Chapter 19: A Debt Repaid in Punch and Blood
The warm, almost cozy atmosphere lingered around the obsidian table, the soft smiles, the quiet laughter, the gentle glow of floating lights.
But the easy mood didn’t last long.
Because Hyun-woo was about to do something very stupid.
He straightened up slowly. The faint pink on his cheeks from Mother’s teasing vanished completely. His big brown eyes sharpened, and when he spoke, his voice was low, calm… and unmistakably angry.
“While this is all good and nice,” he said, looking straight at Mother, “it’s not like you just gently placed me near the barrier to see what would happen. To be more precise… you tossed me right at it. You threw me straight into that death wall just to test if I’d survive or turn into ash.”
The room went dead silent.
“So tell me,” he continued, his voice dropping an octave, “should I be glad that you have welcomed me to Eden’s Vault?”
No more laughter. No more teasing. The air turned thick, sour, and heavy.
Hyun-woo didn’t shout. He didn’t need to.
“You tried to kill me, Adrazelle. I never did anything to you. I didn’t even know who you were until today.”
He let out a short, bitter breath.
“Have you ever been thrown into boiling oil?” His tone stayed calm, but the words cut deep. “It hurts like hell. Instant burn. Panic. No time to scream. That’s what it felt like when you flung me at that barrier. Like my whole body was about to fry. And you didn’t even blink.”
He looked straight into her ancient eyes.
“Adrazelle… you never apologized to me, did you?”
The silence was painful.
Euryale’s voice sliced through it first.
“Hey, that’s rude!” she snapped, green aura flaring bright around her shoulders. She half-rose from her chair, eyes narrowed in anger. “How dare you talk to Mother like that? She allowed you to stay in Eden’s Vault. She welcomed you. Show some respect!”
Stheno leaned forward, brows furrowed, voice sharp with disbelief. “Hyun-woo, what the hell are you saying?”
Medusa’s snakes lifted their heads, hissing softly in confusion. Her own eyes were wide, stunned.
Only Ebonara just stared, eight gem-eyes fixed on Hyun-woo, tail frozen mid-curl around his chair leg. She didn’t speak. She didn’t move.
Hyun-woo was angry. And why shouldn’t he be?
Nobody spoke after that. The tension in the room kept rising, thick enough to choke on. It felt like the whole chamber was one wrong word away from exploding.
Then…
A laugh.
Not from Stheno. Not from Euryale.
It was from Adrazelle.
It started soft, almost a chuckle, then grew into a real, warm, delighted laugh that echoed off the white-crystal walls.
“And here I thought you were the gullible type,” she said, wiping a tiny tear of amusement from the corner of her eye.
The three Gorgon sisters froze in shock. Euryale’s mouth dropped open. Stheno blinked rapidly. Medusa’s snakes went completely still.
They had never, never seen Mother laugh like that.
But Ebonara didn’t flinch. She already knew what Adrazelle was really like. Or maybe she just didn’t care.
Hyun-woo blinked, surprised. Then the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“…Is that so?” he said quietly.
He felt a strange sense of relief. She wasn’t some happy-go-lucky saint playing benevolent grandma. She was old. Shrewd. Dangerous. And she wasn’t pretending otherwise.
Adrazelle leaned back in her chair, still smiling, eyes sparkling with mischief.
“So,” she asked, voice light but deliberately pressing every button she knew would make him snap, “what are you going to do about it now, little boy?”
Hyun-woo met her gaze.
“Nothing,” he said simply.
Then, without warning, he stood up.
“Except punch you in the face.”
And he really did.
He jumped across the table at Adrazelle.
The chamber held its breath.
Hyun-woo’s fist cut through the air like a comet. It moved so fast the edges of his arm blurred, leaving faint afterimages that shimmered like heat waves.
Adrazelle’s ancient eyes widened for just a fraction. Just enough for the immortal being to look genuinely startled for the first time in thousands of years.
Before the smile even left her face, she reacted.
Silver light erupted from her palms. A translucent barrier, black as polished obsidian glass, snapped into existence right in front of her face.
Layer after layer of perfect defense: the same shield she had once used to seal away rampaging gods, to crush entire armies with a flick of her wrist, to protect Eden’s Vault from every threat that had ever dared approach.
The punch connected.
And for one perfect, frozen heartbeat… it stopped.
The impact sent a shockwave rippling outward. The nearest floating orb cracked with a sharp pop. Everyone flinched. The obsidian table trembled violently.
Ebonara’s tail lashed instinctively. She half-rose from her seat, claws reaching toward Hyun-woo as if trying to pull him back. Whether to protect him or Mother, even she didn’t know.
Adrazelle’s barrier held.
She tilted her head behind the black glass, silver hair swaying gently, and let out a soft, mocking laugh.
“My, my,” she purred, voice dripping with amusement. “Such a cute little tantrum. Did you really think…”
She shut up fast.
The pressure returned.
Ten times heavier.
A hundred times.
It wasn’t brute force anymore. It was something deeper. Something absolute.
And right infront of her eyes her unbreakable barrier, began to bend inward. It flexed like thin glass under the swing of a sledgehammer. Tiny cracks spider-webbed across its perfect black surface, spreading faster than thought.
Hyun-woo’s eyes glowed faintly. Not the wild, feral red that had burned during his first night with Ebonara. This was different: a steady, burning gold that pulsed like a calm, unstoppable heartbeat.
Deep inside his status window—visible only to him—a single line ignited in molten letters:
{Ability Activated: Coup de Grâce – Primal Overwrite}
A skill born from the infinite, ever-evolving nature of the Sex Beast.
It didn’t just hit harder. It didn’t care about rules. At the exact point of contact, it rewrote reality itself—ignored defenses, bypassed immunities, erased laws of protection, and simply… delivered.
Adrazelle’s barrier flickered once, twice and then shattered.
It exploded outward in a storm of silver shards, each fragment glittering like a dying star before dissolving harmlessly into motes of light. The shockwave rattled the floating orbs overhead and made the obsidian table groan.
Her ancient eyes widened in genuine surprise.
She reacted instantly and more desperately.
Shadow tendrils erupted from the floor, black and writhing like living smoke, trying to wrap around Hyun-woo’s arm. Void chains snapped into existence, cold and absolute, meant to bind him in place. A final desperate pulse of raw cosmic force roared outward from her palms.
None of it touched him.
The punch kept coming.
Adrazelle’s mocking smile faltered.
And then—
CRACK.
The sound wasn’t loud like an explosion. It was sharp. Clean. Wrong. Like the universe had been slapped across the face with perfect precision.
The punch connected right in the center of her flawless face.
Adrazelle’s head snapped back hard. Her silver hair whipped wildly around her. A thin, bright line of blood appeared at the corner of her lip—impossibly red against her pale skin.
She staggered—one step, two—then caught herself, slamming one palm down on the edge of the obsidian table to steady herself. The impact spider-webbed the black surface outward in jagged cracks.
The entire chamber fell into dead, ringing silence.
Ebonara’s eight gem-eyes were huge, glowing with a wild mix of shock and something dangerously close to pride. Her tail had gone completely still, the venomous tip hovering inches off the floor.
Stheno’s mouth hung open, no snarky comeback ready for once. Medusa’s snakes were frozen mid-hiss, tiny tongues stuck out in stunned disbelief.
Euryale looked like someone had just slapped her across the face—eyes wide, aura flickering uncertainly.
Hyun-woo lowered his fist slowly.
He wasn’t breathing hard. He wasn’t gloating. He wasn’t even angry anymore.
He just stood there, looking at the woman who had nearly killed him three days ago—calm, quiet, finished.
Adrazelle slowly straightened.
She touched the corner of her mouth with one finger. She stared at the glowing crimson blood on her fingertip for a long moment.
Then she looked up at Hyun-woo.
For several heartbeats, no one spoke.
And then she smiled—slowly, widely, almost delighted.
“Well,” she said, voice a little hoarse but unmistakably amused. “That… actually hurt.”
She wiped the blood away with the back of her hand, leaving a faint red smear across her pale skin.
“I think I like you, little boy.”
Seeing Adrazelle dazed rather than angry, the tension in the room died down a little.
Ebonara let out a tiny, shaky breath. Stheno finally closed her mouth. Medusa’s snakes slowly lowered, curling back against her hair.
Hyun-woo rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks going faintly pink again, like the same slightly embarrassed boy who had stumbled into this mess just five days earlier.
Somewhere deep inside him, the Sex Beast purred, satisfied.
Adrazelle gave a soft, genuine laugh. She flicked her wrist once. The cracked obsidian table repaired itself in a shimmer of silver light.
Then she sat back down gracefully, rested her chin on her hand, and looked at him with sparkling eyes.
“Now,” she said cheerfully. “Shall we start again? This time… much more seriously.”
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Chapter 29 is now available on Patreon.