Chapter 54: The Privilege of Beasts

"This evil I shall eradicate."

With calm words and tightly pressed lips, his dragon pupils locked onto his opponent. This was a resolve Rean had never known before.

The silver sword of courage was once again coated with a pale, shimmering light.

His will transformed into power, and the knight's holy incantations fully reinforced his physical body.

It was time to bring this tragic cycle to an end. The victims had become the perpetrators, and the perpetrators had become walking corpses—an ending he truly could not bring himself to like.

"I made a promise to those children..."

"For the sake of those children, shouldn't you have let their mother leave?" The woman was still smiling.

"...Indeed. But you are not her. You are merely a rotting corpse that has usurped her shell. Stop smiling, monster." Uttered with the utmost calm was a rage he had never felt before.

That kind and gentle smile did not belong to a monster like you!

"How harsh. And yet, I am clearly Maria..." If a smile could increase her hunting success rate and make her opponent lower their guard, why not use it?

She liked to smile; she would always smile.

An eerie monster, draped in human skin, mimicking humans and speaking hollow lies.

"Clang!"

This time, in the blink of an eye, the blade of the brave had already pierced her arm.

Rean's charge caused one of her arms to drop directly to the ground.

Maria wore a look of surprise. Unlike her previous human form, having revealed her true visage, her skin and flesh were far stronger than those of ordinary horned cultists.

Yet, before the opponent's sword, was she still so fragile?

She glanced at the wound near her shoulder. A faint flame still lingered upon it, causing her a mild discomfort.

It was a threat, but barely... The gap in "magnitude" between the two sides was simply too vast.

She swiped a finger across her shoulder, and the arm, branded with dragon fire, detached and fell away.

With a mere twitch of her left shoulder and a simultaneous twist and shake of her left arm, flesh and blood regenerated completely.

"...Impressive, truly impressive. Is this the art of a swordmaster?" She even displayed her unblemished left hand to her opponent.

Yet even at this moment, her smile remained unchanged.

She took the initiative and attacked.

She thrust out her right fist. Slow in appearance but swift in reality, a punch entirely devoid of technique, resembling the comical flailing of a cornered turtle...

"Boom!"

Rean instinctively side-stepped, only to watch that slender fist shatter a solid rock wall directly.

Cold sweat soaked through Rean's undershirt. In that instant, he had not seen her movements at all; it was purely his instinct for survival that had made him dodge.

Pュre strength, an unsolvable numerical crushing superiority—that was the minimum fold-difference in physical prowess.

The beast possessed a physical hardware far surpassing mortal limits, and that was merely its baseline capability... Had that blow landed on Rean, his armor would surely have failed to bear it, driving him straight into the rock face.

"Since you speak so loftily, don't dodge."

Words tinged with a smile came from behind him.

Power begat speed. With this tier of physical body, and without needing to worry about fatigue or injury, how could her speed not be terrifyingly fast?

In that fleeting fraction of a second, the stench of death was already breathing upon the back of his neck.

"Crushing Sword: World Breaker!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Rean gripped his sword with both hands, adopting the stance of a knight gripping a blade within plate armor, and slammed it down fiercely into the ground.

His holy power erupted violently throughout his body, using the blade as its core to form a sphere of blazing holy energy.

"Boom!" A sphere of light roughly one and a half meters in radius exploded all around Rean.

The timing of the burst was absolute perfection. Maria, who had already reached Rean's back, was blasted away instantly.

Rean gasped heavily for air, turning his head only to see the monster healing her "burns" at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This, too, was within expectations...

"Still, it's rather disheartening, this level of vitality..."

Rean sighed, switching to the Hill Giant Gauntlets. His strength stat instantly leaped from 13 to 18.

Considering the marginal effects of numerical scaling past a certain threshold, his actual physical might had likely multiplied severalfold.

The moment he put them on, Rean felt a wave of intense discomfort and dizziness—this was not equipment he could sustain for long periods.

Yet against an opponent like this, refusing to take risks was out of the question.

"Stay back!" Seeing Rean take a hit, his teammates seemed eager to help.

Despite having suffered a blow, Rean halted Demont and Talia from intervening.

"Keep fueling that fire—that will be the greatest help of all."

The aroma of incense in the cave was growing heavier. Was it truly, as Maria claimed, completely without effect?

Impossible. Not a single word from a beast could be trusted!

Rean's dragon eyes had already observed that one of the smaller heads upon her body was yawning.

If even the core of a "beast" was susceptible, how could a semi-beast inheriting its factors be entirely immune?

However, it was possible her beastly factors had overflowed to such a degree that even if a portion went dormant, it wouldn't disrupt her internal operations... But simply dampening the activity of her factors to lower her combat potency was already worthwhile.

Talia, positioned in the rear, would also remain Maria's greatest threat.

An assassin is most terrifying before they strike... The moment a genuine opening appeared, Talia would not let it pass.

Could that wooden sword truly not kill her? Judging by the fact that the head of one of the children kept its gaze fixed unwaveringly on Talia, that was by no means certain.

"Keep going..."

In the rear, Demont was likewise withheld from frontline melee combat.

Aside from the fact that his abilities were simply insufficient for such a battlefield, he had another purpose entirely.

"Tomorrow's Harbor District will be a better place, and there is no room in it for serial killers like you!"

"We will rebuild the orphanage and find a better mother for the children. This time, we'll even build a schoolhouse for them."

"Eliminate her, and the children of the Harbor District can sleep in peace!"

Though slightly comical, Demont was simultaneously taunting the enemy and shouting encouragement at the top of his lungs to cheer Rean on.

Even stranger, as his words fell, a pale red light washed over Rean's body and hands.

Rean's physique and strength each increased by a fraction, and his muscles grew noticeably denser.

He even noticed his sword edge becoming sharper, while his chest burned with a roaring, inexplicable surge of fury.

[Soul Skill - Human to the Core, I Am Honored (Mutated Primordial Stone): Shout aloud your inner obsession and rage to comprehensively enhance your physical body. Your roar and your physique will possess the potential to tear through all defenses.]

[Note: Your roar acts as an area-of-effect buff; those who share your ideals will receive a degree of enhancement.]

This formidable offensive soul skill allowed Demont—whose strength fell short on the front lines—to transform into a premier buff-caster.

Simultaneously, a beam of light landed upon Rean... Though its effect on minor injuries was modest, having healing support on a battlefield made all the difference in the world.

"...The crux is whether I can block her." Rean steeled his resolve. This time would once again be a hard-nosed clash testing each other's limits.

Rean raised his blade, preparing his familiar Armor-Eroding Strike.

This time, however, Maria launched the attack first.

"Clang!"

Her phantom-like movement made it impossible to capture her actions. A spiked gauntlet collided directly with Rean's parrying blade.

Yet this time, Rean was merely beaten back and his blade deflected; he was not knocked flat.

The transcendent tier of strength had been bridged.

If it was merely to this degree, victory was attainable.

Her physical hardware was formidable, and her vitality absurd, but precisely as the intelligence files stated, she had undergone zero practical combat training, let alone possessed transcendent vocational ranks.

Under those circumstances, just how much of that formidable hardware could she actually deploy? Such pathetic combat technique, entirely straightforward and linear, was not difficult to counter.

With such powerful regenerative abilities, she would simply have to be killed multiple times.

"Growing stronger still... Why do you persist in hounding me when there are so many other wicked villains in this world..."

Words had proven utterly meaningless to Rean and his companions.

Therefore, she chose silence.

Having confirmed an imminent threat to her life, the beast's survival instinct was further activated.

Sharp horns sprouted from Maria's forehead, the tiny eyes of the infants upon her lit up one by one, and strange patterns spread across her entire body as the situation turned increasingly bizarre.

"Watch out!"

At this moment, Rean maintained utmost vigilance.

Did Maria, once an ordinary human, truly possess no transcendent abilities? Not necessarily.

If a beast possessed merely enhanced strength and immortality, it would not be truly terrifying.

"Beasts are the children of the world, often wielding unique worldly authority... or rather, privileges. If the blood concentration of their descendants or pack is sufficiently high, there is a certain probability they may utilize a weakened version of that authority."

This was not research data from the Church—or rather, the Hilda family was hardly qualified to hold information of that tier.

Yet those neat, elegant handwriting notes had been left specifically as a warning for Rean; how could he possibly disregard them?

Only now did he truly understand what "authority" meant, and what an "admin player" was.

No matter how thorough your preparations, facing someone who hacked the system and wielded absolute permissions meant you were bound to eat dirt.

"Please stand firm, and do not fall." Maria's sudden words momentarily stunned Rean.

The next instant, however, he understood.

"Boom!"

He crashed heavily to the ground—no, he crashed violently against the ceiling of the cavern.

"Ah!" Demont and Talia tumbled down in identical fashion.

Their preparations were likewise shattered as they found themselves firmly pinned to the ceiling.

They attempted to struggle, only to feel the binding force tighten around them.

"This beast is known as the Great Horned Pillar, which commands the boundary between the heavens and the sea."

"Does that mean the sky can turn into the sea, and the sea into the sky? Is this... gravity?! How can such an absurd power exist?"

Watching Maria, who stood inverted upon the "ceiling" and looked down upon their group, Rean felt a mixture of shock and bewilderment.

Under these conditions, when one couldn't even stand steadily, how on earth was he supposed to fight?