Chapter 346: Interference (1)
"Why did it turn out like this?"
Theodoor looked at the spear embedded in his arm and the massive bean stalk growing from it, deep in thought.
Even though these were beings from beyond this world, he himself had encountered such beings several times, fought them, and even absorbed some.
So why was he now finding himself increasingly on the defensive? He hadn't let his guard down, and he hadn't gone easy...
"Is it because this is such an exceptional rare case? ...No, even so, this shouldn't be happening. It shouldn’t! How could I be pushed back by some mere kid...!!"
Despite his young age, Dave showed limitless potential and talent, yet Theodoor couldn’t accept the fact that he was being overpowered by such an opponent. He raised his arm in defiance.
From his arm, countless other arms sprouted, forming enormous tentacles. Theodoor planned to wipe out these pests with a single blow.
Though his mana barrier had been shattered through a surprising chain of attacks, that was the extent of his opponent’s limits.
He was certain that by getting rid of them with one strike and tearing out the bean stalk, he could turn the tide of battle back in his favor.
Being pushed back earlier was just because of an unexpected move by Dave. Now that Theodoor had seen through his tactics, there was no longer any possibility of victory for his opponent.
Just as he thought this and swung his tentacled arm, Dave came forward, casting black magic on him without any protective spells on his body.
"[Parasite]"
As Dave chanted, the bean stalk began to change.
It wriggled as though it had a will of its own, sprouting a mouth that began to suck out the various energies from Theodoor’s body.
Against Theodoor's will.
Even though Theodoor had applied a magical formula to suppress pain, the intense agony was still unbearable, and beyond that, a mysterious fear gnawed at him from within.
The body he had created to surpass Merlin, to escape death, to lead humanity beyond its doom, was now crumbling under the grasp of a mere piece of black magic.
But what happened next shocked Theodoor even more.
Dave absorbed all the emotions, life force, and mana that the bean stalk had stolen from Theodoor and used them to launch an attack back at him.
"Urgh!... Gah!"
A different kind of shock and pain coursed through Theodoor’s body, one unlike anything he'd felt before.
"Why is it this intense...? Is it because it's my own emotions and life force? But still, this is—"
—Thwack!
Before he could finish processing his thoughts, Dave struck him again.
For the first time in ages, Theodoor felt raw, unfiltered pain, and he lost his composure.
No, it wasn’t just that he lost composure. He was falling into fear.
Fear that he might lose, that he might die.
"No... No... This can't be!!"
Fear ignited Theodoor’s survival instinct, and that instinct stimulated the countless genes of wizards, black magicians, and mana users that had been injected into his body, causing his power to go berserk.
Countless arms sprouted from every direction of Theodoor's body, firing off indiscriminate magic at his surroundings.
It was the result of his survival instinct aligning with the survival instinct of the genes embedded in his body.
Though his attacks were chaotic and without proper control, it wasn't a major issue.
Even though a considerable amount of energy had been stolen by the bean stalk, there was still a substantial amount of emotions, life force, and mana left in his body.
In fact, the situation had even improved slightly.
Thanks to his frenzied attacks, Dave and the corpse puppets, who had been charging at him like mad dogs, hesitated and retreated.
Seeing this opening, Theodoor once again saw a glimmer of hope for victory and gathered all his remaining strength into his fist, preparing to strike.
A single blow to turn the tables.
At that moment, Theodoor saw it.
Dave, who had taken his emotions, life force, and mana, was now combining those three forces to create an artificial soul.
He had succeeded in creating something twice with his bare hands, something not even the Tower of Magic had been able to achieve, and was now strengthening the black magic armor surrounding him as he swung his quarterstaff with all his might.
For a moment, all sound disappeared from the world. The void was torn asunder, and the lake split in half, while Theodoor's arm was shredded into pieces and vanished.
Only one word remained in Theodoor’s mind.
Death.
An overwhelming, absolute death.
The kind of death that renders all human effort and achievement meaningless, turning everything to dust in the end.
The curse bestowed upon humanity by the gods.
"No."
As the corpse puppet-Bathory impaled him with a blood-red stake, Theodoor thought.
"No."
As the corpse puppet-Duncan destroyed his flesh with tonfas, Theodoor thought.
"No, I won’t accept this."
As the corpse puppet-Seamus crushed his face with a fist imbued with the power of nature, Theodoor thought.
"I refuse!!"
When the corpse puppet-sniper blasted a giant hole in his body with a sawed-off shotgun, Theodoor screamed internally.
He didn’t want to die.
At that moment, the core of Theodoor’s essence—what he considered his most important genetic trait—gathered at the center of his being, reaching a higher level of fusion beyond anything he had experienced before.
He surpassed the simple act of fusing multiple elements into one, arriving at a state as if they had been one from the very beginning.
All the impurities that he had absorbed to increase his power expanded outward and were discarded.
It was like purging impurities from iron to temper it.
At over eighty years of age, Theodoor ascended to a higher dimension, tasting the ecstasy of his younger days once again, before his body exploded.
He experienced the searing pain of his body being torn apart alive.
Yet, Theodoor’s consciousness did not falter. In fact, he was even more clear-headed than before.
Though he had lost control over the pieces of his shattered body, Theodoor could still move fragments of his true, refined flesh, proving that the ecstasy he had felt moments earlier was no lie.
Focusing his sharpened consciousness, he slowly began to reassemble his true body, and just as it was nearly complete, he pierced Dave’s back from behind.
Just as he had done to his own grandson.
"I... I will not die!"
Certain of his victory, Theodoor laughed maniacally as he shouted.
Then, he looked at Dave’s face, eager to see the look of shock and fear that would surely mirror his own earlier.
"....."
However, contrary to his expectations, Dave’s expression remained neutral.
There was only a faint glimmer of curiosity—no shock, no fear. He looked at Theodoor as though observing something beneath him.
And in that moment, Theodoor felt once again the same inferiority and absurdity he had tasted in the past.
When his friend Merlin had been selected as an Archive instead of him.
When Merlin had given up human experimentation, only to look at him with eyes filled with pity.
The unbridgeable gap between the Archive and himself.
The empty years that had passed, without him achieving even half of his goals.
The absolute death now approaching within arm’s reach.
The finite fate of a mortal.
The absurd, contradictory destiny looming over humanity.
All the overwhelming absurdity and resentment Theodoor had once felt now came rushing back, compressed into a single moment.
In that instant, Theodoor even thought that the being before him was the source of all his misery. Driven by intense anger and hatred, he sought to pierce Dave’s mind and body with his emotions and life force, just as he had done to his grandson.
He wondered if Dave could maintain that poker face even after his consciousness had been devoured.
Even beings from beyond this world had shown their ugly sides in the face of death.
In order to consume Dave, Theodoor plunged into his mind, burrowing into his memories, and further down, into his very essence.
An endless abyss of pitch-black darkness...
Though the darkness was chilling, Theodoor soon realized that something even more terrifying lay in the deepest part of that darkness.
It opened its eyes and stared at him.
It opened its eyes and stared at him.
It stared at him...
...
...
"......!!"
Theodoor, who had stabbed Dave in the back, suddenly withdrew his hand and began screaming silently.
His emotions, which had been overwhelmed by his fierce survival instinct, were now consumed by fear, and he lost all sense of reason. The vast mana, emotions, and life force inside him flailed wildly as they separated, trying to break free from one another, as if returning to their original forms.
“Ugh...!!”
Dave, observing the maddened Theodoor, touched his chest where there should have been a hole.
There was no physical hole, unlike when Theodoor had devoured his grandson, but the sensation from earlier remained fresh in his memory.
Theodoor had attempted to inject his carefully refined emotions and life force into Dave's body, not only to rob him of physical control but also to absorb his mind.
Just as Theodoor had interfered with Dave's mind, Dave could glimpse into Theodoor's psyche as well.
In the process, Dave was able to partially understand why Theodoor had committed such acts, and he caught glimpses of his knowledge and memories.
It was brief, but enlightening.
The more Dave delved into Theodoor's memories and knowledge, the deeper he was drawn into Theodoor’s inner being. Just as he reached the deepest, most fundamental part of Theodoor’s memories, he pulled back and withdrew his hand, leaving Theodoor in his current state.
Theodoor’s emotions, mana, and life force, which had been absorbed and refined, were now separating and thrashing wildly as he lost his grip on reality.
Dave had no idea why Theodoor was acting this way. What could he have seen to cause such a reaction?
Could it be related to beings from beyond this world?
"The problem is, I don’t know what it could be..."
Dave thought about asking, but upon seeing Theodoor in this frenzied state, he decided it would be pointless.
Theodoor had lost all reason, and even if Dave managed to extract an answer from him, it seemed unlikely he could get the clarity he wanted.
Besides, a part of him was curious to continue observing Theodoor’s current madness.
"This state of insanity... I feel like I've seen or heard of it somewhere before..."
As Dave observed Theodoor’s erratic behavior, he noticed something unusual.
Theodoor's body, which had previously burst and then recovered, was now tearing apart again, this time due to the violent separation of his emotions, life force, and mana.
Just like the body of the puppet he had once fought in the basement of the contaminated zone, pieces of Theodoor's flesh began to take the shape of humans, trying to break free from his body.
However, whether it was due to the long state of fusion or because only some of the genes had been inserted, most of the flesh failed to fully escape, and even those that did quickly collapsed into lumps, sinking beneath the lake’s surface.
At that moment, Dave noticed a familiar figure trying to emerge.
It was Cal, Theodoor’s grandson, who had been absorbed before Dave’s eyes.
Like his grandfather, Cal had lost all reason, and he instinctively thrashed, trying to break free from Theodoor's body.
"Ugh... save me... save me...!!"
By now, the corpse puppets had returned to their positions, showing signs of readiness to attack. However, Dave hesitated for a moment before raising his hand to stop them, then approached Theodoor on his own.
Using mana, Dave activated Ptah's Assistant, a mechanical arm he had forged, and donned a similar glove on his hand. Then, he began surgery on the point where Theodoor and Cal were fused.
He applied the knowledge he had just learned from Theodoor.
It was his first attempt at such a procedure, so the method was rough, but the mechanical arms moved delicately, slowly separating Theodoor’s and Cal’s bodies, which had become entangled like lumps of dough. Eventually, though not perfect, Dave managed to separate the two.
The corpse puppets tilted their heads in confusion at Dave’s strange actions.
They weren't the only ones who were puzzled.
“Why did you save them?”
Dave turned his head in the direction of the voice. There, floating in midair by mana, was Gretel.
“I just felt like punching him... I also have a few things I’d like to say.”