Chapter 25
Mason froze in place.
“Uncle…”
There were so many things he wanted to say, so many things he wanted to hear. All those words choked his throat, leaving him with only a single, strained sentence.
“You’re safe.”
“Yes, I am.”
Robert, as always, exuded a gentle dignity. He looked every bit the head of the Council of Sages, a man who had lived for over 400 years.
He smiled at Mason.
“You must have been through a lot.”
“Yes.”
Mason nodded.
“I couldn’t save everyone.”
Fighting monsters didn’t tire him. It was something he had to do, something he wanted to do. The line between life and death was so clear, it almost brought him a sense of relief.
But people… Protecting people was a completely different matter.
“People’s lives… they slip through my fingers.”
No matter how well he fought, he couldn’t protect everyone. Not only could Mason not be everywhere at once, but even where he was, people died.
Even with his best efforts and achieving the best possible outcome, people still died.
It was agonizing.
“Even if I do my best, there are so many things I can’t do.”
“It must have been hard.”
Robert said quietly.
“Rest now. Close your eyes and relax…”
“No, I can’t.”
Mason said.
“I have to fight the monsters.”
“Others will fight for you.”
“There are too many monsters. I have to fight.”
Mason looked at Robert.
“No, Uncle, you have to fight.”
“…”
“Lend me your power. You must have hundreds, thousands of ways to get rid of the monsters in this land. Create nanomachines that can exterminate them. Create sound waves that will disintegrate them.”
“Rest, Mason. You need to rest.”
Robert repeated the same words.
Frustrated, Mason reached out.
“Uncle!”
Clank.
At that moment, Mason felt something snag.
Robert was blurring, and a familiar landscape was overlapping.
A strange pressure enveloped his entire body.
Only then did Mason realize.
“Hallucination…”
The strangely strong forest scent must have been hallucinogenic gas. His senses were returning because the smart cells within him were counteracting it.
Even before he fully realized it was a hallucination…
Mason looked at Robert, who was fading away.
“I… I was dreaming…”
Mason closed his eyes. And when he opened them, he was standing in the middle of a forest.
Entangled in vines…
“Hmph!”
Bang!
As Mason tensed his body, the wooden vines exploded. They were tree roots that had sprung up from the ground beneath his feet.
If he hadn’t woken up from the hallucination, he would have withered and become nourishment.
Scattered, dried-up skeletons all around him proved his assumption.
Mason looked around.
And he found another cocoon made of tree roots.
“Seo Yeonhee…”
๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑
Seo Yeonhee looked at Sebastian.
He was smiling his usual sun-like smile.
“How have you been?”
“No, I haven’t been well.”
Seo Yeonhee felt tears streaming down her cheeks. Her shocked heart could only feel a dull ache, yet her body was honestly rejoicing at the reunion.
“Why?”
“Because I had to avenge you.”
“Why would you want revenge?”
Sebastian said in a scolding tone.
“You don’t need to live so hard anymore. Let’s rest, us.”
His voice was as sweet as ever. When they had tea at the cafe, when they went shopping together, and… when she lay with her head on his arm.
Just listening to it brought her comfort and a smile to her face.
Ah, I like this person. I really like him.
It was a voice that made her realize that fact.
Even when she was angry, upset, or annoyed, it melted away like snow in summer, along with his sun-like smile.
He opened his arms and embraced Seo Yeonhee.
“Yeonhee, you can rest now. I’m here with you.”
Embraced by his strong arms, Seo Yeonhee leaned her head against his chest without realizing it.
“If only this could last forever…”
“It can last forever.”
“No, it can’t.”
Seo Yeonhee sobbed with her face buried in his chest.
“I have to get revenge.”
“Why do you want revenge?”
“Because… you’re dead.”
The last tear rolled down Seo Yeonhee’s tightly closed eyes.
“You’re dead, and I’m hallucinating.”
And the next moment.
Thud!
Her two daggers pierced Sebastian’s sides.
“If finding happiness in a fantasy hinders your revenge… I’d rather wake up from the dream.”
Sebastian’s face contorted in pain. But Seo Yeonhee, without hesitation, plunged the two daggers into Sebastian’s throat.
At that moment, Seo Yeonhee opened her eyes.
The last teardrop that had trailed down her cheek fell from her chin.
She was entangled in plant stems.
Cold, burning rage filled her chest. Seo Yeonhee gripped her daggers in reverse and scraped them across her body.
The sharp daggers severed the plant stems, and she quickly regained her freedom.
“Mr. Mason!”
“Hmm!”
Both seasoned veterans, Mason and Seo Yeonhee stood back to back.
Wriggle, wriggle.
Plant stems were rising from beneath their feet. They were trying to wrap around their ankles and climb up their limbs.
“The enemy… seems to be underground.”
Whether it was a variant of a Treant or something else, the enemy was underground.
“Haap!”
Seo Yeonhee danced her daggers, fending off the stems trying to ensnare her.
Mason, armed with his two-handed blunt weapon, had no way to cut the light and flexible stems. Instead, he let them bind him and then tore them off with brute force.
However, they soon realized.
“It’s endless.”
Stems kept rising from the ground. It was pointless to even count them.
They had to change tactics.
Mason stopped tearing off the stems.
He let them entangle him.
“Mr. Mason?!”
“Don’t worry, I’m not crazy!”
Mason’s body was wrapped like a ball of yarn. At the same time, the stems began to tighten. They were trying to crush his bones and suffocate him.
But, at that moment.
Thud!
Mason took a powerful step forward and roared.
“Rooooooar!”
Crack!
As his feet planted firmly on the ground, the stems started to pull taut.
At the same time, the earth began to shake.
Creak, creaaaaak…
Seo Yeonhee realized.
‘He’s trying to pull it up!’
If you hook a big fish with an ordinary fishing line, the line will break. By letting himself be entangled, Mason had created a strong line.
A fishing line to pull up the enemy lurking underground!
Snap! Snap!
Some stems couldn’t withstand the force and snapped.
However, many stems still remained.
The stems were stretched taut, as if they were about to break at any moment.
Creaaaaaaak…
A superhuman and a giant tree were engaged in a battle of strength.
“How dare you!”
Enraged, Mason roared.
“How dare you make me dream!”
Crack!
With a sound like the ground collapsing, the monster from underground was finally pulled up.
A giant tree that had withered long ago. Vines wrapped around the dead tree like a ball of yarn. At the center of the vines was a single flower bud.
A flower bud of an ominous color, emitting a thick, sweet scent.
Mason saw the enemy and swallowed a groan.
“You were devoured too.”
Their enemy was not a Treant.
“In a sweet dream…”
It was a parasitic plant monster that had devoured even the Treant.
Having pulled the enemy up, Mason pulled the stems as if to throw them over his shoulder.
Rip, rip…
Whether it was alive or not, the dried-up roots of the dead Treant had no chance against the superhuman’s monstrous strength. Stem after stem was pulled out or broken, and finally, the Treant was lifted into the air.
“Rooooooar!”
Whoosh!
Looking at the Treant floating in the air, Mason tensed his entire body.
“Hmph!”
Boom!
As he bulged the muscles throughout his body, the stems that bound him exploded.
Mason gripped his two-handed hammer.
Thump, thump, thump, thump…
His footsteps shook the ground. Mason jumped high into the air.
“Rooooooar!”
Crack!
Mason’s hammer struck the top of the Treant.
Crushing the withered wood, Mason roared.
“Split!”
Crack, craaaack!
The two-handed hammer, imbued with monstrous strength, split the Treant’s body in two like an axe.
Amidst the scattering wood fragments, the fading core of the Treant was revealed. As if to squeeze out even a drop of power from the dying Treant, the parasitic plant’s stems tried to wrap around the Treant’s core.
“Hmph!”
Mason reached out and grabbed the core, pulling it out. It was a rough action, like ripping out a heart from a person.
The plant stems followed Mason’s hand.
At that moment, Seo Yeonhee’s daggers danced.
Snap!
The petals surrounding the flower bud fell away, revealing the core inside.
A core overflowing with energy, stolen from the Treant and the surrounding soil.
Seo Yeonhee carved out the core with her daggers.
The plant stems, having lost their core, trembled and began to collapse one by one.
Thud, thud.
Only then did the strong forest scent begin to fade.
“Whew…”
Holding the two cores, large and small, Mason and Seo Yeonhee sat down, back to back.
They were tired. Not physically, but mentally.
Seo Yeonhee asked in a calm voice.
“What kind of dream did you have?”
“A dream about my uncle.”
Mason said with a bitter expression.
“A dream about someone who could solve all our problems.”
“…”
“Seo Yeonhee, what about you?”
“I…”
Seo Yeonhee hesitated before speaking.
“I dreamt about my ex-boyfriend.”
“The one who…”
Mason changed his words.
“The one you lost?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me to rest. To stop seeking revenge and rest…”
“My uncle said the same thing.”
Perhaps the hallucination itself was an attack by the parasitic plant.
To rest and sleep. And thus become nourishment.
“How did you break free?”
“My smart cells neutralized the hallucinogenic gas. What about you?”
“I just…”
She hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“…I just woke up.”
Seo Yeonhee’s calm voice trembled slightly.
Mason instinctively understood.
If Mason had driven out the gas with his smart cells, she had overcome the illusion with her own mental strength.
And that’s how he knew.
It must have been incredibly painful.
Mason closed his eyes slowly.
“Yes, you just… woke up…”
Mason stood up.
He looked at the forest.
Except for the mountaintop he had turned upside down, it was the same lush forest as before.
Nature would prevail.
It would regain the strength that the monsters had exploited, take root again, sprout, and form a forest.
The scars the monsters had inflicted on the forest would soon disappear without a trace.
Unlike the scars in people’s hearts…
“Let’s go, Seo Yeonhee.”
Mason stood up.
“Let’s go home.”
He held out his hand to Seo Yeonhee.
“There’s… no reason to stay here anymore.”
