Chapter 54
Chapter 54
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: My Hero (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Back to reality. The steam was slowly clearing.
Time in the illusion didn't flow the same as in reality. Even if dozens of hours had passed in the illusion, the same amount of time hadn't elapsed here.
Though I'd rewound her trauma hundreds of times within the illusion, from the enemies' perspective, only a few short seconds had gone by.
So, naturally, they were stunned.
What on earth had happened in those few seconds while the steam obscured their vision?
Crackle! The red sparks had already turned black, swirling violently across the area.
A lightning storm raging centered on Yubyeol-ha. This meant her entire body had been eroded by the virus.
Erosion at 100%. Any ordinary psyker would have transformed into a dimensional beast long before reaching 50%, but she was different.
She was the one chosen human in this world who could dominate the virus.
"Looks like you've lost your mind. But no matter what tantrum you throw now, nothing changes. I'll kindly send you off to join your parents!"
Unlike the intact human-faced lion, Yubyeol-ha was a total wreck.
The human-faced lion kicked off the ground, charging forward and trying to ram her with its massive body.
Victory was written all over the human-faced lion's face.
But Yubyeol-ha was different now.
"Is that so?"
Sharp fangs peeked from the corners of Yubyeol-ha's lips as they curved into a grin.
They say the moment a chrysalis sheds its shell and a butterfly takes to the sky is called eclosion.
Yubyeol-ha stretched both hands toward the heavens. Her pose was elegant, like a magnificent butterfly unfurling its wings.
"I wonder if anything will really change."
A dazzling golden light blanketed the sky. It was so intense it threatened to steal sight from any who dared look directly at it.
From the glittering golden heavens, radiant beams of light poured down.
Rumble... Boom!!
The human-faced lion, unable to react to the light-speed strike, had a massive hole blasted through its body.
"Ah?"
Before it could even register the pain, another flash erupted.
Boom!! Boom!!
The beams hammered down relentlessly. The roar seemed to embody her fury.
Fury at having shattered her childhood self.
Fury at having stolen the lives of the people she loved most.
Her wrath became divine punishment, sweeping the area until every surrounding thing was obliterated.
"Gaaah!!!"
"Hyaah!!!"
The grotesque monsters hiding nearby were also caught in the heavenly wrath.
Mimir and I, within range ourselves, deployed our abilities to shield our bodies.
Was this what the Last Judgment from the Book of Revelation looked like? No trumpet announcing the end times rang out from an angel, yet the beams kept pouring endlessly.
Yubyeol-ha's judgment erased the concrete tomb without a trace.
A thick cloud of dust rose.
In the wasteland, the only one left standing was the red-haired girl.
The girl gazed up at the sky with a refreshed expression.
Though her body was a mess, it was painted in colors more vibrant than ever.
"Haaa... Baek Do-hyun."
Yubyeol-ha raised her thumb.
I responded to the bold girl's gesture with a smile.
The divine punishment that had rained down for several minutes finally ceased, and Yubyeol-ha sank to her knees right there.
"Can I leave the rest to you?"
"Yeah."
"Feeling kinda sleepy..."
Yubyeol-ha's eyelids slowly closed.
I conveyed my respect to the girl who had broken her limits.
"That was the coolest you've ever looked. Leave the rest to me."
With that, Yubyeol-ha passed out. I turned my head.
Mimir's panicked eyes filled my view.
"What trick did you pull? Just moments ago, she had no will to fight at all..."
The situation had reversed.
Lee Gyeo-ul and Shin were still locked in a brutal fight, but most of the monsters in the redevelopment zone had been wiped out.
All that remained were Mimir, the monster conducting the ritual, and Shin.
Mimir summoned her staff.
Though carved from dead wood, it brimmed with life, like a living branch.
The white witch gripped the staff tightly with both hands and glared at me.
"The irregulars causing the commotion have already been dealt with. No monsters remain to guard the ritual. I'd say that's more than enough proof of our sincerity, Mimir. Wouldn't you agree?"
"..."
"Join us in stopping the Society and sealing the rifts. If we cooperate and steadily pursue our plans, the future will surely brighten. Playing the hero... isn't it worth trying at least once? Help us, Mimir. We need your power."
"Why go that far..."
"Surrendering without resistance might be comfortable right now. But that comfort would be nothing more than a fleeting illusion, like a mirage."
A person can't deceive their own heart.
"I'm not the kind of monster who can stay sane staring at a ruined landscape like this."
The original me and the canon Baek Do-hyun were completely different beings.
From our mindsets to everything else, we stood as polar opposites with not a single similarity.
The original Baek Do-hyun might have been able to buy into the Society's vision of the future, but I couldn't.
Even if this world's original was just a creation by Han Seo-ah, the world I now stood in was real.
That's what I thought.
Setting aside ethics or conscience, I simply couldn't stomach the idea of the world I inhabited being destroyed, diminished, or controlled by someone else.
The path must be forged by one's own hands.
Not following someone else's predetermined road, but advancing along the one you choose.
No matter how arduous, if your desired future lay there, you had to walk it.
That was the conviction I'd built through my life so far.
Mimir raised her staff high.
"Waves crash and shatter, merging into one point. Without tears or pain, the tide surges forth..."
A tsunami rose.
A colossal wave taller than any building in Academy City.
"Flee, traveler!"
The tsunami sought to swallow everything on the ground.
The monster corpses, the buildings, Yubyeol-ha and me—it spared nothing.
Crack!!
The wave's wish went unfulfilled.
Starting from the base of the massive wave, a freezing cold snap turned everything to ice.
Crack, crack. Cracks spiderwebbed across the frozen wave.
It looked like a giant sculpture crumbling. Mimir's tsunami collapsed just like that.
Mimir and I breathed out white puffs of air as we stared at each other.
I extended my hand to her, and Mimir gazed at it for a long while.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The life of a monster is lonely.
It was only after modern times, with the advent of electronic communication, that monsters could finally stay in touch with each other.
Before that, contact was impossible territory, and even finding others of your kind was rare.
Monsters are inherently wanderers by nature.
After the Holy Roman Emperor designated Catholicism as the state religion, humans branded anyone remotely suspicious as a heretic and hounded them relentlessly.
Human tenacity and imagination are formidable.
Mimir, a young and beautiful woman with snow-white hair, had been accused of heresy for that reason alone.
They said she'd made a pact with the devil—though now, she could hardly remember the details.
As a witch, similar to humans yet distinctly different, Mimir rarely lasted five years in one place before being outed as a heretic and forced to flee.
The trauma from those times still tormented her to this day, which only deepened her timid and passive nature.
Anyway, Mimir was a wanderer too, but unlike most monsters, she genuinely wanted to be friends with humans.
Of course, she wasn't the only monster friendly toward humans. There was the vampire who, with impure motives, became a king to make his nation prosperous; the doppelganger who pitied humans dying in wars and became a saint to save her country as a national hero.
Beyond them, magic-using healers, mermaids guiding sailors, elves lending their forests—many monsters took a friendly stance toward humans.
But they all shared one trait: they died faster than those who avoided humans. Mimir knew this but didn't care.
Being alone is lonely.
She wasn't some iron-willed figure like Zero One.
Magic was enjoyable, and research was fun, but Mimir needed people.
Someone to chat and share stories with.
Someone to ask, "What'd you eat today?"
That's why, even when branded a heretic, she kept visiting cities and villages teeming with people.
Aside from the old woman who had raised her when she was first wandering, she hadn't met anyone who accepted her as a witch.
Still, she firmly believed that someday, she'd meet people who would accept her. And so, Mimir traveled the world.
And that person came sooner than expected.
"Whoa~ A witch!"
"Ah, no, I'm not... I-I'm really not a witch at all..."
"For real?"
"Ugh... I-I'm seriously not a witch?"
"I know a spell that makes you swallow a thousand needles if you lie. Can you swear on it?"
"S-Sorry for lying! I am a witch! So please don't use that spell!"
"There it is! She shows her true colors! You witch!"
"Eek..."
It was a little girl named Anne.
In a dark forest devoid of people.
It was so pitch-black she couldn't see ahead, so she'd lit a flame in her hand to walk—and that's when Anne spotted her.
The girl stared at Mimir with eyes brimming with excitement, while Mimir trembled and averted her gaze.
"What should we do with this witch?"
The mischievous girl named Anne smiled at the frightened Mimir and extended her hand.
Thus began the encounter with the girl who would have the greatest impact on Mimir's life.