Black Market Hunt (3)
A bizarre reverse eye that is rarely seen.
The moment she locked eyes with a red pupil shining like a ruby at its center, Miyat’s mind went completely blank.
‘···I’m going to die, I’m really going to die. If I don’t get my act together here···!’
She forcefully moved her stiff jaw and bit down hard on her own tongue.
An instinctive action she wasn’t even aware she had done.
The metallic taste of blood spread in her mouth, and at the same time, her hazy mind snapped back to reality.
Grrk!
Then, gripping the nape of the middle-aged man beside her, she leaped over the desk, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the unidentified being.
It might not mean much right now, but she had to do something to survive.
‘What is that? What the heck is that?’
But her mind had been overloaded with chaos long ago.
‘A demon? Is that a demon?’
Did demons even exist in this world?
Sabacheon, like Earth, was supposed to be a world where only humans existed.
There were stories related to demons, ghosts, and dragons, but she had heard they were just phenomena distorted by chakra.
‘But that thing···.’
She was out of breath.
Her instincts had been screaming at her for some time now.
She could intuitively sense that it was unrelated to chakra or practitioners.
That it was, in essence, an embodiment of unreasonable existence all on its own.
Yet, she couldn’t just sit and do nothing.
Miyat gritted her teeth, making sure not to meet the demon’s gaze and quickly scanned the area.
She needed to gather any information she could to survive.
“Oh? Not bad at all!”
Hela, who was watching Miyat’s actions with amusement, smiled and stroked her chin.
Even if her powers weren’t fully activated, her martial art moves were formidable enough on their own, along with the effects of “Beauty of Nations” and “Lord of Deception.”
Normally, anyone who encountered her would lose their senses entirely right away···.
Just like that man.
Hela glanced over at the middle-aged man who had been with Miyat.
Still dazed, he was swaying, wildly shaking his head from side to side.
Although he was jolted awake by an external force, he hadn’t completely escaped the effects of Hela’s influence that filled his mind.
Despite being a strong practitioner at a high level himself.
‘Perhaps the fact that he is of the opposite sex had some effect compared to Miyat.’
Nevertheless, Miyat’s swift response was commendable, even considering that.
It might just be a matter of heightened survival instinct.
“Hey, could you? I have a few requests···.”
A soft, melodic voice flowed from her red lips.
Upon hearing that voice, which made one’s mind feel hazy, both Miyat and the middle-aged man immediately bit their lips.
Seeing the blood trickling from their mouths, Hela playfully brought her fingertips together and tilted her head.
“Since our meeting is a fateful one, would you mind cooperating a little? It won’t be too hard. You just have to answer a few questions.”
It was an unusually sweet request, making one wonder if anyone could refuse it.
But reality was far more ruthless than she expected.
Jjeojjeoj—!
Hela, who had been smiling brightly, suddenly froze solid.
A harsh chill swept through the entire office, covering it in ice.
Sssaaa—
Followed by a thick darkness filling the surroundings.
The very concept of darkness manifested, burying the space like a black hole that swallowed all light.
Standing at the center was Miyat, who promptly made her escape.
‘Quick, quick···.’
Fighting until the end was madness.
Right now, she could still move while her opponent was caught off guard, but if she missed this chance, she might be unable to lift a finger.
‘Got it···!’
Her unique skill was “Shadow Harmony.”
It paired perfectly with the dark chakra and had previously helped her escape by piercing through the boundaries of Yoon Ga.
With the ability to move instantly to shadows dozens of kilometers away without leaving a trace…
“Uh?”
Miyat, who activated her unique skill with a triumphant smile, froze.
Her facial muscles twitched, distorting her expression grotesquely.
Cold sweat dripped down her neck.
“What are you doing? Hurry···!”
The middle-aged man, still gathering every bit of his remaining mental strength to manipulate the ice chakra, shouted, but she didn’t respond.
She simply slowly lifted her head, staring at a point straight ahead.
The spot where the demon had stood just moments ago.
The surroundings were enveloped in darkness, where not even an inch ahead could be seen, yet she could see as clearly as day due to the opened darkness chakra.
And thanks to that, she could see things vividly.
“······!”
Buried in transparent ice, a pair of gentle, swirling eyes.
With a warm smile, as if looking at a child’s antics.
[Were you perhaps expecting?]
The same enchanting voice pierced her ears.
The middle-aged man, who was incessantly urging Miyat, widened his eyes and turned to look.
Jjeojjeoj—
The ice trapping Hela cracked and shattered.
Simultaneously, the darkness that had filled the area melted away like cotton candy dissolving in water.
“Whoa! How is it? Were you a little thrilled? Did your heart race? Surprised, weren’t you?”
What remained was only the office, thickly covered in frost.
Aside from that, nothing had changed since the beginning.
Even her body, surrounded by ice, didn’t have a single drop of water on it, making her wonder if it had all been a dream.
“How··· no, since when···.”
Miyat struggled to speak.
She had clearly activated her unique skill.
But the result was failure.
The reason was simple.
‘Everything in this area had already been under the demon’s control.’
The darkness that should have supported “Shadow Harmony” was now entirely under another being’s control, so there was no way she could do anything now.
To find out that the darkness she summoned was not hers.
And to realize that fact without noticing until just a moment ago.
It was ridiculously absurd, leaving only a hollow laugh, but given the current situation, what could she say?
As she thought back, despite such a commotion, she hadn’t felt any presence from outside.
‘Maybe I’m already enchanted and seeing illusions.’
It was then that she realized for sure.
The opponent hadn’t been lax and left them unattended.
“Since when, you ask? Well, obviously···.”
Hela tilted her head as she answered Miyat’s question with a sweet smile.
Then she slowly approached the frozen Miyat and gently lifted her chin with a finger, softly replying.
“From the very beginning?”
Regardless of anything else, Hela was the Demon King, known for her notoriously bad temper among the demons.
To her, this was merely a light joke.
“Now that we’ve had our fun and built some bonds, shall we move on to the main topic? You two will help, right?”
Hela looked around at the two standing before her.
As “Seven-colored Eye” activated, each of her eyes emitted different colors of light.
The red eye of domination and the green eye of the mind.
Miyat felt all the strength drain from her body and stared blankly at it with a dazed mind.
‘Ah···.’
She had no means left to resist, nor the will to do so.
For practitioners who valued inner cultivation, Demon King Hela was a calamity that gnawed away at their very existence.
Had it not been for that ‘joke,’ this wouldn’t have dragged on for so long.
‘It’s so beautiful that I want to fall in deeper···.’
A pair of jewel-like lights shining through the darkness.
Miyat was drawn to those lights and sank deeper into her own inner depths.
*
Choosing Hela to send to Sabacheon was a decision made after considering various reasons.
‘Above all, her abilities are optimized for dealing with chakra practitioners.’
In a different sense than Hoon, it could be seen as a counter.
While his “Thought Overload” was an extreme attack tendency that was either all or nothing, Hela could adjust everything to some extent.
‘And she is the true owner of the eye used to examine Anton’s mental state.’
And the results of that choice could be confirmed in real-time.
In a very satisfying form.
“Here’s some warm tea.”
“···Is there anything else you would like, Lady Hela?”
Hela, sitting on the sofa in the office, sipped the tea Miyat poured and closed her eyes peacefully.
Beside her was the office’s owner, the middle-aged man··· Pilat, a high-ranking official of the Cheonghae Kingdom, standing politely and sharing all the information he had.
“···Hmm, the Prime Minister, huh? So he’s your superior and the overall head of this area?”
“That is correct. I directly handle affairs under the busy Prime Minister.”
“Then what about the Emperor of Cheonghae Kingdom? Is the Emperor aware of this fact?”
As expected, a kind of taboo seemed to have been imposed on Pilat’s mind, perhaps for security reasons.
In a normal case, even if he were subdued, things wouldn’t have been resolved so easily.
But there was one variable.
Hela was a being that was at the opposite end of the word ‘normal.’
“For now, the young Emperor is being regent by the Prime Minister. In effect, the Prime Minister holds most of the actual power.”
“Ah, I think I’ve heard of that. But didn’t they say the coming of age was near?”
“Because of that, we may be rushing things a bit. Just in case the Emperor does something unnecessary and mess up the carefully prepared plans.”
Just like in any other world, it seemed the political scene here was a bit chaotic.
In that sense, it wasn’t surprising why the Prime Minister desired war.
‘What’s the use of that power···.’
Hela clicked her tongue, the omnipotent ruler of the demon realm, and drank the remaining tea in one go.
Then she stood up and patted Pilat on the back.
“Thanks to you, I’ve grasped the general situation. You explain well, probably because you’ve been in the government.”
“Ah, it’s an honor! If there’s anything else you wish for, please···.”
“Yeah, right. So, lead the way.”
Hela cut him off as if she had been waiting for his words, revealing her stunningly white teeth.
“To that Prime Minister guy.”
Where they were now was not far from the Imperial Palace.
Considering the convenience of entering the palace for work, that made perfect sense.
Now that they were this close, there was no need to go back.
‘If I want to finish this quickly, I can’t waste time here.’
The mastermind behind this act was not just the Prime Minister of Cheonghae Kingdom.
Within the Hongsan Kingdom and among mage practitioners, there were leaders comparable to him, and there was also the overarching shadowy figure known as ‘That Person’ who brought them all together.
She intended to capture the Prime Minister and then catch all the others by the tails.
“···I apologize for bringing this up, but the Prime Minister is currently remaining deep within the Imperial Palace. Unless something quite significant occurs, he hasn’t come out in a while. With numerous subordinates, it’s impossible to lure him out with false reports.”
In other words, it meant she would have to delve deep into the palace of a country where a powerful emperor resided to meet him.
Of course, the security of a palace where an emperor ruling half the continent lived would not be lax.
No matter how formidable Hela could be, she wouldn’t be able to avoid being detected at least once.
“Yeah, so what?”
“Yes?”
Such circumstances were no concern of Hela’s.
“Lead the way.”
“···Yes.”
After all, no one in this world could stand in her way.
*
Hela’s visit to the Imperial Palace began quietly.
She was merely following behind Pilat, who had the access rights, but no one in the palace could recognize her concealed presence, even in such a prominent place.
The two crossed the inner palace, where the Prime Minister resided, with great ease.
‘This is going smoother than I thought!’
But things rarely go as planned in life.
The enhanced barriers and the elevated level of guards arrived successfully in sensing the unease.
“Here!”
“Stop! Resistance will result in immediate execution!”
The guards, with fierce glints in their eyes, blocked Pilat’s way.
They were elite troops, including several high-ranking practitioners recognized even in Yoon Ga, along with deep-level practitioners.
···However, Hela’s response to those who blocked her path had already been decided.
Sighing as she watched the extras collapse onto the ground, sputtering, Hela said.
“I guess we’ve been discovered, so let’s speed things up. It’s more troublesome to get noisy and lose the target.”
“Understood, Lady Hela.”
Pilat nodded and raised his chakra, sprinting at high speed.
Though they were discovered, it was a testament to how long they had held out, and the remaining distance wasn’t very far.
Whiiiiing—!
But once the position had been exposed, interruptions were inevitable.
By this point, those on the other side desperately rushed in to grab their ankles.
Among them was···.
“How dare you intrude into the Blue Dragon Palace where His Majesty resides! You’ve got some guts! Reveal your identity at once!”
An ancient practitioner who had achieved transcendence.
Hela couldn’t help but smirk as she gazed at the old man looking straight at her, unlike those who had come before.
“Ugh, it seems I’m not cut out for stealth.”
While it didn’t seem like the right thing to say after successfully sneaking into the inner palace, she said it sincerely.
If it were Heinz II, he would have already snatched the Prime Minister and slipped away unnoticed.
“Well, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.”
Perhaps it was even more impressive that she had made it this far with all the magic spilling out of her.
Shrugging lightly, she slowly scanned her surroundings.
Her target was already in sight.
At this point, even if he tried to escape, she could catch up in no time.
“I wasn’t planning this, but···.”
“Kill the intruders!”
“Attack!”
As she licked her lips, the membrane-like wings sprouted from Hela’s back.
At the same time, the surrounding scenery began to be engulfed in a wasteland.
“Don’t worry, I’ll try not to hurt you too much.”
Infernal magic exploded in the middle of the Imperial Palace of the Cheonghae Kingdom.
A thick abyss far beyond any mage practitioner began to consume the entire world, as if threatening to swallow everything whole.
“But if it hurts, it can’t be helped.”
Standing right before her was the manifestation of great evil.
The face of the guards became ghostly pale as they faced the monstrous being.
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