Chapter 242
“!!”
Märchen hurriedly tried to dodge, but she was too late.
Shink!
Lena’s nails raked across Märchen’s face, and blood sprayed into the air.
Märchen clutched her face and retreated.
“Kuhk!! What?!”
“Ahh, it seems techniques to dominate an opponent aren't something only you can use.”
The poison he had just fed to Lena was his Will-Infused Poison, ‘Dark Domination’.
He had stolen control of Lena with a poison that dominated its target using the ruling power of Dark Demonic Energy and the properties of the Thousand Venoms.
“To challenge me with a domination technique. How foolish.”
Märchen began to draw out her power.
“Allow me to show you why I am called the ‘Puppeteer of Sorrow’.”
As Märchen extended her hand, Lena’s body froze like a statue.
Märchen’s puppetry began to overpower Chris’s Will-Infused Poison.
However, contrary to her expectations, control didn’t immediately return to her. This was thanks to Chris's Will-Infused Poison, given form by the dominating power of his Dark Demonic Energy, which was not to be underestimated.
Märchen, her pride seemingly wounded, wore the expression of a devil.
“How dare you.”
Ssshhh.
As Märchen’s hand was stained with an ashen darkness, Lena clutched her head and let out a horrific scream.
“Aaaaaaaah!! Please, stop!!”
It was a scream as if she were facing a terrible nightmare.
It was a technique that took control of the mind by aggravating the trauma in the target's deep psyche.
It was a method that could inflict a fatal mental wound on Lena, who had already lost her will due to a shock in her past.
Just then, Chris moved.
‘I won’t let that happen.’
Fwoosh.
From Chris’s hand, a dark magic that delved into the mind also manifested.
Within her deep consciousness, he could see Lena.
Among the horrifically torn corpses of the Fox Tribe, Lena stood with a vacant gaze, her entire body drenched in blood.
‘This is Lena’s past.’
Chris’s gaze hardened.
Lena was of the Fox Tribe.
Although they were under the Obsidian Demonic House, she was a half-beast who lived a peaceful life with her tribe, possessing no special power.
Her fate was twisted because of the Mystic Demonic House.
The magi of the Mystic Demonic House captured her tribe and used them as test subjects.
‘It was an experiment to forcibly awaken a normal member of the Fox Tribe into a Gumiho. To use them as a patera to channel a devil’s power.’
She was subjected to countless experiments akin to torture, and in the end, was forced to make a horrific choice.
For the sake of a demonic ritual, she was made to kill her entire tribe, whom she had treated like family, with her own hands.
Through that terrible ritual, Lena was forcibly awakened as a Gumiho, but her mind was completely shattered.
She barely managed to escape from the Mystic Demonic House before becoming a patera, but the Obsidian Demonic House wouldn’t take her in either.
Instead, they treated her as a sinner who had killed her own tribe and exiled her.
‘After that, she was captured by the Mystic Demonic House again. That’s when she met the Hero’s party and joined them.’
That scene in her deep consciousness was the trauma from when Lena killed her tribe with her own hands.
-It’s your fault. You killed them all.
Voices that sought to break her spirit could be heard. It was a trick employed by Märchen.
He could see Lena’s already-broken mind sinking even deeper into despair.
Chris frowned and roared at Märchen’s will.
-Shut up.
-…What?
Within the deep consciousness, the two wills clashed.
Normally, it was a fight Chris couldn’t win.
But Chris raised his voice.
-I said get out of my friend’s consciousness!!
-!!
Whoosh!
Unbelievably, Märchen’s will was pushed back.
If this had been a simple battle to determine the superiority of their techniques, Chris would never have been able to repel Märchen’s spell.
But right now, Chris had delved into Lena’s mind with a sincere desire to help her. It was only natural that his will was stronger than Märchen’s, which merely sought to control another as a puppet.
-Take my hand.
Lena stared blankly up at Chris.
What should he say?
No words of comfort could possibly heal the wounds she had suffered.
Instead, Chris said this:
-I’ll help you.
In his previous life, it was because of Chris that the Chatterbox of Darkness had lost her life at the hands of the Blood-Shadow Demon Lord, Sherard.
If it had just been Evan and Rania, they might have been able to escape together somehow.
But when Chris was on the verge of death, she had sacrificed her own life to save him.
So, this time, it was his turn.
-Trust me.
Did his sincerity reach her?
Lena hesitated, then reached out her hand toward Chris within her deep consciousness.
At that very moment.
“Keok!”
Märchen vomited a mouthful of blood.
The puppetry spell she had cast on Lena had been completely broken!
But the fight wasn’t over.
“You…! How dare you touch my doll! Prepare yourself.”
Märchen began to draw out her power.
A summoning magic circle was drawn in mid-air, and the worst possible scene began to unfold.
Dozens of dolls appeared.
‘Märchen's Legion of Dolls!’
They were the executioner dolls he had fought once before.
Controlling Lena just now was merely a playful trick; this was Märchen’s true power.
‘One 7-Star doll, two 6-Star, five 5-Star, a dozen or so 4-Star, and the rest are 2 to 3-Star, I see.’
It was a terrifying force capable of overwhelming any ordinary order of knights.
On top of that, Märchen, as a curse-wielder, would also be joining the fight with her full power—a desperate situation.
Märchen, having regained her composure, gave a chilling smile.
“If you kneel and lick my feet even now, I shall grant you mercy. I’ll make you into a doll a little less painfully.”
Chris’s answer was simple.
“Ptui.”
The saliva Chris spat flew toward Märchen’s face, imbued with the power of dark magic.
Märchen’s expression turned icy cold.
“Break his hands and feet and bring him before me.”
But facing this desperate situation, Chris gave Lena an unexpected command.
“You, get out of here.”
Lena gave Chris a vacant glance, then disappeared like the wind as commanded.
“Are you trying to save that Gumiho before you die? This hardly seems the time for such composure, does it?”
“No, it’s not about composure.”
Chris flicked his finger.
“I sent her away simply because I alone am more than enough to deal with a necrophiliac pervert like you. Come on and attack.”
Märchen let out a humorless laugh.
“First, I’ll have to sew that mouth of yours shut. I’ll make it so your body can never again utter such insolent words.”
With a gesture from Märchen, the dolls rushed forward.
Chris unleashed a burst of his Aura Blade to halt the dolls’ movements, then retreated deeper inside.
Bubble, bubble.
In the center of the ornate room, a green poison could be seen churning like boiling magma.
It was his original objective, the Venom Source (毒井).
“All talk and full of confidence, but you’re nothing special after all. I’m starting to feel disappointed in you.”
Märchen led her legion of dolls into the room after him.
“I should turn you into a doll quickly, before my disappointment extinguishes my love for you.”
At her gesture, the dolls swarmed forward, surrounding Chris.
There was nowhere to escape.
But Chris once again did something incomprehensible.
In a voice still full of confidence, he said:
“Let me ask you one thing. Do you know why I’m so certain of my victory?”
“That’s obviously just an empty bluff…”
“If you had investigated me, you should know, shouldn't you? I don’t make empty bluffs. Whatever words I speak, I always make them a reality.”
Märchen shut her mouth abruptly.
Come to think of it, that was true.
He was always mocked for his boasts, but in hindsight, they were never just boasts.
No matter how impossible the task, Christian always accomplished what he said he would.
Suddenly, an unidentifiable chill ran down Märchen's spine.
‘No. No matter how outstanding Grand Duke Christian's talent is, in the face of such overwhelming power…’
It was the moment she tried to deny the ominous feeling.
“Of course, it’s impossible for me to defeat you with my power alone. But you’ve chosen the worst possible battlefield.”
“…What did you say?”
“Watch.”
In that moment, the unbelievable happened.
Fwoosh.
A green light flashed like lightning.
At the same time, the dolls that had been surrounding Chris faltered, then collapsed to the floor in a heap.
“!!”
Smoke rose from the bodies of the fallen dolls, which soon turned into a bloody liquid and melted away.
“Poison? Impossible…”
Märchen wore a look of disbelief.
“Ahh, that’s because this isn’t an ordinary poison.”
Green smoke began to rise around Chris.
Märchen realized the identity of the green energy and her eyes flew open as if they would tear.
“Don’t tell me?”
“That’s right.”
Chris gestured.
Whoosh.
The floor. To be precise, green energy rose from the Venom Source and flew into Chris’s hand.
“H-how can you control the Venom Source?”
Märchen stammered.
She also knew what the Venom Source was.
As a font of power itself, it wasn’t something that could be wielded in such a way.
“I didn’t know this, but the compatibility between the Venom Source and Dark Demonic Energy is quite good. I wonder if it’s because they are both one of the Three Primordial Wells (三元井)? Of course, in the end, it’s only possible because I’m so great.”
The moment he arrived near the Venom Source, Chris had felt it.
That he could control it with his Dark Demonic Energy.
It was only possible because Chris had obtained Dark Demonic Energy of 100% purity.
“Now you see why I said I could win, don’t you?”
Chris grinned as he looked at Märchen.
“You’re disgusting, so just disappear.”
Green energy poured out of the Venom Source, covering the surroundings as if flooding them.
* * *
Märchen deployed a defensive spell, but it was useless.
The Venom Source, a pure font of power, was not something that even a high-ranking magus at the peak of 7-Star could block.
Märchen and her legion of dolls melted away without even leaving a corpse behind.
It was a futile end for Märchen, who had been infamous as an Elder of the Four Kings' Castle.
‘I was lucky. If it hadn’t been for the Venom Source, I never would have won.’
But there was a problem.
‘Where did Lena go?’
Chris had a troubled look on his face.
His Will-Infused Poison, ‘Dark Domination,’ had a weakness.
It was difficult to exert proper control over a great distance. This was due to the nature of Dark Demonic Energy.
It seemed she had fled far away.
‘And I can’t chase after her.’
Chris shook his head.
‘We’ll be able to meet again. Now that she’s escaped the clutches of the Four Kings’ Castle, she shouldn’t be in any immediate danger.’
Although he had lost direct control, Lena was still afflicted by his Will-Infused Poison.
He could still tell the general direction in which she had disappeared, so he would be able to find her again someday.
‘First, I need to take the Venom Source.’
Chris stared at the Venom Source, which churned like lava.
The toxic energy was so strong that just feeling its aura from a distance made his skin sting as if it were melting.
‘Normally, the standard method would be to use the secret arts of the Venomous Demonic House.’
The Venomous Demonic House had a secret art for accepting the energy of the Venom Source into one's core.
‘You bring a part of your body near the Venom Source, then slowly draw its energy into your core.’
Naturally, you didn't make direct physical contact with the Venom Source. No matter how high-ranking the poison wielder, their body would melt the instant they touched it.
Simply accepting the energy into one’s core was extremely dangerous.
‘That’s why a significant number of those who attempt it give up on the Venomization halfway through. The success rate is said to be only about 30%.’
The process of accepting the energy of the Venom Source to strengthen one's core is called ‘Venomization’.
Much like a magus of the Dark Demonic House who has accepted the Sacred Black, one obtains a perfect core for wielding the poison arts.
But Chris had an unexpected thought.
‘I can’t use such a pathetic method.’
An astonishing idea.
‘Because what I desire isn’t something like mere Venomization.’
That was right.
He hadn’t sought out the Venom Source after all this trouble just to strengthen his poison arts.
To Chris, the poison arts were merely an intermediate step on his path upward.
‘I must elevate the very level of my being through the Venom Source.’
The magi of the Venomous Demonic House probably couldn’t even imagine it.
What kind of power the Venom Source truly was.
It wasn't merely a source for strengthening one’s poison arts.