episode_0168

168. Escape.

Cheo cheo cheo cheok-!

Layers of blue shields stacked up along her path. Unfortunately, he couldn’t imbue them with any attributes.

“……How! You’ve neutralized the restraints?!”

She exclaimed in shock, drawing a sword from her inventory. Swish, a red sword aura flickered like flames.

Hoo-oop, she inhaled and brought the sword down.

Crash!

Most of the shields shattered in an instant. But her expression wasn’t bright at all.

She cried out as if in despair.

“Why! If I’d just waited a little longer, I could have been happy!”

At that, Johann twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Happy? Is manipulating people’s emotions with drugs your idea of happiness?”

“……!”

Her expression hardened. Johann’s words hit the mark.

She gripped the sword tightly with trembling hands. She wanted to knock Johann unconscious right away. But if Johann had broken free of the restraints, she was the one in danger.

‘Johann’s power is a step above mine. I shouldn’t attack rashly.’

In the first place, if Johann hadn’t been heavily drunk at the bar, she wouldn’t have been able to tie him up so easily.

It was a stroke of good luck. Then, as she tensed up, Johann said.

“Sara Kim, you just needed a puppet. Don’t sugarcoat your actions with the word happiness.”

Eudeuk, Sara gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to say something, a surge of magical power in the room tickled her vision.

‘……Huh?’

She was overcome with an eerie sense of déjà vu. Her eyes rolled around, taking in the situation in the room.

A fan floating in the air, Johann surrounded by streams of magic, shields that broke too easily.

Something was unnatural. A small clue sowed the seeds of doubt.

‘Was the restraint even released in the first place?’

The sudden surge of magical power while she was in the bathroom. She was so flustered that she made a biased judgment.

‘Since magic is moving, the restraints must have been released.’

─That was her logic. But what if the restraints weren’t released?

‘What if the restraints are still working perfectly, and he’s just using a weak amount of magic through some means?’

Immediately, her eyes glowed with a crimson light. Kwaang! She kicked off the floor and charged at Johann. Residents on the floor below screamed.

At first, she acted defensively, thinking Johann’s power had recovered, but it turned out that wasn’t necessary.

“You tricked me!”

“Tsk, still not enough.”

Johann uttered incomprehensible words. She rotated her waist and swung her sword. At the same time, dozens of magic missiles poured down on her.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwang!!!

‘Weak.’

She frowned at the rebounding force felt from the sword. It was a spell that added certainty to her assumption.

“Heup!”

The sword, enveloped in red energy, approached Johann’s abdomen, albeit slightly slower. Peoeok! A dull sound echoed in the room.

“Keuheoeok!”

Johann retched from the heavy impact. The bed shook with a thud. At the same time, the stream of magic swirling around Johann subsided.

Surprisingly, Johann’s waist didn’t break. It was thanks to her releasing her strength at the moment of impact. It was an attack that accurately considered Johann’s physical abilities, which surpassed that of a common criminal.

Johann chuckled inwardly.

‘Even though I was trying to escape, you weren’t going to kill me?’

What a damn kindness.

Her voice reached his ears.

“Johann. I was arrogant. I’ll never leave you alone again. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”

“……”

Johann felt goosebumps. Her words continued.

“I should move the room altogether. I have enough money, I’ll prepare a detached house in the outskirts of the city……”

“Heu, hahahahahahaha!”

Johann suddenly burst out laughing, stretching his mouth wide. Sara frowned at his mad laughter.

Johann rolled his eyes and looked at her. Sara flinched. Johann’s eyes were genuinely happy.

She wondered without realizing it.

‘……Has he gone crazy?’

It was understandable, given that his escape plan had failed.

‘It’s okay. I just need to take good care of him.’

She put the sword back in her inventory. And she turned her gaze. She saw the Bloodho Fan lying on the floor.

She had a small question.

“Johann. But why did you take out the fan?”

“Hahahahahahaha!”

Johann didn’t answer. He just kept laughing. Sara sighed and moved towards the fan.

“I’ll confiscate the fan. I don’t know what you were trying to do, but it probably wasn’t anything good.”

Sara, who had taken a few steps, bent down and thought.

‘After dealing with the fan, I should knock Johann unconscious. He’s too noisy.’

Finally, the moment her hand was about to touch the fan─

“I should have killed you instead.”

At the same time as Johann’s muttering, the fan shone brightly.

“……!”

Just as the light flashed, Johann appeared before her eyes. The fan that was there was nowhere to be seen.

Johann reached out both hands to her. Dozens of magic missiles rained down from zero distance.

“Heueut!”

There was no time to draw her sword. She crouched down, bracing herself. Kwakwakwakwang! A pain like dozens of iron hammers pounding her whole body arose.

A vision tinged with blue, Johann’s pure white ankles barely visible. She was horrified.

“The restraints, they’re gone?”

Her mind was in a tangled mess. She thought she had barely subdued him, but the situation had been reversed.

She made a quick decision. She was a little embarrassed, but the task at hand hadn’t changed.

‘I need to subdue him quickly!’

Sara drew her sword from the air. During that brief moment, magic missiles pounded her whole body. She endured it. She couldn’t just keep getting hit.

Immediately, her shoulder blurred. Ssaaak- a red slash was drawn in the air.

Jjeoeoeoeong!

The slash collided with Johann’s shield, which he had already anticipated. She frowned. It was on a different level than the shields from before. A tingling sensation traveled from her fingertips.

“Where do you think you’re going.”

Johann chanted a new spell. The wizard’s wish is explosion.

A small blue sphere was created between the two men and women. She instinctively slashed it horizontally.

That was her misjudgment. Soon, the sphere burst open with a peoeong. The distance between the two men and women instantly widened due to the rebounding force.

Pook, kigigigigik!

“Keueuk!”

She plunged her sword into the floor of the hotel room. At the same time, she shifted her center of gravity forward to nullify the rebounding force as much as possible.

On the other hand, Johann relaxed his body. Thanks to that, he flew far, far away like a kite with a broken string. Kwaang! The wall of the hotel was utterly destroyed.

Seeing Johann escape out of the hotel, sparks flew in Sara’s eyes.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

She lightly drew her sword and kicked off the floor. Immediately, a cool breeze was felt all over her body.

The number of floors where Johann and Sara lived was 17. The city scenery reflected in her eyes was small, like a miniature.

In the miniature world, there was a figure with particularly clear lines. A man falling while looking at the sky. Sara shouted at Johann.

“It’s not too late now! Let’s start over from the beginning! Johann!”

Johann pik- smiled. It was clear that her mental state looked precarious. Johann touched his heart. Surprisingly, the name of the emotion blooming in his heart was pity.

A clearly abnormal situation. He couldn’t tolerate it any longer.

Johann spread his fingers wide. He felt a sense of freedom from the flow of wind felt between his opened fingers.

“It’s too late. You know that too, don’t you?”

Jjaaaaaak!

When Johann clasped his hands together, the space behind him rippled.

Hwareureuk, a total of five flame harpoons appeared in the air. Sara gritted her teeth and raised her sword. At the same time, red lines were fired at her.

“Seueup!”

She curled her body into a ball and kicked the air with her feet. Taang! Her form turned diagonally to the right.

Taang! Taang! Taang!

She continued to kick the air, descending in a zigzag pattern.

“Eueum……”

“Just, with this much!”

Her sword is rapidly approaching. Johann had a blank face even though the prepared spell had been neutralized.

Immediately, Johann’s palm slowly opened. What was unique was that his fingers were still attached.

Johann made a ‘ㅅ’ shape with his fingers and drew up magic.

Flame Star.

Chwareureureureureuk-!

The harpoons that had been rising endlessly suddenly stopped. Following that, chains of fire extended from each of the harpoons, connecting them to each other.

A giant pentagram was drawn above her head.

“……!”

Johann took out a fan from his chest. It was the Bloodho Fan, which he had barely managed to bring out when he escaped from the room earlier. At the same time, his whole body rotated vigorously.

The magic within his body surged like it was boiling. Not only that. The ambient magic around him swirled and compressed into one point.

‘Heu.’

Johann trembled at the amount of magic contained in the Bloodho Fan. It was the most vast amount of magic he had ever unleashed.

Magical Art (魔功).

“Yeompyocheon (炎飇天).” (Flame Storm Heaven)

Hwareureureureuk!!!

A storm of flames rushes towards her. Immediately, the pentagram wriggled and spewed out sticky flames.

A storm below, and lava-like flames falling from above. Despair settled on her face.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!!!

Two transcendental flames swallowed the woman.