Chapter 189: Se-hee's Limit
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: Se-hee's Limit
With her target changed, Song Se-hee kicked against the water, propelling herself in the opposite direction.
In response, the merman, who had been using the current to pull her in, immediately thrust its webbed palm toward her.
Kwoong!
In that instant, the water’s pressure shifted, centering on its palm.
It shot toward Song Se-hee like a dragon parting the waves.
But the talismans Song Se-hee had released from her spirit staff had already separated and taken form.
Song Se-hee slammed the now-bare staff into the ground below.
Kwoong!
At that moment, a dokkaebi’s arm materialized behind her.
The arm, covered in numerous talismans, brought its thumb and middle finger together and flicked.
“Shatter.”
The watery dragon flying toward Song Se-hee instantly broke apart into pieces.
The merman’s thick eyebrows twitched. Without pausing, Song Se-hee once again slammed her staff into the ground.
This time, both of the dokkaebi’s arms appeared.
The two arms that emerged were those of a withered, old dokkaebi.
With long black nails and hands covered in thick white fur, they formed a rectangle using their thumbs and index fingers.
That rectangle was aimed precisely at the merman.
“Bind.”
With the single-character incantation, the form of the merman targeted by the dokkaebi began to distort.
Puhak!
In that instant, violet blood erupted from the merman’s entire body.
As the creature shuddered from the gushing blood, Song Se-hee had already completed her next spell.
“Cleave.”
As soon as her spell was cast, a glaive materialized above the mangled merman.
The glaive immediately swung down. The merman made a last-ditch effort to create a current, but it was too late.
Thwack!
The merman’s corpse, split in two by the glaive, dissolved into the water.
Watching this, Song Se-hee let out a long sigh and moved slowly through the water.
A wave of fatigue washed over her; she had expended a great deal of energy just now.
But it wasn’t time to rest yet.
She had to close the dimensional gate as quickly as possible…
“Cough.”
It happened in an instant.
Song Se-hee suddenly coughed up blood.
Her eyes widened as she watched the blood from her mouth mix with the water.
When she finally looked down, she saw a gaping hole in her side.
With the amount of blood and viscera pouring out, anyone could see she was in critical condition.
Song Se-hee reflexively tried to place a talisman over the wound.
Thwack!
Her body was sent flying through the water.
Even amidst the shock, Song Se-hee desperately tried to regain her senses and assess the situation.
There’s something here.
In the water.
Something incredibly small was moving at an immense speed.
The only reason she could even perceive it was because the creature was creating sonic booms as it moved.
Worse, the water was accelerating her blood loss.
Her status as a returnee meant she could hold on a little longer, but if the next attack hit another vital spot, it would be over.
Kwaang!
“Kyaahk!”
Another impact sent Song Se-hee crashing through a pillar, tumbling through the water.
She tried to track its presence, but it was too fast to follow.
Crack—
It felt like she’d taken a blow to the head. Song Se-hee realized one of her eyes was filled with blood, blurring her vision.
This is dangerous.
Making that judgment, she bit her lip and exhaled.
As bubbles escaped her mouth, Song Se-hee’s blue eyes began to glow with a transparent light.
All the while, the threatening sonic booms continued to erupt around her.
She couldn’t follow it with her eyes.
In that case…
The spirit staff had vanished from Song Se-hee’s hand.
In its place, she held a single red talisman.
She knew that using this would have repercussions for her as well, but she had no other choice.
A grim smile spread across her face.
“Then eat this area-of-effect attack.”
With those words, her red talisman burst into flames, even underwater.
“Flame.”
A crimson inferno erupted from Song Se-hee, a conflagration so intense it seemed like the flames of hell itself. It not only vaporized the water but engulfed the entire underground parking garage.
Crackle, crackle.
As the water evaporated, the pillars began to melt, and the underground space started to collapse.
“Cough, cough.”
Coughing amidst the chaos, a soot-faced Song Se-hee stared ahead.
She had used the flame spell without any time to cast a defensive one, so she had taken significant damage herself. Her vision was blurry.
“Grigigigigigik!”
Just then, a scream of agony echoed in her ears.
Hearing the sound, Se-hee quickly turned in its direction. There, amidst the collapsing cavern, was a creature with six insectoid arms, a vermilion abdomen, and a black carapace.
Just as she’d thought, the small dimensional entity was scorched all over.
Ichor oozed from its body, and the flesh on one of its legs was so burned away it looked like it could fall off at any moment.
But it wasn’t dead yet.
As if to prove that fact, the creature coiled its tail and thrust its insect-like arms forward.
Its legs sharpened into points like awls.
Realizing that was what had pierced her defensive spells, Song Se-hee forced herself to her feet.
She had lost too much blood; her mind was hazy.
But she had no intention of losing. Squeezing out the last of her strength, Song Se-hee created a golden talisman.
She never imagined she’d face a crisis against a dimensional entity here.
She had been far too dismissive of a dimensional entity from the Divine Realm.
Letting out a hollow laugh, she aimed the talisman forward.
“Come on.”
This time, I’ll kill you for sure.
At that moment, the coiled entity kicked off with its tail and leaped.
A sonic boom followed as the creature zipped through the collapsing space with the same absurd speed as before.
Song Se-hee clicked her tongue in annoyance that it could maintain such speed even in that state, and threw the golden talisman to the ground.
“Press.”
The entire underground space was crushed, as if pulled down by an immense gravitational force.
The collapse of the already crumbling area accelerated, but the pressure affected the dimensional entity as well.
For a brief moment, Song Se-hee’s spell slowed the creature down.
Its speed was reduced as it fought against the crushing force.
It was still faster than a bullet, but Song Se-hee now held her spirit staff, its tip honed to a razor’s edge.
She intended to skewer it.
Slip!
Suddenly, one of Song Se-hee’s legs gave out.
Her strength failed her, and she lost her balance.
Kwoong!
Because of that, her staff struck the ground instead of the dimensional entity.
As her posture crumbled, the creature was reflected in her eyes.
Its jet-black eyes gleamed as if certain of its victory.
In an instant, the entity’s body twisted, and all of its sharpened legs were about to descend upon Song Se-hee.
Clang!
The dimensional entity was suddenly sent flying into the air.
At the same time, a hand wrapped around Song Se-hee, and her vision shook.
When she belatedly lifted her head, she saw a familiar face through her one good eye.
“Domi?”
A shaky breath escaped Song Se-hee’s lips.
Because the person reflected in her eyes was none other than Ha-chan.
“Eva, are you okay?” Ha-chan asked urgently, his own breathing ragged. Song Se-hee stared blankly for a moment before letting out an incredulous laugh.
“What am I supposed to do when you show up at a time like this?”
It wasn’t like he’d planned it, but he had appeared at the exact moment she was in danger.
Honestly, wasn’t this just too much?
Song Se-hee rested her head against Ha-chan’s chest and sighed.
In contrast to the crisis she had just faced, she was overcome with a profound sense of relief.
Perhaps because of that, she felt a little greedy.
“……I’m hurt all over, so please just hold me like this for a moment.”
As Song Se-hee leaned against him, Ha-chan carried her and safely escaped the underground space.
Behind them, red sparks flared.
Heuksan was closing the dimensional gate.
As Ha-chan watched with relief, he looked up and met two pairs of eyes.
Standing there were Ha Si-ho, with a pouting face, and Eunnamu, who wore a faintly languid smile.
Ha-chan glanced at the two of them, then down at Song Se-hee, who was breathing softly in his arms, and muttered quietly.
“Baeksan, was this my sister’s intention too?”
“Nah, you’re just a damn magnet for this shit.”
Hearing the reply, Ha-chan could only give a bitter smile.
*
Later, I entrusted Eva, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, to Si-ho and had her sent to the World Returnee Association.
Her condition was critical and she needed immediate treatment.
The Association had a saintess, so she would be healed right away.
“Good work.”
Meanwhile, Heuksan returned after closing the dimensional gate.
She glanced at me, then shot me a look of disapproval.
“What, do you have some new sixth sense that only activates for women? The way you pop up every single time one is in danger is suspicious.”
“……I’m starting to suspect that myself lately.”
Honestly, a coincidence is fine once or twice.
I was doing my best to get here, but it was always a series of last-minute saves.
It wasn’t like I was moving like a puppet, though.
Is this also related to my sister?
I couldn’t be sure, but considering she had revealed herself today, it seemed likely there was a connection.
I wondered when I would be able to meet her and talk properly.
I sighed but decided to put that thought aside for now.
There was something more important at the moment.
“Eunnamu…”
Kwaang!
I was about to call out to Eunnamu when a sudden noise made me turn my head.
A woman had been sent tumbling out of a building.
And she was someone I recognized.
“Catherine?”
Seeing the face I hadn’t seen in a while, I called out her name just as a dimensional entity lunged at her.
Catherine tried to fight back, generating blue sparks, but she looked clearly exhausted.
It seemed she was one of the returnees who had been deployed here.
At this rate, she would be killed, nine times out of ten.
Convinced of this, I immediately created a Brain Thunder bullet and drew Thunderbolt.
“Si-ho.”
As I called her name, she quickly understood and teleported Catherine over to us.
“Huh?!”
As the startled Catherine cried out, I had already aimed the loaded Brain Thunder at the dimensional entity and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The Brain Thunder bullet flew and pierced the entity’s head.
I could now handle dimensional entities of that level without much aura consumption, and I still felt I had plenty of aura to spare.
It seemed I had definitely gotten stronger.
With each passing day, my use of aura was becoming more proficient.
It feels like it’s getting rarer for me to fire a fully charged Brain Thunder.
On top of that, my aura recovery rate had also clearly increased compared to before.
In a way, aura was like an ember.
If you burned all the firewood at once to create a big flame, the ember would soon burn out.
But if you added firewood little by little, you might not get the strongest output, but the ember would last for a long time.
The same principle applied to aura.
Aura had the property of being easy to recover as long as it wasn’t completely depleted at once.
“You’re only figuring that out now? I told you so many times, but you never understood.”
Just as Baeksan said, I had never understood because I always poured out all my aura at once.
But after experiencing various things recently, the limits on my output had lessened, and I had learned how to increase my aura’s density. Now, I could finally control my aura as I pleased.
“Let’s just chalk it up to growth.”
I said, dismissing Thunderbolt, and turned to look at Catherine.
Just then, Catherine, who hadn’t understood the situation, finally saw me and flinched.
Her face was filled with fear, as if she had just encountered a demon.
Seeing that, I gave a bitter smile.
Is she still like that?