Chapter 57, Even a Rebellious Phase Has Its Limits (1)
Hit pretty hard?
Mikael repeated those words in his mind.
The emotions he currently felt couldn't possibly be described by something as mild as that.
So without warning, he swung Claw Avulsion at Raum.
CLANG!
Raum angled Durandal's tip downward and blocked Mikael's slash.
He met Mikael's quiet but furious eyes and grinned.
“Hehehe, Mikael. I didn't expect you to get this excited. Guess it really hit you hard.”
“Yeah. It hit me fucking hard. So today, I'll draw you another picture, just like back then.”
At the reminder of the past, Raum's expression stiffened.
“HISSSSS!”
At the same time, Jeomrye, who had remained strangely calm until now, arched her back and glared at Raum.
Through Jeomrye's eyes, a dark blue aura named falsehood was rising from Raum like smoke.
“Damn. The distortion I placed on myself came undone. I hid it pretty well too... Guess I can't lie carelessly anymore.”
That's possible, squeak?!
Valefor felt chills.
Because Jeomrye could see through lies, Raum had distorted even his own subconscious so that he himself wouldn't recognize something as a lie.
It was exactly the kind of method a demon would use to fool a living lie detector like Jeomrye.
“A simple, primitive duel like this is probably easier for both of us anyway.”
Durandal's demonic energy flowed into Raum through his skin.
“die Illusion der Verzerrung, Illusion of Distortion.”
Ssssssh.
The demonic energy from Durandal flowed through Raum and spread outward.
It became thicker, spreading like smoke around them before disappearing into the air.
“Mikael, did you know? Maybe because Durandal was originally a holy sword, its demonic energy is rather special. It increases the power of techniques by one and a half times.”
“What?”
“You gave me a present earlier. Now it's my turn.”
Grip.
Raum tightly grasped Durandal and lowered its tip toward his lower left.
He used his left hand to hide the sword's path.
The moment he stepped forward, he vanished from Mikael's sight.
Spatial Distortion? No. There wasn't any ripple.
Every time Raum had moved through distorted space before, a swirling distortion had appeared.
So this wasn't Spatial Distortion.
“Squeak! Mikael, what are you doing?! Dodge, squeak!”
Valefor shouted urgently.
SWISH!
Hearing Valefor's warning, Mikael took one step back after sensing demonic energy from below, then swung Claw Avulsion diagonally downward.
CLAAANG!
Durandal and Claw Avulsion collided, sending a clear metallic ring throughout the room.
“Good instincts, as always. But you've gotten rusty. Have you been fooling around all this time?”
Raum smirked after seeing the small cut on Mikael's abdomen, caused because he hadn't completely blocked the surprise attack.
Of course, Mikael's ability quickly healed the wound.
The pain helped calm his mind slightly as he replayed the exchange.
It hadn't been Spatial Distortion.
He checked whether his five senses had been distorted, but there was no obvious problem there either.
Then, considering Valefor had been able to see Raum and warn him, there was only one likely answer.
“...You distorted the light?”
More specifically, Raum had distorted only the light entering Mikael's eyes from Raum's direction.
It was an extremely precise technique.
“Correct. But even if you understand it, can you stop it?”
Raum willingly admitted it before vanishing again.
Mikael looked toward Samsik.
“Woof! Woof!”
CLAAANG!
Samsik barked while looking to the right.
Mikael immediately swung his sword toward the direction Samsik was staring.
“Good block, squeak! Above you this time!”
Valefor had somehow climbed onto Samsik's head and pointed with one tiny paw.
Compared to Samsik simply barking, Valefor's precise directions shortened Mikael's reaction time.
But,
SLASH!
“S, Squeak?!”
Raum moved even faster than Valefor could call out his position.
A long diagonal wound opened across Mikael's chest, spraying blood.
It was a wound he could quickly regenerate from, yet Raum gave him no time to recover and continued swinging Durandal.
“Above! Squeak! Lower right! Uh... S, Squeak! You're too fast, squeak!”
Mikael was constantly cut and healed.
The fact that even Valefor couldn't keep up suggested that the demonic energy Raum had spread contained another effect.
Is he interfering with perception too?
He might have been distorting Valefor and Samsik's sight, or perhaps Mikael's hearing.
Mikael could barely defend himself.
Rather than continue like this, he abandoned defense and chose to create distance.
“I take back what I said earlier. Your instincts aren't very good either. Instead of retreating, you should've found some way to swing your sword.”
Raum even had enough leisure to lecture him while continuing the pressure.
Slash! Slash!
“Ghk.”
Only after taking two more cuts did Mikael finally gain some distance.
He frowned and examined his wounds.
Drip. Drip.
My healing is slower?
Blood continued to flow because the wounds were healing more slowly than expected.
It was because of the demonic energy rising like heat haze from Durandal.
The demonic energy stuck to each of Mikael's wounds and continuously interfered with his regeneration.
Usually, when demonic energy entered a wound, it also brought intense pain.
Sssss. Sss?
“Ghk...?”
The sound of flesh beginning to rot suddenly stopped.
The pain vanished just as quickly.
The fight had been so one sided that Mikael almost wondered whether Raum had deliberately stopped it to toy with him.
“...Did you stop it?”
Normally, aura was lethal to demons because the two forces were natural opposites.
Priests, on the other hand, were not harmed merely by touching demonic energy.
However, if demonic energy entered the body through a wound, like it had with Mikael, it could destroy the body from the inside and greatly increase the pain.
If it became severe enough, it could even kill.
Raum was just as confused.
“What did you just do...?”
When Raum had fought Cardinal Antonio, Antonio had been unable to endure Durandal's demonic energy, allowing Raum to defeat him easily.
Yet Mikael looked completely fine.
The demonic energy that had entered him had vanished as if evaporating, and his injuries had regenerated as well.
Could it be?
Neither of them could determine the cause.
Mikael touched his chest.
It was the same demonic energy he had felt there earlier.
He had thought it came from Claw Avulsion, but apparently that wasn't the case.
He had no time to think further.
Raum's expression hardened as he gripped Durandal again.
“If demonic energy doesn't work, I'll keep pouring it into you until it does.”
Seeing Raum approach, Mikael didn't immediately respond.
Instead, he closed his eyes and focused every nerve on his senses.
