Chapter 162

Ha Yu-ri and Ruska sensed a presence ahead of them.

It was a being filled with dark energy.

The aura of a strong individual was felt—a sticky and ominous one.

Finally, Ha Yu-ri’s eyes caught sight of Rekalux.

An old man draped in a black robe, with a neat hairstyle and attire resembling a gentleman.

However, Ha Yu-ri’s eyes didn’t even register the old man.

“Yul, Yul-ah!”

Because Ha Yul, her younger sister, was standing beside the old man.

Unlike her, her cute younger sister with black hair.

“…..”

“Yul-ah! Un, unnie’s here! Unnie came to save you!”

“……”

“Yu, Yul-ah…?”

As Ha Yu-ri desperately called out to her sister, the old man spoke.

“Well… I guess it was inevitable to be caught. Anyway…”

Rekalux scrutinized the faces of the two women who had chased him.

“Charis didn’t come along? Pity. I wanted to see the face of my old comrade and traitor.”

“What, what have you done to my sister!”

Ha Yu-ri instinctively realized something was wrong with her sister.

After all, her sister, who always smiled at her, wasn’t responding.

“Hoho… The master of the Mardan Clan. So you were the girl who ran away back then? I never dreamed that little brat would become the Mardan Clan Master.”

“Answer my question! How dare you, how dare you do this to my sister…!”

Just as Ha Yu-ri was about to lose her temper, Ruska placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her.

“Calm down. You know getting worked up won’t help in this situation. Stay composed.”

Ha Yu-ri knew that, but her rationality wasn’t in control.

It was her sister. Her sister, whom she had forcibly forgotten, was right in front of her.

“Hmm… This girl, huh?”

Rekalux placed his hand on Ha Yul’s face, handling her as if she were his prized creation.

Of course, seeing this, Ha Yu-ri felt like her world was crumbling. Her sister was being toyed with by this filthy old man.

“My masterpiece. And if you’re asking what I did, I didn’t do much. Just erased her personality and made her my loyal servant.”

Ha Yu-ri asked with a blank expression.

“Erased… her personality…?”

“Ah… Don’t worry. I didn’t completely erase it. To be precise, her original personality is deep in slumber.”

“What…?”

“I made some modifications to her body. When I implanted the magic heart, she screamed so much in pain… It was so noisy I had to suppress her personality.”

“…..”

“I still remember that time. She kept begging, ‘Please don’t do this, I don’t want to forget my unnie.’ I can even reenact it for you.”

The old man cleared his throat and recreated the scene with a chilling expression.

“Unnie! Save me! I don’t want to forget! Someone, save me! Please save me! Don’t do it! Please stop, grandpa! It hurts! Save me!”

The old man’s voice mimicking a frail girl was grotesque and disgusting.

“Save me! Someone, save me! I don’t want to forget my unnie! Please!”

Tears of blood streamed from Ha Yu-ri’s eyes.

“Hmm, hmm… How was it? Something like that. Honestly, it was so noisy I had to shut her up. So, please understand.”

After finishing, the old man grabbed Ha Yul’s chin, making her look at him, and spoke.

“You feel the same, don’t you?”

“… Yes, Master.”

“Hoho, she agrees.”

Suddenly, an explosive surge of magic erupted from Ha Yu-ri’s body.

The force was like a witch trying to freeze the world.

It was magic befitting her title, the Ice Witch.

“Oh… So this is the rumored power of the Ice Witch? We can’t fall behind, can we?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Your unnie is trying so hard to save you. You should respond in kind.”

Immediately, a massive amount of magic and heat erupted from Ha Yul’s body, even turning her hair red.

“I wonder who will win and survive between the sisters. Ice and fire…”

Ha Yu-ri was inwardly panicked by the magic and heat emanating from her sister.

‘How is she this strong?’

Her sister was indeed a fire mage, but she had never stood out before.

Yet now, she was almost on par with Ha Yu-ri, a top-ranked mage. Of course, Ha Yu-ri had no intention of losing, but that was if her opponent wasn’t her sister.

Ha Yu-ri had no desire to kill her sister.

“Well, let the sisters handle their business, and you and I will settle ours.”

“… You have a sick sense of humor.”

“Hoho… Sick? You should be thanking me. I gave the sisters a chance to spend some quality time together.”

“You talk so casually, but you can’t hide your tension.”

“…..”

As Ruska said, Rekalux was more tense than he had ever been.

Because he instinctively realized how powerful this woman was.

“… One thing I’m curious about, why are you after me? You have no grudge against me, do you?”

“I’m just following orders. My master desires your death.”

“Orders? From whom? A woman of your caliber taking orders from someone?”

“You don’t need to know who my master is. It would be an insult to even mention their name to someone like you.”

“Hoho… Unbelievable.”

While talking to Ruska, Rekalux kept thinking.

‘Who is after me?’

He didn’t know about Ha Yu-ri until he faced her, but he understood her reason because of her sister.

But this woman was someone he had never seen before, and her name wasn’t known like Ha Yu-ri’s.

Having such power without being known meant one thing.

She had eliminated everyone she had faced so far.

“… You speak too rudely. I’d like to meet your so-called master and use them as a test subject. Ah, and you too, of course.”

Right after Rekalux finished speaking, Ruska swung her sword from behind him.

‘When did she…?’

Of course, he had been watching her, but he lost sight of her in an instant.

“You said something you shouldn’t have.”

‘Damn…!’

He twisted his body slightly in an instant, but failed to completely dodge the attack.

Swoosh—

Thud.

“Ugh…”

“I intended to cut you in half, but you dodged. Only managed to cut off an arm.”





“Lani.”

‘This speed is beyond common sense.’

Even though I dodged, I lost an arm. The speed is unbelievable.

“Kuh… Do you know this? The end of chimera synthesis is turning my own body into a chimera.”

Right after Rekalux finished speaking, the severed arm twitched and lunged at Ruska.

“Such a petty act…”

In an instant, the arm was sliced into pieces.

“This is…”

“This body is akin to immortality. You could say my body itself is the ultimate chimera.”

The shattered arm turned into a black mass, and eerie eyes began to appear.

It even started to reassemble, as if defying the laws of physics.

“…You’ve given up being human.”

“Given up? What are you talking about? Giving up is when you quit because you can’t go on. I’ve merely shed the weak vessel of humanity. Yes, I’ve overcome my inherent limitations.”

Ruska realized the source of the inexplicable discomfort she had been feeling.

It was because he was a being who pretended to be human while no longer being one.

No, he was once human, but now he is not.

The sticky air, the unpleasant magical energy.

She had thought the unease was due to the location, but now she was certain.

It all originated from that old monster.

“Hmm… I’m a bit embarrassed to show a part of myself to you, miss.”

With Rekalux’s words, his body split in half, revealing a horrifying form.

A writhing black mass with countless monster eyes and teeth.

“It’s not just a simple mix of a few monsters and humans.”

Ruska’s words were met with a terrifying voice from Rekalux.

“Indeed. I’ve mixed countless things. I’ve subdued countless egos and absorbed countless powers. I am the only one who has overcome the limits of life.”

“You’re lost in self-obsession. The word ‘only’ is not to be used lightly.”

Right after speaking, Ruska stomped her foot.

“I’ll absorb you too. You’ll become one with me. I’ll make you part of ‘us.'”

Rekalux’s mutated body stretched out, and countless teeth appeared.

Ruska blocked the old monster’s attack and thought. This was no longer a battle between humans.

That thing was neither human nor monster.

It was just something incomplete. A creature that had gone mad with the pursuit of knowledge and research, meeting a terrible fate.

‘I didn’t expect to clash with countless teeth using cold weapons.’

The sound of metal scraping against teeth echoed.

Immediately, Rekalux’s elongated body shot up like a blade from the ground, but Ruska swung her sword backward.

‘Cutting it is only a temporary solution.’

She could block the attacks. But even if she cut and separated it, it would just merge back, and the counterattack would come.

Simply swinging the sword wouldn’t harm it.

Then, she just needed to not simply swing the sword.

Silver threads began to swirl around Ruska’s sword.

The reason she could become the youngest warrior of the elves.

It was because of her unique mental imagery.

The sword swung toward Rekalux, and he instinctively sensed danger.

‘It’s dangerous.’

He had never heard or seen such an ability, but he knew it instinctively.

The silver threads looked thin and weak at first glance, but they carried the will to tear and pierce whatever they touched.

Among the indigenous people, a very few who were extremely strong could imbue their attacks with their mental imagery.

Manifesting the will to cut through, to pierce.

Foreigners could do it too, but due to the nature of players relying on stats and traits, it was even rarer than among the indigenous people.

To dismiss it as just a sword was extremely foolish.

‘Can’t dodge.’

The speed at which the woman thrust her sword was too fast to dodge.

‘Then I’ll have to rely on my regeneration and endure some damage.’

Rekalux quickly inflated his mutated body to defend.

The sound was unbelievable for just a sword thrust.

With the sound, most of Rekalux’s mutated parts were torn to shreds by the silver threads.

“Kuaaaah!”

The bizarre situation of being torn by the silver threads while regenerating.

Instantly, from behind Ruska, the mutated part burst through the ground and rushed at her.

“Guh…!”

In a split second, she twisted her body, and instead of her heart, it pierced through her shoulder.

Ruska immediately swung her sword backward and tore it apart.

“Kuh… Impressive. Your reflexes are beyond common sense.”

“…Old monster, you’re using cheap tricks. You know you can’t escape, right?”

At Ruska’s words, the half of Rekalux that still looked human started to laugh.

The mouths on his mutated parts also laughed, creating a spine-chilling sight.

“Hahaha! Well? You might not know, but the situation over there is quite clear.”

Where Rekalux was looking, Ha Yu-ri was fighting her sister using magic.

No, it was a strange situation to call it a fight.

Ha Yu-ri was just blocking the magic her sister was using.

Her state, crying and calling out her sister’s name, was pitiful to anyone who saw.

“Please…! Yul-ah! Snap out of it, please! Your sister is here to save you! So please…!”

She couldn’t bring herself to cast a lethal spell on her own sister.

“How about it? Does the situation still seem favorable? I can finish you off and escape before your comrades arrive.”

“……”

Ruska bit her lip.

The old monster was stronger than expected, and Ha Yu-ri’s sister being added to the enemy’s forces was not good for the battle.

Moreover, Ha Yu-ri was practically being pushed back by her sister.

It wasn’t that she was weaker in skill. It was just that, as an older sister, she couldn’t bring herself to cast a lethal spell on her younger sister.

Rekalux’s eyes curved like crescent moons as he spoke.

“I’ll show you my true form. Consider it an honor, you’re the first.”