The Life of a Wise Cult Leader - Chapter 200

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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 200

“What are you planning to do? Didn’t it occur to you that if such a method existed, I would have known about it long ago?”

“I’ll handle that with my own abilities, so don’t worry. And, Widow. You don’t know much about me, do you? We’ve never faced each other like this before. Though I hatefully know you very well.”

“Really? Why do you think I don’t know you? I know everything about what you’ve done, what you’ve eaten, and how you’ve grown up…”

The Demon King’s brow furrowed. I had a gut feeling. Teacher had no intention of listening to our persuasion from the start.

If she really intended to listen, she wouldn’t have reacted like that.

It was like telling us to show our hand without even sitting at the negotiation table.

I hadn’t expected negotiations to work once the situation had flowed this way anyway.

They had already made a contract, hadn’t they? If it were before the contract, maybe, but since Teacher had made a deal with a demon, she wouldn’t listen carefully to our words.

Nevertheless, I wanted to prevent the situation where Yelena would be sacrificed. I stepped forward to negotiate, trembling.

“Do you listen to the words of parasites from other worlds? You probably didn’t believe them either. That’s why you made a contract, isn’t it?”

“Hmm, please continue.”

It was creepily awkward that Teacher was using formal speech with me. However, despite the system restrictions being lifted, I maintained a solemn tone and spoke.

“If you fight us… we won’t let you die peacefully, and there’s no guarantee the demon won’t betray you then, is there?”

“I made a contract regarding that earlier, so you don’t need to worry about me. Now, are there any other conditions?”

“Do you know why contracts with demons are taboo? Because they’re not absolute. If when you made your contract with the demon, you wished to leave this world and live… we could help fulfill that wish by killing you.”

She was listening to my story a bit more attentively than when she talked with the Demon King.

“That’s what contracts with demons are like. Just looking at Lumensia’s situation, don’t you know that the contract given to you isn’t very good?”

“Then wouldn’t the reason I made it despite knowing the contract was unfair be important?”

“You’re not such a foolish person either.”

“There are merits to siding with the demons, and… also, do you think I made a contract with them without thinking that far? I already took care of that much…”

“Already?”

“…I blocked it in advance.”

No. The Widow couldn’t block it.

I searched through the remnant memories of the Forgotten Gods, trying to find a way to break contracts with demons.

“If I break your contract with the demon and let you live in this world forever… would you cooperate?”

“Hehe… I thought you knew everything, but thinking like that is rather cute in a way.”

“…?”

What I failed to grasp about Teacher… of course there was a lot, but wasn’t that her purpose?

I already knew she was trying to use me to stop and kill Lumensia. The cooperation with demons was a lifeline she grabbed to escape this crumbling world…

‘Wasn’t that the extent of it?’

Her lips twitched upward.

“If I drag this out any longer, it’ll be a contract violation.”

The strings in Teacher’s hands creaked as they rushed toward us. She had set traps with strings while we were talking.

“Let’s end this now.”

When Erendor shot flames, the threads became visible as they caught fire. When Alderion swung his sword, the threads were cut.

We gradually moved backward while fending off the Widow’s attacks.

100 meters left until we escaped the magic circle she had set up.

We’d be pushed back after deflecting a couple more attacks.

The Widow dodged our attacks and swung her long-grown nails, but she was easier to deal with than Lumensia.

‘If only I wasn’t exhausted…!’

She didn’t have the power to kill us all.

The demon knew this and sent only her.

Like with Lumensia, they made us fight each other and planned to take the benefits themselves…

The demon just saw the Widow as a disposable card.

And there was no way she didn’t know what I could figure out.

‘Then it would be right to side with us, so why…?’

If I could just find out what Teacher truly wanted, there would be enough chance of victory.

‘But if I knew that, I would have already gone to ask for cooperation long ago…!’

Even searching through Sernuan Lumiere’s memories, I couldn’t guess anything about Teacher!

Now I regret not going to study psychology.

‘If I don’t figure it out, Yelena will die… Even with the Sage’s authority, why are things flowing this way?’

Clang—

The Widow’s movements, which had been pushing forward relentlessly without giving us a moment to breathe, stopped.

“You’re thinking of running away like this? I can’t just watch that happen.”

A curtain of interwoven thin threads closed in on our lives like a seamless cage. Erendor’s flames sparked.

“Let’s break through.”

Erendor’s flames tried to burn the threads like before, but they just absorbed the fire, turned crimson, and closed the distance menacingly.

Those who had been running while maintaining formation at intervals clustered together to avoid the attack. Since escaping was the top priority now, wasting stamina on unnecessary combat was more inefficient.

However, Teacher didn’t allow us to escape from here. As the rapidly closing threads were about to touch us—

Yelena stopped running and swung her halberd wide. The threads wouldn’t be cut anyway…

But the threads were severed by Yelena’s halberd and fluttered in the air.

A fierce cutting sound came from the fluttering steel-like threads, not soft silk.

The Widow’s mouth twitched in surprise. Yelena smiled.

“Did you think I’d stay under Mother’s protection forever?”

“…You’ve grown a lot.”

As soon as the Widow’s cold praise fell, the severed threads writhed like living serpents and reconnected.

Yelena’s halberd cut through the air, striking down the steel threads, and the others also desperately tried to secure space.

However, the curtain of threads closing in from all sides exceeded physical limits faster than the speed of cutting them.

At the critical moment, Violin roughly strummed the threads in the air as if plucking her own strings.

Screeeeech—!

A bizarre and terrible noise that seemed to tear eardrums covered the battlefield, and simultaneously, the floor we were standing on suddenly caved in like an opening maw.

After a brief sensation of losing gravity and falling into the abyss, when I opened my eyes, what greeted us was the cool air of the Demon Realm and the distant sparkling scenery outside the magic circle.

‘We escaped…!’

Violin was coughing up blood and half-unconscious, being carried by Viola, but we had gotten out of the magic circle anyway.

‘If Celestia performs group teleportation like this, Yelena can survive…!’

Before relief could reach my heart, Celestia’s magic circles appeared in purple light at everyone’s feet. Transportation magic circles.

“Freeze~.”

That voice that had just beheaded Lumensia echoed.

Celestia’s magic circles, which were about to activate for escape, lost their light and faded. As the group teleportation spell was canceled, blood flowed from Celestia’s eyes.

“Ahhh…!”

“Fish in an aquarium shouldn’t jump out of the tank. That would disqualify them as ornamental fish.”

When Eris lightly grasped the air, the space of the Demon Realm we had escaped from shimmered and trapped us as if blocked by transparent walls.

“For a demon to do such things…”

“Did you think you could escape? How unfortunate.”

The Commander touched the transparent barrier and turned his head toward me.

“Ascetic, Celestia. You’ve confirmed it’s not a simple barrier. Given time, we could break through.”

However, Teacher wasn’t the type to give us time. Threads invisible to ordinary people rushed toward us like a tsunami.

“But… if we give up escaping from here and fight together, we could definitely kill the Spider.”

The Commander, who had struck down the rushing threads, asked me.

“What will you do?”

Naturally, I would choose the second option where more people could survive.

As soon as I thought that, Yelena gave her answer first.

“Ascetic, Commander. Break through the barrier.”

She pulled out the halberd she had planted in the ground to catch her breath and blocked our path.

“…Yelena!”

“Even if we kill Mother, the demon remains. That bastard will just watch until we all collapse from exhaustion. In the end, no one will be able to get out.”

Why does she keep acting like she’s eager to die, as if throwing her life away?

“Then we’ll lose.”

I was angry. When survival itself was insufficient, why did she keep trying to sacrifice herself? Was she ignoring what I said? Was her promise to be my sword now a thing of the past…?

“I’ll buy time even if it kills me.”

“That’s not necessarily something only one person has to do.”

Alderion stood beside Yelena, pointing his sword forward.

“I will join you in your resolve.”

“I agree. There’s no need to sacrifice lives just to buy time, is there?”

The Demon King stepped forward. Kalebrin and Tuba followed behind him. Yelena reluctantly gave permission.

“…Do it moderately and then retreat.”

“Once we break through the barrier, prioritize evacuating the Ascetic. To where Gretchin and Luan are…”

I also tried to step forward to buy time. However, Tuba firmly pressed me down. Under his strength, setting aside my dignity as a god, I just plopped down on the ground.

Meanwhile, Alderion blocked the rushing follow-up attacks.

“…Wait here…”

“That’s right~ Isn’t it more important to conserve your strength? If you waste power on trivial things, you won’t be able to use it where it really matters, right?”

Viola chimed in.

It wasn’t wrong. There were three demons who were several times more powerful than her and could be considered on par with Lumensia.

“Mother’s body is soft compared to her skills. And since I shattered her torso once before…”

“You’re saying that part will be weak.”

“Yes.”

“Good, then…”

It was the moment when Erendor was about to kick off the ground and trace a trajectory of flames.

The moment when his flame armor glowed at its hottest, and the spirit’s power surged explosively.

Swoosh—!

A disgustingly wet yet distinct sound of piercing air swallowed all the noise of the battlefield.

“…Huh?”

A clump of blood gushed out from Erendor’s mouth.

Due to the momentum of trying to charge forward, his upper body leaned ahead, but his feet could no longer push against the ground.

Behind him, what had torn through the supposedly solid flame barrier like paper was a hand pale as death.

That hand had pierced through Erendor’s ribcage and was gripping his still-pulsating hot heart.

The Widow’s face appeared smoothly over Erendor’s shoulder.

Each time her fingers lightly squeezed the heart, the spirit flames burning in Erendor’s eyes weakly flickered out.

“Erendor—!”

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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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