Chapter 174: Raga

Dante kept waiting for the demonic giant to come near, feeling intense stress overwhelming his mind.

He had the urge to use the syringe that would awaken all his bloodlines, but he couldn’t now.

If he was hit while trying to inject the liquid into himself, he’d lose his only chance to win.

His bet was that the dagger would give him the opportunity he needed to use the syringe if the attack failed. He couldn’t think of any other way to defeat a Rank 3 with a bloodline.

While waiting, he summoned an owl and made it fly in a random direction.

Swish!

Suddenly, a wind attack cut the owl in half, killing it in an instant and causing immense pain to Dante.

“…!”

Just then, Dante sensed him.

Holding his dagger, Dante stared at the demonic giant in a daze.

He stood far away, leaning against a tree and keeping enough distance for Dante to see him, but not enough for Dante to attack.

’Is he provoking me?’

The giant held his chin and seemed to be examining Dante with a look of confusion.

The next moment, he opened his mouth, but not to talk. There was a small gem in one of his teeth. The gem sparkled for a second and a small potion appeared in the man’s hand.

’Spatial storage?!’

That was Dante’s first time seeing something like that. The only spatial storage he had seen, other than his ring, was a pouch that could store the cores only.

The demonic giant opened the bottle and splashed the liquid that was inside over his chest and his missing half-arm.

Instantly, his chest injury healed, and his arm started regenerating, however it was extremely slow.

That was… a kind of regeneration potion?

“Was that a command? Did you use the silver Ether?”

Dante’s eyes widened under the mask, but he made no visible reaction, still holding his dagger and aiming it at the man.

The giant sighed: “I have fought Valor several times. He can barely use it, but what he showed was enough to make me see the potential of the Ether. And what you have just used is no different than what he did.”

“You obtained it early somehow, huh?”

Dante felt more exposed with every word the man muttered.

He had never thought that he’d see a person who could recognise the silver Ether just because of its effect.

He knew that such a day was inevitable, but he didn’t want to think about what would happen now that it was known.

He was afraid that the demonic giant had a way to counter it.

The man sighed again and said the sentence that made Dante understand everything.

“No wonder my son had lost… Actually, he did a good job fighting someone like you. Maybe I was a bit too harsh on him.”

“Let me introduce myself.”

“My name is Raga, King Valor’s right hand, the fastest Rank 3 existence, and the father of a stupid kid named Zoran.”

“…”

Thump! Thump!

Dante’s heart began to beat faster and faster as every word struck him like a hammer.

That guy… he was a person that Dante had read about only in books.

He was the man who betrayed the former king and became the right hand of King Valor.

He was the man who was recognized as the fastest Rank 3 existence long ago. That wasn’t a title that he gave to himself, but acknowledgement from the World Runes!

And now… he seemed to be the father of the titan that Dante had almost killed…

“Don’t misunderstand my intentions. I wouldn’t come here only because Zoran lost, Valor would have killed me for that.” Raga shook his head: “Zoran begged me for a relic. That relic was a fragment of a Sin Relic, which allowed Zoran to create portals to finish his missions faster.”

’Oh…’ Dante’s heart sank. He could already predict what Raga was going to say.

And as he expected, Raga continued: “I lost my connection with that relic a few days ago. I was confident that no one could destroy it on such a battlefield. In fact, even I can’t do it.”

“Yet, it happened. Either this or someone stole it, which is more impossible to happen without alerting me.”

“Seeing how you have access to the silver Ether and can use chaos magic without turning into a lunatic, it’s obvious that there is something special about you. Did you really destroy my relic?”

Dante closed his eyes for a few seconds, then he inhaled and responded: “No. A Rank 5 crowned existence destroyed that relic. I was merely used by him to achieve that.”

Dante decided to say the truth in a way that removed the blame from himself. He didn’t have a reason to hide the existence of the dark entity, and he’d like to see that entity killing the demonic giant for whatever he did to the camp.

He didn’t see exactly what happened. From his perception, Raga appeared out of nowhere, targeted the tent that had Fafnir, and then everything else exploded.

’I… I hate that.’

He had done his best to help them, providing food and fighting giants like a lunatic.

After everything he did.

After all that… They died just like this.

And maybe they weren’t the first. Maybe Raga had wiped many other camps before that.

And whose fault was that? It was Dante himself.

He had extended their lives, which decreased the guilt he felt, but ultimately it was him who destroyed the relic and brought that guy here.

’How pathetic…’

Raga raised an eyebrow and scanned Dante from head to toe, as if searching for any hint that could say he was lying.

“So, someone used you to destroy that relic? You aren’t capable of doing that?”

Dante nodded: “He seemed to have a conflict with Sin of Greed. Someone like me can never scratch such a relic.”

“I see…” Raga sighed and pointed in a specific direction: “So you don’t know what you have just caused, right?”

Dante frowned and glanced at where the finger pointed. At this moment, he finally saw the pillar of darkness that was linking the earth and sky together.

“What…?” His eyes shrunk upon noticing that it was the place where he destroyed the relic.

…right behind the abyssal gate.

Raga laughed: “Destroying a relic that can manipulate space and weaken the fabric of space passively right behind a gate that tries to penetrate the fabric of space is the most stupid thing I have ever seen. I can’t blame you for your stupidity, because you didn’t know about that.”

“However, you allowed the gate to expand faster than we wanted and you broke the expansion limit by your actions. Now, I don’t even know what could emerge from it eventually.”

Dante’s face paled immediately. He… he didn’t know that destroying the relic was that dangerous.

He didn’t know anything about the relic… but he could have known.

If he didn’t interrupt Greed when he tried to explain it, he’d have known.

He had caused that phenomenon with his own actions.

“Well, you don’t have to concern yourself with that anyway.” Raga sighed: “You will die soon regardless, but I have to ask the others a few questions first.”

Swish!

After finishing his speech, Raga disappeared from Dante’s sight.

“The others…?” Dante squinted his eyes before remembering the people Raga had brought with him.

“No, no, no, no!”

Dante looked around to remember where they were located. Once he found the direction, he immediately used Shadowstep.

He teleported from shadow to shadow at the fastest speed he could handle.. In his path, he reclaimed his arm that was shattered into pieces.

His arm now looked like thousands of small pieces placed together. He couldn’t use it currently with such damage.

’Damn it!’

BAM!

All of a sudden, an object hit Dante’s face, exploding on impact and covering Dante with a warm liquid.

Once he looked at the remains of what was thrown on him, his eyes widened in terror.

“Mi… Mira?”

What Dante saw was the head of the saintess candidate that was a friend of Elizabeth.

What exploded was her body!

Dante felt a stab on his heart while looking at her eyes, but he immediately shook his head and continued moving.

He… he didn’t know her that well to begin with. His priority was to save the others instead of mourning for her death.

He had to continue moving.

But something was wrong. Was it a coincidence that the corpse was thrown right into him?

No, Raga aimed at him!

He used friend’s body as an attack!

Before realizing the meaning of that, a shadow appeared out of nowhere and rushed toward him with blurry speed.

This time, he activated Shadow Detection instead of Demonic Shadow Detection. He could sense it!

Swish!

He sidestepped and dodged the shadow with ease, but then he saw the shadow. It was the upper body of a soldier!

And it… it came from behind.

The next moment, he sensed more shadows coming toward him from different directions.

And the ones in his sight were different pieces from different corpses…

“…What does that mean?”

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