To Hell With Being a Hero!-Chapter 459: Overwhelming (5)

The light from the center brightened the dark chasm.

—What happened…

Balim groaned weakly. Thorns made of light penetrated into her heart and bound her so that she couldn’t even budge. All the members froze in place because they were stunned by Evelyn’s way of fighting. Though she was clearly using divinity, her way of wielding it was no different from a witch. Balim couldn’t comprehend what was happening at all.

Even though Evelyn had reached the peak as the Abyss Witch, she currently had the light’s blessing. Considering that she was now using power on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from her previous power, she should have had a difficult time. Yet Evelyn was utilizing her divinity as deftly as she would her knowledge from her past. ‘How could this be possible?’ Balim wondered, not knowing that Chi-Woo had awakened Evelyn’s ability ‘The Light of Wisdom that Never Goes Out’.

All streams returned to the ocean in the end. And because Balim didn’t understand the meaning behind these words, she didn’t understand what was happening.

—How in the world…?

Before Balim even finished speaking, thorns of light encircled her and struck her. In the blink of an eye, she became a hedgehog with spikes of light all over her body, and as she felt a powerful divinity eat her away, she laughed humorlessly.

“Do you get it now?” Evelyn said with a drawl. “Tell me then. Why did you leave your remnant in this place when you are on the run?”

Everyone thought they heard wrong. Evelyn was saying that the Balim in this place wasn’t the main body, but simply a remnant of herself.

—Don’t misunderstand….

Balim snorted.

—This body is simply a guard…to protect this place while I’m gone…

In other words, Evelyn and her team were the lucky ones to come to this place while she was gone.

“Oh my. Do you really think that’s true?” Evelyn leaned toward Balim’s thorn-filled body. Facing her bright smile, Balim pursed her lips. The Abyss’ witch, who she had thought was extinguished, was alive, and she now possessed a more dangerous power than before. This wasn’t news to be dismissed.

“Anyway, so you are just a guard.” Evelyn smirked. “That makes me curious. You are someone who’s always hidden behind a thick veil. Hm?”

—How regretful…so regretful….

Balim lamented.

—I’m sorry, Your Majesty. If I just had a bit more time…

She murmured in a low voice, and Evelyn opened her eyes wider.

“What in the world were you doing here?”

—…Are you curious?

Balim’s voice suddenly dropped in pitch, and she let out an insidious laugh.

—If you are curious…I will show you…!”

***

Meanwhile, there were great explosions and commotions happening on the surface. Apoline was shooting fire everywhere she went, and she flew in the air and entertained herself by creating explosions. Apoline felt like she was having the time of her life, and using mana that had become a level stronger than before, she displayed overwhelming firepower. Sparks and fire continued to burn, and everything that she wished for came true. This was it. This was what she had been seeking.

She was able to make into reality what was inside her head, and Apoline couldn’t contain her happiness. ‘What? Freeze them? Don’t make me laugh!’?

“Let the—” Apoline shouted, unable to contain the passion that stirred up inside her heart, “World buuuuurn!”

Bababababam! A volcano erupted, and a pool filled with trails of fire boiled. When the sparks dissipated, no monster remained in sight. The fire had thoroughly swept the scene, and though she was a bit out of breath, Apoline didn’t look the tiniest bit tired. She looked relieved instead, and her face seemed to still burn with fiery passion as she looked behind her. She looked like she was asking, ‘how was I?’ but stopped. Chi-Woo wasn’t looking in her direction, but staring intently at the chasm with a hardened expression.

‘Why…hm?’ She was disappointed for a moment before she also sensed the formidable energy flowing out of the chasm and focused on it.

Boom!?An explosion suddenly burst out from the hole. It was so strong that even those standing upright staggered. The great demons who had been watching Apoline in a daze also looked back at the chasm.

‘What?’?Chi-Woo’s eyes narrowed. He thought he could leave things to Evelyn, for whom he had awakened with The Power to Rule the World. Yet his intuition was suddenly sounding an alarm that hadn’t rung before. It wasn't urgent, but it wasn’t good news either.

“…How regretful.” He heard another voice then. “So regretful. It’s so regretful.” Shersha continued to repeat how regretful she found the situation. “It was the best time to stop the plan, but not for what we each wanted. If we came a bit sooner. A bit…” Shersha murmured incomprehensibly, and a trickle of tears flowed down from her eyes. It was unclear what the reason was, but Shersha seemed to be lamenting something. Then, after tearing up, Shersha turned to Chi-Woo and asked, “Could you turn things back? If it’s you, it might be possible.”

A commotion broke out, and several figures quickly rose to the surface. There were the members who had gone inside the chasm. As soon as their feet touched the surface, they ran crazily as if they were running away from something.

“I-Inside…!” Umaru stammered while pointing at the chasm he ran out of.

“There was no Balim, but only her remnant in this place. It seems we came after she left her position,” Evelyn relayed the situation to Chi-Woo. Chi-Woo nodded. He had thought the situation was too calm and easy considering that they were dealing with one of the Seven Chasms. Chi-Woo didn’t feel the same level of danger that he had felt at the great war even once since he came to this place.

“But I’m sure of what he was doing here, because—” Before Evelyn could finish speaking, everyone’s eyes snapped to the chasm. A dark shadow popped out, and a monster landed on the ground with four legs. The monster differed from both the monsters they saw here and those at the great war. It didn’t look like it was made out of tangled human body parts, nor was it large as a house. Its neck was about two meters long like a giraffe, while its body was thin as a hyena. Yet parts of its body still retained human forms. It appeared as if they were seeing a human turning into a monstrous beast.

“Can we say that this is the successful product of Balim’s experiment?” Eun-Hyang asked, seeing the monster glare and heave in their direction.

“Rather than a successful product, we should say it's still incomplete,” Evelyn answered. That monster was the core of Balim’s plan. Hearing this, Chi-Woo felt all the missing puzzle pieces come together. He understood why Shersha had spoken the words she had just now. Of course, he couldn’t be certain of it yet and needed to confirm it himself. Chi-Woo took one step forward, and the monster that was salivating lunged with a new glint in its eyes. It rushed toward Chi-Woo while Umaru and the others looked on, wide-eyed.

At frightening speed, the monster struck with its sharp claws, but failed to slice its opponent in two. Instead, it was caught. Chi-Woo had reached out and captured the monster’s hand. The monster looked taken aback and flustered when it realized that it couldn’t free itself no matter how much it struggled. This seemed to hurt its pride, and the monster growled and worked harder. Chi-Woo’s eyes widened.

‘Look at this guy?’ Chi-Woo put more pressure into his hands, and the monster’s arm bent with a crunch. But despite what was happening to it, the monster pushed forward. In the meantime, its flesh swole with protruding parts while its body became a couple times bigger as if it was evolving in real time. Seeing this, Chi-Woo felt a faint foreboding feeling for the first time. He needed to act a second faster when suddenly….

***

Where was I? It was a place that gave me a bad feeling for some reason. And it wasn’t very interesting; only leftovers remain. If I were my owner, I would’ve cleaned up this place in an instant. Yes, I would’ve surely done that. But why was I only watching from the sideline and not stepping forward? Ah, no wonder. My owner shared my sentiment and thoughts. Yes, that was right. I did want to fight, but these guys were a bit too much. Ah, who cared? I just wanted to rest next to my owner and take a nap after a long time. How nice that the surroundings were getting warm. It was just the perfect timing.

…Hm? What was that? This feeling? Who was that? It seemed stronger than the ones I saw here but…still too weak compared to my owner. But…why? What was this feeling of anxiety? It was strange, really strange. It wouldn’t leave my mind, and I thought I couldn’t let that guy be. There was no way, but perhaps my owner could fall into danger. And I had to stop that at all costs. I needed to protect my owner because my owner was my friend.

***

An eerie moonlight shone over them. Simultaneously, the monsters’ arms snapped off. Both the monster and the Seven Stars members who had been watching the fight gaped blankly. Even Chi-Woo stopped to stare while pulling out his ghost-busting club. White mane whirled in the wind, and four legs landed on the ground; a pair of fierce eyes glared at the monster piercingly. He growled, his fangs revealed and lit by the stream of moonlight.

“You…” Chi-Woo blinked hard at the fenrir standing tall confidently to protect him. It was Wallie. Though he was no longer small, seemingly having grown out of his cub phase, it was definitely Wallie. He looked just like how Hurodvitniru would look in her younger days.

Chi-Woo used The Power to Rule the World just in case.

[?- Page (1/1)]

1. ‘7 Ways to Become a Great and Respected Parent’: Reach at least 90% trust (Complete)

2. Eat the flesh and drink the blood of a great demon at a single-digit rank (Complete)

3. Awaken ‘Raw Divinity’ (Incomplete)

4. Manifest ‘Mad Moon Fangs’ (Complete)

5. Use at least 5 and at most 7 points of ‘Blessed Luck’ (Incomplete)

Wallie had managed to manifest the ‘Mad Moon Fangs’, which was one of his conditions to awaken. It was as Stupid Yoo-Joo said. Giving the fenrir a name was most important. Because of her clumsiness, she was able to quickly provide a situation for the fenrir to awaken without intending to, but that wasn’t the case for Chi-Woo. He had given the fenrir a name after rising to a certain level, so there weren’t many situations for the fenrir to live up to his name, which meant ‘to protect’. Thus, the slight crisis this time acted as a catalyst for him to awaken. Wallie flung his body forward, and a crescent moon sliced across the monster and made it burst.

It didn’t even seem like a proper match because one had such a clear advantage. Even the kings of the Hala Forest, who boasted of unbelievable regenerative power, couldn’t do anything against Hurodvitniru. It was because they couldn’t easily regenerate the parts that had been ripped to shreds by the power of the Mad Moon Fangs. Thus, it was only inevitable that a mere monster that was still an incomplete product of an experiment would have difficulty against Wallie. Soon, the monster fell to the ground. It had such a stubborn lifeforce that it continued to wiggle even with all its limbs torn off.

Awooooo! Wallie let out a long howl and stomped on the monster’s head. Then, he turned to Chi-Woo.

“That’s enough, Wallie. Good work.”

“Awoo…?”

“No, come back now.”

Wallie looked a bit disgruntled by this order, but obediently pulled his paw away and backed off. Chi-Woo walked up to the monster and looked down at it while it writhed in pain.

“Isn’t this the child…the one you’ve been looking for?” Evelyn approached Chi-Woo cautiously and asked. There were two reasons she hadn’t fought the monster herself. First, she wasn’t confident in beating this monster without getting a scratch on herself; and second, she thought Chi-Woo needed to check the state of this monster first. She knew the true reason Chi-Woo had come to this place.

Chi-Woo wordlessly nodded. That seemed to be the case. Otherwise, this monster wouldn’t have been so noticeable among the countless imperfect products. Chi-Woo looked down at the monster with some bitterness in his expression. That seemed to be the long and short of it. Balim, one of the Seven Chasms, oversaw the Abyss’ monsters. And these monsters were the results and products of experiments that Balim conducted. After losing considerable force during the great war against the gigas tribe, Balim tried to replenish her supply. To do this, she needed subjects to evolve into monsters and thus, she got his hands on any living creature she could find. The half-demon girl that the boy talked about had been imprisoned in this place when all this happened.

Yet making a monster was no easy task. Since each of them was a powerful fighting tool, ordinary humans couldn’t evolve into the kind of monsters that Balim wanted. Then, after producing countless failures, one person caught her eyes. It was the half-demon girl, whose response surpassed even her expectations. Thus, she disobeyed her king’s order to put everything on halt and retreat; instead, she made the decision to stay. While she left the area to meet the Abyss King in person to convince him, Chi-Woo appeared….yes. The half-demon girl he had been looking for was now a monster.

‘Is this what Shersha was talking about?’?To accomplish their plan, there was no better time since they were basically ransacking an empty house. Yet this wasn’t the time that Chi-Woo or the girl wanted. They should’ve come sooner to save the girl when she was still in the right state. There was no turning things back now. Sensing the girl’s exceptional nature, Balim had changed the girl according to her own will, and the result of that was right in front of their eyes. Shersha sighed at the heaving monster. It really was a shame.

The girl would have risen to great heights with her enormous potential under Chi-Woo’s guidance, but was now ruined simply because of someone’s greed. It was as if a gem that could’ve been more beautiful than any other was thrown into the trash can. Still, it was too early to give up everything. Though they were late, there was still an opportunity. After all, Chi-Woo was someone who could turn back what had already been flipped over and change the result of a roll after the die had already been cast.