Phoenix of the Flame – Chapter 7

I had a dream.
Azure Flame Phoenix.
The heroine I could only meet after dedicating nearly half of a long year.
The human form revealed on the official website was my ideal type, and I fell in love at first sight.
That Phoenix was flying around with a foolish expression,
Being an unlikeable person to Xiaolin, getting hit by a missile fired from China,
Suppressing her presence as much as possible, only to be mistaken for a minor character by the West Sea Monster and eaten whole.
What is this? The Azure Flame Phoenix I know isn’t such an idiot.
‘That’s because you’re an idiot.’
Turning around, Azure Flame Phoenix was making a very displeased expression.
Her blue eyes, looking at me, were mixed with contempt.
‘Idiot.’
* * *
“Ugh! No!”
The girl screamed and sat up. The cold sweat flowing down her forehead seemed to show how terrifying the nightmare she had in that short moment was.
“Ah… what kind of dream was that…?”
Feeling as if she had suffered a great wound to her heart, the girl placed her hand on her chest and took a deep breath.
A light green veil wrapped tightly around her entire body. Coming out of the water, she looked as if she was wrapped in seaweed, and she flicked her finger to create Mana.
Whoosh-
The Mana flowing from her finger wrapped around the veil. The veil, which had been like a long, stretched silk, wrapped around the girl’s body like a dress in response to the Mana.
‘Azure Flame Veil (Explosion Edition) kind of feel?’
If a dangerous moment comes, she decided to release the veil and run away.
‘Anyway….’
It seems someone saved her while she was unconsciously.
‘It looks like a very old country house.The wallpaper and door conditions felt like a guesthouse in a remote countryside, but the furniture and items placed inside had a fresh, young girl’s taste.
‘……It’s surprising that I lost consciousness, but.’
She didn’t know why she suddenly lost consciousness, but she remembered blowing up the inside of the West Sea Monster and rising to the surface of the water.
After that, her head hurt after the West Sea Monster’s head was stuck on the beach. She vomited a lot of water and seeing an old man who found her was her last memory.
‘Then is this Grandfather’s house?’
With an awkward feeling, she carefully opened the door. The sound of the old hinges scraping echoed in the living room.
The savory smell of rice wafted from the connected kitchen.
“Oh. You’re awake?The old man was stirring porridge while wearing an uncharacteristic pink apron.
What should she say? The girl scratched her head for a moment and bowed.
“Th, thank you for saving me.”
“Saving you? What can a dying old man do? Other than treating the hero who took down the West Sea Monster.The old man laughed heartily and put the rice cake soup in a bowl and placed it on the table.
“Sit down and eat. Even though I look like this, I’ve been cooking for 30 years and feeding my son and granddaughter.”
“Yes.”
The girl sat at the table following the old man’s guidance. At the old man’s gesture to eat quickly, the girl awkwardly nodded and picked up a spoon.
“I was wondering because of your hair color, but are you Korean?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Okay. Koreans need rice to live. But I haven’t heard of a hero like you….”
Ah. That’s right. The girl took a spoonful of porridge and said with a smile.
“I haven’t officially debuted yet. I fell alone during a combat ability test….”
The girl rolled her eyes and continued.
Anyone who knew a little about the industry’s trends would realize that most of what she said was full of holes, but unfortunately, the only thing the old man could use to communicate with the outside world was an old radio.
“Oh ho. A young lady who catches the West Sea Monster alone. Following Snow White Princess, another lucky charm has been born in this country. Ehehe!”
The old man poured barley tea into a cup and laughed heartily. The girl just smiled awkwardly and continued to eat rice porridge.
“Have you ever seen Snow White Princess? Our only two in Korea….”
“S-rank hero, right?”
‘Snow White Princess’. A hero with the nickname given for her freezing ability and beautiful appearance.
“That’s right! Wow. About 5 years ago? I saw her active before I stopped watching TV, and she was really beautiful. She wasn’t even an adult yet, but the sight of her sweeping away B-class Monsters was truly-”
“‘A fairy dances in a field of ice flowers,’ people said.”
As the girl put down her spoon and focused on the old man’s story, the old man continued excitedly.
“That’s right! The power to freeze the Monster group trying to cross from Gangbuk in one blow! It’s no exaggeration to say that she is the strongest in Korea-”
The old man waved his hand when he saw the girl’s expression turning bitter.
“Ah, no, well! I’m definitely not trying to compare her to ‘Light Sword’!”
“It’s okay. I’m not really interested in who is stronger between the two.”
The girl shrugged and picked up her spoon again. The old man took a sip of tea for a moment and nodded.
“Well, if you survived the West Sea Monster, you’re definitely above B-class. You said you haven’t registered yet? At least B-class is confirmed, and if you accumulate some achievements, you can become A-class.”
“You know a lot about hero ranks?”
When the girl asked in surprise, the old man smiled and pointed to a photo placed at the end of the table.
“My granddaughter studied to become an association employee. Before Incheon became like this, she used to come here often….”
There was a sense of resignation in the old man’s eyes. The girl hesitated for a moment and asked carefully.
“Why are you still here, Grandfather?”
“Ah. Are you asking why I’m holding out in a place that has already become Monster territory? I’ve told my granddaughter to come down to New Seoul more than dozens of times.”
The old man laughed heartily and continued.
“…My son went out to sea and went missing.”
“Ah.”
The girl’s expression hardened.
“The guys who went with him somehow came back alive, and they said. A guy like an eel attacked the ship, and that idiot, well.”
The old man spoke calmly as if he had heard someone else’s story.
“He said that his friend’s leg got caught and was about to be dragged into the sea, so he jumped into the sea with a harpoon to save him? That crazy guy saved his friend and sent him back onto the ship.”
There was even some pride in the old man’s voice.
“He said he had hero talent, but he took over the fishing business…. Anyway, the ship returned to the port, but the person didn’t return. That was already seven years ago.”
The old man pointed to the oldest photo among the photos. There was a young man who looked exactly like the old man and a high school daughter holding his hand tightly.
“Fortunately, I had saved enough money to send Soyeon to college and get her a job in New Seoul. She said she would earn money, so she told me to pack my bags and come down to New Seoul from this dangerous place. That little kid has grown up! Hahaha!”
The old man stroked a photo of the girl wearing a college hat and laughed loudly.
“Well, thanks to Incheon being in this state, I can’t see my granddaughter anymore. She probably thinks I’m dead? Hehe. The old geezer doesn’t interfere with her dating anymore, so she should catch a rich man and live well. Cough, cough!”
The girl quickly poured tea into a cup and handed it to the old man.
“Ah, thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve met someone, so I’ve been talking too much.”
“He’s alive. Your son.”
The girl said in a confident voice. The old man smiled and ruffled the girl’s hair.
“You even know how to comfort an old man. Huh? Your parents raised you well. You’ll be a good hero.”
“It’s true.”
When the girl showed a slightly sulky expression, the old man nodded as if he understood.
“Thank you for the kind words. But don’t you have something you need to do now?”
“Something I need to do?”
At the girl’s question, the old man pointed out the window.
“You need to recover that Core.”
At the end of the old man’s finger was the corpse of the West Sea Monster lying on the beach.
* * *
“Haaaat!!”
The glaive draws an arc and cuts through the air. The blue Mana-infused slash cut through the steel pillar as if cutting through straw.
“Hat!”
With a shout, the glaive drew a new trajectory and cut the steel pillar next to it in half. The upper part slides diagonally.
Slash!
The masked warrior cuts the pillar again,
Slash! Slash!
He cut and cut. The continuous slashes, as if he would cut the entire pillar until it became iron powder, ended as the Mana on the glaive subsided.
“Haa, haa!”
The warrior leaned the end of the glaive on the ground and breathed heavily.
“This is not enough….”
The feeling of fear that he felt for the first time since wearing the mask of the God of War. Even after a day, the blue flames flickered before his eyes.
“—!!”
The glaive, quickly swung horizontally, cut through the blue flames. But it was the remains of the steel pillar that were still there.
“Ah….”
The warrior – Xiaolin – gathered the remaining Mana and took a breath.
“This won’t work.”
The fear he felt from the enemy. But what twisted Xiaolin’s heart even more than that was the laughter of that blue girl, codenamed <Phoenix>, imprinted in his memory.
Puhuhu. Puhuhu.
‘She laughed. Definitely.’
She narrowly avoided the slashes and taunted him and Red Hare with homing fireballs. And as if the first attack was just a taste, Phoenix created dozens of fireballs and taunted him.
‘Was I afraid?’
To put it coldly, it wasn’t that the attack was scary.
What was really scary was the endless amount of Mana that she had left even after creating so many fireballs.
Xiaolin was crushed by the huge Mana that burned infinitely like the sun.
“…Haaaat!”
With a shout, he poured all his Mana into the glaive. The ability to enhance weapons was fully demonstrated, and the entire glaive began to glow blue.
“Heuh, haak!”
The light became even stronger, scraping up to the limit of Mana, but Xiaolin squeezed out even more Mana and put it into the glaive.
‘It doesn’t reach.’
Even though all the Mana had been recovered for a day, the amount of Mana scraped together to the end did not reach even half of the fireballs that Phoenix had created.
Pabababak!
“Ugh?!”
The glaive, unable to withstand the overloaded Mana, shattered. Broken fragments flew into the hand holding the spear, and red blood flowed.
“This won’t work.”
Although he fought with Red Hare, the Mana of one’s body is Xiaolin’s own problem.
The lack of Mana is a clear limitation that Xiaolin has felt for the past few years.
Until now, he had been able to defeat Monsters sufficiently with this small amount of Mana, but after meeting that blue Phoenix, he desperately felt the need to break the limit.
“This, this won’t work….”
Change was needed. But there was no one around Xiaolin who could advise him on this situation.
[Xiaolin. It’s a call. A press conference has been prepared, so come out of the accommodation in an hour.Xiaolin clenched his blood-stained hand tightly and picked up the green training uniform hanging on one side of the training room.
* * *
The by-products of Monsters include various elements such as their bones and skin, but among them, the most helpful to mankind is the ‘Monster Core’.
It plays the same role as the heart, but it is a completely different organ from the heart. A trace of ability that circulates Mana throughout the body.
“In simple terms, it’s an organ where the Mana of a Monster is accumulated.”
“Who are you talking to?I simply ignored the old man’s interference and stood on top of the West Sea Monster’s head.
“Now. From now on, I will find the ‘Core’ from the West Sea Monster’s corpse.”
“Ah. Is that the broadcast you do on that U-tube or whatever?”
I put my hand on the West Sea Monster’s scales and emitted a small amount of Mana. My Mana, flowing through the corpse, wrapped around the entire corpse like a fuse.
“But how are you going to find the Core? With a Monster of this size, I don’t think you can do it alone without professional dismantling workers.”
“I’m going to burn it all.”
Whirrrrr!
“Wh, what?!”
The old man stepped back in surprise. Blue flames rising from the West Sea Monster’s entire body began to burn both bones and flesh.
“Ah, what are you doing now that it’s a waste?!”
“I only need the Core.”

While heroes and humanity might find various byproducts useful, from the perspective of an executive in an evil organization, Monster byproducts are nothing more than troublesome garbage.
What I truly need is only the Core. The ashes rising from the burning scales soared into the sky.
“Ah, found it.”
I located the point where the flames consuming my entire body were dying down. Thanks to intentionally minimizing my Mana output, I managed to avoid burning the Core completely.
I ran across the still-burning spine and stopped where the Core was located.
Click.
With a snap of my fingers, all the debris around the Core burned and vanished. Just as the Core, momentarily suspended in the air, was about to fall to the ground due to gravity, I quickly snatched it and held it in my hand.
“T-that’s the Core of this thing? That tiny marble?”
“The sizes are all different. Especially for an A-grade like this…”
Oops. Slip of the tongue. I flicked the Core toward the old man.
“Ugh?!”
The old man was startled and tried to catch the Core, but ended up dropping it back on the ground.
“It’s okay. It’s just a Core.”
“My heart isn’t okay! Why are you throwing around something worth tens of billions like that!”
“…Tens of billions?”
In the late game, A-grade Monster Cores were so common they were used for marbles. The sudden change in prices made me, who had thrown the Core, feel even more awkward.
“That’s right! Just catching a B-grade Monster is enough to turn your life around, but you, miss, just got an A-grade Monster Core! If you take that to the Association, rich people will come running barefoot, offering extra money to buy it!”
“Ah… is that so.”
To think something like this is worth tens of billions is simply astonishing.
Not that I have any intention of selling it.
Crackle. Crackle.
It took several minutes for the blue flames to completely burn away the remains of Seohae Weaponry, leaving nothing behind.
I neatly straightened my attire, picked up the Core, and stopped as I was about to put it in my pocket.
‘Ah. I don’t have pockets.’
In the first place, I had simply wrapped a long veil around myself like a dress.
“Miss. Do you have anything else to wear besides that flimsy outfit?”
“…I guess not.”
If I went to the city like this and it slipped off, I’d be labeled a pervert for sure. I need to get to the city center no matter what, but I can’t start my otherworld debut with a public indecency charge.
More than anything, I couldn’t let other guys see Phoenix’s naked body. This body, sculpted by David, is for my eyes only.
“Then take that Core and let’s go back to my house. The size should be about right.”
The old man roughly scanned my body up and down and turned back toward his house.
I followed behind the old man, fixing the shape of the veil with Mana to prevent it from slipping.