“Wait…!” Seo Jun-Ho was caught off-guard to the point that he couldn’t even speak. The only thought in his head was?‘what in the world was she thinking?’
‘That idiot! Can she not sense Janabi’s aura?’?
He was well aware of how big of a fan she was of Specter, but aside from that, Gong Ju-Ha was still a veteran Player. She would never turn her back to an enemy just to stare at someone else.
‘So why is she being so reckless…’?
He started to get a strange feeling, so he immediately moved.
‘Shadow Movement.’?
He melted into the shadow at his feet and appeared behind Gong Ju-Ha. He grabbed her waist and quickly dove away.
“Kyaaa!”
Slam!?
Bits of rock flew into the air in the place where they had been standing, creating a thick cloud of dust. The strike had been so powerful that part of the roof had crumbled.
– Kiii.?
Janabi sounded disappointed.
Once Seo Jun-Ho saw Gong Ju-Ha’s lips opening and closing like a goldfish, he realized what was going on.
‘I see. She can’t sense him at all.’?
That meant that Janabi was hiding his aura almost completely.
It made him shiver. Janabi had known nothing before, but now, he understood what it was like to learn.
– Kishishi.?
It was clear who the monster on the roof had learned from.
‘…It was me.’?Janabi had created a similar technique almost immediately after seeing Seo Jun-Ho use Night Walking just once.
‘His talent is absolutely outstanding.’?
Was it talent, though? Could something like this be described as something as simple as talent? The frustration of it all made his chest feel tight.
“S-Specter-nim…What’s going on…?” Gong Ju-Ha asked, staring at the broken part of the roof. She still didn’t understand what was happening. Seo Jun-Ho carefully placed her down with one arm.
“The enemy is here. He’s hiding his appearance and presence right now,” he explained.
“…Really? I don’t see anything.” She scanned the roof with wide eyes, but she couldn’t see Janabi.
“You will only get in the way right now. Go down,” he warned her. Though it was true that she would become a distraction, he was more worried than anything else.
‘It would be crazy to fight Janabi while protecting both the Seo Jun-Ho puppet as well as Ju-Ha. I have to make her go back.’?
However, Janabi wouldn’t care about his concerns.
– Kishishishi.?
Janabi stared at her as he laughed, his gaze leery.
‘Should I send her back with Shadow Movement?’?Seo?Jun-Ho shook his head. It would take a lot of magic power to use it on someone else. In the end, he simply frowned and placed Gong Ju-Ha behind him.
“I-if you just tell me where he is, I can provide support! I’m a fire user, so I can help you,” she piped up.
“Help…?” Seo Jun-Ho fell deep into thought. ‘Yes, Captain Gong’s flames might be able to harm him.’?Fire was often used to counter regenerative abilities. If the cells themselves were burned away, it would be impossible to regenerate.
‘That’s not a bad idea. But…It’s too dangerous.’?
Gong Ju-Ha still wasn’t strong enough to take on a Floor Master like Janabi.
At least, that was what Seo Jun-Ho thought, based on his own experience of fighting the Frost Queen.
“It’s too dangerous. Go back.”
“I-I’m a Player too, you know.” Gong Ju-Ha pursed her lips. “I’ve always respected your heroism, and I’ve lived my whole life trying to follow in your steps. I promise I won’t get in the way.”
“…My heroism, you say.” Specter gave a bitter smile. It might seem like heroism to others, but he had only gotten this far through sacrifice. They could only see it as such because they had only seen the results of his actions. He sorted his thoughts and looked around the roof.
“Are you sure you won’t regret this?” he asked. 𝗼𝘃𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴
“I left all those feelings on the 1st floor.”
“Good. Do you know how a go board looks?”
“I-I don’t…” she stammered, sounding surprised.
“How about chess?”
“I know a bit. Just a little bit…” She trailed off.
“From this moment on, think of the roof as a chessboard.”
“A chessboard…” Her eyes widened, and she quickly scanned the roof tiles. “The horizontal axis is the alphabet, and the vertical axis is in numbers, correct?”
“The horizontal axis will go from 1A to 10Z, and the vertical one will go from 1 to 260.”
The roof of the Magic Tower was made up of 260×260 tiles, with the edges being slightly cut off by its round shape. Since the alphabet had 26 letters, going from 1A to 10Z would make up exactly 260 tiles.
“I’ve memorized them.”
“Alright. Then when I give you a tile… Release your flames.”
“Yes, sir!” It was the first time he had seen her become so obedient. With her eyes sparkling, this was the most enthusiastic he had ever seen her since they first met.
“7B-129.”
Gong Ju-Ha didn’t hesitate. She seemed to have actually remembered all the tiles and summoned her flames.
Fwoooosh!?
They shot out straight like a hand, quickly hitting the target. Startled, Janabi twisted out of the way.
“Don’t forget about me.” Dark fangs shout out of the ground and started to gorge on Janabi’s body. “7A-126.”
“On it!”
Bam! Fwooosh!?
A giant pillar of flames shot up from the tile, and a sharp cry filled the air.
– Kieeeee! Kiiiiiii!
This was probably the first time Janabi felt something so hot.
“Make it even hotter. Hot enough so that his cells will burn,” Seo Jun-Ho requested.
“I-I’ll try.” As sweat dripped down Gong Ju-Ha’s face, the pillar exploded.
Fwoooosh!?
It grew bigger and bigger, and it became much stronger than the fire Seo Jun-Ho had seen in Las Vegas.
‘It’s enough to light up Blackfield… She has gotten stronger since then.’?
However, his admiration only lasted for a second. Right now, the only thing that mattered was hurting Janabi.
– Kiiiiiii! Kiyaaaaa!
It was working. However, he could still endure it. Behind the flames, Janabi’s black silhouette writhed, seemingly trying to escape from the fangs of darkness. However, Seo Jun-Ho had spread them out, stabbing through Janabi’s body several times to keep him more firmly in place.
‘There’s no way I’m letting him go. We have to end this before he learns something new.’?
“Hotter,” he urged once again.
“Ugh…!” Gong Ju-Ha squeezed her eyes shut as she summoned all the magic power in her body and concentrated only on raising the temperature.
‘It’s… Changing color.’?
The flames started to shift through different colors. Though it was a mix of red and yellow before, the roots quickly started to become white.
‘White fire.’?
Even though he was quite a ways away, his armor and skin would have started to melt from the sweltering heat if he wasn’t using magic to protect himself. She couldn’t create blue fire, the hottest type of fire, but this was enough.
Janabi’s silhouette started to slow down within those beautiful, violent flames.
‘I think he has given up on running away. He’s only focusing on regeneration.’?
Seo Jun-Ho put the nameless spear away into his inventory and walked toward Janabi, holding jet-black scythes in each hand.
‘This isn’t a game.’?
If it were a game, there wouldn’t be friendly fire, but this was reality. Every time he got closer to the pillar of fire, the dangerous heat made him want to fall back.
However, Seo Jun-Ho didn’t stop.
‘I can do this.’?
Fwoooosh!?
The fire burned at the darkness covering his body, trying to ward him away. However, Seo Jun-Ho kept layering his body with shadows as he proceeded to the pillar of flames.
– Kiii…
He was only 5 meters away from Janabi. At this distance, Seo Jun-Ho was sure that he could destroy Janabi on the cellular level.
‘Let’s finish this before he learns something new and things become even more complicated.’?
He crossed the two scythes, and the muscles in his body swelled as he cut Janabi’s body in an X-shape. However, his hands didn’t stop there.
‘Make it so that he won’t be able to regenerate again.’
He cut, cut, cut, and kept cutting. His concentration climbed without a limit. Janabi was quickly reduced to the size of dust, but he kept going. Seo Jun-Ho was long past the point of simply cutting Janabi’s flesh—he was now hunting Janabi down with his aura.
“…”
Finally, Seo Jun-Ho stopped his dance and lowered his hands. The scythes melted through his hands like sand, their job done.
“Huff, huff…!”?Gong Ju-Ha was drenched in sweat after exhausting so much magic energy in the last ten minutes. Even as her body started to sway from the anemia, she kept up her flames so she could help.
But unfortunately for her, Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t pay attention to such trivial things.
‘Why… Why isn’t it showing up this time either?’?
There was no message saying that Janabi had been defeated. At this point, any other Player would have been certain of Janabi’s death.
However, Jun-Ho couldn’t be sure, as the message wasn’t there.
‘Why?’?
Seo Jun-Ho immediately tried to recall the battle. He started to imagine what he would do to survive if he were Janabi.
‘He treated me like a teacher and gained skills and experience.’?
So, what did Janabi learn?
‘He would have learned how to bait an opponent. And even though he can’t use flames, he even stole Night Walking.’?
However, Night Walking could only be fully used with Watchguard of Darkness. Though Gong Ju-Ha hadn’t been able to sense him after he hid his presence, it wouldn’t work on Seo Jun-Ho or on the Heavens of the Nine Heavens.
‘What else?’?
If Janabi had stolen even more of his techniques, what would he be able to use?
“…”
Keen Intuition alerted him of something. Seo Jun-Ho slowly turned around. Behind him, Gong Ju-Ha was gasping like she was about to faint.
And behind her stood the Seo Jun-Ho puppet…
“…No.”
If, by chance, Janabi had learned from this, he could fool his opponent with a clone.
– Kishishishi.?
“Dammit!” Seo Jun-Ho shouted, and his body faded like smoke. As his body became the darkness, he started toward Gong Ju-Ha as fast as he could go.
‘When he broke part of the roof, the dust was thick.’?
What if Janabi had made a clone at that time? And what if his real body had fallen to the lower floors through the hole he had created?
‘He’d go after Captain Gong because her skill is most effective against him!’
She was too far.
With his skill, he could reach Gong Ju-Ha in the blink of an eye. But today, it felt like an eternity.
An unpleasant sound rang in his ears. He could see Gong Ju-Ha’s face through his pounding heart and blurry vision. She was drenched in the sweat she hated so much, and her face was white as a sheet of paper.
“…Huh?” She slowly looked down at her chest.
She could see a scorpion tail with a stinger at the end sprouting up from the floor below.
‘Why is that…’?
She didn’t understand why it was poking out of her chest. The flesh around it started to grow hot.
‘But I don’t like the heat…’?
She forced her eyes open and looked forward. She had always wanted to meet Specter, and now, he was sprinting toward her as a shadow.
‘When this is over…I wonder… Would he take a picture with me?’?
He probably would. She had gone through so much to help him. A small smile appeared on her face at the thought of that.
And bright red blood poured out between her smiling lips…
“Gong Ju-Ha!!!” Someone shouted.
For some reason, that voice sounded familiar. ‘Wait… Darkness… And ice…?’
Through the haze, she could see Specter using two elemental skills as he shot something out.
‘What a weird dream…’
And with that, her heavy eyes finally closed.
The pillar of fire that had once illuminated Blackfield disappeared as if it had never been there at all.