LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 57
-!
–!
They stared at Jinseong as though they couldn’t bear the silence, despite being unable to utter a sound. Their contorted faces and reddened cheeks clearly showed how filled with rage they were.
However, Jinseong met their fury with laughter.
“Oh my! You’ve gotten quite hurt. You should get treated quickly.”
He chuckled as if their predicament were amusing. With a smiling face, he gazed at them, his joyful grin shining brilliantly in their eyes, a smile so beautiful and innocent that it could only emerge from a heart truly content.
Jinseong’s heart leapt with joy as he realized a sacrifice had approached him, and he pulled the trigger.
-!
A pillar of fire erupted silently and surged towards them, resembling a horrifying scene where a dragon made of flames writhed. Narumi bit her finger and drew some sigils to create a barrier.
The translucent divine power formed a shield, stopping the pillar of fire like a steadfast barrier. The flames that struck the barrier split and flowed away like lava parting around an obstacle, yet instead of fading, the split flames twisted and spread out, taking on an appearance similar to the fireflies that entered the shrine.
The fireflies spread out like embers but then rejoined to form a human shape made of flames, rushing towards the Kishimoto siblings as if the burning spirit were set to ignite their home. Yoshiaki, startled, formed his divine power into a shape resembling an arrow and launched it at the flame.
“O Spirit of Halli, you are a detestable being. As you burn with the heart of flame, you must roam the world.”
Yet, mocking Yoshiaki, the flames scattered again into countless fireflies. As the arrow passed, they merged back into a human form and charged towards Yoshiaki once more.
Yoshiaki clenched his teeth at the sight and nudged Narumi, signaling her. Narumi nodded, blood streaming from her mouth, her eyes bloodshot as she conjured another barrier.
This time, the barrier took the shape of a dome, enveloping both Narumi and Yoshiaki.
At the sight, Jinseong chuckled and signaled to the mercenaries, who pulled new weapons from their gear.
The first to set up was the gun.
Resembling a rifle but bulkier and heavier, it had a bipod attached to the front.
It was a machine gun, dubbed by the mercenaries as an electric saw or mixer gun. Not just any machine gun, but a monster that could fire up to 10,000 rounds per minute thanks to the latest materials and cooling magic.
Though it was a high-cost item used by the Self-Defense Forces, thus lacking durability and reliability… the mercenaries couldn’t care less about such trivial facts.
It wasn’t a dangerous battlefield; they merely had to deal with a Shinto priest and a shamaness.
They didn’t need durability to withstand magical bombardment or reliability to operate in fluctuating temperatures from -30 to 50 degrees.
All that mattered was doing well at this very moment!
Exactly like this!
“—!!”
With the madly rapid-fire rate of 10,000 rounds per minute, bullets began to pelt their hidden barrier like rain on a rooftop.
Bullets struck the barrier, exploding and sending sparks flying, illuminating the shrine with flares.
“The one I serve is the fox god, yet you’ve managed to gather divine power like a squirrel. Seeing your deity rendered unconscious yet still overflowing with energy, how greedy you must be.”
He observed Narumi, who was still holding onto the barrier despite blood oozing from her mouth, and glanced at Yoshiaki, whose trembling body stood strong against the will of a tiger’s roar.
Both of them were wide-eyed, as if to say they would never falter, no matter what tricks were played.
One of the mercenaries subtly signaled Jinseong, wondering if something had gone wrong, but Jinseong lightly shook his head, entirely dismissing their concern.
“No problem. So well-soaked in poison, time is on our side.”
As it turned out, those words were true.
Narumi’s complexion grew increasingly pale as she struggled to maintain the barrier, her shaman garb soaked red with blood. Moreover, whether it was due to blood loss or toxin coursing through her veins, Narumi’s pupils were twitching, indicating she was on the edge of shock.
What about Yoshiaki?
Not good either.
The magic Jinseong employed carried the symbolism of a tiger. Being a top predator among carnivores and infused with various magical meanings, it proved to be overwhelmingly powerful against animals and malicious spirits.
Yet in the natural hierarchy, the relationship between foxes and tigers is that of predators and prey.
The Kishimoto siblings must now be feeling like they were struck by a venomous assault.
And if that were the end of their struggles, perhaps they could still resist.
But Yoshiaki, who had been a smoker once, apparently couldn’t withstand the urge and lit a cigar made from a blend incorporating the tiger’s byproducts, rendering him unable to wield his magic properly.
Even though he wasn’t bleeding like Narumi, his complexion was becoming pallid, indicating internal bleeding…
They had no future left.
But could miracles exist?
[ Could the death’ve not retreated? ]
In the silence overshadowed by death, something unprecedented occurred.
The wall of the main hall burst open, revealing a gigantic beast.
The beast that burst from the main hall resembled a fox. More precisely, while it resembled a fox, its rendition was so distorted thanks to divine power that one could barely identify it.
It looked like a child had haphazardly slapped clay together to form the shape of a fox.
“To come rescue my priest, how commendable.”
As the fox’s body brushed against the smoke on the ground, it shimmered like television static, emitting a threatening cry, but the sporadic flicker of divine power hinted that it struggled to maintain its form.
Yet despite barely holding together, its appearance called for praise for stepping up for its priests.
Jinseong sincerely applauded the fox and simultaneously sent forth items from his bosom into the air.
What flew towards the fox appeared to be an ordinary A4 sheet of paper, not the sacred yellow paper usually used.
On it was a drawing made by a kindergarten child, smearing crayon marks together to form a mixture of a tiger and a spirit; while it seemed amusing at first view, gazing at it too long invoked a chilling sense of foreboding.
“This paper talisman made for the Ho-Tal-Good is yours to endure.”
The paper swiftly began its flight toward the fox. The way it swirled through the smoke seemed like a snake with a tiger’s head attacking its prey, or a dragon with a tiger’s face making its rush.
Was it just a feeling?
Or was it the workings of the magic?
The fox felt the tiger image charging at it, mouth agape, ready to bite.
[ Do you think this piece of Joseon magic can defeat me! ]
“Indeed.”
To protect itself and its priests, the fox attempted to struggle, but Jinseong found such a struggle laughable and pulled the trigger of his sawed-off shotgun.
This time, it was bullets, not flames.
From the shotgun in Jinseong’s hands, a salt round burst forth.
[ Kyaak! ]
The cursed salt exploding from the short barrel spread out in a form like powder across the fox’s body, thoroughly disrupting its focus while it desperately fought to fend off the tiger image.
In the delay, the mercenaries had readied their weapons from the gear around the main hall, loading their arms.
–!
A Panzerfaust.
An anti-tank rocket.
-!
Yoshiaki was horrified.
Narumi closed her eyes in resignation.
The fox turned to flee into the shrine.
“Hmm-”
And that was the end.
The battle’s conclusion.
The sacrifices had gathered.
Narumi couldn’t withstand the body-altering bomb and fainted, while Yoshiaki collapsed, severely injured from the explosions and machine-gun fire.
The fox, having retreated inside the shrine, seemed intent on holding out, but it couldn’t withstand the barrage of Molotov cocktails and phosphorus grenades that had been stocked up for arson, ultimately being forced back to where its divine body resided.
The revealed divine body was subdued by Rise, who unleashed an overwhelming amount of divine power supplied by the slime.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible, but weakened by Jinseong’s magic and struck with lethal blows, it became a feasible outcome.
Now, the shrine was virtually under complete control of Jinseong and the mercenaries.
In commemoration of their conquest, a massive structure was erected in the shrine.
It was an altar made of sandalwood.