Greenland.
In the snowy icy mountains. In the depths where humans did not visit,
Inside the large, transparent crystal of ice.
A dominant monster wriggled its body.
The hatchling’s arm, as big as Yu Jitae’s upper body, twitched in an attempt to shake its old scales away.
The small cornea covering its eyeballs lifted itself as the hatchling powerlessly opened and rolled its eyes across. Matching its movement, a portion of the outer film dropped, and dropped, before revealing the new cover formed behind it.
It’s horn and scales that should be rock solid weren’t tough in the slightest and were instead feeble and fragile. The water flowing inside the crystal of ice caused the scales to flutter like leaves.
Watching this made it all the more evident that the large dominant beast in front of his eyes was nothing but a weak organism less than a year old. The films covering the body refusing to let go despite the zealous wriggles, and made the onlooker pity the young animal.
Only if he could run up and remove them himself, it would put him at ease, but she had to overcome this herself. Not all growth required pain at its basis but some growth had to be accompanied by pain.
By getting rid of the previous scales, Gyeoul would inspect her new physical body, joints and the soft scales herself. The process wasn’t something he could involve himself in.
Various thoughts resurfaced in his head.
What was leading the Blue Dragon’s life forward.
Why did the blue-haired girl block his way.
What caused the girl to die.
Breathing out a white mist inside the cold cave, Yu Jitae continued his line of thought.
– …You’ll need me.
The Blue Dragon requested to accompany him.
– …Do you think I’m doing this because I like you?
That request of hers, was made despite hating him.
– …But, you can’t live like that.
What was there to gain by bothering to interfere with the life of someone she hated. That Blue Dragon was no longer in this world, so he had no-one that could answer his query.
Suddenly, the Regressor remembered what the child said just then.
– …Is ahjussi, a good person?
When he said no, the child became sad.
– …That’s, not good
– …It would be good, if you were a good person.
Then who would be a good person.
To that question, Gyeoul replied as such. Someone that picks up rubbish; someone that feeds cats; someone that plays with her and…
Kung—
His thoughts were forced to a stop.
Something shook the ground. It wasn’t a weak vibration by all means and the aftershock caused the icy frost hanging on the walls of the cave to scatter.
Kung—
When something heavy struck the icy mountains once again, Yu Jitae expanded the senses he had hidden for a split second and checked what was outside.
A humanoid monster reaching 3 metres in height jumped up and down with its two hands resembling iron hammers and struck the mountain as it landed.
Kung—
At that moment, the entrance of the ice cave which he had sealed trembled as fragments of ice rolled down. Small cracks appeared on the cave walls and as soon as a dirty handful of mana sneaked past the entrance he sealed,
The man, who was as sensitive as a human could be due to watching Gyeoul shed skin for over 30 hours, flipped.
Next to him was the longsword he brought following Bom’s advice. Taking the sword, he immediately turned around.
After entering the ice crystal, the Blue Dragon should be almost completely safe from physical threats. So all he had to do, was remove the source of that dirty mana.
For a second, a doubt appeared in his mind.
By nature, monsters living in the ocean were more dangerous than those living in the land. Fissures that appeared underwater were outside the observable range of humans while a fair bit of monsters died in pain straight after leaving the fissure.
Those that could survive had to deal with the underwater pressure and be able to breathe underwater. At the same time, they must be able to survive against other strong monsters who could similarly leave the fissure alive.
And there was no way that Yu Jitae, who clearly knew all that, didn’t do anything in preparation.
The moment he heard from Gyeoul that her heart was tingly, he sent the clone to annihilate all the monsters in the nearby territories. So why was it, that two underwater devils were rampaging about outside?
His thoughts ended there.
After leaving the cave, Yu Jitae ran above the snowy mountains. His limbs cried out in pain.
The skin on his hand holding the sword cracked from a long frostbite and bled. Reddish-black blood dripped down as a stinging pain ripped his hand but he didn’t care.
Even with the authorities and blessings turned off, bashing a few monsters to death couldn’t even be considered a task and besides, he wasn’t in a good mood. Whatever they were, he wasn’t going to let them die easily.
Soon, he saw monsters approaching in the distance.
[Underwater Devils]
Each was around 3 metres tall. They were suited for active movements underwater and short, white furs were covering their bluish-black skin.
The bodies of underwater devils changed according to their environment. Since this place was cold, they looked like yetis and their fat had developed in order to deal with the cold.
One of them was male while the other was a female. Both of their bodies were thick like spheres and their stomachs were protruding out like mountains while their fists were as big as hammers.
He had killed his presence to the limit so the two underwater devils in fact didn’t spot Yu Jitae although he was near them.
Before long, one of them jumped high. It was trying to shake the ground and destroy any underground caves in order to hunt easily.
Their objective was probably to devour the target that was giving off this sweet scent. However, the male monster that jumped high couldn’t swing its fists down because Yu Jitae dashed forward and stabbed the female monster’s throat with his sword.
A cold blade pushed through the stiff muscles. Blue blood shot up like a fountain.
“Guuuoook!”
The female underwater devil screamed.
The sword without neither mana, ability nor killing intent wasn’t deep enough. He kicked off the chest and took out his sword.
The male monster quickly came back and swung its large hammer-like fists left and right. The sound of its fists crashing through the air proved the weight behind them.
Since the male monster had already smacked the ground a few times, the mountain had already sunk a little. The area they were in was like a hole with glacial walls covering the sides in a slanted angle, resembling an antlion trap. Whenever the male monster swung its fists, the walls exploded like tofu.
But it served no threat since it couldn’t hit him. Yu Jitae dodged the attacks easily and attacked its eyes which weren’t as tough as its body.
Stab.
One stab caused the left eye to explode.
Stab.
And another stab exploded the right eye.
Meanwhile, the female monster spread its arms wide and tried to grab him but Yu Jitae dodged it by lowering his body. His frozen limbs screamed but he knew that his movements weren’t affected and thus didn’t care about the frightening pain.
After missing him, the female monster re-stabilised itself and ran in yet again. He waited for the right timing and slashed through its body as hard as he could. From the collarbone all the way to the chest and the wide stomach. As the blade ripped through its skin, the fat opened up like a busted balloon.
The blue blood of the monster gushed out and wet his body.
He cursorily wiped his eyes and approached the frantically struggling female monster and pushed the blade through its neck.
“Guuwoak! Gwoaak!!”
The female monster opened its mouth. Saying, ‘Help me, help me.’
He could understand the monster’s words with [Fallen Babel (S)], but he didn’t stop.
Then, the male monster who was floundering its arms around after losing its vision heard the female’s scream and discovered where he was. It screamed. The scream enlivened its own courage and anger.
“Gururarararara—…!”
But the roar couldn’t continue for long as Yu Jitae’s longsword was in its throat.
The large body fell and it’s head crashed into the sloped glacial walls. The wall broke while blue blood splattered.
He stabbed the male monster’s eye sockets.
He stabbed over and over again.
Without a word nor thought, simply wondering when this animal’s life was going to end. No matter how strong its physical body was, it didn’t take long for the blade to enter through the eye socket and rip the brain into pieces. Something dirty oozed out from the underwater devil’s eyes.
While that was happening, the female underwater devil hurriedly started to escape while struggling on all fours. It seemed to think that it could survive after going into the water.
Yu Jitae jumped in one step and slashed at the ankle of the escaping monster. It’s muscular and skeletal structures were similar to a human’s, and so one of the feet of the female monster separated from its body alongside the achilles’ tendon.
He was about to strike the other foot as well but the female monster quickly turned its body and blocked the strike with its calves. Its muscles and bones were tough and the blade had a hard time going through.
Thus, Yu Jitae pierced the sword in between the legs of the female monster. The stab that attacked its vital spot caused the monster to have a fit in fright.
It couldn’t turn around anymore so he ripped the remaining achilles’ tendon on top. And in order to end the life of the monster that wouldn’t survive for much, he headed towards its head.
“Gururak! Gurararakk—–!!”
The female monster let out a scream and Yu Jitae understood what it meant.
He looked away from the female monster. His movements that were like that of a beast until then regained its composure. With a relaxed gaze, he observed the surroundings and looked for something.
He did find it strange for a bit.
Why was there another predator inside the territory that had been completely tidied up? They were probably predators that were chased away from a nearby area, and would have been starving.
And with all that considered, the female monster said:
‘Run.’
His apathetic gaze followed the direction of the voice and observed the other side of the snowy hill in detail. It was hard to see due to their protective colouration so he used a little bit of mana to support his vision for a bit.
Since there was a male and a female.
There would naturally be a cub as well.
But he wasn’t going to let it off just because it was a cub.
There it is.
Leaving behind the female monster who couldn’t run after losing its legs, Yu Jitae moved his feet.
That was when the monster grabbed his legs. Despite losing a whole heap of blood and having close to no power left, it was desperate. Thus, Yu Jitae stepped on its head near the eyes until they exploded.
Turning around, he started running towards the cub. The female monster twitched and crawled with its two arms but Yu Jitae crossed fifty metres with one step and was already far from it.
He closed in towards the cub, frozen stiff with only its head popping out from underwater. This young humanoid monster was stiffened after seeing its parents die in front of its eyes and was therefore slow.
When it finally came to its senses and tried to go underwater, it was already too late. Yu Jitae grabbed it by the head with a tight grip. It was hard to grip because of its short fur, so he raised his sharp nails and grabbed the skin behind its head. The skin ripped and formed a great handle.
He lifted it up with sheer force. The small underwater devil that didn’t even reach a metre in height was revealed above the snow.
As long as he killed this, there would no longer be any dirty mana affecting her. Assuring himself, he pushed the sword forward in front of the cub’s eyes. In fright, the baby forgot how to fight back and lowered its head and closed its eyes.
Right before the blade stabbed above its eyebrows,
From within the business shirt which opened up after losing its top three buttons due to the heated fight, a blue necklace snapped and fell above the baby underwater devil’s head.
He stopped.
The reddish-black blood oozing out from his dry and cracked skin travelled down the black, dead tissues of his hand and dripped.
After stopping his body, his brain started to move.
The necklace was made by weaving Gyeoul’s hair and scales and was something he received for his birthday. Thinking about it now, since the excess scales and hair that belonged to her body before shedding skin were turning back to mana, it was rather obvious for the necklace to snap any time soon. That wasn’t the reason Yu Jitae stopped his hand.
It was just that, right before his irritation and sensitivity made him kill the cub after its parents, Yu Jitae suddenly found the conversation he had with Gyeoul revisiting his head.
What kind of person is a good person?
To his question, Gyeoul replied. Someone that picks up rubbish, someone that feeds cats, someone that plays with her.
And,
– …Someone, that doesn’t get angry?
Dunno. You have to get angry when you’re upset. Or else, people won’t know that you’re angry.
Gyeoul shook her head.
– …Still,
– …Someone, that gets less angry.
The Regressor lowered his sword.