Chapter 369: Role reversal (2)

Val had been utterly broken—

Now little more than a raging mechanical zombie, fighting with insane fury.

And yet—

He still delivered deadly force, enough to shock even Frey.

"Even after being completely wrecked... he can still fight like this?"

Busy clashing with the berserk Val—

Frey didn’t notice the hands creeping up from beneath him.

When he finally looked down ..

He saw scorched, half-melted puppets crawling toward him, grabbing onto his legs.

That moment of hesitation—

Was enough.

Val’s blade pierced Frey’s stomach, the tip bursting out through his back.

Seeing the blood spill, the searing pain tearing through him—

Frey cursed under his breath, severing Val’s arm with Balerion, then unleashed a dark wave of aura that wiped out the puppet remnants trying to cling to him.

With that brief window, Frey pulled the blade from his body and immediately focused on healing his wound.

But the puppets didn’t give him a moment of rest.

They swarmed him again, climbing over one another in desperation.

Frey unleashed even more of his dark aura...

Then surged forward once again, crushing everything in his path.

With terrifying speed, he tore through the remaining puppets, leaving trails of black aura scorched across the ruins.

He succeeded in eradicating every last one ..

And even though his body screamed in protest, he forced himself forward, just in time to meet Val’s final charge—

The puppet cloaked in blazing fire.

The moment their blades collided again—

A final explosion of auras tore across the battlefield.

Frey poured the last of his SSS Rank aura into the clash

And after a grueling battle...

Darkness triumphed over fire.

With both swords, Frey pierced Val’s chest..

And destroyed him completely.

The former Lord of the Ultras’ eyes slowly dimmed as they locked onto Frey—

A boy who bore a face strikingly similar to the one who had once killed him in the distant past.

He had died once as a human...

And now, he was dying again—this time, as a puppet.

But this time, it was different.

Because the moment Frey destroyed him—

Val exploded.

His body shattered completely, and something hidden within him was finally released.

Dozens of razor-sharp blades erupted outward ..

Piercing Frey’s body at point-blank range, leaving him no time to escape.

Val’s final attack turned Frey into a pincushion ..

His body torn apart, blood gushing in horrifying streams.

Three blades in the stomach, two in the chest, four through the legs, two in the arms—

And one slashed clean through a portion of his neck.

Frey fell from the sky, coughing up blood ..

The victim of Val’s final, suicidal strike.

Barely able to move his body, Frey cursed through clenched teeth ..

Only to see that clown emerge from beneath the rubble, laughing maniacally as he waited for him.

Its belly stretched open, transforming into a giant maw.

The clown was preparing to swallow him whole—

And Frey, still pinned by Val’s blades, could only struggle in vain to free himself.

But it was too late.

Val’s final attack had done its job ..

Frey was immobilized, a perfect prey for the monstrous clown closing in on him.

As the jaws of hell opened before him, Frey stared at that monstrous mouth and wondered—

"Is this the end?"

It was supposed to be...

But then...

A flash of light blinded him.

Bloodshot eyes flew open in shock ..

As Frey saw Clana appear from thin air, shoving him away, her body wrapped in a radiant white aura.

"Clana..."

Everything happened in slow motion ..

Through the lens of Frey’s enhanced Hawk Eyes.

Clana’s hand glowed with the Witch’s Mark, extending toward him as if to pass on one final hope...

The hand that saved him.

Her smile. Her calm black eyes.

The last things he saw—

Before the clown’s maw snapped shut, swallowing her whole.

Her hand ..

The one that had pushed Frey to safety—was severed mid-motion.

And blood splattered across Frey’s face.

The clown let out a crazed laugh as it devoured her ..

Then looked at Frey with terrifying red eyes before fleeing the battlefield entirely.

Staring at the slender, severed hand lying in front of him—

Frey froze, unable to process what had just happened.

Then ..

His vision turned blood red.

He rose once more, unleashing a monstrous roar from deep within—

Blood still pouring from his mouth.

In a state of pure rage ..

Frey yanked the blades from his body one after another, not caring how much blood gushed out with each pull.

With shattered organs, torn ligaments, and a body on the brink—

Frey ran.

He chased after the clown with maddened desperation.

"Recover... recover... recover... recover—Damn you!!!"

Gasping for breath, his heart pounding violently ...

He tried to keep up with the blood loss, forcing his body to regenerate, bit by bit, through sheer will and aura.

"I’m fine... I’m fine..."

His wounds slowly began to close...

And he leapt forward at blinding speed, his eyes locked on the clown now running ahead.

"Don’t you dare, Clana..."

Clutching his swords tightly—

Frey’s only thought was to destroy that clown as fast as possible.

"Don’t you dare die for me!!!"

Desperation fueled his every step.

"Don’t you dare throw your life onto me!!!"

His face darkened ..

As more and more puppets emerged from the same path the clown had taken.

"Simon Manus!!!!"

His vision soaked in crimson rage ...

Frey let out a scream that shook the air.

He hacked through puppet after puppet—

Shredding them, uncaring for his wounds or the state of his broken body.

Frey fought his way forward, chasing after Clana, who had grown more distant with every second.

’I don’t care if I die here... in this battlefield. If I die—then I lose nothing.’

Surrounded by countless enemies—

He kept fighting, his soul screaming through every swing.

Frey’s eyes never left the clown, even as it began to vanish from sight.

’I don’t care about dying... Because if I die, the only thing I lose is myself...’

He had always seen himself as a soul that didn’t belong in this world.

And he was fine with leaving it someday.

But ever since his father gave his life so he could live ..

That life had not belonged to him anymore.

"Not you too, Clana..."

He was supposed to be the one protecting her.

Why had he endured all this, fought through hell—

When he could’ve easily fled?

What reason did he have to fight ..

If not for her?

"Why did you come back!!?"

Why didn’t she run—

Just like he told her to?

How the hell did the roles reverse,

And she became the one who saved him?

Why was he now forced to carry the weight of another life—

A weight that shackled his body like chains?

Frey felt his head boiling as he continued tearing through the puppets around him,

Blasting them back with sheer force.

He drained his SSS-Rank Aura without a second thought,

Ignoring his body’s screams, which warned him he had reached his absolute limit.

He unleashed more and more waves of catastrophic destruction—

Each one more violent than the last.

And with bloodshot eyes—

Frey kept moving forward.

"I won’t let you die."

In a state of merciless fury—

Frey made a vow to the entire Puppet Land:

"Either she lives... or they all die."