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

Chapter 52

Kim Ji-hyun rushed in, her arms and legs wrapped in black smoke, eyes glowing as she aimed a spinning kick at my temple.

“So you are not even thinking about taking me alive anymore huh?”

The leg swept through the air, trailing black smoke that spread wide. When the smoke brushed against me, I felt a faint sensation of something trying to dig into my mind.

It was anger and malice burrowing in, gnawing at the soul, a force that could drive a person insane. A curse given form as smoke.

“What, were you expecting something else?”

“You… why.”

She must have been confident in the effect of the smoke she wielded.

But powers that touched the soul had no effect on me. My body had been reset, but not my soul.

Unless it was enough to sweep an entire continent, the smoke wrapping her body could all pour into me at once and still not affect me.

Realizing the smoke couldn't end me so easily, Kim Ji-hyun began to move her own body.

“Die. No, don’t die. I’ll catch you alive and turn you into a cripple who can never do anything again! Just die already!”

“Please, pick one. Just one.”

Was she telling me to die or not die? I muttered to myself as I narrowly dodged her storm of attacks.

Black smoke erupted with every movement, her face twisted like a berserker. She showed no sign of fatigue.

Once, she would have burned herself out in a minute and gasped like a dog in midsummer.

“Did you sell your soul to a demon or something?”

I swept my spear through the smoke with a gust of wind, clearing it away and studied her. No answer came.

“Shut your mouth.”

“I don’t know how much you hate me.”

My spear burned black as it swung toward her, clashing with the explosive kicks she hurled. Of course, knowing the danger of the Paradoxical Flame, she retreated fast.

“You bastard… you are pulling that bullshit again!”

I must have struck a nerve. Many who once suffered the Paradoxical Flame could never face me again. But she pushed through the trauma. That much was impressive.

“Let’s see just how strong that will is.”

Kim Ji-hyun came back stronger. So what? Did she think I had been sitting idle? My spear extended, brushing near her body.

That was all it took for the Paradoxical Flame to cling to her. Her face turned pale. The instant it brushed her, her body lit up like kindling thrown into a bonfire.

“You burn nicely.”

I couldn't help but be impressed. If she burned this well, it meant she carried plenty of fuel.

“What… you, what are you.”

Kim Ji-hyun, who was engulfed in hatred and anger, flinched for a moment. What the Paradoxical Flame was burning was her will to fight.

The drive to face me and seize victory. Willpower was one of the fuels that pushed people into battle with all their might.

And among concepts of its kind, willpower had one of the lowest flash points.

“If you generate it faster than I burn it, then fine.”

As long as she kept feeding it, she could keep fighting. If the fuel came faster than the fire consumed, some would always remain.

To erase it entirely, I would have to burn the very source that created her will. I was not yet strong enough to reach that level.

“Shut… up.”

Her voice was rough, but much of its venom was gone. Still, she had not lost her will completely.

Spear and foot clashed, sparks flying everywhere. Cloaked in smoke, her red eyes gleamed with fury.

I pressed forward, blue trails moving to guard me as I slowly drove her back.

“Why, why!”

She shouted as if wronged, retreating. From her view, it was unfair. Anyone could see her magic was larger, her blows far heavier.

Yet she was being forced back instead of pushing me. No wonder she couldn't understand.

“You think I’d tell you if you asked?”

Of course I knew why, but I didn’t tell her. Why teach someone that’s trying to kill me?

She needed time to adapt to her new body. Charging straight at me, drunk on newfound strength, had been her mistake.

“Come closer.”

I laughed, the Paradoxical Flame rising among the blue traces swirling around me.

“Your worst nightmare has come for you again.”

I advanced, and she involuntarily stepped back. No matter how many times she lunged, she couldn't beat me.

She lifted her hand. The smoke gathered into a massive blade and slashed toward me.

“That is why you end up like this, because you rely on things like that.”

The smoke cut through me, but did nothing.

“The Hunters who stayed in Dover all lost their minds without being able to endure it, but why only you!”

I thrust my spear at her chest and answered.

“Would a tiger Hunter be afraid just because a kitten hisses?”

Her body was forced back, the spear shoving her away. She could no longer attack, only defend.

The smoke she relied on was useless against me. Her fiery will was nothing but fuel for the Paradoxical Flame.

Without willpower, only defense and escape remained. Escape was not an option I allowed.

“You said you would cripple me.”

The arrogance she had only moments ago was gone.

“Come on. Rip out my guts, gouge out my eyes. Tear off my limbs and make me scream, make me beg for mercy.”

The smoke that passed through me had not been completely useless. A trace of madness stirred me. Not enough to unhinge me, but just enough to anger me.

Touching a soul poorly like that often causes such side effects.

I swung my spear at her, with my voice high with excitement.

“Stay back… stay back, you bastard!”

Fear twisted her voice as she hurled more smoke at me. My mind only grew colder.

Her malice and fury, desperate to invade my soul, were instead swallowed by it.

“This is not enough.”

I seized her by the collar and met her eyes. She kicked upward, aiming for my temple.

I raised my arm to block. A thunderous shockwave exploded as her kick struck. Amid the roar, I studied her.

Something was definitely wrong as I expected. Her sudden surge of strength and this foul black smoke. Muscles burned away by the Paradoxical Flame should not have recovered so quickly.

Even if the smoke infuriated me, I would not lose my reason before learning what empowered her.

“This is- ”

I felt liquid coursing through her veins. It was not human blood. How absurd.

“What lunatic did this to you. Do you even know what is happening to your body?”

She gasped out a reply, struggling to breathe.  

“They said it was fine.”

“Sure. Qin Shi Huang thought drinking mercury was fine. Romans thought lead on their faces was fine too.”

What did they know of magic? How long had humans even studied it?

I had lived in a world that studied magic for thousands of years. And even there, understanding was shallow.

Compared to science, humanity here was still at the level of chipped stone and pottery.

And she thought it was fine? Madness. Stuffing bombs into her body and calling it good. This must have been discovered by the Descendants of Dangun.

No, not a discovery. It was a trap deliberately set by something.

“Like giving chocolate to a dog.”

A dog would happily eat what it was given, not knowing it was poison. That was exactly what Kim Ji-hyun had done.

“Shut your nonsense… I ended up this way because you ruined me.”

“Isn’t it a bit unfair for you to say that?”

She made it sound like I had blindsided her. But in Tsushima, she struck first. I only fought back as an enemy and won.

I tried to examine her further, but she kept flailing. I blocked a few strikes, then swung a fist with irritation.

“Stay still for once. You are annoying.”

I planned to kill her here. In truth, death was kinder for her now. A few punches slammed into her, and she collapsed, coughing blood.

I slowly observed the liquid flowing inside her body. It was a magical contract.

Some powerful being had drawn out its magic, given it form, and she had taken it in. By doing so, she had agreed to the bargain.

“I thought it was just a dog with chocolate.”

Looking deeper, it was worse. She was a naïve child who had signed a blank contract.

The deal gave her strength, but what it took in return was unspecified. In plain words, it was a scam.

Even if the subject agreed, the one lending this power could kill them instantly if displeased.

“She probably didn’t even know what she was putting herself into.”

I threw her with all my strength. Her body flew through the air, then exploded, annihilating everything in a fifty-meter radius.

That was not an explosion. It was an erasure. As if something had ripped her away, nothing remained.

“Vile bastard.”

Even if she had signed blindly, to discard her so quickly like that. I scowled at the space where she vanished.

It had to be one of two things.

“Either someone in the Descendants of Dangun is not human.”

Or they were human but deluded, thinking they had made a great discovery when they had no idea what they were doing.

Usually one of the two would be good news. This time, both were bad. And I had no way to storm their base and demand answers.

“Why does everything get so tangled up?”

I scratched my head with a frown. This was no longer just about Descendants of Dangun.

Well, my life has always been like this. As I ran toward Dover where Han Sang-ah and Lee Se-eun were fighting, I thought it over.

Whoever Kim Ji-hyun had contracted with was immensely strong. And their method felt rather familiar too.

“Demon.”

Back in that other world, I had seen demons who made contracts with humans like this, demons who lived in houses built in hell.

Not every demon could do it… Perhaps fifty were strong enough like that.

Of course, I had wiped them all out, so none remained alive.