The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 59

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 59
Chapter 8
At the moment Eleanor was rescuing the Burgundy siblings, the Girit Race to the north of the nest had subdued Sasaki, the swordmaster from Midland Tokyo, with ease.
The Girit to the east had seized Doctor Chad and dragged him to the place where Ju Hyung-seon’s corpse lay impaled.
Doctor Chad, now a captive, presented a gruesome sight—his hands crushed, blood streaming from his head.
But this was the better of two fates.
Sasaki had both his arms severed entirely.
The northern Girit had tossed Sasaki’s torso onto the ground, then discarded his two forearms beside it—still gripping two Yodo blades in their rigid fingers.
“What happened at Entrance 3?”
one of the Girit asked.
Another laughed with a hideous cackle.
“Seems the cleanup hasn’t finished there yet. Gak-gak-gak.”
Laughter erupted from every corner of the nest.
“Probably got too caught up in the hunt. Hee-hee.”
“Kee-kee-kee-kee. Those bastards are having the time of their lives.”
As his companions laughed and chattered idly, the Girit who had first spoken narrowed his eyes.
“We should stop playing around now. Londis might get angry with us.”
“Gulp.”
“Mm-mm.”
The moment Londis’s name was spoken, the Girit’s pupils contracted sharply.
They all bore the unmistakable look of dread.
Londis was no ordinary Girit of the 6th Continent.
Over two hundred years ago, he had transcended the limits of his race and ascended to the 5th Continent of Highland—a legendary figure shrouded in myth.
His prowess was equally extraordinary; by the time of his ascension to the 5th Continent, he had already manifested his ninth tail and evolved into a Three-Tailed Nine-Tailed Fox, a status that became the stuff of legend.
Moreover, Londis was currently in the process of forming his tenth tail, pushing beyond even his ninth.
That great legend, Londis, had only recently left the 5th Continent of Highland and descended once more to the 6th Continent.
During those two centuries in the 5th Continent, Londis had witnessed unspeakable horrors.
The two dominant races that divided the 5th Continent—the Elf Race and the Dragon Race—had captured his kinfolk, the Girit Race, and enslaved them, subjecting them to all manner of biological experimentation.
Witnessing this atrocity, Londis finally reached a momentous decision.
‘I will save my people.’
Seized by a sense of purpose, Londis abandoned his settlement in the 5th Continent and threw himself wholly into the Slave Liberation Movement.
He raided the relatively weaker Elf Race and liberated Girit slaves.
He drove wedges between the Dragon Race and the Elf Race, inciting conflict between them, and extracted his kinfolk in the chaos.
This was the Slave Liberation Movement that Londis had waged.
Of course, in the process, he had brushed against death countless times.
For all that Londis was a legendary nine-tailed Girit, he could not match the overwhelming physicality of the Dragon Race.
Against the Elf Race—beings of pure spirit without flesh—resistance was impossible.
Yet the greater problem was far more fundamental: no matter how many slaves Londis saved in the 5th Continent, it was like pouring water into a punctured vessel.
For every Girit he rescued, hundreds or even thousands more were dragged into bondage.
‘This cannot continue.’
Eventually, Londis abandoned his life in the 5th Continent and descended to the 6th.
His reasoning was simple: if he could not prevent his kinfolk in the 6th Continent from being preyed upon by the Elf and Dragon Races, then all his liberation efforts in the 5th Continent would be meaningless.
Upon returning to his homeland, Londis installed a network of red and blue nerve pathways throughout the Girit nests.
Those mysterious nerve bundles hanging from the ceiling of the Girit nest were the fruit of Londis’s command.
Their purpose: to instantly relay to Londis any invasion by slavers from the Elf or Dragon Races.
And then Ursina was caught by the Girit.
“No, no, no—kyaaaah!”
Ursina shrieked in terror.
The one who seized her throat was an adult Girit perched upon a flat flying vessel.
The Girit were originally demons with highly developed senses.
When they spread their awareness wide to scan their surroundings, they could sweep from one horizon to the other in the blink of an eye.
In other words, the Girit had been aware of Ursina’s presence from the start.
Though their primary strength lay in physical attacks and they had no way to strike her shadow, they could simply seize her body instead.
As Ursina’s shadow engulfed Ju Hyung-seon’s head and upper body and fled in a frantic blur, one Girit had circled stealthily behind her on his flying vessel and, in an instant, tackled her and wrenched her throat in a vice grip.
The moment Ursina was captured, her shadow retracted with a snap and clung to her feet.
“Hee-hee. Where did you think you were running? Dream on.”
The Girit holding his prey muttered with vicious satisfaction, then dangled Ursina and returned to the nest.
It was then that Han Eol arrived.
Chapter 9
By the time Han Eol reached the scene, the situation was already drawing to a close.
Doctor Chad was the first to be seized by the Girit Race.
Sasaki, too, became a prisoner—both his arms severed.
Last came Ursina, dragged back into the nest by Girit trackers even as Han Eol watched.
Han Eol clicked his tongue lightly.
‘Tsk. This is getting complicated.’
Originally, Han Eol had planned to slip quietly into the nest, extract Ju Hyung-seon’s corpse, and slip back out.
That plan hadn’t changed even now.
‘I don’t know what these people’s relationship to Ju Hyung-seon is, but there’s no reason I should risk myself for them.’
That was Han Eol’s honest thought.
But the fact that Ju Hyung-seon’s head and upper body were in Ursina’s hands—that caught him.
‘Well. Looks like I don’t have a choice.’
Han Eol resolved to rescue Ursina as well.
‘The other two can find their own way out.’
The moment that decision crystallized, Han Eol’s calf muscles responded instantly.
Han Eol’s skin and muscles, down to the finest fiber, were coated with the scales of the highest Dragon Race. And now, in this instant, that power was being channeled at full force.
Bang!
Before the thunderous boom of impact could even register, Han Eol’s body transformed into a literal bolt of lightning, rocketing toward the Girit Nest.
The speed was so extreme that Han Eol momentarily lost control of his body.
Because of it, Han Eol smashed into the floor of the Girit Nest, carving out a crater dozens of meters deep.
Rather.
The depth to which Han Eol was buried was dozens of meters—but the actual floor of the nest had ruptured clean through, stretching kilometers into the earth below.
The collision energy born of such terrible velocity was the culprit.
But this was no problem for Han Eol. He burst from the crater faster than he’d struck it, boring deeper into the heart of the nest.
Even though Han Eol had corrected his trajectory mid-flight, the Girit Race couldn’t react at all. Before they could even process his presence, he was upon them, slamming through their ranks with his bare body.
In truth, Han Eol was no savage like the Dragons. He harbored no plan to ram other races with his bare body and explode them into oblivion.
It was simply that he moved with such speed that fine directional control was impossible.
So Han Eol had resigned himself to the thought of just ramming through the cumbersome Girit obstacles and bouncing past them.
But this plan existed only in Han Eol’s mind. The Girit he collided with could not bounce backward.
At the instant of impact, their bodies vaporized where they stood.
The act of bouncing back was physically impossible.
When an object strikes at Han Eol’s velocity, whatever it collides with simply ceases to exist.
Han Eol’s mental state contributed to this outcome as well.
To be honest, the Girit Race unsettled him.
Certainly, Han Eol’s mind grasped the fact that ‘With the scales of the highest Dragon Race coating me, the Girit of the 6th Continent should pose no real threat.’
But this knowledge had not reached the depths of his heart.
‘Just in case. I have to do my best.’
This resolve pushed Han Eol’s movements into savage overdrive.
Moving at a speed nearly approaching light—incomparable to Eleanor of Midland New York—Han Eol carved a chasm into the floor of the nest and, in the blink of an eye, crashed through a half-dozen adult Girit standing above the human captives, laughing.
So violent was Han Eol’s charge that ultra-high-temperature plasma ignited along his trajectory. The plasma consumed the air itself, transforming the surroundings into a sea of fire.
Boom!
A violent explosion tore through the Girit Nest.
Before the explosion even fully bloomed, the half-dozen adult Girit that Han Eol had struck evaporated like morning mist.
As if at the epicenter of a nuclear blast, all life snuffed out without a sound, vanishing in an instant.
Immediately after, brilliant plasma surged backward, rolling outward like a shockwave.
‘Oh.’
Han Eol grimaced.
Before that moment, a vast surge of Magical Energy flowing from Han Eol’s Soul Sea had already formed a hemispherical barrier of pure force.
Whoosh!
Across the surface of this magnificent barrier, small palm-sized fish swam lazily.
Some were the color of blood; others transparent; and between them swam occasional flashes of yellow and indigo.
This mysterious energy barrier easily repelled the plasma’s great explosion.
Because of it, not only Han Eol but also Doctor Chad, Sasaki, and Ursina—all sheltered within the barrier—remained unharmed.
And Ju Hyung-seon’s lower half, stuck upside-down on a wooden stake, didn’t have a single hair out of place.
‘What…?’
Doctor Chad opened his tightly shut eyes and looked around in confusion.
‘Am I alive or dead?’
Ursina checked herself first.
Sasaki’s mind was too muddled to register what was happening around him.
And it wasn’t only Sasaki who was dazed—Doctor Chad and Ursina were equally bewildered. Something extraordinary had clearly just occurred, but their limited perception couldn’t possibly track the events that had unfolded in so brief a span.
Chapter 10
Han Eol’s original plan had been a modest one: salvage Ju Hyung-seon’s lower half and Ursina, then slip away.
‘If the Girit swarm descends on us all at once, it’ll be a nightmare. Better to keep this minimal.’
That had been his settled intention.
But his devastating momentum had detonated the Girit Nest entirely. The few Girit who survived fled in absolute panic.
Only the adults managed to escape; the young Girit, most of them, couldn’t withstand the shockwave from the plasma explosion and died on the spot.
This gave Han Eol a reprieve.
‘Heh. So Breakthrough has this much power—still surprising every time.’
Han Eol felt a renewed gratitude toward the Elf Race’s constellations.
‘Looks like I don’t need to fear the Girit anymore. Heh.’
More than anything, he appreciated the fact that his odds of dying had dropped sharply.
People tended to grow generous when in a good mood.
‘Why not lend them a hand?’
When he thought about it, these people were oath-keepers—men and women of honor who’d infiltrated this dangerous place to recover Ju Hyung-seon’s body.
But mindlessly helping strangers didn’t sit well with Han Eol’s nature.
So first, he examined the three pioneers’ souls.
‘Let’s start with the Black elder.’
Doctor Chad, the elderly Black man with tightly coiled hair and a beard gone white, hadn’t built a Soul Aura like the Magical Races of Highland, but he carried two Spiritual Marks—a detail that caught Han Eol’s eye.
To Han Eol’s sight, one of Doctor Chad’s Spiritual Marks resembled a poison vial, while the other looked like a skull-shaped spirit or something akin to a malevolent ghost.
Han Eol turned his gaze sideways.
Ursina was a Caucasian woman and an Ability User who wore Claw-type Weapons on both hands and wielded a distinctive shadow—her Spiritual Mark contained that shadow within it.
‘Just as I suspected with her.’
Han Eol nodded once, then turned his attention last to the Japanese swordsman.
His Spiritual Mark showed two sharp blades crossing in an X.
‘The aura he gives off matches the mark perfectly.’
Han Eol withdrew his gaze from Sasaki.
In any case, none of these three had built a Soul Aura around their spirits.
That disappointed him somewhat, but of the three, none harbored ill intent toward Han Eol. He was certain of this by reading the color of their souls.
‘Well, they’re all decent people. Might as well do a good deed for once.’
The Puppeteer Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Juno
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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