“Oof, Ugh!”

  While Aurelia was working on her task, Illyan dutifully evaded every single attack that Vanda sent at him.

  Although his endurance was much better than the average person’s, he still felt cold sweat droplets accumute on his forehead.

  Since the battle would probably be prolonged, Illyan decided to use all his focus to dodge in the most efficient way to save his stamina.

  One step aside, a slight crouch, or a small jump.

  Unless the attack was too big, he wouldn’t move too much.

  Still, his robe filed with the high-intensity movements, but he didn’t need to worry since he disguised himself as a Smiling Devil. He had made sure he wouldn’t be recognized during this mission, no matter what.

  When Vanda finally noticed his scarred face, her expression distorted as she spat out:

  “So you are that bastard that took Caleb!” Her eyes shone with hatred.

  While she wasn’t too close to Caleb, and it could even be said that he was too ambitious and pnned to distance himself from his family, she still thought of him as her blood.

  So if the man who kidnapped him suddenly appeared in front of her, it did make a huge stir in her state of mind.

  Illyan couldn’t speak, as she would recognize his voice, so he just grinned as his nickname suggested.

  However, a seed of suspicion grew in his mind. Why would Vanda care? One of her lovers?

  That was unlikely, in Illyan’s opinion. She seemed to be interested in people with various qualifications.

  Caleb was just a lucky guy to strike a deal with Aziro while having support from the gang, only to barely awaken an unstable aura after decades of training.

  There was no reason to bother with him. So, there had to be a different connection.

  “You mongrel! I will tear you to shreds!”

  Vanda’s shrieking resounded in the cave as Illyan calmly assessed the situation.

  She was using two bodies of the wendigos to attack him from both sides.

  Since these evil spirits were dead, they were not as ferocious, nor could they fight as precisely, since Vanda could barely puppeteer them with five strings each.

  On the other hand, the limits of their bodies didn’t apply anymore since they were dead and were just being controlled.

  They didn’t need ground to run on, they didn’t feel pain, and even their joints could move at angles they were not made for.

  Not to mention that they were very fast, as Vanda easily maniputed them as if she was very experienced.

  ‘These strings… They are amazing. Sharp as swords, hard but flexible. They can be attached to other things like the ground or the wendigo’s body and could tie up their enemy. And if my understanding of magic is deep enough, then this usage should be one of the most efficient. Truly versatile magic!’

  Illyan analyzed Vanda’s magic with interest.

  To be honest, her magical prowess impressed Illyan more than the likes of Ezekiel or Aziro’s magic. It seemed more efficient and clean. So much so that Illyan had to grit his teeth as he focused his all to survive.

  He was in a pinch right now, with Vanda just waving her hands.

  When he was defending, he had to dodge constantly, as the bodies were too quick under the guidance of magic strings while still keeping their momentum thanks to the rge size and weight of their bodies.

  This caused Illyan’s efficient way of dodging to break, as he had to jump away each time, quickly draining his stamina.

  If he tried to close the distance, she would retrieve the wendigos as shields too, and if he found an opening in their defense and charged at her, she would use the wendigo’s weight to her advantage and pull herself to one of the wendigos with the strings.

  “Ugh!” Illyan groaned when it happened several times.

  But in truth, he wasn’t too nervous since he was pnning to stall for time.

  However…

  “Shoot!” Suddenly, the other gang members took out their crossbows and shot at him from behind.

  ‘Shit!’ Illyan cursed in his mind as he dived for the closest stagmites protruding from the ground.

  However, the bolts were quick, and the wendigos were trying to stop him.

  Swish

  In the end, one bolt managed to hit his shoulder, while another grazed his waist.

  Vanda grinned at this as her eyes shone with an obsession that he had never seen before.

  ‘This will be difficult…’

  While Illyan thought so, a sudden clink of metal was heard.

  Using his spiritual perception, which didn’t need to be hidden now, he felt the entire cave.

  At the center, he sensed Aurelia, who should have been performing the ritual, cshing with several men, one of whom wielded a mace at the front.

  ‘Haah… Looks like I will need to give it my all.’ Illyan thought it had been quite some time since he fought full-heartedly. Maybe during the time he fought Ezekiel a year ago?

  ‘I need to bring some variables into the fight. If we continue, she will just tire me out or slice me with these strings…’

  “I don’t know what you came here for, but…” Vanda sniggered condescendingly, but Illyan didn’t listen to her at all.

  Instead, he looked at the running wendigos and focused.

  ‘Did he give up? No… Is he pnning something?’ Vanda, seeing this, turned silent as she observed.

  However, she didn’t stop the attack at all. Instead, she gave it her all!

  Just as both wendigos were within reach, Illyan forced his flow into the sword and sshed at the stagmites around him.

  Thanks to the hidden energy within the sword, the rock didn’t crack; they were perfectly sliced at their bottom.

  Just as the sliced parts were falling, Illyan’s leg flicked as he kicked these sharp rocks tip-first at the charging wendigos!

  Squelch

  Just as the big and sharp stagmites embedded themselves in these bodies, Illyan charged at them.

  He was aware that attacking them would be fruitless since they were already dead.

  Instead, he would stop them from moving!

  The wendigos, now slowed down by the surprising weight of these stagmites, were attacked by Illyan.

  With one precise slice, an air ssh bisected one wendigo at the waist.

  Vanda could still use these parts, but it would be too burdensome now that it had become two parts.

  On the other hand, he reached his palm toward the other wendigo.

  Once his palm reached the base of the stagmite inside its chest, he infused as much flow as he could, slightly strengthening the rock.

  “Heh.” Illyan grinned as the blood within his veins started to flow at a much higher speed while starting to glow as he rammed his palm into the stagmite.

  The body of the wendigo was torn at the pces where the strings held on to it as it flew at high speed toward the wall.

  Boom

  The strengthened stagmite pierced through the wall of the cave as the wendigo was embedded there through its chest, hanging helplessly.

  The entire cave suddenly trembled as the stactites on the ceiling began trembling too.

  “Y-you!” Vanda gred at him as she detached her strings from the wendigos and started to ssh at him again.

  But this time, Illyan was prepared as he, with an elegant step, avoided all the strings while running at her at full speed.

  Vanda, who saw that, gritted her teeth.

  ‘Do you think you’re the only one who can use surrounding rocks?’

  One of the strings flew to the ceiling and tied itself around the loose stactite.

  Crack

  With a tug, the stactite’s base cracked as Vanda dragged it down and controlled its fall to nd on Illyan.

  Illyan barely dodged, but the problem didn’t end there as she started to use her strings to throw other stactites at him.

  She was gring at him with maddened eyes, as if completely out of her mind.

  Some of them embedded themselves in the ground and the walls, while others shattered into many pieces.

  These shattered pieces shredded Illyan’s body, but he didn’t even groan as he focused, with a grin tugging at his mouth.

  It was at that time that the cave started to make weird noises as the stactites began to fall on their own while the walls cracked at a fast speed.

  ‘This is getting out of hand… Should I stop here? But if I do that, the effort we put into it would be useless…’ Illyan thought grimly.

  “What in the world are you doing?! Are you crazy? You’ll kill yourself too!” Korin, who was hiding in the corner, suddenly yelled out as he waved his cane, causing white light to come out of it.

  Vanda, whose eyes were empty, suddenly regained her crity amidst the catastrophe she had caused.

  Vanda, horrified at what she had done, screamed.

  However, Illyan just grinned at her, his eyes shining with crimson madness.

  ‘I will not let this opportunity slide…’

  Then, he sent an air ssh at her…

  “N-no!”

  Vanda, who had been the epitome of wrath this entire time, now showed fear.

  Squelch She barely managed to wield her mana to cover her body, but the ssh still managed to mangle her.

  “Ahg!” Vanda screamed as one of her arms detached from her elbow while a deep wound appeared on her stomach.

  “Shit, retreat!” she yelled out as her boots started to shine with arcane light, which seemed to make her faster. Then, she waved her strings to catch as many men as possible while running to the exit.

  Unfortunately, one of these men was Korin.

  Illyan gred at them with a cold gaze but didn’t run toward them. The opportunity had already passed. Chasing them now was just foolishness.

  Instead, he focused on the guy who was fighting Aurelia.

  “Hahahah, this is fun! I want to smash your face so much!” With ughter, the man was swinging his mace around wildly.

  The other men around, however, stopped what they were doing as they noticed the cave trembling.

  “S-sir… The c-cave—!”

  Aurelia, who saw this, didn’t miss a beat as she sshed their throats in the moment of fear.

  “You fuckers! Focus on the bastards and ignore everything else! We will—Ugh!”

  The guy’s face contorted as he gazed with surprise at the sword tip coming out of his chest cavity.

  “W-what…” However, before he could do anything else, a shadow of a hand enveloped his face, grabbing onto him and breaking his neck.

  “You said you were almost done, right?!” Illyan, who had just thrown the body of the man away, asked Aurelia.

  She, who saw this, widened her eyes at him with a gre as she quickly ran toward the Starstone.

  “You are crazy!”

  “Thank you.”

  “That’s not…! You bastard!” For the first time, Aurelia cursed at him as she quickly ran toward the stele with several solutions in her hands.

  She had almost finished before her distant family member interrupted her and nearly managed to ambush her. Fortunately, she managed to hold him off as she fought him.

  Now, he didn’t even have time to see who killed him or who he had fought the entire time…

  But that wasn’t important as she quickly ran around murmuring esoteric incantations.

  Because of that, her robe fell off, revealing her face.

  While she was still disguised, anyone who knew her would recognize her if they looked closely.

  And the gang members around were such people.

  “Wait! Aren’t you young, miss?! What are you doing there?! This is betrayal—Spsh!”

  One of the men recognized her and became angry.

  But before anything happened, Illyan started to swing his sword, killing every single man in a few seconds. As he didn’t hold back, the sword didn’t just ssh them but also completely sliced them piece by piece through the sharpness of the sword, as well as the strength and technique of the man.

  But even this kind of strength was far from enough against the natural disasters.

  Quake

  The walls and ground started to crack as the stactites began to fall.

  “I-I am done, but you still need to register yours—Agh?!”

  Aurelia finally finished her part, but it seemed to be too te.

  She gained her authority just by activating the ritual, but Illyan also needed to gain his authority.

  But that would take some time…

  Aurelia bit her lip, but before she could finish the sentence she wanted to say, she was lifted into the air by Illyan.

  “What the heck are you doing?!” she yelled out. The elegant her was no more, as Illyan started to let go of his calm visage and let loose his wild side.

  Illyan grinned, his eyes staring into her soul.

  “Tighten yourself up. I am throwing you! Let’s meet up in Faruin!” Illyan said as he made a throwing stance.

  “Wait a second—aaaaagh?!”

  Without wasting time, he threw her in a barren direction.

  There was an exit from this cave that led to another part of the mine. He noticed it only after using spiritual perception.

  It was probably a more difficult path, but she wouldn’t need to csh with Vanda at the very least.

  Just as Aurelia’s body flew through the air toward the exit, the entire cave’s ceiling started to crumble.

  “What are you doing? Come—” Aurelia’s voice, now full of emotions, was barely heard by Illyan as the crushing rocks fell all around him.

  ‘Why did I even throw her away? To let her be a decoy while I get out of here…? If I die here, then everything would be useless anyway…’ There was no way that he would survive the cave colpse if he took the brunt of it.

  ‘Stone, humans are social creatures. You like to be alone in a quiet pce but still found a friend like Zers, who is so cheerful and is a stupid loud grunt. Unless you stop being human, it will be hard not to become attached… That’s why we need to live to our fullest, bahaha!’

  Degres’ words, which he told him during one of the Bakur Tribe’s celebrations, passed through Illyan’s mind.

  He liked to be left alone, but Degres or Zers always forcibly took him to these celebrations just to annoy him.

  And now, he missed those times…

  ‘I guess I am still human… I… took a liking to her, huh?’ Illyan chuckled.

  He liked her. Not romantically, but as someone he respected and found fun to be around.

  She was someone who kept him company for the st few months and brightened his bleak days. He learned from her and shared his own knowledge with her too.

  Illyan shook his head with a smile.

  ‘What am I even thinking in this situation? It is not like I did it only for her anyway…’

  Just as the ceiling started to fall, Illyan remained in the same pce.

  It seemed stupid, but he was very well aware that the speed he could muster wasn’t enough to escape.

  Not to mention that he still didn’t want to give up on the st node…

  That was the main reason he chose to stay.

  Illyan gnced at the famous Starstone.

  Then he grinned.

  With one quick step, he got in front of the stele and stomped the ground in front of it while pushing all his blood energy into that stomp.

  Crumble

  The ground turned into dust as the ground around his foot was depressed by half a meter or so.

  This caused the stele at the edge of the depression to suddenly tilt toward Illyan a bit before stopping.

  “Now, the stele should be able to withstand it, hopefully.” Illyan grinned as his body became covered by the top of the stele that was leaning over him.

  And at that very moment, all the stactites fell, and right behind them, rge rocks weighing tons fell.

  Everything turned dark in that instant as a rge crumbling sound resounded.

  Boom

  At that time, everything became quiet…