Ch#77
Under the night sky where the moon was hidden behind clouds, lending an especially chilling gloom.
Jjakjjagi, who had been dozing off with slow blinks atop the torch stand, suddenly began flapping its wings furiously.
Flutter! Flutter, flutter—!
After flapping wildly, Jjakjjagi started choking as if it couldn’t breathe, writhing in agony…
Hack! Gack, cough cough!
Like a cow chewing its cud, it regurgitated what it had eaten before collapsing limply.
Jjakjjagi’s fallen body turned pitch black, and from between its beak, a black, plump thing abruptly protruded.
“Grrrr….”
The poison bug slowly began to swell its body.
“Grrrr…. Grrrr….”
The first to rush out at the commotion was none other than Soya.
“Jjakjjagi!”
Soya screamed at the sight of Jjakjjagi collapsed with its body turned entirely black and the poison bug inflating its form.
“Grrrrrrrrr…!”
Unlike its feeble death throes earlier in the day, the poison bug now bellowed with its massively swollen body.
Sa-eon and the others who had come running at the sound wore expressions of horror.
“A poison bug from this world!”
“Danger, cotton ball!”
From amid the crowd, Gayul cried out in alarm.
At that moment, the poison bug charged straight at Soya.
“Grrr…!”
Boom—!
The instant Sa-eon swiftly scooped Soya up in one arm, the wall behind them crumbled.
In a flash, the area turned into utter chaos.
“Are you alright, little cotton ball?”
Sa-eon asked, tightening his hold on the arm embracing Soya while keeping his eyes fixed on the poison bug.
“Yes, Father. I’m fine. But that poison bug…”
“It’s because there’s no light. It must have been biding its time inside Jjakjjagi’s belly and crawled out now that the light is gone.”
Gungki’s poison bugs wielded fearsome power in dark places without light, rivaling even the most vicious magic beasts.
Every time the poison bug drooled, its saliva splattered with a sizzling hiss, corroding the ground where it fell.
“Everyone, get back!”
At Sa-eon’s shout, the people retreated inside the gate.
The poison bug swiveled its head with a guttural growl, searching for people, and spotted Gayul who hadn’t managed to escape.
In an instant, it lunged toward him.
Its speed was unimaginably fast for such a massive body—quicker than a bolt of lightning.
But Sa-eon was a fraction faster.
He kicked off the ground and leaped forward, snatching Gayul with his remaining arm and twisting his body away.
Then he set Soya and Gayul down in a safe spot.
“Stay put here, little ones.”
Sa-eon drew his long sword and advanced toward the poison bug.
“Father, your wound…!”
Soya belatedly noticed the blood dripping from Sa-eon’s sleeve.
He had been grazed by the poison bug while rescuing the two children.
But without a flicker of change in his expression, Sa-eon charged ahead and cleaved the poison bug in a single stroke.
Slash—
“Grrrrrrrrrrk…!”
The poison bug spasmed in its final death throes before shriveling up with a sickly hiss.
It was then, as Sa-eon grimaced at the foul sight and turned away—
He froze.
His expression hardened in dread at the presence he sensed from behind.
As he gripped the hilt of his sword and began to turn—
“Father!”
The moment Soya ran toward him, the poison bug’s corpse burst with a ‘bang!’.
Black bodily fluids sprayed everywhere, writhing as if they could corrode the entire world.
“Cotton ball, you—!”
Sa-eon dodged by a hair’s breadth and pulled Soya into a fierce embrace.
“…!”
But for a split second, his eyes shook violently as he looked at the child.
He had spotted the poison bug’s black fluids splattered on her clear cheek.
Sting—
“Ugh.”
Soya winced at the chilling sensation burrowing into her skin, corroding it.
In that instant, the venom that had pierced her flesh blackened her skin and raced toward her spirit core.
“Cotton ball…!”
With Sa-eon’s desperate cry—
Crash!
It felt as if something encasing her spirit core had shattered, and Soya’s pupils dilated.
“Ah…!”
Soya unwittingly gasped.
Suddenly, the whole world flashed pure white.
Crackle, crackle. Crackle—
In the utter silence all around, only the sound of flames crackling echoed through the space.
Soya had felt something like this once before.
That bizarre sensation, as if time and space had frozen, leaving only her alive and breathing…
—Child.
Soon, a magnificent firebird wreathed in vast, radiant flames appeared before Soya’s eyes.
—You’ve finally found me, little bird.
A voice that was gentle and warm yet carried a majestic pressure resounded in her mind like a telepathic message.
“You are…”
Soya swallowed hard.
Crackle, crackle—.
Soya had seen this splendid firebird somewhere before, with its brilliant red feathers blazing like flames.
Long ago.
Back when Soya had lived in Jujak Mansion.
She had seen this enormous, beautiful being in the murals of Jujak adorning the mansion everywhere.
The ancient divine beast, Jujak.
“Lord Jujak…?”
As Soya murmured in disbelief, the red bird replied in a voice tinged with a soft smile.
—Yes. I am the purifier of the southern lands. The divine beast, Jujak. Long ago, you awakened me, little bird of the south.
“…!”
Soya’s eyes widened round as saucers.
‘The voice that had been calling to me all this time was Lord Jujak?’
—Since you awakened me, I shall grant you the flames that purify all.
Flames then blazed up warmly, enveloping Soya’s body before vanishing like smoke.
At the same time, a small flame flickered to life in Soya’s palm.
The moment she saw it, Soya knew.
She could now wield this purifying flame freely from her palm.
Just like the moment she had received the Baekho Sword from Baekho and instinctively known how to move it…
—Fire is precise, yet small. But this single spark can grow to engulf the entire world at any moment.
Soya looked up at Jujak’s words.
—So always be careful, little bird. Lest it consume even you.
“…”
Soya fell silent for a long while.
She simply stared blankly at the flame blooming in her hand.
—Child?
The radiant firebird tilted its head, shedding red feathers.
“I… awakened you, Lord Jujak?”
Soya looked up at Jujak again.
“That can’t be. How could I have awakened you? I… I’ve never even met you!”
At Soya’s cry, Jujak smiled faintly.
—That day was just like this, when a blood-red moon rose like these blazing flames.
Flames then roared to life, encircling Soya in a ring.
—I shall show you the day we first met.
“Ah.”
As the flames intensified, Soya squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened them again—
“Where… is this…?”
Jujak Mansion lay still beneath blood-red moonlight, greeting her.
Soya looked around in a daze.
At that moment, a man with red hair passed by her with an anxious expression.
Startled, she snapped her head up to confirm his face.
“That man…!”
He was a bit younger than she remembered, but it was unmistakably him.
Jeok Ayun.
The Family Head of the Jujak Clan—the man Soya had long thought of as ‘Father.’
‘Why is he here…? Is this an illusion…?’
As Soya gazed blankly up at the man’s face, Jujak’s voice echoed in her mind.
—An illusion, yet a real past event. Twelve years ago from now. What happened on the night the red moon rose, child.
