Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Sweeping the Evil Zone (13)
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Takahiro wasn't the only one startled by the sight of the flame chains wriggling like serpents. A gleam of ecstasy spread across the Betded Boss's face as it staggered backward.
"Yes... this is it. This is exactly it."
Madness flickered in its gleaming black eyes.
"I wasn't seeing things... Gurk!"
It happened in a flash. Suho seized the Betded Boss's throat in a single motion.
"Grk."
The Betded Boss thrashed wildly, veins bulging along its neck in a desperate bid to break free, but Suho's grip didn't budge even slightly. If anything, his fingers tightened even more.
The Betded Boss spread its wings while twisting its body. Unfurling wings roughly the height of an average adult man, razor-sharp talons rose into view.
Puk-.
Folding its wings, the Betded Boss drove its talons straight into Suho's side. Then, with a surge of power through its wings, it plunged them even deeper.
Something hard snagged at both tips of the talons. Realizing it was its own claws clashing together, the Betded Boss's eyes filled with rapture. That could only mean it had pierced clean through Suho's body.
Its face alight with excitement, the Betded Boss shifted its gaze to Suho—only for its expression to harden instantly.
Suho's face remained utterly calm. He didn't so much as groan. As if the agony meant nothing at all, Suho stood motionless before slamming the Betded Boss's body down onto the ground.
Thud-!
A sharp yelp escaped as the Betded Boss's face smashed into the dirt.
"Gack..."
Blood began streaming from the Betded Boss's face. Killing intent rippled in Suho's eyes as he gazed down impassively. At the same moment, black shadows slithered up from the ground, latching onto each Betded one by one.
Screech! Sizzle!
Suho stared silently at the Betdeds shrieking in resistance. Then he lowered his gaze. At that cue, the Betdeds gripped by the black shadows plummeted from the air to the ground below.
It was more than a mere fall. The instant they hit the earth, they flattened as if crushed beneath some colossal weight, then burst apart with wet pops.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Amid the chain of explosions, chunks of torn Betded flesh splattered in every direction.
It was a savage spectacle. A merciless bloodbath, devoid of even a shred of pity.
Pop. Pop.
As Suho watched the Betded corpses detonating in sequence, the Betded Boss raised its remaining talon against him.
But it was useless. Suho snatched the incoming claw mid-flight and ripped it free, sending blood spraying into the air.
"Gaaaah!"
Suho moved. In a blink—like teleporting—he straddled the Betded Boss and shredded one wing from base to tip. Watching it convulse in frenzy, Suho tore off the opposite wing with his bare hand, utterly unfazed. His palm gashed open by the tough membrane, but Suho paid it no mind.
Thud. The severed wing dropped limply to the ground. Wingless, a Betded might as well have been stripped bare. In a final spasm of defiance, the Betded Boss writhed and lunged its elongated arm, clamping onto Suho's throat.
The instant it squeezed to snap the neck cradled in one hand—the Betded Boss's black eyeball quivered.
A faint smile curled on Suho's lips as he yielded his throat. His bloodshot eyes locked onto the Betded Boss in open provocation.
Takahiro, witnessing those eyes from afar, felt his breath catch. Eyes turned blood-red. Indiscriminate slaughter without a hint of pain. The hallmarks of a berserk Hunter.
And Suho was exhibiting them. From the moment Takahiro had seen echoes of Jin Seong-hyeok in him, conviction had set in. Suho was something beyond a mere Helper.
No more hesitation. He had to stop Suho now. Berserk Hunters always ended in self-annihilation.
"...Suho!"
Even as Takahiro forced the words out, Suho showed no reaction. His stare remained fixed on the Betded Boss.
Seizing the opening, the Betded Boss hurled Suho's gripped throat to the ground like refuse and broke free.
Suho rose amid the Betded corpses carpeting the blood-drenched earth. Bruises blooming purple where his neck had been clutched moments before.
At the sight—more monstrous than any monster—the Betded Boss bellowed.
"Die...!"
The boss's cry spurred the remaining airborne Betdeds into motion. Charging Suho with ferocious speed, as if for one final strike.
Red light surged in Suho's eyes as he faced the oncoming horde.
Rip-!
Like a machine. A slaughter machine. Takahiro watched in terror as Suho tore through the diving Betdeds at blinding speed.
Terror that once the Betdeds and their boss fell, he'd be the rampaging Suho's next mark.
Whatever thoughts churned in Takahiro's mind, Suho operated on pure instinct. Ripping into every Betded hurtling his way. Corpses piled swiftly at his feet. Blood already pooling in dark puddles across the ground.
When the last Betded shredded apart alive in midair—the red chains, drifting idly overhead, slunk toward the Betded Boss and bound it tight.
"Krek...!"
Suho advanced on the Betded Boss, roasting alive in the roaring flames, and reached out.
"Guh, stay back! Stay back!"
No words could reach Suho, reduced to instinct alone. His hand clamped the Betded Boss's head just as the red chains grazed below.
Splatter-.
Blood misted the air as the Betded Boss's body thumped to the ground. Suho's hand clutched only its severed head.
Thud. He discarded it without a flicker of emotion, letting the head roll across the dirt.
Takahiro held his breath as Suho slowly lifted his gaze. Power had consumed his mind—Suho was now a weapon.
A killing weapon.
Like every other berserk Hunter, he'd turn from monsters to humans next. Until death claimed him.
His target now: Takahiro. Not just him—Mino was at risk too. The moment Takahiro willed his heavy limbs to move.
Footsteps approached. Multiple presences slicing through the forest wind.
Takahiro's face set in stone. Moments ago, he'd prayed for their swift arrival. Not anymore.
With Suho berserk, everyone was in peril.
"D-don't come...!!"
Ji-young and Gai Qing burst from the trees at Takahiro's cry. The rest of the Helpers and Hunters followed one by one. Liu Xian, Xiao Li, Eun-woo and Airin, and finally Kwon Oh reached the campsite—every face frozen in horror.
"Kyaa...!"
Airin clapped both hands over her mouth at the round object by her feet. Eun-woo stepped forward, blocking her view with a grimace. The Betded Boss's head. He booted the neck-stump away and fixed his eyes ahead.
Signs of wholesale carnage. Corpses not merely slain, but mangled beyond recognition, strewn everywhere. Piled into a macabre mound where a lone figure stood.
"...Cha Su-ho?"
Everyone's eyes snapped to the man at Ji-young's uttered name—the solitary silhouette amid the slaughter.
Bathed in gore, standing atop Betded remains: Cha Su-ho. As gazes converged on him, the group strained in stunned silence to process the nightmare before them.
"Everyone, run...!"
The Hunters dropped into combat stances at Takahiro's shout. Evil Zones held none, but Dead Zones birthed monsters that puppeteered human hosts. With intelligent variants now invading Evil Zones, controllers couldn't be ruled out.
They eyed Suho warily, poised to strike—yet he stared blankly at the ground, oblivious.
Turmoil roiled within. Negative emotions ravaged his mind, devouring his body. Amid the chaos, one impulse screamed: 'Kill.'
Kill them all, no exceptions. A whisper droned endlessly in his ear. Suho obeyed, entranced.
"Must kill..."
Must kill. Kill them all.
But why?
Suho's red-flared eyes faltered. Blood drenching him. Corpses underfoot. Something glinted amid the carnage, catching the light.
One slow step. Another. Suho crouched. In his hand: an ear. A human ear, pierced.
A familiar piercing. Staring at it, Won Tae-il's face surfaced in Suho's mind. The storm of emotions ebbed to calm. Tae-il's memories flashed through the kill-lust haze.
That mischievous grin, always with the piercing in his right ear. Only then did Suho realize what he held—and his vision blurred white.
"Cha Su-ho...!"
Suho lifted his head at the call. Ji-young before him, Helpers and Hunters behind. Relief washed over him like a tide.
"You..."
Ji-young faltered, staring straight into Suho's face. His eyes: pitch-black with crimson. A berserk Hunter's gaze.
Suho met her stunned silence, then cradled the ear in his palm like a treasure. Eyes shut.
Was his body quaking, or the world? All he craved now was rest.
Suho crumpled atop the corpses, staggering. His flesh had hit its limit. The inevitable toll of power run amok.
Body broken, but his mind plunged deeper into the abyss. Endless freefall—flailing arms slackened in the void.
'Cha Su-ho.'
Jin Seong-hyeok's voice. It soothed instantly. Suho surrendered. Embracing the plunge, darkness swallowed him whole.
'Cha Su-ho!'
Jin Seong-hyeok's voice rang once more. Suho's mind snapped.
Utter blackness.