Ch.149Chapter 6. Hellfire Peninsula (6)

Demons are rational beings.

At least until they go insane or are reduced to pure destructive instinct, they’re more rational and intelligent than anyone.

Just look at this demon.

“Kihihihit!”

Look at this demon, already stripped of flesh from its body, transformed into a massive skeletal mass reaching 5 meters.

Look at this demon, its head so enormous it can’t properly support it, placing its head on the ground and crawling around like a spider on all fours.

Outwardly it appears to be a monster without any rationality, seemingly without even a brain, but the only organ remaining in the demon was its “brain,” protected by a solid skull.

Thud!

The demon of shattered bones, Scullion, pounds the floor with its hands and feet, causing a commotion.

It looks like a child throwing a tantrum in a supermarket, but black mana flows from its fleshless hands and feet, pounding the concrete.

BOOM!

The Jindo Bridge collapsed.

The bridge, which had been impassable due to being severed in the middle, suddenly crumbled.

“No! Honey!”

“Run! Hurry to the mainland!!”

As the bridge collapsed in real time, families were forced to separate.

“Survive somehow! You’re the only one who can save our children now!”

“Honey!!”

Splash.

People were swept away with the collapsing bridge, carried downstream.

The water current was so swift that the outcome for those who fell was obvious if they weren’t rescued quickly.

“Someone, please…!”

The wife, who had lost her husband in an instant, clutched her child and looked around.

Like her, everyone had lost family members on the collapsing Jindo Bridge, and as civilians, they needed someone who could either defeat the demon or rescue people.

At least someone with abilities who could survive the demon.

“Kihihihihik!”

After cutting off the bridge where people were fleeing, and even sending those who were still escaping into the sea, the demon slightly raised its head and began to laugh.

With each click of its bright white teeth, indescribable things began to leak from the demon’s mouth.

They were human remains.

Traces of what had once been people, and the demon spat out flesh from its mouth and ejected something onto the ground.

“Kheuk, hrrrk.”

White bones stained with red blood.

As if it had dismantled all the flesh of a large mammal leaving only bones, the demon buried its head in front of the bones.

“Ssssssssssss—”

It inhaled deeply through the hole in the front of its head, as if sucking in something.

As if the bone itself were some kind of drug, the demon twisted its body in joy.

“Kihik, hihihik…!”

These weren’t human bones.

The traces of flesh the demon had chewed and spat out weren’t from ordinary people.

It was a young man, just 22 years old, a B-rank ability user from the Academy.

And not just him.

The demon had devoured every ability user in Jindo.

It had killed all the Academy students who had come for field training, as well as heroes staying in Jindo and ability users from overseas.

For one reason.

Mana Powder.

To consume mana powder made from the bones of ability users on the spot.

Krgggrk.

The demon’s limbs began to twist.

As if unable to contain its delight, the spine below the skull began to rotate at each joint, causing its body to spin around.

The bizarre sight was terribly grotesque and frightening, but the most terrifying thing was that there was no one here who could stop this demon.

“Someone, please…!”

Clunk.

The demon raised its skull high.

As if smelling something, it lifted its head high and turned it left and right as if sniffing.

And then.

Gugugu—!

Seawater began to rise from the ground.

Something like a vast disc rose up, and things that had fallen into the sea began to surge to the surface along with the seawater.

“Cough, cough…!”

“Honey!!”

A man lying face down on a chunk of concrete, bleeding, coughs up seawater.

Beside him were others, not all unharmed but at least not dead, clinging to collapsed bridge sections or cars, coughing.

Splash, splash.

What appeared as the seawater drained away was a vast net of ice.

As the seawater quickly receded, a net slowly rose to the surface.

Splash!

As seawater sprayed high, someone emerged from within.

“Waaaa—!!”

The people gathered at Jindo Bridge erupted in cheers.

Those who had tried to flee from the demon only to encounter it on the bridge, who had given up hope of survival, now cheered at the sudden appearance of hope.

“Snow White! Snow White!”

“Snow White is here! We’re saved!”

Korea’s second-ranked hero had arrived.

A hero close to being the strongest had appeared.

If they couldn’t place their hope in her, who else could they rely on?

If even Snow White fell, it would mean no ability user could dare face that demon.

“Kihihihihit! S-rank! Woman…! Let me taste! Your scent!!”

Scullion clicked its teeth and opened its maw toward Snow White.

Then.

Swoosh!!

From Scullion’s spine, thick bone spikes began to fly.

The bone spikes, shot not from its mouth but from its spine briefly hidden by the skull, were heading not toward Snow White—

“This is…!”

But toward the “civilians” behind Snow White.

Swish!

As Snow White reached behind her, a massive wall of ice extended upward.

The bone spikes embedded in the ice wall as thick as steel, and those behind the wall lost strength in their legs as they saw the trajectory of the spikes.

“Ah, aah…!”

Without the ice wall, those bone spikes would surely have been aimed at them.

“Hurry and run!”

At Baek Seol-hee’s cry, those outside Jindo quickly turned and fled.

Even if they turned their backs to run, Snow White would protect them from the demon’s attacks.

But.

This demon knew exactly how to put Snow White in a difficult position.

“Civilians…kihihit, heroes must protect civilians! That’s right!”

The demon dragged its jaw along the ground and began to crawl backward, moving its limbs behind it.

“Kyaaah!”

Those who had fled to Jindo Bridge to escape Jindo suddenly found themselves being chased by the demon again, and Baek Seol-hee, floating in the air while maintaining the ice wall and net, gritted her teeth and ran toward the bridge.

“Where do you…ugh?!”

The moment Baek Seol-hee landed on the bridge, her body staggered greatly.

She had flown from Incheon to Jindo, a distance of nearly 400km, subduing demons along the way.

Perhaps it was because she had flown without rest, stabilized the collapsed bridge, and erected a massive ice wall.

Baek Seol-hee momentarily lost her concentration and her posture crumbled, and the demon didn’t miss that opening.

“S-rank!! I’ll taste you!!!”

Scullion, keeping its body as low as possible, struck the ground with both arms and leaped high, as if its previous crawling had been just a joke.

“Snow White bone powder! I’ll taste it!!!”

The demon’s eyes were fixed exactly on Baek Seol-hee.

But the tips of its outstretched hands and feet were aimed precisely behind her, at civilians who were still dying, far from evacuating.

“Kugh…!”

She could shoot her magic forward.

She could push away the massive mass instead, saving herself.

But if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to block the bone spikes flying backward, and civilians would die.

Then.

“I have no choice but to trust…!”

The magical barrier surrounding her body,

The magical barrier made to look like an ordinary suit,

Even if that demon tried to bite through her waist.

Because a hero’s mission is to protect civilians.

Naturally, Baek Seol-hee reached her hand behind her.

Ratatata!

Bone bullets shot from Scullion’s hands and feet, which were stretched forward as if doing a long jump, aimed at civilians fleeing around the bridge.

But Baek Seol-hee’s ice wings, extended backward, protected the entire bridge from side to side, and the bone spikes merely embedded in the wings.

“Got you!”

Without time to gather her magic again, Scullion approached Baek Seol-hee with its huge maw wide open.

Now Baek Seol-hee—

[You’re problematically kind to the point of foolishness.]

A voice from above.

At the emotion in that all-too-familiar voice, Baek Seol-hee felt her heart sink.

“Ji—”

[Meteor Strike.]

[Meteor Strike—!]

CRASH!

Something fell like a meteor and struck Scullion’s body.

The red flame-like meteor not only hit Scullion but pushed it backward, slamming it into the entrance of the bridge.

CRASH!

Dust rises.

Seeing the man who appeared with his bike tilted at an angle beyond the asphalt and dust-mixed wind, Baek Seol-hee felt her heart sink once more.

[It’s been a while. Snow White.]

“……Goblin?”

Baek Seol-hee felt relief, but at the same time, she felt strange about the sensation she had experienced.

[A hero’s job is to save people. Mine… is to execute villains.]

Flutter.

As the Goblin dismounted from his bike and pulled out a long club, swinging his robe, Baek Seol-hee felt something both familiar and unfamiliar about his back.

Just now.

The emotion in the Goblin’s voice when he seemed concerned about her was clearly….

KYAAAAA—!!

There was no time to think.

“…I’ll leave the demon to you!”

Baek Seol-hee slapped her thigh hard and threw herself backward.

To save the civilians.

[Of course.]

The Goblin turned his head slightly and nodded lightly.

[I came here to kill demons, after all.]