Chapter 177: Living Armor (2)
“Did she get attacked by the demon beast…?”
Isabella carefully examined Jegal Soyoung’s head.
Ohjin stopped letting his imagination run wild and shook his head.
‘Snap out of it.’
He had reflexively looked in Isabella’s direction, but logically thinking, she couldn’t have killed Jegal Soyoung.
‘She was with me the whole time.’
No matter how incomparably powerful she was compared to Ohjin, there was no way for her to kill Jegal Soyoung from that distance without him noticing.
No, even if such a method existed, there was no reason for her to kill Jegal Soyoung.
‘It’s hard to believe that she would kill her out of jealousy.’
If the reason for her death was Isabella’s jealousy, her first target wouldn’t have been Jegal Soyoung but Heun.
Ohjin focused on the coldness in Isabella’s eyes once again.
The look in her eyes wasn’t that of a psychopath that committed brutal murder, but it was closer to that of a veteran detective investigating a crime scene.
In other words…
‘This is a situation that not even Isabela expected.’
Ohjin examined Jegal Soyoung’s head which had cerebrospinal fluid leaking out of it.
The other half of her head had disappeared as if someone had taken a bite out of an apple.
‘It must’ve been torn off whole.’
Ohjin calmly observed the injuries and narrowed his eyes.
He noticed that Jegal Soyoung’s eye was wide open with surprise.
“She died without even being able to retaliate.”
Jegal Soyoung had literally lost her life in the blink of an eye.
“Then what happened to Ms. Yuumi, who was with Ms. Soyoung…?”
“Wait.”
Ohjin sent mana into the communication marble.
The marble flickered with blue light, but there was no answer.
“Are you unable to contact her?”
“Yeah.”
Since things had come to that, they had no choice but to search for her themselves.
“This way.”
“B-Be careful.”
Isabella pulled on his sleeve with a stiff expression as he was about to follow the trail of blood.
Worry and anxiety were contained in her eyes.
Ohjin slightly nodded his head and cautiously began to move.
The trail of blood was renewed at fixed intervals like the breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretel.
“Damn it.”
He kept following the trail of blood, but it suddenly disappeared at a certain point.
‘Did it become a ghost or something?’
It felt like he was chasing after a phantom.
“This way. I can smell blood coming from there.”
At that moment, Isabella pointed in a direction.
Ohjin activated the stigma of the Hunting Dogs and sniffed the scent that was wafting from the direction she indicated.
Even with his use of the stigma, he couldn’t smell the blood that she mentioned.
‘I guess she is the Queen of Leeches.’
Not even his ability to detect the smell of blood was on her level.
“Let’s try heading in that direction.”
“Yes.”
They moved in the direction Isabella had indicated.
Once they marched forward for a long time while paying close attention to their surroundings, he gradually began to detect the iron-like smell of blood.
‘Just how did she smell this from that far away?’
Ohjin stuck his tongue out and arrived at the source of the smell.
“…Damn it.”
Blood splattered the wall like graffiti, and they discovered Jegal Soyoung’s headless corpse on the ground.
That wasn’t the only thing they discovered…
‘Choi Yuumi.’
The corpse of a high-ranking Awakener of Phoenix, Choi Yuumi, had its torso and lower body torn apart.
Her intestines were spilling out, and her lifeless eyes stared into the horizon.
“Fuu…”
Ohjin narrowed his eyes while examining the still-warm corpses.
The brutally murdered corpses of Jegal Soyoung and Choi Yuumi had one thing in common…
‘Their hearts are missing.’
While all of their other organs were intact, their hearts were nowhere to be found.
He looked closer at the wounds in the area near their chests and suspected that a hand had destroyed their ribs and torn their hearts out whole.
Since the torn-out hearts weren’t there…
‘It probably ate them.’
He recalled Jegal Soyoung’s head that had part of it munched off like the apple logo of a famous brand.
‘It stopped at half of her head but left nothing behind of their hearts.’
To Awakeners, the heart was more to them than just an ordinary organ. Taking Ohjin for example, even the Black Heaven rooted itself in his heart.
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In other words, the fact that it specifically aimed for the ‘hearts’ of Awakeners meant that…
‘It’s hunting Awakeners with the goal of consuming their mana.’
Ohjin’s eyes shone.
“There are also some traces of fighting here.”
Confirming the area Isabella indicated, he could see that there was a huge hole in the wall that looked recent and there was the shape of a foot imprinted under it.
‘Star of the Weaver Girl’s Hunting Dog.’
Ohjin activated his skill and observed the traces in the surroundings.
“Kugh.”
The flood of information filled the inside of his head like a crashing tsunami.
Blood, the headless corpse, the huge hole on the wall, and the footsteps imprinted on the ground…
He could vividly imagine what went down in his head using the small traces that were left behind in the ally.
‘Jegal Soyoung attacked first.’
A sharp mana arrow was shot from outside its field of view.
The demon beast slightly twisted its body and dodged the arrow that was shot at a speed exceeding sound.
‘And then Choi Yuumi charged in.’
She took a powerful step forward that left a mark on the ground as she drew her sword.
Then…
‘The fighting continued for around one… no, two minutes.’
There were numerous traces of fighting left on the floor and walls such as Choi Yuumi raining sword strikes and Jegal Soyoung supporting her.
‘Then they were defeated.’
They hadn’t been suddenly ambushed, nor had they let their guard down. Instead, they were actually the first to discover the demon beast and take the initiative, but they were defeated despite that.
Not just defeated, but in an overwhelming manner that left them little room for retaliation.
“Let’s head back,” Ohjin said in a firm voice.
Isabella’s eyes widened.
“What about the demon beast?”
“It’s not something we can handle.”
Naturally, it would be worth observing the situation a little further if Isabella used her true skill or if Ohjin was at least in his normal state, but it was far too dangerous to chase after the demon beast at that moment.
“…Yes, I understand.”
Isabella thought for a moment and nodded her head.
It seemed like Isabella remembered something while they were returning, and she carefully pulled on his sleeve.
“Come to think of it, shouldn’t we contact Mr. Woohyuk?”
“Ah, give me a second.”
Ohjin nodded and took out the communication marble.
It started to flicker brightly like a broken light bulb with blue light once he sent mana into it.
-Huff, huff!
The screen violently shook and Lee Woohyuk’s ragged breathing was transmitted through the marble.
-M-Mr. Ohjin?
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“What’s going on?”
-Kugh!
Clang! Krrrrrr!—
Lee Woohyuk roughly swinging his sword was captured on the screen as it shook again. He had Oh Hyunbin on his back, who looked to be unconscious.
‘Damn it.’
Ohjin chewed his lips while observing the situation through the marble.
Had the demon beast that disappeared earlier gone to Lee Woohyuk?
-Bufo! It’s the Bufo Faction!
“What?”
However, what left Lee Woohyuk’s mouth was something that was completely unexpected.
-The Bufo Faction has ambushed us!
—The Bufo Faction…
The faction that was known to have illegally entered Korea had ambushed Lee Woohyuk.
‘So was there a connection with the Bufo Faction and the demon beast in Yonghyun-dong after all?’
Ohjin frowned like he had a headache.
“Where are you?”
-Kugh! N-Near the port!
“We’ll head that way.”
He was planning to avoid the demon beast and run away, but he couldn’t leave for as long as he knew Lee Woohyuk was getting ambushed
“Isabella, let’s head to the port.”
“Yes! I’ll grant you a buff that increases your speed!”
“No, I don’t need it.”
“Eh?”
He pulled Isabella to his body.
“Kya?!”
“Hold still.”
After holding her with one of his arms, he shot a wire at the rooftop of a nearby building.
Bang!—
He launched their bodies high up into the air by wrapping the wire around a piece of jutting rebar.
With there being no need for them to carefully observe their surroundings, it was much faster to move using the wires.
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Bzzt!—
Using Lightning Step to kick off of the air, Ohjin shot to the port at rapid speed.
Boom! Clatter!—
He heard loud noises coming from the pier that had a bunch of containers stacked up and headed there.
“Damn it! H-Hurry up and kill that bastard!”
“Hurry, before we get discovered!”
Dozens of Awakeners that were suspected to be East-Asian were pouring down attacks on Lee Woohyuk, who had Oh Hyunbin on his back.
Ohjin used Lightning Step to change his direction in mid-air and jumped high up.
Grasping his spear with one hand, he gathered his mana.
‘Thunder Fall.’
Bzzzzzzzt!!—
Ohjin crashed down like a comet.
A wave of blue lightning stormed the area he fell onto.
“Aaah!”
“ Wh-Who is that bastard?!”
“Goddammit!”
The Awakeners of the Bufo faction went into a panic with Ohjin’s sudden arrival.
“Mr. Ohjin!”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m alright, but Hyunbin is…”
Oh Hyunbin was drenched in a cold sweat and taking rough breaths on Lee Woohyuk’s back. A long, hideous injury on his back stuck out to his eyes.
“I apologize. We were attacked by their Executor.”
“…Executor?”
“Yes.”
So even an Executor of the Black Star Organization was there.
It was unknown what rank the Executor of the Bufo faction was, but considering that he was at least as strong or stronger than Cheon Doyoon, who was ranked 6th, it was already a miracle to have survived after getting ambushed by him.
“Where is that Executor right now?”
“I… I don’t know. He stopped following us after the first attack.”
‘Stop following them, huh… did he leave the tiresome work to his underlings? Hmm, but considering that…’
“Damn it! What are you doing? Hurry up and kill them!!”
“We don’t have time!!”
The expressions on the faces of the Awakeners of Bufo surrounding them couldn’t be any more desperate. It almost seemed like they were being chased by something as they charged at Lee Woohyuk and Ohjin.
“Let’s run away for now.”
They didn’t have the leisure of facing those people with the Executor of the Bufo faction being present
Bzzzzzt!—
Ohjin shot lightning at the Awakeners headed towards them and moved toward the city.
When they were gradually creating distance—
Hissssssss—
—an unsettling noise rang out once again.
“O-Ohjin.”
Isabella’s expression stiffened while she was granting buffs to Ohjin.
A dreary growl was heard in the direction of where he was headed.
‘Damn it.’
Ohjin’s expression distorted.
There were Awakeners of the Bufo faction in front and an unidentified demon beast behind him.
The situation couldn’t be worse.
“Hisss, hisssss.”
—A monster clad in black armor that emitted a gloomy aura showed itself.
Dark blue flames were ferociously blazing through the gaps in the armor.
The black-armored demon beast was quickly approaching him with a long spear coiled in dark blue flames.
“Argh!”
Ohjin groaned and urgently raised his spear.
It charged at him at a frightening speed with the dark blue spear in its hand.
The distance between them quickly narrowed— and the black-armored demon beast ran straight past Ohjin.
“Huh?”
Ohjin turned his head in surprise.
Pssk!—
“Cough!! Cough!”
Its spear violently pierced through the Awakeners of Bufo that surrounded the area.
“Hissssss!!”
It munched down on the Awakeners of Bufo whole like eating a chicken skewer as the area near the helmet opened wide.
“Ahhh!! S-Save me!!”
“That thing is here!! That thing has come!!”
“Run away!! Quick!!”
The Awakeners of the Bufo faction screamed with their faces pale in fear.
“…What’s going on?”
Ohjin dumbfoundedly looked at the backs of the Black Star Organization members that were running away in panic.
