Chapter 97 - Challenger

Even without him introducing himself, Kai and Karen knew that the one in front of them was none other than the Lord of the abyss they're currently at.

"What's wrong, you two? Are you surprised seeing someone like me come down to meet you personally? Well I can't blame you, because not everyone can have the opportunity to see me."

Indeed, they can't be blamed for having that kind of a reaction after seeing him. Unlike the opponents the two had faced before, the one who proclaimed himself as the Lord of the Abyss has an amorphous body made up of dark slime-like material, only being held together by his armor that appeared to be just an assembly of ancient artifacts. Even the entity's gender couldn't be determined that easily, because he or she had no face, and his or her voice sounded like a man and a woman's voice being overlapped on top of one another. An enigma, so to speak.

"So you're expecting us to thank you, now that you've finally showed yourself up right in front of us? Do you think we're that stupid?" Kai said roughly to the entity.

"Kai, don't provoke him carelessly," Karen warned him.

"It's alright, young lady. A mere taunt like that isn't enough to rile me up. Rather, it makes me feel sad--since I never knew the so-called [Hero] could be this crude."

"W-What?!"

Kai looked at the entity with disbelief. No one, in his entire life, has ever called him a crude person, not even the ones he hated the most. Having told by his opponent that, his emotions suddenly surged up, like a volcano nearing its eruption.

"You...you take that back..."

"Oh-ho, what's this? It seems like our young Hero is angry because someone called him crude. What, are you going to come right at me because of that? Come on, do it!" the entity taunted him even further.

At that moment...

"If you're affected by just that, then that means he's right."

"K-Karen?!"

Ignoring him, Karen diverted her attention to the entity. Taking a few steps forward, she asked: "I will ask you a few questions, O Lord of this abyss. Are you fine with that?"

Finding a calm and sensible person in Karen, the entity replied, "Go on, young lady. You can ask me whatever you like."

"Alright," she paused for a moment. "First question: before we accidentally entered this place, we saw a black orb appearing from the surface of a lake. Was that your doing? If yes, was that really an attempt of yours to catch all of us and not just a mere coincidence?"

The entity was surprised. He didn't expect the young lady in front of him to ask such kind of questions. Unlike the Hero who was easily distracted, her composure was a breath of fresh air.

"That black orb you've seen was, you're right, actually my doing. Those voids serve as our 'holes' for our forces to use as an entry point or an exit, and are also traps for any unsuspecting humans to fall into. About your situation...well, I was very shocked to find out that I managed to catch the Hero with that method. That's why, you can say that all of this was just by stroke of good timing and luck."

'So my assumptions were wrong, is that what he's saying?' Kai muttered to himself. Although the entity knew his identity, he must've found out about it not long ago, while he's watching their movements. If the entity knew even his past experiences he might've been convinced, but so far no indication of it was being presented to him.

"Next question," Karen continued. "Upon entering this place, we faced many creatures that we called as 'demons'. Tell me, Lord of the abyss...are you also a demon? Or perhaps, a different kind of being that we don't know yet?"

"Hm-mmm..." the entity grunted a few times before answering: "You can call me a demon if you want to, but personally I consider myself to be different from those creatures. You see, my whole being is far above you humans and demons; god-like, is what I tend to call it."

'God-like, huh? What an arrogant guy,' Kai commented.

With each question, Karen's face grew more sullen. Facing the entity with a sharp gaze, she gathered her resolve to ask him of her last question. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #'t-have-any-abilities-!_12421071605419605/challenger_51751845340699885 for visiting.

"Last...question."

"Only three questions? I'm in a good mood to answer a couple more, though?" the entity voiced out his surprise.

"No, it's enough," Karen shook her head. "Those questions are just a preamble for the question I'm about to ask you."

"Hoh? Then, what could it be...?"

When the entity asked that--

"Are you...the one who caused the destruction of Arteim?"

"K-Karen..."

"On that day, thousands of demons launched an attack on the city of Arteim, completely leveling the city and killing many of its people. Although it's been found out that the late General Trajan has colluded with the demons to execute such plan, the demons who helped him are still unidentified until now. Tell me, are you the one who helped him?"

Even Barchen, which became the temporary capital city after the attack was also not spared damage from those demons. However, she cared less about it, for the former had a greater impact in her life than anything.

"Please, Lord of this abyss...tell me if you...--"

"Yes." the entity answered nonchalantly.

"--?!"

At that instant, Karen's body started to tremble, her heartbeat's became faster; with just a single word, the world around her started to not make sense, as it's all just between her and the entity standing in front of her.

"General Trajan, you said? Yes, I remembered someone going by that name approaching me before. I thought he was just some desperate man who resorted into dealing with our kind in exchange of power and riches. It turns out, he's a powerful man who's also desperate for power and riches! He'll readily forsake his own country and people just to satisfy his selfish needs! How can I let down such a man? That's why on that day, I decided to fulfill my end in the agreement: I'll destroy the city, and in that process I might also find the thing I'm also looking for."

"How could you?!" Kai roared in fury.

Charging his sword with mana, he prepared himself to lunge straight into the entity but he heard a loud 'Tak!', which made him glance to his side.

"So it was you..."

"Hmm...?"

"So it was you...who destroyed a part of me!!!"

From her staff that she stabbed into the ground, small cracks that glowed with a bright yellow light started crawling in all directions. The small cracks then joined together to form larger and larger cracks, illuminating the whole place from below.

"K-Karen..."

Kai couldn't believe what he's seeing. It's his first time to see his longtime friend, a girl who's always reserved with her feelings, to harbor such amount of grudge against their enemies. The amount of light she's emitting, made him squint. Perhaps, he thought, she's more committed to defeat the entity more than him.

When she pulled her staff from the ground, the whole place became dark again. Pointing her staff at the entity, she spoke: "Forget about the Hero. I, Karen Dancel, will fight you instead."

"A-Are you stupid?! What are you planning to do?!" Kai grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't stop me, Kai. I know what I want to do."

"H-Hey--?!"

"You might not realize it, but the Karen that you knew since childhood was already dead."

"What the..."

Leaving him aside, Karen started to run towards the entity, while spinning her staff around her fingers.

"O Goddess of Light..."

"Oh, so you really want to fight me, huh? Very well, I'll start with you instead!" the entity said, unmoved from her defiant actions.

"Damn it, Karen..." Kai hissed. Now that the battle has begun, he can't risk to see his friend get hurt without him doing anything. With a strong kick, he flew quickly around the field using his [Light Foot] ability, creating a two-pronged attack alongside Karen.

"O Goddess of Light...grant me power to vanquish the evil in my midst!"

Focusing her mana around the tip of her staff, her [Light Bringer] spell emphasized the use of her weapon in melee combat, a complete departure from the usual image of a healer that is often the most vulnerable member of a party and always stays at range. Even if she's not as fast as Kai or Rin, she still wanted to prove that she's also as formidable as the Hero himself with her attack.

"Heeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

When she's just a few steps away from her target, the entity--

"[Break]"

"Gah--?!"

Blagsh!

In a blink of an eye, Karen's spell 'shattered' like glass and faded away, completely nullifying her attack. The entity then swung his whip-like arms at her, hitting her by the belly, and knocking her several meters away.

"Karen?!" Kai panicked when he saw Karen's body flying in an arc after getting hit by the entity. With his sword he tried to cut the entity's arms in retaliation, but--

"[Atrophy]"

"U-Ughk?!"

Having afflicted by different spell, Kai's body suddenly became so weak that he dropped his sword before he could even attack. He tried to use his fists instead, but he also got hit by the entity's flexible arms.

"Kuh..."

After losing consciousness for a moment Karen found herself lying on the ground. She then hurriedly checked if she received damage from the attack, but luckily the magic imbued in the fabric of her clothes absorbed much of the impact: the belly part of her clothes got torn badly, completely exposing her midriff.

"Kai?!"

Seeing her friend also lying on the ground, she hurriedly stood up and ran towards him.

"Hah! You think I'll let you do that so easily?! [Atrophy]!"

"K-Kyah?!"

Karen yelped as she immediately stumbled down the ground again. Not long afterwards she noticed something has latched onto her right ankle, only to find out that the entity has extended his arm to get her.

"You monster--let me go!!!"

"Why would I?" the entity mockingly replied, while dragging her close. "Isn't this what you wanted? I'm trying to forget about that the Hero exists for the meantime, that's why I'm targeting you first."

"H-Hrghh....!!!"

Karen tried to resist being dragged by the entity by hitting his arms with her staff, but to no avail. The effect of his mysterious spell still lingered in her body, hence making each swing of her weapon a struggle.

"Must...resist...his power..."

Even with the use of her healing abilities, her strength didn't recover even by a bit. Seeing her act so desperately, the entity laughed and said, "Poor young lady. No matter what spells you use, you can't win against the power of an Arcana!"

"A-Arcana...?!"

Hearing such an unfamiliar word for the first time, Karen unconsciously gasped her breath. Just the sound of it was enough to make her shudder, as she related the word to the dark arts.

"The primordial power that governed the world in its entirety, the gift of the Old Gods--the ones we call now as the Arcana. Those poorly-understood manifestations of the gods themselves are so powerful that one can easily destroy an entire country despite only having a very tiny fraction of a real Arcana's potential, just like in my case," the entity said to her.

Karen's eyes widened upon hearing the truth about his power. If the entity was already this strong even with that amount of Arcana's power present in him, how much more stronger will he become if he were to have all of it? Just how powerful are the so-called 'Old Gods' were for real?

"However, I'm not content with just this power. What I'm looking for all this time was the most special of all the Arcanas: the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning--[The Fool]."

"Wait, that's..."

'Isn't that what Mari has told us before?' she recalled. After they discovered the motive behind the attack at Barchen, they all began searching for information regarding [The Fool], but failed to find any. Piecing two and two together, she felt immense pain in her chest as she remembered the day she lost a certain someone.

"How foolish...you attacked a city just to find a very old type of magic..."

"Heh. Whine all you want, but in your current state you won't last another second with the power of my Arcana," the entity spoke after completely dragging Karen to within an arm's reach from him.

Meanwhile, Kai has finally recovered his consciousness after getting hit on the head by the entity's arms. Frowning in pain, he placed his hand on his forehead and said:

"Ugh...what happened? Why am I lying down on the ground..."

He glanced around, and to his shock he saw the entity grabbing Karen by the foot as he dragged her. Frantically he searched for his sword to save her, but his body was still limp from the effects of [Atrophy].

"No matter what happens...I must save Karen..."

"Now," having played with Karen for quite some time, the entity spoke, "I have already fulfilled your wish of fighting me. It's time for you to die."

Raising his other whip-like arm up, it started to become stiff and pointed, forming itself into a sharp, curved blade.

"No way, Karen...!"

Crawling sluggishly on the ground, Kai was already a few meters away from his sword when he saw the entity as he's about to lop Karen's head off. Exerting as much power as he could, he increased his pace, but it would be too late before he could come to her aid.

"DAMN IT!!!"

"I-Ighk--" Karen's face tightened as she desperately grabbed whatever is in her pocket as her final set of defense: a white handkerchief, covered with bloodstains. Seeing such thing in her hands, tears suddenly fell from her eyes as she whispered:

'I'm sorry, Ren...'

"Die!!!"

Clanggg!!!

"T-This...impossible?!"

The moment the entity's bladed arm was about to reach Karen, it got blocked all of a sudden by a white magic circle that appeared right in front of her. At first the entity thought of it as just a simple barrier spell, but he noticed that his weaponized arm was starting to lose form and dissolve after coming into contact with the magic circle.

"I-Impossible..." the entity took a step back from Karen, looking extremely shocked. "You...you have [The Fool] with you all this time?!"