Here is the English translation of Chapter 79: Cowardice... Courage?, rendered in a gritty, dark fantasy style while strictly omitting all hyphens across the entire text:
Chapter 79: Cowardice... Courage?
"AHHHHHHH"
A young woman who rushed forward to engage Lunas in combat was swiftly snapped at the neck and killed by him, unfolding so rapidly that the gray haired youth's eyes failed to track the movement.
Lunas's speed and strength were terrifying.
"Ha... ha"
The gray haired youth gasped incessantly for air, clutching his head as he observed the ongoing battle, looking at Corin, looking at everyone.
He looked at the girl whose neck had been snapped; that girl carried a gaze brimming with complex emotions upon her death, and in the eyes of the youth, the moment she shifted from worry, horror, and fury to defiance, agony, and unwillingness faded like two blurry photographs passing by in an instant.
He sank to his knees, burying his face in his hands as he calculated.
The gray haired youth evaluated every person present, his eyes suddenly quivering before turning cold and razor sharp; in merely a second, he shifted his gaze toward Corin.
'Run.'
Pouring strength into his legs, he immediately backed away, yet he dared not take quick steps, for regardless of how fast he moved it remained meaningless; instead, he attempted to remain as silent as possible.
Furthermore, he breathed steadily, his face dry, unnaturally calm, akin to someone trying to appear composed while playing a horror game.
He let out a sigh, yet his breath trembled as his feet took step after step backward.
The gray haired youth looked at the person closest to him, Corin; having met merely a day ago, they could hardly be called close friends.
Yet the thought of Corin dying caused him to freeze involuntarily, unconsciously muttering a word or two.
"Run..."
Corin seemed to perceive something unusual, speaking directly to the gray haired youth behind him.
Corin opened his eyes, allowing tears to stream down; he was terrified of death, quaking with dread before it.
Yet Corin's words awakened the gray haired youth.
"...Run? Run where to... You must run, run quickly, do not be afraid..."
Corin also trembled as he met the gaze of the gray haired youth, yet within those eyes lay an indescribable madness...
It resembled that of brave souls about to charge into gunfire for the greater good, a mixture of dread, heroism, and lunatic madness belonging to someone who could not comprehend his own self.
CRASH!!!
Corin looked back at the battlefield; no one had perished, yet one person was gravely injured, barely a step away from crows picking at the corpse.
Corin took a deep breath; looking at this person he had known for barely a day, he unconsciously recalled his two brothers, while also thinking of himself, unable to choke back his emotion, yet that mad gaze remained directed into the distance.
"!"
The gray haired youth suddenly lost contact with the ground, pushed far away by the earth controlled by Corin like a wave of mud thrusting a pebble.
"Mm..."
The youth clawed at the mud coating his lips, yet failed, as it was like—
CRASH!!!
The battle raged on, and Corin had to return to reality; he knew, he knew with absolute certainty that he would not survive until tomorrow, until the future where he reached the threshold of university, yet regardless it mattered not.
'Among everyone here, he is the one best suited to conceal himself... and that youth also requires...'
Corin thought, pursing his lips tightly before biting hard into his tongue; adrenaline flooded his body, making it difficult to realize blood was pooling from his mouth.
His eyes widened to their absolute limit, then his eyelids constricted, revealing two black pupils encircled by blood vessels.
His breathing grew increasingly frantic, until a faint white mist akin to thin smoke exhaled from his mouth.
Corin glid his glare across the scene, staring at the three corpses claimed by Lunas, whose face he had long grown familiar with.
Corin stepped forward, sighing into the air, as if death itself were pursuing him from behind.
His death, or the death of this world, had been written long ago, yet what meaning did that carry?
"Promet!! Everyone!!"
Corin roared, his field of vision gradually submerging in the crimson glow of blood, his magical output nearly consuming his physical body alive.
'What on earth is this? Why am I...'
Corin let out a sigh, looking at the others before reaching Lunas.
'Am I truly existing?' Corin thought; regardless, he no longer felt any pain.
Gazing at the towering figure standing before him like a pillar, a silhouette drenched pitch black in blood, that version of Lunas, Corin spoke nothing, like a puppet whose strings were severed.
As for Lunas, he raised his leg, unleashing a spinning kick directed toward Corin's human spearhead.
The essence of an orange is its juice after being crushed.
Of an ice block is the cool chill born of decay.
Of the canopy above is the stars burning away matter every second.
One cannot obtain the essence without destroying the vessel itself; human beings are the same, knowledge, power... all must squeeze out every drop of the physical body.
Including... Path.
Corin's eyes flashed with a beam of light, and his perception of the world gradually pivoted...
His vision was slowly enveloped by two black chains forming an X shape.
And his pupils were as well, entirely wrapped in iron chains.
Lunas, who was mid combat, suddenly halted his hands, standing rooted to the spot, leaving everyone present in utter shock.
Then he turned his head, looking directly at Corin.
And then...
Cough!
Corin gnashed his teeth, refusing to let blood spill from his mouth, his face crisscrossed with dark markings shaped like pitch black chains.
CRASH!!!
The ground exploded violently as dozens of chains erupted from deep underground, coiling tightly around Lunas.
Whoosh!!
Lunas burst into top speed charging toward Corin, yet that tempestuous speed proved incapable of matching thousands of chains striking from every direction.
Like a surging tide, tens of thousands of chains completely overwhelmed Lunas.
Yet did that signify the end?
"HURRY UP, KILL HIM!!!"
Promet screamed; this was the final opportunity.
Three seconds, that was the absolute limit.
Inside that cage of iron chains, Lunas, that lunatic, was using his bare hands to strike out frantically.
He refrained not from employing every conceivable method to break free.
Including... his own life.
Lunas used his tongue to wrap around a tooth, snapping it free from his jaw.
Through the gaps in the iron chains, Lunas and Corin locked eyes.
One held unwillingness; the other, complete indifference.
CRACK CRACK~
The iron chains anchored to the ground gradually fractured into cracks, and Corin, who was straining with all his might, slowly faded away.
STAB!
Corin's eye was blown apart, leaving behind a bleak, frigid solitude beside the roaring, fiery screams.
...
"Why strive to such an extent? Is this not the end already?"
A icy coldness like glacial frost surged continuously inside the gloomy room.
As though the darkness itself were devouring every gasp of air within this space.
"You cannot advance any further! Cease this!!!"
CRASH!!
The sound of a hand slamming onto a table echoed in the darkness, whereupon Ron, who was indifferently holding up sheets of document files, stared into the shadow.
"Even for a fleeting moment, I shall—"
"DOZENS, HUNDREDS OF TIMES YOU HAVE UTTERED THAT PHRASE!!"
Click~
Ron heard the sound of a gun being cocked, then gently tossed the papers aside.
"You!! You despicable coward!!"
BANG!!
Ron was instantly struck by a bullet penetrating deep into his head, creating a gaping hole right in the center of his forehead.
Ron clutched his head, then collapsed to the floor; he... was dead.
"Ha... haaa."
A cold sound escaped Quân's mouth; he gnashed his teeth, then slowly turned the revolver cylinder toward himself.
The cold metallic sound clicked repeatedly, and then...
"Damn it..."
Quân discarded the firearm onto the floor, staring toward Ron, toward that frozen corpse.
And then... one image, two images, hundreds of spatial images seemed to tear into one another, all linking together, arriving and departing simultaneously within Quân's mind.
"Cough, gag!!!"
Quân clutched his throat, then sprang upright, his neck burning with an intense itch.
Yet that was not what mattered, for standing right before his eyes was... a strange silhouette.
Lunas.