Chapter 2246 – 2246. Rezo
Kwarurururung.
A blue lightning bolt struck Rezo’s head from the pitch-black night sky.
Rezo was unharmed. The lightning slid off his crown, seeped into the ground, and disappeared.
It wasn’t a meaningless attack. I saw what his power was.
“He stores ghost-type monsters in his body and uses them. A curse mage who also learned necromancy.”
“It’s not necromancy, but a type of voodoo.”
“Wasn’t voodoo about dealing with zombies?”
“Zombies or wraiths… they’re all the same, the dead.”
Rezo took something out of his pocket. It was a voodoo mask carved from wood. Wraiths appeared around the masked man.
Ghosts.
Monsters that hunters are reluctant to face.
Those below C-rank can be easily dealt with, but those above B-rank become quite tricky, so there are even exorcist hunters who specialize in dealing with ghosts.
‘But the ghosts around Rezo… they seem to be A-rank or higher.’
Rezo pointed at me with his finger. The wraiths rushed in unison.
‘I have just the right item to deal with them.’
I put on white leather gloves with wings and a mace drawn on the back of my hand.
These were the Inquisitor’s Gloves I got as a reward for clearing the Rainbow Fruit Dungeon in the past. I had finished enhancing them with the Light Ascension Sword, but I rarely had a chance to use them. Their effect is to imbue an item with Selbretina’s divine power for 10 minutes once every 24 hours. In other words, Holy Enchant.
Instead of reverse-summoning and re-summoning the Hwaryeon Flying Blades, I summoned Storm Breaker and transformed it into a sword.
‘Hwaryeon Flying Blades have the ability to enhance attributes, but they reject divine power.’
It was absurd that something enhanced by a god would reject divine power, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Divine power, the nemesis of ghosts!”
I swung the sword, brightly glowing with divine power, at the wraiths. The effect was amazing. Just a graze of the blade distorted their forms and they began to slowly disappear.
Perhaps because the wraiths were being slaughtered too easily, Rezo called them back into himself.
“Ghosts, huh? Do you see these poor souls as mere monsters?”
“You’re the one who’s using those poor souls. What other nonsense are you going to spout?”
“I made a contract with them through a legitimate ritual. Don’t you Koreans also perform a similar ritual every year?”
“A similar ritual? What are you talking about?”
“Ancestral rites. The ritual where you worship your ancestral spirits.”
“My family doesn’t do that anymore.”
I leaped towards him with my sword. I immediately fell to the floor. My body suddenly felt heavy. It wasn’t a feeling of being pulled down by gravity. My body itself had become heavy. This was a curse.
“Really? That’s a shame. I went to the trouble of summoning your ancestors, but it seems their descendant is an ungrateful wretch.”
“You son of a bitch! Sung Yoo-jin!!”
A shout echoed from above my head. I was startled and looked up. There was a stern-looking old man there.
I was shocked. It was my grandfather, who had passed away from high blood pressure when I was in middle school.
“G-Grandfather?!”
“Rezo is a precious person who will soothe our spirits! How dare you not show respect! I never taught you that way!”
I jumped up from my spot.
“You goddamn old bastard! If you were going to die, you should have at least passed on some of your assets! You died without leaving a single thing, and now you show up and act like this!”
“Y-You! How dare you speak to your grandfather like that! I am your grandfather! Is that how your mother taught you?!”
“You son of a bitch. How many ancestral rites has our family performed?! At this point, you should be appearing in my dreams and subtly telling me the lottery numbers! I’m glad I met you. If you want to keep eating ancestral food, tell me the lottery numbers!”
“You don’t know your place!!”
“Your place is in hell!”
I stabbed my sword, filled with divine power, into my grandfather’s chest.
“Kkyaaaaaaak!”
My grandfather’s wraith vanished. I spat on the floor and glared at Rezo. Rezo had a somewhat dumbfounded expression.
“Your tricks won’t work. I don’t know how you knew what my grandfather looked like and tried to deceive me… but there’s no way my long-dead grandfather would suddenly appear.”
“…No, he was your grandfather.”
“I told you your tricks won’t work. There’s no way you could summon the soul of someone who died a long time ago.”
“I’ve been hiding in this land for 10 years. Did you think I was just doing nothing? This body was the son of a shaman, and I happened to be interested in the indigenous beliefs of this land. For the first few years, I even learned shamanism. If the conditions are right, it’s possible to temporarily summon the soul of someone who died a long time ago. Just like your grandfather, who just vanished after being stabbed by your sword.”
“That was really my grandfather?!”
“Yes. You are a parricide who killed his own grandfather.”
“You’re trying to shake my mentality with nonsense. If that was really my grandfather… he would have told me the lottery numbers. At the very least, he would have told me about some stocks that were going to skyrocket.”
“Just because they’re souls doesn’t mean they have special powers. They’re even more powerless without a physical body.”
“Your tricks won’t work. That old man didn’t tell me the lottery numbers! There will be no more ancestral food for him!”
“You crazy bastard. I feel sorry for him, having a grandson like you. Do you see the sword in front of you?”
“Don’t touch the Hwaryeon Flying Blades. It’s more important than my grandfather.”
“……The more attached you are to an object, the easier it is to become a medium for a curse. Especially since this sword has a special power. I can see your attachment to this sword. This sword will kill you.”
Rezo reached out and grabbed the hilt of the Hwaryeon Flying Blades.
Pajijijik!
Red sparks flew and bounced off Rezo’s hand. Rezo’s face hardened.
“Could it be that it has some degree of will? It’s more than I imagined.”
“It’s too precious for the likes of you to touch. Come, Hwaryeon Flying Blades.”
I reverse-summoned it and then summoned it again. I held the Hwaryeon Flying Blades and Storm Breaker in each hand.
Pajijijijik.
Blue lightning crackled from Storm Breaker, and red lightning crackled from Hwaryeon Flying Blades.
I resonated the two lightnings. The sound of thunder grew louder, amplifying their power.
Kwarurururung.
Lightning Style (雷天流) Thunderclap (雷鳴).
The lightning flashed, illuminating the surroundings.
“People think of curses as purely negative. But just as poison can be medicine, curses can be used in different ways.”
Rezo threw off his top. Complex tattoos were drawn on his body. The tattoos writhed as if they were alive. I knew those tattoos were curses.
“Lee Yeon-sook fights with dozens of barriers on her body. She uses the barriers as armor and weapons, so it’s called barrier armament. There’s no reason why I can’t do the same. Instead of barriers, it’s curses… it’ll be curse armament.”
Rezo, covered in dozens of curses, clenched his fist and approached. The pressure was immense.
‘A curse mage who fights in close combat? That’s crazy. Really.’
The only good news was that Rezo’s steps and the way he clenched his fist were very clumsy. It was clear that he had almost no experience in close combat.
[Using Moment (刹那). Remaining stacks: 11]
Instead of dodging him, I charged forward.
I pretended to swing my sword and blade, and then detonated the lightning amplified by resonance. The lightning exploded, and my vision was momentarily consumed. Relying on my senses, I swung the Hwaryeon Flying Blades and Storm Breaker in different directions.
Kaaaaaaang!
The attack was blocked. A giant human figure wearing armor appeared above Rezo’s body, blocking my attacks with a sword and a glaive in each hand.
“What the hell is that?”
“He’s a general.”
“Damn it. This is getting ridiculous!”
The general seemed to seep into Rezo’s body. Rezo’s aura changed drastically. He, who knew nothing about martial arts, had transformed into a seasoned warrior. Moreover, a warrior with skills beyond a master. His hands now held a sword and a glaive, and he was parrying my attacks.
Kaaaaaaang!
The weapons clashed, creating a shockwave. My strength couldn’t hold out, and I was pushed back. The opponent was slightly more overwhelming in terms of physical ability.
‘My physical ability is inferior? Against a curse mage?’
It was shocking. So shocking that I wanted to give up everything.
But I regained my composure when I saw blood flowing from his mouth and nose.
“There’s no way a curse mage can fight like that without a price. He’s eating away at his own life.”
“……That’s how curses are. They’re powerful and dangerous at the same time. But it’s okay. The result is in. Can’t you hear the screams of the dead?”
Immediately after, a scream that seemed to tear my ears apart was heard.
Kkyaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!
Where did that come from?
I rolled my eyes and realized that the sound was coming from inside my body. When I first collided with him, he had possessed my body with a wraith.
Wraith hands popped out from all over my body. Shoulders, waist, thighs, calves, abdomen… the hands that popped out all grew longer and reached for my neck.
Hwarururuk.
Blue flames rose from the fox badge I received from Miryeong and burned the wraith’s hands. The fox badge shattered and disappeared as if it had finished its job. I sighed and then realized.
“…It wasn’t a wraith, but a curse.”
“Is there really a need to distinguish between the two? It seems you had something like a ward… but that alone can’t block all of my curses.”
That was true.
The curse was still in my body. My head was dizzy, my vision was blurry, and my body was heavy. My fingernails were splitting, my skin was itchy. It felt like I had athlete’s foot on my feet, and my knee joints had been creaking and hurting since earlier. I was also hungry and thirsty. I also wanted to have sex.
All of this was the effect of the curse. I didn’t know how many curses were eating away at my body. I probably wouldn’t last long.
“The offer I made earlier is still valid.”
“…I was originally going to stall for time, but… I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to kill you with all my power from now on.”
[Activating Heavenly Mind (天心). Lasts for 1 minute.]
