Chapter 87 – Stories of Those Who Left – Kang Taeshin

Stories of Those Who Left – Kang Taeshin

“Huh-.”

In the late hours when darkness had settled.
In a dim alley without even a single streetlight, a man staggered out.

Falling down several times.
Despite bumping into walls repeatedly, a low laughter continuously flowed from the mouth of the man walking through the dim alley.

After the man had wandered through the dim alley for a while.

“It’s hot…”

For the first time, a word other than laughter escaped from the man’s mouth.

Hot.
Could there be a word that better represents the man’s situation than that?

As if he had entered a blazing inferno, the man was writhing from the heat boiling over from within.

The man tried to alleviate that heat somehow.

He swallowed ice without chewing it.
He even poured dry ice all over his body.
Sometimes he tried to throw himself into the river, taking advantage of the winter season’s characteristics, but nothing worked.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t relieve the burning heat that boiled over from inside his body.

Why. For what reason.
Why did he have to writhe in this painful heat?

Right. All of this was because of him.

That bastard….

“Heart Devourer…”

From the man’s mouth came the name of the worst villain who had now disappeared without a trace, the Heart Devourer.

No, that’s not it.
It wasn’t.

There was a more fundamental reason why he was suffering in this heat.

“Hwa-hyeol… Geum-che-gyeong…”

Hwa-hyeol-geum-che-gyeong.
A special power obtained through a strange book received from the ‘girl’ that the man, Kang Tae-shin, had encountered in the past.

At first, Kang Tae-shin didn’t believe the girl’s words.
He didn’t think that just by following the instructions written in the book, he could gain enough power to defeat the Heart Devourer.

However, Kang Tae-shin still practiced the Hwa-hyeol-geum-che-gyeong, the book the girl had given him.

The reason was simple.
His hostility, murderous intent, and anger towards the Heart Devourer were too intense to dismiss as a ridiculous story.

This was the result.

Certainly, the Blood Fire Golden Body Sutra was ‘real’.

The more he practiced, Kang Tae-shin felt that his ability ‘Explosion’ became stronger.
Furthermore, it gave him a new ability. It allowed him to control fire itself as if it were his own limbs.

Thanks to this, Kang Tae-shin killed numerous villains while wandering around in search of the Heart Eater.

However, Kang Tae-shin couldn’t find the Heart Eater.
The Heart Eater disappeared without a trace as soon as the monster appeared. Kang Tae-shin couldn’t find any trace of the Heart Eater at all.

Just where.

“Where did you disappear to! Heart Eater!”

Bang-!
Whoosh!

As Kang Tae-shin shouted and struck the wall, a loud noise erupted along with hot flames.

Even though the flames spreading along the crumbling wall were engulfing the surroundings, Kang Tae-shin didn’t even glance at it.

Kang Tae-shin just.

“Where! Where are you hiding! Heart Eater-!”

He was just calling out for the Heart Eater that had vanished without a trace.

As Kang Tae-shin was rampaging like a madman, smashing everything around and raising hot flames while calling out for the Heart Eater.

“Huh, what kind of monster is this now?”

Behind Kang Tae-shin, a man’s voice rang out with an incredulous laugh.

At that, when Kang Tae-shin slightly turned to look behind him, there stood.
A hunter with a different feel from ordinary heroes, who specialized in hunting monsters.

“A monster made entirely of flames. Was there such an urban legend, myth, or folklore?”

The hunter muttered while looking at Kang Tae-shin.

More importantly. What did you say?
I…

“A monster…?”

“Tsk, is its intelligence quite high? This doesn’t add up financially.”

The man’s expression frowned as he realized Kang Tae-shin could ‘speak’ and ‘think’.

Basically, monsters don’t have what we call reason.
They’re just beasts that act on instinct.

However, occasionally there are monsters that possess ‘reason’ among them.
In such cases, there’s only one explanation. It means the monster’s rank is considerably high.

Kang Tae-shin’s expression contorted in response to the man’s words treating him as such a monster.

I’m… a monster?
Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a monster.

I am human.

I am…

“I’m human, I tell you-!”

Kwaaah-!

As Kang Tae-shin shouted angrily, countless cracks appeared all over his body, and then through these cracks, hot flames that could melt even iron in an instant burst forth.

The man stepped back as he felt the heat from the flames erupting from Kang Tae-shin’s entire body and said.

“A monster that mistakes itself for a human. Should I just hunt it down like this?”

The man had hunted nearly a hundred monsters so far.
But among all those hunts, he had never encountered a monster that thought of itself as human.

Speaking human language. Thinking.
Moreover, a monster that mistakes itself for a human.

This.

“Do I smell money?”

The moment the man grinned, Kang Taeshin moved.

Wrapping flames that spread in all directions around his body, he charged towards the man.

“Right. You’re a villain. You’re treating me like a monster because you’re a villain. If so, I can find out where the Heart Predator is by capturing and torturing you.”

“What are you babbling about?”

As Kang Taeshin muttered while rushing towards him, the man smirked and snapped his fingers.

At the same time, Kang Taeshin, who had arrived in front of the man, stretched out his fist wrapped in blazing flames.

Clang-!

As Kang Taeshin’s outstretched fist was blocked in mid-air, intense shockwaves spread in all directions.

“What…?”

As his fist was blocked, Kang Taeshin muttered as if he couldn’t understand.

It felt as if a transparent wall had been erected between his fist and the man.

Infinitely solid. A transparent wall that seemed impossible to break with mere strength alone.

No, Kang Taeshin knows what this transparent wall means.
Yes, it was impossible not to know.

Kang Tae-shin was once a guard at Tartarus, a prison known as ‘Hell’.
Therefore, he had encountered numerous abilities.

Those experiences were now identifying the transparent wall before him as this.

“Spatial Disconnection.”

“Oh? You recognize this? You’re definitely not an ordinary monster.”

So.

I am.

A monster.

“I’m telling you I’m not-!”

Boom-!

Kang Tae-shin’s anger exploded at the man who kept treating him as a monster,
And as if responding to that anger, the heat of the flames emanating from Kang Tae-shin intensified even more.

The man clicked his tongue, tsk!, at the sight of everything around Kang Tae-shin turning into a handful of ashes and disappearing.

There was no time to be leisurely.
For now, it was just buildings melting, burning, and vanishing without a trace.

But if a little more time passed like this, even the surrounding citizens would be affected.

Therefore.

“First, the two legs.”

Muttering so, the man pulled out a camera from his pocket.
The man holding the camera with both hands captured Kang Tae-shin’s legs in the lens and pressed the shutter.

With a click sound, Kang Tae-shin’s legs captured in the camera lens disappeared without a trace…

“Wh-What-!”

A bewildered exclamation burst from the man’s mouth.

He was a man who had hunted countless strange beings until now.
And, among those experiences, there had never been a strange being that his ability didn’t work on.

But what about this monster in front of him?

Despite clearly being affected by his ability, the two legs were intact.

Centered on the legs, the surrounding scenery captured in the camera lens had disappeared without a trace.
Yet Kang Tae-shin’s two legs existed perfectly intact in that empty space.

While the man was extremely confused by a situation he had never experienced before.

“Villain. Kill the villain. No, don’t kill. Shouldn’t kill. If it’s that villain, he’ll know where the heart eater is.”

Kang Tae-shin muttered incomprehensible words and slowly moved towards the man.
As Kang Tae-shin, enveloped in sun-like flames all over his body, slowly approached, the man retreated stealthily with a terrified expression.

The man regretted his judgment.
That was not a monster or strange being he could handle.

Therefore, the man.

‘Let’s run-.’

Decided to flee from Kang Tae-shin and moved.

Leaping between spaces, the man moved to a place several kilometers away from where Kang Tae-shin was.

But.

“Where are you running to?”

Chilling-!

Kang Tae-shin’s eerie voice coming from behind.
Shuddering with fear crawling up his spine, the man looked back, and an unbelievable sight was reflected in his two eyes.

The monster he had defined as bizarre.
Kang Tae-shin was tearing through the space he had traveled through and coming over.

Meanwhile, Kang Tae-shin, who reappeared in front of the man who had escaped by tearing through space, said.

“I won’t let you run away anymore.”

Thud-!

Kang Tae-shin stomps down his raised right foot.
A heavy impact spreads in all directions through the floor.

Then.

“Flaming Blood Viper Hell.”

Centered on Kang Tae-shin, fiery vipers crawled up from the floor, filling the surroundings.

Flaming Blood Viper Hell.
It is one of the techniques that only those who have mastered the Flaming Blood Golden Body Sutra can use, literally creating countless vipers made of flames to cruelly kill the opponent.

However, Kang Tae-shin had no intention of killing the man in front of him, so he slightly modified the Flaming Blood Viper Hell for use.

Instead of killing the opponent with vipers, he isolated the space to prevent the opponent from escaping with his ability.

Thus, the man who fell into the Flaming Blood Viper Hell despaired at the fact that he could not escape even with his own ability….

“Villain, speak. Where is the Heart Devourer?”

Kang Taeshin, now completely transformed into a human-like form made of flames, growled at the man.

* * *

There’s a rumor circulating among people.

In the late dawn.
A ‘man made of flames’ wanders through deserted alleyways.

The ‘man made of flames’ is said to be roaming around in search of the now-vanished Heart Devourer.