Chapter 52

Chapter 52
## Black Smoke Rematch

Kim Ji-hyun, with swirls of stygian mist clinging to her limbs, lunged at me with eyes full of fury, whipping a roundhouse kick aimed directly at my head.

“Wow, so the ‘taking me alive’ plan is officially out the window?”

The path of her swinging leg left a wide trail of dark vapor that lingered in the air. The second it grazed me, I felt a subtle, invasive sensation trying to burrow into my consciousness.

It was a concentrated dose of resentment and spite designed to pierce the mind, rot the spirit, and induce total delirium. It was essentially a curse manifesting as gas.

“Seriously? Were you actually counting on that to work?”

“You… how?”

She seemed incredibly confident in the potency of the smog she was controlling.

Unfortunately for her, abilities that target the soul have zero impact on me. While my physical form resets, my soul remains constant and untouchable.

Unless she possessed a power capable of wiping a whole continent off the map, the smoke currently dancing around Kim Ji-hyun wouldn’t do a thing to me, even if she managed to pump every last bit of it into my lungs.

Realizing the smoke wouldn’t provide an easy shortcut, Kim Ji-hyun finally committed to a direct physical confrontation.

“Die! No, stay alive. I’ll capture you and break you into a useless cripple who can’t even crawl! Just drop dead already!”

“Make up your mind, please.”

Living or dying? I muttered the question while narrowly ducking the relentless storm of strikes she rained down on me.

Her expression betrayed no hint of exhaustion; she fought with the frantic energy of a berserker, her mana detonating from her pores in wild bursts.

In our previous encounter, if she had attempted an onslaught this intense without a break, she would have been gasping for air like a dog in a heatwave within sixty seconds.

“Did you sign a contract with a devil or something?”

I lashed out with my spear, using the sheer wind pressure of the swing to clear the surrounding smoke, and studied her closely. She offered no reply.

“Shut your damn mouth.”

“I truly didn’t realize your grudge ran this deep.”

I thrust a spear wreathed in dark flames toward her as she unleashed a series of high-impact kicks. Recognizing the lethality of the Paradox Flame, she instinctively recoiled and leaped backward.

“You prick… not that filthy fire again!”

That clearly struck a chord. I had to give her credit for her persistence; most people who had survived an encounter with the Paradox Flame were too traumatized to ever face me again.

“Let’s find out just how hot it burns these days.”

So Kim Ji-hyun had returned with a power boost? Big deal. It’s not like I had been sitting idle. My spear shot forward, merely grazing the edge of her side.

That tiny contact was all it took for the Paradox Flame to take hold. In a heartbeat, the color vanished from her face, leaving her a sickly shade of blue. Even though it was just a scratch, her entire frame was suddenly swallowed by the Paradox Flame, crackling like meat dropped onto a searing grill.

“It’s got a nice glow to it.”

The sight was actually quite startling. For it to burn with such intensity, it meant the Paradox Flame had found a massive reservoir of fuel to exploit.

“What… what kind of monster are you?”

Kim Ji-hyun’s muscles spasmed, her gaze flickering between pure rage and sheer loathing. At this moment, the Paradox Flame was incinerating her very will to fight.

That raw, burning ambition to crush an opponent and seize the win—fighting spirit—is the primary engine that drives a warrior to charge at full tilt.

And out of all the abstract energies one possesses, fighting spirit has an incredibly low flashpoint.

“Hey, if you can manufacture fighting spirit faster than I can burn it off, you might have a chance.”

She could theoretically stay in the fight if she kept generating it. If the supply of fuel coming in exceeds the rate of combustion, there’s bound to be some left over to move her limbs.

To truly extinguish her drive, I would need to incinerate the core essence that produces it. Sadly, my mastery hasn’t reached that level of precision yet.

“Shut up with that… stop it.”

Her words remained aggressive, but the poisonous edge in her tone had significantly dulled. Even so, her resolve hadn’t been completely snuffed out.

The air rang with sparks as my spear clashed against her reinforced legs. Shrouded in that eerie smoke, Kim Ji-hyun glared at me with bloodshot eyes and a twisted, ghastly expression.

With ribbons of blue energy weaving a defensive perimeter around me, I began to slowly force her into a corner.

“Why, damn it! Why won’t you go down!”

Kim Ji-hyun retreated, screaming as if she were the victim of a cosmic injustice. From her point of view, it probably felt that way. To any observer, her mana pool was deeper and her strikes were objectively heavier.

Yet, despite her advantages, she couldn’t find an opening—in fact, she was being systematically dismantled. It was incomprehensible to her.

“Do you really think I’d explain it just because you asked?”

I knew exactly why she was failing, but I wasn’t about to give her a tutorial. Why would I teach someone trying to murder me how to fix their mistakes?

Kim Ji-hyun simply hadn’t spent enough time adjusting to her newly augmented body. Coming at me with that much arrogance right after a power-up was her fatal error.

“Let’s go.”

I flashed a grin, stoking the Paradox Flame within the blue trails that circled me.

“Your favorite nightmare is back for the sequel.”

As I stepped toward her, Kim Ji-hyun visibly flinched. No matter the method, the result would remain the same: she couldn’t win.

She threw her hand upward, and the billowing black smoke solidified into a gargantuan blade that came crashing down on me.

“That’s your problem—you’re leaning on cheap gimmicks like that.”

The smoky blade tore through my position, but I remained entirely unaffected.

“Every hunter trapped in Dover lost their minds—they broke under the pressure. Why are you the only one who isn’t affected!”

I lunged, aiming my spear tip at her sternum as I answered.

“Does a seasoned tiger hunter flinch when a kitten hisses at him?”

Her body was sent flying backward as she barely managed to parry the spear. Kim Ji-hyun could no longer sustain an offensive; she had shifted entirely into a desperate defense.

Her precious black smoke was useless against me. Her fierce combative spirit was nothing more than kindling for my Paradox Flame.

Without that drive, a fighter is left with only two choices: block or run. I wasn’t giving her a path to flee, so she was forced to endure.

“Didn’t you promise to turn me into a cripple?”

The bravado she displayed minutes ago had evaporated.

“Come on. Rip my insides out, pluck out my eyes. Break my bones until I scream for mercy.”

It seemed the black smoke she had unleashed wasn’t totally without impact. A small spark of irrational mania had begun to flicker within me. It couldn’t turn me into a lunatic, but it was making me incredibly agitated.

Fiddling poorly with a soul often results in unintended side effects like this.

I swung the spear at her again, my voice growing louder and more animated as I pressed her.

“Stay away… get back, you freak!”

Terror had finally taken root. Smoke erupted from her palms like a localized hurricane in a final attempt to push me away. My mind, however, grew unnervingly calm.

The malice and spite that were trying to claw at my soul were instead being overwhelmed and consumed by my own rising spiritual pressure.

“Still not enough.”

I lunged through the storm, grabbed her by the collar, and forced her to look me in the eye. Even while held, she kicked out in desperation, aiming for my temple.

I raised my forearm to intercept the blow. A thunderous boom echoed as the shockwave rippled out. Amidst the noise, I studied her.

Something was fundamentally wrong. This sudden spike in power, this revolting smoke—the Paradox Flame should have incinerated her physical strength, and it shouldn’t be regenerating this quickly.

I hadn’t lost my composure enough to kill her before figuring out the source of this strength, even if her soul-poisoning smoke was getting on my nerves.

“This feeling.”

I could sense a strange fluid circulating through her veins. It wasn’t human blood. It was impossible.

“What kind of lunatic did this to you? Do you have any idea what’s actually happening inside your body right now?”

Gasping for breath, Kim Ji-hyun managed to choke out a response.

“They told me… it was fine.”

“Sure, and Qin Shi Huang thought drinking mercury was a great health tip, and the Romans thought lead makeup was the height of fashion.”

What do you actually understand about mana? How many years has your society even been studying it?

I spent an entire lifetime in a world where mana research had been refined for millennia. Compared to that, humanity’s current grasp of mana is embarrassing.

To put it in scientific terms, you’re basically at the level of being proud of your sharpened rocks and clay pots.

And they said it’s fine? What a load of crap. You’ve essentially implanted a ticking bomb in your own chest and charged into battle thinking you’ve won the lottery. The Dangun’s heirs must have stumbled upon this.

Actually, no—they didn’t just find it. This is a landmine planted by something far more calculated.

“It’s like giving a dog a piece of chocolate.”

A dog will wag its tail and eat chocolate because it has no idea it’s poison. Kim Ji-hyun was that dog.

“Shut your mouth… this is all your fault for destroying me.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch?”

Anyone listening would think I jumped her while she was minding her own business. She was the one who attacked first in the great labyrinth; I just fought back and won.

As I tried to perform a more thorough examination, she continued to struggle and thrash. I parried a few more frantic strikes, then delivered a punch with a look of pure annoyance.

“Just hold still for a second. You’re being incredibly irritating.”

I fully intended to end Kim Ji-hyun here. In truth, death would be a kindness given her current state. A few focused blows left her coughing up blood, her body going limp in my grip.

I carefully analyzed the liquid flowing through her system. This was a mana-based pact.

An entity of immense power crystallizes its mana and projects it externally. By taking it into your body, you are effectively signing a contract.

“I thought you were just a dog eating chocolate.”

But as I looked closer, the situation was worse. This was more like a clueless amateur signing a completely blank contract.

You get power immediately, but the price? That part is left empty for the other party to fill in later. In short: a total scam.

Even if you agree to the terms, if the entity that provided the mana decides they’re bored or unhappy, they can end your life in an instant.

“You probably didn’t even realize what you were signing away.”

After observing her for another moment, I threw her away from me with all my might. Her body detonated in midair, a silent explosion that erased everything within a 50-meter radius.

It wasn’t a combustion—it was a total erasure. Not a single molecule remained, as if a chunk of reality had been surgically cut out. Both her body and the environment simply ceased to exist.

“You cowardly bastard.”

To dispose of her so instantly, even with a blank contract. I stood there staring at the void where Kim Ji-hyun had been, lost in thought.

There were only two real possibilities here.

“Either someone high up in Dangun’s heirs isn’t actually human.”

Or they are human, but they are completely out of their depth, blinded by the delusion that they’ve made a revolutionary discovery.

Usually, one of two options is better than the other, but in this case, both are disastrous. I don’t even know where the Dangun’s heirs are hiding, and even if I did, storming their base to give a lecture on mana safety wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“Why is everything always such a massive headache?”

I scratched my head in frustration and scowled. This was no longer a simple matter of taking down a rival group.

Then again, looking back, my life has never been simple. I began sprinting toward Dover, where Han Sang-ah and Lee Se-eun were currently engaged in battle, trying to organize my thoughts as I ran.

I didn’t know the identity of the being Kim Ji-hyun had contracted with, but it was undeniably high-level. And the methodology felt sickeningly familiar.

“Demons.”

In that other world, I had seen the high-ranking demons who lived in the depths of hell use those exact types of contracts to ensnare humans.

Not every demon was capable of it… only the strongest fifty or so had that kind of reach.

Of course, I was the one who eventually hunted them all down, so they should all be dead and buried.