Chapter 235 : 235. Stage Device (4)
235. Stage Device (4)
【He ran away!】
Alencia's shout came through Jung-woo's earphones.
As expected, the moment Alencia attacked, Najan switched bodies again and disappeared.
Where would the host body be this time?
'Will he move to a monster, or to a body he prepared in advance?'
From here on, it was a battle of sheer persistence and concentration.
With Life Lantern Ignition, Jung-woo tracked Najan's location.
And whenever he told Alencia the location, she would immediately attack and pursue him.
They had to repeat this, driving him toward Jung-woo's position.
Unlike Alencia, Jung-woo couldn't chase him directly, but he had a way to suppress him.
'It'd be much easier if he just relied on brute strength and rampaged.'
Jung-woo clicked his tongue and checked the time.
Five minutes left; that's how long they had to force Najan toward him.
The expanded range of Soo-ah's Life Lantern Ignition covered all of Gangnam with blue lanterns, lighting up the sky.
To others, it would seem like a fireworks display marking the grand finale of the event.
That's how beautiful it was.
But on the ground, the number of roaming puppets was still high.
The deployed hunters were doing their best, but more kept pouring in than they could kill.
'We can't stop them until Najan is dead.'
The gate was a problem, sure, but the monsters Najan directly spawned by opening his own doors were just as bad.
Burning all the monsters within five minutes was simply impossible, no matter what they did.
Jung-woo checked the remaining time and waited.
For the moment when Najan's main body would approach him.
"He just appeared near Yeoksam, but I think he moved again!"
【He must have realized it's dangerous to be in a remote area. He's moved to a place with a dense crowd.】
"Ah, seriously! So annoying!"
At Soo-ah's words, Alencia unleashed electromagnetic waves in all directions.
Roughly two minutes left.
'Can't drop lightning where people are gathered.'
She had to go handle it herself.
Alencia checked her remaining energy reserves.
In Seoul—unlike America—it was almost impossible to draw all the city's electricity.
More importantly, if she absorbed all the power, the broadcast featuring Shin Ah-yeon-ssi on the billboards would go out.
'That would make the spell disappear, too.'
So absorbing more electricity wasn't an option.
She had to find a way to locate Najan with what energy remained.
【Apgujeong direction—he's over there! It's the place with the most people!】
The moment Soo-ah's words sounded, blue current sparked in Alencia's eyes.
Her pupils turned gold, and she pushed off with her legs.
The scenery where Alencia had stood flew past in an instant.
In Apgujeong, where countless blue lanterns danced, all the lights went out at once.
And then, a single flame rose.
Now, even Najan would realize that flame was giving away his location.
"Unni! As soon as he moves, can you find him right away? Before he gets a chance to switch bodies again!"
【I'll do whatever I can.】
"I'm counting on you!"
As soon as a blue flame appeared, Najan would prepare to escape.
And the moment Alencia killed him, he would switch host bodies.
'According to Manager-nim, there's a brief delay when he switches bodies.'
She had to track that delay down no matter what.
"Back again? Useless—"
Alencia dropped like a bolt of lightning, smashing Najan—embedded among people—with her fist.
To bystanders, it would just look like a doll bursting with stuffing or petals scattering.
"It's Alencia!"
"What just happened?"
Alencia, who also streamed online, was quite well-known and popular with the public.
Normally, she would have responded to these civilians, but she didn't have the luxury right now.
'Less than a minute left.'
50 seconds, 49 seconds.
Time was passing in real time.
'I need to know exactly how long the delay is after Najan moves.'
This all depended, realistically, on Soo-ah.
She would have to find him the moment he moved for this to be measurable.
Up on a tall building, overlooking the city, Soo-ah knew this as well.
'I can do this.'
It wasn't just vague confidence.
Soo-ah's vision was wider than ever before.
At first, her search radius had been just a few hundred meters, but now it spanned all of Gangnam.
Naturally, she could find Najan much faster.
He was certainly weak, but his soul was more alien than others.
His magic power was pitch-black—the color made from many blended colors of magic power.
Now, she could sense those movements more clearly than anyone.
"Near Cheongdam!"
【Got it!】
It was the moment Najan's soul had just entered a monster's body.
Before Soo-ah had even finished speaking, Alencia had already arrived at Cheongdam.
The electromagnetic waves she spread instantly locked onto the spark Soo-ah had lit.
'That's it!'
Unlike other monsters that darted around, one monster stayed perfectly still.
It slowly started to move its new body.
'If, at the moment Soo-ah said, Najan entered that monster's body...'
It took about five seconds to get the body moving completely.
Not that long, but definitely not short!
At least, not for Alencia.
"I'm going to kill the monster Najan just entered! Let me know the moment he moves again!"
【Okay.】
About fifteen seconds left now.
"It'll be over soon—"
"No time for chat, you know?"
Alencia pierced Najan's body before he could even turn to look at her.
As expected, physical attacks alone couldn't kill Najan.
Even though she could now see Najan's soul leaving as the monster's body burst, she couldn't kill him.
'Where's Manager-nim right now?'
Jung-woo was near Seolleung.
After confirming the location, Alencia silently counted down.
'5, 4...'
Two seconds after Najan transferred bodies—
【Onju Station!】
From where Alencia was, it was quite far, but that didn't matter.
As long as it wasn't the other side of the earth, there was nothing Alencia couldn't do in three seconds.
***
When Najan moved to another body, it took five seconds before he could open his eyes.
It could have been considered a fatal weakness, but Najan had never thought of it as such.
The range he could jump between bodies was massive, and normally, no one could track where he'd gone.
Only Estella had ever blocked this.
'If your desire is too strong, your voice is too easy to hear, you know?'
When he opened his eyes, Estella had already been waiting for him.
By the time he tried to move, that was the moment his origin was marked.
He lost any means of escaping.
'That humiliation.'
Najan never forgot.
Back then it had taken about five minutes to move his body.
But now, it was five seconds.
Even if it was Estella, she wouldn't be able to keep up.
Even if she tried to block the source, there was no way she could hear his voice hidden among the countless wailing souls in this body.
'Soon, it will be over.'
Estella—or should he say, Shin Ah-yeon.
The spell that woman had cast would soon fade.
Then, the puppets spread across the city would morph into monsters.
They would slaughter every human enjoying peace nearby.
Gathering people for this so-called "event" would have become poison.
That's what Najan thought.
"I'm out of electricity now!!"
If not for the voice he heard at the very last moment before opening his eyes.
'What?'
He couldn't believe his ears.
It was undoubtedly the Saintess who had been chasing him.
'Did she find me before I'd fully regained consciousness?'
He could feel her getting faster.
But it wasn't the Saintess's own power that was finding him.
Probably the power of another awakener Park Jung-woo was working with.
Human power always had its limits.
She couldn't possibly have gotten strong enough to chase him down in such a short time.
"Just right."
Now, it was Park Jung-woo's voice.
Once he'd completely come to his senses and opened his eyes—
Jung-woo was right there in front of him.
He'd faced a 'fake' before, but this was the first time meeting the real body.
'No way.'
So the Saintess had found him, not at the moment his consciousness returned—
Five seconds. That brief, unconscious window.
She'd found and carried him to Park Jung-woo in that short gap.
'This is impossible.'
The distance between where Park Jung-woo was and where Najan had switched bodies was enormous.
It wasn't even teleportation. The Saintess had literally grabbed him from that location and flown right here.
He'd thought she was fast, but never to this degree.
"This is the second time I've met the real you face-to-face, Najan."
Jung-woo approached Najan, who was in a grotesque body constructed from an awakened corpse.
He must have expected the spell to be lifted soon, because in the very last moment he had transferred into a backup host, not a monster.
As soon as the monster started moving, he figured, no one would sense his presence.
"Haa... Park Jung-woo. Fine. But you've made a mistake."
A similar situation had happened before.
Cornered by Estella's power.
The time when Jung-woo and the other heroes chased him to the brink.
"Haven't you always failed to catch me at the last step?"
Back then, Najan chose suicide.
He destroyed his own body so he could somehow escape with just his soul.
He thought that maybe Estella's power couldn't follow his soul if he abandoned his body.
And his gamble paid off.
As his body was destroyed, Najan's soul escaped—not erased—and fled from Jung-woo.
"This time as well, same thing—"
If they were serious about truly killing him, they should have done it before he regained consciousness.
With the Demon King's demonic energy, perhaps they could have actually killed him.
But now he was conscious, Jung-woo was already too late.
If he ran before Jung-woo could even throw a punch, that would be that.
"You... seem to be misunderstanding something."
"...?"
"Did you seriously think the Demon King's strength was just about beating monsters like you to death?"
Or—
"You can't even imagine how much of the Demon King's strength I can wield."
Najan's heart suddenly felt like it was being squeezed by some unprecedented force.
All the magic power in the area quietly settled, and the demonic energy flowing through Najan's body froze.
'What is this?'
Perhaps another top-rank demon would have understood this situation.
But Najan was different.
He was a top-rank demon, but ultimately the hive mind of ordinary monsters.
Different from normal demons from the very beginning.
He had received the Demon King's strength, but never knew exactly what it was.
All he knew was that the Demon King was the monster who stood at the top of all demons.
'Nobody told me this.'
He had guarded against the Demon King's strength, but didn't know it could do this.
No other demons would have known, either.
That Jung-woo could control the Demon King's power to this extent.
That he had already half-opened the door to the Demon King's consciousness, dormant in the Demon King's heart.
"To think that you could turn your back and flee from the King's presence."
He couldn't move his body or even breathe.
Jung-woo's footsteps drew closer, slowly.
There was no escape.
He couldn't leave this body or transfer to another.
'Is this... only a portion of the Demon King's strength?'
If Jung-woo could completely wield it—
The moment Najan reached that thought, his consciousness was engulfed in total darkness.
The wraith who had survived all these years by absorbing countless monsters—
Thus met his death.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Damn, Jung-woo aura farmed that one.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】