Chapter 48
Chapter 48
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Night Stroll (5)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Whoosh!
The blood gushed out in thick spurts from his split-open upper body.
"Guhk…!"
Yu Kyung-su's eyes bulged wide as he clutched at his own torso.
'The wound… it's not regenerating easily…!'
A slash that had carved along his ribs.
And the heart it had severed in its path.
Blood kept backing up, soaking his lungs.
He couldn't even groan or breathe properly.
'Kuh…!'
Yet Yu Kyung-su's breath refused to stop.
His flesh had merged with the monstrosity.
He had walked far too distant a path to still be called human.
'Heart… I just need to regenerate the heart!'
His body trembled violently, but he forced himself to stand.
It was just then, as Yu Kyung-su desperately tried to flee—that
"Does it hurt? It won't regenerate easily."
Bi-hyeong approached from behind, radiating chilling killing intent.
"My accumulated spiritual power is like poison to monstrosities."
It worked even on the world's yokai.
So there was no way it wouldn't affect a lesser monstrosity like this.
With such firm conviction, Bi-hyeong had struck Yu Kyung-su personally, rather than letting Do-eok-i do it.
"But no matter how much it hurts you, was it worse than what those kids felt?"
Even watching Yu Kyung-su crawl pathetically on the ground, shivering uncontrollably, stirred no pity in him.
Only disgust.
How could someone who knew pain so well inflict such horrors on others?
The loathing was thick and overwhelming.
"Hurt a little more. Atone for those kids… and die."
At those words, Yu Kyung-su's twisted brow turned toward Bi-hyeong.
Why couldn't he understand his grand undertaking?
This guy clearly harbored a powerful monstrosity within him too.
"That face says you don't get it."
Bi-hyeong saw through Yu Kyung-su's thoughts all too easily.
He could feel the ugly selfishness, the repulsive self-centeredness.
"Don't even try to understand. For trash like you, dying satisfied would be a luxury."
As he raised the Ghost Jade Sword, Yu Kyung-su's eyes flew wide.
Bloop!
His body erupted like an explosion, transforming into a massive blob of black slime.
"I… didn't… want… to… go… this… far…!!"
The echo in his voice. The syllables of his words.
Every bit of it sounded like a monstrosity now.
He had abandoned his humanity.
Handing control of his flesh to the monstrosity, he had become that entity itself—barely clinging on.
"Kill… kill… kiiilll…."
His brain wasn't working right; the ends of his words dragged on endlessly.
But it wasn't just his words that stretched out.
'Its energy is amplifying too.'
Like his swelling bulk, the monstrosity's aura grew denser by the moment, weaving a domain laced with formations across the area.
'Everything leads to a dead end.'
The surrounding landscape gleamed blood-red.
No matter where he stepped, it all screamed death.
Among all the monstrosities he'd faced, this was the most arrogant, self-centered domain imaginable.
Yet Bi-hyeong gazed at it with utter nonchalance.
"Done? Your tantrum."
Did Yu Kyung-su realize?
From the moment he shed his humanity and merged with the monstrosity, he was no match for Bi-hyeong.
'His internal injuries were healing, his body growing stronger bit by bit. He must have gotten cocky.'
The monstrosities under his command had chosen death out of fear at Do-eok-i's mere roar.
Bi-hyeong's sunken eyes took in the surroundings.
If he were unscathed, maybe—but fused with the monstrosity, Yu Kyung-su was a bad matchup for him.
The goblin's presence crushed monstrosities, so even a rank-6 entity couldn't unleash its full power.
Generously, rank-5. Maybe lower.
And amid that, Bi-hyeong had seized the yin-yang nexus, unleashing a rank-5 pinnacle strike with the Soul-Cleaving Spirit.
His body was in critical condition—perilous and frail.
"Time to end it. You're not worth reflecting on."
The Night Parade members nodded grimly at Bi-hyeong's words.
"Yoho Art."
With Mi-na's voice, foxfire orbs floated up in her grasp.
The effect of her bloodline, the 'Fox Yokai Clan':
The illusionary arts of fox spirits, Yoho Art, manifested.
"Phantom Fox."
Like the space Gu-mi had shown before, the foxfire turned into eerie mist,
Neutralizing the monstrosity's domain that had enveloped the area.
Within it, the three goblins under Do-eok-i rampaged.
"Sound the revelry!"
"Yeah!"
They couldn't match fox yokai in transformation or illusion,
But goblins too loved fooling human eyes and playing pranks.
They inflated their own bodies within Mi-na's illusion, unfolding a Playfield.
"Die, you villain!"
"Scum like you needs a beating!"
"Yeah!"
Gripping their Goblin Clubs, they began pummeling the monstrosity Yu Kyung-su had become.
Yu Kyung-su tried to counterattack, but bizarrely, piercing a goblin's body turned it into a broom—or a shovel or hoe.
His vision blurred, he could only take the hits without moving.
"Do-eok-i."
"Yes, boss."
"Let's go."
Bi-hyeong, who had been staring intently at Yu Kyung-su, released Eoduk-i's covering and turned to Do-eok-i.
For the first time, the moment to cover him with Do-eok-i, newly joined to the Night Parade.
"…Yes!"
Perhaps hesitant at first—this kind of foe was new—but Do-eok-i nodded after meeting Bi-hyeong's eyes.
Soon, Do-eok-i's body enveloped Bi-hyeong as he thrust out the Ghost Jade Sword.
Rumble—!
A mid-rank yokai—no, one whose true rank soared higher—now covered him.
It felt like his wits might snap at any moment.
Yet Bi-hyeong's presence tempered it, coiling that ferocious power around one edge of the Ghost Jade Sword.
Head-Suppressing Divine Seat.
Like the ghost that crushed and burst human heads, a domineering force pressed down on all creation, pulsing through the blade.
"…!!"
Yu Kyung-su noticed and whipped his head around too late—
Bi-hyeong's sword was already raised high, descending.
"Too late."
The Ghost Jade Sword, cloaked in Do-eok-i's dominance, fell.
A straight, unwavering line.
Its trajectory was brilliantly ruthless, chillingly beautiful.
"U…ah…!!"
Yu Kyung-su twisted desperately, trying to evade.
But why?
No matter how he rolled this way and that, the sword's falling path never left his head.
「Flash in the east. Flash in the west.」
「He whose footsteps could not be traced struck terror as one of the greatest folk horrors.」
The passage glimpsed when incorporating Do-eok-i into the Hundred Ghosts. Or the original tale that formed him.
True to that power, Bi-hyeong's sword danced through empty space, dealing only in inevitable outcomes.
Slash!
Finally, the Ghost Jade Sword cleaved through Yu Kyung-su's body.
No splatter of blood, no death rattle.
That was the end for the one who became a monstrosity.
"…."
Bi-hyeong gazed at Yu Kyung-su's corpse, sliced by the sword's edge and crushed by its dominance.
Staring silently, he closed his eyes and whispered to the children's souls in the Demon Core.
'Attain Buddhahood.'
May they never meet such a human in their next life.
May they live happier ones.
He wished it sincerely.
'…Thank you.'
'Bro, that was awesome!'
Why was it?
The children's sobs from the Demon Core were gone.
Instead, only their laughter—giggling and wet with held-back tears for his sake.
Soon, even that faded away.
"It's… over, right?"
Mi-na approached and asked.
"…Yeah. All done."
The villain was dead, the children's souls at peace.
Only then could Bi-hyeong relax his stiff expression and smile like usual.
It was at that moment.
"Elder!"
Eoduk-i, who had early shed his covering and returned to his original form, bounced over with something in his mouth.
"Hm?"
"Found it in that guy's lab earlier!"
Bi-hyeong took it.
Records of where the children came from, and whether any had families.
'This… I should entrust it to someone reliable.'
He knew someone who could pressure the family with this and exact brutal revenge.
Handing it over would secure some safety for the kids' parents—and the orphans still being abducted even now.
As Bi-hyeong thought of him and tucked the research into his robes—
"Hm?"
Something caught his eye.
Fresh ink, still wet and smudged, as if just written.
-Discovered anomaly in the Librarian.
-High chance she noticed the hidden entity in the Parasite Tales.
-Even the faculty didn't catch it, so how….
It cut off there.
From the contents, it seemed this was what he'd been writing when Bi-hyeong burst in.
'The Librarian noticed the Parasite Tales? How?'
Bi-hyeong stared, gripped by the same doubt as Yu Kyung-su.
'Even the faculty missed it. I wouldn't have either… if my half-demon senses hadn't flagged the oddity.'
Besides, the chairwoman was notably inept at detection arts, even compared to peers of her rank.
For her to sense the Parasite Tales seemed impossible.
So, could it be…?
"…Nah, probably not."
Bi-hyeong shook his head.
No way the chairwoman was a half-demon. That was too far-fetched.
'She had some other method, or carried something related.'
That was the more likely explanation.
Still, the lingering suspicion couldn't be helped.
'Guess I'll meet her soon.'
He owed her a favor anyway.
With that, he pocketed the document too.
"Alright, let's go."
Yu Kyung-su's monstrosity space was crumbling.
This place existed within the academy but wasn't on any records.
And with Yu Kyung-su's death, it would vanish forever.
The rampage here probably escaped even the guardians' notice.
"Well then, time to…."
It was around then.
The moment he released Do-eok-i and sheathed the Ghost Jade Sword in his club.
Bi-hyeong suddenly felt the world spin.
'…Huh?'
Despite his will to hold on, his body tilted and collapsed.
"Bi-hyeong!"
Even Mi-na's urgent call failed to rouse him.
The yin-yang nexus, the overexertion beyond his rank.
The backlash had arrived.
'Damn… it….'
Need… to… snap… out….
His eyes closed, and consciousness faded.
Thus, he neither heard nor saw.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Ding! [Performance evaluation for Act 1, Chapter 2 completed.] [Rank: ＆$@#] [Your score has overturned the existing reward system.]
['Negotiation Table' invites you!]