Chapter 99: Pigheaded
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 99: Pigheaded
“Ha, haha, what the hell is this….”
Even Song Hyeok-seo, the master of yokai and an S-rank returnee, looked up at the scene before him with disbelief.
He had never witnessed such power in his life.
And he’d felt something like this before.
“Domi.”
Recalling the man who had been with his sister not long ago, Song Hyeok-seo bit his lip.
Because that was Kang Ha-chan, the one Girasung had been keeping an eye on recently.
‘So this is how Brain Dragon, the blind mage, and that Umbrella bastard were taken down.’
It seemed those bastards from the World Returnee Association had some ridiculous secret weapon.
In any case, the situation had become far more complicated than he’d imagined.
The large-scale rapid portal he’d opened to sow chaos had been completely wrecked by a single bolt of red lightning.
Gathering that many dimensional entities again wouldn’t be easy, not even for Fantasy-32.
Kwoong!
Just then.
The yokai that had been moving toward the hunters on Song Hyeok-seo's command suddenly slammed into an invisible wall, piling up on the spot.
As Song Hyeok-seo's eyes narrowed at the sight, a figure descended from the sky, walking on air.
The woman holding a talisman in her hand was none other than his twin sister, Song Se-hee.
What had stopped the yokai was a barrier she had erected.
“What am I supposed to do if you come to stop me?”
“How can I not stop my twin brother when he’s doing something so stupid?”
It seemed she had steeled her resolve.
She was even wearing the same outfit she used to wear as a Spirit Mage.
Seeing her, Song Hyeok-seo let out a long sigh.
He was trying to save her, yet his own twin sister shows up just to get in his way.
Why was someone with so little time left so eager to die?
“Se-hee.”
As Ryeongju, Se-hee had certainly achieved greatness, enough to have been his equal in the past.
As proof, even in her spirit form, she was at the level of an A-rank returnee.
If she could just regain her physical body, becoming an S-rank wouldn't be difficult.
But that also meant that in her current spirit form, she was no match for Song Hyeok-seo.
She couldn't stop him alone.
“Stop this foolishness and stay out of it.”
“Bullshit. You’re the one being foolish, you damn brother.”
Se-hee scowled, spitting out a curse she’d learned from Ran.
“Domi found a solution.”
“A solution? You mean something like Ha Si-ho getting your body back for you?”
“It’s similar, but different. I was in a state where I couldn't have survived even if she just brought my body back. I can't be revived without Domi's acquaintance.”
“Well, that’s great. Thanks to Domi, you were stopped from doing something stupid, weren’t you? I should thank the guy. That was a close call.”
As he spoke, Song Hyeok-seo began to stir the shadows at his feet.
Knowing what that meant, Se-hee's gaze sharpened.
“You said you were going to thank him.”
“Se-hee, the premise of what you're saying is still the same, isn't it?”
Hearing his words, Se-hee bit her lip.
He was right. For her to live, she still needed Ha Si-ho's help to bring back her body.
Nothing had changed.
There was just one more step required for her to live.
“Let me ask one more thing. Can that Ha Si-ho girl teleport your body here right away?”
“…She said she could.”
“You know your eyebrows scrunch up when you lie, right?”
“Ugh, why would you know something like that!”
“How could I not know, after seeing your face for so many years?”
Song Hyeok-seo let out a dry laugh as he looked at her.
In his desperation to save Se-hee, he too had continuously studied dimensional phenomena.
After joining Girasung, he'd studied even more, so he knew well just how difficult it was to retrieve a body swallowed by a dimensional rift.
All the so-called spatial ability users in Girasung had shaken their heads.
They told him it was not only impossible to even attempt but also incredibly dangerous.
Ha Si-ho, the most exceptional of all spatial ability users, was someone who could make such an attempt.
Even so, her current situation was one that even Ha Si-ho couldn't be certain about.
Perhaps later, after honing her spatial abilities further, she might be able to resolve this easily and without risk.
But that would be later.
By then, Se-hee would be gone.
“Everyone said they'd help! Song Hyeok-seo, you fucking pigheaded bastard! Ms. Ha Si-ho might not be able to bring my body here directly, but she said she could open a portal nearby and Heavenly Demon would bring it through. That's enough, isn't it!”
“Se-hee.”
Song Hyeok-seo quietly looked up at Se-hee.
“You're going to die soon.”
And with those words, his reason for doing all this was made clear.
“Our parents died in a car accident, a side effect of when we got caught in that dimensional shift. Didn't they.”
When they returned to Earth, their parents were gone.
They had a few distant relatives, but they’d lost contact with them over the long years since their return.
“You're the only family I have left.”
The only one.
The one and only thing Song Hyeok-seo wanted to protect, both in Gihangjeon and on Earth.
Even Song Hyeok-seo felt anguished by how difficult it was to protect that one person.
But for that one person he wanted to protect, he was willing to sell his soul to the devil.
“Even if the probability of you living is 99 percent, I'll do anything to raise that last 1 percent.”
Because that's what family is.
How could he just stand by and do nothing when his family was on the verge of death?
To Song Hyeok-seo, Ha Si-ho was like a doctor.
An intern—talented, but inexperienced.
A doctor about to perform the first surgery of its kind, one no one had ever attempted before.
In the end, Ha Si-ho represented uncertainty to him.
The awakening caused by such 'doping' could momentarily push Si-ho's spatial abilities to their absolute extreme.
The kind of extreme focus that comes from being on the brink of life and death.
The power of this doping was that it could maximize the efficiency of her spatial teleportation.
That alone would increase the accuracy of retrieving Se-hee's body several times over.
Doping was the power to forcibly drag one's future potential into the present.
That fact alone was enough for Song Hyeok-seo to choose this method.
Because sacrificing Ha Si-ho was the one thing that would increase the chances of Se-hee's survival.
“You've dragged so many innocent people into this, so what right do you have to say it's for me? Where in any of this is something for me? Please, I'm telling you not to do it. Why do you never listen to me….”
Seeing her tearful plea, Song Hyeok-seo closed his eyes.
“…I'm sorry. It seems this is the only way I know how.”
But Song Hyeok-seo knew.
That even if their situations were reversed, Se-hee would have done the exact same thing.
Because they were twins.
And knowing that, Song Hyeok-seo was prepared to use every means at his disposal, even if it meant Se-hee would come to hate him.
That was his one remaining conviction.
Boom! Kwaang!
At that moment, the sounds of explosions and combat erupted from beyond the barrier.
Ha-chan had blown away most of the dimensional entities, but Girasung had already infiltrated Korea directly.
Unable to rely on the dimensional entities, Girasung had no choice but to cause chaos themselves.
Either way, Ha Si-ho would still have to use her power to close the large-scale rapid portal.
‘If Ha Si-ho is going to make her move, it's now.’
With the dimensional entities blocked, now was the best time to close the portal.
She must be pouring her power into it.
Knowing this full well, Song Hyeok-seo gripped his shadow greatsword as he watched Se-hee throw a talisman at him.
“Just sleep for a little while.”
Everything will be resolved when you wake up.
*
Haa, hoo.
After blowing away the dimensional entities from the large-scale rapid portal, I was catching my breath.
We were on the rooftop of a building in Jung-gu.
Firing a full-power Brain Thunder for the first time in a while still put a strain on my body.
I only had one shot left for today.
Feeling a strange sense of exhaustion from the aftereffects of using Brain Thunder, I lowered Thunderbolt and looked back at Si-ho.
“Si-ho, can you do it?”
Hearing my question, Si-ho was already reaching her hand toward the sky.
The flow of air around her had changed long ago.
After sending her mother back yesterday, Si-ho had begun to fully reclaim her abilities, and her spatial powers had already far surpassed human comprehension.
“Manager, it's me, Si-ho.”
And so, a confident smile spread across Si-ho's face.
“Leave it to Si-ho.”
That Si-ho was the most reliable hunter on our team.
“But how long are you going to stay like that?”
The problem was that Si-ho's eyes were currently quite sharp.
I glanced at the person behind me.
There was Juksim, wearing a hood and burying her face in my back, refusing to let go.
She had come along after I told Seol-hyang the news, but she’d been like this ever since we got in the car.
She could handle it at home, but it seemed she couldn't handle being outside.
Eunnamu went to help evacuate civilians, and Eva-noona said she had something to do. I hope they're both okay.
Kwoong! Kwagang!
Just then, various noises echoed from the distance.
As expected, the Girasung members who had infiltrated Korea were launching an attack in place of the dimensional entities.
“Seol-hyang.”
“Yes, everyone is already on the move.”
Seol-hyang, who was receiving updates next to me, spoke as if to tell me not to worry.
After hearing news of Girasung's attack, Seol-hyang had immediately summoned returnees from all over the world.
Since Girasung had concentrated their forces in Korea, she had called in other returnees to avoid being outnumbered.
As a result, Orjia and others were moving to confront Girasung.
It was truly an all-out war between the World Returnee Association and Girasung.
I felt a sense of responsibility for this all-out war.
“Don't worry.”
Seeing me, Seol-hyang gave her usual reliable smile.
“The World Returnee Association I created cannot lose to the likes of Girasung.”
She was right.
If Girasung could have taken on the Returnee Association, they would have launched an all-out war from the beginning.
The reason they hadn't was that they were far inferior in terms of military strength.
The World Returnee Association is invincible, and my childhood friend is a god.
There was no need for pointless worry.
“Huh?”
Just then, a surprised sound escaped Si-ho's lips, as if she'd seen something unexpected.
The moment I looked at Si-ho, her face was filled with bewilderment. At that same moment, the dimensional entities I had clearly wiped out were swarming in the sky again.
“What? How!”
“Is it him.”
As I panicked and quickly tried to draw Thunderbolt, Baeksan, who was looking up at the sky, spoke.
If it's him...
“It's the immortal, Lü Xiao, the culprit who overthrew Beijing.”
The incident that occurred during the fall of Beijing.
China, with its vast territory, had always been a place where dimensional gates opened frequently.
The main cause of that incident was the dimensional entities that had swarmed from all over China and laid waste to Beijing.
And the culprit behind it all was none other than the man called the immortal, Lü Xiao.
To some returnees, he was the spark of a revolution, but because he had killed even ordinary civilians unrelated to the incident, he was branded the worst criminal in history.
The World Returnee Association also stated that the underlying cause of the incident he started was a fundamental problem with the Chinese government.
But his criminal acts were impossible to condone.
He had single-handedly killed 30 million people, including those in the areas surrounding Beijing.
Furthermore, the unleashed dimensional entities had attacked other cities, causing the damage to grow to an uncontrollable scale.
He could only be called the worst criminal in history.
“The immortal… so he's finally made his move.”
Seol-hyang, seeming to have grasped the situation, was also looking at the sky with a frown.
“Seol-hyang, I can do it one more time…”
“No, the number of them is far smaller than before. It's right for us to handle this side.”
Saying that, Seol-hyang turned to a man sitting in front of a laptop, wearing blue-light-blocking goggles.
He was a returnee named Joo Sung-min, who was in charge of the entire returnee communication network.
“So I just need to tell them to put some effort into intercepting the dimensional entities?”
“Yes, please do. And contact Eunhyeon's side as well. Since the immortal has made his move…”
As she was speaking, Seol-hyang's words suddenly stopped.
“Kang Ha-chan.”
At the same time Baeksan called my name, a chilling sensation ran down my spine.
As my gaze slowly turned to the sky, I saw a woman standing perpendicularly on the outer wall of a building taller than ours.
Her head was not that of a human, but a dragon, and its whiskers fluttered gently in the wind.
The moment a sneer appeared on her lips, Seol-hyang shouted.
“Intercept!”
As soon as her words rang out, beams of light poured toward her from all directions.
But before the beams could even reach her, she swung her hand and they shattered as if distorted.
Seeing that, Seol-hyang's face contorted as she pulled on her gloves and turned back to Joo Sung-min.
“Announce that the S-rank returnee Yong Cheon-seong is here.”
There were a total of five known S-rank returnees in Girasung.
After Asura Song Hyeok-seo, Eunnamu, and the immortal Lü Xiao, the fourth S-rank returnee, Yong Cheon-seong—Karen Goldberg—had appeared.
“Hee-ha!”
She shattered the beams, let out a laugh, and plummeted downward.
However, she was soon stopped by an invisible barrier, halting in mid-air.
From the moment she heard the story from me, Seol-hyang had been preparing to face Girasung.
Naturally, she had also prepared a protective formation so that Si-ho could close the large-scale rapid portal without interruption.
But her opponent was an S-rank returnee.
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
No matter how strong the formation was, it couldn't hold forever. Yong Cheon-seong was frantically pounding on it with her dragon paws.
But that didn't last long.
Because a middle-aged man descended from the sky like a thunderbolt, grabbed her by the head, and threw her.
My eyes widened at the sight.
Flowing white hair, a sign of his age.
A black dobok.
Wrinkled, yet those wrinkles only added to his dignified middle-aged charm. The living legend of South Korea.
“G-Geumgangho!”
The moment I shouted in excitement, Seol-hyang and Si-ho shot me strange looks.
I let out a dry cough at my unintentional outburst and averted my gaze.