The Returner Chapter 386

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s yell prompted everyone to focus their gazes back to the front.
"…Godda*mit, there’s no end to them."
Despite Yi Ji-Hyuk cleanly wiping all the monsters away, more of them continued to pour out from the interior of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. Not only that, the monsters near the defensive line the ability users had put up were unaffected by his magic, so the pressure the humans felt right now hadn’t changed all that much.
Wuuuooong!
Yi Ji-Hyuk must be aware of this fact as well, since he didn’t stop chanting even after getting rid of almost every monster his eyes could see.
"Heuph!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Mana gushing out of his body shot up to the sky, before raining down on the NDF agents.
"….Goddam*it!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young spat out a curse word after spotting the dark strand of magical energy approaching her. With the current situation being what it was, she couldn’t afford to reject it, but a swear word still leapt out of her mouth after she recalled the pain she’d suffer by accepting that black Mana.
Shu-wuwuwu…
She gritted her teeth as the sounds of Mana being absorbed entered her ears.
"Urgh." (Seo Ah-Young)
She ended up plopping down on the ground even before realising it as the horrendous pain washed over her – pain akin to every bone in her body breaking and every muscle being ripped to shreds. It felt like flames were burning inside her body.
"Argh, seriously!!" (Seo Ah-Young)
The other NDF agents in the nearby area also formed pained expressions.
"What is going on here?!"
Yi Ji-Hyuk suddenly fired out some kind of evil-feeling energy, then this thing seemingly attacked his allies, and those who got hit by it all showed extreme pain and suffering so understandably, the ability users from other countries had fallen into a pit of confusion.
"I-is he betraying us??"
Choi Jeong-Hoon smiled bitterly.
"No, he isn’t. Don’t worry about it, and please focus on filling up the opening." (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
By the time he was finished with calming everyone down, the downed NDF agents began standing back up one by one.
"Imma kill that b*stard one of these days for sure." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young wiped away the blood oozing down from the corner of her lips and gnashed her teeth. Then she began creating a ball of flames the size of a house with her hands.
Those who witnessed this massive ball of flames with sinister pitch-black light writhing within freaked out and hurriedly stumbled backwards.
"Holy sh*t!"
"This is… the real Flame Witch!"
The spectators estimated her flames' destructive power and failed to hide their astonishment.
From the get-go, Yi Ji-Hyuk was seen as an 'irregular'. Even his own country didn’t classify him as an ability user - instead, he was seen as a human exceeding that category. So, whatever he did wasn’t as shocking to these people as some might think.
However, the story was different with Seo Ah-Young.
More than quite a few people present right now were rated to be about the same level as her. No matter how famous she was in East Asia, she was not quite high-levelled enough to aim for the top spot in the world.
But the power she displayed just now easily exceeded their expectations by a great margin. And then some.
"So, it was by this much?"
They had heard about how the overall ability levels of the NDF had risen up after Yi Ji-Hyuk made his entrance. But none of them thought the improvement would be this great.
"Cha-aaaaa-aph!" (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young threw that massive ball of flames at the monsters flooding out from the palace’s destroyed entrance.
RUUUUMBLE!!
The flames danced wildly in a vortex to swallow up all the monsters.
"Well, shoot. You’re still so flashy, aren’t you?" (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
The ‘Spitfire’ Yun Hyuk-Gyu left behind a snide remark and dashed forward. Crimson light radiated from both of his hands before shooting forward like a tidal wave.
KWA-BOOOOM!!
A cannon made up of flames wonderfully roasted all the monsters before him.
"Tsk. Man, being in the same fire-type class as her really sucks." (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
His ability in isolation was indeed shocking to behold, but compared to what Seo Ah-Young displayed earlier, he was seen as far shabbier of the two. He was putting in all of his effort each and every time, yet she was continuously flinging those house-sized flames everywhere she pleased even now.
"That woman is definitely a monster, too." (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
As if she wanted to show to the world that the fame - or the infamy - of the Flame Witch was not exaggerated, Seo Ah-Young’s figure really cut a witch-like silhouette right now.
"But hell, she doesn’t feel like a monster despite all that." (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
If Yun Hyuk-Gyu had been living a life where he only got to observe what other ‘normal’ folks were capable of pulling off, then he’d no doubt be very impressed by her display. But after being near Yi Ji-Hyuk for so long, his nerves had grown so tough that nothing much fazed him these days, unfortunately.
"What are you muttering to yourself for?! Get back to work, dude!" (Kim Dah-Som)
Kim Dah-Hyun flashed past and tried to bite Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s head off, causing the latter’s expression to crumple unsightly.
"Argh, that stupid mosquito of a guy!" (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
"Hey, man! Get back to work!" (Park Seong-Chan)
Park Seong-Chan stepped past and slapped the back of Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s head.
"Ah?! How many times did I tell you that you might kill someone by accident if you failed to control your strength?!" (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)
Park Seong-Chan smirked and dashed forward.
"Oryaaaa!" (Park Seong-Chan)
He grabbed the tusks of a gigantic elephant-like monster with both of his hands, then proceeded to lift the creature up and spin it around like a toy in the air before throwing it at the mouth of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
BOOOOM!
Monsters getting crushed to death by the gigantic elephant-like creature pitifully screamed out.
"Niiice!" (Rudra)
Rudra then fired a bolt of lightning right on top of that pile.
"I love the smell of cooked monster flesh!" (Park Seong-Chan)
Park Seong-Chan’s lips quivered as he dashed forward once more.
*
"…What the hell is up with these people??" (Vladimir)
Vladimir Zaitsev could only blink his eyes at the spectacles unfolding before him.
The NDF agents keeping their mouths shut until now suddenly transformed into fish swimming in water as soon as Yi Ji-Hyuk made his entrance.
"How is that even possible?" (Vladimir)
The hulking dude who treated huge monsters like little puppies before tossing them away; the woman who chucked around house-sized balls of flames like toys; and a handsome youngster dashing between the monsters as if this was his living room.
Besides these three, other NDF agents the Russian could see were also easily dealing with the monsters as if they were nothing but a bunch of weak goblins.
‘Are the monsters too weak? Is that it?’ (Vladimir)
But, that couldn’t be.
The Russian’s compatriots were having a hard time trying to deal with the same monsters. If it weren’t for Choi Jeong-Hoon issuing timely orders to the NDF agents and having them assist this side, their defensive line would’ve collapsed a while ago and caused the deaths of everyone here.
"Did they devour a live dragon or something?" (Vladimir)
Even if that was true, it was still far too strange for so many incredible ability users to show up at once from South Korea, which could be considered as a minor nation found somewhere in Asia.
Most of the countries that boasted being the ability user powerhouses usually had the dual foundation of financial muscle and a large population base.
The accepted common sense was, the more ability users you had and the greater the financial support you could provide to them, the better the quality of your ability users would end up being.
However, South Korea was quite obviously a minor nation in terms of population, and even in the economic side of things, it was nowhere near the scales of the other four nations present today.
Even the Japanese ability users were seriously struggling right now. Japan, which had twice the population and boasted an economy a couple of times greater than South Korea’s. But how…
"I can’t figure out what sort of sorcery is at play here." (Vladimir)
Vladimir Zaitsev slowly shook his head.
In that case, he now had to assume that baseless rumour to be true - the rumour of Yi Ji-Hyuk being capable of enhancing the powers of regular ability users. Even that was too hard to believe, though.
"What is he planning to do this time??" (Vladimir)
Yi Ji-Hyuk began waving his hands around and naturally, everyone’s gaze was fixed on him.
"Well, it’s no fun if you choose to keep hiding deep, deep underground, am I right?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He cackled ominously and began chanting again.
The black Mana oozing out from his hands rose up high in the air, and soon began creating massive storm clouds right above the skies of the Kumsusan.
No, wait - those things were different from the regular storm clouds.
As the black sparks danced around wildly, the ‘clouds’ slowly condensed. They looked as if they were burning up, sizzling and hissing as if countless lightning bolts were exploding inside.
"…What the hell is that thing?" (Vladimir)
The black Mana kept oozing out from his body and rushed towards the sky. The storm clouds slowly began ballooning up in size.
It was at this point that Vladimir Zaitsev turned his head away.
‘It’s like looking at a real devil.’ (Vladimir)
Yes, he knew that Yi Ji-Hyuk was an ally. But at least from this spectacle alone, he couldn’t quite tell whether that man was indeed an ally or a demon. The Russian drew a cross in the air and prayed for his God to be with him in time of his need.
"Get out of the way!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s loud yell prompted the NDF agents to hurriedly extricate themselves out of there.
"H-hurry up!"
"That guy, he’s gonna do it again! Again!!"
Nowadays, they had become capable enough to badmouth Yi Ji-Hyuk even when they needed to beat a hasty retreat from a clear danger to their lives.
"Well, now!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
The corners of Yi Ji-Hyuk’s lips curled up, then his raised hands were brought down.
"Here’s a present for you. I hope you enjoy it." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
And right in that moment!
The black clouds finished condensing, twisted like a drill, and began spinning viciously.
"….Oh, hey! I think I saw that one before." (Seo Ah-Young)
Seo Ah-Young shuddered grandly while witnessing this scene unfold.
She was sure of seeing that attack before. After recalling what happened back then, she could reliably say that it was pretty much the best magic to use in circumstances like this one.
"Nail them down!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Along with Yi Ji-Hyuk’s loud yell, the condensed Mana suddenly ballooned up explosively, before drilling powerfully into the ground.
KWA-AAAAAH!!
The explosion noise loud enough to shred one’s eardrums to bits; the noise was so great that the sense of alienation akin to stepping into a completely soundless room washed over everyone nearby.
The black storm clouds transformed into a black spear and stabbed straight down into the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
KWA-AAAAAH!!
It was like watching a massive tap appear in the sky, then pitch-black water gushing out from it.
One notable difference between this and real water was that, where the latter should’ve flowed away after hitting the ground, the black magical energy continued to bore down below the surface and drilled deeper and deeper.
As for the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, it literally evaporated when the magical attack came in contact with it.
Park Seong-Chan shouted out.
"Hey, the carcasses of father Kim and his son should be in there, right? Even the piggy, too?" (Park Seong-Chan)
"Well, not anymore." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk smirked deeply.
Park Seong-Chan saw that smile and could only grin wryly in return.
"Shouldn’t that trio of big fish, you know, meet a suitably grand ending or something?" (Park Seong-Chan)
"Too annoying, so why should I?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk’s gaze shifted over to the gigantic black spear still drilling into Earth. The massive spinning black Mana threatening to bore a hole through the planet’s crust began to slowly dissipate.
"It’d be nice if they are all dead from that." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
While cackling away, Yi Ji-Hyuk leisurely strode towards the impact zone.
A deep crater revealed itself there, one that looked as if a massive awl had stabbed into the ground.
If nothing remained in there, it’d be ‘Mission: Complete’, but if not…
"What the! Isn’t this a bit too much?!" (Jeong Min-Seong)
"Hoh-oh?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk smiled at the voice coming out from the deeper part of the crater and got close to the edge. Then his brows quivered a bit.
He could see a small ‘island’ rising up from the centre of the crater's bottom like a hill. And on top of this land, Jeong Min-Seong and Argolas were looking back at him with raised heads. The appearances of these two sharply contrasted each other, however.
Jeong Min-Seong only had some trickle of blood coming down from the corner of his lips, but Argolas was currently in the middle of slowly turning into ash-coloured dust, perhaps having spent all of its lifeforce just then.
"Wow. You actually managed to block that?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk stared at Argolas with a pair of somewhat amazed eyes.
Did he get too weak, or did this demon become stronger?
"I almost really died just now, you know!!" (Jeong Min-Seong)
"I was trying to kill you, so yeah." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Jeong Min-Seong’s protest was met with Yi Ji-Hyuk’s retort.
"What if I really died just now, then?? What would you have done?!" (Jeong Min-Seong)
"I said, I was trying to kill you. You deaf or something?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
It was then, Choi Jeong-Hoon felt like he had encountered the truth of cosmos.
‘Now wait a minute… I haven’t thought about what might happen if these two got together for any length of time.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)
Yi Ji-Hyuk quietly studied Jeong Min-Seong, before opening his mouth.
"Why is a human participating in this thing to destroy the world? Did your brain develop a misfire? If you say it’s a type of mental illness, I might be persuaded to understand your plight. Maybe just a little bit." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"But, I’m perfectly sane?" (Jeong Min-Seong)
"Don’t look that way to me, though?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Choi Jeong-Hoon ended up shaking his head.
This… this was chaos.
Fin.
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