Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Fox (2)
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Right after hearing the fox's words, Sin Bihyeong understood the entire situation.
'Mina had yokai blood flowing in her veins too.'
The puzzle in his head clicked into place.
Her appearance when she became the villain had resembled a beast.
The reason was probably that blood had awakened.
She had been devoured.
By her own blood, by the yokai nature within it.
"Scum? Hah. A mere goblin dares!"
Gumi cried out like that and swung her tail.
For an instant, an overwhelming pressure washed over him, as if a mountain was crashing down.
Sin Bihyeong kicked off the ground and dodged the tail.
Boom!
The moment the tail struck the ground, the earth shattered, sending stone fragments flying everywhere.
'What insane power...'
It wasn't even some grand spell.
For a human, it would be like swinging a fist.
Yet even that casual motion made his flesh crawl.
'How can she wield such strength?'
No matter that the being before him was a 'nine-tailed fox', her emergence had been too sudden.
She wasn't like Eoduk, who had been lingering around the academy.
She was an existence born from Mina's 'blood'.
If she had been hiding with her full power intact, Mina wouldn't have been classified as merely 1st Hierarchy.
'Therefore, it's a bluff.'
As Sin Bihyeong's eyes seriously scanned the surroundings, a leisurely smile crept onto Gumi's lips.
"You think like this lady's descendant. But surely you know what became of her for it."
The tail shot up.
Three of the nine tails sliced through the air, flying toward Sin Bihyeong like sharp spears.
'Mina thought the same... And yet she couldn't break through.'
Sin Bihyeong gleaned a hint from those words.
'All the imaginations she must have tried. None of those principles worked.'
There are no absolutes in the world.
If you gain one thing, you must yield another.
All the more so for a monster that builds its own nest and invites people into it.
'First, shake her up.'
Shake her mentally, her resolve, and if her judgment becomes hasty,
then a solution would appear.
The moment Sin Bihyeong resolved himself, he took the three incoming tails head-on with his body.
Kaboom!
Sin Bihyeong's body was helplessly shoved backward.
'Guh!'
A shock like colliding with a dump truck.
Dizzying pain raced through his brain, but... he endured.
It wasn't beyond what his half-demon body could withstand.
'Move.'
He drew forth his demonic power,
and sank his roots.
He infused the roots with the Earth Element of the five elements, then immediately leveraged the principle of mutual generation to unleash the Metal Element.
Crack!
In that instant, a pain like his muscles from ankle to calf tearing apart surged through him.
'Layering mutual generation onto the roots... I was planning to try it after getting Mina's buff...'
Overlapping the principle of mutual generation not externally, but internally within his body.
The backlash was far from mild.
But Sin Bihyeong gritted his teeth and endured this too.
'It's not fully torn yet.'
The fact that he had grabbed the tail and was still standing was proof.
Sin Bihyeong ground his teeth as if to shatter them and stomped down with a heavy step. Thud.
Demon Combat Technique.
Mutual Generation Double Layer.
'Mountain Flip.'
"What!?"
The fox, who thought she had seized the momentum, suddenly sensed her own body being pulled.
From the point where the tail was gripped, her body was floating up.
The distant ceiling drew near,
and in an instant, her view flipped, making the ground her sky.
Kaboom!
With a ferocious roar, Gumi's form crashed into the ground.
The goblin's soft arts that Eoduk had shown before.
By mimicking him, Sin Bihyeong had slammed her down with a force enhanced by the principle of mutual generation.
'Once... more!'
Like dragging a load, he hoisted the massive tail over his shoulder and pulled again.
Mountain Flip chained forth.
The power of the Demon Combat Technique, further amplified by mutual generation.
Each strike truly seemed to overturn mountains, resounding with majestic booms one after another.
However, Gumi wasn't about to take it lying down like a fool.
"Such... a lowly ghost!"
Crack!
She drove her tail into the ground, and Gumi's form shot upward.
He tried to yank back the gripped tail, but it wouldn't budge.
Sin Bihyeong immediately released the tail and gripped his demon blade again.
Seeing those eyes unbowed despite the display of superior strength, Gumi's brow furrowed endlessly.
"Fine. Confident in your strength, are you? Just like a brute goblin who only uses his body."
Then,
"I'll show you a realm you'll never touch, even in death and rebirth!"
The moment she said that,
Sin Bihyeong's senses caught something.
'Left. Something's coming.'
He twisted his body urgently, but it was too late to fully evade.
He raised his arm to shield his face.
Bang!
Blue flames erupted, engulfing his arm.
The pain was no less than the tail's.
'...Urk. A direct hit to the head would've knocked me out instantly.'
How did she do it?
There hadn't been any precursor.
'I can kind of see the flow... but I can't grasp it.'
It was due to insufficient yokai power.
The 'Mimicry' in a goblin's blood could copy an opponent's techniques.
However, the shortfall in yokai power only allowed him to 'perceive' the nine-tailed fox's tricks—it didn't let him comprehend them.
'If I had just a bit more yokai power... I'd get a solid grasp on it.'
Then fill it.
Having reached that conclusion, Sin Bihyeong immediately dashed about, unleashing spells wildly.
Flames burst forth, earthen barriers rose, and ore erupted from within them.
Amplified by the Path to the Apex effect, it surpassed the limits of 1st Hierarchy.
Moreover, the yang energy infused in his demonic power activated it all.
The pinnacle of 2nd Hierarchy.
It was power that seemed more than sufficient.
But the nine-tailed fox casually blocked the entire barrage with her tails and sneered.
"Is that all?"
Know your place.
Her tone implied as much.
However, contrary to the nine-tailed fox's expectations, the corners of Sin Bihyeong's mouth were slightly upturned.
"Who said this was the end?"
Sin Bihyeong's gaze fixed on one spot.
The moment the nine-tailed fox noticed it, she naturally turned her senses there.
She felt the yokai domain.
'What...?'
The spells that failed to reach Gumi had struck the yokai domain directly.
The domain was already half-destroyed by Sin Bihyeong's movements.
It had no means to withstand the spell barrage.
'You don't like her either, do you?'
In response to Sin Bihyeong's inner thought, the yokai nature flowing in his blood echoed back.
Grrr...
The low beastly growl carried thick irritation at the nine-tailed fox's behavior.
'An alliance.'
And so, the moment Sin Bihyeong and the yokai nature within him first aligned their wills,
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Yokai, 'Dream in the Mirror' devours!] The yokai sealed by the academy had entered the goblin's belly.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ ['Pleasure of Gluttony' is applied.] [Yokai, 'Dream in the Mirror' fully digested!] The utility of the Gluttony Ring amplified it.
This was... unexpected?
'That's like exorcising two, no, three yokai.'
It wasn't planned, but
the surge in yokai power now allowed him to clearly capture the nine-tailed fox's tricks spreading through the area.
'...The way she handles yin energy looks similar to the five elements, but something's different.'
Sin Bihyeong immediately mimicked Gumi's technique.
Fwoosh!
Flames bloomed in the empty air.
But Sin Bihyeong was already far from that spot.
The previously invisible attack finally fell within his senses and became perceptible.
"I see. Space? Or void? Anyway, you were embedding spells into empty spaces."
It was a trick worthy of being called yokai sorcery.
'What kind of cheat is this...'
With this alone, she could dominate any space.
The epitome of unfairness.
But Sin Bihyeong realized that yokai spells replacing the five elements had a weakness.
'The flames and space were separate spells. But there was no increase in power, no additional effects.'
In other words, she couldn't wield mutual generation or mutual restraint.
'She compensates for the lack of power with the vast yokai energy accumulated from her long yokai lifespan.'
...Wait.
In that moment, a question arose.
'Then why is her sorcery so weak?'
To put it bluntly, it wasn't weak.
It had pierced his half-demon body's durability and inflicted damage.
However,
'To have nine tails means at least nine hundred years old.'
For such a being's attacks to be this feeble?
Impossible.
'The dragon's natural disaster. I didn't see it, but... I felt an enormous power wave.'
Nothing like that from this so-called nine-tailed fox.
Just painful, that's all.
'...I get it. This space itself was an illusion.'
He grasped the true nature of this domain.
'As expected. It was a bluff.'
The corners of Sin Bihyeong's mouth twitched.
"...What is that."
Gumi sensed an ill omen in that smirk.
"What is that smug look like you've already won!"
Gumi's tails surged up.
Fiery demons scorched the area hot,
the ground quaked with earthquakes,
and storms along with torrential rains' clear hostility bared their fangs at Sin Bihyeong.
'......'
Sin Bihyeong watched it,
'Goblin Cap.'
and slowly summoned the cap.
'Draw in all presences that were concealed.'
Whoosh!
The goblin horns wrapped in blue flames soon transformed into an overwhelming presence, crushing the surroundings.
Gumi's eyes widened.
'Wh-what......'
The space was breaking.
More precisely, cracks were forming in the domain she had constructed.
By no other than the goblin she had deemed lowly.
'Impossible.'
How could a goblin, treated as daytime riffraff, achieve such dignity?
Even the old hags who commanded them couldn't reach that level...
'Monstrous strength, chaotic divinity...'
In Gumi's eyes, Sin Bihyeong no longer appeared human.
The aggregate of all ghosts.
Every time his shadow rippled, it felt like countless spirits wailed.
Screee!
With a piercing ring, the domain Gumi had built shattered completely.
Gumi was no longer within it.
Only a rock-sized fox with two tails remained.
"So that's your true form."
The agony, the pressure on his shoulders—all illusions.
Phantom pain felt within the yokai sorcery domain she had spread.
Nothing more.
"H-how dare you to this lady......"
The fox's voice trembled with fear.
Sin Bihyeong looked at her and gave a low smile.
"I'd love to show you in a mirror how ridiculous you look right now."
With that,
Sin Bihyeong gripped his demon blade.
The fox's trembling intensified.
"Y-your precious descendant is in this lady's belly! If you slay me, that descendant you cherish won't escape unscathed......"
"In that case."
Sin Bihyeong's cold eyes fixed on the fox.
"How about a wager."
The jet-black blade aimed at the fox, slowly absorbing the presence that had been pressing down on the area.
"See if you can only be the one to strike."
With his original abilities, it would have been impossible.
The fox that had swallowed her body intended to use Mina's soul as a shield.
He had to sever only the fox while avoiding that.
An excruciatingly difficult feat.
'But why.'
In this moment, Sin Bihyeong felt he could do it.
'Demon Combat Technique.'
Add more.
Human spells to the roots, and yokai sorcery too.
'Even the presence that shattered the domain, contain it.'
Sin Bihyeong's presence soon loomed behind him like a black shadow, rippling.
Red eyes gleamed with clear murderous intent.
Vrring!
His lower dantian heated rapidly, spewing demonic power and yokai power simultaneously.
He endured the pain of their clash and made the two energies coexist in the demon blade.
Finally, he captured the Spirit Realm in his eyes via the Goblin Cap.
'Demon Combat Technique. No...'
He entrusted himself to that technique, which had evolved into something superior, no longer fitting that name.
Slash!
Sin Bihyeong's demon blade cleaved the air.
Clearly swung from a distance.
Yet,
"Guh, ack..."
The two-tailed fox's neck was severed, its belly split open.
Sin Bihyeong sheathed his demon blade as if there was no more danger and approached the fallen fox corpse.
He ripped open its belly.
The squishy feel of innards, the still-warm blood's heat.
Above all, the warmth of the hand he grasped was the most comforting.
Splurch!
From the rock-sized fox's belly, he pulled out Mina, eyes closed.
"...Mm......"
The moment outside air touched her skin,
her blood-crusted eyelids twitched faintly.
Mina's eyes opened.
"Bi... hyeong...?"
In her blurry vision, she saw Bihyeong with his blue horns half-burned.
"...Good. You're safe."
He was smiling.