Chapter : 196

Am I even alive right now? Breathing is too painful.

“Ughhh.”

I tried to correct my twisted breathing, but it was impossible.

After rolling on the floor and coughing a few times, my breath barely returned.

“Laurel Unni!”

I think I heard Lilia Sunbae’s shout strangely.

At the same time, I felt something like a small bottle being stuck in my mouth, and my consciousness, which seemed forcibly trapped below the surface, returned.

“Cough!!!”

Thanks to the sweet taste left in my mouth, I could guess what had entered it.

Ah, I drank a Golden Elixir. Tears burst out on their own from the relief that I lived.

“Are you okay?”

The buzzing sound also returned.

“…Yes, I’m okay.”

Even if I’m not okay, I have to be okay.

With blurred vision, I hurriedly looked around.

The surroundings were a mess, enough to say it was 5 minutes before chaos.

Heretic Inquisitors fighting Iris, and Professor Artemia and Professor Beatrice supporting them.

“Don’t think about anything right now, just keep your eyes closed, Young Master.”

Hearing Pel’s voice, I hurriedly looked that way, and Pel was smiling confidently.

“Pel!”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

I quietly closed my eyes as Pel instructed and took a deep breath.

At the same time, I felt a warm light permeating my body.

With the elixir Lilia Sunbae fed me and the Holy Power entering together, I felt my body recovering rapidly.

In the meantime, Bang! Bang! Sounds were made and everywhere was noisy.

Clearly, right after Iris swallowed something red, a roar was heard, and I lost consciousness inside the dungeon just like that, so why did I come outside?

Did some other problem arise? Anxiety soared quickly, and I tried opening my eyes, but there was only darkness.

When I blinked, it wasn’t darkness but a palm.

Did Pel cover my eyes? For that, the palm is a bit small?

“Lilia Sunbae? Why did you cover this?”

“You just shut up. Do you think there will be a moment for a current student to step forward right now?”

Uh… that’s not it, but. The moment I step out there, it wouldn’t be strange at all if I get squashed like a dried filefish with a splat!

“Pel!”

An unfamiliar voice I heard for the first time urgently looks for Pel.

“Sunbae, I’ll leave Theo to you.”

“Go quickly.”

As soon as Lilia Sunbae’s permission fell, the warm feeling permeating my body disappeared in an instant. What kind of discrimination is this?

“What about Pel?”

“He’s a special case!”

“Geez, that’s too much!”

But ignoring even that shout, Sunbae absolutely did not remove the hand covering my eyes.

“You haven’t forgotten this chaos started with you being kidnapped, right?”

“Ugh.”

I have nothing to say. I swallowed my breath and quietly relaxed my body.

Still, when push comes to shove, I should help people even if I have to use skills.

As I decided, strength naturally entered my body.

“Theo.”

At that moment, as soon as I heard that voice in my ear, the tension in my body relaxed.

I also heard sounds like sighs of relief bursting out from everywhere together.

Relief surged in like a tide, and my mind went blank.

“Father.”

It was Father’s appearance.

* * *

Blood splattered beside Beatrice, and a Heretic Inquisitor flew away just like that.

Without even a moment to check the safety of the Heretic Inquisitor who flew away, Beatrice fired attack magic wildly.

There was no leisure to kindly calculate coordinates so the Heretic Inquisitor wouldn’t get hit.

Heretic Inquisitors are indeed difficult befitting their reputation or notoriety, but while dodging Beatrice’s attacks, they firmly blocked the coordinates where Iris would dodge attacks.

Flame magic hit Iris’s abdomen and her body burned, but Iris herself stood tall in that spot with a perfectly intact body immediately after the flames subsided without a single movement.

“M-Monster….”

A Heretic Inquisitor terrified with fear muttered quietly.

“Maintain the defensive formation!!”

Before the fear could spread, Beatrice shouted with all her might.

To think they would be pushed back this helplessly even when Heretic Inquisitors spread across the entire continent stepped forward.

“Pel!”

Sword of Doctrine Freya, who was healing so that the Heretic Inquisitors wouldn’t die alone, called Pel’s name urgently, perhaps finding it overwhelming.

Pel, who was having a small conversation with Lilia, quickly joined Freya’s side.

Even though only one person joined, the quality of healing changed completely.

Constructing the defensive formation that seemed to be pushed back in an instant, the Heretic Inquisitor gritted his teeth.

Endure somehow. We must not be pushed back here. We cannot let such a monster go!

“…I should have killed you earlier.”

Along with Iris’s eerie murmur, a spear made of massive blood flies beside Pel.

Hartain, who regained consciousness before anyone knew, blocked the spear with his whole body.

“Ugh!”

Hartain started being pushed back by the spear several times his size.

“Arghhh!!!”

Grrrrk.

The floor was gouged and stone dust flew up.

Hartain, who took a deep breath for a moment, gathered all the strength of his body and lifted the spear in his hand as if squeezing it out.

The moment he changed the direction, the spear bounced up to the sky like a piece of iron touched by lightning, drew a bloody trajectory, cut through the sky, and disappeared just like that.

“Well done!”

Along with Freya’s praise, a rope made of dozens of strands of light rushed toward Iris.

But when Iris waved her hand as if shooing away a bug, Freya’s rope shattered into pieces and disappeared with just that small gesture.

“Ha.”

Seeing that sight, Freya was dumbfounded.

Even if her Holy Power is weak, she is the Sword of Doctrine.

Yet she treats the Sword of Doctrine’s Holy Magic merely as a bug?

“Just what kind of monster is she.”

The point that made Freya despair more was something else.

‘That thing’ was currently in an incomplete state.

If she is to that extent even in an incomplete state, then when completed─

“Indeed, it means God didn’t warn that she is a monster who will destroy the world for nothing.”

Freya ground her teeth. What should she do?

Heretic Inquisitors can recover with Pel’s Holy Power, but that power is not infinite.

Academy Professors Artemia and Beatrice are doing their best, but that alone is… far from enough.

A decisive someone was needed. Someone with overwhelming martial power.

“Evan.”

The person worthy of being recalled in this Empire as such an existence would be ‘Evan Lisitoel’ no matter what anyone says.

Sighs of relief burst out among the Heretic Inquisitors.

Freya was also a bit troubled trying to hide the relief that soared up to her throat.

The moment she tried to greet him with a bright smile, Iris’s atmosphere changed in an instant.

“Ahahahaha!!!!!!!!”

Her laughter was so bizarre that people’s gazes were instantly focused on Iris again.

As if enjoying it, Iris smiled leisurely and looked down at Evan.

“Long time no see, Evan. To appear before my eyes shamelessly, it seems you don’t value your life.”

“Hmm. Of course, I value my life.”

Iris fiddled with her neck with a light gesture.

Her blood-red eyes seemed to be gauging something.

Can I win? She was gauging things like that.

“Have you reached a conclusion?”

Evan, noticing that gaze, asked with an expressionless face.

“Yes, I have. You really are a monster, aren’t you?”

Iris clicked her tongue.

She thought mutual destruction would be possible until she obtained the snake’s power, but even that was her arrogant judgment.

To think that only now is mutual destruction possible, just how great is he really.

“Are you even human?”

At Iris’s question, Evan frowned fiercely as if displeased.

“I am human. Clearly and undoubtedly human.”

“How boring.”

At that firm answer, Iris gestured lightly as if her interest dropped sharply.

With just that, dozens of Heretic Inquisitors who tried to raid Iris aiming for the gap while talking fell away in an instant.

“Are you going to run away?”

“Yes, I absolutely hate mutual destruction.”

At the same time, she could be sure.

What Iris has taken now is about 80% of the real snake’s power.

If she has just one more week, she can be reborn as a complete snake.

Then she can just kill Evan, so there is no reason not to run away.

《I will declare here.》

Iris’s words rang not in the ears but as if in the head.

《Although I obtained the power of the monster God warned about, I will not become a monster.》

At Iris’s declaration, Freya frowned.

What kind of sophistry is that? As if noticing Freya’s question, Iris continued her declaration.

《I am Iris Viden who obtained the power of Ouroboros, not Ouroboros who tries to swallow the world by being eaten by the snake. This world will not be destroyed just because I am born.》

A ripple arose at Iris’s soft declaration.

《What I wish for the coexistence of you and me will not be that big.》

《First, return Lerwon Viden to me.》

《Second, if it is a ‘toy’ I want, give it to me for a moment.》

《Third, do not touch my Golden.》

Iris’s demands were simple and clear.

《If you just grant those, I even have the intention to lend my power to humans to some extent. Since I am not a snake trying to swallow the world.》

It was unbelievable that these were the demands of an existence that would become a monster to swallow the world.

Ripples began to arise among the Heretic Inquisitors.

If they really just grant those demands.

Doesn’t it mean they can even borrow the power of the monster who might destroy the world?

Freya, who quickly noticed the agitation, shouted.

“How can you trust the words of a monster!! Do not be deluded!!”

“Telling them not to be deluded, that’s too much.”

Iris grumbled quietly.

Soon, the place the snake’s gaze reached was the figure of Evan holding his staff tightly.

It seemed she realized what the ‘toy’ I want meant.

Because the toy Iris currently covets the most is ‘Theo Lisitoel’, no matter what anyone says.

“I see, I will acknowledge it. That you are a monster who might coexist with humans.”

“But?”

“However, you cannot coexist with me.”

Evan struck his staff on the ground.

Thud.

A light sound was made.

However, the scene that followed was by no means light.

A pillar of light appears.

In the center of the pillar drawing a huge circle stood Iris.

Chains popping out from the pillar of light grabbed Iris.

She tried to eliminate the magic chains by flicking her hand lightly, but the chains did not disappear and rather bound Iris even stronger.

“Beatrice.”

“What is all this?”

“I will seal Iris in the gap of time.”

“What does that mean?”

“It is a sealing magic utilizing Holy Magic.”

Evan dropped a thesis that looked easily hundreds of pages long from the air with a thud.

“Read it later. I am needed to maintain this.”

“Hey, that means mutual destruction—”

“Listen well. ‘That thing’ can only be killed under the Holy Sword.”

“That means….”

Lucian is needed.

Another meaning is, the appearance of that thing itself might be related to the Hero of the Holy Sword.

At the hypothesis of ‘what if’, Beatrice swallowed a vain breath.

“Evan.”

“I will buy time.”

The only magician who can use this magic currently is also Evan Lisitoel.

But, is it really right to use Evan Lisitoel in this situation?

“Beatrice.”

“Ah! I got it!! Just trust me and wait. Because I will definitely bring the Hero of the Holy Sword before your eyes.”

At the same time, Beatrice’s red eyes like flames promised Evan.

That was enough.

Evan’s staff emitted a bright light.

In that fleeting moment, time stopped.

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