10th Iteration (2)
10th Iteration (2)
『Kh—!』
My head whipped back as if it would be torn off. I'd pulled back just before impact, but it was still dizzying.
My body, unable to absorb the shock, was hurled backward. There was no time to relax or fly.
My wide-open eyes swept forward. The body of a lowly Incarnation. I supplemented it with experience and intuition, reading the crimson afterimage.
The afterimage was already right in front of me.
In an instant, a feast of attacks filled my vision. I only had two arms now, but the attacks were denser and sharper than when I'd been wielding six arms a moment ago.
The Tower Master of Purgatory stretched out both arms.
He deflected the attacks. I wove my own strike through the disrupted trajectories. A delicate technique that could sever the neck of most beings before they even perceived it.
KWAANG! It was deflected as if to say, 'Not a chance.' The back of my hand, which was struck by his elbow, was caved in.
『Ha!』
The Tower Master of Purgatory let out a note of admiration.
'It's hard to keep up in this body.'
It wasn't just his skill; the explosively increased physical ability was impressive.
The Asura Path was still active. A body amplified by the Calamity Flame, propelled by the Calamity Flame like a propellant.
Lee Ha-yul, having entered a state of over-amplification, had become so fast and powerful that his lowly Incarnation body could barely keep up.
『You, do you intend to burn to death like this?』
WHOOOSH! There was a price. My right arm, having become the ignition point for the Calamity Flame, had begun to burn away. Old scars started to etch themselves back onto the outer skin.
Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame is docile. The Calamity Flame, which normally incites and devours its user's emotions, is tame.
Just for now, I'd released those limitations. The Calamity Flame blazed beyond my body's durability, pushing its output higher.
[The only one dying is you, you son of a bitch]
『Feisty, aren't you.』
The Tower Master of Purgatory smirked before he was sent flying again.
The moment Lee Ha-yul was about to chase after him, dark red thorns burst forth where the two had just been.
"Ghuh, aaaaargh—!"
It was an attack from the 10th Iteration, who had somewhat regained his composure.
The thorns that had spread out in an expanded range crumbled.
The melted thorns became a blood sea, and from that blood sea, thorns surged again, sweeping through the area.
The repeated manifestation of the expansion abilities Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood, and Piercing Thorns. A simple but powerful tactic.
- WHOOOOSH!
The surface of the blood sea flared bright. HSSSSS! Steam hissed up, evaporating.
The 10th Iteration lifted his head toward the source of the heat.
The sky. Having leaped up, Lee Ha-yul clenched his teeth and spread his circuits behind his back.
Foolish Straight Twin Wheels and Sky Wing Feather activated. I discarded the Storm I'd been maintaining. Instead, I concentrated solely on drawing in the surrounding mana.
I slammed the mana clinging to my circuits and wing into the Calamity Flame.
- WHOOOOOOSH!
A sun rose in the sky. My right arm blazed. Lee Ha-yul brought his hands, which had been raised high, slamming them down.
The Calamity Flame, the sun, descended. Sensing danger, the 10th Iteration threw up his hand. The sun crashed onto a circular blood membrane that shot up instantly.
CRACKLE! On top of that, a volley of lightning bolts poured in from the side, annihilating a massive chunk of the blood sea. The blood membrane, which had been barely holding on, collapsed from the impact.
Simultaneously, something burrowed in through the gap in the collapsing blood membrane.
The 10th Iteration flinched and hastily pulled a spear from the blood sea.
- KWAAANG!
"Khak?!"
Before he could raise the spear, a heel was driven into his crown. The 10th Iteration's head split the blood sea and slammed into the ground.
Since the 10th Iteration was not a playthrough cycle specialized in anti-personnel combat, he couldn't properly react to Lee Ha-yul's speed.
- GRRRRRK!
But that didn't mean he had no means of response.
From the unburned blood sea, from the 10th Iteration whose head was planted in the ground, countless thorns erupted.
Even Lee Ha-yul couldn't ignore these particular thorns. I dodged the thorns and urgently flew into the sky.
- SHAK!
I grazed them slightly. Just that, and pitch-black, dead blood vessels surfaced on my skin, and blood flowed from my eyes.
True Blood Expansion Ability
Hemolysis
A deadly poison that acts on the blood that has achieved expansion ability.
Lee Ha-yul frowned and triggered the Calamity Flame. The Calamity Flame circulated through my body, searing the poison and the flesh that had been steeped in it.
A sharp pain surged. It wasn't just because of what I'd just done.
A scream was torn from my body. My body, which had been pushed past its limits, was frantically blaring red alert signals for the first time in a long time.
'Is there an opening to land Three Ends?'
I ignored it. The warnings were only natural. Instead, I lunged at the Tower Master of Purgatory, who was trying to slip away in the opening.
From behind, a tidal wave of thorns poured down. The surging Calamity Flame and the lightning bolts erupting from the ground blocked the thorns aimed at Lee Ha-yul and burned the blood sea.
'Three Ends is hard to use.'
Three Ends has a long and noisy wind-up. There was no way the 10th Iteration and the Tower Master of Purgatory would wait for that moment.
Even if I managed to complete the charge, it was difficult to land it accurately.
I wasn't yet proficient with Three Ends. It was a technique suited for large, stupid, and relatively slow targets like the Twin-headed Poison Dragon.
But its instantaneous output was unmatched. If I saw an opportunity, I would drive it in for sure, even if my arm burst apart.
'Resolve.'
If it were absolutely impossible, running away would be the right choice. But it was possible. Slim and dangerous, but possible.
So I drive my head in. That's how it was in Sipnaha and in China.
If I were to back down once, offering excuses, it felt like my weak self would never be able to rise again.
So I force myself forward. Even if my finally healed arm burns away, even if I have to give up a leg this time, even if the lifespan of my body is shaved off.
Lee Ha-yul steeled his resolve once more.
- Ding! Ding! Ding!
'?'
Then it happened. A cheerful ringing sound exploded in my head. It was a notification that had been silent for a while... no, for quite a long time.
At the same time.
A line was drawn in the sky. Lines, as if cut by a knife, were drawn left, right, up, and down, forming a square.
'Huh?'
That description was wrong. What was cut was not the sky, but space itself. The severed space crumbled, and from within, flames poured out.
At the strangely familiar flames, Lee Ha-yul's mouth fell open.
Someone pushed through the fire that churned inside as if searching, and suddenly descended.
A red-haired figure landed— tak— on the spot where the blood sea had evaporated.
A solidly built frame, hair and eyes as fierce as a blaze.
The crimson blade of the Beacon Fire Sword, gripped firmly in hand.
[Father-in-l— Bub]
It was Hong Yeon-hwa's father. The man who was simultaneously the current head of the Calamity Flame Family, Hong Jin-seon.
"......"
Having appeared out of nowhere, Hong Jin-seon scanned his surroundings and furrowed his brow.
The first things to enter his sight were the younger brother he had been searching so desperately for, and a strange man standing in a sea of blood.
Next was... Lee Ha-yul, enveloped in an extremely violent Calamity Flame.
"You are..."
Hong Jin-seon's usually impassive eyes widened.
"...Son-in-law?"
[Yes, uh— what?]
At the sudden, shocking form of address, Lee Ha-yul, who had been sweating coldly amidst the sharp pain, made a dumbfounded expression.
Two people, meeting in a place that was shabby to the point of being filthy.
They were equally bewildered, but there was no time to leisurely catch up.
Both hardened their expressions and turned simultaneously. Lee Ha-yul unleashed Calamity Flame from his right arm, and Hong Jin-seon swung the Beacon Fire Sword.
WHOOOSH! The wave of thorns crumbled in the Calamity Flame, and the Hellfire sword that had been aiming for Hong Jin-seon's neck was deflected.
Having deflected the attack, Hong Jin-seon nodded.
"Son-in-law, though it's our first meeting, it seems we have no time for a leisurely chat."
[...Yes, yes]
"Do you have business with that one over there, who's uglier than my son-in-law?"
Hong Jin-seon asked, raising the Beacon Fire Sword. Though he had only glanced for a brief moment, the one standing in the sea of blood had a similar face to his pretty son-in-law, the one who was prettier than his own daughter.
[...Yes]
"Then go take care of your business. I also have a score to settle with that worthless wretch and the parasite that's crawled inside him."
[Well, but...]
"Don't worry too much."
Calamity Flame, abundantly gathered in the Beacon Fire Sword, slowly began to radiate outwards.
"I may not look it, but I am the head of the Calamity Flame. I won't be knocked around absurdly, so you can trust me."
His tone was calm. At the confidence and certainty contained within, Lee Ha-yul was caught in a moment of conflict.
[...Yes, thank you]
"There's nothing to thank me for."
In the end, I nodded. Partly because Hong Jin-seon's abilities, as observed through Observation, supported it, and partly because handling both of them simultaneously was indeed too much.
[I'll finish quickly and come back to help]
"Take your time."
Lee Ha-yul shook out his right arm, which felt like it was burning to ash, and turned away.
.
.
.
It was a truly sudden situation.
He had merely been touring dungeons across the world searching for Hong Yeon-jun, when the floor suddenly split and he fell into some strange place.
Thinking it might be a trap, he found inside a bizarre man spewing blood and a woman wielding terrifying lightning fighting each other.
And there was his younger brother, whom he had been searching for so long, and his son-in-law, whom he had never even properly seen the face of.
He didn't know the circumstances, but it wasn't a loss.
Hong Jin-seon checked his physical condition as he walked forward.
『You're a spoiled one, aren't you.』
A foreign voice came from ahead. Hong Jin-seon raised his Beacon Fire Sword and asked.
"So an even more rotten parasite has crawled into the worthless one."
『Oh? Can you even tell the difference?』
"No matter how worthless he is, he's family. We have abilities that a parasite like you wouldn't understand."
The Tower Master of Purgatory raised the corner of his mouth. Whether by instinct or something else, Hong Jin-seon seemed certain it wasn't Hong Yeon-jun.
『Right. I'm putting this body to good use. Well, if I'd known a better vessel would be born so soon, I might have waited a bit longer.』
The Tower Master of Purgatory's muttered words sounded almost like a lament. At that, a very faint relief crossed Hong Jin-seon's expression.
The Tower Master of Purgatory, having caught that, tilted his head.
『What is it? Relief? Reassurance? I don't know why you're making that face.』
The face that had briefly shown emotion hardened again. Hong Jin-seon fiercely gripped the Beacon Fire Sword and raised his mana.
"Though the capital crime is not erased, I merely thought that the worthless one had gained a small excuse."
『A capital crime, you say? How can that be a crime? It was simply a case of the strong crushing and consuming the weak.』
"That's why you are a parasite. You bug-like thing with no loyalty or duty. Not only my brother's body, but you even dared to burn my son-in-law's arm?"
Calamity Flame rippled over Hong Jin-seon's body.
* * *
[The Tower Master of Space manifests the Authority ｢Space｣]
[Using Points]