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Chapter 139: Mission Accomplished

~Brakylls’ Perspective~

「Huff, huff… I barely managed to escape…」

I was inside a hidden room within the imperial castle.

In the battle with a Kijin race man called “Aun”, I suffered serious injuries, including losing one wing and an arm. But I managed to escape by getting him to let his guard down with a conversation and activated my medium-distance teleportation magic.

He most likely didn’t put all his strength into it. As evidence of that, not only did he keep his half-playing expression from start to finish, but he also prioritized getting information over killing me. Thanks to that, I had a chance to teleport. But now that I was able to escape and regained my calm, I felt that Aun’s existence was even more frightening. In fact, even though I was feeling relieved, my left hand wouldn’t stop trembling…

「Kuh… It really hurts. I’m not like damn Astrue, so my missing arm won’t grow back.」

I cursed as if to try and calm myself down.

Astrue, Grampals and I are among the demons with simple combat strength… Compared to humans, we would be in a fairly strong category, of course. But when it comes to demons, our strength is really average.

The three of us were entrusted with the mission on the Sphin continent because each of us had special abilities and knowledge.

Astrue has a skill called [Super Recovery]. It is a broken ability that can completely recover her own body in an instant as long as her head and half of her body are safe. If you want to kill Astrue, you must instantly destroy more than 70% of her body. Unless there is a large difference in combat ability, she will not be killed in a one-on-one.

In spite of that, if telepathy doesn’t connect to her, there must have been at least one more person besides Aun who could overwhelm us. It also proves the fact that Astrue is no longer in this world.

Looking at the situation, it would have to be that beastfolk girl. But it’s hard to believe…

Grampals, who was killed by Zoa a few months ago, was a researcher.

His skills were [Extraction] and [Combination]. He was a genius who could turn humans into demons, but there were hundreds of human corpses piled up under the surface of a few successful samples. The failure samples were so gross that even I felt uncomfortable, but the person himself was a crazy bastard who savored watching it.

He said that although this technology was incomplete, it has produced certain results. But even I don’t know where the research results are. Now that I think about it, I shouldn’t have left him alone. He was murdered without conveying where the research materials were, so I couldn’t find them no matter how much I searched. If I had the materials, there might have been a clue to regenerate my body.

And my abilities are [Teleportation] and [Mind Manipulation]. Regarding teleportation, it was applied by combining the skill [Specify Coordinates] and dark attribute magic. Long-distance teleportation between continents and countries entails a great risk if there are no magic tools or collaborators, but if it is about a medium-distance teleportation of about 5km in radius, I can teleport anywhere after a few minutes of preparation.

The conditions for mental manipulation are strict, and there is a limit to how many can be manipulated at the same time. It’s difficult to use during battle, but there’s no problem if the target was much weaker than me. To be more specific, I could manipulate monsters of the lower S rank.

Because of these two abilities, I was able to move between the Sphin Continent and the Magic Continent and manipulate the Empire from the shadows.

The plan went smoothly. Until a few hours ago, that is…

It should have been a plan that had been carefully prepared over a long period of time, but everything collapsed overnight.

「Damnit! If Aun and others weren’t there, the plan would have been completed without a hitch!」

But it’s not over yet… As long as I’m alive, I should be able to rebuild this plan. There are five years left. Even if we can’t throw the entire Sphin continent into chaos, we should be able to destroy at least one country.

With my ability, I can do it!

Only me, Astrue, Grampals, and a few brainwashed people know of the existence of this room. I’ll heal my wounds here for a while, and give priority to returning to the Magic Continent to convey information to the upper levels of Satanas.

——Tap, Tap…

Suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps in a room that should have been empty except for me.

「Who are you!?」

「Does it even matter? You’re going to die anyway. There’s no need for you to know that.」

A man wearing an eerie mask appeared in the dim light of the darkened room.

「You are… No Face!」

「Huh… So even the demons know that name.」

——How does he know about this room?

——How did he know I was coming back here?

——Why at this time… No, since when has he been in this room?

No. What I have to think about now is how to get out of this crisis. Mental manipulation will not work. According to the information I gathered over the years, this guy’s combat power is comparable to an SS rank monster.

In that case, just like with Aun, I have no choice but to buy time with conversation and escape with teleportation. However, I can’t find a topic that this guy would be interested in.

「W-Wait! What is your wish!?」

「My wish?……Your death.」

Shit. I can’t hold a conversation with this guy at all. I still have to buy more time…

「Why! Why are you targeting me! Did I do something to you!?」

「Didn’t you use me? You have to pay for that.」

「Wait a minute! What are you talking about…」

「So noisy… just die.」

Just when the No Face who should have been in front of me disappeared… a chilling voice whispered in my ear.

「When did you–…」

I couldn’t avoid it nor defend it.

I don’t even know when I was cut.

Even so, I could understand the current situation. My field of view was on the ground, watching the blood spraying out from the neck of my headless body.

This man created the current situation.

To show my own headless body on the verge of death… A truly disgusting bastard…

「Rotten…bastard…」

「I’ve known that since decades ago.」

After spitting out those words, No Face lost interest in me and disappeared into his own shadow. It seems that he was also able to use dark attribute magic.

I was left behind in a hidden room with only a few minutes left to live… And in such a situation, there were limits to what I could do.

Where did the plan go wrong?

What happened that we didn’t know about?

There were more humans than I thought who have the combat power to stand against the demons. I have to somehow convey this information to my comrades…

At least, just the name of the guy who put me in this situation…

The mana required for long-distance teleportation can be covered by using my own headless torso.

Besides, even if I don’t do anything, I’ll die in a few tens of seconds. No need to think about risk. It’s fine if only my head is teleported…

When I summoned the last of my strength and activated my skill, my vision turned black.

——I can’t see anything anymore. My eyes were probably crushed by the recoil of forced activation of long-distance teleportation.

In addition, the ringing in my ears wouldn’t stop, and I wasn’t sure if I could hear the sounds around me.

But I feel like I can faintly hear someone calling my name.

I didn’t know where I was now, or whether I was even able to safely teleport to Satanas’ base.

Even so, just one word.

Before the spark of my life goes out, I must say one last word.

The name of the man who could pose a threat to us…

「…au…n…」

When I desperately finished saying those three letters with my crushed throat, my consciousness fell into a deep darkness… and ceased.