Spared, Not Saved
Thud.
"Now, now, son. Don't be too hard on them."
Sensing the look in his grandson's eyes, Baek Chul patted Do-ha on the shoulder. These were situations that could be resolved with a simple conversation.
"Fine. Then step outside first. Hey — you three."
"Y-yes…?!"
"Yes!"
"M-me…?!"
Two members of the recovery team and one from the hunting team jolted in alarm and hurried over to Do-ha.
"You three take Grandfather outside and wait."
"Yes!"
Grab.
"Hold on a second, you little—"
Mass Teleport
Whoosh!
Before Baek Chul could get another word out, Do-ha teleported his grandfather straight to the entrance.
"I-it's an honor to meet you, Cheonwaecheon. I am…"
Do-ha stepped in close and offered Choi Tae-min a handshake.
"H-haha. A pleasure to meet you as well."
Choi Tae-min smiled and took Do-ha's hand. He'd expected the man to be furious — yet here he was, extending a handshake first.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"You sure ran your mouth earlier with that bullshit, didn't you? You fucking bastard."
Crunch!
Do-ha's face twisted into something demonic as he ripped Choi Tae-min's arm clean off.
Blood sprayed.
"Ghk— gyaaaaah!"
With his entire right shoulder torn away, Choi Tae-min screamed.
Grab!
"Shut up. Stop screeching."
Whoosh!
Boom!
Do-ha drove his fist forward and shattered every one of Choi Tae-min's ribs.
"Guh—!"
Choi Tae-min collapsed, writhing on the ground without even managing a proper scream — the broken ribs had punctured his lungs.
"Hey. You."
With a sharp rush of force, Do-ha yanked Kim Hoon in through telekinesis and seized him by the hair.
"This bastard's no prize either, but you're the one who pisses me off the most. You parasitic little bat."
Insects who latched onto the strong and ran their mouths.
"Y-you'll regret this if you keep going!!"
"Yoo'll wegwet thish if you keep going~"
As Kim Hoon shouted with his hair still clenched in Do-ha's fist, Do-ha tilted his head and parroted the words right back at him.
"And what exactly is a nobody like you going to do about it?"
Whoosh!
Crack!
Do-ha drove his fist straight into Kim Hoon's face.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
He poured energy only into the hand gripping the hair. The arm doing the punching was bare-fisted.
Kim Hoon crumpled. Only after the man's face had been beaten past any recognition did Do-ha finally let go of his hair.
He was dead now — though originally, Do-ha had planned to heal him a few times first. Then he remembered there were other people here. If he was going to thrash all of them, he needed to wrap this up at this level.
"You lot. Get over here."
"W-we're victims too! Because of Choi Tae-min's power and his authority in the guild, we had no choice but to—"
"Spare me the bullshit. You stood by and watched, and now you want to play the victim? You're all dying."
Do-ha started forward, seething — then stopped dead as something caught his eye.
"Huh? You were a cultist?"
He stared at the writhing Choi Tae-min in genuine surprise. On the inside of the man's sleeve was the mark of the Demon God Cult.
"Ah. No wonder you looked so familiar…"
Right after returning to his original world, he'd seen that cultist dressed as a knight. The hunter who'd been smiling through volunteer work. That had been Choi Tae-min.
So that was it. No wonder the face had nagged at him. At first he'd just assumed he'd seen the so-called star hunter on TV.
"Took me long enough to recognize the cultist who cosplayed as a good guy."
Back then, the cult mark had been embroidered on the outside of the clothes. Now it was hidden on the inside of the sleeve. Probably because the cult had been exposed to the world, and they'd started concealing their insignia.
Great Heal
A soft glow bloomed.
"?!"
The instant his body was restored, Choi Tae-min scrambled to his feet and backed away.
"Hah… hah… He healed me…?"
Gasping for breath, Choi Tae-min stared at Do-ha in blank confusion. Why heal him? Because he was a cult member?
"Did you heal me because you know I belong to the cult?"
"That's right."
"…Then that means you're with the cult as well—"
"What the hell are you talking about."
The sheer absurdity of the assumption made Do-ha scowl. The man was out of his mind. He could have just cursed him instead. Who was he calling a cultist?
"You're putting me on the same level as those insects who worship the Demon God?"
"…"
Choi Tae-min's expression hardened at the venom in Do-ha's words. Speaking like that, the man was clearly an enemy.
"There's only one reason I healed you."
"?"
"Is Horde Guild a front for the cult?"
The Choi Tae-min standing in front of him was a cultist. Given that he was A-rank, he was probably around the level of an Assistant Bishop. For someone like that to be operating out of a guild rather than the cult itself was more than enough grounds for suspicion.
"You think I'm going to tell you that?"
"Hah… Why is it that none of you ever just answer the first time you're asked?"
Do-ha let out a long, weary sigh at Choi Tae-min's attitude.
"Uuurgh…"
Skin nearly melted away, missing an arm and a leg, Choi Tae-min was moaning in agony.
"Is Horde Guild part of the cult?"
"N… no… Inside the guild… I'm the only cult member…"
What remained of Choi Tae-min opened his mouth slowly. Caught under the Honest Answer spell that forced truth from its target, he was spilling information.
"Hard to understand you. Let's fix that a little."
A soft glow bloomed again as Do-ha cast the spell without an incantation, and Choi Tae-min's form began to recover slightly.
Honest Answer only worked properly when the target's will was weak — drunk, grieving, or broken down by torture. That was when you got real information. So Do-ha had put Choi Tae-min through as much pain as possible. He'd overdone it a bit; the man had become hard to understand.
"Then what about other cult members?"
"There are none."
"Why were you operating out of a guild?"
"The cult selects guilds that are easy to swallow and dispatches personnel of Assistant Bishop rank or higher."
"And that's how you infiltrated Horde Guild?"
"Yes. That's correct."
"Hmm."
Do-ha narrowed his eyes. By that logic, the guild should have fallen into the cult's hands long ago. Choi Tae-min had been doing volunteer work under Horde Guild's name for over a year. If they still hadn't managed to properly absorb even a single guild, there was only one explanation.
New Age's activities have been choking off the cult's growth.
The seed he had planted was bearing fruit in the best possible direction. Do-ha smiled. This was exactly the outcome he'd hoped for when he saved Alteir.
"Are they embedded in other guilds too? Doksa Guild or Meteor Guild, for example…"
Doksa Guild, led by Han Se-ah. And Meteor Guild, where Kang Ji-hwan belonged. He was curious about those two. He'd already cross-checked them before relocating to Paju, but it never hurt to confirm again.
"There are none in Doksa or Meteor."
"Meaning there are some elsewhere. Where?"
With a cold gleam in his eyes, Do-ha committed every guild Choi Tae-min named to memory. He'd originally planned to let the cult on Earth grow further — but now that he knew, he would cut the infection out before it could spread like a disease.
"…That's all."
"Good."
Having extracted everything he needed, Do-ha released his hold on Choi Tae-min. The man was already too injured to even support his own weight.
Thud.
"I've got nothing left to ask you."
"Sp… spare…"
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong — Second Step: Mujegak
Crunch!
With an indifferent expression, Do-ha stomped down and crushed Choi Tae-min's skull.
"Well, well. He broke a seventh-circle spell in an instant?"
How strong must his will to live have been, to shatter the Honest Answer magic Do-ha had cast? He was an enemy — but that deserved some credit.
"Alright. Your turn now?"
He turned slowly. The remaining party members stood frozen, faces drained of color. Whether from witnessing Choi Tae-min's torture, or from watching Do-ha wipe out every monster inside the Gate in a single stroke, none of them even thought of running. They just stood there quietly.
"We have nothing to do with the c-cult!"
Having already overheard the exchange between the Cheonwaecheon and Choi Tae-min, the party members spoke up all at once.
"I know."
"Ah… aah…"
At his words, smiles of relief began to spread across their faces. Do-ha tilted his head at the sight.
"Why are you smiling?"
"E-excuse me…?"
"I said, why the hell are you smiling."
"B-because Cheonwaecheon knows we have no connection to the cult…"
"Are you people fucking stupid? Even if you're not cultists, I'm not letting you walk over what you did to my grandfather."
Choi Tae-min had already spilled every last one of the atrocities committed not just by the cult, but by Horde Guild itself. They'd sat right here and listened to all of it. As if he was going to forgive them just because they weren't cultists.
"Please spare us!"
As killing intent poured from Do-ha's eyes, every party member dropped to their knees.
"We'll live the rest of our lives atoning for everything we've done!"
"If you want to atone, you die. What's the point of doing it while you're still alive?"
"Please, have mercy…"
"Hmm…"
At their desperate pleas, Do-ha narrowed his eyes. Seeing them try so hard to repent, he supposed he could show a little generosity.
"Fine. I'll spare you."
"Ohh…"
Watching Do-ha nod, smiles bloomed on the party members' faces. It wasn't a guess — the words "I'll spare you" had actually come from the Cheonwaecheon's own mouth.
"Go on and live hard."
Press.
Tanji Gong
Tap-tap-tap!
The party members, their pressure points sealed by Tanji Gong, froze in place with startled eyes. He'd said he'd spare them — so what was this…?
"I just locked you in place for a bit, so don't worry. It'll wear off in about ten minutes."
Smiling, Do-ha bent down and picked something up off the floor.
"…You're not planning to destroy that, are you?"
What Do-ha held in his hand was the AS that would collapse the Gate. The party members' eyes went wide with panic.
"I am going to destroy it. The boss is already dead, and this Gate is near a city center — it's supposed to be cleared out anyway."
"You'll take us out with you, right?"
Do-ha's lips curled into a thin, cold smile. He squeezed.
Crack!
The AS shattered in his grip.
The Gate interior began to shake violently. It wasn't just the ground — the sky itself was trembling.
"U-uaaagh! The Gate is collapsing!"
While the party members screamed, Do-ha calmly extended his telekinesis and collected the mana stones at his leisure.
"I'm leaving."
"You said you'd spare us!!"
As Do-ha turned his back, the party members wailed.
"I did spare you."
"…What?"
"I said I'd spare you. I never said I'd take you out of the Gate with me."
"…"
Watching Do-ha shrug, every last one of them was struck speechless.
"Be grateful I didn't kill you myself."
Crackling energy surged.
Whoosh!
Do-ha unfolded Noeryeongsinbo and vanished from the spot in a single instant.