The Only Solution Is a Breakthrough
The temporary command center where the high-ranking hunters had gathered buzzed with tension. “Taeheo Seongun has deployed the Dark Sarcophagus. At this rate, entry is impossible.”
The Dark Sarcophagus. It was a type of isolation barrier used by Taeheo Seongun. Because the colossal barrier resembled a massive black coffin, it had earned that ominous name. A hunter dispatched from the Samjin Guild stared at the structure three kilometers away. A pitch-black coffin standing roughly fifty meters tall. It had completely severed the interior from the outside world.
“The final scene of the footage showed Hermes and Taeheo Seongun facing each other. Then Taeheo Seongun’s condition suddenly became unstable.”
A female hunter with red hair and sunglasses answered with a grin. “Simple. Either Taeheo Seongun dies, or Hermes dies. Nothing moves until one of them is dead, right?”
“...Taeheo Seongun is at the peak of the Sacred Lotus Realm. Show a little more respect.”
“I’m an S-rank hunter. If you’re that bothered, tell her to fight me instead.”
The female hunter in sunglasses leaned back in her chair with a bored expression. She turned her gaze toward the distant Dark Sarcophagus.
“By the way. Isn’t Hermes only in the Refined Realm? Can he really fight on equal footing with someone in the Sacred Lotus Realm?”
“Who knows. But the Dark Sarcophagus is one of Taeheo Seongun’s ultimate techniques. She only uses it when her life is truly in danger. The fact that she brought it out suggests things are quite serious.”
The red-haired S-rank hunter, Hong Seo-ran, pushed her sunglasses up onto her head and gripped her longsword tightly. “I’m getting excited. I really want to fight Hermes soon. I wonder if that woman will hurry up and die already.”
Man-Sang Crushing Fist and Foot Technique Lv.1
When I opened my eyes, the entire floor around me had been shattered.
“Ugh…”
My lungs ached. Maybe the shockwave had torn straight through my body. It took several minutes before I could even muster any strength.
The surroundings were a disaster. Most of the examinees had collapsed, bleeding. The building was cracked and broken everywhere. It wouldn’t have been strange if it collapsed at any moment. Through the hole my divine flames had punched in the ceiling, only a black void greeted me instead of blue sky.
I turned on my phone. No signal. Had Heo Shin-ah done something?
I looked toward the source of the noise. Heo Shin-ah was repeatedly throwing punches into empty air, lifting her leg high, then slamming it back down into the ground. My Hephaestus instantly analyzed the technique.
Man-Sang Crushing Fist and Foot Technique Lv.1
An ancient oriental mage created this form of martial arts by imitating the movements of the legendary elephant Man-Sang. The foot that steps shatters the earth. The fist that strikes collapses the sky. It is a top-tier combat art secretly passed down within a certain clan. The more it is used, the greater the improvement to muscle strength and stamina.
Acquisition Condition: Mastery of all forms of Man-Sang Crushing Fist and Foot Technique (0/10), Man-Sang Crushing Fist and Foot Technique Lv.0
It was clearly an incredible technique. But why was she swinging it at nothing but air?
Heo Shin-ah continued without pause, coughing up blood as she struck at empty space and stomped the ground, as if fighting something invisible. Was she in a state of delirium?
Had I failed to make the pasta correctly? Had it somehow harmed her?
As I was wondering what to do next, someone grabbed my shoulder.
“So. You’re the one who caused all this?”
It was Lee Se-rin. Before I could resist, she seized me by the collar and hurled me to the floor.
“Guh!”
She mounted me, straddling my chest, and raised her fist.
“Turn that person back to normal. Right now. Or do you want to get beaten first?”
I couldn’t stop coughing. Lee Se-rin clenched her teeth.
“Oh? So that’s how it is? You brought this on yourself.”
She drew her fist back high. Ah. So this is it. Still, I’d worked pretty hard for a guy like me.
I reached up, removed my cap, and let my silver-gray hair spill out.
“Go ahead and hit me… Hm?”
Lee Se-rin’s face turned deathly pale. Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly. She slowly opened her clenched fist, brought both hands together politely at her navel, and began sweating profusely. She couldn’t even meet my eyes.
“P-please… forgive my rudeness…! I beg you!”
I am Lee Se-rin, a graduate of Busan Hyun High School and currently twenty-six years old.
I have no words other than “I’m sorry” for all the rudeness I have shown toward Yoo Ji-tae-nim up until now, and for my behavior just moments ago.
I am truly sorry. I am so, so sorry.
Lee Se-rin knelt neatly and bowed deeply, pressing her forehead to the floor. Because she wore only a sports bra on top, her slender waist and childbearing hips were completely exposed.
“...It’s fine. This was my fault.”
Lee Se-rin waved her hands frantically. “N-no, not at all!! How could anything be your fault, Yoo Ji-tae-nim?! More importantly, are you alright where I hit you?!”
“It does hurt a bit.”
Lee Se-rin’s mouth fell open. She clasped her hands behind her back and spread her legs slightly.
“I-if you wish, you may hit me as much as you like! You can use me like a rag and throw me away whenever you want!”
“No thanks. I don’t have that kind of taste.”
Lee Se-rin looked horrified. “That can’t be!! Does that mean… you cannot forgive me…? I-I can endure any beating or punishment you give me, Yoo Ji-tae-nim! Please… give me a chance…! I-I can do well, I swear!”
She grabbed my sleeve with trembling hands, sobbing pitifully. Seeing her look so pathetic made it impossible to stay angry.
“No. I already forgave you. Besides, there’s something more important right now.”
“...Huh? Ah! That’s right!”
Only then did Lee Se-rin snap back to her senses. She looked at Heo Shin-ah, who was still mindlessly throwing punches into the air. Lee Se-rin grabbed both of my hands tightly.
“Yes! I, Lee Se-rin, will protect you from even a single scratch, even if it costs me my life!”
“That won’t be necessary. I think we just need the final ingredient. By the way, is the girl who got stabbed in the stomach earlier okay?”
When I mentioned another examinee, Lee Se-rin’s energy dropped noticeably.
“Ah… She’ll be fine. If a mere stomach stab is enough to kill an ability user, then she wasn’t much of one to begin with. She should have healed by now and be resting.”
So there was no need to worry. I assessed the situation.
Heo Shin-ah was currently in the middle of a breakthrough, caught in a heart demon and running amok. After hearing Lee Se-rin’s explanation about cultivation realms, I learned that leaving her like this could be fatal.
Fortunately, Hephaestus didn’t demand I slit my own throat this time. A moderate amount of blood would suffice. I cut my arm with a knife and collected the blood in a nearby cup. Lee Se-rin freaked out and started shaking, so I told her it was fine.
“...We’ll need something to stop the bleeding.”
Lee Se-rin grabbed the hem of her skirt. “Shall I use this?”
“Well… if you don’t mind.”
She tore her skirt and wrapped the fabric tightly around my arm. Thanks to that, her long skirt had become a miniskirt in no time. Noticing my gaze, she spun in place.
“It’s shorter, so it’s easier to move in. I’ll restrain her. You pour it into her mouth. That should work, right?”
Lee Se-rin was thinking of me a great deal. Truthfully, she had no reason to help like this. If she simply did nothing, Heo Shin-ah would eventually die on her own. She was only indulging my selfish request.
Moreover, the same Lee Se-rin who had declared she would protect me was now casually entrusting me with the task of feeding her blood. It meant that even for her, simply suppressing the current Heo Shin-ah was already pushing her limits.
Even though Heo Shin-ah’s mind wasn’t fully intact due to the rampage, her opponent was still in the Sacred Lotus Realm. Stopping her wasn’t easy. If I offered her nothing in return, that would be shameless of me.
“When this is over, I’ll grant you one wish. Anything.”
Lee Se-rin’s mouth fell open, then snapped shut.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes changed completely. “I’ll give it my all. Just leave it to me.”
Bang!
Lee Se-rin clenched her fist and smacked her palm. In response, Heo Shin-ah spread her black wings again and soared into the air. Multiple black orbs formed around her, and jet-black flames erupted from both hands.
She slowly approached until she was only ten meters away. I gathered every material lying around and every potion bottle that had been used for magic cooking.
“You might get hurt, so I’ll make as many instant healing potions as possible. But don’t get your hopes up. There’s not much I can make in this state.”
“It’s fine.”
Lee Se-rin shot toward Heo Shin-ah. She changed posture mid-air and kicked her squarely in the stomach. The floating Heo Shin-ah flew into a wall, crashed down, and rolled across the floor. She staggered to her feet and tried to spread her wings again, but the impact made her collapse and tumble once more.
Tap.
Lee Se-rin landed lightly and turned to me with a bright smile.
“I’m… pretty strong, you know.”
It hurts. It’s agony. It’s exhausting. It’s cold. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
Only pain fills my entire body. When I look around, all I see is a blood-soaked hell. There is nothing else in existence besides me.
Lying collapsed in a pool of blood, I lift my head and look ahead. At the end of a distant road stands a golden palace, still shining.
I must go there. If I don’t, I will die.
I instinctively understood that. I tried to stand, but the moment I put weight on my leg—
Crack. It shattered. I fell face-first into the pool of blood. I coughed up the blood that had flooded my nose and mouth and breathed again. My leg was broken. That was fine. I still had arms. I pushed my body forward somehow. But it was too far. I couldn’t reach it alone.
It’s freezing. All the warmth is leaving my body.
“C-cold… so cold…”
Shivering from the bone-chilling cold, I twisted my body. Beyond my blurring, blood-red vision, I saw a small child. The child was talking with her mother.
‘Is this a memory from the past?’
Memories surfaced one after another. Back then, my mother would often ask what kind of person I wanted to meet. Every time, I would stay silent. It wasn’t something I could dare speak aloud.
But holding it in forever was too hard. So the child would secretly confess her dream to the small doll her mother had given her before bed.
“Someday, when I fall into danger, I want to give my everything to the person who comes to save me.”
Trembling with chills, I laughed at that child.
‘That dream will never come true.’
‘You will live your entire life alone, obsessed with training and power, unable to love anyone and unloved by anyone, and you will die that way.’
‘No man will ever risk danger for you.’
‘There is no man in this world who will cherish you.’
I already knew why my breakthrough had failed. I had simply been turning a blind eye to it.
Splash.
Someone walked toward me. They slipped their hands under my armpits. One hand held my legs while the other supported my waist, lifting me up. Then they began to walk.
In my hazy vision, I saw a man’s face. Who was he? Black eyes, black hair. Pale skin and a height similar to mine. He wasn’t overly muscular, but his body was firm. He carried me without any strain and walked forward steadily.
I pressed my ear to his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Warm blood surged powerfully inside him.
‘It’s warm.’
I raised both arms and wrapped them around his neck. I wanted to feel that warmth even more. The man smiled as if it were nothing. Something inside my heart began to melt.
I wanted to know his name. I wanted to know his age. I wanted to know his dreams, the music he liked, the food he liked, the things he hated—everything.
I barely managed to open my mouth.
“May I… ask your name?”
While holding Heo Shin-ah in my arms, I looked around at the devastated surroundings once more.
“This is insane.”
The traces left behind by beings who had surpassed human limits were everywhere. Dozens of ten-meter-wide craters had been carved into the ground, and lethal amounts of blood had been sprayed all around them. The steel walls had been torn apart like sheets of paper. The very terrain of the testing site had been warped by the aftermath of their fight.
Of course, I hadn’t been completely idle either. I had continuously crafted healing potions from the materials left on site and supplied them without rest. (Every time I made one, Lee Se-rin would dash over and snatch it for herself.)
I looked at Lee Se-rin. She was lying spread-eagle on the floor, breathing raggedly. The image of her relentlessly driving her fists into Heo Shin-ah’s abdomen even as her own limbs were being destroyed was still vivid in my mind.
‘If Lee Se-rin hadn’t been here, it would have been impossible.’
If she hadn’t destroyed both of Heo Shin-ah’s legs, if she hadn’t pinned both arms to create openings, feeding her the blood would have been impossible.
I looked at Lee Se-rin, who was now breathing softly on the floor. She seemed to have lost consciousness and fallen asleep.
Heo Shin-ah opened her eyes. The legs that Lee Se-rin had broken with lethal resolve moments ago had already been restored.
‘If the rampage continues in this state, it’s over.’
In a trembling voice, I asked, “Are you alright?”
Heo Shin-ah wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her cheek against my chest. My whole body tensed instinctively. My breathing grew rough as I wondered if she was about to strangle me.
Like someone speaking in a dream, Heo Shin-ah murmured blankly,
“May I… ask your name?”
A name, huh.
“...Yoo Ji-tae.”
“Yoo Ji-tae-nim.”
Heo Shin-ah rolled each syllable in her mouth as if savoring it. A golden halo appeared above her head again, and rays of light unfolded into wings behind her back. Her eyes glowed golden.
When Heo Shin-ah smiled brightly, the halo and the light behind her vanished. Her eyes returned to normal.
‘...Did it work?’
“Yoo Ji-tae-nim.”
“Y-yes?”
Heo Shin-ah looked up at my face with an intoxicated expression.
“I sincerely… adore you, Yoo Ji-tae-nim…”
The Dark Sarcophagus has been lifted.
Current time: 3:20:30 PM.
All units, commence operation.
Hong Seo-ran stood up and drew her sword.
“Good. I’ll be the one to kill Hermes. Don’t any of you interfere.”