Chapter 223: Episode 70. An Explosion (1)
A familiar-looking demon was lying by the wall. His whole body was covered with blood. His face was pale. He seemed dead.
Yoo Eunhye held her breath. Her mind turned blank. Her hands began to shake, so she clenched her fists to stop them. She quickly approached him.
“Please…”
She was an awakened hero, one of the best. Her sense of hearing was beyond ordinary humans. She could hear things from afar. But currently, she felt like an average person. She could not hear or sense anything.
Yoo Eunhye took a deep breath. She gently poked the man’s body, but he didn’t move. She knelt and placed her ear to the man’s chest.
Thump!
She heard a heartbeat.
“Ah!”
Yoo Eunhye shed tears of relief. She had no idea why she was brought to tears. It just happened.
At the same time, she rapidly regained consciousness of her surroundings. She looked around. It was a mess. There were dead demons.
“There was a sudden attack.” She was sure of it.
It was clear that the man had been attacked, and he fought back. Obviously, the man was not an easy opponent despite sustaining wounds and being unconscious. All of his enemies were dead.
“It looks like there were at least two attacks…” Yoo Eunhye observed.
She looked around and examined the traces of battle. It was obvious that the man was attacked several times and was able to defeat all his adversaries.
“Then, there might be another attack,” she considered.
Yoo Eunhye lifted the man immediately. If they did not escape, they would die. The man was exhausted, and Yoo Eunhye could not fight against demons.
But monsters were outside. She was able to move by herself, but it would be difficult to remain unnoticed while she tried to flee with the man.
“We have to hide in a safe place.”
That seemed to be the only way. Yoo Eunhye tried to remember how she made it underground. Despite having a lot of obstacles, she managed to get there. She remembered the most secure area in that place.
“The clock tower.”
The monsters did not approach near the clock tower. It was a gamble. If the clock tower was too dangerous, the two would not be safe.
Yoo Eunhye, carrying the man over her shoulder, used all her strength to escape the underground.
Yoo Eunhye put her brain to work while moving swiftly. She had memorized the map of the Greenwich Observatory several times. Although the interior was renovated, the framework hadn’t changed that much. There was a possibility that there were faster and safer passages than those she had used.
“He needs to be treated.”
Once the man’s heart began beating again, his body felt like it was burning. It was so hot that Yoo Eunhye had to put him down for a while for relief.
If there was a monster that could detect heat, they would be doomed. She just hoped not to encounter one in their escape.
Yoo Eunhye utilized all her senses to find out the monsters’ locations and took a lot of detours to avoid them. Doing so prevented her from moving quickly.
Taking risks was out of the question. She had to move with extreme caution. The man’s life was in danger. His safety was Yoo Eunhye’s priority.
The way to the clock tower seemed very far. The fortunate thing was there were only a few monsters inside the castle, and they were not high-grade ones.
Puff. Puff.
About halfway to their destination, Yoo Eunhye sensed extraordinary mana around them. She turned her head and saw some shadow-like creatures emerging from the floor.
“What is that?”
Her throat felt dry. When the shadows found her, they started surrounding her. It seemed like they were shadow-type monsters.
“This isn’t good. It can’t be helped. I have to fight…” she thought.
Yoo Eunhye put the man down carefully and pulled out her sword. However, the sword was quite damaged. It was due to the battle against Edward. Thanks to the treatment from the high priest sisters, her strength remained. However, with this blunt weapon, it would be hard to fight.
“It will be hard to defeat them with this sword. What should I do?”
She bit her lips. At that moment, the shadows turned into Yoo Eunhye.
“Are they doppelgangers?”
They looked like doppelgangers, but something was off. Doppelgangers didn’t appear in the form of a shadow. They were like jelly before they transformed.
Yoo Eunhye searched the man for weapons. She found his two scabbards.
“Let me borrow these for a moment,” she muttered.
She drew two swords. One sword’s blade was dark, and the other one was gold embellished with a lot of jewels. Yoo Eunhye stumbled when she held the two swords.
[Warning! Rage and the Sword of the Emperor are checking the user. Two swords have weak egos. If the wrong user uses them, they might strongly resist.]
[Rage and the Sword of the Emperor accept the user, Yoo Eunhye, temporarily.]
Yoo Eunhye regained her posture. All feelings of fear and uncertainty disappeared.
“Ego Swords!”
Her eyes widened. She had only heard about the Ego Sword but had never seen one before. She wasn’t aware that someone actually had one, so she thought it was just an imaginary sword.
Then, Yoo Eunhye quickly shook her head. This was not the time to be amazed by unique weapons. She needed to get rid of those shadow monsters as swiftly as possible and leave this place. If she hesitated, other monsters would find them.
The enemies also imitated Yoo Eunhye’s weapons. These monsters could replicate almost anything.
“I can’t be defeated!” Yoo Eunhye declared with conviction.
She gritted her teeth.
Pant! Pant!
Yoo Eunhye was sweating. She was burned out. She was dizzy. She wanted to rest, but she still had a lot of shadow monsters to defeat.
The shadows were persistent. They had already struck and failed a few times but did not give up. This battle was delaying her.
She knew what she had to do. She needed to give up the man. The shadows wanted him. If she surrendered him, they would stop chasing after her.
But she couldn’t do that. She knew better. Her conscience would not let her abandon the man.
She managed to stand up. She saw the man’s face. Even though he was covered with blood, he looked somewhat comfortable. Did he have any idea what was going on?
The man had a different aura than usual. He slept peacefully, like a baby. Someone who only hated others, a cold-hearted fellow, could not make such a face.
Yoo Eunhye’s mouth twitched.
Yoo Eunhye believed that no one could hide their true nature. It would manifest no matter what.
“Please hold on… We will get there soon… very soon.”
There it was—she could see the clock tower, or what was still left of it. A few hundred steps more, and she would be able to enter the clock tower.
Yoo Eunhye kept going, full of hope. However, she could not advance far.
Puff. Puff.
The shadows emerged again. Yoo Eunhye was sick and tired of them.
No matter how many she killed, they kept appearing somewhere. They were like a curse. They wouldn’t stop until they had killed their target.
Yoo Eunhye raised the swords again. She had never learned two-swordsmanship, but she could use them well. To be exact, it felt like the two swords were guiding her movements. The way she wielded the swords… she knew it wasn’t her at all. Her movements closely resembled the man’s swordsmanship.
[The skill ‘Sword Flow (U, Passive)’ has been created.]
[Power and speed have increased by two.]
[You have become more sensitive to the sound of the swords.]
There was no time to pay attention to the messages. Yoo Eunhye took a deep breath and set herself in position. She felt the change in her body. It wasn’t significant, but still, it would help her survive this current predicament. First, she had to get rid of the shadows.
Slash!
Yoo Eunhye’s replicas moved their feet, surrounding her. She cut off the waist of the advancing clone.
As she kept slaying the enemies, she soon forgot how exhausted she was. She only focused on slaughtering the shadows. Everything else was just noise.
[The skill ‘Trance (Ex U, Passive)’ has been created.]
[All capabilities have increased by two.]
[When falling into a trance, all capabilities will increase by five.]
Was it due to following the man’s movements or the two swords that were guiding her on how to strike and defend? The messages continued popping up, but Yoo Eunhye couldn’t be bothered at the moment.
Flop!
Yoo Eunhye collapsed on the ground after defeating all of the shadows. She had consumed all her energy. She did not have enough to even flick her finger.
“I’m almost there…”
Yoo Eunhye was losing consciousness. She stretched her arm and held the man’s hand. If the shadows attacked them once more, they would not survive.
Death.
After everything she had been through, she had come to terms with death. However, she felt sorry to not be able to save the man.
It was at that moment when…
“Tra-la. Tra-la. Mirror, mirror, Lyhee is the fairest of all in the world, right? Yes. Lyhee is the most beautiful in the world. Oh, really? Lyhee-hee!”
Holding a hand mirror, the fairy flew out of the clock tower. Her eyes widened when she saw Yoo Eunhye.
“Huh? You are the ugly girl!” Lyhee exclaimed. “Oh, no! Master!”
Confirming the man’s identity, the fairy groaned in astonishment.
***
Pandemonium was persistent. I should have watched him more carefully. That was my fatal mistake. Due to many surprise attacks, I was wounded and exhausted.
I was able to inflict damage as well. It looked like Pandemonium recognized my strength and power. He was prepared when he attacked me.
However, everything became faint when the fight was over. I seemed to hear a familiar voice, but I thought it was just a hallucination.
Well, I thought it was too late, but…
“Master! Master!” Lyhee sobbed. “Don’t die! Don’t leave Lyhee alone! If you die, I will die too!” Lyhee was weeping. She thought I was dying.
My ears hurt. Somebody was wailing right next to me.
I opened my mouth and mustered enough strength to say, “You are too loud.”
“Master?” Lyhee stopped weeping and wiped her tears away.
I gently pushed Lyhee as she wiped her nose using a piece of my clothing. I got up and scowled. I was in a completely different place from where I had been before I lost my consciousness.
“Lyhee, are we in the clock tower?” I inquired.
“Yes. Lyhee moved you, and I tied up the bad girl.”
Lyhee placed her hands on her waist, proud of what she did.
“Who?”
“You know… that ugly girl. Lyhee thinks her name was Yoo something.”
It was hard to infer the name with only “Yoo.” I soon realized that Lyhee was talking about Yoo Eunhye. The voice I had heard in the dream was Yoo Eunhye’s.
“Where is Yoo Eunhye now?”
“She is in the next room. Lyhee tied her up well. That bad girl attacked you, didn’t she?”
I stood up and went to the next room. When I got out of the room, I saw Oswen guarding the door.
“Your Majesty… Did you sleep well?”
“You are back.”
“I received an urgent message from Miss Lyhee that I should come back. By the way, it looks like Pandemonium used an awful method, driving you into a corner.”
Oswen already knew that Pandemonium was behind the shadow monsters’ attack. I nodded, refused to say a word, and entered the next room.
Then, as I entered, I saw Yoo Eunhye. She was naked, and her hands were bound in chains.
“Miss Lyhee misunderstood and insisted. There was nothing I could do,” Oswen informed me with an apologetic expression.
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