Chapter 53
Chapter 53
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: My Hero (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The situation was spiraling into the worst possible scenario.
Shin, the sole remaining mighty dragon in this world and a grotesque of the Society on the same level as Zero One.
Alchemi, the monster that had devoured Yubyeol-ha's parents and left an indelible trauma on her life—a grotesque of the Society.
"I warned you plenty of times, Dracula. You're the one who got arrogant and ignored them."
Mimir, the only witch in this world capable of unraveling Zero One's magic, and the Society grotesque managing Academy City's monsters in Aria's stead.
And the Society grotesques still lurking in the shadows, awaiting orders, now blocked our path.
The Society had come far more prepared to generate a Rift than in the original story. This was the price of me twisting the tale.
I'd expected variables to arise. But I'd misjudged, thinking Lee Gyeo-ul and Yubyeol-ha's power would be enough to handle them.
I closed my eyes. Sorted through my thoughts step by step.
Was this an unwinnable matchup?
Yubyeol-ha hadn't overcome her trauma yet, and Lee Gyeo-ul's opponent was Shin, evaluated as one of the Society's top forces alongside Zero One.
The Federal Guidance Bureau was still scrambling to contain the chaos, and the allies Lee Gyeo-ul had called in were busy mopping up the Irregulars causing terror across the city.
Lee Gyeo-ul, Yubyeol-ha, and me. Could just the three of us clear the Society blocking our way and stop the Rift from opening?
"...I'll give you one last chance. Give up now. There's no way to beat the Society in this world. I'm not belittling your noble goals. I just want you to face reality—that it's impossible. I'll handle the betrayal somehow. So, Baek Do-hyun, just stop."
Mimir extended her hand.
The pale witch's hand looked remarkably warm.
Her voice brimmed with genuine sincerity, unfeigned. Mimir wanted to persuade me right up to the end.
If I took that hand, I wouldn't have to deal with these headaches anymore.
I could just move like a puppet under Zero One's orders, within the paradise he'd designed.
I could live on as a resident of his scripted utopia.
But.
"I don't fight battles I can't win."
My cool head commanded me to say that.
"And I want to live in the future I envision."
My burning heart commanded me to say that.
Scorching heat and biting cold swirled in my palms.
The two clashing energies converged on the same point.
"So right here, right now, I'll prove my resolve to Mimir."
Steam erupted where the opposing heats collided, enveloping the area.
My calculations were complete.
Sketches form from overlapping points and lines; paintings from layered colors.
There are no true impossibilities in this world.
Tiny cells gather to form a person; those people gather to form society.
All the divergences I've built up until now would turn the impossible into the possible.
"So stubborn to the end..."
From within the rising steam, I gazed at Yubyeol-ha.
She seemed quite startled by the sudden anomaly.
The first step to breaking this deadlock was her awakening.
I opened my Hypnotic Eyes.
The pentagram etched into my vision, and I invited her into the illusion.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Yubyeol-ha's fight with Alchemi was one-sided.
The enemy wasn't fast or overwhelmingly strong. It matched the strength of a Level 1 Dimensional Beast hologram she'd battled countless times in the training room.
She couldn't dominate it utterly, but she could certainly win.
Yet Yubyeol-ha was the one getting pushed back unilaterally.
Every time the grotesque man-faced lion's fangs filled her vision, images of her parents being devoured flashed in her mind, stiffening her arms.
Every time that horrific voice rang out, memories of cowering powerlessly in the wardrobe made her legs lock up.
Her sworn enemy was right before her eyes.
She had trained relentlessly, fought endlessly, all to kill that enemy—to eradicate the group it belonged to.
But why... why was she trembling in fear like this...?
The world's celebrated hero hunter had praised her.
Cadets, instructors, the media, officials—all hailed her as the top prospect, the world's greatest.
And yet here she was, too terrified to fight properly. Pathetic.
Utterly pathetic.
Self-loathing swallowed her like quicksand.
"You know how embarrassing this is, right, Yubyeol-ha?"
Before she knew it, she stood in a vast white expanse. Baek Do-hyun stared at her with eyes full of contempt.
"What the hell are you doing? If you're just going to shake like a leaf, why even swear revenge? Why put in all that effort until now? Why claw your way to become a hunter? Out of everyone I've seen, you're the most pathetic."
"......"
"If I were standing there instead of you, Alchemi's head would've been split in two by now."
Yubyeol-ha couldn't refute Baek Do-hyun's sharp words. He was right.
She hung her head, biting her lip hard.
Baek Do-hyun kept hurling loathing-filled words at her.
"Everyone praised you. The world's top prospect. The hunter to succeed Lee Gyeo-ul. The hero material to protect the world from Dimensional Beasts."
"But you don't even care about life as a hunter. You only climbed this far to wipe out the Society."
"And yet, living solely for revenge..."
"The people pinning their hopes on you are the pitiful ones."
Baek Do-hyun's red eyes pierced right through her.
It felt like being stripped naked.
He mercilessly tore into her pathetic core.
"Even your parents..."
"You think I want to be like this!?"
Yubyeol-ha cried out in fury. It was closer to a scream, laced with the screech of metal.
"I want to rip that bastard apart right now! Shove a blade into that disgusting face! Do you know how much I've... for this day..."
After her parents were killed by the man-faced lion, Yubyeol-ha's life had been hell.
Her childhood dreams shattered to pieces; trauma lingered in her mind, tormenting her for life.
Even eating—red-sauced meat looked like her dad's flesh. Listening to music—the singer's high notes sounded just like her mom's screams.
She despised her own fragile mental state, which couldn't even maintain daily life. She'd contemplated suicide countless times.
"I thought of revenge because... it was the only thing that eased my mind when I threw myself into it..."
Revenge wasn't a choice. It was survival.
The sole reason she could keep living in this world.
That's why she'd thrown herself into it completely.
"I hate my powerless self! I hate it! I know! That's why!"
If she didn't spew out the turmoil building inside, she couldn't breathe.
She poured out disjointed ramblings endlessly.
She knew they were messy, unsorted—but she just vomited them up.
Until her breathing grew ragged, she mindlessly purged her emotions. Then Baek Do-hyun stepped forward.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The atmosphere shifted starkly from her immersion in despair and fear.
Her expression had improved a bit; bloodshot eyes glared at me.
But Yubyeol-ha had only vented her pent-up feelings for now.
To spark real change in her, she needed a decisive trigger.
"No matter what you spew here, it doesn't change how pathetic you are. It's just excuses. So..."
I began weaving the illusion.
The canvas was a blank white world. What I painted: Yubyeol-ha's trauma.
Points connected into lines; colors began to fill in.
A deep, dark night.
A young girl hides in a wardrobe, peeking through a crack at the living room—where a brutal scene unfolds.
A hideous man-faced lion devours the girl's parents voraciously.
"Overcome it. It's just something that happened in the past."
I stood guard beside the girl huddled in the cramped wardrobe.
You're a woman with fierce pride who hates to lose.
You'll find a way to win, no matter what.
I'm right here, willing to say the harsh things you need to hear.
Break out of that eggshell world. Shatter the trauma trapping you. See the new world with your own eyes.
"You can do it."
Yubyeol-ha's trauma looped endlessly.
Like a video set to repeat. The illusion played on without end.
Until she overcame it, I stayed by her side.
At first, her breathing was ragged.
She tried to squeeze her eyes shut, but with me controlling her senses, resistance was futile.
She surrendered to the illusion, witnessing the trauma. I kept my gaze fixed alongside hers.
"You're not that powerless girl from the past anymore."
After about a hundred loops, her breathing began to slow.
"You could kill that man-faced lion right now."
After several hundred loops, her breathing steadied to calm.
She looked like an audience member who'd just finished watching a film. Quietly, I closed my eyes.
A writer has a pen; a painter, a brush.
What Yubyeol-ha needed most right now was undoubtedly...
I offered her the Death's Scythe I'd conjured in the illusion.
"Go smash it."
Yubyeol-ha smiled faintly at my words.
With an air of unprecedented relief, she strode forward.
The massive black scythe cleaved the man-faced lion in two.
And with that, the illusion crumbled.