The One Who Saved a World Before Will be Best at Saving Another

Chapter 26

It kept shifting octaves and speed, repeating a single theme. And there was a variety of accompaniments to support that theme.

A sequence of attacks formed by a blue trajectory, changing in speed and power, repeating over and over. And attacks to support that sequence.

If there was an obvious difference between the two, it was that a Canon in D was pleasant to listen to…

"Krakh!"

My attack, on the other hand, hurt if it hit. In the end, I succeeded in stabbing Kim Ji-hyun’s arm, caught in the flow of the theme and accompaniment, and the Paradoxical Flame that transferred to the stabbed area roared to life.

It did not end with a single hit. I could keep playing this song for an entire week like this, and I had no intention of stopping until my opponent’s life was finished.

"Aghhhhh!"

Kim Ji-hyun rolled her eyes back and wildly unleashed attacks. The ground exploded, dirt swirled everywhere, and deafening roars kept bursting out.

However,

"Taekwondo-piercing, you’ll never break this."

Not just the Quadruple Sequential Spear, but the canon was one of the techniques I had honed and refined for thirty-five years.

If it could be broken just by throwing around mana or brute force, I would have died in that other world.

No matter how Kim Ji-hyun tried to break it, it was nothing I hadn’t faced before. Naturally, I also knew how to block it.

"Krakh… haahk…."

Kim Ji-hyun’s body trembled, covered in clinging black flames. Her muscular strength was already almost completely burned away. She was only standing now by forcibly reinforcing the last remnants of it with mana, ashes of what used to be her strength.

"Still trying to keep some pride, I see."

She was using every bit of mana she had left for one single purpose. Her remaining muscle strength was almost nonexistent.

If she had not been using mana, she would already be lying on the ground, having soiled herself, as a corpse. She barely had enough muscle strength left to pump her heart and circulate blood, or to breathe.

All of that was now being replaced with mana so she could stubbornly cling to life. The Paradoxical Flame could not burn mana, after all.

Still, nothing changed. This woman would die here. To finish her off, I aimed my spear at her head.

"?!"

And then, something struck the extended spear. It was an unbelievable force, and I instinctively let go of it. The spear I had dropped whirled away and embedded itself into the wall.

"I was planning to at least shatter your wrist. Good reflexes."

If I hadn’t let go of the spear just then, that would have come true. The newcomer wore a military uniform. With a hood pulled up, I could not see his face.

"Where’s your rifle, and why are you firing a bow?"

He was in uniform, but holding a bow. Not even a standard longbow. It was smaller than that. And one more thing stood out which was the arrow case he was holding with it. Seeing it, I couldn’t help but make a baffled face.

"A soldier wearing a military uniform using a Korean bow with tiny arrows. That’s quite the concept."

He seemed to be one of the members of the group that called themselves the Descendants of Dangun. And a big shot at that. Even though I was speaking calmly now, cold sweat was running down my spine.

The strongest Hunter I had ever faced, without question, was Lee Se-eun of Jannabi. And the man with the Korean bow in front of me could probably take on three or four Lee Se-euns and still finish them off like a warm bowl of soondae-guk.

"You got guts. I’ll give you that."

I smiled at that. The reason I could do so was simple. I’d been in situations like this before.

"You can’t kill me, can you? The reason is probably…"

I muttered as I lit the Paradoxical Flame above my palm.

"You need this, don’t you?"

If the arrow he’d just shot had been aimed at my head instead of my spear, I’d be dead. But it hadn’t been.

That meant I was needed. More precisely, the Paradoxical Flame I wielded was needed.

"Erase the flames on Kim Ji-hyun’s body. I won’t say it twice."

I nodded obediently and extinguished the Paradoxical Flame. He was stronger than me, so I had no thought of resisting. I glanced at Kim Ji-hyun, who had slumped down.

The hooded man reached toward her body. It looked like he was replacing the muscular functions needed for basic life support with his own mana.

Only then did Kim Ji-hyun, who until now had been using her remaining mana to desperately replace her strength for survival, let out a slight easing of her expression.

"Rest."

She fainted on the spot. I could feel hostility radiating from the hooded man.

"Do you know what you’ve done?"

"I made a young woman spend her life in a wheelchair with a catheter, keeping her blood circulating with mana."

That wasn’t all. Her muscles had been exposed to the Paradoxical Flame for an incredibly long time.

Even the muscles in her face were burned away, so she could no longer make expressions, and she couldn’t open her eyes properly.

Her jaw had no strength, so saliva would drip uncontrollably from her mouth. Chewing food was out of the question, and her esophagus was ruined enough that she couldn’t even swallow liquids.

Oh, and she’d probably need a respirator and a colostomy bag too. In short, she’d have to go through a lot of suffering just to keep living.

"She’d probably be better off dead."

I agreed with his assessment.

"Then you should have let her die."

He was the one who had stopped her death, not me. And I hadn’t crippled some random bystander. I had done it to an enemy who had tried to kill me.

There are limits to pity. It was like mourning a bank robber who got shot by police. The hooded man radiated a murderous aura.

"As you said, there’s a reason you’re still alive. But I only need you breathing. I could cut off your limbs and leave you half-crippled."

People always make threats like that. I spat on the ground, raised my middle finger, and answered.

"Go ahead. The moment you do, I’ll light my own heart with Paradoxical Flame and drop dead from cardiac arrest."

If they wanted the Paradoxical Flame, they must have had a goal for it.

Whether he was a subordinate or comrade, the fact that even after I had crippled Taekwondo-piercing girl beyond recovery, he hadn’t killed me and was just mouthing off meant he desperately wanted to use the Paradoxical Flame.

"You just say whatever pops into your head, huh."

"Because I can right now, you know?."

I said that, took a few steps toward him, and jabbed my thumb into my own crown.

"Or you can shoot me if you can."

Of course I wanted to live. After all the hell I went through to crawl back here, dying would be too awful. But the life I wanted wasn’t one where I’d be dragged around at the whim of some hooded nationalist nutcase.

"…"

He stared into my eyes for a while, then picked up the fallen Kim Ji-hyun.

"Those eyes tell me you’re serious. I can’t do anything to you right now. But remember this."

He grabbed me by the collar.

"No one thought controlling an Erosion Zone was possible. But I succeeded. You’ll be the same. I’ll find a way to cripple you and take what I need."

"Do as you please."

Did he think I’d just sit idle in the meantime? We’ll see what happens faster, me becoming strong enough to kill him, or him finding a way to extract the Paradoxical Flame from me.

With a flick, he threw me. It was a rather peculiar throw. To fully absorb the impact, I’d have to be stronger than I was now. In the end, I rolled across the ground several times and coughed up blood.

I got up quickly and looked around, but the soldier-archer and Taekwondo-piercing were already gone.

"A gentleman, huh."

"Didn’t look like one to me."

Han Sang-ah’s cool assessment. But there were plenty of ways that military archer could have pressured me. For example…

"Instead of doing something to me, he could have pulled out your guts and used them as a jump rope."

It was a common thing. If they couldn’t get to me, they’d beat up someone close by instead. Moreover, I’d crippled someone who looked like his subordinate to the point she couldn’t live a normal life. He had more than enough reason.

"Aha."

With that exclamation, Han Sang-ah calmly continued.

"A jump rope is usually over two meters long, and over three meters is a bit much. So a human large intestine is too short, and the small intestine is too long to use."

"You’re messed up in all kinds of ways huh."

I was talking about using someone’s guts as a jump rope, and she was discussing whether it was too short or too long.

"Maybe it’s because I know where you’re from."

It was a complicated problem in many ways. Han Sang-ah wasn’t an heir, but she was still part of the Geumyang Group's family.

"They’re terrorists anyway. You think they’d care?"

Her rebuttal was plausible.

"Would the Korean government dislike the acts and goals of those so-called Descendants of Dangun?"

Han Sang-ah went quiet at that. Come to think of it, they weren’t entirely wrong. For the first time in history, Korea now held international hegemony.

The US had benefited greatly from World War I, achieving massive economic growth and becoming a dominant world power. That influence still carried weight even now, after Korea had taken that position.

Japan’s gain from the Korean War went without saying. If it hadn’t been for the war, they’d have ended up as a destitute backwater after getting smacked down by the US.

"It’s not wrong. It’s a reasonable guess."

Korea was in an even more stable position than other countries, with top-tier Hunters and the infrastructure to support them.

If an Erosion Zone couldn’t be controlled, that was one thing. But if it could, it was in Korea’s interest to prolong the global crisis caused by them as much as possible.

"Those guys might even be getting government support."

In other words, the ones we’d just faced might not just be terrorists. They could be like England’s Francis Drake of old, privateers operating under a nation’s tacit approval and protection.

"Wait, then shouldn’t we not destroy the Tsushima Erosion Zone?"

It was a zone the Descendants of Dangun had successfully controlled. If we destroyed it, we wouldn’t just be making enemies of some nationalist fanatics, but possibly falling out of favor with the government too.

"Who cares? We didn’t know."

What could they do? If they asked why we didn’t leave the Erosion Zone alone, the Korean government would be indirectly telling us what they were up to. They wouldn’t risk that.

"I’m not a good liar."

"It does look that way."

But judging from her characteristic poker face and awkward chatter, it didn’t seem like lying ability mattered much.

"I’ll take care of that first."

I staggered to my feet and wiped the blood still at my lips. Those little island brats across the sea were probably suffering right now. And they had money we could take.

"You sure you don’t want me coming with you?"

To Han Sang-ah’s question, I answered bluntly.  

"If you go in there, you’ll be a hindrance."

"…"

She sat back down. I guess my words stung a little, but what could I do? It was true.

I took a deep breath and looked at the dark hole before me.

"I figured I’d suffer inside here, but…"

To be suffering before even going in, life sure was unpredictable.

"There probably aren’t any more monsters on this island anyway, so take this time to rest."

If over three thousand monsters had appeared in Japan, there couldn’t be many left on Tsushima. After saying my piece, I prepared to throw myself into the Erosion Zone.

At that moment, Han Sang-ah spoke.

"Oh, from grade 2 Erosion Zones and up, there will be gimmicks."

"Gimmicks?"