Part 1, Chapter 10, Section 28

The firepower was sufficient.

I scraped together mana until just before I died, concentrated it into a small sun, then twisted and detonated it.

The triple barrier erected by the three executives didn’t break. But thanks to that, the Azure Flame Sun I detonated fully contained its destructive power and struck the three monsters within the barrier.

Fenrir, Azhdahak, and Hydra all tried to block my technique by building shields in front of themselves, but they were merely scrambling to protect their own bodies.

Naturally, my Ultimate Skill, poured out with all my might, succeeded in defeating the three monsters.

Only Hydra’s main head remained, cooked red,

Fenrir, with only its head remaining, fell onto Hydra’s ash-covered head,

and Azhdahak, destroyed from shoulder to leg, crashed to the ground.

Wooong.

The madness of Terra that had enveloped the three monsters subsided. As the blue flames attached to their bodies burned away all their mana, the three monsters were forcibly transformed back into their humanoid forms.

“Haaah…”

They weren’t in a state where more than half their bodies were necrotic as they were in monster form, but they were clearly severely wounded and bleeding from all over their bodies.

“Haa, haa, you crazy bastard…”

“You still have the energy to speak, haa.”

I also changed into my humanoid form and scoffed at them. I had consumed too much mana and needed time to recover.

“You left me, hnyaang, in such a mess, heok.”

“You’re all fine, aren’t you?”

All four of us looked fine outwardly. But parts of our bodies were transparent, or still not fully recovered beneath our clothes.

“Haa, haa.”

In my case, my overloaded Core showed no signs of cooling down. Just panting was enough to heat the surrounding air, causing heat haze to shimmer.

“Shall we finish this, then…”

“W-Wait.”

Hydra raised a hand and stopped me.

“There’s one thing I want to ask.”

“Normally, I’d kill you before you could ask, but considering we’re fellow executives, I’ll hear you out. What is it?”

“…Just how did you defeat us?”

“Pfft.”

They went wild in their monster forms to defeat me, yet they didn’t remember? I wondered if they were trying to extract information about me from the sudden Ultimate Skill, but since Hydra was curious, I answered.

“Well, it’s a technique that can roast an entire continent, so of course its destructive power would be strong when detonated within this small island, right?”

Since the explosion that should have spread out merely swirled within the barrier, even SS-rank monsters wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.

Only two executives could directly withstand my Ultimate Skill: Snowy Night’s Rusalka and Gaetcheongwang Karna.

“I’m sorry, but you guys can’t stop it. Especially with Fenrir involved.”

“Haa, haa. You keep provoking my pride, nya. Let’s see this through to the end.”

Fenrir staggered and straightened its posture. Azhdahak and Hydra also widened their distance and straightened their postures.

“What are you trying to do again?”

“What else? We’re going to bring out our true forms one more time.”

“Ohhohoho! You foolish bitch! Didn’t you realize we were just buying time?! Ahahaha!”

“…”

I wondered if I should have just ripped off their heads right away. Azhdahak always managed to annoy people, so this time, I’d split her body in half, not just her hair.

“It seems you’ll only come to your senses after you’re all dead.”

“Well, who do you think will die?”

Hydra pulled something out of its pocket. Azhdahak and Fenrir also pulled out small objects from their pockets. They were small spheres coated in their respective mana colors.

“A Core?”

“No way. You really are a fake, aren’t you? Not even knowing what this is.”

Thud.

The three executives distanced themselves from me. I instinctively felt something big was about to happen and charged forward.

“Me again?!”

“Because there’s one I couldn’t pull out!”

I spread my wings and flew towards Hydra. Dodging the pillars that shot up from the ground, I reached close to Hydra. Hydra put the Core into its mouth.

“Keuk!”

I had consumed too much mana using the Ultimate Skill. Perhaps they were trying to recover mana through the Core. I broke through the earth snakes that rushed to bind my limbs and grabbed Hydra by the collar.

“Such a cheap trick!”

“Hehehe.”

Hydra laughed and opened its mouth wide. A long, snake-like tongue flowed down to its chin, and in the center of the tongue, there wasn’t a Core, but a small, angular cube.

“Wha-“

Gulp.

Hydra swallowed it.

Not a Core.

“It’s Round 2.”

The cube.

Pasasasak!

A typhoon surged beneath me, lifting me high into the sky. I squeezed out my remaining mana and transformed into my monstrous human form to increase my durability.

Seogeok! Seogeok!

A cutting wind, more powerful than before, began to slice at my armor. Fenrir, now a monster again, ran through the air and opened its maw towards me.

[Keuk!]

I extended my hand and radiated flames, but Fenrir swallowed me whole, flames and all, and bit down. Fenrir’s teeth sank into my shoulder and thigh.

[Damn it…!]

Fenrir shook its head, moving its lower jaw from side to side. As if tearing through tough meat tendons, its teeth clashed up and down, trying to sever what was caught inside.

Me.

[These bastards!]

I used the flames seeping out of my body like blood as a medium and caused an explosion. A massive explosion occurred inside Fenrir’s mouth, and Fenrir, startled, flung me high into the sky.

[As expected, still not enough…!]

My mana hadn’t fully recovered yet. If only I had time to recover, even for a moment, but my enemies seemed to have no intention of giving me even that brief respite.

[To recover all their mana with a cube…!]

I hadn’t entirely failed to anticipate them using a cube, but I never imagined they would use a cube to become monsters again after being defeated once in their monster forms.

[Aren’t you ashamed?!]

“What are you talking about! What’s there to be ashamed of in a fight to the death?!”

[I agree with that!]

Hydra, who hadn’t transformed yet, finished its sentence and burrowed into the ground. I tried to grab Hydra by the hair and pull it out before it could hide underground, but obsidian swords were densely arrayed in front of me.

Kyaaaaaak!!

Azhdahak revealed its true form again and scattered swords. Fenrir also charged at me again, slashing with its claws.

The two monsters moved to buy time until Hydra could transform and recover. Scrambling to dodge the cutting wind and obsidian swords, I ultimately failed to prevent Hydra’s transformation.

[Damn it!]

Curses naturally burst out. I scraped together all my remaining mana, temporarily erected a shield around myself, and squeezed out all mana from my Core, concentrating it in front of my chest again.

Kung-kung-kung-kung-kung-kung!!

The sound of my Core pulsating was louder than ever. My already overloaded Core was forcibly trying to use the Ultimate Skill again, and it overheated to the point where my mana began to run wild.

Kwaaaaaah!

Hydra, who had been hiding underground, revealed its massive head and opened its maw wide. It seemed intent on swallowing me and dissolving me in its venomous fluid again, but the problem was that I couldn’t gauge my own condition right now either.

“H-Heeuk?!”

I forcibly released my monstrous human form, releasing the overflowing mana. Immense heat erupted from my body, engulfing everything around me.

“Heeu, haa, hua, the rampage, won’t d-“

Kyaaaak!

A massive shadow slammed down on me vertically from above my head. Fenrir’s tail, laden with cutting wind, struck me, and I hastily raised my guard.

Seogeok, seogeok!

My arms became tattered like rags. Blood and flesh were scattered, but Fenrir’s attack showed no sign of stopping.

Kung-!

Fenrir slammed me down vertically from mid-air. My two arms were tattered beyond recognition, but I scraped together the remnants of my mana and spread my last pair of wings.

Pababak.

As if waiting for me to spread my wings, obsidian swords pierced my wings. The swords embedded between my wings severed the flow of mana connecting them, and I lost my wings, falling straight down.

“Ah, fuck.”

Below me was Hydra’s maw. Just before I fell, I tightly closed my eyes at the tomb of venomous fluid, boiling like a swamp at the bottom of a deep cave.

Chumbung.

After that, I lost consciousness.

* * *

“Oh my, look how tough this one is. She didn’t dissolve and endured even in that situation?”

Hydra nudged Phoenix, who was lying on the ground, with her foot and scoffed. Even after falling into the highly venomous, boiling swamp within the monster Hydra’s body, Phoenix’s body still maintained its original form.

“…S-She’s not dead, is she? I didn’t intend to kill her completely!”

“She’s alive, but her arms are completely crippled, nya.”

“Hmph, hmph! Who told her to stupidly block with her arms?! What was that anyway!”

Azhdahak’s face flushed red as she yelled.

“She fights better than the real one! And so recklessly!”

“Do you like that the fake fights better than the real one, nya? You used to dislike it when she just flickered flames from behind.”

“Who said I disliked it?! I-I just don’t like that thing itself!”

“Yes, yes. I get it, so let’s ‘seal’ her first.”

As Hydra stepped in to mediate, Azhdahak composed herself and pulled out another cube.

“Damn it. I wasted two cubes. Isn’t she a crazy bitch?”

“Once for recovery, once for releasing the transformation… Keung, I don’t know why Seongju-nim made it so that when we bring out our true forms, our transformations are forcibly released, nya.”

“It’s not time yet, is it? Seongju-nim is going to descend personally and destroy the world, right? The subordinates shouldn’t eat the main dish.”

Hydra spoke softly while trampling Phoenix’s chest with her foot. She was getting a small revenge for the pain of having her heads torn off her back while fighting in her monstrous human form.

Azhdahak squatted down and poked at the crushed side of her chest with her fingernail.

“But she’s really strong, isn’t she? How did she defeat all three of our true forms without even bringing out her own?”

“And even forcibly released our transformations. Doesn’t she have some special power that manages us, nya?”

“I don’t know. Still, six cubes’ worth was a cheap price to pay to catch her.”

Hydra took her foot off and sighed. If she hadn’t been told to collect cubes in advance, she might have actually been killed by the fake’s attack.

“I’m alive thanks to Phoenix, nya.”

“Who said I’m alive because of her?! I just woke up a little early and got to work! It’s absolutely not because she said something like that and started it first!”

“Yes. Good girl. Yes, Azhdahak is working hard.”

Hydra hugged Azhdahak and stroked her hair. The severed hair also returned to its original form as her body recovered using the cubes.

“Damn it, it took me over ten years to grow this…”

“Yes, yes. So let’s leave punishing her to Seongju-nim. Is that good enough?”

“Uh, th-that is…”

Azhdahak glanced at the other two executives.

“S-Seongju-nim wouldn’t do anything strange with Phoenix’s body, would she…?”

“Strange things? What kind of strange things?”

“…I don’t know! Damn it, just do it! Just seal her!”

Azhdahak, huffing and puffing, gathered mana. The dark barrier that had enveloped them like a dome shrank. The darkness that brushed past the three executives’ bodies wrapped around Phoenix’s body like a mummy.

“Then it’s my turn.”

Hydra stomped her foot on the ground, gathering the debris of the destroyed island. The water of the Caspian Sea began to flow into the island, losing its form and scattering.

“Then I’ll imprison her.”

Kiiiiiik.

Hydra gathered the mud extracted from the ground into one mass and spread it thinly over Phoenix’s body. In an instant, Phoenix became a clay doll, and Hydra poured cement-like clay over it to create a cylinder.

“What kind of sealing style is this, nya?”

“In our neighborhood, this is how we submerge people, you know? Just hurry up and do it. I have to go home and make dinner.”

“…Indeed, I also have to eat my morning mint chocolate, nya.”

Fenrir created a wind centered around the concrete cylinder Hydra had made.

By winds tens, hundreds of times stronger than natural winds, the stone coffin encasing Phoenix transformed into a weathered pillar of ruins, as if aged for centuries.

“Yeotcha.”

Hydra gave it a light kick with her foot, pushing the stone coffin into the water. The stone coffin slowly sank below the surface, reaching the deep bottom of the Caspian Sea.

“When we take her out later…”

“Either I’ll dig a canal, or I’ll find Rusalka unnie and ask her to lift this lake into the sky.”

“They say beauties are sleepyheads, but she’s been sleeping for too long, nya.”

Fenrir, Azhdahak, Hydra.

The three executives were still searching for the whereabouts of the other executives.

“Then let’s keep her imprisoned here until Seongju-nim arrives.”

“Surveillance?”

“Who would come to a place like this? Even if they found it, it would just be a block of concrete. Hwaaam. I’m leaving now. Fenrir, thanks for your hard work luring her.”

Hydra tapped her waist with her hand. Fenrir scratched its cheek and stood up.

“I’m the one who’s sorry for calling you out so suddenly, nya. It seemed impossible to do it alone, so calling you was indeed the answer, nya.”

“Hmph, hmph! Do you think I’m some idle person who just comes running when you call?! I just came because it was close! Don’t misunderstand!”

Azhdahak pointed a finger at Fenrir and disappeared into the darkness. Hydra shrugged her shoulders, and Fenrir, grinning, waved its hand.

“Then I’ll see you next time. If you find Karna, let me know.”

“Got it, nya. Take care of yourself, nya.”

“Yeah. I’m going to rest. Because someone made all my hair fall out. Seriously, I’m not going bald, am I?”

Hydra even joked, acting relaxed. But Fenrir smiled bitterly, just said goodbye, and disappeared.

“…Nah, no way.”

Hydra shuddered.

* * *

Seolhwaryeong, God of War, Gawain, Undine, Phantom Dragon.

Renowned figures began to gather one by one at the Caspian Sea.

Nothing was visible in satellite photos, and no superpowered individuals or monsters appeared on radar, but they flew towards the world’s largest lake, where Villain Phoenix’s signal had disappeared.

“You’re making people worry…!”

Seok Harang, who arrived at the Caspian Sea first, bypassing Shaolin, held up the blue canary hairpin tightly clutched in her hand.

“Hey! Where are you?!”

No matter how much she tried to contact him, it was as if he had entered another world; there was no contact at all. Seok Harang scanned the entire river from above, but saw nothing.

And at that moment.

Kwajik.

The hairpin split in half.

“Uh…?”

Azure Flame Phoenix.

It was the moment his signal vanished.