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Chapter: 49
When Jeanne twitched her sword, the hand Abaddon had been stroking along his chin came to a halt. The lazily moving hand lowered.
“Don’t tell me… you.”
The face of the creature who had believed himself to be in control hardened coldly. His nearly black, violet eyes pierced into Jeanne, as though they were rummaging through her mind.
“How can a mere human remember a past life? Time belongs to the Demon King’s domain.”
“…?”
The tip of Jeanne’s sword wavered for an instant. She had spoken only to provoke him, yet an unexpected clue had surfaced.
“So you do know something about regression.”
Jeanne adjusted her grip on the sword with both hands.
“Spill everything you know. If you do, I’ll kill you with a little less pain than last time.”
What she got in return was a sneer.
“You’re still just as arrogant. Yes, yes—those with the highest noses fall the hardest. That’s what makes it so enjoyable.”
The moment Abaddon’s lips twisted, more than a dozen shadows passed over Jeanne.
At the buzzing of wings, she looked up to see locust-like monsters flying past the two of them toward the southeast.
“…!”
Instinct told her they were headed for Dongremian. Her blood ran cold. She instinctively infused her sword with aura.
But before she could swing, Abaddon closed the distance in a single burst.
He threw a punch, and Jeanne blocked it with her aura-coated blade. The collision between an upper-tier monster and the child of a goddess shook the surrounding air violently.
“Do you know what the very first thought I had after being resurrected was?”
“Ghk!”
“‘How can I take revenge in the way that hurts you the most?’”
Abaddon’s fist was far heavier than Jeanne remembered.
The legs that had been holding firm were slowly forced backward. In a contest of raw strength alone, Jeanne was overwhelmingly at a disadvantage.
“Killing me while prattling on like that was your mistake. Thanks to that, I figured out exactly how to get my revenge.”
Abaddon grinned viciously.
“Just imagine how entertaining it’ll be to make you watch as the humans living there are torn apart and eaten alive right before your eyes!”
Something snapped inside her head.
You lunatic.
When Jeanne realized Abaddon retained his memories, she had suspected that he had isolated himself from the army for the sake of revenge. But she never imagined he would drag her hometown into it.
Looking at Jeanne now, one might say that the hottest color in the world was green.
Rage surged up. As if responding to her boiling emotions, lightning-like aura swelled to a massive scale.
Borrowing that force, she began to slowly push Abaddon back.
With the intent to split him in two, she traced a semicircle with her sword. But Abaddon retreated a step faster, and Jeanne’s blade cut nothing but air.
Her breath grew ragged with murderous intent, her fingertips trembling. A bad sign. Rage could be mistaken for immense power, but it evaporated reason and judgment.
Calm down. If I lose control, I lose. Kill him, and it’s over.
Jeanne steadied her breathing. Regaining her composure, she curled her lips into a smirk and raised an eyebrow.
“Are you scared of me?”
“……”
“That’s a yes. If you weren’t afraid, you wouldn’t be thinking of taking hostages instead of fighting me head-on.”
A chilling silence fell.
“Coward.”
Abaddon moved first.
He vanished from where he stood and, in the blink of an eye, charged straight at Jeanne. Sensing his killing intent, Jeanne cloaked both her sword and body in aura.
I can’t win in a direct power clash.
With a shout, Abaddon slammed his fist downward. Jeanne narrowly dodged.
Crack!
The ground where she had stood fractured like shattered glass.
Abaddon’s weapons were twofold: his ability to command a horde of monsters, and fists wrapped in demonic energy.
That demonic energy was strong enough to block aura. Facing him head-on in terms of strength meant slim chances of victory.
That said, he wasn’t invincible. Unlike his fists, the rest of his body wasn’t coated in demonic energy.
Which meant all she had to do was sever both arms, then shatter the core—like the heart of an upper-tier monster.
Dodging to the side, Jeanne immediately took stance and swung her sword.
Clang!
Blade and fist collided once more.
“Did you really think I’d fall for the same trick twice?”
“For a bug, you’ve got a surprisingly good memory.”
Abaddon twisted his body and attacked again, but Jeanne created distance with a backflip. The moment she landed, she crouched and lashed her aura like a whip.
Like a hunting serpent, the sword energy skimmed close to the ground and curved toward Abaddon’s legs.
Crunch!
With a scoff, he stomped down on the bent blade of aura. Crushing her finishing move underfoot, Abaddon charged again.
Jeanne deftly dodged or blocked his fists, repeatedly trying to create an opening.
The fierce exchange continued. Every clash of demonic energy, aura, and divine power erupted with thunderous booms, shockwaves rippling in all directions.
As small wounds accumulated on both Jeanne and Abaddon, the ruins around them were reduced to devastation, as if the world itself were ending. Massive pillars and towers collapsed, and deep scars were carved into the murals.
The longer the battle dragged on, the worse it became for Jeanne.
Not just because of stamina, but because of the monsters that had flown toward Dongremian.
Her hometown had no soldiers capable of fighting monsters. She had tried to end Abaddon quickly to stop them, but he was stronger and faster than in her past life.
There was only one way for a monster to grow stronger in a short time: devour as many humans—or other monsters—as possible. Comparing past and present, the amount he must have consumed was horrifying to imagine.
Focus on winning. To do that…
Jeanne’s movements changed. She stopped dodging and focused solely on blocking Abaddon’s attacks.
After taking several blows from fists larger than her head, her hands and arms began to tremble. Noticing this, Abaddon let out a mocking laugh.
“Where did that fire from earlier go? Already tired?”
Feigning retreat, Jeanne guided his attacks toward her left. Then she relaxed her grip, focusing aura into her shoulder and legs instead.
Abaddon’s fist slammed into her left shoulder.
She gritted her teeth and endured it. Her body reeled violently, but the aura wrapped around her legs drove her heels into the ground, keeping her upright.
The same was true of her shoulder. Had she taken the hit head-on without aura, the bones of her left upper body might have shattered.
But in exchange, Abaddon exposed an opening.
A chance to slip inside.
Straightening her twisted body, Jeanne leveled her blade.
The core is dead center in the chest!
Just like in her previous life, she poured aura and divine power into her sword. With everything she had, she thrust diagonally, convinced this strike would end it.
That was—until pitch-black tentacles wrapped around her blade.
“What—?!”
What is this?
Before she could even grasp where they came from, multiple tentacles bound her sword like bandages.
The blade stopped just short of the core, unable to advance any further. Following the tentacles with her gaze, she saw them sprouting from Abaddon’s shoulder, curling around to connect to his back.
And then—
As if he had been waiting for this, Abaddon bared his teeth in a grin.
Her instincts screamed at her to take a defensive stance. But before aura could fully envelop her body, Abaddon’s fist smashed into her abdomen.
“…!”
There was a dull crunch.
Pain and pressure crushed her lungs, stealing her voice. As she gasped for breath, a scorching sensation surged up from deep within her chest.
“Cough!”
Blood splattered across the ground as she retched violently. Her mouth tasted of iron, her entire body trembling with numbness.
She tried to regain her stance—but a tentacle wrapped around her left ankle. The instant she felt the pressure, her body was yanked upward.
With searing pain, Jeanne was hurled into a pillar.
“Ghk!”
Abaddon cackled as he watched her.
“You said you’d kill me. Was that just bluster?”
“……”
“I went easy on you so I wouldn’t kill you. Or did you get scared?”
“Like hell… I’d be scared of someone like you… cough!”
Jeanne spat blood several more times. Seeing this, Abaddon’s expression filled with venom, as though victory were already his.
“Did it never occur to you that I might have prepared one more trump card just to get revenge on you?”
“……”
Like a fish already caught, he grabbed Jeanne by the throat and casually lifted her into the air. She dangled helplessly.
“I could snap your neck right now, but that would be too easy.”
“……”
“Look forward to it. I’ll kill you the same way I died—no, even more painfully.”
Abaddon condensed demonic energy in his hand and poured it into Jeanne.
Just as divine power was poison to monsters, demonic energy was poison to one who possessed divine power. Her entire body went numb, as if electrocuted, strength draining away.
Am I… losing like this?
Jeanne struggled desperately to break free. She couldn’t die yet.
She hadn’t even apologized to her father for hurting him.
She needed to go back and tell him. That she was sorry. That she hadn’t meant it.
Defeat loomed, but she wanted to live, so she searched desperately for a way out.
If only she could retrieve her sword—
As her gaze shifted from the blade bound in tentacles, she noticed a small wound on Abaddon’s arm.
A tiny opening, likely created during the fierce battle.
A tiny opening… that might turn everything around.
“Ha.”
Jeanne let out a faint, derisive chuckle.
