Chapter 211: Snake’s Head (4)


    “Kugh!”


    Cheon Sanggil sensed the imminent danger and quickly tried to escape.


    <em>Bzzzzzt!—</em>


    The blue lightning shooting from the tips of Ohjin’s fingers flowed through his drenched hanbok and struck him.


    “Aargh!” He copsed on the ground with a painful shout.


    <em>Crack! Crackle!—</em>


    Residential blue sparks burned the surrounding area.


    “Oh-Ohjin! What are you doing to Gramps?!” Ha-eun rushed towards them with a dumbstruck expression.


    “No.”


    “Hm? What do you mean…?”


    “This isn’t Cheon Sanggil.”


    It was merely an imposter pretending to be him.


    Ohjin looked down at him with cold eyes and continued, “If, on the off chance, he really was Sanggil, he wouldn’t have fallen for an attack of this caliber.”


    “That’s…”


    “He’s right.” Isabe, who had followed Ha-eun, nodded her head in agreement.


    “Kugh… H-How?”


    Cheon Sanggil looked up from the ground at Ohjin with confusion. It appeared that he wanted to ask how he knew.


    “I thought it was a little strange from the start.” Ohjin clicked his tongue.


    He felt that it was strange ever since he was first contacted by him.


    It was just a slight bit of doubt back then, but it had turned into strong suspicion with how the situation developed.


    “Why was I the first person you contacted?”


    There was Heaven’s Grace, which he was the guildmaster of, Isabe, who took charge and reported the Living Armor incident in his ce, and Ha-eun, who was the one to destroy the ck miasma back when the demon beast subjugation incident took ce in Sokcho.


    Why, then, of all people, had he been the first person he contacted?”


    “You would’ve first contacted Isabe if you wanted to gather the members of Guardian, and you could’ve contacted Ha-eun if you wanted someone who had participated in the demon beast subjugation.”


    In addition, he wasn’t even that close to Sanggil.


    Sanggil looked up at him with a dumbfounded expression. “You’re telling me… that you attacked me because of that mere reasoning?”


    “Well, I only thought that it was a little strange back then.”


    If he knew that he wasn’t the real Sanggil from the very beginning, he wouldn’t have gone to Sokcho in the first ce.


    However…


    “Isn’t it too outrageous for it to be a coincidence?”


    Sanggil had discovered the fissure that opened ten days prior in only three days. Not only that, but he had only contacted Ohjin when there were other people who should have had higher priority, and that particr fissure also happened to be solely made to trap him.


    One could say that they were coincidences if looked at individually, but he couldn’t help but think it was suspicious when so many coincidences ovepped.


    “...Kugh.” Sanggil… no, the thing that was disguised as Sanggil groaned.


    It painfully wriggled its body and smirked.


    “Even if you’ve figured me out, it’s already toote.”


    <em>Wriggle—</em>


    In an instant, his face distorted like mud and started to change into dozens of different faces. Soon enough, the monster’s whole body turned into ck mucus. Its outer appearance was like the silhouette of a criminal in a cartoon.


    Ohjin narrowed his eyes and looked at the monster consisting of ck mucus.


    There was a particr name that surfaced in his mind.


    ‘A Doppelganger.’


    It was the name of a monster that had the ability to change its appearance ording to its will.


    There were rumors that such a monster existed in the Demon Realm, but it had yet to be spotted on Earth.


    ‘Come to think of it, Sokcho was also the ce where I obtained Transformation.’


    He had obtained Transformation through Choi Jongchul, who had turned into a demonic beast. Ohjin wondered if it had something to do with the Doppelganger.


    * * *


    * * *


    He had no way of finding the answer to his question.


    The Doppelganger bared its teeth and spoke.


    “Since you’ve already entered the Demon Realm… you will die at the hands of ‘that’ being.”


    After giving him an ominous warning, it quickly got up and tried to escape.


    “Where do you think you’re going?” Isabe appeared in front of the Doppelganger in an instant and red at it with ice-cold eyes.


    “Eek!”


    A drop of blood gathered at the tip of her pure white finger and fell to the ground.


    “Ohjin isn’t done speaking.”


    <em>Ssh!—</em>


    The drop of blood turned into a small puddle. Chains of blood burst out of the puddle and wrapped around the Doppelganger.


    “Ugh! L-Let go!” The Doppelganger panicked and struggled with all its might.


    Isabe approached it with leisurely steps.


    “Damn it…!” A gurgling sound started toe out of the Doppelganger’s body as it began to change shape to look like Ohjin.


    It looked at Isabe with affectionate eyes and opened its mouth. “Isabe. Are you really nning to attack me?”


    It was the Doppelganger’s unique ability to change into the person the opponent held most dear so that it could make them lose their will to fight.


    Sight was the sense humans relied the most on, after all.


    Even if the brain knew that they weren’t the real thing, people couldn’t help but get flustered at something that looked exactly the same and had the same voice as their most loved—


    “What… do you… think you’re doing?” Her voice turned cold.


    Isabe’s blue eyes, which once shone with a bright light, darkened as if she were an emotionless doll.


    “...Huh?” The Doppelganger shivered in fear once it felt the horrendous killing intent suffocating it.


    <em>Crunch!—</em>


    Isabe dug her finger into the Doppelganger’s corbone and through its flesh. ck mucus began to flow out.


    “I asked… what you’re doing.”


    “Ahhhhh! Kugh! Arghh!”


    <em>Crunch, crack, crumble!—</em>


    Her finger violently dug into its corbone like it was fruit.


    A horrifying scream left the Doppelganger’s mouth, apanied by the uncanny sound of crushing bones.


    “You… you… you… dare have the audacity to impersonate Ohjin?” Isabe mumbled in a murderous voice and thoroughly dismantled the monster that was disguised as him.


    She tore out its corbone, cut the muscle and fat that once held it in ce, and twisted out the shoulder de that was connected to it.


    “Kah! Kugh! Ahh!”


    As the brutal dismantling continued, the Doppelganger’s eyes rolled back in its hea, and it frothed at the mouth.


    When Isabe shoved her finger into its other corbone after tearing off its arm—


    “Wait.”


    —Ohjin held Isabe’s shoulder.


    Her soulless eyes turned back to normal, and a bright smile formed on her face.


    “Okay!”


    It was unthinkable that Isabe’s innocent smile was from the same woman who crushed bones and tore flesh without a speck of mercy just a few moments ago.


    A droplet of ck blood flowed down her smiling face.


    “...Is she really alright in the head?” Ha-eun whispered with a horrified expression.


    Ohjin nodded in aforting manner.


    No matter how sharp the fang, it didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t directed toward them.


    “It’s fine.”


    At least, to him, it was.


    “Ah, u-ugh.”


    Ohjin approached the Doppelganger.


    “Where’s the exit?”


    “There… is no exit.”


    “Stop with the bullshit.”


    <em>Crack!—</em>


    “Ahhhhh!!”


    Ohjin violently stepped on where its arm was torn and looked down at it coldly.


    As long as there was a way in, there had to be a way out.


    The reason why only 5% of the Demon Realm was explored in the first ce wasn’t because they couldn’t go in, but because no one wanted to go in.


    “You people… cannot… get out of here alive…”


    “Isabe.”


    “Did you call for me~?”


    “Eeek! W-Wait! Wait a moment!”


    The Doppelganger’s face turned pale as Isabe approached them with the brightest expression on her face.


    Unable to bear looking her in the eyes, it pointed toward a stgmite with its trembling finger.


    “G-Go straight in the direction of that stgmite. Y-You’ll find a fissure there.”


    “Is that so?”


    Ohjin nodded and roughly stepped on its legs.


    “Ahhhhhhh!!”


    As if they’d been put through a hydraulic press, its two legs were miserably crushed.


    “Isabe, can you maintain the chains tying this thing up?


    “Yes. They shouldst for around a full day.”


    Ohjin nodded and turned to face the direction the Doppelganger pointed.


    “We’ll meet again if you happen to be lying.”


    “<em>Sob, sob.</em>” The Doppelganger wriggled like a bug and nodded its head.


    [So my child has a brutal side like this.] Vega, who was sitting on his head, spoke with a bit of surprise in her voice.


    As she had only seen him being heroic up until then, that side of him felt rather unfamiliar to her.


    “Are you disappointed?” Ohjin asked with a guilty expression.


    [No. A certain amount of brutality is needed in order to save the world. Do not let it get to you.]


    Vega shook her head left and right and patted his head with her small hands.


    It tickled like a feather.


    Ohjin smiled and started to head to the stgmite.


    While they were slowly walking in that direction—


    “Ohjin… over there.”


    —Isabe frowned and looked at a certain ce.


    “What’s wrong?”


    “I smell blood… It''s very strong.”


    “...Let’s head there.”


    “I’ll take the lead.” Isabe obstructed the way in a protective manner.


    It was quite far, and they only arrived at the ce she mentioned after walking for nearly twenty minutes.


    There was a small, open space between tall stgmites, and there were hundreds of corpses scattered around within.


    “Ohjin, this is…”


    “Guild members from Heaven’s Grace.”


    Ohjin furrowed his brow and examined the brutally torn corpses.


    The corpses were in a horrendous state. It was like they had been sucked into an industrial machine.


    [It looks like they were trying to protect something.] Vega looked at the scattered bodies with pity.


    Just as she said, the corpses looked like they were trying to protect something precious from intruders.


    Ohjin nodded and tried to find what the guild members had been trying to protect with their lives.


    “Ohjin! I think it’s over here!” Ha-eun pointed to a small gap between stgmites.


    <em>Fwoosh!—</em>


    mes brightened the area around her.


    In the small gap was—


    “G-Gramps…!”


    —the corpse of Sanggil, who had a hole dug straight through his left pectoral.


    Quite a lot of time had passed since his death, based on the terrible smell of rot.


    “......”


    Ohjin looked down at the corpse and slowly closed his eyes.


    He had expected it ever since he discovered the Doppelganger using Sanggil’s appearance, but looking at his corpse directly evoked mixed feelings.


    ‘Sanggil didn’t catch the Snake’s tail.’


    Rather than that, he had caught the Snake’s head… and one with extremely venomous fangs.


    <em>Rumble!—</em>


    The entire area trembled with a loud noise.


    Ohjin bit his lips and raised his spear.


    “They’reing.”


    Hundreds of demonic beasts jumped down from the tall stgmites.