Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Night Stroll (4)
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Gurgle...
Bub...ble... ache...
Bubbles rising from deep within his body.
Along with them came a profound hunger.
Normally, he would have tensed up at the monstrosity's growl,
but Yoo Kyung-su no longer did.
"What a fine resonance."
He even felt a deep satisfaction at the voice of the 'monstrosity' echoing from his own gut.
The monstrosity he had researched and nurtured.
By devouring it, he had transcended human limits.
"Those fools who looked down on me... the arrogant pricks strutting around like they'd conquered the world after climbing to the high ranks."
Soon, they would crawl at his feet.
After all, the monstrosity he had created would grow ever stronger by feeding on people's terror and souls.
"And that potential will soon come to me as well."
Wasn't this the very definition of a virtuous cycle?
"Some might curse me as a villain or a heretic, but that's just the ignorant bleating of fools who know nothing."
The envy and vitriol of shortsighted idiots who couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Sure, cultivating this power would demand sacrifices from the masses,
but what did that matter?
He could simply grow his power further and save even more people.
Kyaaak...
In that instant, a little girl's wail—no, a hallucination—rang in his ears.
Before, he would have ignored it, but not now.
"Yes, yes. You're blessing my path too. Consider it an honor. You'll rise to the heights alongside me."
It was just as Yoo Kyung-su spat those words.
"Hm?"
A sudden sensation.
Like a spider weaving its web, he had unleashed the frenzied monstrosities, spreading them densely across the area like threads.
This was to stabilize them, as they had yet to fully merge with him.
But something had snagged in the encirclement of those deployed monstrosities.
"So it's coming."
Yoo Kyung-su recalled the one who had granted him a new perspective—and who now flung himself toward death like a moth to flame.
"Shin Bi-hyeong."
Yoo Kyung-su's lips curled upward in a grin beyond the limits of human musculature.
"But can you truly pierce the domain of the monstrosities under my command?"
No one could.
"Hahaha!!"
A madly ecstatic laugh reverberated through the surroundings.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Whoooosh—!
Bi-hyeong's presence crushed the entire area.
The goblin's aura, touching the supreme realm.
No mere monstrosity could withstand such an existence.
Yet strangely, the monstrosities neither retreated from Bi-hyeong's presence nor showed fear.
Bi-hyeong knew it the moment he saw them.
'He's driven the controlled monstrosities into a frenzy.'
The exorcists' vile trick: annihilating reason to maximize raw output.
But it wasn't something done lightly.
No matter how well-controlled a monstrosity was, its inherent danger never vanished.
Once driven to frenzy, it reverted to a primal state, ignoring even its master's commands.
No—worse still.
Until it exhausted its power and entered a refractory period, it could unleash even greater might than its original capacity.
Thus, monstrosity tamers reserved frenzy for the final desperation: mutual destruction with the foe.
And only under calculations ensuring no harm to civilians or allies.
This wasn't a technique to unleash near the academy.
'He's gone completely off the rails.'
But there was something off.
How could frenzied monstrosities maintain such perfect order?
'They're not backing down from my presence—no fear at all?'
Did that mean their terror of Yoo Kyung-su outweighed their dread of him?
Bi-hyeong's expression was hardening when—
"...Bi-hyeong. There's something over there."
Mi-na pointed to one spot.
Above the monstrosities.
Nothing was visible there, but Mi-na was certain something lurked.
"For some reason... I think I hear something."
Bi-hyeong summoned the Goblin Cap and slipped into the spirit world.
A world turned translucent.
Amid it all, distinct figures stood out.
"Waaah!"
"Mom... I'm so cold..."
"Where is this? Mom! Dad!!"
Crying children.
Their faces were hideously contorted, their skin marred in ways too gruesome to describe.
Some were naked, frost clinging to their flesh.
Others hobbled on necrotic legs, sobbing.
...Even this barely captured a tenth of their full number.
"......"
Bi-hyeong gritted his teeth at the sight.
He approached them and knelt warmly at their side.
"Eek...!"
"Hic... don't hit me... I won't do it again..."
How much pain had they endured?
How much suffering?
Unable to truly empathize, Bi-hyeong simply strove to understand in silence.
All he could do was silently offer his embrace, ensuring none felt the cold.
"...It hurt a lot, didn't it?"
"......"
"Now, you can..."
He couldn't bring himself to say it would be okay.
So Bi-hyeong changed his words.
"Now, I'll set you free."
"...Really?"
"Of course. I swear it."
Only then did the children slowly peek up from his arms to meet his face.
"This uncle will give the bad guys what they deserve."
As he flashed a grin, faint smiles crept onto the children's faces.
Tears streamed from their eyes, yet their mouths curved upward.
One might call it grotesque, but Bi-hyeong knew better.
Those desperately forcing a smile through grief wore just such a heartrending expression.
"Your grudges... I'll make them pay."
At those words, the children's forms began to fade.
Then, abruptly, they surged toward Bi-hyeong's body.
Toward his lower dantian—his Demon Core.
'What... this isn't for eating...'
...he tried to shout.
But Bi-hyeong's voice caught in his throat.
'...It's not the Demon Core consuming them. The children's souls are coming here.'
He realized it the moment they clasped hands deep within the core's depths and settled in.
They wanted vengeance.
They wanted him to wield their power and bring heavenly retribution upon him.
They had entered his Demon Core of their own accord for that very purpose.
"...Understood."
Bi-hyeong nodded firmly and rose to his feet.
The Goblin Cap slipped off.
Returning to the material world, Bi-hyeong clenched his fist tight.
Pure rage toward the wicked.
Now layered with a mantle of responsibility upon his advancing steps.
"So begone."
Bi-hyeong's eyes locked onto the frenzied monstrosities.
Now he understood.
Why they still heeded Yoo Kyung-su's orders even in frenzy.
'He planted the children's souls inside them, linking them to himself.'
That was how they moved with such disciplined precision.
But no longer.
The children's spirits had entered his Demon Core, severing the link between Yoo Kyung-su and the monstrosities.
Bi-hyeong's presence erupted thickly.
Whoooosh—!
At the same time, the children's grudges welled up from the Demon Core, infusing his presence with newfound depth.
Intent etched into the presence, birthing form.
Kyaaaaaaaak—!!
The presence, now laden with intent-form, was no longer intangible.
With each step, it crushed the monstrosities like a weapon.
Gurrrgle...
Grgrrrk...!
Step.
—Step.
With every stride Bi-hyeong took, the monstrosities blocking his path foamed at the mouth and slammed their heads into the dirt.
Soon, crushed like beneath a colossal foot, their existences burst—pop!—leaving only fragments behind.
Having shattered every monstrous barrier, Bi-hyeong's eyes clearly captured Yoo Kyung-su's horrified face in the distance.
"Yoo Kyung-su."
Bi-hyeong's icy voice chilled the air with eerie resonance.
"Wh-what...!!"
Yoo Kyung-su couldn't comprehend the situation.
Frenzied monstrosities.
Children's spirits implanted within.
They should have obeyed only his command and blocked the foe.
...Why had they chosen to bash their own heads and die?
And moreover,
'Why is my body trembling... even more than before?'
That frigid gaze—why was the monstrosity merged with his flesh quaking!
"...I see. You've mastered sorcery too!"
Yoo Kyung-su failed to realize his words affirmed his own mastery of the dark arts.
"......"
The gaping abdominal wound torn open by Doeok-i had fully knit closed.
His complexion paled, yet his internals felt fully mended, with energy flowing freely.
Regeneration beyond any mortal's capability.
Sorcery—and a path that could only be called evil.
An undeniable branch of the heretic way.
"No need for a dying man to know."
Bi-hyeong saw no reason to sate Yoo Kyung-su's curiosity.
Instead, he slowly assumed a stance, attuning to the changes within his body.
'From devouring those monstrosities? My demonic power has surged.'
His yang energy had always dominated, yet now yin power held a slight edge.
For an exorcist, ill tidings,
but irrelevant now.
It would hone him into the blade to slay that transformed Yoo Kyung-su.
Click.
As if something unlocked, the yin power slumbering quietly within the Impenetrable Seal flooded his body.
Whoooosh—.
The gently emanating presence made it impossible to see Bi-hyeong as human.
A full-fledged yokai.
A distinct otherworldly entity.
For now, he would ignore it all and press forward.
With that resolve, he invoked a spell.
'The fastest mover: wind.'
Wind, among the five elements' spells.
He applied it to his flesh and took a step.
Bang!
His body, kicking off the earth, accelerated.
Enveloped in Eoduk-i, he even drew the spirit orb from the club into his hand.
It was as if a dark gale blew forth.
"Foolish struggle!"
Yoo Kyung-su snapped to his senses with a gasp and frantically worked his hands.
A body merged with monstrosities.
Power swelling with fear and grudge.
Yet instinct chose to channel it through spells honed over years.
A sound choice, in the end.
Raw monstrous power would have crumbled to Bi-hyeong's presence before even touching him.
A straight-flying 6th-rank spell hurtled toward Bi-hyeong's throat.
"......"
Bi-hyeong regarded it with indifferent eyes, then called out.
"Doeok-i."
"Yes, boss."
In perfect sync.
Doeok-i promptly kicked off the ground, unleashing a fist wind.
The spell charging at Bi-hyeong veered off course.
A fleeting gap.
Bi-hyeong poured more force into his earth-kicking foot.
Roar!
In that instant, the yang energy in his lower dantian—suppressed by yin power—reacted and thrashed.
Yet why?
He should have been startled, but oddly, no such thought arose.
Instead, sensing the yang's stirrings, he divined its intent.
'You want to follow along.'
As if refusing to let yin rampage alone, the yang clenched its teeth and pursued.
And that power manifested one possibility Bi-hyeong had long imagined.
Crackle—!
The intersection of yin and yang.
Explosive force in that single instant.
Though but a fleeting moment, Bi-hyeong's body rode that one breath of time.
Baaaang—!
His body accelerated further.
The black wind swelled into a tempest, freely weaving through the spell's minor breach.
Whoosh!
Before long, Bi-hyeong had slipped past Yoo Kyung-su, his blade lashing out.
Splash!
Blood from the blade soaked the ground.
And with it,
Spluuuurt!
Yoo Kyung-su's upper body split open, blood gushing like a waterfall.