Chapter 91

Simply having the rattling noise cease afforded some room to think. Seo Hae-gun also seemed to have regained a sliver of reason, as the force in the hand throttling Kim Si-hoon’s throat began to loosen.

“Are you all right?” Hae-gun asked, his voice low.

“I feel like that’s the line I should be saying,” Eui-rim replied.

Hae-gun’s broad back heaved heavily with each ragged exhale. Seeing his breath come in ragged gasps like someone who had sprinted at full tilt, controlling his skill within such a short window had clearly taken a heavy toll on him.

Damn it. I shouldn’t have spaced out; I should have frozen time first. Failing to react immediately to the surprise attack had led to a waste of Seo Hae-gun’s stamina.

“I’m fine,” Eui-rim said. “The bracelet shattered, but thanks to you, Hae-gun-ssi, I wasn’t hurt.”

As Eui-rim approached where Hae-gun held the corrupted hunter, Kim Si-hoon’s thrashing grew even more violent. Corroded by the shadow, he remained capable of movement even while time was suspended.

Are his hunter skills sealed, then? If so, that’s a small mercy amidst disaster.

Looking into Si-hoon’s pitch-black eyes, Eui-rim withdrew the component of his personal armament—the clockwork spring. Seeing the guild master reduced to this state gave him a grim premonition that the Association strike team, including Yoo Tae-geun, were in equally dire peril.

“Should I gouge out his eyes?” Hae-gun asked casually.

“What?” Eui-rim gasped, taken aback.

Startled by the jarring proposal, Eui-rim looked over to find Hae-gun’s expression utterly nonchalant. Hae-gun glanced between the squirming captive and Eui-rim’s weapon before adding, “You said the flesh bound to the shadow had to be excised first. Gouging out an eye or two won’t kill him, so I figured it was worth a shot.”

Delivering such chilling words with complete serenity was a talent in its own right. Eui-rim shook his head emphatically.

“If I were still an active healer, perhaps, but without restorative magic, limbs are our limit,” Eui-rim explained urgently. “Trauma to organs or the face could cause permanent disability or kill him. Besides, Kim Si-hoon can still access his telekinesis. He hasn’t been completely consumed by the shadow, so there must be a way to salvage him.”

“Not completely swallowed? When he charges blindly like a rabid beast?” Hae-gun countered.

“You experienced hallucinations when the shadow seized your ankles, Hae-gun-ssi,” Eui-rim reminded him. “Kim Si-hoon is merely trapped in that same cognitive loop. Those actively converting into hosts aren’t tethered along an extended line like this.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Hae-gun notice the elongated shadow anchored to the nape of Si-hoon’s neck. The dark tendril reached all the way to the sigil blanketing the ceiling, designated as a reserve line for the next vessel.

Staring down at Si-hoon in silence, Hae-gun spun the man around, slamming him face-first against the concrete. In a single fluid motion, the hand previously choking Si-hoon’s throat twisted both of his arms behind his back, pinning him immobile.

Si-hoon thrashed frantically to wrench free, but the leverage only ground him tighter into the stone. Satisfied that the captive couldn’t budge an inch, Hae-gun asked, “What now? Proceed straight to severing the sigil?”

“No. I’m considering our options,” Eui-rim replied.

“Why? Does something feel off?” Hae-gun asked.

“Yes. The form of this sigil has been bothering me from the start,” Eui-rim said.

Every previous mark had been etched flush into the floor or ceiling, only assuming three-dimensional shape upon destruction before crumbling into ash.

Yet this entity was different. Even untouched, it bulged from the wall, hovering in midair with grotesque fidelity to the cyclopean horror from his previous life.

Furthermore, the corpse he had encountered while destroying the fourth sigil…

The words croaked by that twisted corpse echoed in his mind with toxic persistence.

‘Because of frail vessels, it could not attain perfection.’

Is the sigil above continuously liquefying because it remains incomplete?

“What can you possibly achieve by clinging to a broken relic like the Scales?” a voice rasped.

Managing to crane his neck, ‘Kim Si-hoon’ produced a horrific metallic rasp, his vocal cords shredded. Snickering while pinned beneath Hae-gun’s grip, the creature’s face contorted. “Brother. No matter how desperately you struggle, it is futile. We must converge into one and return to the Origin. That is our singular destiny.”

Hae-gun displayed no reaction whatsoever. Whatever filth spilled from the man’s mouth, he seemed to dismiss it as the delirium of a possessed puppet.

Yet Eui-rim could not dismiss the speech so easily. The creature was attempting to converse directly as a Fragment, rather than merely projecting hallucinations to twist human emotion.

It was not raving blindly. It was scrutinizing Hae-gun’s every breath, exhibiting an eerie calm, as though it had waited solely for this opportunity to address him.

“I haven’t understood a single syllable since you started babbling,” Hae-gun said, his tone dripping with bored contempt. “Relying on what? Returning where? Speak coherent Korean if you want an audience.”

Noticing that Eui-rim was listening intently to the creature, Hae-gun spoke with irritated indifference, making it clear he harbored zero interest in the entity’s words.

Yet from that retort, Eui-rim recognized a chilling reality. Far from sarcasm, Hae-gun genuinely could not perceive the meaning of the creature’s words.

Can he literally not process terms concerning the ‘Scales’ and the ‘Origin’?

‘Kim Si-hoon’ widened his pitch-black eyes, caught off guard. Staring fixedly at Hae-gun, he muttered beneath his breath.

“Damn Scales. Interfering to the bitter end.”

“Now I understand why the other brothers failed to locate you,” the creature murmured. “Your soul was shattered, leaving you with pitifully meager cognition.”

“Eui-rim-ssi,” Hae-gun offered flatly. “Why don’t we silence him? If I crush his jaw, he won’t be able to spout nonsense even if he tries.”

…Even granting that he cannot understand the deeper meaning, completely disregarding a cosmic entity addressing him as a brother is astonishing.

Is that fearless composure, or pure apathy?

‘Kim Si-hoon’ let out a series of dry rasps, seemingly baffled by Hae-gun’s utter disinterest. Rolling eyes blackened to the sclera, the creature sneered.

“It matters not,” the creature hissed. “The vessel’s lost fragments can be reclaimed easily enough.”

“…”

“Once I butcher the human who stole it, everything will return to its rightful order.”

The creature dragged a blackened tongue across its lips. Turning away from Hae-gun, it locked a gaze of venomous malice directly onto Eui-rim.

“What about stuffing this into his mouth?” Hae-gun offered, pointing to a rusted steel pipe on the floor. “The diameter looks about right for a gag.”

With that, Hae-gun wrenched the creature’s skull in the opposite direction. Eui-rim offered a faint, wry smile, shaking his head. These entities could compel rotting corpses to laugh and converse; a crude iron pipe would hardly gag its voice.

“There are brothers who refuse to return to that place, aren’t there?” Eui-rim asked.

Instead of attempting to silence it, Eui-rim voiced the question that had gnawed at his thoughts since obliterating the second Fragment.

‘Kim Si-hoon’ bristled with fury that the mortal who held his brother’s soul dared address him. Grinding his teeth, his crazed gaze looked ready to tear Eui-rim limb from limb.

“Two of you have already been destroyed by our hands,” Eui-rim pressed evenly. “Doesn’t that make complete unification impossible? Giving up on your return would be far more sensible.”

Though Eui-rim refrained from speaking terms like ‘Fragment’ aloud, the creature understood his intent. After a raspy cackle, it replied, “We do not perish. We are merely severed and dispersed for a heartbeat. So long as the collective will endures, we will coalesce and return to the Origin. Even the brothers you claim to have destroyed will return to our fold.”

Merely dispersed…?

“Therefore,” the creature hissed, “I will begin by extracting the soul you stole.”

The instant crimson fluid leaked from the creature’s black eyes, the atmosphere chilled to subzero. Turning sharply, Eui-rim saw two figures drop from the ceiling, dangling from shadow tethers as they lunged toward Ahn Moonhyuk and Son Chaeyoon.

Crash!

Hae-gun unleashed a torrent of pressurized water, but the shadow shield deflected the strike. Seeing the defense hold, Eui-rim deactivated the temporal timer before the attackers could overwhelm his companions.

“Agh! What the hell was that?!” Moonhyuk bellowed as time restarted. “Did you just freeze the room for a microsecond?! I nearly had a heart attack!”

Despite his bluster, Moonhyuk nimbly deflected Yoo Tae-geun’s descending axe and reset his spear stance.

With 〈Rewinding Hand〉 released, the smothering pressure around Yoo Tae-geun and the Association hunter visibly waned. “Hae-gun-ssi,” Eui-rim called, “can you provide ranged support?”

“…That’s risky,” Hae-gun replied, eyes tracking the skirmish. “Without temporal stillness, micro-precision is difficult. If my output fluctuates by a fraction, our people will be crushed in the crossfire.”

He was right. Modulating an S-rank’s lethal force to spare allies amidst chaotic melee was extraordinarily difficult. Eradication was simple; surgical suppression was not.

Clang!

The ringing clash of steel on steel echoed as Yoo Tae-geun’s double-bitted axe met Moonhyuk’s halberd. Confirming their line, Hae-gun threw up thick water curtains across every trajectory, sealing off any rubble Kim Si-hoon might telekinetically weaponize.

Wuuuung.

Just then, the pool of blood dripping from the ceiling sigil parted, revealing three figures pinned beneath the dark nexus.

One lay withered like an ancient mummy, its vital essence drained dry. Another thrashed in violent spasms, tethered like Si-hoon. The third had become a secondary vessel, vomiting black bile in rhythmic heaves. “The missing Association hunters,” Hae-gun muttered. “I wondered where the rest of the team had vanished… they were clustered here all along.”

Hae-gun’s words jolted Eui-rim back to razor focus. Shaking off the encroaching dread, he tightened his grip on the clockwork spring.

Focus. I cannot destroy this core with a mere surface scratch like the fourth mark. This is an active ritual modeled after the apocalypse. I must scatter every last remnant of this entity to the void.

What must I do?

Blindly swinging steel or triggering 〈Rewinding Hand〉 won’t suffice. How do I shatter that abomination?

“…A light?” Eui-rim breathed.