Chapter 825

A blinding flash erupted with the Teleport spell.

That was how it began.

The space around me warped. A terrible pressure unlike anything I’d ever felt seized my heart, and my joints and muscles screamed as they were pulled into a third void.

Hngh.

I couldn’t breathe. It hurt.

Those few seconds felt like days.

But I clung to the thread of consciousness that was about to snap.

Crack.

I had to endure. I had to hold on.

I clenched my teeth around that single thought. Through the dazzling light flooding my vision, the ground and sky flipped past without end.

A vast wilderness. A desert leading toward hills curved like a crescent moon.

Hundreds of kilometers¹ vanished in an instant, and the violently churning light began to fade.

At last, deep darkness settled over us.

Fwoosh.

Space split open. Through the gap seeped a new light, different from the flash moments ago.

And the light wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

This is…

I could see it. Feel it.

Dim light, neither dark nor bright. The damp air of early morning.

Grains of sand carried on the wind. And beneath it all, the sticky, unpleasant sensation that belonged only to magical power.

We did it.

I knew it instinctively.

The dangerous attempt had succeeded. The Grand Mage’s Teleport spell had pushed through the interference of magical power and brought us to the chosen coordinates.

And beyond the unfamiliar space we’d finally reached was the being we’d searched for so desperately.

The Doppelganger.

“……!”

Our eyes met in midair. Both of us stared wide-eyed.

I looked at the Doppelganger, and the Doppelganger looked at me.

Time slowed as if the world had stopped.

But my body already knew what it had to do. It moved, defying time and space.

Whoosh.

Wind split around the spearhead and brushed past my ears.

I drew back White Flame’s shaft, clenched tight in my hand. Bones shifted out of place with a crack, and unexpected pain surged through me.

Crack.

An aftereffect of the unstable Teleport spell.

The Doppelganger’s Blink spell had carried it only a few hundred meters.² This attempt had taken us hundreds of kilometers,¹ and my body had to pay the price.

Fuck.

My breath caught. My fingertips trembled. The Scorching Yang Qi racing along the spearhead faltered, as if it too sensed something wrong with my body.

But I had nothing to worry about.

I wasn’t alone.

Thump.

A firm hand pressed against my back with tremendous force. The Skeleton King’s clear voice reached my ear.

“Go.”

In that instant—

Whoom!

I shot forward.

I tore through the gap opened by the Teleport spell and plunged down like lightning. The Scorching Yang Qi surged back to life like wildfire, coiling around the spearhead.

Fwoosh.

Heat spread outward. Ten-odd meters³ vanished in an instant.

And at the end of it stood the Doppelganger, eyes wide at this unexpected turn of events.

“Y—!”

What had it been trying to say? What had it wanted to say so badly?

No one—not even the Doppelganger itself—would hear the rest.

It couldn’t finish.

KWA-BOOM!

Blue-white flames erupted like a wave, swallowing its body and its unfinished cry.

The Doppelganger writhed.

Of all the countless deaths it had suffered, this was among the most agonizing. This was a true inferno.

Shhk. Fwoosh.

The spearhead had slashed diagonally across its upper body. In its wake, a lava-like force seeped into every part of it and raged there.

It kept devouring the life force that replaced each life lost to death.

It vaporized blood and melted flesh and bone.

“GRAAAAH!”

The Doppelganger screamed in agony.

The flames inside its body had already burned through more than ten lives. If its flesh and bones hadn’t kept regenerating to smother them, it would still be dying at that very moment.

“Grrr…”

Burst blood vessels stained its eyes red.

The Doppelganger groaned and straightened up.

Whizz—thunk!

Before it could steady itself, something flew in and pierced its forehead.

It revived before its falling body could hit the ground, then hurled itself to the side.

Thud-thud-thud!

White objects narrowly grazed its body and drove into the ground.

The Doppelganger recognized them as pieces of bone and looked up.

Something was rushing toward it, bearing a power at once utterly familiar and strangely alien.

That thing…!

The Skeleton King.

His sword flashed, imbued with power far beyond what a mere undead monster should possess—and far too great to ignore.

Shhk!

A sharp slicing sound.

Dazzling magical power, utterly at odds with the name Hero’s Sword, cut through the Doppelganger’s wrist.

It recoiled from the pain and snarled.

“How dare an undead like you…!”

Even in the Demon Realm, with its countless monsters, undead occupied the very bottom.

Unless they were like Liches, who chose to become undead only after reaching the highest realms, they were nothing but foot soldiers.

At least, that was how it was supposed to be.

Crack—splash!

Blood sprayed through a blinding flash of sword light.

The Doppelganger died again in an instant and clenched its teeth.

Damn it.

The exchange had been brief, but it could no longer deny the truth. The Skeleton King was no easy opponent.

The aberration before it had broken past the limits of ordinary undead and reached a higher level of existence.

But…

It’s still no match for that monster.

The Doppelganger leapt back from the Skeleton King, its gaze shifting quickly.

Its sunken eyes found Jin Taekyung breathing hard, leaning on his spear like a cane.

He’s different from the last time I saw him. He must have pushed himself beyond his limits, too.

The Doppelganger was no fool.

It was far more cunning than most humans or monsters. It had manipulated the world for decades from behind its puppet, Michael Silbert.

And when Jin Taekyung had appeared without warning and struck, it had swapped Siegfried Bassmann’s soul for another.

Take hold.

KWA-AAH.

A fierce wind whipped around the Doppelganger. Sensing the ominous aura, the Skeleton King kicked off the ground and thrust out his hand.

Whoosh!

Pieces of his arm bone cut through the air with a sharp whistle. The white fragments flew like hidden weapons and lodged throughout the Doppelganger’s body.

Or so the Skeleton King thought.

The figure that should have fallen in a spray of blood vanished as though it had never been there.

Pop.

Gone. In the blink of an eye.

That meant one thing.

Magic.

Blink?

Realization struck, and the Skeleton King twisted instinctively.

But the Doppelganger had already slipped from his sight and prepared its next move.

Grrrrk.

Mana surged through the slowing world.

At its center was the monster that had greedily swallowed everything the Grand Mage had possessed in life, absorbing it all for itself.

Air Slash.

And then—

Whoooosh!

Blades of wind rained down on the Skeleton King. Watching them, the Doppelganger was certain that even if the spell could not erase the aberration outright, it would put him out of the fight for a while.

That would be enough to end this wretched battle.

But it was wrong.

Just as the Skeleton King had lost sight of the Doppelganger for an instant, the Doppelganger had forgotten someone else.

Fwoosh.

Floating more than ten meters³ above the ground, it suddenly felt heat rising toward it.

Only then did it remember the man who, moments earlier, could barely keep his own body upright.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…!

The Doppelganger sucked in a startled breath and hurriedly drew back its mana.

Whoosh.

The gale descending on the Skeleton King dissolved into a gentle breeze. At the same time, layer upon layer of translucent barriers covered the Doppelganger’s body.

Then, just as a dazzling flash shot across the space and finally struck the surface of the shields—

Crack!

The Doppelganger heard it. Saw it.

A single streak of flame bored through dozens of layers of Shield magic, shattering the barriers of mana.

KWA-BOOM!

Ignition. Shattering. Explosion.

All three happened at once. Blue-white flames filled the air, and a massive shock wave lashed out in every direction.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

The Skeleton King felt the impact reach the ground. For an instant, he wondered if that strike had cost the Doppelganger one of its most precious souls.

But Jin Taekyung knew better.

Exhausted as he was, he had scraped together every last bit of strength for that strike. He knew better than anyone why the clear, familiar chime had not sounded.

Not yet. Not yet.

The bastard still had the Grand Mage’s power and soul.

But his legs, which should already have driven him off the ground, would not move.

His depleted mental strength kept dragging his consciousness toward a bottomless pit. The dozens of movements and attack routes flashing through his mind were no more than things he could imagine doing.

All he had was a friend who could read his intent from a glance.

Bang!

Their eyes met for an instant across the open air.

That was enough. The Skeleton King read the look in Jin Taekyung’s eyes and launched himself off the ground without hesitation.

Through the acrid smoke filling the air.

Toward the Doppelganger at the center of the explosion.

Tssssss!

Golden magical power surged along his blade.

The force was less than half of what it would normally have been, thanks to the aftermath of the reckless Teleport spell. But the dazzling sword light cut through the sky without hesitation.

It sliced through the thick smoke and shot toward the enemy beyond.

Shing!

A single streak of light.

At the end of that keen strike—

Shhk!

Crimson blood burst forth like a fountain.

My vision was slowly blurring, but I saw it clearly.

The Skeleton King’s strike cutting through the air. And someone’s arm shooting up through the blood.

He cut it off.

No doubt about it. That slender white arm belonged to the Doppelganger—or, more precisely, to the Grand Mage it had absorbed three years ago.

But no head fell. No scream came.

If I hadn’t spotted where the Doppelganger had gone after vanishing from sight again, I might have shouted in frustration.

Instead, I swallowed my anger.

My voice came out exhausted and unfamiliar, as though it belonged to someone else.

“Are you a fucking lizard or something, you son of a bitch?”

I turned slowly. The Doppelganger stood in the middle of the ruins, blood pouring from its cleanly severed shoulder.

“Let’s go for your head this time. Not an arm or a leg—your head. How’s that?”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

Its face twisted like a Fiend’s, the Doppelganger continued.

“I’ll need the Grand Mage’s soul for what comes next.”

What?

Just as I was about to blurt out a question—

Vwoom.

An immense power pulsed around it.

No—the entire ruin shuddered like a living creature.