Part 1, Chapter 6 (10)

4:29 AM, Above Bering Island.

“Ugh, I’m too impatient to wait!”

Jilpungek sprang to his feet. He was too anxious to wait around idly like this.

“…Hey, don’t even think about doing that. This is expensive.”

Oracle calmly tried to persuade him. The flush of crimson on his cheeks had faded. Jilpungek stretched, loosening his body.

“Why?”

“Do you want to be chased by a raptor again?”

At Oracle’s retort, Gawain pressed Jilpungek’s shoulder with a troubled expression.

“If you do that, it could cause another uproar about an unidentified flying object.”

“I’m just going where I want to go. They’re the ones who chased me.”

Jilpungek. A man who, true to his name, comes and goes like the wind. The problem was that his wanderlust was so strong that he had caused dozens of international incidents by roaming the world without a passport.

And it was always Gawain and Oracle who handled the fallout. Oracle’s lips twitched.

“Did you forget you had a spat with China two months ago?”

“Huh? That wasn’t me?”

Jilpungek, who had just been doing jumping jacks, denied Oracle’s words. Oracle’s lips drooped.

“What are you talking about?”

“I was just walking across the sea to go home then. Oh, something was flying in the sky, though.”

“Hey! Why are you telling me that now?!”

“You didn’t ask.”

Jilpungek gathered mana and tied his scarf around his neck.

“Hey, open the door. Or I’ll cut my way through.”

As Jilpungek pulled down the goggles on his head, Oracle hastily opened the plane’s door. Gawain stood up from his chair in surprise, trying to stop him.

“W-wait! Oracle!”

“If I break this again, my dad will kill me!”

A fierce wind swept through the plane. Gawain grabbed Oracle’s shoulder and shouted at Jilpungek.

“Don’t do anything dangerous!”

“I’m going to save someone!”

Jilpungek jumped straight out of the plane’s door. Leaping without a parachute was utterly reckless, but such eccentricities were commonplace for Jilpungek among the Round Table.

Whoosh–

The plane’s door closed quickly, disregarding air resistance. The mana flowing from the engine, made with an S-grade Core, rapidly righted the fuselage.

Woong, woong, woong!

A blue dot disappeared from the radar at supersonic speed. Jilpungek, creating a powerful sonic boom, was truly running through the air like the wind.

Oracle looked at the satellite image and sneered.

“Is that a passive skill for all wind-attribute users?”

“He’s in a hurry. His younger sister is in danger of dying if he delays.”

Beep. A signal was picked up on the public channel. Oracle smirked as he saw the other person’s face.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Ice Tag.”

[Who’s that guy crossing someone else’s airspace without permission?]

The woman on the screen, completely white as if covered in snow from head to toe, looked grumpy as if she had just woken up. She held a bottle of vodka in her hand. Gawain hastily replied.

“T-that’s Jilpungek.”

[Oh, really? Then why are you guys passing through here?]

“We’re helping Jilpungek go to Korea.”

At Oracle’s reply, the woman took a sip of vodka, then nodded.

[Jilpungek went first, didn’t he? That guy, he pretends not to care, but he’s secretly worried since his country is in that situation.]

“It’s not the country, his sister is in danger.”

[Anyway. Since Jilpungek went, it probably won’t be too dangerous. Perfect timing. You guys stop by Sakhalin for a bit.]

“Why?”

Oracle’s expression darkened. She was quite excellent in terms of power, but a bit difficult to deal with.

“Of course, we’d be happy if you came, but are you sure it’s alright?”

[Is there a problem? I said I’m going. I’ll be in Sakhalin in 10 minutes.]

“Where are you right now?”

[Moscow.]

The woman shook her vodka bottle and disappeared. Oracle let out a sigh of relief, while Gawain gazed out the window, lost in regret.

“Why are the second generation of the Round Table all gathered with such strong personalities?”

“……I don’t know.”

Soon, the flight path was updated. Oracle set the course to autopilot and then pulled out his glasses from his pocket.

“I’m going to ‘observe’ for a bit. Wake me up if anything happens.”

“Suddenly?”

Oracle, wearing his glasses, whispered very quietly, in a voice no one else could hear.

“That unidentified flying object that appeared in the West Sea two months ago, it wasn’t in the ‘prophecy’.”

* * *

4:44 AM, Busan Haeundae Beach.

Kyaaak!

Deep-sea Anglers appeared one by one on the sandy beach. The monstrous humans, crawling out of the water, proudly displayed the bioluminescent organs at the tips of their tentacles as they stepped onto the sand.

Thump, thump. At first, their movements were like a child’s first steps, but by the time they reached the middle of the beach, they were quite adept at walking.

One Deep-sea Angler finally stepped onto the end of the stairs. The mana flowing from its bioluminescent organ detected something unusual.

Kyaak?!

Before it could even question, an ice spear pierced the Deep-sea Angler’s solar plexus. A companion Angler roared as its comrade was struck, but soon that Angler also had an ice spear impaled into its solar plexus like a stake.

“P-Princess Seolhwa-nim?!”

Heroes who had hastily donned their combat suits shouted in surprise.

Princess Seolhwa, Seok Harang, stood on the stairs with her arms crossed, impaling the Deep-sea Anglers’ solar plexuses on the sandy beach.

“W-what are you doing-?”

“Extract their Cores later.”

It was a unilateral command, but the Heroes nodded obediently at Harang’s words. Harang’s glowing bluish-gray appearance was quite alien, unlike anything they had seen in the past few years.

“Fortunately, these guys are the ones whose Cores can be harvested.”

Another ice spear pierced the chest of another Deep-sea Angler. The tip of Harang’s ice spear accurately pierced the Deep-sea Angler’s Core and pinned it to the ground.

Kyaaaak!!

The Deep-sea Anglers came limping. Their numbers easily exceeded dozens just by a glance. The Heroes nervously gripped their weapons, but soon they were mesmerized by the magnificent sight unfolding before them.

Pabababat!

Harang created hundreds of ice spears without lifting a finger, piercing the Deep-sea Anglers. The ice spears formed a long ice wall on Haeundae Beach.

A Hero muttered.

“A palisade…?”

The ice spears formed a framework, and the corpses of the Deep-sea Anglers filled the gaps. New Deep-sea Anglers crawling out of the sea bumped into the ice spears.

Kyaak? The bioluminescent tip of a Deep-sea Angler’s tentacle touched an ice spear. Immediately, the cold air emanating from the ice spear froze the Deep-sea Angler solid. Harang uncrossed her arms and raised her right hand high.

Words were unnecessary. Simply clenching and unclenching her hand was enough.

Pabababat! Ice spears poured from the sky like rain. As the Deep-sea Anglers crawling along the sandy beach died on the spot, a Deep-sea Angler that had just set foot on the beach instinctively fled back into the water.

“Tsk.”

Harang clicked her tongue. She had created an ice fence about 1km long centered on the sandy beach, but the Deep-sea Anglers were smarter than she thought.

Kyagaak!

They didn’t try to cross the ice wall. They didn’t try to break it either. The Deep-sea Anglers spread out to the left and right to go around the wall.

Harang’s eyes swept left and right, then fixed on an island.

“That place…?!”

D Island. The place where Gwanggeom died at the hands of Phoenix, and also the graveyard where Harang’s birth mother rested. Deep-sea Anglers began crawling up the cliffs of that island.

Harang immediately shouted into her smartwatch.

“This is Princess Seolhwa! From now on, I will build a wall! Prioritize dealing with the monsters that come over the wall!”

In a situation without a commander, the highest-ranking Hero took command of the field. Heroes, receiving Seok Harang’s orders, scattered one by one to the left and right.

“Hoo.”

She took a short breath to regulate her mana, then sprayed that mana from her back. A white butterfly spread its wings and soared into the air over the sandy beach of the dawn sea.

“There are so many.”

The number of Deep-sea Anglers swimming in the sea easily exceeded a hundred. Harang could easily deal with about a hundred D-grade monsters, but the problem was that these monsters weren’t just appearing at this beach.

A small screen appeared via her smartwatch. Along the Busan coastline, all the way to Geoje, red dots appeared along the entire 90km coastline.

Harang checked the Association’s support.

The number of Heroes stationed at the Busan branch was about 100. All of them were insufficient to prevent the landing of monsters surging like waves.

“One hour?”

Heroes from New Seoul were rushing over. Literally, in Busan’s crisis, they were speeding along roads and over mountains, heading straight for Busan.

At the forefront were Fire Fist, Lee Seung-hyung, and the Three Sages. Their estimated arrival time, at the very front, was one hour.

Harang extended her right hand. The waves crashing against the island immediately froze, and the Deep-sea Anglers crawling up the cliff were buried and frozen within the waves.

“Where do you think you’re going up?”

“Princess Seolhwa-nim! Don’t overexert yourself!”

Heroes shouted as they impaled spears into the Deep-sea Anglers that poked their heads through the ice wall. They knew well that Princess Seolhwa had trained diligently after the failure of the Seoul Reclamation Operation.

Perhaps she was overexerting herself because of that. The Heroes’ concern seemed natural.

“I’m not overexerting myself. Don’t worry.”

Harang smiled as if she was fine, demonstrating her well-being. In fact, Harang’s mana had not been depleted at all.

‘After awakening as a Spirit, my mana is overflowing.’

It was hard to quantify, but even after piercing the Cores of hundreds of Deep-sea Anglers, she hadn’t used even 1% of her mana.

‘Then there’s only one thing to do.’

As time passed, stronger monsters than the Deep-sea Anglers would appear. There was only one way to resolve this chaos most quickly.

“This is Princess Seolhwa. Association, please respond. I will deal with Moby Dick.”

A screen immediately appeared. The Praetor, with dark circles under his eyes, appeared without even bothering to fix his greasy hair.

[No! Moby Dick is currently in Japanese territorial waters!]

The Praetor pointed to Moby Dick’s location. It was heading north from the west of Tsushima Island, skirting the land. Harang shouted with an incredulous expression.

“What nonsense…! We’re being affected here too!”

[We can’t help it! It’s not international waters, and if it’s in Japanese territorial waters, there’s nothing we can do! The Association has sent a joint combat request, so wait!]

“Tch, then tell Japan to deal with it quickly!”

Harang suppressed her frustration and moved her wings. She wanted to fly across the sea immediately, but as a Hero, she couldn’t violate international law.

‘First, stop them.’

With Jilpungek, a member of the Round Table, present, Japan’s Hero forces were also formidable. Especially as an island nation, their coastal and naval combat capabilities were quite excellent.

‘Along the coastline, build a wall!’

Just like she did at Haeundae Beach, she would create a fence with ice spears and fill the gaps with monster corpses.

‘I need to conserve mana.’

No matter how much mana she had, she had to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.

Moby Dick’s landing in Busan. Harang bit her dry lips and moved along the coastline.

The time was already five in the morning.

A massive ice wall stretched out. Harang flew, placing her hand on the hairpin in her hair.

[I think I can handle Busan.]

[You’ll have to. It seems I’ll have to go north.]

“North?”

Harang’s wingbeats, which had been raining down ice spears along her path, stopped. Soon, Phoenix’s message was conveyed through Mini Phoenix.

[China is trying to awaken the monster in Pyongyang. If that thing wakes up, it’s a thousand times more dangerous than Moby Dick.]

[Why is something like that in Pyongyang, wait a minute. What are you thinking?]

Harang turned pale at a fleeting thought. The low chuckle she heard from Phoenix must have been her imagination.

[What? I’m just acting like a Villain. I told you. You take the south, I’ll take the north. It’s still dangerous to provoke the monster in Pyongyang.]

[You’re not planning to kill them all, are you?!]

[……I thought about that too, but it was rejected.]

As Harang froze the sea along Gwangan Bridge, Phoenix paused for a moment before continuing.

[It’s fine. I’m just diverting attention.]

[How?]

Puhuhu. For that moment, Harang was sure she heard Phoenix’s playful laugh.

[I’ll tell you later. For now, deal with Busan thoroughly. Moby Dick is coming for you, a Spirit.]

With those words, the conversation ended. Harang kept trying to connect, but there was no reply.

“I’ll argue about it later, but for now, here…!”

Phoenix wouldn’t make empty promises in this situation, so Moby Dick would definitely come to Busan.

As Harang reached the end of Gwangan Bridge, a large natural park caught her eye. With its vastness, there would be no problem no matter how much mana she spread.

Harang flew to the center of the natural park and gathered her mana.

“This is Princess Seolhwa. From my current location, I will use my Ultimate Skill-“

[Stop! I’m sorry. But there’s no one else who can move besides you right now!]

The Praetor refused Harang’s use of her Ultimate Skill. A small screen appeared for Harang, who was puzzled by the Praetor’s words.

“A ship?!”

About 30km southeast of Harang’s location, a cruise ship was scurrying across the sea, fleeing from Moby Dick.

[You’re the only one who can fly! Can you do it?!]

“It’s not about being able to!”

Harang folded her wings and created an ice path in the air. The skate blades formed beneath her slippers glided on the ice path, and she raced across the sea.

“It’s about having to!”