"Ah..."
Words fail him. There was no more accurate way to put it. Choi Jong-In was at a loss for words. And he was certain. The source of the unease he had felt before entering the Gate was none other than that living, moving statue. The magic emanating from the statue was so terrible that the space around it appeared to be warping. Even just watching from where he stood, far below, a chill crept up his spine. His gaze drifted to Jin-Woo beside the statue. Jin-Woo still had not regained consciousness.
'So Hunter Sung Jin-Woo fell to that thing too?'
It wasn't surprising. Against something like that, no one could have held out. If anything, he was impressed by the strength it must have taken to destroy so many statues while fighting such a creature. But.
'Now we have to fight that thing ourselves.'
A thick bead of sweat traced down the side of his face and gathered at his jaw. The monsters here—or whatever it was, since it wasn't even clear if it counted as a monster—were undoubtedly more powerful than the ant-like creatures he had encountered in Jeju Island. Suffocating tension constricted his throat. He glanced to the side, and Cha Hae-In and Woo Jin-Chul's reactions were no different from his own. Both had seen the enemy's power and their faces had gone pale. Meanwhile, the Hunters behind them were shocked for an entirely different reason. They exchanged disbelieving glances.
"Did that... talk?" "I didn't mishear that, right?" "Monsters can understand our language?"
It was impossible. It was well-known that intelligent monsters had their own language. In the early days after Gates began appearing, there had actually been quite a few earnest attempts to learn their language. But every attempt ended in failure. The reason was the monsters' ferocity. The monsters that were captured with great difficulty could not endure contact with humans. The longer it lasted, the worse it became. Even fully restrained, they would tear their own flesh and break their own bones in a frenzy to attack humans, eventually dying from their own rage or being killed at human hands.
—Monsters and humans can never coexist, and communication between them is impossible.
This was the universal conclusion that scientists around the world, who had studied monsters, unanimously agreed upon. And yet. The monster before their very eyes was speaking Korean with perfect fluency, as if it had learned it from somewhere. A monster that could converse with humans. This could very well be the discovery of the century. But no one was happy about it. The Hunters all felt an inexplicable fear from the speaking monster. It was an instinctive warning that only first-rate Hunters could sense. When the statue took one step forward, the Hunters flinched, their bodies trembling as they staggered back. As if savoring their terror, their fearful faces, the angel statue's eyes slid slowly from side to side.
"Ha ha."
It looked at them the way one might look at a luscious piece of fruit.
"You didn't come here expecting to return alive, did you?"
It smiled. Could even a snake's smile be this disgusting? Before the awkward, alien smile that appeared on the angel statue's face, the Hunters were frozen like mice before a snake.
'Keep it together.'
Choi Jong-In gritted his teeth. He cast a spell inwardly while signaling the Hunters to prepare for battle. As the Hunters readied themselves one by one, the angel statue, which had been looking around, reached over and tore off the arm of a toppled statue nearby. Crk!
'What is it doing?' 'What the hell?'
The Hunters' confused stares did not last long. The angel statue pressed the severed arm against its own right shoulder, where the arm had been cut off. The joint began to fuse as if it were alive.
'Wha...!'
While the Hunters watched in horror, the angel statue tested its regenerated right arm by flexing it. In that instant. Whoosh. The angel statue vanished from sight and reappeared in front of the Hunters. There was no time to react. The angel statue swung its right fist with full force. A Hunter standing at the front had his face caved in. Crunch! The Hunter, his face driven inward, was sent flying backward. Nearby Hunters scrambled to counterattack, but the statue was already gone.
"Where...?" "Over there!"
Right there. The angel statue was standing exactly where it had been before it moved, as if it had never moved at all. It wiggled its newly attached right fingers just as it had before the attack. As if it had simply tested whether the hand worked properly.
"Myung-Chul!" "Ugh, aaahhh!"
The anguished cries of the Hunters erupted too late. Instant death. A-rank tankers from the greatest guild in South Korea had been killed in a single blow. Choi Jong-In's pupils trembled like an earthquake as he stared at the angel statue.
'So this is what Hunter Sung Jin-Woo fought alone...?'
What overwhelmed him was not the pain of losing a comrade, but the sheer helplessness of not knowing how to break through this situation. But not everyone could maintain that kind of composure.
"You son of a bitch!"
A female Hunter who had been in a relationship with the fallen Hunter let out a scream and charged forward. Flames blazed in both of her hands.
'No!'
Choi Jong-In's face hardened. Before they had even devised a concrete plan against the angel statue, they had to avoid provoking a creature that had been standing still. Hadn't they just witnessed its speed with their own eyes? A reckless attack could lead to the annThe request was rejected because it was considered high risk