Ch. 218

Chapter 218: The Woman in Sunglasses (4)

Hyun outlined his plan to Ain.

They still didn’t know the full extent of Macaron’s capabilities, but one thing was certain: her specs were far beyond those of any ordinary player. If his hunch was right, a two-on-one ambush was their safest bet.

‘This is it… We can’t drag this out any further.’

A hundred meters was a ridiculously short distance. Hyun brought his steps to a halt. Any more lingering, and he wouldn’t be able to shake off Macaron’s suspicion.

‘We make our stand right here!’

They stopped before a massive mural, reminiscent of a cathedral, densely painted with angels and demons. Hyun ran his fingers along the wall as if searching for a hidden mechanism. Naturally, there was no secret trigger embedded in the artwork, but to a casual observer, it looked like a deeply mysterious display—especially with angels and demons adorning the stone.

‘Will she bite?’

Tracing the wall, Hyun blurted out a line Macaron couldn’t possibly ignore. He played it off as talking to himself, but he raised his voice just enough for her to overhear from behind.

“Huh? What’s this? Someone drew a weird demon right next to the mechanism.”

“…”

Macaron remained silent. Yet, Hyun didn’t miss the subtle twitch of her head at the word demon .

The next bait was guaranteed to hook her.

“Hmm? There’s a new inscription written near the bottom, too. Looks like it was added recently. An oracle? What’s this about an oracle?”

“What did you just say?”

In an instant, Macaron—who had seemed utterly indifferent until now—stepped closer to the mural.

“Ah, nothing much. Just looks like the mechanism was modified recently.”

“No, not that. What did you say was written there?”

“Ah, over there.”

Hyun pointed toward the most intricate section of the mural, a chaotic clash where countless angels and demons were locked in battle. He didn’t have the slightest clue what the painting actually meant, but that didn’t matter.

“Something about the descent of a demon… Beats me who left that kind of scribble.”

“Descent…?”

Before he knew it, a trace of anxiety had crept into Macaron’s voice.

“Right in the middle, the handwriting is tiny, so you’ll have to look closely.”

Macaron leaned in toward the mural.

“The script is microscopic, so it’s hard to make out, but—”

Closer.

The moment Macaron brought her face right up to the wall, Hyun and Ain struck.

「Now!」

That brief shout was the signal for their plan.

Whoosh! Flames erupted from both of Ain’s hands. The small flickers formed claws of fire—though Iprit’s Claws failed to activate since the Skill Bonus from Assimilation was gone.

Where had Hyun gone, having been assimilated into Ain’s body all this time?

‘Possession!’

Twenty meters above the mural, clinging to the ceiling, Hyun canceled Assimilation and cast his skill immediately.

Fwoosh!

The moment demonic energy wrapped around his body, his silhouette shifted, and his hair lengthened. A young darkness—yet, by human standards, a fully mature form!

Having taken on Louise’s body, Hyun kicked off the ceiling and plunged straight down.

「Ain, draw her eyes!」

「I know…!」

Ain delivered a heavy swipe toward the back of Macaron’s head while she was still peering into the mural. It was an attack so fast an ordinary player wouldn’t even have time to react.

However, Macaron was already turning her head the split second the flames flickered.

Whoosh!

Ain’s double-flame strike only managed to singe a few strands of her hair.

‘Incarnation’s Step!’

Ain had already anticipated her initial strike missing. The moment her attack cut through air, she covered the space above Macaron’s head in a burst of crimson flame.

To their shock, Macaron dodged even that by tilting her head back. It was a reaction speed that had long surpassed human limits! It was virtually impossible for any player to dodge Incarnation’s Step at such point-blank range.

‘Perfect, Ain!’

Despite all of Ain’s attacks missing, Hyun cheered in his head. The lingering flames she created were completely blinding Macaron’s line of sight!

Invisibility, Acceleration, and… Reflection!

Hyun poured in every skill he had. On top of that, he was currently borrowing Louise’s body, allowing him to pull off his most devastating chain combination.

‘Dark Blade… into Black Wind!’

Barely half a second had passed since canceling Assimilation.

Boom!

As the wind exploded, a zone of death opened up on the ground. The blade rotated dozens of times in the blink of an eye, shredding everything in its vicinity into pieces—including Macaron and everything around her!

Clang-clang-clang-clang!

In the middle of the whirlwind, Hyun felt tiny bursts of resistance vibrating through his sword.

Was she dead? Alive?

It was impossible to tell in the chaotic whirl of motion, but he didn’t need to check. Hyun’s plan had always been to execute a relentless sequence of moves he had pre-calculated in his head.

‘Assimilation!’

The Dark Blade was handed off to Ain’s hands once more. Having just used Incarnation’s Step , Ain was currently airborne.

Between the two of them, they had two mobility skills left. The moment Hyun activated Shadow Dash , a shadow laid itself over the path of the lingering flames in the opposite direction.

Saving that single mobility skill was all for this final moment—to complete an absolute kill-combo no target could survive!

“Got you, you NPC bastard!”

CLANG!

Yet, in that very instant, the Dark Blade came to a dead stop.

‘Huh?’

It took him a beat to process the situation.

The blade of the Dark Blade was pinned firmly inside the chakram Macaron held in her grip. Stopped dead by an overwhelming gap in raw power, the sword couldn’t budge an inch.

‘She didn’t die even from that?’

Hyun instantly tensed up. How terrifying would the counterattack be from an opponent who could withstand an assault like this?

However, the moment he caught sight of Macaron’s condition, his anxiety eased just a bit.

‘Wait, she didn’t come out unscathed!’

“Ugh… grrr…”

A painful groan leaked from the corner of Macaron’s mouth. She was in no shape to land a counterattack.

In the Labyrinth, even minor damage could easily result in lost limbs. Proving that harsh reality, one of her arms had been completely severed, and the rest of her body looked battered beyond belief. The countless fine cracks covering her skin were evidence of her attempting to regenerate using Holy Power.

Yet, the fact that she couldn’t even regenerate a single arm was clear proof that she had taken massive damage.

‘Looks like she barely managed to guard her vital spots.’

And, with her sunglasses knocked off, a pair of twisted eyes—so chilling they gave him goosebumps just looking at them—were exposed.

Macaron muttered in a bloodcurdling voice.

“You filthy Abyss bastards…”

The reason she hadn’t taken off those sunglasses—to imitate a player, she had to maintain a neutral expression even when facing beings of the Abyss. But for someone who couldn’t hide her physiological disgust, the sunglasses were an inevitable choice.

“How dare you… lie to me!”

Macaron’s enraged face looked like a furious Yaksha.

No, she wasn’t Macaron.

Along with those fierce eyes, Hyun knew the name of the NPC who wielded chakrams.

Her real name was Karma. She was an Inquisitor of the Holy Kingdom and a level 370 Story Named.

「It really is Karma.」

「Huh…? She’s not a player?!」

「I was fairly certain.」

At Hyun’s calm tone, Ain asked in surprise.

「Since when did you know?!」

「I was suspicious from the start when she didn’t recognize you, and I knew for sure when I tried to send a friend request.」

[The player ‘Macaron’ does not exist nearby! Please recall the target’s ID accurately!]

That was the message that had popped up earlier. While the opponent could have simply given a false ID, Hyun had focused on a different possibility.

「She was weird from the moment we met. What player uses chakrams fluently instead of common weapons? There are barely a handful of NPCs who can pull that off, let alone players.」

「Hyun, you’re like a detective today!」

「Ha, there were just way too many clues.」

Karma was the NPC responsible for initiating the Darkness Episode. Furthermore, the more crucial a role an NPC played in Asrian, the higher their AI was. Considering that, it wasn’t impossible for Karma to imitate a player. While it might be difficult for her to come up with such an idea on her own, she possessed enough intelligence to carry out someone else’s orders.

“Grrr, lying… How dare you lie to me…!”

Karma’s severed arm kept attempting to regenerate, only to dissipate over and over.

Hyun thought it was a relief they were in the Labyrinth. Their earlier ambush had clearly paid off. If they hadn’t dealt significant damage, Karma would have restored her lost limb in an instant. But in this state, their chances of victory were significantly higher.

“You know what? Players are all liars. If you were going to pretend to be a player, you should’ve done a better job!”

To someone who revered truth more deeply than anyone else, uttering a lie was nothing short of sacrilege to Karma.

“Kek, I see. So that’s what the oracle meant…”

Realizing her arm wouldn’t regenerate no matter what she tried, Karma ceased her futile efforts. She fixed her slit eyes on the girl wrapped in the Black Wind—or rather, on the entity before her that had somehow transformed from a girl into a woman.

“Beneath the land of Labyrins… The existence whose demonic energy deepens over time was you !”

To decipher the passage bestowed by the Proxy of Light, dozens of priests had racked their brains. The process had yielded two narrowed-down keywords: one whose demonic energy deepens , and the traitor .

Karma was convinced that the woman before her was the former. Look at her—had she not suddenly begun radiating demonic energy so thick it was sickening just to touch?

Karma failed to connect the woman before her to Darkness itself. While the shell Darkness had last shown in the heavens was that of a tiny girl, Louise had grown rapidly over the past five years. Even Hyun had been stunned when he first saw the portrait in the letter, so it was hardly surprising that NPCs couldn’t recognize her form.

「We can’t let her run into Louise under any circumstances.」

Hyun was well aware of the danger Karma posed. She possessed the ability to perceive targets by the nature of their demonic energy—less of a skill, and more of a unique technique inherent to her role as an Inquisitor. If Karma set eyes on Louise, she would undoubtedly sense that eerie aura, and with bad luck, she might even expose her identity as a Archdemon.

「If we leave her alive, things are going to get extremely headache-inducing.」

It was even possible she had memorized the signature of his own demonic energy as a player.

「So we’re finishing her off, right?」

「Yeah, we end it here!」

Karma’s resistance was fierce. It was only after applying debuffs to slow her down that Ain could barely match her speed.

Clang! Clang-clang!

Furthermore, the chakram drenched in Holy Power hovered around her, making it difficult to even close the distance.

The silver lining was that she only had a single chakram left, as the arm meant to wield the other had been severed.

‘Good, this is winnable!’

After a few more exchanges, Hyun sensed victory. It was impossible for her to block attacks from both him and Ain with just one chakram. Had they failed to cut off her arm, closing in wouldn’t have been easy. But currently, Karma couldn’t even exert half her true strength.

「Ah, she’s running!」 Ain shouted.

It seemed Karma, too, had realized her defeat was inevitable.

‘Shoot!’

Hyun realized his mistake in an instant. He had been overly fixated on keeping Karma from reaching Louise. Contrary to his expectations, however, Karma sprinted back toward the path they had come from.

「We have to catch her here!」

Hyun immediately assimilated into Ain, given that Ain was closer to Karma’s position.

Yet, the moment they rounded the corner of the labyrinth using Black Wind to pursue her—

「Huh? She disappeared!」

Karma, who should have been right in front of them, had vanished into thin air.

‘Tsk, where did she go?!’

Karma had pulled this vanishing act occasionally in the past. In an instant, a flurry of possibilities raced through Hyun’s mind.

Invisibility? Stealth? No, Karma doesn’t have those skills.

A mobility skill, then?

Karma’s only movement skill was a short-range teleport of about 2 to 3 meters. Yet, the walls of the lower labyrinth were far too thick for even Assimilation—which had a range of 30 meters—to cross over. There was no way Karma had the means to vanish so suddenly like this…!

“Kaaaaakh!”

A horrific scream echoed from behind just as Hyun was frantically trying to piece things together.

Hyun quickly doubled back around the corner toward the sound.

Two women stood there.

Karma, her chest pierced through as she dissolved into light—and behind her stood Louise, pointing her spear straight through Karma’s torso.

Fwooosh. Even now, the thrust of the spear emitted a roaring wind as it spun, looking as though it had carved out Karma’s chest entirely.

[Leveled Up!]

[Main Quest ‘Reunion with Louise’ has been completed!]

A moment later, once Karma had dissipated completely—

Clack-clack-clack!

At the wave of Louise’s hand, the extended spear collapsed inward, folding down into the compact shape of an umbrella.