98
Chapter 98
The sea.
The Deep Sea.
A place infinitely dark and dreary, yet harboring countless lives.
Swoosh-
Flash!!
In the middle of the dense abyss, a cluster of light exploded, revealing a man and a woman.
"Y-you, what is the meaning of......!!"
"Your expression is a sight to see. What, are you seasick?"
The time had finally come to sever this long, tough, and messy ill-fated relationship.
Natsuko experienced a moment of confusion, unable to grasp what had just happened to her, but soon assessed the situation.
"Right, you knew everything, from the very beginning."
"Did you really think I wouldn't know?"
Natsuko pondered Seo Sunwoo's words for a moment, then laughed.
"I was stupid. There was no way you wouldn't know."
Crunch!!
Before she could even finish her sentence, Natsuko's grip turned red as she dashed toward Seo Sunwoo.
She already knew that fighting at the bottom of the sea gave her no chance of winning.
If so, she had to kill Seo Sunwoo right now and surface before Parang caught her.
It was the right judgment, and a quick one.
Natsuko's arm pierced straight through Seo Sunwoo's chest.
She had aimed precisely for his Heart. A normal Human would have died instantly.
However, Seo Sunwoo was a Human who far exceeded Natsuko's expectations.
"Gasp, cough......!!"
He vomited dark blood.
In the water, the blood spread in billowing clouds like mist.
Astonishingly, he was alive.
Natsuko's pupils dilated.
"I knew...... you would do, something like this......."
In that moment, a strange sensation washed over Natsuko's grip that had pierced Seo Sunwoo.
It was not the squishy flesh of a Human, but the hard, cold sensation of Steel.
"Habits are...... truly, terrifying. Cough."
Hardening.
It was Seo Sunwoo's Skill.
With his Heart pierced, he had solidified his own body.
Natsuko panicked and tried to pull her hand out, but her arm wouldn't budge even an inch from Seo Sunwoo's body, as if it was firmly caught on something.
"I mean your habit, Natsuko. That habit of always piercing the Heart first."
He forced the words out while struggling to catch his breath. Even if he applied Hardening to his body with a Skill, his Heart was already pierced.
Both Seo Sunwoo and Natsuko could clearly feel that his life was fading away, quickly and certainly.
But simultaneously with his death, victory was also surely approaching.
'Dammit......!!'
Natsuko's expression grew visibly anxious.
'I'm going to die? Here?!'
That was ridiculous.
Natsuko ground her Teeth.
It was obvious that even at this very moment, the Monster was swimming toward her.
'Right. Running away comes first.'
Rather than detaching Seo Sunwoo's body, Natsuko tried to swim with him still skewered on her arm.
It would be an impossible act for an ordinary Human, but Natsuko was a Monster.
She was more than capable of it.
However.
Thump-!
"Urgh......!!"
At the sudden, intense pain radiating from her arm, Natsuko bit her lower lip hard.
Her pupils shrank, and her expression was colored with shock.
"You can't do that, friend."
Turning her gaze, she saw Seo Sunwoo smiling slyly.
The weight of the man impaled on her arm felt dozens, no, hundreds of times heavier.
And, in fact, it really was.
Seo Sunwoo had made his own body heavier.
Natsuko struggled to swim upwards somehow, but her body gradually began to sink downwards.
'No, no!!!'
Her expression became increasingly desperate, and her movements grew more frantic.
But nothing changed.
Natsuko simply continued to sink into the sea.
Like a witch thrown into the ocean with shackles around her ankles.
If there was a difference from history, it was perhaps that Natsuko, despite truly being a witch, was unable to float to the surface.
She stared at Seo Sunwoo with an expression full of horror.
Even as his breath steadily faded away, a supremely satisfied smile bloomed on his face.
As the situation escalated to this point, the fear that she might actually die was firmly engraved in Natsuko's mind.
And that fear, which she was experiencing for the first time in her life, was far more terrifying than Natsuko had ever imagined.
"L-let go. I said let go of me!!"
With an anxious expression she had never shown before, she struggled with all her might to free her arm.
She eventually even tried to sever her own arm, but even that proved to be difficult.
Clang!! Clang!!
Far from being severed, Natsuko's arm merely sparked with the sound of ricocheting metal.
Seo Sunwoo watched Natsuko without saying a single word.
As if he intended to engrave every single second of this moment into his eyes.
"Why, why did you do that. Why!!!"
Natsuko screamed with a trembling voice.
"If you knew, then back then, that day!!! You could have just killed me!! Why, why come this far and do this now of all times!!"
Her hysterical voice even carried a hint of a sob.
Seo Sunwoo, as if he had been waiting for this, opened his mouth and spoke calmly.
"Right. I could have killed you that day. Inside the burning building, on the day you devoured Eunha, who had run to you for protection."
His voice was swaying precariously like a candle about to go out.
However, the meaning behind his words was not.
"But I didn't. Why do you think that is?"
Natsuko didn't say a word and merely glared at Seo Sunwoo eerily with those bright red eyes.
There was no way Natsuko could know what the reason was.
Because Seo Sunwoo's tactics were always a step ahead of hers.
But the words that came out of Seo Sunwoo's mouth were of a nature that far exceeded her expectations.
"Because I wanted to make you trust me, Natsuko."
"What......?"
Her pupils dilated.
"I wanted to make you trust me. Just like it sounds."
Seo Sunwoo, feeling refreshed as if letting go of his last lingering attachment in life, revealed his true inner thoughts to Natsuko for the first and last time.
"Don't you get it? You aren't just dying by my hand. Right at this moment, you are dying not just by me, but by the me you 'trusted'."
He chewed on his lower lip.
"Just like that day, when that child died by the you she 'trusted'."
Only then was Natsuko able to realize the true nature of the raging fire burning in Seo Sunwoo's eyes.
Fire Wheel.
That was the Fire Wheel.
A burning wheel that sets its own body ablaze, tearing through enemy lines until it itself burns to ashes without a trace.
"Just, just for a reason like that, you devoted your entire life to acting? Just, just for a reason like that......?"
"You're joking, right, Natsuko? What do you mean, I devoted my life."
In this cold sea, Seo Sunwoo was burning the hottest.
Burning Natsuko, and burning himself.
"My life, you already devoured it that day."
At those words, something snapped inside Natsuko.
"Ah, aah, aaaaaaagh!!!"
Natsuko finally, unable to control her bursting emotions, let out a scream full of despair.
And, Seo Sunwoo saw something approaching over the convulsing woman's shoulder.
Dashing from afar, a wave of judgment was coming this way.
"Then, let's meet again in hell. Friend."
Only then did Seo Sunwoo peacefully close his eyes.
At the same time, a Notification Window popped up in front of Natsuko.
[ You have killed the Awakened, 'Seo Sunwoo'. The total number of Humans killed by the target is (71). ]
[ Absorbed a total of (32) Skills. The number of Skills clashing with your existing Skills is (24). ]
Simultaneously, Seo Sunwoo's body transformed back into a Human's body.
His flesh softened, and Natsuko could easily pull her hand out.
She heaved rough breaths.
Her heart pounded.
Right before his death, Seo Sunwoo had passed a sentence upon her.
A sentence to meet in hell.
Now, it was time for the execution.
An overwhelming aura could be felt from behind her back.
Natsuko turned around and faced Parang in front of her.
Perhaps having automatically healed upon entering the water, the countless wounds from earlier were nowhere to be seen, and her ear had perfectly grown back.
Her beautiful blue hair shimmering in the water caught the eye.
Shining blue eyes pierced through Natsuko.
In front of her, Natsuko felt as if she had been stripped naked.
A feeling like she was confessing every single sin she had committed in her life.
If one were to die and face judgment from a god, wouldn't it feel like this?
"You won't even say sorry until the very end."
The eyes of Parang, who said those words, were also burning hotly.
More purely, clearly, and cleanly than anything else.
And Natsuko also saw her own reflection in those burning pupils.
In them, there was no one with a grandiose title like Predator or the strongest.
There was only herself, who had turned into a Monster.
Looking into those eyes, Natsuko instinctively knew.
If there were a protagonist in this world, it would be that girl.
Of course, Natsuko had no intention of falling here either.
Her grip began to be dyed red.
"Are you ready?"
"No."
"That's a shame. I'm ready."
The silhouette of a massive Tentacle appeared behind her.