Chapter 234 : Stage Device (3)
Stage Device (3)
The tower of monsters piled up on the rooftop of the building burst, pouring out into downtown Seoul.
Of course, to the people watching, it would only look like colorful balloons or cute dolls falling from the sky.
As long as Shin Ah-yeon's magic continued to sustain, that is.
'No matter how much magic power Shin Ah-yeon has, magic on this scale would last for about an hour at most.'
The magic power was nearly covering the skies of Seoul.
Even if the broadcast had gathered everyone's attention, the "wish" itself wasn't that strong.
But the very fact that she could deploy magic of this magnitude was already a remarkable feat.
"Why didn't you take that down right away?"
Najan had hidden itself, blending in with the mountain of monsters.
Most likely, it had concealed itself somewhere with the monsters.
"Killing that won't kill Najan."
"What do you mean by that?"
Alencia wore a puzzled face.
Naturally, she wouldn't know Najan's characteristic.
"Najan, as a demon, wasn't a normal demon species from birth. He was originally just an ordinary monster."
A simple monster, but when that gathered and clumped together—
It became the embodiment and colony of countless monsters.
Normally, monsters contain a trace amount of demonic energy.
So the amount detectable is minimal, making it difficult to sense clearly.
But Najan gathered and concentrated the demonic energy of those monsters, becoming a demon.
To the point he became a top-rank demon.
"As an individual, Najan isn't that strong."
After all, he's just an ordinary monster.
But that also makes it hard to pinpoint him.
He possessed the ability to transfer his main body, and he probably has several similar vessels prepared in advance.
Corpses gathered from the failed products of divine art.
Bodies made from them.
The bell he shook was the embodiment of his demonic power as a demon.
Opening a "gate" that can summon monsters.
"That one just now was a soulless fake. The real body is somewhere else."
That was Najan's true ability and strength.
And also his lifeline.
"So he's basically immortal?"
"That's not necessarily the case."
The monsters ran towards the ground, desperately avoiding Alencia and me.
With evil intent, looking only to cause harm and chaos to people.
"He experiences a short delay every time he migrates to a new vessel. We nearly killed him once by exploiting that."
It was Estella who found him that time.
Estella, who could hear the wishes of others, pursued Najan's voice.
She negated everything he desired.
Almost killing him before other demons intervened.
She failed due to interference from other demons, but it got very close.
'I can't use the same strategy as Estella now.'
Shin Ah-yeon, who could imitate that, was busy using magic right now.
At the same time, she was live-streaming.
Perhaps because of that, Shin Ah-yeon's complexion reflected on the billboard looked quite fatigued.
"Then what if I just annihilate everything at once?"
"That won't work. And... it's too dangerous."
Unlike the deserted streets in America at that time, this was dense Gangnam in Seoul.
If Alencia tried to do what she did then, the chances of civilian casualties would be high.
No doubt, Najan chose Gangnam precisely because of that.
To restrict Alencia's movement.
'Alencia can't kill him to begin with.'
Alencia's power was, after all, electricity.
It mingled with magic power, but in the end, all she had were purely physical attacks.
That alone wouldn't be enough to kill Najan.
Even if his location was discovered.
"Then?"
"Let's wait. We already called in someone who can track him down."
Najan could swiftly relocate his body.
We needed to be able to precisely find and pursue him wherever he went in order to strike at his weak point.
"So, until then... hold the line."
I slowly set my foot down towards the lower part of the building.
My target—a monster, no, a doll that was just about to charge at someone.
Thud!!!
I crushed only the head of the doll with precision.
What was clearly a monster spewed stuffing as its head burst, and its body inflated and exploded like a balloon.
"Wow! It's Manager Park Jung-woo!"
"Manager Park, did you come for this event too?"
A few people nearby recognized me and snapped photos.
I waved lightly at them and scanned the street.
There still weren't many monsters down on the streets.
With Shin Ah-yeon's power, the dolls could barely cause real harm to anyone.
'Just a simple event.'
Because people had such recognition planted in their minds, as long as that wish was in effect, further damage couldn't be done. This spell, though perhaps too much for a demon, was more than enough to affect ordinary monsters.
【It will probably last up to about an hour.】
A text came from Shin Ah-yeon on my phone.
As expected, the duration of this magic was at most an hour.
By then, all the monsters had to be dealt with, and Najan had to be killed without fail.
***
'Is this supposed to be magic?'
Baek Hojun doubted his eyes as he watched the "event" currently taking place in Gangnam.
Probably, every Hunter urgently dispatched here felt the same.
There was definitely a gate that had opened in the sky.
Otherwise, the Hunter Association wouldn't have hurriedly sent Hunters here.
Yet, the association's instructions were strange:
'When you subdue the monsters, please do your best to make it look fun.'
'Excuse me?'
'Well... I don't know either. That's what Manager Park Jung-woo told me to say.'
He thought it was nonsense, but in this situation, it was unmistakable.
Dolls and countless balloons were pouring from the sky.
Their appearance was wholly changed, but they were all monsters.
The monsters waddled about, trying to attack people, but often tripped and collapsed without being able to land even a proper hit.
Even if they tried, at most, it was just a doll gently tapping someone.
'Does this even make sense?'
It had far surpassed the scope of magic.
Turning monsters into such ridiculous beings.
'Saintess.'
Jung-woo had mentioned this before the 'demonic zone raid'.
He had said that Shin Ah-yeon's previous life was a Saintess from another world.
A Saintess possessing the power to make people's wishes come true, almost omnipotent.
He explained that Shin Ah-yeon was now redefining that power as magic.
What was unfolding before his eyes felt like an experiment.
A spell as close to a miracle as possible had been created by Shin Ah-yeon.
And it was being applied in this world for the first time.
Of course, what made this magic possible was the heavily populated Gangnam.
The image that "a fun event or festival" would happen here was planted via electronic billboards, TV broadcasts, or the internet.
The expectations people harbored were similar to wishes.
All those feelings actualized Shin Ah-yeon's magic as a miracle.
But even that would last only an hour.
That was the limit of Shin Ah-yeon's magic.
"I'll handle the area near Seolleung, so those with time, please head to Yeoksam! They need more people there!"
Hunters were busy, unlike the people merrily taking photos and wandering about.
The time limit: One hour.
Within that single hour, they had to clean up every visible doll.
'So those are all supposed to be monsters?'
Some Hunters shuddered as they saw the large dolls and balloons falling from the sky or roaming around Seoul.
If those hadn't been dolls but actual monsters?
Gangnam would've been complete chaos by now.
How many would have died?
The mere thought made his head spin.
'The problem isn't just the friction between non-Awakener and Awakener.'
What he heard from the association was that a single demon caused all this.
The association's Hunters could only shudder at the reality that a single demon could orchestrate such chaos.
'That's how Hunters allied with demons obtained power like that...'
And the fact that it was possible to turn normal people into Awakeners suddenly felt plausible.
Just as much, the existence of Jung-woo—someone who could suppress such—stood out even more.
Shin Ah-yeon's magic, which turned all monsters into dolls, was enough to halt those who craved the power of demons in their tracks.
「Have you found Najan's location?」
"I'm searching now. There's a strange flame among the monsters that I can feel as it moves."
「Alencia will narrow down the range of where he can move as much as possible.」
"Once I find him, do I just kill him?"
「It's not that simple. To kill him with sheer physical force, you have to destroy every body in his swarm.」
Najan's lives equaled the number of monsters in his swarm.
Individually weak, but he possessed that many lives as a result.
Even if you destroyed the current vessel, his soul would survive and migrate elsewhere.
"Then it's impossible for Alencia to kill him."
「Exactly.」
If Alencia could kill him, all she needed was a specific location.
She'd then strike like lightning and obliterate the target.
But Alencia's attacks consisted of electricity—or just simple physical force.
Put simply, since it was a purely physical approach, it couldn't finish Najan off.
「Lee Soo-ah might be able to...」
"Even so, she probably couldn't chase him down if he keeps escaping."
「True.」
In Lee Soo-ah's case, she lacked enough means to pursue or restrain him were he to run or if she found him.
"So, in the end, manager, you have to do it, right?"
「Right. I can handle it as long as I know his location.」
The time left was about 20 minutes.
The rain of monsters pouring from the gate had mostly stopped.
But since monsters kept multiplying somewhere, Najan was clearly releasing monsters as he moved around.
'Najan's real body isn't that powerful a demon.'
A demon comprised of swarms of monsters.
That was the problem.
Because the true form was weak, it was hard to spot Najan's distinctive "flame" among so many monsters.
'Something alien, not an ordinary monster.'
Blue flames lit up around Lee Soo-ah.
Myung-deung Dohwa.
Blue flames representing Life Lantern Ignition (命燈).
The range of Myung-deung Dohwa was originally about 100 meters in radius.
Within its range, blue flames could consume the opponent's life force and magic power.
'But that's too narrow.'
The range needed to be expanded.
Even if it didn't deal direct damage, just igniting the flames could reach much further.
'Farther.'
As the field expanded, countless blue flames bloomed across Gangnam.
Some cheered; others screamed in confusion.
In this chaos, Lee Soo-ah chased the flames.
A moving blue flame.
A single life, but also something mingled with countless other flames.
***
'Estella, your magic is about to end.'
Najan sensed the magic power, now visibly weakened and golden.
The amount of wish remained the same, but he lacked the magic power needed to sustain it.
This wasn't pure authority, but a power manifested as magic.
'Five minutes.'
That was about all the time left.
Najan walked among the hordes of monsters, continuously ringing the bell.
Each time, gates opened from the ground and the walls, and monsters spilled out.
Right now, they were just dolls, but five minutes later, they would become monsters who'd devour countless humans.
"If only Estella isn't here, no one will find me."
He was weak—so weak that he couldn't be found as nothing more than a mere monster.
Who would spot a single needle on a sandy beach?
It was then.
Whoosh.
"...?"
A blue flame suddenly ignited on Najan's chest.
"A blue flame?"
Staring at the blue flame that suddenly appeared on his chest, Najan squinted.
He recalled something Damian once said.
This must be that Awakener one said to be with Park Jung-woo...
As soon as this thought finished—
KA-BOOM!!!
A bolt of lightning struck down from the sky.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】