Chapter 124: Brute Strength

“The barrier!”

Kwakwakwang!

“Break it!”

Kwakwakwakwa.

“Aim for the magicians in the center first!”

Kwaang!

The voice of Anthony, who was constantly striking the barrier.

At that moment, Rauel, who had been repeatedly stabbing the barrier with a faint blue mana wrapped around a dagger she had taken out from her bosom, abruptly stepped back and drew her bow again.

It seemed she was preparing for what came next, having judged that her dagger stabs were not dealing significant damage to the barrier.

Meanwhile, Muno, who was absorbing the barrier in a fixed posture, was staring only at the magicians inside, oblivious to everything else around him.

Pajijijijik.

His arms and chains slowly digging into the barrier.

And the ‘prey’ filled within.

– Grrrrrr.

Those who harbored the filthy energy that polluted the world.

But he was ready to be reborn once more by purifying and absorbing that filthy energy.

‘Just a little more……!’

The more his black eyes, filled with desire, heated up, the faster his body and chains dug into the barrier.

Just then.

“The ritual is !@#!”

“Buy time!@#!@.”

“That bastard first @#!@.”

He saw an old man in the center of the magic circle pointing at him and shouting something.

Pajijijik.

At the same time, the speed at which the barrier was collapsing slowed down a bit.

“It’s useless!”

Muno shouted and focused his mind even more to remove the ‘obstacle’ in front of him.

‘Tsk.’

Normally, the more demonic energy poured in, the more power he could utilize.

But to his current self, who was receiving endless mana from the Red Heart anyway, absorbing a large amount of demonic energy offered no particular advantage.

But at that moment.

‘Maybe, I think I can do it……?’

The concentration, pushed to its limit by desire, brought forth a flash of inspiration.

‘The Red Heart supplies mana only up to the limit of my capacity.’

In other words, no matter how infinite the mana of the Red Heart was, there was a limit to the amount that could be filled at once.

It was impossible to forcibly draw up mana that exceeded his capacity.

However.

‘What about mana converted from demonic energy……?’

Muno immediately moved his will according to his intuition.

He would absorb the already used demonic energy, which could not become Origin Mana anyway, and convert it into usable mana.

And he would use that, in addition to the mana of metal constantly supplied by the Red Heart, to temporarily strengthen his body.

At that moment.

Hwarurururuk.

A flame of gray mana began to burn all over his body.

Thump thump.

“Huuuuuh……”

As the flame gradually increased in volume, his heart beat faster and faster, and power began to well up.

The feeling of his entire body’s strength being amplified several times over in an instant.

Pajijijik.

Soon, the mana, which had transcended its original limits, collided with the barrier in front of him, creating intense sparks.

And at that moment, the speed at which his body dug into the barrier began to increase again.

The demonic energy of the barrier, which was being decomposed and absorbed even faster, not only strengthened his entire body but was also re-emitted as a gray flame.

The flame then collided with the barrier again, beginning to decompose the demonic energy.

‘Acceleration.’

Udeudeudeuk.

Based on that overflowing energy, he once again overloaded his body, which was already exerting power beyond its limits.

At that moment.

Kwajik.

Jjeojeojeojeok.

The barrier in front of him began to crack like glass.

And at that moment, Muno felt that the technique of overlaying the absorbed demonic energy onto the mana of the Red Heart like another body to strengthen it was completely engraved in his body.

A technique that could amplify the body’s strength and power by more than three times in an instant, though it was only possible in limited situations.

It was worthy of being called a secret art.

‘It’s a bit of a burden on the body, but it also has synergy with Acceleration.’

As a smile naturally formed on his face, a single word came to mind.

In order to reactivate a technique ingrained in the body at any time, a named image, in other words, a name, was needed.

Drasen Greatswordmanship, Muno-style secret art.

‘Brute Strength.’

Kwadeudeuk.

The name he had given himself solidified the image of the technique, and at that moment, the form of the flame burning on his body became even more solid.

And that immediately.

Pajijijijijik.

Led to an increase in the speed of digging into the barrier.

As a result.

“Don’t !@!@#!”

“The barrier !@#!”

As he saw the magicians in front of him panicking.

Kwajik.

With a very small cracking sound, the huge hemispherical barrier disappeared from in front of him in an instant.

“Done!”

At that moment, he saw the magicians filling the square, connected to each other by chains of demonic energy, forming a specific system.

And soon, flames, ice, and lightning blocked his path.

But Muno did not hesitate.

“Magic doesn’t work on me!”

Udeudeuk.

Kwaaaaaang!

Pajijijijijik.

The body, with ‘Brute Strength’ and ‘Acceleration’ added, absorbed the magic that appeared in front of him at that moment.

And he charged forward, crushing the lower-level magicians in an instant.

He saw the pupils of the panicked enemies widen.

‘I don’t need the small fry!’

Muno didn’t bother to extend his chains to the lower-level magicians on the outskirts of the magic circle.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

He just bounced off the enemies in front of him and ran straight ahead.

‘I’ll only aim for 4-Circle and above at least……!’

In that brief moment when the magicians were sent flying without even being able to scream at his body slam.

Under a firm goal, as the pleasure of desire and destruction began to spread thrillingly throughout his body.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!

There was a gale that filled his vision with ‘pure white’.

A mad wind that made Muno, who was charging, flinch with just the shockwave of its passing moment.

At that moment, Muno’s mind snapped back to reality.

‘No, this is…….’

He felt that the gale that had rushed past quickly held a truly terrifying edge.

A sharp edge that seemed like it would cut anything it touched.

And as if his guess was not wrong.

“Gyaak!”

“Aaaargh!”

Terrible screams erupted from within the trajectory of the smoke that cut straight through the center of the magic circle from the passage of the square.

The sensation of time seeming to slow down in his accelerated consciousness was shattered at that moment.

The moment the pure white smoke disappeared.

[This should be enough to make up for being late……sir.]

With a strained voice, the smoke that gathered in the air took the form of a faint, white-haired man.

Victon, with a somewhat pale complexion.

And Muno couldn’t even pay attention to him returning to the entrance of the square.

“Kill them!”

“Block them!!”

The screams erupting from the center.

Because he saw that everything in the space that Victon’s smoke sprint(?) had swept through in a straight line from the entrance was torn to shreds.

Among the victims was even a 5-Circle magician, one of the three who had been emitting the most powerful demonic energy in the center of the magic circle.

Moreover, that gale had even cut off the flow of the magicians reconnecting their demonic energy on the magic circle.

It was a feat Victon could be confident about.

But Muno couldn’t smile.

‘That son of a……. Ha…….’

Because the 4-Circle magician he had targeted first as he was charging had been sacrificed first by Victon’s sprint.

It was as if his coveted prey had been snatched away right in front of his nose.

‘Daaamn it!’

That bastard, I don’t like him. I kind of felt that way from the beginning…….

But he couldn’t be distracted already.

There was still a lot of prey left.

‘Five 4-Circles, two more 5-Circles. I’ll ignore the rest of the miscellaneous small fry!’

He also felt that something was strange in the meantime, but he didn’t have time to delve into it in detail.

Kwadeuk.

His overloaded body, which had been forcibly stopped while charging in the state of ‘Brute Strength’ and ‘Acceleration,’ was already beginning to complain of a tingling fatigue.

‘Just hold on a little longer!’

Thud.

He started moving again, soothing his body as if talking to it.

But by that time, the knight in red armor and the archer in the rear were already hunting the magicians who had been exposed without their barrier.

Kwakwakwakwa.

“Aaaargh!”

Pababababak.

“Gyaaaaaak!”

“Kill them!”

Even in the midst of that, flames, lightning, cold, and wind began to pour out from all directions.

‘Damn it!’

Kwaaaaang!

Muno also began to run towards the center again, breaking through the flood of magic.

The target was clear.

The most powerful magicians in the middle.

But then.

The two old men in the center suddenly showed a strange reaction.

“Block them!! Complete the ritual!!”

The moment the oldest-looking magician shouted that.

Demonic energy surged again from the bodies of the surviving 5-Circle magician and the three 4-Circle magicians next to him, creating a small barrier that enveloped them.

Muno’s charging face contorted.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one who was panicked.

“Sir Taklan!”

“How could you do this to us……!”

“Daaamn it!”

The other magicians screamed, but then gritted their teeth again and tried to face the enemies, but it was not enough.

“Aaaargh!”

“I-I can’t block them……!”

“The connection……!”

Even when they tried to hastily construct a magic circle, it would collapse before the demonic energy could even connect.

The barrier had suddenly collapsed, and at the same time, the smoke gale had cut across the square, dealing a fatal blow to the magic circle.

On top of that, the high-ranking magicians in charge of the core of the magic circle had turned their backs on their subordinates, causing a round of chaos.

As a result of those few worst-case scenarios creating a synergistic effect.

From the magicians’ point of view, an unbelievably futile tragedy began to unfold.

In the midst of that.

“That one’s mine!”

Chwareureuk.

Tang!

“Mu……”

A rat-faced magician, who had been keeping the enemies in check by scattering magic in all directions, widened his eyes as he saw the chain that had deflected the arrow flying towards him.

“……at?”

A bewildered expression.

However.

The moment that chain wrapped around his body, he couldn’t help but scream as he felt his demonic energy being drained away like a receding tide.

“Gyaaaaaak! You, you, th-this, mo-monster……!”

Not enough yet. More, more…….

Muno, who was absorbing the magician’s demonic energy, felt a strange sensation at that moment.

The demonic energy of the 4-Circle magician was weaker than he had thought.

He quickly found out the reason.

‘This square floor……. It absorbs the magicians’ power?’

Chwareureuk.

As soon as his thoughts reached that point, Muno’s chains, which had already moved, wrapped around the leg of another 4-Circle who was left outside the barrier.

Chwajajajajak.

Even in the midst of that, his swung ‘Blade’ pierced the torsos of five bewildered lower-level magicians around him.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

The remaining two strands of chains wrapped around them.

Pasuseuseuseu.

‘These ones are mine!’

As Muno, who had wrapped up all the magicians within his reach, began to drain their demonic energy before the magic circle could.

Pababababak.

“Aaaargh”

Arrows shot in straight or curved lines from the entrance of the square were successively piercing the necks of the lower-level magicians.

Kwakwakwang!

“Muno!”

Anthony, who was repeatedly striking the newly formed barrier in the center, shouted at him.

But Muno couldn’t answer the call.

Wooooooong.

Udeudeudeuk.

‘Finally…….’

The demonic energy of a high-ranking magician, which he was absorbing for the first time since confirming his path.

The high-quality demonic energy, converted into Origin Mana, had begun to change his body.

A thrilling shiver that ran through his entire body.

In the feeling of floating gently on a cloud, the ecstatic joy of being reborn as a better being dominated his mind.

And at that moment.

A magician inside the barrier screamed.

“It’s done!!”

The red stones held in the magician’s hand.

Three of the same red stones that had been in Anthony’s hand in Osnal’s mansion a while ago appeared in the old man’s hand.

And the old man, after glancing at Anthony who was striking the barrier, began to swallow the fist-sized stones without hesitation.

A bizarre and unexpected action, as if he had gone mad.

As soon as the magician had swallowed all three stones.

Udeudeudeuk.

Green scales began to sprout on his old body, and he began to swell up.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep