Chapter 100: A Complete Mess
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100: A Complete Mess
Well, I couldn’t help it.
Back when I was chasing Hyeok-seo, I only caught a glimpse of him. This was the first time I’d seen him in person, right before my eyes.
To a returnee fanatic like me, Geumgangho was a living legend. My heart couldn’t help but pound when I saw him.
“You old geezer, getting in my way again?”
Just then, Yong Cheon-seong, who had been sent flying, stopped mid-air with a somersault.
It seemed she knew Geumgangho.
“Tsk, tsk. You old hag, can’t even act your age. When are you going to get a grip, running wild in a place where kids like Girasung play?”
“Ha? A person’s got to live young! If you just lock yourself away in a dark room because you’re old, you’ll get even older, faster!”
Geumgangho called her an old hag.
I hadn’t realized it because of her youthful appearance, but it seemed she wasn’t that much younger than Geumgangho.
Meanwhile, Geumgangho, from atop the barrier, gave Seol-hyang a look.
The look conveyed that he would handle Yong Cheon-seong, so Seol-hyang nodded.
To face an S-rank returnee, you need another S-rank returnee.
So she entrusted Yong Cheon-seong, an old rival of his, to him.
But that wasn’t the only problem.
In the distance, we could all see figures kicking up dust as they frantically scaled the outer walls of buildings.
They were none other than the returnees Girasung had gathered.
It was enough to send a chill down my spine, knowing that every single one of them, charging with their weapons, was a returnee capable of wiping out an entire city.
It was safe to say that Girasung had poured in all of its forces from across the country.
“There’s a limit to how much you can underestimate the Association.”
But even in this situation, Seol-hyang hadn’t lost her smile.
Because just as Girasung’s forces appeared, returnees from the Association began to show up one by one in the sky and on the buildings.
With a single call from Seol-hyang, returnees from the Association all over the world had come to provide support.
KABOOM, KABANG!
Soon, a true war between returnees began.
Light, fireballs, and weapons of ice clashed wildly, and chaos erupted everywhere.
On top of that, I could see dimensional entities descending to attack the city, with hunters and returnees fighting to stop them.
Jung-gu, Seoul, was a scene of utter pandemonium.
The only silver lining was that Seol-hyang had contacted the hunters and the government in advance, so civilians were being quickly evacuated to underground bunkers.
‘What I can do here…’
…is just protect Si-ho, who’s right beside me.
I broke out in a cold sweat and moved closer to Si-ho, who was struggling to close the dimensional gate.
I’m powerless in a real battle between returnees.
That sense of helplessness made me bite my lip once again.
I want to be stronger.
I wanted to become stronger, no matter what, if only to protect the people by my side.
Just then, Baeksan tapped me on the shoulder.
He was a spirit, so he didn’t actually touch me, but it felt like he did.
“If it weren’t for you, you bastard, things down there would be an even bigger mess.”
“If my efforts aren’t enough…”
“You little shit. Any more than this and you’ll die. You’re pushing your body harder than you think.”
Hearing that, I glanced at my hand, the one I had re-bandaged not long ago.
Perhaps because I’d been practicing with Brain Thunder and aura every day, my hand hadn’t had a chance to heal recently.
Maybe I was just getting impatient.
“And… shit! Baek Seol-hyang!”
Suddenly, Baeksan screamed.
When I belatedly raised my head, someone was standing behind Seol-hyang.
It was a figure I’d never seen before.
His eye sockets were empty, and his hair, shimmering with various colors like a galaxy, flowed in the air.
The moment I saw him, I sensed something was wrong and was already running.
Because the man standing behind Seol-hyang was holding something pitch-black in his hand.
[ I’ll do it. ]
The moment I drew up my aura and my body began to glow red, I heard a voice in my head.
When I realized the voice had come from behind me, I saw that Juksim had stepped forward at some point.
For some reason, she seemed taller than before.
Then, a flash of light ignited.
KWWAAAAAAAANG!
CRASH!
Along with the resounding noise, I felt a ringing in my ears.
“Ugh, ughh.”
When I managed to open my eyes, I remembered that I had somehow grabbed Si-ho, who was closest to me, and shielded her with my body.
Si-ho seemed to be in shock, unable to defend herself as her concentration had been forcibly broken. She was completely dazed.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem injured, but I was worried about the aftereffects of her concentration being broken.
Both Si-ho and I lacked experience, so we were slow to react to unexpected situations like this.
“Seol-hyang! Juksim!”
I hugged Si-ho tightly and immediately shouted toward the dust cloud.
The man who had appeared moments ago had shown up without a sound, despite the barrier being in place.
That alone made it easy to see how dangerous he was.
I couldn’t see a thing through the dust cloud, and the frustration was driving me crazy.
KWOOOM!
At that moment, a sound echoed from within, and the dust cloud cleared all at once.
Pitch-black hair, from which a light reminiscent of the cosmos flowed, fluttered in the air.
Through that black hair, I saw her. She was much taller than before, and her outfit had changed as well.
Dressed in clothes that brought to mind an astrologer, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, she held a staff in her hand and faced the mysterious man.
“Juksim got bigger?!”
The moment I shouted in bewilderment, two tempests of heat and sparks clashed.
Juksim and the mysterious man had started fighting again.
I turned my head and saw that Seol-hyang, thankfully, had retreated with Joo Seong-min.
She didn’t seem to be hurt.
“It’s Erebos.”
Baeksan said, grinding his teeth.
Erebos.
The god of darkness from Greco-Roman mythology.
And the moment I saw him, I realized he was the boss Eunnamu had mentioned.
At the same time, I understood why Baeksan had singled him out as the only member of Girasung who could pose a threat to the World Returnee Association.
That thing was a transcendent being who surpassed even other returnees.
And it seemed that right now, only Juksim could stand against him.
But there was a problem.
According to Eunnamu and our prior intelligence, he wasn’t supposed to appear here.
He was actually supposed to be in another country.
According to Eunnamu, she was still investigating and couldn’t say for sure, but there was a reason Erebos was tied up in another country.
Seol-hyang had said she deployed overseas returnees to subdue him in coordination with this operation.
But the fact that he was here now meant…
‘A variable has appeared somewhere.’
Did he realize what Eunnamu was doing and trick her with false information?
There was no way to know right now.
One thing was certain: Erebos, the most dangerous figure in Girasung, was here.
“Damn it. If I’d known that bastard was coming himself, I would’ve stationed the Heavenly Demon here.”
“You mean Ahyu could fight Erebos?”
“I told you. She’s The Strongest Under Heaven on Earth. Killing him completely would be tricky, but when it comes to a fight, there’s no one better than her.”
As I was once again reminded of Ahyu’s true strength, Baeksan frowned.
“If only Kang Ma-ri were here…”
“My sister?”
“Yeah. That guy is practically a dimensional entity. He’s completely vulnerable to Kang Ma-ri’s ability. In fact, she was the one who killed him in the end.”
Wait, does that mean…
“Baeksan, if it’s me…”
“Don’t even think about it. If you go in there, you, who can only maintain your aura for a few seconds, will die in the aftershock.”
“Damn, there are so many things I can’t do!”
“If you don’t like it, get stronger. Now’s the time to lay low. You know a variable has appeared. From this point on, the plan we made is meaningless.”
I feel like I’m going to suffocate from laying so low.
Forget it.
Whatever the plan was, their target is Si-ho.
I decided to focus on protecting Si-ho in my arms and was about to return to Seol-hyang.
Just then, arms shot out from the shadow beneath my feet and yanked my legs down in an instant.
I immediately realized those two arms belonged to Hyeok-seo.
He had managed to sneak in through the barrier, which had been shattered by the aftershock of Juksim and Erebos’s battle.
“Damn it!”
Baeksan reached out to grab me, but his hand passed right through me.
For the first time, I saw Baeksan’s face crumble in despair.
The area was a mess with the noise of Juksim and Erebos’s fight, and even Seol-hyang reacted too late, just starting to push off the ground.
“No!”
By the time Seol-hyang’s voice reached me,
Si-ho and I had already been swallowed by the shadow.
*
15
“Asura!”
The moment Ha-chan disappeared, Seol-hyang’s eyes widened as she roared with fury.
If it had only been Si-ho, maybe she could have managed, but the moment Ha-chan was caught up in it, she lost all reason.
She had been so careful, so wary of the variable that was Erebos, yet a powerhouse like him had created yet another damn variable.
And originally, the Heavenly Demon was supposed to be keeping Song Hyeok-seo occupied.
It was clear that another variable had occurred on that front as well.
This was the problem with returnees.
Their abilities were all so unpredictable that no matter how many plans and contingencies you prepared,
a problem was bound to pop up somewhere.
And in a situation like this, they had kidnapped Ha-chan right in front of her.
At that moment, the Crown was already forming above her head.
She hadn’t wanted to use it, but now that a situation had forced her hand, she had no intention of hesitating.
Because Ha-chan’s life was more important than her own will.
Just then,
something flew toward her, and in an instant, her body was lifted into the air.
A startled Seol-hyang quickly looked down and saw an unexpected person.
“M-Mari-unni?”
Where in the world did she come from?
Seol-hyang was confused by the sudden appearance of the woman she could never find, no matter how hard she looked, and by the fact that she was being held in her arms.
“You can’t use it.”
Hearing Kang Ma-ri’s voice, Seol-hyang’s eyes went wide.
Because what she said she couldn’t use was the Crown.
What in the world did she know to be acting like this?
“Unni, but Ha-chan…!”
But right now, the only thing that mattered was Ha-chan.
He had been kidnapped by Asura.
To save him, the Crown was the only answer.
“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.”
Kang Ma-ri spoke as if she knew something.
Just as Seol-hyang was about to question her, Kang Ma-ri brought her lips to Seol-hyang’s ear and whispered something.
Seol-hyang’s eyes flew open in shock at her words. Kang Ma-ri met her gaze, raised a finger to her lips in a ‘shh’ gesture, and then vanished, leaving Seol-hyang behind.
Just as she had appeared without a trace, she disappeared the same way. Watching her go, Seol-hyang collapsed onto the rooftop floor.
“…How?”
The story Kang Ma-ri had told her was so shocking it was unbelievable.
*
16
After being swallowed by the shadow, I forced my eyes open, suffering from the inability to breathe, as if I were drowning.
It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to react.
Unable to breathe, my consciousness quickly began to fade.
But I gritted my teeth at the warmth I felt in my arms.
It was pitch-black inside the shadow, so I couldn’t see Si-ho, but I knew I was holding her.
If I lost consciousness here, there was no telling what would happen to the unconscious Si-ho.
‘This is Hyeok-seo’s shadow.’
That meant that even if I managed to escape, I would have to face him.
In that case, I couldn’t use all my aura at once.
I don’t know how to control my aura properly.
I always use it in an all-or-nothing fashion, which is why I can never escape being a glass cannon.
But this time, I had to break free from being a glass cannon, no matter what.
‘Half.’
I have to somehow split my aura in half.
With that single thought, I began to draw out the aura within my body.
CRACKLE!
Red sparks began to fly around my body.
Worried it might affect Si-ho, I held her carefully and desperately suppressed the aura that was trying to run wild again.
‘Listen to me!’
The aura in my body belongs to me and no one else.
There’s no way I can’t control my own aura.
‘Listen! I said, listen!’
With a desperate cry to my inner self, the suppressed aura spread throughout my body like vines.
And I grabbed hold of the reins of that output, desperately holding on so I wouldn’t be dragged along by it.
The next moment, the released aura erupted, scattering in all directions with red sparks.
The explosion was so intense that it momentarily ignited the inside of the shadow with red light, and even the shadow itself couldn’t withstand it and distorted.
KABOOM!
The moment the flash of light faded, I found myself rolling on the ground, still holding Si-ho.
“Kugh.”
“Khak, hak, Do… mi… you bastard…”
As I groaned from the impact of being thrown somewhere and pushed myself up,
I saw Hyeok-seo in the distance, coughing with his head on the floor.
“You… bastard… just how much… aura… do you have… to even… my shadow…”
It seemed my exploding aura inside his shadow had been effective, as Hyeok-seo’s face was contorted in pain.
Facing him, I quickly checked my condition and got to my feet.
‘There’s still some left!’
It wasn’t the half I’d intended, but about thirty percent of my aura remained.
My control had worked, somehow.
The moment I realized that, I let go of Si-ho, cloaked my entire body in aura, and kicked off the ground.
Hyeok-seo wasn’t in good shape because of my aura explosion.
The proof was that he couldn’t even support his own body properly.
Besides, he must have fought Eva-noona, who had gone to stop him.
Even for Hyeok-seo, it wouldn’t have been easy to subdue Eva-noona while holding back, so he must have used a considerable amount of power.
‘So I’ll take him down now!’
Knowing this full well, I recalled the sensation from moments ago and kicked out at his head with my remaining aura.
THWACK!
“Keoheok?!”
With a clean, resounding impact, Hyeok-seo’s body flew into the air.
I felt bad for him, but I mercilessly swung my leg with all my strength.
This is revenge for not listening to me properly.