104 – Saint Is Unbreakable

Just as the brilliant beam of light pierced from the sky to the earth, a chorus of screams erupted simultaneously.

The two Demon Lords who had been holding Asmodeus on either side.

The girl who I had sent hurtling away with a single punch.

All of them screamed in agony, simultaneously pushed away from me.

But it didn’t end there.

As if to prove they were no ordinary beings, they rose to their feet in short order.

“[…How do you control Asmodeus?]”

The gigantic man.

Presumably, judging by the feeling, Satan, the Demon King of Wrath, voiced his question.

“[You son of a b*tch!!]”

The emaciated woman.

Presumably, judging by the feeling, Leviathan, the Demon King of Envy, erupted in raw fury.

Finally, the girl who had been speaking with me until just now.

Belphegor, the Demon King of Sloth, let out a hollow laugh.

“[I’ll admit it. Saint Amael. You never fail to amaze me. Just moments ago, with your profound idiocy. And now, with your wondrous idiocy. How long do you think you can continue to emanate the power of Asmodeus?]”

I clenched the fist that held the chains tight.

“I’ll keep going until I can’t.”

To be honest, I’m afraid.

I’m afraid of what Asmodeus might do to me.

I’m afraid because I know nothing.

And I’m also afraid that I have to stand against not one, not two, but three divine beings.

But.

“So, spare the chatter and come at me!”

As always, crisis was opportunity.

Let’s fight.

Let’s fight to the bitter end.

Perhaps, fighting like this, instead of being brainwashed, I’ll end up with my very soul shattered.

At my words, the three Demon Kings shifted.

“[Satan. It seems you’ll have to take him. Leviathan and I will handle Asmodeus.]”

“[Hurry. Your body won’t be able to withstand the divine power for long.]”

Leviathan and Belphegor split to the left and right.

And the gigantic man.

Satan walks forward slowly.

His steps seemed almost leisurely, but the pressure I felt was anything but.

Slowly.

The burning sword, familiar even to me, appeared in Satan’s hand.

“[Amael! Careful!……..]”

Asmodeus, standing behind me, hastily started to say something but abruptly fell silent.

The jet-black feathers sprouting from her left wing were fluttering wildly.

She glared at the sky with a look of rage.

And Asmodeus said no more.

And I no longer had the luxury to wait for Asmodeus’s words.

“[I will not kill you, Saint.]”

The sword in Satan’s hand let out a grotesque scream and began to burn brilliantly.

“[But it will hurt like hell.]”

No sooner had the words left his lips than Satan lunged for me.

I poured every ounce of strength into activating my skills.

Even without Kohn’s support, the skills manifested with a terrifying precision and finesse.

My body had been remodeled beyond reckoning, exceeding even the outer limits several times over, and time-stop enveloped my entire being like a suit of armor.

In my hand, I gripped a colossal greatsword forged from frozen time, while my reflexes and motor functions blazed with signals firing 3000 times faster.

And the brain controlling this augmented form was subjected to an utterly merciless thought-acceleration through Absolute Hypnosis.

Thanks to all of that.

I managed to meet Satan’s strike.

With a deafening roar, Satan’s burning blade clashed against my time-stopped sword in the void.

The impact pulverized the surrounding rocks, shattering them into fragments that sprayed outwards.

And simultaneously, as I weathered that first assault.

[Skill: Time Stop – Initiated!]

The world froze in place for a moment.

Satan, too.

Belphegor and Leviathan remained perfectly still.

I swiftly angled my body to the side, attempting to plunge the time-stopped sword into the opening along Satan’s flank.

Assuming he would be utterly immobile, I didn’t bother with defense, just swinging the blade with reckless speed, but my expectations were brutally dashed.

“[That’s not how you use Time Stop, whelp.]”

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Satan grasped the blade I was driving toward his side.

Evading the edge, he seized the flat of the blade perfectly between two fingers before swinging his burning sword toward my ribs.

The collision of sword and armor unleashed a colossal shockwave.

I lost my grip on the sword and tumbled away, rolling haphazardly across the ground for a considerable distance.

Thanks to the armor, I wasn’t injured, but perhaps the shockwave had deafened me. Everything swam before my eyes.

Raising my head, I saw that despite the frozen time, the three demon lords were moving as if nothing were amiss.

“[To use Time Stop so blatantly, right under my nose. Your application is pathetic. Abysmally pathetic.]”

Well, duh.

Did they think I’d had professional training in wielding Asmodeus’s powers?

“[Whatever. Disappointing. You’re a dreadfully tedious opponent. I’ll end this quickly.]”

A truly cliché, hackneyed line.

But the subsequent attack rendered me incapable of dismissing his words as mere platitudes.

Satan’s offensive had changed.

The earlier swordplay seemed like a mere game.

He launched an onslaught towards me with terrifying speed.

I hastily conjured a new time-stopped sword and braced for defense, but all I could do was parry.

Each blocked strike required me to literally squeeze every last drop of effort from within.

Even with my reaction speed amplified by 3000, keeping up was a struggle.

Furthermore, the tremendous shockwaves unleashed with each block were accumulating impact on my body.

Probably only about five seconds had elapsed, timewise.

I reached my breaking point.

A bone-jarring crack accompanied the unleashing shockwave, and darkness swallowed my vision.

It seemed something was amiss with my eyes, the most vulnerable of places.

I hastily tried to mend them with Body Modification, but Satan moved faster.

With a *crack*, I felt the strength leach from my hand.

Satan had seized my hand whole, as if to crush it to pulp.

I wanted to scream, but there was no time.

Belatedly, my eyes recovered, and I realized Satan held me by the throat, hoisting me into the air.

My two hands dangled limply, pulverized.

The problem…

[This is an injury that cannot be healed with Body Modification!]

…was that my mangled hand refused to heal.

I trembled, staring up at Satan.

“[Didn’t I tell you? It would hurt.]”

Satan raised a burning blade.

And then, he plunged the tip into my unarmored waist.

My abdomen began to burn, to blaze in the searing flames.

Unbearable agony erupted, forcing a scream from my throat.

“[Amael!…]”

Asmodeus screamed, but she did not come to my rescue.

“[Hold still.]”

Leviathan and Belphegor had not been idle.

The two seized Asmodeus’s arms and began to restrain her with brutal force.

“[Let… go!!]”

Asmodeus unleashed a roar brimming with rage.

The pillar of light descending from the heavens intensified with a deafening resonance.

The bodies of the three Demon Lords began to sizzle, to cook, but they only laughed.

“[A miscalculation, Asmodeus. Did you think that by unleashing such powerful authority, your precious Amael could withstand it?]”

He wasn’t wrong.

As the pillar of light thickened…

…I began to feel the strain on my body.

An unbearable, vast, and heavy pressure began to crush me with a sickening pain.

The torment of my burning abdomen, coupled with the immense weight, became unbearable.

“Asmodeus!!… Stop it!!”

At my words, the pillar of light began to dim.

Now I understood the situation.

Checkmate.

Asmodeus was limited in the amount of authority she could exert because of me.

Added to that, there were Leviathan and Belphegor. And the unknown entity controlling the black wings on the left.

She even had to contend with the interference of the one Asmodeus called Lucifer.

Asmodeus could do nothing.

And I, too, was in no state to defeat Satan before me.

No one could save me from Satan.

Satan seemed keenly aware of this as well.

The burning sword dug even closer into my waist.

Pain, beyond anything I would call searing, began to swell.

I wanted to faint.

It felt like fainting would be a mercy.

But somehow, I couldn’t even manage that.

“[Painful, isn’t it? It’ll be agonizing. Nothing like that Baltaruk toy the slothful custodian had. Only I can wield this sword properly.]”

Satan said with a mocking tone as he drew the blade out.

The sword spun once, playfully, before vanishing.

My entire body was drenched in sweat.

To keep from over-sensing the pain, I canceled Sense Amplification 3000 and released the thought acceleration I’d forged through absolute hypnosis.

Because my mind had been fractured by the extreme pain, the armor created by time stop also melted away and disappeared.

I lay there, wriggling like a helpless grub, held in Satan’s hand.

Then, suddenly, Satan gently set me down on the floor.

He offered me his hand.

“[You wouldn’t want to suffer any more pain, would you? Then take my hand, Saint. Then there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more despair.]”

I stared at Satan’s hand, trembling.

This was a different method of persuasion than Belphegor’s.

And to be frank, it felt much more convincing.

I truly never wanted to experience that pain again.

With all my heart, I wanted to grasp his hand.

But alas.

I couldn’t.

Slowly, I rose to my feet.

My legs shook, and a lingering pain throbbed in the spot where the blade had burned my waist.

[This is an injury that cannot be healed with skills!]

An unhealable wound.

Any way I looked at it,

Taking his hand would be the sensible thing to do.

Satan studied my face, then gave a confident smile.

“[Don’t resist any further, Saint. You’ll die. Not just a simple destruction of the body. If you are pierced by my Baltaruk, your very existence will be shattered.]”

At those words, I clutched my stomach and looked up at Satan.

“You’re saying… my soul will be… crushed?”

“[Yes. And the process of the soul’s destruction will be so excruciatingly painful that the pain you just felt will seem like child’s play. You wouldn’t want to suffer that fate, would you?]”

At that, I gave a weak laugh.

Slowly, I raised my guard.

Cold sweat streamed down me like water, my abdomen was scorched, and my vision remained blurry from the continuous shockwaves.

My crushed hand still throbbed.

Just standing was agonizing.

But.

Hope flickers.

My actions make Satan flinch.

“[………What in damnation do you think you’re doing?]”

“I won’t take your hand, Satan. I don’t know exactly how you’d use me if I fell… but it wouldn’t be good for people, that much I know.”

“[You fool. You’d endure that torment again? We could obliterate your very soul, Amael. Do you crave suffering even worse than before?]”

Those words brought to mind the people I’d met since arriving here.

There were wicked ones, dim-witted ones, frustrating and irritating ones.

But far more, there were those I loved, the pitiable ones.

And those I wished only happiness for.

“Yes. It’s better that I suffer than those I love are tormented because of me. So….”

I know my words are foolish.

Irrational, even.

But what else can I do?

No matter how I turn it over, this is right.

My body, a wreck.

The pantheon, unresponsive.

Asmodeus, powerless.

Everything conspires to aid me.

Now I can go back to Korea.

I forced a smile.

And, as if to provoke him, I waved at Satan.

“Unleash it… your… Valtruk.”