Chapter 212
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: Madness That Won't Stop Laughing
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The guardian divine beast sticking right behind Gi Sua leaped up.
“Me, me?”
“Who else is there?”
Ju Gonghyeok jerked his chin.
“You’re a guardian divine beast just like me. Do something.”
“A guardian divine beast? I’m just Mom’s son, though?”
“Does Gi Sua have horns on her head like you? Cut the bullshit and try healing this person, Yuri!”
When Gonghyeok called, Yuri set the patient down in front of Solbaragi.
Gi Sua asked in a worried voice.
“Sol, can you heal him?”
“Grrrrr…….”
Solbaragi gulped upon seeing the patient foaming at the mouth.
“C-Can I do this?”
“Of course you can.”
Ju Gonghyeok folded his wings and landed beside Solbaragi.
“Place your hand on the patient and see what’s tormenting him.”
“Y-Yes!”
Solbaragi placed her hand on the patient’s chest.
“Something’s there, I think.”
“Focus harder and feel it.”
At Gonghyeok’s urging, Solbaragi closed her eyes and spread her energy through the patient’s body.
Then, multicolored light began to shimmer faintly from Solbaragi’s horn.
“What’s that?”
“First time seeing it.”
“Is that the guardian divine beast? The messenger of the gods that appears when crisis befalls the beastkin?”
As the light from Solbaragi’s horn grew brighter, the surroundings grew noisy.
Gonghyeok whispered softly to Solbaragi.
“Now, focus on your horn and channel your divine power. Drive out this person’s illness and ease his body.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Your horn will grant your wish.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
The energy from the horn flowed into the patient’s body.
The patient, who had been gasping and unable to breathe, began to look more at ease, his blotches and bubbles visibly fading.
Solbaragi tilted her head in confusion.
“Something got chased out, but I’m not sure if I did it…….”
The sheep god Taga silently checked the patient’s pulse.
“The energy in his body has stabilized and improved greatly. The illness that was ravaging him inside is gone.”
His sheep clan’s distinctive horizontal pupils stretched long.
“Gi Sua. Is this child the guardian divine beast?”
“……Yes, Lord Taga.”
“I see. Just as in the legends, it’s hard to guess what kind of beast it is.”
Taga turned to Gi Sua.
“Wolf fang shaman. I won’t pry into why you hid this child.”
“……. Thank you.”
Taga stroked Solbaragi’s head and said.
“Guardian divine beast. Time is of the essence. Hurry and help the people.”
“Huh? Oh, that is…….”
Smack!
“Yes! I’ll do it!”
Solbaragi, who had been trailing off, nodded quickly after Gi Sua’s sharp spank on her rear.
Solbaragi placed her hand on the next patient.
The patients who passed through Solbaragi’s hands had their complexions ease, and even the illnesses tormenting the young ones were driven out, leaving the people in awe.
“So this is the guardian divine beast.”
“What a mystical beast.”
“Just being bathed in that light eases the mind.”
“My parents used to tell me stories. They said to pray to the guardian divine beast when times are tough.”
The dog clan folk bowed their heads and offered thanks to Solbaragi.
Yuri brought patients, and the guardian divine beast wielded its mystical power to continue the healing.
That’s how it appeared.
“……How many are left?”
Yuri Granat asked in a flat tone.
Yuri was asking about the hunter who killed her mother.
“All the demon contractors gather on the 60th floor. Seventeen floors left.”
“…….”
Yuri said nothing more and collected the scattered bacteria around her.
Thanks to Gonghyeok’s flashy effects, it looked exactly like the guardian divine beast purifying them.
From the start, it was Yuri Granat, bearer of the ‘Plague’ avatar, who had removed the germs.
The guardian divine beast had merely run its divine power over patients free of bacteria.
Ju Gonghyeok stroked his chin as he watched Yuri’s back.
‘It won’t be long now.’
Yuri Granat’s mind was being steadily eaten away by his avatar, ‘Ymir.’
With even the will to live to see her mother gone, the 60th floor would be her limit.
‘For whatever reason, I killed Ymir’s mother.’
Before Ju Gonghyeok’s purpose changed in Babel’s basement.
Ymir had been a mere tool.
He had planned to control her before she went berserk upon learning her mother’s truth, implant the avatar, and use her thoroughly as a tool.
That’s why he killed Dr. Elena Granat and injected Ymir with lies.
‘Use her and discard her. That’s what I thought.’
But was Ymir disposable?
Did he not need to take responsibility for the broken Yuri Granat?
Such doubts stirred in a corner of his mind.
But Yuri Granat wasn’t just some pitiful child.
‘She’s a monster.’
The master of the giant city Titanomachy, the frost giant Ymir, had killed countless humans, gone mad with hatred, and destroyed the world.
Should a human turned monster still be treated as human?
Even he couldn’t save every human.
He could only save those within reach.
And……
‘If I discard her this time, I’ll never be able to save her again.’
This was the last chance.
There would be no ‘next.’
How far could his hand reach?
Ju Gonghyeok pondered.
* * *
Raaaaawr—!
A tearing roar echoed through the underground prison.
In the prison corridor, Hugwan knelt with his head bowed.
The dog god Gonghyeok patted Hugwan’s shoulder.
“Let me try healing him.”
Thud.
Hugwan slammed his forehead into the ground right there.
“Please save Grandpa! If you save just Grandpa, the entire tiger clan—no, on the name of the ancestral tiger god Hutaero, we’ll repay the favor!”
Hugwan repeatedly bashed his head, pleading desperately.
“Please, I beg you. Grandpa suffered for over a hundred years. He raised me in place of my father, and I haven’t repaid him yet! I even promised to show him his grandson!”
Hugwan kept his head down, so it wasn’t visible.
Ju Gonghyeok’s impassive eyes.
“I’ll do my utmost.”
As Ju Gonghyeok opened the iron door and entered, the chained Hosin came into view.
Hosin snapped his head up.
“Hugwan, where’s Hugwan?”
“Don’t you remember? You just went berserk and chased him off.”
“What?”
The prison was splattered with blood.
Blood from the rampaging Hosin, and from Hugwan and the tiger young ones who tried to stop him.
As the space darkened, Ju Gonghyeok’s form changed too.
Shedding his wolf guise, Ju Gonghyeok smirked at Hosin.
“You couldn’t even recognize your own young and smashed them up. Why would he stick around?”
“You bastard…….”
The old tiger bound in chains glared at the cunning human.
“You killed the messenger.”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re no guardian divine beast either.”
“That’s why you and the messenger were a problem. If you knew too much about guardian divine beasts, it’d be trouble for me.”
Boom!
The old tiger pushed forward with all his might.
But the chains binding his body prevented him from going further.
“For such a pathetic reason, you made me slaughter my own kin?”
Bloodshot veins burst in his curse-tainted red eyes.
Ju Gonghyeok nodded.
“Exactly. So you went mad, rampaged, and cut down your kin, while your grandson Hugwan is out there bowing his head begging me to heal you.”
“Human! To my kin……”
Just before he could spit his rage.
Hosin realized the human’s expression.
“You…… are you smiling right now?”
“Hm?”
Thud! Thud!
Wrists and shoulders crunching against the chains, Hosin pressed forward.
“You trapped me like this! What’s so funny! Why are you smiling!”
“Was I smiling?”
Ju Gonghyeok touched his lips, surprised even to himself.
“You were smiling! You’re still smiling!”
Hosin roared, veins bulging.
“You! Is toying with us so enjoyable! So enjoyable…….”
“It’s not enjoyable.”
Ju Gonghyeok cut him off flatly.
“Not enjoyable at all.”
“…….”
“It’s lost its fun. Everything has.”
Even then, Ju Gonghyeok was smiling.
Hosin asked without thinking.
“Then why are you smiling?”
“Just…… even if it’s not enjoyable, the smile comes out.”
The human bent at the waist, bursting into laughter.
“Realizing I’m still doing this shit makes the laughter unstoppable.”
It was the same situation.
Ju Gonghyeok pretending to be the guardian divine beast.
Hosin wailing curses at him.
Hugwan bashing his head, begging him.
“It’s the same damn situation everywhere you look.”
Someone wailing, someone bashing their head and begging.
For hundreds of years, only the targets changed, but he’d done the exact same things.
Ju Gonghyeok clutched his face and giggled.
“Keep killing the killed, torturing the tortured, trapping the trapped, beating the beaten to death.”
Heh heh—
“Fucking same shit, endlessly, over and over, endlessly repeating. All while thinking this time it’ll be different.”
Heh heh heh—
“But nothing changes. Open my eyes, and I’m back at the starting line. Fucking same starting line, fucking same shit repeating. Open my eyes again, back at the starting line, so…….”
Ju Gonghyeok lowered his hands from his face.
“When I came to, I’d done the same to people I shouldn’t have. And get this. Recently, I realized everything I’ve done so far meant nothing.”
His hideous visage emerged from the shadows.
Where eyelids and eyeballs had been gouged, cold red-lensed pupils sat, his right ear ripped clean off leaving a ragged round hole.
Baring red gums without cheek skin, his tattered lips curved into a smile.
“So, the laughter just won’t stop.”
Hosin realized the opponent was insane.
“You’ve been consumed by madness, human.”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m glad.”
He couldn’t have reached here without going mad.
No rational human could.
They’d collapse from exhaustion somewhere, or think of themselves a bit more.
Because he’d gone mad, Ju Gonghyeok lingered here.
“Not enjoyable. Not enjoyable at all.”
“…….”
“Even so, I…….”
Ju Gonghyeok slowly shone the light of brainwashing on Hosin.
“Will save the world.”
* * *
In the dim thunder prison, the five clan heads had gathered.
“H-Hugwan. Please, release me.”
The black-furred Hosin chattered his teeth, pleading.
“Hugwan……. I’m your great-grandfather. Don’t you remember? After your father Huje died, I promised to take care of you.”
Hugwan ground his teeth.
“Grandfather.”
“Don’t go near him.”
Ju Gonghyeok stopped Hugwan, who had unwittingly approached Hosin.
“That’s not the wise elder you think he is.”
Red energy still lingered in Hosin’s eyes.
The other clan heads nodded and unpacked the bundles they’d brought.
Gleaming colorful ornaments and statues appeared.
Sacred relics scoured from the entire clan to help lift Hosin’s curse, even a little.
“Hugwan.”
As Gi Sua handed over a statue, Hugwan silently took it with one hand.
“What are you doing? You lot, do you doubt me?”
The clan heads approached Hosin step by step, relics in hand.
“Raaaaawr!”
As necklaces, rings, and statues emitted holy light, Hosin let out a scream.
“Release me! Let me go! I’ll kill you all! You worm bastards! I’ll crunch you from head to toe! First your eyeballs gouged out, then your skulls split…….”
No trace of the old Hosin remained in the black-furred beast rampaging with bulging red eyes.
Hugwan twisted his face and admitted it.
The beast before him was no longer the grandfather he knew.
“Please bring the tiger shaman, my mother Jishen.”
He didn’t want to see his grandfather suffer more.
He couldn’t leave it to another’s hand.
“I’ll kill him myself.”
The tiger shaman hid her tears and began the ritual.
Jian’s head would fall, and Hugwan would declare his will to the heavenly ancestors.
“Twenty-third generation Hosin, Hugwan. Inheritor of the ancestral tiger god Hutaero’s blood, and as grandson of the great tiger head Jian, I swear here……”
The tiger head ground its teeth and let out its first roar.
“The enemy of my clan! I shall sever the Death King’s head and offer it to our ancestors!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The clan heads stomped traditionally, announcing the birth of a new tiger head to the heavens.
“Wolf head Gonghyeok swears on heaven’s fangs to join Wolf head Gonghyeok and Tiger head Hugwan’s vengeance.”
Gonghyeok sat beside Hugwan, proudly swearing as usual to tear and kill himself.