Chapter 209: Between Love and Friendship (2)

Yuri had no intention of dragging out the fight.

Once the decision was made, there were only two options left—kill or be killed. So, to avoid dying and to succeed in killing, he unleashed all his firepower.

Mana began to swirl around Guilty.

It grew into a current so intense it shook the entire cavern.

The moment Yuri took a step forward, Sybilla’s eyes turned black.

The tentacles swaying from her back suddenly shot upward and plunged into the whirlwind. That unexpected intrusion shattered the vortex’s fractal structure and caused it to collapse.

The spinning blade broke apart.

Yuri had to endure the full force of the explosion.

His skin was torn open as he was engulfed by the mana blast.

“Kugh…!”

Inside, it was even worse.

But Sybilla didn’t emerge unscathed either. The tentacles she had used as a sword were shredded like rags and trembled violently.

Without another thought, Yuri charged toward Sybilla.

The tentacles blocked his path.

He sliced them into dozens of pieces with Guilty and aimed directly for Sybilla. But the severed fragments reorganized into a wedge shape and stabbed him in the back.

Though the sudden stabbing pain caught him off guard, Yuri didn’t stop and completed the slash with Guilty. However, his strength had waned, and Sybilla blocked the attack with her sword.

She stared at him with pitch-black eyes, even the whites consumed by darkness, and glared fiercely.

Yuri let out a brief laugh and said,

“Let’s stick with the wings. I really don’t like that other stuff.”

“I told you to stop.”

Sybilla twisted her sword to the side and drove her elbow into his chest. Maybe because she’d grown thinner, her bone felt sharp as a blade.

Taking advantage of Yuri’s recoil, she swung. Yuri ducked and spun low with a sweeping kick.

Sybilla stumbled and fell.

Yuri thrust Guilty down without hesitation.

Sybilla couldn’t react in time, but one of the tentacles from her back rose and blocked Yuri’s strike. It coiled around Guilty like a snake and tightened. Yuri’s hand began to tremble.

At that moment, Sybilla kicked him in the stomach.

Yuri fell backward, barely holding on to Guilty. Sybilla sprang up and thrust her sword at him.

Yuri regained his footing and slashed through the air. The Single Strike style aimed for Sybilla’s neck.

But it was shallow. It drew blood, yes, but only a scratch.

As Sybilla touched the wound with a puzzled expression, Yuri took a deep breath.

Thanks to the clues he’d gained fighting Moyongchan, he had been studying the power of chaos. Since then, sleep was no longer restful, but Yuri endured.

The more the inner demon threatened him, the deeper his mastery over chaos became.

The mana technique known as Cut of the Soul and the Heart, and the power of chaos it opened, created a synergistic reaction within Yuri’s body.

The murky mana began to swell uncontrollably.

The energy it emitted was now as dark as the black magic within Sybilla.

Yuri burst forward.

He was much faster than before.

Chaos propelled him from behind. Time slowed, and his mind, hyper-focused, was razor-sharp. He attacked Sybilla, using every possible trajectory his body could trace.

To kill her.

That thought alone guided him.

What they once were, what they once felt—none of it had any place on the blade of his sword.

Yuri discarded everything but his intent to kill. His sword energy grew vicious.

He was ready to sacrifice flesh to take her down.

That killing intent alone was an unbearable pressure for his enemy.

Overwhelmed by Yuri’s aura, Sybilla began to react more passively.

Yuri gripped Guilty tightly and drew closer. Through his eyes, he could see the core of the black magic inside her. It hadn’t consumed her entirely yet.

But the longer the fight dragged on, the more it spread like roots in every direction. The tentacles that had once been thin were now much thicker.

That’s how black magic worked. The more time passed, the stronger it grew.

“Pfff…”

Yuri watched the tentacles closing in.

It was no longer just one.

“Three wings now? Don’t you think that’s overdoing it?”

The three tentacles, watching him like snakes, lashed out. Yuri redirected them, spinning Guilty at different angles, and managed to cut them down.

But the tentacles grew even longer after being severed.

Attacking was pointless. He had to destroy the core.

Yuri’s gaze pierced through the undulating tentacles and locked onto Sybilla.

A storm of chaotic energy erupted inside him. His body was on the verge of overload. But he didn’t care.

He closed his eyes—and opened them again.

In that instant, the blink stretched.

From the moment his lids lowered to when they lifted again, time expanded immeasurably.

Yuri, crossing that long void, dodged the tentacles and pivoted to the side.

He stepped forward as he blinked. When his eyelids shut—

A long darkness enveloped him.

Yuri saw once again the landscape of his inner demon.

The land formed, the blue sky spread above. Mountain ranges rose, the sun traced its arc in the heavens.

It was the process of a world being assembled.

Though he experienced it every night, now was not the time. Yuri felt for his waist.

Thankfully, Guilty was still there. He had work to do.

Yuri walked through the world crafted by his inner demon.

It didn’t take long.

“…”

His eyelids rose.

The inner demon was done.

In front of him, Sybilla and her three tentacles advanced.

It was as if time had frozen and resumed. In that trance, not even a second had passed in the real world.

No time to think.

Yuri, feeling the familiar weight of Guilty in his hand, stepped forward.

The chaos imbued in his sword was fiercer and wilder than before. Even as the three tentacles surged at him, he felt no tension.

Yuri swung Guilty without hesitation.

The tentacles shattered into dozens of pieces.

Passing through the flying scraps of flesh, Yuri reached Sybilla’s face in an instant.

Before she could react, he stabbed her in the abdomen. He felt the blade pierce through flesh.

Yuri didn’t stop there. He twisted the sword to inflict greater damage.

Sybilla’s body convulsed. From inside her, Yuri searched relentlessly for the core of the black magic.

That tenacious, viscous, shadowy creature that seemed unable to die had to be destroyed. And the art of the Cut of the soul and the heart, a legacy of his ancestor, possessed the power to do so.

He tracked it until he located the core of black magic inside Sybilla. Yuri slightly withdrew Guilty, then launched a slash aimed straight at it.

He intended to tear the core of the black magic apart along with Sybilla’s body.

The Cut of the soul and the heart opened its jaws to devour the enemy.

But then Sybilla’s already half-torn body came to a stop.

Yuri looked up. Sybilla was staring at him, her bloodshot eyes brimming with tears.

“With this… it’s not enough.”

Yuri looked down.

Something black and sticky clung to Guilty, which was piercing through Sybilla’s body.

It coiled tightly, preventing the sword from moving any further.

“Do it properly this time.”

“That’s what you want?”

Yuri unleashed a burst of chaotic energy. Guilty vibrated. With that, he expelled the black magic energy clinging to it.

Sybilla’s body lifted slightly off the ground.

The gash began to widen.

The sword that had pierced her stomach slowly pushed upward, now reaching her chest and slicing through her ribs.

The core of the black magic had fused completely with Sybilla’s heart. The more she used that magic, the more deeply it entangled itself. Her insides were already consumed.

Each time Yuri executed the Cut of the soul and the heart, the black magic core shrank away in retreat.

But now there was nowhere left for it to run.

Yuri, with all the strength his body could muster, kept cutting Sybilla’s body with resolve, moving steadily upward. Her internal organs spilled out with a wet sound.

Finally, Guilty’s blade touched the heart.

The core of black magic contracted violently.

Yuri didn’t stop. Even as the dark thoughts locked within him writhed wildly, Guilty remained firm, breaking it down without hesitation.

Moments later, her heart was split in two.

At the same time, the black magic exploded.

The tentacles on her back disintegrated into dust and scattered, while a black mist surged upward violently.

The entire cavern was enveloped in that dark smoke.

The last gasps of the black magic reeked intensely of burning.

“Sybilla.”

Yuri looked up.

Perhaps because of the tenacity of the black magic, Sybilla was not yet dead. She stared at him intently.

Yuri asked,

“I did it right, didn’t I?”

Sybilla smiled faintly and nodded.

“Yes.”

Yuri remembered the first time he met her.

From the start, he’d sensed that her stiff attitude was only a mask to hide her fragility, and he couldn’t help but feel a faint concern for her.

As they fought orcs together during the alliance, they gradually grew closer.

When people grow close, sometimes no words are needed to understand each other.

‘Do you remember the wish?’

Yuri had asked Sybilla about the wish ticket when he found her in the tower prison.

‘Seems like our fates have diverged. The wish ticket’s expired. You can’t use it anymore, so if you’re going to, do it now.’

Sybilla could have asked for anything. That he not stop her, that he leave the Holy Kingdom.

She likely sensed why Yuri had come to see her. Yet even so, she never used her wish.

The fact that she said nothing—

That was her true message.

And because of that, Yuri could intuit the feelings she never voiced.

Yuri whispered,

“If you’d asked me before… to help you…”

“What isn’t, simply isn’t.”

Sybilla smiled gently.

“Yuri.”

“Yeah?”

“The wish. Is it still valid?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I want to use it.”

“What will you ask?”

“Come closer to my ear.”

“I’m really ticklish…”

“I’m sleepy. So don’t joke…”

“All right.”

Sybilla whispered something in Yuri’s ear. His expression darkened, then he smiled.

***

Yuri’s group descended the mountain.

In the end, Yuri killed Sybilla and destroyed the core of black magic. With that, all the Holy Kingdom’s knights lost their strength and collapsed.

The power of those who had seemed impervious to pain and fear had in fact come from the black magic housed within Sybilla.

Once he understood the situation, Yuri left Sybilla’s body on the ground and fled immediately. They had to get off the mountain before reinforcements arrived.

“This far should be safe.”

“There are no troops chasing us.”

“That was an unexpected success! Well done, well done!”

Francesco celebrated the victory.

But Yuri’s face showed no joy.

His victory meant he had killed his friend.

While the others rested, Yuri walked a little away from the group and looked up at the sky.

Jared approached him.

“Your Highness. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“If you need a broad chest to lean on…”

“I don’t need that.”

“If you want to cry…”

“Not going to happen.”

“Understood.”

Jared stood beside him. He raised his arm as if to wrap it around Yuri’s shoulders but stopped short and lowered it.

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

Jared cleared his throat.

“Are you really okay?”

“I told you I am.”

“Then… can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Lady Sybilla… she actually wanted you to stop her, didn’t she?”

“Yes. Foolish girl.”

“Were you two just friends?”

“We were.”

“But earlier…”

“What?”

“I saw it. At the end, right before the end. Are you sure there was nothing between you?”

When the black mist had begun to rise, Jared had approached to help Yuri.

And so, he saw it.

Amid the stifling fog, the two of them were talking.

Sometimes even laughing.

It didn’t look anything like a scene between someone dying and someone who had killed.

And then, after a brief exchange of words, Yuri kissed Sybilla.

A kiss that was short if it was short, long if it was long.

And at the end of that kiss, Sybilla’s head fell.

That was the last image Jared witnessed.

“So you saw.”

“Yes.”

“Keep it a secret.”

“Of course.”

“Jared.”

“Yes?”

Jared looked at Yuri. He let out a bitter smile as he continued staring at the sky.

“Between a man and a woman, there’s no such thing as ‘just friends.’”

Yuri gave him a pat on the chest and walked away.

“Ah…”

Jared silently watched as he walked off with heavy steps.