Why Aren't You Cutting It Down?
When they finally came to,
they were standing in the middle of an endless, pitch-black sea that swayed beneath their feet.
"We're trapped again! Ah, seriously!"
Jin Muyeong snapped at Yoo Seon-woo.
"Do-hyeong told you not to go near it, but you just had to crawl over there anyway! What the hell is wrong with you, huh?!"
"Q-quiet! I had a p-plan for all of this!"
"Yeah, right. Like hell you did," Muyeong spat.
Leaving the bickering duo behind, Dohyun quickly scanned their surroundings.
A blood-red sky hung low overhead, and the pitch-black seawater, rising to their knees, swayed ominously.
...A sea this time?
It was the same method as yesterday—a spell that dragged people inside a painting.
The only difference was that this time, the scale was incomparably larger.
And then...
From far beyond the horizon,
a low, eerie wailing began to roll in over the waves.
"W-what the hell is that?!"
Jin Muyeong pointed a trembling finger.
A massive tidal wave was rising along the horizon.
And atop that black crest of water,
dark, shadowy figures were rising in droves.
They were bloated, waterlogged ghosts, their bloodshot eyes rolling wildly.
"Hehehehehe..."
"Kieeeeeek!"
A bizarre, hacking wail echoed out, sounding as if their lungs were choked with water.
The chilling shrieks rode the waves, reverberating in a spine-tingling echo.
Hundreds, thousands...
An uncountable horde of vengeful spirits was surging toward them atop the tsunami.
"Aaargh! What the hell are those things?!" Jin Muyeong screamed.
Now's my chance.
A faint smirk played on Yoo Seon-woo's lips.
Although they had all been dragged into this mess because of him, when he thought about it, wasn't this actually a good thing?
Since they were trapped inside a painting, it was only natural for a Spell Painter like him to step up and handle it.
Where else could he find such a perfect stage to reclaim the spotlight from that brat and show off the skills of a true master?
Besides, hadn't he just received a secret technique from the elders?
A painting must be countered with a painting.
A Spell Painter's work ultimately derived its power from the symbols depicted within it.
Just as sunflowers invited wealth and peonies brought prosperity.
Therefore, if one was trapped inside an enemy's painting...
one simply had to identify the core symbol of that painting and paint its natural counter to fight fire with fire.
"If they paint fire, extinguish it with water. If they unleash a beast, paint its natural predator."
"Clashing symbol against symbol to collapse the enemy's spell from within—that is the orthodox way."
Yoo Seon-woo quickly scanned his surroundings.
The core symbol...
The black waves filling every direction.
The answer was obvious.
The core of this domain was undoubtedly this massive tide.
In that case, he needed something that ruled over water.
An image immediately sprang to Yoo Seon-woo's mind.
A dragon.
A creature that commanded water, parted the waves, and ascended to the heavens.
It was the perfect counter.
Ha, I should have done this from the start.
"Everyone, step back!"
Yoo Seon-woo shouted grandly, unfurling a snow-white scroll from his robes.
He pulled out his brush and began to move it with rapid, fluid strokes.
Infusing every single scale and claw with his Spiritual Power, he painted a massive black dragon clutching a dragon orb in its jaws.
With the final stroke, the painting was completed in the blink of an eye.
Now, all he had to do was pour Spiritual Power through the tip of his brush to bring the painting to life.
"Wait!"
Dohyun's urgent voice rang out.
"You shouldn't do that!"
But Yoo Seon-woo merely snorted.
"Hmph! Trying to steal my glory, are we? Not this time!"
Ignoring the warning, Yoo Seon-woo placed his hand on the painting and channeled his Spiritual Power with all his might.
With a soft rustle, the black dragon on the scroll broke free from the canvas and floated up into the air.
Grrrrr!
The living black dragon coiled its long body over the dark sea and roared.
This was the technique known as Painting the Dragon's Eyes.
It was a spell that breathed a final soul into a painted figure, summoning it into the physical world.
Even among Spell Painters, those who had reached this level could be counted on one hand. Yoo Seon-woo himself had only barely achieved it recently.
Roaaar!
The black dragon tore through the air, instantly sweeping away the vanguard of the sticky spirits surging from the black waves.
Witnessing its overwhelming power, Yoo Seon-woo spun around and bragged as if the battle were already won.
"Did you see that? This is the true skill of a Spell Painter—"
But something was wrong with the group's expressions.
In the brief moment Yoo Seon-woo had spent gloating, their faces had turned pale with horror, their eyes locked on the empty air behind him.
Sensing a sudden chill, Yoo Seon-woo's voice trailed off as he slowly turned around.
"...Huh?"
The black dragon, which should have been charging forward to part the waves, had ground to a halt in midair.
I told him not to do it. He just refuses to listen...
Dohyun clicked his tongue inwardly.
He understood what the man was trying to do, but it was the one thing he absolutely should not have done in this space.
Dohyun had harbored suspicions ever since he saw the structure that drained life force from the sunflower painting yesterday.
It didn't seem like a spell temporarily possessed by an evil spirit. Having checked the other paintings in the vault today, he was now certain.
For some reason, only the underlays of Master Cheongram's paintings had been designed with those trap-like circuits from the very beginning.
Wasn't the "Vengeful Spirit Transfer" itself a spell where a spirit rode into an engraved circuit and controlled it at will?
In other words, the entire domain unfolded by this painting was essentially a massive circuit of spiritual energy under the spirit's control.
If someone recklessly drew a new spell right in the middle of enemy territory...
...it would obviously be devoured by that spiritual energy.
And sure enough...
pitch-black spiritual energy surged up simultaneously from the dark waves all around them, like a starving beast that had just spotted its prey.
The black energy instantly coiled around the dragon's body.
Roaaar!
The eyes of the black dragon, which had been ascending so majestically with the orb in its mouth, dyed a deep, blood red.
"W-what is this?!"
Yoo Seon-woo shook the scroll in a panic.
"C-come down! That's an order! Sweep those bastards away right now!"
But the black dragon had long since broken free of his control.
It growled, slowly turning its head with those blood-red eyes.
Opening its crimson maw wide, it lunged straight down toward the creator who had brought it to life.
"Aaaaargh!"
"...Tsk."
The moment the black dragon lunged at Yoo Seon-woo,
Dohyun's hand moved first.
He pulled a blank talisman from inside his coat.
As he extended two fingers and concentrated his Spiritual Power onto it, a bright blue light coalesced.
In an instant, an inscription was engraved onto the talisman.
Dohyun threw it straight at the face of the charging black dragon.
The talisman erupted into blue flames in midair, striking the descending dragon's head dead-on.
The black dragon shrieked in agony, reeling violently in the air. Seizing the opening, Dohyun grabbed Yoo Seon-woo—who had collapsed to the ground in a daze—by the collar and yanked him back.
The dragon's massive body slammed down, crushing the exact spot where Yoo Seon-woo had been standing a second ago.
"H-heeeek!"
Yoo Seon-woo trembled like a leaf, sprawled on his backside.
He had truly almost died just now.
He had nearly been devoured by his own creation.
He panted heavily.
What on earth had gone wrong?
He had followed the secret technique perfectly. Why had the dragon he painted turned on him?
His mind went completely blank.
Step.
The brat stepped forward.
Dohyun looked down at the collapsed Yoo Seon-woo for a moment, then spoke nonchalantly.
"...For someone who calls himself a Spell Painter,"
"..."
"do you really not know how the spell inside a painting works?"
"...!"
Yoo Seon-woo's face contorted with rage.
"Y-you insolent—"
"This entire domain is a massive circuit flowing with that evil spirit's energy," Dohyun interrupted, his voice calm.
"The very fact that it trapped its prey inside the painting means it holds absolute control over this space. Did you really not even realize that?"
"H-how... how do you know that?!"
"Listen carefully."
Dohyun began to point out the flow of the domain's invisible spell, piece by piece.
He explained that the swaying of the waves and the surging horde of vengeful spirits all originated from a single line of the spell running along the seabed.
As Dohyun explained it without a single hitch, as if reading a map laid out right in front of him, Yoo Seon-woo looked up at him, his lips trembling.
Only then did Yoo Seon-woo realize.
The elders had been completely wrong.
And the feat this blacksmith had pulled off yesterday was by no means a fluke.
Leaving the stunned Yoo Seon-woo behind, Dohyun stared at the black tsunami carrying the horde of water ghosts.
It won't be as simple as yesterday.
With yesterday's sunflower painting, there had been a clear central point where the vines gathered.
But the spell in this painting was too massive and intricately tangled; he couldn't see a single core point to end it all at once.
...Which means...
A spirit couldn't exert this level of massive, sophisticated control over a temporary vessel.
In other words, this sea painting was the true lair of the vengeful spirit behind this entire incident.
Furthermore, ordinary attacks wouldn't work inside such a massive illusion.
Hadn't he already seen that in yesterday's sunflower illusion?
Even when he infused his Spiritual Power to slash the vines, they were formless illusions that only pretended to be cut before multiplying twofold, threefold.
The same went for that massive tsunami. Unless they severed the root of the underlying spell, slashing the water ghosts all day would only result in them spawning infinitely.
Well then. Is it about time to begin?
Heh.
A smirk spread across Dohyun's face.
This was actually perfect.
He had been wanting to see the performance of the sword he repaired yesterday with his own eyes anyway.
Dohyun slowly turned his head.
His gaze fell upon Kim Yu-ha, who stood frozen, clutching the sword he had repaired for her.
"Yu-ha?"
"...Y-yes?"
Yu-ha startled, looking back at Dohyun. Dohyun grinned, gesturing toward the black tsunami with his chin.
"What are you waiting for? Go cut it down."