The Returner Chapter 219

"If you got a better idea, why don’t you tell me?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"You…..!" (Affeldrichae)
Uncharacteristically of her, Affeldrichae became really annoyed as she glared at Yi Ji-Hyuk.
"Well, then. Time to buy some time." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk made a hand gesture, prompting his monsters waiting around to rush towards Delkaran once more.
"Seo Ah-Young!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Yes!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young’s reply to Yi Ji-Hyuk’s summoning was also resolute. She knew very well what he wanted here.
Her job now was to buy him enough time to recover, as well as to fill up the opening that existed between each spell. She sent a signal with her eyes, and Kim Dah-Hyun stepped forward unhesitatingly, his glare getting sharper by a notch.
"I’m pretty sure I won’t die twice, right?" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
He didn’t bother to suppress the boiling blood rushing up to his head, and as a result, even his eyes began dyeing in a crimson colour. The desire to destroy coursing throughout his flesh was now fully redirected to the demon king, Delkaran.
"Haaaaht-!!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun dashed forward like a streak of lightning; meanwhile, Seo Ah-Young behind him flung her flames at the target as well.
"Spitfire!" (Seo Ah-Young)
"I know!" (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
Yun Hyuk-Gyu also gathered his hands and concentrated his firepower.
"Eat this!!" (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
Kwaaaaaah-!!
The sea of flames gathered in his hands spread out like wildfire and chased after dashing Kim Dah-Hyun’s back.
Delkaran watched this meaningless struggles of the insignificant beings with its two eyes. Even then, its ‘antennae’ never stopped looking at Yi Ji-Hyuk at the far back getting ready to do something else.
"I’m not planning on getting hit a second time." (Delkaran)
It could just ignore the attacks of these humans. The important thing here was to prevent Yi Ji-Hyuk from using other magic spells.
The problem began with giving a sorcerer the safety of distance, and if that man was allowed to fling whatever spells as he pleased, then even Delkaran would find it hard to deal with the potential danger.
The demon king gathered its two hands and pushed them out to front.
All those heads of snakes standing up from its body opened their maws wide. Sharp, venomous fangs gleamed threateningly under the light.
*
"Heal me." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
She knew that Yi Ji-Hyuk was being serious here. Unfortunately, Affeldrichae didn’t dare to heal him at all.
"B-but, Mister Ji-Hyuk…." (Affeldrichae)
She swallowed back her gasps while looking at his body.
Soaked in blood - from the top of his head right down to his toes, not a spot on his body was okay. Tiny blood vessels in his eyeballs had ruptured to create a pair of eerie dark red irises, and parts of his arms and legs were protruding out, forcing him to stand at an awkward angle.
Most of his muscles had ruptured, his skin was torn in several places, while his blood had formed a thick pool on the ground.
His human body was paying for the cost of over-using the dark Mana right in this moment.
‘It’s a relief that his mind is holding up, but…’ (Affeldrichae)
But, his condition was far too grave to feel relieved by that small thing. Would his body be able to withstand the backlash from being exposed to the light Mana?
Perhaps he figured out what Affeldrichae was thinking of, Yi Ji-Hyuk addressed her apathetically.
"We’ll all die anyway at this rate." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"……"
"Besides, looks like I’m dying already. I don’t think these kinds of wounds will get better with time, you know?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Affeldrichae bit her lower lip.
"I alone won’t be able to do this." (Affeldrichae)
"I know. It doesn’t matter, though, since we got Miss Divinity here. You now have a perfect assistant." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk shifted his gaze over to Roabell.
They wouldn’t even dare to try if it was only Affeldrichae present here. Healing done by magic and healing done by divinity were two fundamentally different things. With Roabell here, healing him just might work.
"You keep doing that, and…." (Affeldrichae)
"You think we have time for a chitchat?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Affeldrichae shut her mouth up after hearing his retort.
A certain ‘final’ method did exist. Too bad, that method couldn’t be told to Yi Ji-Hyuk. Also, it wasn’t as if he didn’t know of that method and was trying to end things in this manner here, either.
"Do what you want." (Affeldrichae)
In the end, she acknowledged that Yi Ji-Hyuk’s mind couldn’t be changed.
"What are you planning to do?" (Roabell)
Roabell asked them after listening to their conversation.
"….I shall heal Mister Ji-Hyuk by injecting magical energy into his body. You need to help me." (Affeldrichae)
"You want to heal a dark sorcerer with divinity and magic?! That’s going to cause his body to disintegrate." (Roabell)
"Yes, it will." (Affeldrichae)
A person tainted by dark Mana to this extent would have his body completely disintegrate from the backlash of light Mana. Affeldrichae knew this and that was why she couldn’t dare to heal him the last time around.
However, their situation was a bit different now.
"Don’t think of it as trying to heal someone, but rather, do it as if you’re trying to pour in all of your divinity, instead." (Affeldrichae)
"Could you be thinking of….?" (Roabell)
"As long as our healing speed exceeds that of the rate of disintegration, it’ll be fine." (Affeldrichae)
"Forget about his body for a second, will his mind even survive that? Such a thing has never been attempted before…." (Roabell)
"Normal people would go insane, or bite their own tongue to kill themselves. However…." (Affeldrichae)
They were talking about this man. He was most familiar with pain and death than anyone alive in the universe, so he might be able to withstand the pain.
"You two are taking way too long." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk complained and glared at Roabell.
"Hey, you. Didn’t you want to kill me before?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"….."
"So, like, pour your c**p in me as if you’re trying to kill me, okay? Who knows? Maybe you’ll really kill me." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Those words, you better not regret them later." (Roabell)
Roabell venomously shot back at him.
"Get started. We don’t have time for any more chitchat." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"M-mm…." (Affeldrichae)
Affeldrichae reached out and tightly grasped his shoulders.
"We’ll really do this." (Affeldrichae)
"Just do it, will ya?!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk urgently shouted out.
Even though he was pretending to be unconcerned, he simply couldn’t shake off this thought that, the longer they wasted time here, the greater the danger NDF agents would find themselves in.
Affeldrichae quietly stared at him before squeezing her eyes shut and shouted out as well.
"Healing!" (Affeldrichae)
"Oh, dear Buzugote, bless your flock with your grace!" (Roabell)
Light Mana and divinity began pouring into Yi Ji-Hyuk’s body at the same time.
"Heu-ah….!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He couldn’t endure the pain assaulting him and screamed out.
This pain that easily surpassed all imaginations caused his mouth to split wide open all by itself to emit a throat-tearing scream.
However, no actual sound came out.
In that moment divinity and light Mana flooded in, both his vocal cords and his neck blew up and as a result, he couldn’t make a single sound now.
All he could do was to repeatedly emit noises of winds leaking out while his entire body convulsed.
"Just a little bit more!!" (Affeldrichae)
Affeldrichae cried out, her eyes still locked onto Yi Ji-Hyuk.
The water-coloured divinity poured out by Roabell dyed the surroundings in blue as it got sucked into his body.
His flesh exploded.
His body melted down.
However, his burst flesh regenerated in an instant, and the melted-down spots were quickly, and without exception, covered by newly-grown flesh.
"Keuh-euh……." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk finally stopped spasming violently on the spot and began sagging powerlessly to the ground, but Affeldrichae didn’t let go of his shoulders. If they stopped now, his body would disintegrate in an instant. That would signify his permanent death.
"More! More!!" (Affeldrichae)
Affeldrichae urged on. Cold sweat trickled down Roabell’s face as she flooded his body with divinity without rest.
Seeing him trying to shrink back while spasming again, Affeldrichae felt her own chest ache painfully all of a sudden.
‘What’s this?’ (Affeldrichae)
She didn’t have the leeway to analyse what this ache could even mean as she continued to focus on pouring Mana into Yi Ji-Hyuk’s body.
*
"Kekeke!!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun’s eyes were flickering dangerously.
"You insignificant fools!!" (Delkaran)
With an expression filled with irritation, Delkaran released a powerful wave of magical energy in Kim Dah-Hyun’s direction.
The funny thing was, the Path Drifter managed to evade the attacks commendably well, even though his current appearance could only be described as truly wretched.
One of his arms was missing, with only the stump dyed in red remaining, while blood constantly trickled down from his head; even then, he didn’t stop running.
He knew it so, so well.
The moment he stopped running, all those supporting him from behind would all get killed. The sole advantage humanity possessed against Delkaran just so happened to be Kim Dah-Hyun’s speed.
His role was to buzz around like an annoying insect and make sure that his target didn’t have any time to pay attention to Yi Ji-Hyuk. And the role of other ability users was to assist him in this mission.
‘This is it.’ (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun faced off against the incoming magical attacks, kicked the air and nimbly avoided them. Even in the midst of this, he began smirking softly to himself.
In a way, it was not Yi Ji-Hyuk, not Seo Ah-Young, but Kim Dah-Hyun himself carrying the fate of humanity on his shoulders right now.
Ever since awakening his powers, he had made up his mind to save the world in a crisis like this one.
His resolution had been shattered about half-way all thanks to Yi Ji-Hyuk’s entrance, but it was now fully revived at this moment.
Excessive blood loss meant he was feeling really dizzy. And the mere pressure from brushing past the Mana attacks caused his bones to tumble as if they were about to break, but regardless of what, Kim Dah-Hyun was enjoying the strongest sense of fulfilment he ever felt.
‘I am the Path Drifter!!’ (Kim Dah-Hyun)
That’s why, stop looking at me with those eyes, alright?!
I’m doing better than anyone out there right now. Can’t you see that this abominable demon b*stard doesn’t know what to do with me? (Kim Dah-Hyun’s inner monologue)
"Mister Dah-Hyun!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young’s urgent cry stabbed him in the ear just then.
Uh?
What’s up with her? (Kim Dah-Hyun’s inner monologue)
Abruptly, he sensed something rapidly approaching him and took a look behind. One of the magic attacks he thought he had nimbly dodged changed its trajectory and was flying back towards him.
‘Ah….’
He knew it right away.
He couldn’t dodge that one. And without a doubt, his body wouldn’t be strong enough to withstand that attack. In that case, there could only be one end result waiting for him.
Death.
Realising that his death was fast approaching him, Kim Dah-Hyun gritted his teeth.
Although he couldn’t avoid dying, his role remained the same, and that would be to endure as long as possible, even if that was for a one thousandth of a second or less.
Kim Dah-Hyun summoned forth all of his strength and flung himself backwards.
If he could just delay the time that magic attack took to kill him, then that would mean Yi Ji-Hyuk gained just as much time to get healed up.
‘Dah-Som-ah.’ (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun’s brows rose up high as he glared at the magic attack just about to collide against his body. Squeezing his eyes shut the moment he died didn’t sit so well with his life philosophy, you see.
Even until his final moments, he’d hold his head high!
"Kuwaaahk!" (Park Sung-Chan)
However, Kim Dah-Hyun’s wishes didn’t come true.
Park Sung-Chan had jumped into its path and, after rousing up as much Ether as he could, he smacked the magic attack away with his fists.
BOOOOM!!!
Along with a heavy impact noise, the magic attack was redirected past their heads.
"You stupid b*stard!!" (Park Sung-Chan)
"Hah?!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Park Sung-Chan spun around once in the air and proceeded to kick Kim Dah-Hyun right there and then.
"Ah-ahhk!!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
The latter was accurately struck down by the former’s powerful kick and flew away like a bullet.
Afterwards….
….Having successfully saved Kim Dah-Hyun, Park Sung-Chan had no choice but to greet the barrage of magic attacks with his body.
Boom!! Bang!! Ka-boom!!
Each of those hits caused enormous explosions as if they were missiles being fired by fighter jets.
"Park Sung-Chaaaaaan!!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Kim Dah-Hyun crashed-landed on the ground, barely able to raise his head. He roared out in despair as he watched the explosions envelop Park Sung-Chan.
"Keuh-euk…." (Kim Dah-Hyun)
His legs trembled uncontrollably, but he still forced himself to stand back up.
It was hard to balance himself now that he was missing an arm, and it was also getting harder to produce his top speed, but there simply wasn’t enough time to leisurely lie around like this.
Park Sung-Chan might have died just now.
Even then, he had no time to wallow in sorrow.
Trying to say thank you for saving him was also wasting time.
Again! One more time!
He began running again.
"Uwaaaah-!!" (Kim Dah-Hyun)
Delkaran watched Kim Dah-Hyun run towards itself at full tilt again and shuddered with a fed-up expression on its face.
"How dare these weaklings…." (Delkaran)
Didn’t humans possess instincts to save themselves?
Were the humans it dealt with in the past this desperate?
Delkaran sensed its own preconception of humans being rocked greatly here. Humans of this worlds were markedly different from those of Berafe, it seemed. But why was that the case?
"What is the difference?" (Delkaran)
Kim Dah-Hyun with his reddened eyes pounced forward, and Delkaran extended both of its arms out with a roar, its massive magical energy exploding outwardly.
Guhoooooo!!
A black snake made out of magic cracked open its maw wide and flew towards Kim Dah-Hyun.
"Mister Dah-Hyuuuun!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
As if to make a mockery of Seo Ah-Young’s cry, Kim Dah-Hyun’s body was pounced upon by the giant black snake far too easily.
Fin.