Resurrection Chapter 118 - Anyway, Seo Heesoo Doesn’t Know

Malevolent spirits swarmed in, and I ended up letting go of Lævateinn. Yaksha threw Lævateinn far away, ending the Offering. Since it had come to this, the only method left was hand-to-hand combat.

I pushed Yaksha to the ground, pinning him down and pressing on him with my knees. Then, I added acceleration and relentlessly threw punches.

But it didn’t feel like I was hitting flesh. It was like pounding on a lump of iron. The sound was actually like that too. Instead of the dull thud of thwack, thwack, I heard the ringing sound of metal, clang, clang.

Taking my punches squarely, Yaksha burst into laughter.

“Hahaha…!”

“Shut up… I said shut up!”

I roared and threw my fists, but it was clear that mere punches couldn’t inflict any damage on him. As I was letting out an indistinct shout, a whip-like, sharp message flew into my head. It was the Golden Emperor.

—The Golden Emperor bellows at you to get a grip.

I, who was half out of my mind with shame and anger, finally stopped my movements only after hearing that message. As soon as I did, Yaksha grabbed both of my wrists tightly. When I put strength into my arms, he pulled me down sharply, bringing his face close.

“The one who knows you better than anyone is me. The only one who knows everything about you, down to your very core, is me.”

A nauseating scent came from his breath. It was a body odor like rotting flowers. At that familiar smell, a cold sweat broke out and my body trembled.

I couldn’t deny the fear that was taking over my body. As Yaksha had said, what he had given me was not just pain. That fact tormented me even more.

As if he had seen right through my feelings, Yaksha continued speaking in a cunning, placating tone.

“A hypocrite like Seo Heesoo can’t handle you. Only I can satisfy even the desires you deny. So, just give up and come back. Choose me as your partner.”

At his words, I let out a hollow laugh.

“Why don’t you stop with the bullshit and just kill me?”

A chilling killing intent flashed in Yaksha’s eyes. I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for his sweet talk.

What he wanted was not a companion, but a possession. Something he could use at his convenience, and discard without mercy when he felt it was no longer needed. His attitude of “if I can’t have you, I’ll kill you” proved it.

Sure enough, at my question, Yaksha didn’t make excuses or spin lies. He closed his mouth, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

Just then, a terrible sound came from above my head.

It was a dull roar, the kind you only hear during a major earthquake. Soon, indistinct screams erupted from here and there.

I unconsciously raised my head and saw a massive building pouring down like a tidal wave from above. I’d been wondering why Yaksha’s servants were so quiet, and it turned out they had been collapsing the building.

Screams, groans, and cries spread in all directions, and activation words burst forth from here and there. The Awakened ones who had been blockading the area were struggling to minimize the damage, but there seemed to be no way to raise the collapsing building back up. At this rate, the countless people trapped inside the Grand Temple would be buried alive.

Since the Grand Temple was located in the middle of the city, it wasn’t just Awakened ones inside. There were also numerous ordinary people who had come to worship or sightsee. Knowing this, Imae gave up on blocking the trishula. Instead, he used a powerful wide-area spell with unbelievable speed.

“Delay.”

As his activation word echoed, the building, which had been collapsing at a heavy speed, momentarily faltered. It was still collapsing, but its speed looked slow, as if in slow motion. Thanks to that, the form of the trishula flying toward him also came into view.

I pushed Yaksha away with all my might and then moved with Blink without delay. Due to the aftereffects of Delay, my movements were also extremely slow. While feeling frustrated as if in a dream, I couldn’t find any other way to block the trishula. I just stretched out my hand with all my might. I didn’t think I could block it, but my left hand went between Imae and the trishula.

Even though its kinetic energy was greatly weakened due to Delay, the trishula completely blew my hand away.

WHACK!

“Aaaargh!”

A scream burst out along with the terrible pain, but in any case, it was certain that my hand had served as a shield. The trishula, its trajectory distorted by hitting my hand, struck Imae’s mask instead of piercing through his head and flew off in a strange direction.

With a crack, the mask split in two. It fell powerlessly to the floor, and I saw Imae’s revealed face. And then I was greatly surprised.

“You…!”

A perfectly symmetrical face captivated my eyes. He was the one I had a one-night stand with, and the one who had helped me escape from Oleander Road. I had never dreamed that the guy who wandered the night streets of Oleander Road like a playboy would be the Archmage Imae.

He was focused on making the collapsing building fall as slowly as possible, so he didn’t look at me. I couldn’t afford to be surprised that my one-night stand was the famous raid leader of Imaemangryang and an S-rank Awakened one either. At some point, Yaksha had jumped in front of me and was twisting my left arm, which was now just a wrist.

“Aaaaargh!”

A scream came out on its own from the terrible pain. As I collapsed to the floor, unable to resist, Yaksha grabbed my head with his remaining hand and said.

“Teleport.”

I shouted at the top of my lungs.

“You son of a bitch! It hurts!”

He twisted my left arm again.

“If you don’t Teleport, I’ll kill Imae. If that guy dies, everyone here will be crushed without a chance.”

Imae looked busy enough just stopping the collapsing building. I might have saved Imae once by sacrificing my left hand, but a second time was impossible. It was even more impossible while being held by Yaksha. I groaned in pain and had no choice but to move.

“Teleport.”

The place I moved to was the top of the collapsing building. Since the Awakened ones were blockading the area to prevent the aftermath of the building’s collapse, I couldn’t move outside.

In any case, it didn’t seem like Yaksha wanted me to take him and run far, far away. He stood on a structure on the slanted rooftop and forcefully pulled me, who was panting and drooping, upright. Then, Hwang Chihong and the servants who had collapsed the building swarmed around.

“Master.”

Seeing them call Yaksha by that absurd title and bow their heads respectfully, a laugh escaped me on its own. As I let out a chuckle, Yaksha, perhaps displeased, gripped my left arm, from which blood was gushing out, tightly.

“Ugh.”

The laughter quickly faded with the surging pain. In my vision, which was blurring from the pain, I saw one of the servants casting. It was clear he was trying to move through the blockade.

Before that, the person I was waiting for had to appear.

It was about time for him to come, but for some reason, he seemed late.

I blinked my eyes, which were dizzy from excessive blood loss. As I staggered again, Yaksha clicked his tongue with a tsk, let go of my left arm, and wrapped one arm around my side. As he supported me in something like an embrace, I heard a thump, thump sound from somewhere.

Someone was stepping on the outer wall of the collapsing building and jumping upwards. Soon, a crimson figure soared up onto the rooftop, which was slanted at a 45-degree angle. Seeing a sparkling object on his forehead as he rose high into the air, I realized why he was late.

He was late because he was getting Gemma from Park Sikyung.

It was Heesoo hyung.

No, that’s Ulfheðinn.

Ulfheðinn, wrapped in the dazzling light of Gemma like an afterglow, broke in among the servants who were in the middle of casting. As his Kladenets moved with a speed unbecoming of its massive size, one of the servants who was about to shout an activation word was split in half in an instant.

The bisected body fell downwards and disappeared with a sense of unreality, and the terrified Hwang Chihong and the servants all rushed at Heesoo hyung at once. But they just plugged their ears and suffered in agony as Ulfheðinn let out a dragon’s roar.

Seizing that opportunity, Kladenets emitted a tremendous power. Just by grazing past it, all of their bodies were cut in half like bundles of straw.

In the blink of an eye, the only one left alive was someone inside Hwang Chihong’s body. That person looked at Yaksha and shouted.

“Master, please flee!”

Even after hearing those words, Yaksha didn’t budge. He must have judged that he had to eliminate Heesoo hyung here. Instead of retreating, he burned with hostility in his eyes and tightened his arm around me.

Ulfheðinn also didn’t rush toward us rashly, but instead mercilessly annihilated Hwang Chihong, who was blocking his path. If you only looked at Hwang Chihong, he was simply a victim, but there was no mercy in Kladenets as it cut his body into three pieces.

As Hwang Chihong’s body turned into a lump of meat, a spirit shrieked from it, rose up like smoke, scattered into the air, and faded away.

Perhaps because he was equipped with a proper weapon, or perhaps because Ulfheðinn had descended, Heesoo hyung was terrifyingly strong. The servants that Yaksha had painstakingly created couldn’t even serve to slow him down. Seeing his immense power, a sense of tension rose on Yaksha’s face as well.

Ulfheðinn looked carefully at me, drooping in Yaksha’s arms. Having lost a large amount of blood, I was on the verge of fainting, barely holding onto consciousness.

I had never doubted that Ulfheðinn would come after me. But when he finally appeared, he wasn’t Heesoo hyung, so I wasn’t particularly glad to see him.

With eyes glowing red like molten iron, Ulfheðinn spoke to Yaksha.

“I believe I warned you not to touch what is mine.”

Yaksha also seemed to have recognized that his opponent was not Heesoo hyung. He bared his teeth and raised his momentum.

Now free from Imae’s interference, vengeful spirits began to flock from all directions. The mortal ground also displayed its majesty, to the point where even the facial features of the evil spirits could be distinguished.

“If you want even a corpse, I’ll throw it to you.”

Yaksha pushed me, bleeding, forcefully toward Ulfheðinn. Unable to stand properly on the slanted floor, I fell downwards.