Diversion (2)
Diversion (2)
The Incarnation Art is an exceptionally difficult technique. In particular, the variant Lee Ha-yul added to it is, at least outwardly, impossible to tell apart.
"This doesn't seem like a unique ability. Is it magic?"
"Mmph, mm-muh..."
...That belief looked about to shatter. Both cheeks kneaded like dough, Lee Ha-yul's lips puffed out.
"How'd... you know...?"
"Mmm... just because?"
Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been squishing Lee Ha-yul's cheeks like rice cakes as he sat in front of her, shrugged her shoulders.
"I looked, and I just got the feeling, you know?"
"That's right. The appearance, the impression, everything's exactly the same. But my instincts just said, this is different from Ha-yul... that's what I felt."
Baek A-rin and Ellia, seated beside her, chimed in the same way. Surrounded by the three of them, Lee Ha-yul tilted his head with an odd expression.
Inside the tent.
The tent the four of them used for sleeping. The moment he'd been found out as a doppelganger, he'd been dragged straight inside...
"This addictive texture is exactly the same, though."
Tilting her own head, Hong Yeon-hwa fiddled with Lee Ha-yul's hair.
Hair as pure white as the first snow of a new year, softer and silkier than any substance she had ever touched in her life. Burying her nose into it, Hong Yeon-hwa narrowed her eyes.
"Sniiiff... the smell's the same, too. Mmm... or is it? Maybe this one's a little fainter...?"
"It's hard to distinguish, but it definitely seems lighter."
"At least externally, nothing's changed, has it?"
The three of them touched, poked, and even sniffed Lee Ha-yul, but apart from instinct, they sensed no differences.
There was no reason they would.
Analyzed with Observation, stored in Knowledge, then created by Lee Ha-yul pouring every ounce of his imitation ability into it and applying a variant—that was this doppelganger.
Maybe not on the inside, but to the naked eye from the outside, there wasn't a shred of difference...
"Doppe... it's a doppelganger..."
And yet they'd seen through it instantly. Cheeks squished, mouth protruding like an octopus, Lee Ha-yul flapped his lips and explained the doppelganger.
"A doppelganger... But Ha-yul, to my eye, there really doesn't seem to be any difference?"
Baek A-rin swept her gaze over Lee Ha-yul's whole body.
Her blue eyes shimmered, brimming with mana. She was meticulously examining him with care, yet she found it hard to detect the incongruity of a doppelganger.
[I said doppelganger,]
"Pfft."
[But you could actually call it a puppet.]
"Puff-fmmp..."
The source record of the Incarnation Art tends more toward manifestation than duplication. The method is to enter an already-existing vessel and act through it.
But Lee Ha-yul had no desire to operate that way. So he modified it, creating a separate vessel and inserting his consciousness.
The result was the current Incarnation Art.
His consciousness isn't split. It's exactly like making a puppet, connecting his senses, and manipulating two bodies at once.
That was why, when the doppelganger's cheeks were touched, the main body's face went all squishy.
"So?"
She pulled the gradually melting Lee Ha-yul into her embrace. Lee Ha-yul's head, buried against her ample chest, poked up just a little.
Their eyes met. Either way, this doppelganger was Lee Ha-yul, and as such, it was included within the scope of the curses.
"Where's the real one?"
Hong Yeon-hwa asked, gently stroking his back. Lee Ha-yul, held in her arms, twitched.
"Yesterday, the reconnaissance team got extra deployments, right? And Sierra even joined them in person..."
It was a personnel selection that ordinarily would have been impossible. On a frontline perpetually short on manpower, a top-tier asset like Sierra couldn't afford to be pulled away.
But the current frontline had a fair amount of breathing room. Thanks to the cadets—thanks to Lee Ha-yul joining.
In particular, thanks to the immense contributions Lee Ha-yul had made to frontline stabilization through magic and Taesan, Sierra had been able to leave her post.
"The real one—did he maybe follow along there?"
"......"
"Without a word? Deceiving us with a doppelganger?"
"Ho-hold on..."
At Hong Yeon-hwa's head slowly tilting, Lee Ha-yul, cradled in her arms, waved his hands frantically.
"There was a plan... a plan. We just set it with Sierra last night, and everyone was resting, so I was going to tell you today..."
"Hmmm... really?"
Hong Yeon-hwa nodded her head, but the gesture didn't convey much trust. Behind her, Baek A-rin and Ellia's gazes were also half-lidded with skepticism.
"I-I'll explain... once you hear it all, you'll understand..."
Shrinking his shoulders, Lee Ha-yul explained the plan.
.
.
.
Over the past few days.
The mood of the battlefield had shifted. On the faces of the superhumans who had been charged with fairly high morale recently, a tight tension once again hung heavy.
It was because of the reconnaissance intel that had come through.
- Four large monster clusters discovered within the danger zone. All exhibit movement that appears controlled under a single directive.
The existence of a powerful command entity is presumed.
Many felt a sharp wariness at that final paragraph.
A command entity.
It might be a monster whose ability relates to command, or simply an entity that controls lesser monsters because it is so powerful, its rank so high.
This was a demon realm where the monsters were already viciously strong. The fact that it was a monster capable of dominating other monsters in such a demon realm meant wariness was unavoidable.
- We will increase the weight of the reconnaissance teams.
In response, Sierra had immediately reinforced the scouting unit. On top of that, she had personally joined the reconnaissance team.
There were concerns, but no one fiercely dissuaded her.
With the existence of a powerful command entity presumed, everyone agreed that the reconnaissance team needed a capable expert.
By coincidence, the frontline's situation and manpower were also in a stable state.
Thanks to that, Sierra had crossed the barrier wall yesterday and entered the interior of the demon realm.
"Hoooh..."
All across the battlefield, superhumans with hardened faces were busy checking their gear and confirming their condition, showing a conspicuous air of haste.
"Wonder if there's really a big one in there..."
"Seems likely. The monsters keep increasing these days. If it weren't for the Tower's support, we probably would've been half-wrecked."
"The fuck are you yapping such bad omens for."
"'The fuck'? That was definitely a curse word, right? Why are you giving me that bullshit."
"Now he catches on. Tsk..."
The man with a cigarette in his mouth crumpled his face, creased with scars.
The battlefield was steeped in tension, but during the lulls with no monster attacks, there was leeway enough to light up a cigarette.
"When's it gonna blow next..."
- Damian Creed here! A monster horde is approaching the front line. Deployed superhumans, prepare for battle!
"Blowing right now, this dogshit."
At the mind speech suddenly ringing in his head, the man burst into laughter.
He gathered the equipment beside him with his comrades and moved out at once.
An attack by the monster presumed to be a command entity.
It was a frightening prospect, but he hadn't thought it would suddenly drop from the sky.
Monsters possess a presence commensurate to their rank. A high-rank monster makes your head ring and your limbs tremble uncontrollably just from gazing upon it from afar.
He'd experienced it firsthand. He knew it was impossible not to notice such an overwhelming presence approaching.
No matter if you had a specialized ability for concealing your presence, you couldn't hide a presence like that.
If Sierra and the reconnaissance team sensed that presence, they wouldn't push it; they'd confirm its existence and location, then return.
"Uh."
So maybe he had let his guard down, ever so slightly.
But he hadn't relaxed his tension. Every head on the front line snapped toward one spot.
Not somewhere far off.
The cigarette dropped from his gaping mouth.
The ground was dark, cast with shadow. Everywhere around was the same. Though lights were embedded here and there, darkness had fallen.
Right before the barrier wall. Beyond the barrier, a long and thick shadow rose up.
- Groooan...
Rising up from within the shadow, the Giant opened its eyes. A black colossal body. Over ten pairs of blood-red eyes rolled heavily.
Only then did its presence surge outward in all directions. With a force that made you wonder why you hadn't felt it sooner, the electric lights flickered.
The Giant, looking as if it had truly dropped from the sky or sprouted from the ground, extended its hand.
The Giant, unbefitting its colossal frame, was well accustomed to ambushes.
Its ability to manipulate shadows and darkness killed its presence and effectively aided its surprise attacks.
Now, too, it was the same. A cluster of tiny humans gathered in one place. If it appeared right before their noses and brought its fist down, it could easily kill them.
- Crunch...
There was an obstacle in between. A resistance blocking its approach. The barrier that had held off the attacks of countless monsters until now.
To the Giant, it was not such a sturdy membrane. Its massive hand covered part of the barrier and curled its fingers.
- Kkuuooouk...
Just as it drove its fingers into the Barrier and prepared to crush it, the Giant's eyes swiveled in unison.
Among the tiny humans scrambling in alarm, one especially pale, beautiful human leveled a staff at it.
Magic.
The Giant did not know him well, but it was not ignorant.
That clumsy art of weaving mana—unfamiliar to monsters who overwhelm with primal bulk and ability, yet it had tasted its share while devouring humans.
The resistance currently shrouding this adult body was magic, and it had seen that pestering little magic, too.
It was not threatening. Even a unique ability could be overrun with sheer mass, so a crude imitation of one could never pose a threat.
- Boom!
Over a dozen eyes flew wide.
A pitch-black spear, as enormous as the Giant itself, had buried itself in its chest.
The direct hit left no wound—it was not a dangerous attack. Yet the Giant was stunned by the simple fact that its body had been pushed back.
Its legs gouged the earth as they skidded. The hand that had been about to crush the Barrier closed on empty air.
- Fwoosh!
Before the startled Giant's eyes, a tiny spark flared. It bounded up from inside the Barrier and drew close.
The spark and the human wreathed in it were minuscule compared to the Giant. Hong Yeon-hwa drew back the sword honed from the Winged Garment.
Surprise faded. Danger surfaced. Obeying instinct, the Giant immediately raised an arm. Krrrr! Darkness spilled from it at the same moment.
"Die, you fuck!"
With that battle cry, the spark detonated. A flaming slash tore through the darkness and carved into the forearm.
- Guuuuooouk...!
Pssshhh! Black blood burst from the forearm. Fwooor! Calamity Flame crawled up the blood and spread into the wound.
Shrieking in agony, the Giant swung its other hand.
- Kugugung!
The swing never reached. A hand burst from the ground beneath it and yanked the Giant's ankle.
'Terramor.'
- Yes!
Terramor answered Lee Ha-yul's will-thought.
Hwaaak! The Winged Garment unfolded into three pairs of wings. The moment the Five-colored Wings shone dark brown, an enormous stone figure heaved itself up from the earth.
It was Terramor, assimilated with the ground.
The enraged Giant swung. Slam! A single punch shattered much of the stone body—and in an instant, the damage filled back in.
Without so much as a flinch, Terramor rammed into the Giant and latched on tenaciously.
- Kuuuuuuuu...!
The Giant roared. If it put its strength into it, it could smash mere rock like this in moments. It raised its left fist and drove it down.
- Crrrack...!
Thoom! The blow landed, but it did not shatter the stone entirely. Fury blazed in the Giant's eyes.
The left hand that struck the stone was frozen solid. Encroaching cold energy burrowed into its flesh and blocked the darkness.
Pak-pak-pak! Tiny pains pricked across its left side. Ice awls, driven one after another into its flank like skewers, linked into chains that bound its movements.
Fwooor! Heat prickled along its right side. It was Hong Yeon-hwa, who had dodged away from an attack and now rushed back in with Calamity Flame blazing.
- Grrrrrrk...!
The Giant's face contorted. Its many eyes opened with murderous intent. They had come in too deep. That meant it had to pull back.
Decision became action at once. Darkness churned and gushed from the Giant's entire body.
Alarmed by the ominous surge, Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been charging in, and Baek A-rin, who had been watching for an opening nearby, both withdrew behind the Barrier.
Terramor abandoned its assimilated stone figure and returned to me for the moment.
That was the right call.
The darkness devoured the Calamity Flame. It devoured the Azure Sea's ice, too. Even the stone Terramor had left behind was swallowed and erased.
'An attribute-type.'
And one with absurdly high output to match its rank.
Even a rough comparison placed it at 3rd-Rank Alpha—on par with the intact Twin-headed Poison Dragon. Its strength was only natural.
A brief lull. After observing the darkness pouring from the Giant, Lee Ha-yul nodded and steadied his grip on Jeonghwa.
Jeonghwa was a magic staff, but its functions went beyond those of an ordinary staff.
The crystal orb at its tip—the core of Jeonghwa—performed the tasks of absorption and release.
- Wooooong!
The crystal orb rang with a deep resonance, spat light, and in the next instant, a pure-white spear blade and crescent blade shot forth.
It was the unicorn horn he had stored separately. Lee Ha-yul reversed his grip on the spear, twisted his body, and activated the circuit embodied in his doppelganger.
A pure-white circuit surged from the back of his right shoulder.
Unique Magic Path: Foolish Straight Twin Wheels.
Ordinarily, a mere doppelganger should not be able to reproduce this, but a doppelganger created on the premise of using Unique Magic Path could of course use it.
In forward transmission, Foolish Straight Twin Wheels altered its circuit into a magic formula to manifest spells automatically.
Its more primal reversal, however, simply twisted the circuits in succession and poured out high-output mana amplified by the recoil.
Crrrack! A pure-white circuit blazed up along his right arm, mana scattering from it like sparks.
A doppelganger whose physical abilities were extremely diminished—he compensated for that, only for an instant, through reversal.
He didn't stop there. A golden light spread across the pure-white spear blade.
White Night.
The darkness recoiled sharply under hundreds of rays of light. The moment the Giant frantically rallied its darkness against that deadly output, Lee Ha-yul launched the spear.
A golden flash tore through the darkness, and once again, the spear drove into its chest.
- Kraaaaaaaah—!
This time, being shoved backward was not the end of it.
The Giant let out a pain-wracked scream.
.
.
.
The Giant was a beast, but it understood recklessness. It knew that while humans were weak, there existed vexingly strong ones.
None of the minions it had sent to scout had returned. Driven by hunger and instinct, it had launched an attack anyway, but it had not committed its true body.
It had first sent a doppelganger that expended a large share of its power.
Some distance away, the Giant, melted into the shadows, narrowed its blood-red eyes.
The tiny humans were stronger than expected.
Especially the one who used fire.
The fire was powerful—too powerful.
It even burned the Giant's darkness, which had never before been overwhelmed. Once it pierced through the darkness and clung to its body, the damage was enormous.
The human who wielded ice.
Equally strong. But instead of charging in like a mad dog, this one probed and tore at it from every direction, making it a nuisance.
The rock giant that had suddenly erupted from the ground.
It had decent strength, and if left alone, it would be a hindrance. Yet no matter how many times it was smashed, it kept reappearing, and for some reason it resisted being consumed.
...And the pale, beautiful human.
Greed and wariness surfaced together in the Giant's eyes.
It wanted him. It wanted to devour him. That aside, it recognized the danger.
Even setting aside the tricks that had just driven it back, an instinctive unease prickled at it. That human surely possessed abilities the Giant did not yet know.
The Giant was not simply stupid.
Even if its true body joined the battle now, it could not guarantee victory. And even if it won, it could not know what consequences the wounds it took would bring.
It had invested much of its power in the doppelganger, but retreat was the right choice for this hunt.
- Grrruk...?
The Giant, having judged the situation and begun to move, flinched to a halt.
Above the shadow, in the sky, a presence materialized without warning. Truly without warning—no portent at all. That presence dropped toward the shadow.
"Huuuh..."
Her hair streamed in the wind. Sierra, gripping her sword, stared down.
It looked like ordinary dead Demon Realm ground, but Sierra's eyes perceived a space layered atop it.
And inside that space, a monster. A memory of the future. The gods-damned monster that had slaughtered her comrades...
Jaw clenched tight, Sierra swung her sword with all her strength.
- Shhk
A blood-red slash plunged down and cleaved the earth apart. The shadow layered beneath it split open, its entrance gaping wide.
- Geurrrrk?!
Before the panicked Giant could rise, another presence dropped through the opening.
Homogenization - Taesan
Pseudo Mountain-Breaking
Kwaaaang! A fist, condensed with vital energy, slammed down onto the crown of the Giant's head.
- Grrruuuuooooouk—?!
Pain hammered into both the doppelganger and the true body at once, and the Giant screamed.