Chapter 424: . Support

424. Support (1)

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Oliver, half-conscious, chewed on something.

He had no idea what it was, only that he was starving, so he bit into it out of instinct.

It was meat. A new kind of meat.

It wasn’t pork, beef, or lamb. Oliver had never tasted anything like it before, yet it was unusually full of life.

Almost to the point of feeling artificial.

Normally, Oliver would have been curious about what it was, but hunger had consumed him. He couldn’t focus on anything except chewing.

He was just that hungry.

The meat was tough and had a metallic taste, but its vitality was unmatched.

As he chewed, Oliver felt his life-threatening hunger gradually fading.

He could feel the nutrients replenishing his exhausted body, starting from his veins and muscles.

Barely, but he could move again.

“So hungry…”

Oliver muttered as he opened his half-glazed eyes.

Because he was really that hungry.

He felt that if he could just eat a little more, he would be fine.

“…Flesh Cook?”

As his blurry eyes began to focus, Oliver spoke without realizing it.

He was staring at the Flesh Cook standing awkwardly in front of him.

Though he had lost consciousness briefly and didn’t know why, something was wrong with the Flesh Cook.

The Flesh Cook was clutching his right palm with his left hand, as if it was injured, and was keeping a cautious distance from Oliver, watching him intently.

It wasn’t just caution.

The Flesh Cook also displayed emotions of confusion, shock, surprise, doubt, fear, and above all, terror.

It was as if he was looking at an entirely different, unknown being—an unfamiliar terror born of ignorance.

Oliver didn’t know why, but he soon found out.

After wiping away the liquid dripping from his lips.

It was blood. Red blood.

When Oliver saw the red blood on his hand and the wound on the Flesh Cook’s palm, he understood the connection to the meat he had just consumed.

“Oh, no…”

Oliver covered his mouth with his thin, bony hand.

He was quite shocked. Right? No matter how hungry you are, eating human flesh…

Even though there was someone right in front of him who specialized in that, it still felt… wrong.

Oliver couldn’t figure out how to respond.

He was surprised, but only just.

Eating human flesh was certainly disturbing, but he was also relieved that his hunger was gone.

It was truly a complicated and confusing feeling.

So Oliver decided to apologize first.

“Um… I’m sorry?”

He apologized to the Flesh Cook, his stomach grumbling.

Even though they were already fighting to the death, eating someone’s flesh still felt wrong in many ways.

The Flesh Cook showed no reaction to the apology, and an awkward silence followed.

As Oliver wondered what to do, the Flesh Cook finally spoke.

It was an incomprehensible story.

“…I won’t accept it.”

“Sorry?”

“Whatever you are… Making me feel this way again, I won’t accept it!!”

Oliver instinctively focused the Warlock’s Eye on the Flesh Cook’s emotions.

He felt humiliation, helplessness, and fear, and at the same time, denial of these feelings, replaced by stubbornness, resolve, and anger.

It seemed like it was because of Oliver, but he couldn’t tell why exactly.

Meanwhile, the Flesh Cook sharpened his nails and infused them with emotion, launching a slashing attack.

Ten fingers, ten nails, ten slashes spiraled across the walls, ceiling, and floor, and then surged toward Oliver.

Even though the room was spacious, it was ultimately a closed space. It was difficult to dodge.

Then, counterattack…

Oliver grabbed a dagger and thought but quickly realized it was a foolish idea.

He had incinerated them all when he used Black Sun.

Oliver had no means to block the Flesh Cook’s attack.

Grrrrr.

At that moment, at the perfect timing, Oliver’s stomach growled.

In that instant, Oliver realized he had one thing left.

Hunger.

As soon as he understood this, Oliver followed his instincts. He extracted hunger and infused it into the dagger, activating a black magic.

[Voracity]

Normally, Voracity utilized emotions like greed and obsession, but Oliver, on a whim, used his hunger to activate it. Fortunately, it worked.

The dagger, infused with black magic, opened its mouth and in one sweep devoured the Flesh Cook’s oncoming slashes that had covered the entire sewer.

“…!!”

The Flesh Cook’s eyes widened in shock at the sight. Oliver was equally amazed.

Even though Voracity could not always devour large quantities or high-quality magic or black magic…

The Blood Magic of Batory was a prime example.

Yet all nine slashes that had filled the entire sewer were consumed.

Using only a small amount of hunger.

‘Lucky.’

Judging it as such, Oliver swung the dagger with Voracity in it.

“Spit it out.”

Following Oliver’s request, Voracity inside the dagger regurgitated the ten slashes it had swallowed, merging them into one massive slash.

It looked ten times bigger.

The flustered Flesh Cook tried to block it by empowering his arms and wings with black magic, but the massive slash not only tore through his wings but also severed one of his arms.

Oliver was surprised once again.

Considering the Flesh Cook was unscathed by Duncan’s undead puppet’s punch, Seamus’s tree pillar, and Batory’s iron stake, losing an arm was shocking.

It almost made him feel disoriented.

‘Is it because it’s his own emotions? Has he weakened?’

Whatever it was, it was uncertain.

However, one thing was clear: now was the opportunity. Oliver approached the Flesh Cook, dagger in hand.

The Flesh Cook, seemingly still rattled by the previous attack, staggered back as Oliver got closer, visibly disturbed.

He was on the verge of panic.

Finally making up his mind, the Flesh Cook used black magic.

[Disease Parade]

The Flesh Cook used black magic that Oliver had never seen before.

Oliver instinctively knew this was the Flesh Cook’s unique black magic.

Because the freshly severed arm of the Flesh Cook and the blood scattered on the floor acted as a catalyst, giving birth to numerous diseases and debilitation-type black magic.

The arm, which had accumulated life force over hundreds of years through cannibalism, held an unimaginable amount of nutrients considering its size, and these nutrients nurtured countless disease-debilitation-type black magics.

Rot, breeding ground of disease, immunity weakening, skin weakening, coughing sickness, phlegm disease, eye disease, skin inflammation, ear disease, green respiratory inflammation, aggressive yellow pus inflammation, red bubbles, skin petrification, mold and moss, parasitic mushrooms, host mushrooms, red split disease, black smallpox, blood cold syndrome, vascular shrinkage disease, acute myocardial infarction, cerebral atrophy, proliferating cancer, and more.

From mild disease-debilitation-type black magic to lethal ones, over a hundred diseases spread throughout the entire sewer, devouring each other and fusing in real-time to create new diseases.

The spell was basic yet complex and vast, leaving even Oliver in awe, though he had one question.

Why was he still intact?

“…?”

Even though the surroundings were tainted by disease, Oliver’s body showed no significant change, leading him to look at the Flesh Cook.

It was a silent inquiry, asking why.

The Flesh Cook also displayed doubt when he saw that Oliver was unharmed, but unlike Oliver, he soon found the answer.

It was as if he had realized something, and as his emotions fluctuated, particularly with doubt and denial, he finally seemed to accept it, emanating feelings of humiliation and inferiority.

His emotions were indeed volatile.

Oliver was curious to know what the Flesh Cook had figured out. He was about to ask when the Flesh Cook, with wings only partially healed, spread them wide and flew away through the large hole in the ceiling.

He ran away.

Considering how confident the Flesh Cook had been, it was an entirely unexpected move.

A flustered Oliver instinctively reached out, trying to extract the Flesh Cook’s emotions, magic, life force, and more, but the Flesh Cook was too fast. Oliver barely managed to extract anything before losing him.

‘What now? This is tricky… With this small amount, I can escape, but tracking him down would be difficult.’

As Oliver contemplated while looking at the emotions of the Flesh Cook in his hand, his eyes spotted a significant amount of emotion nearby.

Decomposed flesh, moss, mushrooms, and bubbling diseases filled the entire sewer.

Oliver picked up the fallen Quarterstaff and mumbled.

“Will it work?”

Oliver reached out to the disease-ridden swamp spreading across the sewer.

“Extract.”

***

Zzzz! Zzzz! Zzzz!

A small yet distinct sound, like that of insect wings, echoed as a purple portal opened on the rooftop of a building near the Mechanical Tower.

Oliver, draped in the Emotion Robe, came out of the portal he had created before approaching the Mechanical Tower.

As soon as he stepped out of the portal, Oliver could see.

A massive hole near the Mechanical Tower, causing the enormous 600-meter structure to tilt slightly.

Flesh Cook was flying toward the top of the Mechanical Tower.

The moment Oliver spotted Flesh Cook, he spread out his emotions, taking control of the long-range support corpses he had set up near the tower, preparing for bombardment.

Aiming directly at the Mechanical Tower.

As he intentionally gathered his power, making it obvious, the Flesh Cook halted his flight and immediately reacted.

As expected, targeting the tower was the correct choice.

Given the characteristics of the corpses, they couldn’t target the fast-moving Flesh Cook, so it was wiser to make him move.

Oliver ordered the corpses to bombard the Mechanical Tower.

The six-legged, six-armed, three-torsoed corpse, equipped with a large cannon, followed Oliver’s order and launched a powerful, compressed mass of energy at the tower, but even with his injured wings, the Flesh Cook quickly flew over to block it.

Oliver wondered. Was the reason the Flesh Cook was desperately protecting the Mechanical Tower because of the ritual being conducted at its top, or was it about his sister?

‘I can just check myself.’

As the Flesh Cook blocked the bombardment, Oliver took out some papers from inside his robe and threw them toward the tilted Mechanical Tower.

To open a portal and move there instantly.

However, the Flesh Cook, who had once fallen for Oliver’s portal attack, immediately sensed it. While blocking the bombardment, he spread his emotions and gave a signal to something inside the Mechanical Tower.

Oliver wondered what it was, and he soon found out.

A massive number of creatures poured out from the tower.

Creatures with a woman’s head, a bird’s body, and insect wings; Pegasus-like creatures with oddly human-like faces; winged pigs; pterosaur-like creatures shaped like dolls, and more.

All sorts of bizarre creatures swarmed out of the tower like bees from a hive.

Their goal was to intercept the paper Oliver had thrown and attack him as well.

Oliver found himself in a difficult situation where he could be attacked just by standing there or by attempting to activate the portal.

If he didn’t respond appropriately, he wouldn’t be able to stop the Flesh Cook and his sister.

After making up his mind, Oliver briefly thought before tossing the paper into the air, opening a portal, and again entering it, reemerging directly in front of the Mechanical Tower.

The strange creatures lunged at Oliver immediately, as if they were waiting for him.

At that moment, Oliver used his Emotion Robe to activate black magic.

[Disease Parade]

It was an imitation and an improved version of the Flesh Cook’s unique black magic, Disease Parade. As it was cast, Oliver’s robe bristled like a cat’s fur, scattering emotion particles infused with various diseases, turning the surrounding area black.

Rot, breeding ground of disease, immunity weakening, skin weakening, coughing sickness, phlegm disease, eye disease, skin inflammation, ear disease, green respiratory inflammation, aggressive yellow pus inflammation, red bubbles, skin petrification, erosion moss, parasitic mushrooms, host mushrooms, red split disease, black smallpox, blood cold syndrome, vascular shrinkage disease, acute myocardial infarction, cerebral atrophy, proliferating cancer, and more. Over a hundred diseases.

Normally, it would have been impossible without a catalyst, but this time luck was on his side.

Because of the shortage of emotions, Oliver was able to counter the diseases the Flesh Cook had spread in the sewer by reversing his emotions.

The creatures created from Fen’s shattered soul were infected by over a hundred diseases, falling from the sky.

Dodging the creatures, Oliver reshaped his robe into wings, using Targeting to fly to the top of the Mechanical Tower.

Tap.

As soon as he arrived at the top, Oliver could see.

The complex interior of the massive Mechanical Tower, filled with interlocking gears.

The floor of the tower was entirely open, seemingly to pull in emotions, and a jagged, bizarre pattern resembling a crown was etched into the very top of the ceiling.

And within that massive pattern, there was a small crack.

A crack about the size of a dressing table mirror.

Through the crack, familiar, yet ominous black energy dripped out, and Gretel, the Flesh Cook’s sister, was lapping up the hellish energy like a dog.

Considering the entire Capital of Gallos was being used, the scale seemed somewhat small, but something else caught Oliver’s attention.

A faint, misty figure standing right next to Gretel.

It took the form of a person, though it was unclear whether it was male or female, and it was riding a distorted camel.

The moment Oliver saw it, he knew it was a demon.

It gave off a similar vibe to the old man on the horse he had encountered in the past.

This demon too wasn’t directly present in reality. It had manifested indirectly through surrounding objects. Still, Oliver instinctively knew it was an unstoppable force.

Even though it was made of smoke, he couldn’t even imagine attacking it.

Fortunately, the demon, whether male or female, didn’t appear hostile towards Oliver.

It turned its smoky body towards Oliver, raised its hand to its chest, and bowed politely, just like the old man on the horse had done.

The only difference was, it smiled.

Following the gesture, Oliver returned the greeting politely and immediately reached towards the crack.

The narrow gap that was closing as the flow of emotion was cut off.

Oliver spoke in a low voice.

“Ex━”

━Bang!!

Before Oliver could finish his words, something rapidly flew at him from below, ramming into him.

It was the Flesh Cook.

After protecting the Mechanical Tower from the bombardment and destroying the long-range support corpses, he flew at Oliver using his tattered wings, crashing into him.

At the perfect timing.

Luckily, despite being interrupted, Oliver wasn’t seriously hurt.

Right? Even though he collided with the indomitable Flesh Cook.

Even with the Emotion Robe, Oliver’s body should have been shattered. But it wasn’t.

‘Has the Flesh Cook’s power weakened?’

Oliver wondered but soon shook his head.

Though his stamina was depleted and his body was covered in minor wounds, something seemed off.

It was a mystery he couldn’t solve.

Over the sound of the blunt wind, Oliver asked.

“Doesn’t something seem off to you?”

The Flesh Cook’s expression darkened even more at the question.

Though Oliver didn’t know why, the Flesh Cook’s emotions were filled with injustice and anger towards him. The Flesh Cook tried to launch another slashing attack, exploding his emotions while still holding Oliver.

In response, Oliver used his robe to create a slashing attack to counter.

When the two slashing attacks collided, a sharp shockwave erupted, causing the Flesh Cook to lose his grip on Oliver.

From over 600 meters in the air.

[Targeting]

As Oliver fell, he used Targeting on his hand and the Flesh Cook’s body, increasing their mutual attraction.

To cling to him and avoid falling alone or perhaps to fall together.

Fortunately, Oliver’s plan worked, and the fall was halted.

Just as he felt relieved, something quickly approached from behind.

It was Gretel, who had absorbed a small amount of hellish energy.

Imbued with tremendous power incomparable to before, she flew toward Oliver.

Her long nails sharpened.

It was clear she intended to stab Oliver while he was defenseless in the air.

Oliver reached out to extract her power but couldn’t bridge the gap in distance and speed.

If he continued to act, she would definitely skewer him.

At that moment, a paper imbued with magic flew in from somewhere, striking Gretel, who had consumed the hellish power, and sent her flying far away.

Oliver turned his head toward the direction the paper had come from.

There stood Merlin. Merlin of the Archive.

“Looks like I’m a bit late.”