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I should get out of here!
Priya realized that she was in over her head.
“I’m asking. Do you want to die here or outside?”
The voice wasn’t coming out from just the woman’s mouth. In fact, it was coming out from all of the students who were staring at the owner of the memory in various, disjointed voices. It was bizarre as the voices overlapped accurately. The space was full of terrifying nightmares. Priya struggled frantically in an attempt to get out.
Euk…
However, the Asian woman’s gaze caught her and didn’t let her go. Priya was completely trapped. She understood the situation with her head, but not with her mind.
How can this happen?
The owner of the memory said, “Wait, I think she is from my camp. Can you check it out?”
The moment the man’s words were scattered, the eyes of an Asian woman who stared at this side turned black. Priya also understood that phenomenon very well. Sure enough, the Asian woman also had the mental attribute, but her power was much superior to her own, which was why she was being overwhelmed!
A crack appeared in the background, and the wall broke immediately like a shattering glass window. The wall where a Korean flag was hung was now a leather tent, and the wooden floor had turned into a land full of blood. The faces of the young Korean students melted, and then became superimposed with new faces, the faces of the association’s leaders, including Lee Tae-Han and Kwon Seong-Il. Within a second, the environment had changed to the same meeting room that she had been in before she left.
She’s in my memory as well. Oh gosh. How can this happen… Is this even possible?
However, everything else had stopped. Priya was the owner of this memory, but she couldn’t control anything. Her voice didn’t come out, and her eyes were fixed only on Lee Tae-Han, the president of the association. Only two people moved, and they were an Asian man and a woman who hadn’t been there back then. The two roamed around the place where the time stopped. They seemed to check the faces of the association’s leaders one by one.
The woman asked, “This guy seems to be the leader. Who is he?”
“Lee Tae-Han,” the man responded.
“Ah, no wonder why his face was familiar.”
“He was famous outside, so you might have recognized him.”
“A celebrity? Oh nevermind…the Ilsung Group?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.
“Isn’t that a relief? Seong-Il and others are armed pretty well.”
“Yeah, we didn’t have to be worried.”
“I told you.”
Priya felt like they were ridiculing her as they treated her as if she was invisible. However, she was suffering immensely as she couldn’t protest this invasion at all. She wasn’t impacted by the man’s words and actions, but whenever the woman moved or spoke, a terrible pain that felt like a hook was dragging through her brain tortured her. She couldn’t do anything but scream in pain inwardly. She had been proud to be in a special area as only a few had mental attributes, but she never even thought that she would one day be trapped by another person’s mental power. Priya’s scream only lingered inside her.
“Then what shall we do with her? It seems like she took part in your camp.”
The Asian woman’s eyes turned back to Priya, and Priya was still shouting inside even then. There was only one name that came to mind. The name of the person that she thought was dead. Odin! She couldn’t believe he was still alive. Furthermore, she had met him here. In addition, the overwhelming power of the woman astonished her. Everything that had happened had gone beyond what was common sense.
At any rate, Priya was ready to kneel down and beg for her life as long as she was released from the restraint. But would that be possible? According to the stories, Odin never tolerated any challengers. Also, he never kept those who had the potential to defy or backstab him.
That was actually the right thing to do. If he pulled his punches and overlooked those, he would be the one suffering in the end. Humans were always like this. That was why Priya also didn’t leave any roots of any troublemakers.
But please.
Soon, the man she believed to be Odin stood in front of her. He took his eyes from Lee Tae-Han’s tired face and turned to her.
“Lee Tae-Han must have put in a lot of effort into you.”
Priya was hopeful that Odin would make an exception to his rule and spare her. The man exchanged a few words with the woman while his gaze remained cold. When the woman finally began to nod, Priya saw a gallow in her eyes. That wasn’t an illusion because the background started to change again.
No…
Srrrr-
People were scattered and disappeared like dust, and only darkness filled the space. Priya soon felt a rope hanging around her neck. While she was narrowly standing on the foothold, the rope that was tightly pulling her neck was already blocking her airway. The woman stood next to the scaffold where she could kick the foothold at any time. The more horrifying thing was that she could tell that the woman was raring to kick the foothold right away. Her voice was creepy too.
“Tell us the truth.”
The rope that was tightening her airway slightly loosened. Priya hurriedly exhaled a hot breath and blurted out, “As long as my mental control works, it doesn’t matter if Odin is alive or dead.”
Huh? Huh…?
Priya’s eyes shook. She only intended to keep that thought to herself, and it hadn’t been what she was trying to say at all. She immediately tried to make an excuse. Things started when the man nodded. The rope squeezed her throat as the woman kicked the foothold. The center of gravity slanted downward, and the weight of her entire body was carried on the rope. Then, the sound faded away.
“You got on the nerves of the wrong people.”
It was the Asian woman’s angry voice.
***
When I got out of the mental world, the first thing I saw was the girl’s eyes flipping upward. Then, she collapsed helplessly.
“Umm… Did you know her?” Yeon-Hee asked as she followed my gaze.
“Maybe.”
The woman was still alive as her eyes were blinking, but she seemed to have lost her will to do anything. While I looked into those eyes, I wondered if she could be the Second Evil because she was powerful enough to become a military commander in the Final Stage and had a mental attribute. Nothing much was known about the Second Evil, and there was little possibility that she would appear in this stage as Yeon-Hee had taken Isis’s Gaze. She would reappear only if Yeon-Hee died.
Anyway, if this woman was the Second Evil, then there were only ten that I hadn’t seen so far among the Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues. The First, Third, Fifth and Sixth Virtues, and Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Evils. All of them were somewhere in this land. I was especially curious about how the Sixth and Eighth Virtues would be as I had occupied their main skills. I also wondered if they were even alive as many things had changed from the past. If they were placed or in command of the top stages in Act Two, Stage One, then they would have died already.
At that time, Yeon-Hee’s eyes flickered.
“There is another guy over there. You know that, right?” she commented.
The girl’s companion was observing the situation from afar instead of making any particular movement. When I raised my Sense, my sight zoomed into his face at a breakneck speed, as if I was sprinting toward him. He was carefully calculating as he was aware that I was scrutinizing him. His eyes began to shift over our shoulders. While he was turning away, a group of Awakened was approaching quickly.
“Chida?”
I heard Orca’s voice from the black hood beside me. It was because of the incident that had happened before the girl became brain dead by Yeon-Hee’s attack. Yeon-Hee seemed to have touched the instinct of not only Orca but also the Kciphos. The area around Orca began to turn damp. The degree of contamination spread quickly, and bubbles burst in the mud. Meanwhile, the Kciphos was also ready to jump out of Yeon-Hee’s arms.
“Jonathan might not be there.”
She was concerned but determined. In her stage, the group’s leader had nothing to do with Revolucion even though her guild was named Revolucion. She meant that she would occupy the sixth camp immediately if they had no connection with the actual Jonathan Investment Finance Group.
My increased Sense quickly zoomed into the attack captain who was rushing toward us. Since the hair covering her forehead was fluttering in the wind, I could clearly see her face. In sharp comparison to Yeon-Hee, her tall and glamorous body matched my memory. She had been known by the code name Jin, and she was the Fifth Evil. The moment I recalled her, the powerful summoned object that always stood in her way came to my mind first.
I was worried about Jonathan’s whereabouts.
Whoosh-
I ran toward the Fifth Evil. The distance would have narrowed even if I stood still, but it was hard for me to wait. She might have obtained the summoned object like she did in the past, but I was ready and strong enough to strike her neck. I gnashed my teeth as I got closer to her.
“Jonathan Hunter… He must be alive.”
The short gap between what I said and the Fifth Evil’s response felt very long.
“I’m Olivia. Are you Odin?”
She had a polite attitude that I had never witnessed before. As soon as I said yes, I saw a halo behind her back.
“The master is waiting for you, my new master.”
Ha! Yes, of course. He was my best friend, so he wouldn’t have been so weak to be beaten up by her. Then, I sensed something narrowing the distance at a fast speed. It was a guy who was accompanied by a gust of wind wrapped in flames. It was within the distance where we could see each other.
- Sun… I have been waiting for you for so long.
The voice was as excited as the flames surrounding him, and heat started filling my heart from the deep corner.