Debuff Master

Chapter 641

“Oh? You evaded that?”

Siegfried sneered upon seeing Count Arial react just in time to protect his third eye. The real target was actually the third eye on the count’s forehead rather than his left eye, but he managed to react just in time to protect his third eye, which was as valuable as his own life, in exchange for giving up his left eye.

“Arghhh!” Count Arial grimaced and groaned in pain while grabbing the bloodied +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp lodged in his left eye socket.

Another thing he managed to do just in time was grab the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp before it dug deep into his eye socket, as the next worst thing after losing his third eye was dying from having his brain pierced.

“You damn bastard...!” Count Arial growled in anger and channeled his mana into the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp before opening his third eye.

“Die!”

Woooong!

Siegfried used Wave of Oppression, interrupting Count Arial’s flow of mana.

Poof...!

Count Arial’s third eye emitted a radiant green light that suddenly dimmed like a broken lightbulb upon getting interrupted by the Wave of Oppression. The third eye still managed to activate its ability, but its effect could only be described as pathetic.

Plop...!

Siegfried was supposed to die instantly after getting hit by the third eye’s ability, but all he suffered was a minor nosebleed.

“H-How in the world?!” Count Arial was shocked.

Siegfried smirked and sneered, “You see... I’m really good at hunting down magicians. You can say I’m a magician’s natural predator.”

“H-How...?”

“Ah, shut it. It’s time for a good beating,” Siegfried said, waving his hand. Then, he pulled out the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp and set it aside before clenching his fists.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Bam! Bam! Smack!

He threw a jab followed by Machine Gun Smash that focused on Count Arial’s solar plexus.

“Bleuuuuurgh!”

Count Arial fell to his knees and vomited thick yellow fluid. He had proclaimed to be God, but he was now on his knees, puking out his guts.

“This is the problem, right?” Siegfried asked, grabbing Count Arial’s hair and pulling his head up while using his other hand to grab the third eye.

“A-Argh!”

“Yeah, this is the root of all problems.”

“P-Please...! N-Not that!”

“Have you ever heard of the phrase sucking the ink out of your eyes?”

“...?”

“It’s something like this,” Siegfried said. He forced his fingers into the third eye and grabbed it.

Bzzzzzt! Zap! Zap!

The third eye seemed to be sentient as it unleashed a wave of energy to resist Siegfried's attack.

“Stay still before I crush you right here and now,” Siegfried growled and used Wave of Oppression at the third eye.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

The threat seemed to have worked as the third eye suddenly became meek.

Chwiiik!

Siegfried pulled out the third eye from Count Arial’s forehead.

“AAAARGHH!” Count Arial screamed in agony as the third eye was pulled out of his forehead. He was bound to feel excruciating pain from it, as the third eye was attached to his brain through the hole opened by surgery using magic, and the pain he was feeling was akin to having his eyeballs pulled out.

“Aaaack! Aaaah! Aaaack!”

“Hey, you’re too noisy,” Siegfried grumbled with a grimace before striking the back of Count Arial’s neck with the side of his hand.

Thud!

Count Arial fell unconscious to the ground.

Ding!

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: You have obtained Third Eye!]

[Alert: You have obtained Almighty Soul!]

The soul fragment possessed by Count Arial was called the Almighty Soul, and it was the fourth soul fragment in Siegfried's hands.

“Alright, that’s four down,’ Siegfried said with a smile. All he had to do was look for the last remaining soul fragment, and then he could finally destroy them.

Once he was done with that, he'd clear the quest from Cheon Woo-Jin, which meant he'd Level 299 in an instant.

Krwaaaang...!

The Barrier of Victory crumbled just then.

“Owner punk! Did you win?!”

“Is that even a question?”

Hamchi greeted Siegfried as soon as the barrier crumbled away.

“Kyu? Owner punk!”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you not kill him?! Kyuuu!”

“Why would I kill something this precious?”

“Kyu? This guy is precious? How?”

“Of course he is,” Siegfried replied as if it was a given. Then, he smirked and added, “He’s like a living codex, so why should I kill him? I’ll brainwash him and extract all information possible before killing him or something.”

“Kyu?”

“Even dried squid can give you some juice if you squeeze it hard enough! Hohoho!”

Siegfried planned to extract Count Arial’s knowledge of magic and give it all to Duke Decimato.

***

“Long live His Majesty, King Siegfried van Proa!”

“Hurrah!”

“Long live the Proatine Kingdom!”

“Hurrah!”

“Long live the coalition forces!”

“Hurrah!”

After the battle, Siegfried and the representatives of each church were met with cheers from both the Proatine soldiers and the crusaders.

The grand reception was something to be expected.

Who was the one who punished the false god, Count Arial, and returned everything back to normal? It was none other than Siegfried.

It was not an exaggeration to say that he carried this war from start to finish.

“Congratulations on your victory!”

“Your Majesty! Congratulations on your victory!”

“Congratulations! You won, hyung-nim!”

The officials of the kingdom paid their respects and congratulated Siegfried for the victory.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”

“An excellent victory, Your Majesty.”

They were followed by Cardinal Shrink and the other representatives.

“I am not the only one who fought this war. Every single one of you worked hard, too. Let us wrap things up here, as the war is not over until we stabilize things. We can celebrate after that.”

Siegfried did not forget to commend and reward those who had garnered merits in this civil war before moving away from the crowd and taking out the Third Eye from his inventory.

[Almighty Soul]

[A soul fragment of the demonic otherworldly existence, Apocalius.]

[It possesses an authority that allows the user to perform a miracle depending on their ability.]

[This soul fragment contains the most abstract power out of all fragments, so it is difficult to tell what kind of ability it possesses.]

[The soul fragment is currently attached to the Third Eye.]

[Type: Soul Fragment]

[Rating: Epic]

[Effect: Allows the user to alter reality (the effect will differ based on the user's ability)]

[Warning: This soul fragment possesses its own ego, and the user might end up getting devoured by it.]

Siegfried used his Rune of Insight to inspect the Almighty Soul, and he ended up shaking his head in disgust reading its details.

“Ughh! If this had fallen into the hands of a Master...”

The fact that Count Arial was only Level 299 was definitely a good thing. Siegfried was already shivering in fright at the thought of what could have happened if the fragment had fallen into the hands of a Great Wizard.

“I better hand this over quickly before I get cursed or something,” Siegfried grumbled and went to the most dependable person he could think of.

“Duke Decimato.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Please release the spatial distortion magic.”

“As you command.”

Duke Decimato cast his magic and canceled the magic circle in the air.

“Is this how it works? Poof!” Siegfried said, grabbing the Third Eye with one hand and snapping his finger with the other.

Snap!

Siegfried vanished into thin air.

***

Cheon Woo-Jin was in Heaven's Eye, and he had seen everything Siegfried had done to defeat Count Arial.

“Wow... That guy’s like an ant hell... Was he born with that talent to get on people’s nerves? He’s like a human nerve-wrecker at this point...” Cheon Woo-Jin muttered upon recalling how Count Arial was driven to the edge.

Ant Hell.

This was the perfect description for Siegfried’s style, as he'd always drive his opponents into a corner they could never escape from. By the time his opponent realized their dire straits, they'd already be at such a great disadvantage that it would be impossible to recover from it.

What would happen afterward?

Death.

They'd die by getting their heads smashed open by Siegfried.

“Tsk... He’s an expert when it comes to making things advantageous for him before mercilessly killing—”

“Mercilessly what?”

“Mercilessly killing them by smashing their heads open—huh?” Cheon Woo-Jin found it strange that he heard a familiar voice right beside him. He turned around to look and screamed, “Aaaah! You scared the hell out of me!”

Cheon Woo-Jin clutched his chest and lashed out, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Why are you so surprised? Hoho!” Siegfried sneered. Then, he smirked and asked, “Did you do something wrong?”

“W-What the hell are you?! When did you get here? You were down there just a while ago—no, forget about that! You should have said something as soon as you arrived here!"

“You’re one to talk~”

“What?”

“You seemed to have been having fun when you’re the one doing it, but now you're upset because someone did it to you?”

“T-That was...!”

“So you’re fine as long as you’re not the victim? What an asshole.”

“A-Asshole?! Why you little!”

“What? You wanna fight, quickshot?”

“Huh? Quickshot?”

“Ah, my bad. I meant premature ejaculator. Kekeke!”

“Y-You asshole!”

Siegfried and Cheon Woo-Jin grabbed each other and scuffled like kids once again.

Thirty minutes later, the two finally stopped fighting and started talking like civilized men as if they hadn't scratched, bit, and clawed at each other just now.

“But how did you get here? Are you learning magic these days?”

“Magic, your ass. Do you really think I have time to do that?”

“Then?”

“I tried using this,” Siegfried said, holding up the Almighty Soul.

“Huh? I guess that makes sense, but... Are you alright?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked, looking slightly worried. The Soul Fragment of Apocalius was so dangerous that the user could end up getting devoured and possessed by it.

“I’m alright, but it feels repulsive.”

“How so?”

“It keeps whispering that it will grant me powers that will make me as omnipotent as a god.”

“So it’s enticing you...”

“Yeah, this little sly bastard,” Siegfried grumbled. Then, he threw the Almighty Soul to Cheon Woo-Jin and said, “You can have that.”

“Haha! You crazy bastard. Alright, thanks for your hard work.”

“So there’s only one left, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll get going now. See ya,” Siegfried said.

He ran through the window, shattering it as he plummeted to the ground.

“YOU CRAZY BASTAAAARD!” Cheon Woo-Jin screamed in fury with his head sticking out of the window.

Chwaaak!

Siegfried opened his Black Crow Wingsuit and flew like a crow.

“Kekeke!”

He didn't forget to cackle and reveal a despicable grin upon seeing that Cheon Woo-Jin was staring at him.

“Should I... Shoot him down...?” Cheon Woo-Jin muttered under his breath, seriously contemplating whether he should command the armada to fire their cannons at Siegfried or not.

In the end, he exerted superhuman self-control to stop himself from doing that.

***

Siegfried returned to the coalition forces and passed down a few orders before logging out of the game.

Click... Clack!

Tae-Sung's VR capsule opened slowly.

“Ughh...”

Han Tae-Sung squinted and covered his eyes blinded by the sunlight. He initially planned to log out of the game after giving a few orders, but he ended up staying up all night, as there were simply too many things to take care of after the civil war.

“Ah, who cares? Let’s just go to sleep.”

Tae-Sung looked extremely haggard. He hadn't done anything else aside from gaming over the past two weeks just to deal with Count Arial. The only time he had logged out of the game was when he'd eat or sleep. There were even times when he had to sleep in the VR capsule sometimes.

“Ah, I’m so tired...”

Tae-Sung was still tired even after sleeping for such a long while, but he forced himself up to have a quick bite in the restaurant that only the residents could access.

“Welcome, Mr. Han Tae-Sung,” said a chef specializing in Western cuisine. He came over to Tae-Sung's table to greet the latter.

“Ah, hello.”

“You look very tired today.”

“I have not been sleeping that much recently. Yawn...!”

“Haha, you must be busy these days.”

“Ah, I am not always this busy. It just got hectic these past few days.”

They exchanged pleasantries and chatted for a bit when the chef suddenly brought up something.

“Oh right, you look good together.”

“Huh? Do you mean this?” Tae-Sung asked, pointing at his old tattered shirt.

“Eh? N-No, I meant your girlfriend.”

“Huh...?”

“I heard you already received approval from your future father-in-law too.”

“What...? I know there were rumors about me, but Father-in-law...?”

Tae-Sung was at a loss for words. He had no idea what the chef was talking about at all.