Chapter 188: Correctional Facility?

’Just how did I end up in this situation?’ Dante sighed inwardly, staring at King Valor with annoyance.

Something was wrong.

Dante understood Raga’s behaviour. His relic was destroyed, his son was defeated, and the suspect was likely a weak Rank 2.

Additionally, Raga himself was extremely fast. Dante completely understood that someone like this would end up here to see the situation.

Logically, he had nothing to lose. The situation was relatively safe, and he was fast enough to return to the giants as fast as he had arrived at the abyssal gate.

The giants didn’t need him that much regardless. He was Rank 3, yes, but Uldor had many like him, if not stronger. Not to mention that the war didn’t require all of the high-rank fighters yet.

So basically, he had plenty of time to spare.

’But the king himself?!’

Why would the king of that kingdom be standing right in front of Dante? What could have possibly brought him here?!

Maybe he had a method that allowed him to know about Raga’s death, which he mentioned when he talked about “life signal”, but Dante had killed him just minutes ago!

Dante was certain that Valor wasn’t in the Holy Kingdom. If he were here, he would have caused chaos as Zaragoza would have attacked him directly.

So, how did he arrive here in only a few minutes?!

That gave Dante three theories.

One, King Valor was fast enough to come from Uldor to the Holy Kingdom through the abyssal gate within only a few minutes.

Maybe he had an abyssal gate in Uldor, which he used to come here unnoticed.

Two, it was related to the Abyss. Maybe the time was moving differently there. That was possible.

Or three…

’Was he standing on the other side of the gate the whole time?’

Maybe Dante had underestimated the importance of this abyssal gate. If King Valor had been standing there the whole time, waiting for it to stabilize, then he had other reasons to be there that had nothing to do with Dante.

After all, a king in a war didn’t have a lot of time to spare, right? He had to have a good reason to waste his time like this.

’Well, I can’t help it now. I should answer this man’s question.’

Dante sighed and tried to think about anything to save himself. Maybe a good response? Something like “I was hungry and his corpse looked delicious,” maybe?

’Wait, I have something that might work!’

Dante almost smirked upon remembering the abilities of his mask.

He had to activate abilities.

No Self, it allowed him to steal the fate of anyone once a month. But it was useless at this moment.

What would he gain from temporarily stealing the fate of someone like Valor? Maybe if he wanted to steal his identity or something, but currently, his biggest concern was running from Valor himself!

But there was a second ability that was completely perfect!

Dante closed his eyes and focused on activating the ability. Once he felt that it was activated, he opened his eyes to see that the anger in Valor’s eyes had disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion.

Valor narrowed his eyes, as if trying to remember something but failed miserably. Suddenly, he opened his mouth: “Listen, kid, let me teach you some useless knowledge that they teach you in academies knowing that you wouldn’t need it in your life. Our bodies contain some metals that are important for our health. For example, your blood contains iron! Looks cool, right?”

Valor repeated the same line he had said a moment ago, but this time, he looked a bit disgusted: “To make it simple, I can sense the blood, flesh, and bones of someone with a demon bloodline inside you! Kid, do you think that eating a demon would grant you their bloodline?! That’s just disgusting and stupid! Blergh!”

Under Dante’s shocked gaze, Valor spat on the ground and covered his mouth with one hand, as if suppressing the urge to vomit: “Hell, the black magic likely ruined your mind. That’s really stupid, you look so young and you’re already acting like a mindless monster! I really pity you, but eww!”

Dante’s eyes trembled with every word Valor said. He had to use all his willpower to stop himself from laughing loudly.

’Hahahaha! Greed, I’m definitely going to make you a mindless relic. Like in hell would I destroy you after seeing this!’

The mask’s second ability, No Sins.

Supposedly, it erased Dante’s existence from an event that he participated in.

Dante knew how to use that ability, and his target was the event in which Dante killed Raga!

However, he didn’t understand how it would work. It was an act of desperation.

And… he still didn’t understand how this ability worked.

Valor suddenly forgot that Dante was the suspect for killing Raga. He even seemed not to recognize Raga’s flesh, only knowing that it belonged to a demon!

’How does this work exactly?! Were all traces that led to me erased as well? I think that would explain it, but it feels weird…’

As Dante was lost in thoughts, Valor sighed: “Anyway, I don’t have a lot of time. I just wanted to ask, did you see a golden giant with eagle wings anywhere? Maybe he was fighting someone or something?”

Dante nodded: “Yes. Two dark monsters emerged from this gate and attacked him. That’s why making my gate was a good idea. I’ll fight abyssal horrors with otherworldly horrors!”

Valor frowned: “Yeah… they were running away from me. I didn’t expect them to go through an unstable gate and succeed, but I don’t think Raga would lose against two abyssal hunters. I told him that a Rank 2 couldn’t be the one who destroyed his relic, but that fool didn’t listen! A Rank 2 can’t…”

His eyes suddenly became unfocused, trying to grasp a distant memory but still failing.

CRACK!

Once again, Dante’s gate shattered the space further.

Sighing in frustration, Valor looked at the gate in annoyance and threw a silver ball of energy toward it.

The silver ball shattered into thousands of particles that covered the runic structure that held the gate together.

That was similar to…

’Silver Ether? Oh right, Raga said that Valor has it.’

Valor grinned: “I can’t stop it, but I can delay the inevitable. That’s the best I can do for now, don’t you think?”

After saying that, eight strange rods appeared in Valor’s hands.

Swish!

Suddenly, Valor’s figure disappeared.

Dante tried to search for him, only to find him standing far away.

Instantly, Valor buried one of the rods deep into the ground, leaving only its head visible, and disappeared.

Dante searched again and found him repeating the same process.

Disappearing, appearing, burying a rod, and repeat.

Eventually, he returned to stand next to Dante with no rods left, his smile wider than usual.

“Hey kid, watch this.” Valor raised his hands and clapped.

“…!”

All of a sudden, the rods glowed with eight different colors.

Crimson, dark-pink, dark-golden, greyish-blue, dark-green, orange, and brown, and silver.

The next moment, each rod formed a wall that glowed with the same color. The walls rose to the sky and merged together, forming a colourful barrier that surrounded the abyssal gate.

“Cool, huh?” Valor laughed proudly: “No one can enter this area without my consent now. It took so long to make them, but it was worth it!”

“…I see.” Dante nodded, realizing that the Holy Kingdom wasn’t really in a good situation.

“Anyway, now let’s deal with you.” Valor stood in front of Dante and moved his fist.

CRACK!

His fist blurred in Dante’s vision, as though it only trembled in its place. However, the next thing Dante heard was something shattering.

And it took him only a few seconds to realize that it was his mask.

“…”

His mask shattered and turned into scattered shadows that went into his body, reminding him of when his weapon was damaged as well.

However… the mask was significantly harder than his weapon…

Even Raga couldn’t scratch it. Even Dante couldn’t scratch it. Even the silver Ether couldn’t scratch it.

And Valor? He did it with a simple move of his hand!

He didn’t even harm Dante’s head. The attack shattered Dante’s mask flawlessly!

“Exactly how strong is your body?” Dante asked with a nervous smile.

“Hoho, did you notice? I’m happy you did.” Valor laughed shyly, which didn’t suit the weight of his latest action: “Well, I can comfortably say that I have the strongest body among all ascenders! And yes, that includes the beasts with Crowns. Oh, the ascenders are all Rank 4 beings, in case you didn’t learn about that.”

Dante sighed: “What now? Are you going to kill me? Do it quickly please. I’m not really a fan of pain.”

Valor raised an eyebrow, giving Dante a look of disdain: “What do you think I am? A monster? Why would I kill a poor kid like you? I’m sure it wasn’t your fault that you became a corrupted flesh eater. I should blame whoever taught you black magic for your sins!”

“…”

Hearing Valor, Dante genuinely wondered if that was the same Valor he had always heard about.

Why did he act like an older brother instead of a tyrant? Was he truly King Valor?

“Instead…” Valor continued: “I’ll send you to a good place to fix your mind. Some people call it Prison, but I call it Correctional Facility! It’s a nice place to discover yourself, meditate, make some friends, and eat good food!”

“Seems like heaven, right? They’ll take good care of you there and make you a better person… if you survive.”

“…”

’Never mind, he’s just a psychopath.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep