Chapter 81 – Day 81

Day 81

Grrrr-!

As the Black Blood Great Tiger roared, blue spear ghosts rose from all directions.

Seeing the endless emergence of these ghosts with their horrific appearances, even the bravest of hearts might lose their will to fight, but this didn’t apply to Cheon Seoa.

Instead, Cheon Seoa nonchalantly watched the ghosts creeping towards her and grasped at the air.

Crack-!

Cheon Seoa’s gesture distorted space, and anywhere from dozens to hundreds.
The ghost spears summoned by the Black Blood Tiger disappeared without a trace.

How many times did she repeat this action?

Grrrr-.

The Black Blood Tiger growled lowly and lowered its body.
At some point, the blue ghost spears that had filled the surroundings had vanished without a trace.

Cheon Seoa looked at the Black Blood Tiger and said.

“Three… no, five perhaps.”

Five.
That was the number of aberrations used by ‘that thing’ which had now fled, to create the Black Blood Tiger before her eyes.

However, not all aberrations possessed monstrous power.
Especially in the case of the five aberrations used to create the Black Blood Tiger, they were merely low-grade when compared to the rankings of aberrations established by aberration hunters.

Of course, the fact that it created a disaster-level aberration like the Black Blood Tiger using five low-grade aberrations showed that ‘its’ skill in creating puppets was not too bad…

“Come to think of it, I had one too.”

As Cheon Seoa muttered this and exhaled a low breath, a voice saying ‘Am I pretty?’ echoed from somewhere in sync with her breath.

Creak-?

At the sudden strange voice asking a question that echoed in the air, the Black Blood Tiger tilted its head in confusion for a moment.

Click-.

As the sound of scissors clicking echoed.

Swoosh-!

A sharp sound rang out, and one of the Black Blood Tiger’s front paws was cleanly severed.

The massive paw flew through the air, and the Black Blood Tiger’s distinctive black blood splattered everywhere.

Kheung-!

Startled by the sudden loss of its front paw, the Black Blood Tiger retreated in shock.
Simultaneously, a dark shadow fell over the spot where the Black Blood Tiger had been, and from within that shadow, a woman’s figure slowly rose.

In one hand, she held a pair of scissors dripping with red blood, which she clicked open and closed.
Her appearance was quite beautiful, but her mouth, torn to her ears and dripping with red blood, instilled fear in those who saw her.

Crawling out of the shadow, the scissors-wielding woman with the torn mouth was one of the monsters that Cheon Seoa had devoured the night before.

She was a being born from the influence of beasts on one of the most famous urban legends of the past, the Red Mask.

Although the scissors, which could be considered the core of the Red Mask monster, had been completely digested and absorbed in Cheon Seoa’s stomach.

The structure that made up its existence was firmly embedded in Cheon Seoa’s memory.

For Cheon Seoa, recreating a digested monster was an incredibly easy task.

“Well then, I’ll leave it to you.”

Click-click-.

As if responding to Cheon Seoa’s words, Red Mask clicked her scissors.

Meanwhile, the Black Blood Tiger, having regenerated its severed front paw, didn’t even think about chasing after the slowly retreating Cheon Seoa.

For the Black Blood Tiger, Red Mask, who was openly emitting an ominous aura, was more threatening than Cheon Seoa.

And so, as Cheon Seoa passed by the Black Blood Tiger, she looked at the hole where ‘it’ had escaped and smiled slightly.

Despite having fled in such a hurry.

“It seems you couldn’t escape very far after all.”

Cheon Seoa smiled and muttered as she took a step forward, her figure disappearing without a trace.

* * *

[Huh-! Huh-!]

It ran, breathing heavily.

The path it was running on now, filled only with darkness, was an emergency exit created just in case.

However, to be honest, it never thought it would be the one using this emergency exit.

Not even before being influenced by the beast.
And now, even after being influenced by the beast, modern humans.

In its eyes, they were nothing more than mere materials, so it couldn’t even imagine being defeated by them.

But.

[Why did such a monster suddenly appear!]

It shouted as if feeling wronged while running away.

Why did such a monster suddenly appear out of nowhere?
At least, if something had that level of strength, shouldn’t its face or name be known to some extent?

At first, it thought it might be them.

The Minds who were infamous as the Nine Villains in the past.
But the idea that they, who had disappeared without a trace since that day ten years ago, had regrouped.
Or that one of their disciples had appeared.

However, that wasn’t the case.

That thing was a monster incomparable to them.

Thanks to that, it was now running away on two feet like a petty criminal, unable to even use flight magic for fear of leaving traces.

[Damn it! Damn damn damn! I, to think that I have to crawl on the ground like a petty criminal…!]

“It’s just crawling after all, isn’t it?”

Flinch-!

It, which had been furious at its own situation of having to flee from the opponent, trembled at the sound of Cheon Seoa’s voice from behind.

When did she approach?
No, more importantly, why was I detected?
What happened to the Black Blood Tiger? The Black Blood Tiger hasn’t been destroyed yet.
If the Black Blood Tiger had been shattered, there’s no way I wouldn’t have known about it.

“Ah, don’t worry too much about that big cat. The monster I created should be playing with it nicely.”

The monster she created?
No way…!

[You-! Don’t tell me you used a monster to create a doll!]

“That’s right.”

[H-How?]

Its eyes shook wildly.

Despite the contemptuous looks from other Repairers, even it, who had delved solely into puppetry, needed years to create dolls through monsters.

But how on earth was this monster able to create such a difficult doll!

Clearly, when they first met, she couldn’t even conceive the idea of creating dolls through monsters!

At its gaze, Cheon Seoa smiled gently.

“Well, I called it a doll, but it’s not really a doll. I just replicated the composition formula from when it existed as a monster, recreating its past form.”

[…!]

Cheon Seoa’s explanation caused its two eyes to widen.

Although Cheon Seoa spoke as if it was nothing special, being a fellow Repairer and specializing in puppetry, it could understand.

Just how absurd the method Cheon Seoa had just described was.

“Is that so surprising?”

[Yes…! No, just who are you…!]

At some point, its way of referring to Cheon Seoa had changed from ‘you wench’ to ‘you’.
However, it didn’t even realize what expression it had used after saying those words.

Anyway.

“You were thinking something interesting earlier. Did you say those children suddenly disappeared on that day ten years ago?”

Those children?
What children?

Are there beings that this monster cares about enough to call them ‘children’?
But what does that have to do with me?

No, that’s not it.
There was no time to harbor such doubts now.

Now is…!

“I won’t allow it twice.”

Whoosh-!

As it was slowly backing away, shadows rose around it, wrapping around its body.

[Ugh-!]

The creature trapped in the shadow let out a muffled groan.

No, rather, its eyes were filling with terror at the realization that no matter what it did, the shadow enveloping its body wouldn’t break.

Cheon Seoa slowly approached it, step by step, muttering.

“Certainly, even those children couldn’t be free from the beast’s influence.”
“But, it’s strange.”
“Even if they were influenced, they weren’t the type of children to suddenly disappear without a trace like this.”

As Cheon Seoa approached, muttering, the creature’s expression distorted.

It had no idea what Cheon Seoa was talking about.

It just wanted to break free from the shadow enveloping its body and escape from this place.

However.

[Why on earth-!]

It shouted in frustration.

Why.
On earth!
This shadow!

[Why won’t it break!]

All the techniques it had learned and practiced until now were useless.
Even mobilizing all the puppets it had created so far was the same.
Using all kinds of treasures it had stolen when escaping from the collapsing sect was no different.

Cheon Seoa arrived in front of the creature, which was desperately trying to escape from the shadow she had created, and smiled gently.

“Well, I can figure that out slowly on my own. More importantly….”

A Repairer influenced by beasts…

As Cheon Seoa slowly examined it, the smile on her lips gradually twisted.

Somewhere cruel, vicious, and sadistic, Cheon Seoa’s smile was changing.

It was the moment when the expression of the thing facing that smile began to distort with rising fear.

“Whatever is created, it will be interesting.”

Aaaaargh-!

Cheon Seoa muttered as if whispering.
Simultaneously, with a terrible scream that seemed to echo from hell, its body and soul were swallowed by the shadows, disappearing without a trace.