CH 180

[Authority]

With that word, the test tube fluctuated and the contents were scattered in the air.

Even as they drifted apart, the emotions within them remained intact. Their special processing made them compatible with Marie’s own emotions, and they eventually fused together in a never-ending loop.

Under Marie’s influence, the emotions took on the appearance of tiny particles that sprayed out like mist and spread across a radius of several hundred meters.

This caused the surroundings to take on a faint black hue, as if graphite powder had been sprinkled onto a painting.

“Um…….”

Observing the floating particles with a curious eye, Oliver stirred them with his hands.

“…This isn’t Marie’s emotions.” he mused aloud.

“No, Master,” replied the loyal Marie, “it is the faith of me and other pure believers.”

“Believers?” Oliver repeated, his interest piqued.

“It is a collection of the faith of those who have received the teachings of the master and truly worship you.”

Surprisingly, the emotions did not oppose each other, but rather merged together as if they had always been a unified entity. Oliver realized that the medium that brought them together was none other than faith.

“Fascinating,” he murmured. “If it’s a blind emotion toward one object, you can use mixed emotions as delicately as a single emotion… It’s an interesting and surprising discovery. I’ve read books in my own way, but I haven’t come across any theories or hypotheses about this. Well done, Marie.”

“I am flattered, Master,” Marie replied humbly. “It is all because there has been no one like you in this world so far.”

Marie attributed her discovery to Oliver, the object of her unwavering devotion. Her willingness to die for him, if asked, was a testament to the depth of her loyalty. But despite Oliver’s encouragement to live her own life, Marie remained steadfast in her worship.

It was a difficult, complicated feeling, one that Oliver couldn’t quite comprehend. To trust and serve someone to the extent that it surpassed one’s own life or accomplishments was beyond his understanding. Yet, he couldn’t deny the undeniable truth that lay before him.

Suddenly, a question popped into Oliver’s mind: Did he have the right to stop Marie from doing what she believed? Perhaps he didn’t realize that it was his own selfish behavior that had led to this dilemma.

‘No, even so… this is difficult.’

“Master.”

“Yes, Marie.”

“I beg you once more. Could you please have mercy on me just once for this fool? I do not wish to harm you.” Marie pleaded once again, her voice quivering with a mix of threat and sincerity.

Oliver was surprised to find that she truly did not wish to harm him. In fact, it pained her to even consider the idea of attacking him. The depth of her devotion was both alarming and fascinating.

“I will do anything for my master,” Marie vowed.

“I’ve already said what I want. But I’m curious, so I’ll ask. What will you do for me?”

“You will be richer than anyone else in the world and enjoy power more than anyone else in the world.”

“I earn enough money to spend as much as I need, and I don’t want power.”

“I will gather all the knowledge of the world and give it to you. I will definitely reveal the true identity of the beautiful light you spoke of in the past.”

“Knowledge, too, I can find. The process has its worth and joy. So does the beautiful light. If you do everything, what am I for? It’s no different from caged livestock or pets. Did you want that from me?”

Marie was agitated by the remark. Honestly, he wanted Marie to understand him and step down at this point.

He just wanted her to part peacefully like this.

But everything in the world doesn’t go your way. Marie shook her head.

“Ugh… then I’ll do whatever I want.”

“I’ve already said it many times. Please quit what you’re doing and live your own life.”

“I too have already said… This is already my life, Master.”

She tightened her grip on her hand, and suddenly, Oliver felt an unknown force around his neck.

KOK!

It was the emotional particles, manipulated by Marie’s power. They had a physical impact, causing pressure on Oliver’s body and making a ‘kok’ sound as it pushed against his black suit.

Without the black suit, he would have been suffocating.

‘particles….. She’s manipulating the emotional particles in the air.’

The emotional particles surrounding hundreds of meters in all directions did not just darken the view, but surrounded the surroundings and had a physical impact.

Oliver struggled to find the right words to describe the experience. It felt like he was fighting in the palm of Marie’s hand.

Oliver touched his neck with his hand, but the small but numerous emotional particles only briefly disorganized like a flock of flies and did not stop their work.

“This is pretty dangerous.”

He couldn’t deny the power of her technique, which had consumed eight test tubes of pure faith. It was dangerous, and Oliver was well aware of it.

He gathered his thoughts and decided to retaliate. He scratched his neck to free himself from Marie’s grip and fired a bullet of hatred at her. But to his surprise, the small emotional particles quickly gathered together and stopped his shot, just like a bullet shot in water.

Oliver instinctively sensed that something big was about to happen.

[LAS Bomb]

Oliver hit the ground with a bomb of rage with the quarterstaff.

The ground shook with a massive explosion, and the dust filled the air, obscuring the view.

He knew he had to get out of there, away from this place where everything was under Marie’s control. In fact, it was as if black magic had been blocked.

Given the amount of emotion used, there was definitely a limit to using it again, and Oliver intended to deal with Marie outside the realm.

But just as he thought he had made a clean escape, a tree twisted and bent like a living creature and struck Oliver with its trunk. He managed to avoid a direct hit, but the impact sent him flying, and he collapsed on the ground.

“……Can it affect not only emotions but also objects?” Oliver asked, struggling to stand up.

Marie replied with a sinister smile, sticking out her claws. “Yes!”

Oliver realized that the emotional particles didn’t just restrict his movements but also affected objects in their surroundings. He had to be careful.

As he tried to dodge Marie’s attack, he felt the pressure of the emotional particles constantly bearing down on him, making his movements dull and unnatural, like he was fighting underwater. It was a big disadvantage for him, especially since Marie had no such restrictions.

She even received help by using emotional particles like a tidal wave in linear movements such as moving.

Marie swung her nails again at Oliver, who barely escaped the attack.

SWOOSH BANG——!

Oliver’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he swung his quarterstaff obliquely to block Marie’s attack.

He then tried to shoot his bullet of hatred from close range, but to his dismay, countless particles of air permeated the bullets and hindered the completion of the black magic. The particles were like salt, sugar, or soil on food, slowing down the casting of black magic and ruining Oliver’s chain attacks.

SWOOOSH-!

Marie swung her other hand and narrowly cut Oliver with her sharp fingernail.

He pulled himself back, but the area she grazed was ripped off.

Oliver thought he could hold out once or twice, but he was mistaken. His body was ready to be cut off with just one good hit from those nails.

“It’ll hurt, but don’t worry, Master. Through a skilled warlock, I’ll put the severed parts back together, and even if that doesn’t work, I’ll attach the best mechanical prosthetic arm or golem prosthetic arm. A single limb does not diminish the value of Master.”

“Haaa… I think it’s a little weird, but I’m probably mistaken, right?”

He decided to re-extract the emotions that had spread in the air. If he couldn’t win, taking them away was one way to gain an advantage. Fortunately, the emotional particles in the air were also emotions, so he was able to bring them into his control.

———CREEEECHHHH!!!

Just as he was about to gather the emotions into his hands, a sharp, ear-piercing sound echoed through the air as the emotions scattered in all directions.

It wasn’t a failure to extract, but rather, Marie had interfered with his attempt from a distance.

Could it be that Marie’s ability to control surpasses Oliver’s?

No, it wasn’t.

When looking at the fight so far, Oliver’s skill was higher than Marie’s.

If so, the reason was elsewhere. It was because of the nature of emotions.

“I’m sorry, Master. This emotion is a special emotion bound by faith. It won’t be easy for even Master to take the reins away from me!”

Marie had a solid connection to the special emotion bound by faith.

It was a vast and powerful emotion that was not easy for even Oliver to take away.

The same emotions attract each other, and Marie’s link to this emotion was so strong that it went beyond the technique of black magic and approached the fundamentals. It was an unequivocal fact that her connection to this emotion made it difficult for Oliver to pull out.

Oliver couldn’t help but find the situation a little amusing. Despite being worshiped by Marie and her followers, he felt a sense of irony that he couldn’t quite put into words. It occurred to him that perhaps the emotions of faith and worship weren’t so concerned with the target of their devotion, but rather the emotion itself that they believed in.

“As I learn more about the true world and the more I live, the more amusing it all becomes,” he mused.

“Ah… so you’re acknowledging our faith?” asked Marie, hopeful.

“Well, it’s not easy to say. I’m not a great person enough to evaluate Marie and the people around her. To be honest, I hope we can make up now and break up and live our lives separately.”

Marie’s expression darkened at Oliver’s words, and he realized they might never truly understand each other. But that thought didn’t bother him too much.

Marie said, grinding her teeth. “Then…”

[Toad House]

Before Marie could finish her sentence, Oliver injected mana into the ground and created a hemispherical defense called [Toad House].

Frustrated, Marie attempted to destroy it with emotional particles turned into small blades, but a massive explosion and flames erupted within the structure.

Emotional particles were also damaged by the strong firepower and pushed back by the heat.

“…..!!”

Marie was surprised by the huge explosion and flames in front of her.

But when she saw Oliver jumping out of the flames unharmed, she was startled once more.

Oliver, dressed in a black suit merged with an artificial soul that was made of mixed emotions, mana, and Life-force, tried to escape out of the emotional particles with tremendous speed.

“Uh!”

Visibly confused, Marie manipulated the emotional particles again and tried to catch Oliver.

But this time it was different.

Although she was only able to make it the size of a bean, the power of the artificial soul was beyond imagination, and it ignored the small but innumerable disturbances of emotion in the air.

She tried shoving emotional particles into the black suit and destroying it, but that didn’t work either.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

Marie was perplexed. She knew she would have a hard time catching Oliver if he was out of her realm. So Marie chased after Oliver by herself.

The black suit mixed with artificial soul naturally increased its output and sped up, and Marie did her best to catch up with him.

She climbed a tree, then she made a platform for herself with emotion particles and ran through the sky, chasing Oliver like a hawk chasing its prey.

Due to the nature of the terrain, Marie was slightly faster. At least that was how Marie felt.

Marie attacked Oliver excitedly as she entered the outer area where the emotional particles could no longer reach.

“I won’t miss this time!!”

Is it because she had the prey right in front of her, Marie did not see the emotions of greed and flames that Oliver held in his hand?

[Greed Fire]

Oliver chanted, mixing fire and emotion.