Baba Yaga (2)
Baba Yaga (2)
Last time, even though it was urgent, I had a way to track them, so I reported it before going in. But this time, I didn't know when the trail might go cold, so I requested cooperation from the Association through Baek Yeon and departed immediately.
The navigation itself was just following the direction the tip of the tentacle pointed, so I just flew straight in that direction.
Since Haeryeong, whom I had to protect, wasn't with me, I flew faster than usual, and the scenery whizzed by in an instant.
"Do you know where we'll end up if we keep going this way?"
"One moment. I will check."
With that reply, Baek Yeon pulled a device from her coat, peered at the screen, and answered.
"If we keep flying like this, we'll reach Alaska."
"Alaska?"
"It's a massive exclave in the northwestern United States. Since it's separated from the mainland, the population density is low, and there are fewer Gates, so it's an area the Association doesn't really touch, but..."
"It's the perfect place to hide and live."
"It hasn't even been that long since we cleared out the spies, and now another job like this pops up..."
Until recently, Baek Yeon had been working in cooperation with the Association, tasked with rooting out spies not just from every branch in the country, but from major branches across Asia.
She thought the work was finally over, but from the auction house incident to this Baba Yaga business...
Now that we know beings from other dimensions are living in areas that are hard for people to reach, it's become necessary to turn over the regions the Association has been neglecting.
"Still, you don't have to get involved directly in this one, do you?"
"Not necessarily. There's a possibility that the local branch staff or a criminal organization is in cahoots with the other-dimensional being."
"That's true."
If there is an organization or staff member committing crimes while colluding with an other-dimensional being, there is no one more qualified to root them out than Baek Yeon.
And since the Association would know that well, they'll probably beg Baek Yeon again, dangling all sorts of rewards.
"You could just refuse, right?"
"...That's true, but I owe Choi Soo-young a debt from the past, so I'm helping her."
"A debt?"
"Are you curious?"
"I am, but since we're almost there, let's focus on the work for now."
I must have been flying fast, because in the short time we were talking, we arrived at the location the tip of the tentacle was pointing to.
A dark forest.
The tip of the tentacle was pointing straight down.
I looked down, but I couldn't see anything.
Just a dense, wooded forest.
But it was hard to say there was nothing there when the tentacle tip was still pointing straight down.
'She's a witch, after all. Did she hide it with magic?'
I cast magic detection and vision enhancement simultaneously.
Then, along with a strange magical energy, the things that had been hidden began to appear.
A narrow, hemispherical barrier.
Inside it, a cabin just the right size for one person to live in.
"So she was living in a place like that."
I examined the barrier for a moment, but as expected of a barrier created by a skilled witch, there were no gaps to be found.
To get in, I had no choice but to break it.
I slowly flapped my wings to lower my altitude.
And the moment my leg made contact with the barrier, I gripped it with my foot and forcibly shattered it.
The barrier shattered and scattered like broken glass.
Good. Now I can see—
KWA-BOOM!!
The moment I broke the barrier.
As if she had been waiting for it, a massive explosion erupted, and flames engulfed my entire body.
It wasn't enough to damage my scales, but it was enough fire to obscure my vision.
As soon as I assessed the situation, I flapped my wings hard, blowing away all the flames that had covered the area.
If she had been observing me until now, there was no way Baba Yaga didn't know I wouldn't be hurt by something like this.
Then that explosion just now wasn't an attack aimed at my life, but a way to buy time to escape.
I looked down at the tip of the tentacle, and the tip, which had been pointing straight down just a moment ago, was now pointing to the left.
As expected, she's running away.
I quickly widened my field of vision and examined the direction the tentacle tip was pointing. I saw a woman who had already traveled quite a distance, moving away from here at high speed.
She had hair long enough to reach the ground and a beautiful appearance, but I wasn't bewitched by her outward looks.
That's because I saw it in Koschei's memories.
The scene where she would capture people and hand them over to Koschei, exchanging them for life force to maintain that appearance.
Furthermore, judging by Koschei's words about her being unnecessarily obsessed with her appearance, I suspect her original form is quite ugly or old.
Baba Yaga, fleeing on something shaped like a mortar the size of a car, was quite fast, but it was literally just "quite fast"—not so fast that I couldn't catch up.
Before she could run any further, I cut across the sky and flew directly above Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga, who had been looking back every so often to see if we were chasing her, frowned at my sudden proximity.
"Honestly, men who are obsessed are so unpopular!!"
Baba Yaga reached into the mortar and pulled something out.
A small, flask-shaped medicine bottle.
It was filled with colorful liquid.
Holding several of these bottles, Baba Yaga hurled them at me.
Perhaps magically assisted, despite her slender arms, the bottles flew toward me with speed and accuracy.
I could have dodged them, but I decided to take them head-on to see what kind of abilities they possessed.
The fast-flying bottles exploded, emitting light the same color as the liquid inside.
KWA-BOOM!!
It was much weaker compared to the explosion that occurred when I broke the barrier earlier.
There was no fire to engulf my entire body, nor any high-output firepower.
But the explosion this time was different.
First, my body became heavy.
As if gravity had increased.
Then, my vision narrowed.
Even though I had enhanced it with magic, it was similar to my vision without any enhancement at all.
Finally, my magic flow was sluggish.
It wasn't completely frozen, but it felt more obstructed than usual.
"A curse?"
"I used my trump card medicine, and it only worked for about three? You have monster-like resistance!"
"Three is plenty. A curse that actually works on me... You've made quite something."
My body is heavy?
I can just endure this much weight.
My vision is narrow?
This much is enough.
My magic flow is sluggish?
I can just pour in more magic.
I poured in and circulated a massive amount of magic, far more than I usually use.
Then, as if a blocked path had been cleared, the magic flowed smoothly, pushing away the curse.
I pushed more magic into my vision enhancement than usual, and it returned to normal.
The curse pressing down on my body also vanished as if washed away once I wrapped my skin in magic.
"Surely you aren't going to say this is all?"
"I'm a researcher, not a combatant! Still, thanks to you, I was able to determine the upper limit of its effectiveness."
While I was pushing away the curse, Baba Yaga reached into the mortar again and pulled something out.
This time, it was a round object neatly wrapped in black cloth.
"I didn't want to waste this here... but I felt like I would die if I didn't."
The black cloth fell away.
And then, something unexpected appeared from within.
It was an eye.
An eyeball larger than a human head, at that.
A golden pupil, split vertically like a reptile's.
I didn't know who it belonged to, but the eyeball—clearly separated from its main body—rolled around and stared at me the moment it was uncovered from the black cloth.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the pupil expanded and contracted.
"This is?!"
"How does a top-tier curse taste?"
The moment the pupil contracted, my body stopped moving properly.
It was completely different from the increased gravity from earlier; it felt as if my body had turned to stone.
Flustered, I looked down and realized it wasn't just a simple illusion.
Like it turned to stone?
No.
My body was genuinely hardening.
My flesh was turning into a gray lump of stone.
When I used magic to examine it properly, there was nothing wrong with the inside of my body.
But the surface.
The surface of my scales was hardening into stone.
Just as I had blown away the previous curse, I circulated my magic to push the curse off my skin.
Just as the areas that had hardened like stone returned to my original scale color, and I thought the curse had vanished—
—the skin turned to stone and hardened again, as if nothing had happened.
I lifted my head and looked ahead, seeing the golden pupil shining wickedly.
That must be the medium for the curse.
If so, breaking it should make the curse disappear.
I momentarily exerted a massive amount of magic to push the curse away.
I had pushed the curse away for now, but as long as that eye was staring at me, my skin would soon be covered in scales again.
But that was fine.
All I needed was a split second.
That was enough.
I closed the distance that had been widening while my body was hardening with a single flap of my wings, casting a huge shadow over Baba Yaga, who was fleeing for her life.
Baba Yaga, noticing my approach, flicked her fingers through the air. A magic circle was quickly completed, and dozens of layers of protective barriers appeared.
I didn't stop flying, and just like when I broke the barrier, I gripped the protective shields.
CLANG!!
Contrary to my expectation that it would be easily broken since there were dozens of layers, the barriers blocked my forepaw.
"What the?"
She blocked my attack with a shield made by just scribbling with her fingers, not even a defensive spell cast with effort?
Baba Yaga turned her head slightly and curled the corners of her mouth, mocking me.
Just then, Shin Su-ah shouted loudly from atop my back.
"Nidhogg-nim! It's a shield that only blocks physical force!"
A shield specialized in physical force?
I wondered if such a thing existed, but at Shin Su-ah's shout, Baba Yaga looked noticeably flustered.
It seemed she was right.
If it was a shield specialized in physical force, I could just take her down with a different kind of attack.
I pushed the curse away once more to create an opening, and in that moment, I opened my mouth.
It wasn't full power, but the quickly gathered Breath was fired as a piercing beam.
The Breath flew in a straight line and struck the barrier.
Unlike before, the barrier was pierced right through and shattered into pieces.
And just as the Breath, having pierced the barrier, was about to strike Baba Yaga directly—
—Baba Yaga waved her hand again, and massive tree roots erupted from the ground, clumping together to twist the trajectory of the Breath.
But she couldn't ignore the impact; Baba Yaga fell from her vehicle and rolled across the ground.
Phew, I almost ended up in the city center while taking it easy.