Chapter 750: Whispers (1)
“Ah, seriously!”
– Kyarrr!
Park Hayul scrambled out of the way of the dragon’s head as the chimera bared its teeth. Freed at last, the monster immediately went after the nearest humans on instinct: Yuhyun and Yerim. Claws scraped across the ground with a harsh screech, and the dragon’s folded wings snapped open. The huge, curved dragon head blasted fire at Yuhyun while the goat head spewed poison at Yerim.
Whoosh!
Raging flames swallowed Yuhyun whole. But only for a moment. The blaze that had surged forward so fiercely was suddenly dragged into his grasp as if pulled by a magnet. His dominion over fire far exceeded the chimera’s. Before the dragon head could even react, its flaming breath turned dark blue and sharpened into a far hotter spear.
Crunch!
It pierced straight through its original owner.
The goat’s poison cloud met much the same fate. The thick venom sank into the water Yerim had called up and dissolved into it, never touching her once before being trapped inside.
“I’ll send it back, too~”
Crack— dozens of ice spears laced with frigid poison shot toward the chimera. It tried to dodge, but its four legs would not move.
– Krk!
Overflowing groundwater had already frozen around the monster’s legs. In an instant, the ice spears shattered the goat’s head, and Yuhyun’s sword, gliding through the air atop willow leaves, sliced through the lion’s head as well.
Boom! The chimera’s massive body crashed onto the frozen ground. By then, Park Hayul had already summoned another monster. It was a flying type, probably intending to escape. But neither Yuhyun nor Yerim was about to let that happen.
“We’re allowed to attack monsters, right?”
Splash! Water shot high into the air and froze solid, forming a massive wall of ice in front of the creature. The giant bird flapped in alarm, and Park Hayul, riding on its back, cried out.
“If I fall, I’ll get hurt, so that counts as attacking me!”
“I really don’t think it does.”
[Yerim, if you’re hesitating, don’t touch him.]
Unlike Yuhyun, who could treat him as nothing more than an obstacle, Yerim needed to be careful. Park Hayul was clumsy with his power, but even now he still far surpassed an ordinary S-Rank. And once he got his head on straight, he could do things like this.
Boom!
With a single gesture, he shattered the ice wall. It looked like he was about to flee, but then—
Skreeech. A black blade curved long and sharp, slashing across the giant bird’s neck. Park Hayul flinched in terror as the sword flashed past his face. He sprang into the air and came to a stop there. It was crude flying, but still flying. Blue willow leaves scattered in every direction, and Yerim widened the distance. Around her, droplets of water popped into existence one after another.
“Han Yuhyun, go!”
Harmless water droplets began flying at Park Hayul from all sides.
“This isn’t an attack! It’s just a prank~”
At worst, they would only get his clothes wet. Then I shouted,
[Yuhyun, burst every single one of those droplets!]
“Okay.”
Yuhyun answered. He was not attacking Park Hayul. He was only obeying my command. His toes kicked off the willow leaves. Yerim manipulated the droplets with speed and precision, and the pitch-black sword followed close behind them. Whish— cleaving the air, Yuhyun thrust the Ruler’s Sword toward a droplet circling neatly behind Park Hayul’s head, his movement clean, exact, and without a wasted inch.
“Ah!”
Bang! Park Hayul hastily formed a shield and blocked Yuhyun’s sword. Cracks spread across the makeshift barrier. The water droplet floated behind him as if mocking him, and Yuhyun’s eyes never left it for a second. Park Hayul himself was nothing more than an unnecessarily sturdy tree or rock in the way.
He had to be moved. Only then could Yuhyun burst the droplet, just as I told him. Screech— dragging his blade across the shield, Yuhyun spun around. One foot slid across a willow leaf, and the other slammed hard into Park Hayul’s side.
“Ghk! H-how is that not an attack?!”
With no combat experience, Park Hayul failed to block properly and got knocked clean through the air.
[He just moved you out of the way, that’s all.]
Of course it was not an attack. If you shove a rock blocking the road aside, do you call that attacking the rock?
Pop! The water droplet hidden behind Park Hayul burst as Yuhyun’s sword cut through it. Not once had Yuhyun’s gaze truly settled on Park Hayul. To him, the boy was only Object #1 near the droplet. The back of Yuhyun’s hand remained perfectly clean, without a mark on it. Barely avoiding a crash, Park Hayul staggered and stared at him in disbelief.
“You brothers are seriously weird! Who acts like that with a real person?!”
[Hey, what’s wrong with a little brother who listens to his big brother? That’s a good thing!]
Okay, fine, it was not exactly normal… but what was anyone supposed to do about the way he was born? You could not go around calling someone weird just because they did not fit your idea of normal. In a world of one-eyed people, the two-eyed one is the oddball. If everyone in the world were like Yuhyun, then Yuhyun would be the normal one!
Pop, pop, pop! More droplets rose into the air. This time, there were far more of them. Under the moonlight, countless shining drops poured down around Park Hayul.
Whoosh— flames surged up in front of Yuhyun as he watched them. Then, with a metallic rustle, SS-Rank swords appeared from his inventory. They were not real. They were dream weapons Gyeol had made for him. But in a dream, that was close enough to being real.
Blade-Devourer. As the skill activated, the SS-Rank swords melted down, drenched in dark blue fire. The burning metallic liquid circled Yuhyun once, then split apart into dozens of sharp spikes. Dozens of SSS-Rank spike swords, blazing with intense heat, moved at their master’s command.
Piiing—!
They shot toward the droplets.
Toward Park Hayul standing in front of them.
The air heated instantly. The searing blast alone made the droplets evaporate at a rapid pace. In the rising steam, Park Hayul hurriedly threw up a barrier.
Clang! Crack! Clang!
The barrier began to split. The droplets moved like living things, clustering behind Park Hayul to avoid the spikes. Not just behind his back, either—they had slipped around his face and arms as well. The rebounding spike swords circled back at once and hammered the barrier again. Even so, the shield barely held, and the moment Park Hayul started to relax—
Whoosh!
The cloud-thick steam split apart in an instant.
Boom!
The black sword slammed down on the barrier. Yuhyun. The blade, loaded with terrifying force, paused against it for the briefest second—
and punched straight through.
Park Hayul’s face went pale. Crash— the barrier finally shattered to pieces, and he barely twisted away from the black sword. But—
“Ah! It hurts!”
The spike swords were still there. They chased the droplets as they darted in every direction, and Park Hayul was in the middle of it all. Red lines opened across his body. His skin flushed under the heat, and the wounds kept multiplying.
“I said it hurts!”
Annoyed now, Park Hayul ran from the spike swords. His injuries healed almost immediately. So his body was sturdy even if his practical skill was trash. And still—
[Park Hayul.]
“Hyung! That’s too much!”
[You can die here.]
His eyes went wide.
[In this dream, you’re real too. This isn’t a dream anymore. The original you was probably the dream. A dream that couldn’t die.]
The Park Hayul on the surface had been no different from the dream dreamed by a seed of a Transcendent. His true body had been asleep. But here, in this place, he was real. A world where dreams became reality. The master of a dream world where he could wield his own power.
[But now you can die.]
“P-people die! That’s just what people do!”
Park Hayul shouted back as if that were obvious. But there was a nervousness in his expression now that had not been there before. It seemed it was finally starting to feel real.
[If you lose your nerve and attack my kids, your power will weaken. And then I’ll kill you for sure with my own hands. So struggle all the way to the end. That gives you the best chance of living.]
“Hyung! I really do like you!”
Park Hayul rolled across the ground, changed direction, and ran toward the castle wall where I was.
“I mean it! Aaagh!”
Boom! A spike sword pierced the droplet in front of him and exploded. Park Hayul was swept up in the storm of scorching heat and went tumbling head over heels.
[Be careful.]
I spoke quietly to Yuhyun and Yerim. I had warned him, but cornered prey might still strike. He might decide that if he was going to die anyway, he would at least wound me before he went.
‘Though he doesn’t look like he’s in any state to think that far.’
He was not really the type for a mutual-destruction mindset either. Still, we had to keep pressing him so he never got the chance to think clearly. Park Hayul ran. Yerim froze the ground and slid over it.
[Melt the ice.]
The instant the words left my mouth, flames whipped toward Park Hayul.
“Waaah!”
Considering his stats, the heat should not have been that threatening, but Park Hayul still shrieked and leaped back in panic. Most of the monsters crowding the wall had been dealt with by now too.
‘What now.’
Damn it, of all people, he was the axis holding this world together, so we could not kill him. The best option was probably to keep him under pressure and force him into a contract—something like, I’ll stay asleep quietly in this dream world for the next ten years. We did not need to keep this world going for long.
“Shouldn’t we keep him away from the wall?”
Moon Hyunah said, stomping over a fallen monster and leaping past it. Park Hayul let out a startled scream the moment he saw her striding closer. Moon Hyunah looked a little awkward at that.
“No, I mean, even so, he’s still…”
Still stronger than she was. It only looked like Park Hayul was doing fine because he had such a poor sense of reality. Compared to a Hunter, he was closer to an ordinary civilian. When someone with no combat experience started losing ground, they often lost the ability to make sound judgments. Even if they held the advantage, once fear took over, it was over.
Splash! Yuhyun’s foot skimmed past Park Hayul’s head and stomped on a droplet, bursting it. Half crawling as he fled, Park Hayul finally shouted,
“S-save me!”
Then now—
[Hayul—]
I was just about to soothe him and talk him into cooperating when—
Jingle.
A bell rang out.
The soft moonlight shining down hardened into something cold and solid, then plunged down around Park Hayul as if enclosing him.
Moon Hyunah stepped in front of Yuhyun and hurriedly raised her great spear. The spike swords targeting Park Hayul whipped back at terrifying speed and wrapped around their master to protect him. Before Yerim could even teleport, a long golden chain slashed across in front of her as she drew the surrounding water around herself.
Clang! Crash! Silver and gold collided. Yerim was hurled back, and Seong Hyunjae caught her. Moonlight and silver chains grazed his body in near misses all over.
Moon Hyunah’s spear shattered. Crack, snap— the blazing spike swords cooled under the freezing moonlight and fell away, and what the Ruler’s Sword failed to block pierced Yuhyun through the shoulder.
Then—
Boom!
Moonlight poured down like a waterfall, blasting everything around Park Hayul away in a violent wave.
“Urgh!”
Yuhyun and Moon Hyunah were swept back and thrown all the way near the castle wall. Yerim and Seong Hyunjae were pushed far away too. Kang Soyeong and Comet went flying into the fortress, and the other Hunters, including Shishio, were sent rolling across the ground.
“Saintess!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll heal them right away!”
Yerim and Seong Hyunjae had been farther from Park Hayul, so their injuries were not too severe, but Yuhyun and Hyunah were covered in blood. The two of them calmly yanked the silver chains out of their bodies, and Emily immediately used her healing skill. I did not even have time to confirm it properly before I looked up at the sky.
“Ugh…”
Park Hayul squinted. Through the moonlight wrapped around him like a heavy veil, a white hand reached out. A silver figure descended and came to stand before him.
“Who…”
Still seated on the ground, Park Hayul backed away. But he did not get far before freezing in place. His eyes locked onto the figure—onto Crescent Moon.
Like he was spellbound.
‘…Wait.’
No way.
A terrible thought struck me. Crescent Moon had not been able to handle Park Hayul properly. She had definitely influenced him, but he had still been moving according to his own will. But now, Park Hayul was weakened—not just physically, but mentally too.
If that was the case, then maybe Crescent Moon could dominate him completely.
I grabbed the loudspeaker and shouted,
“Park Hayul!”
“Ah, hyung…”
Still unable to tear his gaze away from Crescent Moon, Park Hayul muttered back. His voice was full of fear.
“Hey! If you keep this up, Crescent Moon is going to swallow you whole! Get a grip!”
“B-but…”
Crescent Moon’s form took one step closer to him. Park Hayul’s entire body trembled violently. People could not stay asleep forever. If Crescent Moon took Park Hayul and seized his power like this—
“Mr. Puppeteer, can’t you stop her?”
“If I stop stabilizing the mana now, your people will be in danger. They’ll be crushed by Crescent Moon’s magic.”
Park Hayul barely managed to turn his head and look at me. If that idiot was going to end up like this, then I should have just—
Ah.
“Attack anyone! Right now!”
Park Hayul’s eyes flew wide open. He panicked. A half-dead monster crumpled in the corner of the wall jerked upright under his control and lunged clumsily at Song Taewon nearby. The monster’s head was smashed in, and Park Hayul broke the contract.
“Ugh…”
My vision spun. Half of Park Hayul’s power transferred to me.
As did half of Crescent Moon’s hold over him.
[Han Yujin.]
Come to me.
Crescent Moon whispered.
I grabbed a fistful of the Puppeteer’s clothes beside me.
“I already have a master!”
The Puppeteer clicked his tongue and caught me as I staggered, wrapping an arm around me.
“He’s right.”
His gaze shifted to Crescent Moon’s silver form.
“I was first.”
–TL Notes–
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