Chapter 65 - Night of the Hunt (3)

“So, fine, you're spouting more insane nonsense!”

“...”

Aiden's face crumpled at the casually delivered abuse, but Noel, sprinting with him and Katya slung over her shoulders, showed no sign of moderating her language.

“What insane plan do you have for putting that insane nonsense into practice?!”

“... I have feelings too, Dame Noel.”

Despite his timid grumbling, Aiden swept his gaze over their surroundings.

Actually, a moment's thought made it clear that this situation was quite strange.

-Quest Info

♠ Main Quest

◈ Act 1, <Rift in the Capital>

-Chapter 2, <Night of the Hunt>

▶ External intervention has caused the difficulty to skyrocket.

▶ The original “Large-Scale Assault” event has been replaced with the subjugation of a “Top-Tier Magical Beast”!

▶ Due to the change in difficulty, quest completion rewards will be enhanced!

The quest window alone made it clear that he absolutely wasn't supposed to be facing a monster like this yet.

Across the entire setting, very few creatures could shrug off Noel's and Katya's attacks as though they didn't even tickle.

'... Top-tier magical beasts normally never leave the void region.'

Even within the void region, an environment perfectly tailored to survival of the strongest, top-tier magical beasts stood at the apex of the ecosystem. They usually hunted within its borders, taking no interest in the world outside.

The reason was simple. Magical beasts existed to destroy and devour, and there was no better home for satisfying those desires.

For one of them to have come charging out here meant that the Puppeteer—that Rad fellow—had definitely pulled something before Aiden crushed him.

More specifically, the Soul Reaver's current “Berserk” condition was likely the result of that trickery.

He had reduced the reasoning capacity of a creature that would never normally leave its home to little more than that of a mindless animal, drawing it outside.

So, taking stock of the situation: the beast was incapable of rational thought, which should have been its greatest strength, and Aiden held two skill-copying opportunities from the very individual responsible for putting it in that state.

That meant there had to be a way out. It had a clear weakness, and he had the means to exploit it.

For example, it might look as though they were simply running away, but during their escape, they had managed to drive all the sticks they had brought into the ground, however roughly.

Noel ran, Katya intercepted the Soul Reaver's attacks, and in between, Aiden pulled the sticks from their luggage and hurled them into the ground one by one.

Doing that while fleeing was an obvious sign that they were plotting something, but the beast, normally intelligent, wouldn't recognize the danger in its berserk state.

And as for how to take advantage of that...

Aiden placed a hand on the shoulder of Noel, who was running for all she was worth, and gave it a couple of taps, signaling that he had a suggestion.

“Dame Noel.”

“... No.”

“Dame Noel.”

“I don't know what it is, but no.”

“...”

Seeing his face fall out of the corner of her eye, Noel squeezed her eyes shut.

Nothing had particularly changed for the worse, but she was reminded anew of her own predicament.

Having come this far, she would ultimately go along with whatever plan this man proposed.

O Karva, why on earth had she brought such a hopeless man into her life...?

“... All right. I'll at least hear you out.”

“Let's jump.”

At that patently outrageous instruction, Noel forcibly swallowed the foul words that threatened to burst out.

They were foul enough to earn her some disapproving looks at a social gathering that observed ordinary manners and common sense.

“Jump? Where?”

“Down there.”

Aiden pointed to the precipice alongside the slope they were running down.

It was the very place where he had recently lowered himself on a rope to hammer sticks into the cliff.

“...”

Noel glanced down over the cliff.

... She couldn't see the bottom.

It was so high that the shrill wind sweeping up from below battered her eardrums like human screams.

“... Down there?”

“Yes. Don't worry. I've got it all figured—”

Before he could finish, Noel let out the foul words she could no longer suppress.

This time, they were foul enough to get her thoroughly beaten and thrown out of any social gathering that observed manners and common sense.

While Aiden struggled to decide how he felt about his fiancée delivering the vilest insult he had heard in recent memory, Katya tilted her head, still firing successive blasts of divinity at the Soul Reaver pursuing them with murderous intensity.

“We just need to go down there?”

“Yes. We need to take some of the fight out of it before we can tame it.”

Wasn't there a considerable difference between taking the fight out of something and jumping to their deaths? The question rose to Noel's lips.

She never got to voice it, because someone interrupted.

“Really?”

Specifically:

“Then let's go.”

The instant Katya heard his answer, she fired divinity into the ground at maximum output. Like thrust blasting from an engine, the recoil sent their bodies floating into the air.

Naturally, having shot forward, they began plunging down the precipice in accordance with the laws of physics.

“... I swear, you goddamned, Aiden, Your Highness—!”

“...”

How angry did she have to be to mix up their names and titles mid-sentence?

He would make sure to apologize to Noel once this was over...

As Aiden made that resolution, the Soul Reaver spotted them falling and fixed its rolling eyes on them.

Then it hurled itself after them.

That movement, driven by primal killing intent with no thought for its own safety, was enough to send chills down all three of their spines.

Still, he had work to do.

Drawing a deep breath, Aiden hurled the last stick from his backpack.

It didn't sink very deep, but even as he fell, he clearly saw it lodge in a crevice in the cliff.

“... What on earth have you been throwing and sticking into things all this time?!”

In other words, how could he be so leisurely about doing that while they were plummeting off a cliff, with a top-tier magical beast jumping after them to murder them?

... Though Noel having enough composure to ask that question in free fall wasn't exactly normal either.

“Blasting explosives.”

“... What?”

A small piece of trivia about the Duchy of Aslan: the region was more famous for mining than one might expect.

That meant acquiring high-quality explosives developed for breaking rocks and reshaping terrain wasn't particularly difficult.

And throughout their frantic escape, they had driven an entire month's worth of blasting explosives for a fairly large mineral deposit into the ground.

“... Why would you plant that much of it all around...?”

Showing her would be faster than explaining.

First, he pulled a spare rope from the backpack still hanging from his shoulder. It was a special model with a grappling hook at the end.

He had also checked its strength over and over to ensure it could support several people.

He flung it out, and the hook caught on the opposite side of the gorge, abruptly changing their seemingly endless descent.

With an anchor point secured, they swung violently like a pendulum and slammed into the opposite cliff face.

The impact was so fierce that he barely prevented injuries by creating a barrier with Brilliant Radiance. But someone else was destined for a far more violent collision.

Had it retained even a sliver of intelligence, it would have tried something to stop its fall. Instead, the Soul Reaver simply thrashed its limbs toward them mindlessly, consumed by hostility even in free fall.

Of course, watching it actually move closer just by flailing in midair was enough to leave them slack-jawed at its absurd physical capabilities. But the outcome had already been decided.

WHOOOOSH!

Accelerating at a terrifying rate, the Soul Reaver plunged to the bottom of the cliff.

“...”

Noel and Katya watched in silence.

Dangling from the rope, Noel narrowed her eyes at him.

“... Aiden.”

“... Yes.”

“From now on, please at least consult me before doing something.”

“...”

“Do you understand?”

“... Nobody got hurt, right?”

When he stubbornly refused to answer, Noel glared daggers at him. Aiden merely did his best to avoid her gaze.

Well, the thing was... he wasn't finished yet.

Still avoiding Noel's eyes, he rummaged inside his clothes and pulled out a detonator.

“... And what's that?”

“I have to set them off.”

The route along which he had planted the explosives was designed to bring an entire cliff down on the Soul Reaver below.

BEEP!

The explosives planted in the cliff detonated one after another.

Through the blasts that shook the night sky, he heard Katya murmur.

“You planned this from the start?”

“Of course.”

“... This?”

“...”

Luring in a beast that enormous.

Sending it crashing off a cliff.

Then blowing up the entire cliff and dropping it on top of the creature—all planned from the start.

“... Aiden, what on earth goes through your head every day?”

Noel's voice was equal parts exhaustion and disbelief. Katya followed up with her own reaction.

“The more I watch you, the more dangerous your thinking seems.”

“...”

“Is blowing things up and killing them always your first thought?”

Aiden grimaced at Katya's scathing remark and pressed the button.

Hearing that from her, of all people, was definitely hurtful in its own right...

BOOOOM!!!!

Of course, whether his feelings were hurt or not, a massive explosion unleashed a cataclysm that reshaped the terrain, swallowing the surrounding landscape.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of rock dropped straight onto the Soul Reaver's head.

▣

Dust billowed everywhere. As the deafening roar that had engulfed their surroundings finally began to subside, Aiden sighed and checked the rope.

Hmm. Well...

“... Dame Noel. You're the heaviest one here, so if you don't stay still, the rope will sna—”

She hit him.

“... I didn't mean your body weight. You're wearing the heaviest equipment, so you're the heavie—”

She hit him again.

“...”

Never tell a woman she's heavy, no matter the circumstances. Note taken.

As he mulled over that lesson, a chilling sound suddenly rose from the bottom of the cliff.

“... It's still alive after that?!”

Noel looked down and cried out in horror.

The Soul Reaver was driving its forepaws into the cliff one after the other, climbing toward them.

Of course, it was far from unscathed. It was such a battered wreck that finding an undamaged part of its body would have been difficult.

Still, surviving a fall from this height followed by the weight of a small mountain dropped on top of it was astonishing.

“This is a complete disas—”

“No, it isn't.”

Aiden saw things very differently.

If that were enough to kill it, it wouldn't deserve to be called a top-tier magical beast in the first place.

More importantly:

“I told you, it would be a problem if it died. I'm trying to tame it.”

With that, Aiden immediately let go of the rope.

Rather than waiting for the Soul Reaver to climb up, he dropped toward it.

Normally, this would have gotten him pulverized the instant he entered its reach. But with the creature this badly injured, even he could handle its attacks without much trouble.

Blocking a swipe of its forepaw with Brilliant Radiance, he landed directly on its head.

And now, he copied the two skills the Puppeteer must have used to put the Soul Reaver in this state.

-System Message

▶ Imitating “Skill: Demonic Energy - Flow Regulation.”

▶ Imitating “Skill: Demonic Energy - Divine Command.”

-Skill Info

◆ Demonic Energy: Flow Regulation

Analyzes the flow of power manipulated by a target possessing demonic energy. Divine Command can be used on a target whose flow has been identified.

★ This skill was copied through “Imitation.” Its potency is lower than the original!

◆ Demonic Energy: Divine Command

Infiltrates an analyzed target's mind and implants a “command.” An affected target obeys that command absolutely until another individual releases it.

★ This skill was copied through “Imitation.” Its potency is lower than the original!

As the lines flashed past the edge of his vision, Aiden gave a dry chuckle and placed his hand on the Soul Reaver's head.

Perhaps because demonic energy was a supernatural power derived from a sealed god, it offered all manner of sinister abilities. These seemed a perfect illustration of that nature.

Right now, though, Aiden himself had reason to be grateful for that.

Abilities of this sort couldn't have their potency translated into clear numerical values in the first place. Even with their power reduced compared to the originals, he would barely notice the difference.

More importantly...

-System Message

▶ Activating “Skill: Demonic Energy - Flow Regulation.”

▶ Analyzing the flow of demonic energy within the target's body!

▶ Analysis complete.

He could see black currents pulsing through the Soul Reaver's body. Identifying a spot where they were particularly concentrated, Aiden reached out.

-System Message

▶ Activating “Skill: Demonic Energy - Divine Command.”

▶ The same skill is already active on the target. Activation is not possib—

Before the message could even finish, Aiden produced a supernatural power from his hand that was perfect for precisely this situation.

▶ “Supernatural Power: Purifier” erases “Skill: Divine Command” implanted in the target.

Did that Rad fellow have any idea?