Savior or Destroyer (3)
-Qwaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrng!
There was a noise tearing up the dry air.
“Oh, fuck. It’s driving me crazy. Again?”
It was a woman whose face was half distorted by a burn. She stood up from the camping chair, frowning her face.
Someone was sarcastic at sight.
“How come someone as young as you always curse whenever you open your mouth? It is also rough. It’s rare for you to say a decent word.”
The one who spat out words as if he was older than that woman was in the form of a boy who didn’t even reach her waist. Hwang Soo-rim looked at the little boy who had given her a hard time.
“Whatever. Don’t you mind?”
“Haha…”
Garam, a Maek who looked like a human child, shook his head and clicked his tongue.
At that moment, a roar resonated once again.
-Qwaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrng!
Hwang Soo-rim exclaimed, like a wild dog barking against the cries.
“Ah, those fucking things are sleeping so much but then going to wake up only when I try to eat?”
“This, again! Again!”
“Why? After coming over here, only nasty things happen, so my words come out shit.”
After staying up all night, Hwang Soo-rim was about to eat only one meal. She looked down with irritated eyes at the heating lunch box, which wasn’t even half-empty.
At that moment, she envied the stupid raccoon who was pretending to be herself in her house. At least the raccoon was sleeping well.
Hwang Soo-rim, who didn’t have enough sleep, was full of nerves, but there was a voice that soothed her.
“Lady, calm down. Let’s clean this place up with me, and then, Brother Garam, can you wake Master up?”
“Okay.”
“… Yeah. I get it.”
Hwang Soo-rim had an instant meal in front of the bonfire.
No, the word bonfire might not be an accurate expression. There were no dry leaves or flares on the ground to keep the fire burning. A pure flame burned while attached to the earth.
It was a fire created by a woman who had just dissuaded Hwang Soo-rim, well, to be exact, a fox.
That flame was the core of the barrier. It was a measure to keep the predators living around there from being twisted. When you see that party’s level, there was no danger of encountering it, but troublesome things would continue if left unchecked.
“Ah… I got a bite.”
A thick male voice was heard inside the container. Garam, who went inside, woke him up and called him out.
He came out and had the face of a middle-aged man. The man looked up at the sky, and he frowned.
“Why are you so pissed off? We’ll be here in about five minutes.”
Suddenly, the hoodie he was wearing moved in a wriggling motion. A bundle of bronze-colored tentacles crawled through the nape of his neck and wrapped him around his neck.
“It’s going to… be fun. Play, with… me, too.”
The tentacles made the words by ringing the air around it with telekinetic power. The man who heard the words frowned on it.
“I don’t know if it’s a memory transplant or an instinct transplant, but I like it.”
In the air where there was nothing, the sound was generated again and replied.
“Maru… together… play.”
“No, Dude. The other side doesn’t want to play with you at all right now.”
While the man chatted with the tentacles and gathered his Mana, the rest of the party threw all the camping tools out there in the container with skillful gestures. After closing the container’s door, the man quickly reduced it to a size that could fit in his palm and threw it into his backpack.
Preparations for the battle were quickly completed.
To be exact, it was a battle between the man and his opponent flying from far away.
“Come on, Maru. Go over there.”
In the meantime, the man spoke to Maru, which had moved towards his arm. The tentacles then floated into the air. The first place it looked at was Hwang Soo-rim’s nape.
“No. I don’t want it. Don’t stick to my skin.”
Realizing that gaze, Hwang Soo-rim firmly shook her head, making an X with both hands, then the tentacles murmured.
“… You’re… mean.”
Mrs. Pearl, who looked at it, smiled bitterly and extended her arm.
“Maru, come this way.”
With permission, the tentacles flew in a smooth curve like a jellyfish swimming in the sea. It then wrapped Mrs. Pearl’s forearms and settled down.
Mrs. Pearl moved quickly while stroking Maru with her arms wrapped. The only task left for those other than the man was to watch. They all left their place.
After moving far away, Mrs. Pearl created another barrier that enclosed herself, Hwang Soo-rim, and Garam. The purpose was to defend against the aftermath of the battle.
Meanwhile, the man in the hoodie was looking up at the sky and constantly concentrating his Mana.
The enormous force rushed around. As she looked at it, Hwang Soo-rim muttered in a small voice without even realizing it.
“… Is that human?”
Shortly before they crossed the Channel in Shanghai, he no longer pretended to be an alien in front of Hwang Soo-rim. Hwang Soo-rim, who recently arrived at a certain place after being called by him, met him in the form of a middle-aged man instead of a bizarre form of an alien that he had identified until recently.
Hwang Soo-rim pretended not to know anything, and she asked if he could transform into a human being, then ‘Eraser’ replied with a cool smile on his lips.
-All right. Stop it. You said you knew I was human anyway?
At that moment, she felt the goosebumps flowing all over her body. What came to her mind was a conversation with Kim Kyung-hwan at the park. At that moment, she had a barrier to block all sounds.
She couldn’t come up with another route. Eraser… She wasn’t sure what means he used, but she was sure he heard all the conversation she had at that time.
From then on, he moved in the form of a human in front of Hwang Soo-rim. It seemed to be because it was much easier to transform into another human than to transform into an alien body.
[Here it comes.]
The one that sent the will was a small robot toy that Garam carried and moved around. She still hadn’t gotten used to this being. Hwang Soo-rim frowned and glanced at it.
“What?”
The robot raised its hand and pointed like a person.
[That way.]
At that time, something like a black dot floated over the horizon. It gradually grew bigger and began to cover the sky. It was evident that a huge object was flying towards them.
At that time, everyone was watching it. The first creature roared as soon as it woke up, and while exploring the surroundings, it began approaching that place with the Mana that the man stabbed in the sky as a milestone.
It was the wind that arrived before its body. The strong wind struck the place where they were.
The barrier made by Mrs. Pearl was meaningless. Since the man was giving outright guidance, the opponent accurately captured this location.
-Qwaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrng!
It roared. A gray giant body covered the sky, squeezing the horizon. The wings that cut through the wind continued. Clouds were torn along the path it was moving.
It appeared so splendidly that it flew over without hesitation, approached, and stopped over the heads of the party. Turning its back on the sun, it cast a shadow on everyone.
-Ghrrrrrrrrrgh!
With a gleaming golden line of backlight along the rim of its body, it looked down at the artifacts below.
“I can’t get used to it even after watching it a few times. Oh, God.”
A sound leaked out of Mrs. Pearl’s mouth. At the same time as her, a huge voice came down from the air.
“Are you the one who stole my dream?!”
It roared. The air trembled like crazy. All those standing on the ground felt a powerful resonant vibration inside and outside their bodies.
The only thing that understood the meaning of the language was the spirit contained in the small robot.
However, thanks to several repeated events, everyone could easily guess what the opponent was talking about.
Garam clicked his tongue.
“It’s creepy every time I see it.”
It had a giant pair of wings that drew sharp lines and a long, long tail that occupied about half its body’s length. There were also faint white spots everywhere on the gray skin. Its eyes, located beneath the sharp horns, glowed eerily, and flames fluttered around the mouth every time it breathed out.
“I’ve never really seen it in real life… but does Earth’s dragon also look like that?”
Mrs. Pearl muttered as she looked at the giant dragon that covered the sky.
[Um… That’s a pretty young one in terms of size. It must be about 2,000 years old?]
The toy, which had been muttering like that, asked with the thoughts.
[How is it? Can you see that Dragon’s soul?]
The boy shook his head.
Approaching the designated place, the man standing looked this way. Understanding the question, Garam made an ‘X’ shape with his hands.
The man nodded and reached out his hand toward Hwang Soo-rim. Seeing the signal, she closed her eyes and focused her mind.
-Wooooooong!
Numerous magical patterns were planted in the land where the man stood. It was the maestro of the heavy labor that Hwang Soo-rim made while staying up all night, and a man was standing in the center of it.
Hwang Soo-rim ensured that everything was properly stabilized and put one more pattern in the last empty space. A huge magic circle was finally completed through her finishing touch.
It was the man’s Mana that activated the completed magic circle.
-Kwoooooooooong
The man spilled the Mana he had been collecting so far on the ground. His Mana, which became a raw material, flowed along with the pattern on the ground. It was a phenomenon as if water was flowing through the grooves of the ground that had been dug in advance.
Suddenly, a huge magic circle was activated.
“This… this is?!”
Once again, an overwhelming voice continued, but that time, there was a bit of confusion mixed up.
In an instant, the man who completed the restraint magic flew from the spot.
***
My body soared in the wind. I muttered inside. ‘Will it succeed once again?’
“What kind of joke is this?!”
The Dragon was panicking when it noticed that its body movements were being restrained. A magic circle created in an instant on the earth grabbed its body. It screamed as loud as if it would burst the eardrums.
I had to aim at that moment.
I flew right in front of the Dragon’s head and stopped. It was currently an altitude where I made eye contact with the opponent in front of me. The Dragon’s eyes were filled with anger.
I soon felt that my surroundings were getting hotter. It wasn’t an illusion caused by psychological conditions. The temperature was actually rising.
“You bastaaaaaaaard!”
A fine object lingered right in front of their eyes while their body’s movements were restricted. Its reaction to dealing with such an entity was consistent, and then it opened its mouth wide.
It was as I intended.
-Ghrrrrrrgh!
I saw the flow of magma swaying in its open mouth, and then I cried out to myself.
“It’s time!”
I opened the Channel on my chest with the coordinates I was calculating, and it connected the space to a predetermined place.
“Eu….eumph?!”
The Dragon, who was just about to exhale magma, seemed confused. I looked at its body.
The body itself was a crystal of high magic. I couldn’t figure out how much Mana I had to put in to capture such an existence purely with my own magic.
But at that moment, I wasn’t in a situation where I could use that much power as I wanted, and the artifacts weren’t infinite.
So, I found a way.
The Channel created at that time wasn’t connected to the contractor. Originally, just because the Channel was opened, there was no motive for the existence beyond it to come there. You could hesitate to cross the Channel that was suddenly open in front of you even if you were suspicious.
However, the peculiarity of the environment beyond that Channel currently forced the other person to come to that place.
-Wooooooooooong!
Beyond the Channel was a giant oceanic planet. The one covering the planet’s surface was not an ordinary liquid but a demon. The stinky seawater poured out of the Columbia Channel and covered the capital. The indefinite Demon who destroyed.
Also, the place where that Channel was connected was the bottom of the far deep sea in that world.
-Qwarrrrrrrrrkkkkkk!
As a result, as soon as the door was opened, a stream of water poured out like a missile due to massive water pressure!
It was like looking at a broken digestive tract. What was pouring was, of course, not ordinary water. It was a peculiar being who absorbed the opponent’s Mana, and although it had no higher reason, it was a priest of Kaidemos who had primitive faith in its mind.
The Dragon screamed.
“Uaaargh! Ghhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrr…!”
It opened its eyes wide. A water cannon about a meter in diameter struck into its wide-open mouth before the storm of fire it had made burst out. It was nothing but forced watering.
The torrents that wet its mouth began to absorb Mana in the Dragon’s body without evaporating even in flames.
Whether it noticed what the phenomenon meant, the Dragon cried out in astonishment. The breath that was condensing in its body had already disappeared without a trace due to the Mana core’s volatilization.
“Demon?! Did you feed me the Demon?!”
