Chapter 356: A legacy from the depths (5)
Of meeting him again and climbing up again.
But it didn’t matter anymore.
She’d been captured, and her body no longer followed her commands.
‘It’s too... tiring.’
Enbi Arin’s conscious lay in a fetal position.
She could sense the ripples of battle outside the dark space where her consciousness was.
But she didn’t want to care anymore.
There was nothing she could do anyway, and plus, she was really tired.
‘Will you be able to kill me?’
Being modified inside the research lab, killing people outside all in the name of ‘testing’, and living as a scarecrow that followed orders.
As well as... living in this damned world.
She was tired of it all.
‘I don’t know who you are, but... I hope you succeed.’
....................................
“Ahhhhhh!”
—boooom!—
Hansoo shouted at Enbi Arin who was screaming in rage as she charged towards him.
“Come back now!”
—booom!—
Hansoo swung his Mjolnir and smashed it onto Enbi Arin’s fist.
It created a tremendous shockwave between the hammer, which was larger than Enbi Arin’s head, and her fist.
—crackakak!—
Hansoo grit his teeth as he looked at the fist and the blue armor surrounding it.
‘...It seems she’s not thinking of waking up.’
As Melchizedek had left it, Enbi Arin’s body was the same as a shell.
A shell without a control tower, just acting on impulse.
The issue was that this body was extremely enraged.
Rage was instinctive for survival.
Enbi Arin’s body was currently burning up in rage and was struggling with all its strength to survive.
As if this was the only way to survive.
And as if the body was trying to prove this, the red aura surrounding Enbi Arin turned even more vibrant.
—booooom!—
Enbi Arin leaped off the ground and charged towards Hansoo.
She’d simply stepped off the ground, but the entire floor shook as if there’d been an earthquake.
And Hansoo helplessly struck out with Mjolnir again as he watched this.
Since he couldn’t just sit around and get hit.
—booom!—
The hammer and fist collided again as the resulting shockwave swept the surroundings again.
Hansoo looked sadly at Enbi Arin, who was becoming even stronger and faster than before.
“Wake...UP!”
—booom!—
Finding a gap in her movements, Hansoo smacked face again and shouted.
At this rate, one of them would definitely die.
Tainted Emotions was the epitome of survival instincts.
It wasn’t a skill without risk and gave her strength whenever she got angry.
Enbi Arin had told him this in the past.
The angrier she got, the more the current body used up its future body’s potential to protect itself.
It was obvious, but... the longer she used it, the more it gnawed on her body.
‘And that body... ’
—squirm squirm—
Hansoo frowned at the armor connected to her body through various spikes and spines, squirming as if it were alive.
Armor that continuously sucked out the energy from one’s body.
It looked extremely efficient, but of course, such efficiency wasn’t free.
No.
The armor seemed to want the body to continue using its power—it was pushing Enbi Arin even more.
Making her continue to fight.
And Hansoo grinded his teeth at this.
He had seen a creature like this before.
Although it gave tremendous strength to its host, it gnawed on the life of its host and caused the host to go insane.
After Melchizedek’s control tower had disappeared, Enbi Arin’s body was now just filled with a crazed rage.
The only thing on its agenda was to beat its opponent.
“Ahhhh!”
Enbi Arin continued to scream and charged at him again.
—crunch!—
—crack!—
The ground fell apart with every step, shaking their surroundings.
—boooooom!—
Hansoo and Enbi Arin’s bodies collided once again.
But it was a bit different this time around.
—crack!—
The surface of the blue armor seemed to swirl around strangely.
The liquid-like armor quickly made crackling noises as it turned crystalline.
—clang!—
Mjolnir, which could push back Enbi Arin before, simply bounced off the armor.
From the surface of the armor, which seemed to have evolved to counter Mjolnir.
—booooom!—
Frowning, Hansoo activated his Demonic Dragon’s Reinforcement to its limits in order to block Enbi Arin, who had begun to charge in during that small gap.
‘...Nelkipa?’
Before he could finish this train of thought—
—booom!—
—Enbi Arin charged in and smashed at his body.
Although Enbi Arin’s Reinforcement was a level below his, the armor surrounding her body was more than enough.
“Kuhup!”
Hansoo dispersed the force as he flew back, groaning as he pondered.
‘...Should I retreat for a bit and come back?’
Enbi Arin’s status was definitely not normal.
She was burning up her entire body’s lifeforce to fight.
If that armor was a type of lifeform, it would care about its host.
If he disappeared, then it would return the host to its original status.
But then—
As if it liked Enbi Arin’s current situation, it started to morph again.
—kuddduududuk!—
To an even stronger form.
“Ahhhh!”
Screams of pain mixed with rage came out from Enbi Arin’s mouth.
And Hansoo frowned at this scene.
‘It was more evil than I thought, huh?’
Hansoo regretted comparing that armor to a parasite.
That armor was more evil than any abyssal creature in existence.
Since a parasite at least cared about the survival of the host.
But that blue armor was different.
It didn’t care about the host’s body at all.
It only cared about how it could suck even more energy out from the host’s body.
There was nothing else he could do at this point.
He had to suppress Enbi Arin.
It wouldn’t be easy, but he had to do it.
‘Melchizedek... Where did he get such a thing?’
—boom! boom! boom! boom!—
As Hansoo grasped tightly onto the hammer, staring at Enbi Arin charging towards him again—
—kiiiiing!—
—he felt a large amount of energy coming in from the distance.
Then—
—booooom!—
A beam appeared from the distance and slammed onto Enbi Arin who was charging towards him.
—booom!—
After the unexpected long-range attack flung Enbi Arin away—
—something landed next to Hansoo.
And Hansoo chuckled after realizing who the person wearing the mechanical armor was.
Although they were in the middle of a battle, Kiriel’s expression was indeed funny.
“It looks like it fits just fine, but what’s with your expression?”
Kiriel looked with dissatisfaction at the armor covering her body and spoke out with a frown.
“Ugh... It feels really dirty! It sticks onto your body!”
Kiriel frowned as she saw the Dragon God Armor swirling around and latching onto her skin.
It didn’t seem to have any loyalty towards its previous owner as it instantly fell apart and attached itself onto her body the moment she touched it.
As if it yearned for an even stronger body.
She’d freaked out when she saw the living parts of the armor inside it.
‘Is there nothing normal in this world? Machine or lifeform, choose between the two!’
Kiriel had worried about whether the armor, which had been worn by a man, would fit her but it had reconstructed itself perfectly around her.
She soon sighed and decided to focus on the battle.
—ssss—
Enbi Arin stood up again.
And it didn’t seem like the beam attack would work a second time.
—squirm—
The armor’s surface was changing again.
‘...That’s a real monster there.’
Kiriel asked Hansoo:
“What should we do? Should we run?”
Looking at Enbi Arin’s speed, it didn’t seem like it would be easy to run away, but her aura was way too vicious to fight her currently.
Hansoo shook his head.
“No, I’ve figured it out thanks to you?”
“...?”
As Kiriel made a confused expression—
—boooom!—
—Enbi Arin stomped down onto the ground and flew towards Hansoo.
At a tremendous speed.
—whoooosh!—
‘This...! Too fast!’
Looking at it from a distance and looking at it up close was extremely different.
“Dodge it!”
Kiriel prepared for impact as the now horrifying-looking armor closed in on them, but then a strange sound rang out next to her.
—tonk!—
‘...Huh?’
Kiriel freaked out after turning her head.
Hansoo had thrown away his hammer.
But even before Kiriel could think of the next step in his plan.
Enbi Arin had already jumped onto Hansoo.
And smashed Kiriel away as well.
—booom!—
“Huep!”
Kiriel quickly repositioned herself after the attack flung her away, only to be left speechless at the current scene before her eyes.
The scene of Hansoo and the monster-like armor grasping each other’s hands and having a power struggle.
—kuduk!—
—kududuk!—
It was so strong that Hansoo’s arm was making strange noises as it trembled.
‘What...?’
As Kiriel was about to charge in and help—
—Hansoo whispered something amidst the power struggle, his expression unreadable.
Something to his opponent in front of him.
“Come...to me. Isn’t it time to switch owners?”
Words towards the armor and not Enbi Arin.
—squirm—
A part of the armor squirmed around as if it comprehended Hansoo’s words.
—pushook!—
—pushkshkshk!—
A few of the spines came out from Enbi Arin’s body and pierced Hansoo, then started to suck Hansoo’s energy out.
As if it were testing the waters.
And the moment Hansoo’s energy flowed into the armor.
—tremble—
The entire set of armor started to shake.
A tremendous life force.
The extreme amount of potential hidden inside this body.
The blue armor realized instinctively as it tasted the tremendous amount of life force flowing into its body.
That this was the real deal.
The ‘transcendent being’ it had been attracted to was just an imitation of the real deal.
The original was always better than the fake and had more worth.
And soon, a change occurred.
—squirm—
The armor quickly changed its form after scanning Hansoo’s body.
From hard armor to a liquid-like form.
And soon—
—ssssss—
—the blue liquid swirled around madly as it quickly covered Hansoo’s body.
“Yes. Good boy.”
Hansoo chuckled coldly at the scene of the blue liquid instinctively moving onto a stronger host and was now covering his face.
He then looked worriedly over at Enbi Arin, whose face could now be seen.
‘You can rest now. I’m sorry for being late.’
—kwaduk!—
The blue armor made a strange noise and started to condense onto Hansoo’s body.