Transformation or Death

Severed Traces (4)

“Hahaha! This is really amazing!”

“That idiot! Is he laughing at a time like this?” 

Even amidst the thunderbolts striking here and there, Jason laughed without any tension.

Gemini shuddered in fright. But faster than that, a streak of lightning chased after her.

“Damn it…!”

Was this Zeus’s descent? He felt like a scene from a myth was being re-enacted in reality. 

What rushed into his sight was, literally, lightning. Lightning in the form of a human. Its entire body was enveloped in white lightning, making its exact shape indiscernible. 

Just looking at it seemed to scorch one’s eyes.

Overwhelming. 

That’s the only word that came to mind.

Even Gemini, who had always maintained a cynical attitude, had to let go of that attitude in the face of such a vast power.

The lightning that felt like divine punishment reached her.

“Kukuk, that’s right!”

The lightning wielded lightning. Its shape looked like an axe.

“Cutting off a neck is nothing much for an ignorant fool like you!”

Gemini shouted toward the sky. Not lifting her head up, but her head was being lifted up.

Even before she could finish speaking, her neck was severed and flew into the sky. From the detached neck hole, words she couldn’t finish spilled out.

The neck that was looking up at the sky was now looking down at the ground.

Thud.

The sound came after.

All of his actions had a tail. Lightning and sound.

Like the trail of a shooting star, a long and hazy trail of light followed, and an intense, mechanical thunderous sound remained where that trail of light had passed.

The executioner who severed the necks of the two villains went on to find the next villain.

Kwaggwakwang! 

Leaving behind a thunderous sound that could tear one’s eardrums.

“This is exhilarating!”

Jason laughed as if he was excited. He raised his voice as loud as he could so it wouldn’t be drowned out by the thunderous sound.

Kwagwang! Kwagwang! Kwaggwakwang!

Lightning struck down repeatedly. The axe wrapped in lightning shook the darkness.

Light flickered rapidly in the shape of white roots, and with each flicker, shattered fragments flew into the sky.

“Looks like he’s really angry. I understand. It’s my fault. So… wow! Now… woohoo! Let out that… rage… whoa! It never ends!”

The leisure in Jason’s voice gradually began to disappear. His hand spinning the boat’s rudder became increasingly frantic.

An ability to cause disorientation to any being. The axe’s strikes and the lightning lost their way and struck wherever they wandered.

But every ability has its limits. As an ordinary being with just three stars, Jason couldn’t sustain his ability for long.

For a villain, the number of stars can be likened to physical strength, and the brightness of the starlight can be likened to stamina.

How much power they can exert at once, and how long they can maintain that power. This varies depending on the stars they possess.

If they have many stars, they can exert a lot of power at once, but if the individual brightness of those stars is weak, they struggle to sustain that power.

Conversely, if the individual brightness of the stars is strong, it’s easy to sustain the power itself, but if they don’t have many stars, they can’t exert a lot of power at once.

This applies equally to the use of their abilities.

In Jason’s case, both the number and brightness of his stars were on the weaker side. There was a limit to the targets he could disorient at once, and it was also difficult to sustain that effect.

“Hahaha! This is what romance is all about! It feels like being a sailor voyaging through a storm at sea!”

Still, Jason didn’t lose his excitement.

“If your friend is angry, how about trying to laugh it off first?”

Jason’s words were ignored. The other continued to wield violence savagely, and mechanically repeated that act.

It was the appearance of a machine carrying out its task without any emotion.

“Hmm… Looks like he’s really angry. Not speaking at all. Ah, that’s right, friend.”

With one hand, he frantically spun the boat’s rudder, and with the other, he pointed his finger behind him.

“Watch your back.”

Hwaaak! Enormous sky-blue wings opened like jaws and engulfed him.

“Severing my neck without hesitation!! As expected, you must have thought of me as a mere talking animal!!! Livestock whose neck can be cut off without issue!!!”

The owner of the wings was connected to the severed neck corpse. From the trace of the severed neck, a new life was born.

Just as Pegasus was born from Medusa’s neck, now another Pegasus was born from Pegasus’s neck.

Its appearance could never be called beautiful.

A horse’s head with wings directly attached. Moreover, that horse’s head was enraged, its veins hideously protruding. Veins squirming like worms, contrasted against wings with beautiful feather patterns.

Its size was also considerable. The head was as big as a house, and the wings were as large as a decent-sized tree.

Two pairs of wings attached to an enraged horse’s head. At this bizarre and surreal scene, Jason’s mouth fell open.

“Uh… Uh….”

As soon as his body was caught, without the slightest hesitation, he spouted lightning in all directions. Pegasus quickly spread its wings and retreated.

The air vibrated centered around Pegasus’s wings. It honed the air like charcoal, and soon the wind was sharpened like a blade.

“That immorality of judging others by their appearance!!! It is unforgivable!!!”

Soon, the sharpened blades of wind rushed toward him. The sound of cracking whips resounded endlessly.

Wherever the wind touched, clouds of dust formed.

Without panicking, he jumped high into the sky.

Pegasus’s ability of rebirth, wind manipulation, free flight.

He was already aware of all these facts from the original work.

Since he already knew the information that Pegasus would be reborn after having its neck severed, there was no need to be surprised.

He also knew that this reborn body possessed strength incomparable to its previous body. Especially the wind blades and the way it charged while enveloping itself in that wind were threatening. He knew.

Even now, having lost his emotions due to the power of Ursa Major, he didn’t quite forget those facts.

He readjusted his grip on the axe handle and concentrated the lightning on the axe blade. At this point, it looked more like a massive energy mass than an axe.

“How foolish of you to ascend to the sky by yourself! That is my domain!”

Pegasus changed the angle of its head, preparing to charge. Sharp winds like spears gathered at its head. 

Bang! It leapt up like a artillery shell and flew towards him. An intense speed and force that seemed like it would tear his body to shreds on impact.

If it doesn’t hit, that’s the end of it. 

He didn’t panic and met Pegasus’s gaze, then swung his axe.

There was no particular technique. He simply moved the blade calmly and emotionlessly like a professional executioner.

That was enough.

He briefly shifted his gaze to look below. As expected, what should have just died was still moving.

“Dodge it!”

He shouted desperately but it was already too late. There was no need to even look.

The axe blade struck precisely where it needed to, unleashing lightning.

Kwa-jik! Kwa-gwang!

Again, the sound came late. An intense thunder roared as if tearing the sky and the two villains fell simultaneously.

“Damn it! I told you to dodge! You idiots! Why are there so many idiots in this world?!”

Gemini ran furiously towards where the two had fallen. The headless corpse from earlier still existed behind him.

Physical replication. This was Gemini’s ability. Using this, Gemini replicated her body in advance and replaced it whenever her current one became useless.

“Aaaaahh!! My eyes!!! My eyes!!!” 

Pegasus screeched, flying around erratically. Half of its face had melted away. Its right eye was grotesquely split open and the feathers around it had been burned to a mess.

“Kukku, yeah that’s about right to make it worth fighting.”

Gemini let out a small mocking laugh.

The one who fell with Pegasus had no injuries. Without any sign of being fazed, he simply stared at Pegasus.

When Gemini threw a punch, he dodged it with just a small tilt of his head.

“You bastards over there! This guy’s weakness is simple!”

The sound of his punches was quite threatening. Fists that could easily dent the armor of a villain. Most weapons would become mere toys before these fists.

Unlike his small boyish frame, his main weapon was hand-to-hand combat. His starlight-clad body freely drew lines in the world, and along those trajectories hung a thick stench of slaughter.

“It’s time, time! Just like that dimwit Virgo!”

Punches rained down like a meteor shower. Bang! Bang! Kwa-gwang! Even just colliding with empty space, they caused tremors like rocks being struck down. Swiftly and precisely, they split lightning before his eyes.

“Kukku, this guy is wasting starlight right now, isn’t he? We just have to stall and it’ll dissipate on its own. We’ll win!”

Gemini laughed deeply. The body she is using now contained more stars than her other bodies.

Even if she could replicate her physical body, she couldn’t replicate her soul, so she needed to imbue stars into one body in order to control it.

Therefore, Gemini’s usual state wasn’t her full power. It was just a lightly operated body.

But now was different. The stars she possessed now had a different output than what she usually used.

“Look at him cloaking himself in lightning he doesn’t even use! The power is impressive but the waste is excessive. Ah, was it just for show? That’s idiotic in its own way.”

Gemini was convinced. 

‘About 3 more minutes and the tide will turn in my favor.’

The more he threw punches, the more he felt it. The blaze was gradually weakening. It was clearly because the waste had been severe from the moment that form appeared.

While Pegasus had sustained some injuries from its idiotic charge, it was still an effective force.

Gemini herself was completely uninjured as well.

Thanks to Jason stalling for a good amount of time, the starlight was now noticeably weaker compared to when he first faced it.

Just a little more. A little more and this light would go out.

And in one moment, an opening appeared.

“Kukku, what a waste of that great power. You have to use it efficiently. Starlight like this…”

The starlight around Gemini’s fist became more refined. Like calculating the firepower and angle before firing a missile, he sent the perfect amount of force to the perfect position.  

His fist was then empowered with the ability of replication, becoming two, then three fists. A single trajectory had instantly become three orbits.

“Precisely. Use it.”

It didn’t end with one. Like the earlier meteor shower of punches, all these fists gained the replication power, splitting into dozens of trajectories.  

A rain of fists poured down, leaving no room to escape.

[Set.. A Rain That Strikes All the Stars] (Manseonggeugu)

There was no chance to dodge. The only options left were to block or take it directly.  

Both were fatal for him now. If he unleashed starlight to block, he’d waste even more starlight. And if he took it directly, the impact would be quite severe. He could very well die on the spot.

The threat didn’t end with just Gemini.  

“Foul villain, thou shalt be punished!!!”

Somehow having moved behind him, Pegasus began another charge. 

He was caught in a lethal dilemma with no way out. He would simply be crushed to death.

Its lightning-fast movement was quite threatening, but useless now. It was already too late to start evading. No matter where he moved, some part of his body would definitely be blown off.

At that moment, victory was assured on this side. 

Gemini let out a grating laugh. This was an existence that would be disposed of eventually anyway. She had created it herself, but felt no regret in discarding it.

‘Next time I’ll listen to that amnesiac’s words.’

Just before the meteor shower of fists and Pegasus’s spear-like charge of wind struck him,

He swung his axe.

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