Chapter 185: A Piece of Memory
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 185: A Piece of Memory
The moment the tentacle touched my hand, it began to shatter with a flash of blue light.
Guuuuung!?
A bewildered sound erupted from the Deep Sea Monarch.
The crack that had started on its tentacle was now spreading straight to its head.
In that instant, the creature raised its hand and tore off the very tentacle where the crack had begun.
It had eliminated the source before the damage could spread further.
But that was a mistake.
Because I had already reached its shoulder.
“She said not to kill it.”
I said, placing my hand on the creature's shoulder.
At that moment, a blue light ignited in my palm.
“So I'll just take an arm.”
The moment I spoke.
Pajik!
The crack spread instantly, carving out the entire shoulder as if it were being scooped away.
My compatibility with dimensional entities was the absolute worst—for them.
Whether it was an alien or a transcendent being, none of that mattered the moment it touched my hand.
As proof, the Deep Sea Monarch's shoulder began to crumble.
Guuuuuuuuuuuuuh!
An indecipherable sound echoed loudly in my ears.
Ignoring it, I leaped from the crumbling shoulder and dove toward the sea.
Just then, a red flash streaked by.
Heuksan shot across the water to catch me, erupting in red sparks as she shouted.
“One more time.”
Our eyes met, and the answer was already decided.
The moment I was thrown like a shot put, I slapped the Deep Sea Monarch's leg as I flew past.
Pajik, Kwagagagagak!
In that instant, the Deep Sea Monarch's right leg collapsed.
The impact sent violent waves churning through the sea, but that was none of our concern.
Heuksan caught my falling body once again.
She expertly kicked off the turbulent water, running across its surface, and clicked her tongue as she looked at the Deep Sea Monarch.
“Tsk, an alien dimensional entity, was it? Damn thing's tough.”
Looking closely, it seemed Baeksan had been attacking the Deep Sea Monarch in the moments she wasn't throwing me.
But despite her fierce assault, the Deep Sea Monarch was only slightly scorched, with no major wounds.
That alone was enough to tell me this thing was on a completely different level from other dimensional entities.
‘If I didn't have my ability...’
The Deep Sea Monarch was a catastrophe in itself.
I could now understand why someone as skilled as Eunnamu had seemed so helpless against it.
‘And she said this thing was just bait.’
If a creature like this was bait, what kind of dimensional entity was the one Eunnamu was targeting, the one lurking at the boundary?
The question crossed my mind, but for now, this one came first.
With its broken body, the Deep Sea Monarch let out a mournful, colossal cry.
At the same time, I noticed a faint light emanating from its body and looked up.
“Kang Ha-chan.”
Baeksan's voice followed.
Realizing what that meant, my body was once again enveloped in blue light.
“Baeksan, it's coming.”
“I know.”
The instant I heard Heuksan's reply, I thrust my hand forward.
At that moment, a massive, invisible shockwave swept over the area.
It seemed to be the same kind of attack that had caused the tidal waves. The moment the shockwave hit, a blue light spread from my hand.
My ability traveled along the shockwave created by the Deep Sea Monarch.
It was an invisible, formless attack, but the moment it reached my hand, the shockwave simply evaporated.
Guuuuuuuuuuu!
The Deep Sea Monarch began to let out a furious roar.
I still couldn't understand what it was shouting, but one thing was certain: it was incredibly pissed off.
“Your aura is blocking all the mental attacks. If you could hear its voice, your brain would have been fried, so count yourself lucky.”
What a chilling thing to say.
It seemed the reason I couldn't hear its voice was thanks to the aura protecting my body.
If something like that had fallen into the middle of a populated area, it would have been absolute pandemonium.
‘All the more reason, then.’
I couldn't let that thing rampage any further.
Meanwhile, the tentacles on the Deep Sea Monarch's chin extended, growing long enough to reach the sea.
The tentacles squirmed and began to suck up seawater, then started firing water cannons at us.
“Smart.”
Realizing that its alien attacks all vanished upon contact with my hand, the creature started attacking us with seawater instead.
It was annoying, but a pretty effective method.
The creature, which grew tentacles on its chin instead of hair, had so many that it was pointless to count them.
As a result, it wasn't just firing one or two water cannons.
We wouldn't be seriously injured even if we were hit by them, but…
The problem was that trying to push through while getting hit was impossible.
“Kang Ha-chan, imbue your ability into a Brain Thunder.”
Baeksan said, looking up at the Deep Sea Monarch.
Imbue my ability into a Brain Thunder.
I'd never done anything like it before.
When I looked at Baeksan as if to ask if it was even possible, he nodded.
“What's so hard about it? The principle is the same as a Brain Thunder.”
If you say so.
I gripped Thunderbolt in my right hand and began to form a Brain Thunder bullet in my left.
‘Imbuing my ability...’
My ability was something I could now activate as easily as breathing.
So, I began to overlay my ability onto the Brain Thunder bullet.
My ability, which shatters anything not related to Earth.
The moment my ability—which I'd jokingly named Dimension Breaker—was added to the Brain Thunder, the bullet turned a strange, mesmerizing color, a mix of red and blue.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down my face.
The output of my ability is proportional to my aura.
I had been using my aura unstintingly to subdue the Deep Sea Monarch, and the aftereffects were starting to show.
But I suppressed the trembling pain and clenched my left fist tightly.
In that instant, the Brain Thunder bullet, infused with my compressed ability, was complete.
Pajik!
As a spark of mixed red and blue flared up, I loaded the Brain Thunder bullet into Thunderbolt.
Meanwhile, Heuksan was destroying all the water cannons with lightning gathered at the tips of her toes.
“Thanks for the hard work.”
“Shut up.”
So prickly.
I let out a small laugh and immediately aimed Thunderbolt.
I already knew where to aim.
The moment a two-toned bolt of lightning erupted from Thunderbolt, aimed at the creature's leg.
Kwagagagagagagagagang!
A flash of light split the sea.
The Brain Thunder bullet tore through the parted sea, annihilating every water cannon in its path before reaching the Deep Sea Monarch's leg.
The Deep Sea Monarch tried to pull back, but its massive size held it down.
The Brain Thunder bullet struck its leg directly, and my ability activated on impact.
Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!
With another harsh cry, cracks spread across its entire leg, completely shattering it.
Watching the creature's broken body collapse and its head plunge into the sea, I raised my hand to Heuksan for a high five.
Seeing this, Heuksan gave me a dumbfounded look and opened her mouth.
“You can stand on water, you know.”
Her half-lidded eyes drifted down to my feet.
Hearing that, I belatedly looked down at the water and my eyes widened.
Because, just as Heuksan said, I was really standing on the surface of the water.
What?
How did I do this?
“Were you lying?”
“N-No, why would I lie about something like this?”
As I said this in my own confusion, Heuksan's eyes widened as if she'd realized something, and she took a step or two back.
There was contempt in her eyes. When I blinked, Heuksan covered her body with her hands.
“You pervert.”
“Hey, wait a minute, what's that supposed to mean?!”
“You just can't help yourself around women. I don't get why she likes a guy like you.”
“You know this is a misunderstanding, don't you?”
“Don't talk to me. You creep.”
I watched Heuksan turn to leave, walking briskly across the water, and ran a hand through my hair.
Si-ho and Eunnamu were coming this way anyway, so I didn't know why she was leaving.
She'd probably just snap at me, so I decided not to say anything.
‘More importantly, why can I stand on water?’
As I said before, I don't know how to stand on water.
“Didn't you learn it somewhere before?”
As I was pondering this, Baeksan spoke to me.
“From who?”
“How should I know?”
And here I thought you knew everything.
Then, for some reason, an old memory flashed through my mind.
A memory from a long, long time ago.
It was a memory of my mother.
My mother, who had married my father—the strangest person I knew.
In that memory, I recalled falling into the water when I was very young.
Our family had gone to the beach together, and I remember I wasn't even in elementary school yet.
I was playing with my sister when someone next to us pressed down on my inner tube with their elbow. The tube flipped, and I was swept away by a wave.
‘Back then, my mother...’
...was running on the water.
It was a very old memory, so it was hazy, but as the thought occurred to me, my eyes slowly widened.
‘Was my mother a hunter?’
In my memory, my mother was mainly a housewife who occasionally worked part-time jobs.
Since we lived in Seoul, my father's income wasn't too bad.
Perhaps that's why I never knew what my mother's previous job was.
In my memory, she was just a housewife.
‘Then, the reason I can stand on water...’
...could it be that my mother taught me?
I sighed as I tried to search my memories.
Even for me, most of my memories from before elementary school were fragmented and unreliable.
“...I wonder if my sister knows.”
I couldn't be sure, but I thought of my sister.
I had no idea what grand design my sister was working on, but one thing was certain: her picture was slowly nearing completion.
“Ha-chan-oppa!”
Just then, Si-ho and Eunnamu returned to our side.
Si-ho immediately checked me over for injuries and let out a small sigh of relief.
It had become a sort of habit for her, since I always came back injured after a fight.
Feeling like I'd given Si-ho a strange habit, I was stroking her hair when I saw Heuksan walking back toward us from a distance, biting her lip.
The moment our eyes met, her face turned bright red and she whipped her head away.
She shouldn't have stormed off.
“Ha-chan, thank you for doing all this for me.”
Eunnamu called out to me.
She looked at me with eyes full of gratitude.
Her gaze, as if she'd met her fated partner, made me feel a little awkward.
Feeling the weight of her stare, I turned my head toward the Deep Sea Monarch.
With both legs and one arm blown off, the Deep Sea Monarch was no longer a threat to us.
“Eunnamu, what else do we need to do?”
When I asked her, Eunnamu slowly looked up at the sky.
“This is enough. All that's left is to wait.”
Wait.
Hearing that, I turned back to Eunnamu.
“Then, in the meantime, can you tell me your story?”
Eunnamu, who always seemed to be one step removed, as if she wasn't a person of this world.
I wanted to know what kind of life she had lived to become this way.
I felt that I needed to know the reason she had become so broken if I was going to truly help her.
Hearing my question, Eunnamu opened her mouth to speak, then slowly formed a gentle smile.
“...Yes, I suppose you would be the most curious, Ha-chan.”
Eunnamu said this as if reminiscing about something different from my own memories.
The memories of another world that had been implanted in her.
I didn't know what they were, but the affection in her eyes was clearly profound.
“As I said before, I'm from an alien dimension.”
And so, Eunnamu's story began.