Ch.66The Returnee Shin Doyun (4)

“Extraction.”

Whoosh.

Thud.

Roll.

I dropped the totem fragment I had taken from the Book of Death onto the ground and chanted another spell.

“Materialization.”

Whoosh.

Rumble.

The ground shook, and a large totem rose from the earth right in front of me.

Boom.

“You think I’ll just let you do that!”

Flash.

Crackle─!

Shin Doyun swung his hand down again, striking with intense lightning made of magical energy, but the attack was instantly absorbed into the totem.

It was like watching a lightning rod. Observing this sight, I quietly chanted the spell that would complete the ritual.

“Undead call.”

The legendary shaman of the ancient Hum tribe who, according to legend, protected his village against a dragon that had lost its reason.

Simultaneously, a primitive tribal sage who absorbed countless knowledge of the world with his brilliant mind.

“Khan.”

Whoosh.

Crack.

As the spell was completed, the totem split in two, and from within emerged a small, elderly man.

Pale skin with bones showing through his gaunt frame in places. An artificial-looking beard that seemed woven from straw and primitive leather clothing that only partially covered his body.

“Oh my, this is…”

Finally revealing himself, Khan stared at my changed appearance for a moment before kneeling on one knee and offering his greeting.

Thud.

“This decrepit old man greets the Lord.”

“It’s been a while. Skip the tedious greetings.”

Watching this scene, Shin Doyun frowned and then spoke to me with a look of reassessment.

“…A high-level undead? You’re a more skilled necromancer than I thought.”

“Is this really the time to be complacent?”

“I’m not being complacent. I simply have room to spare.”

As Shin Doyun finished speaking, glowing characters began to emanate from his arm.

The patterns, intertwined like rings, began to break their connections and disappear one by one as Shin Doyun chanted a spell.

“Kekeke. Quite an unusual method. Who is this person?”

“…It’s complicated. Just think of him as someone who uses magic from another world.”

“Oh my.”

When all the ring patterns had finally disappeared, the magical energy inherent in Shin Doyun’s body began to expand enormously.

“This technique is highly dangerous, so I rarely use it. Normally, I keep restrictions on it as you just saw.”

“……”

“Surrender quickly if you’re going to. I won’t be holding back anymore.”

Ignoring Shin Doyun, I immediately began chanting a spell. Seeing this, Shin Doyun sighed and raised his hand.

“You’ll regret this.”

Whoosh.

Crack!

Hiss!

In just a moment, the surrounding air completely froze. The temperature in the corridor dropped so low that it stung my skin, and breath automatically escaped as vapor.

Whiiiing.

And then a massive wind began to surround us. Sensing an intense attack coming, Khan moved his hands hurriedly, and I too completed the spell I had been preparing.

Whiiiing!

CRASH─!

Soon after, my vision was completely blocked by a storm-like blizzard that enveloped everything.

Ice shards like blades battered my body, and the temperature, already below the threshold, began to freeze my flesh.

“Just freeze there quietly.”

CRASH!

With even greater output, a massive chunk of ice pressed down on me.

#

“It’s over.”

Shin Doyun looked at the completely frozen corridor and was confident in the outcome of the battle.

A large-scale freezing spell fired at maximum output. There was no way a mere necromancer could withstand that.

‘A returnee, but only at this level?’

It wasn’t strange. To build up this much power, Shin Doyun had to overcome unimaginable hardships.

Ordinary people couldn’t forge themselves to such an extent. Shin Doyun had learned this painfully during his ten years spent over there.

‘I reduced the lethality, so he’s probably not dead yet.’

Now he just needed to extract memories from the incapacitated Baek Eunha.

At this level, it seemed difficult to obtain the information he wanted, but there should be something worth salvaging.

As Shin Doyun was finishing his spell, what entered his vision was, surprisingly, the ice chunk beginning to crack.

Crack!

CRACK─!

“What?”

The one who emerged from within was, of course, Baek Eunha.

He was accompanied by the undead from earlier, with bone armor attached to various parts of his body.

Though unclear how, it seemed he had somehow managed to defend against the attack through his own methods.

‘Even so, not a single wound?’

It was hard to believe. Despite reducing the lethality, it was still a strike with his maximum firepower. It wasn’t a spell that could be withstood so perfectly.

“…What trick did you pull?”

“Why, confused because your confident attack didn’t work at all?”

Looking at Baek Eunha, who had a composed expression while casually shrugging his shoulders, Shin Doyun felt a vague anxiety for the first time since the battle began.

After a brief deliberation, Shin Doyun didn’t hide his confusion while secretly beginning to formulate another attack spell behind his back.

If there was an excellent defense mechanism, he would simply have to break through it.

Just as he was about to activate the completed spell, Baek Eunha spoke with a sneer.

“Go ahead and fire if you’re confident.”

“……”

“People like you are so predictable. I’ll take it.”

Shin Doyun bit his tongue and fired the spell.

Knowing and still willing to take it? That was truly arrogant.

With his pride severely wounded, Shin Doyun’s magical energy boiled up, and intense flames began to form above Baek Eunha’s head.

Eventually, it split into eight spheres, which began to burn while closing in on the opponent.

It was Inferno, Shin Doyun’s highest-level fire magic.

Whoosh!

Crackle─!

The intense heat could be felt even from this distance, and this time he hadn’t held back at all. There was no way anyone could withstand it.

However, seeing what followed shortly after, Shin Doyun could only widen his eyes and swallow hard.

Swoosh,

Swoosh─!

The flame spheres that had been burning his opponent suddenly began to scatter in different directions and get sucked into the ground.

Looking closely, strange patterned pillars had somehow been created on the ground.

To the confused Shin Doyun, Khan, stroking his chin beard, spoke.

“Impressive, but that’s as far as you go. Nothing special.”

“…What?”

“I’m saying the analysis is already complete.”

Nonsense. Impossible. An undead merely following its master had completely understood his spells? Such a thing couldn’t be possible.

Shin Doyun was convinced of this, yet felt anxiety sprouting in a corner of his mind.

“If you don’t believe it, let me show you this time.”

Whoosh.

Crack.

As Khan chanted a spell, ice spheres that looked bone-chillingly cold began to float in the air one by one.

A technique that recombined the large-scale freezing spell and highest-level fire magic that Shin Doyun had used.

Seeing this being fired at him, Shin Doyun hurriedly created a defensive barrier.

Bang!

Boom!

CRASH─!

‘This can’t… be happening!’

Shin Doyun angrily summoned all the magical energy in his body.

But at that moment, the rising magical energy suddenly collapsed, and strength began to leave his body.

“Breath of Decay.”

Baek Eunha, who had been reading the timing all along, had cursed him in his moment of vulnerability.

Bang!

CRASH!

Unable to withstand it, the barrier shattered, and Shin Doyun was caught in the magically created ice spheres, half of his body freezing solid.

Step.

Step.

In the ears of Shin Doyun, who had become completely incapacitated, came the sound of footsteps approaching him.

“…Don’t be ridiculous!”

Whoosh.

Flare!

He tried one last desperate attempt with the one arm he could barely move, but it was blocked by just one finger of Baek Eunha.

Crack.

Baek Eunha, who had somehow approached right in front of him, wore bone armor made of porcelain in the air and held a sword in one arm.

‘……’

In truth, he had vaguely realized it from their first encounter at the Blue-White Guild.

And now, looking into those infinitely deep eyes again, Shin Doyun finally had to admit it.

The being before him was fundamentally different in some way.

#

To be honest, he was quite a strong opponent. At this level, wouldn’t he be similar to Gordon in his prime whom I had fought before?

Since I had left him as a stand-in, I couldn’t bring him here, but if I had pitted them against each other, it would have been quite a good match.

“Acting all high and mighty. Tsk.”

“Hehe, isn’t it too harsh to measure skill standards in front of the Lord?”

Ignoring Khan’s flattery, I slowly met Shin Doyun’s gaze.

There was a method to simply touch his soul and extract memories, but I didn’t know how the contract he claimed to have made with an unknown being might affect things. Caution was needed from here on.

“…That won’t be necessary. I’ll tell you everything honestly.”

Realizing what I intended to do, Shin Doyun spoke quietly with resignation.

“I said otherwise earlier, but there actually was one.”

“…Go on.”

As I urged him by running my hand through my hair, Shin Doyun clicked his tongue softly and finally revealed the secret he had been hiding.

“There was one instruction I received, first and last.”

And its content was.

“To eliminate Lee Jichul, the S-rank hunter of Korea known as the Tyrant.”