Beeee-
A terrible ringing sounded in her ears.
“K-, uh…”
Sedi forced herself to her feet. She felt dizzy and nauseous. In fact, it felt like her bones were vibrating.
“Urk…”
Unable to handle it, she vomited a mouthful of blood. Ironically, she felt a bit better after spitting out the blood.
‘Indeed…’
Having such a body was uncomfortable. Forcibly suppressing the nausea, Sedi looked around.
“Hah.”
She had just witnessed an unbelievable scene with her own eyes.
It was as if a spear of light shot out from some kind of orbital weapon had pierced the entire base. Not only had the skyscraper that was built above ground been almost completely destroyed, but even the underground facilities which were hundreds of meters below the ground had been completely pulverised.
Of course, the main culprit of this devastating attack was not an orbital weapon, nor were they even in space to begin with.
‘Demon King.’
The bastard who had killed her once and caused her to be in such a state was the cause of tragedy.
Pat pat.
Sedi brushed off some dirt that had landed on her head. Then, her eyes turned to where Lukas was.
‘There were two attacks. Father blocked the first one.’
His response had been amazing, but Lukas hadn’t been able to completely block the Demon King’s second attack. Nevertheless, the barrier had greatly reduced the level of destruction the attack caused.
‘If it hadn’t been for him…’
Sedi’s heart shook violently.
If Lukas hadn’t blocked the attacks, all of the living beings currently in the base would have crossed over the yellow river without knowing how they died.
“U-, uhh….”
“Kuh…”
The believers around her groaned in pain.
Many of them had died, and those who didn’t suffered from severe injuries. Most of them had lost one or several limbs.
Even Sedi felt pain throughout her entire body. That level of shock wasn’t something fragile humans could handle.
‘I’m in pretty bad condition.’
Perhaps if it had been someone other than Sedi, they would have disappeared without a single trace remaining.
Sedi looked around for Min Ha-rin. She wasn’t in good shape either, but at the very least, she didn’t seem to be seriously injured.
“Hey.”
“…what?”
“It seems like your time to play with these idiots has passed.”
Puh.
Min Ha-rin spat out a mouthful of dust before speaking.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The Five Dukes are here.”
“…!”
Min Ha-rin’s eyes widened at those words.
It wasn’t just her. The believers, who were groaning on the ground, were also roused by those words.
“Th-, the Five Dukes are here!”
“It’s time to fight!”
“Cough… Ahhh…!!”
Sedi looked at them in disbelief.
Those who were severely injured and seemed to be on the brink of death were now brimming with energy. Their eyes were filled with joy as though they could no longer feel their pain.
Sedi smacked the staff against the ground.
Bang!
The impact caused the ground beneath her to crack, and pieces of stone were sent flying in every direction. Her action didn’t just draw attention to herself, but it also caused the believers, who were slowly rising to their feet, to fall to the ground again.
With an expression of annoyance, Sedi opened her mouth.
“You want to fight? Cut the crap. Do you think it would even be a fight between you and those guys up there?”
“Who the hell do you think-!”
Thud!
An orb of demonic energy shot from the tip of the staff into the stomach of the believer who had just begun to shout. After coughing up a mouthful of blood, that believer collapsed, unconscious. (TL: why does she still have demonic energy?)
“Don’t be mistaken. This isn’t a request or suggestion. It is a threat. If you try to disobey, I will kill you with my own hands.”
“Do you think we are afraid of death?”
When one of the believers asked this with a venomous expression, Sedi shot a bright, yet sadistic, smile at them.
“No. But I happen to know the perfect way to deal with fanatics like you.”
She then pointed her staff at Slei.
Slei was probably the worst off out of everyone who had suffered through this ordeal. Almost half of his left torso had disappeared.
Because he had lost his right arm to Sedi, he had basically lost both arms.
Even if someone were to watch on objectively, the appearance of this old man who was breathing shallowly and looked like he would die at any moment would have been enough to fill them with a sense of sympathy.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Sedi.
“Since he doesn’t have any arms, should I cut off his feet instead? Let’s start with the left one first.”
“S-, stop!”
“Y-, you demonic bitch!”
“I’ve heard that many times today.”
Sedi picked her ears as she slowly walked up to Slei, who had already lost consciousness.
In truth, with the extent of his injuries, it was a miracle that he was even alive. And now that she looked closely, she realised that his wounds had already stopped bleeding.
He had stopped without receiving any medical attention. In fact, that wasn’t the only thing that disturbed her.
In the cross-sections of his injuries, she could see the flesh and blood vessels wriggling. It was faint, but it seemed that he was beginning to regenerate. Maybe after a few hours, his severed limbs would grow back like a lizard’s tail.
This must have been one of the abilities of the power the old man had used before.
‘It really is a disgustingly annoying power…’
Sedi snorted before kicking Slei’s body over to Min Ha-rin.
Min Ha-rin, who caught him out of reflex, looked down at his body in confusion.
“If you make use of that old fart, you’ll be able to keep those idiots under control.”
“…do you want me to threaten them as you did?”
“That’s the fastest and most effective way, but it’s up to you.”
After saying that, Sedi looked up.
“Now, get out of here.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going to fight them.”
Maybe because he believed something like this would happen, Lukas had already told her what to do beforehand. Sedi’s role was simply to restrict and delay them.
Min Ha-rin hesitated for a moment before asking.
“…you won’t die, will you?”
“Me? Hmph.”
Sedi snorted before waving her hands.
“The newborn puppy is worried about the tiger? Stop wasting time and go.”
“…”
Min Ha-rin paused for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
“Don’t die.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. Just take care of yourself.”
“Right.”
MIn Ha-rin nodded once before leaving. Sedi only glanced at her for a moment before turning away as if she’d lost interest.
The underground facilities were already a mess, and if they were to make a mistake, they might be buried in debris, but they were all still hunters. It should be possible for them to get to a safe zone.
Sedi’s gaze returned to the sky.
Come to think of it, she was looking up at the sky from several meters beneath the ground. This was due to the Demon King’s attack, which disintegrated a large portion of the building and the ground around it.
This was certainly not something one could see often.
‘Three enemies…’
No. Lukas was now approaching the Demon King. It seemed the Absolutes were going to compete amongst themselves.
Sedi let out a bitter laugh.
“Then I guess I’ll take care of the other two.”
Suddenly, Lukas’ words appeared in her mind.
Currently, she was similar to or even slightly weaker than the Five Dukes. Of course, she didn’t intend to blindly take his word for it, but at least she didn’t foolishly believe that she could easily win the fight.
Sedi was also a transcendent being. She had countless experiences of fighting against enemies with no guarantee of victory even if she were to put her life on the line.
So even if the Five Dukes really were stronger than her, she didn’t intend to easily back down.
‘Father said to hold on until he can come to help.’
But she knew just what Lukas would have to deal with.
This was natural. After all, she’d already fought and lost to him before.
It was a complete and utter defeat that Sedi had never experienced before in her life.
Could Lukas defeat him?
He was still unable to use his power as he pleased.
But the Demon King was different. He had demonstrated transcendental power during his fight with Sedi.
“Maybe I can go help.”
Taht.
As she muttered this slightly pretentious phrase, two Demon Dukes landed in front of her. Sedi carefully looked at them.
The one on the left appeared to be a statue made of iron. Its entire body was made of shiny black metal. Other than that, there was nothing unique about it. Its body was similar to that of an adult human male.
On the other hand, the other Demon Duke had many features that stood out. When one saw it, the only word one would be able to think about to describe it would be ‘monster’.
Its body had a shape that was similar to a slug except that it was over five meters long and had no features apart from a large mouth. Every time it inhaled and exhaled, the rows of teeth in its mouth would rotate slightly.
From its appearance, it seemed that it would be able to expand its mouth many times its size if it wanted to.
The Iron Duke, Ugkas, opened his mouth while looking at Sedi in surprise.
“It’s even more ridiculous when seeing it in person. Is this brat really the one with such a powerful aura?”
Originally, Ugkas had intended to pursue and exterminate all of the humans in this city before destroying it. This was because he thought it would be more noticeable and draw Kran out.
However, just as he was about to take action, he sensed a surprising aura.
This aura was almost comparable to his own, and because of this, he grew curious.
At first, he’d thought that it was Kran. After all, he didn’t believe that any human could have an aura so powerful. However, to his surprise, it was instead a little human girl who seemed to have not yet reached adulthood.
Guguk… guk.
Unlike Ugkas, who was puzzled, Sipakna calmly prepared for battle.
‘He’s getting serious? Could this little girl really be a threat to us?’
Sipakna’s instincts were very sharp. If he recognised this little girl as an enemy, then she must certainly have been a great threat.
Ugkas nodded.
Right. He could just test it for himself.
Boom!
Ugkas’ body shot towards Sedi like a cannonball.
‘As expected, he’s someone who fights with his body.’
Swinging the staff slightly, Sedi took a stance. A lot of thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.
The power of Ugkas’ charge was not something she would be able to block easily. The staff was pretty sturdy, but it would not be able to withstand the force of the attack.
‘More importantly, I’m still not in good condition.’
Her organs had been badly damaged by the Demon King’s previous attack to the point where she spat out blood. So it would be a big gamble to take on such an attack in her current state.
She had no choice but to dodge.
Clack!
“…!”
But at that moment, something sticky wrapped around her ankle.
Sedi, who had been caught off guard, hurriedly looked down.
Gluk…
A slimy tentacle was wrapped around each of her ankles. This was Sipakna’s doing.
At some point, it had sneakily pierced two of its hundreds of tentacles into the ground before using them to catch her by surprise.
‘Such a rudimentary mistake…!’
Sedi hurriedly swung the staff, severing the tentacles.
But that was all she was able to do.
Because by that time, Ugkas was already in front of her.
She couldn’t redirect it, she couldn’t block it, and she couldn’t dodge.
‘Fuck…’
Boom!
A heavy force struck her body.
And Sedi’s vision became white.
(TL: A cliffhanger a day keeps the boredom away ^-^)