The Corrupted Thunder Beast
Half a month until the cardinal arrives.
After checking the calendar on his phone, Do-ha surveyed his surroundings. His current location was Panmun Station — a place once known as the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
"Yaaawn…"
Canteas, who had come along with Do-ha, stretched and yawned. He hadn't slept properly in ages, thanks to the dragon dismantling. If Do-ha hadn't returned from Moorim and lent a hand, the work would have dragged on another two weeks at least. As it was, they were nearly finished.
"Ugh, I'm so sleepy."
"You should've gone to bed early instead of gaming."
"…I don't even have time to game these days, you know?"
Canteas shot Do-ha a sulky look. The barricades sealing off Paju had been cleared in a single day. The real problem, as mentioned, was the dragon dismantling — it had taken far too long. Peeling off a single scale took more than five minutes, and a dragon had no shortage of scales.
"You should've drawn on your main body's power every now and then."
"You knew?"
During the Wave, Canteas had briefly returned to his true form — but Do-ha hadn't been there. By the time Do-ha arrived, the power had already faded.
"I felt your power when I came out of the Abyss."
"I don't want to just borrow power here and there either — I want my main body back… Anyway."
Canteas let out a long sigh and looked over the moss-choked ruins of Panmun Station.
"So who gets this North Korean land?"
Was Do-ha going to claim this entire vast territory for himself?
"North Korean territory is now South Korean soil. It's not mine."
Paju had still had landowners, and Do-ha had purchased those plots — that was how he'd become the owner. North Korea, by contrast, had been abandoned land, only now reclaimable by the South.
"There's fewer monsters than I expected, though."
Crossing into the North, Canteas had assumed every street, alley, and abandoned building would be crawling with them. That was exactly how it had been when they retook Paju — monsters packed into every structure, ready to pour out at the slightest noise. But North Korea felt more like an empty, deserted city.
"Most of them are already dead."
"Huh?"
"Honestly, you idiot. There was a Wave not long ago, remember?"
The monsters that had been on the North Korean side had mostly poured south into Korea. When the Gate-spawned monsters began charging south with their deafening roars, the ones living in the North got swept along with them.
"Ah, no wonder… there were so many of them."
Canteas finally nodded. So that was why the monster numbers had been so absurd — the North Korean population had joined the party.
"So that makes the job easier, then?"
"It does. Still going to take a while, though. The land itself is huge."
"Please. This size is nothing."
Canteas snorted at Do-ha's words. Belhart was several times larger than Earth. Even the Western Continent alone was roughly the size of Russia, China, and Canada combined. After living in a world like that, North Korea hardly registered.
"Then you clear everything from here to Pyongyang."
"Where's Pyongyang?"
Do-ha pulled up a map and showed him.
"Ah, got it. What about you?"
"I'll start from Mount Kumgang and push north. We split the land in half. I take the east, you take the west."
"Understood."
"There'll still be monsters scattered around, so deal with them properly as you go."
"Finishing it all today?"
"No. Let's take it slow."
If the place had been swarming with monsters, they would have hunted hard. But it wasn't. This was Do-ha's first time setting foot on this land, and he intended to comb through every corner and see what was there.
"You want to hunt until the cardinal shows up, right?"
"Exactly."
Do-ha nodded. He didn't know what the cardinal on Earth would be like, but he had faced cardinals in Belhart more than once.
They're right under the Pope — seriously strong.
If Earth's cardinal was anywhere near that level, Do-ha — still only at the early stages of Hwa-gyeong, the Transcendent Realm — might struggle. Fighting North Korean monsters would be the perfect way to push himself toward full mastery.
"If you run into anything too tough, call me."
"Coming to help?"
"As if. I just want to watch you struggle."
Do-ha shrugged, then activated Noeryeongsinbo and vanished in a single step.
"You absolute bastard. Hope you trip and fall flat on your face."
With nothing left but curses, Canteas summoned his undead.
A deep rumble rolled across the ground.
"Let's go."
He could casually raise five thousand undead now. Canteas set about clearing the area.
A fierce wind howled.
"What is this place?"
Having swept the coastal line from Mount Kumgang northward, Do-ha frowned at the sudden change in weather. According to the map, he should have been standing at Wonsan International Airport. Instead, snow had swallowed everything. The temperature around him was so low that the entire area had frozen solid.
Hmm. This isn't normal.
Do-ha narrowed his eyes at the sea. Snow and a cutting wind were one thing — but how had the ocean frozen? Not the entire sea, of course, only the waters around the airport, but still.
The weather only turned like this once I got close.
He stopped in place and spread his qi sense. Unnatural conditions like this almost always had an external cause.
What kind of energy is this?
Do-ha tilted his head. It wasn't internal energy, nor mana, nor the aura of a monster. Something strange and subtle was woven into the driving snow.
"It's strongest toward the middle."
Sparks crackled. Do-ha activated Noeryeongsinbo and shot west. The farther he moved toward the center, the stronger the energy grew — and the more violently the weather shifted.
Thunder rolled. Rain poured down in sheets.
"Huh… it's raining here."
Arriving at the former site of the Masikryong Ski Resort, Do-ha looked up. The coast had been a blizzard; here, a massive thunderstorm was dumping torrential rain. Visibility dropped to less than two meters.
Something rustled.
"Hmm. Better get out of the rain first."
He stepped into one of the ski resort buildings. Years of abandonment had left the place in ruins.
"Looks like people fled here when the world went to hell."
Food, clothing, and relief supplies littered the surroundings. Residents from nearby areas must have poured into the resort.
Then — a crackle of static.
"Just now…"
Something with a peculiar energy had flashed past outside the building. Another crackle. Then another.
No… it didn't pass by.
It was circling him. Had a living creature appeared and grown curious? Or was it angry at the intrusion? Whatever it was, it prowled around him with the leisure of something that could attack whenever it pleased.
"I don't know what you are, but you've got some nerve."
Do-ha moved first. He burst out of the building in a surge of power and immediately cast a spell.
Wind Storm.
He would have preferred Control Weather — to clear the skies entirely — but that was an Eighth-Circle spell, and he was still only Seventh. So he used Wind Storm to seize control of the rain and wind instead. If he couldn't erase it, he would weaponize it.
A howling gale rose.
"Show yourself."
As the storm whipped into a frenzy, Do-ha let the wind carry him into the sky. Static crackled. Then a continuous, searing hiss.
"There you are."
Whatever it was sensed Do-ha's power and fled at tremendous speed, hiding itself inside the lightning.
Fire Storm.
The controlled wind met the Fire Storm, and a colossal path of flame carved itself across the sky. Anyone watching from below would have sworn a dragon of fire was coiling through the heavens. The rain falling from above couldn't extinguish it — it simply evaporated on contact.
"Did you really think you could run?"
Do-ha swept his hand through the air. The dragon-like wall of fire turned and began tearing up the ground. Fortunately, the fleeing presence was running on land now — it had been airborne until Do-ha's magic forced it down.
The Fire Storm smashed through a mountainside and charged on. The creature changed direction again — straight toward Do-ha.
"Show me your face."
Do-ha clapped his hands together.
Hwaneum-yeyang-gong — First Form: Gokrakjo, the Curved Path Bird.
A sonic wave erupted outward in a devastating shockwave. The lightning surrounding the creature shattered, and its true form was revealed.
"That… is that a Thunder Beast?"
Still floating in the air, Do-ha's eyes widened. A Thunder Beast — a spirit creature with the mixed features of a cat and a weasel, and a body as large as a wolf. Legend said they soared through the skies during rain and thunderstorms, attacking living beings.
"A spirit beast, here in North Korea?"
The Thunder Beast screamed at the sky. Thunder answered. The rain intensified.
"Damn it…"
Do-ha sighed and shook his head. He had felt the energy the beast had released moments earlier.
"It's already been corrupted."
The creature before him was no longer a spirit beast — it was a yokai. Or rather, it was in the process of becoming one. The sacred energy of a spirit beast had been twisted by the malevolent nature of monsters. Spirit beasts and yokai were only a hair's breadth apart. The Imugi he had killed before was the same — a spirit beast that, once malevolence and poison took root, became a yokai overnight. That was why so few spirit beasts ever ascended to become divine beasts. They were fragile against malevolence, poison, and negative energy of every kind.
"First the Imugi, now you… nothing but tragic stories lately."
Do-ha exhaled. Neither the Imugi nor the Thunder Beast deserved to die. Both had been creatures that, given a little more time, might have become divine beasts. The Four Divine Beasts themselves — the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise — had all begun as ordinary animals, risen to spirit beasts, and finally become divine.
Lightning crackled around the Thunder Beast. Sensing Do-ha's power, it wrapped itself in thunder and tried to flee.
"My Noeryeongsinbo was inspired by creatures like you…"
Sparks leapt from Do-ha's body as he let out a quiet sigh. Killing it was a bitter necessity — but a spirit beast no longer, it had to die. Left alone, it would soon become a complete yokai and come south into Korea.
In a single instant, the distance between them vanished.
"Kyaak?!"
The Thunder Beast recoiled in shock.
"You merely borrow the power of lightning. I ride the lightning itself."
The difference was absolute. The Thunder Beast used thunder as a tool. Do-ha became the thunderbolt.
He drew Un-jeop-bi-jang. The least he could offer was a death without suffering.
The Thunder Beast shrieked.
Un-jeop-bi-jang punched clean through its heart.