Regret and Exhaustion Again?
Regret and Exhaustion Again?
"Th-thank you! Thank you! Hero...!"
A grimy civilian shouted their thanks and immediately scurried away.
Clearly terrified out of their wits, they fled without looking back.
Lee Ji-yeon didn't feel any resentment about it.
If anything, she understood completely. It was a perfectly natural reaction.
- Thwack!
A neck was severed by a falling axe. Blood gushed from the cross-section like a mountain stream.
The lone body staggered, then toppled sideways.
A lump of flesh collapsed into the pool of blood. Lee Ji-yeon reached a hand toward that lump of flesh.
Thud! The cooling meat twitched.
With its head gone, the remaining body shuddered for a moment before abruptly hauling itself upright.
The body seemed to search for something briefly, then found its cleanly severed head and reattached it to the stump.
The two clean-cut surfaces met. Then, as if sutured with surgical thread, the head and body knitted back together.
Necromancy.
The undead raised through a simple ritual kicked off the ground to kill rampaging monsters and opposing undead.
In this manner, she was swelling the ranks of the undead and exterminating every last monster in the vicinity.
"Hoo..."
She finished the rituals for hundreds of undead. Lee Ji-yeon caught her breath for a moment and surveyed her surroundings.
This area... the region where the emergency signal had been sent was in a state far beyond what the word 'chaos' could describe.
Countless undead raised en masse by insane necromancers.
The dungeons, influenced by the disturbance, had gone on an unprecedented rampage and collapsed one after another, flooding the area with monsters.
Monsters that had been scattered throughout the Gray Zone, joining the frenzy after getting swept up in the commotion.
Superhumans fighting to subjugate the monsters, civilians resisting monsters with firearms...
At least in zones without civilians, one could simply leave the monsters to devour and fight each other.
Though even that would need to be suppressed eventually for fear of catastrophic variants spawning, right now, that wasn't the priority.
The priority was the civilian sectors.
- Please help the civilians instead.
A blunt, synthetic voice suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Lee Ha-yul. That child who had been... undergoing some sort of purification ritual deep inside a dungeon.
- There are still many people who haven't evacuated.
Should she call it composure? The image of the child came to mind, worrying about civilians as if heedless of the vicious monster chasing right behind him.
- There are also many dungeons rampaging from the influence of the undead.
Of course, it wasn't his real voice, but an artificial one produced by an artifact.
- Senior, you can save a great many people.
But... it was the truth that, even while in a perilous situation, he worried about the civilians first and sent Lee Ji-yeon back to help them.
The child toward whom Lee Ji-yeon had harbored that petty jealousy... was worried about the civilians, and worried about her safety.
Unable to say anything, Lee Ji-yeon had peeled away from him.
Leaving her junior behind, alone, being chased by a monster.
That fact was... no, it was deeply bothering her. Every moment since they split up, she'd been tormented by agonizing guilt.
'I knew it, I should go back right now...'
A suffocating pressure clogged her chest, as if her insides were about to burst open.
Lee Ji-yeon bit her lip and turned her head. Far off in the distance lay the direction where, without her help, her junior was still being chased by a monster.
There had been a rational reason for splitting up at the time.
Back then, Lee Ha-yul had been splitting his power in two to transport her as well. If she detached, it would be much easier for him to flee.
The Twin-Headed Poison Dragon had no interest in Lee Ji-yeon. Before, it had chased her with the intent to chew her to death, but after Lee Ha-yul appeared, it pursued only him.
Lee Ha-yul had many means at his disposal.
In fact, though she had helped, he was managing to flee with considerable ease... and he possessed an astounding detection ability and had even learned spatial magic.
If things got truly dangerous, he could just escape far away with spatial magic.
Also, Lee Ji-yeon was the Manifestor of Taesan.
She could crush large numbers of rabble monsters through earth manipulation.
She could apply emergency aid by manipulating vitality energy, and by raising undead en masse, she could save civilians across an even wider area.
For the purpose of bringing even a little more order to a current disaster where undead and monsters were rampaging across a wide front, Lee Ji-yeon, who could deploy large-scale necromancy, was the right fit.
Armed with that judgment, she had split off.
- I'm alright.
Lee Ha-yul... her junior, had also told her it was fine.
- Don't worry.
- I absolutely won't die.
- Please believe me.
He told her not to worry, that he absolutely wouldn't die, that she should trust him.
Thus, he had asked her to put her mind at ease and save civilians for him.
So... Lee Ji-yeon had concluded her own judgment and...
'...Did I really?'
As she killed monsters and undead, scattering newly extracted undead in all directions to rescue civilians, Lee Ji-yeon suddenly directed a question inward.
'Did I really break off after a calm, rational decision?'
The Twin-Headed Poison Dragon. An undead grown pitifully weak compared to its living self.
Yet even as such a specimen, just being chased briefly had nearly cost Lee Ji-yeon her life.
She had experienced it firsthand.
The speed of the snake, which proved utterly inescapable despite its decline. The impact that felt like her body would shatter the moment she took a single hit.
Even Lee Ji-yeon, who was confident in her defense, stamina, and resistance thanks to manifesting Taesan, had felt a lethal venom that would end her life the instant it struck true.
She had harbored fear. She was afraid of death. She didn't want to die in a place like that.
She had wanted to run away immediately. And hadn't she, in fact, been in the middle of fleeing?
In the midst of that, a junior younger than her had opened a path.
Telling her to leave it to him. Telling her to go save other people...
Had he merely seen through her, soothing her with noble-sounding words to open a path for her to escape?
Had she, inwardly wanting to flee, just grabbed the opportunity and immediately turned her back...?
'Am I...'
She couldn't confidently say that wasn't the case.
Lee Ji-yeon had been timid since childhood.
Whenever she harbored a vague fear of the unknown, her body would freeze solid. Thus, her actions were sluggish, and even her thinking was slow.
She was different from Hong Yeon-hwa, who was always overflowing with confidence and stepped forward boldly.
Lee Ji-yeon had no particular talent.
Whenever she ran into a problem, it was incredibly difficult for her to solve it even if she wrestled with it for days on end.
She was different from Baek A-rin, who would hang back a step in modesty, then approach with a soft smile and nimbly solve anything with ease.
Lee Ji-yeon had manifested Taesan.
Examining the annals of her family's history, it was a Taesan with an output respectable enough to place her among the upper ranks.
- Did you hear that news? About Lady Hong Yeon-hwa. They say she completely melted a verification device.
- I heard she manifested Calamity Flame, but... what? Don't joke around. That's something even an active combat unit would struggle with. What could a mere five-year-old girl do?
- No, I'm telling you, it's real! Were you off in seclusion or something? The whole world's buzzing about that news, you dolt.
Hong Yeon-hwa had manifested Calamity Flame.
Its output was of a level truly unprecedented throughout the entire family history.
- This time it's the child of the Azure Sea? A twin blessing.
- They say she freely manipulates both water energy and cold energy. The output is tremendous too... especially the cold aspect. She froze specially alloyed cold-iron solid so it couldn't be used.
- Cold-iron... that's just absurd. Isn't she also five years old? Just how far will she go when she grows further...
Baek A-rin had manifested the Azure Sea. Her manifested Azure Sea was specialized toward cold energy, and its output was at an unprecedented level.
Even with that, her water energy output and control were also outstanding.
Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin.
Younger sisters she frequently met and played with.
These juniors, only a year younger, were receiving praise like being the most exceptional talents in their family's history, the reincarnation of their founders, or destined to surpass them.
Lee Ji-yeon wasn't on that level.
Though she manifested a Taesan of exceptional output... it wasn't enough to earn praise like unprecedented talent or the reincarnation of the founder.
'......'
- As for Lady Lee Ji-yeon...
The way she was always mentioned right after them.
Same generation. Children of the same age, only one year apart. All daughters of the clan heads, and the gazes that followed because they were especially close.
Faint expectations.
Followed by small disappointments.
Though that emotion soon vanished without a trace, Lee Ji-yeon had unmistakably felt it. She could never forget it.
- Huh? How to do it? Um... just... how should I put it, you just watch their movements and dodge?
Hong Yeon-hwa's gaze, as she tilted her head with pure curiosity, wondering why she couldn't do something so simple.
- Aura... well, I just manifest it exactly as I was taught. Didn't you learn similarly, Ji-yeon unni?
Baek A-rin's gaze, as she actively tried to help but looked at a loss, unsure how exactly to teach her.
Even as a child, Lee Ji-yeon could never forget those looks.
And so, she had foolishly harbored jealousy.
Far from malice, she had felt a hideous envy toward those junior sisters who were on good terms with her.
Meeting and playing together became hard to enjoy from some point onward.
And it wasn't just in the past.
She still hadn't shaken it off. That's why they grew distant. Not that an emotional fight drove them apart, but as meetings became infrequent, distance grew naturally.
It was an overindulged sentiment.
If one were to evaluate innate talent worldwide from the top down, Lee Ji-yeon would undoubtedly be positioned at the very highest echelon.
She was the child of a family that had never known hunger, a direct bloodline descendant of the founder, and the eldest daughter of the current clan head.
She manifested Taesan as her unique ability, and to a high degree at that. She received support from her family that was more than sufficient—excessive, even.
There were ample records left by her ancestors, and many teachers were available to kindly interpret and teach them to her.
This was a childish complaint born of a warm back, a full stomach, and abundant leisure.
It was a hideous emotion felt by a person who was simply flawed at heart.
And because she was self-aware of this, Lee Ji-yeon felt even more worthless.
Right now, she recognized that same worthlessness within herself again.
Lee Ji-yeon gritted her teeth and roused her mana. She drew out so much mana that her core felt dangerously hollow and sent the undead she had preserved scattering in all directions.
For an instant, her head rang sharply. Her vision blurred from spending so much mana at once.
Though precise control became difficult the farther the distance, the basic command to spare humans and only dispose of monsters and hostile undead was absolute.
'Even so, I should head back now.'
No matter how much she thought about it, rejoining him was the right move.
The rescues in the vicinity were nearly finished. Leaving anything beyond this range to the undead was more efficient.
Though she had expended considerable power and still had injuries, it wasn't enough to be a hindrance.
So, she would regroup with Lee Ha-yul and buy time together.
With that thought, she turned her body.
"Huh?"
Far, far in the distance, she witnessed a black sphere reveal itself.
It was far away. Despite that, it was considerably large. Moreover, the aura emanating from that black sphere felt quite familiar.
'...Wait.'
Before she could even sink into deep doubt, Lee Ji-yeon felt her shoulders jerk with a start.
That direction... was the direction Lee Ha-yul had lured the Twin-Headed Poison Dragon.
An ominous imagining surfaced in a corner of her mind.
"No."
Spitting out a denial aloud, to whom she didn't know, Lee Ji-yeon frantically kicked off the ground.
The sphere vanished as if contracting. Lee Ji-yeon urgently worked her feet.
She sensed venom. A lethal poison that, if she stayed long, would infect her and endanger her life.
Lee Ji-yeon wrapped herself in armor of rock and aura to block the poison.
She manifested Taesan and pushed her resistance to its limit.
She kept running. The land, dying from the fearsome poisonous mire, came into view.
Fire, explosions, scorched earth, and marks as if the ground had been gouged by the wind were visible.
Traces of the Twin-Headed Poison Dragon were visible.
The clear marks of a building-sized snake slithering past remained vividly.
She ran along them.
And then.
"...Ah."
Lee Ji-yeon came face to face with a crater.
A crater so wide an entire village could fit inside it with room to spare was carved into the earth.
The familiar energies she felt from it... were not important.
She swept her gaze across the surroundings.
They weren't intact either. The earth around the crater hadn't just been overturned but seemed annihilated, swept completely away.
The Twin-Headed Poison Dragon's trail ended at the crater.
"...Junior."
She looked around.
The Twin-Headed Poison Dragon was nowhere to be seen.
And no trace of the person who should be luring it was visible either.
"Junior...?"
Lee Ji-yeon spoke in a trembling voice. No answer came. There wasn't the faintest plausible trace.
She manifested Taesan. She assimilated with the earth to expand her senses.
She felt the vital energy possessed by life... everything touching the earth.
Nothing. She pushed her senses beyond their limits.
Her vision turned red. Tears of blood trickled down.
Ignoring it, she clawed her senses higher.
In that influx of information, there was no trace that could be identified as Lee Ha-yul.
The worst-case hypothesis she had forcibly suppressed floated to the surface.
"...That, can't..."
- I'm doing this because I don't want to die.
Suddenly, the child's words came to mind.
Even while a monster was clamping onto his tail, those words didn't suit a child who had worried about civilians and Lee Ji-yeon, volunteering to lure the enemy.
Lee Ji-yeon's vision was stained black.
Despair and self-hatred clouded her eyes.
* * *
My head hurts.
It feels like a giant bludgeon is smashing down on my head over and over. My skull rings, as if my brain is being crushed to pulp and my cranium is about to shatter.
I gritted my teeth and tried to ignite my Authority...
'Ugh... hk... aagh...'
The instant I tried to rouse the Observation Authority, the severe pain doubled.
If I slipped up, it genuinely felt like my brain would physically melt.
As the sensation painted my consciousness white, I halted the manifestation of the Authority.
'Gnnn...'
So I wouldn't scream, I clamped my mouth shut and curled into a tight ball. I don't know where I collapsed. Probably the ground.
I'm not at the coordinates I marked beforehand.
Did the Spatial Leap fail? Why? I pre-calculated the coordinates; could something have thrown them off?
'Nngh...'
It's not just my head; my entire body hurts.
Maybe that's why something felt off about my body.
A sense of incongruity I couldn't put into words engulfed me.
My senses are strange.
How on earth should I describe this?
Something... something...
From the sensations I was receiving, I had the illusion that the world had grown larger.
* * *
[Body is being reconstituted]