[Advanced Skill: Irreversible Step (Lv. 9)]
Lin, having snatched the gem, quickly activated a skill scroll.
Feeling his speed dramatically increase, Lin pushed himself to run even faster.
His desperate sprint for survival was filled with urgency and determination.
“Yes, run! The more you run, the more I’ll savor the mont I finally embrace you!”
Lin was furious.
He was furious that all he could do was run away from that disgusting man.
Crack! Crack!
The feeling of helplessness turned the chains that bound his heart black.
One.
Two.
Three chains blackened and fell to the ground.
“Tigrea!”
While running, Lin raised the gem over his shoulder.
“Lin! That gem was originally mine! Hand it over to . I’ll protect you!”
Denarua shouted, but Lin wasn’t listening. He no longer wanted to be just protected.
“Catch!”
Using all his strength, Lin threw the gem, but he lost his balance slightly.
The exploration captain didn’t miss the opportunity and rushed forward, his face filled with joy.
“You worthless bastard!”
Denarua quickly intervened, drawing her right-hand sword, “Solitude,” and slashing the captain’s upper body. She then imdiately stabbed her left-hand sword, “Desolation,” into his heart.
“Grrrgh!”
“Die and disappear. I refuse to acknowledge scum like you as my kin.”
“Kin…?”
The captain’s eyes widened in shock, but before Denarua could finish him off, she was forced to twist her body to dodge a magical arrow shot from behind.
The arrow that Denarua dodged pierced the captain instead.
anwhile, Tigrea, who had fired the spell, caught the gem that had been thrown to her just in ti.
Lin quickly recovered his stance and sprinted toward Tigrea to join her.
“Accelerate!”
‘Did the incantation just get shorter?!’
Denarua was shocked to see Tigrea casting a spell with just a single word.
Caught up in the urgency of the situation, Lin and Tigrea didn’t even notice this remarkable feat.
“Head straight to the wall we saw yesterday!”
“Got it!”
With the acceleration spell enhancing their speed, the two ran even faster.
Denarua realized that her earlier efforts to clear the ruins for Lin had backfired.
The two raced down the obstacle-free corridor with nothing to slow them down.
At least, not on their path.
“Grrk! Haa…!”
The gem’s curse began to seep into Tigrea’s body.
Noticing that the curse was acting quickly due to her empty soul, Lin swiftly grabbed the gem from her.
Tigrea reflexively looked at him as he forcibly took the gem, and she finally saw it.
“Aah…!”
Lin’s soul, glowing with a radiant red light.
Thump.
The warmth and comfort she felt made her heart, an artificial one, beat strongly.
The light quickly faded as Lin took the gem, but the sound of her heartbeat remained.
Thump-thump.
“Tigrea, are you okay?!”
Lin didn’t even realize that he had started speaking informally to her.
When their eyes t, Tigrea hastily looked ahead.
“Ugh…!”
The mont their eyes t, her heart pounded so hard it hurt.
But there was no ti to dwell on that pain.
“A re doll like you has no right to be by Lin’s side!”
“…?!”
Smack!
Unlike Lin, who had used a skill scroll, Tigrea only had the acceleration spell, making it easy for the captain to catch up to her.
As Tigrea was kicked away, Lin turned back, but Tigrea urged him on instead.
“Go! I’ll hold him off!”
Nodding, Lin raised the gem, which had been trembling in response to the dead-end wall.
The orange magical energy flowing from the gem clung to the wall like smoke.
As the magical mist clinging to the wall was reabsorbed by the gem, the wall vanished without a trace.
In its place appeared a two-way fork in the path.
Lin’s direction had been decided from the start.
“Tigre…!”
Lin began to call out to Tigrea but swallowed his words.
Her eyes were swollen and bruised.
Her lips were torn.
Thud!
Even as she endured another punch to the abdon from Denarua, Tigrea was unwavering.
“Know your place! None of you in the Hero’s party, including you, have the right to be with him!”
The outco was nearly decided once the distance was closed.
Denarua was furious, beating Tigrea with her fists and feet rather than her swords.
“That expressionless face! Are you not in pain?! Just like that woman who betrayed my brother, are you completely indifferent?!”
“Extract… Tran-ugh!”
“Just like that woman who betrayed my brother for her research! Just like you betrayed the Hero and tornted Lin, yet still have the audacity to walk around with your head held high!”
The punches didn’t stop.
Tigrea’s body shook with each relentless blow.
“Tigrea!”
“Don’t co!!!!”
Even Denarua paused montarily at the resolute shout.
“I said I’d hold them off. Go on.”
Lin saw it.
The determined look in Tigrea’s eyes, sothing a re doll could never possess.
“Don’t die.”
At Lin’s plea, Tigrea smiled faintly.
It was a remarkably natural and gentle smile.
Taking that as a farewell, Lin threw himself down the right path.
“Lin, wait…!”
The dual-wielding swordswoman, about to chase after Lin, was abruptly grabbed by the head.
Wham!
She saw stars.
Reeling from the pain, Denarua staggered backward, unable to believe what had just happened.
“A headbutt? From a mage…?”
“Extract.”
With blood trickling from her forehead, Tigrea raised the Horned Bird’s Horn Staff.
“Extract, transfer, remove, copy, freeze!”
It was the freezing spell she had used back in the Zramon Archipelago.
A magic circle appeared on the ground, instantly freezing the entire area.
But unlike last ti, it wasn’t just Denarua who was targeted; high walls of ice ford around the area, creating a maze that made it difficult for the dual-wielding swordswoman to escape.
“Damn it!”
Slashing through the ice pillars with her swords, Denarua found Tigrea standing at the left fork of the path.
“Let’s settle this.”
Tigrea raised her trembling hand and gestured.
“Co on, follow .”
“Why would I?”
Mocking the nearly defeated Tigrea, Denarua turned to follow Lin down the right path.
But the mage’s next taunt stopped her in her tracks.
“I t your brother.”
“What…?”
“He spoke to while I was trapped in the experint chamber. He said I was beautiful, like the original.”
“Don’t you dare talk nonsense!”
“He said that to , and the second Hero went to the execution grounds the next day and died.”
Tigrea uttered words that should never have been spoken.
“That man loved the original until the very end. He wished for her happiness….”
“Don’t spew such lies—!!!!”
A burst of crimson magic exploded.
Tigrea slowly backed away, leading Denarua further into the labyrinth.
“Fine. Since you wish for it so much, I’ll kill you right here.”
“Didn’t you hear?”
Tigrea smiled brightly.
“Lin told not to die.”
“You damn bitch!”
Ultimate Skill
[Spectate: Sin, Cost, Remnants of Responsibility]
A new world opened up.
A world of burning red flas unfolded around Denarua.
“Look closely. See what happened to those bastards!”
This wasn’t an attack skill.
It was a token of atonent granted by the goddess to the last surviving relative of the second Hero.
Even though she had beco a demon, this was the unique authority bestowed upon Denarua out of the goddess’s regret.
“This is hell.”
In the burning world, Tigrea looked around warily.
Eventually, she heard a voice she never thought she’d hear again as she tried to escape Gillesman.
“Subject 144, Tigrea?”
The mage felt every hair on her body stand on end.
“O… Original…?”
Finally, they t again.
Lin had run and run, finally arriving at a large room that once served as a reception area.
Seeing the wooden plaque engraved with the goddess’s emblem, just like in the Epaltor House, Lin cald his trembling heart and opened the tall, ornate door.
Inside,
A goddess with softly glowing golden hair stood.
Their eyes t, but neither could speak first.
Lin had too much to say, and the goddess was too ashad to speak.
But they both knew there was no ti to waste.
In the end, the goddess, with a sorrowful expression, spoke first.
“I can only feel regret towards you.”
“…Even as you apologize, you still believe I’ll keep moving forward to save the world, don’t you?”
The goddess had no defense.
“…Yes.”
“I feel the sa way.”
Lin, fiddling with his porter’s bag, brought up a question he had been holding onto for a long ti.
“So, please answer a few questions for .”
“Hmm, that’s…”
The goddess tilted her head and asked.
“After you undergo the class change? Or right now?”
“Oh, the class change should happen imdiately.”
Indeed.
No matter how many questions he had, Lin couldn’t resist the class change.
This was the true spirit of a player, sothing deeply ingrained in him since his previous life as Lee.
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