I Have Become The Heroes’ Rival

The man was still intact after being hit by a bomb.

Not only that, he continued to pursue us persistently even amid the continuous magic attacks. I thought it was a robot from the future that came to kill us.

It was not a human being. It couldn’t be human.

The man I had mistaken for a moment as the lord of the castle seemed to be the Spirit of Life, Ilypia. There was no way a human being could have such power.

Even if his whole body was tattered, it recovered the instant it was covered in mana. That was a characteristic of spirits.

It didn’t appear to be the original body of the spirit that was summoned.

Typically, for a spirit summoned to the human world, its original body would remain in the spirit world. The spirit’s counterpart would take on a form using the contractor’s mana.

‘However, there’s no way an independent spirit can have a body in the spirit world, right? They’re eccentric beings who ran out of the spirit world since they didn’t belong anywhere.’

If so, that meant the original body was somewhere else.

“The original body. We need to find the body.”

I whispered into Felix’s ear as he quickly ran while holding me in his arms.

The speed of the flickering scenery was similar to what I saw from the window of a moving train.

What the hell did the devil do to Felix’s body?

Tears flowed from my eyes as we cut right through the wind.

I handed all the artifacts I wore on my fingers to Felix.

In fact, even if I used it, it wouldn’t even generate half the power he made. Frankly, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

In that case, it was better to extract maximum efficiency with minimal force, especially since the magic contained in the artifact was also limited.

But now, even that seemed to have its limits.

As the jewel containing blizzard magic shone, a rain of arrows made of ice poured down. They were so sharp it would instantly kill (an ordinary person), and it froze and bound his hands and feet as soon as it touched.

Ilypia, whose speed had slowed significantly, gritted his teeth. He stretched his arms in the air as if he wasn’t intending to lose us like this.

The green vegetation dried up in an instant and turned into black ash and scattered in the air. The cool refreshing wind of a spring day suddenly turned into a dry breeze.

When Ilypia reached out, those who had been moving as if they were real people toppled down like puppets with their threads cut off.

Everything touched by the man instantly withered as if all its vitality had been absorbed.

It was possible because he was the one who gave life to the island in the first place.

At the same time, the original appearance of Camoli Island, hidden by the power of spirit, slowly emerged.

A place that was tainted by evil and had only recovered enough to sustain life after four thousand years.

Even when compared to the ordinary nature seen in everyday life, it was horrendous.

At first, I thought the nature of Camoli Island had been revived, but it was not. Then I thought that time had been turned back, but that wasn’t the case either.

The island was nothing more than a giant stage elaborately crafted by a man. It was just a set.

It controlled life.

I thought it was the realm of giving new life. I thought it was a realm that could revitalize the life that was dying.

But in retrospect, it was an absurd idea. That would be the realm of God alone.

The realm of Ilypia was utterly different from what I thought.

It was the ability to make something that wasn’t alive appear alive.

There was a saying that artisans breathed souls into things.

As such, the Spirit of Life was able to imitate living things with great precision.

So vividly that we mistakenly thought it had turned back time.

Ilypia, which absorbed most of the vitality that he had given, gradually increased speed.

“How long are you going to run away like a rat?”

If you didn’t chase us, would we run away?

The real question was how long this persistent and endless game of tag would continue.

Was he really going to chase Felix to death? Did he work so diligently to transform the island into what it was like four thousand years ago and haphazardly destroy it all to kill Felix?

It was understandable that he hated the devil.

Since spirits had a long life span, he must have lived here four thousand years ago.

That was why he was able to materialize the scenery of that time so vividly. He must resent the devil who polluted this land.

But Felix was neither the devil who polluted the land nor the one who harmed it, so I couldn’t understand why he was doing this.

A blackish sphere swirled from his hand. It brutally ripped, sucked, and devoured everything around it, gradually growing in size.

It felt rather ominous. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought we’d be in big trouble if we got hit.

As I saw it fly straight towards us, I immediately shouted out loud to Felix that it was dangerous.

“For a devil, his magical powers are quite faint. Was it the devil’s contractor, or was it the sorcerer? One of them used pure magic.”

Ilypia fixed his gaze on Felix, his face filled with doubt.

“I was wondering if you couldn’t use magic since you only used artifacts, but you used it well.”

The shiny jet-black eyes reached the fallen Felix, who was unconscious. He approached Felix as if he were going to slice off his throat.

I clenched my teeth and glared at him. The artifacts in both my hands had long been crushed.

This was the territory of Ilypia. Fighting head-on here with him was as pointless as fighting a shark in the water.

If Felix had been in good condition, the situation would have been reversed. But he couldn’t use magic.

He said that the more he forcibly penetrated through the passage and drew out his magic, the more he felt like a part of his soul was taken away by the devil.

He has already used considerable magic to counter the attack from Ilypia. Even though I didn’t know much about magic, it seemed relatively advanced.

He also vomited blood several times. My mouth dried up because I was worried about how damaged his body was and whether recovery was possible.

“Human woman, get out of the way.”

“No.”

“Do you want me to kill you?”

‘Do you think anyone wants to die?’

I knew it was impossible to hide Felix with my body, but I desperately blocked the spirit in front of me.

Ilypia raised his arm as if I was bothersome. He had given enough warnings, so it seemed like he was thinking of ending it here.

I quickly opened my mouth.

“I have a rough idea about why you hate the devil.”

Felix said this was just an illusion.

If this place was an illusion created by Ilypia, the reason for creating such an illusion was obviously because he, a spirit, missed those days.

But it was not clear why his anger suddenly erupted after thousands of years.

At the same time, the authorities of Mendello, who quickly sold the island and fled, came to mind.

It was only a rough guess, but perhaps they touched something they shouldn’t have.

“This island was used as a passageway to the demon realm. You lost everything because of that tragedy.”

“Step aside if you know.”

“Felix, who you made like this, imprisoned the devil in his body in order to avoid repeating that same tragedy. He’s a hero who saved countless lives.”

“So? If that’s the case, it’s time to destroy him and the devil in him all at once. Then he will be revered as a true hero.”

Ilypia twisted his mouth as if it was justified and smirked.

“Humans are obvious. They want a hero who is heroically destroyed and sacrificed, not a hero who harbors a devil. They’ll only see a hero who accepts the power of the devil as the same devil.”

I tried to refute his words somehow, but, at the very least, this was true.

People revered the hero, but they didn’t care how many things the hero had to sacrifice. It was because their own safety came first.

If the hero was consumed by the power of the devil and ran rampant, no one would lay him to rest.

If Felix, who died in everyone’s mourning, were revealed to have been involved with the ‘Devil’, people would have reacted quite differently than they did now.

Although everyone would feel pity, they would be anxious at the same time.

The Chamberlains would be destroyed, become the subject of frequent gossip, and be blamed from time to time.

“So killing him here would be the way to true happiness.”

Ilypia condensed a mass of vitality and touched the ground.

Then the soil squirmed as if it had come to life. Simultaneously, the ground that had turned into a swamp shook as if it was about to devour us.

I hastily asked before we got buried like this.

“Is that a story of what you’ve been through?”

“……”

T/N: Hello, everyone! I’ll be taking a 2-week break (since I have final exams x_x), so updates will resume on the 21st/22nd August!

To make up for the missed chapters, I uploaded 2 extra chapters that I managed to get translated this week, and when I resume updates, I’ll post 4 chapters! (I apologize for leaving you at this cliff-hanger though >_<) While I’m gone, please take care and stay safe, everyone!