Chapter 29

16

Si-ho and Ha-chan’s plan had completely backfired, and the two were clearly blown away by Si-ho’s Space Movement.

But luck was on their side.

Right after being blown away, they got caught in a trap Kaito had set to block Si-ho’s Space Movement.

Thanks to that, although they ended up splashing into the seawater, they weren’t sent too far away.

“Yekaterina!”

The moment Kaito realized the situation and screamed, Yekaterina leaped towards the island without hesitation, sparks flying.

Holding a thunderbolt, she hurled it at Si-ho and Ha-chan, who were about to use Space Movement, and the thunderbolt hit them squarely.

KWA-GA-GA-GA-GANG!

With a deafening explosion, the two were seen rolling on the ground.

Yekaterina grabbed Si-ho’s head, the biggest nuisance, and pinned her to the ground, then looked up.

Si-ho showed no signs of movement, likely knocked out by the blow.

Just then, Kaito walked over to Ha-chan, who was rolling on the ground.

“To think I’d be defeated by such a bug, it’s really shameful.”

He trembled, his pride clearly wounded, his face twisted in frustration.

But Yekaterina’s attention was more focused on Ha-chan.

Was he really just an ordinary person?

It felt unreal that she, a veteran, had been defeated by such an ordinary person.

But it was the truth.

If it weren’t for the luck of getting caught in Kaito’s trap, they would have surely lost those two.

They lost in skill but won in luck.

“How dare this trash lay a hand on me! I was already pissed off, and now this filth!”

At that moment, Kaito’s angry shout was heard.

Ha-chan, on the verge of death, was clinging to Kaito’s leg.

Kaito was disgusted, and Yekaterina frowned at the sight.

Kaito had a deep hatred for powerless ordinary people.

For him to be grabbed by one, it was like a bug clinging to him.

“Si-ho! Wake up!”

But Ha-chan was a tenacious person.

Who would have thought he’d try to wake her up to escape?

Sorry, but they had already been subdued.

Even a Space Movement user couldn’t do anything.

His struggle was meaningless.

“Yekaterina! Please kill this guy! I don’t even want to touch him, he’s so filthy!”

She hesitated for a moment.

It felt wrong to kill him after admitting defeat in skill.

“Should I even kill him?”

“Why keep such a thing alive!”

But Kaito had no such qualms.

Where had the samurai spirit the Japanese were so proud of gone?

She let out a small sigh.

With such injuries, an ordinary person like him would soon die anyway.

It would be better to send him off peacefully.

In the end, she gathered electricity at her fingertips and sent it towards the ordinary man.

She held no grudge against him, wishing him to go without further pain.

And her wish was precisely fulfilled.

The man twitched once, then released Kaito’s leg and slumped down.

“Filthy thing! Ugh, really!”

Kaito, not wanting to touch him, pushed the man away with his staff and frantically wiped his arm.

The man, who had rolled over and fallen to the ground, showed no movement.

He was dead.

“Ah, ah.”

At that moment, a sound came from Ha Si-ho.

Hearing his voice, she seemed to regain consciousness, blood dripping from her forehead, her face shattered in shock.

Why hadn’t she used her full strength?

What was that?

Just an illusion summoned from another world.

Her real mother was already…

And because of her, another person had died.

The one who had believed in her from the start, who had hesitated to use his strength in this situation.

I killed him.

I did.

“Si-ho, because of me, I kept holding onto mom, hurry.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she babbled.

It was too late.

Just like when she couldn’t save her mother, it was too late again.

The pain was so intense it felt like her chest was burning, and Si-ho clenched her fist so hard it might crumble.

“Late, sorry.”

Si-ho decided to let go of the past she had been holding onto for years.

“You should hold onto that tightly. It seems like it’s about to burst.”

At that moment, Kaito, noticing Si-ho’s change, approached with a serious expression.

He was already raising his hand, seemingly to subdue Ha Si-ho.

“It’s better to hurry and go back. Soon, they’ll probably arrive…”

And that was Kaito’s last voice.

Something passed by.

KWANG!

By the time he realized it, Kaito was already embedded in a rock dozens of meters away in the sea.

He was buried so deep that his figure was obscured by the collapsed rock.

The subsequent gust of wind blew Yekaterina’s hair.

In front of Yekaterina, who was standing dazed, was a man drenched in blood.

It was Ha-chan, the ordinary man she had just killed.

“What is this? Who put something on this guy?”

At that moment, as he waved his hand in annoyance, a black liquid splashed out and evaporated.

It seemed like some kind of curse.

Then he clenched his fist.

CRACK-

At that moment, red lightning surged around the man.

He threw off his broken glasses and slowly swept back his bangs.

“Is it you?”

Hearing that low voice, Yekaterina felt a chill run down her spine.

A towering ancient tree seemed to look down on her, and danger signals spread throughout her body.

She remembered the moment she faced the disaster dragon, an unstoppable calamity from the star realm.

Just meeting its eyes filled her with unprecedented terror.

CRACK!

Forgetting that she needed to restrain Ha Si-ho, she had already distanced herself.

Her hair, standing on end from the electricity, showed how tense she was.

Her breathing became erratic.

The lightning from the brain dragon sparked uncontrollably, sensing danger.

The man stared at her for a moment, then turned his head.

Meeting Si-ho’s tearful gaze, he reached out and covered her head.

“It’s okay, kid.”

He patted her head a few times, then the image scattered.

“KHAK?!”

At that moment, Yekaterina’s body bent into an “L” shape as pain shot through her abdomen.

The shock didn’t stop there.

She was flung into the air by the remaining impact.

Her eyes rolled uncontrollably.

The speed was too fast for her to process, and only the pain rang like an alarm in her head.

KWANG!

Another blow to the head sent her crashing back into the sandy beach.

When she opened her eyes in pain, she saw a man pressing her face into the ground in a world turned crimson with blood.

Red lightning continuously erupted from him, exuding an aura of absolute authority.

How?

He was just an ordinary person moments ago.

Why had he changed so drastically in an instant?

Had she misjudged him?

If he had been hiding his power all along, planning this…

‘No way.’

If he had such power, he could have subdued them the moment he saw them.

There was no reason to play around like that.

“Just one question. What year is it?”

Yekaterina, her teeth chattering from his aura, barely managed to answer.

“…2030.”

“What are you saying? Damn it, if you’re in Korea, speak Korean.”

Yekaterina felt wronged.

This wasn’t Korea, and she didn’t know Korean.

But without a translation device, communication was impossible.

However, the man showed no sympathy for her plight and tapped his chin with one hand.

“…The timeline is off. This isn’t the event. Damn it, what about the Tower of Apocalypse?”

The Tower of Apocalypse.

Yekaterina, unable to understand his words, kept her mouth shut.

She was scared.

So scared she thought she might die.

If she resisted even a little, she would die.

Knowing that, she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth.

The man seemed lost in thought for a moment, then shook his head irritably.

“Why is that woman gone again? After all the trouble of sending a prophecy.”

Muttering, he soon stopped talking.

He seemed to have decided not to dwell on the past and turned his gaze back to her.

“Not much time left, and your body’s in bad shape. What about you?”

When he asked, Yekaterina’s eyes snapped open.

She flailed her hands, desperately pointing to her ears.

Seeing this, the man realized something was stuck in her ear and pulled it out.

“What’s this for?”

Yekaterina pointed to his ear.

Seeing her desperation, the man made a nonchalant expression and then crushed it.

Yekaterina’s face turned pale.

“Anyway, all you’ll say is ‘spare me, I’ll tell you anything.'”

Without the translator, his words were incomprehensible to her.

But she clearly understood what he meant.

She was going to die.

This man would definitely kill her.

His eyes held the experience of having slaughtered countless people.

Even she, a Returner, was terrified.

So he knew well that the only action left for her was the common one before death.

She had long lost the will to fight.

Her pale body trembled.

The fear of the murderer before her was driving her insane.

Especially since he wielded the same lightning-based abilities, his power felt even more directly terrifying.

CRACK-

Red sparks erupted around the man.

That alone snapped the last thread of Yekaterina’s sanity.

Drip-

Something started flowing down her legs.

“Ah, damn, filthy.”

Seeing her actions, driven by the fear of death, the man spoke irritably and released the hand holding her.

Then, without mercy, he threw a red lightning bolt at her.

CRACKLE!

Yekaterina’s body trembled, then went limp.

There wasn’t even a scream from her.

Confirming this, the man turned his gaze and reached out into the air.

“The brat’s struggling.”

In his hand was an old-fashioned, white wooden gun.

Keraunos Astrape.

What the man held was the gun known as Zeus’s Spear.

The red lightning at his fingertips began to gather.

It formed into a bullet.

He then pushed the formed bullet into the Keraunos Astrape.

CLICK-

Without hesitation, he fired the bullet.

KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!

A red flash flickered.

In the place where the red lightning surged, the blind man Kaito was crouching, trembling as he looked at the sea that had been blown away to the horizon.

The sea, which had been blown away, returned with crashing waves, showing just how insane the power of that single bullet was.

“Monster, monster.”

“Hey.”

The man called out irritably.

He loaded another lightning bullet and aimed the gun at him.

“Undo what you did to the kid.”

Hearing that, Kaito’s shoulders twitched.

Just before the first shot, Kaito had luckily survived without injury thanks to the automatic reflection illusion magic he always had in place.

What the man thought he had shot was just his illusion.

Because it wasn’t him.

Having lost one of his lives in an instant, Kaito immediately tried to flee.

But in his eyes, he saw Si-ho sitting helplessly.

His mission was to bring Si-ho, the S-class Space Movement user, to Giraseong.

Yekaterina might not know, but it was necessary for the greater cause.

Remembering that, he gave in to greed.

While the man was distracted by Yekaterina, he tried to kidnap Si-ho and escape to Giraseong.

But contrary to his expectations, Yekaterina didn’t buy him any time, and now he was in danger of dying too.

‘But if I can reach Ha Si-ho now…’

The man had ordered him to undo the Space Movement inhibition he had placed on Ha Si-ho.

That meant he wouldn’t stop him from approaching Ha Si-ho.

Kaito’s mind started racing.

His Space Movement ability could cover nearly 100km in one go.

At maximum speed, the distance was 10km.

Considering the bullet the man had just fired reached the horizon, the range was roughly 5km.

If he could use Space Movement, the man’s attacks wouldn’t reach him.

‘I can do it.’

If he could take Ha Si-ho and use Space Movement even once, the man wouldn’t attack him, thinking of Ha Si-ho.

With that thought, he cautiously walked towards Ha Si-ho.

“I-I’ll do it. So please don’t kill me!”

His pride was bruised, but Kaito put on a servile expression and plopped down next to Ha Si-ho.

As he undid the Space Movement inhibition on Ha Si-ho, he began preparing for Space Movement.

The man, with the gun slung over his shoulder, watched quietly.

The killing intent emanating from him stung his skin, but Kaito gritted his teeth and endured.

Cold sweat dripped down.

Carefully.

He had to be as careful as possible.

He thoroughly hid the fact that he was using two spells.

And soon, he completed both spells simultaneously.

“I-I’ll do it!”

To avoid suspicion, he deliberately spoke and activated both spells at the same time.

At that moment, his vision began to warp.

He had succeeded!

Looking at the man watching him and Si-ho disappear at high speed, he showed a triumphant reaction.

Space Movement had already been activated.

No matter how much the man tried, he couldn’t catch up to an activated Space Movement.

“Anyway, you guys are like this if I give you even a little opening.”

At that moment, an arm suddenly shot through space and grabbed Kaito by the collar.

Even though his body was already in mid-air, the man had casually grabbed him.

WHOOSH!

“HUAAAK!”

Kaito screamed as he was yanked out of Space Movement and thrown to the ground.

Regardless, the man pulled Kaito and set down Si-ho, who he had been holding, then aimed the gun at him.

CLICK

The sound of a bullet being loaded echoed.

“Ugh, cough!”

Kaito desperately struggled and activated Space Movement.

He had to escape.

Somehow, he had to escape.

He had to tell Giraseong about the monster.

A monster that interfered with Space Movement, something he had never seen before returning.

When he hastily activated Space Movement, for some reason, the man didn’t pull the trigger.

Whether it was luck or something else, Kaito desperately used Space Movement to survive.

He had survived.

That thought crossed his mind the moment.

The blind man’s vision was filled with a white flash.

A lightning bullet that had precisely flown to the location Kaito had Space Moved to erased him entirely before he could even realize it.

With a single bullet that wiped out even the clouds in the sky, the man blew on the gun’s muzzle.

Then, as he turned his head following his gaze, he saw Ha Si-ho looking at him with a wary expression.

“…Who are you? Are you the Manager?”

Hearing that question, the man nonchalantly threw the gun to the ground.

“What does a kid need to know?”

“I’m not a kid.”

As Ha Si-ho flared up, the man chuckled, then turned his head.

Somewhere in his eyes was a hint of sorrow, making Ha Si-ho momentarily question, but he quickly changed his expression.

Then, as if it was just perfect timing, he spoke.

“Seems like it’s the limit. Good.”

“What do you mean?”

Before Ha Si-ho could ask more, the man collapsed with a thud.

Seeing this, Ha Si-ho panicked and quickly caught his body.

Then she saw Ha-chan’s face, seemingly asleep.

Different.

Just moments ago, he and Ha-chan were completely different people.

What was he just now?

Feeling as if he knew her well, Ha Si-ho, who had been patting her head, looked up.

Because new people had appeared through Space Movement.

It was time to go back.

---