Chapter 119 : The Flame Sword That Cuts Through Illusion

“The Leader has lost his mind! The others are the same. Even the Uncle (Seung-hyun). What do I do? Everyone’s eyes aren’t normal!”

Hae-jin saw Yong-yong scurrying back and forth between the people. Yong-yong, what’s wrong? Our Lee Chae is right there…

“Everyone, wake up! It’s not real! It’s an illusion! Seo-geon, how can you fall for this too?!”

Unable to understand Yong-yong’s words, Hae-jin approached the Cyclops as if possessed. He thought he was just one step away from hugging Lee Chae. Just as he reached out his hand, someone grabbed his shoulder firmly.

“Leader, wake up! If you fall, everyone here dies!”

His body jolted under the force of someone shaking his shoulders violently.

A spark flashed in his mind, and his vision suddenly cleared. Before him stood a crying Yong-yong.

“What… what did I just see?”

“It seems it looks different to everyone. To me, it looked like Jae-hyung. Did the Leader see Dambo (Lee Chae)?”

“Yes. Then…?”

A horrific thought flashed through Hae-jin’s mind, and he quickly looked around. The other people were walking toward something in front of them as if hypnotized. Panicking, Hae-jin shouted, “There’s no time! Stop them!”

“O-okay!”

Sparks flew. With the sound of whistling wind, bombs erupted from the ground upward. Blocked by the wall of falling fire, the people stopped in their tracks. It was actually a relief that the Ice-attribute Espers—the opposite of Yong-yong’s element—were too dazed to block the flames.

Hae-jin leaped over the wall of fire to examine the Cyclops and check Lee Chae’s location. He couldn’t sense Lee Chae, who was supposed to be at the first-floor iron door.

‘Where did he go?’

He felt alive, but his energy was weak.

‘What happened? Did he escape?’

No, even if he had escaped, the location should be transmitted accurately. Currently, the imprinting mark that signaled his position felt like it was gradually fading away.

There was only one reason.

‘He’s been hit. Lee Chae… by the Cyclops…’

Judging that Lee Chae was in danger, Hae-jin didn’t think twice and immediately turned back. At that moment, Yong-yong grabbed Hae-jin’s ankle again.

“L-Leader! You can’t go! If the Leader leaves, we all die!”

“I’m sorry, but I have to save Lee Chae first! Lee Chae is practically all of humanity to me…”

Yong-yong pointed a finger at the fake Jung Lee Chae.

“Even if Dambo is currently caught in a Cyclops hallucination or has collapsed, if you don’t kill that thing, Dambo will die too! Don’t you get it, Leader?!”

Even during this, the mark grew fainter. Hae-jin stopped moving and closed his eyes. He focused entirely on the emotions and sensations Lee Chae was currently feeling.

His head throbbed, he felt nauseous, and it felt like he was suffocating. Hae-jin clutched his chest in pain and gasped, “Poison.”

“Dambo is under a poison hallucination? That’s painful… That’s why we have to finish the Cyclops first! Look at Jae-hyung earlier. He got better as soon as the wall fell. So you can’t go now!”

Hae-jin knew what Yong-yong wanted to say and what he had to do. However, thinking of Lee Chae suffering extreme pain, he couldn’t accept leaving him behind to fight the Cyclops here.

“What are you thinking?! I told you, if you go now, he dies! The Leader has to stay here with me and catch the Cyclops. The fire is dying down. If that thing gets past us, everyone dies. Do you think Dambo would like it if you abandoned everyone? He’s a kind human…”

“Shit.”

Hae-jin clenched his fists. “Fine. Get back and protect the people.”

“Understood!”

Yong-yong transformed into a giant dragon. Using his massive, fire-resistant wings, he created a tent over the people’s heads.

Once their safety was confirmed, Hae-jin gathered energy to cast a skill he had developed in secret and hidden until the very end. With two half-human, half-dragon fire-users nearby, the chance of failure was zero.

Krak-boom!

Lightning struck around the Cyclops, and a thunderous roar shook the building.

The flame blooming from Hae-jin’s fingertips grew in volume and stretched out. The shape, which started as a long rod, gradually transformed into the form of a sword.

—T-that…

The voice he heard now wasn’t Yong-yong’s or Lee Chae’s. Is that the Cyclops’ voice?

Hae-jin gripped the sword made of fire and turned slowly toward the Cyclops. Fire began to ignite beneath Hae-jin’s feet. His eyes, now turned dark red, glared at the creature.

—…Flame… sk… ill… when…?

The Cyclops’ voice flickered in and out. Hae-jin smirked and looked at Yong-yong. Yong-yong gasped and spoke.

“Did the Cyclops get possessed?! The Leader is too scary!”

“What? You can talk while in dragon form now?”

“Yeah, I practiced!”

“You’re an amazing dragon regardless. This skill actually gained strength thanks to the dragons.”

“Huh? That’s weird! That skill is our great-great-grandfather’s skill. The flame skill.”

“Fire meets fire to create a stronger fire. Don’t you know? Thanks to you and Ji Seung-hyun, it seems that grandfather has settled into my body.”

Yong-yong tilted his head. If the skill Cha Hae-jin learned really belonged to his ancestor, the Cyclops was as good as dead. He hadn’t quite believed it when people said the Leader was the strongest Esper in the world, but experiencing it now, it was the truth.

His heart had been burning black with the fear that Jae-hyung might die, but seeing Hae-jin with a sword of fire put him at ease.

“Good luck, Leader! I’ll protect the people even if it costs my life, so don’t worry!”

“Why are you betting your life! You don’t die either.”

“A-ah, okay. I’ll live too!”

Hae-jin approached the Cyclops slowly with his sword. A circle of fire moved beneath his shoes, making it look like a massive blaze was approaching.

Yong-yong spread his wings wide and pushed the people toward the end of the hallway. The Cyclops stood still without even trying to dodge.

Screeeech!

As Hae-jin swung his sword, a gruesome sound echoed along with a strange smell. It seemed the Cyclops realized the power dwelling in the flames. Hae-jin didn’t give it a chance to escape and swung his leg. The fire gathered at his toes exploded into a firebomb.

The Cyclops’ form began to distort, and sharp horns started sprouting all over its body. Horns of a size that couldn’t possibly come from a human body sliced through the air fiercely as if to pierce Hae-jin.

Facing the horns that had come right up to his nose, Hae-jin lightly swung his fire sword.

Sizzle. The flames sliced right through the middle of the horns. Although only one horn was cut in half, all the other protruding horns turned to ash as if they had been burnt.

Hae-jin scoffed as the horns vanished more easily than expected. “Not much to you. Was the hallucination skill your only trick?”

—Groan…

Now, if he just stabbed the sword into the place where the horns grew, this exhausting battle would be over. The strange thing was that as the Cyclops’ power weakened, Lee Chae’s energy grew stronger.

‘He’s coming back to life. Thank God.’

Relieved, Hae-jin prepared to summon the wind to throw the sword, but stopped as a thought occurred to him.

“Hey, Cyclops. Let me ask you one thing.”

The Cyclops’ form was growing larger. Was he giving it too much of an opening? As a temporary measure, he lightly swung the sword to sever the area where its arm had been.

—Kh… k-keke!

As the Cyclops, which was trying to increase its mass, began to waver, a hurried Hae-jin quickly asked, “Why me? There must be Espers stronger than me…”

—Krrgh… keke…

Having lost so much energy, it seemed unable to speak human words. Hae-jin turned his gaze to Yong-yong. Yong-yong was still struggling to keep the dazed people from leaving his protected zone.

“Yong-yong, can you translate?”

“Yeah. I know what it’s saying.”

“What is this monster bastard saying?”

“It says the Leader’s dad killed the Cyclops’ son. Since he’s the son’s enemy, it has to get revenge.”

“My father?”

“Yeah, the Leader’s dad! He’s the one who killed the Cyclops’ son. It’s been saying ‘enemy’ this whole time. It says it’s frustrated!”

“…”

Hae-jin didn’t know the exact details, but on the day his father lost his life because of a colleague who had turned into a Humanoid, they said he fought until the very end.

‘So that was the Cyclops’ son…’

At that thought, Hae-jin shouted. “If that’s true, then you’re my enemy too, you bastard!”

He hadn’t intended to let it live anyway, but now that he knew the true nature of what killed his father, he couldn’t let it live a second longer.

Hae-jin, having finished his preparations, thrust his sword forward. The blazing blade stretched out toward the Cyclops and—Crunch!—dug into its flesh. As the wind blew over it, the flames began to burn even more fiercely.

Rumble!

With a ear-splitting sound, light sparked around Hae-jin. Surprised, he looked back to see an Esper who had woken from the hallucination using their skill.

“I’m out of the hallucination, so I’ll join in!”

Every time he swung his hand, a merciless lightning bomb fell. Hit squarely, the Cyclops collapsed, clutching its head.

Come to think of it, the people who had lost consciousness were waking up one by one. As the Cyclops’ power weakened, the hallucinations seemed to weaken as well. Hae-jin quickly checked Lee Chae’s mark.

‘Why are you…’

Although it was slightly stronger than before, it was still so weak it was hard to grasp completely. A wave of anxiety washed over his body—what if Lee Chae didn’t return even after he killed the Cyclops?