VSP 167

-…!

But the moment the monster believed he was safe, he instinctively recoiled as he felt a chilling sensation above his core.

But even so, he couldn’t avoid the attack.

The moment he thought he saw a flash of blue light, the giant tiger tore Asura’s skin with his enlarged front paw.

A crack appeared on Asura’s chest. His outer shell, already weakened by several previous strikes, was left completely defenseless against the continuous assault.

-Grrrrrrr!

Asura roared and tried to block the attack with his three arms, but the small, fast creature was cunning.

One, two, three times… thanks to the repeated strikes on Asura’s shell, his crimson core was finally revealed little by little.

The younger heads, who could feel nothing but rage, might not have known, but the leader felt the crisis and made a ‘choice’ in that moment.

Should he block? Or should he ignore defense and try to pull his feet out of the ground? He weighed which option was more beneficial.

The moment of decision was brief, and Asura didn’t hesitate. Instead of pulling his body away, the monster chose to defend. He couldn’t afford to lose his core.

Asura roared again, letting out a thunderous sound to shake off the pests.

The humans backed away in pain. However, the tiger didn’t retreat even after taking a powerful blow. Instead, something could be seen falling from above it.

A human…?

A human fell. But it was a human without any weapons. There was nothing to fear.

Yet, Asura’s instincts felt a chill.

Before he could block, a blue light appeared over the human’s arm.

It looked exactly like the claws of the tiger that had been battering Asura’s shell this entire time.

It grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

At last, Asura’s chest was heavily scratched by a massive front paw.

Screeeech.

The shell of the monster, which looked human but wasn’t, couldn’t withstand the impact and was completely torn away.

Thump-thump.

Part of the pulsing, crimson core revealed itself to the air.

The human was floating in mid-air. In that split second, the enraged Asura swung two of his three remaining arms.

He would kill this human, at least.

But Asura’s two arms didn’t hit the human’s body.

A blue tiger jumped out and blocked the human with his body.

Thwack! The beast was sent flying by the impact he couldn’t endure.

“Hoya!”

The human screamed, but soon bit his lip and charged at Asura.

The human lunged toward the half-exposed core.

Once again, blue light flashed, and a hand shaped like a tiger’s claw attacked Asura’s shell.

Crack!

In that moment, the shell protecting the core completely shattered.

It was a very short window of time. A split second where Asura couldn’t recover or defend his core.

Asura’s core became completely vulnerable.

Asura spotted his most threatening enemy in the distance. The human was pointing his fingertips at him, as if about to fire something.

No, he was aiming right at the core.

He was the most threatening human to Asura ever since he was born.

However, like a fragile human, he was worn out and wounded, making him seem less threatening than before.

But at that moment, Asura felt a greater threat than at any other point today.

What Asura felt then was fear. The first fear he had experienced since coming into this world.

The surrounding air stirred. Then he felt himself being pushed to one side.

-…!

It was coming.

A formless force folded and pressed the air, and the pressure pierced straight through.

The shock wave left a delayed sound. The pressure arrived first, followed by the sound of the rupture.

The shockwave slammed directly into the exposed core.

Crack!

The core couldn’t withstand the impact and cracked. It felt as if some giant, invisible hand was pressing against space, pushing it away.

No.

The monster, whose life was threatened, tried to block the front of the core by swinging his three wounded arms.

The movement was closer to that of a beast trying to escape while holding its core in its arms, rather than a defensive one.

A being born to kill humans had shrunk for the first time to survive.

“Hey, you can’t do that.”

But that was only an attempt.

-…!

A woman was suddenly smiling right in front of Asura’s face. She held up a sword that glowed with a bright red aura, unlike Asura’s dark red one, though it felt similar to his.

Asura’s other head saw another man standing beside her. The man held a gun flickering with golden light and pointed the muzzle at Asura.

They were too close. It wasn’t an attack he could dodge.

A slicing sound and a bang were heard simultaneously. Two of Asura’s arms were destroyed at once.

His only remaining arm tried to defend the core, but that arm couldn’t be raised either.

[Grrr.]

The blue tiger that had flown away earlier quickly climbed up Asura’s body and smashed his last, tattered arm with his huge forepaw.

The last arm also turned to powder and vanished. Nothing remained to block the way, and the core took the full brunt of the impact it could not avoid.

In the final moment, the core emitted a brilliant flash of light.

The light spread outward like an explosion, then vanished. It was as if the light was settling inside the core.

And then.

Ping.

The last thing Asura heard was the sound of something breaking. The sound of life fading away.

That was a great choice, and the results were fantastic.

The leader gave his final judgment a failing grade. He shouldn’t have defended; he should have pulled his body out somehow.

But regret is always late, no matter how early it comes, and the monster was defeated.

That was the last moment the monster could think.

Thump!

The huge body that seemed as if it would never collapse fell to its knees.

The two heads that had been screaming incessantly closed their eyes, but the leader couldn’t close his in the end.

The monster that appeared in another world beyond the dimension stopped working like a machine that had run out of power.

***

Sejun, who had just finished his work and was hanging on to a nearby building that was barely a skeleton, was swept away by the wind that came with a loud noise the moment Asura’s core was shattered.

“Wow!”

As a kid watching cartoons, he used to laugh cynically when villains became stars in the sky, thinking, ‘How is that possible?’ But now that he was an adult, he realized that was a scientifically proven depiction.

Because he was experiencing it right now!

Even as he fell, Sejun thought to himself, his body weakened. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve gotten stronger, so I won’t die. Even if I do get injured, it’ll probably just be a fracture, right?”

However, the sensation Sejun felt wasn’t pain.

He fell into an embrace that was a bit firm but much softer and gentler than the ground.

It was Cha Dogyeong who caught Sejun as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Despite being seriously injured himself, Cha Dogyeong, who had casually caught a heavy, adult man who had fallen from a great height, spoke nonchalantly.

“Be careful.”

Sejun blinked. “Where on earth did this guy come from?” He thought, then realized his position and gaped in shock.

He was currently being held by Cha Dogyeong in a princess carry!

“Hey, hey, hey, hey!”

A flustered Sejun tried to push Dogyeong’s chest away, but when he realized he was injured, he couldn’t bring himself to do so and stumbled. His heart pounded.

“Is… is Asura dead?”

Unable to bear the embarrassment, Sejun blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Cha Dogyeong nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Do… do we need to double-check?”

“We don’t have to.”

Despite the continuous nonsense, Cha Dogyeong simply responded calmly.

Both were still soaking wet, covered in blood and dirt. Despite their horrific appearance, their postures were remarkably romantic.

The one carrying and the one being carried, who couldn’t even ask to be put down, both knew they looked ridiculous to others, but neither chose the option of letting go.

Come to think of it, they hadn’t been like this for a long time.

No, actually, they hadn’t even been able to stay close for that long after they started dating.

Even when they were apart, they were apart for way too long. There was a brief moment when they met again in the middle, but that was short.

To make matters worse, they were separated in the worst way possible right after that, it felt like it had been forever.

Well, it had been a long time.

“……Put me down.”

When Sejun requested in a low voice, Dogyeong obediently put him on the ground.

As soon as Sejun’s feet touched the earth, he hugged Dogyeong. It was something he never did in public.

Sejun, who had been hypnotizing himself into thinking that to others, it would just look like skinship with his comrades after the battle was over, soon entered a state of “I don’t care anymore”.

He couldn’t hold back, even if it looked strange to others.

Finally, Sejun couldn’t stand it anymore and buried his head in Cha Dogyeong’s chest. Between the smell of rain and blood, he could smell Dogyeong’s familiar scent.