I'm a Swede, a Chinese, a Korean, a Modern Person, and a Witch (2)
The sand demon’s rage shook the entire chamber. 「You bitch...!」
The whole temple floor began to writhe as if it were alive. The remaining sand soldiers melted on the spot and merged with the temple’s sandy base. The floor surged forward like a massive wave and seized Thirin by the ankles. A quicksand trap.
“......”
Thirin looked down at the sand now swallowing her up to her calves. With her feet bound, there was nowhere for her to run.
“Not bad. You’re pretty smart, Sand Demon. Real fucking smart. A learning enemy? Smarter than generative AI. But still...”
Thirin flashed a sly grin.
“If there’s no ground, I’ll just make some.”
Instead of swinging her sword, she channeled the flames from her dantian down to her feet. The blazing fire flowed from her toes and bloomed like crimson plum blossoms. Carrying the flames with her, Thirin stepped onto the flowing sand.
Infusing the principle of Flow with the mystery of Samadhi True Fire, each step opens a new path.
Wherever her foot falls, the flames melt the sand into black glass.
These are the footprints of plum blossoms blooming upon a flowing desert—shadows that can never be erased.
Every place Thirin’s feet touched, red flames melted the sand into glossy black glass. The sand could no longer restrain her. The sandy chains flailed uselessly through empty air, never reaching her toes.
Thirin cackled. “I’m thinking of calling this the Semiconductor Rise Step. I got the idea from melting sand to make semiconductors.”
Judging the world through a self-centered lens, Thirin could indeed be considered Chinese. Therefore, she could use Chinese martial arts. And so, Plum Blossom Falling Shadow became the Semiconductor Rise Step. It was a horrifying name that would make the Huashan Sect form an alliance with the Demonic Cult just to issue a kill order.
「You lowly wench...!」
The sand demon’s fury reached its peak. The entire temple shook as a massive sandstorm whipped up. Visibility was completely cut off. Razor-sharp glass shards mixed with the sand poured down like rain. Several fragments left shallow cuts across Thirin’s body.
Even with her eyes open, all she could see was thick clouds of sand. So Thirin closed them. If external senses were useless, she would simply focus on the flame within.
She gripped her sword in reverse and pointed the tip at the ground. Gathering every last spark of Samadhi True Fire at the blade’s end, she poured the principle of Rigidity into it. Then she drove the sword straight into the earth.
—BOOM!
Infusing the principle of Rigidity with the mystery of Samadhi True Fire, rage shakes the earth.
When the sword is driven down, the fire dragon sleeping deep underground awakens.
It is the dragon’s fang that burns all things, the crimson blaze that engulfs the world.
—KWAaaaaaaa—!
Centered on the sword Thirin had planted, a wave of flame exploded outward. Every grain of sand the inferno swept across melted instantly, transforming the floor into a vast expanse of black glass. The sandstorm lost its source and collapsed helplessly.
Thirin laughed toward the empty air. “I’ll call this the Fine Dust Blocking Wave.”
Though Thirin possessed many identities, her roots lay on the Korean Peninsula. With her strong sense of patriotism, she had created a groundbreaking martial art to prevent yellow dust damage. Thus, Dragon Fang Flame became the Fine Dust Blocking Wave. It was a terrible name that would make the Beggar Sect join hands with the Demonic Cult to start a full-scale war.
Shhhhhhhhh...
Finally, the dust from the Fine Dust Blocking Wave settled, revealing the altar chamber once more. The entire temple floor was now covered in black glass. No more sand soldiers appeared.
“I got him—!”
Thirin started to speak but froze mid-sentence. It was too late. The moment she uttered that classic cliché, the future was set in stone.
—RUMBLE!
The sand demon stopped playing petty tricks. All the remaining sand in the chamber rushed toward the center of the altar. It swirled upward, rising into a colossal human shape that nearly touched the ceiling.
“......Wait, a third phase? Isn’t that a bit fucking much?”
Thirin tensed up. But the colossus no longer tried to attack her directly. She felt a strange sense of dissonance. Her sharp eyes caught something—a faint glow near the center of the giant’s forehead.
Thirin shut her mouth. This was an important discovery. She had thought the sand demon’s endless use of divine power meant it had infinite energy, but that wasn’t the case. Embedded in its forehead was a sand bottle—the same divine artifact she had taken from the werewolf. It had only revealed it now that its true body had appeared. Had Thirin’s eyesight not been so keen, she would never have noticed.
‘So that’s the weak point, huh?’
Understanding of others has increased!
Raise your comprehension to obtain Enlightenment!
Thirin smiled brightly. Hiding its weakness until the very last moment—the sand demon really was an incredibly cunning bastard. But being cunning also meant it was pathetic. A true powerhouse walking the path of tyranny had no need to scheme so craftily.
‘All that pompous posturing, and you’re just a fucking idiot.’
A voice far deeper and more overwhelming than before echoed from the hollow center of the sand giant’s face.
「Wench. Your blasphemous little games end here.」
‘The idiot’s still trying to look cool until the end.’
That was what Thirin thought, but she kept her expression stony. There was no need to let it know she had found its weakness.
While she was pondering how to close the distance, a wall of sand erupted from the ground and trapped her inside. The creature had feinted until the very end. What a truly annoying bastard.
Everything turned pitch black. A giant sand prison. No—it was no longer sand. The walls hardened in an instant into one massive, translucent quartz crystal.
Thirin was momentarily stunned by the bizarre sight, but she quickly understood what had happened. The demon had reversed the time of the sand it had used.
‘What an incredible guy.’
Thirin was both impressed and mocking. “They say everything eventually turns back to sand in the end, yet this arrogant prick’s final move is turning back into rock? Giving up your identity just because you got cursed out a little? What a pathetic god.”
There was no reply. But Thirin had the distinct feeling that somewhere, the creature was grinding its teeth.
A brief ceasefire. Thirin took a moment to catch her breath. Even without looking inward, she could feel that her flames had shrunk dramatically. Samadhi True Fire consumed a terrifying amount of energy.
“Hmm...”
She tapped the wall a few times. It would be nice if she could melt her way out, but the previous area-of-effect attack had drained most of her internal energy. And she had no idea how to replenish it.
Thirin fell into thought. ‘What if I’m trapped here forever? I hate being hungry. Will the flames recover? What if they don’t? Will that damn stick come back to rescue me?’
All sorts of random thoughts cluttered her mind.
“......”
Thirin closed her eyes. ‘One thing at a time. Slowly. No need to rush.’
Darkness was familiar to her. She had always concentrated in the dark. When she opened her eyes again—
‘The direction should be...’
She roughly estimated the position of the sand giant’s head.
‘Found it.’
Even though she was in darkness and the target lay beyond translucent quartz, her sharp senses still managed to pinpoint the direction. She reached out and flicked the hardened wall with her finger.
Tong.
There was a spot where the sound was slightly different. Her keen senses didn’t miss it. Thirin smiled.
She was a modern person. And among the videos she had watched, there were quite a few fascinating ones.
‘Right, what was it again?’
A transparent gelatin mass with a marble trapped inside. She recalled the narrator’s line.
‘The small glass bead inside this jelly acts like a foreign substance embedded in a metal mass.’
‘It may look fine on the outside, but when impact is applied… (slow-motion footage inserted) stress concentrates and it breaks from the inside.’
‘Treatments that destroy cancer cells use this principle!’
‘When a foreign object is trapped in a uniform medium, the foreign object suffers greater damage when a shockwave is applied to the medium.’
The precise term was impedance mismatch. Of course, Thirin didn’t know the actual word. But not knowing the word didn’t mean she couldn’t use the principle. Her knowledge was shallow, but her intelligence was not.
‘In that case...’
Thirin smiled and adjusted her grip on the sword. She gathered every last scrap of flame remaining in her dantian. Then she thrust her blade toward the weakest point in the wall—the exact spot where the sand bottle was embedded.
—Clang!
She began striking the pommel of the sword repeatedly with her other hand.
—Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
At regular intervals, with precise force, like striking a tuning fork. The tiny vibrations transmitted through the sword turned the entire quartz prison into one massive resonance chamber.
Crack… crackle…
Finally, spiderweb cracks began to spread across the wall. And from the center of those cracks—right where the sand bottle was buried—
—KWA-JAJAJAJANG!
The giant quartz prison exploded from the inside out.
Watching the shattering crystal, Thirin nodded in satisfaction.
“Of course the Winter Kingdom would shatter when it meets the Witch of Fire.”
Thirin was truly the destroyer of both winter hearts and childish innocence.