“Hahaha!”, Kim Jonghyun started to laugh once more as he started to notice the ominous presence coming from within Lee Sungmin’s body.
Of course, it was no match for the so-called King of all Monsters, which had never been seen or even heard of, but Lee Sungmin’s ominous presence was still one to behold.
[Oh, my…!], Heoju was speechless and perplexed.
Heoju’s strength was in fact being amplified by Lee Sungmin’s power and being brought to a completely new level.
Even if Lee Sungmin mutated into a monster, he wouldn’t fall short of Heoju in terms of his status and power as a monster.
Nevertheless, Heoju’s powers were being dragged out by Lee Sungmin because he couldn’t control his powers.
Lee Sungmin’s gold irises , which blinked ever so slightly, had no resemblance to Lee Sungmin to be seen.
A dark red haze started to surround his body and the area around him.
It created an unpleasant and horrific presence of nature, more entangled with the very essence of death that no Dark Wizard or Monster could possibly replicate.
Lee Sungmin did not find his spear. He was a monster right now that had no way to recall his memories or techniques with the spear or any other martial arts he mastered.
“No…….”, Envirus who was behind his cracked defensive barrier, uttered a desperate cry.
Envirus started to recall the ending of his fate, which would be a ruinous and terrible death. It was too soon for it to possibly happen. Until earlier he believed it would take quite a bit of time for his fate to latch back onto him.
But the scene in front of him was something that could create that fate very easily.
What could he do in this do-or-die situation where he couldn’t gather an ounce of mana because he was so exhausted?
What else was there left besides his ruined defensive barrier to stop him from a horrid death?
‘Not yet……!’ , Envirus resolved himself with bloodshot eyes.
Aine’s attacks stopped. All the blades that had burst from her body returned to her monstrous form.
Despite a series of powerful attacks that had ravaged the entire terrain, Aine wasn’t even out of breath.
She looked back at Lee Sungmin with an expressionless look. Her unconscious body was faithful to the instinct of her black heart.
Aine’s heart was beating and palpitating in excitement. It wanted to consume Lee Sungmin’s black heart and evolve even further.
Lee Sungmin’s body was silent as a sea before the storm and was perfectly still. But, every calm sea awaits a rampant storm.
Aine’s body bounced elastically and rushed toward Lee Sungmin with a burst of speed. Lee Sungmin turned his eyes and looked right at Aine as black tentacles erupted out from Aine’s body.
Lee Sungmin raised his hand with a seemingly serene face, completely contradictory to the ominous presence around the two of them. His hand simply waved at the empty air.
He was still completely quiet.
The tentacles shot at Lee Sungmin’s body ready to rip it apart, stopped in front of Lee Sungmin’s palm.
The tentacles had no choice but to stop.
It was because Lee Sungmin’s simple gesture of waving at the air caught all the tentacles shot from Aine and rendered them immobile.
“Woo…….”, Lee Sungmin’s mouth dropped open and made a sound that sounded like air breezing through a cave.
Even though the attack was blocked, Aine’s violent rampage did not stop. Rather, she jumped at Lee Sungmin in a wild attack.
He simply raised his right hand forward, and wound his left hand into a fist behind him in the most simplest of motions.
Aine instinctively knew what was going to happen at that moment. The tentacles spurting out from behind her, retracted themselves and formed a web to prepare for a defensive posture.
Gwa-a-a-ang!
The simple looking punch completely crushed the tentacles in a series of strikes invisible to the untrained eye. The poor child, Aine’s body, unable to withstand the shock, was flung back and plunged into the ground.
“ARHHHH!”, Lee Sungmin dropped his serene look and shouted at the top of his lungs and kicked the ground shooting forwards at Aine.
He grabbed the airborne child’s body and plunged forward with it as he wrapped his body around with hers. Lee Sungmin opened his mouth wide and tried to bite Aine’s neck.
Even though her head was half crushed from the previous blow, Aine didn’t die. Unlike Lee Sungmin, who was a human with a foreign substance like the black heart inside his body, Aine’s vitality and regeneration power, which consisted of a body specifically made as a chimera to hold the black heart as a vessel was unparalleled.
Aine raised both her hands and grabbed Lee Sungmin’s face. The blade that popped out of Aine’s body earlier tried to pierce Lee Sungmin’s body.
Heoju, who was hovering around Lee Sungmin’s body in worry, formed a coat of aura and blocked the blade.
Watching the two struggle to eat the other, Envirus was speechless. There was no relief to be seen on his face from their quarrel. Whoever survived would be enough of a monster to completely rewrite all of history within Eria.
‘Should I stop him? Or should I run away?’ , Envirus was conflicted and could not do anything to either of them even if he wanted to.
But what would he do after he saved his life by running away from here?
Envirus bit his lip.
It wasn’t a simple check-in that Lee Sungmin had done when going to the forest to see Envirus. In fact he didn’t even mean to come across him. He was there for another reason and was trying to learn how to balance the yokai powers in his body, but ran into Envirus by chance.
Simply chance.
It was a coincidence that Lee Sungmin, who had also passed the Denir’s trial, heard about Envirus and followed his footsteps.
Envirus met Heoju back long ago in the sleeping forest. He knew that Heoju was waiting for ‘the one who came back’, and that it was Lee Sungmin who came back from death and was living his second life.
He knew they would cross paths one day, and that he would meet Heoju.
It was already absolute in the flow of fate, and no matter how much he tried to avoid meeting that fate, it was already predetermined.
Therefore, he left Rubia to continually examine Lee Sungmin’s condition.
Where did it go wrong?
Should he not have gone to the sleeping forest? When he met Heoju in the sleeping forest long ago, should he have exterminated his soul then and there?
Should he have told the tribe that resided in the sleeping forest not to let Lee Sungmin enter at any cost?
No, what was the point. It was already meant to be, because of Lee Sungmin’s strong destiny.
At the time, Envirus did not know what to do and decided to observe from the sidelines as he couldn’t come to a decision.
That’s why this all happened. It was inevitable.
‘My choices and actions may not have even mattered.’ , Envirus took a deep breath and dropped his defensive barrier.
No matter how strong he was, he was nothing but a mortal, and could not change the course of fate.
He’d had enough of it.
“Fuck fate.”, Envirus spat out with contempt.
Even if he drank elixirs right now to try and recover his body, the backlash of the spirits forcibly being returned to the spirit realm wouldn’t be healed.
Even if he drank a mana potion, the result was the same.
But enough of this. Envirus had a solemn and bitter smile. He slowly lifted both his arms.
Even though he knew that his choice could not change anything, Envirus picked it anyway. Unlike in a sleeping forest, where he gave up his choice and wanted to adapt to the course of fate, now he would at least do something. All the runic letters on Envirus’ arms floated into the air.
“Oh Great Mana.”, Envirus muttered and Kim Jonghyun who was floating in the air, changed his facial expression to one of shock.
He was also a wizard before he was a Black Wizard, so he knew what Envirus was trying to do.
“I will give this life.”, Envirus continued to speak.
A life-and-death mana exchange.
Literally, one would receive a huge amount of mana by sacrificing one’s life. But because there was only one life, if you exchanged it for a large sum of mana, you would surely die.
Whoo-wow!
A huge sum of mana seeped into Envirus’ body.
The enormous amount of Mana restored all the fatigue and backlash he suffered earlier.
Envirus reached for the black sphere that Arbeth had left behind that encapsulated the whole city.
Ding!
The sphere was turned into the color blue. The mana and power of the city was transferred to Envirus.
Aine’s body was covered with blood and left tattered on the floor. All the blades and tentacles that popped out of her body were torn apart by Lee Sungmin’s hands.
Nevertheless, Aine had not ended her resistance yet. Several times the crushed body regenerated without rest, and Lee Sungmin delved into a crazier frenzy to devour Aine.
Envirus saw the two with his subdued eyes. Both of them, he wanted to save if possible.
He couldn’t let them be taken away from the world in this way.
Lee Sungmin was still somewhat conscious. But his body didn’t listen to Lee Sungmin’s cry to stop.
His power was running rampant with greed, trying to devour Aine.
However, his body was not able to cling to Aine’s. Lee Sungmin’s body suddenly flew up due to the strong wave of mana that hit him.
It was the same with Aine. The child’s body was flung away with a blast.
Whoo-whoa!
Red flames of mana swept over the earth.
Confirming that Lee Sungmin and Aine were both out of the area of attack, Envirus immediately prepared for the next magic.
His body was full of mana and there was not much time left for Envirus to act. Even at this moment, Envirus’s life was racing toward death.
What was the most dangerous thing here right now?
Simple. It was Lee Sungmin.
Envirus opened his hands and pointed at Lee Sungmin. The runic letters on his arm wriggled up. A huge mana surged through the runes, enchanting the spell to the fullest.
Pushing into the air, Lee Sungmin swung his arms at the surging waves of mana.
Quad-de-de-de-de-de-de-deuk!
The torn mana wave split into two branches and penetrated the sky.
Even though Envirus saw it with his own two eyes, he still couldn’t believe it.
Yeah. There was a reason he was the more dangerous being here.
“I’m sorry.”, Envirus apologized sincerely. In a way, Lee Sungmin was also a victim to this fate.
But he didn’t mean to quit.
Next, Envirus unfolded several spells at once. The best way to catch a wild beast was to distract it’s vision.
Paoang.
The space broke apart, splashing debris from the ground all over the place.
The silver chains that rose from the gap were shot at Lee Sungmin, who was in the air.
Lee Sungmin swung at the chains while jumping, but the flexible, curved chain grabbed Lee Sungsmin’s joints.
The restraining chains injected a huge amount of mana into Lee Sungmin’s body. Lee Sungmin’s arms and legs started to swell and contort in a way that was unnatural.
He didn’t know why Envirus was attacking him.
But one thing was for sure, his crazed body was ignorant of the attacks and power from them.
It was just swinging itself and attacking with sheer power and no strategy, that alone was more than enough for a tough opponent to handle him.
Even An Zun that drove Lee Sungmin to the brink of death, would be able to knock him down without any trouble right now.
But Envirus was at an even greater level than An Zun right now. Envirus’ various spells were harder to deal with and more powerful than the hidden weapons An Zun used.
If this continued, Envirus would have no choice but to die. Lee Sungmin didn’t want him to die.
But his body absolutely refused to listen to him.
Quang!
Lee Sungmin’s consciousness was shaken. The view changed instantly.
[What are you doing, asshole!], it was Heoju who spoke first recognizing Lee Sungmin’s consciousness was shaken.
Heoju had the same image as when he was in his monster body when Lee Sungmin first met him. It may be a dream space that Lee Sungmin’s consciousness was in right now, but it was something at least.
[Get your head on straight.], Heoju growled as he slapped Lee Sungmin across his cheek.
Lee Sungmin, who was hit with Heoju’s full strength, screamed in pain.
“Why are you hitting me?!”, Lee Sungmin yelled out.
[Shut up! In the meantime, I’ve been trying to wake you up. You damn bastard. Thank you for the spiritual body at least!], Heoju spat out in anger at Lee Sungmin and let go of his collar.
Lee Sungmin wasn’t really hit with his physical body, but he was sure of the tingling pain.
Lee Sungmin asked as he looked around the space, which was a mixture of red and black.
“Here…. Where are we?”, Lee Sungmin asked with a quizzical look.
[I’m in your consciousness right now.] replied Heoju.
[It’s no different than a dream space.], he added.
“Why am I here……No, why are you here?”, Lee Sungmin asked with eyes wide.
[I came here to beat your ass up.], replied Heoju.
[If possible, this old man wanted to wake you up alone, but your mental barrier was so strong I couldn’t help but forcibly wake up your consciousness first.], he added once more.
“So what are you trying to do?”, Lee Sungmin asked dazedly.
[Are you seriously just going to go and die off like this?], Heoju retorted in rage.
[Your body is about to turn into a monster, and by doing so your humanity and consciousness as a human will fall deep into the void unable to ever come back to life. Do you know what that means?], Heoju continued to question Lee Sungmin in anger.
“……I’ll be a monster.”, Lee Sungmin muttered.
[It means you are alive but not really alive, you bastard!], Heoju spat out as he couldn’t handle his angry emotions any longer.
“I didn’t do this because I wanted to.…!”, Lee Sungmin tried to retort but was cut off.
[It’s not too late yet.], Heoju muttered in dissatisfaction and turned around.
[This is the first time for a case like you before. You’re… …too undecided. You’ve become a monster, but you’re still human. No matter how strong your mind is…….]
“You said it wasn’t too late.”, Lee Sungmin spoke.
Heoju flinched and nodded his head, [……look over there.]
Heoju raised his finger and spoke, [That’s why you said you were too undecided. I don’t know if it’s because I still have a human consciousness….but that monstrous entity is dependent. If you had fallen asleep in the void, that would be the end of you.]
Something was running mad around the space.
Colored in sinister colors, it was running like a rabid dog, with no one to tame it.
[That’s your body.], Heoju raised his hand to point to the red blob.
[The entity is moving your body now. You turned into a monster. If this old man had only been able to wake you up alone, I would have beaten that bastard senseless.], Heoju plopped on the ground grumbling.
[You need to go and beat him up.]
“What about after that?”, Lee Sungmin asked, looking back at Heoju.
[This is a tug-of-war between the consciousness that reigns over your body. Whoever wins will have control of your body. Right now he’s got the upper hand and he’s holding your body, but……you might get your body back if you somehow can get the upper hand.], Heoju spoke with an uncertain tone.
It was the first time for Lee Sungmin to hear Heoju be so unconvinced about something regarding a monster’s nature or being.
[You can’t stop it by standing here doing nothing. The time in your consciousness is only a short time span in real life, but……your body is now approaching death.], he added.
“I know.”, Lee Sungmin spoke, recalling the vision he saw before being dragged here, as his body was being bound by a silver chain cast by Envirus.
They didn’t have much time. Lee Sungmin strode toward the blurry existence.
‘I never thought I’d have a day in my life to fight over my own body.’ , Lee Sungmin thought to himself.