Chapter 104 – Ghost (6)

I explained what would happen if the curse magician had obtained Yoo Yeonha’s hair. I didn’t exaggerate or downplay anything. A curse of weakening could only be removed by killing the magician. The curse wouldn’t directly kill her, but an environment like this without any medical facilities could lead to the worst. The atmosphere turned grave after I finished.

“Oh right, you mentioned it before, but I forgot… dammit.”

Chae Nayun blamed herself and clenched her fists. I couldn’t blame her since I only briefly mentioned it a week ago when she probably felt tired on night watch.

I held most of the responsibility since I didn’t properly warn them about all the dangers. They wouldn’t have forgotten if I had told them.

We all fell silent for a moment. Then the person of concern broke our anxiety with a cheerful voice.

“Why do you all look so serious?”

Yoo Yeonha continued with a bright expression. “We’re not sure if it’s a curse yet. Plus, I have some anti-magic power. I can beat something like a curse easily… ah.”

Shin Jonghak’s hand fell on her head.

“Tell me if it hurts.”

Her cheeks faintly turned red. Was this a bad boy’s charm? She nodded energetically.

“Un, but I don’t think it’s going to hurt much.”

“Don’t lie, tsk.”

Shin Jonghak stood up with his spear and spoke in an angry voice, “They should be busy organizing themselves after the ambush. Let’s barge in and crush them before the sun comes up.”

It was currently 3 in the morning with some time left before sunrise. We couldn’t waste any time if Yoo Yeonha had been cursed. Everyone stood up and began to check their equipment.

“L-Let me go too. I’m still okay.”

“You stay put.”

Shin Jonghak stopped her. We left Yoo Yeonha behind and set out to ambush them again.

The battle only took an hour this time. The enraged Shin Jonghak swept through the north tower and retrieved the purple crystal. His physique, intermittent explosive disorder, had been triggered. This strange physique amplified his physical stats up to 130% depending on his anger.

***

Asura sat on a throne in Gwangmyeong City Hall as he received a report about the three stolen crystals. He became enraged until Yi Yohan, the curse magician, calmed him down. Yi Yohan had received a lock of one of the attacker’s hair.

“M-My apologies, Boss!”

“It’s fine. Don’t overreact.”

Asura had already sent out scouts to confirm the attackers’ numbers and base. They looked like young and friendly kids. Such children wouldn’t just watch one of their friends die. Asura pitied them and considered them weak for caring about such useless emotions like loyalty, love, and friendship.

“Bring the remaining crystals back here.”

“Yes? Ah, understood!”

They still had three crystals. He would gather all of them together and wait for the attackers to come save their friend.

“Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak…”

Asura recognized two of them as Cube’s greatest rising stars. He already warned his subordinates about them.

“My future looks bright.”

He felt confident in becoming one of Destruction’s executives if he could obtain their heads.

***

Yoo Yeonha began to grow thin and weak after one day. We noticed too late that Asura had retrieved all his remaining crystals. Yoo Yeonha’s pupils withered up by day 2. She could barely stand anymore on day 3.

We went out to observe Gwangmyeong City Hall in frustration, but couldn’t spot any movements. They didn’t attack or even patrol. They just holed up in their base.

Time passed as we fruitlessly observed Gwangmyeong City Hall. Yoo Yeonha’s condition deteriorated until she could only lay in bed. She suffered from high temperatures, chills, and nausea. Everyone had the same thought looking at her. She would die at this rate.

“Yeonha, can you eat this?”

“…”

Yi Yeonghan and Chae Nayun made some porridge, but she could hardly eat. She only ate a spoonful before lying back down. Even stigma’s magic power couldn’t undo the curse since it wasn’t a spell that used magic power, but a gift.

“No movements today either. It looks like they’ll just stay cooped up in the city hall.”

Kim Suho came back from patrol and sounded frustrated. Asura acted differently from the original story. He retrieved all the crystals and simply waited since he knew one of us was dying. He knew we had to go to him.

“We have no choice. We’ll have to do what those trash want!” Shin Jonghak grew impatient and shouted.

“Wait, wait, you want the four of us to fight 5000 people?” Yi Yeonghan voiced his concern.

“The past becomes unstable when all the crystals gather in one place. It’s the same for the people of the past, so only 100 to 200 should be there. We only have to look out for ten, including Asura.”

I explained the situation to everyone.

People of the past would become weaker if the crystals weren’t spread out. We could defeat them.

However, we couldn’t just leave Yoo Yeonha alone. One of us had to stay before we killed the magician. Wait a minute. I looked at the purple crystals inside my leather pocket. Wouldn’t Asura come to me if I was alone?

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go 5 v.s. 200. I feel like I can kill them all.”

Chae Nayun aggressively spoke as Yi Yeonghan anxiously bit his fingernails.

“W-What if he sends one of his lackeys to kidnap Yoo Yeonha?”

“I’ll protect her.” I raised my hand.

“I’ll protect her and the crystals. I can just escape with her on the bike in the worst-case scenario.”

I felt confident that I could defeat Asura if he came alone. I also felt confident in escaping on my bike if he brought others.

“Okay.” Kim Suho thought it over with his eyes closed and agreed. “It looks like this is our only option.”

“Damn it. Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if anything goes wrong.”

Yi Yeonghan grumbled and stretched. Shin Jonghak also released his fierce magic power.

“Just you wait, Asura. I’ll tear you apart tonight.”

He prophesized Asura’s death like the main character of a movie.

***

Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, Chae Nayun, and Yi Yeonghan walked along a path under the full moon. The surroundings had turned rather bleak after Asura retrieved all the crystals. The grass lacked color and the trees had withered. They finally spotted Gwangmyeong City Hall. It looked like a fortress now, but no one guarded the barricades. They resolutely walked into the trap after cladding themselves in qi reinforcement.

A man suddenly appeared on the roof of a broken bus. He had a well-built body and carried a long steel pipe. The party could guess he was Yoo Dongsuk from his height and bandit-like appearance. Kim Hajin had mentioned him as one of Asura’s subordinates.

“Ahem, this place is off-limits to kids.”

Several men with weapons appeared. Shin Jonghak calmly asked, “You’re Yoo Dongsuk?”

“Haha, a kid shouldn’t talk to adults like that.”

Shin Jonghak smirked and pointed his spear at Yoo Dongsuk.

“Lackeys can screw off. Where’s Asura?”

“Asura isn’t here.”

“I won’t ask a second time.”

Shin Jonghak ignited his spear with black magic power. Yoo Dongsuk’s eyes widened.

“W-What? What’s up with the color of your magic power?”

“Bring Asura right now. Bring Asura here!”

Shin Jonghak spun his spear 180 degrees. He used the most basic spear technique called crescent moon slash. His black magic power shot out in an arc and exploded when it reached Yoo Dongsuk. It destroyed the bus and continued flying until it cut one of the watchtowers in half.

“Wow, scary.” Yoo Dongsuk chuckled as he leaped down. “I’m not lying. Asura isn’t here.”

“Then where is—”

An ominous thought flashed across Shin Jonghak’s mind. He gripped his spear tighter.

“Y-You bastards…”

“Haha, what were you thinking, leaving the crystals behind with your injured friend?”

Stealing from an empty house. It wasn’t that they didn’t expect it at all. They just didn’t expect the boss would go. Shin Jonghak, Chae Nayun, and Yi Yeonghan quickly turned back, but found themselves surrounded. Their faces immediately stiffened.

“Pft.”

However, one person remained calm. Kim Suho even burst into laughter.

“Hahaha.”

The others looked at him as though he had gone crazy. Chae Nayun even felt afraid and wondered if that was really Kim Suho.

“What are you laughing about, brat?”

Yoo Dongsuk felt anxious seeing Kim Suho laugh like that.

“No, it’s just… did your boss go alone?”

“…”

Yoo Dongsuk didn’t answer, but his silence gave it away.

“Then we have nothing to worry about.”

Kim Suho turned to his comrades and spoke with a smile.

“Hajin is stronger than me.”

***

Tak, tak. I slowly turned towards the ominous footsteps. A man appeared at the entrance of the abandoned building. His red eyes flickered under a black robe. I closed my eyes and smiled.

As expected, he chose the easy route and left his subordinates to ambush our base alone. The ghost must’ve told him the location of our crystals.

“Human, pitiful human. This is why I gave up being a human. I didn’t want to be tied down to useless emotions like you.”

“Shut it.”

I ignored the crap he spouted and studied the surroundings.

“You’re alone?”

“I’m not alone. I have my army with—”

“You’re alone.”

He amplified his magic power capacity by consuming mana crystals, but didn’t know how to properly use his new powers. Furthermore, Asura lacked direct attacks with magic power. After all, he was only a low rank djinn who knew how to do one thing.

—Ssss.

He unleashed his magic power and formed a giant pathway that spewed out strange creatures in all shapes and sizes. Some resembled a wolf, an orc, and even a pig. Their numbers quickly multiplied. One, two, four, eight, sixteen… I stopped counting at sixty-four. He summoned at least 2000, if not more. I stood in front of an overwhelming army.

Asura’s gift was called, Hail of Demonic Beasts.

He used magic power to summon creatures from the demon realm. They should all be around low-intermediate rank, grade 1 to grade 7. Kim Suho might’ve struggled since swinging a sword required more stamina. I couldn’t imagine swinging a sword 2000 times.

However, I wasn’t Kim Suho. I felt glad he came to me. Of course, I planned on finding him with the thousand-mile eyes if he didn’t come.

“Um…”

“Hm?”

Yoo Yeonha grabbed my sleeve when I tried to stand up and breathed heavily. “Leave me… and run…”

I stared at her as she spoke with a hoarse voice. I could see the guilt, worry, and concern in her eyes. I smiled at this side of her.

“Don’t worry and go to sleep. It’ll be over by the time you wake up.”

Yoo Yeonha fell into a daze as I closed her eyes and took out the Desert Eagle. I transformed it with aether into a modern weapon that could fight an army. Not a shotgun or a sniper, but an assault rifle.

This world didn’t prefer assault rifles because of the cost of bullets and its lower power, but neither of those disadvantages applied to me. Aether enhanced my attack power along with the Desert Eagle’s natural buffs. I also had one more trick.

Scan.

The number 44 flashed across my assault rifle. My luck gave me the best possible outcome.

“…”

A smile bloomed on my face. As always, I operated based on the principle of acting strong against the weak and weak against the strong. I perfectly countered his gift. He could summon as many small fries as he wanted, but they stood no chance. Furthermore, I wouldn’t use up any stamina or magic power. I only required bullets and a finger to pull the trigger. The disadvantageous terrain slightly worried me.

“I’ll have to use a little of this.”

I took out a finger-sized crystal from my pocket and modified the terrain by pouring in some of stigma’s magic power. Bzzzz— The ground rumbled and transformed. The circular arena Asura created split in half. Now the army of summoned beasts couldn’t surround me anymore and could only attack head-on. I only needed to kill two or three with each bullet.

“You know how to use the crystal of the past? What difference does that make?”

Asura chuckled as I calmly replied.

“It changes everything.”