The Rage That Had Been Sealed
As Jeong-Hoon withdrew under the escort of Dong Sa-Seong, Jeong I-Yeong, and Yeo Tae-Hyeon, the golems stirred into motion.
Butler Ju, Jeong Si-Mun, and Han Si-Eun stepped in to block their path.
The three vassals guarding Jeong-Hoon had recovered, yet they were still exhausted. That left Si-Eun with no choice but to step forward.
Escort of exclusion target detected. Threat level negligible. Prioritizing exclusion of the power of annihilation.
The golems spun their orbs and stretched out their arms as if to brush aside the three who barred their way—not an attack so much as a dismissive sweep meant to clear an obstacle.
The ground rumbled.
Yet Butler Ju, Jeong Si-Mun, and Han Si-Eun seized those massive arms and locked into a contest of strength.
Strong resistance detected. Why do those who wield mana follow one who commands the power of annihilation?
"Is 'power of annihilation' what you call the sealing power? If so, then of course we would."
The meaning had been driven straight into their minds. Sensing the open hostility toward Jeong-Hoon's sealing power, Butler Ju gathered mana into the hands locked with the golem.
Aura wrapped his grip as he drove deeper into the stone hand.
A sharp crack rang out.
The golem's hand shattered, powder swirling through the air. Then its head rotated and flared with light; the dust coalesced and the hand regenerated whole.
"Chief Butler, mana seems useless against them. They only restore themselves with the sealing power."
Si-Mun spoke as if to tell him not to waste effort. Butler Ju only pulled more power into himself.
"I am aware. But if we fail to stop these things here, the Gaju will take the damage!"
They had tried to ignore the three, only to meet force with force; retreat was impossible. At those words Si-Mun's brow furrowed and he unfolded his ability.
"Don't throw your strength away. Just hold them. Even if the plan has gone sideways, you are still the core of it, Chief Butler."
The moment he finished, the tiny space between their joined hands fractured. The golem's hand exploded into pieces.
"I shattered the space itself. Even for you, recovery should take a while… damn it, this is a problem."
The hand was reforming despite the broken space. Si-Mun shook his head in disbelief.
"Does the sealing power even have a healing effect?"
"A full explanation would take too long. Simply understand that it erases mana damage through the sealing power and thereby restores itself."
Drawing on the conclusions they had reached from Anubis, Butler Ju shoved the golem backward. He would have preferred to hurl it away, but even that was beyond him.
Warning: cease resistance. The purpose of this active defense form is the exclusion of the power of annihilation.
The orbs delivered the warning as if they were merely indulging the three of them. Every face tightened.
Then, proving the threat was no bluff, the orbs spun with savage speed and began to draw in the surrounding mana.
A howling gale rose.
The first golem finished harvesting mana and stepped forward. Wind howled around it in a sudden tempest.
"Ugh!"
Jeong-Hoon nearly took flight. In an instant he fired the spikes built into his suit's leg guards to anchor himself and lashed the wire from his arm around a massive pillar so the wind could not tear him free.
Yeo Tae-Hyeon interposed himself, opening a subspace to swallow the gale.
"Kh—! This one's a bit much!"
His subspace felt as though it would reach capacity in seconds. Yeo Tae-Hyeon snapped it shut, then opened a new mouth of subspace directly above the wind-spewing golem's head.
A colossal blast of air hammered down. The golem shattered, leaving only its orb.
The wind had been born of its own mana, yet once mixed with Yeo Tae-Hyeon's power inside the subspace it slipped beyond control and turned against its maker.
"Thank you, Representative Yeo. That bought us a breathing space."
Jeong-Hoon reclaimed the spikes and wire, nodding as the crisis passed.
In that same moment the second golem finished condensing its mana and charged straight at him.
The rush came so suddenly that the three in front tried to intercept—only for the golem's form to dissolve into mist and reappear directly before Jeong-Hoon.
"Wind, and now clouds?!"
Si-Mun shouted as he grasped the nature of their powers and blinked into place in front of Jeong-Hoon.
But Dong Sa-Seong was already there. His ability flared; the golem was wrapped in searing heat and began to evaporate piece by piece.
"Elder Jeong, please!"
As the vaporized mass threatened to detonate, Dong Sa-Seong cried out.
Si-Mun nodded and unfolded space itself, wrapping the gaseous remnant in a barrier.
A deep boom shuddered inside the barrier as the golem-turned-gas exploded. The barrier cracked and shattered, yet nothing leaked outward.
The orb that had formed the golem, however, remained perfectly intact.
Jeong-Hoon reached out to reclaim even that fragment of sealing power—and felt dampness settle across the glove of his suit.
"Water?"
"Gaju, danger!"
Jeong I-Yeong sensed the last golem locking onto him. Telekinetic force yanked Jeong-Hoon aside just as a lance of water punched cleanly through the spot where he had stood, carving the stone as if with a scalpel of ultra-high-pressure spray.
"The orbs are employing the powers of the mythological Pungbaek, Unsa, and Usa—Wind Earl, Cloud Master, and Rain Master. None of them has a fixed form, so their applications are highly flexible. Troublesome abilities."
Jeong Si-Mun offered the warning like a caution. Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
"Pungbaek, Unsa, and Usa? Those are powerhouses even in the myths. Can artifacts really use the abilities of beings that strong?"
By modern measure they would easily rate SSS-class. Si-Mun shook his head.
"Not at original output. But if the power was deliberately scaled down and adjusted, yes—it is possible."
Information. This orb is capable of perfectly utilizing divine abilities.
The remaining intact golem's orb immediately contradicted him and blazed with light.
The two orphaned orbs streaked toward it. The outer shells of all three orbs dissolved, revealing the gems within; a fierce mana link forged itself among them.
A vast sphere then enveloped the three gems.
"Do not stand in the way of our vengeance, human!"
Not ancient speech poured straight into the mind, but modern language burst forth. Light swallowed the golem.
When the radiance faded, a winged humanoid form stood revealed—smooth-limbed, looking nothing like stone or earth. Above its head the three gems circled in a ring that evoked an angel's halo.
The being born from the fused orbs—too alien now to call a mere golem—radiated power so vast that even Butler Ju and Jeong Si-Mun found it difficult to endure.
SSS-class? It had already surpassed that level. This was strength permitted only in the mythic age before the seal had ever existed.
Having absorbed every scrap of the roiling mana around them and reborn as a single entity, the creature was an opponent against whom they could not even begin to form a plan.
"Head Maid, Butler Yeo, Butler Dong. Escort the Gaju and Hunter Han Si-Eun and withdraw."
Having steeled himself to stake his life, Butler Ju spoke. The enemy had conveniently absorbed the unstable mana and erased the risk of further detonation; now he could fight at full strength.
"Forgive me, but Elder Jeong will have to remain with me."
"Well, entrusting the future to the young is an old man's duty. No helping it."
Si-Mun nodded, accepting the request that amounted to dying together.
"Wait, just a—"
"Hunter Han Si-Eun, I leave the Gaju in your care. If anything befalls him, the seal will break."
"…Understood. But both of you have to come out alive too!"
Jeong-Hoon started to protest that he could not leave them behind, but Si-Eun seized him and launched into a full-powered acceleration sprint. Even with the suit's strength he could not resist her determined speed.
"W-wait!"
"Chairman, you might bite your tongue!"
Si-Eun cut off his thrashing protests and ran. Jeong I-Yeong, Yeo Tae-Hyeon, and Dong Sa-Seong followed hard on her heels.
A colossal tremor shook the entire castle, violent enough to make them fear the structure might collapse.
"That is the Chief Butler's Paseong."
Jeong I-Yeong reassured Jeong-Hoon, who still tried to turn back, that the shock was not an attack from the Celestial-mimicking being.
"The sooner the Gaju reaches safety, the more it helps those two."
"They can't win two against that thing!"
Jeong-Hoon was no fool; he understood exactly what the pair had meant. The three vassals only shook their heads.
Yes, the creature was powerful. Yet it was not impossible for Butler Ju and Si-Mun to prevail. Even if it possessed sealing power, they needed only to pour out still greater mana and inflict damage faster than it could recover. It had absorbed only a fragment of the seal Jeong-Hoon maintained, not the whole. The strategy was viable.
And because the orbs had drawn in every scrap of the surrounding unstable mana upon becoming a Celestial, there was nothing left to hold them back.
"I understand your unease. But Gaju, please trust those two for now. This is precisely why we, the Twelve Vassals, exist."
Jeong I-Yeong's words were the purest principle, yet Jeong-Hoon nodded. The trust she felt toward the two men rose from the depths of her heart and was impossible to miss.
Butler Ju unleashed Paseong. The Celestial was dragged forward into the blast.
It was an evolved form of the same technique that had once dealt a critical blow to Yong-Ha, leader of the Organization. The Celestial detonated mana to hurl the force aside—yet concentrated power had already gathered in Butler Ju's hand and shot forth, striking true.
The massive shockwave the fleeing group had felt rolled outward. Centered on the point where Paseong had been fired, the castle ceiling simply vanished.
Yet the Celestial folded its wings about its body and completely blocked the technique.
"Out of my way, human!!!"
It spread its wings and roared. The halo spun; its form dissolved into mist and slipped past Butler Ju. Its sole target was Jeong-Hoon. It had no intention of wasting strength on needless combat.
"If you want the Gaju, you will have to bring us down first."
A gray veil bloomed at the heart of the mist-form Celestial. Jeong Si-Mun's figure overlapped with it and drove a fist into the creature.
Anyone could see he was aiming for the halo—the core. The Celestial twisted its head; Si-Mun's fist only grazed its cheek.
Skin too smooth to believe it had been formed of stone and earth shattered, fragments spraying outward.
Proof that the sealing power could not fully withstand mana strong enough to interfere with dimensions themselves.
Yet golden light leaked from the broken cheek. The flying shards were drawn back in, and the wound closed.
"We have to destroy it without giving it time to regenerate. At least now we know the method."
"I am glad my conjecture proved correct."
Butler Ju and Jeong Si-Mun exchanged nods at the confirmation that their attacks could work. The Celestial's face twisted.
"Why do beings of such power protect the power of annihilation? Do you not know the bitterness of having your strength stripped away?"
However human it appeared, this Celestial was no true one. It was a living artifact forged solely from the vengeance of those who had perished when the Castle of the Sky was swallowed by the seal. The two men's actions ran counter to everything programmed into it, and so it regarded them with suspicion.
Their response was nothing like the grudge of those whose mana had been stolen by the power of annihilation.
"It is not the power of annihilation. It is the power of salvation."
"Thanks to that power, we can protect humans from things that are not human."
"…?"
Unable to comprehend, the Celestial cocked its head at a grotesque angle. Then the halo spun in a frenzy.
A grinding shriek of stone on stone.
The twisted neck snapped back into place. Light flared in the Celestial's eyes.
"I see. You are the descendants of the traitors who followed that power of annihilation. Then you, too, are enemies!"
Having read the information buried deep within itself, the Celestial nodded and cried out. Mana erupted in every direction like a detonation of pure rage.