Chapter 797: A Stranger (1)
“Ugh…”
I squeezed my eyes shut before I could properly check what was happening. The exploding light stabbed through my closed eyelids, burning red against the dark. My heart hammered hard. Whoever it was, they had protected us for now. That did not mean I could jump to the conclusion that they were on our side, though.
A series of thunderous booms followed, one after another, and the red-hot glare in front of my eyes cooled all at once into a deep bluish black. I hurriedly opened my eyes. The coat I had glimpsed last came back into view.
He was standing in front of me.
He was tall. Quite tall. Around the same height as twenty-six-year-old Yuhyun. He had a large frame too, but maybe because of his height, he did not look bulky or slow. If anything, it was the opposite. He was strikingly well-built.
‘…A suit and dress shoes.’
Which probably meant he had no problem fighting in clothes completely unsuited for combat. Just seeing him block that power a moment ago was enough to make it clear that he was absurdly strong. The man turned to look back at me. Our eyes met.
His irises were a deep gold, like the current wrapped around his body. His face was beautiful enough that even those dazzling eyes did not look out of place, but blended in naturally. Without realizing it, I swallowed against a dry throat. If I had ever seen someone like that, even once, even just brushed past him, there was no way I would have forgotten him.
‘So he really is a dependent or a transcendent.’
As I watched him warily, he opened his mouth.
“Run.”
Ah. My head snapped clear. This was not over yet. I scrambled to my feet and shouted.
“We need distance! As much as possible!”
Peace pushed himself up. Liette transformed into a dragon again. As I climbed onto Peace’s back with Yuhyun, I quickly tried to send a message. But maybe because the mana around us was unstable, I could not get the system to work properly.
“Someone call—”
A phone flew toward me.
It was the mysterious golden-eyed man. And this phone was even—
‘…The one I was using.’
It was the phone I had gotten in the dream world. When had he taken my phone? A chill prickled over my skin, but that was not important right now.
“Damn it, the call won’t go through.”
“…It’s probably because my twenty-one-year-old self pulled out the fire.”
Right. That had happened. Had he burned the nearby cell towers? I quickly checked our location and picked a direction.
“That way!”
In the opposite direction from where the transcendent was being summoned, and toward the area Yuhyun had burned a little less. Peace kicked off the ground. Liette also shook the earth with each powerful step.
“Mister!”
Yerim, from atop Liette’s head, shouted toward me.
“I’ve got a transcendent with me! Do you think she’ll be any help?”
“Huh? A transcendent?”
Yerim lifted something round wrapped in a shawl.
Wait, that—
– Kyaaa! I’ve been kidnapped~♡ Ru Ga Pheya?
“Yerim?!”
“She was too cute!”
Well, the jellyfish-shaped jellyfish was definitely cute. And the King of Harmless did not exactly look upset either, so, well.
“Still, you can’t just pick up whatever you— anyway, Ru Ga Pheya!”
– There’s no plan for the moment, so get as far away as you can.
Yeah, I figured. I kept trying to make the call. There were no more messages from Rookie or Park Hayul. The back of my neck prickled. The mana around us crackled a warning, like static electricity crawling over my skin. As if another tidal wave was about to come crashing in.
Kwa-rumble!
Thunder rolled behind us three or four times. Beside Peace as he ran, a glimpse of faded hair flashed into sight.
“I doubt I’ll be able to block it perfectly next time. Do you have a plan?”
Judging by the way he spoke, he was apparently quite a bit older than he looked, like Young Chaos. Though there were cases like Rookie too.
“A place we can dodge into…”
The King of Harmless’s drawer. When Ru Ga Pheya saw me pull it out, she said,
– With mana thrashing around like this, it’ll be hard to open the drawer. You might manage it for just yourself, but you probably can’t take everyone with you.
“Hyung.”
“No. Then we’ll treat it like it doesn’t exist.”
What was the point of me hiding alone? To begin with, I was the safest person here. In that case, our only option really was the phone. Maybe he felt what I was thinking, because Peace picked up even more speed. We were in a situation where skills would not work properly, and yet flames wrapped around his four legs.
– Grrrr!
His hard claws scorched black, half-melting as they tore past the hardened earth and scraped long gouges into the smooth asphalt.
This should be far enough!
I quickly tried calling again. Please. Please.
Thankfully, after a moment, a welcome voice came through.
[Hyung-nim! What’s going on? Even all the way over here—]
“Get farther away, and Yun Yun! Send Yun Yun here, right now. We’re at—”
The instant I finished explaining, the call cut off without an answer. And then, immediately—
“Boss Kim! Whoa, the mana is—”
“Open a portal! Somewhere as far from here as possible!”
“Huh? Uh, okay!”
Though startled, Yun Yun nodded. Even as she did, I could feel the mana in the distance condensing even more powerfully than before. Double, no, three or four times stronger. Maybe more than ten times.
“The mana’s in a weird state, so overseas is a no-go, but here!”
A long-distance teleportation portal opened. It was not as if skills were completely unusable, and opening a portal itself was more stable than simple teleportation, so it worked, just as I had expected.
“Liette! Undo your full transformation!”
Liette’s body rapidly shrank. Yerim floated in midair, and Chief Song snatched her out of the air. The moment he landed, he ran toward the portal. Peace also leaped into the small open gap.
The scenery around us changed in a flash.
Thick trees filled my vision. Before I could even figure out where we were, I checked that the others had come through and shouted.
“Close the portal and get out of here!”
“Boss—”
“Now!”
Though Yun Yun looked curious, she obediently closed the portal and vanished. Even after teleporting, there was no room to breathe. We had gotten far away, but I could still feel it from here. Every hair on my body stood on end. A fear resistance message appeared. Not just me, but everyone else was frozen stiff, unable to move so much as a finger.
The wall blocking outside invasion tore open.
A long rift split through it, and something entered.
[Y–Yujin hyung, aaaaaaah!]
Park Hayul’s message appeared, then vanished.
Right after that—
Craaaaack—!
A sound from an impossibly distant place reached my ears. The air trembled faintly, and silence settled.
A very brief, heavy stillness.
Then it was ripped apart.
Gooooooong—
Mana came surging in. An invisible storm crashed down over us with crushing pressure.
Kwa-rurururu—
– I heard the sound of soil and trees being swept up and hurled through the air, only for it to be buried beneath the mana and fall quiet again, over and over. Yuhyun and Yerim’s voices calling for me were swallowed up too. Yuhyun, who had been reaching out for me, was shoved back in an instant. Even Peace in his adult form could not withstand it. I too sank into it as if I had fallen into water.
“Ghk—”
No.
It was a field of brambles.
The mana, sharpened and rough, scraped over my entire body. They were not wounds to my flesh. It clawed wildly at the magic power inside me, tearing through it and churning it up. As my head spun, I forced out the words.
“Iryn! Ah—Yuhyun!”
Grace, you too, prioritize sending mana to Yuhyun!
Kwa-d-d-dk, shaaaaaa—
– Through my blurred vision, I saw a section of the mountain collapsing. Hard boulders and dense trees warped like rubber clay squeezed in a child’s hand. As I was tossed back and forth, someone caught hold of me.
The mana storm that felt as if it might last forever slowly began to settle.
“…Hah, whew.”
My head felt like it was splitting open. The pain was not on the surface of my body but inside it, stinging and throbbing all over. The surrounding mana had calmed down somewhat, but my breathing was still choked and tight. My feet touched the ground. My body’s own sense of itself was so dizzy and scrambled that I could not stand properly, and when I swayed, a hand caught me again.
‘That transcendent.’
Seeing him perfectly fine even in this situation, he did not seem to be merely dependent-level. I was curious about his identity and his intentions, but something else was more urgent right now. As soon as I could more or less stand, I quickly looked around.
“Yuhyun! Yerim! Peace!”
I tried to run and nearly fell again. Uprooted trees and collapsed mounds of earth were scattered everywhere. Everyone had S-Rank bodies, so they probably were not injured, but—
– Hyung! To your left!
Iryn poked only his head out of the bracelet and spoke. Perhaps because the mana was unstable, he was about half his usual size. I ran in the direction Iryn indicated. Between the fallen trees, I saw the hem of black clothing.
“Yuhyun!”
Thankfully, there were no visible wounds. His breathing was—well, he had not been breathing to begin with. I took unconscious Yuhyun’s hand and checked the pulse flowing beneath his skin. His heart was stopped, but he used the movement of magic power and mana to circulate blood and keep his body from stiffening so he could move, so…
– I think Yuhyun is okay.
“…Yeah. I can feel it, faintly.”
He was not warm. His body was cold for someone alive. But I could still feel the activity of magic power. Letting out a breath of relief, I hurriedly stood again. I had to find the others too.
“The little lady is safe as well.”
An unfamiliar voice spoke.
I turned my head reflexively and saw the golden-eyed man holding an unconscious Yerim in his arms.
“Yerim!”
I nearly shouted at him to hand her over immediately, but held myself back. In the current situation, nothing good would come from getting on that man’s bad side.
“…First of all, thank you.”
He approached us and laid Yerim down beside Yuhyun. Yerim also seemed only unconscious, with no injuries. Her breathing was steady and normal. The man I suspected to be a transcendent disappeared again without answering, then returned after finding Peace, Chief Song, and Liette. He carried only Chief Song in his arms, while the other two floated behind him. It seemed he had some kind of telekinesis-type skill.
“Once the twisted mana inside their bodies stabilizes, they should all wake up.”
Since I had very little mana myself, it seemed I had gotten off with only a headache. The other three looked fine on the outside too. I could no longer sense any twisting in their mana either. If a transcendent really had invaded, our future looked bleak, but at least for the moment, we could breathe.
“I’m Han Yujin. Thank you again for helping us.”
I bowed my head politely to the man. If he would become our ally, I could bow my head as many times as he wanted. I could even give him a full formal bow. He was probably an elder far older than me anyway.
“Seong Hyunjae.”
“Yes, Seong Hyunjae-nim. By any chance, are you a transcendent?”
That was an oddly familiar, Korean-style name. Then again, with so many worlds out there, there had to be at least one neighborhood that used names similar to Korean ones. Miranglune had been a bit like that too.
“Do I look like one?”
I looked at Seong Hyunjae as he threw the question back at me. Even seeing him again, he was unbelievably handsome. Was the standard of beauty in his neighborhood similar to ours? To begin with, if he was a two-legged humanoid, then the standards were probably roughly similar. Clear skin, distinct features, balanced proportions.
“To be honest, transcendent or not, I’ve found there isn’t much difference. People live like people wherever you go.”
I could not exactly badmouth transcendents to a transcendent, so I gave a suitably vague answer.
Though, in my experience, transcendents were usually even more obnoxious because they were steeped in elitism. Were transcendents great and strong? Sure. I admitted that. But they were way too fond of using that as an excuse to mess with the lives of people who were perfectly capable of living on their own.
“I only wondered if you might be a transcendent because you seem very strong, Seong Hyunjae-nim.”
“Then let’s just say I’m Seong Hyunjae.”
He spoke with a faint smile. For now, it seemed he liked my answer.
‘He looks difficult.’
Honestly, these long-lived types. One glance was enough to tell me he looked like someone whose mood would be a pain in the ass to cater to. Still, he had helped us, and we desperately needed help, so I would have to work hard to keep him happy.
[Honey!]
At that moment, Rookie’s message appeared.
“Rookie!”
Oh, thank goodness. Right. What the hell happened? While keeping an eye on Seong Hyunjae’s reaction, I asked Rookie.
[A few transcendents invaded your side. I didn’t think this would happen either! It’s possible for a related transcendent to interfere in that world through the sacrifice of a dependent or contractor, you know?]
“Yeah. I’ve gone through that a few times.”
Chatterbox had entered our world that way. Crescent Moon had used a similar method too, and also in that Japanese dungeon… I think something had happened there. I could not remember clearly.
[But usually they get weakened to match the world they’re entering. Chatterbox only managed it because he basically offered himself up entirely.]
I had not been all that strong either when I became something close to Crescent Moon’s incarnation. Though I had almost killed Chief Song.
“So the transcendents who came in now are…”
[…They’re obviously not at the level of their main bodies. If they entered with their true forms intact, the world itself would have to collapse. And the owner of that world is still safe too.]
That was a relief, Hayul. Since there was no reply, had Park Hayul passed out too?
[But they gathered the mana stones of the dependents and used the primordial fire to call in the owner.]
“Meaning they’re beyond anything we can handle.”
Gardener, what the hell are you thinking? Did he come all the way down himself to directly—
Huh?
[…Rookie, what was Gardener and the transcendents’ target again?]
I sent a message instead of speaking, just in case Seong Hyunjae overheard. This was still hard to use. Uncomfortable.
[Pseudo-sources, Honey!]
Ah, right. Pseudo-sources. So he was trying to recover the pseudo-sources directly. Since he had come all this way, he could go ahead and leave my brother behind while he was at it.
The moment I thought of Yuhyun, trapped by Gardener, my jaw clenched on its own. Even if he was safe, even if being trapped like that was actually safer for him right now, I could not stop myself from grinding my teeth.
[I still can’t tell which transcendents were called over. It takes more than a day for transcendent bodies to be completed.]
“Then during that gap—”
[The mana storm is wrapped around the area like a barrier. You won’t be able to approach it for a while.]
“…So we have time, at least.”
What could we do with just a day? Still, it was better than nothing. Everyone was unconscious too.
[Things on this side were already complicated because of the dependents… For now, I’ll look into it more and contact you again!]
“Yeah, please. Also, can I use the drawer?”
Finding somewhere to rest in the current situation seemed difficult. The mountain was in this state, so would there even be any intact buildings nearby? Rookie told me it should be safe for now. Then—
“Seong Hyunjae-nim.”
He had been looking down at Chief Song, but now he lifted his head.
“I’d like to make one thing clear first. You have no intention of attacking us, do you?”
“With the exception of Song Taewon and Liette.”
“…With the exception of those two?”
“Ah, and Han Yujin-gun as well.”
Then he was saying he would not touch Yuhyun, Yerim, or Peace? What was the reason? Did he have some principle about not hurting kids… except Yuhyun was twenty-six. Twenty-one-year-old Yuhyun was still young, sure, but.
“Why?”
“Because I promised. So I won’t lay a finger on those three. Even if they attack first, I’ll dodge them appropriately.”
I could not understand whom he had made what kind of promise with for him to act like this. Was he acquainted with the elder, maybe? The elder treated even Yuhyun like a child. As for me, well, I was still the eldest.
“Are you connected to the elder, Young Chaos, by any chance?”
“Let’s say I’ve been scolded by him a few times.”
Ah, so it was the elder after all. Had he sent a transcendent he knew because he was worried about us? I still could not completely trust him, but I felt a little more relieved.
“Please don’t harm Chief Song—I mean, Song Taewon—or Liette first either. At least not before they regain consciousness. I’m asking you, please.”
His golden eyes looked quietly down at me before he spoke.
“Han Yujin-gun.”
“Yes? Ah, me? I…”
I hesitated a little, then answered.
“There should be at least one person here to deal with you. If there’s something you want, please tell me.”
Since I had Grace too, it would be better for me to step forward. I was, well… no. I was plenty capable too. So—
‘I’ve been doing pretty well, haven’t I?’
Even though I was F-Rank, Yuhyun now—
No.
A throb ached deep inside my chest. I had managed to persuade twenty-six-year-old Yuhyun safely. But twenty-one-year-old Yuhyun… I had shaken him. Still, I had done well enough, and I had been acknowledged too, so. Maybe it was the lingering effect of the mana storm, but my head hurt.
At the Chatterbox party, even the S-Rank Hunters had accepted me in the end. I had also held on to Chief Song. He had let me see a little of what he truly felt. I must have lived well enough. Enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with other people.
And yet, strangely, I felt hollow.
It felt as if one of the pillars holding me up had been pulled out.
Was it because of Yuhyun? Because I had let him slip away, even if only for a short while? I had wanted my brother to acknowledge me, after all.
‘…Even if things got twisted for a little while, Yuhyun definitely acknowledged me.’
Even twenty-six-year-old Yuhyun had.
Then why did I feel like this?
“Han Yujin-gun.”
“Ah, yes. First, we’re going to enter the subspace the King of Harmless gave me. There’s a lake as soon as we go in, so I’d like you to use that telekinesis skill to move us at least as far as the sandy shore. Is that possible?”
“I will.”
I thanked him and took out Ru Ga Pheya’s drawer.
–TL Notes–
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