Chapter 69 (2/2)
“A-already?”
All those numerous monsters were instantly incinerated to death.
That explosion earlier was caused by Su-hyeun killing all the monsters away in one fell swoop.
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Keshunirn finally realized that he had been underestimating Su-hyeun’s abilities until now. He never thought that Su-hyeun would be able to deal with the monsters so quickly.
The Phoenix landed on Su-hyeun’s shoulder and looked down on Keshunirn.
“What were you planning to do after escaping with all of those stones?” Su-hyeun asked.
“T-that is… T-there must be some kind of a mistake….”
“So, if there’s some kind of a mistake, you should stab your comrade, steal the loot, and run away?”
As expected, Keshunirn couldn’t reply.
When that happened, Su-hyeun’s previously-friendly expression asking questions hardened like solid ice. “Misunderstanding, my ass.”
It was right then, Su-hyeun’s gaze suddenly shifted to the other side.
Kka-aaahk—!
“Ouch, ouch! Ahk!”
Howal, who was attacked by Keshunirn earlier, was trying to rush towards the exit only for his movements to come to a crashing halt. Two Phoenixes were surrounding him, while yet another bundle of stones was being carried on his back.
“B-but, how?”
Keshunirn’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets.
Then, his gaze quickly locked onto the bundle he dropped as he fell.
Shu-wuuu—
The bundle began melting down like a lit candle. Keshunirn alternated his gaze between his melting, disappearing bundle and Howal with a confused, lost expression.
“You couldn’t even recognize the duplication skill at work, and risked your life to steal some random rubbish?” Su-hyeun stared at Keshunirn and softly tutted.
Both men had similar goals, but Howal was slightly smarter of the two.
He used the Duplication skill, which allowed its user to disguise one item to make it look like something else, to swap out the real Ether stones and fooled Keshunirn into stealing the fakes. It seemed that Howal had noticed Keshunirn being a similar type of b*stard as he was a while ago. Su-hyeun had already figured out that Howal was also the same sort of person, too.
“Fooling us with your injury, duplicating the Ether stones and stashing them away…. Besides the question of who’s dumber than the other, you two are exactly the same. How laughable. I guess you don’t give a rat’s ass about the safety of your own comrades?” Su-hyeun asked.
“It-it’s a m-misunderstanding….”
Howal was already wounded, and he could only swing his hands about in a fluster at the sudden attacks of the two Phoenixes.
Su-hyeun’s expression crumpled as he stared at Howal.
“That stupid ‘misunderstanding’ again. Aren’t you sick of repeating the same thing over and over again?”
“It-it’s the truth! It-it’s just that I realized that bastard was trying to steal the Ether stones, so….”
“In that case, how do you explain that?” Su-hyeun spoke as he pointed at the high-grade Ether stone embedded in the middle of the round tower’s magic circle. “That’s also a fake, isn’t it? Are you telling me that you didn’t know about the second exit not being generated if that stone was removed from there? Why? You didn’t want anyone else besides yourself to escape? Was that it?”
“B-but…how did you…”
Howal’s brows shot up incredibly high.
At the same time, the high-grade Ether stone in the middle of the magic circle began melting down. The Duplication skill had come undone.
“I wasn’t sure, but it turned out to be true,” said Su-hyeun.
“W-what??”
“The duplication skill loses its effectiveness the moment its user thinks someone else has seen through their ruse. I only spotted you sneakily touching the stone earlier, but I couldn’t be sure because I was still fighting the monsters, you see.”
Only a handful of Awakeners knew about the Duplication skill. Not only was it a rare skill to begin with, but its usage was also rather limited as well, so not much was known about the skill itself.
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His plan was seemingly perfect. He knew Keshunirn would betray them, so he decided to use that window of opportunity to escape with the Ether stones.
This many Ether stones would’ve afforded him a life free from all worries for the rest of his time on this planet, after all.
But now…
“I’d much prefer it if you don’t start ruing your missed chances here. Because, even if you used that exit, you still wouldn’t have reached the outside, anyway,” said Su-hyeun.
“What was that….?”
The expressions on both Keshunirn’s and Howal’s faces were dyed in confusion as Su-hyeun continued on. “I tinkered with the magic circle at the beginning, you see. I changed the coordinates a little. If you used that exit and transferred elsewhere, you’d probably end up among the pile of the monster corpses over there.”
“In…. such a short time?”
“What are you so surprised about? All I did was tinker with the coordinates a little. I mean, we’ll all be able to leave in two hours’ time, so it wasn’t going to be a problem anyway, right?”
Despair dyed the faces of the two men after hearing Su-hyeun out.
From the beginning, they shouldn’t have schemed about escaping. According to what Su-hyeun had said, no such thing as an escape route existed to begin with.
“As for the damaged Ether stone, it’ll be fine after putting it back in its original position…. Well, then. Any last words?” Su-hyeun asked.
“L-last words?”
“P-please, spare me!”
Howal’s complexion paled in an instant, while Keshunirn hurriedly got down on his knees. In the midst of desperately rubbing his hands and pleading for his life, Keshunirn inwardly thought to himself.
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The “Su-hyeun” Keshunirn observed for the past ten days was a really kind-hearted person.
A good example was earlier when he asked if the injured Keshunirn wanted to escape outside first. Even if he had changed the coordinates as a safeguard, Su-hyeun seemed genuine when he said that back then.
He was a hero-like person who could never forsake the injured, helpless people. A person as kind as that might really spare his life — that’s what Keshunirn thought.
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His mouth was pleading for his life, while he was thinking of something else in his head.
As he pleaded tearfully and desperately, Su-hyeun’s voice stabbed him from above. “The thing is, there’s a reason why I’ve been wasting my energy explaining to b*stards like you why you’re going to die….”
“Eh?”
Just as Keshunirn raised his head at that unexpected reply…
Stab—
Su-hyuen’s blade pierced into his throat.
“…So that you may know what your sins are and repent on your way to the afterlife.”
Step—
Su-hyeun turned around unhesitatingly and strode towards Howal next.
The latter and his deathly-pale face stared at the former walking in closer, his teeth clattering incessantly.
Su-hyeun watched Howal whisper the words “spare me” under his breath and could only sigh softly to himself.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone of your kind that genuinely repented for their sins and tried to ask for forgiveness.” Su-hyeun’s gaze was directed to the dead Keshunirn. “Nine times out of ten, you lot always say ‘spare me’ first, instead of ‘forgive me.'”
“U-uwaaaah—!””
Perhaps realizing that Su-hyeun wasn’t going to spare his life, Howal suddenly shot up from his spot and pounced on the former.
Crack—
Bang—!
Su-hyeun’s hand grabbed Howall’s neck and slammed him to the ground below.
“Keo-hurk!”
“I have no idea how you two thought of me until now, but…”
Break—
“You see, I’m not always such a nice guy.”