Chapter 156 - Devil's Voice (1)

The battle didn't take long.

Both the users and the skeletons were weak, but since there were more skeletons, they ended up winning.

The three users were scattered away into light… and dozens of skeletons holding spears celebrated their victory.

"Ah…!"

At that moment, Louise's eyes shook.

Among the monsters that were scattered away, there was a skeleton she'd become familiar with.

"You…!"

She quickly ran and grabbed the skeleton's head.

It was the skeleton guard that had given a skewer to her.

Its bones were scattered away, and it was about to vanish away into light.

It was impossible for a human to tell the difference between the skeletons.

Seeing how Louise could tell a skeleton apart from a pile of many… maybe Darkness could remember details regarding devils that others couldn’t.

"Where… is your body…?"

The skeleton slowly opened its jaw.

"You… don't need to… look at us… with those eyes… death… is habitual to us…"

The skeleton in Louise's hands completely scattered away into the light.

Just like it said, low-ranking devils like ghosts and skeletons couldn't live for a very long time.

In many cases, they only lived for a few days, a few minutes, or even a few seconds.

Since they had already died, it would be more precise to say that they ceased to exist.

Even after the light particles disappeared, Louise kept looking at the floor for quite some time.

'Damn.'

Hyun bit his lip.

Louise didn't cry.

She'd learned how to control her feelings. It probably wasn't that the emotions themselves had disappeared. Even on Iluna, when she had almost died, she hadn’t cried.

To be honest, Hyun hadn't felt much while looking at the skeleton die…

But demons and devils were closely related. A demon empathized with all beings that had Demonic Energy.

On Iluna, she'd thought of them as dangerous beings—maybe that was why she hadn't thought much about it.

But Louise could understand their language, and she'd changed to thinking of them as beings that lived while interacting with each other.

She was 'Darkness.' In a sense, she was like a mother to all devils, so what would she be feeling?

"Hyun… I think it's a bad idea to use «Assimilation» right now."

Hyun nodded at Ain's voice.

He decided to look until Louise was able to calm down.

After a while, Louise began looking at him with sad eyes, and they changed focus to look at something in the distance.

Hyun's eyes narrowed after following Louise's eyes.

He saw a group approaching them from a distance. He quickly realized that they were the Heavens’ users.

'Was that message related to this?'

- The Heavens have been planning to invade the Abyss.

- Those who have received the oracle of Light will come to the Underground!

Hyun understood what was going on.

It wasn't that users came there just by chance…

They'd probably arrived after receiving a quest from the Holy Kingdom.

Hyun looked at a certain sentence after reading over the description.

'Oracle of Light.'

He'd already gone through it once, so he knew what that meant.

The Light appeared with Darkness and disappeared with it—those two were inseparable.

If Light had given an oracle, that meant that Darkness had appeared.

The hypothesis that Louise was Darkness was starting to gain traction.

Deception, Darkness, Chaos…

Hyun knew better than anyone how scared the Heavens were of them.

If he wanted to protect Louise, he'd have to be prepared.

"Are you planning to fight?"

"Yes."

Ain smiled while looking at Hyun's expression.

Whir-

The moment the «Shadow Shield» devoured flames, Hyun's body was covered by dark energy.

'I'll have to fight.'

—To become an enemy of the Heavens, and to protect Louise.

When Hyun began wondering if Louise was Darkness, he decided to choose an option between two possibilities, and that decision hadn't changed.

If he had to choose… Louise. Even if he became an enemy of the Heavens, he would choose to protect Louise.

'Will I be able to do it?'

The problem was that the time to choose had come faster than he thought.

He hadn't even done the 2nd job ascension yet. The Holy Kingdom was too strong an opponent for him at the moment.

Since that Light had given an oracle, there was no way the Holy Kingdom would rely on users alone.

'Even if it seems impossible, I'll have to do it!'

The Holy Knights, Holy Magicians, and countless Priests supporting them…

If strong opponents began appearing, it might be too much, but they had yet to appear.

It didn't matter how many users there were, he was sure he and Ain wouldn't lose against them.

When Hyun «Assimilated» to Ain, a slight tremble spread through Hyun.

* * *

As a small shadow began running through the battlefield, the screams of humans were heard.

"Wh-what's that?!"

"Agh! Help me!"

The moment black flames hit the Heavens' users, they turned into ashes and scattered away into light.

As the Shadow Linker «Assimilated» into the Elemental Berserker, the claws of the beast that emitted a black flame really made her look like a devil.

"What… Kind of devil is this…?"

"It's probably the subordinate of a demon…!"

The hands of the users that faced the shadow trembled.

The Blessing of Darkness made those that belonged to the Heavens feel fear. The bigger the difference between them was, the bigger the fear became.

The Heavens’ users that had invaded the Symmetrical World weren't level 100 yet, so they couldn't overcome the Blessing of Darkness.

"Damn, no one said there would be an elite devil…!"

"Isn't there a way to return?!"

"I heard we can't return until we cross that town!"

"We're screwed!"

The Pope had thought about it carefully.

There weren't many users willing to risk their lives just from him giving them an okay weapon.

But what if he promised stats or skill points depending on their contribution rate? There probably wouldn't be many users that wouldn't be interested in it.

The Heavens’ users were moving exactly as the Pope had expected them to.

Hyun spoke to Ain as he looked at the users.

「Don't let anyone in.」

「Hmm?」

「These guys… they're probably searching for Louise.」

When Hyun looked at the Heavens’ users, he realized they were under a «Share Vision» magic.

It was a strategy that was hard to believe came from an NPC.

It was probably from a generation-and-a-half AI, at least… It was probably a plan of a Bishop, the Pope, or one of the Angels.

'Damn, they're probably looking at this!'

Fwoosh-!

When the pitch-black «Efreet's Claws» hit, the users in the attack's trajectory disappeared.

KAAA! KAAAA!

But at that moment, the skeletons, ghosts, and lizardmen were turning into light after being attacked by users.

The devils fought bravely to protect the land of Darkness.

Every time the urgent, painful, and grim cries spread… Louise's shoulders shook.

「Ain, handle this alone for a moment,」Hyun said after defeating waves of users.

「Hmm?」.

Louise was starting to breathe heavily from the countless deaths going on around her.

It seemed like the deaths of devils were affecting her.

「I think that I'll have to check on her.」

「Okay… I'll probably be okay alone… for the moment.」

The attacks had stopped for the moment, but they didn't know when another wave of users would appear.

When Hyun «Assimilated» into Louise, he realized that the situation was worse than he’d initially thought.

The emotions of the Darkness were fluctuating.

For the Darkness, devils were like her children.

Hyun almost vomited after feeling what Louise felt while looking at beings like that die.

The saddest thing was that she also couldn't understand the changes in her feelings.

「You…」

"…"

Louise didn't answer.

Hyun took Louise toward the town’s inn.

He couldn't let her stay in the middle of the battlefield where there would be more deaths.

"Will you be able to calm down?" Hyun «Disassimilated» and asked her.

"Oh… Why… Why am I…?"

Louise shook her head.

"Stay here for the moment. If it gets dangerous, use the scroll."

Hyun realized something…

Just like the leaders of the Heavens got sad when their subordinates died, Demons also got sad when devils died.

Louise was confused about the fluctuations of her feelings.

The Darkness was the commander of all devils.

But that little commander couldn't handle the deaths of her subordinates.

She probably didn't even know that the devils were her subordinates, so she was probably even more confused about why she felt like that.

It hadn't been like that when they were escaping Iluna… Since when was Louise able to feel the emotions of devils?

「New enemies!」

When he returned to Ain, he saw the silhouettes of new users appearing.

「When did they appear?」

「Just now!」

"Woah! What are these black things…?!"

As soon as they were summoned, a few users were devoured by the fog, but some were able to go through it; a new battle happened immediately.

The users began dying at the hands of Hyun and Ain, but the skeletons were also being scattered away into light.

「Hyun!」

While fighting, Ain urgently shouted.

「There's stuff happening on the back, too!」

「What? Are you talking about the back of the town? But that place is full of fog.」

「It seems like the fogged area is changing!」

The area where the fog was concentrated changed periodically in the land of Darkness.

Hyun clicked his tongue while remembering what Duke Scothanatos had said.

From a defensive point of view, the fog was equivalent to a castle's walls. Part of it disappearing was equivalent to a castle's wall crumbling.

Unfortunately, the fog was clearing.

Ssss.

A new road opened on the opposite side of where they were protecting. Suddenly, Hyun and Ain had to protect two sides simultaneously.

「But if it's the two of us, we can do it.」

「We can for the moment…」

Just like Ain said, the two of them could block it. The problem was that the fog would constantly change.

What if they had to block three sides simultaneously? Blocking two sides alone was impossible, so the town’s defensive line would be penetrated eventually.

'There's too much time left…!'

Not only did they lack manpower, but they were also lacking stamina.

Battling devoured a lot of the user's tiredness rate.

Even if they didn't do anything, the tiredness level would probably max out, but fighting for more than 24 hours consecutively… was impossible for anyone.

'Should I focus on protecting the inn?'

The Heavens were clearly targeting Louise.

Was there a way to only protect Louise? Hyun thought about it for a while but soon shook his head.

'No. I might have to do that in the end… but for now, I have to block as much as possible.'

There was a chance of Louise's location being found out—that would only make things more dangerous.

Since he could expect support from the devils, the safest way was to defend the entire town.

「Let's split up.」

「Huh? Hyun, can you fight alone?」

At Ain's question, Hyun took out a weapon.

He took out the unique longsword he carried around just in case. At that moment, his body turned pitch-black.

「I'll tell you if it gets dangerous.」

「How will I know where you are?」

「This place is going to be 12 o’clock. I'll tell you by direction.」

The two of them decided based on the point where the first battle took place.

Hyun would be in charge of 7 o’clock. Ain 12 o’ clock.

They kept engaging in battle.

The good thing was that no more than 10 users appeared at a time.

「Hyun, is everything okay over there?」

「What do you mean?」

「Here, the area of the fog has changed!」

As 30 minutes passed, the area of the fog changed again.

The 12 o'clock direction was closed. Instead, 3 ‘clock opened. Hyun sighed in relief.

He was planning on giving up on defending the town if three paths opened.

'It's okay for now…'

There was a being watching the entire situation unfold.

The Land of Darkness's owner and the one who served the Darkness, Duke Scothanatos.

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