038 Dekan’s Painful Secret
Like silhouettes gradually emerging from the shadows, two figures slowly came into focus at the corner of the hallway.
One of them was the terrifyingly large form of the Faceless Man, surrounded by four masks.
The other, a small and thin man.
“Hehe…”
A sinister and eerie laughter echoed down the corridor.
They had officially encountered Dekan and Cornelia in the hallway.
Dekan and Cornelia no longer had any intention of fleeing; they were prepared to fight to the end.
“The girl can be spared, but the boy should be killed outright.”
“Understood.”
After a brief exchange, the Faceless Man did not choose to act immediately.
Instead, it was the thin man who raised his hand.
Several cards appeared in his palm, and then he swept his other hand over the cards, triggering them all.
Instantly, black fog and shadows filled the hallway, and the ground seemed to transform into a toxic swamp.
Accompanied by chilling winds sweeping in, Dekan and Cornelia felt a profound sense of malaise, their very breaths becoming heavy.
What followed was a blackout in their vision, accompanied by a painful sensation from their insides to their skin.
These cards were clearly all poison and curse types.
Their offensive power was not strong, but their reach was long, and their skills precisely targeted.
Dekan and Cornelia not only felt a decrease in all their attributes but were also subjected to ongoing damage.
However, soon the spellcaster’s expression began to change.
He felt an indescribable pain coursing through his body, making him momentarily unsteady.
He couldn’t understand why this was happening.
It felt as if he, too, was under a simultaneous curse.
“I’ve seen a lot, but damn, I can’t believe someone dares to curse me!”
Dekan laughed in anger, summoning the Ruined Bard without hesitation.
In that instant, the 6-fold pain feedback turned into 60-fold.
The spellcaster felt as if countless swords were piercing through his body, his eyes bulging like copper bells.
He opened his mouth, his throat making a raspy sound as if it were out of control.
Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, he collapsed to the ground, his life uncertain.
Confirming the spellcaster was eliminated, Cornelia immediately pulled out a Rank 3 [Mass Purification] card, dispelling the curse effects on herself and Dekan.
Since Dekan, at Rank 2, could not use Rank 3 spell cards, he had specifically purchased a Rank 3 Purification card for Cornelia to have just in case.
Anti-poison, anti-curse, and counter-control—basic knowledge for adventurers.
The Faceless Man squinted, staring intently at the summoned creature behind Dekan, showing no concern for his fallen companion.
“Boy, hand over your epic card voluntarily, and I might let you live.”
The Faceless Man spoke coldly, a hint of madness gleaming in his eyes.
He desperately wanted Dekan’s card.
Unfortunately, epic cards cannot be taken by killing their users.
Once soul-bound, epic and legendary cards cannot be unbound unless the user chooses to do so; even upon their death, the card does not automatically unbind.
If the user is killed, the epic card will shatter and disappear.
This is also why epic cards are so rare in the world.
Not all epic cards manage to be passed down.
Many have been lost in the Shadow World or have vanished along with their owners.
“Hehe…”
Hearing the Faceless Man’s proposal, Dekan seemed to find it amusing.
Even a three-year-old wouldn’t fall for such a trick.
But Dekan wanted to toy with the Faceless Man, so he asked, “If I hand over this epic card, you’ll let us go?”
“Hoh, of course…”
“I’ll just skip to the good part!”
Before the Faceless Man finished speaking, Dekan shouted.
At the same moment, Cornelia lunged at the Faceless Man.
With just a single strike, she could stun him with 20 times the pain!
“Then you might as well die!”
The Faceless Man’s tone was heavily laced with caution.
Fearing for himself even more, he became extra careful.
Though Dekan and Cornelia were both lower-ranked than him, that unknown epic card was too great a threat.
The Faceless Man strengthened his defenses with the Evil Spirit Mask, taking a slight step back, and summoned three Rank 5 creatures, ordering them to attack Dekan and Cornelia.
Though Rank 5 creatures were far from being as powerful as a Rank 5 warrior, having multiple creatures would still give even a similarly ranked opponent a headache!
Surrounding a Rank 4 opponent with numerous Rank 5 creatures would be an absolute advantage!
He summoned three [Multifaceted Abominations]—twisted beast bodies adorned with faces of people in anguish.
The effect of these Rank 5 entities was immunity to hard control, and they had thick health and high attack.
Uncontrollable and hard to kill, they offered no chance to those weaker than themselves.
“Your mechanism is too obvious; as long as I don’t attack that boy, I won’t face any stun, and you won’t be able to deal with my summoned creatures.”
The Faceless Man muttered, his eyes filled with mockery.
However, the following moment.
“Bang!”
Cornelia delivered the first blow, knocking one of the [Multifaceted Abominations] unconscious.
Then she began to clash with the other two.
The downed abomination howled in agony.
Before it could rise, Cornelia capitalized on the moment and struck again, nearly rendering it completely unconscious.
After a brief exchange, the remaining two abominations seemed hesitant to engage Cornelia.
As long as they landed a hit on her, it would lead to unbearable pain and stiffen their movements.
Faceless Man: “???”
What level of stun effect is this?
How can it control the abominations?!
No, wait! It’s not a stun!
The Faceless Man focused on the Ruined Bard behind Dekan, analyzing frantically. It quickly dawned on him.
The epic card behind Dekan, with its incomprehensible power, did not simply provide a control effect boost but rather a pain feedback enhancement!
Dekan and Cornelia’s equipment must also have effects that return pain or increase it!
What kind of new cult is this?!
Even the Faceless Man, a member of the Rebirth Church, could hardly suppress the urge to curse.
But.
He quickly calmed down.
The solution to this alternative system was simple.
The core, their command center, was too evident.
Moreover, pain feedback could not be relayed through summoned creatures to the master!
As long as the Faceless Man avoided engaging Dekan directly, he would remain unbeatable!
Thus, if he used his summoned creatures to attack Dekan and the Ruined Bard, he could afford to lose just two or three, surely he could take out Dekan and the Ruined Bard in exchange!
Then, Cornelia, stripped of the Ruined Bard’s enhancements, would pose little threat.
“I wonder how long you can hold out.”
The Faceless Man pulled out two summoning cards originally meant for close protection, commanding them to bypass Cornelia and attack Dekan.
Even though all of his summoned creatures feared Cornelia’s hammer blows, Cornelia attempted to stop them all, but blocking four was still too much.
This made Dekan furrow his brow, retreating swiftly with the Ruined Bard towards the other end of the corridor.
Both he and the Ruined Bard were too fragile, unable to withstand even a scratch from the enemy.
To cover Dekan, Cornelia forcibly held off the summoned creatures, resisting somewhat unsuccessfully under the concentrated attacks.
“Hold on, we have to fight!”
She believed the frontline was about to collapse and called out to Dekan.
Her plan was to make a final desperate move, abandoning her efforts to block the oncoming summoned creatures, and instead attacking the Faceless Man directly to knock him out.
“No!”
Dekan immediately stopped her.
The Faceless Man might still have some defensive cards left unplayed.
Rushing in recklessly carried too much risk.
Perhaps the rear Dekan would collapse first, and Cornelia wouldn’t be able to reach the Faceless Man.
If they wanted to win, they needed to deliver a solid blow against the Faceless Man.
This required Dekan to create an opportunity for Cornelia!
And that opportunity was already being prepared by Dekan.
He just needed a little more time to fully charge this move he had never revealed to anyone.
“Wait for my signal, and note that the masks around him have return damage effects—watch the strength you use when hitting him!”
Dekan communicated the strategy to Cornelia.
Cornelia: “Got it!”
Earlier in the hallway, the damage from Dekan’s hydrogen explosion had all been blocked by the Evil Spirit Mask.
As the caster, Dekan had noticed he had received extremely minor damage feedback.
From there, he deduced the mask had a return damage feature.
As for why Dekan hadn’t taken a huge amount of damage feedback, it was due to the unique damage determination principle of the [Hydrogen Explosion] card.
Its damage was primarily divided into two phases: the first phase was a Rank 1 Fireball, aimed not at directly hitting the enemy but rather igniting a spark.
The second phase was the explosion damage from igniting hydrogen.
The ignition damage from the first phase could be regarded as originating from the card’s caster.
However, the subsequent explosion damage had no source of injury.
Thus, the [Hydrogen Explosion] card also served another purpose: to test whether the opponent had return damage equipment!
Dekan did not want Cornelia to accidentally inflict serious harm to herself with her own strike.
As long as they could make the Faceless Man feel enough pain to faint, that would be sufficient.
The Faceless Man watched Cornelia and Dekan struggle, unable to suppress a laugh.
“Haha! I thought you guys were something special?”
“As long as I don’t attack you, you’re nothing but a worthless being with no retaliation!”
“Now hand over that epic card, and perhaps I can lessen your suffering before you die!”
The more the Faceless Man understood the effect of the Ruined Bard, the more he coveted this core card of the new return damage system.
However, seeing Dekan remain unmoved, his rage had nowhere to go but into more ridicule.
“Even if you’re some alternative return damage control style, facing me, you have zero opportunities to act!”
“Playing return damage and curses in front of me? You’re far too naive!”
The Faceless Man spread his arms, with the muscles beneath the bandages seeming to twitch in a strange manner, as if he were letting out manic laughter.
“Hehe.”
Dekan’s gaze was ice-cold, as deep as the ocean floor.
He looked at the Faceless Man as if he were a fool.
“Your foolishness is truly laughable.”
“If I don’t put you down, then I would be unworthy of being the founder of the return damage style.”
Dekan muttered to himself in a barely audible voice.
He seemed to finally be ready for something, shouting to Cornelia: “Wait for my control signal, then you go hit him!”
“Okay!”
Cornelia’s voice was filled with excitement.
Though she didn’t know what Dekan was up to, based on her experience, typically, once it reached this point, the enemy would concede.
Dekan’s ultimate move was finally fully charged.
It was time to showcase the true essence of the “return damage system.”
He bowed his head, covering his chest, seemingly murmuring something repeatedly, his voice gradually growing louder.
“Cornelia got hurt helping me block the enemy’s attack. It’s all my fault; I feel so much heartache, so much guilt…”
Dekan seemed like he had fallen into madness, self-hypnotizing frantically.
“Why do we fight? Why do we plunder? Why do we attract attention, just because we are kind…? I’m already furious beyond measure!”
Dekan felt increasingly depressed, his negative emotions approaching a boiling point.
“I can’t win, there’s no hope; why am I so weak? I hate my own powerlessness!!”
Dekan hunched forward, gripping his clothes tightly, as if the pain in his heart was causing him to struggle to breathe.
“Guilt! Anger! Despair!”
“It hurts! It hurts too much!”
“Faceless Man, this is all your fault!!!”
“All my suffering is caused by you!!!”
When Dekan lifted his head to look at the Faceless Man and shouted the last sentence.
The Faceless Man suddenly felt his heart skip a beat, as if he was struck by a boulder, the pain crushing down on him.
Then came an indescribable cramping pain that felt like it would tear apart his heart.
He clutched his chest in agony.
In that instant, the Faceless Man felt an inexplicable sorrow about being human.
He then collapsed to the ground, uncontrollably coughing up dark blood, staining his veil a rust-like reddish-brown.
Meanwhile, even though the summoned creatures could still act, without their master’s real-time commands, their movements became sluggish.
Seizing the opportunity, Cornelia broke through the encirclement of the summoned creatures.
“Why… how can you return damage?! I didn’t even hurt you!!”
The Faceless Man trembled, looking at Dekan in disbelief.
“You made me sad!”
Dekan shouted defiantly.
Being sad is also being hurt, heartbreak is still pain.
Even if Dekan’s pain was a result of self-hypnosis, magnifying his internal negative emotions.
The ultimate essence of return damage—60-fold heartache attack!
The only flaw of this technique was that it required complete self-hypnosis, making the casting time too long.
“Thud!”
Hearing Dekan’s words, the Faceless Man couldn’t help but spit out another mouthful of blood.
This blood was expelled in anger.
He had never encountered such a shameless individual!
Damn it! Return damage isn’t played this way!!!
However, just then, Cornelia’s heavy hammer reached before him.
The Faceless Man gazed at the increasingly larger hammer, and before he could even begin to feel fear, his consciousness faded away.
With a resounding “bang,” the Faceless Man was slammed against the wall, knocked unconscious.
His summoned creatures subsequently disappeared.
She followed Dekan’s hint, not using her full strength, merely hitting the Faceless Man on the head with a quarter of her power.
This strike only needed to knock him out.
Thus, the return damage she suffered was not severe.
“Ugh, this time, we’re really done for.”
Cornelia, nursing her aching head, couldn’t steady herself and sat down on the ground.
In the distance, Dekan let out a sigh of relief, appearing exhausted and smiled helplessly.
In this wrecked corridor of the Demon Academy, the two exchanged glances.
They smiled knowingly.
It took mutual understanding between them to triumph.
Author’s Note:
This chapter is a 4,000-word big chapter, and to maintain narrative flow, I wrote it all at once.
So today is effectively my self-imposed additional update!
Waaah, I finished writing at 3 AM; then I had to wake up to work on my thesis during the day.
I’m really such a miserable human; I wish I could take a break!
