Chapter 441 – Part 2 – Illusion Prison

“Huff, huff…”

Derkius ran and ran again.

To the point where his breath reached his chin.

‘To think I’m running away from a mere human…’

His pride was hurt, but he had no choice.

As long as he was trapped in the Illusion Prison, Min Do-jun was the superior and the god.

‘I need to escape. From this damn prison.’

The Illusion Prison was a technique with a set range.

‘If I get out of a certain area, I can surely escape from the illusion…’

“No chance.”

At the voice heard at his ear, Derkius turned around in shock.

Simultaneously.

Slash-!

“Keuheueueueut!”

His remaining arm was also cut off.

“Where are you trying to go?”

“U-uaaaah!”

Derkius ran without looking back.

It was somewhat unseemly, but he had no time to care about appearances.

‘It hurts, it hurts!’

Terrible burning pain was felt from the severed cross-sections.

He could truly understand what it felt like to run to survive.

“Huff huff, huff huff!”

Derkius, who had been running like an ostrich using only his two legs, panted.

‘Can’t, can’t go any further.’

He briefly looked back, but Min Do-jun wasn’t visible.

He had no time to wonder why he wasn’t being chased.

‘I need to get out quickly. From this damn illusion…!’

If so, this terrible pain would also disappear.

With only such hope, he tried to run again, but.

“Huh?”

Derkius had no choice but to stop walking.

A wall so high that the end couldn’t be seen was blocking the path.

‘Wh-when was such a wall there?’

Whoosh-

Derkius turned his head to look behind.

A pure white wall that hadn’t been there just moments before was blocking the escape route.

To the left, to the right, wherever he looked, it was blocked by walls.

He didn’t know when such things had appeared.

What mattered was the fact that he was trapped in a space completely blocked on all sides.

“This damn…”

“I see even gods know how to curse?”

Where he turned his head, Min Do-jun was standing, having appeared at some point.

With relaxed yet contemptuous eyes.

“No, not a god but a transcendent nobody?”

“You damn bastard!”

“You acted all solemn in front of me, but turns out you were a foul-mouthed transcendent.”

“You bastard! A mere human!”

“When were you running away with your tail between your legs, and now you’re growling… They say a cornered rat bites the cat, and that’s exactly you.”

“You little rat! Hurry up and release the illusion!”

“You have quite the spirit for someone without arms. Good.”

Snap-!

Min Do-jun snapped his fingers.

Then the walls disappeared and a vast grassland appeared.

“If you fight me one-on-one and win, I promise to release the illusion.”

“You bastard! Without arms, how is that even…”

“I gave you arms, didn’t I?”

“…!”

Looking down, Derkius’s both arms had somehow returned.

Not only that, but he was holding a Guan Dao in his hands.

His body was adorned with EX-grade equipment including Achilles’ Golden Armor and Aegir’s Helmet.

“I didn’t know what you’d like, so I prepared what Woo Seong-jae used. They’re top-grade equipment, so no complaints, right?”

“Are you playing around now? Just because you give me these, there’s no way I can use…”

“Then shall we start?”

Min Do-jun abruptly put away Excalibur and used a skill.

Whoosh-

Flames of death appeared from thin air and rushed forward like lightning.

“Huk!”

When it approached right in front of him, Derkius belatedly tried to block with the crescent blade.

But the flames only engulfed Derkius’s entire body.

“Keuaaaaaaaaaah!”

Min Do-jun’s Hellfire burned living flesh.

Just when Derkius was about to lose consciousness from the burning pain.

“Keuaaa… huh…?”

The melting hunter equipment was restored and the peeled skin regenerated.

Everything returned to its original state in the blink of an eye.

To before being hit by Hellfire.

“What are you going to do if you scream like that from just one Hellfire?”

“You bas…”

“Surprisingly, you have some guts. Looking at how your eyes are still alive.”

Though Min Do-jun chuckled, Derkius felt chills at that appearance.

“This should be fun to torture.”

“You bas…”

The confusion was brief.

Min Do-jun muttered incomprehensible words.

“Au, bite.”

It didn’t take long to understand what those words meant.

Suddenly he felt the pain of his shoulder being torn off.

Crunch-!

“Keueoeoek!”

More shocked by the chilling sound than the pain, Derkius looked behind him.

A wolf five times larger than ordinary wolves was baring its teeth and staring at him.

‘Th-that’s the summon that Min Do-jun carried around!’

He had seen it through Clairvoyance but didn’t know its name.

“Au, tear off his limbs to the point of not dying.”

[Woof woof!]

Au, who answered vigorously, immediately rushed at Derkius.

Crunch-!

“Uaaaah!”

When one arm was torn off, Derkius finally felt a sense of crisis and wildly swung the Guan Dao.

“You damn dog! Get lost!”

But Au wasn’t soft enough to be hit by the blind attacks of a human with no combat experience.

Crunch-! Crack-! Crunch!

“Keuheoeoeoeo…”

In an instant, his limbs were torn off and he became unable to move.

Blood soaked the ground and chills came to his body that had been like a fireball.

A single tear flowed down beside Derkius’s eyeball.

‘Am, am I going to die like this?’

He had never felt what the emotion of dying was like until now.

There were no days of pain, let alone fear.

That’s why even when souls entering the Spring of Oblivion cried out to be saved, he couldn’t understand what it felt like.

‘But now I know.’

Now he could tell anyone.

What the emotion called death was like.

What it felt like.

“What are you trying to die already for?”

At the cold voice, Derkius’s eyes, who had been waiting for death, snapped open.

“This is just the beginning. Right?”

When he came to his senses, his body had returned to normal again.

“……”

Is this how it feels to wake up from a good dream?

Despair covered his eyes.

“This time, try dodging at least once.”

Min Do-jun giggled and raised his arm.

“Gust Blade.”

Ten wind blades lined up left and right, then flew one by one in sequence.

Slash- Slice-

“Keuhuk, aaaah!”

Every time a wind blade passed, flesh fell off.

Screams burst out from Derkius’s mouth in succession.

“Keuhuk, eoek, aaat, kahaak…!”

When all ten attacks were finished, Derkius was not alive even though he was living.

With all his legs cut off, he could only stare into space while unable to die, like an insect that only moves its antennae.

Flash-

This time too, his body returned to its original state.

However, what was different from before was that the opponent had changed to someone else.

Not Min Do-jun, but Choi Seong-min.

“Since you died to a Magic Swordsman, shouldn’t you also die to an Assassin?”

Watching Choi Seong-min giggling, Derkius gritted his teeth.

“That devil-like bas… Kuk!”

A dagger throw hit Derkius’s forehead in an instant.

Just when he thought he would die like that, he returned to a living state instantly.

“Let’s test how many times you need to die before that way of speaking is fixed.”

There was no mercy in Choi Seong-min’s hands.

His chest was pierced, his head was split.

As if refusing to call it torture, he killed with a single blow.

Each time, Derkius was revived.

‘Who would say he’s not an assassin… Kuk!’

There was no time to think.

He just endlessly repeated birth and death.

When he had repeated this dozens, hundreds, thousands of times.

Derkius wondered when this pain would end.

‘Maybe it will never end…’

Though it was actually a short time, it felt like an eternity to him.

“Get up.”

“……”

“Pull yourself together and get up.”

“……”

At Choi Seong-min’s voice, Derkius slowly opened his eyes.

Empty eyes with no trace of vitality.

Choi Seong-min immediately knew what he wanted.

“Kill you?”

Ironically, at those words, life returned to Derkius’s eyes.

“Yes… I want to die. Please kill me.”

“Now you’re finally giving an answer I like. Your way of speaking has changed too.”

Though Choi Seong-min grinned, he had no intention of obediently killing him.

The Illusion Prison wasn’t set up for that purpose.

“I’ll kill you. No, I won’t kill you but release you from the Illusion Prison.”

“R-really?”

“Instead, if you write a contract with me.”

“A contract…?”

Among Elsis’s functions was [Contract Writing].

It was a contract where promises made with mutual consent had to be kept, and predetermined penalties could be received when broken.

In other words, it was a kind of prohibition that made it impossible not to keep promises.

It was on a different level from making verbal promises.

“What kind of contract with me…”

“Nothing much. You just need to hand over the Divine Force you have.”

“How much…”

“All of it.”

Derkius was speechless.

‘I have to hand over all 3 billion Divine Force that I’ve been collecting for over 100 years?’

It was absurd, but Choi Seong-min’s expression was serious.

This wasn’t a joke.

“Instead, I promise to release you from the Illusion Prison. How about it?”

“……”

The way he spoke as if doing a favor was utterly ridiculous.

“Don’t like it?”

“……”

“If you don’t like it, we’ll have to continue what we were doing. If you think I’ll give up because I’m tired, you’re mistaken. I have quite the persistence.”

Choi Seong-min, with the corners of his mouth raised, spoke in a voice full of venom.

“I’ll kill you until you say you’ll hand over all your Divine Force. Whether it’s a thousand times or ten thousand times.”

That was a threat.

A threat to give eternal pain if he didn’t hand over what he had.

Derkius had no choice.

‘To survive… I have to give it.’

Looking at his eyes, it wasn’t empty words.

If he refused, it seemed like he would really repeat death eternally in the Illusion Prison.

“I understand… I’ll give you all the Divine Force I have.”

“One more thing. Also transfer the control of the underworld to me.”

“……”

At those words, Derkius was troubled.

‘I have to hand over even that…’

Control was his last bastion.

Even if he lost all his Divine Force, if he had control, he could annihilate the souls in the underworld and accumulate it again.

“Hand it over. If you don’t want to…”

“…I’ll hand it over.”

Though Derkius pondered briefly, he ultimately had to give it up.

If he couldn’t escape from the Illusion Prison, everything would be meaningless.

“Good. You should have come out like this from the beginning. Then you wouldn’t have had to suffer until now, right?”

“…That’s right.”

It was already too late to regret.

“To summarize, you hand over all your Divine Force and control of the underworld to me. Instead, I release you from the Illusion Prison. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“If the contract is broken, you’ll be annihilated. Is this good?”

“Fine…”

“Okay.”

A bright smile bloomed on Choi Seong-min’s lips.

“Then write up the contract.”