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Chapter 41 – Descent of Evil (5)
Chapter 41 – Descent of Evil (5)
Chapter 41 – Descent of Evil (5)
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
Chapter 41 – Descent of Evil (5)
Aquaz’s pupils dilated.
“…Huh?”
The headless body staggered and fell.
Ketal looked at his fist and nodded.
“Not as tough as I thought.”
“Huh, huh?”
Aquaz mumbled stupidly.
She hadn’t seen it.
What she saw was Ashetiar swinging her hammer towards Ketal’s head.
But in that instant, Ashetiar’s head suddenly shattered.
Ketal was shaking off his fist.
‘…Did he shatter the head with his fist?’
At a speed imperceptible to her, did he crush the demon’s head with just his fist?
Is that even possible?
Her mind was dizzy with confusion and shock.
Ketal gazed at the fallen, headless body.
Then, suddenly, the fallen body disappeared.
The ground stained, and darkness rose from beyond.
Ashetiar emerged from the darkness.
“Oh. Even if your head is shattered, you come back to life. You’re certainly different from a skeleton.”
Ketal muttered, seemingly intrigued.
Ashetiar’s expression was not much different from Aquaz’s.
‘Wh-what just happened?’
She hadn’t seen it properly either.
She thought she had beheaded him, but her own head was shattered.
“…Who are you?”
“Just a simple barbarian.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Ashetiar narrowed his eyes.
Darkness stared at Ketal.
‘I don’t sense any mystery.’
He’s not someone who used aura or magic.
That made her even more bewildered.
She brushed aside her complicated thoughts.
She just needed to check for herself.
She gripped her hammer and stepped into the darkness.
Kagakakak!
And then she appeared right next to Ketal, scraping the ground violently as she swung her hammer.
Ketal watched her quietly.
‘It’s a bit awkward since she’s in human form.’
An impressive beauty.
Not as much as the Elven Queen, but beautiful enough to captivate people.
‘But still.’
She’s a demon.
There’s no reason to hold back.
Kwaduk.
A massive hole was punched through her chest.
Her body couldn’t withstand the impact and flew back, crashing into the barrier.
“Keuhuek!”
She staggered as she tried to regain her stance.
The hole in her chest filled with darkness.
Ketal let out an intrigued
“Ho.”
“You regenerate immediately. I wonder what the principle is.”
“……”
Shock filled Ashetiar’s eyes.
It’s just a simple punch.
Not imbued with aura, not reinforced by magic, just a pure punch.
It’s just that it’s so fast and strong that she can’t even perceive it.
“Hmm.”
Ketal stroked his chin for a moment, then nodded as if he had decided something.
He moved his feet, and Ketal’s figure vanished.
When he reappeared, it was in front of Ashetiar.
“You!”
Ashetiar freaked out and tried to lift her hammer.
But Ketal was faster.
He reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Kaaak!”
He slammed her down.
The ground rumbled and cracked.
Ketal extended his leg.
Her head and body separated.
Ashetiar’s body turned to darkness.
She reappeared at a distance.
“If your head is shattered or separated, you reappear entirely. Otherwise, you regenerate. The core must be the head?”
“You, you. You!”
Ashetiar’s face twisted with rage at his cold analysis.
She felt like a mere plaything.
“You think you can face me with mere strength!”
This barbarian doesn’t wield aura, use magic, employ alchemy, or harness any special powers.
He’s just purely fast and strong.
That’s all.
And that fact made the demon even more flabbergasted.
“I am Ashetiar! The demon of gravitas! You dare challenge me with mere human strength!”
“Even so.”
Ketal shrugged.
“You don’t seem that impressive.”
“…Youuuuuu!”
Ashetiar, furious, lifted her hammer.
Darkness gathered and gathered again.
She charged.
But it was futile.
Her hammer was stopped by Ketal’s fingers.
A massive shockwave erupted, but Ketal’s stance didn’t change at all.
“Oh.”
Ketal nodded.
“It’s quite heavy.”
Ka-chang!
He applied force with his fingers, and the hammer shattered.
Ketal’s fist struck Ashetiar’s stunned face, and her head disappeared once more.
Regenerating again, she gritted her teeth.
“This is impossible! What is this?!”
She was the demon of gravitas.
The darkness she wielded carried physical force.
And that darkness was incredibly heavy.
It could hold unimaginable weight, defying the limits of matter and physics.
Moreover, this was her territory.
While not as powerful as in Hell, she could still draw significant power here.
At full strength, she could imbue her hammer with the weight of a fortress.
And yet, this human stopped her hammer with just his fingers?
An ordinary human who couldn’t even perceive the mystical?
“Impossible!”
She shouted in denial.
Ketal laughed and raised his fist.
Darkness rose and shook.
Everything shattered and broke under his punches.
Kwaaaaang!
The battle remained unchanged.
It was still one-sided in Ketal’s favor.
Aquaz watched in a daze.
‘…What am I witnessing right now?’
Ashetiar.
A powerful demon who had once single-handedly brought down a kingdom centuries ago.
Even when Aquaz had used the Holy Scripture against her, it was a stalemate.
Such a powerful demon was being pummeled by mere punches.
And not just any punches, but with the physical force that Ashetiar commanded.
The battle unfolding before her felt unreal.
It was like watching an ant toy with a human.
Kuuuuuung!
Ketal tore Ashetiar’s limbs apart. But she regenerated and reappeared before him.
“She really doesn’t die.”
He shattered, crushed, tore apart, and punctured her.
And yet, she reappeared unscathed.
There were beings in the snowfields that couldn’t be killed either.
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
But this was different.
Those in the snowfields had a twisted concept of death, while this demon seemed to transcend death itself.
“So pure physical force can’t kill her.”
It felt like fighting an endlessly respawning monster.
“But still, it’s nothing special.”
Even if a level 1 slime respawned infinitely, what would it matter?
It was just a slime.
Aquaz, who had been watching in a stupor, suddenly came to her senses.
She couldn’t just stand by and watch.
The barbarian was incredibly strong, almost impossibly so, but it was still just physical force.
He couldn’t defeat the demon.
A divine miracle was needed.
She quietly began to pray.
A small amount of divine power began to gather within her.
Kwaduduk.
Meanwhile, Ashetiar was continuously being destroyed.
At some point, she seemed to have given up, a helpless smile on her face.
“Ha, hahaha! Hahahaha!”
The anger had vanished.
She could only laugh at being toyed with like a child.
She had to admit it now.
The barbarian before her was strong.
Far stronger than she was.
Thus, only one emotion remained.
“What are you?”
A question about the barbarian before her.
She, the demon of Gravitas, was being overwhelmingly overpowered by pure strength.
It felt like facing the god of strength.
Ketal replied.
“Just a simple barbarian.”
“Ridiculous. But fine. I feel relieved. There’s just one thing I want to test.”
Ashetiar narrowed her eyes and smirked.
“I’ll hit you with all I’ve got.”
Waver.
The darkness of her territory trembled ominously.
It condensed and condensed further, taking the form of a thin veil.
Aquaz’s face hardened as she gathered divine power.
A dreadfully dense darkness began to gather.
This was dangerous.
The demon’s full power.
She hastened the gathering of her divine power.
Ketal looked intrigued.
“The demon’s full strength, huh.”
Ketal raised his axe as if to say he’d take her on.
The demon unleashed her power.
“Go forth! Pierce and kill!”
Kagagagagak!
The veil exploded.
It transformed into thousands upon thousands of thin spikes aimed at Ketal.
Each spike carried the power of a ballista.
Even a well-constructed fortress would be reduced to rubble before such an attack.
Ketal laughed and met it head-on.
The spikes shattered and broke.
They collided with his body but left not even the smallest scratch.
He swung his axe wide and stomped the ground.
Countless shattered spike fragments scattered chaotically.
“…Ha.”
Ashetiar let out a hollow laugh, as if she couldn’t believe it.
“What kind of monster is this?”
Boom!
Ketal arrived in front of Ashetiar.
Aquaz shouted.
“Book of Karma, Chapter 5, Verse 59! ‘Its glory scorched all that was unholy it touched.’”
Kiiiiiing!
A golden light enveloped Ketal’s axe.
Ketal’s eyes sparkled.
“Ooooh!”
Even Ketal could tell that the golden light carried a holy power.
“Is this the power of the gods?”
“What are you doing?! Strike now!”
Aquaz screamed in panic as Ketal stood there, staring at his axe while facing the demon. Ketal shrugged and lifted his axe.
“I wanted to observe a bit longer, but it can’t be helped. It was fun, demon.”
Kwadududuk!
The axe buried deep into Ashetiar’s chest.
The holy power invaded Ashetiar’s insides.
Darkness was eradicated by the light.
Ashetiar’s presence rapidly diminished.
“…I’ve lost.”
“Thanks for the entertainment.”
Ketal laughed cheerfully.
It had been an incredibly enjoyable time.
He had watched a fight between a demon and an inquisitor and had even fought the demon himself.
Plus, he got to wield divine power in his axe.
It was hard to ask for more satisfaction.
Ashetiar, too, wore a strangely satisfied expression.
“It’s a shame I’m being banished back to Hell… but I’ve gained something. I’ve confirmed that there’s someone like you on the surface.”
Her white eyes fixed on Ketal.
“It seems I had a bad matchup. If it were another demon, it might have been a more interesting fight.”
Ordinarily, she held absolute superiority in pure strength.
That was her power.
But this time was different.
Ketal was someone she could never overpower.
“Barbarian. Your name?”
“Ketal. Just Ketal.”
“No, no!”
Aquaz, who had thought it was all over and was relieved, suddenly cried out in panic.
But it was too late.
The demon bared her teeth, having heard the name.
“Ketal. Alright. Let all in Hell hear this!”
A great shout echoed.
It was not a cry towards the surface.
It was a cry towards Ashetiar’s homeland.
A call to all beings there.
“There is a barbarian named Ketal on the surface! Let all in Hell remember the name Ketal! And consume my memories to recognize him! Ketal exists!”
“Ah, no!”
Aquaz groaned in despair.
Simultaneously, dark energy lunged at Ketal.
It aimed to envelop Ketal’s entire being, ultimately touching his soul.
Ashetiar laughed maniacally.
“Hahahaha! Barbarian! You belong to us now! We’ll make good use of your corpse later!”
The darkness raced across Ketal’s body, thick and deep enough to completely consume an ordinary human.
However.
“What did you do?”
Nothing happened.
The darkness that raced over Ketal’s body couldn’t penetrate him.
Ashetiar’s expression hardened.
“What, what the…?”
The darkness had indeed spread over the barbarian’s body.
It was supposed to mark his soul with her name, but nothing happened.
“…Aha.”
Ketal suddenly nodded as if he understood something.
“So this is what a demon’s lies are about? If it was meant to buy time, it was somewhat effective, but it seems no one is coming to help you.”
“W-wait.”
Crunch.
The axe came down mercilessly.
Ashetiar’s body dissolved into darkness and vanished.
Left behind were Aquaz, staring blankly at the barbarian, and Ketal, stretching contentedly with a refreshed expression.
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]