Chapter Eighty-Nine: Are You Seriously Streaming Live?!

“How is it? Have you made up your mind?” The humanoid shape of black mist aimed the crystal orb at Elissa and spoke smugly. “But that’s enough for today. The last one has completed the killing blow. We’ll meet again tomorrow…”

Then the black-mist figure suddenly felt that something was wrong, because Elissa had not absorbed the two fallen giants. Instead, she was looking at it.

“Something tasty? So small... It feels like the sort of thing I shouldn’t eat...” Elissa tilted her head and asked in confusion, “Is it really delicious?”

“Of course,” Zhao Tianhe said with utmost seriousness. “The final boss is bound to be full of nourishment. It only used an illusion to make you not want to eat it, because it’s actually the tastiest of all!”

“Mhm. Big Brother Hero is a good person. He wouldn’t lie to me...” At this moment, aside from her battle instinct in a fight, Elissa’s everyday intelligence was little better than that of a sleepwalker. Whatever Zhao Tianhe said, she believed.

“Hey, hey, by the rules you should—” The black-mist figure could only watch helplessly as countless pitch-black tentacles stretched out from the black square beside Elissa and dragged it over. It had no power to resist at all.

It was only a physical illusion used for broadcasting. Other than a law-bound smokescreen, it possessed no abilities whatsoever.

“Wait a second. I need to deal with this thing before it’ll be fit to eat.” Zhao Tianhe cast a first-tier wind spell to lighten his body, then jumped from Elissa’s shoulder onto the tentacles.

Elissa held the two giants in her hands, continually drawing out the souls within them to raise her own authority.

She looked at Zhao Tianhe and the black-mist figure without the slightest urge to attack. One was Big Brother Hero, a truly good man; the other was filthy trash. She had no desire to eat it at all. Just touching it seemed dirty.

“A recording crystal?” Zhao Tianhe snatched the crystal from the black mist’s hand, examined it, then kicked the thing square in the face. “And you’ve still got the nerve to keep livestreaming? Huh? Having fun, are you? Laugh, then! Go on! You had perfectly good days to live, and instead you pull a terrorist attack? Come on, laugh for me again!”

He had been watching an airship parade in peace when his soul was snatched away for no reason at all. Now he was living beside Elissa as though beside a tiger, and all of it was thanks to this bastard. How could Zhao Tianhe not be furious?

Yet compared with him, the crowd in the Grand Hall was even more stirred up.

“Who is he?! A hero?!” “The one behind it all has been taken down!” “Well done!” “Beat him!” “Kill him!” “Kick his head in!” “Let that madman laugh now!”

On the screen, Zhao Tianhe held the recording crystal so that its view was fixed directly on the black-mist figure. They watched him drive kick after kick into its head, until the black fog there began to scatter and thin.

“What’s going on? Didn’t they say no one could enter?” the A-rank hero beside Deputy Director Carter asked in delight.

“Well, he’s an exception.” Deputy Director Carter smiled. “So what that old ghost said was actually true.”

“Was this Old Ghost’s handiwork? As expected of an S-plus...” the hero said with a laugh. “Then this should be over soon, right?”

“It should. I doubt that fellow ever expected such a surprise force.” The deputy director shook his head, smiling.

And yet the image projected by the hall’s crystal suddenly vanished.

“I’ll curse your whole bloodline!” Zhao Tianhe hurled the recording crystal hard into the black mist. It shattered to pieces, and the black-mist figure’s head dispersed completely.

“This boy got a little too worked up, didn’t he?” Deputy Director Carter shook his head. He had seen what happened in that final instant. Turning to the people in the hall, he smiled and said, “You all saw it, didn’t you? The incident has been perfectly resolved. Please stay calm. Our hero will undo the dungeon from the inside next, and the matter of restoring souls will begin at once.”

At those words, the people in the hall immediately relaxed. Overjoyed, they shouted, “Long live the hero! Long live the Holy Council!”

“Hah...” Sitting on the road of vines, Zhao Tianhe let out a long breath.

So that’s it? It’s done? he thought, stroking his chin. Was the mastermind really this weak? Was it truly only at the level of a children’s attraction?

“Big brother...”

Elissa’s voice sounded out.

Zhao Tianhe rose to his feet and turned to look at her.

“Run...”

“Hm?” Zhao Tianhe looked at Elissa, puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Haha... hahahahaha!”

That familiar laughter rang out, and at the same time two long horns grew from Elissa’s head.

“See? I’m laughing again!” The voice of the black-mist figure, Joko, came from Elissa’s mouth.

“Holy shit...” Zhao Tianhe froze.

“Big brother... Hero... wants to kill... hurry... run...” Yet Elissa’s own voice sounded again. It seemed she was fighting the other for control of her body.

But it had already been said before: strong though Elissa was, her consciousness was little better than sleepwalking. In such a state, how could she possibly win a struggle for control against a monster in full possession of its mind?

Zhao Tianhe turned and ran without the slightest hesitation.

“Fool! Your body belongs to me. Your slaughter and fusion were only to let me obtain a stronger vessel!” Joko’s voice rang out again. After absorbing the soul-authority of the other two monsters, it thrust a hand into its own body and pulled out a cylinder.

It was the nightmare canister that contained Elissa’s soul.

Joko glanced at Elissa’s nightmare canister and tossed it aside casually. Every nightmare canister was protected by the dungeon’s laws. As long as the dungeon endured, the canister could not be destroyed. The souls of the children within would remain trapped in an eternal nightmare, becoming monsters that wandered there and revived again and again. And once those monsters fused into a giant beast, Joko would seize control of its consciousness. If it refused, it would simply be cast out like this.

At the same time, its appearance changed. The framed form born from the portrait beside it disappeared, and its massive body became the shape of Old Barton. Having cast Elissa aside, Joko naturally could no longer use Elissa’s powers.

“Haha. Haha. Hahaha—!”

Joko threw back its head and roared with laughter.

“Run, vermin!”

“Let me see where you can run to!”

Without even looking back, Zhao Tianhe fled at full speed, layering protective spells and wind-type body-lightening magic on himself again and again, all to trigger the speed-boosting support spell of the wind element.

And he really did draw the spell best suited to escape:

Flight.

Behind him, Joko, who had been brimming with confidence, wore a strange look the moment it saw Zhao Tianhe rise into the air, and hurriedly gave chase.

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be trash? How does he know Flight?! An equipment effect? No, impossible! Equipment that comes with a fourth-tier spell would have to be at least boss gear of C-rank!

Joko seemed to know something about Zhao Tianhe, which was why it had looked down on him so completely.

And as a result, it had played itself once again.