Chapter 274 |
It didn't take long for Asui, who had awakened from his comatose state, to realize that he had survived.
"I... I did it!"
Rather, he was so thrilled at the fact that he had faced off against the Sagun Family's proxy and returned alive without a scratch that he began babbling excitedly.
"Maybe there's a warrior's instinct like my uncle's dormant inside me too. In fact, the beastly nature that had been suppressed by my incantation abilities must have awakened through this incident—otherwise, how could I have come back unscathed amid all those formidable proxies..."
[This guy had become so annoying to look at now that he was alive.]
Manson muttered in disgust, and Renok shook his head.
"Leave him be. Asui's real role isn't in the proxy battle anyway. It's better if his mind is elevated by the joy of victory."
"But he didn't even win in the first place?"
"Oh, right."
"But does it matter?"
No one in this room accepted Asui's defeat as a true loss.
From the moment he had successfully forfeited without harm and mocked the Sagun Family's proxy, the audience's attention had turned to them.
That was enough to show the others where the scales of the proxy battle tipped.
"We'll start right away. Can you handle it?"
"Of course."
Chen replied lightly as he stretched his body.
"We've been practicing for a day like this."
He adjusted the curved sword at his waist, pushed aside the curtain, and stepped into the arena compound.
Waaaaah!!
The cheers that rang out sounded as if they had been rehearsed, shaking their eardrums.
Amid the majestic response that faintly trembled the ground, the executioner awaited him.
One might have expected his mentality to be shaken after letting Asui escape unscathed, but he seemed to have already composed himself, with steady breathing.
The fierce gaze that flashed from behind the helmet calmly looked down at Chen.
Without a word, Chen drew his curved sword and slowly checked his body.
The sensation of the mana threads bound around his entire body had already become familiar enough.
The key had not been blindly following Renok's manipulations but understanding his combat logic and anticipating actions in advance to respond and prepare.
Just that alone made Chen feel his senses sharpen even further.
The executioner stared down at him with a heavy gaze, then murmured lowly from inside his helmet.
"The illegitimate son of the Oryun Family. I've heard the story."
"..."
"I never imagined the hand that slew his father would now reach for his son too. Among executioners, laying hands on blood kin together is considered taboo..."
Boom!!
The executioner crouched, resting the heavy execution greatsword on his shoulder.
"But on a day like today, even the ghosts might show some mercy."
Whoooosh...!!
The executioner drew up his mana without hesitation.
Not a shred of carelessness lingered in his words or actions.
Having suffered humiliation in his bout with Asui, he resolved not to fall for it twice.
Facing that bloodthirsty presence, Chen slowly assumed his stance.
At the same time, the mana threads Renok had embedded reacted, honing the mana that flowed through Chen's body to a razor's edge.
Kiiing...!!
As he felt his entire body tense like a blade, Renok's voice echoed in his mind.
[We'll end this quickly.]
"What?"
Ignoring Chen's pause as he raised his curved sword, Renok continued.
[I got a rough sense of it while handling Asui earlier. Thanks to that, I think I can pull off something interesting.]
"No, sorry, but in a place like this, hold off on experiments and stick to the plan... Ugh...!!"
There was no reply.
As the bell rang, Chen's limbs trembled and he charged straight into the arena compound.
With his upper body lowered, leaning forward, and his legs pumping, his balance aligned in an instant and accelerated.
The surrounding scenery blurred in a flash, but despite the tremendous acceleration, Chen's expression wasn't great.
'It's too straightforward...!'
While Renok manipulated Chen's body to experiment with various combat logics, Chen hadn't just idled.
Born a businessman and naturally inclined toward strategy, he had been quite impressed by Renok's thought process.
Even in fierce combat, he always prioritized clearly and didn't hesitate to engage in power struggles and psychological warfare at every moment.
He threw reckless or bold moves without hesitation, but those too formed part of psychological ploys to seize timing and initiative.
He observed combat like overlooking a grand battlefield, yielding momentary first strikes if needed but securing more options overall than his opponent.
An arrogant confidence assured that, given a chance to choose, he could always pick the best judgment.
Without this opportunity, Chen couldn't have even guessed how Renok thought and acted.
As Renok's manipulation skills grew, synergy rose naturally as Chen understood his combat logic.
Conversely, the moment Renok manipulated Chen's body, Chen could somewhat intuit his intentions.
The charge built to full speed. It looked imposing at a glance, but against an opponent so much larger in build, it wasn't a good move.
The rational outcome from such a charge was to disrupt the foe's balance upon collision, narrowing their options while expanding his own.
The absolute psychological edge from that process matched exactly Renok's style that Chen had experienced so far, but the situation then differed.
Considering the executioner's broad frame and thick armor, even if Chen poured all his mana in, the chance of toppling his balance would have been slim.
In short, it was a reckless first strike.
Kaaang!!
Chen's curved sword, plunging swiftly into the executioner's guard, stabbed deep into the armor's interior.
As if waiting, the executioner stepped back boldly and swung his execution greatsword fiercely.
The impact of receiving the sharp charge wasn't nothing, but with the armor's solidity and his weight, he wouldn't lose balance.
He even stepped back skillfully, raising the execution greatsword, as if anticipating the situation.
It would have been impossible without having positioned his balance rearward from the start.
Swoosh!
As the executioner created distance, a gap opened between them.
Chen's curved sword couldn't reach, while the execution greatsword's range covered it with room to spare.
If things continued, Chen's body would be neatly split from crown to crotch.
"Farewell."
The voice that echoed from the helmet already brimmed with certainty of victory.
Unlike the unpredictable shadow sorcerer, the executioner had considerable expertise in the power struggles of warriors.
'Damn...!'
As Chen bit his lip and instinctively raised both arms, the mana that flowed through his body spun wildly on its own, conjuring an incomprehensible incantation.
An aggregate of principles and structures lay beyond Chen's current incantation capabilities to comprehend or recognize.
With the bizarre sensation of a puzzle assembling itself inside him, the rapidly built 'intent' channeled mana into a single meaning and manifested.
Paaah!!
It spread outward as an intangible wave.
Immediately after, the shadow that rose behind him clung to Chen's back and flapped like wings.
Squeeeee!!
The distance between them was about three steps.
Boom!!
"Ugh...!!"
Chen's body leaped over that exquisite gap, bouncing straight to the executioner's rear.
Slash!!
The executioner's head, severed behind Chen, flew helmet and all, soaring into the arena compound's sky.
The crowd of thousands gathered there witnessed the executioner's head rolling with faint blood trails, without missing a beat.
As the other family heads who watched widened their eyes, the audience erupted in cheers.
Waaaaaaaah!!!
Who won or who should have won didn't matter much from their perspective.
What mattered was providing a spectacle as grand as the gathering of citadel residents.
In that regard, the clash between Chen and the executioner, though brief, proved more than enough to thrill the viewers, given their backgrounds.
A confrontation between the executioner who killed the father and the grown son.
No matter the details, it was plenty dramatic enough to seem like a tale of vengeance.
Chen's victory in a split-second clash of strength and speed overflowed with dramatic flair.
"Damn... If you're going to do that, at least warn me ahead of time."
Muttering complaints, Chen struggled to his feet.
Picking up the curved sword that had fallen after decapitating the executioner, he raised his arm high, and the cheers in the arena compound intensified.
Oooooooooh!!
Receiving the roar of thousands with his whole body, Chen's gaze turned to the curtain at the back of the arena stage.
Renok, rubbing his wrist behind the stage, noticed the look and smiled.
'So far, it's going according to plan.'
Though the process had shifted slightly, the result satisfied Renok too.
First, he had sent Asui as the vanguard to place shadows throughout the arena compound in advance.
Then, he deployed Chen as the midguard and secured victory in the proxy battle to balance the scales—the second move.
Replicating Asui's incantation in Chen's body during that process had been half-impromptu, but the effect was undeniable.
Even the other family heads, who had eyed Chen indifferently, then glared at him with heightened tension.
Though Chen's body, lacking incantation aptitude, had manifested shadow sorcery, to the unaware family heads, it must have seemed like hidden prowess.
"The Sagun Family's executioner..."
"His head flew off in one clash. An unbelievable outcome."
"Right after the collision, he accelerated again in an absurd way. I missed that second acceleration for a moment."
"Either way, the executioner couldn't even react—it's no coincidence. There's a reason they stole the Paldoon Family's proxy slot."
"..."
Despite the other family heads' murmurs, the Paldoon Family head merely bowed silently, unable to retort.
Unable to join the alliance of five families and having lost their proxy slot, the treatment awaiting Paldoon was obvious.
At least, as Chen shone brighter, it somewhat offset the loss of their proxy slot—that was the silver lining.
Renok peered sharply at the family heads through the curtain gap.
Their agitation was natural.
He had moved while selecting outcomes that twisted the board without fully breaking his planned framework.
Though only one proxy from each side had fallen, it was enough to make the other family heads feel things weren't going smoothly.
If they sensed the situation veering strangely, that was sufficient.
Someone who thought the proxy battle's flow had turned odd would surely act differently.
Renok's sitting back as commander, not stepping forward, had been precisely to observe the family heads' reactions during the proxy battle.
The Gido Order.
If they were truly deeply involved in this citadel's proxy battle, they wouldn't stay idle in such a situation.
'A large-scale incantation offering lives as sacrifice... If the cult's aim is truly that, then one of the family heads must be aiding her. I need to identify the collaborator before the proxy battle ends.'
He had a rough idea of what the proselytizer, Walter Martinez, sought by infiltrating this Eightfold Star Citadel.
The spacetime discrepancy that existed within the citadel. If it was to collect the secrets in that relic site, reaching out not just to Ibon but to other family heads wouldn't have been strange.
For this very moment, he had recruited Oren and installed Su-ryeon as the Oryun Family head to place her there.
With those two's keen eyes, they could surely pinpoint which family head had been most closely colluding with Ibon.
All that remained was to continue twisting the proxy battle's dynamics unpredictably and watch the family heads' responses.
*
While lost in thought, the proxy battle continued.
The matchup between Chen, who had preserved most of his stamina, and the opponent's second proxy.
The one who appeared from the opposite stage was a lanky pugilist.
Renok already knew who he was from the Samyeong Family's intel.
Adam Brobeck, the Chilhyeon Family's proxy and a renowned mercenary.
A highly skilled pugilist and grappler from Platon Agency, a mercenary group that rivaled Antares even in the megacity.
Like the Yukryeong Family that hired Mad Manson, Chilhyeon was one of the families that employed outsiders as proxies.
As Renok recalled the intel, his eyes cooled.
'Platon... It's been a while since we crossed paths.'
Renok's first year as a freelancer.
When he took Evelin's commission and handled black mages with agents, Platon members had meddled everywhere.
Whenever he accepted a major job, they proved inescapable, but it had been quite some time since they started hiding their tracks.
What could have been the reason these meddlers in every megacity incident resurfaced then?
How much truth lay in the vicious rumors of their abnormal capital tying to the city council's upper echelons?
Unlike the tangled thoughts in his mind, Renok flicked a mana thread with a calm expression.
At the same time, mana conductivity echoed in Chen's ear and turned into a low message.
[From now on, we'll proceed as discussed beforehand. Alright?]
"When have you ever asked something like that?"
Chen replied with a wry smile.
"I might get some flak, but no choice. Since we started, let's see it through."
It didn't take long for the meaning of those words to reveal itself.
Just five minutes into the proxy battle, Chen immediately declared forfeit.