“Ha!”
Lishe let out a short sound and stepped back. Blood dripped from her arm, cut by Jinzou’s nails.
Seeing Lishe’s reaction, Jinzou smiled confidently.
“Hero!”
A sharp strike aimed at the back of Jinzou’s head. It was Tanya’s sword energy. Jinzou dodged by leaning forward.
Tanya spun around to create a defensive barrier, standing with her back to Lishe while keeping Jinzou in check.
With her opposite arm, Tanya thrust a second sword between her elbows. Lishe received the sword and immediately unleashed her mana explosion without hesitation.
—Chaechaeng!
Tanya attacked from the left while Lishe struck from the right, creating a coordinated assault against Jinzou. Jinzou blocked them in a precise rhythm.
However, no master on the continent could withstand the promised synergy between a Hero and a Swordmaster bound by their priestly relationship.
“Mmm.”
As the twelfth strike passed, the sword energy pierced between Jinzou’s fingers and exploded against his side. His neat suit became tattered, and his glasses cracked.
“Hah!”
Tanya briefly released mana. Jinzou’s body was lifted by the resulting storm, crashed into the ceiling, then fell back down.
—Kururung!
The aura Tanya shot reverberated throughout the underground, causing a tremendous tremor. Even though she had only used a tiny bit of her strength, it was that powerful.
Lishe attacked Jinzou, who was falling, just barely avoiding being hit by twisting her neck to the limit. Kadeuk! The blade scraped the ground. Preparing for the next attack, Lishe spoke.
“Master! The aura is dangerous. If we’re not careful, the underground will collapse, not to mention the city!”
“I agree.”
Tanya nodded and sharpened her sword energy even more before charging forward.
“This won’t do.”
Jinzou tossed his glasses aside. His eyes gleamed with a magical glow.
Snap! From a fallen position, he swung his long legs heavily, knocking Lishe down.
A transformation was occurring in his body. His physique became skeletal. His teeth grew more ferocious, and his body became beast-like, tearing his suit to shreds.
Additional payment of the price. He had further gained strength by sacrificing blood and soul.
“What a trick.”
Tanya sensed danger. The enemy’s level was rising. She couldn’t use her aura, so this was her last chance to suppress him.
Perhaps feeling a bit anxious, Jinzou burst forth with his magic right as Tanya’s step widened.
BANG! Tanya lost her sense of direction due to the explosion. After creating some distance, in that moment—
“Ugh.”
Tanya had a wound on her arm.
Blood dripped from the two holes in her sturdy adamantium armor.
Jinzou smiled gently, revealing his even more menacing fangs.
“Damn.”
Without hesitation, Tanya spun her sword. She intended to cut off the bitten arm, but Jinzou was one step ahead.
—Kuwung!
Something heavier than a steel pendulum dropped in her mind.
A horrible sensation made her vision flicker. Tanya lost consciousness.
“Another Swordmaster, huh? I like you.”
Jinzou expressed his joy unabashedly through Tanya’s mouth.
He had taken Tanya away.
It was a serious situation.
Lishe realized the danger and immediately rushed toward Jinzou’s main body. Having shifted Tanya’s soul, the main body should be unable to react.
—Kaaang!
But the Swordmaster’s feet were faster still. Tanya—Jinzou was already there, parrying Lishe’s sword.
“This is the worst.”
Lishe unconsciously gripped her hands tighter.
How could she, the best swordsman in the empire, handle this?
“This is bad.”
Lars, assessing the situation accurately, quickened his pace toward the Holy Sword.
“I never thought Tanya would let her guard down. Lishe can’t win alone.”
Instead of infecting like a minion, he was controlling her own soul, making healing remedies ineffective against him.
“If I take down the main body, it might release her…”
It was clear to any observer that Lishe was at a disadvantage. Lars increased his speed.
He climbed up the collapsed structures like a cliff. It was possible only due to his enhanced strength.
In no time, he dashed up and pulled out the handle lodged in a gap.
“Tanya.”
In the lightless space, a pure white blade sparkled as if responding to Lars.
—Watch your back; we lost the Swordmaster!
No, it was actually answering him.
“What? Why can I hear your voice?”
—Huh? Lars, can you hear me?
“Yeah. It’s ringing directly in my head.”
Lars checked the status window.
[Counseling C has been ranked up to B.]
[A patient whose medical examination progress exceeds 50 can communicate directly about their psychology.]
“Everything’s changing. Let’s use it since it’s convenient.”
In this urgent situation, even Charles was desperate, so their connection fortuitously established.
[Duration of Giant Potion: 320 seconds.]
Lars dismissed the alert on his status window. There were only about five minutes left of time to run around freely.
“You looked unwell earlier. Did you get hit by a mental attack?”
—Not that. I just let my guard down a bit.
“What should we do? Do you think returning it to Lishe will work?”
Charles sighed deeply.
—The opponent is Tanya in her prime. The person controlling her is Jinzou, and although I’m confident he can’t use aura, I can’t guarantee anything.
Charles sank into thought. Even if he took Lishe’s body, could he win?
After a moment of silence, Charles proposed something.
—Lars, what about Jinzou’s main body?
“It’s closed. It seems that focusing hard is needed to control someone like Tanya.”
—Then wouldn’t attacking the main body be faster?
“I thought of that too, but I’ve used up all the dynamite.”
—You should approach and slash with the Holy Sword.
Lars was horrified by Charles’s suggestion.
“Do you really think that’ll work? Tanya told me not to think about using a sword. Plus, it won’t have any effect, even if I swing it.”
—There’s a plan.
Charles spoke with conviction. Lars nodded.
Holding the Holy Sword, Lars moved carefully behind a crumbled structure, avoiding Jinzou’s line of sight.
Quietly, he approached step by step.
Finally, reaching the range, Lars raised the Holy Sword above his head.
“I can’t hold back any longer.”
Clang!
Jinzou swiftly distanced himself from Lishe and dashed toward his main body in an instant. Tanya’s light body charged at Lars like a flash.
—Lars, be careful!
Lars instinctively reacted. He adopted the defensive posture he learned from Tanya and barely blocked the attack with Kaan!
But that was the limit. The following attack came at him with blinding speed, aimed sharply at Lars’s neck.
Pang!
As Jinzou’s sword struck and distorted the trajectory, a large shockwave surged through.
Jinzou turned his gaze. There was Acella, who had just climbed up the crumbling structure.
She crossed her arms and bent down her second finger.
It was an instant magic casting.
For a moment, he felt pressure from her fierce gaze.
“Yaaah!”
Jinzou felt the weight sinking upon him. Lishe, who had caught up, was dashing forward.
He was hit. A gap had opened.
“Now!”
Snap!
Lars thrust the Holy Sword with all his might into Jinzou’s main body.
“Ugh…!”
In that moment, Jinzou’s vision flashed.
Sparks erupted in his mind. His soul destabilized.
Lars staggered back, the Holy Sword cleanly piercing through his chest. Mana seeped out from the wound. Drops of blood trickled from his mouth.
With that, his consciousness began to dim.
He felt his control increasingly unstable, as if he were disappearing.
‘What’s happening?’
Jinzou couldn’t comprehend the situation.
He was controlling the body of the Swordmaster.
Of course, if the main body died, he would too. But he had just sacrificed to amplify his magic to the maximum. Being pierced through the chest was not a lethal wound.
Since his soul was separated over here, the damage to the main body shouldn’t have transmitted.
At that moment, his physical body opened its eyes.
“Ha, I didn’t think this would actually work.”
The main body started to speak.
It was not him. But he understood the phenomenon.
Just as he controlled the Swordmaster’s body using his child body, someone was controlling his body as if it were their child body.
“The Hero, perhaps?”
Jinzou identified the identity of the other.
The Holy Sword contained someone’s soul. Having observed humans, he quickly realized there were two souls within the Hero.
The Hero bound to the Holy Sword had taken control of his body.
“Hey, bat.”
Even with magical energy and blood pouring out, his body was on the verge of death, yet—
Charles spoke to Jinzou, laughing more joyfully than ever.
“Wanna bet on who gets control of your body?”
Boom!
A heavy weight dropped in Jinzou’s mind.
The sensation of being controlled as if he were a child body.
It was the premonition of losing his soul.
‘Are you trying to expel me? From my own body?!’
Jinzou clenched his fists tightly. Gritting his teeth.
The fight of souls was a battle of mental strength.
He had gathered humans and imprisoned souls countless times.
He could hardly believe that an existence with enough mental strength to push him back existed in this world.
“Oh, oh oh.”
No talent, hero, or master had ever weighed as lightly as a feather when measured against his soul.
Now, even the soul of the Swordmaster he had just taken didn’t succumb without a fight.
What kind of experiences had this soul, trapped within the Holy Sword, endured to obtain such a heavy soul?
‘I must expel him.’
His body was captured by the Hero, rendering him unfree. He needed another means.
A good mediator had appeared.
Right in front of him was a doctor, staggering after swinging the Holy Sword.
Gothberg. A suitable talent he wanted to use as a child body.
‘If I control Gothberg and pull the Holy Sword from the main body…!’
With that thought, Jinzou desperately reached out. His hand barely touched Gothberg’s robes.
In an instant, he snatched Lars. Crunch! He bit his arm in an instant. It became a vicious meal but created ample time to shift souls.
“Teacher!”
Lishe gasped at the sight.
But it was already too late.
Jinzou attempted to transfer his soul from the Swordmaster’s body into Gothberg.
However.
‘Ugh… Ugh?!’
—Bang, bang, bang, KWAANG!
A shock far beyond that of the Hero struck his soul.
His head rang as if it had been hit multiple times by a giant hammer, and his vision spun.
‘What the hell?!’
Lars Gothberg’s soul was far more, incomparably heavier and stronger.
As if he had witnessed the end of the world hundreds of times over.
The maturity of the soul was on a totally different level.
‘This is just a bad day.’
He knelt involuntarily before that overwhelming experience.
For the first time in his life, Jinzou held a sense of reverence for a human.
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