Chapter 148

It was a simple strike.

It wasn’t fast, nor was it particularly destructive.

The Thunder Immortal, seeing that the spear had pierced deep into his flesh but seemingly caused no immediate reaction, prepared to deliver one final blow to demolish Thunder Rain Valley.

However, that choice brought about fatal consequences.

Five seconds.

It was enough time for an ordinary person to dodge an object flying toward them. For an Immortal-grade Awakened who commanded lightning, it was a duration close to an eternity.

“Guh-urk!!!”

Unlike the booming, resonant voice that had echoed like a telepathic transmission until now, a mere vibration produced by mortal vocal cords leaked out.

Vomiting blood as he recoiled, the Thunder Immortal looked down at his own body in disbelief. A massive hole had been torn into his chest where the spear had struck, and it refused to mend, bleeding incessantly.

That wasn’t all.

“This is impossible… Why…!”

The dark clouds that had blanketed the sky began to scatter. The streaks of lightning that had been pouring down like rain diminished in an instant. The Thunder Immortal’s mana had evaporated.

Kang Cho-won stared at the spear that had pierced him, his mouth agape. A small orb of darkness was flickering at the tip of the blade.

“Could it be because of that? How on earth…”

『Fear not!?』

While everyone was frozen in shock, I smiled quietly beneath my mask.

That was it.

That was exactly why the White Immortal feared my direct participation in the tournament. It was the reason I was confident I could sever her contract with a single finger.

The otherworldly power that annihilates all magical and physical phenomena at a fixed point.

Extreme Magic — Singularity.

It was smaller than a ping-pong ball and took quite a while to activate, but I figured this wasn’t a bad result.

While I was wallowing in self-satisfaction, the protagonist who had utilized the Singularity stepped out through the rift in dimensions. First came the arm gripping the spear and a bare shoulder. Then, noticeably lengthened blonde hair appeared.

“Ugh, goddamn it. I’m finally out. Where is this? Where’s Hayan… Huh?”

“Cough, hack…!”

“What’s this? Is this old man dying already?”

“How… how did you… to me…”

The Thunder Immortal was already fading. Because of the Singularity, his contract with the White Immortal had been severed. Had he been alive, it might have been different, but as a restless spirit being handled as a familiar, he no longer had any way to maintain his physical form.

As the Immortal gathered his last dregs of mana to call down lightning, Kang Ha-neul closed the distance in an instant and swiped his hand away.

“Tsk, still trying to pull something? Just go already. Enough.”

The last thing the old man saw was the cold gaze of the grandchild he had considered his greatest failure.

“Anyway, is the tournament still going on? Don’t tell me it’s already time for the next one.”

“Ha-neul! You’re safe!”

“Of course I am. Who do you think I am? I fell into hell and almost died more times than I can count, but I’m far from actually kicking the bucket.”

Tossing aside the tentacles draped over his shoulders, he spat out the slime pooling in his mouth. Ptui!

He had certainly gone through an ordeal; his entire body was covered in scars. Even the spear he held had changed. The original spear he’d taken in must have broken long ago; the shaft was made from the spine of the Tentacle of Armor , and the blade was fashioned from the sharpened needle of the Tentacle of Agitation.

Beyond that, there were minor changes—his hair reached his shoulders, and his limbs seemed slightly longer—but there was a much more significant transformation.

It was the density of his mana.

A refined mana that could only be displayed by an Awakened who had reached at least the High Level was radiating from his entire body. Although he was still clumsy at handling the Singularity, this was nothing short of magnificent growth.

“Where is Hayan, Brother?”

Immediately after finishing the battle, the first person this magnificently grown Kang Ha-neul looked for was me. If he wanted to thank the mentor who had imparted such enlightenment, I was prepared to take off my mask and step forward with a joyful heart—but it seemed to be quite the opposite.

“Why are you looking for Hayan?”

“That kid tripped me and I fell into a weird place. If I don’t give him a thorough piece of my mind, I don’t think I’ll ever feel satisfied.”

“Ahem, about that…”

“What is happening here? The Thunder Immortal is…”

“Oh, Nabi is here! Nabi, have you seen Hayan!?”

“I don’t know, and don’t call me by my name. More importantly, that person… Patel?”

Oops, time to bolt.

All three siblings of the Kang family were now in one place. Setting aside Kang Cho-won, who had been acting strangely friendly for a while, there was no reason the other two wouldn’t point their spears at Patel.

Just as I was about to hide my eight remaining fingers inside my robe and prepare for space distortion—

I heard it.

The casual remark dropped by Kang Ha-neul as he grumbled about the junior who had pushed him into a pit of tentacles, even while standing before a Great Evil.

“Do you have any idea how much I suffered in there? Two years? Or was it three? It felt like at least that long…”

“That is the end of the report.”

“I see. Good work.”

The Commander’s Office.

Yoo Se-byeol nodded as she listened to the report from Kang Ha-neul, who had returned from his vacation. It had been only a single day on the outside, but it was several days inside the Gate. And for Kang Ha-neul, who had been trapped in an even deeper Gate, it had been much longer.

“That Black Mage bastard… the moment our eyes met, he vanished with a ghostly wail.”

“Waaaaaaahhh!!”

“I see.”

“Was there any movement from the Demon Race during that time?”

“We kept the basic surveillance network running, but there was nothing unusual. The Magic Towers in Europe said there were no issues either.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Uwaaaaaaaaahhh!!”

Kang Ha-neul replied with a tone laced with irritation, glancing at the uninvited guest who kept noisily interrupting the conversation. He wanted to ignore him, but he couldn’t.

It wasn’t behind his back, on the floor, or on the ceiling like usual. For the entire duration of the report to Yoo Se-byeol, the guest was right where his eyes kept landing.

Specifically, on her lap.

“Anyway, because the additional Gate created by that bastard inside caused Thunder Rain Valley to collapse, it became difficult to continue the tournament. After a family meeting, we decided to inherit the Thunder Immortal’s power next year—”

“Hwaaaaaaaaahhh!!”

“Hey!!! Go cry somewhere else, it’s loud! You’re making things difficult for the Commander!!!”

“I-It’s okay! I’m fine, so please continue…!”

Just as Kang Ha-neul was about to explode at my sorrowful weeping, Yoo Se-byeol quickly stepped in to restrain him.

“Wasn’t that a bit too much? I’m sure Hayan didn’t have bad intentions.”

“No, I’m telling you, I didn’t say a single word to him!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I even blocked all the civil complaints sent by Choi Seul-gi’s group from this end. I have no idea why he’s acting like that!”

“I-I see.”

Looking a bit flustered, she eventually began to stroke the back of my head gently. As a bonus, she adjusted the size of the collar she had previously fastened around my neck while she was at it.

“I don’t know the reason, but something must have happened to make you feel so sorrowful.”

“Sniffle, hiccup…!”

Probably neither of them would ever understand.

Three years.

To think it only took him three years.

The time it took Kang Ha-neul to awaken the Singularity was, at most, less than a fifth of the time I had spent.

How could the heavens be so indifferent?

Until now, I had ignored him, thinking he had no talent, but even Kang Ha-neul’s talent was excessively superior compared to mine back when I was just an ordinary person.

Jealousy.

And a sense of deprivation.

If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn’t have sympathized with him from the start.

“Bbffft!”

“Kyaak!? D-Don’t blow air between my legs!”

“Hayan, you little bastard!”

It was truly a sorrowful situation.

An hour later.

Having barely managed to calm my emotions, I stepped out of Yoo Se-byeol’s office. Others might feel they could never look her in the eye again after sobbing into the lap of a girl younger than themselves, but as the thick-skinned Apostle of an Outer God, I felt no shame at all.

『Fear, not…』

“Are you telling me to be a little ashamed? Mala-nim, are you ashamed of me, your only believer!?”

『Fear…』

Mala-nim, essentially saying, “That’s what I’m saying,” hid inside my sleeve instead of a mouse hole.

Regardless, I strapped my newly acquired toy to my wrist. It was a smartwatch. As one of the victory prizes from the Thunder Tournament, it was logged into a super account for New Monster Wars. Kang Ha-neul, figuring he could only scold or grill me after first soothing me, had asked Kang Nabi to get it for me.

Of course, this was cheating. Climbing the rankings with this account, which possessed a staggering 99,999,999 Blue Magic Stones, was just as cowardly as using the power of the Thunder Immortal.

Before the tournament started, I had boasted that I would delete something like this the moment I received it, but what could I do? The Special Unit’s smartwatches weren’t the kind of things that broke easily under normal impact.

『Fear?』

“Silence!!! What do you mean I can just delete the account!! Are you telling me to kill the countless Gargantuas inside here then?!”

There are living cats inside this thing too!

Having scolded Mala-nim for the first time in my life, I immediately tied my sleeve shut so she couldn’t come out anymore. The utility of a super account is infinite; it’ll be useful later.

After changing my ID to “Spear of Hatred,” my eyes fell upon the other two watches on my wrist. One was the one I originally used, and the other was the one I received from Norkel.

The latter, in particular, had a massive backlog of messages, all of which were seeking the Black Mage, Patel. Seeing it vibrate several times a second even now, it seemed the news of his appearance in Thunder Rain Valley had spread far and wide among the demons.

“I should stay low for a while. If I disappear for about a month, rumors will start circulating that I was killed by the Thunder Immortal.”

Lately, I didn’t wear the mask unless it was absolutely necessary. There was the risk of being caught by Flauros and forced into a blood contract, but the bigger reason was the risk involved.

Since the Great Invasion failed, the center of power within the Council was slowly shifting. As the Chairperson, Trishy, repeatedly declared her absence, the Seat of Silence, led by Karzos’s gang, began to grow their influence to seize control of the Council.

Meanwhile, Velada, who had regained her strength, was at odds with Flauros, and Norkel, still aiming for the manifestation of Gamigin, was gathering witches to oppose them. The Seat of Flame was on the verge of splitting three ways.

Jumping into such a fire pit would result in more loss than gain. Especially since all three wanted to bring me—or rather, Patel—to their side, I didn’t know what kind of rough treatment I’d face if I got involved. I might end up with another set of handcuffs, a collar, or more bite marks.

Even the White Immortal, after the tournament, had treated me like a terminal patient, saying outright, “That’s a shame. Still, in about four years, I’ll probably be able to handle at least one of your fingers as a familiar.” So, it wasn’t a completely absurd concern.

“Right, my finger!”

『Fear?』

“I’m not talking about the one I gave to you, Mala-nim. Come to think of it, Commander Ha Ye-ri never gave my finger back.”

I had to go get it right now. I needed to at least reattach that to exist as a human named Sae Hayan.

I went straight to Commander Ha Ye-ri’s office. She was sitting in the tea room as usual, brewing tea.

“You’ve come. I was looking for you.”
“Give me my finger.”
“Ah, you mean this?”

In a calm tone, she pointed to the finger hanging from the ceiling. How on earth did she get it up there with her short stature?

The moment I tried to jump and snag it, a greatsword blocked my path. Ha Ye-ri, having stopped me, spoke bluntly.

“There is one condition.”

“What do you mean, condition? That’s originally my finger.”

“I know. Perhaps because it belongs to Hayan, it moves on its own.”

It moves on its own?!

“At night, it crawled into my blanket and tickled my feet. I almost cut it in two in my sleep.”

“Pardon?”

“Why do you look so surprised? The hands are the part of the body where a mage’s will is most strongly embedded.”

Ha Ye-ri shared a few stories, saying there were rare records of similar situations. Most, however, were heroic tales of a severed hand forming a seal to cast a spell and save a comrade during a desperate battle.

There were, of course, no stories about crawling into a blanket to touch toes while someone was sleeping.

As I contemplated whether I should even bother reattaching the thing, Ha Ye-ri served me tea and spoke.

“Anyway, I’ve kept it tied up like that since then, but wasn’t it severed in the first place because Hayan teased me?”

“I didn’t think it would actually get cut off. So, what is this favor?”

“Is there any other favor I would ask of Hayan?”

I knew. I just didn’t want to hear it directly.

Contrary to the resolution I made just before coming here, what Ha Ye-ri wanted was me.

“Isn’t it about time you showed up at the Council?”

More precisely, me wearing Patel’s mask.