The Absolute's First Appearance (3)

"Eek! W-what are you even saying?!"

"Hahaha. Saying? I may not look it, but I'm human."

"Look out!"

A guttural roar tore through the tunnel. Behind me, a fish-man sheathed in ornate armor swung its weapon in a glittering arc.

The blade cut the air with a hiss. I had already read the strike through the Eye of Truth.

"You little shit. You dare interrupt a man while he's talking to a beauty?"

My hand closed around the beast's skull with a wet crunch.

"Heaven's Fall!"

I drove its head into the wall. The impact boomed through the stone, and the skull came apart like overripe fruit.

That was the opening bell. The real fight had begun.

I grabbed the nearest officer-looking beast by the leg without a shred of hesitation.

"Heaven's Fall!"

The tunnel shook.

"Let go of me, human!"

"Heaven's Fall!"

A thunderous crash rolled down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the passage. The marine beast in its rigid armor made a magnificent weapon — I used it like a living flail, pulverizing everything it touched.

"The captain's body is coming at us!"

"Dodge!"

"It's too hard! Argh!"

"Captain! What's wrong with you!"

So all that brutal training wasn't for nothing.

Han Jo-hyun flickered through my mind — the woman who had first inducted me into the Taiyu Extreme Way. She would be round as a melon by now. I needed to go see her. Jo-hyun, the doctor, Hanna — all of them. I had gotten so caught up trying to open a hospital that I had let every relationship in my life gather dust.

Another slam. The officer's voice cracked.

"L-let go of me!"

The thing was solid, I had to give it that. My attacks, coming from a mere level 22, were not doing the kind of damage I wanted. That did not mean it could pry itself out of my hands. Mana was pouring off me in sheets. The moment I started dumping internal energy without restraint, even this one stopped being able to guard properly.

My grip tightened. Fingers punched through the carapace and locked in place, anchored deeper than any handle. Years of oil-slicked martial training meant I did not need a grip in the first place. My swings grew uglier, more savage. Even I — a man who had spent his life as a doctor — was settling into combat with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a comfort that should have worried me.

"Heaven's Fall."

The officer's body detonated against a knot of its own troops.

"Aaaagh! Please! Ghhk—!"

"Heaven's Fall!"

Boom. Boom.

"My armor! My armor is cracking! Men! Somebody—!"

Not a single subordinate answered. Anyone who came to help would only meet their captain's armored bulk swinging down like a war hammer.

It thrashed and heaved, putting everything it had into breaking free. My hands might as well have been magnetized to the plate. They did not budge.

A sickening crack. A crunch of collapsing shell.

"Run!"

"Somebody help me! It's a monster!"

The moment I started using the beast as a flail in earnest, the rest of them broke and fled for the far end of the tunnel.

"Ghh… killed by a human…"

A level 22 putting down a beast that was pushing fifty. Apparently my combat ability was a few notches higher than I had given myself credit for.

That was when it happened.

A howl ripped out beside me. Flame-aura bloomed across the little fox's body, wrapping her in a coat of living fire.

She screamed — a high, piercing cry — and an ocean of flame roared from that tiny, almost cute mouth. The heat hit like a furnace door swinging open. Hundreds of fleeing beasts cooked where they stood.

"Gyaaaaah!"

"It burns!"

"Run faster!"

Melquibus sprang into being with a soft, bouncing rush of spirit-light and wrapped around me and the heroines, shielding us from the blast.

"Wow, Seonghun — you can use spirit arts too? That's amazing."

"You can tell at a glance that's an upper-rank spirit."

"No. That's Melquibus. The legendary one. Highest rank there is. They're half-demon, so they almost never take a contractor, and the strong ones are supposed to be right up there with the Spirit Kings."

"A legendary spirit? Whoa. That's so cool. Is there anything you can't do, Seonghun?"

By the time the fox closed her mouth, several hundred sea-beasts had been roasted through.

A choked cry. Shaft Air hit the ground. Large sections of her armor had been torn open, and through every rent the pale, flawless skin beneath showed without mercy.

"Are you all right?"

She pulled off her helmet as if the injury had finally given her permission. A cascade of soft gold spilled out of the steel.

I had never seen it. That silver helm threw light all day long; I had never thought to wonder what was underneath. The gap was unreal. She had been hiding a face like that the entire time.

"Wow."

"That's our Shaft for you."

"Gets me every single time."

"Haaah… my heart just skipped again."

She spent her life sealed inside that armor, face and figure both. The people around her could not help the sounds that came out of them.

"I think I've been poisoned," Shaft Air said, folding the blades of her armor back into the plates.

"You'll be fine. That's what the medical officer is here for, isn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it?"

"Y-yes…"

She had watched me treat patients with her own eyes. Her voice still shook, stripped of any confidence.

"All right. Clothes off."

"Ah — that's… I can't do anything without the armor. And without the mask I… nn. It's too embarrassing. I can barely get a word out."

Pathologically introverted. The kind of person who lost the ability to speak the moment her face was uncovered. She ducked her head, flushing to the roots of her hair.

"Hurry. You're losing strength, aren't you? The poison is spreading. You are not dying here."

I turned the Eye of Truth on her.

"Take the armor off. Now."

"Y-yes…"

A heavy clank, then a crash. The suit hit the ground like a collapsed building. Several tons of plate — and she had been moving in it like wind. No question she was the real thing.

"I'll examine you."

A pleased little trill. The fox wound herself around my neck like a living scarf, and I could feel her gaze locked, unblinking, on the heavy length between my legs.

I slid a finger into Shaft Air and tasted her. Pure. Soft-serve sweet. Virgins like this did not come along often. Under the mind-qi-body theory of virginity, a double virgin who cleared both the heart and the body was as rare as a unicorn. That said, a face like hers would have drawn attention no matter how hard she hid. Some kind of emotional exchange would have been unavoidable — which meant her qi was not virgin. Comparing her to Ryu Su-gyeong, who had achieved the triple, would have been a colossal insult. No. Wait. Su-gyeong had held her virginity for a full five hundred years. That made her a quadruple virgin. Purity concentrated across that many centuries was worth more than anything else in the world.

A beauty of this caliber. And still a virgin. With a personality this withdrawn, she probably had almost no relationships at all. That was how a face like this had stayed untouched.

"Ah—!"

The fox at my throat trilled again, brighter this time, grinning with her whole small body. She was enjoying the show — watching Shaft Air, a beauty you almost never saw unmasked, come apart under my hands. A voyeuristic little fire-fox. She was on the express train to becoming my pet. I was going to have to lay puppy pads down at home.

"P-please don't look at my face…"

"You're cute."

"Don't! D-don't look! Don't look at my fa—ahh♡!"

Wet sounds answered every stroke of my fingers.

What if it isn't instant? What if it just ticks down slowly over half a day?

Do that.

Twenty points to save a virgin I was about to take anyway. The points I would earn off her would more than cover it.

"You really shouldn't look at my face."

She tried to hide that pretty face behind both hands.

"You're more than beautiful enough."

"Eek! If you say things like th—nnnh♡"

She came. A sudden, helpless gush, just from a handful of words. I had not expected to send a woman over the edge with conversation alone. She was even more withdrawn than I had thought.

I turned my fingers.

Pregnancy-acceleration secretion. Use it.

I let a thin thread of the fluid spill across her clit.

"I'll treat that shyness of yours while I'm at it."

"Huh?"

"Two birds, one stone."

"Y-you can treat thaaaat too—♡"

My index finger finished becoming a tentacle and pushed into her, pumping the secretion straight into her womb.

Ten minutes later.

"Nnhhh—please get me pregnant! Please! I'm begging you!"

The shyness had been thoroughly "cured." If we kept her in this state, there would definitely be progress.

"Oh my god. Is that really the same stuck-up Shaft unnie?"

"Look at her. Dripping like that with everyone watching."

"Wow, I kind of want in. Come to think of it, didn't you say you were into her?"

"Shut up!"

Wet, filthy sounds filled the tunnel. Shaft Air was past hearing any of them.

"Haaahn! Haaang♡ Fill my womb with your babies, Seonghun! I can't see anything else anymore! Arrrrrh—!"

A raw, shameless howl answered her. Cheon Yu-ha, the lewd little fire-fox, was losing her mind. Shaft Air — who had always looked like a painting, silent and pure — had gone into heat, and the fox had gone with her.

Something warm dripped onto my neck, right where the fox was coiled like a scarf.

"Happy! What the hell is that? Did you just come on me?"

The fox tipped her head, looking up at me as if to ask why I was calling her Happy.

"Don't give me that look. You dare finish on your master's shoulder?"

She trilled in protest.

"Talking back? Bad fox."

I flicked her muzzle and the tip of her nose. She yelped and thrashed.

"You dare snap at your master?"

A low growl rolled out of her throat — and in that same instant Shaft Air lunged, still squirting, and took me into her mouth.

"Chuurp♡ Haaah♡ A cock like this shouldn't even exist…!"

"Nn— we haven't even started treatment and you're already throwing yourself at it. That's some motivation."

I pushed my fingers back into her soaked cunt. She clenched around them with a filthy squelch.

"Please, just once! No — ten times! A hundred times! Get me pregnant!"

"The treatment is working better than expected. No more shyness, I take it? Doing something this obscene with an audience."

"Cock! Give me your cock♡ Seonghun, shove it in my pussy♡ I don't care about anything else anymore! Please!"

"Then I'll go in. Hup—"

She was so wet I could have sworn I had stepped into a swimming pool. I drove into her and ruined that virginity in a single stroke. Blood traced the line of her groin and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dripped to the stone.

"Nnhhh♡"

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"It feels good♡ It feels so good♡ Please get me pregnant♡"

I groaned. She screamed — a long, broken, ecstatic wail — and I came, pulse after pulse, until her womb overflowed. Seed ran down through her, over her perineum, across her ass, and pooled on the floor in a shining puddle.

The fire-fox slid off my neck, dropped to the ground, and started lapping at the puddle with quick, greedy little flicks of her tongue. Heart-shaped flames sparked off her fur like static. She made a sound of pure bliss, then — of course she did — buried her muzzle against Shaft Air's freshly deflowered cunt and started sucking the rest of it out of her.

"Happy! Wait. Your master just punished you and you're ignoring me?"

A stubborn growl.

"You dare talk back again? Fine. I'm leaving you here."

"Woof!"

"Happy lives here now. I'm going somewhere else with everyone."

Cheon Yu-ha was on her feet beside my leg before I finished the sentence.

"Over there. Go."

I gave her a light shove. She whimpered.

"I'm letting it slide this once. Understood?"

"Woof!"

I scratched her between the ears. How was I supposed to train this thing? Had there been a taming manual somewhere in the lab?

Eye of Truth. Anything on taming?

Pull it up.

Text unspooled in front of my eyes in a long, whispering scroll. I read through the methods, and I smiled.

"Happy. You're coming with me. Climb on."

"Woof!"

She scrambled up and coiled around my neck again, a living scarf with a heartbeat. Cheon Yu-ha had been gone on me for a while now. That did not mean I had any intention of loving her as a woman.

Then again… Choi Yeo-jin could have used a friend.

I scratched the fox's head, smiling a little. She shivered under my hand and trilled, bright and happy, with no idea at all what her future looked like.