Chapter 1141 – 1141. Savior Of The Academy
“Moka.”
Fzzzzzzzt.
The high-grade spirit Moka appeared before me, wings unfurled.
A large amount of mana drained away in an instant, and Moka materialized.
“Kkuuukk.”
Moka spread her wings. Dozens of bolts of lightning flashed from her shimmering wings, flying towards the skeleton.
The skeleton staggered from the lightning strikes. Holes appeared all over it. But it was only for a moment. The curse gathered back on the skeleton. The holes in the skeleton regenerated.
I frowned.
‘Putting aside the fact that Moka’s firepower couldn’t kill it in one go… that damn massive curse is the problem.’
“Yujin. We need to find and eliminate the medium of the curse.”
Shin Nari said. I understood her words immediately. It meant we had to find Kim Jeo, who was hiding somewhere in this academy.
“Sunbae, do you know where that guy is?”
“I don’t know… but Imo might know.”
That was quite possible. An evil spirit would be more sensitive to curses than a living person like me or Shin Nari.
The energy emanating from the regenerated skeleton was ominous. It opened its mouth wide and spewed out curses. Moka stepped forward and blocked the curses that were surging in like a wave.
“Kkuuk…”
She couldn’t hold out for long. That was Moka’s will conveyed to me. The curse that Moka spilled touched my body. My skin became dry and rough.
‘Even if I summon Machina, there wouldn’t be a good solution… I guess I have no choice but to do that.’
I turned my head sharply and looked at Shin Nari and Kales. Shin Nari was enduring the curse even better than Moka, and Kales was frowning behind her. Kales, whose contract with the high-grade spirit of darkness had been severed, was not compatible with that skeleton in his current state.
“Nari Sunbae. Can you block that thing for a moment? Five seconds is enough.”
“I can do it.”
“Please.”
Shin Nari released the curse that had been accumulated in the string I had given her. The curse seemed to overwhelm the skeleton’s curse for a moment and attack it in reverse, but it began to be pushed back. This was because the skeleton’s curse was almost infinite, like an ocean.
“Moka. It’s been a while since Spirit Possession.”
“Kkuk!”
Moka flew and seeped into my body. My body changed. My hair and skin turned pure white, and thunder wings made of electricity sprouted from my back. It was an alien sensation, but I knew in my head what I had to do.
I kicked off the ground and jumped up. I accelerated by flapping my thunder wings. The skeleton reached out its white hand towards me. I kicked the skeleton’s large hand with my foot. The shattered hand scattered in all directions. I approached while dodging the other hand that the skeleton was swinging.
I clenched my fist tightly. Fzzzzzzzzzt. Electricity gathered and coalesced in my fist. I slammed my fist into the skeleton’s head.
The skeleton shattered like glass that had fallen on the floor. The curse gathered to regenerate the skeleton again. I kept swinging my fist at the curse.
Fzzzzzt, fzzzzzzzt!
The electricity generated from my fist burned the curse. The curse, which had been endless like an ocean, seemed to give up on the skeleton and disappeared without a trace.
I landed on the ground and released the Spirit Possession. Spirit Possession was great, but it consumed too much stamina.
“…You possessed a spirit. I’ve never heard of such spirit magic. Is it a secret technique of the Jinryeong family?”
“That’s right. Please keep it a secret if you can.”
“Of course. I’m not a stupid teacher who would go around blabbing about my student’s techniques.”
I glanced at Shin Nari. She didn’t seem to care whether I merged with a spirit or not.
“Sunbae. What do you see?”
“As the curse is leaving this space… Imo got swept away.”
Come to think of it, the evil spirit that had been attached to Shin Nari was nowhere to be seen. I used my spirit vision to examine the flow of the curse leaving this place. I could see it. The problem was that there wasn’t just one or two flows of the curse.
“Sunbae. Do you know where the evil spirit is going?”
“Yeah. I can feel Imo’s presence. It wasn’t like this before… but now, it feels like I’m deeply connected to Imo.”
It was the evil spirit that had always been with Shin Nari. It didn’t make sense that it was suddenly swept away by the flow of the curse.
“Maybe it moved to the source of the curse. Sunbae. Please guide me to where the evil spirit is.”
“Okay.”
Shin Nari ran down the right corridor without hesitation. And she opened the door at the end of the corridor that led outside and went out.
“W-What is this…?!”
“……”
Kales was shocked. I narrowed my eyes and surveyed the surroundings.
The sky was dyed red, and black hands were planted on the ground like flowers. The hands were wriggling, trying to grab something.
“The academy’s barrier has changed due to the curse…? This is absurd. The academy’s barrier is one of the best in Korea…! No matter how rampant the curse is, the barrier shouldn’t be altered. …Could it be. Someone else….”
“Kales-sensei. It’s already happened. We can figure out the cause later… let’s chase after Shin Nari Sunbae first.”
“Ah…? N-Nari! You have to come with us!”
Shin Nari, who had been running ahead, slowed down. Kales and I followed behind her, looking around. As Kales said, the barrier seemed to be distorted, making everything look warped.
I could see teachers fighting a tree monster a little ways away. I deliberately made a noise, but the teachers didn’t look this way. Kales also didn’t recognize the teachers.
‘It must be distorted by the altered barrier. The reason I can see them is because of my spirit vision.’
There was no need to help the teachers.
They were teachers of the academy. Depending on their major, there would be differences, but their combat power was at least that of a B-class hero.
Shin Nari’s legs didn’t stop running. Her face, which had always been expressionless and calm, showed signs of anxiety and impatience. She might lose the evil spirit. That ominous thought was making Shin Nari anxious. The evil spirit was her family, after all.
The place where Shin Nari arrived was a junkyard. It was unusually large. Trash was scattered everywhere. The stench stung my nose. If you looked closely, there were also things that looked like monster corpses.
This place was both a junkyard and an incinerator.
Once a month, magic students incinerated trash with magic under the pretext of practice. The magic students looked forward to the incineration day. Why? Because burning trash with magic relieved stress. It was legal arson, legal destruction.
“Something… is eerie.”
Kales said. It wasn’t just his imagination. The curse was pooled in this junkyard. The pooled curse was overflowing and spreading throughout the academy. In other words, this was the source of the curse.
“Kim Jeo… that bastard. He was hiding in the junkyard. Hiding in a place like this… he has a good stomach.”
“What… Kim Jeo is hiding here? Where is he?”
“I don’t know his exact location yet… but he’s definitely here. Think about it. There’s no place better to hide than here, right?”
“That’s true. There are no managers in the junkyard, and it’s not a place that people visit often unless it’s incineration day. Even if someone comes, it would be hard to find him if he’s buried in the trash….”
Kales was convinced.
Shin Nari looked at the air. The evil spirit fluttered and flew to Shin Nari’s back. My gaze and Shin Nari’s gaze were directed to one particular spot that the evil spirit was pointing to.
I pulled up my mana and stepped into the true form. The trash soared into the air and flew away. As the trash disappeared, Kim Jeo, who had been lying on the ground and hiding, was revealed.
Kim Jeo’s condition was not good at a glance. His seaweed-like hair was dry, and his body was as thin as a scarecrow. Red spots were on the skin that was exposed outside his clothes. Strange objects were lined up around Kim Jeo. They were the charms that Kim Jeo had stolen.
‘Let’s kill him.’
There was no reason to hesitate. Kim Jeo was already wanted as a criminal. Even if I killed him, there would be no responsibility on my part.
Fzzzzzzzt.
I grabbed the lightning that I had generated in front of me and threw it at Kim Jeo. But the lightning didn’t touch Kim Jeo’s body. A black curse bounced the lightning away.
Kim Jeo opened his eyes. His pupils were tinged with orange. Then, Kim Jeo flailed his arms and legs and got up. His movements were somehow detached from human movements.
“Kim Jeo is dead. No, he’s dead, but… he’s alive.”
Shin Nari said.
I roughly understood what that contradictory statement meant. It meant that he had become a being similar to an evil spirit due to the curse. It wasn’t strange since the existence of souls had been proven in this world.
Kim Jeo got up.
Caw, caw, caw.
Dozens of crows were sitting on the fence around the junkyard, cawing.
The flow of the curse reversed. The curse that had been emanating from Kim Jeo was now gathering back to Kim Jeo.
“Sung, Yujin…!!”
Kim Jeo called out my name in a grating voice.
In the world of sorcery, names were special. They said that names were what proved existence or something.
“Sung Yujin!!!”
The curse clung to his voice. The target of the curse was me.
Pfft.
A wound appeared on the back of my hand. Blood splattered and dripped onto the floor. The wound was further widened by the curse.
I shook off the curse with mana and said,
“Kales-sensei, Nari Sunbae, please help me.”
“It’s not good to call for reinforcements… the situation is very bad. Haa. I was too hasty.”
“Okay. What should I do?”
“Sunbae. Can you possess the evil spirit? Not forcefully. It would be a problem if you went berserk.”
“I can do it. I trust… Imo now.”
“Then that’s a bit better.”
Kim Jeo’s body swelled up. His muscles twitched madly, and his legs repeatedly burst and regenerated. His intestines were constantly flowing out of his torso.
“Sung Yujin…! I’ll kill you…!”
Kim Jeo, who had grown to over 3 meters tall, reached out his hand towards the trash. Monster corpses, food scraps, and other things stuck to Kim Jeo’s body and became armor.
“Imo.”
The evil spirit possessed Shin Nari. Shin Nari’s white hair turned black, and her skin turned red. Her dull eyes shone like sparkling jewels.
Shin Nari, who had a smile on her lips, licked her lips with her tongue, revealing her murderous intent towards Kim Jeo.
“Moka.”
Moka seeped into my body. Having succeeded in Spirit Possession, I spread my thunder wings and rose into the sky.
Bone wings sprouted from Kim Jeo’s back, who was only staring at me. Once the bone wings flapped, Kim Jeo also rose into the sky.
“How dare you try to fly in the same sky as me.”
I moved my thunder wings. The sound of thunder rang out, and dozens of wing feathers made of lightning surged towards Kim Jeo. Kim Jeo, who was not used to flying, could not avoid the feathers and had to take them. A heavy scream rang out, and Kim Jeo’s body fell to the junkyard.
Shin Nari rushed at Kim Jeo. Her fingernails dug into Kim Jeo’s flesh and intestines.
“Heh, heh heh heh!”
Shin Nari laughed. Kim Jeo tried to push her away with a massive curse, but Shin Nari, who had a body that was a charm itself and the power of an evil spirit, instead absorbed the curse. She strengthened her fingernails with the absorbed curse and attacked.
Absorb the curse, strengthen it, and attack. It was simple, but fatal to Kim Jeo.
