Broken Possessors of Infinite Regression Academy

I hesitated, wondering if I should bring out the Holy Spear. I had a vague idea of what the dark red energy that Astaroth was using was, so I knew the Holy Spear would be a definite counter.

‘…No, it’s too soon to bring it out now.’

I changed my mind. Just because she came back to life once doesn’t mean she can’t do so again. As long as I don’t know how she resurrected, I must keep all possibilities open.

In the worst-case scenario, if I failed to kill her and she escaped, the Demon God might realize that the Holy Spear and the Holy Sword possess the same power and start to avoid direct confrontations, focusing only on destroying the human world.

That would make it difficult for me to deal with it. It would be better to wait for an opportunity to annihilate it without leaving a single piece of flesh, taking advantage of when Astaroth lets her guard down.

‘Just a little longer. I can wait a little more.’

Just thinking about the Holy Spear made my left hand, which was rubbing my wound, twitch uncontrollably. I had to calm myself. I couldn’t afford to be like this now. I couldn’t let myself be foolish enough to be buried in the past and lose the present.

“Are you scared? Why are you shaking? It was just a joke. It’s no fun if I break you this easily. I have to repay all the debts I owe you, don’t I?”

Seeing my reaction, Astaroth must have thought I was scared, as she let out a sneering laugh and withdrew the demonic sword embedded in the dark red energy.

I ignored her and focused on rubbing my hand. The more it misread the situation, the better it was for me. By the time it realized the truth and understood that it was too late, the Holy Spear would already be piercing through it.

“But waiting is boring, so I’ll cut off your arms first to prevent any funny business.”

Astaroth suddenly changed its attitude like flipping a switch and charged at me. I stopped rubbing my hand and held up Eternity to block the demonic sword. The impact sent my body flying backward.

It was purely because I was overpowered.

‘What kind of power is this…?’

As I stabilized my posture in the air, Astaroth closed in on me. I tilted my head to dodge the blade, and right next to me, a tear in the fabric of the world emitted a piercing sound that rang in my ears.

I blocked the downward slash of the demonic sword, and my body slammed into the ground. Without even a moment to feel the pain, I pushed off the ground-like solidified demonic energy and created distance between us. Astaroth pursued me relentlessly.

In a matter of seconds, we exchanged blows dozens of times, creating layers of explosive sounds that combined to form a thunderous roar.

I channeled my sword skills and magic through Eternity. The flames that rose from the tip of the sword engulfed Astaroth, but it simply absorbed them and charged towards me.

It was just a small opening, but it was enough for me to prepare. Gritting my teeth, I altered my body structure. Mana began to flow through my veins instead of blood, and pure mana entered my lungs instead of oxygen.

“Ugh?!”

I abruptly vomited out chunks of dark red flesh. Due to the rapid transformation of my body, my internal organs twisted and some of them were crushed as a backlash. I healed the wounds with healing magic and gripped Eternity tightly.

“What’s that now? Do you still have some tricks up your sleeve?”

Astaroth cackled, amused by the sight of my pale white skin and the blue veins protruding like a spider web. There was no value in responding.

Exhaling refined mana, I lunged forward. In addition to the dozens of exchanges of blows, hundreds of spells were exchanged between us.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Astaroth grabbed the restraining spells flying towards her and crushed them in her hands, letting out a snort.

“No, you can do better than that! You must have something else up your sleeve, something you’re relying on to defy me! Am I wrong? Am I wrong?!”

With a shout, the demonic sword flashed. I blocked it with Eternity.

The space behind me split open.

A massive canyon formed, starting from where I had blocked the attack and extending to the horizon. The mountain in its path was split in two and collapsed.

Bang!

The dark red demonic energy erupted from the canyon, resembling a volcanic eruption. The ground touched by the demonic energy turned dark red and burned.

While Eternity remained relatively intact, my arms and the bones that were supposed to be in the path of the demonic sword were all shattered. Despite my apparent successful block, this was the result.

‘So this is the power of Elysier.’

The statement in the original story about Elysier holding back was not an exaggeration. With such power, it made sense that the war had been stalemated for hundreds of years.

No matter how far the humans pushed, it wouldn’t matter as long as Elysier intervened. A casual swing of the sword was enough to split mountains and crack the earth; what use were knights and mages against such power?

The fact that Elysier and Nika, who were within jumping distance far away, were completely ignored in favor of focusing solely on me, was also likely due to the same reasoning.

With her powers stripped away, Elysier was reduced to the level of a common demon, and the newly empowered succubus queen was half-baked. She probably thought that whether they were there or not made no difference to the fight.

‘It’s a good thing for me, though.’

If she was going to be so arrogant, then I was grateful. The more she overestimated her own strength, the more openings she would reveal.

I healed my wounds with healing magic and charged at her first. Astaroth was startled by the greenish light, which she had probably never seen before, but only for a moment before she let out an eerie smile and waved its arm.

The thousands of refined mana I exhaled using the Mana Breathing Technique were swept away and burned by the dark red demonic energy. It didn’t matter if the magic worked or not, as long as I could create it with every breath I exhaled.

The real attack was something else.

-Piiit!

“Huh?”

In that brief moment, a piercing attack grazed Astaroth’s cheek, leaving a trail of blood.

Astaroth’s eerie smile froze, and its expression turned blank as it touched her cheek, feeling the wound. Her eyes widened as she saw the dark red drop of blood on her fingertip.

“I could have pierced your head, but I let you off easy. Aren’t you grateful?”

I knew that piercing her head wouldn’t have killed her, and she probably knew that too, but the words were enough to provoke her. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“You insolent human male, daring to defy me!”

In the blink of an eye, Astaroth was upon me. I blocked the demonic sword head-on, but the impact broke the bones in my arm. I healed the bones with healing magic and counterattacked while exhaling refined mana.

-Taea-golgi (Picking Mount Tai).

-Yeonok (Purgatory).

The sword swing triggered the release of two different sword techniques and magic at the same time.

“I told you it’s useless!”

The demonic sword flashed, and Eternity, which had used Taea-golgi, was flung away as if it wasnothing. The flames that had enveloped Astaroth scattered like a mere fireworks display.

My body, hit by the shockwave, coughed up blood and was pushed back a long way. Even with my bones broken, I quickly stuck Eternity into the ground to stop myself from rolling around, but that was the limit.

“Are you alright, my lord?!”

“Are you alright, Master?!”

Elysier carefully supported my body, and Nika used her sleeve to wipe the blood from my mouth. Both of them had gone pale, realizing that every bone in my body had been shattered.

I was in this state because I was outclassed in terms of strength, but my life was not in danger. If it had been, the Holy Spear would have emerged on its own, sensing the threat of death, before I even had the chance to draw it out.

“You’re lucky, too. You flew towards us.”

“Is this the time to be making pointless jokes?!”

As I healed my battered body with healing magic, the air, heated to the point that mirages appeared, rippled for a moment, and Astaroth walked out nonchalantly.

“Now you’re in your rightful place. You idiots look up to me, and I reign from above. It should have been like this from the start if it weren’t for those idiots!”

Astaroth’s eyes widened as they turned towards Elysier. Elysier did not back down and met its gaze.

“You’re spouting nonsense.”

“Nonsense?!”

Astaroth’s expression twisted.

“Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed for our race?! Do you know how much I cared for the succubi?! You have no right to speak when you know nothing about the sacrifices I’ve made!”

“How many succubi had their wombs extracted and thrown to the beasts? Several thousand. And how many potential successors have you eliminated to maintain your position as Queen? Don’t talk to me about sacrifice when you’ve done all that. Tell me, where was the sacrifice in your actions?”

“What sacrifice?! Did you just ask me what sacrifice I made?!”

Astaroth’s voice was filled with rage, as if it wanted to devour me.

A shockwave erupted and swept through the area. If I hadn’t blocked it with a defensive spell, both Nika and Elysier would have been shattered to pieces.

“Do you know how succubi were treated before I became Queen? We were treated no better than slaves! Because of that damn essence, we were treated similarly to humans, and yet we had to smile and endure it! Weak, useless males, but we had to pretend to be pleased and pant with pleasure just because they could provide us with essence! That’s all they were good for!”

The whites of Astaroth’s eyes began to turn black. I wasn’t mistaken; the blackness was spreading, gradually covering its entire eyes.

“Even the previous Queen, my successor, and my subordinates… they were all the same! They were all idiots, flirting and panting for the sake of absorbing essence! I changed the succubi! Through my efforts, I rose to the position of Legion Commander, and the succubi were able to become what they are today! It was all thanks to me!”

Finally, its eyes were completely blackened. Even the pink-colored irises were slowly being consumed by the darkness. It was a clear abnormality.

“Tell me, Elysier! If that’s not a sacrifice, then what is it? I’ve already proven myself! I’ve proven that I’m not like those idiots who relied on borrowed power and acted superior! So I deserve it all! The Queen’s position and the Demon King’s position! If I had them, we…”

“You’re spewing lies so naturally, Astaroth.”

Nika interrupted, her voice cold and mocking, devoid of the gentle demeanor she had shown me. The change in Nika’s attitude caused the demonic energy emanating from Astaroth to intensify. More than half of its pink irises had been consumed by the encroaching darkness.

“I looked into your memories when I inherited the Queen’s power. Was that the happiness you wanted for the succubi? Being thrown to goblins and orcs after having your wombs extracted because you didn’t want to fight, and being forced onto the battlefield to die. Were they happy?”

“I did what was necessary! I’ve been the Queen for the last thousand years. This brat, who took my position less than an hour ago, knows nothing about the succubi!”

“Of course, I do. I’m the Queen now. You know very well that only a handful of succubi agreed with your plan, and you forcibly pushed it through by killing those who opposed it. You personally killed over ten thousand succubi with your own hands.”

“The weak are dispensable! As demons, that’s how it should be!”

“Yes, succubi are weak. It’s true that even the strongest among them pales in comparison to the mightiest of other demon races. But you see, we’re a race that inherently enjoys being dominated. That’s why you served the Demon King so loyally, unable to forget the pleasure of being subjugated. Am I wrong?”

Nika let out a mocking laugh.

“Yes, and there’s one more thing. You played the part of sucking up to the previous Queen, but when it came time for succession, you didn’t want to die, so you devoured the candidates. And then you say you changed the succubi? No, you changed the order. You didn’t refuse succession for the sake of your clan; you pretended to work for the clan’s benefit after refusing succession.”

“You don’t know anything!”

“I know everything. I am the newly born Succubus Queen, and you have lost your qualifications.”

That was the fatal blow. Astaroth’s eyes turned completely black. But it didn’t stop there. Even its fingertips, toes, and hair began to turn black.

Whatever that thing had done to bring Astaroth back to life, it wasn’t free.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

There was no other explanation for Astaroth losing her sanity to this extent.