The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System

Chapter 165: A New Realm

***

Ignotus, without showing much of a reaction, slowly tilted his head back, stared at the cloaked figure in front of him, and pointed a thumb at himself.

"You’re forcing yourself to remain a Lesser Demon, aren’t you?"

Most people wouldn’t have reached such a conclusion, never mind actually saying it.

But, of course, Ignotus was incredibly far from being ’most people,’ having analyzed much of the spade-eyed Demon in such a short time, an ability that very much surprised it.

Slowly, it brought its hands together and began clapping.

"Well done... never would I have imagined a human as weak as you would see through me so clearly and easily."

"Oh? I’m glad to have impressed a Demon."

Ignotus smiled at it, knowing that he beat it at its own game before it even began.

And the Demon knew it too, ceasing its games in a snap.

Something cast a shadow over Ignotus.

’Be careful!’

Eris already knew that this Demon was beyond trouble.

"Oh. That’s a big sword."

A colossal blade, big enough to cleave a hillside, hung suspended above Ignotus.

It looked so real...

’That’s all an illusion!’

And it felt just as real, but he knew it to be an illusion.

His Beholding Eyes and Eris had made that very clear.

Still...

’He is an Illusion Demon... its attacks might be fake, but it will kill you. Do NOT get hit!’

"Yeah..."

Ignotus muttered as he bent his knees.

"I get it."

The giant sword dropped, and he sprinted forward.

It crashed into the earth behind him with the sound of a mountain exploding.

Dirt geysered skyward; shockwaves blasted through the clearing, throwing trees like pebbles, quickly nearing Ignotus’s back.

Yet he didn’t stop or turn around, focusing entirely on the Demon.

It was in front of him now, a hand raised in a lazy wave.

"Hello~."

Ignotus swung without a word.

His blade cut straight through the Demon’s head.

It popped like a bubble, only for another Demon to step out behind him.

Ignotus charged again, even faster than before.

He wasn’t the fastest now because of technique, agility, or form.

He was fast because he ran like a complete idiot who had zero regard for anything in his way.

And it worked.

His sword flicked upward, clipping the Demon’s chin exactly at the perfect angle.

The Demon staggered back, surprised that Ignotus’s sword actually touched him.

"You should know..."

He grinned at it.

"I might be wise, but I’m also a fool."

The Demon flickered out of existence, then back into existence behind him.

Ignotus twisted and swung again. The Demon leaned back unnaturally far, easily avoiding it. Then, like a spring, it snapped back, only to hit nothing but air. Ignotus had already rolled out of its way.

Demon and human stared at each other before stepping back.

"You really are interesting."

"And you talk too much."

The Demon smiled wider.

"Yes, and you’re running out of Divinity."

Ignotus took a stance.

"I’ve easily got half of my reserves left. More than enough to kill you."

That was a lie, even with his much higher Divinity pool than the usual Priest. Fighting against Lesser Demons back to back was a tough struggle, especially when one of them had kept holding back their ascension to remain in the Third Stratum and terrorize it as it liked.

"Let’s test that, shall we?"

Snap!

Reality bent as trees fell apart into floating shapes, cubes, triangles, and spirals, all drifting as if weightless. The ground itself became transparent like glass, showing shooting stars.

’Brace—’

The Demon swept its hand, and the world collapsed inward.

A wave of thin shards exploded from every direction, forming a storm of spinning mirrors.

Each mirror reflected a slightly different version of Ignotus—a thousand Ignotuses running in every direction.

The real Ignotus had no idea what was happening, and yet, he wasn’t given a chance to think as a mirror Ignotus lunged at him.

He cut it down, shattering it, revealing three more illusions behind it, each swinging the same sloppy-but-deadly sword style he used.

"What kind of nightmare is this? I don’t want to see myself this much!"

Ignotus ducked one swing, kicked another in the gut, and stabbed the third in the foot.

All three burst into shards, reforming as the Demon’s laughing face before disappearing.

He then jumped onto a floating mirror, sprinted up it like a ramp, and leapt over the next illusory wave as the Demon twisted the entire world sideways again.

Gravity slipped, and Ignotus flipped uncontrollably, head over heels.

"THIS IS INSANE! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Though all tensed up, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Having never fought an Illusion Demon before, he’d found this way too exhilarating. Still, that didn’t keep him from being focused, as he stabbed downward while piercing through the air.

Thanks to his spear-like form, Ignotus broke through one mirror after another while falling straight towards the Demon.

Thump.

Noticing a sudden shift, perhaps the Demon’s addition of a sneaky trap, he paused.

Knowing better than to risk it, a blood spike shot out from his knee and anchored him to a floating chunk of mirrored ground, yanking himself upright.

Indeed, it was a trap.

The Demon appeared behind him with a dark spear.

Clang!

Ignotus had blocked it without turning.

That had the Demon blink.

"...How did you—"

"I got lucky~."

He turned and stabbed it in the stomach.

[Wise Fool] did its job, staggering the Demon.

Sure, it recovered quickly, but its smile lost some of its smugness.

"You won’t make it out of here alive."

The Demon held up a hand.

Every single mirror shattered, the floating shapes dissolved, and the strange world broke.

It ’broke’ into another, for suddenly, Ignotus was falling through an endless castle.

The Demon fell with him, its body stretching and elongating.

Around them, the castle kept twisting, spiraling into an upside-down labyrinth with doors that led into upside-down hallways that led into sideways rooms... it made no sense at all.

Ignotus hit a falling staircase, rolled off it, hit a falling pillar, bounced off it, and then landed on the back of a falling stone statue, only to surf it.

’THIS IS INSANE!’

The Demon appeared in front of him again, floating perfectly stable.

"You’re quite durable, but durability means little when your mind breaks."

Ignotus chuckled at the Demon’s words.

"You’re a little late for that, I’m afraid!"

He kicked off the gargoyle and launched himself forward.

The Demon’s abdomen split into eight long legs like a spider, each tipped with a blade.

They stabbed at him while he was directly in front of it, and yet none hit. Ignotus had twisted away from four at the last moment, blocked two, slashed one, and let the last slide off his arm, finally reaching the Demon, ready to kill it.

But, fast as he was, the Demon was faster, kicking him away with a centipede-shaped extension of its spine.

Ignotus spun again, cursing.

"Gods dammit! This is getting annoying!"

’You chose to fight these Demons! I TOLD YOU—’

"HEY, I HAD TO DO THIS!"

Crashing into a wall, he used his blood spikes to cling to it and then launched himself back into freefall. At that same moment, the Demon’s spider-limbs pierced the spot he’d just been.

Ignotus twisted through the air once more, raised his sword—

SNAP!

Reality jumped, following the Demon’s Will. One moment, Ignotus was mid-air, blood spikes jutting from his arms, his sword raised to split the incoming school of bastard illusions. The next—

"Ugh..."

Ignotus landed face-first onto... a carpet?

He pushed himself up, blinking.

"...where the Hell—"

’It’s a trap!’