Chapter 53: Re-clash

“Fuck……!?”

Crack, crackle.

Only after feeling the ice that had started from his toes cover his face did Muno recall what happened in Trian.

That even when this magician disappeared, leaving behind a fake corpse, he hadn’t been able to find any trace of demonic energy.

And.

‘Even when she infiltrated the prison…….’

Was it a limitation of the Demon Devourer, or was it due to a difference in level?

The question arose anew, but.

Crackle.

By then, the cold had already completely covered the top of his head, and his consciousness began to fade.

- Hmph. A thing like you dares……!

It felt like I could hear the woman’s voice from outside the ice, but before I could hear the end of her sentence, my senses were already blurring.

But.

‘No!’

Whirrrr.

Crack, crackle.

In the face of mortal danger, the armor on my limbs instinctively began to vibrate rapidly, shattering the ice and absorbing the demonic energy.

Crunch.

Crack.

Soon, the chain from his right arm shot out and shattered the ice covering his face.

“Phu……”

The moment he could breathe again, Muno, despite his hazy consciousness, instinctively craved intense heat.

Fortunately, his body remembered how.

‘Acceleration.’

Crrrack.

His entire body tingled as the fats and proteins within were rapidly broken down, emitting an enormous amount of calories.

The mana of metal suppressed the body’s collapse, while a portion of it was consumed instead of calories.

As a result.

“Hoooo……”

His skin, which had been turning blue in an instant, flushed red, and light returned to Muno’s fading eyes.

‘Catch and kill. Eat…….’

Instead of his reason, which had not yet fully returned, the instincts of the Demon Devourer moved his body first.

Thud.

In the accelerated time where the world seemed to move slowly, Muno charged toward the back of the enemy’s head.

“Diiiie……”

The enemy’s head, which had been blocking incoming arrows with a shield and bombarding the cave plaza with flames, lightning, cold, and pillars of rock to unilaterally push Chloe back, was seen slowly turning around.

The pale woman’s eyes, her mouth soaked with blood, widened in an instant.

“Whaaa……!?”

A look of great surprise.

Muno, no, the Demon Devourer, responded to the enemy’s expression with a ferocious smile and swung his sword.

Thud.

The perfectly integrated combat boots, modeled after the stylish-for-safety-shoes footwear from his past life, kicked off the ground carrying all of his hefty weight.

Crrrack.

The uniquely designed gauntlets, which double-wrapped every joint from his fingertips to his shoulders while ensuring fluid movement, gripped the massive black two-handed sword made of mana as if to squeeze it dry and swung it just like that.

Kabooooom!

Crack, crackle.

The sword, exploding with a deafening roar, instantly created a crack in the shield.

“Howww……?!”

The Demon Devourer, not even satisfied with that, immediately changed his stance and consecutively swung the sword like lightning.

Swish, swish, swish.

Muno’s body created illusion-like afterimages to its left and right, delivering over a dozen sword strikes in a single moment.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Finally, the shield burst.

Kaboooooom!

But his ‘Blade’ also burst along with it.

“……you bastard!!”

The moment the astonished witch stumbled backward.

‘I have to catch her…….’

Only then did Muno’s reason fully return, but he couldn’t help but stagger for a moment from the aftereffects and exhaustion of using ‘Acceleration’ at maximum output.

“How dare you……!”

Seeing that, the fear in the witch’s eyes was replaced by anger, and a massive amount of demonic energy began to surge before his eyes.

‘Damn…….’

At that moment.

Thwip.

“Aargh!”

Chloe’s arrow, piercing through the disarrayed magic, impaled the witch’s thigh.

“You, you……!”

When the witch, realizing her mistake in the midst of pain, turned back again.

Chloe, who had already appeared right in front of her, was swinging a short sword like lightning.

A ray of light that followed the shortest path from her waist to the witch’s neck.

However.

Claaaaang!

That ray of light was blocked by a reddish shield that shot up again and was deflected.

‘Again?’

As Muno, who barely managed to stay on his feet, frowned while recalling the memory from Trian.

“Cough.”

As if it wasn’t without a price, the witch coughed up blood.

Chloe also suffered a loss.

Her short sword, which looked elaborately crafted even at a glance, shattered in vain, and blood flowed from her palm.

She frowned slightly and then drew another dagger and swung it.

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.

Claaaaang!

With the movements of her pummelling the shield, Chloe’s arm looked as if it had multiplied into dozens.

“Insignificant, insignificant things……!”

Cough.

The witch inside the shield continuously spat blood, yet she gritted her teeth, looking at Chloe and Muno with reddened eyes.

Perhaps she didn’t want to admit she had become the prey.

But there was no reason for us to show mercy.

‘Let’s end this.’

Rattle.

Muno sent four chains flying instead of his body, which wouldn’t move due to extreme energy consumption.

He didn’t even have the strength to shout, so he hoped Chloe would react appropriately.

While the chains wrapped tightly around the shield, Chloe’s dagger fortunately and exquisitely aimed for the gaps, continuing its strikes.

Zzzzzing.

The reddish shield, which had been fading in real-time, began to fade much faster from the moment the chains wrapped around it, as if it were melting.

‘As I thought…….’

It’s different from before.

I could feel anew that the witch’s condition was not normal.

But the enemy’s impression seemed quite different from his.

“N-No way!!”

‘Yes way.’

I answered only in my head and gave a faint smile.

Suddenly, I saw cracks forming on the shield.

A recent memory flashed through my mind at that moment.

“Dodge!”

Forcing out his strength, Muno yelled at Chloe and wrapped the shield even more tightly with his chains.

And.

----------BOOM!

With a momentary roar, the chains that had been tightly wrapped around the enemy instantly expanded enough to fill the entire room.

“Kyaa!”

Thud.

As Chloe was flung by the chains with a scream that didn't suit her image and slammed hard against the cave wall.

In Muno’s eyes, he saw the witch, once again enveloped in a red cloud, about to shoot outside.

‘Like I’d let you escape!?’

The explosion was not as powerful as I had expected.

Staggering, he tried to move the chains again to wrap around the fleeing witch.

Only one of the four chains succeeded in catching the fleeing witch’s left ankle.

Cruuunch.

“Ack!?”

Of course, that alone was enough.

‘Got her!’

The chain wrapped around her ankle sucked up the witch’s demonic energy.

The mana of the 4-Circle magician, which I hadn't even digested yet, rebelled inside my body, but.

‘I’ll eat even if my stomach bursts!’

I absorbed the demonic energy by brute force.

“You bastard……!?”

When the witch, with a frantic expression, looked at him with renewed surprise, and the light of the red meteor began to fade slightly.

The other three chains that had missed their mark tried to bind the witch’s body again.

Slice.

At that moment, as if a lie, the witch’s left ankle was severed.

“You baaastard……!!”

Whooooosh!

The moment the chains grasped at empty air, the red cloud once again wrapped around the witch's body, becoming a meteor and escaping the cave.

And.

Kabooooooom!

- I will not forgive you. Ever! Absolutely!

A voice full of resentment echoed inside the cave.

Crack, crackle.

Whatever the witch had done on her way out, cracks formed all over the walls, and the cave began to shake as if it would collapse.

Ruuuuuumble.

“Damn it…….”

Muno, who had glanced at the witch’s severed left foot, groaned and tried to get up, only to flop down again.

He had no strength in his body.

‘Vicious bitch! Damn it.’

Rage surged, but he no longer even had the energy to shout.

While it was hard to even support his body, the only things that moved were his chains.

Rattle.

‘Like I’m gonna die in a place like this!’

Muno first wrapped one chain around the body of Chloe, who seemed to have lost consciousness from the impact of hitting the wall.

Then, dodging the falling rocks, he began to move like a four-legged, no, a three-legged spider toward the hole where light was pouring in.

‘Focus. Focus!’

His speed was by no means fast, but even in the collapsing cave, he found a path forward with exquisite movements.

And.

- Ruuuuuuuuuumble

‘I-I’m alive.’

Barely descending into the forest beyond amid the shock of the entire underground cave collapsing, Muno wrapped both his and Chloe’s bodies entirely in chains, then collapsed face down and passed out.

* * *

“Umm……”

I had a dream.

A dream where the witch who got away, leaving only an ankle behind, mocked me and repeatedly flipped me the bird.

Naturally, I gritted my teeth and swore.

“……Fucking bitch.”

“What, punk?”

……What?

My body flinched naturally at the reply that came in a voice completely different from the witch’s.

Subsequently, as my eyes slowly opened, the vague dream scattered, and a bright light entered my vision.

And a red-haired female knight with a particularly fierce face.

Who……?

Ah.

“……Sir Chloe?”

“You’re gonna pretend you don’t know after just swearing?”

Only after hearing her incredulous voice did Muno remember everything from right before he fainted.

“Ugh!?”

Thud.

I reflexively tried to sit up and back away, but my back hit a hard tree stump right behind me.

“……I, I was talking about that witch. I saw her in my dream. R-Really!”

When I hurriedly made an excuse, the terrifying sister, for once, let out a chuckle and nodded.

“I know.

You did your part. It was me who pathetically failed to do mine.

Even had my life saved. I just said it because I’m embarrassed.”

……If you’re embarrassed, do you usually reprimand someone?

“Hah……”

It was absurd, but once I regained my composure, the surrounding situation came into view.

Not far away was a huge hole, nearly 100 meters wide and sunken in, and the forest around it.

And around us, the corpses of nocturnal predators like wolves, snakes, and pumas, lying sprawled and bleeding.

“……Thank you.”

“For what? Thanks to your chains, I woke up before getting eaten by some random critters.”

Chloe, who turned as if to start a fire, waved a hand.

But that very hand was bloody, as if it had been bitten by some beast.

“Um, your hand, are you alright……?”

“Huh? This? It’ll heal if I lick it.

I woke up thanks to this.

The bastard that made this wound is over there.”

Chloe’s coolly turned chin pointed to a large, sprawled-out puma.

……Indeed, a tough woman.

Even though she was overtly terrifying, if you looked closely, she was quite pretty, with a wild beauty that was subtly different from Karina's, who had a muscularly innocent feel.

‘Don’t tell me, do I like tough women?’

I had a ridiculous thought, then shook my head to clear it away.

‘Are you trying to escape reality? Get a grip…….’

The problem I needed to worry about right now was that I had let the witch escape right before my eyes.

No, it wasn't just that.

‘I showed her all of my abilities. And I still let her get away.’

I had shown that dangerous magician my power to eat magic.

If by some chance, word of my abilities were to reach the Deus Empire through her…….

- Magicians will consider you blasphemy itself. So, do not tell anyone. Ever.

Even without my father’s words, it was easy to guess that something terrible would happen.

‘No, no.

Who would believe the words of an evil cult’s magician?

That won’t happen. Right, I have to think that way. And before something like that could ever happen…….’

I’ll catch that witch again.

The moment I made that resolution.

“We have to chase her again, right?”

“Pardon?”

“That witch. You’re not thinking of ending it like this, are you?”

“……Of course not.”

Chloe brought up the timely words as if scratching an itch.

And.

“The traces are clearer now than they were in Trian.”

I scanned the trajectory of the red meteor heading south, then gritted my teeth and stood up.

“Now, let’s g……”

No, I tried to stand up.

Stagger.

“Uh……?”

Thud.

If only I hadn’t failed to stand properly and just dropped to my knees.

And.

Grrrrrrrrowl.

What a pathetic sight, falling over after making a spirited start.

The loud sound that announced my body’s condition made my face flush red.

“You look like you’ve starved for half a year. Eat up first.”

Chloe held out a skewer of meat with a savory aroma.

“Th-Thank you.”

Before I knew it, I was inhaling it in a flash.

As if she knew I would, Chloe successively handed over similar meat skewers.

Chomp, chomp.

Munch, munch.

Following my instincts, I greedily consumed the meat to live.

Suddenly, a question arose.

I’d heard that beast meat wasn’t fit for human consumption.

Then what is this……?

“By the way, what kind of meat is this?”

“Snake meat.”

“Yikes!?”

“It’s good for you.”

Belatedly, the long, shed-skin-like hide spread out next to Chloe came into view.

“……”

The skewer dropped from Muno’s hand with a thud.

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