Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 226
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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226
The Commander, who appeared human, casually uttered a single phrase.
‘I’ll clean up this place and then clean up Earth.’
His tone was matter-of-fact, as if he were merely brushing dust from his clothes.
However, the Hunters who had witnessed his power understood that his words were neither a jest nor impossible to realize.
If everyone gathered here died, it would not be the end.
Families awaited on Earth. The futures of countless races hung in the balance.
“Arrrrrgh!!!”
The Hunters wielded their heavy weapons with all their might, hurling themselves at the Commander. Though their strength barely exceeded that of ordinary people, they could not afford to fall.
Mages who could not cast magic swung their staffs like cudgels.
Yet the Commander evaded every attack with effortless grace, dispatching the Hunters with precise strikes to their vital points.
“Arrrrrgh!!!”
Jae-in advanced toward him with her remaining arm, firing her gun relentlessly, but the Commander deflected the bullets with his blade as though they were mere pebbles.
Jung Min-gi, rising once more, targeted the Commander’s back, but the Commander—who perceived everything in this space even with his eyes closed—simply thrust his sword backward, piercing Jung Min-gi’s abdomen.
“Cough….”
Jung Min-gi collapsed to the ground, his body going limp.
Witnessing this, Jae-in did not hesitate for an instant, advancing while firing her gun at the Commander.
Click, click.
When her ammunition ran dry, Jae-in hurled the gun itself away, seized a nearby blade, and swung it clumsily at the Commander.
The Commander sidestepped her sword with contemptuous ease and drove his blade into her chest.
“Did you truly believe such an attack would harm me?”
“Cough…. I knew it wouldn’t work.”
“Then why?”
“To give you this.”
What Jae-in withdrew from her chest was a core fashioned from the heart of the Blue Dragon—the only one in existence. It had been her final gambit, intended for self-detonation in the moment she feared facing Mars.
“…!!!”
The Commander recoiled in shock, and his domain receded with him.
A Gate opened behind the Commander.
Jung Min-gi, blood pooling from the hole in his abdomen, reached his hand toward the Commander’s ankle. Though already on death’s door, he summoned what remained of his will to move his arm and obstruct him.
The Commander sidestepped Jung Min-gi’s hand, taking one more step forward, and though it was but an instant, he delayed his entry into the Gate.
“Ji-seok…. I’m sorry. Please look after the children….”
There was no sound, no impact. In that moment, everything vanished from the world.
* * *
“Damn you!”
Eres hurled a condensed mass of darkness at Ji-seok, who burst forth from the Waterfall of Souls.
Ji-seok’s skin had become indistinguishable from a dragon’s, and his frame had swollen to twice its normal size. Multiple horns and tails sprouted from his body, creating an appearance that seemed a fusion of dragon and demon.
It was not merely his appearance that had changed. Through his prolonged training, Ji-seok had developed resistance to Eres’s attacks.
As a result, he crossed his arms and withstood her assault—one that channeled nearly all the power she could wield in the Demon Realm.
The force of Ji-seok’s momentum prevented her from standing at ease as she had before, responding with composure.
“Damn bitch! Die!”
“What?! You insolent bastard! I’ll teach you some manners!”
Ji-seok lunged forward with curses spilling from his lips, but when I struck his ribs with a concentrated fist of Darkness, his body merely skidded backward—he didn’t fly through the air or fall.
“Roooaarrr!!”
Ji-seok’s frame swelled even larger, and he dropped onto all fours like a beast. He scraped the ground and bared teeth that had grown proportionally massive, hurling them toward Eres.
“Are you transforming into something even more monstrous?!”
I was using Darkness to deflect Ji-seok’s assaults, but with each passing moment, the defense grew more strained.
“Help me!”
I screamed at Valefor.
“Due to the blood contract, I cannot harm my master.”
In truth, even without the blood contract, I had no intention of wading into a battle between such monsters.
“Useless wretch!”
Ji-seok burst through my attacks and charged at me, but a fist wreathed in demonic energy came crashing down upon his head from above.
Successive punches rained down from all directions, and with my coordinated assault, Ji-seok was buried deep into the earth.
“Listen here, you don’t even greet someone when you enter their territory?”
It was Gaff who had unleashed those demonic fists.
“Hmph, so this isn’t the Eastern Region?”
“Still, the entire Demon Realm is my front yard~”
I lifted Ji-seok with Darkness and delivered a barrage of slaps across his face.
Part of it was physical punishment and stress relief for the curses he’d hurled at me, but with each strike of my palm against his cheek, his morale scattered like dust being shaken from his head.
“…Ugh…. I’m coming to my senses now.”
“Damn woman?”
“… No, I didn’t do it on purpose….”
“Hmph, did you think I wouldn’t notice how drastically your demonic corruption has decreased?”
Ji-seok shook his head vigorously to clear his mind and looked at me.
And in that moment, he realized how fragmentary his previous perception of me had been.
He had thought the well was deep because its waters appeared black and dark, but beneath that well lay an entire universe hidden away.
Even gazing upon the River of the Demon Realm, he now sensed not just the twisted souls as before, but the lingering thoughts of the dead as well.
“Ugh….”
His head throbbed as though it might shatter from the overwhelming influx of information.
[Intelligence has increased by 1.]
[Intelligence has increased by 1.]
.
.
.
.
[Intelligence has increased by 1.]
For the first time in ages, my Intelligence stat was climbing steadily.
“Don’t try to see and feel everything all at once when you’re still lacking. Take only what you need.”
Following my words, Ji-seok closed his eyes to shut out his senses, then opened them again. The throbbing pain that had felt like his skull might burst subsided to a dull ache.
Right now, I could only grasp a soul’s depths by concentrating and facing it alone.
It wasn’t just my ability to perceive souls—my resistance to thought attacks and mental assaults had improved dramatically compared to before.
“Are you all going to play without me?”
“Gaff. It’s been a while. We’re busy, so we’ll be going now.”
I’d rarely had pleasant interactions with Gaff, so I tried to leave immediately.
“Hey, I helped you out—you’re just leaving like that?”
“I could have managed alone.”
“If Eres had done it by herself, it would have taken much longer. You seem to have grown quite a bit too. In celebration, why don’t we share a meal and you can think about what compensation you’ll give me?”
Gaff casually draped an arm across my shoulder.
“Then come to that bat’s castle.”
Before Ji-seok could say anything, Eres flew off in a flash.
“I’ll head to the castle and come back later.”
Gaff also returned to the Western Region first.
“Is… everyone gathering at the castle?”
“Seems like it.”
In other places, Valefor might be king, but with Ji-seok, Eres, and now Gaff arriving, his authority was being thoroughly undermined in his own castle.
“Damn it…”
“Valefor, I didn’t call you because I wanted to either, so bear with it.”
“…Yes, my lord.”
* * *
A banquet was prepared by the vampires of Valefore Castle, and Eres, Valefor, and I sat down first to wait for Gaff.
“Ji-seok!!!”
A small demon came flying at my abdomen.
I tried to grab and flip over the two sharply pointed horns, but demonic energy burst from them, sending me flying backward from my seated position.
The chair I’d been sitting in shattered, and as I crashed to the floor, the demon climbed on top of me.
It was a young demoness with crimson skin and golden eyes gleaming brightly.
“…Lulu?”
It was Lulu, Gaff’s daughter.
“Ji-seok! I missed you so much!”
“You’ve… grown so much?”
The last time I saw her, she was a baby, but now she looked like a middle schooler.
Lulu rubbed her face against my chest. Her horns scraped roughly across my body—affection that would have torn a normal person’s skin.
“You haven’t come to the Demon Realm in so long!”
“Has it really been that long?”
Time flows differently in the Demon Realm, but the growth of demons—especially direct descendants of the Demon King—is exceptionally rapid.”
I lifted my head at the voice of the succubus Razgas.
“What… exactly are you?”
Though Razgas still appeared as a succubus barely covering what needed to be covered and remained Gaff’s subordinate, the depth of soul I sensed from her surpassed even Valefor, rivaling Gaff and Eres themselves.
“Have you already forgotten me?”
When I refused to lower my guard, Razgas wore an expression of exasperation.
“Hmph, already caught?”
Demonic energy swirled around Razgas’s bare form, transforming her into the appearance of a queen dressed in a black gown.
Though she wore a dress, the exposure had only diminished slightly. With her chest and back exposed and a provocative cut running from her sides to her thighs, the garment left nothing to the imagination about her figure.
“Who are you?”
“Lilith, Queen of the Northern Region. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Lilith blew a kiss. The businesslike demeanor of Razgas had been a complete disguise.
“Lilith.”
Eres acknowledged her with familiarity.
“Long time no see?”
“How old are you now, and you’re still toying with men?”
“Says you, who back in the Demon Realm… mmph!”
Eres hastily covered Lilith’s mouth.
“Be quiet!”
Eres’s panic had even altered her voice and manner of speech.
“Still embarrassed? Eres, you’re such a girl~”
It was clear that Eres and Lilith shared some history.
“Lulu, come down now.”
I gave Lulu a subtle push as I stood.
“Ji-seok, you didn’t miss me?!”
“I did miss you. You’ve grown so much.”
I had missed Lulu too. Though I never expected her to grow this much.
“Wait… how much time has passed on Earth?”
“Don’t worry. Only two months have gone by.”
“Two months… Gaff, let’s get started. I have much to do.”
“Tsk tsk, your hospitality is terrible.”
“Ji-seok! Where are you going again?!”
“Lulu, I need to go home.”
“No! Play with me!”
“Recor! Go to your seat and sit down.”
At Gaff’s shout, Lulu bared her fangs savagely and growled.
“Recor?”
“Lulu is her childhood name. Recor is her true name.”
“Ah, I see…”
“You can still call me Lulu.”
Lulu smiled gently at me before turning back to Gaff and growling again.
“How did she grow up to be so fierce.”
Despite his words, Gaff gazed at Lulu with a proud expression.
After settling the situation, we all took our seats and began eating.
“… Did you say Lilith?”
“Is it alright if I call you Razgas?”
“Were you deliberately giving me that kind of food before?”
The food the Vampire Faction had prepared was perfectly respectable fare that humans would enjoy, and Lilith, Gaff, and Lulu all ate it normally without complaint.
“Yeah. Isn’t it fun?”
“You didn’t even enjoy the taste, did you?”
“If you’re going to play pranks, you have to pay that price.”
“Was dressing like that part of it too?”
“Watching men who think of themselves as righteous lose control to their instincts and roll their eyes—it never gets old. Why are you asking again?”
Lilith lifted her dress slightly with a smirk.
“…No. So Gaff, what do you want?”
“Why the rush~?”
“Then think about it and let me know. I don’t have time.”
I couldn’t fathom what Gaff was thinking, but since she seemed intent on dragging things out, I stood up from my seat first.
“I could have stopped it alone anyway. I cannot ask for anything grand.”
“Right, that’s true. I’ll come find you on Earth later, so let me just ask for one very small favor.”
“… Understood.”
For now, returning to Earth was the more pressing matter.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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