Chapter 828

Fear comes in different kinds and degrees.

Some people spend their whole lives afraid of water because they fell into a valley stream as children. Those who’ve lived through an earthquake carry trauma like a brand.

But the greatest, deepest fear is fear of the unknown.

A realm no one has ever seen—or even imagined.

That is the unknown.

The universe. The deep sea. Places even humanity, which built a brilliant civilization through science and magic, has yet to fully reach.

And now, in this very moment, a single streak of fire tearing everything around it to shreds.

BOOOOM!

It was like a storm.

A storm of fire, so sharp it made your skin crawl, turning everything it touched to ash.

The Doppelganger stared, stunned.

Blue-white flames poured out suffocating heat, tinting its pupils red.

SHWAAK!

Tear. Cleave. Cut.

The wind shrieked. The Golems it had spent three years painstakingly shaping burst apart like fireworks.

Limbs made of massive, solid rock were no use. Neither were weapons brought down hard enough to split the earth.

Fwoosh. KRRRACK!

They melted. They broke apart.

In an instant, all seventy-two Golems became heaps of rubble—before the Doppelganger could order them to retreat.

No. It hadn’t even had time to give the order.

The flames tearing through everything hadn’t destroyed only the Golems.

CRASH!

An immense force shook the air.

The magic circles, scattering dazzling halos of light, exploded one after another.

The Doppelganger watched in horror as the translucent barrier around it melted like candle wax.

“What the…”

Before it could finish, something hot surged up from deep inside its body and spilled through its throat into its mouth.

Hack.

The Doppelganger coughed up a clump of dark red blood. Its pupils trembled.

Knowledge from Siegfried Bassmann’s memories struck its empty mind.

Mana backlash.

Its connection to countless magic circles had been forcibly severed, sending the energy throughout its body into turmoil.

If it had cast the magic directly instead of preparing the circles through various conduits and spells, the backlash would have been severe enough to kill it several times over.

How? How is this possible?

The Doppelganger raised its head, gasping for breath.

No trace of composure remained in its shocked eyes. Reflected in them was a human who seemed as unknowable as the unknown itself.

Jin Taekyung.

There he stood, gripping a silver spear that shone white as the Golems’ remains rained down over his head.

Through the lingering light of the magic circles melted by the flames, the Doppelganger saw him staring back.

A predator.

“Say that again.”

His voice sounded ready to give out, yet it seethed like lava as it reached the Doppelganger’s ears.

He staggered toward it as if he might collapse at any moment.

Step.

It was strange.

The whole place was filled with thunderous noise. The temple, stripped of its pillars, was slowly collapsing, and the rocks that had once been Golems were scattering in every direction…

Step.

Yet that small human’s footsteps sounded like thunder. His next words made every hair on the Doppelganger’s body stand on end.

“Who exactly is the master here?”

“……!”

The Doppelganger swallowed a scream before it could escape its lips.

Fear showed plainly in its eyes as it stared at Jin Taekyung.

A monster. That human was a monster.

One who exceeded every expectation, every limit, by an impossible margin.

After dying countless times on the battlefield, the Doppelganger had abandoned its contempt for Jin Taekyung. It had set everything else aside and judged the situation coldly. This time, it had been certain.

Once it reached its destination, everything would go smoothly.

Jin Taekyung would never catch it.

But it had been wrong.

The Doppelganger, which had left the battlefield before anyone else, hadn’t known Jin Taekyung had reached an even higher realm in that brief time.

Now that it understood, it was too late.

If I waste even a little more time here… I’m finished.

Erasure. Forever.

Cold fear crawled up its spine. What it did next came from instinct rather than reason.

The Doppelganger burned through the souls it had left without hesitation. It healed the body mangled by mana backlash, then gathered the energy that had once again filled it to the brim into both hands and unleashed it.

At the inhuman monster approaching it.

At Jin Taekyung.

FWOOSH!

The instant a blinding flash burst forth—

“No!”

A step ahead of Jin Taekyung, the Skeleton King had been charging toward the Doppelganger. He twisted sharply and threw himself in front of the flash.

POP!

The Skeleton King in his usual state wouldn’t even have snorted at it.

For all his bluster, he acknowledged that Jin Taekyung was stronger than he was.

But…

Right now, I’m the only one who can protect that devious human.

He would protect him, even if it put him in danger.

At some point, that had become the most natural thing in the world to the Skeleton King.

Why?

He’d stopped asking himself. Friends didn’t need a reason.

SHWAA!

The Skeleton King brought down the Hero’s Sword.

Golden magical power, bright as sunlight and strangely unlike magic, split the flash.

No.

Just as he thought he’d cut through it, the flash passed through the blade like mist and swelled like a balloon.

WHUM.

What the—

Before he could finish the thought, a light far brighter than the first filled his vision.

FWOOSH!

The whole world turned white.

In that blinding flash, which would have instantly robbed an ordinary human of their sight, the Skeleton King belatedly remembered the answer to his question.

Damn it.

There was no doubt.

This was Light magic, a spell even lower- and mid-level mages could cast with ease.

A simple convenience spell. Its light was faint and it had little killing power, so it was almost never used in combat.

At least, that was what the Skeleton King knew. It was accepted as fact among Hunters, too.

If he’d known that Siegfried Bassmann, a scholarly Grand Mage, had shut himself away in his hideout to study countless spells—and had improved Light magic’s power and usefulness by several levels—he could have dealt with it.

But it was too late. The mistake made the Skeleton King’s heart sink.

I can’t see. Anything.

He hadn’t lost his sight completely.

The Skeleton King was undead. His vitality far exceeded that of a human made of flesh and blood.

But even a moment without sight was a mistake he couldn’t take back when he was fighting an enemy as dangerous as the Doppelganger and trying to protect someone else.

It planned this from the start. It knew I’d step in…

In the blank white world, the Skeleton King raised his sword. With his sight gone, his hearing took in everything around him.

The roar of rubble crashing down a moment later.

An unfamiliar cracking sound from high above.

And then…

A low voice no one else could hear reached his ear.

—Don’t let it get away.

“……!”

At Jin Taekyung’s Sound Transmission, the Skeleton King understood.

Why no magic had come flying at him, even though this was the perfect chance to knock him down.

And what the energy moving stealthily through the air was.

Teleport!

The Skeleton King’s guess was right.

The Doppelganger was pouring all its strength into drawing a Teleport magic circle.

It felt both relief and regret that it had taken the soul of such an accomplished Grand Mage.

You piece of shit…!

The Doppelganger’s nature might be that of a monster familiar with magical power, but right now it was in the body of an ordinary human.

If it tried to cast Teleport without a magic circle to get as far as possible from that inhuman monster, Jin Taekyung, it would crumble to dust without even a chance to resurrect.

Fwoosh.

Mana flowed from the Doppelganger’s hand as it swept through the air, slowly wrapping around its body.

The magic circle would take a little time to complete, but it would reduce the danger by more than half.

Instead of disintegrating without a trace, it might manage to save its upper body.

That was enough for the Doppelganger to survive. The ancient monster of the abyss had no intention of letting anyone interfere with a matter on which its continued existence depended.

Whoosh. CLANG!

It happened in an instant.

A bone fragment shot in with a sharp whistle and was deflected by the defensive magic the Doppelganger hurriedly cast.

SH-SH-SH-SH! CLANG!

With the magic circle nearly complete, the Doppelganger grimaced at the Skeleton King, who kept firing bone fragments without pause.

What? The effect should last much longer.

According to the Grand Mage’s memories, the spell had been perfect. It had struck precisely at a weakness and robbed the Skeleton King of his sight.

Losing your sight in battle was like losing the use of both legs.

That was why the Doppelganger hadn’t tried to disable him any further. The Skeleton King was a formidable opponent, and getting far away from Jin Taekyung—who might do anything next—was more urgent.

But right now, the Skeleton King’s movements were far beyond anything the Doppelganger had expected.

CRASH!

Fired with great speed and force, and aimed with extraordinary precision, the bone fragments finally shattered its defensive magic.

The Doppelganger escaped through the opening with a Blink spell, confusion filling its eyes.

How the hell…

It could tell from every move the Skeleton King made. Those attacks required certainty.

Even though the Skeleton King had taken the full force of the Light magic, he continued his attacks without the slightest hesitation.

POP.

His hazy form shot across the space. At the same time, the golden magical power coating his sword traced a graceful arc.

As its wielder intended.

And as the voice at his ear directed.

—One step left.

At that moment—

SHWAAK!

The Skeleton King’s unhesitating charge wavered.

An ice spear shot past between his streaming golden locks and slammed into a pile of rubble.

BOOM! CRACK-CRACK!

The air turned cold. The Skeleton King moved by his own senses and the Sound Transmissions reaching his ear.

—Three steps right. A horizontal slash.

SHHK!

Binding magic summoned vines to restrain its target. Stems as thick and tough as chains were severed in a single stroke.

—Duck.

Dozens of Magic Missiles tore through empty air.

—Ten steps forward. Run it through.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

As expected of spells cast with a Grand Mage’s power, they struck hard and exploded spectacularly.

But not a single spell touched the Skeleton King. The Doppelganger swallowed a startled breath as he closed to within ten steps.

Already…!

It felt as though a ghost had bewitched it.

The Skeleton King kept firing bone fragments to disrupt the magic circle. He dodged or cut through every attack spell it cast.

Was that mutant always this strong?

But the question disappeared without a trace the moment the Doppelganger saw the Skeleton King’s unfocused eyes.

A shock like a bucket of cold water took its place.

It was him. From the start.

What had Jin Taekyung done?

How could he be barely standing, as if he were about to collapse at any moment, and still render the Doppelganger this helpless?

Confusion and fear gripped it as it gathered its mana.

Blink magic.

That instant flicker put distance between it and the Skeleton King once more.

Or so it thought.

It would have, if a voice hadn’t reached the Skeleton King before the spell took effect—before several meters¹ of space vanished.

—Five o’clock. Advance and…

Before the Doppelganger’s form could blur, the Skeleton King changed direction and charged, lifting his sword.

Fwooooosh.

In a world gone slow, brilliant golden magical power rose like a wave.

The voice came again, and the sword cut through space.

—From the sky to the ends of the earth. Bring it down.

SHWAAK!

A golden flash split the monster of the abyss where, a moment earlier, there had been nothing but empty air.

SHHK. FWOOSH!

A red line ran from the crown of its head to its crotch.

Blood burst out. Then a Sound Transmission reached the Skeleton King’s ear, sounding almost like a groan.

—Ah, shit. Right. My EXP.