Chapter 103 : Chapter 103
Chapter 103 Burial (6)
“Gah...!”
Jensen looked down at what had pierced his stomach.
A black tentacle that looked like a whip.
One end of the tentacle was penetrating his stomach, and Riman was holding the other end.
It was Eoduksini.
He had summoned it earlier and hidden it under his clothes for a moment, then pulled it out at the decisive moment to stab Jensen.
“This is... what... is this...”
Jensen grabbed the black whip piercing his stomach.
His hands were hands of fusion that melted everything they grasped.
However, the whip did not react no matter how strongly he grasped it.
Was it because the material of the whip was a spirit body?
No.
Jensen's fusion ability was at a level where it could decompose even intangible mana constructs like barriers.
Even a spirit body like this should normally melt and crumble the moment it touches.
So there was a different, real reason.
“You can’t use your fusion ability for a while, can you?”
“...!”
It was simply because he had become unable to use his fusion ability.
Just a moment ago, Jensen used his ultimate technique, ‘Acid Break.’
A wide-area annihilation technique activated under the condition of a clap.
A technique that explodes an instant-kill skill ignoring defense in all directions.
This technique had no countermeasure.
Even Riman had no magic to defend against or neutralize this.
A technique with no countermeasure other than just getting out of range.
However, Acid Break had one critical weakness.
Once Acid Break is used, the fusion ability is sealed for about ten seconds.
Due to the mechanism of Acid Break, which discharges all accumulated fusion energy in a single moment, it was an unavoidable weakness.
That was why the guy couldn't do anything about even this single thin whip piercing his stomach.
To force this weakness to be revealed, Riman trapped the guy with ice spikes, blocked his vision, and cornered him.
Into a situation where he couldn't escape the predicament without Acid Break.
So that he had no choice but to use Acid Break.
Like that, the guy overcame the momentary predicament.
But Acid Break couldn't touch even a single hair of Riman, who was already out of range.
And the ten seconds of powerlessness that followed.
Jensen lost the power of fusion.
It was temporary, but that was enough.
Riman pulled the black whip upward as if plucking it.
SWISH!
Jensen's body floated into the air.
He was dragged up with his stomach pierced by the whip.
“Keu-heok...!”
His internal organs were crushed as they shifted unnaturally in one direction.
Pain poured in as the peritoneum tore and opened.
He had dealt with pain all his life, but this level of pain was unfamiliar.
Because he was the one giving pain, not receiving it.
And.
BANG!!
Riman dragged Jensen down and slammed him straight onto the ground.
Furthermore, the floor was a bumpy stone floor.
Sound effects of fractures burst out from here and there on Jensen's body, slammed with ferocious force.
“Kuaaak...!”
Comminuted fractures bursting from various parts of the body.
But without even a moment to manage the pain, the guy's body soared into the air once again.
Riman had dragged the guy's body up into the air again.
It seemed he intended to slam him repeatedly to death like this.
‘Damn... it...!’
Feeling like his mind was floating along with his body.
Barely grasping his fading consciousness, Jensen desperately searched for a way.
‘My power... my power is...!’
SIZZLE...-
At that moment.
Jensen felt a very slight energy of fusion forming at his fingertips.
His power was returning little by little.
‘Got it...!’
Jensen grasped the whip with all his might.
With a sizzling sound, fine cracks began to appear on the whip little by little.
‘Break... off...!’
At that moment.
His body, which had been floating, plummeted toward the ground once again.
But Jensen did not release the hand holding the whip.
Because in his head, there was only the thought of somehow cutting the whip with fusion and escaping.
What about hitting the ground one more time?
It didn't matter.
Some more bones would break, but he wouldn't die.
As long as he doesn't die.
As long as he doesn't die, he can kill as many more as he wants.
With that thought, at the moment he was rapidly approaching the ground.
“...Huh?”
He saw it.
On the floor where he was about to be hurled, a long ice spike was rising.
A pitch-black and sharp spike.
STAB.
It was an instant that it pierced through Jensen's abdomen.
“Kuaak...!!”
A scream mixed with blood burst out from Jensen's mouth.
He struggled to escape, but it was useless.
Because his body was already skewered on the spike like a kebab.
“Uaaak! Kuaaaak!!”
Jensen scratched the floor wildly with both hands.
The ground he scratched melted and eroded.
His power had returned.
However, in a state where the center of his abdomen was pierced, this ability had no effect.
SWISH-
Riman retrieved the whip he had embedded in the guy.
And without approaching, he looked down at Jensen from a distance.
Trembling and flailing his limbs, he looked exactly like an insect.
Stuck on a pin, he looked like a specimen.
Just as he was appreciating the dying figure, Jensen spoke.
“...save me.”
“What?”
“Save me...”
Riman was so dumbfounded he couldn't even laugh.
How come these bastards have the exact same reaction every time they die?
“After killing people to your heart's content all this time.”
“I will pay... the price. Please...!”
“Price?”
“I will recommend... you... as an executive of Eclipse Hall...”
Eclipse Hall.
A secret society headed by the Red King.
An organization to which all escapees of Mugan belong, and even high-ranking officials from all walks of life around the world are secretly members.
Therefore, its secretive and extensive influence was difficult to even dare to estimate.
Furthermore, even Riman did not know the exact purpose of this society.
He only knew that they worshiped an unidentified being called the ‘Great Mother.’
Jensen was saying he would recommend Riman to such an organization.
Riman muttered, feigning ignorance.
“Eclipse Hall...?”
“Right, you probably haven't even heard of it. But in this era, there is no organization that surpasses the power of Eclipse Hall. Even the World Federation Government...!”
“Oh?”
“Did you know? That members of our Eclipse Hall occupy seats even within the World Federation Government? The current World Federation Government is not a world government in the true sense. It is merely a branch of our Eclipse Hall.”
“......”
“Now, it’s an opportunity. Will you just end your life as a somewhat strong Headhunter, or will you approach the depths of power.”
“......”
“Right, you probably can't believe it. Here, look at this. It's the token of Eclipse Hall. With this...”
What he took out from his bosom was a pocket watch.
A watch equipped with a ‘moon phase’ function that displays the changing phases of the moon.
Riman knew as soon as he saw that watch.
That it was genuine.
And the fact that Jensen had that was proof that he had secured some standing within Eclipse Hall.
Because not everyone belonging to Eclipse Hall could possess that pocket watch.
Nevertheless, Riman said this.
“No.”
“...What?”
“I’m in a position where my life is more precious than power.”
The current Riman was bound to Lancelot by the contract engraved in the <Pledge Memorandum>.
And in that contract clause, there is this content.
If one colludes with the enemy or intentionally performs acts beneficial to the enemy, they pay the price with death.
In short, it meant that the moment he joined forces with the Mugan bastards, Lancelot would come with a sword and ring the bell.
The ‘Sword Saint,’ no less.
And Riman was not yet confident in beating that monster Lancelot.
So naturally, he had no choice but to erase the option of joining Eclipse Hall.
So...
“You just die there.”
“You... dog...”
Jensen slowly died like that.
Draining blood, leaking lifespan, layers of accumulating pain.
“Kuaaa... Kuaaak...!”
Jensen struggled wildly.
Scattering malice in all directions.
So Riman neither approached Jensen anymore nor did anything.
Besides, since he had no desire to give him the peace of instant death, Riman just left Jensen alone.
There was work to be done in the meantime.
First, Riman sprinkled a potion on the wound on his side.
But he did not completely heal the wound and deliberately left some.
Because he had to leave proof that he worked hard.
The next thing to do.
The essential reason Riman entered this demonic beast's den.
First, he had to secure the magic stone.
Securing a cyan-type magic stone to treat Pyo Seok-jung's wife's Cocnum addiction.
WHOOSH-
Riman jumped lightly and climbed onto the Queen Earth-Burrowing Worm's back.
The carapace on the Queen's back was deeply gouged.
It was because the outer part of the carapace had blown away due to Jensen exploding ‘Acid Break’ earlier.
“Thanks to that, it won’t take effort to break the shell.”
[Incision]
SLICE!
With a lightly thrust [Incision], the Queen's dermis was cut away too easily.
It was thanks to the carapace being significantly softened due to Jensen's ability.
Like that, Riman cut open and spread the Queen's body and dug in.
After a while.
Riman succeeded in excavating quite a large amount of magic stones.
Cyan type, meaning magic stones with a blue-green color.
Rare magic stones necessary for various detoxification actions such as treating Cocnum addiction.
If he just takes this back to Pyo Seok-jung and makes the Cocnum addiction antidote properly.
Furthermore, he didn't just dig up magic stones.
A hard organic lump excavated from the Queen's head part.
This was the pineal gland of the Queen Earth-Burrowing Worm.
It was a body organ that provided the Queen with the ability to synchronize with the ground.
If taken to a talisman or scroll maker, it was possible to create a stealth item.
“Good, let’s organize what I’ve gathered first...”
After calling Saya, Riman gave the excavated magic stones and pineal gland to Saya.
Saya swallowed them without hesitation and stuffed them into the subspace in her stomach.
Like that, he had gathered all the minimum things he needed to take and leave...
“Then shall we dig in earnest?”
More magic stones were still sleeping inside the Queen's stomach.
Now it was time to scrape all those out and leave.
Thinking so, Riman walked across the Queen's body.
Meanwhile, at that time.
Jensen was panting shallow breaths, still not dead.
Of course, he was only alive.
There was no possibility of survival.
Comminuted fractures burst all over his body, a large ice spike piercing his abdomen, internal organ rupture and excessive bleeding caused by it.
A situation where being alive at all was a miracle.
On that precarious border of life and death, Jensen's consciousness was becoming blurry.
The fading self, and inversely proportional to this, the memories of the past becoming clearer.
The so-called panoramic review of life began to emerge in his head.
—To fuse. To melt and crumble. That is your ability, Jensen.
Back when he was still imprisoned in Mugan.
The words the Red King had said to him began to graze Jensen's mind.
—Then let me ask. What can you melt?
—Uh... Flesh, bone, rock, iron...?
—Is that really the end?
Well, he could name more if he had to.
Wood, leather, plastic, glass... because he could melt anything his hand touched.
But no matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like the Red King was asking about such things.
When Jensen couldn't choose an answer, the Red King spoke.
—Imagine.
—Yes?
—What you can melt and crumble is not just to that extent. So imagine. How far you can melt, how far your ‘Fusion’ can touch.
—...?
Back then, he didn't understand the Red King's words.
But now it was different.
Today, Jensen saw.
His limit.
The existence that overwhelmed him, that huge wall.
Of course, this wall did not exist materially like rock or wood.
But the Red King had said.
Imagine.
About the object your ‘Fusion’ can crumble.
“...My limit.”
My limit, my wall, that prevents me from going any further.
“...Melt it.”
GRAB.
Jensen covered his face with both hands.
And—
SIZZLE...!
“Kuaaa...!!”
And began to melt and tear down.
His limit.