novelraw Chapter 72 : Chapter 72
Chapter 72 : Chapter 72
Chapter 72. The Intangible Killer(6)
After Gong Jae-byeok used Photobody and started rampaging.
Everything around was smashed.
Streetlights, cars, buildings, road surfaces, street trees, transformers.
Naturally, fire hydrants were smashed too.
Pshhhsh!
Massive amounts of water surged explosively from the broken hydrants.
And the atmosphere was heated due to the destruction rays.
As the surging water met the heated atmosphere, the water turned into steam and began to evaporate furiously.
The heated air created updrafts through convection.
The massive amount of evaporated moisture rode this flow and soared into the sky.
Normally, these masses of moisture would have scattered after soaring up.
But Saya, waiting in the sky, captured them all without leaving any behind and turned them into clouds.
Into dark clouds thick enough to create snow.
This was exactly why Riman had consistently stuck to only defense and evasion against Gong Jae-byeok's attacks.
To buy time for Saya to manipulate the climate.
At a glance, it might have looked like a quite inefficient strategy.
Because he could have responded with attack magic instead of evasion.
But against Gong Jae-byeok, he couldn't use such a strategy.
First of all, in the Photobody state, physical abilities themselves are greatly amplified.
If he pushed him clumsily in that state, it was certain he would cast Invisibility and run away.
Then from that point on, catching him would become truly impossible.
Provoking his temper with words to induce an attack wouldn't work twice.
Furthermore, even Riman couldn't detect Gong Jae-byeok's Invisibility.
So eventually, there was only one method left.
When the guy used Photobody and revealed his form, he had to slam in the maximum amount of magic he could pour out at once.
To dominate the climate of this area to create an environment where Riman's magic could produce maximum power, then suppress him with overwhelming output.
For that, he had only dodged Gong Jae-byeok's attacks even while out of breath to the very limit.
And now the stage was set.
First, he covered this entire area with dark clouds through Saya.
And the atmosphere was full of humidity.
Riman used that high humidity as a medium to spread cold air.
[Frozen Earth Critical Point]
Whoosh!
Heavy cold air spread out, riding the humidity.
Since the atmosphere was heated, he couldn't freeze everything like before.
But it was possible to rapidly cool down the hot air.
"What……?"
Gong Jae-byeok was flustered as the texture of the air touching his skin changed rapidly.
At the same time, Riman gave an order to Saya.
‘Freeze it.’
Saya executed it without hesitation.
Shhhhaaaa!
Saya blocked the sun's radiant heat with the spread dark clouds, then dropped the temperature of the area beneath the clouds sharply.
Massive amounts of cold air spilling from the dark clouds poured down to the ground.
Cold air poured from the sky, and on the ground, Riman responded with freezing magic.
The climate began to change rapidly before Gong Jae-byeok even had a chance to react.
Of course, the sky of this city was still sunny, and the temperature was mild.
But this battlefield alone was not.
Here, a polar cold wave began to rage.
This place was no longer a city center in early summer, but a frozen earth where severe cold raged.
"Huu……."
Thick breath blew out from Riman's mouth.
An incomparably clear indicator that the temperature was plummeting.
But Riman did not stop here.
Riman ordered Saya inside the clouds.
"Pour it."
As Saya shook her tail with all her might, the heavily clumped clouds collapsed and poured out snow.
Shhhhaaaa-
Truly a blizzard.
Snow began to pour down from the sky.
The snow was pure white.
Because it was snow formed by Saya's weather manipulation, not Riman's mana.
Meanwhile, Gong Jae-byeok felt his body trembling faintly while watching the pouring snowfall.
It wasn't because of the cold.
It was because of fear.
‘Manipulating the weather with an individual's power……?!’
He knew of Mages with this level of skill.
Because among those who received magic directly from the Red King, there were those who possessed such power.
Therefore, Gong Jae-byeok knew.
The fact that he had to run away if he met someone like this.
Putting aside anger and whatnot, because this difference in power was not something he could dare to bridge.
Sssng-
Gong Jae-byeok concentrated light in both legs and boosted his muscle strength.
And immediately turned his back and started to flee from Riman.
But no matter how much he strengthened his legs, he couldn't be faster than a bullet.
[Ice Bullet]
Thud!
The [Ice Bullet] Riman fired hit directly on Gong Jae-byeok's back.
The magic that freezes the point of impact, [Ice Bullet].
In this severe cold, the power of such freezing magic doubles.
Crackle!
Large and thick ice covered his back in an instant.
"Keuk……!"
At that moment when his movement halted.
Three bursts of [Electric Bullet] fired by Riman exploded on him.
Crack!
"Aaaack!!"
Gong Jae-byeok tumbled onto the ground just like that.
And while somehow raising his body, he thought.
‘I have to run away……!’
Seueung…-
Gong Jae-byeok turned off Photobody and activated Invisibility.
He couldn't do both.
Because the moment he turned on Photobody, he would unconditionally be visible to the opponent.
But now was not the time to fight, but to run away somehow.
And for escaping, Invisibility was much better than Photobody.
However-
"Ah, you intend to use Invisibility and run?"
His thoughts were already being read clearly by Riman.
Riman extended his mana and sharply twisted the surrounding airflow.
At that moment, strong winds raged.
Kuoooo!
The snow that was falling from top to bottom was swept up by the strong winds and began to scatter in all directions.
As the snow scattered in all directions, naturally, snow stuck to Gong Jae-byeok's body too.
And due to the influence of the wind, it stuck faster and in greater amounts.
The snow sticking to the invisible man's body like that revealed his position exactly as it was.
"There you are?"
Spark!
The [Electric Bullet]s Riman fired again plugged into him.
"Aaaack!"
"I didn't sprinkle snow for no reason, punk."
Riman knew that if the guy was driven into a corner, he would definitely use Invisibility.
That was why he manipulated the climate through Saya so that a blizzard would pour down.
So that at least within the snowing area, the guy couldn't run away in an Invisibility state.
Of course, if he moved out of this zone or hid inside a building, then there was truly nothing Riman could do.
But the area where snow was falling was too wide to escape.
And there was no way Riman would just watch the guy go into a building either.
Cheujeujeujeu-
Riman concentrated mana in his right palm.
And he spread that palm and aimed it at the guy.
‘In an environment this cold, I should be able to use it without large mana consumption.’
Riman superimposed new images in his head.
‘Jaws of a beast, crevasse, collapsing bulkhead.’
The coldly refined mana passed through the filters of images and took the shape of magic.
Riman's outstretched palm began to shine blue.
At that moment.
Huuk!
At the same time, a hand that looked exactly like Riman's, but hundreds of times larger, appeared in the air.
A massive hand constructed of pure cold energy.
It was huge enough to hold a car in one fist.
Gong Jae-byeok saw the shadow created by that hand casting over his head.
An incomparably dark shadow and chill covered him.
"…No."
Riman clenched his hand with all his might.
As if responding to that, the massive hand of cold energy lunged at Gong Jae-byeok.
"D, don't come!!"
[Ice White Palm (Bingbaekjang)]
Crunch!!
The cold energy that burst out furiously grabbed Gong Jae-byeok just like that.
It was a magic that surpassed [Frozen Earth Critical Point] if judging only by pure freezing performance.
Gong Jae-byeok, covered in it, froze while standing in that spot.
Crack-
"Kkeugeuk… geuk……."
A low moan flowed from Gong Jae-byeok's mouth.
However, a state where he couldn't move even a fingertip.
With this, suppression and neutralization were finished.
For the finish, Riman carefully wove the magic.
‘Bronze tentacles, soaring bamboo, spinal cord of an iron pillar.’
The pitch-black electricity extending from Riman's fingertips took the form of a spear.
[Lightning Spear]
Pisyuk!
The spear of lightning left Riman's hand and hit Gong Jae-byeok directly.
Crackle!
Electricity exploded, and the current thoroughly scorched the guy's body.
With the pain of muscles and joints twisting all at once, the guy collapsed.
However…….
"Kkeueueue……."
Surprisingly, the guy was alive.
His body was charred black, and due to nerve damage, he could no longer use his abilities.
Yet he survived.
Truly filthy strong survivability.
It meant that the physical enhancement performance by Photobody was that powerful.
Drag, drag-
Leaving his paralyzed legs alone, the guy crawled in a prone position.
As he dragged his body with difficulty using both arms, the piled snow was pushed, leaving a long trail on the ground.
Of course, he didn't get far.
Because no matter how hard he crawled, he was far slower than Riman walking slowly.
Anyway, it was astonishing survivability.
Watching this, Riman once again recalled the importance of physique.
‘If I were this guy, I would have died instantly after being hit by that attack just now.’
But if one increased survivability by building up physique, one could survive even like this.
This was important.
Because there was a very big difference between dying and just having breath left.
Because as long as one was alive somehow, a Mage was an existence that could dream of a turnaround.
Of course, it was impossible for this guy.
Crack-
Riman sent cold energy flowing toward the ground.
The cold energy slowly froze the snow-covered Gong Jae-byeok's body starting from his toes.
At some moment, Gong Jae-byeok realized that his body was no longer moving.
And also that the owner of the shadow cast over his head was Riman.
Gong Jae-byeok said.
"…Spare me."
"Did you spare the landlords when they said that?"
"That much is……."
"Are you saying that much isn't a sin? Bullshit."
Riman smirked derisively and said.
"I know why you are so obsessed with innocence."
"……?"
"It's because the Red King didn't choose you as an Apostle. That's why you hate doing what the Red King tells you to do even if you die."
"……!"
Gong Jae-byeok's eyes wavered.
"How do you know that……!"
"I'm hurt. We were locked in the same place once, after all."
"What?!"
Gong Jae-byeok knew almost all the prisoners of Mugan.
Even if he didn't know the names, he at least knew all the faces.
But the person standing behind his back right now, he had never seen at all.
"You, you……!"
"Let me ask one thing. Where is the Red King?"
"This crazy, who the hell are you……!"
"Yeah, I knew you wouldn't know anyway."
Actually, even if he found out the Red King's location now, it was useless.
Because he was a guy who wandered the whole world anyway.
He had no base, and no pattern of movement.
Tracking such a guy with only fragmentary information was impossible.
Moreover, he was also a guy who was impossible to even fight with current skills.
Still, since the topic came up, he tried to find out, but this guy seemed to really not know.
"Fine, if you don't know, that's it."
Riman placed one foot on Gong Jae-byeok's solidly frozen back.
What was on Riman's feet were
A magic tool with the ability to absorb and release shock.
And thanks to jumping off buildings a few times in the process of coming here, a significant amount of shock was stored.
Riman said.
"It's a white funeral, congratulations."
"Wai……!"
Riman released the shock right onto the guy's frozen back.
Crash!!
With the sound of glass breaking, Gong Jae-byeok's body shattered.
Each part of the lumped body scattered in all directions.
In the middle of a snowy field in the city center where white snow was scattering, another human hunt was finished.