Free Web NovelChapter 29: Saga 29— Sweet..... Sweet PAYBACK! III
Paul had already had his fair share of fun. Now it was time for them to repay him in kind, even though it was their doubles he had trashed. They were more than happy to repay his acts of brutality in full.
Four brown spell circles appeared around Paul—two above and two below—lined up perfectly to form an X-shape.
Yuki drew the longer handgun from the left side of his belt strap. One second, he was standing beside Kael; the next, he was high above Paul’s head.
"Charge: 220%."
He flipped mid-air—head facing downward, two fingers on the trigger. Brown rings converged around Paul’s body.
"Fully Charged: Espion Damnation."
A colossal wave of energy erupted, making Paul’s previous blast look like a paltry trick. Upon looking at Yuki’s long handgun, it was obvious it was not designed to unleash an output of such magnitude—yet it did. The blast spanned four kilometres. The grand explosion could be seen from miles away. The shockwave it generated reached the Sumbiya Hot Springs.
The blast burrowed into the earth, leaving behind a massive, deep, scorched crater.
’Wasn’t that a bit too...?’ Kael had to teleport at least three kilometres away for his own safety.
A streak of purple light shot out of the crater. It was Paul. He wasn’t dead. He charged straight for Yuki, fist thrust forward.
"I’m done with—"
Yuki stood upon a floating spell circle. Before Paul could register his words, a dark veil wrapped around him like a cocoon. Inside the shrouded space, Paul couldn’t see anything. He was merely adrift—floating endlessly.
For a brief moment, he sensed the presence of multiple entities. They were all Harriden—hundreds of Harridens.
Then everything went numb.
Paul could feel his soul being pulled away from his body.
’Why go for the body when you can attack the soul?’
This was a famous quote of the Silent Embrace, also known as the strongest assassin to have ever lived.
"Shifting the planes of balance, so that all could return to the shadows."
Harriden’s clones struck Paul’s crimson soul with their shadow blades one after another.
Paul could feel excruciating pain searing not through his body, but through the very core of his existence—his soul.
"All are not to be judged, but I am the judge of the shadows—"
Shadows spread around Harriden’s body until he became one with them.
"Let the scales of balance tip right here... right now."
He crouched against empty space.
"Regzix Cortax."
He moved silently, swiftly, and precisely.
A relentless barrage of slashes rained down from every direction. Paul’s soul fractured, and cracks rapidly spread across it.
Paul didn’t even have time to fully stretch out his arm, yet by some surreal stroke of luck, he managed to grab Harriden by the neck, his fingers tightening around Harriden’s throat.
Paul couldn’t see, but he could feel Harriden’s wide grin.
"Did you really think you got me?"
Two enormous hands emerged from the shadows and clapped Paul together like an insignificant cockroach.
Harriden wasn’t a singular entity within this realm—he was the shadow itself.
Paul realized it far too late.
With his soul shattered, Paul lost the zeal and resolve to fight back.
But that didn’t mean Azure Blake would allow his body to recover.
A grand multicoloured spell circle spread across the vast expanse of the sky.
Beyond it, Sylvia and Claire held their hands together. The mana they emitted made the heavens quake and the earth tremble below. This very spell circle could be seen all the way from the Sumbiya Hot Springs.
"Ahahahaha! These brats never cease to amaze me!"
Adian gazed through the window, letting out booming laughter as he rolled across the floor.
"Sayuri, when was the last time we saw a spell circle that large and powerful?"
Minato’s lips curled into a calm smile.
"That must have been when we battled against the Supreme Elven Queen... and that was far from the full extent of her prowess."
Sayuri’s voice carried a faint hint of regret.
"The sacred name sleeps at the edge of the void, on behest unknown to reason. Shatter and recover—O most absolute requiem, be the psalm of death and the flower of judgement."
Sylvia’s and Claire’s voices echoed from above.
Kael stared incredulously.
"Is this for real? This is—"
He gripped the back of his head.
"Prime Magic!"
"Cascade-bringing ceremony of disaster."
They both stretched forth their free hands.
The tip of a colossal sword slowly descended from the spell circle.
"Combo: Algoviz Caleniyar."
A blade that could pass for a twenty-foot mountain descended upon the landscape with tremendous force, burrowing deep into the ground and triggering a cataclysmic explosion that echoed for miles.
The impact left behind nothing but charred rubble and scorched earth.
There wasn’t even an atom of Paul remaining.
His very existence had been erased—mind, body, and soul.
They truly lived up to the rumour about them.
’It’s better to be torn apart by wild dogs than to incur the wrath of Azure Blake.’
The shockwave reached Kael despite him being three kilometres away from the explosion.
To him, however, it was nothing more than a gentle breeze thanks to his Unique Ability.
’Sheesh... I don’t want to get on their bad side.’
Kael stroked his hair backward.
[Error... Error... The system has been breached by the ????... access code. Warning, the host should—]
[Administrator: Kael LongHeart, I’ll be watching you more closely now. You are quite interesting.]
An unfamiliar, sweet feminine voice echoed inside Kael’s mind.
’Who the hell are you?’
He asked, but received no reply.
[??? System Rebooting...]
[??? System has been rebooted.]
[Sorry for the inconvenience, Host. (Though it wasn’t my fault... that fucking bitch.)]
’Eh... I don’t understand what the hell is going on. Is this one of your glitches?’
Kael muttered.
[I do not glitch... it was a—]
[You have completed the Impromptu Quest: Accompany Azure Blake on their mission.]
[Likeness (Sylvia) +50]
[Likeness Gauge: 30 (Positive)]
Kael was relieved that he had finally escaped the negative zone. At least now he had a fair chance.
"What a shame... he lost. But now we can move to Phase Two."
A sinister voice echoed from behind an orb that had been observing the battle very closely.
— End of Chapter —
