Chapter 160
Heaven’s Door (26)
***
“…That’s impossible.”
The woman muttered, her expression clearly showing signs of distress. It was one of the rare moments when she displayed any semblance of human emotion.
“How could you alone…”
But she stopped mid-sentence, biting her lip shut. Then, as if nothing had happened, she fixed her gaze on Lee Hyun with her usual unreadable expression.
“…What a pity. Wasn’t the eternal happiness you dreamed of waiting for you there? Why would you choose suffering for yourself? It’s completely irrational…”
“Shut up.”
Lee Hyun cut her off before she could continue her tirade, making it clear he had no intention of engaging in conversation.
“How dare you use my family… for such a vile trick…”
He made no effort to hide the hostility rising within him. The particles gathering in the air around him began to tremble violently. Even Jin Yeseo could feel the electric tension in the air.
“Hmm…”
The woman, seeing Lee Hyun’s extreme reaction, let out a curious, amused smile.
Lee Hyun checked the woman’s abdomen. His attack had been unleashed after unlocking his Predictive Techniques to the 6th path. He had clearly felt the sensation of his foot piercing into her organs.
But now, her clothes were torn, exposing her navel, and yet her smooth skin bore not even a scratch.
There was only one explanation. The attack had hit, but she had instantly regenerated.
Just like how she had regrown her severed arm in an instant, and how she had continued moving even after her heart had been stabbed.
She was too dangerous to capture alive. Even setting aside his personal anger, this woman was an overwhelmingly perilous existence.
Her movements surpassed human limits. She could live and move even after having her limbs severed or her heart pierced. She possessed an unknown ability that could twist a person’s mind, and to top it off, she commanded monstrous creatures as if they were mere extensions of her own body.
Even the massive beasts that breathed fire, the highest-ranking demons of the Baekdu bloodline, and the most ancient and powerful black magicians couldn’t perform such feats.
There seemed to be no way to break her down, as if she were a being entirely unrelated to death, her self-assured smile declaring as much.
“…”
He continued to think, searching for a way to deal with an enemy who could survive even after losing limbs, rupturing organs, or having her heart impaled.
‘…No.’
But then, Lee Hyun shook his head. There was still one place left to test.
That small head attached to that face he found so repulsive.
There were no other options anyway. Leaving this woman alive and escaping this underground chamber with Jin Yeseo was an impossible task from the start.
‘It’s worth a try…’
With that thought, Lee Hyun immediately adjusted the magic formula of his Predictive Techniques, carving it into his body. This time, he pushed it to the 7th path, the maximum power he could muster.
All the pathways in his body opened to their fullest, and an enormous amount of particles surged into him like a flood. His limbs were filled with vitality, and the world around him appeared to slow down through his enhanced vision.
“…Ugh.”
Along with that came excruciating pain.
Sa Jaehyuk had strictly forbidden him from unlocking the 7th path, fearing it would endanger his life. But in this situation, there was no other choice.
The enemy before him wasn’t someone he could defeat by holding back.
-Boom!
As soon as the power coursed through his body, Lee Hyun kicked off the ground, closing the distance between himself and the woman in an instant.
-Swish!
He swung his blade horizontally at a speed too fast to be seen. The blade narrowly grazed her neck. A moment later, the delayed sound of the air being sliced followed with a sharp roar.
-Bang! Boom!
Lee Hyun relentlessly pressed the attack. He severed both of her arms in quick succession, but the writhing tissues immediately began to regenerate. When he tore off one of her legs, she used her remaining leg to leap over the debris like an acrobat.
Her movements were still astonishing, but clearly, she was becoming easier to handle compared to earlier.
If this continued, he would be able to kill her before his Predictive Techniques’ duration ran out.
However, the woman’s calm expression continued to unsettle him.
“Hmm…”
Even as she lost her arms, she observed the movement of his blade. As her leg was severed, she meticulously watched the trembling of his muscles with her eyes. It was as if she was trying to analyze every single one of his movements. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t the behavior of prey cornered in a desperate situation.
“Come to think of it… this is…”
-Slash!
This time, her two arms and one leg were severed at once, flying through the air. Yet, even in that moment, the woman merely muttered with a meaningful expression.
And finally, as Lee Hyun rushed forward to strike her head, her twisted smile stretched across her face once more.
“…Impressive.”
-Boom!
“Ugh…!”
The woman’s torso twisted at an impossible angle, and with incredible speed, she landed a blow on Lee Hyun’s chest.
If he hadn’t erected a barrier with particles, his heart would have been shattered by the sheer force of the attack.
“No!!”
Jin Yeseo screamed, her face pale as she witnessed the sudden reversal. She tried to raise her trembling arms, but her body refused to move.
The woman, with her limbs already regenerated, closed the distance between herself and the staggering Lee Hyun. He barely managed to slice off her hand before it could touch him, then kicked her away to create some space.
-Boom!
Amid the cloud of dust, Lee Hyun knelt on the ground, using his blade to support himself as he gasped for breath. Soon after, he coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
“Huff… Huff…! Urgh, cough! Cough…!”
“You’re wondering how… aren’t you?”
The woman’s calm voice reached his ears, but it felt more like mockery.
“Of course. There’s no way I’d be worse at handling particles than a lower life form.”
-Shaa…
The woman slowly walked forward. The skin on her abdomen, which had been torn open by Lee Hyun’s kick, wriggled and closed up, leaving no trace of the injury.
“More importantly, there’s something I want to ask you.”
She stopped in her tracks, looking down at Lee Hyun with a gaze that exuded arrogance.
“What’s your relationship with the Adversary? Your movements remind me so much of him. Though, of course, they’re a severely degraded version.”
“Huff… Huff… Cough! What… nonsense…”
Lee Hyun glared at her with fierce eyes as he muttered.
“Sigh… well, never mind.”
Seeing that he had no intention of answering, the woman let out a sigh. Then, she began walking forward again.
“I suppose I’ll figure it out once I take a look myself. Peering into memories is a simple task for me, Betelgeuse… Hmm?”
The woman suddenly turned her head to the side.
“No, don’t…”
“Hmm…”
Jin Yeseo was leaning against the wall, staring helplessly at Lee Hyun. Her body trembled as she struggled to move, but it was in vain.
“One female, one male, both harboring instinctual affection that would naturally lead to reproduction… I see.”
Sensing the emotions in the air, the woman’s lips stretched into a grotesque smile, splitting her face wide with satisfaction.
“Such unnecessary bonds for someone who can’t even take care of themselves. Well, watching you fall into despair right in front of each other might be amusing. A little bitterness is necessary from time to time.”
“No… No… Move, move already…!”
Ignoring Jin Yeseo’s desperate cries, the woman continued to walk forward. Even as his vision blurred, Lee Hyun clung to his consciousness.
He had only a few minutes left to wield the Predictive Techniques at the 7th path. The recent blow had shortened that time even further. Thirty to forty seconds, at most a minute, was all the time he had left in the magical realm.
“Huff… Huff…”
The Predictive Techniques. The greatest body-enhancing magic of the Circulation System. It was the power that had allowed the Heukryeon family to rise to its current position.
Yet, despite wielding such power, Lee Hyun was being utterly overwhelmed by the woman’s even greater strength.
This enemy, whose true identity remained unknown, was the worst he had ever faced. Even Sa Jaehyuk had never pushed him this far.
However, from the woman’s overwhelming power, Lee Hyun had found a clue to victory.
“Still, it was quite enjoyable. As a reward, I’ll add you to my ‘collection.’”
The woman’s body-enhancing abilities during the fight. The movement of particles detected in those brief moments.
The meaning was clear. She was using particles in the same way they did. In other words, she was using magic.
And Lee Hyun had a way to disperse any magic, no matter how powerful, as if it had never existed.
The power of Authority.
“Huff…”
Having made up his mind, Lee Hyun raised his trembling arm, lifting his blade. His body was in terrible shape, and the range of his Authority was limited. If the woman noticed and kept her distance, his chance of victory would vanish forever.
Fortunately, the woman had been treating him with an arrogance bordering on negligence the entire time.
Lee Hyun thought to himself. In that case, he would draw her in. All the way to the final moment. To that exact instant when she couldn’t escape his last attack.
“You should consider yourself honored. After all, only a few lower life forms have ever been granted such a privilege… Hmm?”
-Boom!
Lee Hyun suddenly charged at the woman, who had been muttering something, and swung his blade fiercely.
“I thought I told you. You’re not that slow a learner…”
The woman sighed and casually raised her arm to block the attack. The same arm that had been severed like butter earlier now stopped his blade as if it were made of steel.
-Thud!
“Urgh…!”
The woman counterattacked, sending Lee Hyun flying. He could clearly hear the sound of his shoulder bone shattering.
-Boom!
His head slammed into the hard stone wall, shattering it on impact. The woman, brimming with confidence, leaped into the air, aiming to deliver the final blow to Lee Hyun.
A vision of the near future flashed through his mind like a prophecy.
In the blink of an eye, she would be right in front of him. Her wicked hand would grasp his heart, crushing it instantly. He would die without even being able to scream, never to return to the one waiting for him.
But even in the midst of pain, Lee Hyun smiled. The moment the woman leaped, hanging in the air. The very instant that Sa Jaehyuk had once described as ‘a moment even the gods cannot intervene.’
Now was the time he had been waiting for.
Lee Hyun focused on the power that had been swirling near his heart all along. Then, in an instant, he unleashed it to its maximum range.
The power spread like ripples, and soon every particle in the space around him fell under his control.
In the slow-moving world, the woman had already reached his face, her monstrous hand outstretched. But her expression, losing its momentum, began to twist into something strange.
First, doubt. Then, realization, and finally, overwhelming fear.
Her face changed in an instant.
“This is…!”
Just as her pupils dilated and she opened her mouth to say something—
“Die.”
-Crack!
With a cold murmur, the sharp sound of a skull splitting echoed, and the blade pierced straight through the center of her forehead.
End of Chapter