Trash of the Count's Family Vol 2. Chapter 424: Facing and Protecting (11)
BANG! BANG!
Cale stomped on the knife with complete sincerity.
BUZZZZ!
The knife, covered by the cloth, let out a hum.
[Remaining chaos attribute: 96.3%]
The quest window dutifully informed him that things were progressing.
Mm.
That said, Cale’s foot was starting to hurt.
He had deliberately wrapped the knife in a thick cloth for the sake of his body, but—
Maybe because the cloth isn’t actually soft, I can feel just how hard the floor is.
If he kept stomping on the knife like this, his foot was going to start hurting.
And it’s not very efficient, either.
Maybe because it was wrapped in the cloth, it did not feel like the knife was taking that much damage.
Cale paused for a moment.
Huff, huff.
He did not realize it himself, but his shoulders were rising and falling as he breathed.
That was only natural, since he had been stomping with every ounce of strength he had.
Bzzz, bzz—
Even then, the knife kept trembling.
Huff.
As Cale’s breathing grew heavier—
Bzz.
The knife’s vibration weakened compared to before.
You little bastard.
Cale caught that instantly, and flames flared in his eyes.
“Cale.”
At that moment, Alberu’s voice rang out.
“Want some help?”
BUZZZZ! BUZZZZZ!
The knife immediately began vibrating violently.
Cale’s gaze shifted from the knife to Alberu.
Alberu Crossman, who had woken up a full day later than Cale.
His complexion was still somewhat pale, but it was better than Cale’s.
And naturally, he was built better than Cale, too.
On top of that, standing there with the Sun Sword in hand, he looked every inch a highly skilled swordsman.
BUZZZZ! BUUUUZZZZ!
The knife shook even more violently.
For some reason, that only irritated Cale further.
Ding!
Just then, a quest message appeared.
[*To subdue it completely, the help of others is not permitted.]
“Hoo.”
Cale let out a sigh.
For some reason, the system, the divine relic, and the crown prince were all annoying him.
“Cale.”
When the crown prince called him again, Cale shook his head.
“No. This is something I have to do entirely on my own.”
BUZZ!
The knife’s vibration weakened.
You just wait.
Flames blazed in Cale’s eyes again.
Mm.
And Alberu let out a low sound.
I think that idiot’s eyes have gone strange.
He had not seen Cale Henituse like that very often.
Not unless he had been stabbed in the back by an enemy, or unless something was about to cost him by his own standards.
Creak.
Just then, the door opened with a small sound.
Whip.
Cale’s head snapped toward the entrance with frightening speed.
“!”
Sir Voltien, who had just stepped inside, flinched.
“Haha—”
Cale broke into a bright smile and laughed cheerfully.
“Bring it over.”
“Yes, sir!”
Startled by the gleam in Cale’s eyes, Voltien hurried over and carefully set the metal box he had been carrying in his arms down in front of Cale.
Thud!
The Hall of Light echoed.
A metal box.
Inside it was an assortment of weapons.
“Hoh.”
Cale reached for the piece of equipment that caught his eye first.
“Mm.”
Then he let out a low sound.
Heavy.
This hammer was a little heavy.
Next.
Mm.
This one was heavy too.
Cale was not the type to overestimate himself.
Next.
After rummaging through the box like that, Cale finally pulled out two pieces of equipment.
BUZZZZ! BUZZZZ! BUZZZZZ!
Watching the knife panic like that, Cale curled the corner of his mouth upward.
A fairly large hammer.
And a whip studded with countless iron spikes.
Holding both, Cale failed to hide his emotions.
“Heh.”
A distinctly sinister laugh slipped from him, and Cale picked up the hammer first.
Then—
BAAAAANG!
He brought it down.
“Oh.”
Alberu was impressed.
“You’re better at that than I expected.”
The words slipped out of him before he knew it.
And Cale raised one corner of his mouth.
[Remaining chaos attribute: 94.1%]
With a single blow, the remaining attribute dropped sharply.
From that moment on, Cale began hammering in earnest.
He had removed the cloth completely now.
BAAANG! BAAANG!
The noise was tremendous.
Cale was tired, but he kept bringing the hammer down on the knife at a steady pace, precisely.
“Oh—”
Alberu was genuinely impressed.
How was that even possible with that weak-looking body?
Of course, any healthy man in his twenties with a solid build would have enough strength to lift a hammer like that and swing it.
But that accuracy when striking the knife.
And even that strange sense of experience.
-Cale, you are amazing.
The Ancient Tree marveled.
But Cale was focused solely on what he was doing right now.
He repeated it to himself.
It’s about rebound and technique.
BAAANG! BAAANG!
You could not do this kind of hammering by trying to muscle through it with brute force alone.
Cale Henituse. No, Kim Rok Soo, had plenty of experience with manual labor of all kinds.
Before the monsters appeared, he had worked all sorts of part-time jobs just to make money. And even after becoming an ability user, he had often been deployed to reconstruction sites in ruined Korea and done hard labor there.
Of course, compared to back then, this body was pretty pathetic.
BAAANG! BAAANG!
But experience did not disappear.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
[Remaining chaos attribute: 87.9%]
Bzzz, bzzzzz—
The remaining attribute dropped quickly.
BAAANG!
Bzzz, buzzz—
The knife’s vibrations became more violent.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
Even so, Cale did not stop hammering.
At the center of the Hall of Light, where brilliant, holy sunlight poured down, beads of sweat formed on Cale’s forehead as he hammered.
His face had never looked more serious.
He was so utterly immersed in the act itself that he could not even hear the sounds around him.
The pouring light, Cale’s face, and his figure all looked almost reverent.
“......”
“......”
The Pope and the others from the Order watched blankly.
To feel reverence from that scene—
BAAANG! BAAANG!
BUZZZZ, BUUUZZZZ—
“Heh. What, scared now?”
Every now and then, Cale spat out a remark, and his face looked so wicked when he did it.
Blink. Blink.
The Pope was horrified.
Wicked?
This person was in the middle of purifying an evil divine relic created to bring about the descent of the God of Chaos!
To think such irreverent thoughts—
BAAANG!
BUZZ!
“Oh, I think you’re about to crack.”
BAAANG!
...Perhaps such irreverent thoughts were understandable after all.
Blink. Blink.
The Pope stared blankly and thought that.
But Cale did not care in the slightest about how anyone else was reacting.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
He simply kept hammering.
The sound grew louder and louder.
It had been a long time since he had done this, so his posture had been clumsy at first, but it gradually became more skillful.
Don’t waste strength tensing your body for no reason.
Cale poured out every hammering trick he had learned back when he was Kim Rok Soo, from the older workers who had taught him.
BAAAANG—!
The knife looked like it might break.
Bzzz, bzz—
The knife vibrated desperately.
Cale did not care.
BAAANG!
Then he suddenly stopped.
Thud.
He planted the hammer beside him, then crouched down.
Lowering his head, he looked down at the knife.
A detached voice came from his mouth.
“Did it crack?”
He was asking whether a fracture had formed.
Bzzz.
The knife truly did tremble.
“Mm.”
But Cale was genuinely absorbed in the situation now.
“Still a long way to go, huh?”
The moment he said that flatly—
[Remaining chaos attribute: 50.1%]
The remaining chaos attribute suddenly plunged from the low eighties all the way down to fifty percent.
[*The divine relic is submitting.]
Bzzz.
The divine relic vibrated weakly, as if it had lost its will.
“Mm.”
Cale dropped onto the floor for a moment.
Bzzz, bzzz.
A lull settled over the room.
Only the knife continued to vibrate.
The people watching could tell its reaction was different now from before.
“Ah. It seems the purification is working.”
“My word, it seems every one of those actions had meaning!”
“The will of that wicked knife is breaking!”
Whispering in admiration, they all looked at Cale.
Cale sat down roughly on the floor, breathing hard.
His head was lowered, so they could not see his eyes, but they could sense how exhausted he was.
“Ah.”
The Pope began reflecting on how narrow-minded he had been to think Cale looked wicked.
“!”
Then Cale lifted his head, and the Pope flinched.
[*The divine relic is submitting.]
The divine relic is submitting?
Cale did not trust the system or that remaining attribute dropping to 50.1%.
Thanks to long experience, he knew quite well how to deal with bastards like the Knife of Chaos.
“So, are you finally thinking of calming down?”
Cale asked the knife.
BUZZ!
As if answering, the knife reacted.
To anyone looking at it, it appeared to be settling down.
But—
Smirk.
With a sneer, Cale lashed the whip at the knife.
CRACK!
A satisfyingly sharp sound rang out.
“You think I’m going to believe you?”
And the instant Cale finished speaking—
BUZZZZ, BUUUZZZZ, BUUUZZZZ!
The Knife of Chaos began reacting violently again.
Buu—
Gray smoke even started to rise.
“Hk!”
The bishops recoiled in shock.
“Step back.”
Alberu moved them behind him.
Sir Voltien had already reached the entrance and was prepared to throw the doors open and evacuate everyone at any moment.
Cale ignored all of it and kept whipping steadily.
I’ve done this a few times too.
Even when he had been Kim Rok Soo, though he had been a rear support-type, after becoming a team leader he had ended up throwing himself into danger often enough that he had used a whip a few times too.
He was not an expert, but he knew how to handle one well enough.
CRACK!
He liked the sound very much.
CRACK!
BUZZZZ! BUUUZZZZ!
The knife resisted.
Just like I thought, bastards like this always pretend to settle down, then stab you in the back!
Bastards like the White Star!
Bastards like the hunters!
Bastards like the God of Chaos!
Because of those bastards, I’ve had to go through all this trouble...!
Cale’s anger just kept building.
CRACK! CRACK!
“Take that!”
Cale grabbed the hammer again.
He was tired, but the anger came first.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
Cale started hammering again.
Buuu—
He did not care about the gray smoke at all.
This was the domain of the Sun God.
A little gray smoke that could not even summon the God of Chaos was nothing.
Sssss—
Under the sunlight, it scattered away in vain.
The Sun God is helping.
He could not hear a voice, but the Sun God was clearly suppressing the Knife of Chaos so it could not use chaos.
Definitely more helpful than the God of Balance, at least.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
As if possessed, Cale kept hammering.
His arms hurt.
His shoulders felt like they hurt too.
But he just kept going.
“Hoo.”
Of course, he did stop to rest for a bit.
For about five minutes.
“......”
“......”
The surroundings were silent.
Cale ignored even that.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
He just kept hammering again.
Ah.
BAAANG!
This is really clearing my head.
BAAANG!
It had been a long time since something had relieved his stress this much.
BAAANG!
BAAANG!
Just like when he had thrown money into that furnace.
BAAANG!
It felt good.
How many irritating things had there been lately?
BAAANG!
And all that stress was being released.
BAAANG!
At some point, Cale forgot everything else and was simply venting stress.
Bzzz... buu...
By now, even the Knife of Chaos’s vibrations and gray smoke were fading.
Tremble—
And it really was shaking.
[Remaining chaos attribute: 32.3%]
BAAANG!
20.6%
BAAANG!
15.9%
The longer the hammering continued, the faster the remaining attribute dropped.
BAAANG!
And finally—
Thud.
Cale let go of the hammer.
[Remaining chaos attribute: 0.01%]
Then—
“Tch.”
He clicked his tongue.
In a detached tone, he said,
“You’re submitting already?”
He pressed the Knife of Chaos.
No, his body was tired, but this was relieving his stress!
“Hey, don’t you want to hold out a little longer?”
The moment Cale said that—
“Huh.”
“Ah.”
The Pope and the saintess let out hollow, exhausted sighs.
Tremble—!
The Knife of Chaos shook violently.
Then—
[Remaining chaos attribute: 0%]
It submitted.
[*The divine relic has completely submitted!]
“Ah, what a shame.”
[*The divine relic has completely submitted!!]
“Mmm.”
[*The divine relic has really completely submitted!!!]
Ah, what a shame.
Though disappointed, Cale walked over to the knife lying on the floor.
“Mm. It didn’t even crack.”
The knife was perfectly intact.
As expected, among the divine relics of the God of Chaos, this one had to be an exceptionally powerful relic.
Ding!
The quest informed him of the final thing he had to do.
[Sub Quest: Change the divine relic’s attribute to ‘nothingness’!]
[Make the divine relic recognize that its owner is ‘human’.]
This divine relic existed for the sake of the God of Chaos.
The moment it was pulled out of that position, the game system could change the attribute of this divine relic to nothingness.
“Hey.”
Cale picked up the knife.
“You belong to me now.”
Bzzz—
The knife vibrated again.
“Hss!”
Cale seized the hammer.
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz!
The knife reacted violently.
“I’m your master now, right?”
Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz!
“Ah, I can’t understand you. If I’m your master, vibrate once.”
Buzz!
“I’m your master, right?”
Buzz!
The knife accepted Cale as its owner.
[The owner of the divine relic ‘Knife of Chaos’ is being changed from the God of Chaos to Cale Henituse.]
[You have obtained a legendary item!]
Oh ho.
Cale was impressed as he opened the item description window.
[Knife of Chaos (Grade: Legend)]
[Its original attribute, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) chaos, has vanished, leaving behind only immense divine power of the attribute nothingness.]
A satisfied smile rose on Cale’s lips.
I’ll be able to save the Blue Wolf.
The god of the beast people, the Blue Wolf.
He had found the divine relic that would restore his divinity and make him stronger.
And now the beast people of Apitoyu would be able to live as complete beast people again.
I should bring Lark over now too.
And Lark would finally be free of Apitoyu’s affairs as well.
I can’t leave the kid out there forever. I need to bring him home.
Cale tucked the divine relic back inside his clothes, then pulled out another parchment.
Purification of Chaos.
[Sub Quest: Obtain the skill ‘Purification of Chaos’!]
[Go to a sacred place untouched by the gaze of the God of Chaos and tear up the scripture of ‘Purification of Chaos’!]
The method for obtaining it was truly simple.
He took the scripture of purification in both hands.
Riiip—
Then he tore it apart.
Just like Fear of Chaos, it tore far too easily.
Cale looked up into empty air.
Ding!
Ding!
He heard two alerts.
[‘Skill: Fear of Chaos (Legend)’ is activated.]
One of them was the result of a quest he had completed earlier and had been too busy to check.
The other was a new alert.
[You have acquired ‘Skill: Purification of Chaos (Legend)’.]
Cale’s mouth curled upward.
He had obtained two of the five powers treasured by the Order of the God of Chaos.
And there were still three powers left inside his clothes.
I’m taking all of those too.
Cale intended to acquire them all, one by one, as skills.
The remaining powers.
Corruption. Pleasure.
I couldn’t read the last one.
Even that final power written in unreadable letters.
Of course, Cale had no idea that not even the Pope of the Order of the God of Chaos could possess all five powers.
Especially that final power, the one whose letters could not be read.
Ever since the Order had been founded, not a single person had ever possessed it.
“All done?”
Cale nodded at Alberu, who had approached, and answered.
“Yes. We’ll stop by the Demon Realm for a bit, then head on to the Demon Realm.”
He had to go to the Demon Realm and meet his companions, as well as the leader of the Dark Elves, the Witch of the Jungle.
After that—
Choi Jung Gun.
He had to go to the Demon Realm and save him.
And while he was at it, turn the Demon Realm upside down too.
*****
A few hours later, Cale returned to the Demon Realm.
He was fa