Chapter 302

Minerva and Sbeungali.

What the two of them had urged on me as the way out of this mess was nothing other than to drag in another Seven Calamity—and one capable of matching Minerva, no less.

In essence, pitting enemy against enemy.

There were only two Seven Calamities who could go toe-to-toe with Minerva.

Venus, sunk in his deep slumber at the bottom of the abyss.

And Juno, biding its time in much the same way—deep beneath the earth, where lava flowed.

The original work noted that these two, along with Minerva, each held enough power to wipe out humanity single-handedly.

Which was why, even in the original, the three of them rarely stirred at all, and on the rare occasions when they did, events that led to direct combat were vanishingly few.

Moreover: if Minerva was the sky, then Juno was the earth, and Venus the sea.

As though it had been engineered, the three of them held entirely opposing attributes.

Maybe that was why all three regarded one another as blood enemies and guarded their own territories with iron discipline.

And above all, I knew well that the three of them were all sealed away at roughly the same time.

Which meant I could be certain that, at this point in history, both Juno and Venus were still up and about, perfectly intact.

And there was someone else who knew all of this just as well as I did—none other than Sbeungali.

[Did I not mention it? Right after I woke from my seal—that… my friend, you know the one. Lee Jae-jun. Remember?]

Lee Jae-jun.

The leader of the Thorn Cross Congregation, the man who had broken Sbeungali's seal and aligned himself with him.

And also the man whose existence Sbeungali had devoured down to the last scrap.

[I miss him… Anyway. After he woke me, I started piecing together everything I could about the other Seven Calamities. There's no downside to knowing a lot, and besides… you get it, don't you? You just saw it for yourself.]

Sbeungali muttered in a low voice.

[Venus and Juno at least sleep their lives away—that's manageable. But Minerva… she'd come down on me, Milited, and Margo on the regular, calling us base, vulgar, and devoid of honor. So I figured I'd better keep tabs on her. When you're minding your own business and she just descends on you, it's no different from being struck by lightning out of a clear sky.]

Now, as Minerva had said, Sbeungali, Milited, and Margo really were base, vulgar, and devoid of honor—but I could still see exactly where Sbeungali was coming from.

Even I would have been terrified out of my mind if she'd come after me with that ghostly look in her eyes, breathing flame and venom-smoke.

Come to think of it, I remembered a story about Sbeungali, Milited, and Margo—the three of them banding together once to stand against Minerva. Within less than a day, the story went, nearly half the forces they'd scraped together had literally evaporated, and all three had fled headlong in panic.

[He's going to get the wrong idea. Cut the nonsense, Sbeungali.]

Minerva broke in mid-sentence in a voice that trembled faintly.

[…Oh?]

[When did I ever bully you, that you would spew such lies?]

Sbeungali muttered something under his breath in disbelief, then heaved a sigh.

[Right, right… I'm always the lout running my mouth, aren't I… Fine, back to the matter at hand. Venus can move freely anywhere there's enough water to hold his body. And not far from this mansion, there's the sea.]

As Sbeungali said, Venus—at odds with his colossal frame and sluggish disposition—prowled the vast oceans at will, and the reason was precisely that movement ability he'd just mentioned.

So bringing Venus down meant, before anything else, hauling him out of the sea and onto solid ground.

…Though good luck hauling out a monster three times Minerva's size, the kind that kicks up tidal waves just by thrashing in place.

'But the Venus we actually need isn't anywhere near us.'

[He's not nearby, but he's not far either. If I'm right, he'll snap out of sleep any second and come tearing in, foaming at the mouth.]

[I think so too.]

Minerva backed Sbeungali's reading of it.

[…Whatever the case, Venus, Juno, and I—the three of us could spend lifetimes and still never understand one another, never tolerate the fact of breathing the same air. Even now, the mere thought of Venus or Juno appearing in my territory boils my blood with rage.]

'Alright… let's try it your way, then.'

Nothing to lose. If it fell apart, I could just dive into the shadow. That was the mindset I'd kicked things off with, and the plan was now unfolding with almost unsettling smoothness.

• Booo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo!!!

[Kraaaaagh!!! Stand down, Venus!!! I have no time for the likes of you right now!]

Past-Minerva looked thrown by the sudden attack, but she steadied herself in an instant.

But the two of them were nearly evenly matched to begin with—Minerva edged her opponent only by the slimmest margin.

And the place they were fighting now was open sea.

On top of that, with her attention fixed on me, she'd let through a critical sneak attack and taken a serious wound to her wing.

In other words, the fight was rigged against Minerva from the very start.

• Booo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo!!!

The enormous whale wrenched its body sideways, as if refusing to let the dragon escape skyward.

Was it really a whale, though?

A streamlined body, like every other creature that lived in water, with what had to be dozens of fins.

A massive horn like the barrel of a battleship's main gun. And compound eyes—dozens of pupils packed inside a single eye, each one moving independently of the others.

And a body several times the size of Minerva's, every inch of skin marked with scars.

The description that every single thrash kicked up a tidal wave was no exaggeration.

Venus, locked in a death-match with Minerva, was firing jet after jet of water—each one sharp as an awl—trying to bring her down.

I say sharp as awls, but those colossal columns were practically tornadoes—any ordinary ship that so much as grazed one would've been blown to splinters on the spot.

Minerva spun in midair, breathed out gouts of flame, and hammered her wings in sweeping arcs as she frantically beat back his attacks.

And the fallout from that fight had me just as overwhelmed on my end.

[Bleugh—khak! Khrh!]

I'd been floating on the surface and the current had taken me out clean.

Luckily, I came to right away and made the call to dive deep and get clear of the area. As I plunged into the depths and kicked hard to put distance between myself and the chaos, Sbeungali smacked his lips.

[Well, well. Truly didn't see that one coming.]

[…….]

That was clearly a lie.

There was no way that bastard had failed to make a calculation that simple.

No—by that measure, I was the moron for missing something so obvious in the first place. Even with King of Thorns and Dragon Blood, I'd clearly taken the situation way too lightly.

[Still, any average human would've been dead by now—pretty lucky, isn't it? You at least didn't die.]

[…Shut your mouth while I'm asking politely. I mean it.]

[My, my—his temper's gone right up to the roots again.]

Apparently, with King of Thorns on, I could even speak underwater.

Not that I'd wanted to learn that, really.

[Anyway, just focus on putting as much distance as possible between yourself and that. Remember what I told you before? When whales fight, the shrimp's back gets crushed—but it's still better than being the shrimp picking the fight with a whale.]

Sbeungali said, then went on, half-teasing:

[Actually—why not knock Venus down too while you're at it? You have to kill him eventually anyway.]

[Are you out of your damn mind? You want me to throw myself between those two and take them both on at once, in this situation?]

I kept swimming as I answered.

[Right now, I need to pull back and get a handle on what's happening. …More importantly, in this era I have to avoid getting tangled up with the Seven Calamities or anyone else over needless business if I can help it. Taking one of them down is even more out of the question.]

Right in the middle of all that, something Minerva had once told me came back to me.

She had said that, after she'd ended up living alongside me, I'd taught her quite a few things.

In a situation like this one—was that really even possible?

With that turning over in my head, once I'd put some distance between us I quietly lifted my head above the surface.

I wanted a look at how things were playing out.

[Kraaaaagh!!!]

…Surprisingly, the two of them were still locked in combat, and what shocked me most was that past-Minerva was the one being pushed back. As if to answer my unspoken question, Minerva whispered:

[I may be a touch stronger, but only by a hair. The terrain favors Venus, and she allowed a deadly sneak attack that wounded her wing. Of course she's being driven back.]

[…….]

Watching her, before I knew it I was remembering the way she'd thrown her own body into the path of Aegis's light to shield me. Maybe that was the reason. I'd lifted my head to check on the situation, and somewhere along the way I'd drawn the bow out of my shadow without even realizing it.

[Hm? Wait—you can't possibly—!]

Before Minerva could finish, I'd already loosed an arrow woven from World Tree branches, every ounce of strength poured into the shot. And only after a long pause did I hear Venus, far in the distance, let out a scream of pain.

• Booo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo—ooo!!!

'Good.'

At least past-Minerva wouldn't end up gravely wounded over me now, I thought—and I had just started to swim off again when—

[You—what you just did…]

Minerva said, sounding uncharacteristically dismayed.

[What you just did was far too hasty.]

Her muttering carried a note of lament and, somehow, of embarrassment.

[No—if it had been anyone else, you wouldn't have done such a thing. Mm. The problem is that the one tied up with that soft heart of yours happens to be me. I suppose… mm…]

[What are you talking about, Minerva?]

[…What I mean is that my past self would never, ever let what you just did go.]

Minerva added quietly:

[My past self would have chosen death before ever welcoming someone's aid. And worse, what just happened was clearly a dangerous situation by any measure—there's no denying she was rescued… and of all people, the one who came to her rescue was the very man who cut off her horn.]

A chill ran straight up my spine and I shuddered before I could stop myself.

[…So you're saying I just pissed her off even harder, for nothing?]

Minerva hesitated before answering.

[Probably…]

Then she murmured, sounding uncertain:

[Still, judging by everything that's happened so far, it seems that even though this is the past, the same events aren't simply repeating. A world similar to ours but not quite the same? Because if something this intense had happened to me, I would never have forgotten it… hm?]

She suddenly gave a small start and cut herself off.

When I asked what was the matter, she dodged the question.

[Ah, mm… no, never mind.]

Then her face lit up and she called out, telling me to look up at the sky.

[Han Su-yeong! It's her! She's right there!]

[What?]

She was right.

Somewhere along the line, Han Su-yeong had arrived, and she was floating in midair above me, sweeping her gaze across the area. Then, evidently spotting me as well, she shot down toward me at speed.

"Ji-hyeok!"

[Su-yeong—I told you to stay hidden. Why—]

"Sorry. I won't make excuses for not doing what you said. But there's something more important than that, which is why I came rushing out here."

Han Su-yeong said,

"Let's wind time back and go home right now."

[What?]

"I'm not saying it for nothing."

Han Su-yeong reached into her clothes and pulled out a tightly sealed potion bottle.

Something was sealed inside, and I recognized it the moment I laid eyes on it.

"I scooped Milited up while I was over there."

[Bwahahaha!]

…Sbeungali burst out laughing in genuine delight at the way she treated one of the Seven Calamities like a piece of lost-and-found property.

[Hold on, Su-yeong—you're going so fast I can't keep up.]

"The details can wait until we're out of here."

Han Su-yeong said, holding her hand out to me.

I caught her hand on reflex, and she smiled brightly at me.

"I marked the coordinates somewhere safe. Let's get there first and recover."

[…Yeah.]

A moment later, I could feel my body being pulled in toward somewhere, hers at the center of it.

Mid-transit, a question slipped out of me, half-thrown.

[Straight back, right?]

"Mm, no."

Han Su-yeong worked her lips.

"A hundred and fifty years from this point. Which is to say, a hundred and fifty years before our own time."

We have to go to the era when Shadow Walker was active.

Before I could even get a word in to ask her about it, the savage, unforgettable intensity of teleportation I'd experienced once before came rushing back to me.

I swore from the bottom of my heart, I never wanted to go through it again.

[…….]

Once she was out of Venus's line of sight, Minerva let out a quiet breath and looked beyond the horizon.

It was where the man had fled.

Her entire body was a mass of wounds, but she stood ramrod-straight as if pain were nothing to her, eyes fixed beyond the horizon.

She'd simply been trying to relieve her boredom. To think it would come to this.

Event after unforeseeable event—Minerva couldn't find words for what she felt.

Above all else, a mere human had wounded her—not only that, had cut off her horn—and dragged Venus in to fight her, and above all, above all…

[…I won't forgive him.]

A grinding, savage sound slipped out from between her clenched teeth.

An arrow that had—beyond any possible doubt—been loosed to save her.

That arrow had opened up a gap in Venus's guard, and only through that opening had she been able to wrench herself free.

Her life had been spared by another.

Which was, in itself, humiliation. Dishonor.

And soon her chest filled with nothing but fury and animosity, every bit of it directed at that one man.

[Ji-hyeok. Ji-hyeok…]

The name the red-haired woman had shouted.

Minerva swore to herself that she would never forget that name.

'…Good god.'

And in another place at that same moment, a different Minerva was groaning under her breath, running her hand over her head again and again. To be exact, over her own horn.

Her expression was severe beyond measure.

'How… how long has this been there?'

She kept exhaling in short, disbelieving breaths, and her fingertips traced the surface of her horn—where a small slice had been shaved clean away.