Chapter 254: Greed (3)

For reasons no one else could discern, Deheter looked up at the sky and began to laugh.

“Only you and I remain now, Enemy of the World! You know, I intentionally let your minions leave so that we won’t have interruptions.”

He was enjoying this situation.

The possible consequences of his actions didn’t so much as register in his head as the thing as he wallowed in the feelings of the present.

“Power is overflowing. It feels like nothing is impossible. Why was I so foolish when there was such a quick and easy way to become powerful like this.”

From within the black flames, a red flame flickered once more.

“Even without having to walk up some stupid stairs.”

The flames of Deheter ebbed slowly as he spoke.

Sungchul’s attentive eyes did not miss this detail.

However, once Deheter raised his hand, waves of unholy energies shook the palace like some sort of earthquake. The black flames intensified once more. Soon, the flames returned to its original strength.

There’s something fishy about this.

Sungchul lifted Fal Garaz and charged forward. He destroyed all that was in his way.

The walls, columns, statues, curtains, nothing was an exception.

The king was standing at the center of the throne room, which was the largest space in this pitifully small palace.

It was after Sungchul entered this room that he finally found out what was going on inside the palace of the Kingdom of Nimpas.

“…”

Human sacrifices.

Magic formation written in blood filled the entirety of the hall, and nailed around them were many innocent dying or dead impaled by metal rods.

Sungchul saw among the sacrifices, the servant girl who had been bringing him his replacement bandages and meals.

He didn’t know her name, but she was someone he knew.

Although they couldn’t exchange words due to their difference in status, Sungchul could tell from her behavior and demeanor that she was a kind hearted individual.

“My god… how can he do such a…”

Bertelgia was at a loss for words when she witnessed the terrible atrocity that had taken place in the palace. Experienced as she may be in seeing cruelty, there was another level of horror in finding people she knew among the tortured.

The only one who was still alive and intact within the throne room was the queen Oksana.

Sungchul looked back and forth between Oksana and Deheter before asking in a calm tone.

“Will you please be so kind as to explain what happened here?”

Sungchul was addressing Oksana.

It was because he was fully aware that she must have had something to do with this based on what he knew about the relationship between the King and the Queen.

“…”

Oksana simply shut her mouth and avoided Sungchul’s gaze. But her face was marred by intense terror.

The reason was her husband, Deheter.

When he was powerless, he could do nothing but whine even when he knew what his wife was up to. But upon obtaining strength, he became a cruel tyrant second to none.

“My lady queen shall not answer.”

The king stood between Sungchul and the queen.

“The queen has vowed to devote herself to me and carry out her duties as my wife.”

Sungchul couldn’t see his expression through the black flames, but Sungchul got the feeling Deheter was smiling. He was arrogant and prideful beyond reason.

“It is no good for a virtuous woman to exchange words with other men so frivolously.”

If not for Sungchul’s Transcendent Senses, Sungchul would not have been able to recognize that this man was the same Deheter from before due to the degree of his transformation.

‘Deheter.’

Sungchul recalled. His face that had lit up with a child-like joy when they met. The innocent and flustered adolescent look he had made when he had received the blade of the Commander in Chief. And the crushing sorrow as he explained his cruel reality inside of that small lonely room.

But all the things Sungchul had known about the king were now all swallowed up by the black flames. An uncontainable strength had distorted and shattered all of that.

“…”

Time had come to make a decision.

For both Sungchul and Deheter.

The king reached out with his right hand and a burning axe appeared in them.

But the edges were too dull, making it closer to a club than an axe. However, this dulled blade was plastered with blood and viscera. Sungchul recognized that this axe was an item that was on the same level as the Weapons of Calamity that he possessed.

“Today, I kill you and write a new chapter in history.”

Deheter said with an ecstatic voice.

“Sungchul Kim.”

Deheter’s eyes glowed bright red beneath the black flames once more. From his entire body, the characteristic overwhelming energies of the Lesser Gods explosively poured out.

The air itself trembled and tapestries hung throughout the hall swayed back and forth.

Oksana who was standing in the corner of the throne room didn’t know what to do and could do nothing but watch in terror.

Deheter was drunk on the powerwhelming power that flowed through his body and laughed.

It was then that a cold voice bellowed from the opposite side of the room.

“Does such little power excite you so?”

It was Sungchul. He showed no reaction to Deheter’s unholy energies in any way. He looked and behaved like he always had.

Aside from the bandage that was wrapped around his chest that was dripping with his blood, that is.

The King replied in kind.

“What will you do if I am, dear arrogant Summoned who climbed a few stairs?”

“…You need some punishment.”

The time for talk was over.

Sungchul stretched his neck without letting go of Fal Garaz. The dull sounds of his bones rubbing against each other echoed in the hall dyed in blood.

Finally, he put his hands on Bertelgia for a moment and whispered quietly.

“This will not take long.”

Bertelgia shook lightly as if to respond.

Sungchul turned his attention to Deheter once he was done getting ready. The King seemed to have no interest in making the first move after his initial ambush.

The Trascendent Senses informed Sungchul, that the one controlling the body within the black flames was not a Lesser God but Deheter himself.

If that was the case, Sungchul had no reason to hesitate.

He charged forward towards Deheter as carefree as if he was on his way to a picnic.

Deheter let out a mad laughter for reasons no one could tell and countered Fal Garaz with his dulled axe.

Clang!

The axe and hammer clashed.

Deheter’s black flames stood up straight like a cat’s fur.

“This sensation! Is this the strength of the Enemy of the World?!”

Deheter seemed to be genuinely pleased.

Though he said he wants to kill Sungchul, it seemed as though he wasn’t able to fully put away his feelings for Sungchul from his fanboy days.

Sungchul gauged Deheter’s strength through the hammer.

He was weak. More than enough for Sungchul to overpower him.

Sungchul focused his god-like energy in one of his legs that was in the air to stomp down onto the ground as he landed as if to pierce through the earth.

Boom!

The entire palace shook terribily upon his feet making contact with the floor.

Deheter seemed rather pleased.

“Ah ha!”

But this was merely a preparatory step towards what was to come.

Using his foot planted down on the ground as the anchor, Sungchul was able to transfer a great deal more energy into his arms than Deheter had expected.

Fal Garaz that had been stopped shook terribly as if it gained a life of its own.

“?!”

The transformation in the scale of power put into the hammer was best appreciated by Deheter who was in direct contact with the weapon. He felt a surge of power rise against him but he had no way of dealing with it.

Deheter’s legs were lifted off the ground. In the next moment, he was sent flying towards the opposite wall like a deflating balloon.

Mid air, Deheter extended out his left arm.

His hands that were held like a hooked claw scraped against the decorative metallic bars on the wall, causing terrible screeching noise to be made as he flew by.

After causing sparks to rise  between where his fingernails met the decorations on the wall, he was embedded onto the opposite wall of the palace upside down.

Unfortunately, he landed on the spot where the royal emblem that Sungchul had forgotten about had been hung up.

“Ugh…”

The walls began to cracks around Deheter

But this was not the end of it. Deheter’s eyes from within the black flames once again emitted bright red flames.

Sungchul’s Transcendent Senses reacted to this. Deheter was attempting to borrow the Lesser God’s strength in addition to his own strength.

Sungchul could sense the unholy energies gather beneath his feet.

He lightly hopped out of the way, and suddenly four red metallic pillars pierced through the ground where he had stood moments ago.

The rods looked like they might have been covered in blood, but in truth it was heavily rusted iron rods.

This was the same object that was used to pin the people of the palace to the walls.

‘So, is this the ability of the Lesser God by the name Pikton?’

This was no magic, it was something else entirely. It gave off a feeling closer to that of a monsters’ inherent powers.

Sst! Sst!

Additional iron reds continuously erupted from below in search of Sungchul’s feet. When Sungchul dashed off to the side, the rising rows of the dozens of iron rods matched his new trajectory without letting up their pursuit.

It only took moments for half of the throne room to be filled with a wall of iron rods. Between the iron rods, Sungchul saw that Deheter on the other side of this wall was beginning to lose his flames once more.

He was running out of fuel.

Not long after Sungchul made his observation, Oksana’s piercing scream filled the air of the palace.

“L…Let go!”

Deheter moved shortly after. Not towards Sungchul but towards the village.

‘Is he trying to replenish his sacrifices?’

Sungchul destroyed all the iron rods that obstructed his path to chase after Deheter.

Deheter held Oksana in one arm as he flew towards the village like a comet.

It was a small kingdom. Right outside the palace gardens was the downtown area.

In the village square, the citizens of the Nimpas Kingdom were going about their lives as normal, like any other day.

And before them, a monster enveloped in black flames appeared.

“Your king has come.”

The king said to them. Though he had addressed his people, none of the villagers could not recognize the king covered in black flames. The only thing the people of Nimpas recognized was the queen.

“Look! Isn’t that the queen?”

“You’re right. It’s really the queen.”

King was ignored even by the people themselves.

Deheter’s eyes glowed bright red once more.

In the next moment, dozens of iron rods broke through the ground of the village square and pierced up towards the sky.

In mere moments, hundreds of people of the villagers were impaled by the stakes and died where they stood.

The blood they spilt that rode the stakes down into the ground pooled at the ground for moments before some magical energies hiding beneath the surface reacted to them and used them as fuel to continue the black flames.

It was shortly after this that Sungchul arrived at the scene.

‘I’m one step too late.’

Deheter put Oksana down next to the village fountain that was becoming tainted by blood and made a wide grin.

“Wait for me here, my love. I shall be back very soon.”

Sungchul’s outwardly emotionless eyes caught sight of this scene.

“…”

He lifted up Fal Garaz and charged in Deheter’s direction.

“My. I was thinking of exchanging some words now that I’ve recharged my strength, but right back into it you go.”

Deheter waved his hand while acting cocky.

Sungchul sensed unholy energies gather below the ground in the direction of his charge before a large number of crimson rods erupted the ground like some fangs of beast.

As the dense cluster of iron rods covered his vision, Sungchul’s bloody wrappings around his chest were ripped free.

The bandages were caught up in the rods and sent flying high into the air.

“Hoh.”

Deheter’s laughter could be heard from the other side of the pillars.

‘1st Soul Gem. Fly.’

The Magic formation corresponding to the Fly spell appeared over the first soul gem.

Sungchul avoided the pillars rising from below and sped up towards the sky.

All the while he was losing blood.

Deheter let out a cackling laughter as he came in pursuit of Sungchul.

“Are you trying to escape?”

His speed was not all that high. It also seemed like he had no way to chase after Sungchul either.

Sungchul realized that the Lesser God Pikton was a being whose skill with defenses were quite poor.

‘He’s nothing compared to Sidmia.’

But even more pathetic than Pikton was the pilot.

Sungchul and Deheter arrived at the edge of the village.

Sungchul who had been flying raised his altitude even further.

Deheter who was now left like a dog that had been chasing chicken looked up into the sky to taunt Sungchul.

“What are you doing, Enemy of the world? Is your indefeatable strength powerless before my abilities?”

That was when magic formations appeared over Sungchul’s body. He had begun an incantation for magic.

Deheter pointed his fingers at Sungchul as he continued to mock him.

“Aren’t you embarrassed, Sungchul Kim? Come down and fight me like a man!”

It was no words for a man who had called upon the iron pillars because he couldn’t handle a hand to hand combat to say, but Deheter yelled confidentially all the same.

Sungchul didn’t even pretend to hear him.

He put Fal Garaz away in the Soul Storage before taking out an object to hold with his right and left hand.

In one hand was Ryze Hymerr’s staff, and the other was a mana potion.

“It seems you neglected to read the legends about me in detail.”

Sungchul said in a carefree tone.

At the same time, he pointed his staff towards his target.

The direction was straight up north.

Deheter was not it.

It was Oksana who was left behind at the Village square.

Deheter who realized this immediately screamed out loud.

“Stop it!”

But the light that erupted out of the staff buried any other words that may have followed. Deheter waved with his hands, which soon caused a large amount of iron rods to rise between Sungchul and Oksana.

Primordial Light punctured through dozens of iron rods before its light ebbed away.

Deheter smiled in relief but even that only lasted but for few moments.

The attack that he blocked was merely the start.

Sungchul felt a large amount of Mana escape his body as he saw a text appear in his eyes.

[Echo x5]

When one beam of light seemed to fade away, several more pillars of light came flying towards Oksana.

Five streaks of light.

Deheter brought forth everything he had to stop the pillar of light from reaching his wife. He was brought to the edge of his strength when he had no choice but to physically stand between Oksana and Sungchul after the fourth Star Light ebbed away to stop the last pillar of light from reaching its target.

Thanks to his efforts, the defenses he poured his soul into was able to withstand the fifth and last Star Light. The area in the viscinity of Deheter was reduced to a rubble.

Between he and Sungchul were the destroyed or melted iron rods, ruins of the village, debris of trees and dirt, mixed together to depict the very definition of chaos.

The result was that the black flames that gave Deheter his power was reduced to a pitiful level.

Deheter gasped for breath. As he recognized that he was in danger, he quickly searched around him for additional sacrifices .

“Where are you looking?”

Sungchul’s voice rang out from above. He was standing calmly in the air, looking down upon Deheter while drinking something.

It was a large amount of Mana potion.

It was not over yet.