Chapter 394

'It feels awful...'

Gradually, my strength left my legs; my knee soon bent. I also lost the strength to hold my head up and leaned my forehead against Koo Hui-seo's shoulder.

This uncomfortable nausea, dizziness, and...

'Dawon-ah...'

A name flashed briefly through my mind.

But even if I could overcome the pain to open my mouth, no sound would come out of my throat. When I closed my eyes, I felt like the world was spinning round and round.

Meanwhile, Koo Hui-seo's body became hotter and hotter; soon, another tentacle began to coil around me.

[Hehe... Lee-kyung-ssi, look. Here...]

I heard Koo Hui-seo talking excitedly through my muffled ears, but I couldn't lift my eyelids. My sense of perception diminished rapidly, and even though I felt something brushing over my head, I couldn't react. My limbs continued to grow cold.

'Damn it... How much is he planning to suck out of me?'

I heard a voice shouting from a distance; the voice circled around before disappearing. In a few minutes, everything that I had been wary of just became annoying. Soon, I became sleepy.

'Is this because of excessive blood loss? I'm getting so increasingly sleepy... But I shouldn't. It's all over if I sleep.'

If a calm, objective voice hadn't lashed out at me, I wouldn't have been able to break free from my desire to just relax. I barely cracked open my stiffened lips and chewed down hard on my cheeks. Then, some sounds managed to pierce through my deafened ears.

[I really, really love you... Lee-kyung-ssi...]

"Damn it! Stop attacking! You promised to hand Choi Lee-kyung over to me!"

"...Haah, this is why men are so..."

I felt the sticky, clinging force of the tentacles tightening around my body.

Koo Hui-seo, voice still excited, clung to me quite unpleasantly; Moon Issak's sharp cry could be heard a short distance away. Lim Jisoo's irritated sigh could also be heard.

Once the background sounds became clearer again, I opened my eyes and looked around; I noted that Koo Hui-seo's appearance was now significantly distorted.

"...A flower?"

Koo Hui-seo had grown into a gigantic tree. The narrow pit had filled with his tentacles that now resembled thick tree roots.

Additionally, sharp spikes sprouted from the roots-like branches; tiny buds had formed at the ends. The buds blossomed into small, bright-red flowers as soon as they formed.

It was beautiful to look at; I found myself strangely breathless-slightly suffocated-by the sight of this basement filled with small flowers as if we were in the middle of a canola field.

"What the... This is..."

Moreover, the flowers periodically trembled as if they were breathing and scattered yellow pollen all around. The thick pollen made it look as if a yellow mist had settled around us.

Surprisingly, this flower field seemed like it dealt an impactful blow to Lim Jisoo and Moon Issak.

"Fuck, I can't see properly."

"Huu... We'll need to chop that whole thing down."

"Haah, Haah... Shut up!"

I don't know when those two took masks out, but both of them were wearing masks and wielding shields. However, they were brandishing the shields quite strangely. In particular, in Moon Issak's case, the shield would blink in and out of existence a few times, as if it were being broken down and remade repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Lim Jisoo glared not at me but in some strange, completely wrong direction.

"[Ice Spear]!"

"Arghh!"

"I said, don't attack!"

When I saw Lim Jisoo using her skills without any hesitation against her subordinates, I realized that she was hallucinating.

Lim Jisoo seemed to realize her mistake only after using her skill, and she looked extremely frustrated.

"Eeek...!"

"Put your staff away!" Moon Issak shouted and restrained Lim Jisoo, but one person had already suffered a major injury. At that moment, Koo Hui-seo's tentacles sneaked up around the man who had screamed and fell.

And...

Plunge-!

The tentacle pierced through the man's head. Then, as the tip of the tentacle divided, I heard the repulsive sound of it gorging on something.

As attacks belatedly poured in from Lim Jisoo's other subordinates, the tentacle withdrew without fighting back. However, it was clear that the tentacle had already caused irreversible damage to the man.

In addition, the other men who rushed suddenly began to act strangely; they suddenly began to brandish their weapons at each other.

"Diiiee!"

"Fucker, why won't you fall away."

Then, just before they fired a fatal blow at each other, Moon Issak intervened and removed them from combat. It seems as if the investigator had yet to hallucinate.

"Shit..." He gritted out.

As I expected, after he grinded his teeth and knocked out various subordinates, Moon Issak looked at me. However, it didn't seem like he could approach me recklessly, even though his expression contradicted his fervent desire to rush forward.

I looked at the investigator before turning my head with great difficulty.

"... Koo...Hui...Seo...What on... Earth...Did you do..."

Then, startled, my neck flinched. Two very sharp-looking tentacles were staring down at me from above my head; furthermore, they were creeping closer to me.

Half in disbelief, I turned around again. The closer Moon Issak came to us, the closer the tentacles drew towards me.

Was Koo Hui-seo threatening Moon Issak with my life?

Confused, I looked at Koo Hui-seo, then gritted my teeth in pain. I grabbed Koo Hui-seo and scratched at him with my nails. "Koo Hui-seo...! Stop it... Right now!"

I felt that I would lose consciousness if I lost any more blood. However, Koo Hui-seo's tentacles plunged a little deeper, responding to my violent movements.

"Hnnngrrk...!" Wracked with pain, I could only grasp at his collar. Unbearable aches and anemia hit my head.

[I love...so much... Haah...]

Whether I'm dying or not, Koo Hui-seo kept on spouting the same words like a broken radio.

Even as I began to lose consciousness, I could tell that he was rampaging. And, at that moment, all the buds on the branches simultaneously bloomed into flowers.

"Aaargh!"

"D-Die..! I said, die!"

"No!"

The assassins, who followed Lim Jisoo around as if they were her shadows, suddenly screamed and shook their heads uncontrollably.

Then, out of the blue, they rushed at each other or hurt themselves with their own swords. As blood spurted out of their bodies like a fountain, the tentacles on the ground lifted their heads and started to attack them, inflicting even greater damage.

Now that the situation deteriorated, Moon Issak withdrew because he could no longer monitor and control his surroundings. He needed to avoid attacks from Lim Jisoo's subordinates.

"Fucker, such a sickening...[Victory]..." Moon Issak muttered something incomprehensible as he glared at Koo Hui-seo.

However, Lim Jisoo was the problem. "[Hold]."

"...What?" Moon Issak reacted a beat late, and his arms were caught by magic chains protruding from the ground.

Moon Issak grinded his teeth as he shouted at Lim Jisoo, "I told you to put away your staff! Do you want to die?!"

"...Summon, [Clarent]." 1

After Lim Jisoo's chilling incantation, a gargantuan, menacing sword manifested out of thin air, with its blade pointing up.

The sword was nearly as tall as Lim Jisoo; the width was wider than her. Notably, its blade was tied with black, rusty chains.

Nevertheless, she was able to maneuver it well in this space. This wasn't exactly a common weapon.

Moon Issak's expression distorted with fear when he saw the weapon, "...You... Where...!"

The end of the sword headed towards Koo Hui-seo and my location, not towards Moon Issak. Lim Jisoo fiddled with the strands of her hair, "I didn't plan on killing Choi Lee-kyung either... However, we have no choice but to... cut his leg."

Moon Issak reacted more fiercely to those absurd words-more than I did. "Don't spout bullshit, Lim Jisoo!!! It seems you've forgotten why I decided to cooperate with your plan in the first place...!"

"If we don't defeat that tentacle monster, we'll become the Vengeful Ghosts here. Just because you've become a dog doesn't mean your IQ is at a dog's level, right?"

Soon afterwards, Lim Jisoo reached out to me decisively, "Cut em down, [Clarent]!"

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TL: It's interesting to hear that Moon Issak only agreed to cooperate with Lim Jisoo...in order to recapture Lee-kyung. It speaks to the depth of his obsession.