Chapter 294: Chapter 294
"Uhh..."
A weak groan fell from Raon's lips, despite him having been as still as the dead after putting on the helmet.
Merlin's lips curved up into a smile as she observed Raon's trembling chin.
"It must be almost over."
Considering the fact that his body was showing a reaction, she figured the fight between Loctar and Raon in the mental world must've ended.
'His willpower was even stronger than I expected...'
She expected him to wake up right after Loctar got used to his new body, but it took more than three hours for him to take over. Merlin realized that Raon's willpower was far more powerful than she'd thought.
'Loctar still ended up winning, though.'
Raon's eyes were red. Considering the blue light radiating from the mask's eye sockets, Loctar must've emerged victorious.
'I did a good job of feeding him the Soul Nullifying Water beforehand.'
If she hadn't added the Soul Nullifying Water into the elixirs, the battle inside his mental world would've been prolonged and Loctar might even have ended up losing. She had used up most of the elixirs she possessed, but she was satisfied with the result.
Whir!
Merlin made Raon float from his chair with psychokinesis and laid him on the ground.
Since it was necessary to prevent all kinds of external stimulation after the soul started taking over the body, it was far better to make him lie on the ground rather than sit on the chair.
'Am I finally going to get to see him...?'
Loctar was a knight who protected her, but more importantly, he was her family and had been with her for her entire life. Her heart was already pounding from the anticipation of being reunited with Loctar after hundreds of years.
Even though she hadn't even slept or rested for over a week, she didn't feel tired at all. She just wanted to see him.
Merlin confirmed Raon's safety before stepping away and looking around. Soul Severing Sword was staring at Raon with the exact same posture he'd been in since the beginning.
"What about you?"
"..."
Soul Severing Sword didn't respond to Merlin's question, he just kept staring at Raon.
"Doesn't it feel ticklish?"
"..."
Soul Severing Sword's shoulders trembled very slightly.
Merlin narrowed her eyes while looking at Soul Severing Sword, as if she expected his reaction.
"I'm sorry, but..."
She turned her head back to the front. She bit her lip while looking at the blue light emerging from the dragon helmet.
"I'm also desperate. I can't back down on this."
* * *
"Aww..."
Wrath sniffled, rubbing his bruised eye with his round hand.
"You are the fifth person who has punched the King of Essence."
"Fifth? You've been beaten up by so many people before."
Raon chuckled while looking at Wrath, who had turned blue—like a tropical fruit flavored cotton candy.
"Are you sure you are a demon king?"
"Don't misunderstand! It's the number of people who tried to punch him, and not all of them have managed! You are the first one to beat him up so badly among those five!"
Wrath screamed in resentment.
"Kuh, he can't even count how many times he was beaten up anymore!"
"Ah, I've been counting. I hit you exactly 294 times."
"Uhh..."
Wrath's jaw dropped, since he didn't expect the number to be so high.
"294 times? Seriously, 294 times? Don't you ever get tired?"
"You wouldn't have realized it, but you are so fun to beat up in your current form."
Raon smiled faintly at the growling Wrath.
Wrath was completely full inside, despite having a round shape, and he was the perfect size to beat up. He was pretty much the highest-grade sandbag floating in the air. Raon was almost getting addicted to beating him up.
"The King of Essence... even though he is the monarch of Devildom, a mere human beat him 294 whole times. This is a dream. This has to be a dream..."
Wrath must've been really sad about it, since he buried his face in his plump arms and shivered. Despite the overwhelming power and beauty he showed earlier, he was despairing at the reality of the fact that he was nothing but a tropical cotton candy.
"I'm sorry, but my revenge hasn't even gotten started."
Raon smiled coldly at the whining Wrath.
"H-How come you haven't even gotten started? You can't possibly be planning to beat him up even more! You already beat him up 294 whole times, yet you still want to hit him even more. You must have no conscience at all!"
Wrath was rambling at least twice as fast as usual. He must've really wanted to avoid getting beaten up even more.
"I'm not going to beat you up anymore. I'm a reasonable person, after all."
"Th-Then what..."
"You told me earlier that you were going to force me to eat mint chocolate three times a day, right?"
"Err..."
Wrath's eyes trembled like a pendulum. He seemed to be even more afraid then when he thought he would get beaten up even further.
"The meals from now on are going to be a single Nadine bread. I'm not going to eat anything else at all."
"You freak! The King of Essence enjoys eating mint chocolate ice cream, at least! I'm sure you also hate that bread, which tastes like rubber!"
"I'm fine with it."
Raon nodded nonchalantly. Since he never cared about taste because of his previous life, he didn't really mind the taste as long as it filled his stomach.
"Err..."
Wrath realized that Raon was serious about it upon seeing his eyes.
"No! That's the last thing he can allow!"
He unleashed his wrath and coldness, shouting that it could never be allowed to happen.
However, they were extremely weak because he'd exhausted too much power from manifesting his main body.
"Eating Nadine bread is a torture! Even real rubber would taste better than that!"
Wrath punched Raon with his coldness, trying to rebel with the small amount of power he had.
"There's a saying in the human realm."
Raon tilted his chin and raised his right fist.
"Punch my back, and I'll punch yours."
Raon punched Wrath at the same moment Wrath pounced at him. Wrath was bounced back like a rubber ball and slammed into a corner.
"Kuah, y-you hit him so damn hard..."
Wrath was flat on the ground. His jaw dropped.
"I went easy on you."
Raon snickered. If he hadn't controlled his power, Wrath would've been completely crushed and snapped.
"A-Anything but Nadine bread. Beat the King of Essence up instead if you will."
Wrath closed his eyes as he spoke. He was trying to change the menu until the moment he fainted. Raon was almost amazed at how much obsession he had with food.
"I wasn't finished talking though."
He was also going to mention that he was never going to eat mint chocolate ever again, but he held himself back because he felt like Wrath really would die from shock.
Raon turned his head to the right. A baby dragon that looked like a lizard was flat on the ground. It was Loctar, who had lost the ownership of the space after admitting his defeat.
"It's your turn now. Do you want another beating before we start? Or do you..."
"I've already admitted my defeat. Ask anything you want before I disappear."
Loctar sighed briefly and closed his eyes.
"Disappear?"
"The loser of a battle of souls is bound to be absorbed into the winner's soul and disappear. That's why it's pointless to beat me up right now."
He bowed calmly. It was probably because he wanted to be a knight in his last moments that he looked so different from his first impression.
Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at Loctar.
'He did become blurrier for sure.'
Unlike Wrath, who was still maintaining his shape after getting beaten up almost 300 times, Loctar's appearance had become translucent.
Just like Loctar had said, the loser was apparently bound to be absorbed into the winner's soul and disappear.
"Since we don't have much time, I'll ask the questions quickly. Is the Merlin outside the real Merlin?"
"Yes."
"How is she still alive even though she is a historical figure from hundreds of years ago?"
"She isn't alive."
"Does that mean that she died and got revived?"
"The magician who was allied with us back then retrieved her soul from her frozen corpse after she perished."
"Does that mean that the magician in question is something like one of Eden's ancestors, and their descendent engraved Merlin's soul into a mask?"
He thought it was strange from the first time he saw Merlin. It was because her white hands and lips couldn't possibly belong to an old woman.
"Yes, as far as I know."
Loctar nodded, telling him that Merlin's voice had told him so.
"Honestly, I don't know the whole story. I've been locked up in here all along, and the occasional voice of the princess was all I could hear."
"Hmm..."
He was right. The information he needed to get from Loctar wasn't about Eden, but about the world they were currently in.
"What's going to change if your soul gets absorbed into mine?"
"Your soul level is going to increase drastically. You will also be able to use my abilities."
"Your abilities?"
"In short, your aura will increase, and you will acquire the swordsmanship and coldness manipulation that I used to use. They will allow you to reach a higher level of martial arts."
Loctar seemed to have made up his mind as he told him everything because his death was near. It was rather unexpected, because Raon thought he was going to resist or try to buy some time.
"So I'm getting even stronger..."
Raon clenched his fist. He'd already won the bet with Wrath, but he was going to get even stronger from absorbing Loctar's soul, which should increase his stats and prowess. It wasn't an overstatement to say that he was killing three birds with one stone instead of two, since he was getting even more than that.
"One more question. How do you develop this mental world?"
He wanted to know more about it because Wrath had told him that the mental world was the clue to achieving Sword Field Creation.
"Experience is the key."
"Experience?"
"People feel and learn different things from the same experiences. This world is similar to a building, raised on top of a foundation built upon your countless experiences in the past. You will be able to reach higher by looking upwards and harden the foundation by looking downwards."
Loctar said that the world was going to change depending on what kind of experience he had, with what kind of intentions.
'Wrath was right.'
Just like the crushed cotton candy had said, Raon figured that he would be able to turn his own world into the Sword Field Creation by experiencing various things to develop his mental world.
"The next question is about you."
Raon asked about Loctar's personality and preferences. It was because he wanted to pretend to be Loctar once that world came to an end because of Merlin.
"As I said before, my name is Loctar Defort. I'm the blue dragon..."
Unexpectedly, Loctar properly answered everything he wanted to know.
After finding out Loctar's personal information, Raon asked about Merlin.
"She wants to revive me and stay together like before."
"Stay together? Is she trying to start a slaughter like in her previous life?"
Lohengreen said that Merlin had slaughtered countless people by controlling monsters. Raon figured they must've been trying to reproduce the same scene.
"That's not true. She just wants to live with me. I'm the only family left to her."
Loctar lowered his eyes.
"Live with you as a family, you say?"
Now that I think about it...
Raon turned his head towards the place where the frozen castle used to be. Raon remembered seeing a log house similar to Merlin's room when the castle collapsed.
"Lady Merlin was the princess of the Sirken kingdom. She lost everything she had, and I was the only family left for her in the end."
"Is Sirken the kingdom that you founded after destroying the other kingdom?"
"Indeed. However, the kingdom collapsed as well before we managed to establish it. Hmm, I don't think I'll have the time for detailed explanations."
Loctar nonchalantly smiled while looking at his faint body.
"The princess is a pitiful person. She had various circumstances..."
"Is that why you were answering my questions so nicely?"
Raon stared at Loctar coldly. He was wondering why he was answering all of his questions, and it must've been because he wanted to entrust Merlin to him afterwards.
"Everyone has circumstances."
Everyone in the world had circumstances, and Merlin had gone too far to ask for understanding.
"I guess. The princess and I are both aware that we've committed a grave sin. However, she just..."
Loctar turned into icy bubbles and disappeared before he could say his last words. Curiously, he didn't seem too saddened by it.
Thud!
Once Loctar disappeared completely, the mental world started to tremble.
"What's happening?"
"What else? The halfling was completely absorbed into your world, and this world's chaos came to an end."
Wrath crawled up to him like a larva and sighed deeply.
"Does that mean that we are about to return to reality?"
"Indeed."
Raon smiled while looking at his own world, which looked like an earthquake was occurring in it.
'I've gained a lot more than I thought.'
The winning reward from the bet against Wrath and the abilities from absorbing Loctar's soul were such an unexpected harvest.
'Moreover...'
Raon turned around to remember his world, which was still small and weak.
He closed his eyes, hoping for his small world to change into something that could achieve the Sword Field Creation from his experiences in the future.
"I'll be back later."
"Err..."
As his consciousness was about to fade away in the trembling world, Raon could hear Wrath's whisper.
"Y-You aren't seriously planning to eat Nadine bread only, are you?"
He was still thinking about food in that situation. He must've been serious when he said that he just wanted to eat mint chocolate to his heart's content.
He was such an amazing guy. That was why Raon decided to tell him his honest answer.
'Yes, I am.'
* * *
"Umm..."
Raon opened his eyes. Before he could finish checking on the magic circles on the ceiling, Merlin shoved her face into him with her old woman's mask.
"Do you recognize me?"
Her impatience could be felt from her voice for the first time. The voice was filled with anticipation and madness.
Raon slowly raised himself up and met Merlin's wavering eyes.
"...Are you the princess?"
He imitated Loctar's speech with a slightly trembling voice.
"Ah..."
Merlin lost strength in her legs and fell backwards. The eyes behind her mask were trembling violently.
"Loctar. Loctar. Loctar!"
She hugged Raon and kept calling Loctar's name over and over.
"You are finally here! We are finally re..."
"I'm sorry, but my memories are still messy. Raon Zieghart's memories and my memories are jumbled up..."
Raon kept imitating Loctar's speech as he shook his head.
"I'm not sure yet."
"It's fine. Time will solve everything, You will return to your original self."
Merlin hugged Raon tightly around neck and sobbed. Unexpectedly, the fragrance of spring flowers wafted from her.
'She is speaking from the heart.'
Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at Merlin's trembling arms. Because he was supposed to be the last of her family, Merlin wasn't just glad about the reunion—she was actually treating it as a miracle.
"How are you doing, princess?"
"Don't worry about me."
Merlin shook her head and smiled.
"You must be hungry, right? I've prepared your favorite foods."
Food?
Wrath was reacting to the food despite the situation. That was really amazing.
"Let's... Ah."
Merlin bobbed her hand towards Raon and suddenly collapsed.
"Princess?"
Raon caught Merlin and examined her condition. She had no strength left in her at all. She seemed to have lost consciousness due to extreme exhaustion.
'She even fainted from exhaustion.'
Raon realized that he hadn't seen Merlin rest even once. She had been doing something constantly, like personally preparing his meals and bringing things to him.
Considering the huge amount of mana dwelling in the six magic circles, he could assume that the ceremony wasn't supposed to be carried out by a single person.
'She overexerted herself.'
She had been preparing for the ceremony without even sleeping, and that must've been why she fainted when the tension left her body.
Raon held Merlin in his arms and stood up.
"..."
Soul Severing Sword was still standing on the same spot, just like when he wore the dragon helmet.
"I need to let the princess rest. Move away."
Raon pointed with his chin to ask him to move away while holding Merlin as carefully as possible.
"..."
Soul Severing Sword didn't immediately move away, instead staring at his eyes under the helmet. His emotionless golden eyes were radiating an indescribably strange light.
"Didn't you hear me? I told you to move away."
"..."
Raon had to repeat himself before Soul Severing Sword finally moved away. Once he stepped aside, the exit appeared—just like when he entered through the wall.
"Thank you."
Raon nodded at Soul Severing Sword and left through the passage.
"..."
Soul Severing Sword stayed still like a stone statue until Raon brought Merlin out of the room. When the rotating passage closed up, his hands were trembling slightly.
* * *
Upon returning to the room in the log house, Raon placed Merlin on the bed and stared at the old woman's mask.
Aren't you going to try removing it?
Wrath pointed at Merlin's mask while looking like a small cotton candy once again.
'It will be annoying if she wakes up.'
Merlin wasn't going to let him go if touching the mask ended up waking her. There was no reason to risk limiting his actions.
It was necessary to examine Loctar's memory while she fainted to create a perfect script.
You are so stubborn. The King of Essence would've removed her mask out of sheer curiosity.
Wrath murmured that it was why he went as far as beating up someone 294 times in total.
'That was because you deserved the beatings.'
Raon snickered and sat on the ground.
'Be quiet, since I need to focus.'
Loctar's memories were as faint as the cloud floating on the sky. It was necessary to focus and grasp those memories in order to perfectly deceive Merlin.
Hmph, the King of Essence doesn't want to talk anyway.
Wrath briskly turned his head away, trying to show his displeasure. Just as Raon was about to focus, as Wrath was always like that, messages appeared in front of his eyes.
[You've won the bet against Wrath.
All stats have increased by 10.]
[Trait Poison Resistance has ranked up.]
[Trait Spiral Power has ranked up.]
The messages announced the rewards he had received from winning the bet against Wrath. There were many rewards, but there were still a lot more messages after that.
[You've achieved the eighth victory against Wrath.]
[Stats have further increased from the eight consecutive victories.]
[Strength has increased by 3.]
[Agility has increased by 3.]
[Perception has increased by 4.]
It was the message about consecutive victories. It was telling him that he had received additional stats from winning eight times in a row against Wrath. The large increase in stats made a thrill run down his spine from ecstasy.
Argh...
Wrath's jaw dropped while reading the messages. The stats were also surprising, but he seemed to be mostly shocked by the fact that he'd lost eight whole times in a row.
However, the messages weren't over yet.
[You have absorbed the soul of the draconian, Loctar Defort.]
The rewards from absorbing Loctar's soul were displayed like a carpet below the others.
Kuaah!
Wrath ground his teeth while looking at the messages.
How is he even supposed to stay silent when this kind of shit is happening?!
His eyes were violently wavering up and down.
Why did the King of Essence have to get beaten up 294 times in total and even get his stats taken? You damn fiend!
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