Chapter 574

Squelch!

The blade of White Flame pierced the enormous eye. The Kraken, terror of the sea, shuddered in agony.

But its pain was far from over.

Boom!

Flames burst forth, evaporating the blood. Powerful qi surged down the spearhead and tore through the Kraken’s insides.

A full three jiazi¹ of Scorching Yang Qi had done more than roast one of its eyes. It was enough to inflict grievous internal injuries.

—Gwooooooar!

Roaring in pain unlike anything it had ever felt, the Kraken whipped its eight tentacles in every direction.

It was trying to shake me off.

I held on, driving the spearhead deeper, and slammed my fist into its enormous eye.

Whoom! Thud!

With a divine weapon like White Flame in hand, I had little reason to use my fists or feet. But a fist thrown with strength and speed far beyond human limits was a deadly weapon in its own right.

Thud! Thud! Thuuud!

My fists came down like streaks of light, and the Kraken’s massive body writhed again.

—Ghk, gwooooooar!

Boom! Splash!

Its eight tentacles hammered the sea, throwing up walls of water and raising waves.

I got drenched in salt water and licked my lips. The briny taste spread across my tongue.

“Stay still. I’m not done yet.”

How many people had died or been injured in this Monster Wave?

The collapse of Gwangan Bridge alone had already caused hundreds of casualties. Every one of them was someone’s father or mother, or a child so precious someone couldn’t bear to see them hurt.

You have to pay.

The Kraken had destroyed more than a bridge.

Hundreds of precious lives had sunk beneath the white foam. So had promises made to people who would never be seen again.

Crack!

I tightened my grip on the spear shaft and sent internal energy surging through the mythical monster’s body like an electric current.

Boom.

A small explosion sounded somewhere deep beneath its wet, glistening skin.

“Gaaaaaah! Hu. Maaaan!”

I had aimed for its head to end things quickly. But perhaps because of its enormous size, even a devastating blow couldn’t kill it instantly.

I answered without the slightest hesitation.

“Give up. You’re going to die here anyway.”

That much wasn’t going to change.

I felt the Kraken stiffen at my flat response. It must have been startled to hear a human speaking the Demon Realm language, which only highly intelligent monsters could use.

“You. Are. Clearly. Human.”

“Of course I’m human, you fucking bastard. Do I look like an octopus to you?”

It was all thanks to the System’s Integrated Language Pack, but I saw no reason to explain that to it.

Instead, while it hesitated, I drove a fist toward the area above its eye.

Fwoosh.

Blue flames flickered over my clenched fist.

The Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist—the technique that had once turned Tibet’s Potala Palace into a “Crash Mansion.”

The hammer of Scorching Yang Qi pierced the Kraken’s skin, protected though it was by magical power.

Gwaaaaaang!

Keep striking even the hardest rock, and eventually it will break.

With enough internal energy behind it, the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist could bring down not just a rock, but a monster hundreds of times larger than a human.

Fwoosh!

Blue blood surged upward, and the Kraken’s body trembled.

It had thrashed so violently that every yacht and fishing boat moored nearby was smashed to pieces. Now, instead of a thunderous roar, it let out a faint groan.

“……You. Human.”

“Shut your mouth.”

At last, I could see the end of this fight.

Sensing victory, I yanked White Flame from its eye at lightning speed and brought it down.

Or I was about to.

“Did you. Humans. Not give me. Power?”

“……!”

The spearhead stopped in midair, just short of piercing the Kraken’s head.

Countless thoughts flashed through my mind. I stared at it in confusion.

“What did you just say?”

Its limp body stirred at my question.

The Kraken was laughing. I was sure of it.

“Interesting.”

“Answer my question. Before it stops being interesting.”

“Did I not. Tell you? You were the ones. Who gave me power.”

“What do you mean by—”

Something felt wrong. As I tried to ask again, the Kraken drew a ragged breath and spoke.

“It must be cramped. Isn’t it?”

“……!”

“Go outside. There’s a wider sea.”

I froze.

That wasn’t the Kraken’s voice. It wasn’t the Demon Realm language, either.

Unlike its halting speech until now, this voice flowed smoothly. It was unmistakably—

Korean?

Yes. It was definitely Korean.

The Kraken was imitating someone I didn’t know. No—it was closer to replaying a memory exactly as it had happened.

The unfamiliar voice that followed confirmed it.

“The one who gave me power. The one who led me outside.”

Blue blood ran like a tear from its charred eye.

The Kraken looked at me with that eye—already dead, yet still full of hatred and despair—and continued.

“They were all human.”

“……!”

At the word human, a chill so cold it made me shudder climbed my spine.

Things that hadn’t quite made sense flashed through my mind, one after another.

The Monster Wave had moved so quickly that no one could respond.

The Kraken was extraordinarily powerful, even for a named monster.

And the Kraken itself had admitted that someone else was involved.

If all of that is true…

Someone deliberately caused the Monster Wave.

My teeth clenched at the thought. An artificially caused Monster Wave? It shouldn’t have been possible. It should never be allowed to happen.

But…

Damn it. It is possible.

The total amount of magical power determined whether a Gate mutated or a Monster Wave occurred.

If the magical power exceeded the amount a Gate could contain, the two phenomena described above would occur.

And there was a way to raise that amount artificially.

Magic Gems.

The scattered pieces fell into place.

If it absorbed a Magic Gem containing a monster’s magical power—an unpurified Magic Gem that had not undergone the purification process at human hands—it could be the only answer to this mystery.

But who? Why?

Someone had made the Kraken absorb a Magic Gem, turning it into a named monster. Then they had brought about a Monster Wave and unleashed this disaster.

It was terrorism. An atrocity no human should have been capable of committing.

Who would do that?

The hand holding White Flame trembled. Question after question crowded my mind, leaving it dark as a sky covered in clouds.

Ironically, only one creature could answer them.

“…Tell me. Everything you saw and heard.”

I spat out the words. The Kraken gave a low, rumbling laugh.

“Why. Should I?”

“Because if you don’t tell me right now, I’ll kill you.”

“How frightening. Truly frightening.”

The mockery was obvious.

I pressed the spearhead farther in, but it only laughed through the pain and refused to yield.

“Ask. Your own kind.”

“You fucking octopus.”

“Kill. Me. Human.”

“……!”

I clenched my teeth, fighting the urge to put a hole through the damned octopus’s head right then and there.

Grind.

I had to kill it. I knew I did.

I had watched it all with my own eyes—the Kraken sacrificing hundreds of people.

If I included the other monsters under its command, the number of casualties might exceed several thousand.

Even now, someone somewhere in this city was probably screaming as they died.

But…

“…Fuck.”

I couldn’t kill the Kraken.

For what it had done, I wanted to beat it to death a hundred times over. A thousand times. But finding the person behind this damned disaster mattered more.

If I couldn’t catch the bastard who had made the Kraken absorb a Magic Gem and brought about the Monster Wave, this would only be the beginning.

And people would die every time.

Was it the internal energy I’d spent? Or the unexpected existence of a traitor? My body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton, and fatigue hit me all at once.

Sunlight beat down on my head.

Fuck. Of course the weather’s nice.

It was a damn beautiful day and a god-awful situation.

I let out a rough breath and pulled White Flame from the Kraken’s head.

Fsssh!

Blue blood gushed around the white spearhead as it came free.

I have to keep this thing alive.

The only witness—and the only one who could testify—was a monster.

Exhaustion weighed on me as I loosened my grip on the spear shaft.

Slide.

And that was both the only miscalculation I made in this battle and the most painful mistake.

Whoooooosh!

“……!”

It happened in an instant.

The Kraken’s massive body, limp as though half-dead, thrashed. All eight tentacles came flying at me.

“Hup!”

Tap-tap. Whoosh!

I belatedly came to my senses, stepped on the Kraken’s head, and launched myself into the air.

For a heartbeat, I thought I’d dodged the ambush.

Then I realized what the Kraken had really intended.

Fwoooooosh!

Black liquid spread through the air for dozens of meters² in every direction.

It had planned this from beginning to end. With my guard down, I had no room to dodge all of it.

Splash!

Even moving as fast as I could, I couldn’t avoid all of it as it spread across such a wide area.

And the instant the black liquid—perhaps roughly the amount in a cup of milk—touched my entire body, an unexpected System alert rang out.

Beep.

System

You have come into contact with Kraken’s Ink!

Kraken’s Ink is a deadly poison with tremendous toxicity!

Status Abnormality: Poisoned has been applied!

Status Abnormality: Paralyzed has been applied!

Strength temporarily decreases significantly!

Agility temporarily decreases drastically!

Unaffected by a Hundred Poisons begins resisting!

Using internal energy can rapidly drive out the poison!

“……!”

My body grew heavy along with the System alert.

The black liquid was ink—and a deadly poison at that.

Damn it.

Why had I let my guard down? Why hadn’t I suspected it right to the end?

The regret was bitter, but it was too late.

I drew up Scorching Yang Qi to counter the poison and put on the Myriad-Poison Ring from my Inventory.

Ding.

Another System alert sounded, and purification began.

But that was another mistake. The Kraken had seized the moment I let my guard down, and I wasn’t its target.

Splashhhhh!

Its massive body shot forward like a ray of light, throwing up waves.

Gwangan Bridge lay ahead. Survivors were still there, waiting to be rescued.

“You…!”

“Human! Try. To. Kill. Me!”

There was scarcely time to think. Countless thoughts flashed through my mind, but the answer had been decided from the start.

A Murim warrior fought. A Hunter had to fight and protect people at the same time.

Crack.

I tightened my grip on the spear shaft, still cold despite all the blood it had soaked up.

In midair, I drew back my shoulder and twisted my waist. Internal energy raced through my coiled muscles and acupoints toward the spearhead.

Fwoosh.

Blue flames burned beneath the blazing sun. Sunlight shattered against the spearhead.

And then…

Now.

Die.

I swung my arm with every intention of killing it. The spear, engulfed in hellfire, shot forward as a beam of light.

Whooooooosh! Boom!

Compressed air burst outward, and the sea split apart.

At the end of its path was the Kraken’s enormous body, bearing down on the survivors.

Boom!

Blue blood fell like rain.