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Chapter 72

“Ah, come on, this is exhausting…!”

This is why facing a final boss with multiple phases can be mentally draining. Yeon-woo thought to himself, sword plunged into the ground.

The three pairs of arms that had sprouted at his side were reduced to one pair and only one right arm remained. By cutting through, both Shar and Baek In-hwa had successfully severed one each.

But the flip side is that there were still five arms left.

“I wish it hadn’t made so many arms.”

After all, the total amount of curses is fixed. He had produced six arms of that thickness, so most of the total would have been consumed. If he were to produce more arms beyond that, the density of the curse that constituted the body would weaken, allowing Yeon-woo—who could see mana with his own eyes—to distinguish souls.

Was it perhaps a wild instinct? The creature had subconsciously made a slightly better choice.

What could he do about it now? Sighing softly, Yeon-woo leaned on his sword and staggered back to his feet.

That’s just how it is. Trying to cover up for a lacking area will eventually reveal the shallowness of that vessel. Even though Baek In-hwa looked like she was struggling, she wasn’t half out of it like he was.

What about Shar, who, despite sharing mana, showed no signs of exhaustion? He felt nothing but embarrassment in this situation, having less stamina than his daughter.

“I just have to try harder.”

As a half-dragon, hunter, martial artist, and magician.

Being a jack-of-all-trades means you have less time to invest in any one thing. It would be different if he were a top-tier expert, but he couldn’t help but think that he just wasn’t that type.

Huff, the cold wind of the north wrapped around his drenched body, soaked with cold sweat. For now, he’d do what he could. It was up to those two to fill the void he left behind.

If he couldn’t surpass the impending limits, he would remain just another person. He could never become great.

“Become greater than anyone.”

“You’re telling me to rise to a place where no one can bother me with trivial matters, right?”

Ugh, that’s the hardest part, you know?

Recalling the goal his master had once set for him, Yeon-woo took a deep breath.

The warm mana felt at his chest was no longer half-filled, but sloshing at the bottom. Even though he was continuously supplying mana with the Dragon Heart.

What about the aura? Because he had used the Aura Blade to cut off the arms, the aura moving through his mana paths was also sluggish. After having used up even Luck’s Flow, his entire body felt like it was about to break apart.

Awakeners often refer to such situations as moments of life and death. There was nothing he could proudly present.

The human heart is so fickle. This situation, which felt so suffocating, was still night and day compared to before his regression, and yet he was arguing about being on the edge of life and death over just that.

Choi Yeon-woo had always been this way. Whether before or after his regression, he had always been a strict taskmaster to himself. Having smacked his own cheek, he dashed towards the two.

Everything was racing towards its conclusion. Could he really back out, being the one who drafted the plan? That would be incredibly shameless.

“Did you wait long!?”

“You could have rested a bit more.”

“No, I want to go out and rest quickly. Are you okay, Shar?”

“Okay, yes!!”

Baek In-hwa, having used her kick to shatter a portion of the giant frozen by her spell, shouted cheerfully. Covered in dust and sporting wounds that made her look like she was burned all over, she was still managing her damage better than Yeon-woo and Baek In-hwa, who had to come into direct contact with the curses.

Nonetheless, she hadn’t been using her powers without consequence. The giant, which had seemed nearly 50m tall at first, had shrunk to about 10m in size by now. It simply didn’t have enough curse left to maintain that size.

Of course, as it shrank, it was attempting various methods of attack. Even now, the black snowflakes clinging to her school uniform crackled. It was spreading the curse in the form of snowflakes, taking the natural environment around it as its own.

Baek In-hwa’s clothes must have been special equipment, and Shar was fine thanks to her dragon scales, but the effects were effective against Yeon-woo. The stinging burns and curses seeping into his wounds were becoming hard for even Yeon-woo to bear.

“Wow, we’ve made it this far, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m getting a bit tired. Shar, go prepare in the back. I’ll definitely catch it at least once.”

“Got it! Fight on, sis and dad!!”

With that, Shar hurriedly retreated. Yeon-woo aimed his sword at the midsection, murmuring absentmindedly.

“To fend off a half-crazed guy and a tiring Ice Palace’s lord with a 10m gorilla, whoever devised this plan has a wild sense of humor.”

“Can you think about how I feel to be hearing that from the planner?”

Beth In-hwa sighed softly as she looked at Yeon-woo with a bemused expression. After all, the two corrected their stances because the giant had regenerated the arms that were shattered before their eyes.

Now was the time to finish this long fight.

The giant’s curse loomed larger. Boom!! With a loud noise, it charged at them from the ground. With her sword held out longer than usual, Yeon-woo braced himself as Baek In-hwa stepped forward, arms outstretched.

The giant’s choice was a straightforward and powerful body slam. With pressure from its mass. If Yeon-woo, who had run out of mana and aura, were to be touched, the force would shatter him into pieces. Yet, Yeon-woo stood firm.

While rotating in place, Baek In-hwa spread her arms. The area around her expanded, and in that brief moment, the boundaries vanished, extending into the world.

Yeon-woo could feel the world surrounding them transforming. It felt like Baek In-hwa was the only one there, encircled as if by a gigantic version of her.

Cold and light. It felt as if anything that touched it would melt away immediately. But no matter how strong a human was, they couldn’t lift all those snowflakes resting in open fields at once.

At some point in the past, the ability to wield Elemental Mana was said to be proof of being an Aura Expert. It was also said that reaching the level of Aura Expert would allow one to wield the Aura Blade.

The reason Yeon-woo’s Aura Blade was only half-baked was that it couldn’t fully encapsulate his will or intentions. It was merely a mass of power extracted with excellent control from a clumsy state; it didn’t contain the individual that was Yeon-woo.

The Aura Blade must one day transform into an Aura Weapon and embody the practitioner’s thoughts. The power, which lacked that intention, was not worthy of being called an Aura Blade.

…Then, what about Baek In-hwa’s Aura Blade?

A manifestation of an Aura Expert, never before displayed. Projecting one’s intent onto the world. The intentions and thoughts of one individual.

The Ice Palace’s lord, who had not had a smooth sailing childhood in that harsh northern sea. What did the mirror she looked into reflect of herself, and what was the idea she projected onto the world?

…The heavens and earth twisted. No, the snowflakes soared into the sky.

It overturned the laws. At this moment, a tiny fragment of the world was grasped in Baek In-hwa’s hand. The white gloves covering Baek In-hwa’s hands emitted a radiant light.

‘What is that…?’

Yeon-woo stared at the sight blankly. It was truly a great object worthy of the name of a divine artifact. There was no time for a person’s intention to interfere with an object, yet the line of the Ice Goddess supported even the Aura Blade.

“Watch closely, Choi Yeon-woo.”

With a particularly inorganic and cold expression, Baek In-hwa murmured that.

Baek In-hwa slowly drew a circle with both hands. In response, the flipping heavens, the soaring snowflakes and wind, the snowstorm moved in sync with her hands. A blade-like wind fierce enough to tear flesh upon contact swirled around.

Like making a snowman, the snowflakes and winds wrapped around the giant. The power of the giant’s once formidable charge had already vanished, only spinning in the air as if tossed in a washing machine.

“The motto of the Ice Palace is harmony with nature, isn’t it?”

No matter how one looked at it, it seemed to be controlling the weather rather than harmony, and the direction it rolled in hardly had anything to do with it.

“What can you do? That’s how it is.”

In the meantime, Yeon-woo shared the Doppleganger he was holding. Four small swords. While the central concept of ‘sword’ was shared, a compromise was unavoidable when it came to length.

Looking back, Shar stood there with her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel, red-faced. No one needed to say anything; Baek In-hwa, with her pale face, staggered sideways. The dance was over, and the giant’s limbs lay frozen on the ground. The moment when the giant would completely crash to the floor was when Shar took her shot.

Shar opened her mouth, which had been storing up like those inflated cheeks.

“Awo────!!!”

A sound that could only be described as a howl of a wolf, Dragon Breath obliterated the giant’s form from the torso save for its frozen limbs and head.

As Shar slumped down, her face red, Yeon-woo charged in with a determined expression. Now, the finish was up to him. Baek In-hwa had managed to pin down the giant on her own, and Shar had set the conditions with a sufficient destructive force.

So he had to deliver the final blow. Now was not the time to be trifling, for the giant was still not dead.

In reality, the trace of a giant, with its limbs and legs cut off as if it had been sliced in a bread mold, was still writhing and trying to regenerate.

And after fighting for this long, anyone could notice where the pieces of its soul were and what form they took.

There were parts of it completely useless. Those were its bones. Despite the fact that other parts hardly mattered, and its tail could have been used as a weapon, it acted as if it had forgotten its identity as an alligator, refusing to use its tail.

Especially during times when it was captured from behind. Because it took such a stance, Yeon-woo was convinced that the battle would drag on but wouldn’t be dangerous.

It didn’t use its bones at all; such a conviction could lead to the hypothesis that it couldn’t use its tail because it had been pieced together from various souls, but the more plausible explanation was that those bones were indeed its weak spot.

Just by touching it, one would be blessed to dispel the curses. It was entirely plausible that, being a creature with nothing but instinct left, it would fear even the slightest contact.

Of course, recalling that Shar’s blow had struck directly at the bones could suggest that the bones themselves weren’t a piece of the soul, but rather the soul was hidden within the bones.

“Not complete, huh.”

Having blasted away the soul corresponding to the torso with Shar’s Dragon Breath. Sebek would probably understand this much. Thinking that, Yeon-woo took a deep breath.

Was this how a doctor felt standing right before going into surgery? With both hands raised to shoulder level, Yeon-woo moved his fingers and suddenly plunged his hands into the curse’s interior.

(To be continued…)

 

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