Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Saying that, Yoon Seohee swung the golden sword in a wide arc. The motion itself was light and fluttering, like a butterfly’s wingbeat, but its result was anything but light. Along the path the sword traced, a blade of air instantly expanded in size and shot toward the Beggar.

The Beggar wasn’t just taking it lying down, either. It made its already enormous hand even larger. Then it swung that hand toward the woman.

KWAANG!

As always happens when immense forces collide, there was a thunderous roar that felt like it was smashing straight through her eardrums. The Beggar Who Devours Memories let out a great howl. And following its cry, the surrounding scenery began to distort.

A flash of white.

Beyond the distorted landscape, a pair of red eyes gleamed.

“Whether I stay here or leave, that’s my freedom too.”

—Give, it, back.

Grrrrk. It spoke with a voice that sounded like it was seething with saliva.

—My, … my, prey……!!

Then, the eyes beyond the distorted landscape began to pour out beings that had been abandoned, broken, and shattered.

* * *

Thunk, thunk-thunk……

Three empty bottles that had once held mana potions rolled across the ground. I kicked aside the empty bottle I’d drained myself, then gripped Caliburn firmly once more. And I swung Caliburn toward the wave of white monsters pouring toward me and Jeong Seojin like a flood.

A golden mana strike extending from Caliburn’s body swept through the white horde charging at us. But that was only for a moment. Before long, golden mana swept through the spot, and yet another wave of white beings, each with a different shape, began to pour in.

[Master, the mana is…]

“I know.”

I already knew what Caliburn was trying to say. With my mana reserves stuck at the level of a C-Rank hunter, the lowest grade, sustaining a battle beyond this was impossible. But what could I do? This fight wasn’t one I could back down from just because it was impossible. Because right now, there was someone behind me I had to protect.

“Cough, hack… Yoon Seohee, you… stop doing shit you can’t pull off and just run away, damn it…!”

“Stop wasting my energy and you be the one to get away somehow! If Jeong Seojin runs, I’ll follow too— Ugh!”

It seemed the attacks from that ‘Beggar Who Devours Memories’ applied a recovery delay debuff, because Jeong Seojin, still unable to heal his waist injury, was spouting useless nonsense.

What was I supposed to do with this guy? As I snapped back at Jeong Seojin in irritation, a massive shadow fell over me.

“Yoon Seohee!”

Jeong Seojin, who’d noticed the danger before I did, grabbed my arm and yanked me, his injured body staggering. I let him guide me, pulling back. And then, right after—

KWAANG!

An enormous white hand, too large to gauge, slammed down on the spot where I’d been standing just moments ago. Seeing that, I immediately exerted my dominion over the ‘ground.’

Kugugugu— A rumbling sound came from deep below, and soon a spike-shaped rock shot up at high speed toward the ‘Beggar Who Devouring Memories’’ palm. But the massive spike I’d created failed to pierce through its hand.

—Don’t, in, ter, fere, Ad■inistrator.

Instead, the creature grabbed the entire rock spike, yanked it out whole, and hurled it back at us. I hastily exerted my dominion over the rock it had thrown. The boulder, touched by the branches of my extended mana, immediately shattered according to my will, breaking into small stones that rained down on us.

“Ugh!”

Even if they were just small stones instead of a giant boulder, the force of them falling from such a height was nothing to ignore. I swung Caliburn wide at the stones pouring toward us. The golden light radiating from Caliburn’s body swept away the stones raining down on us.

[Master, the mana…]

“I appreciate the concern, but I really do know!”

As if I didn’t know my own body. I gritted my teeth as my mana reserves threatened to run dry again in real time.

‘If this keeps up… I hate to admit it, but this is nothing more or less than a mutual suicide pact.’

Damn it all, with my pitifully insufficient C-Rank hunter mana reserves, any further mana consumption was practically suicide.

The mana consumed each time I swung Caliburn was negligible thanks to its function of greatly amplifying the mana it received, but the real problem was the ‘Ruler’s Garden’ skill.

‘Up until now, I thought mana was only consumed when activating the ‘Ruler’s Garden’ skill.’

But that wasn’t the case at all. The reason I’d thought mana was only spent when activating the skill was because I’d never actually used ‘Ruler’s Garden’ ‘properly’ before.

Now that I was using ‘Ruler’s Garden’ properly, the amount of mana I was consuming was clearly different from before. Once when extending the branches of my dominion toward the target I wanted to control through ‘Ruler’s Garden,’ then again when completely dominating that target to change its properties or form, and finally when moving or manipulating it as I wished.

Even if it was less than when I first activated Ruler’s Garden, this was by no means a level of mana consumption that could be handled by mana reserves stuck at a C-Rank hunter’s level.

‘How much longer do I have to hold out—’

Before the thought could continue, the ‘Beggar Who Devours Memories’ reached out toward me once more. I twisted my body urgently to dodge its attack. *Kwaang.* I narrowed my brow for a moment as its white hand covered the spot where I’d been standing, but then I felt a chilling sensation unlike before.

‘Huh?’

Before I could even react properly to the sudden unease, an enormous pressure-like force began crushing me entirely. I was forcibly bent at the waist like someone pinned under a massive boulder.

—I, just, now, spoke, words, choke.

I flailed my limbs like a bug crushed under a giant finger, trying again and again to lift myself. I forcibly dragged up my already depleted mana and extended the branches of my dominion toward the invisible force pressing down on me.

Of course, it had no effect. As I’d confirmed several times by now, my ‘dominion’ didn’t apply to the ‘Forsaken One’ that came rushing in from outside, like the ‘Beggar Who Devours Memories.’

—Too, late, you, are.

“Ah, ugh…!”

‘Could this bastard’s power be Jeong Seojin’s?’

As that thought crossed my mind, an intense pressure that felt like it would shatter my limbs crushed me. From far away, I thought I heard Jeong Seojin shouting my name—Yoon Seohee—but I had no time to worry about him. I forced my mana up within the pressure that seemed ready to crush even my consciousness entirely.

The branches imbued with my dominion touched the ground, the air, the trees. Everything that received my dominion began moving according to my commands. First, the ground rose up. The earth, hardened solid by my will, bound the bastard’s limbs once more.

And immediately after, an invisible blade forged under my will flew toward its massive body. Finally, tree roots shot up from the ground, entangling the feet of the white monster horde charging toward us.

“Kkeuheuk, kkeul, leok…!”

But despite all my attempts, the pressure crushing me didn’t change. Beyond my vision, which was starting to grow distant, the mouth of the ‘Beggar Who Devours Memories’ stretched wide. I couldn’t tell whether it was crying or laughing.

—I.

“Keu, heup…!”

—Eating, an, ■, Administrator, has, been, a, long, time.

For a moment, the pressure crushing me vanished, but then the bastard’s massive hand grabbed me. I coughed repeatedly under the force of its grip, which felt like it would crush me any second.

“Shit, Yoon Seohee!”

From far away, I heard Jeong Seojin’s shout, sounding extremely flustered, but I forcibly held onto the fading threads of my consciousness and glared at the ‘Beggar Who Devours Memories’ before me.

‘Damn it. Nostalgier, how the hell was I supposed to catch something like this…’

No, actually, maybe Nostalgier had wanted me to fail the quest. After all, Nostalgier was a child who harbored some… indescribable feelings toward Princeps.

So it wouldn’t be strange if she resented Jeong Seojin for taking Princeps away from her, even if only for a short time.

‘So is Jeong Seojin getting done in by this monster bastard really the ‘right answer’? Is that what you wanted to say, Nostalgier?’

That was probably it. Thinking about the past I’d seen while merging with ‘Princeps,’ given Nostalgier’s personality, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d done this because she wanted Jeong Seojin dead.

The fact that both the success and failure conditions of the quest were tied to whether Jeong Seojin was safe also made perfect sense when I thought about it that way.

…I wasn’t sure exactly ‘how’ she saw me, but at least it was certain that Nostalgier harbored some kind of feeling toward me.

But.

Cough. Another dry cough burst out, and something flew toward the hand of the Beggar gripping me. What flew in was a dagger that didn’t look particularly high-quality. The Beggar, seeming to react to the dagger striking the back of its hand and falling away, turned its featureless face—empty of eyes, nose, or mouth—to the right.

Where the bastard stared with its sightless gaze, Jeong Seojin stood. Still clutching his waist where blood flowed heavily, Jeong Seojin was glaring at the Beggar Who Devours Memories.

“You son of a bitch. If you’re going to eat someone, eat me.”

—…….

“Let that woman go. Your target was me all along anyway.”