ETVC C32

Chapter 32

Surely he does not think that, having once preserved each other’s lives, all accounts are now settled?
The thought crossed my mind, but it was folly. Baek Soohyuk was of an utterly different mould from one such as Baek Woojin—or myself—so small-minded and calculating. Even now, when it was evident that I had escaped harm, he examined me minutely, searching for the slightest wound.

It is only my own pettiness that breeds such notions.

“Mrrrow!”

Startled beyond measure, Meow had been hissing and spitting within the cage since moments past, thrashing as though to burst through the bars by sheer force. The sturdy frame of the cage bent beneath his strength.

Adorable though he may be, he is still a monster at heart.

I stretched out a hand to soothe him when, most unbelievably, a word struck my ear.

“…Shit.”

I froze, and swiftly turned to Soohyuk. His teeth were clenched, his countenance taut with fury, and he seemed not even to realise he had cursed aloud. His low voice rumbled like molten stone, seething with heat and rage.

“You are wounded here.”

He had fixed his gaze upon a shallow graze upon my arm—hardly worthy of the name of injury.

“Fall back, would you?”

The words slipped out sharp, though I had meant only to dismiss his needless concern. Yet he paid no heed, eyes still locked upon the scratch.

“Mrrraow!”

While his attention was consumed thus, Meow’s shrieking only grew more frantic. I turned in the direction of his hisses—there, through the smoke, strode a masked figure.

“So, the parasite yet clings to life.”

The distorted, grating voice was a torment to the ear. The man wore loose garb, his face swathed in cloth, even his features blurred by some artefact that confounded recognition.

But… is it me he seeks?

The truth sank cold within me. It was not Soohyuk’s life, but mine, that was the quarry. My chest knotted in indignation. What havoc had Woojin wrought in some unseen tale, that I must now pay the price in his stead?

Was I possessed, only to clean up his chaos?

A foolish thought, perhaps. More rightly, it was the cost of trespassing in another’s flesh. Yet still—I had never asked for this.

The nearer the black silhouette drew, the heavier my resentment grew.

“So you delight in coward’s tricks,” Soohyuk said, his tone deathly calm. The chill of it raised my very hairs, and I was his ally. Yet the intruder showed not a flicker of fear. Either he was gifted, reckless, or witless—I prayed for the last, though knew it unlikely.

“I must slay those who obstruct His path. It is a sacred rite.”

His path? The words stank of fanaticism.

The man’s face twisted into a grotesque smile as he gestured downward. From the road burst forth blackened hands, seizing Soohyuk’s legs.

“You thought such trifles would bind me?”

The fiend only laughed. Then the purple smoke billowed forth. Soohyuk’s body stiffened—poison, numbing rather than deadly, yet enough to halt him for a moment.

“Die, die, die!”

The accursed chant mingled with static, crawling beneath my skin. The man lunged, a massive hammer raised high.

If that strikes me, I am finished.

Perhaps, with Woojin’s strength and skills, survival was possible. Yet my instincts screamed with fear, faster than thought. My body moved of its own accord. In an instant, a blade was summoned from the inventory and swung.

Did I truly move so swiftly?

Startlement flickered, then was gone—the deed was already done. The blade had shattered the artefact masking his face.

That visage… I know it, do I not?

To conceal himself thus implied he was either a familiar foe or a notorious figure. Yet Woojin’s memory, not mine, might hold the answer. Still, the shallow cut that bloodied his cheek revealed enough.

“That man…”

Soohyuk had already broken free, moving to shield me. His voice was grim. He knew well who stood before us.

“You failed to finish it in one stroke.”

Even this madman quailed before Soohyuk, retreating a step. He tore away the ruined cloth and spun the hammer overhead. With each revolution, the weapon grew ever larger.

Snake-like in appearance, twisted in his devotion, wielding a hammer that swelled monstrously—there was but one who fit.

So it is he, after all.

“Just as I thought. Entangled with such filth… and in the shadows, committing these deeds.”

It was Park Jaesoo, once an officer of Kang Gwonhoo’s guild, and still his confidant.

A tide of conjectures crashed through me, only to fall away. The most likely was simple—my presence in Gwonhoo’s guild had offended him.

“Hand over the one behind you. He alone is my purpose.”

His eyes glowed red with the skill’s corruption, their focus lost, making him seem less man than beast clad in human skin.

“Why do you hunt Baek Woojin?”

Yet his proposal never even reached the ground. Soohyuk pushed me further back, blade firm in hand.

“He corrupts the one I serve. It is my duty to prevent it.”

“Did Kang Gwonhoo command you thus?”

Soohyuk’s voice sharpened like drawn steel.

“No. It is my sacred mission, to halt him before he strays beyond recall.”

“You are well and truly consumed.”

The disgust in Soohyuk’s low tone was plain. His grip upon the hilt tightened and loosened, as though to steady the storm within. Whether he cursed Gwonhoo for twisting a man thus, or loathed the zealot before us, I could not tell. But his fury was clear.

Gwonhoo had not shaped him—merely allowed him to rot.

And indeed, it was not incomprehensible. Jaesoo had once been a child of the orphanage, lauded as virtuous, yet beaten and exploited. Gwonhoo had plucked him from that pit—not from mercy, but for convenience. From then on, Jaesoo clawed his way upward, until his excessive loyalty twisted him into a fanatic.

And Gwonhoo had left him thus.

Now, Jaesoo was a man one would cross the street to avoid.

“If you will not yield, I shall slay you both.”

He struck the ground with his hammer.

Boom!

The road shattered like brittle biscuit, violet ichor seeping through the broken stone.

Damnable special skill!

What made him perilous was not only his poison, but his hardened body. His strength was foremost; the toxin, but an added cruelty.

Suddenly, I was lifted. Soohyuk’s arm had slid about my waist, bearing me up with impossible swiftness. In but a breath, he had seized me, cage and all, and leapt skyward. With some skill, he strode upon the air itself, as though invisible ground rose beneath his feet.

“To think you would challenge me, knowing you cannot prevail. Truly, you are mad.”

The problem was—

“Hey! Let go—no, do not let go! How dare you carry me like baggage?”

I, too, was not in my right mind. To dangle thus, clutched at his side, high above the earth, with nothing beneath but the void—it was terror beyond words. One glance downward, and I nearly birthed a fear of heights on the spot.