My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 25

The time spirit, Gaspata, had many assigned duties befitting his lofty reputation.

“Kill me…”

The spirit, who was lamenting his situation as usual, sensed something.

“Hmm?”

A few days ago, his blessing bestowed upon a human was suddenly manifesting its power.

‘Wait, it’s already been several days?’

It was far too suspicious timing for the blessing he had granted in preparation for any possible emergency to activate.

“…Did something happen?”

Should I go check? The spirit reacted rationally to the unexpected situation.

However, there was a problem.

“I’m busy right now though…?”

The time spirit, Gaspata, was so busy he didn’t even have time to fall into brief contemplation.

‘How does it make sense that I, a time spirit, have no time?!’

It was unfair and frustrating, but there was nothing he could do. He was too great an existence to idle around doing nothing!

In any case, this caused Gaspata to fall into deep contemplation.

“No, no way. Azel is right there, so there’s no need.”

However, his contemplation was brief.

If it becomes dangerous, Azel will handle it himself. Gaspata attached a plausible excuse to his negligence as if making excuses.

“Right, right. It’ll be fine!”

Finally, rationalization won.

Gaspata, having erased the matter of the blessing and the human from his mind, immersed himself in his work once again.

“What could possibly happen~?”

If he had known at this moment that his blessing had activated to counter demonic energy, Gaspata would never have overlooked this matter.

The blessing, which lacked the ability to purify demonic energy, was protecting its master through its own makeshift method.

It’s dangerous, so let’s just revert to the state before it happened!

That simple mechanism created an amazing result and was diligently fanning someone’s misunderstanding.

“Phew! Busy, so busy!”

No one knew at this time that this would be the root cause of everything that was about to happen.

*

Unbelievable.

Azel denied reality over and over again.

‘The black magic Elpis used, and it just happens to manipulate time?’

That was an impossible thing.

No, it was something that should not exist.

Then at that moment, a familiar voice whispered in Azel’s mind.

[Do you really think it’s not true?]

“…!”

That voice belonged to Azel himself.

[Elpis turned back time. Don’t you think you’re starting to understand what method she’s using to save you?]

His long life had made Azel sick in various ways. This voice was also part of that sickness.

Azel often heard auditory hallucinations of his own voice speaking in his head.

It had never been welcome, but today it was particularly difficult to listen to this voice.

[Black magic!]

The terrible voice finally gouged at Azel’s bruised heart.

[Elpis succeeded. She reached a realm you couldn’t touch. She stepped forward to save you with that power!]

Long ago, Azel had once researched ways to manipulate time with a human body.

Of course, it was to escape from this terrible cycle of fate.

At the time, after decades of research, he finally grasped the thread of black magic related to time.

But he ultimately failed.

Black magic that manipulated time was an amazing power, but it was never within the human realm.

[But look. Elpis did it. She can manipulate time.]

“…Shut up.”

As if mocking Azel’s anguish, a voice soaked in satisfaction whispered.

[Ah, Elpis really could do anything for you.]

Azel still remembered the conditions for activating black magic that manipulates time. That’s why he felt nauseous at its disgusting cruelty.

The condition for black magic.

It was simple.

‘…Surpassing human limits.’

However, what this single sentence meant was horrific.

In the past, on the day he first attempted black magic.

Fingertips, toes, the depths of his eyes, joints of his spine, the bottom of his heart, and from the shallowest to the deepest parts of his skin.

Azel had felt terrible pain in every part that couldn’t be defined.

This was that kind of power. Human limits meant all of this pain.

‘And yet, you endured such a thing because of me.’

Terrible guilt cried out at the devotion he realized too late.

[Yes, she overcame all that pain for you.]

Eventually, Azel’s eyes turned toward the place where the light had lingered.

That place was just clean as if nothing had happened. It was a miracle impossible without the power of time.

Drop.

The red eyes, exposed to dazzling light for a long time, finally let a single tear fall to the ground.

However, this tear was not due to something like brightness.

“I know what kind of existence Azel was to me.”

He finally understood Elpis’s words now.

“You were my lingering attachment.”

This tear was an answer to that realization.

Drop, drip.

A single tear soon turned into rain. Even as the rainwater passed over his wet cheeks and moistened the ground, the only place that got wet was right beneath Azel’s feet.

“I came to This Place to save you. Azel, only for you.”

The weight of words he had heard once before pressed down on him belatedly.

Thud.

His knees, unable to endure any longer, collapsed to the ground.

The portrait of sin revealed to all the world was so cruel.

‘And yet I, I dared to forget you.’

It was a reality he couldn’t bear to believe.

*

Thud!

At the faint thudding sound coming from somewhere, I unconsciously turned my head.

“…?”

Surprisingly, Azel was there.

But somehow, his condition seemed a bit strange.

‘What the hell. That bastard, why is he in that state?’

Azel was sprawled on the ground with a somewhat dazed expression on his face.

His eyes even looked a bit teary, as if he had been crying.

‘Are my eyes going crazy? No. I must have just seen it wrong.’

Since I had just been subjected to tremendous light terrorism for a long time, my eyes’ reliability had dropped, so I dismissed it as nothing serious.

And more importantly, there was a more serious problem right now.

“Purification! The magic is being purified!”

At someone’s shout that pierced directly into my eardrums, my vision immediately went dark.

Right, this was the problem now.

Looking at the people competing to babble about purification, I was too busy holding back my sighs.

‘Is this business ethics for real.’

My inner lamentations poured out endlessly with no one to listen.

That was because I was currently scattering extraordinary effects throughout my entire body.

The problem was that I had no clue what this light was or how I was emitting such light.

‘If you’re going to give me this kind of power, give me a status window too, you damn bastards.’

I felt like I had shouted the words “status window” five billion times the moment the light burst out, but nothing appeared before my eyes.

I need to know something to at least make excuses, but they just cause trouble and don’t help clean it up.

Even used market A/S had better service than this.

‘Is this even purification in the first place?’

Moreover, I had fundamental doubts about the source of this power.

‘It wasn’t like this when Yulia did it.’

Yulia’s purification was set up so that warm energy circulated from her fingertips and that warmth melted away the magic that had invaded a person’s body.

She didn’t emit sacred light from her entire body like I did.

‘Of course, for game purposes, they did emphasize the illustrations.’

Light would sparkle from her fingertips and Yulia’s fine hair would flutter sacredly too.

But it was nothing compared to this.

‘Even the speed is insane.’

Yulia’s purification in the game proceeded with long time and care.

But my case was different.

‘…It felt like something was proceeding damn frantically.’

To use an analogy, it’s like this.

If Yulia would take a brush and delicately paint new paint on dirty wallpaper, I brought a huge paint bucket and poured it all over.

In short, it was crude.

‘Can this even be cleaned up?’

While I was pondering, the light faded and the commotion in the crowd gradually subsided.

When the last light finally disappeared, I spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

“Linoa Marigold.”

Linoa Marigold, who I didn’t know when she had arrived, was now mixed in among them.

“Lady Elpis…!”

But somehow, this one also had a reaction as unusual as Azel’s.

“Ahh…!”

The former holy knight, Lady Linoa Marigold, was actually kneeling and offering prayers to me.

Linoa Marigold was now looking up at me with eyes full of awe.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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