Chapter 2247 – 2247. Rezo
[Activating Heavenly Heart. Lasts for 1 minute.]
The moment I activated Heavenly Heart, my body felt lighter. The curse that had been negatively affecting me vanished instantly.
Rezo’s pupils shook wildly. He realized that the curse on me had disappeared.
“The curse is completely gone? What the hell did you do? I’ve never heard of such an ability.”
“The world is wider than you think.”
I closed the distance with Rezo. He moved his lips, muttering something. It sounded like an African language, and I couldn’t understand it. The moment his muttering ended, an ominous purple energy struck my body.
Unlike the curse that had been secretly clinging to me, this one was coming at me openly. I hesitated for a moment whether to dodge or not. Just because I used Heavenly Heart doesn’t mean I’m invincible. It only makes me immune to status ailments. If that was just a curse with the power to harm me, the effect of Heavenly Heart wouldn’t work, and I would be hit.
I could use a Flash to avoid the curse attack. But I would miss the chance to attack. After some deliberation, I decided to move forward. I had to push him now while he hadn’t fully grasped my condition. The duration of Heavenly Heart was exactly 60 seconds. I couldn’t waste a single second.
[Using Acceleration. Lasts for 10 minutes. Remaining stacks: 10]
[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 9]
Forward.
I went through the purple energy. The curse tried to cling to my body but slipped past and disappeared. It was a status ailment-type curse. Rezo quickly raised his weapon to block my attack.
“The curse doesn’t work?!”
[Using Time Acceleration. Remaining stacks: 4]
Ignoring his surprise, I swung my sword and blade, pushing him relentlessly. Each swing of my sword flashed with lightning, illuminating the surroundings.
Rezo managed to block my attacks somehow… but his openings were clear as day to me.
‘He said he learned shamanism? In the end, he’s just fighting by channeling spirits. Whether it’s a god or a minor ghost is beside the point… Just looking at his pure martial arts skills, he’s not that strong.’
While exchanging blows, I deliberately showed an opening. As if waiting for it, a counterattack came. I narrowly dodged the incoming sword and counterattacked, slashing Rezo’s shoulder with the Hwaryeon Flying Blade.
The Hwaryeon Flying Blade bounced off Rezo’s shoulder.
I had cut something. Not Rezo’s shoulder, but something else.
‘He said he covered his body with curses? Dozens of curses are protecting his body. I need to deal with that invisible curse armor first.’
There was no clever trick. I just had to keep attacking to destroy it. Divine power didn’t work either. Rezo’s curse was different from something that could be called impure.
I continued my offensive. And finally, the tip of the Hwaryeon Flying Blade cut through Rezo’s skin. It left a diagonal cut on his upper body. The wound was shallow, but the curse armor was breached.
Rezo, startled, lost his balance. It was a fatal mistake on his part.
[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 3]
‘This is the end.’
I was about to strike his neck with the Hwaryeon Flying Blade when Rezo’s body disappeared. All that was left in its place was a straw doll. I quickly turned my head. Because I had my senses spread out, I could find Rezo who had appeared a short distance away.
“Your substitution is top-notch. Why don’t you use that ability to run away?”
“Unfortunately, it’s a trick that can only be done in this place…”
I was about to rush at the wounded Rezo but stopped. My legs wouldn’t move. Looking down, I saw a translucent nail embedded in the top of my foot.
“Now the curse is working. It seems that the previous state had its limits. About one minute, I guess. You can’t use such a dangerous ability continuously.”
The effect of Heavenly Heart had ended. I had inflicted a fatal wound on him, but I couldn’t finish him off. How could I remove the nail curse embedded in my foot? I thought briefly and then unleashed lightning.
Crackling.
Lightning flowed through my leg, weakening the curse. It was effective, but it would take some time for the curse to completely burn away.
“Blood is an indispensable element in curses. Especially the blood of a skilled curse user and a medium is even more precious. In this situation, I will have to press you down with curses, even if it means taking a loss.”
Rezo smeared the blood flowing from his upper body on his hands and then scattered it on the floor. It seemed like he was scattering it randomly, but strange patterns were drawn on the floor.
“I curse you. Your past, your present, your future. I curse your very existence.”
I felt suffocated. I felt a pressure that seemed to squeeze my whole body. It felt like the world was trying to erase me.
“Arise.”
From the east, west, south, and north of me, specters appeared. Specters wearing voodoo masks. They shook wooden staffs with skulls on them, performing a kind of ritual. The pressure on my body intensified.
It was obvious that this was an instant kill. At the end of his curse, I would eventually die.
‘I can resurrect with Full Recovery. But… I can’t just die without resisting.’
Meteor Sword.
Five Meteor Swords were summoned from the sky and fell towards Rezo and the specters. Rezo flicked the Meteor Swords away with a gesture, and the specters melted away from the mana contained in the Meteor Swords, but they continued the ritual.
‘Meteor Sword.’
Swords wrapped in blue light continued to fall from the sky.
Quakwakwakwang!
The surroundings were devastated by the countless falling Meteor Swords. The specters melted away and disappeared. However, the Meteor Swords couldn’t reach Rezo.
‘I underestimated him, thinking he was just a curse user… He’s more troublesome than I thought. Are all S-ranks like this?’
Rezo’s curse ritual continued. I kept pouring Meteor Swords that couldn’t reach him while thinking about what to do next.
About dying and resurrecting with Full Recovery.
Given Rezo’s personality, he didn’t seem like he would let his guard down. Playing dead wouldn’t work either. The only good thing was that his complexion had been rapidly deteriorating since earlier. Rezo was also exhausted.
Bang! Kwaaaang! Bang bang bang!
The Meteor Swords that were embedded in the ground exploded, overturning the ground. I wasn’t just mindlessly pouring Meteor Swords.
‘This space itself is Rezo’s domain, so it’s filled with curses. I need to make it a mess, even a little, to make the next battle easier.’
“You seem puzzled.”
“Huh?”
“Because your attacks don’t reach my body. Since this is the end, I’ll tell you. This is also a curse. A curse that doesn’t reach. A curse that wanders forever, the curse of the oasis…. It’s a curse made by mixing related curses. Unless it’s a ranged attack with special power, it can’t reach me.”
“That’s a broken ability.”
“Well, in the end, this is also a curse. It has limits, and it requires a price. It’s not an ability that can be used often. I acknowledge you as my equal. So.”
He stopped talking. Was he trying to piss me off on purpose? As I felt puzzled, Rezo turned his head sharply to the side. A shockwave erupted from one side and swept through. In the aftermath, Rezo’s voodoo mask broke and fell off.
Rezo’s face was contorted with rage.
“Lee Yeon-sook…!!”
“You said it’s a curse that doesn’t reach? It seems it doesn’t work on the wind.”
A middle-aged woman in a suit walked over, rotating her wrist. Behind Lee Yeon-sook was Mi-ryeong, who looked a little tired. Mi-ryeong waved her hand as soon as she saw me.
“Husband! Ah, it seems we came at a very dangerous time. You’re grateful, right?”
Mi-ryeong approached quickly. As she got closer, the curses disappeared, and my body felt more comfortable. Rezo was not paying attention to this side and was only glaring at Lee Yeon-sook.
“I have never forgotten the bitch who killed my son, Bian.”
“The people who lost their families because of your terrorism must feel the same. Seeing you, who killed other people’s families, trying to avenge your own family… it’s so ridiculous it’s not even funny. I’ll kill you by blowing your head off, just like your son.”
“Lee Yeon-sook! Even if it means sacrificing everything, I will kill you!!”
Blood burst from Rezo’s body. The blood droplets didn’t fall to the ground but stayed in the air and took the shape of flies. I swallowed hard. I didn’t know much about curses, but if I got hit by that, I felt like I would die within 10 seconds. It felt that malicious and ominous.
“Wow. That’s a curse that completely uses up one’s own life force. It seems he never intended to go back alive from the beginning.”
The fly shapes seeped back into Rezo’s body. Meanwhile, dozens of specters appeared and attacked Lee Yeon-sook, but none of them inflicted any significant damage on her.
“Barrier Armor. Specters can’t break through that woman’s barrier. Even if it’s not in perfect condition, she’s already a walking fortress.”
Rezo’s body in front of Lee Yeon-sook swelled up greatly. I knew he was trying to self-destruct. He had turned his own body into a living bomb.
“Let’s fall into hell together. If it’s to kill you… I will gladly walk into hell!”
“Go to hell alone.”
Lee Yeon-sook took a stance and threw a punch. The space in front of her fist seemed to distort, and then a tremendous shockwave erupted, sweeping through Rezo’s upper body. The shockwave spread out in a fan shape and completely obliterated the top of the mountain peak.
‘A mountain peak is blown away with one punch? Is this what an S-rank is? No, it’s not just a normal punch, it must have involved complex techniques….’
Seeing her calmly smoking a cigarette even after blowing away a mountain peak, I could tell she was no ordinary person.
Mi-ryeong looked elsewhere and clicked her tongue briefly.
“It seems I’ll have to get the last hit. Please wait a moment. I’ll be back in 5 minutes.”
Mi-ryeong jumped over a broken tree and headed somewhere.
