Chapter 263

Chapter 262 – Awakening Chaos – 2

“……”

I took a step forward, quietly gathering my thoughts. I must not be hasty. Things that could fail might actually do so.

The emotions that had been boiling just moments ago were starting to settle somewhat.

Still, I was relieved that I managed to rescue all four of them just before they were harmed. If those four had been infested by the immortal centipede, I would not have even wanted to imagine what would have happened next.

I only know how to kill the immortal centipede; I have no idea how to return those who have been infested or the monsters back to their original state.

‘I didn’t expect immortality to have such a function.’

The fact that I could come here at all was entirely thanks to immortality.

Suddenly, the immortal appeared behind me, buzzing and shaking all by itself, and Nix, realizing the reason, told me the location the immortal was pointing at.

As soon as Minerva used teleportation, what she showed us was the four surrounded by dozens of immortal centipedes; it was truly a close call. Just a few seconds later, and it would have been the end.

‘That rift is…….’

As my head cooled down, I found some room to calmly survey the surroundings. I slowly glanced around the group of immortal centipedes, which were merely gathering and showing no signs of attacking.

In the midst of the centipede swarm was a large rift that I had closed several times during the era of Brightest Darkness.

The one difference was that, unlike the rift in my memory which was completely black, it was mixed with quite a bit of navy blue. A very familiar combination of black mixed with navy blue.

Since the armor of the immortal centipedes was the same color, it was obvious why that was the case.

‘How much of Eclipse’s power has been drained?’

The fact that it has begun to open means that Eclipse has weakened to the extent that it can no longer properly block this world. That was not a good sign.

In the world of Brightest Darkness 3, it was said that Eclipse started to lose power seriously, causing distortions from which immortal centipedes emerged.

‘There’s not much time.’

That little lizard had recovered enough to open the rift, while Eclipse was visibly weakening as time went on.

Of course, the creature that devours the world hadn’t fully recovered yet. If it had completely healed its injuries, with its temperament, it would have come to my face and tried to kill me instead of opening a rift.

‘For now, shall I deal with those things first and think afterward?’

Even with the immortal centipede right in front, the immortal started shaking violently.

I gripped the handle even tighter. For now, I had to deal with them first; plans could come after that.

ㅡKiiiiiing!

Just as I stepped forward with that thought, a very high and unpleasant sound echoed from the rift. It sounded like scraping iron bowls with a steel spoon.

“……Isn’t it too obvious who opened the rift, little lizard?”

After hearing the metallic sound, I muttered quietly as I saw changes starting to occur in the centipede’s body.

Not only did the color of the armor deepen even more, but grotesque scales sprouted all over. The lower jaw enlarged further, and spiky protrusions rose from it. Its body became about 1.5 times thicker.

The centipedes, now larger, more ferocious, and sturdier, dashed toward me all at once. This only provided more objective evidence of who had opened that rift.

I struck the head of the first centipede to charge, and despite its reinforced appearance, the head easily separated from its body.

The headless body flowed past me, rolling for quite a while before stopping near a rock. The body that lost its head crumpled to the dirt. The place where the first one died was quickly filled by dozens of others.

Now, hesitation was nowhere to be seen among the centipedes. Whether they died or their comrades died, they charged at me with a single-minded desire to bite me to death, risking their own lives.

ㅡCrack!

And in perfect order, they were sliced apart.

I couldn’t care less whether those bastards risked their lives or not.

The immortal was never swung twice at the same centipede. With one swing, I chopped the body apart; with another, I crushed the head; and with yet another, I split the entire body in half.

I walked slowly toward the rift while mechanically chopping up the immortal centipedes. Not a single one among the dozens managed to penetrate into the range of the immortal.

‘Closing the rift comes first.’

As the rapid process of me killing those that charged at me continued, I noticed that their numbers had decreased significantly compared to when I first arrived.

However, the rift, which continued to spit out immortal centipedes, was obstructing that. To avoid a stagnant attrition war, closing the rift was the priority.

I concentrated my power into the immortal and swung it. A crimson wave spread following the trajectory of the rusty sword. The centipedes that were caught in the wave began to dissolve into dust from the severed edges.

I stomped down on the squirming head of a centipede whose body was still in pieces as I walked toward the rift. Green blood splattered nearby.

“Next.”

I muttered words that they wouldn’t understand and turned my gaze. Even though I had already sliced more than a hundred of them in that brief amount of time, their remaining numbers were still overwhelming.

One of them, braver than the others, attempted to leap up from the ground to bite my head. I grabbed its head as it got close, stomped on the body somewhere, and then tore it in half.

The torn body was stabbed with the immortal before it could regenerate. Its movements stopped completely. I carelessly threw away the limp head.

What followed was a one-sided slaughter.

Although the creature that devours the world seemed to have stirred things up, becoming slightly more ferocious and larger, there was absolutely no way the immortal centipedes, attacking without a host, could defeat me.

‘How could mere centipedes do anything?’

How long had it been since that one-sided slaughter began? Only one living immortal centipede remained.

Despite hundreds of its comrades having died, it charged at me without the slightest hesitation, clicking its lower jaw defiantly.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I grabbed its head with my left hand, slammed it to the ground, and stomped on it. Ideally, I would have liked to throw it to Minerva for study, but that was too dangerous.

In the worst-case scenario, something terrible could happen.

With a fwok, I pierced both the centipede’s body and the ground with the immortal. The immortal centipede, pinned to the ground, trembled and then collapsed. I left it as it was and approached the rift.

The rift no longer spat out any more immortal centipedes. Perhaps it realized that no matter how much it tried to charge, it was in vain, or perhaps it had a different agenda altogether.

And I didn’t care much about it. I approached the rift, drew the wingless nightmare, and stabbed inward. The essence of the rift was simply cut away.

The essence severed, the rift shrank and faded away. This was just like the old days.

Eventually, the rift completely disappeared. I counted silently to ten in my mind to prepare for any unforeseen events. After confirming that nothing happened for ten seconds, I turned my body.

As I walked toward where the knight commanders were, I pulled out the immortal with my left hand. The corpse of the centipede heaved heavily.

“……”

Aside from Nix, who was tearing apart a centipede that had fallen nearby, everyone else was staring at me with blank expressions. Especially the knight commanders, who had just been facing those creatures moments ago, looked even more so.

“Uh…… Delta. What just happened? No matter what we did, it wouldn’t die…… Was it that weapon?”

Lize pointed to the immortal in my right hand. The others had similar expressions. Only Nix, who knew the truth, was busy gleefully chopping up the centipede.

“Something like that. I could use this, and I also know how to kill those bastards.”

Originally, there were only two ways to kill an immortal centipede. Either cut away its essence with True Death or use the immortal.

To be precise, the immortal was more of a lower version of True Death that I directly used, so it wouldn’t be wrong to say that there was practically only one method to kill them.

In Brightest Darkness 3, if you completely chopped them up, they couldn’t regenerate anymore, but that was simply a game allowance. Besides, later on, that gimmick would almost be forgotten.

“Then, just like I mentioned before, if we gather all the memories—”

“I couldn’t find all of them. One day, I may, but at least not in the near future.”

Now seemingly satisfied, I turned the immortal around behind me. The immortal seemed to want to attach to my back, then simply vanished. The feeling of the rusty sword pressing against my back also disappeared.

I turned to look at Minerva, who was eagerly listening to our conversation with an intrigued expression.

“Minerva, please check if there’s anything I might have missed. These beings can dig into the ground, so you’ll need to look thoroughly beneath.”

At my request, Minerva snapped her fingers. The blue mana that spread from her rapidly extended to the horizon.

“Nothing at all. These creatures are the end.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Now you can send the knight commanders back to the imperial palace and proceed with the research I mentioned.”

“Understood. Will the child remain here?”

“Yes. I have some cleaning up to do. Nix, stay and help me for a bit.”

“Kihihit, sure.”

Nix, who had switched to a casual manner of speech as soon as the immortal centipede was detected, approached me. Minerva seemed to lift her staff, attempting to use teleportation.

“Oh, wait, Delta!”

Claudia hurriedly approached me. Behind her, Lize, Erica, and Iris followed in line.

“What?”

“I didn’t get a chance to say thank you. Thank you for saving me, Delta. I was really about to die this time. I almost cried the moment I saw you arrive, you know?”

“You don’t look too shaken up, though?”

“You can come to my room later. I’ll squeeze out all my tears, both real and fake, just for you.”

Claudia chuckled.

“Well, in any case, it felt pretty nice.”

“Nice how?”

“Being saved by you in a moment of crisis. I think I can understand why Lize has that taste?”

“Did you call for me?”

The last part was kind of a mutter that barely reached my ears, prompting Lize to peek her head out from behind Erica. Claudia brushed it off with a laugh, claiming it was nothing.

Noticing that they were rambling on about nonsense, I joked that I could have come a bit later. Laughter ricocheted back.

Next to Claudia were Lize and Erica. As soon as Lize got closer, she hugged me excitedly, thanking me and jumping up and down. Her ample chest pressed hard against my chest.

“So, what about you, Erica?”

“……What about me, sister?”

Erica, who was peeking shyly from behind while hugging her weapon as if it were a precious pillow, responded timidly.

“Our Delta was pretty cool just now, right?”

“……”

“You can’t deny it, can you? How long have we known each other that you wouldn’t know? Look, Delta, Erica will come around soon enough!”

Lize laughed heartily. Erica, shoving Lize’s back, scolded her not to say such nonsense but then hesitated for a moment before carefully saying, “Thank you,” and walked away.

Last was Iris. Unlike Claudia who had a refreshing reaction or the rambunctious sisters who were openly loud, Iris approached very quietly.

“Thank you, Delta. If it weren’t for you, I can’t even imagine what would have happened…”

“I missed my chance to say thanks earlier since it was so noisy. So consider it done. I was just doing my job.”

“Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that we owe you our lives. It doesn’t change the fact that you saved us.”

The flush on Iris’s cheeks deepened as she spoke.

“A-And… I will make sure to repay this favor with my… body.”

“Wait, what?”

“Thanks again, Delta!”

Iris hurriedly turned around and went back to the other knight commanders. As soon as she reached them, I saw Lize petting Iris’s head.

It seemed that the blue-haired one was the culprit who had fanned the flames.

“Well, then. See you later, kid.”

Minerva smiled broadly as she vanished with the knight commanders and Parnari through teleportation. Somehow, it felt like an ominous smile.

Nix, on the other hand, had taken my hand and was rubbing her cheeks against it with impunity. While I scratched her cheeks and head to calm myself down, I opened my mouth to ask a question.

“Nix. Is there a possibility for anyone other than me to learn True Death?”