67
067 ― His Authority
The airplane was shaking violently. It hadn't plummeted straight to the ground yet, but it was clear that if this continued, it would crash.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
"Save us! Save us!"
The passengers naturally panicked. Those who had been sitting quietly just moments before were now screaming and thrashing about like madmen.
Due to the commotion, some people actually fell and got injured from being struck, but no one reacted to such minor tragedies.
"W-wait a moment! Dear passengers!"
The flight attendants tried their best to calm them down, but it wasn't working well. They themselves were trembling with pale faces.
It was right after that when an object that looked like either a scythe or a spear pierced through the airplane's fuselage.
Huuuuuuuung―!
An enormous amount of wind rushed out through the hole in the ceiling. It wasn't enough to suck people out, but it was sufficient to add chaos upon chaos.
Not stopping there, the enemy outside drilled three more holes in the airplane's ceiling. Each one wasn't large, but having holes in a rapidly flying airplane was a major disaster in itself.
"Shartia! Can you block that?"
Jin-woo shouted to Shartia, who had just woken up from sleep. He was telling her about the urgent matter at hand when she hadn't yet grasped the situation.
"Leave it to me!"
Shartia was also an S-rank Hunter. There had been plenty of occasions where she was ambushed unexpectedly inside Gates.
Immediately sharpening her mind, she deployed something. From her seemingly empty bosom, things like leaves and tree bark rustled out and covered the holes in the ceiling.
"I am Shartia, an S-rank Hunter from Seoul! As long as I'm here, things won't go wrong easily, so everyone, please calm down!"
After taking measures, Shartia shouted loudly to calm the passengers.
Not only did her voice have appeal, but it also carried a subtle amount of Magi. A trace amount of Magi that would seep into ordinary people's ears and make them pay attention to her.
Just drawing attention with her voice was a success. When they looked back, they saw the appearance of an S-rank Hunter they had only seen on TV, and the well-blocked holes in the ceiling, causing the commotion to subside.
"Shartia! She's an S-rank Hunter!"
"We're saved! We're alive!"
Among the passengers who hadn't calmed down no matter how much the flight attendants shouted, order began to gradually take hold.
The flight attendants weren't upset at all. Rather, they too were clasping their hands together and praying at Shartia's presence.
Crack!
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
At that moment, the spear that had pierced the ceiling avoided the tree bark and stabbed at other parts as well. It not only probed the ceiling but also groped along the airplane's sides, breaking windows and stabbing inside.
A passenger nearby was greatly startled and crouched down under their seat. Fortunately, Shartia's leaves and tree bark quickly spread out and blocked the newly drilled holes as well.
This time, it didn't stop there and covered the entire interior of the airplane. The spear from outside tried to pierce through Shartia's wood several times, but it couldn't penetrate easily.
The tree bark was so tough that it required multiple stabs at one spot to barely pierce through, and even those pierced spots were simply covered again by Shartia, making further penetrating attacks meaningless.
―!
Thud! Thuum!
As if angry, sounds of wild thrashing could be heard from above. The passengers' faces turned pale again. While they had prevented holes from being drilled in the airplane, the crisis wasn't over yet.
"Jin-woo. What's going on? Airplanes colliding with monsters is an occasional accident, but I've never heard of being attacked like this!"
"I'll help you. Do you happen to know at what speed this airplane is flying?"
Jin-woo looked up and stared at the ceiling as he asked. It was a question born from genuine ignorance.
"It's going at 900 kilometers per hour!"
Shartia answered as if screaming. In other words, the monster clinging above was enduring that much pressure.
'It doesn't seem like it can move freely, though.'
The fortunate point was that the creature also didn't seem to be able to move around freely. If the enemy could climb onto a flying airplane and roam around without any restrictions, there would be absolutely no way to deal with it.
However, the creature was stuck tight to the top of the airplane. Spear-like attacks that pierced the ceiling or windows were all the creature could do.
When that didn't work, it now tried to shake its body to make the entire airplane shake.
"Flight attendant. How is the cockpit?"
"Th-the captain and co-pilot are both in a state of panic! But somehow they're still managing to pilot..."
"Can they fly properly?"
"R-right now they said they're flying, though it's precarious. But."
After that, who knows what might happen. That's what it meant.
It was natural since they, too, would be experiencing this kind of situation for the first time.
'There are flying monsters, but.'
Among them, there were none that climbed onto airplanes. At most, the dangerous ones would collide with flying airplanes, but aircraft had barriers deployed like those protecting cities, so unless hit directly by considerable mass, such accidents were rare.
But now, this creature was ignoring the barrier and clinging to the top of the airplane.
Jin-woo knew. The creature hadn't flown from somewhere and climbed on, but had appeared on top of the flying airplane.
Because Jin-woo had clearly seen with his own two eyes the black flames rising above the airplane and the power of Erosion gathering.
'It's a minion.'
The creature was a Lord's minion. Probably a minion of the God of Sky, similar to Ireland.
At the same time as seeing the black flames, the God of Sky's scabbard that he had drawn was surging and undulating with the energy of Erosion.
That appearance looked as if it was licking its lips at the sight of delicious prey.
***
An emergency signal arrived at Gimpo Airport's control tower. Since the airplane under Erosion's sudden attack was already close to Seoul, their communication was received by Seoul's airport rather than New York's.
At the sudden disaster, Ma Du-sik was receiving reports with a grave expression.
He had been at the airport even before the incident occurred, because he had heard that Jin-woo and Shartia would be returning on this flight.
He had prepared thoroughly and set up at the airport, thinking of welcoming them as they returned after splendidly resolving New York's disaster.
What came instead was another disaster.
"Hunter Kang Jin-woo and Hunter Shartia are on that airplane! Isn't there some way to respond?"
"They seem to be responding on their own! They're asking how we can provide support from here."
"Prepare for an emergency landing! Clear the runway and prepare equipment! And... And..."
There couldn't be anything more they could do.
The problem with this incident was the enemy that appeared on the airplane. If it were an airplane before takeoff, it might be different, but how could they remove an enemy that had appeared on an airplane already flying in the high sky?
If that had been a monster gliding rapidly rather than an airplane, shooting it down would have been possible, but as long as it was clinging to an airplane, even that was unreasonable.
If they shot missiles to eliminate the monster, the airplane would explode too.
"Do we have no choice but to watch...?"
The air traffic controller asked Ma Du-sik with a haggard face. Ma Du-sik answered with a similar expression.
"We can only pray. For those two."
Hoping that somehow Jin-woo and Shartia would remove the Erosion. That was all they could pray for.
***
Normal flight was already precarious. Even if they removed the enemy right now, there was no telling what might happen.
In other words, every minute and second was urgent.
'At this rate, it's a crash.'
Shartia could only protect the airplane and passengers from the enemy's attacks at best.
Since her power came from the earth, it was difficult to use her abilities on an airplane that was far from the ground and moving at high speed.
Being able to deploy her abilities to this extent was because she was an S-rank Hunter who had awakened her previous life to a considerable level.
Just maintaining the current state was exhausting, and she couldn't handle the minion on top of it.
He had to do it himself.
"Shartia. I need to cut that thing down."
"...! Can you do it?"
"That thing also seems to find it burdensome to cling to a rapidly flying airplane. Since it's staying still, it's easy to aim at."
The problem was whether the airplane might get more damaged by what he cut.
But since a crash was certain if things continued like this, there was no time to worry.
"If my sword creates an even bigger hole in the airplane..."
"Leave it to me. I'll somehow block it."
So please, somehow make it work. Shartia sent him such desperate eyes.
Jin-woo nodded and positioned himself in one spot. It was a location where the black flames beyond the ceiling were clearly visible.
The passengers had already evacuated to other areas, so there was nothing in the way of swinging his sword.
He took out the Sky Sword that he had been favoring recently. Of course, he wasn't going to use sorcery but planned to cut the flames in an ordinary way.
Just.
'When I treated Kanok.'
At that time, he had succeeded in cutting only the black flames. He had carved out only the black flames to save Kanok without killing him, and Kanok's soul and body could remain intact.
Could he perform the same act inside this airplane?
'Revive the sensation from that time.'
Shartia had said she would block it if necessary, but there was no telling what might happen. To cut the black flames, he too had to swing with all his might, but there was no knowing how much the airplane's ceiling, struck by that sword, would be damaged.
If possible, no, he absolutely had to swing his sword exactly like in Kanok's case.
A sword that cuts what needs to be cut and protects what needs to be protected.
Jin-woo raised his sword and cut, just like that.
Mysteriously, there was no noise. Just moments before, there had been all sorts of commotion, shaking, and chaos, but a silence of nothingness swallowed all the noise.
Shartia and all the passengers and flight attendants watched the sword that created that silence.
But who among them could fathom the true nature of Jin-woo's sword? Ordinary people naturally couldn't know, and even Shartia couldn't comprehend such a realm.
Just.
'Ah.'
Shartia recalled when she first saw Jin-woo's sword.
Back then, too, her heart was shaken like this, and her eyes were captivated. The catalyst that made her, who was looking for a place to naturalize, decide to settle in Seoul.
Jin-woo's sword, seen again after a long time, was still beautiful.
'Ugh.'
For a moment, something seemed about to surface. But that thread-like, fragile, and slender thing was easily carried away by the wind.
While intoxicated by that strange sensation, there was an odd tremor.
Thuung―
At the same time, the airplane's shaking subsided. Of course, it hadn't found stability yet. But the maddening anxiety from just before had disappeared.
"Huuu..."
Jin-woo let out a sigh whose meaning of relief was clear to anyone who saw it, and only then did the passengers sit down one by one with a thud. Even if they wanted to cheer, no one had the strength left.
Shartia too was barely standing, and inside she was full of thoughts of wanting to collapse.
Then suddenly she noticed. Jin-woo's sword had cut the enemy outside the airplane, but the ceiling in the middle hadn't been cut at all.
***
The black flames that had lost their destination flowed in. Through the sword to Jin-woo's heart. The black flames absorbed into his heart were enveloped by Jin-woo's soul and instantly bleached, losing their ominous energy.
And the God of Sky's scabbard held in one of Jin-woo's hands was trembling slightly and scattering energy.
To Jin-woo, it looked as if it was rejoicing at the return of power.
'Could it be.'
Jin-woo noticed one possibility. The scabbard, which was the God of Sky's divine artifact, was in his hands, and he had the ability to cut Lord's minions and absorb their flames.
Then, if he continued to cut down the God of Sky's minions like this, wouldn't he be able to completely steal his authority into this scabbard?