Chapter 413: Human World [R-18] (51)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 413: Human World [R-18] (51)
After dodging Alexander's attack, we stood facing each other.
"Jin Seo-yun, how... did you know I was here?"
With my sword resting on my shoulder, I slowly raised the corners of my mouth.
"You were so obvious about it. Wouldn't I be an idiot not to notice?"
Alexander's eyebrow twitched. Killing intent flickered in his eyes. Sparks like lightning shot from the tip of his sword, and the surrounding air began to sizzle.
"So it's not even worth answering."
"What are you on about? And are you just going to stand there staring? Weren't you here to take my head?"
"...Don't worry. I'll take that head for you right now."
The moment he finished speaking—
—Craaaash!
The roof shattered. Alexander's sword strike tore through the air and ripped up the ground. Debris flew, and the entire building shook.
I raised Bi-yeon horizontally, meeting his strike head-on with the flat of my blade.
—Clang!
The force of his blow shot straight up my arm.
'Left, right, left again.'
His movements were rough and simple, but the energy behind them was genuine. Sudden changes in trajectory, intermittent spinning slashes. He'd try to overpower me, but the timing with which he'd twist his blade at the last second was a work of art.
—Shhhk!
Bi-yeon's blade deflected his strike, sending sparks flying through the air. I immediately kicked off the ground and dodged to the side, aiming for the opening.
'His swordsmanship... he's much more of a monster than I thought.'
I had the advantage in speed, but he had the upper hand in power.
Neither of us was fighting with our full strength.
"You think an attack that slow will hit me? Or are you already running out of steam?"
"...A pathetic taunt."
Alexander's eyes narrowed coldly. His lips were devoid of a smile, showing no trace of emotion whatsoever.
He slowly raised his sword above his head and took a step back. In that instant, the space around him distorted as if a great wave were rising.
A silence, like standing in the eye of a storm. But at its center, boiling ether churned violently.
"This was just a warm-up."
—Wooooong...
What rose from his blade was not mere ether. It was a golden aura. But mixed within it was a distinctly alien wavelength.
'Hey... there's something inside him.'
'Huh?'
'I can feel a strong life force. But it's not pure. It's... tainted.'
At her words, I narrowed my eyes. I twisted my body, lightly dodging an attack that appeared from behind me.
Seeing this, Alexander smiled faintly for the first time.
"You... you even have the ability to sense energy. So that's how you noticed me."
He slowly raised his sword until it was horizontal. The tip quivered almost imperceptibly as an invisible vibration spread across the ground.
"Thanks to you, I've learned something I was curious about. Now, die."
—Fwoooosh!
In an instant, Alexander vanished, leaving only an afterimage.
'Behind you!'
As Bi-yeon warned me, I twisted my body. A golden sword aura passed right where my back had been. A strand of my hair was sliced off, drifting in the air.
—Clang!
I reflexively raised Bi-yeon to block, but the impact was greater than I expected. My arm went numb.
"How was that?" Alexander said leisurely. A pattern like tree bark was blooming across his body, and an alien energy flowed from within him.
"Is that the power from the item we were transporting?"
"It is."
I didn't know what was in that thing, but it was clearly nothing ordinary.
"You seem curious about what was inside."
"And you'll tell me if I am?"
"I'll give you a special little hint. Do you know what the World Association wants to hide the most?"
"How would I know that?"
Alexander tapped his chest and began to explain.
"They are beings from another world. And what you were transporting was the corpse of an otherworlder who crossed over to this world long ago."
I flinched. I never expected the topic of otherworlders, which the Korean Association President had mentioned when we first met, to come up here.
"Another world?"
"That's right. Do you know the real reason ability users appeared?"
A crazed light flashed in Alexander's eyes.
"No one knows when it started. But as cracks formed in the dimensional wall, beings from other worlds began to flow into ours."
"And so?"
"At first, it was only weak beings. But then stronger ones started to cross over... and the humans who came into contact with them began to change."
He thumped his chest twice, a heavy sound.
"The humans tainted by the power of the otherworld began to awaken abilities, one by one, leading to the world we have today."
I was speechless for a moment. This was the first I'd ever heard of such a thing.
'...This bastard. He's so excited to talk, it looks like he'll spill everything if I just stay quiet.'
'Yeah, I agree. He's saying there are more beings like this... Let's get as much information out of him as we can.'
Alexander let out another bizarre laugh and continued.
"Heh heh... The World Association of Ability Users may know about otherworlders, but this truth is a secret known only to me."
"Good for you, having your own little secret. But how do you know all this?"
Alexander didn't answer. Instead, his forehead slowly began to split open.
Between the parting flesh of his forehead, like a crack forming, a strange eye was slowly revealed.
It was not a human eye. Within its red iris, multiple pupils rotated, and tentacle-like appendages writhed around it.
"...As a child, I was powerless. Even my own family cast me out as useless."
The corners of Alexander's mouth slowly twisted. A crazed smile spread across his entire face.
"How do you think someone like me... became an ability user?"
He raised a hand and slowly pointed to his head. Then, as if confiding a secret, he continued in a low voice.
"In the basement of my family's estate, there was something sealed away. The head of a being from another world."
His eyes became still, as if they had lost their light.
"The moment I touched that head... I lost consciousness."
Alexander's voice grew lower. The corners of his mouth rose slowly, chillingly.
"By the time I came to my senses, I had already chewed and swallowed that head."
The third eye turned to me, rotating slowly. The mere gaze was enough to send shivers down my spine.
"And then... I awakened. The queen sensed that power and feared me. She tried to bind and control me with the shackles of an oath."
"So... enough with the sob story. How did you find all this out?"
Alexander tilted his head and smiled again.
"After I ate the head, it started talking to me."
He tapped his temple with a finger.
"Right here, directly. As if another version of me were whispering in my ear."
The third eye glowed brighter.
"That voice told me the whole truth. The hidden history of this world. The true origin of ability users. All of it."
"Oh, so that's how it is. But why trap us in this barrier?"
"I plan to use every human in here as a sacrifice to open a closed dimensional rift and summon an otherworlder myself."
"You're insane."
"Insane? Hahaha! Soon, you too will know its greatness."
He raised his sword. The space around the blade distorted once more.
"Now die. And become the finest sacrifice!"
—Fwoooosh!
Alexander vanished. No, he was so fast he left only an afterimage.
'From above!'
As Bi-yeon warned me, I rolled to the side. A sharp flash of light struck where I had been standing, cracking the ground.
"I wonder how long you can last."
Alexander's voice came from all directions. I didn't know if it was the power of his third eye or something else.
'The way he's acting like he's already won is really pissing me off, Bi-yeon.'
'I'm ready.'
She returned from her sword form to her human one.
"A sword that turns into a woman? You've been hiding something... very interesting."
"Keep your eyes off what's mine, you scum."
At that moment, particles of blue light began to rise from Bi-yeon's body. Her physical form slowly dissipated, turning into light and melting into my own.
—Fwoooosh...
A refreshing wind enveloped my entire body as the spirit's energy seeped through my skin. I could feel the power coursing through me.
'So this is... Spirit Fusion?'
'That's right. But I won't be able to maintain it for long.'
My hair turned a teal green, and a vivid blue light bloomed in my eyes.
And then, he charged again.
"Isn't it against the rules to attack during a fusion sequence?"
Thousands of wind blades erupted from my fingertips. They swirled like a vortex, rushing toward Alexander.
—Shhhhiiiik!!
A storm of slashes erupted in an instant, a blur too fast for the eye to follow. Within it, his form was violently torn, crushed, and minced.
Flesh scattered, and bones were shattered to pieces. By any measure, it was a level of destruction no human could survive.
But I didn't stop my attack.
'His energy hasn't diminished at all.'
When the storm subsided, all that stood at its center was a pile of meat.
Finely minced pieces of flesh were mashed into a pulp soaking the floor, but then the mass began to stir.
—Sssss...
The bloody chunks writhed, beginning to knit themselves back together. The shredded pieces of flesh found each other and stuck, and a skeleton reformed from within, as if growing anew.
As if time were reversing, the shape gradually returned to its original form.
And the reconstructed face lifted its head again.
"Ugh... that... hurt more than I expected..."
"So you're not even human anymore?"
"Heh heh... I was never human to begin with."
The eye in Alexander's split forehead twitched.
"If anything, you're the one who feels... different from a human. Perhaps if I devoured you instead of sacrificing you, I could obtain that same power."
"If you can, then try it."
Alexander's third eye shone even brighter. The alien energy radiating from his body began to increase explosively.
"Then I'll show you my true power."
He spread his arms. The bark-like patterns etched all over his body began to move as if alive. They tore through his skin, emerging and fusing with his flesh like a kind of bio-armor.
—Srrrrk!
Flesh, bark, and tentacle-like tissues mixed together, creating a new form. It was bizarre, alien. It was no longer the shape of a human. All that remained was a hard carapace, muscles like steel, and a crazed look in his eyes.
I swung my hand before the transformation was even complete.
"Did you really think I'd wait for you to finish your stupid, drawn-out transformation?"
—Spaaak!!
A blade of blue light cut through the air and sliced into Alexander's shoulder. The liquid that spurted out with the flesh wasn't red blood, but a sticky green substance.
But Alexander showed no sign of pain. Instead, a crazed smile spread across his face as the flesh in his torn shoulder writhed like tentacles, regenerating itself.
"Heh heh... You can never defeat me. Therefore—!"
He spread his arms and shouted.
"Become one with me! Jin Seo-yun!!"
—Thud!
The ground split open, and tentacles shot out from all directions like a gale, trying to wrap around my body.
'Hey!'
Bi-yeon's voice rang out sharply.
'When you turned him into a pile of meat earlier, I saw something. He was strongly protecting his heart. That might be his weak point.'
'Is that so.'
I opened my right hand, gathering the power of the wind. Blue light swirled, forming the shape of a spear. It was sharp and thin, a spear designed for maximum penetration.
"Take this, you piece of trash."
I drew the spear back, then hurled it straight at his chest.
—Paaaaang!!
With a sound like space itself tearing, the spear instantly pierced through his body. It struck him dead center in the chest, right where his heart was, and a powerful explosion erupted.
—BOOOOOM!!
The blast sent wind sweeping in all directions. Dust and debris flew as the pressure wave hit.
'...Is he dead?'
I chided her for her stupid question.
'Saying that in a situation like this is a classic flag, you idiot.'
And soon, through the smoke, something slowly rose to its feet.
"Khuhuhuhu..."
Drenched in blood and bodily fluids, Alexander appeared once more. There was a deep hole punched through his chest. But inside it... his heart was still... twitching.