Chapter 181
Three days passed in a flash—of course, in Seong-Hwi’s mind, not in reality.
“Urgh,” Seong-Hwi groaned.
He felt dizzy because he had spent three days in another man’s life. The man’s name was Orpheus, a legendary bard in Greek mythology. Songs played from his golden lyre could move beasts and nature itself. He outplayed the Sirens during his adventure on the Argo, and even quelled a raging storm with his music.
However, he was more famous for his heartrending love story with his wife, Eurydice, who suffered a fatal bite from a viper. Devastated by her death, Orpheus traveled to the underworld to get her back.
His songs charmed Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, and Cerberus, a three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the underworld. They even stopped the spinning of Ixion’s fiery wheel. The eternal punishments of the underworld stopped as they listened to his song, and the goddesses of vengeance shed true tears, not tears of blood.
Orpheus ultimately beguiled Hades and his wife, Persephone, receiving their approval to take Eurydice with him, with the condition that Eurydice must follow behind him, and that he must not turn to look at her until they reached the upper world.
However, seeing daybreak after their long journey through the underworld, Orpheus turned around, unable to resist his desire to look at his beloved wife. His feelings of love took away his only love. Eurydice, who had yet to reach the upper world, turned into a spirit and vanished, and Orpheus was forbidden from seeing his wife ever again.
It’s killing me, Seong-Hwi thought.
He wanted to die, weighed down by an immense sense of despair. He wanted someone to tear him apart into tens of thousands of pieces.
Love, huh?
This one moment was enough for him to know that love was the deadliest poison known to man. In the end, Orpheus, consumed by eternal sorrow after losing his wife a second time, was killed by the Maenads for disrespecting them and Dionysus. His corpse was desecrated, his head thrown into the river Hebrus, and he became the constellation Lyra.
“You may open your eyes, my friend of blazing passion,” said Orpheus, with a beautiful voice, to Seong-Hwi, struggling to escape Orpheus’s life.
Seong-Hwi took deep breaths and opened his eyes. An extremely handsome man holding a golden lyre was staring at him with a faint smile.
“How was the experience of living my life?” Orpheus asked.
“It was the worst. I would rather live the life of a filthy murderer like Richard,” Seong-Hwi cursed as he clenched his head.
He was not joking. Richard hurt others for his own sake, but Orpheus was the opposite; he thoroughly destroyed himself with guilt, regret, love, and yearning, sentencing himself to a punishment far worse than what the underworld could offer.
Orpheus smiled and replied, “Did you feel the pain of love?”
“Of course.”
“Good. That means you know what love is. Only one who knows love can feel the pain that comes with it.”
Seong-Hwi remained silent and thought, Love, huh?
It was an abstract and inclusive word. No, it couldn’t even be expressed in words. It felt similar to what he felt when he saw Mother Maria in a flowery dress instead of her usual nun’s habits, standing behind him during his final open class in elementary school. It was embarrassing, and he was embarrassed by his embarrassed self.
It felt as if the faucet controlling his emotions was broken. Something welled up from deep inside and was about to come out through his mouth, but instantly went down the drain.
“Love is always accompanied by farewell. I was in agony after losing Eurydice, but if that agony is the price for the short love that I shared with her, I can accept it with a smile,” Orpheus continued.
“Do you have a thing for self-harm?” Seong-Hwi asked.
“I have a thing for love. Loving others ultimately comes down to loving yourself.”
Seong-Hwi smirked and shook his head. He couldn’t beat a bard in a contest of words.
“Could you let me borrow your destiny?” he asked.
“Only if you promise you won’t mock or disrespect love, and always face it seriously.”
“What does that mean?” Seong-Hwi asked, unable to understand.
Orpheus picked a string of his lyre, sending a colossal ripple throughout Seong-Hwi’s mind. Memories that he wanted to forget and had forgotten rose to the surface one after another.
“Wait for me right here. Mommy... Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what.”
“Hurry on out. We have high hopes for you.”
“I love you, Seong-Hwi. I’m glad that I met you.”
“Stop,” Seong-Hwi said with a grimace and glared at Orpheus.
Orpheus stared back with a warm gaze and replied, “Do not run from your destiny. Wherever you run, that destiny will ultimately appear before you.”
“So... Are you going to let me borrow it, or not?”
“Of course, I will. As long as my lyre can quell that fury in your heart, even a little.”
Orpheus handed Seong-Hwi the golden lyre. Seong-Hwi accepted the lyre, but his expression remained stiff.
***
Meet fault to be forgiven, might Hell forgive.
For at the very threshold of the day,
Heedless, alas! and vanquished of resolve,
He stopped, turned, looked upon Eurydice
His own once more. But even with the look,
Poured out was all his labour, broken the bond
Of that fell tyrant, and a crash was heard
Three times like thunder in the meres of hell.
‘Orpheus! what ruin hath thy frenzy wrought
On me, alas! and thee?
Virgil, The Georgics: Book 4
***
Seong-Hwi came to his senses with sore cheeks.
“Open your eyes, dammit! I didn’t become friends with a goddamn druggie! Stop running from reality! Accept failure!” shouted Yuki, glaring at him with a terrifying expression. She continued, “The Cheon Seong-Hwi I know never lost his cool under any circumstance! He found a way to break through any obstacle, no matter what! That’s what I liked about him!”
“Well, I’m flattered,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“What?”
“Since you believe in me so deeply, do so one more time... my friend.”
Seong-Hwi walked past Yuki with a solemn expression. His team members’ eyes were also on him, simultaneously filled with trust and distrust.
Ahhh! I’m mortified!
Why must our race experience such misfortune?!
I miss our home dimension!
I despise everything!
The Shell of Tellus, who had become so large after absorbing rocks and dirt that he could now look down on the sinkhole, was screaming. Red-brown grudges poured out of his os, and it felt as if they were pulling in the rocks and dirt like a magnet. His tertiary transformation was almost complete.
“Not on my watch,” Seong-Hwi remarked.
A card flew out of the Tarot Deck of Destiny, showing a handsome man with brown hair and eyes, playing a golden lyre.
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[Love-Yearning Bard]
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Golden Lyre]
Seong-Hwi suppressed the regrets of love overflowing from his heart once he borrowed Orpheus’s destiny and infused mana into the Golden Lyre.
[Activating Exclusive Skill: Happy Days.]
The Golden Lyre played by itself. Its melody was so beautiful that it seemed to create a rainbow, influencing the soul and evoking feelings and memories of love hidden deep within the hearts of those who heard it.
“Ah...”
“What... is this?”
“It reminds me... of my mother.”
“Shan...”
The stiff expressions of the team members relaxed when they heard the Golden Lyre’s song; their muscles loosened, and they were put in a daze, tasting moments and emotions of when they were the happiest. The melody also reached the grudges of the subterraneans inside the Shell of Tellus.
Ahhh, it wasn’t all bad!
The days when we all worked together!
My beloved hometown... I miss those warm vibrations...
What good is it... to take revenge? We can never go back to those days.
The flow of the red-brown smoke seeping out of the Earthquake Stone’s fragment changed. The countless subterraneans inside the smoke smiled, and their resentment was slowly purified. A beautiful rhythm had the mysterious tendency to heal wounds of the heart. The grudges of the subterraneans began to evaporate.
“GAAAAAH!” the Shell of Tellus screamed as he reached for the vanishing subterraneans’ consciousnesses, but they simply slipped between his fingers.
Rocks fell from his body, and dirt poured down from him. His tertiary transformation had failed. The performance, which felt like it could go on forever, stopped, and the Shell of Tellus was far more slender than he had been.
[Recovering stamina as per the effect of Happy Days.]
[Recovering internal injuries as per the effect of Happy Days.]
[Recovering mentality as per the effect of...]
...
The team member stared at the continuously appearing Akasha Messages. Their fatigued bodies lightened, and they were filled with hope for victory.
“What are you all waiting for?! Prepare for battle!” Seong-Hwi shouted, breaking their daze. “Rifinitore, bind! The rest of you, keep it at bay so that the raumdeuter can get a shot in!”
“Haaap!”
“Here we go!”
The team members quickly acted according to Seong-Hwi’s commands. First, Ha-Eun bound the Shell of Tellus with the Liquid Monster and activated a skill.
[Activating Unique Skill: Rapid Hardening.]
The Liquid Monster wrapped around the Shell of Tellus instantly hardened, completely stopping his movements.
“GAAAH!” the Shell of Tellus shouted as he blasted Chaos Mana, forming cracks on the Liquid Monster.
“No, you don’t!”
“Don’t let him regain his composure! He’s weakened!”
The team members bombarded the Shell of Tellus with skills. Douglas’s mana balls of various colors rained on the Shell of Tellus like meteors, and Yuki’s mannequins threw themselves at him. The Shell of Tellus was overwhelmed by the purification of the grudges and the bombardment of attacks.
“RAUMDEUTER!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he turned around to look at Evgeny, aiming a giant gun that looked like a combination of a sniper rifle and a rocket launcher, over his shoulder.
“Just... a little more... Done! Everyone, move!” Evgeny shouted.
[Activating Unique Skill: Act III Scene IV Maadi-Griffin.]
[Activating Unique Skill: 30 mm Incendiary Depleted Uranium Penetrator Round.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Aim of Doom.]
Evgeny pulled the trigger. A whitish object passed by the teammates, and a sonic boom belatedly sounded, creating a storm. Evgeny was blown backward from the recoil and slammed into a wall.
“Gurgh... Bulls...eye!” the bloody Evgeny muttered with a smile, his teeth covered in blood.
“Gurgh... urgh...” the Shell of Tellus groaned.
Evgeny’s bullet pierced the os right down the middle. This was the most powerful attack that humanity’s strongest raumdeuter, Evgeny Lazarev, the Doom Sniper, was capable of. His D Weapon, Chekhov’s Gun, had different forms from Act I Scene I to Act III Scene IV, its power increasing with each stage. At the final stage, Act III Scene IV, his attack was powerful enough to kill even a birdfolk Spare Ranker with one blow, which earned him the alias of Doom Sniper.
I’ve fulfilled... my role, thought Evgeny, who had depleted all his mana and energy, as he watched Seong-Hwi sprinting toward the Shell of Tellus, before passing out.
***
If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act, it absolutely must go off.
Anton Chekhov
***
He did it! Seong-Hwi thought as he sprinted toward the Shell of Tellus, whose os was broken.
A red-brown light flickered from inside the broken os.
That’s the Earthquake Stone fragment!
Seong-Hwi ran along his limb toward his chest and reached to grab the fragment.
“GURGHHH!”
The Shell of Tellus realized that his os was broken, and that recovery was impossible. He was also enraged that the enemy before him had come to steal his treasure.
“GAAAAAH!”
The Shell of Tellus exuded more Chaos Mana without a care about whether it would destroy the os. The power of Quake Force was combined with the Chaos Mana of a monster that had been on the verge of becoming Lang-rank, and it was concentrated on the Earthquake Stone’s fragment. The sound of cracks echoed.
“Kurgh... Motherfucker!” Seong-Hwi cursed as his hand bounced off because of the Chaos Mana.
He realized what the Shell of Tellus was doing; he was planning to destroy the Earthquake Stone fragment.
“GRAHAHAHA!” the Shell of Tellus laughed at Seong-Hwi mockingly, as if saying he would trample Seong-Hwi’s hopes since Seong-Hwi had done the same to him.
“HAAAAAH!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he gathered as much mana on his fist as possible and slammed it into the os.
However, he couldn’t break the jet-black Chaos Mana protecting the os. In the first place, Chaos Mana was like a pulverizer that could grind away at all other forms of energy.
At this rate...
Seong-Hwi bit his lip as he watched cracks forming on the Earthquake Stone. Even if he defeated the Shell of Tellus, the plan would fail if he didn’t acquire the Earthquake Stone fragment. He would have nothing to negotiate with the elves, and Kang-San’s efforts would go up in flames.
What do I do?! What should I—
As the cogs in Seong-Hwi’s head turned in overdrive, a green eye slowly opened from one of the Wings of Evolution, and a voice echoed inside his head.
“A brilliant performance, splendid teamwork, and a marvelous battle. Since it has been a while since I have been this entertained, I will tell you something as payment. Superior Chaos Mana can nullify Chaos Mana inferior to it.”
Seong-Hwi did not know whose voice it was, nor did he care. It could have been his subconscious, instinctively giving him the answer.
He thought, Superior... Chaos Mana?
The Shell of Tellus failed to become a Lang-rank Chaos. There was only one source of Chaos Mana superior to his jet-black Chaos Mana.
Ajingya’s Chaos Mana!
Seong-Hwi converted his secondary force without hesitation. He was attempting this conversion for the first time.
[Converting Destiny Force to Chaos Mana.]
The Wings of Evolution were dyed black like the night sky. Unlike Demon Force, it was simultaneously serene and chaotic, like the unknown. Sparkling dots appeared in the darkness like stars, completing the mysterious, otherworldly wings that looked as if they were holding the Milky Way, and felt as if they were free from the rest of the world.
[Applying Debuff: Corruption.]
Seong-Hwi ignored the Akasha Message and sent the mysterious Chaos Mana he stole from Ajingya’s genes to his right hand, which looked as if it had transcended into outer space.
He immediately thrust his hand through the Chaos Mana barrier around the Shell of Tellus’s os. Unlike before, his hand went through without resistance, as if he were dunking his hand in water.
“Got it!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he grabbed the Earthquake Stone fragment and pulled it out.
As a result, the os was destroyed.
“Gr...ahh...” the Shell of Tellus groaned lifelessly and collapsed.
[You made a decisive contribution to the defeat of Dungeon Boss: Shell of Tellus.]
[131,110,502 Karma obtained.]
...
[Dungeon Quest: Tellus’s Request, cleared.]
[50,000,000 Karma obtained.]
...