Part 1, Chapter 4 (17)

All the petals burned away.

Fiery butterflies, spreading blue wings and seeking out the ice flowers, landed on the petals. The ice flowers melted helplessly under the heat-infused blue butterflies.

Crackle!

One butterfly touched the core of an ice flower. The ice flower, its calyx already shattered, could no longer withstand the butterflies’ dance and crumbled away.

Crackle–

[Nothing much.]

Thump!

Harang burst out of the ice flower and landed on the dirt path. Her already pale face was flushed red like an apple.

“You wanna die?!?”

An ice sword was clutched in her hand.

A disciple of Gwanggeom. Though her attribute was different, and she mainly learned mana control, she also learned swordsmanship from him.

“Die!”

Harang charged forward, spitting words unbecoming of a Hero.

I lowered my right hand.

The fiery butterflies that remained even after destroying the ice flowers blocked Harang’s path. Harang’s sword cut down the butterflies’ wings one by one, closing the distance.

“I won’t miss!”

Seok Harang.

One who easily gets angry, but when truly enraged, regains a cold rationality like ice, mirroring her ability. And a monster who redirects all her thought processes towards defeating her opponent.

However, Harang had not yet awakened that monster.

“Hyaap!”

The last butterfly was cut down by the sword. One more step. One more step and Harang’s sword would reach me.

Kigigigik.

The blade of the ice sword was caught in my hand and ground. Harang tried desperately to pull the sword away, but my mana had already flowed into the ice sword.

Pususu!

Blue flames surged from inside the transparent ice. Harang hastily dropped the ice sword and dodged.

Kwaaang!

Azure Flame exploded inside the ice sword. Harang rolled on the ground, shaking off the Azure Flame that tried to cling to her clothes.

Thud. Harang knelt on one knee and slumped down. I placed one of the butterflies that had been resting on my shoulder onto my right hand.

Hwareuk.

The Azure Flame changed form, becoming a bird the size of a small child. Unlike a Mini Phoenix, it was a hawk-shaped fire bird, a Fire Arrow.

Its origin is a certain harmful bird that spreads its wings like a gale. Though it’s fallen from grace now.

[There’s no better image than an animal for manifesting mana. But you, as I said before, are a half-wit. You can create an image, but you can’t imbue it with the essence of mana.]

“Just shut up!”

An ice spear shot out like light. But the Fire Arrow had already flown like lightning and shattered the ice spear with its body.

Pururu.

The Fire Arrow spread its wings, threatening Harang. Harang brought her hands together, clapped, and released the mana within her body.

Shaaaak!

Behind Harang, a giant snowman was created.

[A Frost Giant? Good. A giant that is both offense and defense, according to your will-]

“Don’t act like you know everything!”

The Frost Giant threw a punch. It was likely the strongest summon Harang could produce in her current state.

I sent the Fire Arrow to distract the Frost Giant. Suddenly, it became a proxy battle between summons, giving me a moment to talk to Harang.

[Cool your head. Body hot, head cold. You can’t win unless you’re calm enough to weave threads from ice.]

“……Hmph. Annoying.”

Harang clenched her fist. The Frost Giant, which had been struggling to grab the Fire Arrow, stopped moving.

I placed the Fire Arrow on the wrist of my right arm.

“Hey. What are you, really? If you’re going to fight, fight properly. Are you tutoring me right now?”

[I could see your weaknesses just by looking. Go home and review, half-pint.]

“You keep calling me half-wit, half-pint, half-piece! I’m Seok Harang! Seolhwa Princess! Don’t you know me?”

Laughter naturally escaped me. I’m the one who knows Seok Harang best in this world.

[I know. Better than Gwanggeom.]

“……What are you talking about?”

Harang’s expression hardened. I continued speaking in a meaningful voice-or perhaps, that kind of atmosphere.

[Well. Seok Harang. Born October 10, 2000. Left in a sack at an orphanage in Busan and grew up there until elementary school. Discovered by Gwanggeom and began to make a name for herself as an S-class ability user.]

“You can find all that just by scraping Hero Wiki, you know?”

[Yes. And you always think to yourself. That you want to show your parents, who abandoned you, how well you’re living. Even if it’s a childish desire for revenge, you really want to do that.]

“……!!”

Harang’s expression froze. Her true feelings, which she only spoke to close friends, especially those who could keep a secret. She began to panic that such words came from the Villain in front of her.

“Who are you, really?! How many people do you think I’ve told that to?! Who did you hear it from?!”

I raised my finger.

My index finger, raised towards the sky, slowly lowered its head and pointed at Harang.

[From your own mouth, directly.]

“……Lee Seung-hyung? No. That ajusshi isn’t this strong. I don’t remember any fire user who’s this good with fire. You’re lying, right?”

[It’s the truth. I heard it directly from your mouth.]

I’m sorry, but I wasn’t lying. I just didn’t say that this Seok Harang was the Seok Harang from the original work’s heroine.

I had merely heard it. As Seok Harang’s comrade, and as one of the lovers who shared love in her route.

While entwined in bed.

[You always wonder. Who your parents are. Why on earth they abandoned you. Why they haven’t shown their faces even though you’ve become so famous as an S-class.]

“…Hmph. That’s all stuff a documentary psychologist has already recited. Nothing new.”

[You probably started doubting Gwanggeom around your middle school graduation, didn’t you?]

Harang flinched. She tried hard to feign composure, but her poker face had already crumbled.

[How did Gwanggeom, on the very first day he came down to Busan, happen to find you among all those many orphanages in Busan? Even if it was an S-class talent-]

“Ah, shut up! You talk way too much!”

My words were cut off.

“Shut your trap and tell me your identity! Forget all that ‘teacher this and that’ nonsense, I asked you from the beginning! What I’m most curious about right now is!”

Harang moved the Frost Giant. The Frost Giant, which had grown to the size of a four-story building, raised its fist high.

“Not my past!”

I raised my right arm. The Fire Arrow flew up and charged towards the Frost Giant.

“Your name, you son of a bitch!”

The Fire Arrow’s body rotated like a drill, piercing the Frost Giant’s fist. The Frost Giant’s body rapidly melted and became watery, but at the same time, the Fire Arrow’s flames weakened from the Frost Giant’s cold.

Pusshhh—-

Both the Frost Giant and the Fire Arrow disappeared. Only a warm puddle on the dirt path indicated that they had been there.

I watched it, then crossed my arms.

[…Had we not introduced ourselves yet?]

“No, we haven’t!”

How could that be.

There’s no way I wouldn’t have introduced the most lovely and adorable Phoenix in the world to someone else-

[Ah.]

I first met Seok Harang as a monstrous human. As soon as I saw her, bad memories resurfaced, so I started by launching a preemptive attack.

I knew my opponent well, but they were meeting me for the first time. I forgot that again.

[My apologies for that. I was flustered when I sensed you coming over Gwanaksan Mountain.]

“…? What? You sensed me coming from Anyang?”

Harang’s expression soured. Why? I had only told the truth.

[Isn’t that obvious? Your unique mana pattern. There’s no way I wouldn’t know it.]

“Hee-ik.”

Harang took a step back.

“How did you read my mana pattern? The Association? You hacked the Association’s database, right?”

[Think what you like. But….]

Beep-beep, beep-beep.

An alarm rang on Harang’s smartwatch.

The fire and water attribute mana clashing violently must have destabilized the surrounding atmosphere again. As the opposing mana clashed and then temporarily entered a lull, the radio waves that hadn’t been able to reach them until now finally seemed to get through.

I subtly turned my left hand behind my back. Since there was no place to wear a smartwatch in my monstrous human form, I partially transformed my left arm, up to the wrist, into human form, turning it behind my back.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

[Excuse me.]

The alarm continued to ring without stopping. Harang looked at her screen, then looked at me in surprise.

I subtly pulled the screen closer with my right hand.

The person who sent the almost bomb-like message was Kim Ji-hwa, Beacon.

– Cheon Gaeul deceased, intruder attacking Barrier

– Cheon Gaeul deceased, intruder attacking Barrier

– Cheon Gaeul deceased, intruder attacking Barrier

[……?]

I couldn’t understand. Why was Cheon Gaeul dead? The Barrier was being attacked? Even Gwanggeom couldn’t pass through the Barrier, so how could Cheon Gaeul be dead?

I checked the very first message Ji-hwa sent.

– Enemy Hero detachment is present, searching the National Assembly Building

– Cheon Gaeul-nim has left the Barrier

– Phoenix-nim

– Phoenix-nim

– Please answer my call quickly

– Gaeul-nim fled to the main assembly hall

– Enemy Hero ambushed Gaeul-nim

– …

– Cheon Gaeul-nim is-

[Damn it!]

There was no need to read further. I immediately changed my hand back to monstrous human form and soared into the sky.

Jjeojeojeok!

A giant butterfly appeared, blocking my path.

“Where do you think you’re going to run off to!”

The butterfly wings spread out behind Harang, who was floating in the air. The powdery scales of snow that fell each time the wings flapped. Seolhwa Princess’s Ultimate Skill, which froze a horde of monsters crossing the Han River in a single blow.

“Did you think I was just messing around and talking nonsense? I was just buying time to cast this-“

[Move.]

I gathered mana in both hands and combined it. A fireball formed by extracting and condensing only the essence of Azure Flame, without reservation. The sphere, on the verge of exploding but not quite, floated in the air above me like an advertising balloon.

“……!”

Seok Harang would feel it. How much mana was contained within this massive fireball, and the nature of that mana, as well as the aftermath of its explosion.

I floated a mana bomb in the sky, easily capable of wiping a 500m radius off the map. Its power was several times stronger than the S-class Ultimate Skill Seok Harang was about to use.

“You, you, you’ve been hiding that much power and toying with me all this time!”

Seok Harang shouted in anger. Normally, she might have bantered before using her Ultimate Skill, but now there was no time for that.

Thud.

I threw the fireball to the south. The fireball rolled down the slope that Shadow Phoenix had descended.

Degururu.

The fireball rolled down the destroyed dirt path, and Harang, suddenly realizing what lay at the end of that path, shouted.

“Headquarters!”

Harang hastily flapped her wings, creating ice walls. Thick ice walls rose from the ground to block the fireball’s path.

Wajangchang!

But the fireball shattered the ice walls, gained speed, and rolled down the mountain ridge.

[If you don’t stop it with all your might, it will explode.]

I immediately sought out the Mini Phoenix in Yeouido. The one on the rooftop of the National Assembly Building.

Hwareureuk.

Blue flames blazed beneath my body. Harang rushed forward in surprise, but my body had already reconstructed itself above the National Assembly Building.

[Is it here…!]

I raised my fist, and

Kwaang!

smashed through the ceiling. I conjured flames so that no debris would fall, creating a hole without even leaving ash.

[…….]

What kind of cruel joke was this? The sunlight pouring through the hole in the ceiling illuminated Cheon Gaeul.

Hwareuk.

I changed my body as I leaped through the hole. I gently landed beside Cheon Gaeul in my human form and very carefully checked her pulse at her neck.

It wasn’t beating.

It wasn’t beating at all.

[…….]

I spread mana throughout her body to check her injuries. A wound from something sharp stabbed into her back had pierced her heart.

Why?

I didn’t know why she had left the Barrier. I didn’t know why Beacon hadn’t stopped her.

Cheon Gaeul was already dead.

She was dead.

[I’m sorry….]

An apology that slipped out unconsciously. But Cheon Gaeul couldn’t hear it.

* * *

After saving Cheon Gaeul from a near-death crisis during the Dimensional Gate incident, I had been contemplating.

Was there truly a need to save all the heroines?

The minimum requirement for the true ending route was the awakening of the six Spirits.

Since I, the seventh Spirit, was now free from brainwashing, awakening all the Spirits would satisfy the minimum requirement to defeat Seongju and the Otherworld God.

In other words, there was no need to save all 10 heroines who weren’t Spirits. Frankly, even if I only brought six of them in as comrades, the remaining four would be excess power who couldn’t awaken Spirits.

Unless they appeared as enemies blocking my path, I didn’t particularly want to interfere with their lives.

Just as Cheon Gaeul was living the life of an actress, not a masquerade, I wondered if the other heroines were also living their own lives.

Nevertheless, the reason I couldn’t just let Cheon Gaeul go and kept her by my side was due to my own uncertainty. To the extent that Deokbae called it obsession in passing, I didn’t let Cheon Gaeul go. No, I couldn’t.

Unlike me, who was sucked into this world by a single mistake, Cheon Gaeul was a cog in the machine, created for the grand flow of this world. A tragic device meant to make the protagonist’s party stand out.

That’s why I specifically hoped that Cheon Gaeul, at least, would live a life different from the original work.

Her willingness to agree to a deal to protect her dream, even under threats of being thrown to monsters and Villains, made me incredibly proud, and at the same time, I felt envious.

But because of my childish heart, Cheon Gaeul died.

I don’t know why she came out of the Barrier. I don’t know why she left the Barrier despite my earnest warnings, nor why Beacon allowed Cheon Gaeul to leave the Barrier even though she had given orders. I don’t even know who killed Cheon Gaeul.

However, I do know one thing. I have a means to revive Cheon Gaeul.

The Cube. And a monster’s Core.

I had already confirmed through Deokbae and Ji-hwa that the dead could be revived as monstrous humans. Even if they weren’t ability users, turning ordinary people into monstrous humans was something I had already seen in the original work.

With the help of the Cube, I could surely revive Gaeul.

Not as a human, but as a monstrous human.

The Cube cannot revive dead humans. That is a truth that cannot be overcome by any means.

Instead, it can revive them as monstrous humans. As a subordinate of a Dark Legion executive influenced by Terra, not an Earth existence-in reality, as a lower Spirit of a Spirit.

A minion of the soul, obeying my commands.

As a result, I would crush Cheon Gaeul’s dream and even corrupt her existence as a human.

“Even so, I want you to.”

The Core in my hand embedded itself into Gaeul’s heart. Black mana began to surge within her dead heart.

“Live.”

The Cube sparkled. As the Cube touched the Core embedded in her heart, the black mana glowed white and then was tinged with gray light.

In the main assembly hall, filled only with darkness, gray light bloomed.

On this day, I created the Azure Syndicate’s fourth monstrous human.