Now the Demon King looked like a mountain of corpses.
Kuaaaack!
A blue light flashed along with the Demon King’s scream.
A portion of the corpses that made up the Demon King’s body crumbled down.
Thud.
Its body collapsed everywhere struck by the radioactive earth spears.
It was definitely effective.
At the same time, the magic circles the Demon King had deployed changed shape.
Some took the exact same shape as the ones I had created.
The earth around the Demon King surged upward.
The surging dirt formed dozens of earth spears.
Grrr.
Accompanied by an incantation that sounded like a monster’s groan, the earth spears flew toward me.
Spears swirling with blue light, just like the earth spears I had fired.
They were the exact same radioactive spears as mine.
【This is bad. The Demon King is even copying my Jigusan magic.】
As I ran to evade the spears, Sop clicked his tongue while deploying a shield.
“I thought replication might be possible! After all, I copied and used magic without knowing the first thing about the theory. But that’s all it is!”
Boom! Boom!
I threw my body to dodge the incoming spears, blocked with my shield, and shouted to Sop.
Sop agreed with my words.
【Indeed. This magic cannot create defense magic or disassembly magic to block it.】
While the Demon King made some magic circles exactly like mine, other circles were constructing defense and disassembly magic to block the radioactive spears.
But those magic circles vanished as they were being formed, collapsing the moment they were completed.
The Demon King had failed to analyze the Jigusan magic I had created.
Without knowing the theory, the Demon King could do nothing but simple imitation.
“If you don’t know Earth’s science, you can never create it.”
It wasn’t impossible forever. But for the time being, it wouldn’t be able to create them.
Look how long it took me to modify magic.
Even now, my magic modification was merely a makeshift method.
Ruumble.
But before long, the Demon King created a shield that blocked the radioactive spears.
A translucent shield enveloped the giant mountain of corpses.
The earth spears I fired crashed against the shield and shattered.
Blue light coursed along the shield.
That light could not pierce the shield.
Even the radiation pouring out as the earth spears broke couldn’t pierce the shield.
However, the Demon King hadn’t modified my Jigusan magic.
【It copied my shield.】
The magic the Demon King deployed was a copy of the magic that protected me—Sop’s magic.
The shield Sop had created was magic capable of blocking radiation through continued research.
Even without knowing the principle, the Demon King could create the exact same magic.
That meant if we used defensive magic, the Demon King could create the exact same thing.
There was only one way to stop that.
“Let’s not use shields. Please snipe its spells with magic.”
It was to not use defensive magic.
【Will you be alright? It will be several times more dangerous than now.】
Sniping incoming magic with other magic was no different than hitting an incoming missile with another missile.
Naturally, it was far more dangerous.
But there was no other choice.
“Since the war began, there has never been an enemy that wasn’t dangerous.”
Even when hunting weak monsters, even when attacking from afar with Sop’s long-range magic, no enemy had ever been safe.
Hoping to be safe while killing the enemy was nonsense.
In the end, it was merely the difference between standing one step or two steps beside death.
This time, I had simply chosen to stand one step closer.
Sop withdrew the shield.
Earth spears and other spells poured down toward me.
Magic circles formed around me, and my senses recognized all the incoming spells as targets.
Counter-magic created by Sop flew toward the coordinates I tracked.
Kwa-boom! Kra-boom!
Fireballs shattered the earth spears, and blades of wind broke the incoming storms.
Fireballs collided with each other, and rocks and stones struck the ground.
While maintaining my targeting lock on the incoming spells, I moved my body frantically.
As Sop had said, counter-magic alone couldn’t block all the Demon King’s spells and the stones raining from the sky.
In the end, I had to move my body to dodge.
Thwack!
The stones I couldn’t avoid struck my body.
Boom!
A spell that exploded nearby set my body ablaze.
I surged upward from the ground to block the spells and rocks, raising dust to obscure vision, but I couldn’t reduce the damage.
Flesh burst, my head was scorched by burns.
My injuries grew progressively worse.
To the point where my healing magic couldn’t keep up.
Even in that situation, I circled the Demon King, trying to create openings with various spells.
But ordinary magic was dispelled and destroyed mid-flight, and even magic imbued with Earth’s science couldn’t pierce the shield created by the Demon King.
The shield replicating a Grand Magician’s magic was too sturdy.
However, I didn’t give up.
As time passed, the Demon King’s body returned to its original state, but I didn’t retreat.
Because the opportunity I had been waiting for had arrived.
【Has it adapted to the radiation like the other monsters? Or perhaps it’s been contaminated by the radiation?】
The Demon King’s body had not returned to its original state.
The areas where the earth spears had lodged were grotesquely transforming, like the monsters bizarrely deformed by the nuclear explosion.
Flesh squirmed, shedding a dark blue light.
Flesh burst and rotted away, then clumped together again, swelling grotesquely.
Seeing that, Sop clicked his tongue.
【Monsters that transform like that don’t seem to live long, but they appear to wield greater strength… I wonder if I did something unnecessary.】
I shook my head at Sop’s words.
“No. This is good. At this rate, I can make a path to Heukseok.”
The Demon King’s original flesh had been so tough that even Sop’s magic couldn’t pierce it.
Naturally, my magic also had difficulty destroying the Demon King’s body.
But that radioactive body was different. It might emit greater power, but that flesh was crumbling now.
This was also one of the many plans I had prepared in case I failed to kill the Demon King with a hydrogen bomb.
The plan was to pierce through the Demon King’s radiation-weakened body and reach Heukseok.
Having weakened the ground, it was now time to touch the earth to create a tunnel.
“I’m going to cling to it! Please give me a shield!”
【I should be able to pierce it once.】
That shield was a replica of the one Sop had created. There was no way the creator wouldn’t know its weakness.
【But will you be alright? Your injuries are severe! This isn’t like the time with the scout. Your body won’t hold!】
Blood poured out. Skin twisted by burns, a shoulder that had been crushed and healed, a deeply gouged back.
Fighting without a shield in a hellish place meant turning your body into a rag.
I used healing magic more powerful than anyone else’s and could endure pain, but with damage this severe, the healing magic couldn’t keep up.
But there was no other way now.
I had no choice but to endure.
I weathered the downpour of spells, circled widely around the Demon King, and at one moment reached my hand toward it.
The place my hand aimed for was the area most heavily contaminated by radiation.
I chanted the spell.
【Blink.】
My vision shifted, and sparks flew around my body.
Crackle!
After the spatial shift, I arrived before the monster’s body.
The shield detonated sparks, trying to push my body away.
But before that, Sop’s incantation rang out.
【Purification.】
Light erupted from the spear, crushing the shield.
In an instant, a hole was punched through the shield.
However, this magic was immediately analyzed by the Demon King.
And a new shield that this magic couldn’t affect was created.
Just before the new shield formed, I was able to slip inside through the hole.
I had stepped onto the radioactive flesh.
I turned my spear behind my back and placed both hands on the Demon King’s flesh.
As if knowing I had climbed atop, tentacles writhed and sprouted out.
“I’ll leave the defense to you.”
I left the tentacles to Sop.
【Hurry. I won’t be able to block them for long.】
I knew.
That this was different from the scout monster.
With both hands on the Demon King’s body, I chanted the spell.
“Gravity amplification.”
Squelch.
My hands crushed the contaminated flesh.
“Charge amplification.”
Thrum.
Electric current surged, burning the radiation-contaminated flesh.
Splurt.
Flesh burst away, and blood swirling with blue light poured out.
It was as expected.
I could pierce this flesh.
Magic circles appeared and disappeared over the torn flesh.
They were magic circles to block my magic.
But once again, the Demon King failed to create magic circles.
The effects were similar, but they were all magic based on Earth’s science.
Even for the Demon King, it was impossible to create counter-magic immediately.
Of course, they weren’t great magics like the radioactive magic.
They were magics that even a normal shield could block sufficiently.
But the half-maddened Demon King failed to realize that.
The Demon King reflexively produced only counter-magic.
This gave me a glimmer of hope.
I did my best to bore a hole in the Demon King’s body.
“Kuk!”
And my body trembled in pain.
Boom! Crunch!
The sound of spells exploding behind me and shields breaking.
Heat and impact pounded my back.
The pain of healing magic raced along my nerves.
My teeth ground together, my body shook, but I couldn’t stop here.
The hole was growing deeper.
I wasn’t far from Heukseok.
It was then.
Sop’s urgent voice reached me.
【Dodge! Any more is impossible! Your body is already a rag! My magic won’t work anymore either!】
Even at Sop’s words, I couldn’t stop.
“Just a little further! Please hold on! A little more!”
【But……】
The moment Sop’s answer came, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
My senses sent a frantic warning.
Tentacles felt directly behind my back.
The tentacles had broken through Sop’s defense and approached right behind me.
My body was already inside the hole I had bored.
I could avoid them with a spatial shift, but then I would have no way to return here.
Turning my body, I raised one arm toward the tentacles.
A magic circle unfolded before my gloved hand.
Sop’s shield, using air as a medium, unfolded before my eyes.
【No! You can’t block them with that shield——】
It was as Sop said.
At the tip of the foremost approaching tentacle, a magic circle was attached.
A magic circle that neutralized Sop’s shield.
The Demon King had copied it in that short time.
Along with the shock, a question arose.
Could the Demon King copy anything and everything?
Why can’t I do it?
At that moment.
Shhh——
The shield shattered like glass.
The tentacles approached through the broken shield.
There was no way to block them.
Shhk!
The tentacle pulverized the arm I had extended forward.
My arm was cut off up to the shoulder.
The tentacle didn’t stop there.
Thwuck.
The tentacle pierced my side, only stopping after it had bored a hole through its own body.
“Kuhck.”
In an instant, one arm vanished, and a pillar had been lodged in my side.
Strangely, I felt no pain.
Was it because this was a wound that healing magic couldn’t treat?
I watched blankly as red blood flowed and the tentacle pulled out.
【Run! Flee!】
Sop’s roar rang in my head.
An urgent voice worried for me.
My body didn’t move well.
The flow of energy wasn’t smooth either.
But with a dazed mind, I was thinking of something else.
‘How does the Demon King heal its wounds?’
Unlike other monsters, the Demon King restored its body with dead corpses.
My thoughts stretched further.
‘If the Demon King can copy other magic, can’t I do it too?’
I might be a lesser version of the Demon King, but I could copy other people’s magic too.
Then there should be no difference if the one I’m copying is the Demon King.
‘Is it okay to do this?’
A disturbing feeling brushed through my mind, but I cast a spell through my remaining hand embedded in the Demon King’s body.
【Gather. O dead ones. Let all of you become my body.】
With my incantation, the Demon King’s flesh began to writhe.
The dead human corpses that formed the Demon King’s body.
The pieces of mummies began to swarm toward me.
Demon King (4)