My vision flashed several times and an indescribable pain swept through my distant mind.

Being properly beaten by the swinging monster’s hand, I flew to the ground without even being able to defend myself.

Ppii—, something hot and muddy along with tinnitus flowed down its face. In my blurry vision, I saw a sword that was stabbed down at high speed.

Kwaang!

I forcibly moved my body to dodge the attack. In the process, Ha Tae-heon’s coat fell to the ground, which I couldn’t hold back.

“Gasp, gasp…”

I tried to stand up, but my legs kept losing strength and my body collapsed. Perhaps the debuff had reduced my eyesight, my eyes looked hazy.

Kugung! Thud!

In the aftermath of the attack that I avoided by a short margin, my body floated up and rolled to the ground. Lightning struck nearby. I struggled to open my eyes and looked at the huge monster standing in the black smoke and the flames burning the trees.

“Haa…”

Wiping off the cold sweat, I barely stood upright and forced my squeaky energy like rust. Hwiing, the wind that started in my hand didn’t just wrap around my body, but gradually spread around me. The fire created by the lightning swelled up in the wind.

I don’t have to be easily beaten. Against an opponent where the attack didn’t work no matter what you do, even this might be just useless.

‘It’s always been like that, so there’s nothing to be surprised about.’

No matter how useless it was, I didn’t want to let go and sit still. I lifted my head and looked at Ha Tae-heon reflected in the mirror. He walked over to the tentacle and raised his sword. At that moment, I jumped into the air.

The energy that had begun to move was unstable and twisted. Enduring the pain, as before, the tree was lifted by the wind and blown at the monster. Kwajik, the tree that hit the monster’s body was shattered.

Kieeeek!

The monster cried angrily. I flew here and there to keep the monster from paying attention to the underground, throwing trees over and over again.

“Argh!”

Kwarurung! Right behind me, a lightning bolt struck me and I felt pain in my back. It was a hot sensation as if on fire. The moment I shuddered in pain, I was caught by the monster’s grasp.

“Keuk, ugh…!”

The long, hard monster’s hand wrapped around my body. As I was dragged closer to the monster in that state, I smelled a strong stench that made me nauseous.

The monster that lifted me widened its face. The four-pronged flesh of its face, soaked in black liquid, was bubbling with bubbles and hundreds of fine needles sprouted. I was horrified by the terrible sight unfolding beneath my feet.

I struggled desperately to get out. I also used my ability but to no avail. It was impossible to escape from the monster’s tight grip.

“Ugh, huk.”

A sense of fear engulfed reason on the face of the monster that was getting closer. Thump! Thump! The sound of my heart beating at a tremendous speed echoed in my ears and cold sweat ran down my chin.

The moment I was about to be swallowed from the leg.

Kiaaaak—!

Suddenly the monster twisted and screamed. I reflexively checked the mirror and found Ha Tae-heon, who mercilessly cut off the tentacles. The monster lost its balance and staggered greatly. My body trembled wildly along with it.

I felt a strong pressure all over my body to let go of my mind, but I clenched my teeth and endured it. Ha Tae-heon once again swung his sword. As many of the tentacles stuck in the egg were cut off at once, the size of the monster began to decrease little by little.

‘The grade…!’

Falling. Thanks to being close to the monster, I could be sure. The power of the monster’s grip and the sense of fear I felt were different from just now. When Ha Tae-heon cleaned up the last remaining tentacles, the monster flew into the air, pouring black blood from its face. The tentacles on the lower body were cut off by Ha Tae-heon’s attack and wriggled, showing a cross-section.

During that time, I pulled out half of my body from the monster’s hand and used my ability. Now, I can kill it. Of course, even if the grade fell, the opponent was an S-grade. Then there is only one way.

By moving the creaking energy, I drew the huge fire I had gathered in one place into the wind. A hot fire swept through the wind and moved as I wished. I pulled out all the fire that I could see under my feet and poured it on the monster.

It was a fire created by S+-grade lightning. It would work well against monsters whose rank had been lowered to S-grade.

Crack, creak, crack…!

As I expected, the monster on fire poured out the black liquid and made a boiling sound of phlegm. I barely managed to get out of the crack in its grip strength and I collapsed on the dirt floor.

“Gasp… gasp…”

In front of me, I saw a monster that had been engulfed in fire and was burning. Black smoke spread all over the air. The energy that had barely moved had hardened again, and his body had stiffened. In the distant view, I barely lifted the corners of my lips and smiled.

“Look, good… you bastard, ya.”

I closed my eyes while laughing at the painfully dying monster. The upper body fell sideways.

* * *

Uhum, hmm. A soft hum echoed in the dark hallway. A firmly closed door appeared in front of Cheon Sa-yeon, who was walking slowly as if he had come out for a walk with his hands in his pants pockets.

When he grabbed the handle of the wooden door engraved with a luxurious pattern and turned it, the door opened with a clicking sound. Squeak. Cheon Sa-yeon entered the room past the rusty metal sound and tapped the floor with his long sword.

“Hmm.”

The identity of the spacious room was the study room. However, it was not books, but dolls that filled each bookshelf. Hundreds of ball-jointed dolls adorned with colourful dresses and accessories glistened in the candlelight.

“Ah, no wonder I feel so bad…”

Cheon Sa-yeon calmly counted the passing time. Yes. This annoying and boring moment had come again.

Laugh.

Laughter was heard from somewhere.

Laugh. Laugh.

The laughter that started once spread throughout the library. Kkigigik! The doll’s face, who was looking straight ahead, twisted towards Cheon Sa-yeon at the same time. A voice came from the yellow blonde doll in the middle of the second row of the first bookshelf in the study room.

“You are not surprised to see us.”

Another doll continued.

“A normal human would scream.”

“What is it? What is it?”

“It’s not fun.”

“I am having fun.”

“Interesting.”

“No luck! Let’s kill him!”

“Be careful. He is not an ordinary human being.”

“Kill! Chewing!”

The inside of the study room was filled with the noise of dolls chattering. Cheon Sa-yeon, who was rubbing his temples with his fingers with a tired expression, smiled.

“Abel (아벨).”

When the dolls heard the name coming out of his mouth, they moved their heads.

“You know my name.”

“How? How?”

“You called me with that dirty mouth!”

“Calm down. God said it he would know us.”

“It’s ominous. I want to kill you.”

“Are you going to kill him? Can I kill him?”

As he listened to the doll’s conversation, Cheon Sa-yeon drew his palm with his sword. A familiar pain followed and his blood dripped. Flames rose in the muddy, bright red blood.

“From the party hall to this gate, you made something interesting. Thanks to you, I didn’t notice it.”

The fire soared with momentum to melt everything around it. One of the closest dolls made a sharp metal sound like a cat with its fur upright.

“It’s hot! It’s hot!”

“You fool, you never plan to do it alone… yeah. Samael (사마엘) has moved.”

Crackle. Crackle.

Eventually, one of the dolls melted. Its eyeballs rolled through the bizarrely flowing face.

Thud. Thud.

The dolls that fell all at once from the bookshelf crawled and hung on the legs of the Cheon Sa-yeon, irrespective of their melting bodies.

“Let’s kill him! Let’s kill him!”

“Put a knife in his neck!”

Cheon Sa-yeon looked at the dolls that were clinging to him indifferently. The energy felt from the doll was undeniably weak. It was a reconnaissance doll often used by Abel.

Cheon Sa-yeon, who remembered Samael’s disgusting mask, which seemed to make him sick just thinking about it, drew an unpleasant breath and swung his sword.

“Aaargh! Argh!”

“Hurt! Hurt! Hurt!”

“Kill! Kill him!”

“Murderer! Murderer! Die!”

Even though it was a doll, the sound of ripping flesh or the bright red blood that spattered was no different from cutting a person. The voice of a child screamed simultaneously and cursed him.

A doll’s hand with red nail polish pulled his pants leg. A sharp blade of a sword passes over it without hesitation. Red blood poured from the cut section.

The inside of the study room turned into hell in an instant. The screams of a child filled it, blood gushed, and fire engulfed it all. Continuing to swing the sword with a bored expression on his face, Cheon Sa-yeon came to the conclusion of all this.

“I am not the target.”

Somehow at the crossroad, the left side was particularly annoying, so he went and looked. He was caught in a subtle trap laid by Samael.

He went in the opposite direction to himself and he thought of Han Yi-gyeol and Ha Tae-heon. He didn’t think Ha Tae-heon would be easy because Han Yi-gyeol was with him…

“Ah. Ah…”

“Ugh… gig…”

Crackle. Crackle.

The pieces of the doll’s body scattered on the floor were eaten by the fire. Leaving behind the study room full of the smell of blood, Cheon Sa-yeon went back the way he had come. The suit he was wearing was stained with the doll’s blood.

The way back was empty. Before he parted, he made it clear to come back in case of danger.

‘There is nothing dangerous enough to come back, or the situation is so urgent that there is no time to escape. One of the two.’

It was most likely the latter. Cheon Sa-yeon hummed a light hum as before and walked over to the door on the right where Han Yi-gyeol and Ha Tae-heon had entered. He made his way through a long, boring hallway than the one on the left and came to the end.

“Oh, my.”

Cheon Sa-yeon raised the corners of his lips gracefully at the sight in front of his wide-open eyes. He saw the corpse of a huge monster that had been burned to death. It was not Ha Tae-heon’s work.

‘Han Yi-gyeol brought the fire with his ability to kill it.’

Just looking around, it was clear what kind of battle was going on.

As if a storm had been swept away, Cheon Sa-yeon looked around while walking around the ruined and crumbling surroundings then found a small body lying in the corner.

As he got closer, he saw a familiar face with both eyes closed and fainted. He must have fought a hard battle and it was somehow funny to see him lying in a mess. It was like watching an abandoned animal.

“Han Yi-gyeol.”

He called his name, but there was no response. He knelt down on one of his knees and scanned him slowly from face to toe. There was a fishy smell of blood, but unlike in the study room, it was not unpleasantness.