Chapter 119. Anomaly vs. Weirdo (2)
As I returned to the royal palace’s guest chamber, I became lost in thought.
‘I’ve figured out the entire plan.’
Queen Marceline had been completely seen through by me. She was now in the palm of my hand.
What remained was simple.
I would destroy her plan one step at a time and completely overturn her intended outcome—
◆ Successor’s Will [EX] is resisting the Severed Awareness!!
◆ 101 Sanity points have been accumulated.
Messages appeared before me.
My severed awareness returned to normal, and I accumulated Sanity points.
‘It certainly is different.’
The Vanished Social Club.
It was different from the Infinite Labyrinth. However, they shared some similarities.
First, both were separate spaces isolated from reality.
They also possessed [Rules], like the Infinite Labyrinth’s [Rulebook].
An Unknowable Terror Beyond Explanation, the Monarch of the Abyss. The Being of Observational Uncertainty, the Monarch of Darkness.
Was it because they both existed beyond understanding and cognition?
‘Nothing involving them is ever normal.’
That only made it better for me, though.
When I returned to the royal palace’s guest chamber—
“No!”
Seraphia shouted into empty space.
There was no need to repeat the entire situation.
◆ Activating the Bond Skill Mental Empathy [E]!
I immediately used Mental Empathy [E].
Seraphia’s body flinched.
“I have to save Brother—! Ah? Ahh...?”
Seraphia’s expression changed strangely.
“W-What in the world happened?!”
Her memories quickly returned, and she shouted at me.
“How much do you remember?”
“W-Well….”
Seraphia hesitated, unable to continue.
Her face suddenly turned pale, and she answered in a trembling voice.
“I-I remember you beating a noble to death and indiscriminately….trampling all the Royal Knights....”
Fortunately, she remembered everything.
In other words, she shared the same memories as me.
“But what’s happening now...? Why am I here...?”
Seraphia’s voice trembled because she was still confused—
“Prepare yourself.”
She would quickly become accustomed to it by the time I reached 9,999.
* * *
Warm morning sunlight gently poured over the royal garden.
The tea-party venue bustled with people displaying their unique charm and refinement.
Hidden behind a wall, Seraphia carefully examined every corner of the venue.
....She couldn’t see anything particularly unusual.
“It’s the same again.”
Seraphia answered quietly.
However, no reply came.
“Brother...?”
She looked around for Adrian.
But Adrian was nowhere to be seen.
He had definitely been beside her moments ago.
“B-Brother...!”
She called out to him, but still received no answer.
Eventually, Seraphia had no choice but to leave the safety of the wall.
She steadied her trembling hands and searched for Adrian. Fortunately, she soon found him.
Seraphia released a relieved breath and hurried toward him.
“Brother!”
However—
The closer she approached, the harder it became to shake the feeling that something was wrong.
First of all….it didn’t seem like Adrian.
Black hair, a firm silhouette, and a familiar physique. It looked like Adrian, yet it didn’t feel like him.
It was also difficult to believe this was one of the nobles attending the tea party.
Of course, Seraphia didn’t remember the face of every person at the venue.
However, this person wasn’t wearing magnificent formal attire. His movements also appeared strangely unnatural.
Seraphia involuntarily stopped running.
At that moment—
“Kihihihihihi.”
A grotesque laugh reached her.
Seraphia froze as though her breathing had stopped.
Cold sweat ran down her back. An inexplicable tension enveloped her entire body.
The entity slowly turned its head. It possessed a grotesque form. It grinned at Seraphia.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
Startled beyond belief, Seraphia jumped into the air.
“A-Aaeeh...!! Hweeeeh!!”
Eyes appeared, and lips split open.
The figure transformed into an even more grotesque shape.
Its eyes rolled wildly—
“Ihihihihihihi!!”
Then it began charging toward Seraphia like a lunatic.
That was when—
Booooom—!!!
The air vibrated as an explosion erupted.
Seraphia’s vision shook for a moment. Through her blurred sight, she saw Adrian.
Adrian sharpened his claws and swung them at the charging figure without the slightest hesitation.
Crunch—!
The figure was instantly torn apart and released a horrific scream of pain.
Adrian didn’t even blink.
He never took his eyes off the grotesque figure.
Completely unyielding before fear and terror, he swung his hand again.
The grotesque figure ultimately dispersed into dark crimson energy and vanished.
Adrian steadied his breathing and slowly turned around. He looked as though nothing in existence could ever shake him.
His firm voice followed.
“Use your ability in situations like this. With your power, a mere Banshee is nothing.”
“Brotheeer...!!”
Seraphia’s tension collapsed in an instant. An indescribable sense of relief surged from within her chest—
“Hic...!”
She suddenly hiccupped.
“H-Hic...!”
And then once again.
A brief silence followed.
Adrian pressed both temples and sighed. He looked at her pathetically.
He was cold, blunt, curt, and barely spared her a glance—the same Adrian as always.
For some reason, that reassured her all over again—
“Hic...! H-Hic...!”
Seraphia continued hiccupping with tears in her eyes.
* * *
Luseria, the Seductress of Lust, was utterly bewildered.
That was only natural, considering the scene visible beyond the crystal orb.
“Ah? Aaaaah...?!”
“Have your memories returned?”
“What? Ah, yes!”
That same situation had already repeated ten times.
“Ten times...?”
How could that possibly happen?
After ten repetitions, his memories and soul should have been devoured long ago.
No one could resist the Authority of Oblivion.
Yet Adrian remained completely unharmed.
Furthermore, he never yielded before the Anomalies.
Gremlins were one thing.
But how could he remain unaffected by a Banshee?
Banshees were high-ranking demons. They were demons that wielded the concepts of fear and death.
Even the Holy Kingdom’s high-ranking priests had their lives suppressed and minds eroded when confronting a Banshee.
Hadn’t Seraphia experienced precisely that?
But Adrian?
He wasn’t affected at all.
A mere delinquent had overcome the fear manifested by a Banshee.
“Overcome...?”
No, he hadn’t ‘overcome’ fear.
He had overwhelmed the Banshee as though he were an entity that had transcended the very emotion of fear.
As a result, none of the other demonic servants could do anything against Adrian.
He never gave Luseria even a single opportunity to infiltrate Seraphia’s mind.
And that wasn’t all.
During the banquet, the second event of the Royal Social Gathering—
Adrian unfailingly beat Alex to death and reset the Royal Social Gathering.
Even now—
“H-How….dare….you!”
“That pattern is always the same.”
Crunch—!
The sound of crushed flesh signaled the beginning of the eleventh Royal Social Gathering….
“No!”
“Prepare yourself immediately.”
“Eek!!”
When Luseria remembered the months of excruciating effort she had spent subjugating the Banshee, she felt as though her heart were being torn apart.
At this rate, she would eventually run out of Anomalies.
Once no Anomalies remained, reaching the Ball would no longer be difficult.
....Adrian wasn’t even bewildered anymore. He resembled a laborer performing repetitive work.
Adrian now repeated the Royal Social Gathering using the most efficient possible method.
Because of that, Luseria was rapidly running out of demonic servants.
If this continued—
She would eventually become incapable of creating further Anomalies.
The Authority of Oblivion was Infinite.
However, Luseria’s power wasn’t.
Subjugating demonic servants required considerable resources in the first place.
In other words, it was only a matter of time before Adrian escaped from the Vanished Social Club, but….
“Iliana, that lowly wench—”
Baaaaam!!
….Somehow, Adrian didn’t appear to have any intention of escaping.
Whether an Anomaly existed or not—
Adrian seemed to possess absolutely no intention of reaching the final day.
A delinquent even stranger than the Anomalies themselves.
What could she possibly do about that delinquent?
“Come to think of it, perhaps I should have captured and restrained the Banshee instead.”
....Luseria genuinely had no idea what to do.
* * *
Afterward, the Royal Social Gathering repeated more than fifty times.
As a result, I learned a considerable amount about the mechanics of Berserk [?].
First, the Sanity values required for each rank of Berserk [?] were—
[B-] = 100 or more
[B] = 200 or more
[B+] = 400 or more
[A-] = 1,600 or more
[A] = 3,200 or more
Every increase of one [Stage] required twice the previous Sanity value.
Every increase of one [Rank] required four times the previous Sanity value.
Therefore, fifty repetitions only allowed me to confirm the requirements up to Berserk [A].
However, if this structure continued—
[A+] = 6,400 or more
[S-] = 25,600 or more
[S] = 51,200 or more
[S+] = 102,400 or more
I could estimate the values accordingly.
Of course, everything from [A+] onward was merely an ‘estimate’.
I hadn’t personally confirmed those values.
However, following this pattern, the amount of Sanity required to transcend Predation [S+] would be—
[??] = 409,600 or more
That was my estimate.
Assuming I accumulated five Sanity points per monster, I would have to use Predation [S+] on an astonishing 81,920 monsters to gather that amount.
‘I’d die from overeating.’
But with the Authority of Oblivion—
I could accumulate it without much difficulty.
‘I can’t even imagine what would happen.’
Considering the performance of Berserk [A-] and Berserk [A], it was truly absurd.
[A-] Rank represented the limit of biological evolution.
In other words, it was the rank at which an ability became equivalent to that of a Dragon.
First, there was the skill I had transcended through Berserk [A-]—
◆ Nutrient Creation [A-] : The Player’s energy-conversion ability has transcended its limits, allowing the Player to move beyond simple synthesis and decomposition and exercise precise control over [Crystal Structures].
Through this ability, the Player can freely combine matter to create [New Elements] and [New Materials] that possess no probability of occurring naturally.
<This is a Transcendent Skill created by transcending Nutrient Synthesis [B].>
Nutrient Creation [A-] had been created by transcending Nutrient Synthesis [B].
Its usefulness rivaled a Dragon’s ability, and even the skill’s name had changed.
Its effects were obviously absurdly powerful.
However, it wasn’t without limitations.
The ability remained dependent upon substances that already existed in nature.
Therefore, genuine creation—
Creating something from nothing—was impossible.
Nevertheless, it was an excellent skill.
No, it was an absurdly powerful skill.
But even that was nothing.
Berserk [A].
A skill transcended to the level of a true Dragon’s ability.
Compared to that, Nutrient Creation [A-] was nothing.
◆ Hyper-Regeneration [A] : The Player can make advanced use of the nutrients accumulated within their body to [Modify the Cells Themselves] during the regeneration process. Through this ability, the Player can [Reinforce] the [Structure and Durability] of somatic cells and [Reassemble] them into tissue stronger than before regeneration.
When necessary, the Player can also consume enormous quantities of nutrients to create [Heteromorphic Body Parts] that don’t belong to the Player’s original body, such as wings or protruding bones.
<This is a Transcendent Skill created by transcending Regeneration [B+].>
My eyes widened involuntarily.
After all—
‘It can manifest heteromorphic body parts?’
Regeneration [B+] could only restore the body to its ‘original form’.
It could restore a severed arm to its original condition.
However, it couldn’t create three arms.
By the same principle, it couldn’t grow wings that hadn’t existed before. It couldn’t cause bones to protrude outside the body. It couldn’t create ‘heteromorphic’ body parts I had never possessed.
However, Hyper-Regeneration [A] could.
It allowed me to create and use heteromorphic body parts such as wings.
However, it consumed enormous quantities of nutrients.
It also required enough Sanity to transcend the skill to [A] Rank.
Furthermore, the transformation could only be maintained while Berserk [A] remained active.
The requirements went beyond demanding and became outright ridiculous.
However, once they were satisfied, the resulting potential was too extraordinary to be described as merely overpowered.
The transcendent effect of Regeneration [B+] was already this powerful.
What would happen if I transcended Dragon’s Claw [A]?
Just as my anticipation naturally began rising—
Rustle.
Something brushed against my clothes.
I immediately looked down.
Seraphia was clinging tightly to my side.
She was doing it again.
When had this begun?
It was probably after the previous encounter with the Banshee. Seraphia had shown no intention of leaving my side ever since.
She tightly gripped the hem of my clothes, as though refusing to move even a single step away.
I swallowed a sigh and spoke.
“Let go.”
Seraphia flinched.
However, she still didn’t release my clothes.
“You’re interfering with my movement. Let go.”
“....Yes.”
Only then did she move away from me.
However, her hand hesitated and slowly released the hem of my clothes.
After finally separating Seraphia from me, I resumed organizing my understanding of Berserk [?].
Transcending Dragon’s Claw [A] required Berserk [A+] at the very least.
The estimated Sanity requirement was 6,400 or more.
‘Another seventy resets should be more than enough.’
I immediately leaped from my position and kicked Alex in the face while he was enjoying the banquet.
“This food is delici—”
Baaaaam!!
The tea party began again following another reset of the Royal Social Gathering.
One would have expected Seraphia to become accustomed to it by now, but she trembled every time.
She couldn’t easily shake off her fear.
Instinctively, she hid behind Adrian.
Then she tightly gripped his sleeve—
“Stop grabbing me.”
“Ah...! I’m sorry….”
At Adrian’s words, Seraphia hurriedly released the sleeve she had been holding.
She felt somewhat disappointed, but....
‘He didn’t tell me to go away.’
That thought caused a smile to spread across her face.
Afraid that he might notice, Seraphia hurriedly turned her head aside.
At that moment—
‘Huh...?’
....A strange person entered her sight.
More precisely, someone was present who hadn’t been at the original tea party.
“B-Brother! There’s a strange person over there!!”
Seraphia shouted loudly.
Adrian immediately stepped in front of her.
Seraphia hurriedly hid behind Adrian’s back.
A puzzled voice escaped Adrian.
“Commander Leon...?”
Apparently, Adrian knew him.
However, as far as Seraphia knew, only one person possessed the name Leon.
The First Prince, Leon Vatenberg.
There was no one else.
Seraphia cautiously peeked out from behind Adrian—
“W-What is this...? No, my memories...?”
She saw Prince Leon wearing a deeply confused expression.
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