Chapter 211: Snake’s Head (4)

Chapter 211: Snake’s Head (4)

“Kugh!”

Cheon Sanggil sensed the imminent danger and quickly tried to escape.

Bzzzzzt!—

The blue lightning shooting from the tips of Ohjin’s fingers flowed through his drenched hanbok and struck him.

“Aargh!” He collapsed on the ground with a painful shout.

Crack! Crackle!—

Residential blue sparks burned the surrounding area.

“Oh-Ohjin! What are you doing to Gramps?!” Ha-eun rushed towards them with a dumbstruck expression.

“No.”

“Hm? What do you mean...?”

“This isn’t Cheon Sanggil.”

It was merely an imposter pretending to be him.

Ohjin looked down at him with cold eyes and continued, “If, on the off chance, he really was Sanggil, he wouldn’t have fallen for an attack of this caliber.”

“That’s...”

“He’s right.” Isabella, who had followed Ha-eun, nodded her head in agreement.

“Kugh... H-How?”

Cheon Sanggil looked up from the ground at Ohjin with confusion. It appeared that he wanted to ask how he knew.

“I thought it was a little strange from the start.” Ohjin clicked his tongue.

He felt that it was strange ever since he was first contacted by him.

It was just a slight bit of doubt back then, but it had turned into strong suspicion with how the situation developed.

“Why was I the first person you contacted?”

There was Heaven’s Grace, which he was the guildmaster of, Isabella, who took charge and reported the Living Armor incident in his place, and Ha-eun, who was the one to destroy the black miasma back when the demon beast subjugation incident took place in Sokcho.

Why, then, of all people, had he been the first person he contacted?”

“You would’ve first contacted Isabella if you wanted to gather the members of Guardian, and you could’ve contacted Ha-eun if you wanted someone who had participated in the demon beast subjugation.”

In addition, he wasn’t even that close to Sanggil.

Sanggil looked up at him with a dumbfounded expression. “You’re telling me... that you attacked me because of that mere reasoning?”

“Well, I only thought that it was a little strange back then.”

If he knew that he wasn’t the real Sanggil from the very beginning, he wouldn’t have gone to Sokcho in the first place.

However...

“Isn’t it too outrageous for it to be a coincidence?”

Sanggil had discovered the fissure that opened ten days prior in only three days. Not only that, but he had only contacted Ohjin when there were other people who should have had higher priority, and that particular fissure also happened to be solely made to trap him.

One could say that they were coincidences if looked at individually, but he couldn’t help but think it was suspicious when so many coincidences overlapped.

“...Kugh.” Sanggil... no, the thing that was disguised as Sanggil groaned.

It painfully wriggled its body and smirked.

“Even if you’ve figured me out, it’s already too late.”

Wriggle—

In an instant, his face distorted like mud and started to change into dozens of different faces. Soon enough, the monster’s whole body turned into black mucus. Its outer appearance was like the silhouette of a criminal in a cartoon.

Ohjin narrowed his eyes and looked at the monster consisting of black mucus.

There was a particular name that surfaced in his mind.

‘A Doppelganger.’

It was the name of a monster that had the ability to change its appearance according to its will.

There were rumors that such a monster existed in the Demon Realm, but it had yet to be spotted on Earth.

‘Come to think of it, Sokcho was also the place where I obtained Transformation.’

He had obtained Transformation through Choi Jongchul, who had turned into a demonic beast. Ohjin wondered if it had something to do with the Doppelganger.

* * *

* * *

He had no way of finding the answer to his question.

The Doppelganger bared its teeth and spoke.

“Since you’ve already entered the Demon Realm... you will die at the hands of ‘that’ being.”

After giving him an ominous warning, it quickly got up and tried to escape.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Isabella appeared in front of the Doppelganger in an instant and glared at it with ice-cold eyes.

The Doppelganger’s face turned pale as Isabella approached them with the brightest expression on her face.

Unable to bear looking her in the eyes, it pointed toward a stalagmite with its trembling finger.

“G-Go straight in the direction of that stalagmite. Y-You’ll find a fissure there.”

“Is that so?”

Ohjin nodded and roughly stepped on its legs.

“Ahhhhhhh!!”

As if they’d been put through a hydraulic press, its two legs were miserably crushed.

“Isabella, can you maintain the chains tying this thing up?

“Yes. They should last for around a full day.”

Ohjin nodded and turned to face the direction the Doppelganger pointed.

“We’ll meet again if you happen to be lying.”

“Sob, sob.” The Doppelganger wriggled like a bug and nodded its head.

[So my child has a brutal side like this.] Vega, who was sitting on his head, spoke with a bit of surprise in her voice.

As she had only seen him being heroic up until then, that side of him felt rather unfamiliar to her.

“Are you disappointed?” Ohjin asked with a guilty expression.

[No. A certain amount of brutality is needed in order to save the world. Do not let it get to you.]

Vega shook her head left and right and patted his head with her small hands.

It tickled like a feather.

Ohjin smiled and started to head to the stalagmite.

While they were slowly walking in that direction—

“Ohjin... over there.”

—Isabella frowned and looked at a certain place.

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell blood... It's very strong.”

“...Let’s head there.”

“I’ll take the lead.” Isabella obstructed the way in a protective manner.

It was quite far, and they only arrived at the place she mentioned after walking for nearly twenty minutes.

There was a small, open space between tall stalagmites, and there were hundreds of corpses scattered around within.

“Ohjin, this is...”

“Guild members from Heaven’s Grace.”

Ohjin furrowed his brow and examined the brutally torn corpses.

The corpses were in a horrendous state. It was like they had been sucked into an industrial machine.

[It looks like they were trying to protect something.] Vega looked at the scattered bodies with pity.

Just as she said, the corpses looked like they were trying to protect something precious from intruders.

Ohjin nodded and tried to find what the guild members had been trying to protect with their lives.

“Ohjin! I think it’s over here!” Ha-eun pointed to a small gap between stalagmites.

Fwoosh!—

Flames brightened the area around her.

In the small gap was—

“G-Gramps...!”

—the corpse of Sanggil, who had a hole dug straight through his left pectoral.

Quite a lot of time had passed since his death, based on the terrible smell of rot.

“......”

Ohjin looked down at the corpse and slowly closed his eyes.

He had expected it ever since he discovered the Doppelganger using Sanggil’s appearance, but looking at his corpse directly evoked mixed feelings.

‘Sanggil didn’t catch the Snake’s tail.’

Rather than that, he had caught the Snake’s head... and one with extremely venomous fangs.

Rumble!—

The entire area trembled with a loud noise.

Ohjin bit his lips and raised his spear.

“They’re coming.”

Hundreds of demonic beasts jumped down from the tall stalagmites.