Chapter 70
Meanwhile.
Victor was in the midst of battle.
“Kgh···!”
“Good grief, is this really all you’ve got?”
No, could this even be called a battle?
It looked more like a one-sided beating.
Jersian.
A force ranked among the strongest in the New Kingdom.
A pureblood vampire and a powerhouse rated A+ rank.
Experience and skill enough to casually trample Carmilla, another pureblood.
“Good grief, you lowly livestock···!”
“I told you, you can’t touch me.”
A fighter whose strength was beyond dispute, even against a hundred men at once.
Of course, right now he was being toyed with by a single human boy···.
“You’re holding out better than I expected.”
“Huff, huff···!”
Ragged breaths.
Jersian’s pupils shook, having lost their focus.
He could not even gauge what was happening to him.
“What kind of cheap trick··· What kind of cheap trick are you pulling?!”
He couldn’t touch him.
None of the attacks he unleashed could land.
His Blood Claw Technique missed, while his punches simply passed through.
The boy before him merely stood in place, leisurely, without offering any significant counterattack.
“A trick? I’m simply fighting you fair and square.”
“How dare you mock me, Jersian···?!”
It was strange.
Even though the boy clearly existed before his eyes, he could not strike him.
The boy sprang out from here and there as if he were a mirage.
Jersian reflexively unleashed his Blood Claw Technique, but the arrows pierced only the innocent walls.
“Damn it···!”
What on earth.
What on earth could it be?
What on earth was he fighting?
‘Has he really become some kind of ghost···!’
Eyes wide open.
Even as he staggered, Jersian unfolded a spell.
As if he could no longer bear to watch, Victor stomped on his face.
Crush-!
“Kgh···!”
“I’m beginning to doubt whether you have any capacity to learn. Haven’t you failed the same way several times now?”
The masked clown stood on empty air.
A dark-red aura writhed beside him like heat haze.
A pitch-black scythe was in his hand, and a worn crown floated above his head.
Ding-!
[Skill Name: Nightmare Transformation]
-The user’s body merges with the nightmare.
-While the skill is active, the user receives an ‘Invincible’ status.
-The user can fly without restriction and becomes free from all physical force.
A status window rose before his eyes.
The clown looked down at the man through the blue screen.
Jersian’s appearance was a complete mess.
“······.”
“Ugh···.”
Whatever happened to the neat suit he had been wearing? The man now had only tattered rags hanging from him.
His right arm, severed in the first exchange, had failed to recover and merely twitched.
His distinctive, stylish mustache had rolled through the dirt and was a complete wreck.
He also bore countless small wounds across his body.
The clown left the staggering man with a dispassionate remark.
“Pathetic.”
“Urgh, haa···.”
“And this is all you amount to.”
“You, a human, dare···!”
“Aren’t you ashamed? You’re being miserably overwhelmed by a human like that, aren’t you? You haven’t even brushed my collar once.”
“Kill··· I’ll kill you···!”
“Exactly. How?”
Shraaak-!
In the blink of an eye, the clown stood right in front of Jersian.
The scythe he had swung had hooked one of the man’s legs.
Before Jersian had a chance to react, Victor brought down the shard of stake in his hand.
Slice-!
“Kyaaaagh!!”
An ugly scream.
After the heavy sound of cutting, the severed edge melted with a sizzling sound.
Jersian could do nothing but writhe in agony.
“Kgh, sob, kyaaagh!”
“Goodness, you’re noisy.”
Wham-!
The man sprawled miserably on the ground.
A pitch-black object embedded itself in his face.
“Ignition. Baseball Bat.”
Wham, thwack! Crush-!
Without showing mercy, he brutally caved in the man’s face.
Each time Jersian screamed, the force contained in the bat grew stronger.
Unusually, the corners of the mask’s mouth were set in a stern line.
“So this is all you amount to, yet you acted like the strongest when facing Her Highness the princess?”
Crack, crunch! Wham-!
He turned the man’s smooth face into a bloody pulp.
Each word he spat out was accompanied by a falling bat, as though each blow were timed to his words.
“Gurgle···.”
In the end, Jersian could do nothing but twitch on the ground.
The man had been helplessly brutalized, not even knowing why.
The clown looked down at him without emotion.
His lower body had been sliced apart, and his left arm had also been cut off, leaving only his right arm.
“How dare you.”
“······.”
“Who the hell do you think you are, touching my master whenever you please?”
Thump-thump-.
The listless bat blows struck his face.
“A human, of all things··· Haa···.”
“Are you still saying that? You really are persistent.”
Jersian was strong.
It was simply that his opponent was a poor match for him.
His uniquely bug-like movements, combined with Nightmare Transformation, were supported from below by an Agility stat that had ranked up seven stages.
These three produced an incredible synergy.
Jersian’s eyes could barely keep up with those movements.
Reacting in time to block or attack was out of the question.
‘Even though it only lasts for five minutes···.’
At least during those five minutes, Victor could not lose.
No law in the world could touch him.
His ability stood out even more, especially in a one-on-one situation.
“Human, human, human··· You kept looking down on humans, yet you can’t even beat a boy much younger than yourself.”
Wham, thwack-!
The baseball bat swung back and forth repeatedly.
“I’d like to hear that one more time.”
“······.”
“What was it about humans? And what was it about our princess?”
“······Kugh.”
Slice-.
Jersian’s last remaining arm was severed as well.
He lay there as nothing more than a mangled lump.
All of that had happened in less than five minutes.
“Phew··· I finally feel a little better.”
Victor took a deep breath.
The moment the foot floating in midair touched the ground, the heat haze writhing around him subsided.
The promised five minutes had passed, deactivating [Nightmare Transformation].
Crackle, buzz-.
The crown, which had shimmered with a dark-red light, went dark.
Immediately afterward, the clown’s legs wobbled, if only briefly.
“I’m dizzy···.”
The boy groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead.
This was the only moment Jersian might have been able to look for a chance to attack, but he had already lost the ability to put up a fight.
“I···”
Lips that still moved despite being reduced to mush.
Jersian struggled to pronounce something.
“I lost···.”
He muttered through the pain.
Was he trying to beg for his life now, at this late stage?
“You’re only realizing that now?”
“I admit it, human··· You’re strong. I··· lost···.”
“You may beg all you like, but I have no intention of sparing you, so give it up.”
“Kgh··· Heh heh heh···.”
No.
Something was strange.
Far from shedding tears, the man wore a broad grin.
Soon, he burst into uncontrollable maniacal laughter.
“Kahahaha! You stupid··· things··· That’s why you humans are no good.”
“What? Have you lost your mind? Have you finally gone crazy?”
“Yes, I lost. I did lose···.”
Torn lips.
Jersian muttered through his slurred, leaking speech.
Madness glinted in his faintly opened eyes.
“But··· we won the war.”
“The war?”
“The ritual is already underway! By now, all the preparations should be complete···!”
The man shouted through a throat boiling with blood.
Bubbling foam leaked between his lips.
“A weapon that will burn the continent will rise from this very land···!”
His expression brimmed with certainty of victory.
He seemed to believe that a giant soldier fused from human flesh would soon awaken and massacre thousands.
“When?”
“······What?”
The clown asked Jersian indifferently.
“When is that war weapon coming out? That thing you mentioned.”
“Haha··· There’s no need to be impatient. You’ll all be slaughtered anyway!”
“So when?”
“Right now!”
“······.”
“Now!”
“······.”
“Now!”
“······.”
“Now···?”
Even after waiting for quite some time, nothing of note happened.
Victor looked down at Jersian as though he found him pathetic.
At that, Jersian turned his head in confusion.
“W-why···? By now, the sacrificial ritual should have··· finished···.”
His gaze crept around and fixed on a certain place.
The place where the kidnapped villagers had been locked up.
The location of the cathedral.
Normally, a giant soldier fused from human flesh should have leaped out from there.
“······Huh?”
A breathless, vacant response.
The boy smiled, seemingly satisfied by that reaction.
“Heh heh.”
It seemed Alice had performed her role well.
She appeared to have safely gotten the kidnapped people outside.
The inside of the cathedral was currently empty.
With no sacrifices to offer, the ritual had naturally not taken place.
“Well, what do you think?”
“······.”
The boy lightly taunted him.
Jersian stared blankly up at the clown.
The corners of the white mask’s mouth were turned up in a beaming smile.
“Surely you didn’t think I wouldn’t see through your plan?”
As if he were watching the most entertaining comedy in the world firsthand.