This Hunter Punishes with Telekinesis – Chapter 229

Chapter 229: The Essence of Power (2)

Pow!

Sa-hyeok’s fist smashed into Virshis’s jaw.

Virshis didn’t dodge, taking the punch head-on.

And didn’t even flinch.

“Uh……?”

Sa-hyeok was bewildered.

His right fist, capable of shattering even stone walls like pebbles, was effortlessly endured by the creature.

Virshis spoke.

“Pitiful.”

“What?”

“To possess such immense power, yet to use it like garbage due to your lack of understanding.”

“……?!”

Thud.

This time, Virshis’s fist grazed Sa-hyeok’s abdomen.

A fist barely dodged in the nick of time.

But the damage was immense.

“Ugh……!”

“The moment you stood before me, your defeat was inevitable.”

“Bullshit……!”

“I am the aggregate of the emotions of all sentient beings who perceive me. Do you think you can overcome the weight of that immense emotion?”

Swish!

The creature’s fist grazed Sa-hyeok’s cheek this time.

Sa-hyeok barely managed to dodge the attack by pushing his Telekinetic Detection to its limits.

The creature spoke.

“You will die here today.”

“Shut up……!”

“I will not devour you.”

“……?”

“Instead, I will toss your defiled corpse to those outside. They will then remember my power and cultivate fear towards me, making me even stronger.”

“You……!”

“Do not resist.”

Wham!

Thud!

Virshis’s fists relentlessly pounded Sa-hyeok.

The more he was hit, the more desperately Sa-hyeok deployed his Telekinetic Detection.

He had to somehow read the creature’s movements and dodge.

He had to read everything, to devise a strategy to eliminate the creature.

‘Read it.’

Read everything about the creature, everything about this place.

Even the strongest enemy has a weakness.

Sa-hyeok increased the density of his emitted telekinetic waves to the limit, pushing his detection to the extreme.

Then, at some point.

Click.

His raging telekinesis crossed a certain threshold.

And he felt it.

Everything surrounding him.

Virshis, the ground beneath his feet, and the darkness enveloping him.

‘……What is this?’

It was strange.

Why could he ‘feel’ the darkness?

Darkness is merely the absence of light, therefore it has no physical form.

Therefore, he shouldn’t be able to feel darkness with Telekinetic Detection.

But then why……

‘Why can I feel the darkness?!’

No, what is this feeling in the first place?

What am I detecting?

What ‘aspect’ of darkness am I feeling right now?

This is……

‘Ah.’

At that moment, Sa-hyeok recalled the time he first awakened his telekinesis.

The power to move objects without touching them.

So he simply called it Telekinesis.

No one told him it was Telekinesis, nor did this power call itself Telekinesis.

‘Telekinesis’ was just a name Sa-hyeok conveniently gave it.

Reaching this point in his thoughts, Sa-hyeok was stunned.

What if the true nature of his power wasn’t Telekinesis?

What if it wasn’t simply the power to grasp and manipulate objects?

What if he had misunderstood this power all along?

Even Virshis had said it just moments ago.

That Sa-hyeok ‘misunderstood’ his own power.

“What…… what is this power I possess?”

Sa-hyeok pondered.

What is Telekinesis?

What is the true nature of this ‘power’ that I possess?

Moving objects without touching them is just the basics.

The power to interfere with solids and liquids, molecules and energy, spirits and even space.

If this power isn’t Telekinesis, then what is it……

‘Essence.’

The word ‘Essence’ unconsciously flashed through his mind.

‘Perhaps I’m not sensing the darkness itself, but the essence of darkness?’

Whoosh-

Sa-hyeok grasped the darkness with his telekinesis.

And pushed it aside.

The darkness that had been covering his vision like a black curtain was erased with his gesture.

“……Huh?”

Sa-hyeok’s eyes widened.

He hadn’t simply touched a physical entity with his telekinesis, but had manipulated the concept, or essence, of darkness itself.

Accessing and manipulating the essence.

That was the true nature of the power he had been calling Telekinesis.

“……Ah.”

So this was it.

The power he possessed.

Bzzzt-

Sa-hyeok began to read Virshis, the creature’s essence, with his telekinesis.

As his essence began to be read thoroughly, the creature couldn’t hide its bewilderment.

“You……!”

“You call yourself ‘Fear’?”

Sa-hyeok smirked and said,

“How pathetically weak ‘Fear’ is.”

“Shut up!!”

Virshis punched Sa-hyeok in the face.

Sa-hyeok didn’t dodge, and the fist landed squarely on his face.

But nothing happened.

Sa-hyeok didn’t even budge.

“Fear is infinitely large when unseen, but infinitely small when overcome.”

“You……!”

“Kneel.”

Thud!

Virshis knelt before Sa-hyeok.

The being of fear that had terrified the Karamde people and devoured countless planets bowed its head powerlessly.

Before the ‘Human God’ who had fully realized his power, the creature was nothing more than a fragment of emotion.

“Now, reveal your true form.”

“N-No……!”

Whoosh!

The darkness that had enveloped the area began to dissipate.

Everything was revealed in broad daylight.

At the same time, Virshis’s true form, incredibly gaunt and diminutive, was revealed.

“Kyaaagh……!”

“I’m not afraid of you anymore.”

Sa-hyeok approached Virshis without hesitation.

Virshis felt it.

Sa-hyeok’s power growing infinitely.

The creature saw the golden rings that had appeared behind Sa-hyeok’s head.

There had been seven rings just moments ago.

But now there were eight, nine, ten, eleven……

The circles continued to expand like concentric circles.

And then-

Shatter!

Sa-hyeok’s circles shattered and scattered.

The law of Circles could no longer contain Sa-hyeok’s power.

At the same time, the darkness in this space was completely swept away without a trace.

Having lost its darkness, Virshis began to shrink endlessly.

Arms into shoulders, legs into pelvis.

It began to shrink and crumple pathetically, coalescing into a single point.

And so-

Roll.

The creature shrunk into a small black bead.

Sa-hyeok picked up Virshis.

“You will no longer be able to harm anyone.”

“……!”

“Of course, you will grow stronger as humanity’s fear and passion intensify. But no matter how strong you become, you won’t be able to do anything as long as you’re in my hand.”

“Ugh……!”

“And what is Virshis, Virshis? It’s too grand a name for you. You are……”

Sa-hyeok rolled the creature in his palm and said,

“Your name is now ‘Ddal-lang-i’ (Little Bell).”

Thus, the subjugation of Virshis came to an end.

══════════════════

Outside the Central Region.

The Outer Region of Virshis’s domain.

Where two aerial warships were floating.

The battle was still raging there.

“Attack!”

“Damn it……!”

“These damn monsters, how long are they going to keep swarming us……!”

Monsters still swarming, hunters and Gravediggers killing them over and over again.

The reason they stayed here and continued to fight was simple.

They had to wait for Sa-hyeok.

The framework of this operation was to kill Virshis, rescue Sa-hyeok, and escape.

“When is Min Sa-hyeok coming out……!”

“Hold on! If Hunter Min Sa-hyeok fails, we’re all dead whether we’re here or out there!!”

At that moment.

Whoosh-

The flying monsters all fell at once.

Thud-

The fallen monsters were all sprawled on the ground.

One, two, ten, a hundred.

Some were struggling to hold on, but the vast majority of the monsters had fallen dead.

That wasn’t the end.

Bzzzt-

The giant eyes that had filled the surface of the Outer Region began to close one by one.

The hunters and Gravediggers were momentarily stunned.

Sudden peace.

The hunters and Gravediggers soon realized what this scene meant.

A hunter muttered,

“……He killed it.”

The Gravediggers also murmured,

“……He actually killed it.”

Min Sa-hyeok killed Virshis.

And everyone thought the same thing.

“He killed it!”

“Min Sa-hyeok has defeated Virshis!!”

“This madman actually ended the war!!”

The Gravediggers’ reaction was a bit calmer, but fundamentally the same.

“……He actually killed Virshis.”

“So was Akhir right?”

“Let’s put aside the story of that traitor for now.”

Thus, Earth avoided destruction, and Karamde lost its reason to throw other planets to Virshis as prey.

The best ending for everyone.

And the protagonist of this happy ending was flying in from beyond the horizon.

Whoosh-

Sa-hyeok landed on the deck of Warship No. 1.

The hunter closest to Sa-hyeok, Enrique Bruno, asked nervously,

“……Did you kill it?”

“Yes, I did.”

Strictly speaking, he didn’t kill Virshis.

Virshis was now pathetically shrunken, stuck inside Sa-hyeok’s pocket.

But the Virshis that the Gravediggers and hunters feared was as good as dead.

The insurmountable fear, the inevitable destruction that was Virshis, was truly dead and gone.

That’s why Sa-hyeok could say with conviction.

Virshis is dead.

Hearing those words, joy began to spread across Bruno’s face.

“Virshis is dead!”

“What?!”

“Hunter Min Sa-hyeok killed Virshis!!”

All the hunters flocked to Sa-hyeok.

“Waaaaaaaaaah!!”

“Min Sa-hyeok! Min Sa-hyeok!”

Cheers and excitement erupted towards Sa-hyeok.

Those who hugged each other in joy, those who chanted Sa-hyeok’s name.

The deck became a festive atmosphere.

The captain, watching from the bridge, spoke through the broadcast.

“Attention all hunters! Please come inside the warship! We will be leaving this place quickly!!”

Hearing the broadcast, the hunters and Sa-hyeok entered the warship.

The Gravediggers also entered their own warship.

Anyway, Sa-hyeok, who entered the warship, was faced with a barrage of questions.

What was the Central Region like, what was the true nature of Virshis, what kind of being was it, how did you eliminate it, and so on.

But Sa-hyeok didn’t answer those questions properly.

He only said one thing for sure.

“I’ll tell you just one thing for now. I killed Virshis. I’ll tell you the rest when we get back.”

The barrage of questions subsided at those words.

Virshis is dead, this one fact was enough for them.

“Then I’ll take a break.”

“Hunter Min Sa-hyeok says he needs a break! Please make way!!”

Shove!

Like the parting of the Red Sea, the hunters split to either side.

Sa-hyeok walked through the lined-up hunters, amidst the numerous cheers.

And he entered his private room inside the warship.

A room of about one pyeong (3.3 sq meters) prepared just for Sa-hyeok.

A room specially assigned for Sa-hyeok, who was practically the commander of this operation.

Sa-hyeok stared at the chair placed in the corner of the room.

A hard and uncomfortable metal chair.

But as Sa-hyeok stared at it, the chair slowly transformed into a soft, comfortable armchair.

He had manipulated its properties by touching its essence.

[No way, seriously. You can do this now?]

Bang-ul-i, who had descended at some point, spoke from behind him.

“Yeah. I think I can even manipulate reality now.”

[Oh my god.]

Sa-hyeok sat down on the armchair and took out a black bead from his pocket, saying,

“Say hello, this is Ddal-lang-i (Little Bell).”

[Little Bell……?]

“Its previous name was Virshis.”

[What?!]

Bang-ul-i’s eyes widened.

[Are you crazy?! Why didn’t you kill it and keep it?!]

“I can’t kill this until I wipe out all the intelligent life in the universe. It’s a creature formed from the aggregation of fear and passion. Shrinking it like this is the best I can do.”

[Uh…… but it’s completely lost its power, right?]

“No.”

[What?!]

“Don’t worry. As long as I’m alive, it won’t be able to use its power properly.”

With those words, Sa-hyeok took off his helmet and drank the Mandrake Bile.

[Then it’s really all over now, right, hyung-nim?]

“Over?”

Sa-hyeok’s expression suddenly hardened.

“……It’s not over yet, Bang-ul-i.”