"Th-thank you! Thank you so much, hero...!"
A ragged civilian expressed their gratitude and quickly ran off in a panic.
It was clear from a glance that they were terrified, fleeing without a backward glance.
Lee Ji-yeon didn’t feel uncomfortable about it.
In fact, she could understand why that would be the case.
—Slice!
A head was severed by a downward axe strike. Blood gushed from the neck, flowing like water from a valley stream.
The decapitated body wobbled for a moment before tipping over to one side.
The blood-soaked corpse lay on the ground. Lee Ji-yeon reached out toward it.
Thud! The cold, lifeless body twitched.
The body, with its head severed, jerked briefly and then suddenly rose.
For a moment, it seemed to search for something, then found its cleanly severed head and reattached it to the stump.
The cut surfaces met, and, as if stitching up a wound, the head and body fused together.
Necromancy.
The death servant, raised through a ritual, stomped the ground to kill the berserk monsters and death servants nearby.
By increasing the number of death servants this way, she was clearing the surrounding monsters.
“Whew...”
After finishing the necromancy rituals for hundreds of servants, Lee Ji-yeon took a moment to catch her breath and surveyed her surroundings.
The area... it was beyond chaotic. Even calling it a mess would be an understatement.
Countless death servants raised by crazed necromancers in unison.
Dungeons, one after another, going berserk and collapsing, pouring out monsters.
Wild monsters in the Gray Zone, riled up by the disturbance, were rampaging.
Superhumans striving to subdue the monsters, civilians resisting with firearms against the monsters...
In areas without civilians, they could let the monsters fight and devour each other, but even then, there was a risk of creating deadly mutations that would need to be dealt with later.
The civilian areas were the priority.
—Please, help the civilians.
A sudden, blunt voice echoed in her mind.
Lee Hayul. That kid from inside a dungeon... where he was performing some sort of purification ritual.
—There are still many people who haven’t evacuated.
Calm, you could say. Despite knowing a terrifying monster was closing in right behind him, he seemed more worried about the civilians than his own safety.
—Many dungeons are going berserk due to the influence of the death servants.
Of course, it wasn’t his actual voice but an artificial one produced by an artifact.
—If it’s you, Senior, you can save so many people.
But... despite being in such a dangerous situation himself, he worried about the civilians first and sent Lee Ji-yeon back to help them.
The kid who had evoked petty jealousy in her... had worried about the civilians and her safety.
Lee Ji-yeon left without being able to say anything.
Leaving her junior, who was being pursued by a monster, alone.
It bothered her immensely... no, it plagued her constantly ever since she parted from him.
“Should I... go back now after all...?”
Her chest felt like it would burst with frustration.
Lee Ji-yeon bit her lip and turned her head. Far off, there was still her junior, likely being chased by the monster without her help.
At the time, she had a rational reason to part ways.
Back then, Lee Hayul was dividing his strength to move both of them. If she split off, it would be easier for him to escape.
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon had no interest in her. While it had pursued her fiercely before, after Lee Hayul appeared, it only focused on him.
Lee Hayul had many skills at his disposal.
With her assistance, he had been fleeing fairly smoothly... and he had impressive sensory abilities and spatial magic.
If things got truly dangerous, he could just teleport far away with spatial magic.
Moreover, Lee Ji-yeon was the Manifestor of Taesan.
With her earth manipulation, she could crush large numbers of minor monsters.
She could use her life energy manipulation for emergency treatment and raise more death servants to save civilians across a wider area.
In this situation, where death servants and monsters were rampaging across a vast area, Lee Ji-yeon, who could use large-scale necromancy, was the most suitable for containing the chaos.
She made that decision and left.
—I’ll be fine.
Lee Hayul... her junior had reassured her.
—Don’t worry.
—I won’t die.
—Please trust me.
He had told her not to worry, that he wouldn’t die, asking her to trust him.
So, with a sense of relief, he had asked her to save the civilians.
Therefore... after making her judgment...
“...Really?”
As she continued to kill monsters and death servants, raising new ones to send out to save civilians, a sudden doubt crept over her.
“Did I really part with him after a calm and rational decision?”
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon. Even though it was a death servant now, it was still fearsome.
Even with its weakened state, just being chased by it for a brief moment had nearly ended her life.
She felt it firsthand.
Even though it had weakened, she couldn’t shake off the fear of the dragon’s speed and the impact that made her feel as if her body would shatter with a single hit.
She had manifested Taesan, feeling confident in her defense, stamina, and resilience, yet even she sensed the deadly poison that would end her life upon direct contact.
She felt fear. She feared death. She didn’t want to die in a place like that.
She had wanted to escape. Hadn’t she actually been running away?
In that situation, her junior, younger than her, opened a path.
He told her to leave it to him, asking her to save others...
Under the guise of comforting words, he had assured her and opened a way for her to escape.
Did she merely take that assurance and flee on her own?
Was it not because she secretly wanted to run away and seized the opportunity to turn her back?
“I...”
She couldn’t confidently say that wasn’t the case.
Lee Ji-yeon had been timid since childhood.
Whenever she felt a vague fear of the unknown, her body froze on its own. She was slow to act, and even thinking things through took time.
Unlike Hong Yeon-hwa, who always exuded confidence and boldly moved forward.
Lee Ji-yeon had no particular talent.
When faced with a problem, she found it extremely difficult to solve, even if she agonized over it for days.
Unlike Baek Ah-rin, who would step back, flash a bashful smile, and effortlessly solve anything, even complex issues.
Lee Ji-yeon manifested Taesan.
It was a powerful Taesan manifestation, strong enough to rank high in her family’s history.
—Have you heard? They say Lady Hong Yeon-hwa completely melted the verification device.
—I heard she manifested Guhwa Flame... Wait, what? Don’t joke around. What can a five-year-old possibly do that even a current combat unit would struggle with?
—No, I’m serious! The whole world is abuzz with that news. Where was she hiding all this time?
Hong Yeon-hwa had manifested Guhwa Flame.
Its power was unprecedented in the history of the family.
—And now it’s Changhae? This is a double blessing.
—They say she can freely control both water and ice, and her output is tremendous... especially on the ice side. She froze a special alloy they couldn’t even use.
—She froze an alloy... That’s ridiculous. Isn’t she also five years old? If she grows even further...
Baek Ah-rin had manifested Changhae, specialized in ice, and her output was exceptional.
She was also extraordinary in controlling water energy.
Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek Ah-rin.
Younger siblings she often met and played with.
These younger siblings, only a year apart, were hailed as the most exceptional talents in the family’s history, praised as if they were the reincarnations of their ancestors, predicted to surpass all others.
Lee Ji-yeon was not at their level.
Though she manifested a powerful Taesan, she didn’t receive unprecedented praise or reverence as if she were an ancestor reborn.
“......”
—And Lady Lee Ji-yeon...
There were always remarks about her that followed.
The same generation, just a year apart in age. Children of the same family head, often seen together, drew attention.
Faint expectations.
Followed by slight disappointments.
Those feelings soon faded, but Lee Ji-yeon clearly sensed them. She could never forget.
—Huh? How do you do that? Oh... Well, you just dodge by watching the movement?
The innocent gaze of Hong Yeon-hwa, who had tilted her head, wondering why Lee Ji-yeon couldn’t do it.
—Aura... I just raise it as I was taught. Didn’t you learn similarly, Ji-yeon Unni?
Even while helping her earnestly, Baek Ah-rin’s gaze showed uncertainty about how to explain things to her.
Lee Ji-yeon couldn’t forget the memories of her younger self.
And foolishly, she had harbored jealousy over it.
She had harbored an ugly envy toward the younger siblings who held no ill will and got along well with her.
At some point, meeting and playing with them stopped being enjoyable.
It wasn’t even in the past tense.
She still couldn’t rid herself of those feelings, which had distanced them.
That feeling... she still couldn’t let go of it. So, naturally, the distance between them grew. It wasn’t as if they’d had an emotional falling-out, but as their meetings grew less frequent, the gap between them widened.
It was a privileged feeling.
If you evaluated innate qualities in descending order from the top, Lee Ji-yeon would undoubtedly be positioned at the very peak.
She was a direct descendant of her family, had never known hunger, was the eldest daughter of the current family head, and carried the lineage of the founding ancestor.
Her unique ability was the manifestation of Taesan, and its power was high. Her family provided her with more than enough support, even an abundance of it.
Records left by her ancestors were available in plenty, and there were many teachers ready to kindly interpret and teach them to her.
She had everything—comfort, warmth, and plenty of food—and so, her complaints stemmed from her own petty frustrations.
They were feelings of resentment due to her own perceived shortcomings.
Being aware of this herself, Lee Ji-yeon only felt more disappointed in herself.
Even now, she was aware of her own flaws.
Grinding her teeth, she summoned mana. Drawing out mana until her core felt empty, she unleashed the death servants she had preserved, sending them out in all directions.
Her head throbbed painfully for a moment. She had used too much mana at once, and her vision blurred.
The farther they went, the harder it was to control them with precision, but she set an absolute command: to leave humans alone and eliminate only the monsters and other death servants.
“Right, I should go back.”
No matter how much she thought about it, reuniting was the right choice.
The evacuation around here was nearly complete. Beyond this range, the death servants could handle things more efficiently.
She had used a lot of power, and her injuries were still present, but nothing that would hold her back.
So she decided to join Lee Hayul and help buy time together.
With that thought, she turned around.
“What?”
In the far distance, she saw a black sphere appear.
It was far away, yet large enough to be noticeable. Also, the energy emanating from the black sphere was somewhat familiar.
“...Wait a moment.”
Before she could process her deep sense of doubt, Lee Ji-yeon suddenly shuddered.
That direction... it was where Lee Hayul had been leading the Two-Headed Venom Dragon.
A terrible thought emerged in the back of her mind.
“No...”
Not knowing who she was talking to, she spoke the denial out loud, stomping her foot to the ground as she sprang forward.
The sphere vanished, as if shrinking away. Lee Ji-yeon moved quickly.
She could feel the venom in the air. Staying here too long would be fatal, given the potency of the poison.
Lee Ji-yeon surrounded herself with stone armor and an aura to block the venom.
She manifested Taesan to boost her resilience.
She kept running, seeing patches of land that had died from exposure to the venom.
There were scorch marks, signs of explosions, blackened earth, and traces that looked as if they’d been torn apart by the wind.
Signs of the Two-Headed Venom Dragon were evident.
The path left by the snake, as large as a building, was unmistakable.
She followed the trail.
And then...
“...Ah.”
Lee Ji-yeon stood before a crater.
A crater so vast that it could easily fit an entire village inside.
She felt familiar energies emanating from it... but that was irrelevant.
She looked around.
Even the area around the crater was completely devastated, as if the ground had been overturned and wiped out.
The traces of the Two-Headed Venom Dragon ended at the crater.
“Junior...”
She looked around.
The Two-Headed Venom Dragon was nowhere to be seen.
Nor were there any traces of the person who had been luring it.
“Junior...?”
She spoke in a trembling voice. No answer came. There wasn’t even a sign of anything resembling a trace.
She manifested Taesan. Synchronizing with the earth, she extended her senses.
She sought the life force held by living beings... felt everything that touched the earth.
Nothing. She pushed her senses to the limit.
Her vision turned red. Blood trickled from her eyes.
Ignoring it, she heightened her senses.
Within all that information, there was no trace that could be linked to Lee Hayul.
The worst possible assumption, which she had been suppressing, floated to the surface.
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“...Th-this...”
—I’m doing this because I don’t want to die.
Suddenly, she remembered his words.
Even as the monster followed close behind, he had worried about the civilians and Lee Ji-yeon, volunteering to act as a lure.
It wasn’t the kind of thing someone would say while facing such danger.
Her vision darkened.
Her eyes filled with despair and self-loathing.
Her head hurt.
It felt like a massive blunt object was striking her head repeatedly. Her brain felt like it was turning to mush, her skull about to shatter to pieces as her head throbbed.
She clenched her teeth, attempting to manifest her power...
“Urgh... ack... aaah...”
The moment she tried to activate her observational power.
The intense pain doubled.
It felt as if her brain would physically melt if she pushed any further.
As her consciousness began to fade to white, she halted the activation of her power.
“Ugh...”
She covered her mouth to hold back a scream, curling her body tightly. She didn’t know where she was lying—probably on the ground.
It didn’t seem to be a location she had pre-marked with coordinates.
Did her spatial leap fail? Why? She had calculated the coordinates in advance; there shouldn’t have been any misalignment.
“Ugh...”
Not only her head, but her entire body was in pain.
Because of this, something felt wrong with her body.
It was hard to describe, but an inexplicable sense of discomfort covered her entire body.
Her senses felt strange.
How could she explain it?
It felt as if... as if...
Through the sensations she received, it felt like the world had grown larger.
[Your body is being restructured.]