Chapter 235
“Why?”
“……” Seo Dawon didn’t respond.
Kim Olim began to place so strength in the hand holding back. I was so surprised by the pain that my body flinched. “Nngh…! Why are you guys doing this?”
Kim Olim only let go after I groaned. However, the atmosphere still seed eerie; the expressions of the servants watching us seed rigid. Jung Garam’s normally grinning expression had been erased, and the Assassin slowly stood up from the sofa. “Why does it keep getting worse?”
“Huh?”
“Choi Lee-kyung might beco a cripple at this rate…” At first, I wondered if Jung Garam was speaking to , but it seed like he was talking to himself.
However, his last sentence was quite creepy, so I couldn’t help but interrogate him further, “What does that an?”
“……”
However, everyone clamd up at my question synchronically. Seo Dawon, who was standing behind , ca close, “How much can you see?”
“What?”
“The thing around Koo Hui-seo… how much of it can you see?”
Though I was nervous, I turned my gaze back onto Koo Hui-seo as the Mage requested.
In that short while, Koo Hui-seo had been temporarily released from those tentacles. To be exact, the tentacles appeared to be torturing the ex-chira rather than simply attacking him. It strangled the man and released him montarily, when Koo Hui-seo struggled to escape, it repeated the process all over again…
However, the tentacles still only existed within the shadows; in the physical realm, it seed as if Koo Hui-seo was struggling on his own. I hesitated, unable to figure out what was happening before , but Seo Dawon placed his hand on my shoulder, as if to urge to answer. So, I explained exactly what I saw, “The shadow…looks a little strange. I can’t actually properly see anything, but it looks as if tentacles within his shadow are harassing Koo Hui-seo…”
“And sll?”
“Sll?”
“Doesn’t it sll strange?”
“I… no.”
I didn’t really…sll anything in particular. I could only sll the subtle scent of the diffuser that Choi Kyung-sik had made after he joined. To be exact, I could only sll the gentle, soft sll of cut grass.
I sniffed hard and turned to the Mage, who was patiently waiting for my answer, “I can only…sll the diffuser.”
“……” Seo Dawon’s expression didn’t lighten. He frowned–like a doctor looking at a patient whose body was failing them–before quickly hiding his grimace when he saw my anxious eyes. However, he had more to say, “If by any chance you sll blood…”
“Hm?”
“Or the stench of a rotting corpse, tell imdiately.”
“Ah, alright.”
As soon as he heard my response, the Mage reached out to Koo Hui-seo.
While we talked, Koo Hui-seo was unable to endure the pain and drooped onto the floor, unconscious. The tentacles were still pressing on his body, but I could only see its movents through the shadow on the wall. In the real world, Koo Hui-seo seed to have collapsed, alone.
However, as Seo Dawon reached out to the tentacles, as if he were about to use a skill, the tentacles flinched; they raised their languid bodies sharply. Because of that, Koo Hui-seo’s body flung onto its side, as if he had been kicked. That sight was sohow disturbing.
“[Lightning Globus].” Seo Dawon activated his skill as soon as Koo Hui-seo’s body moved.
Soon, a golden magic circle rose around Koo Hui-seo; when it faded away, an electrifying black current appeared in its place, slowly forming into a round sphere. It was only as big as a ping-pong ball, but, every few seconds, it made a threatening crackling noise. If one were to touch it, they might be electrified.
Perhaps the tentacles had a degree of intelligence; they began to hover around the skill, shirking back at each threatening zap. They didn’t touch the skill recklessly; like a snail’s eye stalk, the tentacles cautiously reached out before shirking back without evening grazing past the sphere. As a result, the tentacles naturally shrinked in overall mass.
However, the black tentacles were still weighing down Koo Hui-seo’s body. I had no idea how much they weighed, but Koo Hui-seo’s face, below that mass, was so pale that I thought he would choke if we left him to his own devices.
“I don’t…think he’s breathing,” I said.
“…[Levitate].” Upon hearing my mumbles, Seo Dawon released a short sigh and floated Koo Hui-seo’s body about 5 centiters off the ground.
The tentacles, busily shaking in the shadows, began to wrap around Koo Hui-seo’s torso and knot around every joint. Like they were carefully packaging the man up.
The mass didn’t try to escape nor vanish; Koo Hui-seo was still unconscious. I thought the tentacles’ behavior was an ominous sign. Watching those tentacles tie themselves around Koo Hui-seo’s elbows, I asked the Mage, “Why are they doing that?”
“……” Seo Dawon looked wordless down at . When I returned his gaze, wondering why the Mage was silent, he answered, “What are they doing?”
“Huh?”
“I can’t see anything.”
Startled, I looked into the Mage’s eyes. Couldn’t they see Koo Hui-seo’s tentacles before? Seo Dawon gave a serious look before suddenly stroking my eyelids. “I simply guessed at the location, following your gaze, and used one of my skills.”
“What?”
“My skill is unable to hit anything and is just hovering around.”
At those words, I looked back in Koo Hui-seo’s direction. There were definitely threatening spheres floating near the tentacles, like drones, but they were indeed doing nothing else. I turned back to the Mage, “But you’ve seen those tentacles before!”
“At that ti, Koo Hui-seo consciously manifested them.”
“What…? But…”
“Right now, Koo Hui-seo isn’t controlling them.”
“Then… Why can I see them?”
“……” It felt like Seo Dawon had so guesses as to this situation but did not answer. I had an ominous feeling.
At that mont, the tentacles’ behavior took a strange turn. Koo Hui-seo, who had been surrounded by the tentacles, suddenly rose to his feet.
I realized then that the tentacles had rged into five very long and thick tentacles. Those five thick, stem-like tentacles intertwined behind Koo Hui-seo’s back, like long ribbons, and were perating into Koo Hui-seo’s back.
At that mont, sothing that appeared to be a black hand popped out of his back. As I watched, I almost scread in astonishnt. Seo Dawon attentively looked at before holding my hand.
C-c-crunch–
One of Koo Hui-seo’s arms twisted in an unnatural direction. To be exact, his right elbow fully bent in a way that it shouldn’t. I was srized by that grueso scene and could only watch, dumbfounded.
The ex-chira moved unnaturally, as if he had beco a doll puppeteered by strings. Perhaps the tentacles were trying to redy the ‘accident’ that had just occurred; one tentacle slithered up to his right arm… It tried to return the elbow to its original angle, but, understandably, the elbow’s angle still seed strange. The bones had already been smashed after all.
In that state, Koo Hui-seo opened one eye–the bloodshot left eye that I had been worried about since earlier. For the first ti, I saw ‘it.‘
“…. Hui-seo-ssi.” Though I called the ex-chira’s na, I was sure that ‘that’ wasn’t Hui-seo. That unidentified being, who stared at , seed to have no intention of hiding it wasn’t Koo Hui-seo.
Furthermore, the nurous shadow tentacles disappeared when that man opened his eyes.
At that mont, Seo Dawon said to , “Summon , Lee-kyung-ah.”
“Huh?”
Seo Dawon didn’t say anything further and stared at ‘that.’ Though I wanted to hear an explanation, I soon slled a horrible scent and had to stop talking. “Nngh… What is this…sll…”
“…What?” Seo Dawon looked at as soon as I spoke. I felt like I was going to choke on this unfamiliar scent–one of the worst things I have ever slled in my life. Waves of unpleasantness wafted over , again and again; it was as if I was being dunked in sewage water. It was so terrible that I couldn’t even open my eyes.
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TL: The image of the tentacles breaking bones and trying to puppet the limbs back into their original positions…but failing… D:
Ugh. Gross!
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