Chapter 297

"Aaarrgh! Aaargh! No, this can't be…! Nooooooo…!!!"

It looked like watching the fragments of a star getting sucked into a black hole.

Milited, who had spread thinly across the wide plaza like a mist with no graspable substance, rushed and gathered toward one specific point at tremendous speed.

[Not bad at all.]

Watching the sight, Sbeungali gave a small shrug.

Of course, his body wasn't human and had nothing you could really call shoulders, but the gesture was there all the same.

He'd been ready to step in himself if no one found it, but he honestly hadn't expected two people — or even one — to pinpoint it almost simultaneously.

[So these really are the humans that one personally chose to keep close. Hmm…]

Sbeungali muttered the words with an oddly uneasy feeling.

It was undeniably a good thing, but it deviated slightly from Minerva's plan.

• You understood my words clearly, did you not, Sbeungali? Now that you've heard the full story, you too must cooperate with this one. Otherwise I shall by no means leave you in peace.

[…….]

Minerva's voice, still murmuring fiercely, seemed to echo vividly in his ears even now.

Of course, Sbeungali wasn't incapable of understanding her reasoning.

[Hmm, well… I'm hardly in a position to criticize Milited, but still.]

One reason she'd warned Yu Ji-hyeok to be wary of Milited was, certainly, because it cunningly pried at others' weaknesses and shook them mentally — what she considered "filthy, vulgar tricks unbecoming of the strong."

But the biggest reason was that Milited, alone among the Seven Calamities, could freely change the form of its body. Taking on countless shapes, it was extraordinarily skilled at making opponents waste their strength on empty air and at gently, deftly steering them wherever it wanted them to go.

Centuries ago, it had pulled the same kind of stunts — riling people up and then slipping away as mist or liquid, conjuring mirages as decoys to lure pursuers, or shapeshifting into someone close to its target and striking at the blind spot….

To Minerva, of course, those were just laughable, shabby little tricks.

But she'd merely loathed and despised that style — she'd never dismissed the fact that it worked.

That was exactly why she'd kept her guard up and warned Yu Ji-hyeok right up to the moment of her death.

[Well, the tricks were effective in the first place — that's how that little rat survived openly making an enemy of her for all those long years.]

Sbeungali muttered to himself, then quietly glanced over at Minerva.

She hadn't bothered to hide her foul mood since a moment ago, and he found himself a little worried she might do something reckless.

Minerva was watching the situation outside with her arms folded and her usual cold expression.

She's holding up better than I thought? Just as Sbeungali was thinking that —

She let a sound slip out of her mouth.

"…I was certain he would rely on this one."

The beings capable of catching Milited when it had turned to mist and completely hidden its body were vanishingly rare.

Turning into mist severely limited Milited's own attacks, but it gained even more in exchange, which was why it was a favorite tactic. No matter how vast a power Yu Ji-hyeok wielded, whether he could actually strike a mist-form Milited was an entirely separate question. Brute strength couldn't slice through flowing water, after all.

Of course, he had Minerva and Sbeungali, so there was nothing to worry about.

Perhaps that was why Minerva — uncharacteristically — had been nodding to herself with the look of someone who'd just had a brilliant idea.

But now….

"My perfect plan to step in and gallantly help him when he was in trouble…"

Minerva muttered in a sulky voice.

She must have been hoping that if she appeared right when he was struggling and solved the problem with a flourish, he'd lean on her more and trust her more.

For all her aloofness, she had a surprisingly artless side, so it tracked.

[And on top of that — not that she'd ever admit it — she's terribly possessive and clingy….]

Sbeungali muttered that one very, very quietly.

As someone who could feel others' emotions, he could read Minerva's current state to some degree. Caught in some subtle, indescribable feeling, she'd actually gone so far as to push her lower lip out in a pout.

Deciding the smart move was to pretend he hadn't noticed, Sbeungali quickly withdrew to his own territory.

The World Tree's branch rooted in Yu Ji-hyeok's right arm.

[Anyway… this is the end for you too.]

Sbeungali murmured with a rather sentimental expression.

[For someone who clawed and scrabbled to keep living — maybe not as desperately as Margo, but still — I never thought you'd end up going out like this.]

What a rather anticlimactic finish.

With that, he fell silent and watched Milited, who had now nearly fully materialized.

Margo, Minerva, himself, and now Milited.

He'd half-expected something like this, but he hadn't dreamed the Seven Calamities would get picked off one after another so perfectly, so quickly….

[…….]

Sbeungali stayed silent.

As another of the Seven Calamities himself, he watched this old acquaintance — who was about to face death — and murmured quietly.

[…But where will it end up settling next?]

For him, it was a fairly serious concern.

It was also an important question.

[Hm?]

Then, sensing some strange current in the air, Sbeungali frowned without thinking.

[A last struggle before death, is it?]

It was an embarrassing thing to admit, but he'd done the same in his time, so he had no intention of mocking Milited.

Anyway, looks like things are wrapping up here, he thought — and then his body twitched in a sudden flinch.

[Wait….]

Now that he thought about it, just a moment ago, that thing had definitely….

[Don't tell me…!]

"Got any last words?"

Yu Ji-hyeok looked down at Milited, who lay pinned with a spear and a dagger driven into its now-materialized body. He held a sword in one hand, and the blade rippled menacingly with the mana he'd poured into it.

After being forced into a solid form, Milited had thrashed and resisted, desperate to escape Yu Ji-hyeok, but it had been driven to the brink of death almost instantly.

Milited slowly looked around.

Even setting Yu Ji-hyeok aside, countless others stood looking down at it.

Among them was Kath Ryle, who shared its very face.

It understood perfectly well that there was nowhere left to run.

"…Heh."

Already too weakened to do anything about it, Milited looked up at Yu Ji-hyeok and let out a wheezing, deflating laugh.

"I, Milited, who once turned the whole world into my enemy and walked away unscathed, am brought low like this by a handful of humans…"

"Yeah."

Yu Ji-hyeok slowly raised his sword as he spoke.

"As far as last words go, that's pretty weak."

"W-wait."

Milited coughed painfully and spoke.

Yu Ji-hyeok narrowed his eyes slightly, as if to ask whether it had something else to say.

"You begging for your life or something?"

"…Heheh. Why — if I begged, would you actually spare me?"

"Of course not."

Yu Ji-hyeok answered with a small laugh of his own.

"Sorry, but you're more useful to me dead than alive."

"Heheh… right. I never expected anything different."

Milited slowly raised a hand as it spoke.

"Then at the very least, let me end my own life."

"…….."

Caught off guard by the unexpected request, Yu Ji-hyeok's expression shifted into one of surprise.

Seeing his face, Milited burst out laughing again.

"What — surprised? You thought I'd be like Margo, begging for my life right up to the end? That one definitely would have…"

Yu Ji-hyeok nodded.

Milited gave another small laugh, as if to say it had figured as much.

"I've lived through more years than I can count. I once devoured half the world. I made countless beings bow to me, never bending, never giving ground… so at the very least, my end will come not by another's hand… but by my own will, as Milited…."

With those words, Milited plunged its hand without hesitation deep into the place where its core resided.

Yu Ji-hyeok adjusted his grip on his sword, planning to wait a beat — long enough to claim the Seven Calamity's energy — and then take Milited's head.

[No!]

Sbeungali's frantic voice rang out from within him.

[Kill it right now! If you can't, get back, hurry!]

As if it had heard the warning, Milited — already settling into the weight of death — grinned.

"Too late."

In the next instant, Milited's body burst apart like a bomb going off.

In that moment, Yu Ji-hyeok almost instinctively called up Henir's Shadow and the World Tree's Branch and shielded every member of his group flawlessly from the fragments of Milited. It was only possible because he hadn't let his guard down for a single second.

Right after that, he turned to block the shards that came hurtling toward him — concentrated heavily on his chest —

"…What, this?!"

His body wouldn't move.

An empty notification window stuttered and flickered into view before his eyes.

As if something were trying to obstruct him.

It was only an instant of paralysis, but even on the verge of death, a Seven Calamity was a Seven Calamity.

For Milited, that one instant was enough.

The moment a fragment of its body touched Yu Ji-hyeok's pendant, it soaked right in.

[A strange wave of power is felt!]

[The Worn Ancient Pendant reacts to a Seven Calamity's core…!]

• Hah, hahahaha!!!

Milited burst out laughing, as if it had won.

It had pierced and shattered its own core — there was no avoiding death now, no matter what it tried — and still it laughed like something out of its mind.

• I was right…! What this thing needed to activate was a Seven Calamity's core, like mine…! My victory — I — I won in the end!

It shouted in a voice brimming with euphoria.

Most of its body had already dispersed into some unidentifiable liquid.

But the pendant hanging at Yu Ji-hyeok's throat kept giving off a strange light.

• Yes, in this world… in your world, I take my exit. But — but I'm not finished yet…!

Milited cried out, its voice manic.

• Wait for me, Ahriman…! I'll kill you first…! And the rest of you too — every one of you I find, I'll cut down and turn into my hands and feet…!

"Tch, this damn thing…!"

Yu Ji-hyeok tried to rip the pendant off, but it clung to him as if fused with his body and refused to budge even slightly. Worse, an enormous wave of pain poured through the pendant, dragging a pained breath out of him in spite of himself.

After several attempts to tear it free with his bare hands, he gave up and shouted at the people around him.

"Everyone, get back, far back!"

The urgency in his voice should have driven everyone away, but instead someone came closer.

It was Han Su-yeong.

She held a potion bottle in one hand.

"Sorry, Ji-hyeok…! This might hurt a little!"

With that, she splashed the dark red blood inside the bottle straight onto his pendant.

The instant it made contact, Yu Ji-hyeok felt power and presence rolling off that blood that rivaled a Seven Calamity's.

[You've come into contact with 'A Blood Drop Containing a Mighty Necromancer's Will'!]

[A powerful curse strong enough to rot even your soul rushes to engulf you…!]

[The curse has been nullified by your 'Mighty Spirit's Will.']

[The 'Blood Drop Containing a Mighty Necromancer's Will' soaks into the Worn Ancient Pendant!]

• …What? Wh-what is this…!?

Milited's puzzled muttering quickly turned into a scream of unbearable agony. With every scream, the pendant flickered violently, even trembling on its own.

"Ah. Ngh…!"

And Yu Ji-hyeok was clearly suffering just as badly — he couldn't hold himself up and ended up dropping to one knee. Han Su-yeong rushed to support him and, without hesitation, reached for the pendant.

"…Huh? It — it came off!"

The pendant detached from his body absurdly easily.

Han Su-yeong raised her arm, ready to hurl it as far away as she could —

[A strange wave of power is felt!]

[The Worn Ancient Pendant reclaims its true form!]

[The 'Traveler's Guidestone' shows you the path forward.]

"Argh?!"

"Krgh…!"

"Su-yeong! Ji-hyeok!"

In an instant, a blinding light that seemed to swallow everything flooded the plaza.

The light burned so fiercely it felt like it would scorch their eyes; everyone in the group threw an arm up to shield their faces or turned away.

And when the light finally faded….

"…Huh?"

Yu Ji-hyeok and Han Su-yeong had vanished without a trace.

"Ugh…"

Yu Ji-hyeok, who'd been lying unconscious, struggled to open his eyes.

The soft sound of breathing close by made him turn his head.

There, lying turned toward him with quiet, even breaths, was Han Su-yeong, fast asleep.

"Where am I…"

The two of them were lying side by side on a huge bed.

It was so enormous that five or six more people could have stretched out beside them.

"What — what the hell happened…?"

He couldn't make any sense of it.

As he reflexively pushed himself halfway up, Yu Ji-hyeok noticed someone sitting in a chair beside the bed. The figure was lazily tossing a pendant up with one hand and catching it, playing with it like a toy.

"Ah, you're finally awake."

The figure muttered the words like the timing couldn't have been better.

That voice — I've heard it before.

Yu Ji-hyeok shook his head lightly.

His blurred vision finally sharpened, and only then did he realize who was sitting beside him. He was so shocked his expression froze —

"Heh. That look on your face says I called it."

Watching him, the other chuckled and tossed the pendant over.

As Yu Ji-hyeok caught it on reflex, the one who'd been nursing the two of them slowly rose from the chair.

"Nice to meet you."

He wore Kath Ryle's face.

No — it was…

"My name is… mm, yes. It'd probably be easier on both of us if I introduce myself as Milited?"

Milited, who should already have been dead, smiled and dipped its head in a polite bow.

"A pleasure to meet you."

It gave a faint smile.

"My nemesis from three hundred years ahead."