novelraw Chapter 32 : Chapter 32
Chapter 32 : Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Seizure (2)
Amidst the ongoing terror, inside the Demonic Beast Museum's Situation Room.
- Failed to seize the Holy Relic. Everyone escape on your own and meet at the hideout. Beware of being tailed.
“A snag has occurred in the operation. Heroes are also gathering this way. It seems this commission ends here.”
A man dressed neatly in a black suit with hair as white as snow looked down at the radio device and spoke.
His voice was calm and his intonation polite.
An elegant demeanor like the manager of a high-end restaurant.
His gaze turned to the monitors showing various parts of the expo hall.
Chaos was unfolding in every section.
Heroes fighting demonic beasts, the sight of chasing fleeing villains, and even citizens waiting for rescue while isolated.
Among them, there were screens that had turned off and gone black for some reason.
“Tsk, Edward. Stop that uselessly polite tone. We aren’t having tea time right now.”
A man wearing a black robe in the corner grumbled.
His face and hair were not revealed at all, but his fingernails were grown long, and his face had a bushy beard.
“Mr. Larry, just because we use black magic doesn’t mean we need to lose our dignity, in my opinion.”
Edward adjusted his white gloves and spoke.
“Damn it, I released the demonic beasts I’ve been saving, but for things to be ruined like this. Did one of us leak information in advance?”
Ignoring Edward's words, Larry started huffing.
He had put his heart and soul into seizing the Holy Relic targeting the large-scale event at the Demonic Beast Expo.
But the operation, which had been creaky from the start, went completely awry at the end.
No, it was awry from the beginning.
“To think ‘Prometheus's Flame’ wasn't here in the first place! It was definitely here just a week ago! Those bastards suddenly changed the artifact’s storage location? This can only be explained by them knowing our plan beforehand. Edward, damn it! There is a snitch.”
He clenched his fist trembling and vented his anger.
“A snitch. Isn't it nice because it suits us well? It’s no fun if things just go according to plan.”
“I lost thirty of my precious demonic beasts! Do you know how heartbreaking it is to see those children dying?”
“Of course. I’ve raised hamsters too. I know that feeling well.”
“Your hamsters were raised as snake food.”
At Edward's nonchalant reaction, Larry pointed out sharply.
“Isn't it similar? Hamsters fed to a snake, or demonic beasts thrown at heroes for distraction…….”
“What? You son of a bitch, talking as you please.”
Larry shook his head and got annoyed.
“Damn it, it was a chance to touch big money! Nothing special from the Alliance bastards?”
“There is no special mention yet. They just asked to continue with the existing request.”
“If it's the existing request, you mean the academy brats? They say they still need more?”
“They say it's far from enough. They also mentioned wanting higher quality magic power.”
“Damn it, what the hell are they doing to make such a fuss? Edward, do you know?”
At Larry's low question, Edward smiled broadly, saying ‘Well’.
“Anyway, I’m bouncing first. Whoever the snitch bastard is, they’ll pay dearly. You keep pretending to be a guard.”
“I should. By the way, there is no communication from Mr. Balzac.”
“Balzac? That snake-like guy, he’ll come back on his own.”
Edward took out another communication device from inside his coat.
It was an item connected independently with Balzac, who mainly does disguise and concealment.
He sent a message that the operation failed, but there is no reply.
Did something happen?
“Mr. Larry, I should get going too. I will check on Mr. Balzac separately.”
“Hmph, do as you please.”
“I might end up killing Mr. Larry's precious demonic beasts. If they are still alive, that is.”
“Shut up and just do your job!”
Larry retorted roughly to Edward, then leisurely disappeared.
Edward stared at the turned-off screen labeled Mystery Hall.
“I should stop by at least once. Right? Since I can’t stay here forever.”
Even though Larry had already left, he was talking as if speaking to someone.
Just then, a small sound was heard from a corner of the situation room.
“Ueup- eup-.”
“Oh my, I wanted to have a conversation, was that greed?”
Edward approached the source of the sound with a faint smile.
There, a man whose mouth was blocked, literally missing the organ called a mouth, was tied up and trembling.
The sound coming from his vocal cords could not become language because of the completely blocked mouth and was buried.
Edward examined the ID card in his pocket.
“Mr. Kim Hanyoung, a simple name. I like it.”
“Ueup-!”
With a high and short voice as the last sound, silence engulfed the situation room.
***
“Hey, Kim Hanyoung! Where did you go that you're coming only now! Didn't you see the chaos?”
Edward, wearing the mask of Kim Hanyoung, bowed slightly and smiled awkwardly.
Just as the original Kim Hanyoung did.
“So, sorry! There was an order to standby first-.”
Even the habit of blurring the end of his sentences, he was perfectly reproducing Kim Hanyoung.
From the small habit of scratching his head with his hand, to even the posture of slightly shrugging his shoulders in front of a superior.
“Who says? This jerk, where did you sell your communication device? Take this!”
“Haha.”
He glossed it over with a laugh as if embarrassed.
The superior scolding him didn't feel any sense of incongruity.
While scolding Kim Hanyoung, the superior immediately threw him a new communication device.
“Th, thank you!”
“Enough, just enter quickly. Since the hero gentlemen have arrived. Just provide appropriate support. It seems there are still demonic beasts or remnants released by those guys.”
Edward nodded with a slightly scared expression and quickly moved his steps.
His goal was one from the start.
To check what happened to Balzac, who would be occupying the Mystery Hall.
The human skin mask of the person named Kim Hanyoung was quite useful.
Since he seemed to have a personality that slacked off appropriately.
Such people don't particularly arouse suspicion.
“Oh oh! Kim Hanyoung, you know how to fight? You always acted weak.”
“Continue searching inside as well!”
Agents who were at the scene started wiping out demonic beasts from the nearest point.
Aiming for that gap, Edward moved his steps inside alone.
Toward the Mystery Hall located deepest in the expo hall.
“…….”
It was then. A familiar energy was transmitted from the Mystery Hall.
Edward stopped walking and lightly sensed the magic power.
“……It’s Balzac's magic power.”
His words muttered low alone were calm.
‘And a quite powerful level at that.’
If it's this density and turbidity, it was highly likely Balzac opened the Third Eye.
It was something outside the expected range.
Was there an opponent that gave him that much trouble?
Edward, shrugging his shoulders, faced the black, opaque curtain blocking his view.
“The fact that the curtain installed by Mr. Balzac is maintained means there was no hero intervention.”
Edward tilted his head.
“Did Miss Seol Hayun give him quite a hard time?”
Thinking there was no choice but to check directly, Edward lightly cut the curtain and stepped inside.
Inside was extremely quiet.
Citizens sprawled as if fallen asleep.
Flesh and undead corpse lumps used by Balzac.
Balzac's magic power was deeply embedded everywhere in the space.
It meant there was an opponent he used all his strength against.
He slowly scanned the interior.
In that gap, the figure of Seol Hayun fallen among the citizens was seen.
“This is unexpected. It wasn't Miss Seol Hayun.”
Then who on earth drove Balzac to this state?
Just when the question wasn't resolved.
At the edge of his vision, a boy fallen on his knees came into view.
A long sword was held in his hand, and at the end of it.
“Balzac?”
A severely damaged head was stuck on it.
The only remaining eye was covered in white, and with its mouth open stuck on the sword, it looked like a monstrosity.
“That boy got Balzac?”
He approached the boy and started examining him closely.
Breaking the silence that hung for a while.
“I don't know his identity, but he’s not ordinary.”
Edward slightly raised his hand.
A movement as if contemplating whether to take revenge for Balzac.
But at that moment, a peculiar presence was felt from the back of the boy's neck.
Something was sticking to a point on the boy's neck and burrowing inside.
‘Mind Penetration.’
A unique spell Balzac uses when seizing an opponent's body.
Edward smiled clearly.
Because he could immediately know Balzac's intention.
“So that’s how it is.”
All the puzzles fit together at once.
“It is an escape method just like you. Balzac.”
There was nothing more to check.
“Next time we will meet in the boy's form. Mr. Balzac.”
Edward, throwing off Kim Hanyoung's skin, moved his steps with satisfaction.
***
At the moment Edward left.
Balzac's consciousness was finally crossing the deep place of the boy's mind, the threshold of the inner side.
‘Done! Now I start anew. With a young and excellent body!’
His head was filled with a sense of victory.
[Kkihihihit!]
However, suddenly some bizarre laughter began to be heard.
A voice like tearing paper rose faintly inside his ears.
‘Huh?’
Balzac raised his guard at the voice that was too unfamiliar.
However, the surroundings were soon engulfed in silence.
‘Well, it doesn't matter.’
Balzac recalled his original purpose again.
What he had to do from now on was simple.
Find the ‘Core of the Mind’ the boy has and destroy it.
If he plants his ‘Eye’ in that spot, it's over.
From that moment, this body becomes his possession.
‘It’s been a while since I completely changed and moved bodies. Let’s see—.’
And at that moment, Balzac swallowed a question.
‘What is this?’
He definitely entered Ryu Jinwoo's consciousness.
Normally, a vast land and fragments of the life that person has lived unfold.
Like a raised puppy playing around, or a role model erected in the form of a statue.
But this boy's inner side was strange.
Everywhere was completely pitch black.
No light, no walls. No ground to set foot on.
Even the hues of emotion that would exist in a general inner space did not exist.
Black, empty void.
Inside it, he was floating.
Balzac was engulfed in a deep sense of incongruity.
Balzac looked around as if searching for anything.
It was then.
Beyond the darkness covering everything, a faint beam of light was seen from above.
White.
Clear and vivid white.
‘There it is.’
He moved his body reflexively.
Following the floating sensation, he approached up, further up toward the light.
His body kept rising.
It seemed he could reach the light soon.
But no matter how much he went up, the light didn't get closer.
‘What?’
[Kkihihit]
At that time, the bizarre laughter was heard again.
That sound rang out as if resonating in the brain.
‘Again, this sound.’
It is not a hallucination. There is definitely something.
[Kkihihihi! Food! It’s foood!]
The voice now started speaking.
Like a young child singing a song.
‘…….’
In an instant, something moved above.
It was the light.
The gap of light was slowly closing.
As if a mouth, or a box was closing.
Only then did Balzac realize.
That he was inside the mouth of something right now.
‘Wa, wait-.’
Kuung-
Along with a heavy closing sound, the white light completely disappeared.
[Mmm~ Tasty! Mmm! Mmm~]
With the mysterious voice heard for the last time, Balzac's consciousness completely turned off.
***
Ttiring-
[Digestion begins.]