Chapter 1462.2

Most of the people from the banquet had gathered in a massive open chamber, trembling in fear. Towering over them was an enormous ogre that was advancing with thunderous footsteps.

Boom. Boom.

“Ratius!!” Khrones shouted in shock, having spotted him standing between the ogre and the others.

“K-Khrones?! You idiot! What are you doing here?! Run!”

Ratius was covered in blood. Even with a glance, it was clear his condition was terrible. He was already covered in severe injuries. One of his arms was clearly broken, twisted at an unnatural angle, while one of his legs dragged against the ground behind him.

Khrones reluctantly asked, “How are you getting beaten by a single ogre...?”

“Watch out!! That thing's a monster!!”

Alas, the ogre had already hurled its massive body toward Khrones.

He immediately drew the magic sword he stored in his artifact and swung it, intending to split the ogre clean in two. Yet, to his astonishment, the moment his aura-infused blade touched it, its flesh distorted around it like slime.

“What?!”

Boom!!!

His sword passed straight through the ogre as though it had struck empty air.

A moment later, the ogre slammed its fist squarely into his chest.

The aberrant ogre had sent him flying. He breathed heavily once he landed, kneeling on all fours and coughing up a mouthful of blood.

“What the...”

Ratius staggered back to his feet. “That thing... It shrugged off my punches too. Be careful!”

Their attacks had no effect. Meanwhile, the ogre landed brutal punches with apparent ease.

It wasn't invincible, but the youngsters dragged there from the banquet certainly hadn't come equipped with weapons or artifacts meant for fighting monsters. Khrones had only managed to draw his sword because of the bracelet he carried. The others weren’t armed at all.

Ratius taunted the ogre, beckoning it forward with the fingers of his remaining hand, “Hah! You think losing one arm is enough to make me back down? Come on, you fat pig.”

Of course, it was all bravado. After everything he'd already endured, he barely had enough strength left to stand.

“Lady Evangeline, can you hear me?! I'll hold this thing off! Take everyone and head deeper inside! There should be a way out of this place in there!!”

Evangeline blinked in confusion. “How do you know that?”

“Just go when I tell you to go!! I'll hold it here!!” Seemingly having already decided to throw his life away, Ratius charged forward once he finished his command.

Evangeline frowned. “If someone asks you a question, you're supposed to answer it.”

She instantly closed the distance, hooked his leg, threw him off balance, and sent him flying backward.

He screamed in pain while rolling across the ground several times, “Gah!!! What the hell are you doing?!” Even with the ogre right behind her, Evangeline simply looked at him with an indifferent expression.

“I asked how you knew that,” she repeated.

Boom!!!

The ogre's fist came crashing down, but Evangeline had already leapt onto its head.

Slash!!!

She cleanly sliced through the ogre with the Aura Blade enveloping the divine dragon sword, Twilight.

“GRAAAH!!” The monster staggered, roaring in agony, but her attack wasn’t enough to bring it down.

Worse yet, it seemed to possess a troll's regenerative abilities. Its liquid-like, distorted wounds quickly began to heal.

“H-how...?” Ratius stood there with his jaw dropped to the ground as Evangeline casually cut through the ogre and vaulted past it. “You...”

“There's something I've been wondering.” Seeing that even her Aura Blade hadn't shattered its core, Evangeline clicked her tongue. She dismissed Twilight and clenched her fist. “Why do you keep talking down to me? Do you have a death wish?”

[That's right! You insolent brat! Want a lifetime supply of her tteokbokki?!]

Crunch!!! ℯℯ𝑙.

She stomped hard on her own shadow before tightening her fist. “First, let's get rid of this thing.”

Then Ratius shouted in alarm, “With a punch?! No! If you punch it—!”

Ignoring him, she drove her fist straight into its solar plexus.

He finished, “It'll swallow your fist and leave you wide open!!”

That was why he had lost.

As her fist sank deep into its abdomen, she found that it was stuck there, and she frowned. It didn't seem like Ratius had lost his arm to the ogre’s attacks. He'd most likely broke it himself to escape.

At this rate, she was about to end up in the same situation. Yet she didn't care.

“Hyaaah!!”

She'd never intended to defeat it with an ordinary punch in the first place.

Without pulling her fist back, she declared the ability she would use.

[Davey’s Crowd Suppression]

[Fierce Abdominal Strike]

[Shockwave]

Crack!!! Boom!!!

The shock condensed inside her fist exploded outward, sending a massive impact rippling through the ogre. As if that weren't enough, an enormous invisible shockwave descended like a giant hydraulic press and crushed it to the ground.

For a brief instant, she displayed an overwhelming shockwave that the future Evangeline had once used against Doomsday, a force so great it could even crush the air itself.

Crack!

Ssss.

With its core catastrophically damaged, the ogre could no longer maintain its form and instantly collapsed into a puddle.

“So, it isn't a normal living being. Just like a slime, once its core breaks, it can't maintain its shape.” Everyone stared at Evangeline in stunned silence as she continued, “Hmph. It wasn't even that tough.

She walked over to the dumbfounded Ratius and glared at him. “Anyway... Why are you still talking down to me?”

A tiny dokkaebi head suddenly poked out of her shadow.

[You insolent brat! You'll be sentenced to three hundred years of Eva’s tteokbok—Gah!!!]

Evangeline immediately stomped on Shiverwock as it got carried away again, making it retreat back into the shadows with a pitiful yelp.

“Uh. You...”

“Did you just call me ‘you’? You're still talking down to me? Hey.” Evangeline marched over and gave him a kick to the chest. “Who do you think you are? Why do you keep talking to me like that? Are we friends? Is your family more important than a grand ducal house? Are you stronger than my dad?”

She bombarded him with questions, leaving Ratius too stunned to answer. When Evangeline grabbed him by the collar and started lifting him off the ground, Khrones hurried over and grabbed her arm.

Then she closed the distance in an instant, hooked his leg, threw him off balance, and tossed him backward too.

“C-calm down, Lady Evangeline!”

She yelled, “Let go! This asshole keeps pissing me off!”

The elegant, graceful young lady everyone had seen at the banquet was nowhere to be found. Faced with the fiery, hot-blooded girl before them, the onlookers couldn't tell whether they were dreaming or not.

“Gaaah. I... I can't breathe...”

Apparently, her grip was absurdly strong. His face had turned blue as he weakly slapped at her hand gripping his throat.

Thud.

The moment she let go, he collapsed onto the floor. He laughed and gasped like a madman between painful groans.

“Ratius!”

Khrones and Crama hurried over to check on him. After making sure everyone else was safe, Eosha slowly walked over to Evangeline. “It looks like everyone made it safely... except for one.”

Evangeline was surprised. “One?”

“Lady Rune Bertas.”

Only then did Evangeline realize the blonde duke's daughter who had picked a fight with her earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“Lady Evangeline, what I'm about to say is only speculation,” Eosha began.

“Go on.”

She began, “The Bertus family has served as the imperial court's royal mages for generations.”

“Right.”

“And this incident involved a large-scale warping barrier cast inside the imperial palace.” Her face hardened, and she let out a sigh. “I don't have any proof, but... I believe the Commander of the Imperial Mage Corps may have been involved.”

If Duke Bertus had truly taken part in it all, it wouldn't have been strange if he'd secretly moved only his daughter somewhere safe.

Eosha was sure to leave herself a way out after that declaration, of course. “Still, it's only a theory. There's also the possibility she's simply been separated from everyone else.”

“So what are you trying to say?”

“Whether we abandon her or go looking for her... I'll leave that decision to you. Whatever you decide, I'll gather every bit of information I can about this dungeon.”

Evangeline couldn’t help but sigh. “Shiverwock.”

[What?]

“Go find her. It's only a theory, but if we're wrong, saving even that walking tumor could keep this from turning into an even bigger problem.”

She reached into her shadow, pulled the little dokkaebi out by the scruff, and threw it to the side.

“And if you don't, I'll tell Dad everything that happened today.”

[Damn it!]

Still in its tiny form, Shiverwock vanished back into the shadows. Evangeline then turned back toward Ratius. “So you. How did you know the exit was beyond here? Huh?”

“Huh? Why are you suddenly talking down to—”

“What? You can talk down to me, but I can't do the same to someone weaker than me?”

“Hmph?!” He flinched at her blunt retort. After a brief pause, he finally answered, “My instincts told me.”

His ridiculous reply left Evangeline speechless. She turned toward Khrones. “Can I kill this idiot?”

“N-no!”

Khrones was known as an unparalleled genius who stayed calm under any circumstances and always thought several steps ahead. Yet, standing there before Evangeline, he couldn't muster any confidence at all.

Falling for her at first sight was one problem. Her overwhelming presence was another.

“Still... Ratius isn't entirely wrong. This seems to be a barrier-type dungeon. We've actually discovered a few in our kingdom before. Once you pass through the entrance, you're transported to a completely different space.”

Evangeline didn't want to listen to him ramble. “And?”

“Once the boss is cleared, another rift opens that lets you leave.”

It was similar to Earth's dimensional rifts, though the mechanics differed slightly.

“In that case...” she began.

“If we defeat the boss ahead, we can at least escape this deadly dungeon. If we're lucky, we might even be able to contact the outside world and call for reinforcements.”

“We don't have time! We need to move,” Ratius advised them. “Someone was watching us. The surveillance suddenly stopped, but before it starts again we should—”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that, Your Highness,” Eosha politely informed him. “He's probably still suffering from mana backlash.”

Ratius blinked blankly. “W-what did you... I mean... may I ask you to repeat what you just said, m’lady?”

Seeing him suddenly remember his manners, Evangeline recalled the owner of that watchful gaze. That was the one she'd forced into a mana backlash with her Fear when she'd first arrived.

Only then did she realize why everyone there had managed to survive. After she'd incapacitated the one serving as their eyes, the enemy had lost track of them.

If that was the case, she needed to know where the enemy would be waiting.

Evangeline looked toward the massive door at the far end of the chamber. While they might not have complete control over the dungeon, if they were still controlling at least part of it...

“Whatever the case, there’s got to be something behind that door. The way out... and them.”

The enemy was likely waiting in the boss room. Evangeline started walking toward it.

“H-hey... Where are you... going?” The moment she shot him a cold glare, Ratius hurriedly corrected himself, “I-I mean... where are you going, m’lady?”

“You just said the boss is behind this door. If beating the boss lets us leave, then let's go already. What's there to think about?”

“T-that's true, but... what if those monsters with that terrifying presence show up again?”

Before he could finish speaking, she clenched her fist.

“Excuse me! I've come to share some wonderful news!”

Boom!!!

Her punch blasted the massive doors apart.

Ignoring the traps that were destroyed along with them, she glanced back. “Don't worry. Those creepy guys with the monster aura you mentioned? They're all in here.”

If one couldn't track their enemy, one simply had to wait where they had no choice but to come.

The boss room stretched out before them. A handsome young man sat upon a massive throne, with four figures in black robes standing beside him like attendants.

Evangeline strode straight inside.

“Y-you... you damn bitch!” One of the robed figures staggered forward and shouted. “My lord! It's her! She's the one who backlashed my mana! You must be careful! She has the same kind of Fear as you—”

Before he could finish, an overwhelming pressure flooded the room. It wasn't the Fear of a hatchling. It was the Fear of a full-fledged dragon.

Everyone exposed to it staggered or collapsed to their knees. Those with weak wills began hyperventilating, with some even foaming at the mouth. Others coughed up blood.

“Silence.” The handsome man on the throne fixed his gaze on Evangeline. “So... one of my own kind.”

He slowly rose to his feet.

“Although... judging by what I see, you're nothing more than a disgusting half-breed.” He walked toward her with leisurely steps. “Don't look directly at me with those eyes, filthy half-breed.”

“You,” Evangeline said as she met his gaze. “Are you the one behind all this?”

The young man smiled coldly. “You certainly ask a lot of questions. It seems your dragon blood hasn't completely faded. Unfortunately, you are wrong. There are those who share our goals everywhere. Humans are such foolish creatures.”

He spoke indirectly, but the meaning was obvious. He was the one leading the organization.

With his hands casually tucked into his pockets, he continued walking toward Evangeline. After all, she was the only person still standing.

He gave a smirk and continued, “I'm glad you brought everyone here for me. It saves me the trouble of hunting them down one by one.”

“I heard this is the boss room. So where's the boss?”

“The boss?” He pointed behind him. “You mean that?”

A giant cyclops was pinned against the wall. It was still alive, but completely subdued. It seemed they had intentionally kept it alive since killing it would clear the dungeon.

Then he introduced himself, beginning, “Since you are part dragon, introductions are only polite. Tell me, little half-breed. Which clan do you belong to?”

"I’m Evangeline O’Rowane, third daughter of Davey O’Rowane.”

The moment she spoke, he grinned.

No, it was more than a grin. It was the kind of smile that sent chills down the spine.

“I see. Davey O’ Rowane, eh? What a nostalgic name. I haven't heard that name in a very long time.”

“What?”