Comet (3)
At first glance, Alencia was truly a being possessing a force akin to that of a god.
A Saintess.
A human endowed with the authority of a god.
Especially, Alencia, who held in her hands every possible potential electricity could possess, was perhaps the closest being to omnipotence in this world.
That is why, paradoxically, the power she could wield was surprisingly limited.
Whenever she exerted her abilities, the effect was so overwhelming that she had to limit herself to ranges where it would not affect everything indiscriminately.
More than anything, the woman named Alencia was, in the end, human.
Her experience and knowledge could never be called exceptional, and Kang Min-gi precisely exploited that weakness.
He mainly moved the battlefield to places with shelters, residential sectors where people were gathered.
Occasionally, he instigated battles in research labs or factories, or even at places like power plants, where a dangerous situation could easily occur.
And if their speed and strength were comparable, there weren't many measures Alencia could take.
She couldn't just discharge electricity at will, nor could she perform reckless acts like colliding at speeds beyond lightning.
'At best, this flinging of rebar like this is her limit.'
Of course, 'flinging' wasn't quite the right word.
A piece of rebar launched railgun-style could be powerful enough to cut a massive warship in half with a single shot.
In fact, the evidence was clear—a stray piece of rebar had pierced through a three-story building, leaving a round hole as it went, proving its threat.
"Leaving aside her abilities, her basic martial skills or techniques are sorely lacking."
Kwaang! Bang!!
Kang Min-gi's fists ceaselessly pummeled Alencia's body.
Alencia tried to block them with both her arms, but it was extremely difficult.
Her sturdy body was still holding up for now, but who knew how long that would last.
【Alencia!】
At that moment, a familiar voice echoed in her ear.
It was a sign that the person she'd called for help earlier had finally arrived.
'No, actually, she's still a little far?'
Thinking about it, considering how she'd flown from the center of Seoul all the way near Incheon, it made sense that help couldn't come immediately.
"Argh!!"
The moment her vision shook violently, a heavy impact sent Alencia's body crashing down to the middle of an asphalt road.
If there had been many cars around, it could have been a disaster, but fortunately, with the current situation, there were no people in sight.
'... This should be fine.'
Alencia stood up and emitted electromagnetic waves around her.
She sensed no other presence nearby.
The only thing in sight was the massive bridge leading to Yeongjong-do.
"Pretty leisurely, huh?"
As Alencia gazed at the bridge, Kang Min-gi suddenly appeared in her field of vision.
Appearing like a gale, he raised his foot toward Alencia's chin before she could regain her balance.
"That's my line, you know?"
Unlike before, when he'd tried to lead Alencia to places where she couldn't fully unleash her power, now there was nobody else around.
Completely adjusted to Alencia's speed, he'd judged there was no longer any need to distinguish locations to fight.
Wuuung!!
Just as Kang Min-gi's foot was about to connect with Alencia's, his movement came to an abrupt halt.
It was as if his body momentarily froze.
It lasted only an instant.
Not even a full second—a moment so brief that an ordinary person would not have registered it at all, yet to both Kang Min-gi and Alencia, it felt like an eternity.
'No way.'
Kang Min-gi realized his body was no longer moving as he wished and tried to assess what was wrong.
The electromagnetic waves Alencia had just released were partially interfering with his body.
The human body moves through electrical signals generated in the brain.
Alencia had used that to temporarily shut down all electrical signals in Kang Min-gi's body.
Had she made a mistake, he might have lost consciousness instead of just being paralyzed—or worse.
But almost at the exact moment the interference hit, Kang Min-gi shook it off.
KWA-A-AANG!!
"Kuh!!"
But the fact remained that his body had been halted, even for a moment.
A blue lightning flashed, and Alencia's body accelerated straight toward him.
She rammed into Kang Min-gi's hastily recovered body with all her might.
The impact was enough to nearly knock his consciousness out.
Had his body not been reinforced by 'Wishes', it would have been torn apart by that blow.
"Move!!"
Alencia thrust both hands forward, aiming at Kang Min-gi, who had flown up to the top of the Yeongjong Bridge.
Then, something unbelievable happened.
Ddeudeuk, ddeudeudeudeuk!!!
The massive Yeongjong Bridge shook as if an earthquake had struck, and the entire structure was lifted into the air.
Not just the rebar or bolts connected to the bridge—she literally wrenched the entire bridge up.
"Haa..."
As Kang Min-gi managed to recover, what he saw was the Yeongjong Bridge crashing down upon him.
It was a sight one could never accept as reality.
KWAANG!!!
The Yeongjong Bridge didn't just collide with Kang Min-gi's body.
At Alencia's gesture, the entire bridge compressed, crushing and folding up around Kang Min-gi's body piece by piece.
If only it ended there, but of course, it didn't.
Suspended in the air by powerful electromagnetic force was a gigantic ball made of concrete and rebar.
She pressed it down with even greater force, trying to crush the being inside, but it was impossible.
That being was simply much stronger than concrete or steel.
KWAGAGAGAK!!
"Amazing, truly amazing!!"
With an explosion, the sphere and its rebar scattered in all directions, and Kang Min-gi dropped toward Alencia.
Though his body was covered in wounds, grey smoke rose, and broken bones and torn skin healed in an instant.
"I've been waiting for a fight like this."
The Wishes and magic power flowing from his whole body—
The stronger Alencia's power grew, the more exhilarated Kang Min-gi became.
It was clear—only now, in this moment, could he actually defeat such an existence.
'Her output's lower than before.'
No matter how much electricity she drew from the whole US, that power clearly had its limits.
Perhaps it would recover over time, but the pure output of strength, Kang Min-gi was already surpassing it.
The Wishes concentrated within the demon lord now transcended any craving for 'electricity'.
"Come on, give it everything you've got. I'll take whatever you dish out."
The more forcefully she unleashed her power, the stronger Kang Min-gi became in turn.
With Alencia's attacks alone, he could not be killed.
"It's boring if you're passive. Anyway... if you won't come, then I'll take the initiative."
Alencia only kept wary, never launching an attack first.
Was her earlier move supposed to be her trump card?
It was incredible power for sure, but if that was all, it was a bit disappointing.
At the very least, he'd hoped she would attack with all her might, as when she felled Titan.
'If you don't want to...'
Then he'd just have to make her.
Thunk.
At first, it was just the sound of a light footstep.
Kang Min-gi's speed already surpassed Alencia's, but no lightning or flashes emitted around him.
On the contrary, there was no sound, nothing visible at all.
Transcending the laws of physics, there was only the phenomenon, not the process, manifested in reality.
Outpacing even lightning, he appeared before Alencia at nearly the speed of light.
Golden light gathered in his clenched fist.
Divine art, Immense Wishes.
An enormous, ultra-compressed force of life and soul.
'A simple attack can't destroy the Saintess's body.'
So he compressed, and compressed again.
He combined the overwhelming speed and strength gained from Alencia with the holy power granted by the demon lord.
'If you can't meet this head-on with all your might...'
You'll die.
Kang Min-gi was certain.
With this fist, he could thoroughly destroy and kill the Saintess's body.
This was the moment to kill a god.
'... Huh?'
His fist was launched at Alencia.
But Kang Min-gi sensed something off.
'What is this.'
Alencia, who had been standing right in front of him a moment ago, was gone.
More precisely, a completely different person was standing there.
Not Alencia, but Kang Min-gi himself.
'An illusion? No. This is...!'
A mirror.
As that thought flashed through his mind, he remembered.
The ice mirror that had appeared in the Odyssey, when fighting Sol Mayer, was just like this.
To Kang Min-gi, it didn't really matter who the user was.
'Ji Yeon-hwa.'
Though she bore the name Hwang Yeon-ji, Kang Min-gi had lost interest the moment he deduced her true identity as Ji Yeon-hwa.
No matter how strong she became as a demon, that was it.
He'd already known the extent of her talent.
As long as he avoided the mirror, she was nobody.
'But, Ji Yeon-hwa should be at Unique, right?'
Since when, and why.
Simultaneously puzzled, Kang Min-gi's fist struck the mirror.
【───!!】
A shattering sound rang out.
But it wasn't the mirror that broke—it was Kang Min-gi's own body.
The instant his fist hit the mirror, all the force rebounded, slamming into Kang Min-gi's body.
An arm was ripped off, and the Wishes-filled body took a heavy blow.
All the magic power and divinity shielding his body shattered into pieces.
"Pa... thetic."
This wasn't the fight he'd wanted.
He wanted a clash where both sides gave everything they had.
One eye could no longer see.
In his blurred vision, the cracked mirror spider-webbed out.
And there, the figure behind the mirror appeared.
"Ah-yeon unni said this—"
Emanating with a vast current, Alencia glowed blue.
"—That kind of line is usually reserved for the highest praise!"
He had no time to reconstruct his body, to concentrate the Wishes for defense.
No way left to reverse Alencia's explosively amplified power.
The world turned blue, and deafening thunder echoed at that very moment.
***
Several kilometers around blackened and turned to ash.
Yeon-ji sighed softly over Alencia, who had fallen facedown, half-buried in the ground from her own failed rush.
"That was close. What would I have done if I'd messed up!"
"Well, you did something similar once before, didn't you?"
Back in America, during the Challenger incident, Yeon-ji had teamed up with Alencia for a fight.
In some ways, this was a similar battle.
Even so, Yeon-ji thought the timing this time had been nothing short of a 'miracle'.
'If that guy had noticed me just a bit sooner—'
Of course, Yeon-ji had arrived right as Alencia was pinning Kang Min-gi beneath the Yeongjong Bridge.
He had grown so powerful he didn't even notice Yeon-ji's presence there.
'Thinking about it, it's kind of satisfying.'
Kang Min-gi had always tended to belittle Ji Yeon-hwa.
Perhaps he disapproved of how she'd grown strong using the ultimate magic stone.
But then, the very same Kang Min-gi had become strong by leeching off Alencia's power—so it was amusing.
"But wasn't that a bit late? I called you a while ago."
Alencia shakily stood, brushing the dirt from her clothes.
Yeon-ji might not be quite at Ah-yeon's level, but she was still an outstanding mage.
In fact, traveling this distance by magic was nothing at all to her.
"... I happened to be handling a few things a lot more important than this,"
Yeon-ji replied.
"Come on, that's an exaggeration."
"No, I mean it."
Yeon-ji raised a finger toward the sky.
There, almost just a speck now, a dark star floated.
No, at this point, 'dark star' barely fit.
It was nearly indistinguishable from the sun itself.
"I just killed Ivan Hunt."
Well, 'killed' wasn't quite accurate.
He'd chosen death himself, or something close to it.
He truly had wished for the birth of a god.
Through Damian, by dropping a comet.
'Park Jung-woo.'
The man who was now in that dark star.
The only human who could stop that comet.
Now, everything depended on him.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
7 chapters left.
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