Chapter 304: Episode 304

She lowered her stance.

She aimed her own body like a weapon toward the monster—which was now swelling to nearly a hundred feet tall, looking as if it would completely swallow Carnival Land whole.

She pulverized the ground beneath her and charged forward. The monster pulled both of its arms back, transforming them into massive drills that began to rapidly spin.

And then, it thrust its two sharp tips straight toward Hong Yeon, who looked like nothing more than a tiny speck in comparison.

She couldn’t dodge it.

Without decelerating in the slightest, she swung the greatsword with the full momentum of her sprint.

As the greatsword and the drills collided, the drills shattered like fragile candy glass.

The broken fragments immediately morphed back into smaller drills to attack her, but following the trajectory of her swung greatsword, every conceivable spell of fire, ice, wind, and metal exploded outward, utterly destroying, incinerating, and crushing the smaller drills to dust.

“Haaah!”

She kept running. More arms extended out from the monster’s body, transforming into drills and thrusting toward her, but they simply vanished in the face of the magic she wielded.

The sword she swung was the greatest miracle a human being could possibly conjure.

A rigid, unyielding arc of light, refusing to tolerate even a speck of hesitation, thoroughly demolished the massive drills, while the cascading torrents of fire and frost literally erased the smaller ones from the world.

It was noble.

It was blindingly radiant.

Having dismantled every single attack without an ounce of hesitation, she vaulted upwards.

In a fraction of a second, she soared high above the monster’s head, and a brilliant blue arc—slashing down like a thunderbolt—plummeted toward it even faster than she did.

The mountain-like torso was cleanly cleaved right in half. The very instant the fragments of its bisected body attempted to turn into smaller drills, countless spells instantaneously triggered from the drawn blue arc.

Wide-area magic completely incinerated, froze, and tore apart the monster’s body.

Landing back on the ground, she heavily exhaled and looked up at the sky.

“…Ah.”

Blue feathers were gracefully falling down like snow. Gazing at the spectacle in sheer awe, her eyes slowly tracked downward.

Every single feather in the entire vicinity was being sucked directly toward me.

I was standing with my right arm drawn back like a taut bowstring. The feathers swarmed into my right hand, converting into raw magical energy that coalesced into a perfect sphere.

This was the final blow. Even the blue feather suit I was wearing unraveled and entered the sphere.

I stepped firmly forward, planted my foot, and violently thrust my right arm outward with everything I had.

My brand new, original seventh-order spell, exclusively usable only in the Meister state.

<Doomsday>

A pillar of pure azure light erupted forward like a laser, entirely incinerating the monster’s body without leaving even a single trace behind.

The massive shockwave that followed rippled out into the world. I clutched my violently flapping clothes and finally lowered my arm.

“I fully intended to end it in one hit, but that reaction was pretty nice.”

I smiled and looked ahead. Just beyond where the fused monster had been thoroughly erased, I could see Alexandro lying face down on the ground, an entire third of his body completely blown away.

“Cough!”

Alexandro threw up blood while sprawled on the concrete. Even a fiend’s high-speed regeneration wouldn’t be able to recover from a wound of this magnitude. Hong Yeon and I slowly approached him.

“Do you have any last words you’d like to leave behind?” Hong Yeon asked, pointing her sword—which was still missing half of its blade—right at the fiend.

“Heh…”

Bleeding profusely and glaring up at her, Alexandro suddenly contorted his face into a sickening grin.

“The catastrophe has already begun, Guardian! The world will completely crumble by your very own hands! Your soul will weep tears of blood for all eternity as you observe the exact moment of destruction…!”

The half-broken sword swung cleanly, and the fiend’s head effortlessly fell and rolled across the ground. His headless body, entirely sapped of its regenerative powers, weakly crumbled away and scattered like ash.

“I’ve eliminated thousands of fiends up until now, but not a single one of them has ever spouted anything remotely normal,” she remarked, casually sliding her sword back into her sub-space pocket.

I let out a deep sigh of relief. “Good work out there.”

“You worked hard too, Yusin.”

She then tapped her earpiece. “This is the Commander. The main target has been successfully eliminated.”

*

The Carnival Land incident came to a close just like that.

Carnival Land’s CEO, Lee Seok-hoon, was promptly arrested and hauled away by the Association. Immediately after, as if they had been waiting for the go-ahead, the prosecution stormed the premises to execute a full-scale search and seizure of the park.

Through this sequence of events, the Korean Hunter Association had successfully hunted down a major big-shot fiend slapped with a Rank 1 Threat Level classification.

While there were several injured civilians, miraculously, not a single fatality had occurred.

I was sitting on a nearby bench, quietly watching Carnival Land get cleaned up.

The Association’s hunters and the police forces were diligently sweeping the area just in case any fiends were still in hiding. They were probably going to be up all night.

“Are you all out of your minds?”

And right in front of a coffee stand within my line of sight, Hong Yeon had completely lined up the Association hunters and was aggressively tearing into them.

“Team Piercing Wind. Your response today was beyond disappointing. Why was the CI route breached so easily? A Rank 1 Threat Level fiend is a literal walking bomb. Just how long are you so-called ’official’ hunters going to strictly prioritize your own self-preservation?”

She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Do you have any idea how long ago I signaled that I had engaged the main target? So why was civilian crowd control handled that poorly?”

The atmosphere was downright murderous. Every single one of them had their heads deeply bowed, completely unable to utter a single word in retaliation.

I prayed for their souls and turned my gaze back down to my smartphone screen.

—Bora: Yusin. I heard the news about Alexandro! Are you unhurt?

—Eunsol: Oppa, when are you coming back? I miss you!

I quickly shot back a message telling them that I would be late, so they should go to sleep without me.

Crash! Clatter!

Baaang!

Oh boy, there she goes.

Doing my absolute best not to look in Hong Yeon’s general direction, I continued typing out my messages.

Hunting down Alexandro truly yielded massive results. We had managed to acquire an entire list of the fiends in Korea directly connected to him, and Hong Yeon had immediately issued a nationwide travel ban on every single one of them.

Once again, a massive storm of blood was going to sweep across Korea. Starting bright and early tomorrow, a completely merciless hunting season would commence.

For me, it was incredibly good news. Before Nemesis actually arrived, we’d be able to entirely eradicate any fiends that could act as fatal, unpredictable variables.

Just imagining some bastard like Alexandro intentionally triggering dimensional rifts and unleashing a horde of monsters into the city centers while we were already busy dealing with Nemesis… It was horrifying.

I wonder if the name of anyone I know is on that list.

Our internal investigation into the Magic Tower members for any hidden fiends was still ongoing, but we hadn’t yet discovered any truly conclusive evidence. The results from this incident might actually prove to be the critical watershed moment we needed.

However, if an acquaintance actually appeared on that list, was I supposed to be happy or sad about it?

“Yusin!”

Hong Yeon came jogging over, carrying two cups of coffee. Somewhere along the line, she had bundled herself up in a thick winter coat and even wrapped a scarf around her neck.

“Here.”

“Thanks.”

The demonic Association President who was ruthlessly grilling those hunters just moments ago was nowhere to be found. Instead, she beamed a bright, wide smile at me.

I silently took a sip of the coffee. It was incredibly sweet. As the sugar replenished my system, my drowsiness rapidly faded, and a comforting warmth spread throughout my body.

“…You’re absolutely sure you’re unhurt, right?” she asked, a look of deep concern washing over her face.

“I told you I’m fine. I’m not going to die! Do I really look that fragile to you?”

“Yes.”

…Don’t answer that so immediately. That hurts.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t go to the hospital? You just manufactured over a hundred swords and fired a giant laser beam and all.”

The moment the battle had concluded, she’d immediately called for an ambulance and tried to physically hoist me up and carry me into it. I really was horrified back then.

“Cut it out with the nagging. You’re not my mom, you know.”

As I said that, I lightly flicked her forehead.

She let out a soft ouch, covering the spot I hit with both hands before shooting me a resentful glare.

It was unexpectedly cute.

“The only reason this incident was wrapped up so smoothly is entirely thanks to your cooperation, Yusin. Thank you.” Lowering her hands from her forehead, she politely bowed her head.

“Giving me all the credit is a bit much. Knowing you, you probably could’ve handled something like this by yourself.”

“At the very least, keeping the casualty count perfectly at zero like we did today would’ve been incredibly difficult.”

“You think so?” I sipped on the coffee I was holding. “Anyway, with this, the entire Sky Castle issue is entirely resolved with no further problems, right?”

“Absolutely. I’ll perfectly handle all the clean-up so no one dares to utter another word about it.”

I didn’t know why, but whenever she said ’clean-up’, the word sounded utterly terrifying.

“Come to think of it, you’re pretty amazing too. Delaying the civilian evacuation just to capture that fiend.”

“When you actually consider the sheer number of innocent people who would’ve been sacrificed if Alexandro had made it out of here alive, it was honestly a cheap price to pay.”

“…Whoa.”

She chuckled. “I’m joking. If you hadn’t been here, Yusin, I definitely would’ve devised a completely different plan.”

It was really nice seeing Hong Yeon smile so much these days. We leaned back against the bench and took a well-deserved rest.

We didn’t say another word. The crowds had completely scattered and vanished as well.

We were just quietly staring out at the city lights, yet for some inexplicable reason, this particular moment felt incredibly special.

“Yusin.”

“Yeah.”

“My duties for today are officially over.”

“Right, congrats.”

Just then, a gentle weight leaned onto my shoulder, accompanied by a beautifully sweet, fragrant scent. Without even realizing it, my entire body stiffened up like a board.

“So I guess from here on out, it’s our personal time,” she spoke softly, resting her head firmly against my shoulder.

Illuminated by the cheap park lighting, her face was so staggeringly beautiful that it was almost spellbinding. Feeling my heart rapidly pound against my chest, I replied.

“So earlier today… you were acting like that just because it was strictly business?”

Her hand gently covered my palm. It was incredibly soft, and wonderfully warm.

“If it was actually personal, would you be mad?”

A deep crimson flush spread across both of her cheeks.

She was clearly the one most embarrassed about it, yet she’d suddenly flip a switch and become overwhelmingly aggressive—it was both incredibly cute and highly amusing.

“I’m off the clock now.”

I fell silent.

“What about you, Yusin?”

Right then and there, we kissed.

As if to soothe the lingering adrenaline from the afternoon, much deeper than before.

A blazing heat surged violently from deep within my chest. That sweltering warmth entirely engulfed me from the tips of my toes all the way up to the crown of my head, completely incinerating whatever fragments of rationality I had left.

I honestly couldn’t hold it in any longer.

We didn’t stay at the park.

*

“I’m heading out, Yusin!”

Sitting in the back of the taxi, Hong Yeon was waving at me with a brilliant, radiant smile. I returned the gesture, waving back at her with a bright smile of my own to see her off.

As I watched the taxi slowly grow further and further away, I heavily buried my forehead into the palm of my hand.

…We actually did it. Holy shit.

It had been a very long time since I’d last spent the night in a hotel room.

Vigorously scratching my head, I stepped out onto the street, only for my phone to start ringing in my pocket.

“Yeah, Seojin.”

—”Tower Master. You didn’t come home last night. Did something happen?”

I let out a bitter chuckle and replied.

“My mission ran a little late. I’m heading back now.”

—”Understood. I will be waiting for you.”

Hanging up the phone, I let out a massive yawn.

The fun and games ended here.

There were less than six months left until Nemesis finally arrived. It was time to completely tighten my grip and push myself to the absolute limit once again.

First things first: cleaning house.

I downloaded the file Jeong Seojin had sent over and opened it.

It was completely packed with an extensive list of individuals slated for ’clean-up’.

This isn’t just cleaning house; it’s practically a complete overhaul of the entire establishment.

After thoroughly verifying every single name on the list, I called Jeong Seojin right back.

“Yeah, Seojin. I checked the list. Let’s proceed exactly as it is.”

—”Understood. I’ll make the necessary preparations.”

“Alright. See you in a bit.”

Ending the call, I stretched my arms and started walking.

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