27 Ch 27: Exploiting Weaknesses!
With that, the tests were over.
He went on to challenge the 0th floor again.
"What a pleasant surprise," he thought, as he didn't encounter any monsters on the way to the hall or in the hall itself. It seemed they weren't respawnable like in a dungeon.
"Anna said the way to defeat the lethal teddy lies in the paintings. She is an inquisitor, so there has to be some truth to it. Before advancing to the boss room, I need to comprehend the paintings no matter how long it takes," he thought.
Thus, once he reached the hall, he sat down in a spot from where all the paintings were visible. He viewed the paintings again and again in an attempt to comprehend them.
In the paintings on the floor, the devil invaded the world and eradicated the winged race, but in the painting on the ceiling, the devil was subdued by the winged race and seemingly kept on a tight leash like a dog.
'The characters in the paintings on the floor and the painting on the ceiling are the same, yet the stories they portray are entirely different. Why is that the case?'
Just what had the winged race in the painting on the ceiling done to defeat the devil that the winged race in the paintings on the floor failed to put up a fight against? He wondered.
'There's something odd about its smile.'
Valerius noticed something strange.
The devil in the series of paintings on the floor of the hall initially looked cautious, deadly still, and even somewhat apprehensive when it appeared from the fire and saw the winged race looking at it.
The smile appeared on its face only when the winged race cowered in its presence.
Also, this smile only grew when they turned around and started to run away.
Showing their back to the devil... It was this act of cowardice that resulted in their entire race being massacred by the devil.
At this point, Valerius's eyes widened. He had recalled something that was going to prove to be crucial to his current situation.
'Devils were mentioned quite a few times in the Legend of the First Man.'
In the legend of Elandrial, it was mentioned that the first time Elandrial met Death was when he unknowingly crossed paths with a devil.
As he passed by the Devil without noticing its existence, it stabbed him in the back.
Holding his stomach, Elandrial collapsed to the ground, his back facing the devil, his front pressed against the ground.
The devil was going to stab him again for no other reason than to satisfy its desire when Elandrial's first son, who had gone away to answer nature's call, returned, and seeing that his father was about to get killed, he yelled.
Startled, the devil paused what it was doing and looked up, its dark eyes with bottomless depth clashed with Nature Lord's green eyes filled to the brim with anger.
Nature was angry and countless disasters fell down the heaven to strike the Devil asunder.
For some reason, the devil who was so fast and elusive that even Elandrial didn't notice him as their path crossed, was unable to move out of harm's way.
Nature Lord's wrath tore the devil into pieces.
Then he went up to check on his father.
Elandrial was seriously injured and dying. Nature Lord, being a little kid, cried. His tears fell on his father's body, healing his wounds. Miraculously, Elandrial survived!
After surviving that ordeal, Elandrial was always vigilant while traveling across shady and ominous places where devils were rumored to reside.
The second time he came across a devil was not long after that instance. As he was on guard, he managed to catch sight of it before it could pass by him and went on the defensive. As he was glaring at the devil, it passed by him without doing a thing.
In this story, the most interesting thing about devils, beings who had not only been against mankind since the birth of the first man but also liked to bewilder them into committing wrong all their lives just for the sake of their amusement, was that they attacked like a snake.
By that, it means that devils don't dare attack their targets openly. They only dared to stab them when they were vulnerable or when their guard was down.
The devil as shown in the painting could only attack like a snake!
If it wasn't allowed to be unpredictable and kept under constant watch, it wouldn't be able to do a thing but watch as death approach.
In the paintings on the floor, this weakness wasn't exploited.
Thus, the devil was able to show its full strength and the entire winged race was annihilated, and their world was destroyed.
But in the painting on the ceiling, its weakness was exploited, and it was suppressed and subdued.
This observation led to a crucial comprehension.
The devil was a dishonorable bastard who dared to attack only those who had their backs turned towards it.
'According to the paintings, it can only stab in the back,' Valerius concluded.
This fact was strengthened by the painting on the ceiling, where the same devil was only able to stand still, its face twisting in horror, as the winged race surrounded it.
They stood facing it. None of them had their backs to it. As a result, the condition to attack wasn't met. So, the devil could only stand still.
Valerius scratched his head, a perplexed expression crossing his face.
"Hold on, something's not adding up here," he muttered to himself. "This theory about the devil attacking only like a snake... it doesn't quite fit with what I faced. That teddy in the fourth zone of the 0th floor didn't hesitate to attack me, even though I was staring right at it. There's a piece of this puzzle I'm missing."
His eyes narrowed in thought as he tried to reconcile this inconsistency with the clues he had gathered.
He went over his fight with the teddy, which had been more like a one-sided slaughter, to find the missing link.
What was the last thing that happened before the teddy attacked and killed him?
He was moving towards it.
No, that wasn't quite right.
It wasn't that he moved toward it.
It was that he blinked, looking away from it for an instant of a second, giving it the time and opportunity it needed to be unpredictable and attack like a snake.
It was his mistake that got him killed.
"I understand," Valerius exclaimed as a flash of realization crossed his face. "I finally understand."
He had comprehended two things from the paintings in the hall.
Don't look away from the devil, or you'll give it a chance to behave unpredictably.
At the same time, if you keep looking at it, it won't be able to do a thing.
Now it was time to apply it practically and see if it worked.
'If it doesn't, at most I will experience a brutal death again.'
He had experienced it before. So it didn't seem like a big deal.
He chuckled and confidently advanced to the room next to the hall. Once there, he used the book of spells to conjure the mirror. Passing through the mirror, he entered the grotto once again and saw an innocent-looking teddy in the distance.
As he advanced, he kept his eyes on it, not looking away for even a moment.
It was human reflexes to blink every once in a while, but when you were focusing on something intently, it would be easier to not blink.
Thus, he was able to keep it under his constant watch as he crossed the distance between them.
As the gap was bridged, the cheery expression on the teddy twisted into one of fear and disbelief. Its trick had been seen through so quickly and it was left utterly defenseless. It couldn't believe its eyes!
Valerius stopped in front of it and dropped on one knee. His hand went around it to its back, taking the scissors from the hand the teddy had behind its back.
"You murdered me using this weapon. Now using this very weapon, I will dismantle you piece by piece."
True to his words, using the very scissors, Valerius tore the teddy apart into 30 pieces, exacting his revenge.
Right after, a guttural roar of torment, despair, and defiance echoed through the grotto.
"To be undone at the brink of freedom, I cannot... I will not accept this fate!"
Valerius heard this first sentence clearly. After that, each word of the next sentence reverberated in his ears like deafening thunderclaps, overwhelming his senses. As a result, he didn't quite get them. If he had, he would've been shocked.
"If... I... could've... killed... you... two... more... times... I... would've... escaped... this... dreamscape... I... will... kill... you... I... will... kill... you." That was what was said.
As those words sounded, black wisps emerged from the teddy's remains and began to shape into a menacing form.
Hmph!
Abruptly, a loud snort rang out. In an instant, the forming apparition dissipated, and calm returned to the grotto.
