Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: Head of the Snake (6)
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‘Seriously, this woman.’
Is she saying she can’t be the only one to suffer?
Oh-jin, with a pale face, shot a resentful look at Ha-eun, who was still giving a detailed briefing on the two monsters' mating.
[My, my child.]
Vega, also seemingly deeply shocked by the unbelievable sight, staggered and landed on Oh-jin's head.
[I, I feel nauseous.]
“Same here.”
A brutal scene drenched in blood would have been better.
He never thought they’d screw him over in such an unexpected way.
“Hoo.”
Still, he had to figure out what those two boss-like monsters were up to.
Taking a deep breath to steel his resolve, he shifted his gaze to the two monsters tangled together.
“Ugh.”
Just as Ha-eun had described, a basketball-sized egg rolled out from the rear of the monster on the bottom.
The egg tumbled down below.
As if one wasn't enough, a second egg was already emerging from under the monster's rear.
“Oh-jin! Can I toast those bastards?!”
“Kill them in one shot before they try anything funny.”
He had to act before they could do anything else.
Nodding, Ha-eun touched the area around her left eye, the one without the eyepatch.
A fierce light poured from the Dragon Eye, and grotesque, tree-root-like veins bulged down to her neck.
“Ssssssp.”
Ha-eun stretched her hand out in front of her, palm open.
An immense flame compressed, creating a fist-sized red orb.
Dragon Orb.
The orb of annihilation, which extinguished everything it touched, took aim at the grotesquely intertwined monsters.
“Die, you things!”
There was no loud noise.
The moment the Dragon Orb pierced the bodies of the two monsters, their forms—which possessed yellow pupils reminiscent of a snake's eyes—turned to black ash and vanished.
It was an incredibly anticlimactic end for monsters that had been looking down on them so arrogantly from the start of the fight, like some evil organization's bosses.
“Huh…? They're really dead just from that?”
Ha-eun's eyes widened as she stared at the ashes that were once the monsters' bodies.
Of course, it was true that the Dragon Orb was a technique of immense power if it hit, though aiming it was difficult.
“…Feels a bit anticlimactic, though?”
She hadn't expected to be able to kill them so easily.
“Wait, Nunna. There's still one left.”
“Huh? What's left?”
“That egg.”
Oh-jin raised his spear, pulling his arm far back.
His target was the basketball-sized egg created by the two monsters mating.
The egg, which had rolled and fallen to the ground, was now wedged between some rocks, still intact.
One might think a freshly laid egg wouldn't be a big deal, but...
‘Better get rid of any potential threats beforehand.’
The two monsters' actions—suddenly mating to produce an egg.
That bizarre act, defying logic and reason, drenched Oh-jin in a thick sense of foreboding.
Just as he was about to deal with the yet-unborn life.
*Crack.*
The egg's surface began to crack.
‘What the hell, is it a Zergling?’
How could it be hatching less than thirty seconds after being laid?
Oh-jin didn't hesitate, powerfully swinging his drawn-back arm forward.
*Krrrrrr-rumble!*
With a thunderous roar, the spear shot forward at a furious speed.
The spear, brimming with blue lightning, pierced the egg.
And.
“Screeeeeeeeeeeech!”
A death cry echoed from between the broken eggshells.
With that desperate scream as its last, the hatchling from the egg was scorched by lightning without ever seeing the light of day.
[Mmm….]
Vega swallowed a groan, her expression complicated.
[I know it was necessary, but my heart feels heavy.]
Even if it was to eliminate a threat, there was an instinctive revulsion to burning a hatchling that hadn't even seen the light of day.
“Sorry. I had no choice.”
[No, it is not for you to apologize. Had I been in the same situation, I would have made the same choice.]
Vega fluttered over and sat on Oh-jin's head.
[I am a bit tired.]
“You used a lot of power, huh?”
[Still, I believe I can remain manifested for about another thirty minutes.]
“Then we need to find an exit quickly.”
It would be easier to find an escape route with Vega, who had a keen sense for rifts.
“Haa. They were truly horrible creatures.”
After neatly dealing with the remaining monsters.
Ha-eun swept back her sweat-dampened hair and looked with bitter eyes at the narrow crevice in the rock.
The sight of Cheon Sang-gil, dead and alone, his left chest torn open.
For the death of a giant who had been called Tamrangseong and had achieved countless heroic deeds, it was too empty, too insignificant a death.
“…Grandpa.”
Ha-eun bit her lip gently and clenched her fists.
While fighting frantically, she'd had no time to grieve, but now, gazing slowly at his body, a sharp pain like a knife cut deep into her heart.
“Let's go, Nunna.”
Rather than comforting Ha-eun, Oh-jin took her arm and led her away.
He wanted to recover Cheon Sang-gil's body, but there was no time.
“Isabella, how are things on your end?”
He approached Isabella, who had been blocking the main passage.
Around her, the corpses of nearly twice as many monsters as Oh-jin, Ha-eun, and Vega had dealt with together were piled up like a mountain.
This wasn't an exaggeration; they were truly piled high enough to climb.
‘She killed all those by herself?’
Oh-jin felt a chill run down his neck as he approached Isabella.
“Ah, Mr. Oh-jin? Have you taken care of everything on your side?”
Even for Isabella, dealing with this many monsters alone seemed to be quite draining, as her face looked quite gaunt.
“Yeah. We're done over there.”
“I just finished up over here, too.”
“By the way, did those things show up here too?”
“Those things?”
“You know, the ones with the ‘eyes’.”
“Hmm?”
Isabella tilted her head, as if she didn't understand what he was talking about.
“No. They didn't. Did something happen?”
“No, it's nothing.”
There was no need to describe that gruesome scene.
“Then let's hurry and find a way out of here.”
Oh-jin headed for the location the doppelgänger had told him about.
Behind a tall rock formation, a narrow path about five meters wide split into several branches.
“How about it, Vega? Do you feel anything?”
[Mmm. Wait a moment.]
Vega closed her eyes gently and placed both hands on her temples.
[Ah.]
A short gasp escaped her lips.
[Th-there is! A rift leading to Earth is nearby!]
At her excited voice, a sigh of relief escaped Oh-jin's lips.
[However… its energy is very weak.]
“Weak?”
[It is in a very precarious state, like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished.]
“We have to go now. Where is it?”
[Wait a moment. The energy is so weak it is difficult to find the direction.]
Vega once again placed her hands on her temples and concentrated.
[Hmm?]
“Did you find it?”
[No… it's not that I found it.]
Vega frowned and turned her head.
Not toward the branching paths, but back the way Oh-jin's party had come.
It was the place where the big battle with the horde of monsters had just occurred.
[A holy spirit…?]
“What?”
[Why is the energy of a holy spirit coming from there?]
Vega herself looked back down the path they'd come with a complicated expression, as if she couldn't understand it either.
[It is not just any holy spirit. It is very dark… and ominous.]
Almost as if.
A holy spirit exuding the same energy as a Black Star constellation.
That energy was felt from beyond the path Oh-jin's party had traveled.
[Hup!]
Vega, who had been concentrating with her eyes closed, suddenly snapped them open and shouted.
[W-we must run!]
“What?”
[Right now!]
Just as her urgent cry echoed.
*Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!!!!!*
The earth twisted.
The ground ripped apart as if a giant were tearing a wide sheet of paper, and the tall rock formations began to crumble.
“Mr. Oh-jin!”
“Keuk!”
“Kyaaaaaaak!”
Oh-jin quickly pulled Isabella and Ha-eun into his arms and kicked off the ground.
The ground where he had just been standing collapsed hundreds of meters below.
*Crackle!*
Oh-jin, who had jumped in mid-air using Lightning Step, turned his head toward the sound.
What was there was.
“What the... hell.”
An absurdly huge.
So terrifying it defied description.
Monster.
If the grotesque beast Oh-jin had fought earlier were to grow hundreds, thousands of times larger, it would look just like that.
“Oh-jin, is that…?”
“……”
Yes.
If the monsters Oh-jin had faced until now had a—'mother'.
It would be that very monster.
*Kurururung! Kwagwang!*
The monster, hundreds of meters in size, which had burst through the ground, looked around with its massive head, searching for something.
Unlike the special individual Oh-jin had seen before, the mother monster didn't have the yellow 'eyes' reminiscent of a snake.
But in place of eyes, it seemed to have other developed sensory organs, as it flared its nostrils, searching.
A tentacle sprouting from its back pulled something up from the collapsed ground.
The eggshell, scorched and burned crisp by the lightning, crumbled and fell into the bottomless pit.
“Kereuk, kereuk, kereuk.”
The mother monster heaved its massive body, letting out a bizarre cry, and flared its nostrils once more.
The monster's head, which had been looking around, stopped.
At the spot where Oh-jin stood.
━━━━━━━━!
A cry beyond the range of human hearing shook the surrounding land.
*Kururururung! Kwaaaang!*
Crushing the earth, the mother monster charged straight toward Oh-jin.
Thousands, tens of thousands of tentacles sprouting from its back shot out, aiming for Oh-jin.
“O-Oh-jin!”
“Dammit!”
Oh-jin urgently turned and stepped on the air.
But using Lightning Step while holding both Ha-eun and Isabella seemed to be too much, as he couldn't pick up speed.
“Put me down, Mr. Oh-jin!”
“O-Oh-jin, over there! There's still ground over there!”
Oh-jin nodded and landed on a patch of ground that hadn't yet collapsed.
*Chwaaaaak!*
The first dozens of tentacles to arrive targeted Oh-jin.
“Where do you think you're going!”
“Get lost, you things!”
Ha-eun and Isabella burned and tore apart the incoming tentacles.
“Vega! Which way is the exit you mentioned?”
[Th-that way!]
Vega extended her small hand, pointing in one direction.
In a space revealed by the collapsing cliff wall, a black rift about a meter in size was visible.
“Aack!”
“Ha-eun!”
Just then.
Ha-eun was struck by a tentacle, thrown back, and rolled across the ground.
“Agh…!”
She clutched her side as if her ribs were broken, letting out a pained groan.
“Nunna!”
Oh-jin headed for the rift, carrying Ha-eun.
The pursuing tentacles chased him fiercely.
‘Dammit!’
Because they were targeting him, it was difficult to dodge properly.
“Vega! Take Nunna and go first!”
[Understood!]
Vega enveloped Ha-eun in blue lightning and flew toward the black rift.
“Over here, you bastards!”
Meanwhile, Oh-jin acted as a decoy, drawing the tentacles' attention.
[Follow right behind!]
“Got it!”
Reaching the rift, Vega took Ha-eun through the black opening.
‘Alright, now I just need to send Isabella through and follow.’
He thought that would be the end of it.
“Huh?”
As soon as Ha-eun passed through, the black rift suddenly shrank to about 50 centimeters.
Oh-jin chewed his lip as he stared at the noticeably smaller rift.
Excluding Vega, who was small, the rift had shrunk by half just from one person passing through.
In other words.
“…Damn it.”
Himself and Isabella.
Only one of them could escape.