Chapter 187: Three Calamities (2)

Kwaaaaaaang…!

A deafening roar engulfed the entire area. Resistance fighters and mages alike snapped their heads up, heedless of friend or foe. The ceiling lights swayed precariously.

Crash!

One finally plummeted, crushing a dazed mage who had been standing beneath it. Yet no one spared his death a glance. The oppressive atmosphere weighed down on their shoulders.

“…It’s started…”

Rock muttered aloud.

The chilling air made it clear as day: the brutal clash with the Heavenly Demon had begun. The distance from the magic tower’s pinnacle to here was like heaven and earth.

Rock couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of battle was unfolding.

“Lee Taebaek…”

Suddenly, the moment she first laid eyes on him flashed in her mind.

Back then, Lee Taebaek had been a scrawny, dried-up twig of a man. Freshly revived from the electric chair, he’d laughed it off with a hollow chuckle. The moment he joined the Resistance, he’d humiliated one of their members and stirred up a storm—a total problem child.

‘At first…’

She’d been dissatisfied.

Everything about Lee Taebaek rubbed her the wrong way.

She resented Kang Hyeonseong for bringing him in, resented the blatant favoritism, and most of all, resented how he lounged around as the sole external agent, free as a bird.

Didn’t the guy lack even a shred of cooperativeness? Sure, the City guaranteed personal freedom, but Lee Taebaek took it way too far, doing whatever the hell he pleased.

He seemed lukewarm even toward the Resistance’s grand plan and the ideology of rebellion itself.

In the end, though, she was wrong.

‘He was just clumsy with his expressions.’

Lee Taebaek was simply awkward at showing it.

Then again, raised as a Siesta Hounds, how could he express emotions normally?

These days, Siesta’s depravity was bubbling to the surface. Unlike the 9th Battalion, the Hounds were the real ‘trash disposal unit.’ The treatment they endured was unimaginable. Horrific, even.

“…You.”

Why do you never have a peaceful day?

Like the eye of a storm, you drag incidents and chaos everywhere you go.

“And yet you never give up.”

Yu Dahui sidled up to Rock. She polished her glasses on her doctor’s coat with a soft squeak and continued.

“Far from despairing, he just keeps getting stronger.”

“……”

“Well, truth be told, in a city overrun by mutants, breaking potential limits isn’t that weird.”

“Lee Taebaek’s true strength isn’t physical power.”

Rock shook her head. Yu Dahui’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before she let out a laugh. It still felt novel hearing Rock speak so clearly.

“Pretending to be the world’s most indifferent person, while ironically wanting to preserve his humanity the most. To me, that’s where Lee Taebaek’s real power comes from.”

“Ho. Sharp analysis, huh? Got a thing for him?”

Rock shot Yu Dahui a glare with narrowed eyes.

“…Pot calling the kettle black.”

“I’m an airhead, though?”

“Loser.”

“Anyway, I agree with you, Rock. If I were Lee Taebaek, I’d have crumbled a hundred times over. Blaming others, rationalizing, rolling around somewhere in the lower districts.”

Was there some law of mental preservation? Paradoxically, this steel city softened people’s resolve. As wills weakened day by day, Lee Taebaek reignited forgotten stimuli in them. The value born from struggle.

But.

“If I may add… Lee Taebaek seems to love Lake City.”

“Love? The city?”

“Yeah. Just my guess, but otherwise, why would he keep throwing himself into the grind, wearing himself down without respite…?”

…Fair point.

Looking back, Lee Taebaek had never once blamed the City for its flaws. No, he absolutely hadn’t.

Even in their first mission, the Haiyen Gang subjugation, he’d carved out the mutants without pinning it on the City’s faults.

“Lee Taebaek.”

Embraces it all infinitely positively.

This city. Lake City.

Even though from their first encounter, it had tried to destroy him.

“How can someone do that?”

“Beats me.”

Yu Dahui lit a cigarette.

“But hey, the City’s full of all sorts. Like you and me.”

Yu Dahui shrugged. Rock smirked.

Rattle rattle rattle.

Finally, all the lights rained down from the ceiling. The Heavenly Demon and Lee Taebaek’s fierce battle was heating up. Yu Dahui stubbed out her cigarette butt and nudged Rock with her elbow.

“Let’s go cheer him on.”

“How…?”

“How? Wrap this up quick and head up.”

“Until then, Lee Taebaek can hold out…?”

“Hold out?”

Yu Dahui’s glasses glinted.

“He’ll win. Probably.”

The Heavenly Demon.

Kergel Magic Tower Master.

The woman known by many names was undoubtedly the Greatest Demon of All Time.

She had knocked on the gates of divinity without a drop of godly power. In crude terms, she wasn’t human. Facing her attacks drove that home.

Kwagagagagang!

This woman’s insane.

Tak!

The Heavenly Demon snapped her fingers. A chilling whoosh accompanied the slicing sound as it hurtled toward him.

Lee Taebaek jerked his shoulder aside. The moment he twisted, the space where he’d stood split open.

Severed strands of hair floated in the air. In that instant, he glanced back. His pupils dilated. The cracked dimension seemed to breathe in colors. The Heavenly Demon’s spatial slash left vast aftershocks—not just in reality, but rippling into other dimensions.

For the record, that was a basic attack. Regret hit late. Too soon for this?

“Not bad at dodging.”

The Heavenly Demon hooked her lip up with her index finger and smiled.

“…?”

What character is she playing?

“Let’s crank the output a bit.”

The Heavenly Demon flicked her saliva-slicked fingers repeatedly. Tak, tak, tak. Slicing sounds flooded in.

Lee Taebaek lifted his leg high and slammed it down. The shattered ice floor surged up, forming a barrier. But one wasn’t enough. At least ten to mitigate the power.

Slice!

The first ice wall fell.

Then the second, third, and on the ninth, an alarm blared in his head.

‘Dodge.’

Lee Taebaek ducked low.

Sure enough, the sharpness grazed above his scalp. If he’d gotten cocky from the ice walls, he’d be dead.

‘Even with the buff.’

Zing.

He felt it. It kept coming.

Lee Taebaek swayed left and right. The burns trailed long before vanishing in a flash.

Air resistance hit him full force. Like cutting through water. The world stood utterly still, and Lee Taebaek moved.

Whiiiiiish!

Even then, the Heavenly Demon’s magic closed in. He’d delayed it as much as possible, damn it!

‘I knew it.’

Her magic wasn’t physical impact—it was closer to a ‘concept.’

Severance.

Those two simple syllables defined her spell.

She’d reached the realm of Mind Sword before even turning thirty.

A supreme technique of the jianghu: slicing foes with intent alone, no blade needed. What Nangong family swordsmen and legends chased lifelong, she mastered effortlessly.

And not long after, she acquired Inevitable Sword.

Inevitable Sword meant a blade that always struck true. In modern terms, an instant-kill.

She’d grasped not one, but two god-tier cheats that made heads spin just hearing them. The universe’s favoritism was meant for Lee Taebaek, but somehow it went to this lunatic instead.

Anyway.

The point wasn’t Mind or Inevitable Sword.

Because the Heavenly Demon had discarded both. Those two sole sword principles. Casually erased from her mind without a second thought.

The reason? Absurd.

-I don’t want to be trapped by existing techniques.

A line straight out of a Heavenly Demon playbook.

She dismissed even Mind and Inevitable Sword as archaic relics. Rare as they were, she found no appeal in ancient arts.

The Heavenly Demon chased novelty over history. That’s why she abandoned demonic supremacy in the jianghu for the City, transplanting her cult’s roots. Dissenters paid dearly for their insolence.

Once in the City, she dove straight into training. She refined the budding new technique ‘Severance’ that had shown promise back in the jianghu.

Discarding Mind and Inevitable Sword simultaneously. An act defying normal logic, triggering as a restriction. It birthed immense backlash power.

A half-Mind Sword: unfelt yet sensed.

But Inevitable became non-guaranteed hits, altered for multi-strikes.

She seemed pleased with the unintended fusion. It achieved her goal: breaking free from the old. A woman perfectly suited to the City.

Slaaaash!

His cheek burned.

His ear nicked slightly.

Lee Taebaek gathered his focus tighter. Narrowing his vision to a single point, if possible.

‘Can’t see it, driving me mad.’

He only sensed it. Chills hit, and air rippled somewhere. Slicing sounds trailed air cutters targeting his skin.

‘Close in?’

Bad idea.

The Heavenly Demon wielded swords fundamentally. Interception was her hobby. The problem was her level.

‘No answer in close quarters.’

His only edge was speed, but…

Chill.

In the frozen time, he spotted the anomaly. The Heavenly Demon’s eyes tracked him, however minutely.

‘Adapting to stopped time.’

His hunch solidified instantly. As she slowly flicked her finger, air blades stabbed the traces he’d left while moving. Ice shards stung sharply.

‘Dodging alone won’t cut it.’

He needed a counter.

But how? Evasion was barely keeping up—what next?

Ice spikes? Blocked. She wove multi-air cutters into a barrier, shredding omnidirectional assaults. His skills neutralized by her passive.

‘Think, Lee Taebaek.’

Find a way.

While she wasn’t serious yet. This was his sole chance. Once her interest waned, she’d sever his neck in one stroke.

Flashy attacks? Waste of mana.

‘A clever ploy.’

Rack your brains. Use every lesson learned.

The other Three Calamities—Art Master and Staff Master—must’ve given hints. They’d toiled desperately to beat her.

Art Master’s space inversion.

Staff Master’s stretch and thrust.

Combine them somehow.

‘I can do it.’

Impossible, but hypnotize yourself otherwise.

“I will.”

It was an instant.

Unfamiliar text bloomed in his cornea.