Chapter 62: A Melodious Night (4) (1/2)
“I thought I was lucky enough to find someone with opened ears, but that must have been a mistake.”
“…”
“This is a place where people with their hearts aligned, gather and listen to music. I don’t know who you are, but it’s hard to welcome uninvited guests.”
Hasegawa’s aura changed. The middle-aged man’s eyes became tainted in red.
“Here to kill me?”
“Yeah.”
“I see. Then you should’ve said that from the get go.”
A crack appeared in his indifferent expression.
“Why meaninglessly interfere in someone else’s performance?”
Yu Jitae frowned, as Hasegawa raised his voice, seemingly frustrated from the bottom of his heart.
“A performance is sacred. If you had a business with me, it could have been any other time – I had time in the morning as well. And yet; out of all the times it could have been; in the middle of a time that I value more than anything; in this place where I’m sharing music with my precious ones; you dare, interfere with my performance! That, is an insult against me!”
The Regressor did not respond, but Hasegawa bellowed by himself.
“In Ancient Egypt, they cut off a noble’s ears for interfering with the palace musician’s performance, because ears that can’t hear, are worthless.”
“Must have been inspired by that?”
“What?”
“You wandered around, and cut lots of ears, didn’t you. Saying that them having ears were pointless.”
His voice came to a stop. Hasegawa’s gaze looking down at Yu Jitae was that of a cat gazing down at a mouse. However, with that one sentence from Yu Jitae, Hasegawa realised that there was a tall wall standing before him.
His enemy was aware of his actions, despite him having the least number of actions as a disaster-level demon.
“This is going to be rough.”
As soon as his words came to a stop, the demonic aura of the abyss came soaring up from the surroundings.
“Haha… Lim Chul-o, Wei Yan were creating so much fuss about the whole thing…”
Suddenly, the puppets started running into Yu Jitae.
In an instant, one of the puppets lost a head. Hasegawa realised that the man’s arm had moved, a second after it happened.
“…!”
Killing intent gathered and formed a shape. With his hand holding onto an invisible handle, the killing intent extending from it lengthened itself like a stick, while sharpening itself into a blade.
[Shapeless Sword (SS)]
“Bastard! So you were the enemy of the ‘undetectables’ huh!”
There was no need for a long conversation.
Immediately after, his body disappeared. The sword slashed sideways as he closed the distance and passed by Hasegawa’s neck.
Drop…
The head rolled on the ground, and his body fell behind after a split second onto the carpet.
Silence befell the room in an instant, but this was still the beginning.
Yu Jitae opened his mouth.
“Yu Bom.”
“Yes.”
In response to his words, Bom closed her eyes. Then, she interlocked her fingers and focused. The heart of a green dragon containing the power of mother nature started fluttering. Although a dragon, she was still a hatchling and it thus took some time until she successfully pulled up all the necessary mana.
Her body was embraced by nature’s mana and floated in mid-air.
Meanwhile, tentacles emerged out from Hasegawa’s decapitated neck and carried the head back to its place.
“How dare you–!”
Hasegawa stood up with a struggle and scattered the demonic aura with his two hands. From his hands, it travelled thinly like a cloud before reaching the puppets.
“Move!”
They then started moving as if in a seizure.
After noticing the difference in power level, Hasegawa would be acting in order to prioritise his own survival. Some of the puppets would halt Yu Jitae, while some would escape.
Like cockroaches.
Yu Jitae thought back on the strategy meeting last night.
– If, if the humans there, really weren’t humans…
Bom had spoken while biting on her lips.
– Hasegawa might’ve been extricated already…
She had clearly seen through the situation.
A few weeks ago, Ha Saetbyul had gone through [Extrication] and had entered a monster form. It had happened because she had seeked for a strong physical prowess after becoming a demon.
But extrication wasn’t only limited to physical changes to the body. Although rare, there were occasions where they would be separated into different individuals.
Hasegawa had already been revealing his true body as a demon.
In the form of a ‘performer’, and the ‘audience’.
– They used to have their own providence and fate.
– Originally, they must have been different people.
– Most likely, they were made to listen to Hasegawa’s performance, and had suffered from it.
Even during several regressions, he hadn’t checked up to that point.
– That’s why Hasegawa made those people, who couldn’t understand the value of his music, into puppets.
Now, was the time to confirm Bom’s deduction.
Pat–!
Like an exquisitely formed flash mob, the audience scattered to all directions in an instant. They were trying to break the walls, windows and ceiling for their escape.
In that instant, Bom, who was halfway up in the air, opened her eyes. Her heart with an accumulation of mana, started resonating itself with the surrounding area and thumped.
That was an authority which could only be used by a dragon. As the ruler, it was their right to force all creations with words alone.
[Dragon’s Voice (S+)]
Everything halted in an instant, including the puppets.
Within that world of stillness, Bom opened her mouth.
[Rotten existences with destined dooms, remain here and obey your providence]
The words of a green dragon contained a mighty power. Those living had no choice but to obey, and the dead could not dare disobey its words.
All the puppets in the area, that had been encroached by the dirty mana of the abyss, stopped their feet. Them, including Hasegawa, had been dropped to the [providence as a mortal]. They could no longer regenerate, nor live forever.
“…This…”
Even the disaster-level demon was unfamiliar with something like this. Hasegawa’s eyes shot wide open.
And meanwhile, Yu Jitae moved his body.
Slash–
There was a puppet that had raised its arm up in order to break the ceiling. Its arm was slashed along with its head and dropped on the floor.
Swoosh.
Near the window, there was one that had thrown its body to break through the glass. Soon, its body was divided into two from the head down, and dropped on both sides.
Stab–
There was one that was about to raise its weapon from the waist in order to buy time for other puppets to escape. But, it’s upper body soon dropped on the floor.
“…”
The Dragon’s Voice had gone through, but Bom’s mana wasn’t infinite. When the power suppressing their movement disappeared, the puppets slowly started to move again.
However, they still were not allowed to run away.
Changing their objective, they crouched down and stood with their four legs on either the floor, or on the tabletop. From their bodies, tentacles covered in blades reached froth.
Those weren’t normal blades – they were compressed forms of demonic auras, and could destroy the skins of world rankers with a scratch.
“…!”
“…!”
The puppets simultaneously dashed in towards Yu Jitae.