Chapter 61: Incense Burner.

Flying through the sky without any protective gear, relying on a single bird, was more frightening than she had thought.

Even if she were thrown off from this height, Chayeon would be safe.

It was impossible for ordinary physical force, rather than the condensed power used by demons or Ineungnyeokjas, to injure Chayeon.

But being scared was still being scared.

It was a kind of instinct for humans who had lived on the ground to feel fear in high places.

“You can relax a little. It’s okay.”

The woman, sitting behind Chayeon and holding the reins by reaching out her arm, said softly.

Her hair fluttered violently in the strong wind.

The sound of the wind drowned out the words.

It would have been impossible to have a conversation if they weren’t Ineungnyeokjas.

Finally, the mountains surrounding Jindal were visible, and the basin formed in the middle came into view.

Although it was too far away to see in detail.

[As expected, the barrier has been deactivated. We’re going in right away!]

Yeonkyung’s voice came over the imprinting.

The huge barrier that normally protected Jindal, surrounding the entire Jindal in a circle, had been erased.

Even Yeonkyung could not deactivate the heart’s barrier.

And that was broken.

An obvious abnormal situation.

The birds quickly lowered their altitude.

A terrifyingly fast glide.

Soon, a detailed view of Jindal came into sight.

“This is…”

Yeonkyung groaned.

Chayeon had also been preparing herself, but even so, she couldn’t help but stop breathing at the scene that came into her eyes.

It had already been captured.

That was the only way to see the scene that came into her eyes.

The buildings were collapsing, the ground was cracking, and, the corpses were lined up.

Demons were roaming over the ruins that had already been burned down.

The students and teachers in the academy. The Ineungnyeokjas who lived in the outer commercial and residential districts, and sometimes ordinary employees who knew the situation.

The scenery that had made up a city was no longer there.

Not only Jindal, but the entire country was in this shape.

Perhaps the whole world was like this.

Even though she knew it, her heart was pounding when she saw Jindal like this.

-Teacher would be okay, right?

Yeonkyung speculated that Seohee was alive.

That she had been captured and kept alive for some reason.

Trusting only those words, she had left Arena and Byeol and flown here.

As they descended closer, the demons on the ground came into sight.

It wasn’t that demons with unique names were teeming as they had been on the island.

What came into sight right away were demons of 3rd grade at best.

But the demons in front of them couldn’t be all of them.

Kuwaaaaa-!

A roar was heard.

The gliding Shikigamis lost their balance and shook their entire bodies at the huge roar.

[Everyone be careful!]

Eventually, their bodies were thrown out.

All eight people began to fall vertically from a dizzying height.

Chayeon’s eyes caught a glimpse of the huge dragon above their heads as they fell.

It was clear that the animal-shaped demon had blown them away.

It looked a little different from a basilisk, but the pressure was considerable.

At least a special-grade demon.

“Haap!”

Chayeon swung her sword in the air, letting out a shout, and at the same time, a black aura exploded and swirled in a spiral.

Before the dragon could even react, it ripped through the middle of its body.

Bang!!

As it was, Chayeon swung her sword towards the ground this time, and a black shockwave spread out in concentric circles, swallowing the demons that were wandering around.

The remnants of the explosion scattered, and Chayeon, who had fallen in the middle, quickly took a stance.

The remaining seven landed safely near Chayeon, as if they were descending by parachute, using the power of flight and levitation.

“Wow! It’s really as Daddy said! They came here!”

“Unni, didn’t you trust Daddy?”

Beyond the dust that was rising in the air, the voices of young children that didn’t fit the place were heard.

Yeonkyung gritted her teeth and frowned.

As she had expected, the worst-case scenario had come true.

“Hello!”

“Ah, Unni! A formal greeting!”

“Ah, right, right.”

The dust cleared, and two children appeared.

Were they even over ten years old?

Two twin girls who formed a symmetry with an invisible baseline in the middle.

The two twin girls, who had black hair and ruby-like red eyes like Chayeon, were looking at them and bowing.

A strange feeling.

It was impossible to just leave them alone.

She wanted to get rid of them from in front of her right away.

That was the feeling Chayeon was feeling as she looked at the twin girls.

<<That’s the feeling you get when you see a Doppelganger. Be careful not to feel excessive disgust. You’ll be used.>>

The Heukgu’s power was added, and Chayeon regained her composure.

“Hello! I’m Melara!”

“Hello-? I’m-, Meridi, I say-.”

The child on the left, who greeted her energetically in casual speech, and the child on the right, who greeted her in polite speech in a tone unique to young children, as if a elementary school teacher had told her to.

Behind them, a black aura was rising in the air.

She could feel it.

It was the same power as her.

<<The one on the left is Adaptability, the one on the right is mind control.>>

The two abilities of the Heukgumiho.

Of those, the one who had the Adaptability that Chayeon had been given was the older sister, Melara, and the one who had the mind control ability that Kang Yuna had was the younger sister, Meridi.

Chayeon quickly memorized it in her head.

Because they looked the same, she couldn’t take her eyes off them even for a moment from now on.

She needed to know who had what abilities so that she could prepare in advance.

A black aura was revealed behind Chayeon.

Huge tails began to grow one by one.

“Ew! Is that scary person Daddy’s friend?”

“Uh, Unni! I’m so scared of that… Uh, Unni take care of it!”

Lines that didn’t fit the standoff situation.

But she didn’t let her guard down.

Everyone else was also drawing up their power and watching the twins.

“Ah! But Daddy didn’t tell us to fight, did he?”

“Ah! That’s right, that’s right. He told us to give a gift and come!”

The two girls exchanged words and nodded, as if they had belatedly remembered.

Uh-huh, uh-huh, they nodded exaggeratedly and turned around.

Should she attack now?

Sweat broke out on the hand holding the sword hilt.

She could instinctively know that they were not easy to deal with, unlike until now.

The twins brought the bag placed behind them to the front.

What was it?

What were they trying to do?

“Unni? You’re going to regret it?”

Chayeon was going to cut the bag, but as if she had noticed, she stopped moving at Melara’s words, who had recognized it like a ghost before she could even flinch her hand.

She knew that there was no good in listening to the words of demons.

But her brain was sounding alarms.

That she would really regret it.

“Okay, this is a gift from our Daddy to Unni~”

“That’s right, that’s right. But Meridi, I think Daddy likes that Unni.”

“Ah! You think so too!? Right, right?”

The two girls made a fuss while squealing, and opened the zipper of the bag.

Gray came into view.

<<This is bad!>>

The Heukgumiho’s attempt to quickly take follow-up measures, muttering that she should have possessed her in advance, was blocked in vain.

Before she knew it, Meridi’s shining red eyes were meeting Chayeon’s eyes.

The mind control of Meridi, who had dug in, began to trap Chayeon.

Why.

Why, why are you doing this to me.

I hate it. It’s hard. It’s really hard now.

Why do these things only happen to me.

Had I, again, not protected them?

Chayeon sank into a vortex of endless pessimism, self-deprecation, and hatred.

She was exhausted.

“Oops!”

Melara was taking Seohee, who only had her head left, out of the bag.

“OF SHOHOHOHOH!!!!”

Yeonkyung and Wolmyeong belatedly came to their senses when they saw Chayeon, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.

Unlike the mind control of demons, the Heukgumiho’s ability to attempt a change in state without any base.

And the Doppelganger, who had copied that ability.

They had been unable to do anything and had stiffened as they were, because of that power that Meridi had activated, that was more powerful than they had imagined, and they barely woke up after hearing Chayeon’s scream.

“Sh*t!”

Wolmyeong quickly rushed towards Meridi, and the Ineungnyeokjas followed.

Yeonkyung quickly ‘stopped’ Meridi.

Chayeon was now completely in a panic.

‘I didn’t think it would come out like this!’

Melara, who had blocked in front of Meridi, lightly swung her sword.

Kwagwagwang!

The shape of a giant forefoot fell from the air, knocking them all away.

“Yeonkyung! Quickly take care of her!”

“I know!”

While the remaining Ineungnyeokjas barely exerted their power to block the shockwave, Yeonkyung rushed to Chayeon in a fluster.

“Chayeon-nim! Chayeon-nim!”

“I hate it…I hate it now…”

“Get a hold of yourself! That’s a doppelganger! That’s not the real Seohee!”

Yeonkyung grabbed Chayeon’s shoulder and kept shouting, but Chayeon was holding her head and kept muttering.

“Heukgumiho-nim! Hurry, possess, possess her!”

<<Dammit, I want to too!>>

The Heukgumiho shouted from inside Chayeon, but there was no way that the words would reach Yeonkyung.

“Take her and fall back!”

“Okay!”

A raging pitch-black storm.

It was no longer possible to block it.

Fortunately, the martial power that Melara was showing was not as good as Chayeon, who was the real Heukgumiho.

But even so, because the original was so powerful, the Ineungnyeokjas, including Wolmyeong, were barely able to hold on.

“There are more gifts! You can’t leave!”

Melara, who was quietly swinging her sword from her seat and shooting out a black storm, giggled and lightly jumped up.

Black tails grew out of the girl’s back, who had risen into the air, and soon the tails became black rain and poured down.

Kwagwagwagwang!

“Keueuk!”

“Kyaak!”

All the Ineungnyeokjas except Chayeon were knocked away in all directions on the spot with the powerful martial prowess that could even be said to be violent.

Only Chayeon was still squatting in the spot where she had been, trembling.

“Wow! As expected, it’s Daddy’s friend. She’s okay!”

“We would have been in big trouble if we had just fought, right, Unni?”

Meridi, who had followed, took out a key from her pocket.

The key that was shining with iridescent colors even felt somewhat sacred.

She couldn’t leave it like that.

Yeonkyung, who instinctively felt that way, reached out her hand to stop Meridi.

“Kuheup!”

At that moment, blood rose from her throat, and she lost strength.

‘Why now…!’

“Now, this is Daddy’s second gift.”

As Meridi broke the key, a bright light flashed and exploded.

Chayeon’s movements, who had been crouching down and twitching intermittently, stopped.

The light of reason disappeared from her pupils.

Whoosh!

Bang!

Wolmyeong, who had been knocked far away, quickly flew and kicked at her legs, but the twins lightly stepped back.

“Chayeon-ssi! Chayeon! Get a hold of yourself!”

Wolmyeong shook Chayeon, but there was no response from her.

“What the hell…!”

“That’s an incense burner.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Daddy gave Unni happiness!”

Melara and Meridi took turns opening their mouths, as if answering Wolmyeong’s small voice.

“And and, what was it again?”

“Unni! A game!”

“Ah! That’s right, that’s right. Daddy said he’s going to give her a game!”

As the Unni snapped her fingers, the space began to distort.

“N-no way…”

Yeonkyung muttered, becoming pale.

Red pulses that filled the space, tearing it apart. Hundreds of large cracks appeared one by one, filling the air.

Even after reaching this point, she thought that she might have been underestimating the enemy.

“The goal is! Um, Sohee? Rescue Sohee!”

“Unni! Not Sohee, Seohee!”

“Ah! Rescue Seohee! You have to come to the heart. He said he’ll give you 3 days. Then Unni, Oppas, good luck!”

The limbs of demons squirmed and popped out from hundreds of cracks.

More demons than they had defeated until now were trying to appear here.

“Run away!! Inside!! Go inside!!!”

Forcibly suppressing the despair that was growing, Yeonkyung screamed at the top of her lungs.

Everyone, including Wolmyeong, who had lifted Chayeon, began to run desperately towards the building in the back.

At the same time, demons began to pour out like ants.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Keueuk!”

The barrier was activated.

As soon as they entered the back warehouse that had been unusually clean by itself in the midst of the ruins from the main road, a semi-transparent rectangular parallelepiped rose from the floor and surrounded the space.

“Keooooo!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But the barrier was incomplete, with the connecting passage unguarded.

Demons, who seemed to have no intelligence, eventually discovered the fact and pushed their way into the passage.

“Yeonkyung! We’ll block it here, so hurry and get Chayeon!”

“Okay!”

Wolmyeong and the other six people were cutting, smashing, and blasting away the demons who were pouring into the narrow place one by one.

Each demon was not that powerful, but the number was irrationally large.

The only intact building in the midst of the ruins.

It was surrounded by a barrier that Yeonkyung didn’t know about, and only the passage to enter was left wide open without a barrier as if they were joking.

Without even looking, she knew the situation.

The enemy, as the twins had said earlier, was giving them a trial, having set up the stage in advance.

Even though there were two of the Seven Divine Pillars, Yggdrasil had no combat abilities at all, and Wolmyeong was not specialized in wide-area attacks against a large number of enemies.

That combat method of suppressing the opponent based on her outstanding martial arts skills and then delivering a one-shot kill was more powerful than anyone else in a one-on-one situation, but it was not appropriate in the current situation.

The number of enemies was unimaginably large.

It was as if an unpleasant existence was playing with them from above their heads.

The condition to clear was to break through these demons and rescue Seohee.

To do that, the power of the Heukgumiho, Chayeon, was essential.

“Chayeon-nim! Chayeon-nim!”

Shaking her shoulders, slapping her cheeks, shouting at the top of her lungs, but Chayeon didn’t even flinch.

She had her eyes open, but it was clear that the end of that gaze was not directed at Yeonkyung.

With blank eyes, Chayeon was smiling faintly.

It looked like Chayeon was having a happy dream with her eyes open.

In this emergency situation, the Heukgumiho would have possessed her, but there was no sign of that either.

Even the possession of the Shinsu had been blocked by some kind of interference.

No matter how powerful the mind control was, it was absolutely impossible to do something like this out of the blue.

She had been so shocked by the sight of the dead Seohee, or rather, the dead doppelganger.

She should have prepared more thoroughly.

She had clearly told Chayeon about the doppelganger.

But even so, Chayeon had been shocked, and as a result, her mind had been completely suppressed.

Chayeon’s mind had weakened more than Yeonkyung had imagined, but she hadn’t been able to notice it.

‘I shouldn’t have sent Arena-nim away after all…!’

“Yeonkyung! Hurry!”

Wolmyeong shouted urgently.

The demons kept pouring in.

No matter how powerful the six veterans who were blocking the passage were, they couldn’t hold out like this for long.

How, how should she do it?

Chayeon’s condition was thoroughly a mental and psychological problem.

If so, what could solve that wasn’t external interference.

It had to be solved from within.

In the current situation, there was only one thing worth trying.