episode_0141

46. Looking at the collapsing tower (1)

As we came out of the portal, what we saw was the corpses of countless demons, Yeonseo collapsing from exhaustion next to an army of shattered ice summons, and in the distance, we could see Oppa Jisung fighting a demon with three heads.

While Yeonseo was falling, there was a demon running towards her, so I shot [Spear of Flame. Ardvar.] at him and burned him, then approached her.

” Sigh… Why are you so late? I thought I was going to die from the pain…! ”

” Sorry, how are you hurt? ”

Quickly sending divine power to her to heal her wounds, I looked around and saw a small igloo made of ice and summoned creatures guarding it.

” Thanks to you… I’m okay. More importantly, Yu Ji-seong… ”

” Okay, I got it. I’ll take care of it now. You, Hyunseok… go to the igloo with your brother and protect your sister. ”

” Phew, it looks like Hyunseok isn’t in good shape either? ”

When Hyun-seok heard her words, he smiled bitterly and said sorry.

” Haa, okay. Anyway, right now I’m… the same as Hyunseok and you. Then let’s go first. ”

” Yeah. ”

Supporting Hyunseok, Yeonseo used her remaining strength to summon beasts to protect them and left for the igloo where Ji-ah was. As I left them behind, I saw the beasts glaring at us right in front of my eyes.

” You guys… you need to get out of here. ”

When I snapped my fingers, a spear of flame filled the sky. When I gestured at them, it poured down like rain and with a ‘bang!’ sound, it burned all the demons in front of me.

Leaving behind the smell of burning flesh, I moved towards the place where the three-headed guy was fighting with my brother Ji-seong.

Clearly, that demon is the one that Oh Hyuk-jin is said to have used.

Thinking about the energy I felt… a strangely twisted black tower reaching toward the sky. It must have been the guardian of the tower that protected Namsan Tower.

*****

” Hah… As expected, this guy… is ‘that guy’ who was the guardian of the tower…! ”

Yoo Ji-seong recalled the first time he came to Namsan Tower a long time ago.

At that time, I tried to confidently conquer the tower with people who thought they could use their abilities skillfully, but in an instant, many people ended up getting hurt.

I thought he was a bit too arrogant when he first gained his powers, but even leaving that aside, the guy who was the tower’s guardian was just too strong.

At that time, unlike now, it had one head and white fur, but now its fur had turned black and it had two more heads, making it a three-headed demon.

I used my powers to move the guy around and counterattack using the debris I had smashed, but the guy didn’t even flinch at my attacks and just charged at me at high speed, and I was only able to avoid it by creating a wall out of the debris.

” Tsk… I didn’t know you’d become this strong… If you were like that when we first met… I thought I had some chance… Oh no…! ”

I dodged the guy’s front paw that was swinging at me again at high speed, and thought back to when I first met him.

At least back then, it didn’t move that fast and only had one head, so it could tolerate attacks from a blind spot to some extent, but now it was moving three times faster than before and covering a lot of ground with its three heads, so it wouldn’t allow attacks unless it was completely behind it.

How many times has it managed to block a critical hit by bouncing it off with its tail even when attacked from behind?

Even as he ran away, Yoo Ji-seong didn’t take his eyes off the guy. Because he felt that the moment he took his eyes off him… was the moment he would die.

The moment I looked at the guy and used my telekinesis to grab him, his movements stopped.

” Okay…! With this…?! ”

Clearly, the guy was stopped by the force of telekinesis. However, in an instant, black smoke poured out of the guy’s mouth with three of them and began to surround his body.

Yoo Ji-seong, who was looking at the guy covered in black smoke, suddenly felt a murderous intent behind him and quickly created a wall using the surrounding debris and ducked down, making a sound of ‘Shhh! ‘

I heard a ‘Crash!’ sound and the wall I had created was cut diagonally and collapsed. When I slowly looked in front of me, there was… ‘the guy’ gone.

Only a thin black smoke was floating…

” Ha…! Now… you can even teleport…? This is driving me crazy! ”

Deciding that it was dangerous to stay still, he tried to move his left leg forward again, but he could not feel his left leg.

He looked down and saw his left leg, sharply cut off, as if the wall he had built had been cut off.

*****

” Kaaaah! ”

I heard a writhing sound of pain so I sped up and got there quickly, where my brother was lying on the floor, clutching his leg from which blood was gushing out.

” Oppa!!! ”

The moment I ran towards him, I felt a murderous aura behind me and turned my head slightly to look behind me. Sharp claws were shining in the black smoke.

As I turned my head slightly to look, the claws quickly disappeared, as if they were about to stab me in the back. And instead, red eyes glared at me from within the black smoke.

The guy who was the guardian of the tower… was glaring at me.

” Indeed… That’s right…! ”

I threw [Sword of Flame. Flamberg.] at the guy who was glaring at me, and he quickly filled the hole in black smoke and ran away.

‘ Thinking about the energy I feel right now… it seems like we’re moving a bit farther. ‘

I don’t know if he was scared of me or if he was thinking of something else, but I was worried about my brother who had collapsed.

When I arrived at the place where I could hear my brother’s screams, I saw him curled up inside a thick wall.

” Wait, I’ll treat you right now. ”

As I let out the divine power, the blood that was gushing out of my brother’s leg began to stop, but his leg showed no signs of returning to its original state.

No, it felt like something was… deliberately blocking my return.

‘You really made it tricky. You even made it possible to do something like this…’

I remember my brother’s voice while I was being treated, remembering that Oh Hyuk-jin had used his hands.

” Phew, did you have a good time with him? ”

” Yeah, she won’t be able to show up anymore. And that… Choi Young-wol is… put on makeup. ”

” Oh my… Thank you. Really… ”

” No, how about now? ”

” Thanks to you, the pain has gone away a lot. But… it’ll be a little hard to fight. ”

My brother, leaning against the wall he had built and looking at his severed leg, started saying that he could fight but was worried that he would be able to hold onto my ankle.

” It’s okay. I’ll take care of that guy. More importantly, do you know the name Oh Hyuk-jin? ”

” Oh… Hyukjin…? I’ve heard that name before… but… why all of a sudden? ”

” That guy showed up after I knocked down Choi Siwoo. I think he’s probably the one behind everything. ”

” Really…? Sigh, I was just trying to get some information by falling into a trap, but something serious happened. ”

At those words, I smiled slightly and said,

” That’s true. I didn’t know it would be this hard. ”

” By the way, what about Yeonseo and Hyunseok? ”

” I sent it to where Sister Jia is. Probably, the two of them will last quite a while. I’ve already taken care of some of it. ”

” That’s fortunate. ”

” Wasn’t that guy the one who stopped you when you were attacking this tower? ”

My brother looked up at the sky at my words and seemed to think about something for a moment, then nodded.

” That’s right. It looks a little different now, though. ”

” I see. As expected, it seems like it was Oh Hyuk-jin who did it. ”

” Is it that guy’s fault that he changed like that? ”

” Yeah. I’ll tell you more details… after I take care of him. For now… ”

After talking to my brother, I looked at the wounded area again. The left leg was finally starting to regenerate. I took out my curtana and made [Sanctuary. Brittany.]

” Then hold on until I come. Okay? ”

” Don’t worry about it, just… kill him. ”

I nodded and came out of the area.

As I came out, I felt a huge energy rising from the sky, so I looked up and saw a guy with six red eyes looking at me from within a cloud of black smoke.

A look in his eyes, as if he was waiting for his prey.

” Ha! I’m the prey? You should know your place. ”

A spear of pure white flames tightly wrapped around the black clouds as I snapped my fingers.

As I clenched my fist, the spear of flame pierced the clouds at high speed, causing the guy to howl loudly and fall in front of me with a ‘Koo-ung! ‘

Perhaps because my brother’s attack had not worked on him until just a moment ago, he let his guard down. He looked at the spear of flame stuck in his body, then pulled it out with his head on either side and looked at me.

” Yeah, it can’t end like this, right? ”

As I directed my hostility at the guy, he howled and shattered the pure white flame spear he was holding in his mouth, then began to breathe out black smoke once again.

The guy my brother couldn’t finish… I took hold of my sword and took a stance, waiting for the guy to move, to finish him off with my own hands.

*****

It really took a long time to get to Namsan Tower.

I, a man, became a woman, and returned to this world, meeting Uncle Doosik for the first time as a woman… I also met Yeonseo and was reunited with my family whom I thought I would never see again.

And then… I met the man I loved as a woman.

I went to many places with them and helped many people, but there were also those who couldn’t do so.

Sure, I could have made a better choice, but I didn’t.

So… I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

That’s why I became a god.

We’ll take down the guy in front of us… Oh Hyuk-jin… That guy and the people who follow him will stop whoever the new ‘god’ is.

Because that’s my oath.