Requiem Of A Failed Hero

If these were characters that held the seal that is keeping the illusion that meant there was a way out.

Mok Jae-Hwa sharply turned to his teammates.

“Everyone! Search the trees, touch them, and see if you find any Chinese characters engraved on them.”

“What do you mean? I don’t even know Chinese.” Yujin complained.

“Shin, Chong-Yol, Yeon-Woo…” Mok Jae-Hwa called the names of those he knew that were fluent in Chinese.

“Well received boss,” Chong-Yol replied giving Mok Jae-Hwa a salute before going to the tree beside him.

They walked around, touching every single tree and noting the Chinese characters they could feel on it.

After solid forty minutes of touching every tree. They only noticed the repetition of the characters.

Gen, Xun, and Kan.

Those were the only characters that were engraved on the trees.

“What do we do now then?” Chong-Yol asked after reporting this to Mok Jae-Hwa.

Mok Jae-Hwa stroked his chin and looked down. ‘…Xun is wind, Gen is mountain and Kan is water…’ He looked up.

“Mountain, wind, and water seems to be the characters holding this seal together… now I am not sure–

“That’s Taoism.” Sung Min said.

“Taoism?” Mok Jae-Hwa was impaled by Sung Min’s knowledge. He usually is clueless about a lot of things and that was because.

“You do know that Sung Min Oppa is from Jeolla right?” Yujin gloat tapping the shoulder of her boyfriend which was too high for her.

“Ah right… he is.”

“Although I wasn’t diligent to it and I awakened as a hunter but I did practice Taoism for a while. Gen, the mountain character in Taoism represents stillness and stability, and Kan, water, represents fluidity and transformation. Xun, wind, represents movement and change. These are interlocking characters that keep the seal together and it is no wonder why as we moved the forest continued to change but in a real sense we couldn’t reach our destination.

It’s probably an illusion that causes us to believe that we aren’t trapped and make us walk and walk thinking that we will soon be there and uses the energies of the real world to stay activated… The Gen character is the energy of the mountain which provides a stable and grounded foundation for the seal. The Kan character, the energy of water, allows the seal to transform and adapt to the changing conditions of the forest. The Xun character represents the energy of wind, which creates movement and change within the seal’s energy field.

“Wow… you are a Taoist for real, why did you quit?” Mok Jae-Hwa asked. The others too were inquisitive, cocking their heads. 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘭．𝑜𝘳𝘨

He sheepishly scratches the back of his head, “…I loved meat.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Shin nodded his head along with the others too.

“So do you maybe know how to undo or break this seal?”

“We will probably need to counteract the three characters. Usually engraving the character will work but I don’t know how to do that.”

“What character is that?” Mok Jae-Hwa asked.

“The Li character.”

“Fire?” Shin cocked his head.

“Yes.” Sung Min nodded to him.

“Then can’t we just burn the whole forest?” He suggested.

“Fool, who does that… they say a character” Ga-Yun knocked his head. Making him go scowl at her but she glared back at him and silently threatened him with her mean glare.

“It actually could work.” Sung Min responded, drawing all their attention to him.

“Explain.” Mok Jae-Hwa demanded.

“The counteract is to create the energy of fire which is passion and destruction. If we set the forest on fire. We should be able to get the same energy even stronger.”

Mok Jae-Hwa folded his hands and nodded. He turned his head to Shin, everyone did.

“Me?”

“Yes, you. Who else can use fire as you do?” Ga-Yun narrowed her gaze at him with a slight curl in her lips.

“Ah! Whatever!”

He frowned and stepped to the center, while others stepped away.

“Give it your best shot kid. Use your strongest skill.”

Fuuuu

Shin took a deep breath and began to channel his magic energy into his hands. He could feel the air around him grow hotter, and a small fire appeared on his hands, it was like a fire folding into itself continuously and seemed so unthreatening by the looks of it alone.

“Hey, are you going to use this small thing–

“Shhhh…” Mok Jae-Hwa shut Chong-Yol up, making him back down with inquisition. Everyone was silent and keenly watching from the sidelines as Shin did his thing. He was the only one that had not seen Shin’s strongest skill, since he was always so busy traveling around the world.

With each passing moment, the fire became more intense and suddenly got so big like a raging inferno that threatened to consume all of them. Chong-Yol stumbled back in shock as he saw the raging fire erupt high into the sky, still sitting on Shin’s hand.

‘How?’

To him, Shin had always been a cheat. He never really acknowledged the young guy who is so full of talent. He worked hard for nothing and was just so good with fire. He detested him and that still stood, but seeing the might of his strength like this, he couldn’t help but be full of fearful respect.

‘…this young guy?’

It baffled him how a young boy could hold such amazing power.

With a fierce shout, Shin released the fire on his hands. A blazing column of flames erupted from his hands, shooting straight up into the sky like a beacon of destruction. As it rose higher and higher, it began to spread outwards, enveloping everything in its path in a sea of fire.

The trees in the forest were the first to catch fire, their dry leaves and branches igniting instantly and sending sparks flying into the air. Within seconds, the entire forest was ablaze, the flames leaping from tree to tree with a ferocity that seemed almost alive.

All of them watched with awe.

“Wow, I think I have forgotten how strong this guy is…” Ga-Yun muttered as her eyes passionately gazed into the flames of the forest.

WOOOIIINNNGGG

“Amazing, you managed to break my seal.” A thick and vibrating voice resounded in the air bringing them back to the fact that they had successfully broken through the seal.