Chapter 23 - EPISODE 23 – DEVIL’S HAND (4)
Chapter 23 - EPISODE 23 – DEVIL’S HAND (4)
Terms used in this chapter:
Rhodos?– the goddess wife of the Greek sun god, Helios. She is also the personification of the Rhode Islands in Greece.
Demonic human Minos.
He was a result of the Devil’s Hand’s efforts in unifying a human and demon.
Minos was not just given powers by the demon, but was united with the demon itself, boasting a power that was different from ordinary demon followers.
In?Legend of Heroes 2, Minos reigned as the ‘unbeatable boss.’
In the social gathering attack event, the premise of the story was to lose to Minos in the first place, so winning was impossible no matter what you tried to do.
The condition for continuing the game was not to defeat Minos, but to escape from his hands.
‘However.’
This was reality.
It was different from the game.
Furthermore, the time of Minos’ appearance was different from the game.
Originally, he was supposed to appear near the end of the event like game bosses do, but he has now appeared at the same time as the start of the attack.
Jude and Cordelia thought and moved at the same time when they encountered demonic human Minos.
“Lucas!”
Cordelia called Lucas’ name loudly.
Demonic human Minos possessed a ‘soul tracking’ ability, allowing him to identify and track the souls of beings located in his close proximity.
It was this ability that made him distinguish Lucas at once.
Therefore, it was not a problem to him whether you’re noticeable or not.
What was important to him was to secure Lucas.
As he couldn’t attend the banquet while armed, Lucas pulled out a dagger he had for self-defense and turned to Cordelia after hearing her call him. But at that moment, Minos started moving.
“La Kusaru Pio.”
The demonic language flowed from the mouth of the man wearing a white mask without any pattern.
His eyes shined blue, and a great amount of cold air began to rise in both of his hands.
Jude felt like he was being suffocated.
It was because of the pressure of facing an absolutely powerful being, just like the time when he had faced Leisegang.
But it was a little different. When he met Minos’ eyes for a moment, Jude felt that his spiritual and physical body were bound.
“Outboxer!”
Cordelia shouted as she hit Jude’s back, and thanks to her, Jude was released from the bondage and he gasped for breath.
“Let’s go!”
Cordelia shouted again. She ran towards Lucas and grabbed his arm to Lucas’ bewilderment.
“Lady Cordelia?!”
“Cordelia?!”
Sylvia, who was by Lucas’ side, also raised her voice, but Jude saw Minos instead of the three.
Minos took a step.
The cold air from his arm began to take shape.
However…
“O fierce flames of Rhodos! Strike down my enemies!”
Flame wizard Ronin rushed at Minos, invoking his magic spell. Two beasts of flames materialized beside him and flew towards Minos.
“Young master!”
“Miss!”
Jun and Dahlia shouted from a distance. Due to the nature of the banquet, they were only waiting outside and couldn’t stay by Jude and Cordelia’s side.
Even now, they tried to run and shout, but there were people rushing towards them with swords, so it wasn’t easy to get out of their situation.
Jude made a quick judgment.
The original plan was to move after joining Dahlia, but now that Minos had appeared, there was no time for it.
“Lucas! We have to run! This way!”
Sylvia nodded immediately when Jude shouted, but not Lucas.
As a sword genius and the heir of Count Hr?svelgr, the head of the 12 families, he spoke confidently.
“What do you mean! Running away from the enemy! As a knight, I must face…”
“What is this crazy bastard saying! <Paralyze>!”
Lucas’ words did not last until the end.
Cordelia showed her true colors and used Paralyze magic that caused him to be knocked down.
“Co-Cordelia?!”
Sylvia was terrified, but it wasn’t the time to worry about that.
Cordelia picked and grabbed one of the fallen Lucas’ arms and shouted to Jude.
“Let’s go!”
Jude understood right away. Holding Lucas’ other arm, he said to Sylvia.
“Lady Sylvia! This way!”
“Yes?! Ah, yes!”
Besides, the entire banquet hall had turned into a battleground.
Sylvia didn’t have a reason to refuse because she was going to run and not fight back in the first place.
“At..this…dis…”
Lucas mumbled as he was not completely paralyzed, but Jude and Cordelia didn’t care.
He may be a sword genius, but his power now was just like in the beginning of the game.
He only had a dagger, not a proper sword, so if he tried to fight with a dagger, he’d only be kidnapped.
His mumbles made it evident that Cordelia’s magic was currently working.
“Young master!”
The knights of Hr?svelgr shouted, but like Dahlia and Jun, they couldn’t easily pull themselves out because of the enemies in front of them.
Moreover, as the fight between Minos and Ronin began in earnest, the inside of the banquet hall truly became a mess, making it difficult to even discern the surroundings.
“This way!”
Jude moved to the corner of the banquet hall and activated a secret door.
The restaurant that was used as a banquet hall was originally a mansion of a great nobleman, and as such buildings usually had secret rooms, Jude was well aware of the secret rooms because he was Outboxer.
‘Stage 3.5.’
Jude and Cordelia had entered the secret room yesterday and made some preparations in advance.
It was a kind of panic room.
“Haa…haa…here?”
Sylvia panted and asked, but Jude and Cordelia continued to move instead of answering.
As soon as the still-paralyzed Lucas was laid down on the floor, Cordelia used magic to light up the place. Jude went to the left corner, removed the carpet, and opened a lid a little larger than an adult’s upper body.
“This way!”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a secret passage that led outside. It was a pit that Jude and Cordelia had dug with Dig magic yesterday.
“Hurry up!”
Cordelia urged him, and Jude took out the items he had placed inside.
The items kept there were the sacred rod, Moonlight, and various armor, swords, shields, magic circles, etc.
“Sylvia, go in. You’re not an important target, so you’ll be fine hiding.”
“Huh? I’m not an important target?”
Sylvia had always lived in the center of people’s attention since she was born, so she was surprised at being told that she was not an important target.
Cordelia had a bitter smile as she helped Sylvia into the pit, and Sylvia hid herself while being embarrassed at somehow being treated like a burden.
“Okay, let’s arm ourselves.”
Jude handed Moonlight to Cordelia as he wore a leather armor over his tailcoat and held the Sun’s Necklace like knuckles. No matter how much talent his body possessed because of Cheonmujiche, he had yet to learn proper swordsmanship, so using a fist was stronger and more comfortable for him.
“<Cancel Paralyze>”
Cordelia swung Moonlight to release the Paralyze spell that she had used on Lucas.
“Lord Lucas should accept this too.”
When Jude quickly handed over to him a sword and armor, Lucas looked at Cordelia fiercely, even as he was arming himself with his less paralyzed hand.
“Lady Cordelia! What the hell is this-”
“<Silence>!”
The effect of Silence magic was awesome.
He was like the main character in a silent movie, as Lucas shouted with his mouth wide open, but his voice did not come out.
Cordelia came close to such Lucas, staring straight at him as she said.
“Hey, listen up. It’s an emergency right now. Didn’t you just get neutralized with one magic shot? Stop being unruly. The enemy is stronger than you. You should be alert and not nervous. Do you understand?”
The cold and sharp truth was much more intense than foul language.
Lucas bit his lips and nodded, and Cordelia, who was fiercely staring at Lucas, smiled brightly.
“Don’t be too scared though. Let’s do well together.”
Tapping his shoulder, she took a long deep breath and exhaled, before boldly ripping off the hem of her skirt.
“Wow.”
“Why? Are you going to fall in love again?”
“F*ck.”
The light exchange was also beneficial to the two.
In the midst of all this, the sounds of people crying and struggling from the chaos outside were heard, so no matter how much they had predicted the situation, it was inevitable for them to become tense.
“Will he come here?”
“It’s best if he doesn’t come, but maybe he will.”
The range of Minos’ soul tracking ability was quite short, but it was still enough to cover the entire banquet hall.
After defeating Ronin, it was clear that he would head here.
“Ah…I’m nervous.”
It was different from that time with Leisegang.
Demonic human Minos is an unsealed being who could show off all his abilities to his heart’s content.
“You can do it. We are prepared, right? And if we can do it…it’ll be a first.”
“Defeating Minos?”
“Yes, defeating Minos.”
It was something that countless rotten waters have not achieved, so defeating him would be a great achievement.
“Will we be in a feature article of?Legend of Heroes?”
“It’ll be a hot article.”
“We’ll get lots of likes?”
“We’ll totally be bombarded by likes, right?”
“Hey.”
Cordelia had a bright smile as she imagined it, and Jude also had a pleasant smile.
It was just nonsensical stuff, but they had missed those times and thus enjoyed imagining it.
‘You told me not to be nervous, but I’m just standing around.’
Lucas complained, but because he was still enchanted by the Silence magic, it was just a silent clamor.
And a few seconds passed.
A few minutes passed.
At the moment when their cold sweat came.
Bang!
A roar broke out outside the secret room.
Screams and shouts followed, and the sound of fighting swords became even sharper.
“It’s coming.”
The door of the secret room froze when Jude instinctively spoke. The chilly air spread along the wall, and soon, the whole wall turned into cold ice.
Demonic human Minos.
Ruler of the extreme cold!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I thought there was just a crack in the frozen wall, but it all collapsed at once.
The messy banquet hall and the combatants of the Devil’s Hand suddenly came into view, and a bloodstained Minos with a pair of horns on his forehead came in the room.
‘Ronin.’
Ronin was defeated. But he didn’t just lose. He had succeeded in dealing a huge blow to Minos because of their opposing elements.
Jude recalled the banquet hall’s map in his mind.
He instantly grasped the situation.
Their side has prevailed.
But the situation was not good.
The Devil’s Hand’s combatants were blocking the way, and Minos overpowered Cordelia and Lucas.
For him, it was easier to defeat them than to wring a child’s wrist.
As if to prove this, a deep smile was drawn around Minos’ mouth.
“The rats were hiding here.”
Minos took a step.
Lucas, who was feeling nervous, flinched unconsciously. Cordelia grasped the Moonlight with clenched teeth.
‘It’s coming. He’s coming.’
Jude thought. I gave a final look to Cordelia and then stepped forward.
Thud!
Jude’s foot completely shot forward.
At the same time, Minos responded. His eyes followed Jude’s movement before sending a blast of extremely cold air towards Jude.
“<Heat>!”
Jude tore the magic circle to generate heat.
However, it was only a 1-star magic at best.
The cold air stalled for a moment before quickly hitting Jude, and Minos took another step. Following Jude, he tried to defeat Cordelia and Lucas.
And at that moment…no, during the time when Jude had stepped forward first.
Cordelia cut her palm with a blade she had prepared in advance. At the same time as she bled, she struck the floor with the tightly grasped Moonlight.
“Such trivial magic!”
A powerful demonic energy rose and burst from Minos’ body.
It was to tear apart Cordelia’s magic formation with his powerful mana.
Indeed, it was a terrifying energy. Facing it felt like you were being choked to death.
However, Cordelia smiled.
It was a bitter smile because of the pain in her palm, but she definitely smiled.
As expected of Outboxer009, everything went in the prescribed order.
Cordelia had released mana, but it wasn’t magic.
She simply released pure mana with her blood that flowed down to the floor through Moonlight, which then triggered the magic circle.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh-!
A brilliant light lit up the place.
The emitted light clearly revealed the magic circle hidden by the carpet that had covered the entire secret room’s floor.
“What is this-?!”
Minos stopped talking.
No, he couldn’t continue talking.
He was choked. His whole body seemed to be entangled in chains.
He seemed to be thinking, ‘Why, no, what the hell is this?!’
“What the f*ck is this? Of course, it’s Bellastin’s magic circle!”
Cordelia laughed cheerfully as she shouted.
Bellastin’s magic circle boasted of a terrifying power against the demons.
Minos had released a strong demonic energy, and so the chains caught his ankles.
The stronger the demon’s power is, the stronger the Bellastin’s magic circle becomes.
Of course, there were limitations.
We didn’t have the power of the sun god Solari’s seal like that time with Leisegang, so all the power that was used came from Cordelia’s mana.
The time to maintain it is, at most, a few dozen seconds.
Even so, Cordelia had to do her best to make it last longer.
It was too short, but Cordelia did not lose her smile. Though she felt like she was going to die from the hardship, she broke into a cold sweat and shouted again.
“Outboxer!”
Bang!
He hit the ground.
Thirty-Six World Steps.
Jude appeared before Minos’ nose.
Minos thought it was impossible.
Minos’ chilled air wasn’t just an ordinary chilled air.
It was Yin energy that consumed the body and soul.
Even if ordinary humans endured the cold, the body would not have been able to move freely because of the Yin energy.
But it wasn’t the case for Jude.
‘Because I’m used to it.’
Gueumjulmaek was a disease that occurs due to being innately born with excessive Yin energy.
The Sun’s Necklace also helped Jude in this situation because of the necklace’s opposing Yang energy.
Shock spread over Minos’ face.
Cordelia collapsed as she clung to the Moonlight, before giving Minos a middle finger.
Lightning Punch.
Seven strikes in the span of a lightning bolt struck Minos’ whole body.