The Returner Chapter 128

Whiiiirrrrrr!!!
A white light so pure that seemingly held not one speck of impurity, exploded out ferociously.
Monsters and their bodies were half-melted as soon as coming in contract with this light. They all raised screams of anguish. Violent, high-pitched screams roared out from everywhere.
"Ah…."
Jeong Hae-Min covered her ears.
The screams echoed and echoed in a horrifying chorus, and made one feel as if they had stepped into hell itself.
Monsters, half-melted now, screamed and roared, yet they still rushed forward and then even more rushed in, again and again.
"Kekeke."
However, Yi Ji-Hyuk looked at this spectacle, his eyes emitting a glow of madness.
The compatibility between spirits of light and monsters was the worst.
It was an act of pure stupidity to try to kill a spirit, which was almost completely immune to all physical damage, with a whole bunch of monsters. It was the same thing as throwing flames into a huge lake in order to evaporate it.
However, Yi Ji-Hyuk was doing something so inefficient without an ounce of hesitation.
Because, this was how he operated.
Efficiency?
That notion was something only applicable to Affeldrichae.
No, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s style was exceedingly simple.
Using the overwhelming numbers and an unlimited amount of Mana as his basis, he’d utterly ignore pesky little things like efficiency and simply pour out everything in one go.
Now that was Yi Ji-Hyuk’s style, the ‘ruler’ of Berafe.
He wasn’t able to revert back to this tactic once he came back to Earth, but now, having regained just a tiny portion of his former glory, Yi Ji-Hyuk shuddered from the buzzing electricity of ecstasy travelling up his spine.
Who cared if this was an act of stupidity?
Throwing flames into a lake…. If one continued to throw flames thousands of times, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, then eventually, the lake would dry up.
Kwahaaaaah!!!
Another explosion of bright light evaporated countless monsters from where they stood. However, a new wave of monsters rushing in, quickly filling up the empty spots.
This time, far more than those that got incinerated!
Kiiiieeeehhhckk!!
Kaaaahhaaack!!
Monsters pounced on the Seti, wildly swung their claws and bit into the spirit.
The sharp claws simply went past the body of Seti as if they were parting water; fangs soaked in saliva violently clamped down hard as if they were biting at empty air.
Buzzz….
However, there must’ve been some type of damage done, because Seti’s body wavered for a second before it began retreating.
"Chase it down." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
When Yi Ji-Hyuk’s low growl fell onto the world, monsters ran and madly pounced on the retreating Seti. Their legs kicked the ground and thick, choking dust clouds rose up into the air.
"Ah….."
Jeong Hae-Min watched on, her entire body shuddering.
Seo Ah-Young, too, formed an aghast expression, and bit her lower lip.
Jeong Hae-Min fidgeted and hesitated, before shifting her gaze slightly to Seo Ah-Young and whispered in a small voice.
How should she describe this feeling?
"It feels really strange, doesn’t it?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Mm."
Seo Ah-Young nodded her head.
Indeed, how could they not feel strange while witnessing this scene?
On one side, a spirit possessing the appearance of a beautiful woman enveloped in a bright white light, while on the other side, a freakish dude busy emitting black fog from his entire body as he commanded an army of monsters.
No matter who saw this scene, the villain here was Yi Ji-Hyuk.
And that villain was continuously pounding away on that spirit with a disgusting smile on his face and a never-ending stream of cackles leaving his mouth.
"I always knew that he wasn't a nice guy, but…." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young spat out a groan.
Although she was talking to herself, Jeong Hae-Min caught onto that like a leech and rebutted her with a slightly pouting expression.
"But, he’s a kind person, you know?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"Eeeehh??"
What did you say?
Did I hear you wrong?
Are my ears functioning properly right now? (Seo Ah-Young’s inner monologue)
Seo Ah-Young stuck her fingers inside her ears and hurriedly cleaned them out.
"What did you say just now?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"What? He’s kind, don’t you see?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
"……………………."
Seo Ah-Young slowly pressed down the areas around her eyes.
This unni, she was…. She had gone mad.
Her current state was way beyond help now.
The word ‘kindness’ and the name ‘Yi Ji-Hyuk’ could not be and should not be combined in one sentence.
I’m scared that, the moment you combine those two, this world will go kablooey with everyone in it, so don’t even mutter it out, you hear me!!
This can’t go on!! (Seo Ah-Young’s inner monologue)
Indeed, this unni was someone Seo Ah-Young was rather fond of, so there was no way she’d watch this girl get utterly damaged beyond salvation.
While Seo Ah-Young was making up her mind on doing whatever she could to separate Jeong Hae-Min from Yi Ji-Hyuk, the man in question was in the middle of ceaselessly pounding away at the Seti.
"Oh, you wanna run now?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
The Seti could no longer deal with the waves upon waves of monsters on the ground, so it began rising up in the air.
"I won’t let you." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s hands parted the air, and a black beam of light shimmered from the ground.
Catch it!
The ground beneath the Seti suddenly became dyed in darkness, then thick thorny vines possessing tensile strength of steel sprouted up and wrapped tightly around the fleeing spirit.
Ahhhhh!!
A scream-like aria reverberated in the air.
*SFX for vines wrapping around and tightly squeezing*
The thorny vines shooting out from the ground attacked friends and foe alike.
Monsters chasing after the Seti were also ensnared by the vines and got pierced and torn to pieces, their blood spilling everywhere.
However, Yi Ji-Hyuk didn’t even spare a single glance at the monsters and continued to tightly wrap the Seti with the vines.
These thorny vines were filled with Mana and they could trap the near-illusory body of the Seti with ease, before squeezing it tightly.
The Seti began began wavering unstably now. The light coming from it brightened and then darkened. The process repeated itself over and over again.
"Rip it to shreds." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
The voice that sounded as if it came from the depths of Hell resounded out, and that caused monsters to emit even more maddened light from their eyes. With foams bubbling out of their mouths, the horrifying creatures ran up the thorny vines.
The sharp, uncaring thorns pierced and sliced open the flesh of all those creatures mounting the vines, but the bleeding monsters continued to climb up higher and higher.
Kaaahaaaak!!
They climbed higher; some fell and collided with others.
The sight of monsters marching forward like a horde of zombies brought forth an emotion that went beyond the feelings of terror from the onlookers.
Jeong Hae-Min couldn’t continue watching on and turned her head away.
‘I’m scared.’ (Jeong Hae-Min)
This was her first time thinking like that ever since meeting Yi Ji-Hyuk.
She might have found him hateful and irritating, especially back in the beginning, but never did she find Yi Ji-Hyuk quite so scary as he was today.
It was more correct to say, compared to the power he possessed, his personality seemed like someone she could deal with. That’s what she always thought.
However, that sight of Yi Ji-Hyuk, standing amidst the waves of monsters while emitting thick black aura from his body, seemed so foreign and didn’t feel like he belonged here.
From those ominous-looking black Mana strands coming out from him, to his clothes crazily flapping around, from all of his hair standing up, to his distorted face resembling a devil….
She was looking at the previously-unknown appearance of Yi Ji-Hyuk.
There was something about his posture and his expression that when combined, gave onlookers this sensation of a creeping chill.
Her body trembled. Her mind nearly blacked out, and her body felt like it was getting colder.
As she shook like a lone leaf against the wind, Seo Ah-Young squeezed her shoulders.
"Unni!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Those hands squeezing her shoulders….
"M-mm."
Jeong Hae-Min nodded her head.
She needed to wake up here. Now wasn’t the time to think about things like that.
Her role was to evacuate everyone in case a dangerous situation suddenly broke out. That was why she needed to pay attention to what was happening right now.
‘I must not look away.’ (Jeong Hae-Min)
Her sense of duty…
And her curiosity, wanting to know a bit more about Yi Ji-Hyuk….
Jeong Hae-Min bit her lip.
Meanwhile, Seo Ah-Young couldn’t help but form this rather obvious question in her head, although her body still shuddered imperceptibly.
"Why are those monsters listening to Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s orders?" (Seo Ah-Young)
She found this very strange, not only now but even back then as well. It was possible to believe that he had somehow subdued the Hydra and the Dae-mang, and made them his servants..
Sure, that didn’t sound terribly logical, but the result before her eyes told everything she needed to know, so how could she not believe that?
However, this was her first time seeing all those monsters. Yi Ji-Hyuk’s scope of activity had been rather obvious so far; if he didn’t come to work, then she could pretty much guess correctly what he’d do to while away his down time.
In other words, he wasn’t someone who’d go somewhere and prepare himself for the future.
So, how could she come to grips with the fact that these monsters were braving death just because Yi Ji-Hyuk ordered them to?
"It’s because they all belong to him." (Affeldrichae)
As usual, the one to answer her questions was Affeldrichae.
And Jeong Hae-Min reacted right away at her attitude which kind of implied that Affeldrichae knew something about Yi Ji-Hyuk’s past.
"What do you mean by that?" (Jeong Hae-Min)
Jeong Hae-Min’s voice was rather sharp.
Affeldrichae tilted her head slightly.
Why was this tiny lifeform being hostile to her?
It wasn’t as if she had harmed this little thing in any shape of form, was it?
"It is as I said. They all belong to him." (Affeldrichae)
"All those monsters?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"Yes." (Affeldrichae)
Seo Ah-young frowned deeply.
Just what on earth was this woman even talking about?
"How can monsters be Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk’s property?" (Seo Ah-Young)
Too bad for her, Affeldrichae’s answer was something Seo Ah-Young found rather hard to understand.
"Everything in that world once belonged to him." (Affeldrichae)
"Eh?"
"He’s an existence that could bring about an end to everything. In other words, an existence that could rule over everything. An existence that swallowed whole a world, and even fought against gods." (Affeldrichae)
Seo Ah-Young’s frowns deepened even further.
This woman…. Just what nonsensical tale was she spinning now?
Seo Ah-Young wondered if this was how ‘East asks, West answers’ felt like, but regardless of what she was thinking about, Affeldrichae continued on with what she wanted to say. (TL: ‘East asks, West answers’ is the direct word-for-word TL of the Korean idiom, but it’s not exactly on the money - anyways, it simply means you’re getting a completely incoherent/different answer to the question you asked.)
"If he regains only a fraction of what he used to possess, then it’d be enough power to threaten a world." (Affeldrichae)
Overall, it was difficult to figure out heads or tails of this woman’s story, but there was one thing Seo Ah-Young could gleam from it.
"Only a fraction?!" (Seo Ah-Young)
What she was seeing right now, was only a fraction?!
Seo Ah-Young’s eyes captured the spectacle of monsters’ endless march forward. Waves upon waves of monsters that could destroy a whole country, never mind a single city, was unfolding right before her.
Just seeing it made her nearly wet her pants and her entire body shook from fear, yet all those monsters were only a fraction of his…. collection?
If that was true, then just how enormous was the rest?
Seo Ah-Young roughly shook her head.
She wanted to argue back and say that was bullsh*t, but Affeldrichae’s words sounded quite credible for some reason. That woman possessed a certain quality that made others nod their heads in agreement.
"Just what the heck happened in the other world?" (Seo Ah-Young)
Affeldrichae closed her mouth for a minute.
Even with her high intellect, it was rather difficult to condense the events of that lengthy time period into a single sentence.
How should she explain it?
How should she go about explaining Yi Ji-Hyuk’s life, the one where he fell to the very bottom and, while relying on nothing but his own powers, eventually rose up high enough to fight against the entire world?
His life was a series of one desperate, horrible experience after another.
As the Lord of all Dragons, she too did everything in her power to stop him over and over again. Even then, he crawled and scratched, until he overcame the interference of the gods and finally grabbed hold of what he desired so much.
And the end result was….
Affeldrichae quietly stared at Yi Ji-Hyuk over yonder, controlling the monster horde.
From her perspective, it didn’t look that good, but this was what he wanted.
"He fought against the whole world, and he even fought against the wills of the gods. He’s an existence that fought against everything alone." (Affeldrichae)
Seo Ah-Young tilted her head.
"What are you talking about?" (Seo Ah-Young)
"I’m sure it’s hard for you to understand. But, I get where you’re coming from. Unfortunately, I don’t have any confidence in making you understand. I could tell you all the information on what he did, but if you asked me how his life had been, then……" (Affeldrichae)
Then, that would become a very sorrowful tale, instead.
While Affeldrichae was letting a soft sigh escape from her mouth, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s monster horde was still in the midst of ripping the Seti to shreds
Ahhh!!
Even though it was almost like an illusory spectre, and thus was almost immune to all physical attacks, once it was ensnared tightly by Yi Ji-Hyuk’s thorny vines and pounded on by the endless rush of the monster waves, Seti’s figure finally went limp to the ground.
The only fate remaining for it now was ‘death’.
For a high-ranking spirit that boasted the similar levels of power to the Zombie Dragon, or maybe emit even stronger power than that undead creature, this was such a dispiritingly pathetic defeat.
When Yi Ji-Hyuk snapped his fingers, the monsters biting into the Seti like a bunch of crows pecking at a dead body receded all at once.
Yi Ji-Hyuk cackled hoarsely and slowly walked towards the Seti.
And its pure-white body began trembling like a lone leaf.
Fin.