156. Butterfly Effect (7)
156. Butterfly Effect (7)
Im Ga-eul turned her head and looked back at me.
Heh-heh—
The hell, what's with her?
"Nice face you're making— Surprised, hoobae?"
Im Ga-eul smiled vividly.
Unfamiliar.
Her usually relaxed, narrow eyes were now wide open and clear.
Her gentle and languid demeanor was gone, replaced by an intensely dangerous aura.
How should I put it.
The shell was the same, but the atmosphere, the contents, the core inside felt completely swapped.
'......Is she possessed by a Demon or something? No, that can't be......?'
If there was a risk of that, I wouldn't have told her to hold the Magic Stone in the first place.
As far as I know, Demons, whose true bodies exist in another dimension, can't just hijack a physical body without a soul contract.
If that were possible, this world's genre would be a brutal survival apocalypse, not a bright and heartwarming academy story.
Since this was an event I'd never seen in the game, I calmly observed her.
'Maybe it's because I made her hold the Black Magic Stone too early......?'
That was about the only thing I could deduce.
Whirrr—
But Sofia.
Why are you holding a camera at a time like this?
I side-eyed Sofia, then turned my head back to Im Ga-eul.
"......Ga-eul sunbae."
"I'm strong now. I'm no longer a burden to the party. Hoobae. How do I look now?"
"I've never really thought of you as a burden—"
But it seemed I wasn't the only one struggling to accept the situation.
"D-Don't make me laugh!!!!!!!!!"
Yeon Woo-jin shouted at the sky, his face crumbling as if he'd witnessed something unbelievable.
"Stop the summoning! The price has already been paid!!! Fulfill the contract!!!"
But his voice only echoed hollowly into the empty air.
"......This can't be. M-My, my, perfect picture, can't be ruined so futilely......."
As he muttered to himself, Yeon Woo-jin's eyes suddenly turned black.
WHOOOOSH—
And the Magic Stone that had stopped began to vibrate again.
RUMBLE—!!!
The demonic energy remaining in the stone went berserk and poured into Yeon Woo-jin's body.
"AAAAARGH!!!!"
Screaming as if being torn apart, Yeon Woo-jin collapsed on the spot like a puppet with its strings cut.
He flinched.
Crack.
Crackle.
Yeon Woo-jin twisted his body and slowly rose to his feet.
I looked at Yeon Woo-jin with cold eyes.
'Yeah, I figured this would happen.'
The summoning ritual was disrupted by Im Ga-eul's intervention. But there was no way this bastard could accept that.
So, instead of sacrifices, he forced the Demon to manifest by offering his own body through a different method.
But I just grinned.
That thing is clearly a tier below a Demon's true body manifestation.
I guess it's a bit above the Phase 2 that some Demonized Humans can pull off.
Of course, since he's a villain who appears a year and a half later, he's an enemy incomparably stronger than the Demonized Humans I've faced so far.......
'But at this level, I can definitely take him.'
However, there was something to do before taking on this guy for real.
"Instructor."
I spoke to Baek Seol-hee.
"Yes."
"I'd like to ask you to move the hostages to a safe place now."
Right now, there was no one else here but the Instructor I could ask to handle the hostages.
Because she was far faster than me.
Leaving the comatose hostages in an environment that was about to be smashed to pieces was like abandoning a child in a place where bombs were about to fall.
"Will you be alright?"
"Yes, I'll be fine."
I nodded in reply.
Baek Seol-hee, who had been staring at me with a silent expression, slowly nodded.
Baek Seol-hee moved away to transfer the hostages.
And I glared at the bastard, adjusting my grip on Moonlight's handle.
Just then.
"Hoobae."
Suddenly, Im Ga-eul blocked my path.
"......Huh?"
"I'll finish this here. You just sit over there and watch, hoobae."
'Im Ga-eul is going to finish that bastard off here?'
I stared at her back with a dumbfounded look.
Yeon Woo-jin staggered to his feet.
His black sclera were shot through with red, burst blood vessels. Thick veins bulged all over his body.
He suddenly contorted his face.
"━━━You lowly human!!! What kind of bullshit have you pulled!!!!!!!!"
His voice, spitting out rage, echoed with a dual tone.
"You used shallow tricks to deceive me!? And to even steal my power......,"
He whipped his head around and glared at Im Ga-eul.
"It was you."
"Hmm—?"
Im Ga-eul flinched slightly but then lifted her chin again, maintaining a haughty attitude.
"That is my power—. How dare a lowly mortal like you snatch my power....... I will tear you to shreds!!!!!"
Head held high as she looked down at him, Im Ga-eul cast a skill on herself.
"Acceleration, no....... Super Acceleration."
At the same time, Yeon Woo-jin burst with fury and launched himself at her.
His suddenly swollen arm tried to rip into Im Ga-eul.
WHOOOOSH—
Im Ga-eul, who had been staring right at it, flickered as her form blurred for an instant.
BOOM—!!!
His swung arm smashed the floor, causing a tremor throughout the entire space.
The vanished Im Ga-eul appeared right next to Yeon Woo-jin.
"That was an afterimage."
Yeon Woo-jin whipped his head around in disbelief.
Then he ground his teeth and swung his arm again.
But none of his attacks could even graze Im Ga-eul's collar.
Im Ga-eul's face, which had shown a hint of tension at first, was now overflowing with composure.
She even yawned as if bored.
"AAAAARGH!!! If only I wasn't trapped in this pathetic human body!!!"
The Demon cried out as if the situation were grossly unfair.
The Demon that had seized Yeon Woo-jin's body was going mad with rage.
A measly insect had sought him out after so long, so he graciously manifested in the middle realm.
But upon manifesting, the sacrifices meant for him were nowhere to be seen, and he had incarnated into the body of a Demonized Human.
On top of that, even his presence had been stolen!
Being tricked into manifesting through a fraudulent contract was an unforgivable act in itself,
and now he was even being toyed with by some human woman who ordinarily wouldn't even be worth a single punch,
so his fury boiled over.
"You wench, I will definitely tear you apart alive and drink you down!!!!!"
But even at that vividly boiling rage, Im Ga-eul retorted with a nonchalant face.
"Ahh—. I get it now. Your level....... Pathetic."
"AAAAARGH!!! I'll kill you!!!"
Watching this, I scratched my head with a complicated expression.
'Our Ga-euly....... She's pretty good at provoking a Demon. But....... Is she really okay?'
* * *
The visible landscape changed.
A feeling as if standing at the top of the world and looking down on everything.
The opponent was an enemy she could never have faced before.
But she wasn't the least bit afraid.
Because the thought of losing didn't occur to her at all.
Power overflowed.
Nothing was frightening.
The Im Ga-eul who had always clung to life from behind the protection of others died today.
So this was the view the kids in the Utopia Party saw.
Ah, I am at the 'top'.
Now the only thing left was to personally snuff the life out of the opponent.
Fwooooosh—!
"I'll kill you. I'll definitely kill you!!!"
The Demon now attacked with outright desperation.
But the opponent's attacks came clearly into her field of vision.
"Slow."
Im Ga-eul dodged the attack by just slightly turning her head and lightly kicked off the ground.
Hah—!
She focused her Mana into the gloves her hoobae had given her.
Hummm.
The output was so strong that the usually transparent Mana thread glowed pure white.
"This kind of light doesn't suit me....... But it's fine. Since this darkness will hide my thread......."
The moment she kicked off the ground, she swung her hand.
WHOOOOSH—
Swish—!
And she was already positioned behind the opponent.
"No—were you already cut before you even saw it?"
Heh.
Im Ga-eul let out a light laugh.
But.
"......?"
When she glanced back,
contrary to her expectation that the Demonized Human's neck would be severed, she saw only bright red marks on his neck as if it had been deeply scratched.
The Demonized Human's red eyes, as he turned back, were still burning with fury and watching her.
"......Mm."
Im Ga-eul scratched her cheek and slowly nodded.
Then she looked back at her hoobaes who were watching her from behind.
"Hey, you hoobaes. What are you doing right now? I'm a Support who assists from the rear. Killing monsters is the Damage Dealer's job."
"......."
"......."
Jin Yu-ha and Sofia stared at her with baffled expressions.
* * *
'This person....... Just pretending to be cool, and yet pathetic.......'
I thought she had changed, but she hadn't.
If anything, I'd say she'd gotten more shameless.
"Super Acceleration—"
As Im Ga-eul's power infused me,
I felt at least twice as fast as before.
Probably the effect of using a Black Magic Stone, an item of a higher grade than a Magic Stone.
'So....... The core is still the same, but since she's overflowing with power, she just got drunk on it, huh?'
That was truly like Im Ga-eul.
No, should I say it wasn't like her?
In the game, she was definitely an older, mommy-type noona overflowing with receptivity.
Where on earth that woman went, leaving only this pitiful one behind,
no matter how much I think about it, I just can't figure it out.
'Well, her performance is definitely solid, though.'
I smirked as I thought this.
Im Ga-eul must have achieved a considerable advancement through this incident.
Because using a Black Magic Stone to wield Mana is essentially blasting open a new Mana pathway with intense force.
"Alright, I'll take that bastard. We need to finish this fast and do the Swimsuit Event."
I swung my sword at Yeon Woo-jin.