Chapter 275.2: The Signal (4) Part 2
"......!"
Hagley's eyes widened for a moment, and he hurriedly filled the shadow behind him with a curtain.
Kwaak!
Selena emerged from behind Hagley. Using 'Shadow Transfer' in a surprise attack, she pierced Hagley's curtain with her needles.
Her eyes were cold, chilling to the bone. The look of confusion that had been writhing in her moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmph!"
Hagley pushed away the curtain and knocked Selena away.
Selena lightly retreated, gripped the needles in both hands again, and looked at Hagley.
Hagley's expression hardened in disbelief.
"You, how..."
How did she know? There was no reason for her to know it was a lie.
To that question-filled voice,
"......You really..."
Selena's cold gaze met Hagley's eyes.
"You believe you can see through my acting."
"!"
Selena, who learned acting from Hagley.
Just as Selena couldn't read Hagley's true intentions,
Hagley also couldn't see through Selena's acting.
"Hagley, whatever you're imagining, Frondier didn't say anything to me."
Frondier didn't persuade or entice Selena to join him.
He simply gave her a choice.
Frondier said he wouldn't interfere whether Selena stayed in Manggot or came to him.
When she asked how Frondier would know which side she chose, he answered, 'I don't know'. He said he wouldn't hold her responsible for whichever side she chose.
Perhaps Hagley, who had raised the assassin named Jei according to his own tastes for all these years, would never understand.
How much comfort she received from Frondier saying, 'Do as you please'.
─It's impossible after all.
─I can't see through your acting.
Frondier didn't try to read Selena recklessly. He didn't easily judge what kind of person she was.
Because he didn't know.
Because that was natural.
As Jei, the assassin of Manggot, she had been nothing more than a monochrome background, but
As Selena, Frondier's escort,
"Surprised?"
Selena's eyes shone with a light that Hagley had never seen in all the years he had raised her.
"I am quite good at acting."
"......Selena......!"
Hagley's shadow blazed like flames.
Hagley, whose specialty was shadow magic, was in his complete home ground within the caves of Manggot. A look of tension appeared on Selena's face.
"Do you think you can defeat me?"
"No."
Even as she gave that answer, Selena's expression was serene.
"While serving as his escort, I don't have time to think about such things."
* * *
While Frondier was suffering from the power of sloth, Belphegor watched him for a while.
'Amazing. He's still resisting.'
An ordinary person would have already fallen asleep, or in severe cases, chosen death themselves.
It wasn't so much that they wanted to die, but rather that they felt it would be okay to die. The more weary of life a person was, the more likely they were to make such a choice.
'I could just kill him like this, but...'
Belphegor lightly shot an aura as a test.
Puk!
However, Frondier's Obsidian flew in and blocked the aura.
Unless Obsidian had a will of its own, that too was Frondier's will.
'As expected, he's not an ordinary human.'
The longer Frondier resisted, the more Belphegor's displeasure grew.
Belphegor, who was responsible for one of the Seven Deadly Sins, had used his own sin, 'Sloth'. The fact that this alone wasn't enough to solve the problem was not just a blow to his pride, but a wound to his very core.
If rumors of this spread to other devils, it wouldn't just be humiliating, but would actually lower his status.
It wouldn't threaten his position as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it would at least cause him to fall in rank within them.
'Well, he won't be able to hold out forever.'
Belphegor was relaxed.
He just needed to stall for time.
The fact that this war, that Frondier, this spear, had flown all the way here, meant that the Empire's defenses wouldn't be easy.
The barrier would eventually crumble, and monsters and Manggot would flood in, turning the Empire into a wasteland.
Frondier had come all the way here to prevent that. To minimize damage by eliminating the enemy's source within the time limit.
The fact that he had launched such a reckless operation without hesitation meant that he had probably done something similar before.
Moreover, Manggot was also on the verge of God's descent. That reason alone was enough to stall for time.
'While this guy is doing this, that time limit is approaching.'
Just watch what kind of tragedy your arrogance of blocking all the barriers will bring.
The moment Belphegor thought that,
Void weaving, simultaneous replication
Imperial Armory
Full Open
Belphegor witnessed weapons flashing all around him.
"Oh, can you still resist?"
Belphegor looked around in admiration. All the weapons with gleaming blades were extraordinary.
Soon, those weapons were fired towards Belphegor.
"Alright, a little entertainment for a while. I'll play with you."
Belphegor easily dodged their terrifying speed, sometimes dropping them, sometimes breaking them.
Weapons continued to be created in mid-air, but none of them reached Belphegor, instead being smashed to pieces.
It seemed impossible to win in a simple battle of mana reserves, and on top of that, Frondier was being consumed by sloth.
The end of this long confrontation was clear. Frondier had no chance of winning.
Belphegor, as if playing, roamed the air, smashing weapons.
Meanwhile, Frondier, seemingly suffering from the power of sloth, bowed his head.
......Suu-
......Huu.......
Repeating his breaths from some time ago, he hid his cold eyes.