<504 - The Revolutionary's Phase 2>
There’s a term called “Gabulgi.”
It’s an attack that ignores guard.
In other words, it’s a technique that can’t be blocked no matter what.
The Dark Ball I just threw was such a Gabulgi!
I want to defeat Professor Destroyer.
If you don’t charge straight ahead, you can’t maximize your speed.
The professor can regain his stance and breath even with just a moment’s pause to defend himself.
So, even if a suspicious Dark Ball comes flying in, you have to strike.
After all, it’s just an attack from an 11-year-old kid.
Am I really unable to slice through something like that?
The moment I think that, I end up severing the Dark Ball, which I’ve deliberately loaded with penalties to boost its power.
Type – Dark Magic, Life Magic, Enhancement Magic, Vision Magic
Activation – Gathering
Specialization – Omnipotent, Nullification, Absorption, Tracking, Disablement
Penalty – Death upon defeat
But this Dark Ball is a strike infused with a soul!
It’s a hit that adds a death penalty to the [Gathering] function, which affects collection rates.
No matter how much of a difference in rank there is, taking such a hit is impossible.
“Grah!”
The path to slicing through the Destroyer is blocked.
I lightly knock away the annoying tricks of the child and force my way through.
Such a clumsy mindset results in ending up on the ground instead.
“Why could I slice through Havi Nodi, but not that, Professor?”
“Oknodie!”
The clumsiness applies to the professor too.
Your apprentice?
The fifth-ranked of the continent’s top ten thieves, the Mirror Thief?
The revolutionary who raised Havi and Demon King tulips?
Who cares about all that?
You’re the Previous Hero.
You’re undoubtedly the strongest here.
“I came here to buy time, and what do you do by coming here!?”
Now I understand why the professor was helpless.
It was because of me.
“Gasp! You thought I was just a waste of space without the Masugaki Princess?!”
Now that’s a bit shocking.
The professor treated me like a loser!
“Cough cough! Such a spectacle. You have a fully-grown apprentice in front and a childish one behind. Lilia, you’ve been overshadowed by the little apprentice?”
“Shut up. I know without you saying.”
“Castro. How long do you intend to feign illness? I understand you have no face to show after being outdone by the Destroyer’s little apprentice, but time isn’t on our side.”
The fallen swordsman sprang to his feet and swung his sword.
It looked like Oknodie’s ankle would split, but from a distance, the unharmed Oknodie covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.
“Puh puh~ It was just an afterimage!”
Underestimating the Dark Ball, Castro got hit by a direct explosion but stood unharmed, an impressive feat.
I intended to stomp his head, but it seems he was already prepared!
“A magical defense able to withstand the Sword Demon’s blade? That’s frighteningly impressive for the little apprentice of the Previous Hero. If I don’t kill you today, I might regret it for life.”
“Gah! The Revolutionary Army’s second assault leader, Sword Demon Castro, dares to recognize an 11-year-old as a worthy opponent? I’m so scared. I can’t even sleep alone at night!”
“Damn brat…”
A bright yellow honey-colored sword light pulsated above Castro’s sword.
“The luck you’ll never see again just ended. If you thought you could spare a child, that would be a gigantic mistake.”
“Oknodie first-year student!”
Even with Myung So’s shout, I stepped forward instead of stepping back.
The three Sword Demons, following the revolutionary, are as powerful as the upper ranks of the continent’s top ten thieves.
They’re direct disciples of the Multicolor Magic Tower’s leader and possess talent on par with or rivaling the lower ranks of the continent’s top ten thieves.
In short, they’re sixth-tier strong.
There’s no way I’m that close with just strength at tier five.
The gap is so wide that I must risk my life to block one strike while the enemy is careless.
Against an unassailable Sword Demon, putting my life on the line won’t even be close to enough.
[Heritage of the Old God]
[The Authority of the Three Laws - One Style All Things Impermanent]
However, the lessons of the old god, Shakyamuni, from the Eastern Region have some interesting gimmicks.
All things are impermanent.
The universe and all things are not constant, and everything changes.
If you mix that realization with function activation, the level of your martial arts or magic temporarily changes.
To put it simply?
[Level Rental]
You can demonstrate greater power once in exchange for a future strike that will be less powerful than this one.
It’s a miraculous technique of borrowing a level and repaying it in the future.
If I could vaguely recognize a higher level, I would’ve only managed that mediocre strike.
Yet here I am, remarkably the player.
I know every step of my future path.
There’s no one in the world who can use impermanence as well as I can!
Over the past month, I’ve practiced how to utilize the powers I’d gain in advance.
The fruits of that month are now unfolding in my hands.
<5th Level Dimension Ball>
Combining all possible attributes to counter all kinds of attacks with a 3rd Level Rainbow Ball and a 4th Level Dark Death Ball ramped up with Dark Mana overload.
Just like the Demon King’s [Instant Death Ray], the gods’ pitiful [Heresy Declaration], and Dragon Principal Omoshiroi’s [Academic Warning], once activated, they create chaos— the 4th Level has been the limit.
However, even world-boss level strong beings unleash even dirtier and more dangerous instant-death attacks when their instant kills are thwarted.
“How about I not just make Death Balls single-use and instead layer them across dimensions?”
This is the so-called Rainbowization layering operation for the Death Ball!
Utilizing the characteristics of the Rainbow Ball, which handled all types of attributes, I’ll concurrently unleash them across diverse dimensions and different attributes.
One dimension, one attribute.
If I can slice the visible air, then an attack from an attribute dimension that the sword cannot sever will suddenly pop up, penetrating the enemy’s attack and colliding.
BOOM CRASH It bombards and triggers instant death—a vicious attack!
“This is insane.”
With the flash rush, Castro’s deadly acceleration took a sharp turn.
[Sword Demon’s Intuition]
One of the upper functions in the sensory skill tree, [Momentary Intuition], sensed a future where confronting me would result in merciless slaughter.
To counter the Dimension Ball, you’d need holy-type spells striking all overlay coordinates or dimension-type spells compressing the overlay coordinates into one—something a mere Sword Demon class swordsman can’t block!
SWISH!
Jumping high, Castro dodged the Dimension Ball’s path while the ball split and followed him, leaving afterimages behind.
[Tracking]
A phenomenon where the air, split across different dimensions, chases after Castro in its own unique tracking methods!
The scattered air rejoined and pursued the fleeing Castro from behind.
“Slice the brat first!!”
At Castro’s shout, the remaining two Sword Demons aimed their swords at me.
But of course, Professor Destroyer and Myung So wouldn’t just stand idle.
[Double Boundary]
<5th Form - Boundary Out of Reach>
Applying vertical pressure pushes outwards from a specific coordinate, causing the movement speed of the two Sword Demons taking a direct hit to noticeably slow down.
[Finishing Move - Explosive Pressure Sword]
[Finishing Move - Absorption Sword]
Before even reaching me, their finishing moves activated in an attempt to decrease pressure within Destroyer’s intensely dense area; they floundered and burned away.
Can’t reach.
Can’t endure.
The Sword Demons were helplessly pushed back.
Behind them, the revolutionary and Lilia unleashed combined techniques directed at Professor Destroyer.
“If there wasn’t enough time for training, simply push through with force.”
[Sword Light Mirror]
[Fragment of Enlightenment]
Using top-tier buff techniques to forcibly extract and materialize the enlightenment contained within that momentary spark.
The highest-level functions raining down from everywhere were matched by Myung So’s hands, protecting Professor Destroyer.
<108 Prayer Beads>
[Transformation Technique - King of Monkeys’ Curse]
The legendary treasure [King of Monkeys] that uniquely controlled the infamous god of trouble, Sun Wukong, was shot towards the revolutionary.
CLACK!
Just as it was forced onto his head, the pressure of the King of Monkeys eagerly burrowed into his scalp.
With every use of mana, the pain of King of Monkeys tighten in his head became the highest-grade curse that forcibly seals all mana before the curse takes effect.
“Revolutionary!”
Cough cough. “A timely sacrifice. However, having your abilities sealed right here isn’t exactly pleasing. So, let’s switch places. Miss Wessker?”
“Did you call?”
“Let’s borrow your head for a moment.”
“…I can only foresee a bad omen from this flow, you know?”
Ignoring the call and stepping back, for some reason, Wessker met the revolutionary’s gaze and walked right up to him.
Under a trance, Wessker stood before him as he placed his hand on her head.
[Viola’s Alchemy]
[Forced Exchange]
The King of Monkeys, which was placed on Lilia’s head, was sucked into the revolutionary’s hand and promptly secured onto Wessker’s head.
“You! Don’t tell me you came all the way here to throw me under the bus?!”
“Passing off the curse that prevents a magician out of mana from using more mana is quite economical, I’d say?”
“You scoundrel! Is this what you do to the one who turned their back on the Red Magic Tower and followed you?!”
Cough cough. “Please, try not to resent me too much. As a double spy for the Foundation, you’ve been enjoying the information shared by the Revolutionary Army, haven’t you?”
“…!”
All this conflicting exchange took place in barely a minute.
The Masugaki Princess, hiding secretly behind a pillar, couldn’t hide her tension and swallowed hard!
It’s definitely enough to leave even a player like me, still just a first-year student, struggling to keep up with the battle tempo.
But a minute was enough.
Until the poison of the transparent mosquito tossed Castro’s body, which was dodging the Dimension Ball with reckless speed, began to waver.
“Urgh!”
In just one second of imbalance due to the poison, a strike from the Dimension Ball connected.
If you get hit once, every overlapping attack from various dimensions would naturally follow.
POOF POOMP!
CRASH CRACK BOOM!
The late-arriving Castro raised his sword, attempting to defend against the layered attacks with a god-like strike, but the blasts from various attributes exploding nearby only slowed and weakened him further.
[Disease][Frostbite][Slow][Burn][Vision Impediment][Paralysis]
With each Dimension Ball he deflected, the accumulating debuffs reduced the Sword Demon’s responsiveness, and at some point, he couldn’t fully deflect the Dimension Balls anymore.
Once the aftermath of the severed attacks allowed a massive explosion again following the first strike, he was helplessly swept into a chain explosion.
His body, unable to maintain balance, fell to the ground like a withered leaf.
[You have defeated Sword Demon Castro.]
The revolutionary’s right hand.
One of the elite subordinates fell to the attack of a first-year Academy Student.
An unrivaled speed of power across all exchanges!
Even the experience gained from taking down Castro allows for an even more significant growth trajectory than before.
For me, already on the ascent, this place is nothing short of a banquet!
“Wow! A Sword Demon is said to have perished at the hands of a mere first-year Academy student? It’s unbelievable, even seeing it with my own eyes.”
A dangerous curiosity flickered in the revolutionary’s eyes.
As if he’d discovered a tempting morsel.
“Lilia, what do you think of that talent?”
“The Destroyer’s ally said I was a once-in-a-hundred-years genius. If that person had seen that child, they’d probably call them a once-in-a-thousand-years genius.”
“Even if I raised you, if you couldn’t kill Oknodie, which of the Revolutionary or Destroyer would benefit here?”
“Of course, it’s the Destroyer.”
“Then it’s decided. Let’s open the Gate of the Netherworld.”
“How?”
The revolutionary covered his eyes.
“You once said the eyes are mirrors reflecting the mind. Don’t you wonder how many phantoms lie within my heart?”
The man, who had forced many sacrifices from countless people, the revolutionary.
I had a hunch that if everyone opened that man’s door, a tremendous event would unfold.
I was convinced that this revolutionary had taken Lilia under his wing with this intent in mind.
