Chapter: 206
Iris didn’t slow down and jumped straight into his arms. His warm body enveloped her.
Burying her face in his chest, she took a deep breath.
“Sniff, sob…”
“Uh, uh-oh?”
Lian’s eyes widened in disbelief as he froze. His hands instinctively patted her trembling body, but his mind was filled with confusion, as if he had suddenly woken up from a dream.
Gradually coming to his senses thanks to Iris’s warmth, Lian slowly wrapped his arms around her. That only made Iris’s sobs louder.
The Beastmen had already heard from Jess about Iris and her companions, so they didn’t stop her from suddenly infiltrating the campsite.
Though they kept a weak guard, they discreetly stepped back, not wanting to interrupt the touching family reunion. This allowed Iris to cry her heart out without worry.
After some time had passed and Iris had calmed down a bit,
she tightly held onto Lian’s clothes with her flushed face, trailing behind him. Despite her changed appearance, the way she called him “big brother” filled Lian with deep emotion.
As she stayed at the Beastmen’s campsite, the staff was thrown into chaos.
“We can’t have a noble lady staying in a place like this! Where the beasts reside!”
“We need to bring her back immediately!”
Nobles, who could only flap their mouths, had their eyes gleaming as they plotted ways to charm the already spectacular Iris.
The more sensible ones exchanged looks, their faces serious.
“The fact that the princess is here means the word about the white mask has reached the Duke.”
“Tsk, and we’re still not fully prepared…”
Those who had been scheming using Lian’s body were sweating cold bullets as their eyes darted around.
Their grand and impressive plans had collapsed before they could even begin, so their ambitious ideas were never put into words.
While they were in competition for Lian’s affection, Iris considered Jess and even Noah as family.
Just her visiting gave Noah immense power, making it impossible for the empire’s advisors to touch him with their ridiculous plans.
Iris’s activities didn’t stop there.
“Hand it over.”
“B-but…”
“Why is ‘but’ even in the conversation when it’s my brother’s body?”
Though she cutely tilted her head, the atmosphere was so stern it felt like someone’s head might roll at any moment.
With the God of Dark Fantasy leaving the world, the temple had lost much of its power and influence. Hence, they couldn’t stop the Duke’s wife, known as the battlefield’s hero.
Jess, surprised at how easily she regained her body, fell into serious thought.
“Power… power is important…”
With her eyes shining dangerously, it seemed like this incident had awakened something in her. It was uncertain what direction Jess would grow in, but she wouldn’t be staying innocent or cute for long. As her thoughts leaned toward being more cunning and sexy—Lian quickly shook himself back to reality.
His ears turned slightly red, but no one noticed.
Having acquired his body so easily, Lian found himself back in his own skin again. Inside the tent, it was just him and Lian’s body.
Whether it was due to some arrangement by the priests or just the Gag Filter, Lian’s body still looked perfectly fine as if he had just fainted. There was not even a hint of a corpse’s smell.
Lian reached out and placed his hand on his own body.
‘If I go back to my original body, everything will return to where it belongs. I’ll be able to use the Evil Magic Sword, and the Gag Filter will work properly again.’
Despite the perfect happy ending laid out before him, a strange uneasiness weighed on his heart.
As he tried to suppress his anxiety and was about to exit the black man’s body in soul form, his body twitched.
It felt as if he received a signal that something was wrong. A wave of unease surged from deep within. His hands and lips trembled, and his fingertips turned cold. Confusion clouded his mind due to this unexplainable anxiety.
‘What’s going on? Clearly… returning to my original body will make everything easier… why am I feeling this way?’
Rummaging through his own unease, Lian began searching for the source of his confusion.
‘…If I go back to my original body, I feel like I’ll lose something.’
Accompanied by this unclear intuition, a multitude of questions flooded his mind.
‘I clearly received Gag powers when I crossed into this world. It should have been in soul form, so why is my power weakening just because I left my body?’
‘The difference between when the Gag Filter is full and when it’s not… the difference in my mental state is odd too. Even if I’ve lived long in the Gag world, that was merely ‘adaptation.’ It feels strange to have the same thought patterns as the Gag residents.’
‘The powers I became aware of as my Gag Filter weakened are strange too. I definitely don’t remember getting those powers… why do they feel so familiar?’
The facts he became aware of by severing ties with Gag powers baffled Lian. The unanswered questions spinning in his head led to one conclusion.
‘If I go back to my body like this, everything will unfold like a farce. Just a passing joke.’
It felt like he was going to miss the last opportunity to face all truths.
It was unclear what truth existed, or even if any truth truly existed, but intuitively his mind was filled with the thought that he couldn’t go back to his original body.
‘Let’s take a bit more time to think.’
Just as Lian reached this serious conclusion,
Bam!
“…!”
The lifeless body of Lian, having had its eyes closed, suddenly opened wide and grabbed Lian’s wrist. Naturally resembling a scene straight out of a horror movie, Lian froze in terror.
Instinctively, the Gag Filter activated, and Lian curled up like a fragile girl, lips trembling. Just as a thin, faint scream was about to slip through his parted lips—
Boom!
“….!!”
His body froze at the overwhelming sensation that felt like it was swallowing his soul. The energy that reminded him of how weak, powerless, and insignificant he was felt eerily familiar.
‘This is…!’
He instinctively recognized that the Outsider with profound power had appeared.
“Ugh…!”
Had the power of the Gag Filter halved the reason for his reaction?
Unlike before, he couldn’t ignore the feeling of pressure weighing down on him. Sweat poured down Lian’s face under the choking sensation.
[ Behold. ]
“…!”
At the soul-rending command, his heart sank. The pressure felt as though gravity had increased severalfold, dragging his gaze slowly down as if something was forcing him to look ahead.
His body, which had been lying on a cot, was now standing on two feet, staring back at him.
The brilliant eyes, shimmering as if infused with the light of the sun, pierced straight through him.
It felt like the universe was contained within those eyes, making him dizzy from just gazing into them, filled with a sense of awe. His stomach churned, and he felt like he could spill his guts at any moment.
Before Lian could take any action, his vision began to whiten out.
The world spun chaotically, as if invisible hands were rifling through his mind.
“Ugh…”
With bile rising and his mind becoming hazy,
The temporarily borrowed body of the black-haired man, and Lian’s original body both fell to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.
The Demon God and the God of Dark Fantasy.
As the combined powers of these two gods tried to wreck Lian’s mind and devour him,
Suddenly,
A faint breeze passed through the suffocating space. A gray light spread rapidly from the fallen body of Lian.
The dispersed light extended beyond their realm, engulfing the surrounding land, including the general camp and the battlefield, turning the world into eerie shades of black and white as if it had lost its light.
“What the…!”
“Big brother!”
“Lian..!”
Most people were bewildered by the bizarre situation, while those who held Lian dear screamed with pale faces.
Just as those near began to enter the tent,
Boom.
A forceful tremor shook the ground, accompanied by a violent wind.
“Urgh!”
“Ugh..!”
The unnatural wind was so savage that they couldn’t see even a little in front of them, forcing them to curl up and cover their faces with their arms.
As violently as the wind had picked up, it suddenly calmed, leaving an ominous stillness behind.
“…!”
“No way…”
Noah, Jess, and Iris looked at their surroundings with blank expressions.
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