Chapter 44
‘Why is it so quiet?’
It seemed she had ventured too deep into the area.
For some reason, it reminded her of the time not long ago when she had gotten lost in the mountains.
Just as she thought she should hurry back to Gahyeon and tell him they needed to leave, she started to get up.
Suddenly.
In an instant, without warning, goosebumps prickled across her skin.
Soya froze in place and slowly turned her head.
“……!”
She flinched. Soya’s body went rigid.
Her eyes met those of a man wearing a black mask.
“Well, now. I thought I’d hidden my presence completely.”
Muttering in a troubled voice as if he hadn’t expected to be discovered, the man pulled down his mask.
“Impressive. Do you really have the power to detect sorcery? Looks like I’ll need to check your Spirit Core after all.”
‘That man……!’
At the sight of the man’s revealed face, Soya trembled and stumbled back.
‘It’s him. The one who tried to kill me in the southern lands…….’
The man bore a tattoo of a three-legged crow stretching from his cheek to his nape—a man Soya had faced before.
‘But Sa-eon-nim took care of him…….’
Her crimson eyes shook violently as she stared at him.
“Pleased to meet you, little miss. I am……. Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that?”
The man tilted his head quizzically at Soya, then touched his face and grinned.
“Ah. You must be scared of this shell. Tsk. Why do humans cling so much to what they can see?”
The man drew a pitch-black sword from his waist and slowly approached Soya.
“Don’t be so afraid. I won’t kill you right away. There’s just one thing I need to confirm with you…….”
It was then.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!”
Gahyeon stepped in front of Soya, thrusting his drawn sword toward the man with fierce eyes.
“Big brother!”
Soya cried out in surprise.
And rightly so—the opponent was a full-grown man at least two heads taller than Gahyeon.
The difference in their builds was too great.
Yet Gahyeon pointed his unwavering sword tip at the man and demanded, “I am Baek Ga-hyeon, second son of the Western Divine Beast White Tiger Clan. Who are you?”
“Well, now. A young master of the Baek Clan. Things just got a bit more complicated.”
The man sighed with a troubled expression.
“But…….”
He smirked—
The man, who had been staring at Gahyeon’s face, soon stretched his lips into a long grin.
“Your shell doesn’t look half bad either. Might as well switch into it while I’m at it.”
“What……?”
Gahyeon furrowed his brow at the incomprehensible words, right as—
“Watch out, big brother!”
Without warning, the man lunged at Gahyeon.
Whoosh, clang—!
Gahyeon swiftly swung his sword to block the incoming attack.
The keen intent to kill made Gahyeon’s hand tremble involuntarily as he gasped for breath.
He was the second son of the White Tiger Clan, trained with a sword as one since childhood, but this was his first time crossing blades with an enemy harboring true murderous intent in real combat.
But this was no time for such weak thoughts.
The man’s sword came flying at him again right away.
Clang—!
Clang, clang, clang—!
Sword clashed against sword, ringing out sharp metallic sounds.
Despite the difference in build, Gahyeon held his own evenly against the man.
Then, in an instant.
Clang!
The man’s sword flew off into the distance, and at the same moment, Gahyeon’s sword came down on the man’s head.
Whoosh—!
The man’s body collapsed.
“Hah, haah…….”
Gahyeon panted as he gazed at the fallen man.
“I got him…….”
Just as Gahyeon thought that and sheathed his sword.
“……Impressive. As expected of a Baek Clan young master—not an easy opponent.”
“……!”
“……!”
At the voice from the man they thought was dead, Soya and Gahyeon whipped around in shock.
“I thought this shell would last a while, but it’s broken again. Well, no big loss since I’ve found a new one anyway.”
The man cackled as he staggered to his feet.
“W-What……!”
Crack. Crackle.
Fine cracks like fissures spread across the man’s skin along the path Gahyeon’s sword had sliced.
And then.
Craaack—!
The man’s flesh split open, and a massive, pitch-black monster burst forth from within.
‘He’s……not human?’
It was a demonic beast with an animal’s face and a bear’s body.
Its jet-black face had no eyes, no ears.
Instead, a massive mouth in the center of its face drooled as it licked its chops.
“Four Evil Beasts, Chaos…….”
Gahyeon muttered in a pale voice, recognizing it.
“Keuk, kekeke. Now that you’ve seen my true form, no choice but to take you both out here.”
Chaos let out a hoarse laugh, its gravelly voice laced with metallic tones.
“Of course, I never planned to let either of you go alive from the start.”
Kiiiiiiii—!
Chaos gaped its mouth wide, and dozens of snakes shot out like vines.
“Soya……!”
Gahyeon immediately pulled Soya into his arms, but they couldn’t dodge the flying snake-vines.
Splat!
The snake-vines left long gashes on Gahyeon’s arm, and the two children tumbled across the dirt ground together.
“Urgh…….”
“Big brother!”
Seeing the blood flowing from Gahyeon’s arm, Soya screamed in horror.
But Gahyeon quickly got back up, positioning himself in front of Soya…….
Poof!
He underwent Beast Transformation, becoming a pure white tiger.
“Grrrrrr……!”
Gahyeon bared his sharp fangs and let out a mighty roar.
Soya’s eyes widened at the sight of the enormous white tiger.
Until now, the only tigers Soya had seen were small, cute cubs like Gayul and Arang in their juvenile forms.
A white tiger that had completed Primary Growth was larger than an adult man.
‘That’s……a tiger……?’
Gahyeon charged straight at the demonic beast.
Whoosh!
Thud!
Gahyeon pounced with his massive forepaw, pinning Chaos down.
Just as he moved to tear into its nape.
Kiii!
Dozens of snakes burst from Chaos’s mouth like vines, wrapping tightly around Gahyeon’s body.
Gahyeon thrashed to break free, but the more he struggled, the tighter the snake-vines constricted.
“Grr……!”
“Big brother!”
Soya grabbed the sheath that had fallen to the ground and ran to Gahyeon.
“S-Stay back……!”
Soya gripped the sheath tightly with both hands and swung it at the snakes coiled around Gahyeon.
The black snakes shattered against the sheath.
Seizing the moment when their grip loosened, Gahyeon tore through all the snakes wrapped around him.
“Got it!”
“Think so?”
Chaos, who had left Soya and Gahyeon alone until then, cackled with ominous meaning.
“Ugh……!”
Suddenly, Gahyeon’s body buckled.
“Big brother!”
Dark crimson poison was spreading from his foreleg.
He had been bitten by one of the snakes Chaos had unleashed moments ago.
“P-Poison…….”
“No, big brother!”
“Soya, you at least, ugh, need to get away…….”
Gahyeon coughed up blood, speaking with difficulty. The white tiger’s fur was staining red with blood.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make good use of your shell.”
Chaos approached the teary-eyed Soya, step by step.
“A Baek Clan second son should satisfy the Sovereign plenty. My master has quite the grudge against your clan anyway.”
“Stop!”
Soya stood trembling in front of Gahyeon.
“If you have business with me, then just come after me! Don’t touch big brother!”
“Big brother, huh.”
Chaos sneered at Soya.
“What nonsense. How could a tiger and a bird become family?”
Soya flinched at his words but soon recalled what Gahyeon had said to her.
[I want to be real family with you, Soya.]
[Real family that protects and cherishes each other, no matter what we look like—bird or beast.]
[I promise. I’ll be a fence that never changes, protecting you forever. Because I’m your real big brother.]
He, who had promised to be her ‘real big brother,’ had kept that promise even as his body was torn to shreds.
“Tigers and birds can become family, he said. He said he’d be a fence protecting me forever.”
So now it was her turn to protect her ‘real family.’
“That’s why I’ll protect my real family too.”
Unlike her small body trembling instinctively, Soya’s voice as she glared at Chaos was steady and unwavering.
She knew it deep down. There was no way she could defeat this demonic beast.
But still, he was family.
‘Real family’ that never abandons each other, no matter the situation.
So she wouldn’t run away alone.
Even if it meant a meaningless death, she would protect her big brother.
“Hahaha! Then let’s see you try.”
Chaos stretched its black mouth into a wide grin.
A massive python shot out from its black maw toward Soya.
‘I’ll protect him……!’
It was when Soya raised the sheath gripped in both hands high.
Flash!
In an instant, the sky flashed as if lightning had struck…….
Rumble!
Horim Mountain began to quake.
“W-What is……!”
Chaos, who had shouted in confusion, suddenly froze like stone.
It wasn’t just Chaos.
The black python charging at Soya, Gahyeon coughing blood and losing consciousness.
As if time itself had frozen—like the leaves rustling in the wind, the trickling water from the spring…… everything stopped.
In the silent stillness, within the frozen time, only Soya moved her lips and breathed faintly.
“How…….”
As Soya looked around in bewilderment.
Rooooaaar!
With a roar like thunder, a massive spirit beast cloaked in white light appeared.
‘An Illusion Beast?’
For a moment, Soya thought it was an illusion.
It glowed with white light, just like the Illusion Beasts Sa-eon had conjured with his sorcery.
—So it was you who awakened me.
Her eyes widened round at the clear, sacred voice that echoed in her mind.
‘No, not an Illusion Beast. This is…….’
Soya swallowed hard as she stared at the pure white spirit beast.
Somehow, she had an inkling of what it was.
Because…… the spirit beast before her resembled Gahyeon’s Beast Transformation form from moments ago.
Pure white fur and blue eyes. Though it wasn’t small and cute like the tigers Soya knew.
‘No doubt about it.’
The ancient divine beast, the White Tiger.
