< 65. 21st Century Robin Hood (19) >
Cheongcheon let out a desperate scream.
The current that had burrowed into her body through the shadows boiled her blood and burned her flesh. Although it was only a brief moment, the damage she sustained was greater than Jenkinson's. It was an electric shock that struck her defenseless interior.
The dragon writhed, tearing through the air. The lightning had already been retracted. Seizing the opportunity, Jenkinson pounced without hesitation. Minjun, too, had embedded a shadow cone into her body and clung to it. The cone was even spinning, digging deeper into her flesh.
Thud!
Minjun drove his arms, which had pierced through her outer layer, even deeper. The blackened, charred flesh was ground and scattered, revealing a well-cooked layer of meat beneath, and as he went further, blood gushed out again.
Minjun knew that if he went just one more inch, he would reach the spine.
Blood spurted out like a fire hydrant bursting through the gap between the shadows and the wound. It flowed out as if a hole had been punched in a levee. As his arms went deeper, Minjun's torso tilted, bringing his head closer to the dragon. The blood flow, like a torrent in a valley, drenched Minjun's face. Blood from the dragon's wound continued to flow into his open mouth. He tasted it once more.
It was sweet.
Certainly, the dragon had lived much longer than Jenkinson. It was probably over 3,000 years old.
In the swirling consciousness, reality and the past intertwined, creating a resonance. A sense of déjà vu. Minjun judged based on memories he had never experienced. He muttered.
This should fetch a pretty penny.
His assessment was not based on his experience as a prisoner. Logically, there shouldn't be a market for dragon's blood. Yet, Minjun was mentally categorizing the dragon's flesh and blood.
Drenched in blood, he felt as if he were intoxicated by strong liquor.
The rich, almost suffocating scent of blood. But it was not unpleasant. In fact, he felt a bit excited. The sense of weariness that had been weighing on his chest seemed to melt away.
It had been a long time.
The feeling of being alive.
Kyaaaaaaah!
His thoughts, which had been deepening, were interrupted by the dragon's violent thrashing.
Kururung!
As Cheongcheon shook her body violently, Minjun was almost thrown into the air. The drill that had deeply penetrated her flesh also fell out.
With the foreign substance that had infiltrated her body now gone, the dragon's body displayed miraculous regenerative power. Torn muscles, fat layers, blood vessels, and outer skin quickly healed with the convergence of keratin, calcium, and magical compounds. The gaping wound was filled with solid red crystals in mere seconds.
Seeing this, Minjun clicked his tongue.
Wasted all that meat.
An unfamiliar muttering continued in his mind.
If you stress the meat for too long during the butchering process, the quality inevitably deteriorates. Especially if you inflict multiple wounds before killing it, the damaged areas become hardened and inedible. Consequently, a significant amount must be discarded, resulting in loss.
Worried about someone's scolding, Minjun changed the shape of his arms again. The arms that had been twisted into drills were now separated. This time, he also altered the overall outline of his body. The shadow that had completely covered him took on a more defined shape.
At that moment.
Kyaaaaaaah!
Screaming, Cheongcheon made a sharp turn. Then, as if to escape, she began to fly in an erratic direction. It seemed that her reason was clouded by pain. Instead of eliminating the two in front of her, she decided to escape the current situation.
"Damn it!"
Jenkinson followed.
The enraged dragon flew upwards with its head raised. The pursuing red dragon bombarded her with various spells. Some of them hit, but the elder dragon did not stop fleeing, despite her screams.
Cheongcheon was flying at an extraordinary speed. Minjun instinctively knew that this flight was beyond the reach of levitation magic. So he worked hard not to fall off her body. By forming beastly claws with the shadows, he pierced through the scales and clung to the dragon's flesh.
Now, he was tightly attached to Cheongcheon's outer skin, flying alongside her.
Flare!
Covered in seething shadows, Minjun transformed into a quadrupedal beast. He was not satisfied with merely clinging like a flea. With each step, he climbed higher, utilizing all four limbs. It was as if he were scaling a cylindrical rock.
Mountains of clouds approached and collided with him. This assault of cloud layers was brief. As time passed, nothing was visible around them.
Yet, Cheongcheon continued to gain altitude. A sharp cold enveloped him. Fierce pressure and gusts battered the shadows like heavy rocks.
Despite the air resistance that could crush steel, Minjun kept climbing. His ascent, starting from the dragon's chest, was directed towards her head. Each step created holes in the dragon's outer skin, and blood flowed. Jenkinson flew behind but could not catch up. He was inexperienced compared to Cheongcheon. He was still not of an age to be sent to the market.
But Cheongcheon was just right.
Amid the strange sensation of rising and excitement, Minjun reached the dragon's neck. The target he had intended to drill through was originally here.
Crunch.
Minjun's mouth opened, and shadows gathered to form a long, thin tongue. The tongue took the shape of a fine wire, much thinner and longer than the drill that had shattered her chest. It began to spin...
Whiiiiing!
Thwack!
The tongue pierced the back of the dragon's head.
------!
Minjun recalled the knowledge he had learned long ago.
Even if a dragon's central nervous system is damaged, it can continue to move for a long time, and prolonged butchering time results in terrible taste due to stress. Dragons are indeed very labor-intensive animals.
So what is the most efficient butchering method?
Based on memory, Minjun recreated the optimal movements. The thin, concentrated shadow pierced through the scales, delving like a motorized drill. Thanks to his extensive experience, Minjun could sense with only his instincts where the tip of the shadow probe was and what lay at the end of this direction.
In the satisfaction and intoxication of doing a proper job, he muttered.
Almost there.
Severing the dragon's skull or spinal cord with such a small 'tool' was very difficult.
But in this position, the neck, there was room to penetrate. He felt a solid obstruction at the tip of the tongue. He pushed without stopping.
Thwack!
Instead of cracking the head, he penetrated the neck to reach the brain.
At that moment, although Jenkinson and Minjun could not see it, Cheongcheon's eyes became cloudy.
Despite destroying the medulla oblongata, which connects the brain and spinal cord, the dragon did not die. Her flying speed and trajectory remained unchanged. The survival magic surrounding her also did not collapse.
However, her consciousness was lost.
Minjun thought.
If this drags on, the meat will become even more of a mess.
The endocrine system continues to operate, with stress hormones being excessively secreted into the muscles.
Therefore, Minjun had no intention of leaving it for long.
The reason he targeted the very bottom of the brain was because it acted as an entrance. The gateway to the secret chamber where six brains are stored, leading into the dragon's skull.
The shadow probe Minjun had created penetrated the medulla oblongata and went deeper into the place where the six brains' connecting nerves were clustered.
So, what next?
Just awkwardly stirring and mashing from within with those thin shadow threads would take too long to cut off the dragon's breath.
Instead, there was a method used for such times.
Flare!
Minjun used the tongue embedded in the brain as a conduit to inject more shadows into the dragon's body. The principle was similar to inserting a thin hose into a balloon and then turning on the tap to fill it with water.
And what happens if the balloon fills up with water?
The contents will burst out from the weakest point.
What Jenkinson and Minjun witnessed was such a phenomenon.
Thunk!
With a dull explosion, a pinkish waterfall poured out from Cheongcheon's eyes.
"Damn it! How do you even do this!"
Ha Eunsung was flustered.
His plan was simple. Since Cheongcheon had started all this to revive the wraiths, if that ghost disappeared, she would have no choice but to abandon her plan.
He was trying to dismantle the exorcism wards to release the wraiths into the outside world.
But...
"Ah! Damn it, it's not moving at all!"
Underestimating the exorcism wards, which could be freely penetrated in a spectral state, was a grave mistake.
Cheongcheon and her subordinates were not fools; they would not ignore the possibility of a living person interfering with the exorcism wards. Therefore, there was a physical barrier surrounding the wards, and no matter how hard he tried with an elf's body, he couldn't break through it.
What to do?
Thoughts continued.
And as his excitement waned, he realized his mistake.
Wait a minute, can releasing that ghost even be considered solving the problem?
The dragon's spirit had neither been sanctified nor evolved into a ghost.
Would releasing such a spirit into the world really make things better?
That's right, I was thinking wrong. I'm sorry for the ghost, but...
Releasing the dragon's spirit was not the solution.
The ghost needed to be extinguished.
Perhaps it would be more merciful to help the ghost disappear rather than leaving it to suffer in spiritual torment.
He changed his approach and focused his mind outside the exorcism wards.
"Disappear... disappear... disappear!"
But it was in vain.
He prayed in a form similar to before, and the talisman responded with a glow. The magic circle containing the spirit also resonated.
Despite this, the spirit remained there, still enveloped in the burning spiritual heat, suffering.
Ha Eunsung muttered to himself.
Should I abandon the elf body and enter the barrier in a spectral state? But it's so hot in there.
He reconsidered.
There was a better way.
Or!
What if he created an environment similar to when he extinguished Ji Seon-gyeong's spirit?
A state where two souls were trapped in one body... in other words, maintaining a kind of 'contact'.
However, for this to work in the current situation, two conditions had to be met.
First, he had to break the exorcism wards and get the spirit out, and second, he needed to find a suitable vessel for the spirit to possess.
Ha Eunsung looked at the research team he had possessed. Could the elf's body withstand the dragon's spirit?
Or rather...
He turned his head.
To the room he had just passed. He gazed at the massive glass tube and the sealed dragon inside.
The dragon, whose name he didn't know and whose captivity duration was unclear, was not a spectral empath. Ha Eunsung could tell just by looking.
But Cheongcheon tried to possess the dragon with a spirit. And she said that the possession itself had been temporarily successful before. The problem was that it didn't last long.
What was the secret?
Had all the dragons he had kidnapped been spectral empaths until now? Or...
Cheongcheon might have known a way to force possession even in someone who isn't a medium!
The only thing that came to mind as a possible reason was one.
Cheongcheon had said:
"The talisman can interfere with the soul in various ways. It can extract the soul from a living body, or conversely, insert it into another body. It can even extinguish the soul entirely or, if weakened a bit, cause the soul to collapse and fragment."
He repeated it in his mind.
Insert it into another body?
Perhaps it didn't have to be a spectral empath?
Let's try it!
If Ha Eunsung could control the dragon's body, many problems would be resolved.
He went to the adjacent room and looked at the dragon submerged in liquid. It was clear that the soul had weakened from whatever had been done to it. The body was barely being maintained, just enough to keep the life going.
The plan was simple. First, temporarily seize the weakened soul's body. Since it was a dragon's body, it should be immensely strong, and it might be able to break the exorcism wards.
Next, absorb the spirit into this body and create a temporary coexistence... or rather, a temporary fusion of three entities.
Of course, this state wouldn't last long.
Once I call it here and trap it, I'll destroy it just like I did with Ji Seon-gyeong!
Then, he would leave the body with its original soul intact and withdraw himself.
Naturally, for success, all his assumptions had to be correct.
However, any scenario was worth trying.
Having made his decision, he exited the elf's body.
"Cough!"
As he withdrew, the elf, regaining control of its body, collapsed and began coughing and retching.
Returning to his spectral state, Ha Eunsung leaped into the dragon's body.
Hmm? Still not working.
A body without any spectral sensitivity rarely accepted another spirit. Even though the true owner's control had weakened, it was still the case.
However, as Ha Eunsung began resonating with the talisman...
Whoosh!
=Huh? Huh?! It's working!=
He felt the resistance that had been pushing him away growing weaker.
Bubble, bubble!
The dragon in the glass tube opened its eyes.
Crash!
Shatter!
As the dragon flailed its limbs and tail, the glass shattered into pieces, and the water that had filled the tube burst out like an explosion.
"Raaagh! Raargh!"
Ha Eunsung, having seized the dragon's body, staggered.
Struggling to exert force, he walked carefully over the broken glass, his body drenched. Despite the glass being shattered into sand, the dragon's body was unharmed.
Beside him lay the elf, trembling.
"Eek! Ugh!"
The elf was terrified at the sight of the ghost that had possessed the dragon's body.
Ha Eunsung was struggling with difficulties far beyond those he experienced while controlling orcs or beings of different genders. Everything was unfamiliar, from balancing to moving parts not present in humans.
Whoosh!
Crash!
The most maddening part was controlling the tail and wings. Since he had never had such appendages before, they moved erratically, independent of his will.
Even though he only intended to lift his step slightly, the tail whipped around like a whip, smashing and destroying various equipment in the lab.
"Grr... Grr!"
Ha Eunsung stumbled once more.
Crash!
As he fell, the ground cracked and split. In front of him, just one meter from the concrete where his fingernails dug in, the elf stared at him with a pale face, his pants soaked.
Damn! I can't speak!
The dragon's tongue and vocal cords were not suited for pronouncing human language. And since Ha Eunsung couldn't use magic, he was getting frustrated.
=Ah! Damn! ... Huh?=
Ha Eunsung realized he had sent a telepathic message.
I don't know what it is, but this is good!
This made him think that he didn't necessarily have to break the exorcism wards with his body.
He asked the trembling elf.
=Get rid of those exorcism wards!=
"...Yes?"
He mentally shouted, almost like he was barking orders.
=Get rid of the exorcism wards!=
"Y-yes! I-I'll do it!"
The elf, whose knees seemed to be giving way, wobbled toward the next room. And following behind...
Thud! Crash!
Damn it! Seriously!
With a bit of distance, the dragon possessed by the ghost followed, moving with the awkward gait of a newborn.
One was trembling with fear, and the other was walking clumsily in frustration. Their ridiculous movements resembled a clumsy dancer performing a comical dance.
Thus, the elf and the dragon staggered toward the spirit.