Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 413

Fernando, who had lost his head, was lying flat on his back.

‘No, since he has no arms, it’s not the “大” pose but the “人” pose.’

Either way, he wouldn’t die from this.

He was a guy who regenerated like a monster even when his body was cut in two. He wouldn’t die just because his head got lopped off and both arms cut.

That was why Su-ho had called Lust—because he didn’t want to keep up this meaningless fight.

Just like Grid was doing, Lust would also be sticking close to the guy and watching the situation.

At that moment, Fernando’s body wriggled and moved again.

He was trying to regenerate.

Su-ho took a step back and patiently waited for the guy’s regeneration.

Soon, unlike when he’d been split in two, this time new arms and a new head sprouted directly from the body.

Once the regeneration ended, the guy got up as if nothing had happened.

Su-ho asked with an impassive face.

“Lust?”

“No, it’s me.”

Well, damn.

The moment he heard the voice he felt it for sure—the being in front of him wasn’t Lust but Fernando.

At the words “not Lust,” Su-ho knit his brows.

“Why, did your master tell you to keep fighting?”

“Kuhuhu. You sure have a pretty way with words.”

Then, red energy began to gush out from the guy’s body.

Both eyes also filled with a red glow, like a Samguija’s.

“I’m the first Player to contract with a Great Demon. I was a bit surprised earlier, but it’ll be different now.”

At that moment—

[ Cloud Severance is activated. ]

Shhk!

A severing sound.

At the same time, a sword mark traced across the guy’s neck, and then it shot up into the air.

Thwok!

Blood spurted up as well.

It all happened before the guy could even finish his next line.

Su-ho recovered his sword and took a ready stance.

Seeing that, Fernando laughed like a demon.

His head was already bouncing along the floor, but that only made him look more grotesque.

“It’s useless.”

Fernando sneered.

Su-ho didn’t answer.

Instead, he answered with a different sword art.

[ Cutting the Ring is activated. ]

The sword swept out.

The technique used was Cutting the Ring.

Sword marks were engraved into Fernando’s body.

Seeing that, Fernando sneered once again.

“Are you stupid? I told you it’s useless, plain and—”

Right then, Fernando’s eyes, mid-sentence, went wide.

“How...!”

Su-ho smiled at the guy’s reaction.

“What, did you think I was just going to keep slicing up your body forever?”

It’d be great if everything in the world could be resolved nicely with words.

But half of them are brutes who don’t understand words—like these bastards.

When it comes to that, there aren’t many options.

The best of them is to completely snap what they believe in.

Su-ho had faced a fair number of Great Demon Players in his previous life.

Their common point was regeneration bordering on immortality.

But that regeneration wasn’t truly immortal or infinite.

It was one of the powerful authorities the Great Demon grants to a Player—“Authority of Regeneration”—and a common authority enjoyed by most Great Demon Players.

‘Whenever a Great Demon Player commits the sin their contracted demon pursues, that power surges.’

Lust of Lechery’s sin was, of course, lust.

Every time the Player indulged their lust, that power accumulated—and naturally, it didn’t build up well by ordinary means.

A Great Demon wouldn’t choose an ordinary guy as their successor in the first place.

In that sense, Fernando was a severe paraphiliac.

In particular he was a sadist called a practitioner of sadism; a sadist is a paraphiliac who gains sexual pleasure by inflicting physical and mental pain on others, and even among them Fernando was a severe case.

‘Among those, he was a maniac for what’s called amputation paraphilia, Acrotomophilia, plus pleasure killing, and cannibalism.’

That was why his main weapon was a chainsaw.

Rather than a normal spear or knife, a chainsaw that tears a person apart was the best choice for a sadist and acrotomophiliac like him.

And for Lust, Fernando was likewise the best choice.

No wonder—Mexico was a very old conflict zone, and under the plausible banners of mafia extermination and Mexican independence—and the mask of justice—he could very rationally and amply dissolve his desires.

Fernando had grown that way.

He raised his level by killing people, and even without bothering to enter Gates he explosively increased his strength by borrowing the demon’s power.

It was a growth method possible only for Great Demon Players.

But surprisingly, even with such an appalling growth mechanism, the wretched reality of Mexico ironically turned him into a hero.

‘And thanks to his “effort that wasn’t really effort,” New New Mexico almost did drive out the Calavera Family.’

But in the end, they didn’t drive out the Calavera Family.

Because the one called the hero of New New betrayed at the very end.

It was the same reason as the last “suicide squad” members who had smacked Su-ho in the back of the head.

If the mafias truly disappeared from Mexico, Fernando would no longer be able to legally vent his lust.

“Grrrrk...”

Fernando, his neck severed and fallen, showed his agony.

He surely still had plenty of demonic power left, yet the Authority of Regeneration was no longer activating.

It had to be that way.

He had used Cutting the Ring precisely for this.

“What... what did you do to me...!”

Fernando, his neck cut, asked between ragged breaths.

At that pitiful sight, Su-ho grinned and said:

“I cut the cord linking you and Lust. There wasn’t any other way, was there?”

“What...?”

“Put simply, think of it as severing the umbilical cord. You didn’t know, did you—about how you receive power from the demon.”

It was literal.

All contractors with demons receive power from their demon through an invisible cord like an umbilical cord.

What Su-ho had cut with Cutting the Ring was that.

Unlike other successors, contractors with demons don’t build up power directly themselves—they are “supplied” power from the demon.

The reason the structure is like this is simple.

Demons, by nature, don’t know how to share what’s theirs and are a greedy breed.

‘They extort power through the contractor, then “share” it back as if doing a favor. That’s the demon’s way.’

At a glance it looks like a fair trade, but it’s no different from scamming with a hidden clause and holding the life-line.

That’s why when Great Demon Players reach death, unlike other Players, they end up with none of their stats or skills remaining.

‘If I weren’t a regressor, I wouldn’t have known this either.’

Fernando spoke in a dying voice.

“What is... that...”

“Shut it, and why don’t you finally intervene directly? Otherwise your contractor really will die.”

Su-ho’s warning.

His eyes were on Fernando, but the target of the warning wasn’t Fernando.

It was Lust.

Then, Fernando’s eyes flipped white.

Tzzzzzzzt—

An intensely red aura, redder than anything seen so far, wrapped around Fernando’s body. And then—

Crack!

Like two powerful magnets slamming together, Fernando’s neck and body snapped back together again.

The Authority of Regeneration, which hadn’t been activating until now, activated once more.

Seeing that sight, Su-ho laughed.

“You should’ve done that from the start.”

Fernando, made one again, slowly rose to his feet.

Unlike his previously varied expressions, his face became quite blunt and cold.

The red eye-glow vanished; with scarlet pupils returned, Fernando spoke.

“You know more than I expected. Did your partner tell you?”

Fernando’s voice had changed.

It had deepened far more, gained a cave-like resonance; if someone were timid, just hearing it would have raised goosebumps all over.

More than anything, the tone had clearly changed to something no longer male, but like a woman’s.

Of course.

This wasn’t Fernando, it was “Lust.”

Su-ho grinned and said,

“Who knows.”

“You’re an amusing man. Whose servant are you?”

“Servant? You say that when you’ve been watching everything. I’m not a contractor—I’m a partner. And what’s with ‘servant,’ ‘servant’? To someone who works for you, even.”

In truth, demons don’t truly respect Players.

In other words, they don’t see people as people—they consider them tools or livestock.

They can’t help it.

That’s a demon’s way of thinking.

So they use the expression “servant” without hesitation.

At Su-ho’s answer, Lust’s eyes narrowed.

No matter how she looked, she couldn’t guess who Su-ho’s partner was.

“Can’t be helped. Even if it’s a bit troublesome, I’ll have to move personally.”

“Oh wow? Say it like that and someone might think you could ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) beat me.”

“Haha, you truly are an amusing human. Be honored that I myself will face you.”

The moment Lust finished speaking—bang!—a powerful red energy began surging from Lust.

Then Fernando’s outward form began to change from human into something demonic.

It was “Demonization,” one of the authorities Great Demon Players can use.

‘Looks like she’s still not at the tier to descend directly.’

Even so, like a stand-in driver, she was directly piloting Fernando’s flesh and pouring in her own power in full—if that’s not intervention, what is.

Fwaaa!

Fernando’s body shone for a moment.

And when that light disappeared, at last Fernando became a perfect demon in form.

“Now that’s one devilish design.”

Like he’d been dressed in tights, the guy’s body—now a unified whole top to bottom—was black and red.

But that didn’t mean it was smooth.

With lumpy details here and there, plus the two horns sprouting from his head, he was the very image of a typical demon.

He held a whip in his hand, which indeed felt like a weapon befitting Lust of Lechery.

“Prepare yourself.”

At that moment—

Bang!

With a great push-off, Lust’s new form vanished.

Su-ho stood still where he was. Then, in an instant, he thrust his sword forward.

Puwaaaak!!

There was nothing in front of his eyes.

But the moment he thrust his sword forward, as neatly and swiftly as a Chinese master snatching a fly with chopsticks—astonishingly, the demonized Fernando was skewered on Su-ho’s sword like a spit.

Drip—

Blood ran from Lust’s mouth.

He’d stabbed her square in the solar plexus—no wonder.

Lust grimaced and spoke.

“How...!”

Puwaaaah!!

Su-ho didn’t answer.

Instead, he twisted the sword on a diagonal and slashed upward, cleaving her body.

And then he swung the sword once more.

Shhk!

A clean severing sound.

He swung along the same line he had split, cutting again.

Su-ho didn’t speak.

Instead, the instant his motion ended, he immediately bent the trajectory and swung to cut again.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!

Standing still in place, like Edward Scissorhands carving an ice sculpture, he kept swinging and slicing Lust.

Each time, Lust was torn apart.

The Authority of Regeneration couldn’t possibly keep up with that speed.

Skills? Buffs?

He didn’t need any of it.

‘That stuff’s for when I’m up against ones far higher level than me.’

Why would he bother using a skill against a thing that got stronger off nothing but lust.

Cutting and cutting, splitting and splitting, Su-ho finally found it inside her body.

‘Found it!’

Before the body could hurry to regenerate, Su-ho drove a blood sword into it and pinned it down hard.

“Aaaarrrrgh!!”

Lust let out a howl.

Up until now, even as her body was being torn, she hadn’t let out a single cry—this was her first.

It had to be.

What Su-ho had pinned was the guy’s heart.

More precisely, it was the “Rune of Lust,” which could be called the whole of Fernando.