Chapter 60

Antidote (2)

If one had to choose the most famous word used to describe Randall Dreyfus Aslan, many people would think of "iron-blooded."

It was a nickname that naturally followed him due to the way he always handled everything in a blunt, businesslike manner, always in the public interest.

So, anyone familiar with his reputation would inevitably be shocked to see him like this.

"Step on it, faster!"

At his voice, sharp as falling frost, the driver flinched and hastily accelerated the car.

As the iron beast screeched along the unpaved road, Duke Aslan anxiously rubbed his trembling hands.

To those who knew of his reputation, this series of reactions could only be perplexing.

As Aiden had already seen through, Duke Aslan was someone who truly cared about his family.

And right now, he had every reason to be anxious like this.

"-"

Suppressing the urge to rush the driver again, Duke Aslan closed his eyes.

‘...Liza.’

Just moments ago, Duke Aslan had been shown several photos.

They were unidentified objects delivered by an unknown individual, but the subjects captured inside were horrifyingly clear.

Someone was injecting an unknown drug into Liza Aslan.

Of course, he had asked Aiden to knock some sense into her but Aiden wasn’t the kind of person to do something like this in the first place, and there wasn’t enough time for him to take these pictures and send them.

This was undoubtedly the work of a “third party” who had targeted Liza before Aiden's group even arrived.

He didn’t know the intent or what happened afterward, but there was one thing he could say for certain.

Something serious had happened to his family.

So when he heard the deafening noise the moment he got near the territory, it was only natural for Duke Aslan to throw open the car door as if breaking it.

"...!"

He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something grave was going on.

With that thought consuming his mind, the duke ran forward.

Though retired from the front lines, he still retained the instincts of someone once adept at handling supernatural power, so it didn’t take long for him to reach the origin of the sound.

And the scene that unfolded before him was enough to make his entire body freeze.

The air was thick with qi and holy power, and Aiden’s group was clearly in a confrontation with something.

At the center of the battlefield, amidst clear traces of combat, stood a ‘beast’—with a faint image of Liza still remaining within it.

"..."

Suppressing the dizzying sensation threatening to overtake him, Duke Aslan stared at the beast. As if it felt his gaze, its eyes turned toward him as well.

The face was Liza’s. But—

‘That’ was not the daughter he knew. It only took a moment to realize it, as murderous intent so clearly filled those eyes.

‘Beastification.’

A chill ran down Duke Aslan’s spine as he instantly recognized the phenomenon from his long years of experience subjugating beasts.

It was something that occurred to a very small number of frontline veteran soldiers who had survived multiple cycles of the Night of the Hunt, over decades. Their bodies would undergo transformation as if their species were shifting from human to beast.

Those who entered such a state would completely lose their reason and rampage until death.

In other words—

"......"

His daughter had to die.

She was already in a state where death was certain.

Just as that grim realization hit Duke Aslan and dizziness threatened to overtake him—

The Lionhearted moved.

"I agree that killing her isn’t the answer, but who the hell runs at something like that bare-handed?!"

Noel shouted, almost tearfully, as she charged toward the young lady.

‘...Not to be killed?’

Duke Aslan looked blankly at the Lionhearted, who had just said that.

And then—

His head turned toward the young man who seemed to have given that order.

“We don’t have a choice.”

Aiden Kellermain offered the grumbling Lionhearted a bitter smile.

“If she dies, we can’t cure her.”

—Cure beastification?

It was such an absurd statement that Duke Aslan was left in a daze, and in that moment, Noel let out a scream-like cry as she closed in on the young lady.

"—I’m seriously not going to die of old age at this rate—!"

The young lady’s gaze locked onto Noel. Instantly, eight legs lashed out at her with no gaps between them. It was a sweeping attack that covered so much space that evading it was unthinkable.

The force behind it could tear through even a decently strong suit of armor like paper.

But—

Facing that, the supernatural power Aiden had drawn forth was immediately deployed.

A bright radiance surrounded the area. Then, like drifting mist, pure white qi flowed into it.

As the qi mixed into the core of the condensed mana arts, the sphere began to glow even whiter. The brilliance it gave off was so dazzling it was hard to keep one’s eyes open, and it soon solidified in front of Noel in the form of a barrier.

Shaping supernatural power into a defined form required considerable effort on its own. And from Aiden’s standpoint, he hadn’t yet learned the skill to properly control this ability, so the shape was rather crude.

Precisely because of that—what followed was even more astounding.

—!!!!

With a spark, all of the beast’s bladed legs bounced off the barrier, and Duke Aslan’s jaw dropped.

‘—He blocked it?’

Even with such crude handling of the ability, all eight of the beast’s legs, which had launched that fierce attack, had been completely deflected.

There was one major premise known to all members of the Aslan ducal house who hunted beasts:

The most basic principle in fighting beasts was evasion-based combat that maximized mobility.

The reason was extremely simple and clear. A beast’s fundamental specs were above those of humans who could use supernatural powers.

For a human wielding supernatural power to engage a beast in close combat was like a puppy trying to wrestle with a tiger.

Even the weakest of beasts could easily slaughter several knight apprentices, and considering that, a beast that had taken Liza’s form was dangerous enough that even a monster like the Lionhearted should avoid direct confrontation.

And yet—

That same beast had just launched a full-body attack with all its strength, and it was deflected by a supernatural barrier that was barely even formed properly.

And it didn’t end there.

Seeing that some of the beast’s bladed limbs had even broken upon impact with that supernatural power, Duke Aslan forgot the situation entirely and let out a stunned, hollow laugh.

Well—he couldn't be certain, but he was fairly confident those bladed legs could cut through diamonds.

And yet this was the result. As if they had crashed into something vastly harder than themselves.

‘…Just how hard is that thing…?!’

He already knew that this man, Aiden Kellermain, had some special knack when it came to supernatural powers.

Word had already spread among the discerning that he had mixed qi with holy power, and more than anything, it was recorded that he had used a technique left behind by the Knight of Dawn.

But—

He hadn’t expected that there was even more being hidden.

Just how many tricks did this man have up his sleeve?

—!!!

And as the beast roared, having lost its main offensive weapons, qi exploded from Noel’s body as she entered its effective range. With her explosively enhanced physical strength, she tightly restrained Liza’s body.

“Keep holding her like that!”

Then, holy power burst from Katya’s body and followed after Noel, pouring down on the young lady. The low-heat holy energy wrapped around the beast’s legs like a snare, binding them tightly.

Finally, Aiden swiftly rushed toward the young lady. Another supernatural power formed in his hand.

“Wait, you—!”

Snapping out of it, the duke instinctively opened his mouth to stop Aiden.

His skill in subduing the beast so quickly and cleanly was certainly praiseworthy but seeing him charge in with what looked like killing intent, the duke couldn’t help but speak out.

“Duke.”

What came in response was a dry chuckle along with Aiden’s answer.

“I’m not so far gone that I’d make a father watch his daughter die.”

And what followed only served to reinforce the weight behind that name.

A supernatural power created by blending holy power and mana arts.

Its name was The Purifier.

There were many absurd things in the world. But naturally, witnessing such events firsthand was quite rare.

In that sense, Rad was currently wondering if he ought to buy a lottery ticket or something.

Because he was watching something he’d never imagined he would see in his lifetime.

Liza, who had been thrashing and struggling on the ground, gradually ceased resisting as Aiden’s supernatural power touched her from his fingertips.

And it wasn’t just that her resistance was dying down.

The clear marks of beastification that had emerged on her body were being healed.

The bladed legs that had protruded from her back shrank.

They became smaller, more limp, and disappeared as if drawn back into the young lady’s body, which they had been parasitizing for nourishment.

A person who had already entered the terminal phase of beastification—with death the only viable option—was being returned to a normal state, simply by the touch of a supernatural power.

Noel, who was holding onto the young lady’s body, Katya, who had tightly bound those legs, and even Duke Aslan, who stood silently watching—all wore more or less the same expression.

Stunned.

“…Even the High Priest who specializes in healing in the Holy Crown Kingdom probably couldn’t do something like this.”

Katya muttered as if groaning, and Rad completely agreed.

He even felt a twinge of pity at how low Katya’s bar for comparison was.

Healing?

No, what was happening couldn’t be explained with such a crude word.

Supernatural power was divine authority granted to humans by the gods, and even though the power of Wornil, the Sealed God, had been locked away, dark energy still operated under the same framework.

In that context, the transformation of a human exposed to dark energy into a beast was an act under Wornil’s authority. The fact that beastification didn’t stop until death was one of the fundamental laws of the world—like how objects fall from high to low.

It was something so natural that even questioning it felt wrong.

In other words, that man—

As if recklessly mixing supernatural forces weren’t mad enough—

He had now reversed a god’s authority, as a human.

"……"

Even calling it a miracle would hardly be enough to convey how alien this was.

It was nonsense.

But what he was seeing now was undeniably real.

‘…No.’

Rad let out a hollow laugh and ran a hand down his face.

‘What kind of monster is he?’

Back when the prince had ordered a full background check on Aiden from the beginning, Rad hadn’t taken it very seriously.

In Rad’s view, this Aiden fellow was certainly a threatening “variable,” but not one worth worrying too much about.

But the moment he witnessed what had just happened, he changed his mind completely.

“Wasn’t he just a normal person not long ago?”

Rad trusted his own discernment quite a bit, and because of that, he was certain.

That man had definitely been just a regular person—an absolute nobody. The records said so, his activities said so, and even when he had looked the man in the face, he had been sure of it.

Just an ordinary guy who got lucky.

Sooner or later, he’d hit his limit and cough up everything he’d gained.

And yet, what was this?

Barely a few months had passed and compared to his empty, tin-can days—how many absurd abilities did he now possess?

The growth rate was unbelievable.

“…Looks like I really need to dig into him.”

What exactly was this man hiding? What was he tied to that allowed him to grow at such a monstrous pace?

It was clear he needed to be thoroughly investigated.

With that thought, Rad slipped his body into the shadowy veil he had created using demonic energy.

What’s his background? How does he control his abilities? And…

Once he made up his mind to start something, Rad was the type to see it through to the end.

He was already preparing to extract information even Aiden himself might not know about his own existence, silently closing his eyes.

Fortunately, the black magic he controlled via demonic energy allowed for the easy casting of a few long-range spells, even amid this chaos.

…Though the planned operation didn’t yield any results.

He’d have to scrap all his pre-prepared schemes, but at least now he knew what needed to be done.

At the very least, he’d made up his mind to cut off this disturbing variable before it could grow further.

That was what he had been thinking.

“Excuse me, Minister of Administration. Where do you think you’re sneaking off to in such a hurry?”

“…?”

Until a voice suddenly rang out from right beside him.

And with those words—

A hand broke through the shroud of darkness and grabbed Rad by the collar, yanking him out into the open.

“…!”

His face twisted as he looked up—

“A better title might be Puppeteer, no?”

Aiden Kellermain was gripping his collar with a frostbitten smile.