“Are you not following me?”
Whoosh!
We managed to escape safely.
Only after arriving at a city far away could we finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But honestly, this place is still too dangerous to let our guard down.
Anyone who has felt Yerina’s chase would agree.
‘It’s unexpected that Tracilvia has joined Yerina’s pursuit team.’
The problem is that it’s not just Yerina chasing me.
Of all things, she’s with Tracilvia.
She claims to have been captured by Yerina and marked as a slave… but…
From what I see, that’s a load of crap.
She probably provoked Yerina, deliberately lost, and claimed to be a slave.
Moreover, since the heart of a Blood Ghoul is stopped, the binding of the slave contract magic isn’t as strong.
If Tracilvia can break the telekinesis with ease, she could probably dispel it quickly but is leaving it for some reason.
Maybe she just wants to gauge my full power…
What a deranged girl.
I’m embarrassed to call her my friend.
‘And she’s much stronger than I thought…’
Since I’ve only seen Tracilvia’s ordinary side so far, it seems I’ve unconsciously underestimated her.
In a real battle, not just a match or spar, Tracilvia was a literal monster.
She knew the skills I could counter and learned new ones on the fly.
A nightmare incarnate.
Fighting Tracilvia alone is bound to be a loss.
Just her using a new technique means she’ll come back even stronger next time.
Unless I can end it right there, running away is my best bet.
Didn’t someone say she inflicted a fatal wound on Taesu in his prime?
I thought they only barely won thanks to the Four Heavenly Kings teaming up back then.
But maybe Tracilvia could have beaten Taesu all by herself.
‘I even know that the current Four Heavenly Kings are stronger than the ones back when Tracilvia was around.’
I’m starting to get really scared.
Right now, I can overpower Kali and Belphegor in close combat, but imagining them getting stronger than Tracilvia later is terrifying.
Fortunately, I managed to catch Kali early on and dealt with her resurrection, so that’s one less worry.
I’ve won Sola over to my side.
Now it’s just Belphegor and Luna left.
‘Only the tricky ones remain.’
Belphegor has a habit of borrowing the bodies of contractors or parasitically attaching his demonic energy to others like he did with Tay.
Luna controls corpses in the form of an intangible spiritual body, like a puppet…
They’re both such annoying foes.
If I let them escape and run into them later, I might be in hell.
‘I need to learn spirit summoning soon.’
No matter how many times Luna’s puppets are destroyed, it won’t be effective.
So what I need right now is spirit summoning.
I need a way to eliminate a spiritual body entirely.
Originally, I was postponing Luna’s appearance since she was the last on the list.
But with her threat increasing now, I need to learn spirit summoning and dispose of her as soon as possible.
I’ve prepared a surprise gift in Cologne for Belphegor.
An undercover double agent, Sola.
Sola currently thinks I’m a hero chosen by the heavens.
I even felt it was a stretch, yet she fell for it easily.
Upon hearing about the commotion in Cologne, Belphegor will rush over to check what’s going on.
The moment he meets Sola, he’ll be taken out by her.
But the success rate of this operation isn’t that high.
Luna noticed Sola’s turn and escaped alive.
If Belphegor encounters Luna on the way here, he might catch on to the operation, but if they miss each other, we could hit the jackpot.
I could eliminate one of the Four Heavenly Kings without lifting a finger.
I love to get it easily, but that could backfire…
“Life is all about chances.”
As if it read my thoughts, the Magic Sword in my hand vibrated and chimed in.
Since it was so noisy, I tried to seal it back inside its scabbard, but the Magic Sword kept apologizing, claiming it made a mistake.
I guess it was scared of being all alone in the pitch-black dark without eyes or ears.
So I decided to hold onto it a little longer.
“Ugh, my hand hurts. I’m about to break it swinging this without a hilt.”
Gloves… are you really going to wear them…?
“I’m going to wear them. Why?”
If I wear gloves… won’t I be alone again…?
The Magic Sword’s voice suddenly turned gloomy.
It seems it fears that without skin contact, our conversations would stop.
“Okay. I’ll just wrap some bandages around my palm.”
Really?!
At that, the Magic Sword’s voice regained some liveliness.
‘I used it to help me fight Zenon too. I might need its help even more in the future.’
If the Magic Sword was just noisy, I would have absolutely worn gloves and never talked to it again.
But thanks to being able to converse with the Magic Sword in this battle, I received its help.
If it weren’t for it, I wouldn’t have been able to cut through Zenon’s magic and would have blown up.
Maybe, just maybe. I’m not sure… but if I’m lucky to meet my true body, I might be able to take control of it.
“Are you sure?”
Not certain… that’s why I said maybe.
Taking control of the true body sounds tempting.
Even if Belphegor is the weakest among the Four Heavenly Kings, if I can subdue him for free, that would be a monumental achievement.
But what worries me is, if the Magic Sword takes over the true body, will it still treat me favorably?
So far, it’s been obedient since it doesn’t have a proper body and is dependent on me.
But its true nature is still a fragment of Belphegor.
Once it gets its true body, won’t it become just like Belphegor?
Giving it too much power is dangerous.
It seems I won’t be letting my guard down around the Magic Sword anytime soon.
“And how about you? What do you think of her?”
“Huh?”
Hmm…
Pointing to herself, the Nameless girl tilted her head, her eyes sparkling.
With long hair flowing down, she was busy tearing into the meat she held, staring at me.
Then when I waved my hand as if to dismiss her, she went back to tearing at the meat fiercely.
It’s like watching an under-socialized werewolf.
I can definitely feel Kali’s energy. But I’m confused. I know this isn’t Kali herself, but she looks so much like her.
“Looks just like Kali… Do you think you’ll be chased?”
Not really. I can only notice because I see her face and smell her scent closely; I can’t define her as Kali just by magic or mana.
I think the same way.
This girl definitely has something to do with Kali, but the body she has now is just a plain human one without any magic.
There’s no worry about being chased.
Tracilvia only caught onto the Nameless girl after seeing her face, so I’m sure of that.
But she’s a problem for later.
How she grows later on.
Right now, she looks like a small, cute, harmless girl, but…
What if she grows and develops a spider body, becoming a terrifying creation?
“Hmm… Is she cute in her own right…?”
Kali in my past life was attractive in her own way.
It was scary thinking about that massive front paw coming down on me, but objectively, she was quite beautiful.
Even if the Nameless girl grows into that form, if I raise her kindly, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Now I’ve got to worry about parenting too.
“Hey, just eat in your spider form. Why transform into a human to waste food?”
“Uuuu! Huh!”
Despite my scolding, the Nameless girl grinned broadly with meat and seasoning smeared all over her mouth.
It seems she’s saying it’s delicious by lifting the meat.
Seeing that, I couldn’t continue my nagging.
A smile unwittingly spread across my face.
“Feeling sleepy after eating?”
“Uuuh…”
Before long, she had devoured all that meat and was yawning as she wobbled over to me.
Then, with a thud, she collapsed into me, resting her chin on my shoulder and drifting off to sleep.
I thought she would quickly turn back into a spider, but…
“Hey. Hey. Turn into a spider and sleep. Don’t just lie here. Hey!”
Huff…
No matter how much noise I made, she feigned ignorance and curled up between my legs,
letting out a contented giggle as she sank deeper into sleep.
Now, I can’t move at all.
What if an ambush happens while I’m like this…?
‘Am I instinctively recognizing that it’s safe now?’
Since the moment before fighting Tracilvia to the time I completely fled, the Nameless girl had been alert, with her hairs standing on end in spider form.
But as soon as we entered a safe zone, she transformed back into a human, so her senses are apparently sharper than ours.
Looking at her ears perked up even now, it seems she could even perceive enemy movements farther away while sleeping.
‘Like a radar. Impressive.’
I’ll have to test her abilities further to understand more…
But right now, I’m utterly exhausted.
Having to flee and erase traces all night has drained me both physically and mentally.
The moment I make even a single mistake, the keen-eyed Yerina will chase me down to the ends of the earth…
“Let’s sleep.”
“Huurgh…”
The weather’s gotten cooler lately, so it’s getting chilly sleeping with Mi Jeong now.
But maybe it’s just perfect having a hot pack right next to me.
Just as I was about to lie down and try to sleep while hugging the Nameless girl, two red lights suddenly appeared in the dark.
“…What are you doing?”
Mi Jeong woke up.
