'BOOM!'

One of the magic circles detonated. My friend's side burst open, spilling organs and spraying blood.

"Aaaaaaaaargh!"

Yoonjeong's body collapsed, rolling on the ground. It wasn't a pleasant sight, but I couldn't stop.

I opened my palm and clenched my fist again. With a violent boom, the next magic circle exploded. She thrashed about in agony.

"Stop! Stooooop!"

"Don't you dare speak with that mouth, murderer."

I had promised. I would be the one to kill her. The core of the Disaster would die here, along with Armin Walter.

Taking a deep breath, I activated the remaining three magic circles at once.

'KABOOM!'

Her body exploded, swallowed by a furious cloud of fire and smoke.

"Huff… Hah… Kegh." Gasping for breath, my arm trembled, defying my control. This was a truly terrible thing to do.

"Did you detonate them all, Hunter Kim?" Marcello asked as he approached. He had deployed a wide-area divine barrier, protecting all the hunters who were endangered by the collapsing sand castle.

"Yes. All five."

With Armin Walter seemingly defeated, the ferocity of the attacking monsters subsided. Marcello reformed the ranks and then dispelled the divine energy field. The monsters, however, remained motionless.

'This side should be fine.'

I didn't let my guard down, keeping my eyes fixed on the smoke. I couldn't be sure if he was dead, but I could tell his mana signature hadn't completely vanished.

'Thump!'

"…?"

The entire environment turned crimson. The ground, the trees, the monsters—everything turned red. Then a second transformation began.

"Ugh!" A wave of nausea washed over me. I could see flesh. The trees swaying in the wind, the grass under my feet, the ground—it had all become a pulsating mass of red meat. Were we not in a Disaster, but inside the belly of some colossal beast?

'Squelch.'

This time, the monsters' bodies began to swell. Their black skin burst, revealing the raw muscle beneath. Their faces tore open, and eyeballs dripped from their sockets. They dissolved into flesh and poured into the smoke from the explosion.

'Crunch!'

'Splurt!'

With the flesh and blood of the monsters, Yoonjeong's body was being restored.

"It's useless," Armin Walter's voice echoed. As the smoke cleared, his mangled torso began to regenerate. The flesh of monsters continuously clung to his body, ruptured organs reforming and torn muscles reattaching.

It was horrifying. A power that surpassed super-regeneration, something akin to resurrection. Using this entire Disaster as raw material, Walter was trying to bring himself back.

The Holy Knights and Gravekeepers tried to stop him, but the eyes of the monsters that hadn't turned to flesh lit up as they charged at the humans again.

'This is dangerous.'

Whatever else happened, I couldn't just stand by and watch him resurrect.

'Thump!'

My heart beat slowly. The world's time slowed down. I could feel every single particle of mana, every strand of my own hair.

'Thump!'

I slowly bent my knees, my eyes locking onto the Soul Dagger embedded in Menes's back. I grasped the hilt and read the flow of mana from the artifact. It was peculiar. Mana flowed from the blade like threads, connecting to various parts of her body. If I were to rip it out, her entire mana nervous system would be forcibly torn apart, leaving her crippled for life.

I channeled my mana into the dagger. My mana traveled along the threads, neatly severing the points of connection with Menes. One by one, the threads attached to her nerves were cut. Was this what a surgeon felt like, performing a delicate operation? Not a single mistake was permissible.

One by one, the threads were severed. Finally, all the threads were severed. I grasped the dagger's hilt, pushed against her back, and carefully pulled it out. A thick stream of blood followed. With the dagger removed, Menes's body went limp.

'Thump!'

Taking a deep breath, I activated the Devastar magic circle on the tip of my right foot. Then, using only a flick of my wrist, I tossed the Soul Dagger upward. The blade spun in a circle as it rose, my Deva's Eye flawlessly calculating its trajectory.

I extended my elbow, twisted my waist, and kicked out my leg. Perfect timing. Just as the spinning dagger straightened into a horizontal line, the tip of my advancing foot gently pushed its hilt.

In that state, the magic circle on my foot activated.

<Devastar>

Time returned to normal speed. A single streak of black light shot out, embedding itself right in the center of Armin Walter's swelling abdomen.

"…Ack!"

Knocked to the ground by Devastar's recoil, I quickly lifted my head. Armin Walter was thrashing about in pain—the same reaction as before.

"Aaargh! Gaaaah!"

Even if his body was being reconstructed by the power of the Disaster, he couldn't pull that out. The moment he ripped out his own mana nervous system, his connection to this place would be severed. Indeed, he was groaning in agony, merely clutching the dagger's hilt, unable to do anything about it.

'Splat! Thud!'

The chunks of flesh covering Walter's body fell away. From within, he emerged, looking exactly like the old Yoonjeong.

"Yusin," he said, his detestable lips forming my name. "Yusin. I'm in pain."

I knew. I knew that wasn't Yoonjeong, but Armin Walter. But contrary to my reason, which was trying to remain calm, my lips trembled. My heart pounded. I couldn't maintain my composure.

"Yusin…!"

Just then, light enveloped the world. A cross the size of a building slammed down, causing a massive explosion of divine power. The ground shook, and the very air seemed to shatter.

'Fwoosh!'

All I could see was a symphony of pure white. The manifestation of overwhelming power made the hair on my body stand on end. My chaotic mind snapped back to clarity.

"Do not exchange words with him, Hunter Kim," Marcello said, coming up behind me and clutching his cross necklace. "As I said before, he possesses the memories of the bodies he steals. He can deceive anyone with them."

"This is too much," Walter's voice hissed from within the dazzling fragments of light. His skin was burned away, parts of his skeleton exposed. But even that quickly regenerated, flesh filling in and skin covering the bone. "Ah, my son, Marcello. I truly…."

'Whoosh!'

Once again, a cross hundreds of meters tall engulfed the world in light. I shielded my eyes with my sleeve and focused mana into my legs to keep from being blown away.

"Never again," Marcello snarled, the blood vessels in his eyes having burst. "Never call me by that word again."

"Heh heh…."

It seemed he had avoided a direct hit, but Walter's entire body was scorched. I could clearly read the expression on his face. It was one of annoyance.

He had obtained Yoonjeong's body, but it wasn't fully under his control yet. On top of that, being stabbed by the Soul Dagger had severely weakened him. Even if he could manipulate the Disaster, his raw power was greater when he was controlling the Pharaoh's body. It would be foolish to face the rank-2 hunter Marcello of a World Guild head-on with Yoonjeong's untuned body.

If I were Walter…

'Flap!'

Monster wings sprouted from his back. As his body soared into the sky, Marcello reacted instantly.

"You think you can escape!" A streak of white light flashed, blowing off one of Walter's legs. He didn't stop, instead giving orders to the monsters, which began to pour down like a storm.

"Aaaaah!"

"Gaah!"

Unlike mana, users of divine power can share it. The Holy Knights who had lent their power to Marcello were mercilessly attacked and fell. Marcello bit his lip hard and spread a long defensive barrier in front to protect them.

"I can do this," he muttered, as if making a promise to himself. He had to protect his comrades while also sniping Walter. He gripped his cross necklace, and a massive bundle of white light shot from his body, blasting a large circular hole through the monsters in front of him.

However, Armin Walter, with only a slight tear in his wing, managed to escape a fatal blow by a hair's breadth.

"I can do…."

Finally, the strain took its toll. Marcello dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, sweat pouring down his body like rain.

'…Marcello.'

I felt sorry for him. The person who desired Armin Walter's death more than anyone else in the world. And yet, even with his nemesis right before his eyes, the patience and restraint he showed were superhuman. He endured and endured, but in the end, he couldn't catch him.

'Krieeeeeeeee!'

The monsters surged forward. I activated the equipment on my shoulder and spoke. "Just protect the people here. I'll go and catch him."

He couldn't respond.

"You don't have any flight skills anyway," I added.

Marcello's eyes shifted to look at me. It must have seemed ridiculous. What could a pipsqueak rank-4 hunter from a small country do?

"I'll trust you."

I was startled. What did he just say?

"I'll trust only you, Hunter Kim." He lifted his head, his face a wreck, tears and snot streaming down. "You must get him…!"

Faced with the immense wave of emotion rolling off him, I couldn't say a word. I could only nod.

-Flight system ready.

'Good work, Ea.'

I activated the device on my shoulder. This equipment had originally been a finished product from the Golem Workshop, known as the rocket golem—a charging-type construct that used mana as a propellant to rush onto the battlefield. However, with Devastar, I did not need a separate charging skill. So Eunsol took only the propulsion system and fused it with a hunting device, creating something entirely new.

A blue luminescent body spread out like wings on my back. An anti-air monster device that ran on mana and was controlled by me. Eunsol had simply named it the 'wing golem.'

'Here I go.'

The luminescent wings activated with a dazzling blue light, and my body floated a meter into the air.

-Tower Master. While controlling the wing golem, my assistance and calculation capabilities will drop by more than half.

'It's fine. Just focus on flying.'

I looked straight ahead. It was no joke. Countless monsters were blocking the way, hovering in the air as if to declare I would not pass. Some of the larger ones were the size of several buildings combined.

"Go," Marcello said. "I can push myself one more time."

Well, if the Archbishop says so.

I channeled magic into the wings. As a blue circular wave emanated from the luminescent body, I shot rapidly into the air.

The monsters moved. The huge ones swung their fists at me. The winged ones lowered their stances, preparing to attack. The ones on the ground fired ranged projectiles.

And all of it…

'KWOOOOOOOOSH!'

…was annihilated by a white cross that unfolded in the sky. The dazzling scatter of light obliterated the monsters' bodies and every projectile they fired without a trace.

'Impressive as always, Marcello…!'

I shielded my eyes and flew straight ahead.

* * *

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