Chapter 80: Monster

Alec didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to believe that the young kid he had talked with not long ago was a monster. He didn’t want to believe that the young kid so full of murderous rage toward Shim had turned into a mindless killing machine.

He didn’t want to believe that it could happen so fast.

Alec clenched his hand in rage.

Shim could not be forgiven.

Alec felt the back of his eyes start to burn with sorrowful rage. He refused to acknowledge it.

Milo was still moving. He was standing right there!

He couldn’t be gone!

There had to be a cure!

However, before Alec could start thinking about things like that, Milo moved toward the iron bars of the cell.

“Milo…?” Alec asked, hopefully. He did not get a reply.

Milo put his hands on two of the iron bars, each of which was as thick as the horns of a ram.

His muscles bulged, and his veins popped.

The iron bars creaked like rusty hinges on a castle gate as Milo pushed them apart far enough to step through, straight toward Alec. His expression did not change in the slightest.

“No…! Milo! Come on, kid, you don’t have to do this!” Alec couldn’t attack Milo. It wasn’t just that most of his mana was sealed by the nilver shackles.

He couldn’t see Milo as the same type of monster as the monster sheep he first encountered or the snake in the Bjerion ruin. Milo was an innocent kid.

Instead, he froze time to try to find another solution.

But no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t find anything. There was nothing to find.

It was an impossible situation. He could try to defend himself, or he could choose not to.

Even if he tried, what was he supposed to do when shackled by Nilver?

Caught in his thoughts and the mire of his emotions, Alec didn’t notice when time started flowing again. Milo stepped forward and stretched his hand forward.

Alec tried to draw out his mana and paint the spell formation for Sleep. But before he could bring out enough through the Nilver, Milo’s hand reached him.

But to Alec’s absolute surprise, Milo didn’t tear him apart, despite the bloodlust oozing from him. He reached for the Nilver shackles and tore them apart instead, freeing Alec.

“Milo…?” Alec asked again.

He still did not get an answer. Instead, Milo grabbed him by the back of his neck and hauled him off toward the wall. Milo kicked the wall down with power that did not fit his small frame. He continued dragging Alec through the hallway on the other side.

Along the way, there were markings for spell formations that would open doors to other rooms similar to the one where Alec and Milo were held captive.

Milo ignored them all and strode toward the depths of the underground corridor, lit by glowing glass beads. At the end of the hallway, sounds like that of a beast thrashing against its cage rang out.

Alec also heard cursing from a disgustingly familiar voice.

Milo walked like he already knew what to expect.

On one side of the room was a young woman strapped to a stone table with nothing covering her. Bone spurs grew from her shoulders, knuckles, forehead, chin, and hips.

’Alice.’ Alec could guess who it was, even though both she and Milo were monsters. He quickly looked away toward Shim.

Both Milo and Alec were shirtless, but they still had pants covering their private bits. That hadn’t changed even when Shim opened them up. But Alice was completely naked.

There could only be one reason for that.

Shim was even more disgusting than Alec thought.

The blood coming from his palm was probably related to that fact. But it was easily fixed. A simple spell had already started erasing his wound.

That was all Alec managed to see before Milo flung him across the room toward Shim like a rag doll. Alec crashed into Shim with his back first, barely having time to cast a simple barrier before collision. The two were sent flying and collapsed into a heap on the ground.

“You…!” Shim quickly realized who was on top of him and cried out in befuddlement and outrage.

“How did you escape?!”

Alec answered the question by punching Shim in the face.

While thinking about how to fight mages after fighting Taryeon, Alec had realized one thing.

Mages needed to concentrate to cast spells.

From experience, he knew that concentrating on anything at all, much less something as delicate and complicated as drawing spell formations, was impossible when someone was treating your head like a drum.

Shim didn’t have his barrier. The wound on his palm proved as much.

If Alec had to guess, it was a barrier that prevented him from touching things. It separated him from the world around him. If it worked like that, he wouldn’t have been able to touch Alice’s bare skin.

Shim’s perversion had been his undoing.

Moments ago, Alec had feared for his life and been filled with sadness over Milo’s fate. Right now, the sight of Shim and the extent ot which he was a terrible human being converted everything Alec felt into one emotion. Pure, hot, and cold rage.

That rage fueled his hungry and weary body.

Wrath consumed him.

An outsider would be unable to tell whether Alec or Milo was the monster.

Alec’s fists rained down on Shim’s head like sledgehammers. The strength training he had done with Basra showed its results.

Shim’s head cracked against the stone floor, and meaty smacks rang out each time Alec hit him.

Eventually, Milo grabbed him by the back of his neck again and tossed him aside like a used rag. Milo then took Alec’s place. But he didn’t just hit Shim. He bit down on the old man’s head. He stuck his teeth onto Shim’s bloody skull like it was a jawbreaker candy.

With a sickening crunch, Milo’s bite broke Shim’s skull.

Alec could only watch, stunned and paralyzed by exhaustion, as Milo ate Shim Lester.

Milo suddenly sat up straight and stared straight ahead with a blank air around him. It was like everything had seized now that Shim, the target of his monsterified revenge, was dead. For a moment, it was like nothing existed.

And then, everything existed.

Milo turned a blood and brain-soaked face toward the struggling Alice monster. His bloodlust rose again.

Alec realized what Milo was going to do, but he didn’t have the strength to stop him.

As a final piece of evidence that there was no more Milo inside, the monster wearing Milo’s skin brutally killed the monster wearing Alice’s skin before turning to Alec.

Alec tried to muster his mana and cast Sleep. He still couldn’t bring himself to kill Milo.

His body and mind were both tired, more so than he would have expected.

But he had to do it.

Eventually, thanks to Milo taking his sweet time just walking, Alec managed to finish the spel formation. Invisible magic swept over Milo. Alec could feel it with his mana sense.

And then…

The magic fizzled out, rejected by Milo.

It didn’t work. Milo continued walking in a straight line toward Alec, blood dripping from his mouth and hands.

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