Darkness spread.
Her vision went black.
Yuri had been fighting monsters conjured from the magical tome’s parchment all this time.
She thought she was somewhat accustomed to the aura of dark magic.
But the energy Cedric exuded was raw and far more intense than anything she had ever faced.
His voice drifted into her mind.
“I remember the first time I saw you. You were so small back then, and now look at you.”
“Save your nostalgia for the afterlife,” Yuri snapped.
She swung Guilty wildly into the darkness that filled her sight.
Soul Slash was the bane of dark magic.
The black energy split apart, revealing Cedric standing beyond.
Yuri surged forward as if pushed, slashing relentlessly.
She felt the crunch of bone and the slicing of flesh.
Blood spurted.
Was he down?
No.
Twisting her blade, she shattered his ribs, but Cedric shook his head and opened his eyes wide.
It couldn’t be this easy.
Yuri unleashed the full force of Soul Slash.
Mana exploded outward, warping the entire space.
Dark magic and sword energy swirled in a chaotic vortex as Yuri’s gaze locked onto Cedric.
Her vision was stained crimson.
Cedric’s body was torn to shreds.
But—
“Too soon.”
Cedric was not dead.
Amid the chaos, Yuri spotted a lone black shape writhing.
She immediately gave chase.
Sharpening her sword energy to the extreme.
Soul Slash, which could cut through even the intangible, never missed its target.
She sliced again and again.
The black form split into two, then four.
His speed in tearing apart the enemy was too fast to follow with the eye.
Yuri intended to completely annihilate Cedric’s dark soul so he could never rise again.
But then, suddenly—
Her sword slowed.
Her body felt heavy, as if stuck in mud.
The black fragments she had cut scattered like gravel and clung to her body, their strong adhesion making them hard to shake off.
Cedric whispered in her ear.
“I have transcended, Yuri.”
She swung her blade to the side immediately—but Cedric was gone.
“You’re no longer trapped in a body like your monkey brethren.”
An alarm blared in her mind. Without hesitation, Yuri poured mana through her entire body.
The black mass stuck to her exploded and fell away.
She scanned the area but could no longer sense Cedric’s presence.
Yuri shouted.
“Everyone, be careful!”
The others, who had been advancing toward Cedric, were still unaware of what was happening.
One of the Eastern warriors looked around in confusion, then suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed.
“Ugh…”
Behind him stood Cedric, smiling.
He looked just as healthy and intact as before his death.
“To me, the body is nothing but a disposable vessel I can remake over and over.”
“Cedric!”
Yuri charged and sliced his neck. His body collapsed to the ground.
Francesco, nearby, tore into Cedric’s corpse.
Cedric showed no reaction, like a lifeless corpse, and was slain.
Then—
Jared screamed.
“Gah!”
Cedric had appeared beside him and attacked.
A black, claw-like grip squeezed Jared’s body. Countless thin tendrils sprouted like threads, burrowing into his flesh.
“You bastard!”
Moyongchan rushed over and slashed Cedric.
His upper and lower body separated.
Even as he was attacked, Cedric looked at Jared and moved his hands, causing the tendrils to rip through Jared’s body.
“Arrgh!”
Jared’s screams grew louder. He twisted his body desperately but couldn’t escape Cedric’s black grasp.
His eyes rolled back, turning white.
“Jared, snap out of it!”
Moyongchan stabbed wildly at Cedric.
His body was torn into dozens of pieces.
Yet even a finger floated in midair, still moving like a puppeteer controlling a marionette.
Cedric’s body completely scattered, and the dark magic enveloping Jared faded.
Moyongchan shook Jared’s shoulder.
“Jared, are you okay?”
“Ah…”
Dazed, Jared suddenly swung his sword at Moyongchan.
“What—!”
Caught off guard, Moyongchan couldn’t react in time.
Clang!
“…”
Moyongchan swallowed hard.
The attack aimed at his chest was blocked by a sword that slid in from the side.
Jared’s blade trembled, its tip pressed against the narrow edge of the other sword.
Moyongchan gave a grateful nod.
“Thanks, Roland.”
“Be careful.”
“Will do.”
Roland immediately kicked Jared’s face.
“Ugh!”
He disarmed Jared, then pinned him down with a knee to the back.
Jared writhed and screamed like a possessed man.
“He’s been taken over by dark magic.”
“Damn…”
Even as they spoke, Cedric didn’t stop.
He kept shifting bodies, slipping away whenever the others counterattacked.
“Cedric! Here!”
Yuri reached him again.
Cedric raised his tendrils to attack the surroundings but furrowed his brow and met Yuri’s gaze.
She held Soul Slash at full power, adding the chaotic energy to strike with maximum force.
Her blade cut through not just body, but mind and soul.
Yuri sliced through Cedric’s body and everything inside it.
The skull housing his brain and whatever lay beyond were cleanly severed by Soul Slash.
Cedric’s eyes clouded.
“Die, Cedric.”
Yuri thought she had removed the core that sustained him.
But it was an illusion.
As before, Cedric reappeared elsewhere.
He hadn’t taken any real damage.
Yuri looked down at Guilty.
What she had pierced was not Cedric’s soul, but the remnants of his scattered dark magic.
She gritted her teeth.
“Damn it!”
If even Soul Slash couldn’t harm him, how was she supposed to fight him?
Meanwhile, Cedric had already advanced to where the Anti-Empire Alliance’s forces were gathered.
Black tendrils surged from the ground like a tidal wave, sweeping in all directions.
Many died, and those caught in the tendrils lost control of their bodies.
Watching Cedric, who wouldn’t die no matter how many times they killed him and who reappeared elsewhere to spread dark magic, Yuri and the others were at a loss.
They had no idea how to fight him.
Yuri entered the realm of souls, using even her instincts to lock onto Cedric.
“…”
Cedric was literally creating and discarding bodies over and over.
Forming a human body was no easy feat.
Even high-level mages like Inariel, Hernando, or Marirose had to pay a heavy price to create a perfect vessel capable of housing a soul.
But for Cedric, it was as natural as breathing.
He had devoured countless lives, bending souls and bodies to his will.
Dark magic could brazenly violate even forbidden boundaries.
Each time Cedric appeared, tendrils like the roots of a giant tree burst from the earth, covering the ground.
Soldiers crushed beneath them died or were ensnared, losing control of their bodies and going mad like Jared.
A chaotic battlefield erupted, with allies fighting each other.
Occasionally, furious knights sacrificed themselves to pierce Cedric, but he simply switched bodies.
Cedric was, in effect, fighting the entire Anti-Empire Alliance alone.
Feeding on countless lives to fuel his slaughter, he looked to Yuri like a demon descended upon the earth.
“Cedric…”
Yuri whispered his name and lifted her gaze.
She couldn’t stand by.
“Yuri Briol.”
At that moment, Inariel approached.
“Lady Inariel.”
“You’re probably wondering how to deal with that.”
“Yes. What should we do?”
“Well…”
Inariel said,
“He may seem alone, but he’s not. He’s consuming more lives than our entire army. He’s killed so many that he’s feeding on them.”
Yuri nodded.
Inariel was right. Cedric had absorbed the power of the entire imperial army. It was as if the empire and the Anti-Empire Alliance were fighting each other.
“Think simply. Two armies clash. How do you win?”
“By killing the enemy.”
“That’s it.”
Inariel took a breath and continued.
“There’s no other way. You kill while dying. If you can kill tens of thousands of his bodies, maybe his reserves will run out.”
They had to keep killing, over and over.
Even as they talked, the chaos grew.
Cedric’s unpredictable appearances threw the entire force into disarray, forcing comrades to fight each other just to survive.
Yuri took a deep breath.
There was no other way. They just had to kill.
“Let’s go.”
The rest of the Ten Strong and the Eastern warriors who had been standing still with Yuri began to move.
“We’ll focus on chasing and killing Cedric’s main body. The rest, leave to them.”
Moyongchan relayed Yuri’s words to the martial artists, and soon everyone scattered.
To keep Cedric from slipping away, everyone took their assigned positions, each guarding their own area.
Yuri stood watch over the largest zone.
“Graaah!”
A soldier, possessed by Cedric’s influence, charged at Yuri wildly, swinging his sword. Yuri struck him sharply under the chin to knock him out, but the soldier lunged at her like a zombie.
In the end, Yuri had no choice but to kill him.
Guilty swung his blade and severed the soldier’s neck.
Even after losing his head, the body writhed for a moment before Yuri crushed its heart beneath her foot. Once its chest burst open, the movement finally ceased.
A sick feeling churned in her gut.
Clutching Guilty, Yuri scanned her surroundings.
Cedric’s tendrils were erupting everywhere.
Far off, she spotted Jose driving his sword deep into Cedric’s body.
Cedric fell with a serene smile, then vanished—only to reappear somewhere else.
Killing him was pointless.
They had to keep killing him until it made a difference.
But could Cedric really have made no preparations?
As Yuri cut down another soldier who approached her, she began to ponder a better strategy.
“Yuri Briol. Isn’t your Soul Sever supposed to cut through souls as well?”
A voice suddenly spoke, and she turned to see Laurent.
Yuri asked, “What about Jared?”
“He’s tied up and half-buried. Inariel summoned some mages to work on an antidote.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Didn’t Soul Sever work on that guy?”
Yuri nodded.
“It didn’t affect him at all…”
“Why not?”
Yuri blinked.
Why indeed?
Soul Sever was supposed to cut through everything—it was the bane of dark magic. Even souls, once separated from the body, could be severed. Yet Cedric didn’t disappear when struck.
A thought flashed through her mind.
Yuri said, “I was mistaken.”
“What?”
“He’s not just switching bodies.”
“Then what?”
“Well, partly, yes. But the one controlling this body isn’t Cedric’s soul. The real Cedric is somewhere else.”
“So that’s a decoy pretending to be the real thing?”
“Seems like it. Definitely, when we stabbed him…”
Surprisingly, Laurent nodded.
“I see. Then how do we find the real one?”
“I’ll try.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Just trust me.”
Yuri smiled faintly and patted Laurent on the shoulder before opening her sixth sense to its fullest.
Her senses stretched outward.
She focused all her energy on locating Cedric’s true location.
Her vision blurred.
The noise of the battlefield faded.
She concentrated desperately.
Her heightened senses received signals from all around the world.
Then—
“Yuri Briol.”
“Hm?”
“Are you looking for me?”
Suddenly, Laurent said something incomprehensible.
“Huh?”
As she repeated the question, realization dawned.
This wasn’t Laurent.
“What—?”
It had been an act from the start.
Cedric, controlling Laurent’s body, swung his sword.
“Ugh!”
Yuri felt the blade pierce her abdomen, folding her over.
The twisted blade tore through her insides.
She couldn’t hold back and spat blood.