NOVEL WEB Chapter 96
96. The Last
Using the mirror to make Levin control himself──.
So he can never control others again.
That was Jack’s solution.
“Ridiculous… For a ruler like me to abandon my own power… It’s absurd…”
Levin moaned in disbelief.
Whether controlling oneself was possible or not was unclear, but this reaction suggested it probably was.
“And that’s the end of it.”
Jack let out a heavy sigh.
Yes, it was all coming to an end.
Finally, he could return to his daily life.
Oh right, he had Hannah waiting for him.
The meeting time was long past, and she was probably already gone.
He would need to apologize when he saw her at work tomorrow──.
“…!? ”
Suddenly, a hot shock surged through Jack’s back.
“Ugh…!”
The heat in his back quickly turned into a searing pain.
He was reminded that he had removed his enhancement only now.
He had assumed Levin’s spirit was broken and the fight was over.
Or maybe that was the naivety of a battle novice.
Jack grimaced at the pain and turned around.
“You are──”
There stood a female knight, sword raised.
“Don’t touch Lord Levin…!”
“Miranda…!?”
The sword piercing Jack’s back was dripping with red blood.
He had thought she would be unconscious from the blow, but when did she wake up?
“Ha, ha ha ha ha ha! Well done, Miranda!”
Levin staggered to his feet, creating distance from Jack.
“Soldiers, gather! Sacrifice yourselves to protect me!”
He shouted.
Immediately, countless footsteps echoed around them.
Dozens, hundreds of soldiers were approaching.
“No matter how many soldiers you call, you can’t beat me.”
Jack said, and once more applied his enhancement skills.
His skin hardened, and transformed, turning into a black beast knight.
“I have no intention of winning. I’m just buying time to escape.”
Levin smirked.
“They will fight until they die, because I commanded them to. Kill them all, and kill me too, Jack Jarce? No, you can’t. Can you? You who seek peace and shun conflict!”
A mocking laugh echoed.
“I will never forgive you for humiliating me! I’ll retreat for now, but eventually── as long as I have the power to control, I can increase the soldiers infinitely. My pawns are easily replaceable. No matter how strong you are── against endless soldiers, you are powerless! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Certainly, killing dozens or hundreds is beyond me.”
Jack sighed.
“That’s why, before the soldiers arrive── I’ll defeat you!”
He kicked off the ground and closed the distance to Levin in one breath.
He was no longer in a situation where he could afford to hold back to avoid killing his opponent.
Determined, he delivered a powerful blow.
There was a dull thud as he penetrated the flesh.
“Ah… ag… ah”
The groan was── not Levin’s.
“Miranda──”
Levin looked at the female knight with a pale face.
Miranda, who had stood in front of Jack, had taken the blow with her black fist.
“Ah…”
In the face of this unexpected turn of events, Jack pulled his fist out, stunned.
Even if it was sudden, his reflexes, far beyond the norm, should have allowed him to react.
But in focusing solely on defeating Levin, he had missed the others.
“Run away… Levin… sama…”
Miranda collapsed, bleeding heavily from the wound in her abdomen.
“Miranda, why… what are your true feelings…”
Levin groaned with a face full of anguish.
Was it sorrow for losing a pawn?
Or was it something more?
What did he think of Miranda?
What did he feel after losing her?
Jack didn’t know.
He himself couldn’t suppress his agitation over having killed someone.
“Jackkkkkkkkkkkkkk!”
Suddenly, Levin’s eyes glowed menacingly.
“I’ll use the chance you gave me, Miranda! Now, follow me── Jack Jarce!”
He was about to unleash the power of control──.
Jack’s anxiety disappeared instantly.
There was no time to use the same tactics as before.
Levin’s skills were faster than reactivating his own to shut off sight and hearing.
So, he had no choice but to attack directly.
Jack leaped off the floor and ran.
The controlling gaze and the beast knight’s charge.
The slower one would face a fatal fate──.
It was a moment of crucial battle.
“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Jack roared.
Carrying the thoughts of his loved ones, bearing his future life, he ran at full speed to protect everything.
Faster.
Even faster.
Before Levin’s gaze and words could cloud his consciousness──.
“…uh… ha… ah…!”
After a moment of silence, a groan escaped.
Jack had delivered a punch like a cannonball to Levin’s body.
He felt the muscle fibers tearing, blood vessels rupturing, and organs crushing through his fist.
Levin, pierced through the chest, could not utter another sound of pain and collapsed.
Blood spread around him.
“Will I die… too…”
A clump of blood was spat from Levin’s mouth.
“My… kingdom… no one despises me… everyone… acknowledges me… accepts me…”
As his life was about to end, the boy squeezed out his thoughts, and Jack looked down on him quietly.
“But── I won’t die easily…!”
Levin’s voice suddenly changed.
“This guy, still──”
Jack felt a chill down his spine.
Sensing a dangerous premonition, he stepped back.
Kill him?
Close off sight and hearing to endure the skill?
No, neither would be in time──.
He needed to get away.
From him, even a little.
Before something irreversible happened.
He had to create distance──.
Thoughts raced.
A sense of impending doom surged, and Jack’s actions were slightly delayed.
The pain in his back── the wound Miranda had inflicted earlier dulled his concentration and thought.
That one moment decided his fate.
“My final…”
Levin spoke just a moment before Jack could escape.
The curse, the words.
“Perish… be destroyed… everything, without a single speck of dust remaining, everything… Jack Jarce…! Everything… everything… everything… everything…………”
The hand extended towards Jack fell powerless.
──thud!
At the same time, something pulsated at the core of Jack’s chest.
Hot.
Heavy.
Dark.
Something boiling intensely.
“Uu… guu, u, aaahhh…”
Power surged.
The jet-black beast knight further transformed.
Claws extended.
The tail grew.
Wings sprouted from his back.
The wolf-like face morphed into a more monstrous helmet and mask──.
“Uu… oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…… uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…… uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh…”
He used all his reasons to suppress the transformation.
“What is this…!?”
Jack frowned at the intense discomfort running through his body.
A sense that something fundamental within him had changed.
A sense that something fundamental had been lost──.
“You… what did you do to me…!?”
Jack asked Levin, who lay in a sea of blood, in shock.
The boy, now motionless, did not return an answer──.