Chapter 124 - Memory Garden 1 (1/2)
The surroundings shook several times with the loud explosions.
‘This will get complicated if I let her be.’
Gretel was a normal apprentice magician, but since Alphone's spirit fragments were possessing her, her magic power had increased by dozens of times.
The same went for Sylvanas.
Her movements were more agile than most elves and her senses were accurate. He would soon get noticed even if he wore the banshee’s cloak and went outside.
‘There’s no other choice. I’ll have to do it myself.’
It was hard to leave his vassals in charge of the battle since Leifina’s soul fragments were on the line.
Woohyuk watched Gretel and Sylvanas' movements with his senses.
[Agnes, disturb them with your abilities.]
[Alright~! Understood!]
Agnes exited Woohyuk's shadow as her body creaked.
Then, she recited a spell and a black fog spread around the hut in an instant.
“Do, don’t think of messing with us!”
Gretel panicked and raised her staff again.
Then, the vampiric dagger flew from behind and slightly cut the side of her throat.
“Ugh… !”
Gretel turned around in confusion.
Asura.
They were standing face to face.
“It’s the poison of lizardmen. It has a hypnotic effect, so it's easy to use against captured enemies.”
“You, you bastard…!”
The poison had already spread all over her body, and it wouldn’t move at will.
As Gretel trembled, dozens of purple arrows flew in aiming at Woohyuk's head.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A transparent shield appeared and neutralized all the arrows.
[Queen Star Snake Ghost].
As its grade had increased to B, physical attacks of this degree were easily prevented.
“Wait here for a while. I'll go capture that girl who keeps pretending to be an elf.”
“…Okay.”
Gretel, in a state of hypnosis, replied with an expressionless face.
Woohyuk applied poison on his dagger again and then stepped toward Sylvanas.
Swoooooosh!
He ran so fast that ordinary people could only see the demonic energy aftertrail.
Sylvanas gulped.
‘I, I can do it. My arrows have rarely missed their mark.'
She felt such an urgency and crisis that Alphone's soul fragment mistook herself for Sylvanas for a moment.
Her sense of self was unstable.
Sylvanas sharpened her senses and gazed through the black mist.
After a while, a faint figure was seen in the distance and she released the string.
Swoooosh!
Arrows loaded with purple demonic energy flew through the air.
'Did they hit?'
Her aim had been accurate.
As Sylvanas looked around for Woohyuk’s figure, his voice came from the air.
“Where are you looking?”
“…!!!”
When Sylvanas urgently tried to pull the bow, Woohyuk's figure disappeared for an instant.
'Eh?'
Incomprehensible situation.
She did not know about the Elder Naga’s Ancient Ring, one of Woohyuk's artifacts.
“I guess you can’t cope with this type of battle since you’re merely a fragment of the soul.”
It was a short distance teleportation magic called Blink.
Sylvanas swallowed her saliva when Woohyuk positioned the tip of the vampiric dagger on her back.
“It must’ve consumed a lot of mana to repeatedly use this many spells in such a short amount of time…”
”It’s because I'm not an ordinary demon.”
Asura's demonic energy grew in proportion to his mana, but its increase was several tens of times higher than that of ordinary demons.
So, when fighting by consuming demonic energy instead of mana, he could repeatedly use his artifacts without a problem.
However, demonic energy was similar to internal energy, and was difficult to refill compared to mana.
Anyway, after defeating Sylvanas, Woohyuk called Alphone and his own vassals.
“Get started.”
“Yes, I just need to recover some mana.”
Alphone's soul was split so her stats were low.
She took out a flask containing a blue solution, drank it, and immediately activated the soul separation technique.
Tsssssss.
Blue energy escaped from Gretel and Sylvanas and was absorbed into Alphone's body.
“The dolls are here.”
Woohyuk took out the pink stuffed rabbits from the pockets of the two fragment hosts.
After a while, as Leifina recovered her soul fragments, Woohyuk asked her questions.
“Where did you first meet me?”
“At, at the witch's chapel. You rescued me while I was pretending to be Angrboda, My Lord.”
“What is the name of your sword?”
“It’s Argent. It is a sword that has been passed down from generation to generation in our Ecclet family. If you make a master-slave vow with it, your life would belong to your master.”
Her memories seemed to have completely returned.
After a sigh of relief, Woohyuk stroked her head.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
“… I have to ask for forgiveness, My Lord.”
Leifina knelt with a heavy expression.
Everyone was puzzled by her sudden behavior.
“What is it?”
“I was threatened by Alphone to kill you, My Lord. But I could not report it immediately because she was holding the residents of the barony as hostages.”
“So did you really intend to kill me?”
“Of, of course not. I was just trying to find another solution. I would never do anything that would harm you, My Lord...”
“That’s fine then.”
“…”
As Woohyuk brushed it off as if it were nothing, Leifina blinked multiple times.
Her mistake was so great that she had prepared herself to be exiled.
Her mind was still filled with complicated thoughts.
“I believe in you, Leifina.”
“My, My Lord…”
“So you don’t have to worry about me again.”
It was an order with words of sincerity.
Leifina bowed her head as her heart beat rapidly.
”I understand.”
A subtle mood floated between the two of them.
Then, Aris's face distorted in envy.
“Lord Asura, in truth, I must also beg for your forgiveness…”
“Aris.”
”Eh? Yes?”
“How old are you this year?”