03. Guild Fair (16)

A black orb that gives you a terrible sense of demonic energy.

Baek Ji-soo looked at the beads and nodded as if he noticed something.

“I get it now. That bead is absorbing mana and converting into magic.”

“Changing mana into demonic energy, is that possible?”

Even a demon worshiper who uses demonic energy instead of mana is known to be unable to do such a thing.

When they make a contract with the devil, they offer their magic power as a sacrifice to receive that much magic power, and increase their magic power through vicious methods such as human sacrifice.

Therefore, there is only one being capable of converting mana into demonic energy.

There is only a transcendent being called the devil.

It meant that one small bead had a function that only demons could do.

“I don’t know what principle it is, but… Magi converted from marbles are reinforcing the barrier. As time goes by, the barrier gets stronger, and maybe new gates will open.”

It was such a shocking statement that I opened my mouth without realizing it.

I’m barely holding on even now, but it’s going to increase more here?

“That’s just telling everyone to die!”

“Right. This marble will never stop until it is complete.”

Baek Ji-su stretches out his hand and places it on the case.

The marble behind the tempered glass was sucking mana from the ground even at this moment.

“Bring more and stronger monsters and destroy them together with the hunters to use the corpse’s magic as food. It was a barrier for that from the beginning.”

“Crazy….”

One day, I remembered an anecdote I heard on TV as an interesting subject.

Solitude. A magic spell that puts all sorts of poisonous insects into a jar, causing them to bite each other, and in the end, only one remains in the jar.

It’s not exactly the same, but it felt similar.

“What should I do now?”

“Never touch me. If you carelessly touch it, it will be eroded by demonic energy and will turn into a non-human being.”

Baek Ji-soo raised his cane and aimed it at his case.

“You have to break it. That is the only way.”

Her magical power spread faster than my answer.

The orbs inside the case rattled and trembled strongly.

Clang! The tempered glass and the metal that composes the orb shattered, unable to withstand the magic force of Baek Ji-soo pressing her from all sides.

Even so, the body of the black bead was suspended in the air, trembling finely, and was enduring without any cracks.

“Kuh… !”

Kwaaa- Baek Ji-soo, who raises her magical power more strongly.

She was raising her mana excessively, to the extent that her uncontrollable mana became a pure white aura around her shoulders. Baek Ji-soo’s mana control must have been top-notch.

A black orb that continues to vibrate finely to see if it is resisting external magical power.

At that moment, black waves emanated from the marble.

Puuuong! The wave broke the pure white magic and swept all over the place.

“Kyaaah!”

“Jisoo!”

I cut through the black wave with a three-person sword at once and protected Baek Ji-soo from the shock.

Suddenly! A black wave cut in half. The vivid aura felt at her fingertips was definitely Magi.

Magi didn’t affect Baek Ji-soo and me much, but it swept the entire warehouse and made a mess as if some kind of storm had passed.

I supported the shoulders of Baek Ji-soo, who was breathing thinly.

“Are you okay?”

“… Sorry. Magi is too strong… I’ve already absorbed too much mana. I can’t do it alone.”

Baek Ji-soo frowned and bowed his head as if he was resentful.

She then noticed her sweaty hair clinging to her cheeks, making her look even more emaciated than usual.

I couldn’t abuse Baek Ji-soo any more.

“Don’t overdo it. I can cut it with a three-person sword.”

If that bead is a bad thing that exudes demonic energy, the power of the three-person sword will be enough.

With that thought in mind, the moment I tried to take a step closer to her beads, Baek Ji-su grabbed the end of my sleeve.

“Why?”

She slowly shakes her head.

“Three swords have the power to defeat demons… In other words, I’m against Maggie more than anything else. You… How much do you think the magic of that orb is in terms of rank?”

“That… How much?”

“No matter how low you play, it’s at least an S rank. If you have that much strength, you could rather lose the three-person sword.”

It meant that the magic of the orb was so strong that a three-person sword could not withstand it.

The magic power of the three-person sword is only at the level of A rank. This isn’t a bad thing, but it wasn’t enough to cut off the demonic energy of that marble all at once.

Even Baek Ji-soo’s magical power can’t break it, and even the three-person sword won’t work.

Then there is no way.

No, let’s think about it. There must be another way.

If you can’t break the marbles….

“Then can’t you stop that?”

“… Stop?”

“I heard that it is now absorbing mana and supplying mana to the barrier. Can’t we stop that?”

Baek Ji-soo is silent as if lost in thought for a moment.

She opened her mouth in a tone that showed her hesitation.

“I can’t be sure, but it might be possible.”

“How?”

“When I tried to destroy the orb, it seemed to focus only on me. We responded by prioritizing outside intrusion.”

That means that when you try to break the marble like Ji-soo Baek just before, you stop reinforcing the barrier.

Her I didn’t want to make her do the same thing as before. But that doesn’t mean I can’t use her magic to attack her marbles like she did.

Paik Ji-soo shook her head slowly and said, as if she had read my thoughts vaguely.

“You don’t have to be like me. A strong physical impact is sufficient. In the meantime, the barrier that does not supply demonic energy will weaken for a while… I do not know. It’s only a temporary measure anyway, but does it have any meaning?”

If you wrestle with marbles here, the barrier will weaken.

But that is only temporary, and if the barrier itself does not disappear, the vicious cycle of the barrier supplying magical energy to the marble and the marble supplying demonic energy to the barrier will continue.

In that case.

“Then I will take care of the beads. Baek Ji-soo, you can break the barrier.”

“… It’s not like I didn’t think of that either. But the stomach must be in chaos right now, but breaking the barrier by myself in that turmoil… It’s impossible.”

A shadow is cast on Baek Ji-soo’s expression. No matter what I was trying to do, I felt the hopelessness of the hopeless situation.

It is a barrier created by demon worshipers. It can’t be broken by normal means.

It would be unreasonable unless he hit the temple with an aura with the power of anti-horse.

And I just know one person who could do that.

“Seohee will be outside.”

At those words, Baek Ji-soo’s eyes widened.

She seems to have already realized what I’m trying to say.

I followed her with a grin at her.

“Give the golden egg to Seo-hee. And take advantage of my attack on the orb to break the barrier.”

“Lee Jin, no. That’s.”

Baek Ji-soo said earlier. Once you use space transfer to the outside, you can never come back.

It meant that if things went wrong, I would no longer be able to escape on my own.

If you can’t break the barrier and monsters attack at the gate, the only ending left is annihilation.

But this was the only way.

“I heard that the barrier gets stronger as time goes by? Please.”

Her red eyes trembled endlessly.

An expression of deep conflict before what needs to be done.

“Why… Why?”

Unknown words in English.

Baek Ji-soo barely opened his mouth in a painful voice.

“Are you not afraid of dying? If things go wrong, you….”

Aren’t you afraid of dying? Of course dying is scary.

I’m only 17, and I don’t want to think about dying already.

This is also about trying desperately not to die.

I fell into trouble for a while at her unexpected question.

Baek Ji-soo’s expression, as seen through analysis, somehow felt familiar with this situation.

‘Ah. I see.’

Baek Ji-soo has already experienced this countless times.

The experience of leaving someone alone and leaving only you.

And most of it must have resulted in someone’s sacrifice.

It was only then that I was able to understand the source of Baek Ji-soo’s emotions. That was guilt.

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Guilt and self-hatred towards oneself who always survives alone.

‘Hmm. What is it?’

What should I do to reassure someone?

Suddenly, while I was crying, the memory of my grandfather stroking his hair came to mind.

As a child, I always felt relieved by that kind touch. Even though there was no particular reason to be relieved.

Recalling a long memory, I affectionately stroked Baek Ji-soo’s head.

She looked up at me with her shoulders trembling, as if surprised by my touch.

“It’s okay.”

Sweet. She swept her white, soft hair slowly from top to bottom.

It was her first time stroking someone’s hair, but it wasn’t too difficult to stroke her hair like her grandfather did.

“Trust me. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Baek Ji-soo slowly closed her eyes as she brushed her hair.

She accepts her touch as she strokes her for a while.

“Whoa….”

When she finally opened her eyes, she was as expressionless as usual. But in that expressionless expression, I felt a sense of relief that only I could read.

“… Okay. I will trust you.”

Baek Ji-soo opened her child’s space and put her hand into it.

She struggled to pull out her heavy hammer, even at a glance. She was too heavy to lift, so it was more accurate to say that she slumped to the floor.

That was my exclusive weapon entrusted to Baek Ji-soo.

A weapon just for me, not a golden egg or a three-person sword.

It was the so-called Warhammer.

“You have to match the timing with each other. It is neither too soon nor too late.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“If I find Yoon Seo-hee, I will send you a telepathic message. The magic synchronization has already been completed, so there should be no problem. Therefore….”

Baek Ji-soo looked at me for a while with a worried expression.

“For sure. You must be safe.”

With those words left, a white cloud of light flashed.

The moment the light disappeared, Baek Ji-soo was no longer visible.

I lightly lifted the hammer she left behind and placed it on her shoulder.

“Whoa….”

Three-handed sword in left hand, hammer in right hand.

It was a perfect situation to test the performance of a new weapon.