Ca...pture
Ca...pture
Spirits are a race far removed from death.
As spiritual lifeforms, spirits do not suffer the aging of a physical body.
Unlike other living creatures, they are a long-lived species, relatively free from the constraints of a lifespan.
The same is true of being killed.
A spirit merely dematerializes under ordinary harm. Given time, it recovers on its own and can rematerialize.
- Boom—! Boom! Craaash—!
- ......
That is the ordinary case.
They are relatively free from death, but they do have a spiritual lifespan, and harm beyond the ordinary damages the soul.
Spirits are far from death.
Not completely removed from it.
- Kwagagak—! Boom! Kurukung—!
The Alpha of this dungeon, an Earth Spirit, was feeling the terror of death drawing unmistakably close.
This was not intuition. She perceived an existence closing the distance at brutal speed.
A hulking frame wreathed in earth, and three pairs of dark-brown wings spread behind it.
With a single bound, the ground behind it was upended, while the earth ahead obediently split open to create a path.
Soldiers?
She had been sending them from the start, and she was still sending them. The soldiers under the dungeon's command did not obediently open a path.
- Kwuaaaang—!
The spirit's shoulders flinched at another eruption.
The soldiers who did not obediently move aside were simply forcibly demolished.
Most of them, a single punch. Any soldier directly struck by that mass of power was annihilated; those caught in the blast were torn apart beyond recognition.
Even the remaining soldiers were not enough. She had invested significant reserves to hastily draw and mobilize more soldiers, yet they could not even buy time.
The spirit glanced down at the floor. Despite her dominance taking effect, cracks were visible, unable to withstand the impacts.
- Urrgh...
The fear of death.
It is an emotion all living things inevitably feel. Even spirits, far from death, fear annihilation.
What was that monster's goal?
Likely, it intended to destroy the dungeon it had entered. In fact, it was charging in a straight line toward the core beside the spirit.
- Uh, urrgh...
She had to block it.
...Did she have to block it?
The spirit clutched her head, trembling, her body curling inward.
An outside entity. It had not been born from the dungeon and was not part of its forces.
Thus, the imposed duty could not help but be loose. As the terror of death rose and her clouded reason gradually reawakened, that middling duty wavered.
- Kukung!
The thunderous noise, now much closer, sent a surge of crisis through her. The dread of annihilation approached. It pressed her for a choice.
'I—I don't want to die...'
She did not want to throw her life away for some hazy duty.
Trembling, the spirit turned her body.
Crack! The earth behind her split open, revealing a passage. Wide enough to fly through with ease. If she distanced herself from the core, she would be safe for now.
Having opened the path, hesitation gripped her body, but an explosion nearby made her flinch and launch herself into the passage.
'If I put distance between us like this...'
Worried she might draw attention anyway, she sealed the passage behind her. Even if her presence had been felt, with the core directly ahead, there was no reason to pursue a spirit.
- ...?
The monster arrived near the core where the spirit had originally been. Now the monster would destroy the core, and the dungeon would collapse.
- Huh?
But it did not collapse. The core was intact. The monster had passed by the core without destroying it.
An entrance opened. It was the direction the spirit had fled.
- Huh? Huh...?
The monster leaped. The presence rapidly closed in. The earth she was sealing in real time quivered.
- Huh? But—but—why...?!
Why was it ignoring the core and coming this way? Before she could fully voice the question, her dominance was stripped away and the earth behind her split open.
Light fell into the dark passage. For the first time, the spirit confirmed the monster's appearance with her own eyes.
- ......
A terrifying titanic form of stone... did not register strongly. The spirit's gaze was locked onto the three pairs of wings glowing behind it.
[Hello?]
- Hhk!
At the sudden voice, the spirit flinched and pressed herself against the wall. Then, realizing the nature of the sound, she tilted her head.
A voice... no, it was different. A resonance imbued with emotion and intent. It resembled a spirit's thought-will.
There was not a trace of malice. At that, a little of the tension eased.
[Um, if—]
- Do not come closer.
She violently clamped down on the tension that had been about to loosen. The spirit shut her mouth and raised a hand. Kugukung! Spikes jutted from the wall she leaned against.
- I—I d-do not wish to talk with you...
[I didn't—]
- I said no. Whatever it is, no. I will not talk. I will not hear your demands or your terms.
How could the tension possibly ease? When she had clearly perceived the trail of destruction all along? The spirit swallowed dryly, her eyes—by her own measure—sharp.
Especially those wings.
They keep fluttering of their own accord like a puppy's tail, sending out ripples, and if she lets her guard down, her mind and body feel like they might crumble...
Eeeerk! The spike warped. At the overt sign of imminent attack, Lee Ha-yul fidgeted with his hand.
'The repulsion is fierce...'
A spirit's body made of highly pure earth energy.
The long hair flowing down. The originally gentle eyes were sharply opened.
Though her body was filled with murky energy, she had a humanoid form, proving she had reached the upper rank.
As the appointed Alpha, it was natural for her to have a strong repulsion toward an intruder.
Considering she was aware of the power difference, she was actually on the restrained side.
So he had wondered if this might be resolved through conversation, but judging by that rigid attitude, it seemed not.
'But I can't just go back from here.'
Lee Ha-yul narrowed his brow.
The duty wrapped around the spirit. A power that constrained the spirit's actions and cognition. He knew a structure similar to that.
The constraints the Towers imposed on Tower Masters.
Between that spirit's condition and that, he could not simply return empty-handed. Having reached his decision, Lee Ha-yul took one step forward.
The spikes on the wall launched at him. Then the floor lurched and coiled around his ankles.
'Her dominance is strong. It really is different at close range.'
It was only natural that a dominance effect weakened with distance from the caster.
Earlier the distance had kept the dominance weak, but here, where the spirit's dominance fully reached, it was hard to completely block it.
'The dominance is weak...'
The spirit thought the opposite. Crrrck! As Lee Ha-yul stepped forward, the restraints twisting around his ankles snapped powerlessly.
The spikes tearing through the air halted mid-flight. The spirit, her face contorted, clenched her fist.
Boom! The spikes detonated, scattering shards. But even the shards were caught in the air, trembling.
'This...!'
In the end, the trembling stopped, and the shards pattered down onto the floor.
She was being overwhelmed in dominance. Drawing out a clash of strength was all she could manage. She could not even properly wield the very attribute she had created.
Every ability had its hierarchy, but that was especially severe with attribute abilities.
The spirit gritted her teeth and desperately threw her hands out.
Whatever means her dominance could reach, she mobilized them all. She fabricated weapons to thrust, slash, smash, and shut the passage to crush him.
'How can...'
Not a single attack landed properly.
Even at this close range. Lee Ha-yul, who had nullified every attack, approached with heavy footsteps.
The spirit felt terror, and at the same time, a question.
Memories of the past are faint. Faint, but it meant that the memory and sensation of handling the earth remained.
She had not been this powerless in the past. A spirit who had reached the upper echelons—the ability she wielded when she was high among those upper ranks was not merely this much.
So why was she so powerless? Even under the dungeon's correction, how...
'The dungeon... but come to think of it, why was I here? I don't know. How did I end up here? In the first place, why am I underground like this?'
What was this fight? Why was she fighting so crudely? Where had she left her elementalization? Wasn't it possible to assimilate with the earth, hide her body, and directly extend her dominance?
Questions that had not surfaced with her earlier muddled reason.
A thin strand of reason, returning in the face of death, asked these questions offhandedly.
[Got you.]
- ...Urgh...?!
And so she failed to perceive the hand that had come right before her face.
Crush! A gigantic stone hand seized her body. Eyes bulging, the spirit twisted.
- Let... go of me...!
Crrrunch! For an instant, the spirit's force surged. Earth was fundamentally a symbol of strength. She had drawn up power her hazy reason had been unable to assume.
- Urgh, urrrgh...!
Even so, she could not break free. The spirit's eyes trembled at the hand that did not even budge.
Now that she looked, it was not simply gripping her. It was holding her directly—fiercely, yet... gently?—and restraining her actions with earth manipulation.
She was completely caught. Neutralized. In that moment, the other stone hand approached the spirit's head.
The hand was enormous—it could cover the spirit's head like an apple, could pop it. As a spirit body, would its nature truly protect her from that hand?
- Ah, aah...!
Having imagined death, the spirit's body shook. She resisted desperately, but she simply could not escape the grip.
- N-no, uh...!
This was not the life she had clung to just to meet such a death. She had not survived that place for this. She had not clung to existence so pathetically...
- Thk.
A hand rested on her head. She squeezed her eyes shut at the surging terror—then blinked.
The hand was small. It was not hard, but soft. Cautiously, she raised her blinking eyes.
The stone hand had split to the left and right. A small, white hand had emerged from within and come to rest on her head.
[Just wait quietly for a moment.]
- Hwareureuk...
An orange flame bloomed faintly. Though fire was a symbol of destruction, what it conveyed was not destruction but warmth.
- Wooouuuung...!
The duty that had clung to the spirit's head ignited.
The surrounding earth shook as if from an earthquake.
Snap! In time, the duty was severed. It had cut its own tail before being burned to the root.
- ...Ah?
Wearing a dazed expression at the sudden situation, the spirit opened her mouth.
Power was draining away, but her head instead grew clearer. As her narrowed vision widened, her gaze was suddenly drawn to the wings fluttering behind Lee Ha-yul.
She could feel a multitude of kin of the same attribute. All of them were sending her welcoming thought-will, as if waving a hand.
The spirit blinked.
Those wings, originally, would shine beautifully in five colors.
They would be gentle wings where spirits of five attributes come and go like their own home, where they could rest comfortably, and which would also embrace spirits of yet other attributes.
The three pairs of wings she knew were like that.
'...Know? What do I know...'
[Hmm... First, with mana...]
Lee Ha-yul, who had been observing the dungeon's aura with a displeased expression, lowered the hand he had placed on the spirit's head.
Fingertips brushed down her face. From their ends, pure white mana flowed out and seeped into the spirit.
- ...Hik?
The tips of the spirit's toes quivered as she felt her reason gradually returning.
The spirit's eyes flew wide open.
Pure mana absorbed into her body. Though spirits possess an energy of high purity, so close to nature, this was on a different level entirely.
It was not just close to nature—it was purity itself.
To a spirit, purity of this caliber was a treasure far surpassing the finest elixirs for a human.
- Uh, ah, huh? W-wait. This is strange...
And to an earth spirit who was already polluted and damaged, it approached as something even beyond that.
Her body trembled as if electrified, and the dark turbidity scattered.
It was clearly a good phenomenon.
- H-hi-hik!? U-urk...
[...?]
But the change was too dramatic, too sudden.
The heavy turbidity that had saturated her scattered at a mere few drops of mana that touched her face.
Accompanying it was an indescribable sensation.
Toes that poked out of the hand's grip wriggled as if convulsing.
[Uh, huh?]
[I'm purifying it really slowly, though...?]
At the reaction, far more violent than expected, Lee Ha-yul blinked.
* * *
"Pfft, sweetie? Does it feel that nice?"
Liana, who had been tilting her head with an odd expression, burst out laughing.
Lee Ha-yul was held snugly in her arms, being soothed. The wings that had sprouted from his back were fluttering especially actively today.
"...It's the spirit I acquired this time, moving on her own. It's not intentional."
"Oh, good heavens. Tsk. You shouldn't push the blame onto others, you know."
"But I mean it..."
* * *
