes, so now you have to pay the price."

Evan was a good human. He never engaged in violence without reason and was never stingy in giving to others.

However, there was a moment when he inherited the spirit of a nolife player of the Yo-Ma Great War Series from his previous life and became strict.

"All of you sit tight. It's time for my compensation."

It was the right moment for him to receive his quest reward.