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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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My reaction was slow due to the shocking scene, and the Holy Sword’s light pierced my body.
It hurts…
The energy that entered my body clashed with the demonic energy within me, trying to erase it completely.
But my mind was too confused to care about the pain.
The regret I felt in the dream, the emotions I felt while looking down at the dead Lilac…
…they were very similar to what I felt when I saw him on the day of the entrance ceremony.
Come to think of it…
…I had a strangely strong urge to help Lilac that day.
“So-hyun, snap out of it…!”
Him, yelling at me…
-I believe in you.
Him, who walked into a trap while looking at me, who was deceiving him, and saying he believed in me.
The boundary between memory and reality was blurred, and I was incredibly confused.
No matter how crazy I was, I wasn’t good enough to act in this state.
The moment I stopped resisting, the demonic energy in my body began to dissipate.
Normally, I would have thought “This bastard isn’t even hesitating to stab me,” while smiling!
…Ah, I already did that.
Lilac, this bastard, didn’t even hesitate to stab me.
My mind was as unstable as my eyes, flickering between purple and red.
“Huh…?”
And just before all the demonic energy disappeared from my body…
…Yoo-na, who joined at the worst possible timing, was looking at us with a puzzled expression.
Cheon Yoo-hak, who was holding me at bay with his spear, Kang Ha-ni, looking like she was about to cut me down with her sword, and Lilac, who had pierced my stomach with the Holy Sword’s light.
…Oh, this was a scene ripe for misunderstanding, but no, they weren’t brainwashed. Yoo-na, I was the one who was brainwashed! Or was I not!?
Yoo-na, who had no way of knowing my confusion, screamed, and her holy spell poured down on me.
Fortunately, it didn’t lead to the worst outcome where she attacked her friends while thinking that Lilac was attacking me, or conversely, helped me attack them.
But…
…for some reason…
…the remaining demonic energy in my body went berserk again after receiving Yoo-na’s spell.
“…!?”
…Huh, but this just looked flashy on the outside, and I was actually fine. Would they believe me if I said I was sane now?
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Cathy had lived as a hero since she was very young after being saved by the director.
And in her less mature days, she faced numerous walls and despaired each time.
Her innate talent was the insignificant martial arts, and even with practice and obtaining traits, it wasn’t easy to defeat those born with powerful talents.
But it had been a long time since she faced such a huge wall.
The thought that she couldn’t win just by being agitated cooled her head.
She tried to confuse her with feints, but her gaze didn’t even waver, so feints wouldn’t work.
She easily blocked her concise and accurate strikes, which were her specialty, as if she anticipated them.
How long had it been since she was pushed back this much in a one-on-one fight?
[Is this the end?]
Ah, no. It happened recently too.
It was the masked man back then.
Was there a rule that all masked people were strong?
“Not yet.”
[Your tone is back to normal, so you must have calmed down. Yes, that’s right, it’s been a while. It can’t end this easily.]
“Huu…!”
She couldn’t give him distance.
His weapon was a staff while hers was her fists.
They were both striking-type weapons, but the difference in reach was overwhelming.
Fortunately, she wasn’t attacking first, perhaps due to her arrogant nature. Then there was no need to hold back.
“Hap…!”
Her kick, utilizing acceleration, was easily blocked by the staff, but her target wasn’t the staff itself.
She didn’t even try to retrieve the extended staff, her posture saying “Bring it on.”
Up until now, she had just rushed in due to anger, but it was a habit she could exploit.
She infused magical power into the foot that touched the staff, stuck to it, and ran up the staff’s length.
Her opponent quickly rotated the staff to break her balance, but she was faster, leaping to close the distance.
[You’re agile, but I can’t praise you for carelessly touching your opponent’s weapon.]
She wouldn’t have done this against anyone else.
But it was an effective method against an opponent like her, who didn’t seem to be fighting seriously, as if she was testing her.
She closed the distance.
She threw a punch with confidence.
A basic, yet faithful strike.
The most upright and confident stance.
She recreated the stance from that day, aiming for that strike.
Light enveloped her fist.
[And I never said I was weak in close combat.]
But even her most confident, desperate strike was easily blocked.
[Not bad. But a strike that’s just faithful to the basics won’t work against someone beyond the wall.]
It was as if she was teaching her.
No, was she actually trying to teach her?
[Don’t try to do what you can’t. Focus on what you do well. That will suit you better. Flashy variations, feints for deception. Those who are good at such things are born with it.]
Her opponent clenched her fist.
[Make your strikes more deliberate, more accurate. Your movements should be nimble and swift, but your fists should be heavy.]
It was a stance similar to hers, but something was different.
Something beyond the basics seemed to be visible in her fist.
A straight punch.
Something beyond the basics, the answer to what she so desperately craved, was right in front of her.
A pulling force, as if her fist was being sucked in, and a sense of powerlessness, as if a mountain was approaching her.
But Cathy clenched her fist and raised it.
She wanted to experience it directly, even if her fist shattered.
Their fists collided, and the impact shook her body.
It wasn’t an even match. The impact was too great, and her meridians were in disarray.
If this weren’t a dream world, she would never have been unharmed.
[As expected, you’re my favorite among them. You’re not ill-tempered, nor are you foolish.Your obsession is a bit much, but it’s cute. I’m cheering for you.]
Cheering…? For what? Was she talking about martial arts?
Hee voice reached Cathy, who was dazed from the impact while still recalling the previous blow.
[I mean you’re a good match for that brat.]
And Cathy, who was grasping a glimpse of a new realm, was startled and lost it.
It was frustrating, but it didn’t feel entirely bad.
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After knocking Cathy unconscious with a tap of Ruyi to her head, Sun Wukong turned to another direction.
What Sun Wukong said to Cathy was half-sincere.
After connecting with Kang So-hyun through Assimilation and looking into his memories while intending to tease him lightly, he confirmed something through a fragment of Kang So-hyun’s memories and reached a conclusion.
This brat needed someone to hold onto him.
He had only read a small part of his memories. He didn’t know who had set up the barrier, but it was so strong that she could only see a fraction. Even so, his memories were so disturbing that she had reached this conclusion.
She even resorted to the lie about web novels to hide his inability to maintain her composure.
He was the type of person who would drive himself to ruin if no one held onto him.
A person who was infinitely gentle, but would break rather than bend in an unacceptable situation.
And above all, he was a person who couldn’t love himself due to his past memories.
He was even bound by things he couldn’t remember, swayed by emotions from his memories as if cursed.
To hold onto such a brat, it would be faster to create something for him to cherish and obsess over in place of himself rather than telling him to love himself. And it would be even better if the other person felt the same way.
For example, a lover.
So, she tried taking a woman’s form, but it didn’t seem to be very effective, perhaps because of their first meeting or because she was an artifact. She had to look around him instead.
In Sun Wukong’s current assessment, the woman named Cathy was the closest to meeting the criteria.
Gentle but strong, firm but not unyielding.
Kind and beautiful, of course.
She seemed to like that brat, so there were no emotional problems, and with a little help, she had the potential to reach a higher realm.
Above all, it was good that she had overcome her own trauma and matured mentally.
Well, her strong obsession was her only flaw, if it could be called that, but it might even work as an advantage to prevent him from throwing his life away.
He saw some other decent candidates, but there was no rule that a lover had to be only one.
[So, why aren’t you coming in?]
On the other hand, the woman at the end of his gaze was the worst.
She had some expectations since she was that brat’s sister, but the combination was terrible.
What that brat needed was someone to stop him when he was about to drink poison, not someone who would drink it with him and have them crumble together.
Sun Wukong, frankly, didn’t like the woman named Kang Na-hyun.
“…I’ll only be a hindrance to my sister.”
[You know your place. Then let me ask you the opposite. Why are you only assuming a stance now?]
“Now that my sister has fallen, I have to save that child.”
It was a truly admirable statement…
If those words were sincere.
[Why do you see the dead when you look at a person?]
Actually, if one only looked at the magnitude of obsession, this one was comparable to Cathy’s, but in Sun Wukong’s eyes, the two women’s obsessions were entirely different.
They had many similarities, like the fact that the root emotion was affection, and that they both saw the dead when they looked at him, but they were fundamentally different.
One overcame it and moved on, while the other was still hesitating.
With such indecision in her heart, she almost had no expectation, though not entirely impossible, that this girl could be someone’s support.
[You’re disqualified.]
“…Who are you to decide that?”
[Well, I’m closer to that brat than you are.]
The moment Sun Wukong slowly picked up Ruyi…
…her gaze was stolen by a sudden explosion of demonic energy mixed with holy power.
“…?”
What was that brat doing now?
He seemed to be finishing his act successfully, so what went wrong?
[Well, knowing him, he’ll figure it out.]
“So-hyun…!”
Looking at it this way, she seemed genuinely worried, but it was strange that her eyes were still filled with indecision and hesitation.
‘…Should I give her a chance?’
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I finally understood the cause of the rampage.
I never thought I’d experience this myself.
Well, like in other novels, holy power and demonic energy clashed and repelled each other in this world.
But if certain special conditions were met, it was possible to control the immense power generated by that repulsion.
It wasn’t easy to possess both holy power and demonic energy, so it was a very special case, but there were two characters here who met the conditions.
One was Lilac, who had protagonist buffs, and the other was Yoo-na.
Lilac only had the setting, but it never appeared in the original story, so let’s skip him. In Yoo-na’s case, it was possible because, thanks to her father, she was a special half-demon born with holy power.
Her demonic traits, except for her eyes and talent, were mostly sealed, but the important point was that her innate holy power contained a bit of demonic energy.
It was a faint demonic energy that wouldn’t even be noticeable usually, but things changed when it entered through my wound.
The holy power, accustomed to demonic energy and not repelling it, met the residual demonic energy in my body and truly awakened as ‘holy demonic energy.’
Well, it was a temporary phenomenon since demonic energy wasn’t my original power, but the problem was that it was too conspicuous.
Wait, but Yoo-na, thank you.
I was so dizzy that I couldn’t even act until just now, but thanks to the shock therapy, I snapped out of it.
Alright, let me assess the situation.
First, due to a series of coincidences, I temporarily possessed the holy demonic energy, the power Lilac was supposed to use in his final form.
Thanks to that, I was floating in the air while shining brightly.
It was written that holy demonic energy, unlike demonic energy, was a power Lilac was supposed to wield, so it looked holy yet heretical.
Thanks to that, the others didn’t seem to be able to clearly judge my state after the storm of demonic energy subsided.
Let me try speaking.
My tongue always found the answer before my brain did, so it would probably work out this time too.
“You finally did it.”
…This actually worked?
Thanks to the ‘Acting’ trait, my acting became even more natural, and my words flowed smoothly, with no one suspecting anything.
“Although I succumbed this time and lost control of this body, it won’t happen again next time.”
Damn it, there wouldn’t be a next time, so this won’t happen again.
“I will not disappear. I will watch for an opportunity from within this brat.”
The others looked at me with serious expressions.
Don’t worry, there won’t be any more ‘demonic energy-possessed Kang So-hyun.’ The Masked Villain was enough.
Fortunately, my prediction that it was temporary was correct. My body slowly descended, and the energy began to dissipate.
Now, I would slowly close my eyes.
Yes, I was losing consciousness due to excessive exertion. Everything would be over when I woke up.
Just as I thought that—
-Devil’s Touch has completed contracts with 106 low-ranking succubi, 35 mid-ranking succubi, and 3 high-ranking succubi.-
-Through the contracts, the Authority of the dream world has been delegated to you.-
A voice that hindered my escape echoed in my mind.
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T/N – Well, that was a good end to the arc. Lots of stuff got unpacked here. Gonna have to digest them slowly. I do hope you enjoyed this arc and are enjoying the novel so far. I know I am.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
🥀