Chapter 124 - 124- Birth Of a God (Part 1)
If one would ask Hyun-Jae, 'What is the worst day of your life?' she would immediately know the answer to that as she had lived with that day haunting her memories every single day for years. It was something that she did when she was young. Something that she wanted to never remember again.
But, at this exact moment, that idea chattered in her head. Perhaps that wasn't really the worst day of her life.
Staring at the world around her, all she could see at that moment was blood and despair. The stench of death filled her nostrils and made her shudder. She felt herself unable to move at all due to shock.
All her hard work and dedication had gone down the drain in one single moment without any warning.
*BOOOOOOOM*
"AGHHHH!"
Meanwhile, the trolls continued their rampage, ruthlessly murdering every single human they saw in their path. Their disgusting eyes lacked any emotions, except for a subtle delight in seeing this much death around them.
"P-President! Help us!! Please!!"
"President!"
"Ugh!! No!! No!!! Please, I don't want to die!!"
Hearing all those screams that called her name. Hyun-Jae frowned even harder as she tightened her grip on her sword till her knuckles turned white. She wanted to help, she wanted to kill all of these monsters. But, how was she supposed to do that? These trolls were stronger than her with the weakest being a little above her in strength.
A sane person would never jump into such a fight mindlessly since it was akin to a death sentence. But, hearing all those cries, Hyun-Jae couldn't stop herself. She simply couldn't ignore them and move on.
That was even worse than death for her.
So, shaking her head, she sucked in a deep breath as she dashed forward.
"Evacuate the area now! The fight is over! Don't look back! Just run for your life!" She yelled as she closed the distance between her and the first troll before it could kill another human.
"President!" Chin-Hwa saw that and quickly kicked the monster he was fighting away before rushing after her.
'The situation is disastrous! We need to run away before we become the focus of these giants!' Chin-Hwa cursed.
"Please, wait!! Fighting those things is suicide!!" Chin-Hwa's heart sank as he saw the troll turn around and look at Hyun-Jae. Its eyes flashed with a weird glint as it realized that a special human had appeared in front of it.
Without hesitation, it swung its wooden bat down, aiming for Hyun-Jae. But, the latter quickly sidestepped, avoiding the attack before it went toward the monster's right leg.
"HAH!!" Swinging her sword, she cut through its tough skin, barely scraping the muscles.
The hit made her hand go numb upon contact. 'So tough!'
The monster fell down on one knee as it shrieked in pain. Its sound echoed in the entire area. Then, with an outraged expression, it swung its bat down again.
Turning around quickly, Hyun-Jae jumped back as the weapon smashed into the ground, leaving a big crater behind it. Debris flew everywhere.
'I need to quickly finish it off!' Hyun-Jae ran around the monster as fast as she could before leaping in the air and channeling whatever Aetheris she had left in her body before sending a lightning bolt toward its eye.
*BANG*
'A direct hit!' Hyun-Jae's eyes flashed with a cold glint as she saw her attack successfully hit the monster, making it fall to the ground. She was surprised her hits were working this effectively.
With her level barely reaching 20, she expected that she wouldn't be able to fight against higher-level monsters. But, what she didn't realize was after continuously killing monsters, the purity of her soul reached a new level on its own. Added to her abnormally high stats, her true power far exceeded her actual level.
Leaping in the air, Hyun-Jae landed on the troll's body as she stabbed her sword right into its neck, piercing one of its arteries. Blood exploded out of the injury, splashing against her body.
Immediately, the monster started shaking violently, throwing the girl off with ease.
"Ugh!" Hyun-Jae quickly tried to move out of the way. However, that's when she realized something terrifying.
'My body… It's refusing to move…' Her eyes widened and her breath halted. Then, she realized the second problem… Her vision suddenly blackened and she couldn't hear anything anymore.
Every sound around her started to turn into incomprehensible buzzing.
'Huh…'
This entire time, Hyun-Jae has been fighting over her limit. Her body was in such a horrible state that even her muscles were being heavily damaged with each move she made. When the human body reaches a certain level of exhaustion and doesn't receive proper rest to recover, it naturally starts slowly eating itself away to provide energy for survival.
But, the moment that individual stops for even a moment. All of that exhaustion would come back tenfold worse. In Hyun-Jae's case, she had not only lost the ability to move but her senses were shut off immediately.
"President!" Chin-Hwa rushed toward her as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, the monster continued tossing and turning, hitting everything in its way. Its arms swung everywhere. Due to her position, Hyun-Jae quickly found herself the target of one of those arms.
Her eyes widened slightly as she realized the huge disaster about to befall her.
"PRESIDENT!!!"
Chin-Hwa felt his heart stop as he realized that… He was too far to get her out of the way.
'I won't reach her in time!!'
Suddenly, at that moment, a silhouette flashed beside him in the blink of an eye. Chin-Hwa couldn't even see who it was before the silhouette reached Hyun-Jae.
*BOOOOOM*
"Wha…" Chin-Hwa covered his eyes from the gush of dirt as he quickly pushed it away and looked up.
There, a few meters away from the spot where Hyun-Jae was… A man stood carrying her in his arms.
'When did he…' Chin-Hwa frowned hard. He didn't even see that person moving before everything ensued.
Meanwhile, Hyun-Jae was still in a dazed state. Her senses were completely blacked out and all she had was the faint sense of touch. Having no connection with the real world was a terrifying feeling. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest and her mind was buzzing
as if it were a hive of bees.
But, the moment she felt two arms wrap around her, all of that fear and concern washed away as if it was never there. Something about the warmth she felt at that moment put her heart at ease.
Without realizing it, she embraced that feeling willingly without thinking too much about what was happening.
In the real world, however, things were completely different. The troll had lost all the blood in its body and stopped moving. The other trolls noticed that and their behavior changed immediately.
They stopped caring about the humans around them and instead focused their eyes on the young man standing in the middle of the battlefield.
Then, they started screeching loudly, shaking the entire world with their voices.
"Oooh, they're really angry, aren't they?" Talon murmured. "I guess they didn't like seeing an injured human kill one of their kind…"
Looking down at the beautiful woman in his arms. Talon could only be impressed. Not only did Hyun-Jae single-handedly change the course of the war even though she was heavily injured. She also was able to kill one of these trolls all on her own.
He couldn't imagine how hard that was to do.
"You did great… I'm sorry for taking too much to come back…" He apologized calmly as he turned around.
His eyes fell on Chin-Hwa as he signaled for him to come closer.
The latter was shaken out of his daze and quickly approached Talon. With a simple glance at the young man, the cold prince was surprised.
Talon's condition had improved really quickly since a few minutes ago. Granted, the bullet injuries didn't vanish. But, he looked way better than before.
"Take Hyun-Jae and leave the area." He said as he handed Hyun-Jae to him. "Don't look back."
"What? What about you?"
Talon didn't answer immediately as he turned around. There, in front of him, hundreds of monsters were staring ominously at him as if he were a tasty target. The trolls smashed their bats on the ground as they also focused their eyes on him as their next target.
But, the young man didn't seem intimidated by this giant army of monsters.
"Me? Hmm… Let's say… I'm about to put an end to this bullshit."
"..."
"If you don't move now, you might get killed." He added as he moved forward.
Chin-Hwa watched him silently. He couldn't find the words to say at that moment. This young man had always been a dilemma to him. He hated him and yet also respected him. He considered him a rival and yet also an ally.
It was a mix of conflicting emotions that he couldn't sort out yet. But, at that moment, he could only say a single thing.
"You better not die! Or… She will be upset." He said in a weird tone.
Talon raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting these words to come out of his mouth. But, in the end, he smiled and nodded his head. Then, his body slowly started illuminating with a bright blue light.
Lifting his hand in the air, that energy quickly moved to the tips of his fingers, forming an energy ball within the palm of his hand.
"I wasn't intending to die."
[Ding!]
[Warning triggered!]
[Are you sure you want to use all of your Aetheris Points?]