Chapter 180: A Changed World Pt. 5
Yeo Seong-Gu’s face was distorted beyond belief.
"Odin...”
]. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via n(0))vel(b)(j)(n).
To think of all people, it would be Odin. He wondered why the disappeared Odin had appeared here. Yeo Seong-Gu began to think frantically, unable to even speak properly from the dozens of questions that suddenly came to mind.
“That bastard..”
Sangun hadn’t ended there.
“He was clearing the monsters in Gyeonggi-Do and was rebuilding a city,” he said.
“...”
“That wasn’t all, either, as he accepted only those he had chosen into the city, leaving the rest..”
Yeo Seong-Gu could feel a surge of bloodlust again from Sangun.
“He threw them away, calling them vermin that were causing the world to rot, leaving them to die outside of the city.”
Yeo Seong-Gu stuttered, “There’s no way..he wouldn’t..”
“Have you seen the people here? Why do you think they would be with me in this place? Why do you think they would be suffering in a cave like this while leaving behind the perfectly reconstructed city that Odin had established?” Sangun questioned.
Yeo Seong-Gu had nothing else to say in response.
“That bastard used the residents of Heaven Lake as bait and waited for us, and he eventually was able to capture Fenrir and Ungnyeo.”
“Ha..”
“I tried several times to rescue them, but..”
Flutter.
There was the sound of flapping wings, and before him, Sangun’s appearance changed. He, who had been in a half-human, half-beast state, suddenly had all of his fur recede, leaving behind the naked body of a man.
“Gasp..!”
However, the sight before Yeo Seong-Gu, who had gone through many trials and tribulations, was horrifying enough to take even his breath away. Sangun’s entire body was completely covered in scars.
“It was only just a little death scare. We still failed. Fenrir and Ungnyeo..they’re still being held captive by Odin.”
Flutter.
The grating sound rang out again, and Sangun’s appearance changed back to what it had been, the half-human, half-beast form with orange and black tinted fur covering up all of his scars.
“...”
Then, only silence enveloped the room.
***
“Ugh..”
Feeling pain radiating from every inch of his body, Lee Jun-Kyeong opened his eyes.
“Have you awoken?” someone asked.
In front of him was Won-Hwa.
“You don’t seem very surprised,” the physician commented.
He explained, “I wasn’t completely unconscious. Although it was blurry from time to time, I was still conscious for the most part.”
During the trek here, while he was thrown over Yeo Seong-Gu’s back, Lee Jun-Kyeong had been slipping in and out of consciousness.
“Master.”
Both Won-Hwa and Hyeon-Mu had changed and grown substantially, just as much as the situation here had changed and how quickly the urgency had grown.
“Ugh...”
Lee Jun-Kyeong barely managed to force his stiff body to stand. Like a kaleidoscope, the situation in which the veil had been pierced through flashed throughout his mind.
Even thinking back to it again, he knew it was an insane thing to do. To even consider breaking through the veil, it was like confronting nature. Defying providence and resisting natural disasters was against the heavens.
It was the same as if he had done all of that alone, by himself as an individual human being. Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that he was fortunate that the aftereffects had only been this bad. However, the situation had been urgent enough for him to take such a risk.
Clench.
Lee Jun-Kyeong quickly grabbed Won-Hwa’s hand.
“I’m glad you’re still alive.”
With regards to his Familiars, Hyeon-Mu and Fenrir, they were Lee Jun-Kyeong’s family, so he was able to confirm whether they had died or survived. However, humans like Won-Hwa and Ungnyeo were different. Even if his Familiars had survived, it wasn’t enough for him.
“I was worried about what might have happened to you..”
It was still possible that the Hunters could have died, which was why he had committed such an insane act.
Won-Hwa grinned at Lee Jun-Kyeong, and, at that moment, the door opened.
Creak.
“Mr. Jeong!”
Jeong In-Chang looked over Lee Jun-Kyeong with a slightly bluish and pale complexion. He had woken up just moments before Lee Jun-Kyeong had, and Lee Jun-Kyeong had awoken in the short time that he had gone out of the room.
Now, finally, those who had been separated for so long had come together. Jeong In-Chang, Lee Jun-Kyeong, Won-Hwa, Hyeon-Mu were all back together.
“Say hello. Mm, should I say that this is your little sibling?” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.
Hel appeared in a blurry form.
–Hello, I am Hel.
It gave an elegant greeting with its eerie hand.
“...”
Hyeon-Mu’s face underwent some complex emotions, while Won-Hwa responded without any shock.
“How amazing,” the physician said.
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked him over for a while.
‘He’s different.’
It was a completely different reaction as compared to Jeong In-Chang’s or Yeo Seong-Gu’s, who had both responded with a trauma response after seeing the Familiar.
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over at Hel for a while and then asked a question to the others, “Where are Ungnyeo and Fenrir?”
“...”
The atmosphere that had been jubilant as he had awoken sank once again.
***
Screeeeech. Screech.
The uncomfortable sound of chains scratching against each other echoed through the space. It was a large warehouse, and there, Fenrir had been restrained.
–GRAHH!
Although he had the appearance of a human boy, his ferocity was incomparable to that of before. He had been tied up like this for about a month.
Screeeeech! Screech!
The chains tightened around his body more and more. There was only constant pain, loneliness, and longing. Everything was eating away at his spirit. There was only one reason that Fenrir was still able to endure.
“Jun-Kyeong..”
It was the belief that his master would come to rescue him.
“Grrr..”
Fenrir growled, emitting a low, intense breath of bloodlust as an uninvited guest had entered this prison of his.
“Do you still have that much power left?”
It was an elderly voice, but there was a certain dignity in its strength. The voice came closer and closer.
“How about giving up now? All of this suffering will end,” the voice whispered as if to tempt the wolf boy.
–GROWL!
Fenrir drew from his strength again and howled intensely.
The space resounded as if it would tear apart, and his mana mixed with his nearly tangible bloodlust as it aimed at the owner of the voice.
“How lively,” the voice chuckled in response, seemingly having suffered no damage. As the owner of the voice moved one step closer to Fenrir, something glinted in the dark void.
Whoosh!
Tearing the wind, something suddenly appeared before the figure–a sharp claw. It was a claw as tall as a person’s height.
–GROWL!!
However, it didn’t reach the owner of the voice while Fenrir only continued to howl in pain.
“Dear, dear. You know better, so why do you keep doing that?” the voice said, ridiculing the wolf.
In the moonlight that peered in through the window, a face was revealed.
“...”
It was a man with an eyepatch covering one eye.
“O..din..”
It was Odin. He caressed the claws that were still approaching him.
“Gleipnir,” he called out, calling out to something.
CLANK, CLASH.
At his command, the chains began to move again as if they were alive.
–GROWL!!!
As painful screams echoed through the space, Odin began to speak once again.
“I can end all this pain at any time,” he said, the temptation beginning once more.
“Do not serve such a false imitation, serve your real master.”
A soft and sweet voice permeated Fenrir's ears as he cried out in pain.
“With Him, all the glory will be yours..”
Slowly, Odin approached Fenrir.
“Vanagandr.”
***
“It’s quite unexpected,” Won-Hwa said as he proceeded to treat Lee Jun-Kyeong with acupuncture.
Lee Jun-Kyeong’s body had turned into a mess. Although Lee Jun-Kyeong had become stronger through his growth and the dragon’s blood, breaking through the veil was something that would have crossed anyone’s limits.
His body had been so damaged that he couldn't even use his mana stream properly. However, with the help of Won-Hwa and his own natural recovery, Lee Jun-Kyeong was quickly returning to normal.
“What do you mean?” asked Lee Jun-Kyeong.
“Because I already knew that you would go there immediately,” Won-Hwa said.
There wasn’t any hostility in his voice, just curiosity. He said again to Lee Jun-Kyeong, “But I didn’t think that even after learning that Fenrir and Ungnyeo were being held captive, you would sit through treatment first.”
“Are you disappointed in me?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.
“No.”
Won-Hwa and Lee Jun-Kyeong looked at each other, but it was Lee Jun-Kyeong who spoke first.
“Didn't you say that the enemy holding Fenrir and Ungnyeo was Odin?”
“..”
“Then, as of now, if I go like this, I’ll just die a dog’s death. We will be annihilated before we can save them.”
Odin's power was monstrous. In fact, there weren’t many people in this world who had been able to grasp the enormity that was the power in Odin’s possession, and even all Lee Jun-Kyeong had comprehended was just a rough estimate of the Hunter’s strength.
Although Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that he had grown exponentially, he knew that even in a perfect state it may not be enough, let alone how he was now.
“I’ve become a burden,” he said to Won-Hwa.
All he had shown them after coming so far to rescue them was a near-death state. Still, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t conflicted by having to sit through the treatment.
Thud. Thud.
He had wondered if it could be because of the long needles penetrating his body, but his heart had continuously been throbbing. However, he soon realized that the palpitations had nothing to do with the needles.
‘Fenrir..’
It was a communion with the wolf, an expression of the pain his Familiar was experiencing. As the master, he could feel it as well. Rage washed over him, but ironically, as his rage boiled, his head cooled down.
“I will leave as soon as my body is healed.”
He had to make a surefire plan in order to save his family.[1]
"All right. I will tell everyone,” Won-Hwa said as he smiled brightly. “Everyone will be pleased as we’ve all been waiting for this moment.”
They all resided in a cave created by and ruled by Sangun, and each person living here had a different story. However, there was one thing that all of them had in common.
‘They were all either almost killed by Odin or have lost their families by his hand.’
Odin only allowed for the chosen ones to live in his city and slaughtered all the rest, treating any who didn’t fit his criteria as pathogens that contaminated the world. The hostility toward him seemed to completely fill the cave.
“I’ve finished,” Won-Hwa said.
After the immediate treatment had ended, Lee Jun-Kyeong sat up. As if there had been someone waiting for this moment, Won-Hwa left the room as a figure entered.
“...”
The man had been waiting for Lee Jun-Kyeong to finish his treatment.
“Hyung.”
It was Yeo Seong-Gu; he had entered with a complex expression.
“I..”
As he carefully opened his mouth to speak, before he was able to even complete a thought, Lee Jun-Kyeong interjected, “I understand. Go to Seoul, Hyung.”
Yeo Seong-Gu had originally been supposed to head to Seoul when they arrived at Gyeonggi-Do. It was only because things had been dicey for Lee Jun-Kyeong that Yeo Seong-Gu had come all this way into Gyeonggi-Do with them.
“I’m sorry,” Yeo Seong-Gu said.
It could be said that it was strange that Yeo Seong-Gu still wanted to go to Seoul after finding out the situation in Gyeonggi-Do. Moreover, there was also the King of Asgard here as well. Odin, who had disappeared, had appeared all this way in Gyeonggi-Do and was holding a domain over a city.
Despite that, Yeo Seong-Gu was still saying that he would go to Seoul. Still, Lee Jun-Kyeong was able to understand him. There was a rumor that he had heard from Won-Hwa.
‘The ruler of Seoul.’
About the ruler of Seoul that they hadn’t been able to uncover in Seongnam. There was a rumor about its identity. Moreover, it was an absurd enough rumor to be regarded as nonsense.
‘The ruler is supposedly a human.’
It wasn’t referring to a humanoid being of a different race like Elfame, but that the ruler was actually a human. Apparently, it was a Hunter. Moreover, it was a Hunter that everyone knew.
“It’s the rumor that Baldur is the ruler, right?” Lee Jun-Kyeong asked.
The rumor was that Baldur was the ruler of Seoul, ruling over everything and commanding the monsters. That was why Lee Jun-Kyeong could understand why Yeo Seong-Gu insisted on going to Seoul.
Yeo Seong-Gu grimaced. “That’s right. Still, leaving you all to fight Odin only on some vague rumors..”
“It’s okay. That rumor seems to be something that we have to verify, anyway. Moreover, it’s something we should verify as soon as possible.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong’s expression hardened. The cataclysm had been recorded in history and in the book of the Demon King. However, what was transpiring during this cataclysm was very different from what Lee Jun-Kyeong had thought would happen or knew. To make things worse, he had never heard of such a rumor, either.
‘To think they’re saying Baldur is the ruler..’
Many things were strange now, becoming more and more bizarre by the minute. He needed someone who could figure out the truth faster than anyone else, and there was no one more suited for it than Yeo Seong-Gu.
“But the veil most likely would have been restored again,” Lee Jun-Kyeong commented.
“I know. That’s why I need your help,” Yeo Seong-Gu said.
At his request, Lee Jun-Kyeong hopped off of the hospital bed and stood up.
“All right.”
1. First time he refers to any of his companions as family, and not companions/familiars. ??