Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Four Rabbits (3)
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‘What in the world is that?’
The priest, Jeong Jae-hwan, glared resentfully at the newly appeared intruder.
It was something clad in black from head to toe.
He knew the moment he saw it that it wasn't human.
If not human, then the only thing left was a monster.
But why would a monster, upon seeing people, attack another monster instead?
Jeong Jae-hwan simply couldn't comprehend it.
‘Could it be a special type?’
Jeong Jae-hwan had heard the rumors.
Some powerful monsters weren't interested in one-sided slaughter, seeking out only the strong to fight.
If that was the case, then his luck was just plain awful.
“Damn it. Why now of all times? Giant! Break that thing down first!”
Kuaaaah!
The Flame Giant swung its arm.
Several buildings crumbled, engulfed in flames, but the black knight remained completely unshaken.
The black knight moved nimbly through the air, swinging its sword.
The debris was sliced like tofu, losing momentum and plummeting to the ground.
The cutting speed was so immense that the wind pressure alone extinguished the flames on the buildings in an instant.
The knight didn't stop there, launching a slash at the giant.
In the blink of an eye, after dozens of strikes, it created the illusion that the giant's body had been split into pieces.
“J-Jun Bo-ra-ssi! What in the world is that!? Did you summon it!?”
“If I could summon something like that, I wouldn't be in this mess! It's probably Kim Se-hyeon!”
“What? Se-hyeon-ssi?”
Jun Bo-ra let out a laugh mixed with complex emotions.
*What is that? The gap between us is just too big.*
*Just a little while ago, I don't think the difference was this huge.*
A mix of sorrow and a strange sense of unfairness made Jun Bo-ra feel completely drained.
“A troublesome pest…”
Jeong Jae-hwan ground his teeth, but his mind was working coolly.
The original goal was the destruction of the residential area, not the annihilation of the survivors.
The Flame Giant's entire body was made of fire, allowing for infinite regeneration, so it was possible to ignore the interruption and carry on with the mission.
In fact, its body had already been cut dozens of times, but it became whole again as if nothing had happened.
“Giant. Proceed with destroying the city as planned. You can ignore the survivors.”
[Kuaaaah!]
The giant let out a great roar.
The moment it was about to swing its arm, excited at the prospect of rampaging freely.
[Kuh?]
A red line was drawn in the air, and the giant's arm was severed.
‘What's this now?’
Jeong Jae-hwan frowned.
The Flame Giant's arm was cut off.
The Flame Giant's body was pure fire.
As such, being artificially severed was something that shouldn't have been possible.
‘It's just been cut from the main body, but it's still a mass of flames. Cutting it will only cause damage to the area below.’
Jeong Jae-hwan snorted, trying to ignore it.
That is, until the severed arm, contrary to his expectations, was engulfed by something black and vanished.
“Wh-what!?”
“Of all things, a Flame Giant. You made a really bad choice.”
“I agree. Looks like they didn't know who their enemy here was.”
Two figures walked out from the opposite side.
The two had different auras, but standing together, they gave the impression of a long-standing partnership.
Jun Bo-ra's face lit up as she recognized the newcomers.
“Kim Se-hyeon! And Han Hyeok-jun, too!”
“Sorry. We're late.”
The Flame Giant's severed arm faltered, then regenerated.
It was a body made of fire, after all.
It had never been truly severed.
Han Hyeok-jun gripped a sword redder than the flames in one hand and glared at the figure sitting on the giant's shoulder.
“Y-you…!”
Jeong Jae-hwan's face crumpled, and he fidgeted with his fingers incessantly, as if unable to bear it.
“You followed me all the way here, Han Hyeok-jun!!”
“I'll hunt you down until I've rooted out every last one of you. No matter where. Even if it's the deepest pit of hell.”
Han Hyeok-jun swung his sword twice more.
A red blade of energy flew out, but when the giant raised its arm to block, it was absorbed.
Jeong Jae-hwan, who had flinched for a moment, shouted triumphantly.
“Your power also controls fire. Do you really think you can defeat a monster born from fire!”
Han Hyeok-jun slowly turned his head to look at the Flame Giant.
A giant with its entire body ablaze.
Just from its appearance, one would assume fire wouldn't work on it.
“…Do you really think so?”
But, instead, Han Hyeok-jun smiled.
“If it were only that much power, I wouldn't have sought to obtain it.”
A line was drawn in the air.
Like a single red thread embedded in the sky.
Jeong Jae-hwan scoffed.
But in contrast to him, the giant, sensing danger instinctively, roared.
Fwooooosh!
“Wh-what!?”
The line that had looked so small began to suck in the nearby flames like a typhoon.
As the flames that made up the giant were sucked into the line, rendering it unable to maintain its form, it chose to shrink itself as a last resort.
The smile on Han Hyeok-jun's lips deepened.
It was a smirk directed at an opponent who had made the wrong choice.
“Authority implies mastery.”
The force sucking in the flames didn't diminish.
Even as the giant had its flames stolen again and again until it was less than a quarter of its original size.
From Jeong Jae-hwan's perspective, he couldn't help but feel desperate.
Because even now, the Flame Giant continued to shrink.
Swaaak!
The flames wavered unsteadily.
He couldn't completely control the Flame Giant's flames.
It was obvious if you thought about it for a moment.
After all, there was no way a player could so easily handle a monster whose original version was S-rank, even if this was a downgraded version.
Finding a glimmer of hope in that, the priest's eyes gleamed.
“After all that big talk, you're not perfect either!”
The flames gathered on the line were swallowed by darkness, starting from the edges.
Seeing Han Hyeok-jun's faint smile, the priest realized he had forgotten something.
Jeong Jae-hwan's body flinched.
It wasn't just Han Hyeok-jun.
Hadn't one more person appeared?
‘Who was that guy?’
Han Hyeok-jun's presence had been so overwhelming that he hadn't really noticed the other one.
But Jeong Jae-hwan remembered.
The other person's aura was no less than his.
If Han Hyeok-jun was like a blazing flame, revealing himself, the other was the opposite.
A chilling predator's terror, lying low like a swamp, ready to devour you the moment you showed a weakness.
In terms of danger, that one was higher.
Moreover, the black knight that had been causing trouble had vanished at some point.
Something was wrong.
Alarm bells rang in Jeong Jae-hwan's head.
‘I-I have to get away!’
“Where do you think you're going.”
A giant black spear tore through the air.
The head of the Flame Giant, which had shrunk to about three meters, vanished in an instant, and Jeong Jae-hwan lost his balance and fell from the ensuing explosion.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Step, step.
From a darkened alley, footsteps echoed.
Jeong Jae-hwan's pupils trembled ceaselessly.
They were just footsteps, but he felt something indescribable.
Step.
The footsteps stopped in front of the priest.
Darkness crept before the fallen Jeong Jae-hwan's eyes, urging him to get up.
‘What is this? What the hell is this!’
His breathing quickened.
He felt a chill, as if his blood were turning to ice.
The confidence that had filled him just moments ago was now completely gone.
‘Where did these guys come from…!’
Unable to even think of raising his head, he barely managed to lift his eyes.
And the moment he saw Kim Se-hyeon's smiling face.
Jeong Jae-hwan gasped.
“Caught you, tail.”
***
There's one thing about Han Hyeok-jun's character.
For some reason, he despises the Order, and his actions focus more on eliminating them than on preventing the apocalypse.
As Kwon Seong-shin said, if the Order had already infiltrated the residential area and was at work, I could use that as bait to lure Han Hyeok-jun.
Sure enough, just as I predicted, Han Hyeok-jun, who had been chasing the Order on his own regardless of this chapter's events, rushed here immediately.
Asking Choi Yeon-su to keep an eye on Han Hyeok-jun's movements turned out to be a great idea.
“What did you do with him?”
“Stripped him down to his underwear and tied him up. I also circulated some fire energy inside his body to neutralize any potential internal transmitters. I'll slowly dig the information out of him.”
“Most people would pass out if you put your fire energy into them.”
“If he faints, I'll just wake him up again. Until he spills everything, I won't let him die even if he wants to.”
Han Hyeok-jun's matter-of-fact tone sent a slight shiver down my spine.
Han Hyeok-jun is fundamentally a good person, but he shows no mercy when it comes to the Order.
I could already picture the priest wailing, begging for death.
‘Han Hyeok-jun will take care of that…’
There was still one problem left.
The unconscious Jo Min-ah wasn't waking up, even after some time had passed.
Jeong Ha-yeon, who was holding Jo Min-ah, didn't know what to do.
“Se-hyeon-ssi. Something's wrong with Min-ah. Her whole body is like a ball of fire…”
“Is it that bad? Maybe it's a severe fever… Ouch, hot! What is this? Can a fever even get this high?”
Jun Bo-ra, who had placed her hand on Jo Min-ah's forehead to check her temperature, pulled it back in surprise.
The heat was so intense it slightly reddened her hand, as if she'd been burned.
Seeing that, Han Hyeok-jun frowned slightly.
“This is…”
Normally, a person would die from such a high fever.
But this was a little different.
A phenomenon that would never occur in an ordinary person.
“It's a power overload.”
“Overload…?”
“Aaaaaah!”
Jo Min-ah, who had been struggling to breathe, suddenly screamed.
Fwoooosh!
As if something trapped in her small body was being released, blue flames spread out in all directions.
Jeong Ha-yeon, who was holding Jo Min-ah, was saved from being engulfed thanks to Jun Bo-ra teleporting her away just in time.
“Ah, aah…”
Blue flames flickered in all directions.
As if in pain, Jo Min-ah writhed and moaned.
Each time, the flames would flare up and then die down, repeating the cycle.
“Se-hyeon-ssi! You just said it's a power overload, right!? Do you know something about this?”
“It's a phenomenon that occurs when someone who isn't used to their ability uses it excessively. On top of that, Blue Flame is an S-rank power, so it's more severe than usual. But even considering that, it shouldn't be this serious…”
Jun Bo-ra explained in my stead, biting her nails.
Han Hyeok-jun, who had been quietly observing Jo Min-ah's condition, added.
“It must be compounded by mana exhaustion.”
“Mana exhaustion?”
“Stamina and mana. The two factors that sustain life. Mana is consumed when using abilities. You need to maintain a certain amount of both to function properly, but this phenomenon occurs when you use so much that it endangers your life.”
Kwon Seong-shin's Malignant Mutation was also S-rank.
Even with Blue Flame, the amount of power Jo Min-ah must have used to eliminate all of that was considerable.
Moreover, all those Dark Moon members must have been spreading it all over the residential area, and she must have used her power nonstop to stop it all.
‘Damn it.’
This is my fault.
I thought she'd be fine since she had awakened the power of Blue Flame and learned to control it to some extent.
I only just realized that, burdened by the responsibility of being helpful to me, she never showed how much she was struggling.
“Wait, Han Hyeok-jun-nim, you're good with fire, aren't you? Can't you help control that?”
“…I'm sorry to say, but it's impossible.”
Han Hyeok-jun shook his head with a troubled expression.
Han Hyeok-jun possesses the Authority of Flames.
He could forcibly rip fire from the Flame Giant, meaning he could control any fire, even an enemy's.
However, this case was different.
Jo Min-ah's Blue Flame was so different in nature from Han Hyeok-jun's fire that he couldn't interfere with its control.
In fact, a misstep could lead to his own flames being devoured by the Blue Flame.
‘…Wait a minute?’
Suddenly, I recalled what Han Hyeok-jun had said earlier.
That he'd circulated fire energy inside the priest's body to burn out any potential transmitters.
An idea flashed through my mind like lightning.
“I'll try to treat her.”
