“I’ll handle Wang Sun. Our attributes are a better match for me.”
As Wang Sun stepped forward, Go Yu-jin spoke while opening her sub-space and pouring out countless iron filings.
Pi Jin-hyeok, instantly recognizing what it was, spoke.
“Go Yu-jin, you too will be used as a very enjoyable test subject. It seems your bonding rate with organic matter will be excellent.”
“I have no intention of becoming a chimera. And you will be defeated by Seong-chan.”
“Heh, hehehe, yes, that’s how it should be.”
It was unclear what he found so amusing, but Pi Jin-hyeok did not lose his composure for a moment. At that moment, the iron filings pouring from the sub-space began to clump together, soon transforming into an Iron Golem.
Thick desire filled Pi Jin-hyeok’s eyes as he watched Go Yu-jin dive into it as if being naturally absorbed.
‘It’s true that madmen change the world, but the problem is that change isn’t necessarily positive.’
I felt deeply that we should be thankful many black mages weren’t as insane as Pi Jin-hyeok, and just as I was about to step forward, Wang Sun lunged with a roar, as if realizing his opponents were Go Yu-jin and the Iron Golem.
Clang!!
An unbelievable roar and shockwave spread from the collision of fist against fist.
The power was enough to shatter the entire area with shockwaves, but the laboratory seemed to be very sturdily built, and I could feel the surrounding ripples being seized and instantly stabilized by Bak Hyeok, who had begun to move just then.
‘Hadn’t he been doing chimera research?’
I couldn’t believe a chimera was managing mana so naturally.
In Wang Sun’s case, since he was an Awakener with such an absurd physical body, his current transformed state and power were understandable, but it was an established fact that mages could not be realized as chimeras because they had to manifest power through thought and understanding.
But the Bak Hyeok before my eyes handled mana freely and had erased the ripples using magic operation methods.
The calculation speed was so high it could be called a miracle, when something suddenly came to mind.
“Did you undergo lichification while maintaining that body?”
“As expected, you noticed immediately. Through mind control, I first broke his brain and elicited absolute loyalty, then after fixing the brain as if wringing it out, what I did was research your grand black magic and apply it to the chimera.”
Although the impact created by Wang Sun and Go Yu-jin was enormous, tension hung in the air at the sight of Bak Hyeok controlling it all so lightly, and I was amazed by the greatness of the mutated chimera that had become so strong while checking the state of Go Yu-jin and Wang Sun, who were trading blows without anyone gaining the upper hand.
I understood what Pi Jin-hyeok had mentioned in a slightly different sense.
In reality, Wang Sun was like a mortal enemy to us, but in China, he was known as a hero with absolute power.
Yet Pi Jin-hyeok was someone who had captured such a person and essentially turned them into an ally.
If such experiments were used for the public good, they could truly become a technology to make a nation’s power prosperous, but since this was a case of abusing it for personal advancement and specific purposes, the government could not have overlooked it.
Furthermore, I only ‘understood’ it; I didn’t support it.
‘If it were during wartime, this method might have been actively utilized. It’s an experiment born in the wrong era.’
What would it have been like if it had succeeded just a bit earlier?
As I watched the battle between Go Yu-jin and Wang Sun grow fiercer and stealthily channeled mana toward Pi Jin-hyeok, Bak Hyeok somehow noticed and tried to intervene in my mana.
‘Should I let him?’
This was because I judged that I had to figure out how he was intervening to be able to respond.
Then, I confirmed the heterogeneous mana and this ability stretching out to quickly swallow my mana, and after grasping the pattern of my mana with his own, he activated this ability, literally scattering my will contained within my mana.
“Did you figure something out?”
Just then, Pi Jin-hyeok questioned me.
I nodded slightly and asked.
“I didn’t expect you to think of transplanting a mechanical creature into a chimera.”
“…Ho, you even noticed that?”
He looked surprised.
“I didn’t think a Metal Slime could be used in such a way; you’re quite impressive. The progress of your chimera research must be extraordinary. I’ll give you credit.”
“Heh, hehe, perhaps because you’re a black mage, our thoughts align. Why don’t you cooperate with me after we suppress everyone else?”
“Why, do you think the power and authority of this land will be heightened then?”
“Of course. Hasn’t the world become one where power alone is justice? In the end, these will bring us immense power and interests. How long will you survive by barely scraping by on the rights of persecuted black mages?”
It was an attractive story that one might be tempted by, but in the end, it would lead to despair caused by a tiny minority.
Everything would be conducted under the leadership of a few, and the moment you opposed them, you would be as good as dead even if you lived.
It would just be a world where only the extreme advancement of individuals shone.
“I refuse. And since the weakness is clear, I can’t play along any longer.”
In the midst of the tremendous battle, something about Wang Sun began to go slightly awry from the impacts, and Go Yu-jin persistently dug into that, accumulating damage.
She felt it too. The reason Wang Sun could be such a formidable fighter lay in his innate ability: an enormous amount of aura.
However, in a state where this aura could not be utilized properly and merely swirled within the body, making physical enhancement his everything, he was no match for a human with countless thoughts and experiences.
Go Yu-jin was not one to miss that subtle gap, and I was certain that Bak Hyeok would inevitably stumble during the process where calculation was strictly necessary to scatter mana.
And as if to prove this, while I prepared a spell by diversifying the mana patterns and setting up various complex mechanisms, I curled the corners of my mouth as I saw Bak Hyeok faltering as expected.
“Dammit….”
There was no way Pi Jin-hyeok didn’t know the shortcomings.
As Pi Jin-hyeok prepared a spell while muttering curses, at that moment, Bak Hyeok also prepared a spell targeting me in coordination with Pi Jin-hyeok’s actions.
‘He’s fast. He operates magic to the point of scraping every bit of his body.’
It was a method I could use as well, but one I didn’t because of the extreme pain. However, Bak Hyeok manifested the magic without concern for such things, and Pi Jin-hyeok, hiding behind him, also prepared a heavy spell as if Bak Hyeok were setting something up.
‘Time is short. If so, I’ll focus on using Memorize rather than large-scale magic for now.’
I had prepared several Memorize spells while coming here.
I decided to pull out one of them right now, and the moment I snapped my fingers to activate the Memorized spell, a massive pressure formed at the designated coordinates and crushed the target.
“Gravity?”
At the same time as Pi Jin-hyeok’s words, Wang Sun’s body was crushed down.
Without missing the opportunity, she swung her fist and crushed Wang Sun’s head; with overwhelming mass, Go Yu-jin’s mana operated explosively, doubling the impact and successfully landing the blow.
His neck was driven about a third of the way into his body as if collapsing. Watching Wang Sun sink to his knees, Go Yu-jin brought her fists down with full force, both hands clasped together, to deliver the finishing blow.
Furthermore, her fists accelerated under the influence of Gravity as they entered a certain range, and the moment the additional strike from that increased weight hit Wang Sun, an enormous bundle of magic erupted from Bak Hyeok’s hands, targeting Go Yu-jin and me.
Since Go Yu-jin only needed to protect her core and her own body, she easily guarded with her two arms, but I had to repeatedly use Blink to retreat.
With Wang Sun suddenly neutralized, Pi Jin-hyeok shouted as if he couldn’t contain his rage.
“I’ll kill you all. I’ll make you pay for the sin of interfering with my masterpiece and my experiment with your very bodies!!”
With a clap of his hands, the magic Pi Jin-hyeok had prepared manifested.
However, it didn’t seem to be a simple spell.
Instead of targeting Go Yu-jin and me, mana stretched out in all directions, activating vivid magical languages all over the walls.
Pi Jin-hyeok spoke with a triumphant face.
“It’s late, but welcome to my world.”
Just as I was wondering what he would do, an immense amount of mana gushed from the walls and delved toward Pi Jin-hyeok.
He then used it to prepare a spell, and based on the amount of mana alone, I felt as if he could use at least a 9th Circle spell, and I had to experience the feeling of my body being crushed by that mana pressure.
In the face of this enormous pressure experienced for the first time in a while, and the fact that we would inevitably be consumed if things continued like this, I shouted toward Go Yu-jin.
“Yu-jin, set the golem to auto-pilot! And let’s use that!”
At my shout, Go Yu-jin slipped out from the rear of the golem, and when she lightly touched the hesitating golem, it moved on its own toward Pi Jin-hyeok.
“Is this a final struggle?”
“You can see it that way. Try and block it.”
While only the golem approached Pi Jin-hyeok without any other changes, the mana pressure piled up layer by layer, becoming so heavy it felt as if it would crush my entire body into the ground.
Perhaps because she was a physical type, Go Yu-jin endured well and walked toward me, supporting me even while her own body felt heavy as she stepped backward.
“I’m sorry. For having such a trivial body.”
“It happens. Let’s go…. If the distance is close, we’ll be in danger too.”
In fact, there were a few things I had prepared while spending over a month with Go Yu-jin.
Among them, because of the talk that it was a waste to just use and discard golems, I had once given her a piece of advice.
It was about how the golem’s core was a conglomerate of condensed massive energy, so if it could be utilized as an explosive, it would become a strategic weapon that could cause immense damage like a so-called ‘grenade.’
Go Yu-jin had contemplated this for a long time, and she was now about to use the result against Pi Jin-hyeok.
‘The core of a Giant Iron Golem is so difficult to form that it takes up half of Go Yu-jin’s mana. But it’s impressive that she succeeded so skillfully and progressed to the level of causing an explosion.’
While I gave Go Yu-jin a sideways glance and an awkward smile, she whispered softly to me.
“Seriously, it’s problematic if you use your face like that, just as So-mi said.”
It was a moment where I wondered if my smile was really that strange, but soon, with a tremendous roar, the Iron Golem exploded, spewing countless fragments in every direction.
“You bastarrrrrd!!!”
Pi Jin-hyeok’s indignant cry followed as a bonus.
