Chapter 284: Splitting the Moon
Chapter 284: Splitting the Moon
An underground passage, scattered with enemies meant to be devoured.
For someone like me, devoid of any special power, catching every single one of those who had quickly dispersed within it was virtually impossible. ...Or so it was.
However, the story had changed completely now.
The villains had created a complex escape route, like a spiderweb maze.
I could naturally sense its shape, who was where, and what they were doing.
This was different in direction from the sensory amplification I had pushed to the limit earlier to find The Enemy.
If sensory amplification was a radar that swallowed up vast amounts of information across a wide range in real-time...
The way I was naturally perceiving The Enemy now was much duller in comparison.
What I could discern was the magnitude of their power and their location.
It was like casting a shape by pouring molten metal into a narrow anthill.
The Otherworldly Power that filled the space informed me of its own distribution, completing a map in my mind.
While sensory amplification was about receiving all information within a range, the power I was using now was closer to a sonar.
The only information I could obtain was the distribution and density of the Otherworldly Power.
Furthermore, this method didn't involve detecting the Otherworldly Power already existing within my sensory range.
If I had to compare it, the principle was similar to Oxymoron’s Operating Room or Baek Si-hyun’s control.
However, unlike those techniques that formed a field in an instant, this power I’d newly awakened to was more akin to contamination.
By my mere presence here, the surrounding Otherworldly Power was stained by me, and its properties changed.
The altered properties then propagated themselves to the surroundings, expanding the range.
I could naturally absorb the power that had been changed this way, or, as I was doing now, have the Otherworldly Power call out its own location to provide me with information.
How am I using such a power? How did I know how to use it?
Those questions briefly crossed my mind, but they were utterly meaningless.
The knowledge surged naturally in my head, as if I had known it since birth.
On the first day I became a Magical Girl, Un-ho told me that the powers used by Magical Girls come to them naturally.
At the time, I didn't possess any power, so I couldn't understand him.
But perhaps this was the sensation Un-ho had been talking about.
If so, this might be considered my very first magic.
Though, it was a bit funny that the power I had awakened to was still, in a sense, meaningless.
In the end, wasn't this also a power that had no direct effect on me?
To put it bluntly, it just meant I could now extend the Otherworldly Power—which I could previously only accumulate inside myself—to the outside of my body.
Just as I could tell how the Otherworldly Power inside my body moved and where it gathered, there wasn't much difference if I considered the entire contaminated range as being "inside" my physically powerless body.
In terms of detection, not much had changed either.
Even before, I could detect places where massive amounts of Otherworldly Power were clustered or the extent of an opponent's strength to some degree.
It was just that if they were within the contaminated range, I could now know it more accurately and certainly.
It wasn't a bad result for the current situation.
With that thought, I sprinted down the long, straight passage and made a sharp left turn.
Crash!
My body slammed into The Wall as a result.
However, it wasn't my body that broke from the impact.
The stone wall exploded.
And there, on the other side of the passage, stood a villain.
"Wh-what...?"
Before the villain could even finish his sentence, I swung the Red Pry Bar.
The Red Pry Bar advanced toward The Enemy’s legs, parrying the countless stone fragments fluttering in the air like buckshot.
As a result, numerous stone shards were driven into The Enemy’s legs, mangling flesh and muscle.
Crunch!
Finally, the Pry Bar, carrying the most immense force, shattered The Enemy’s leg bones.
Less than a second after meeting me, The Enemy’s posture collapsed.
I could have left him there to roll miserably on the floor, but I reached out and grabbed his face.
I felt many things through my hand.
The Enemy’s heat, burning with intense excitement.
The effort to open his mouth, trying to get something out.
I didn't know if what he was trying to spit out was a scream or words, but I didn't care.
I had no intention of listening to a villain's excuses, nor did I have any interest in the shrill screams that triggered my trauma.
There were only two things I needed from this person.
Deep physical trauma that would make him regret acting as a villain for the rest of his life, and the Otherworldly Power he held within him.
So, I’ll enjoy the meal.
Snap.
Tired of watching The Enemy’s struggles, I channeled strength into my fingers and squeezed his skull. His thrashing intensified from the unbearable pain, but soon, even that struggle vanished.
The Otherworldly Power he held internally had been contaminated by me, and the ownership had transferred to me.
A moment passed.
Once The Enemy stopped all movement, I tossed him into a corner of the hallway as if he were nothing and looked at my left hand, which had held him.
Truly, it wasn't a bad power.
It was an absorption method that boasted overwhelming efficiency, completely different from how I used to suck in Otherworldly Power through the Circulation of Energy in the past.
Moreover, this method was actually quite peaceful.
Since it only forcibly requisitioned the power within, it was a completely non-lethal technique—aside from the fact that the target turned pale as if their life force had been drained and fainted.
I wondered if it had the function of stealing or removing an enemy's abilities, as seen in other works of fiction, but it didn't have such a capability.
This power, like the surrounding contamination, simply contaminated the power the opponent possessed through contact, seized control, and then absorbed it.
It seemed that the power contained within the bodies of Heroes or villains was harder to interfere with than the Otherworldly Power floating in space, thus requiring physical contact.
It wasn't omnipotent, after all.
The C-Rank Martial Artist I just threw aside collapsed without even being able to resist the contamination.
However, the A-Rank Martial Artist who had overconfidently attacked me a while ago—likely the boss of this organization—had resisted the contamination and refused to have his power absorbed.
So, I had settled things peacefully by simply shattering his jaw and snapping his limbs.
Even considering that, it wasn't bad.
Even for an A-Rank, they could only resist it; they weren't immune to the absorption and contamination.
It meant that the moment my hand touched their body, they had to notice the contamination and focus their attention there.
In other words, it was another means to keep the opponent on guard.
Really, not bad at all.
Unlike the dress, there was no worry of this going out of control.
It wasn't a piece of clothing I couldn't control, but something I accumulated within myself.
Though, I was a bit worried because the dress itself seemed to be continuously absorbing the power I contaminated, showing signs of mutation while strangely emitting bubbles.
Regardless, satisfied with the trial run of my new power, I kicked off the ground again.
I was heading for the three enemies who had fled the furthest, right at the edge of my detection range.
* * *
Had they realized I was pursuing them through some method?
The three, who had been moving relatively calmly, suddenly began to sprint desperately through the passage.
Even so, the speed at which I pursued them was much faster.
Even if the path was blocked, for me, who moved forward by destroying everything in my way, they might as well have been standing still.
After a brief chase, the backs of the enemies came into view.
The villains who would pay the price for their sins by being swallowed and devoured by me were shouting something.
But I had no interest in what they were saying, so I leaped toward them.
The enemies immediately drew their weapons.
But whether it was the Sword Qi coating their weapons, their stances, or the power within them...
Nothing was particularly exceptional.
I continued forward in a straight line, and just as they were about to enter the range of my Pry Bar...
A light appeared.
A silver flash.
From the sky, where no light should reach since we were underground, a silver flash descended.
Startled, I stopped my charge and leaped backward quickly. I soon realized that my judgment had been correct.
The passage collapsed.
This wasn't a last resort prepared by those villains.
The stone blocking the passage had been sliced as cleanly as cooking ingredients.
And by slicing through the strata like that, the dark sky now sat where the ceiling used to be.
Thanks to the weakness of my new detection ability, which contaminated along the space, I only noticed the new presence now that the ceiling was gone and the sky was open.
A person who harbored an amount of power that felt nonsensical even to me.
One who descended while opening the sky, draped in moonlight, with his violet martial robes fluttering.
It was the work of that guy I knew.
"Hmm. I felt a massive power and came down to investigate, but it's a familiar face."
Our idiot senior brother, Heavenly Sword, had descended upon this place.
Striking all sorts of pretentious poses.
As soon as he landed in the basement, he immediately waved his hand, using telekinesis to fire the stones he had haphazardly cut toward the villains.
Thump. Thwack.
With sounds that made me wonder if something had been crushed, the three villains stopped moving.
Afterward, Heavenly Sword immediately looked at me and spoke.
"Let's see. Your color is black. So... ah, were you Black★Hammer? The Clone Monster?"
This bastard is asking for it.
"Black Marauder."
"Ah, my apologies. Right, that was the name."
An apology that didn't feel sorry at all.
His way of speaking was annoying enough, but the smirk on his lips irritated me even more.
I kept my mouth shut and waited for Kong Jianping to speak further.
But Kong Jianping, the representative of Hero idiots, just stood there with his martial robes fluttering in the wind, doing absolutely nothing.
As time passed...
Normally, I would keep my words to a minimum in this form, but there was something I wanted to ask. Eventually, unable to hold back, I spoke.
"I want to ask one thing."
"What is it?"
"Is there any possibility that I'm the villain and they're the victims?"
At those words, Heavenly Sword turned his head with a blank expression toward the catastrophe he had caused.
Then I, who had been focusing all my attention on Heavenly Sword and hadn't grasped the situation, also turned my gaze that way.
As expected, I saw the three villains twitching, crushed here and there by the impact of the massive rocks.
However, seeing as most of the crushed areas weren't life-threatening, they probably wouldn't die.
After staring at them for a moment, Heavenly Sword turned back, scratched his chin, and spoke.
"Hmm. By any chance, were those gloomy humans good people?"
"No."
They were clearly villains.
"I thought so. They were being chased by a clone of my junior brother, and they were digging through the ground. So, what were their crimes? The crime of not training? Or the crime of tarnishing the name of a Martial Artist?"
"The crime of extorting money from civilians and distributing illegal drugs."
"I see. I'll have to find out the details later, but if that's the truth, they deserve what they got. Thank you for your cooperation."
I really can't listen to this anymore.
Maybe I should just crack a joke and run away.
"Then, I'll be going now. Until next time..."
The moment I tried to distance myself after weaving a sentence completely different from my original way of speaking...
Clang.
The sound of ringing steel echoed.
Following the warning issued by both instinct and experience, I immediately raised my Pry Bar.
Klang!
The sparks and flash created by steel clashing against steel.
That happened first.
Then, the silver flash passed by.
To anyone else, it would look like a phenomenon where cause and effect were reversed, but it was nothing special.
After all, the one who caused this phenomenon was standing atop that pile of rocks.
Heavenly Sword, who had drawn his Hwando from its scabbard at a speed impossible to even perceive, spoke.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? Didn't you just cut out the corruption that had seeped into our Martial Alliance? If I were to send such a righteous person back empty-handed without a reward, how could I call myself the leader of the martial artists?"
Man, he's really laying on the theatrics.
Just say, 'Let's have a go, you bastard.'
I wanted to spit those words out, but I gritted my teeth and swallowed the heat rising within me.
With a calmed mind, I quietly assessed the surrounding situation and simulated an escape route in my head.
But the conclusion came quickly.
No matter where I ran, I couldn't escape without being prepared to have something cut off.
To make matters worse, he had the high ground, and I was holding a Pry Bar, not my familiar hammer.
Dammit. If I'm not careful, I'm screwed.
Swallowing a curse, I prepared to fight.
Since it had come to this, I had to create an opening somehow and escape.
Though it would likely be incredibly difficult.
After all, the one in front of me was an S-Rank Hero.
One of the strongest close-quarters combatants, myself included.
And the man who stood at the pinnacle of all existing martial artists.
Heavenly Sword.
I could only pray that this confrontation wouldn't turn into a duel to the death.