The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 70

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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 70
Thump.
At last, Han Eol knelt before the god—or whatever it was.
Han Eol’s spirit shattered.
The Strange Being, crowned with a halo of stars gathered in a vast circle, looked down upon him from above.
[How beautiful, how exquisite. Now I shall add another Spirit Race Slayer to my collection.]
The body of the being that had pierced through hundreds of thousands of kilometers of toxic cloud to touch the very cosmos continued shifting its form even now.
Beneath that body, thousands upon thousands of tentacles undulated lazily, dancing as if in a trance.
The eerie wave emanating from the Strange Being shook the entire world with dread.
Every star in the cosmos seemed to vibrate as though it would pour down upon Han Eol.
“Aaaaagh.”
Han Eol’s mouth hung open as he gazed up at the sky.
His pupils had gone dim and glassy.
Spittle trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Then the Strange Being’s thick tentacle rushed to Han Eol’s face, and its tip split open with a tearing sound. A crimson tongue-like appendage shot forth and drove toward Han Eol with a sickening wet slap.
It was in that very instant.
Zing!
Light ignited within Han Eol’s second Mental Image, deep in his soul.
A new Mental Image had awakened in his moment of absolute despair.
Needle and Thread.
This was Han Eol’s second Mental Image.
Until now, the Needle and Thread had gleamed a dull grey—but in the moment Han Eol released everything, it blazed instead with hopeful, vibrant colors.
‘What?’
Han Eol triggered his second Mental Image without even understanding what was happening.
His Multicolored Hand seized the needle and hurled it at his enemy—and at the very same moment, the crimson tongue erupting from the Strange Being’s tentacle plunged into Han Eol’s mouth.
Whoosh—
The needle that burst forth from Han Eol’s soul pierced through the creature’s tongue and burrowed into the tentacle in a heartbeat.
More precisely: the needle did not so much pierce the tongue as ghost through it, intersecting in passing.
This needle, like the Multicolored Hand itself, was not a material object of this world. It belonged to a higher dimension, an order of existence where distance itself posed no barrier.
Thus, while the Strange Being’s tongue was still burrowing toward Han Eol’s throat—having traveled only seven or eight centimeters—the needle of his second Mental Image had already pierced through hundreds of thousands of kilometers of tentacle, ascending the creature’s bulk and striking its soul with perfect precision.
Unlike the Multicolored Hand, this needle possessed an autonomous homing function, detecting and intercepting targets Han Eol could not see.
Like a guided missile, it found the enemy’s soul in an instant and drove home.
And naturally, the thread was already threaded through the needle’s eye.
[Gahhh!]
The Strange Being convulsed violently.
In panic, it thrashed thousands of massive tentacles in all directions.
In doing so, the toxic cloud towering hundreds of thousands of kilometers high scattered in a chaotic burst.
The ground struck by the tentacles cracked and crumbled away.
Even the stars of that cosmos were seized by the tentacles and split in two.
While the Strange Being flailed in senseless panic from the incomprehensible blow, the needle pierced through its soul, threaded the string, and returned to Han Eol.
The Multicolored Hand moved as though it had been waiting for this moment.
The Multicolored Hand had been unable to attack until now, simply because it could not locate the enemy’s soul. The instant the soul became tethered by the thread, the hand identified its target and launched.
The Multicolored Hand did not traverse space in some laborious fashion.
For beings trapped in this dimension, moving from point A to point B requires following a path. For those here, it is unavoidable.
The Multicolored Hand, belonging to a dimension higher than this one, had no need to traverse such a path.
It was like the problem of two points marked A and B on opposite sides of a sheet of paper, with the command: cross from A to B.
A two-dimensional creature living within the paper—say, an ant inside—would have to walk the entire length of the paper to reach point B.
But a three-dimensional being outside the paper could fold it so that A and B touched, and pass directly from A to B.
The Multicolored Hand moved precisely in this manner.
Han Eol’s hand, manifest in his Mental Image, reached through movements that even this cosmic being could not comprehend, seized the soul within the creature’s body, and grasped it tightly.
Only then could Han Eol see the enemy’s soul clearly.
Chapter 5
Four overlapping ellipses.
A great eye within them.
Smaller eyes filling the great eye.
Eight tentacles.
Eight Gem Fragments floating at the tips of the tentacles.
Its form was as follows:
This was the image of the Strange Being’s soul as Han Eol perceived it.
Yet unlike the souls of the demon-kind and Demon Beasts of the Highland that Han Eol had faced until now, this being’s soul was not shielded within a Soul Shell.
‘It’s as though the soul has been gradually expanding and evolving until it’s become one with the Soul Shell. Can a Demon Beast really transform like this when its soul grows?’
Han Eol paused, momentarily awed.
But this was no time to indulge in wonder.
‘Soul or Shell, it doesn’t matter. I have to survive, which means you have to die. Grrrahhh! Die. Just die.’
Han Eol poured everything he had into the Multicolored Hand, tightening his grip with all his remaining strength.
In a heartbeat, the Multicolored Hand engulfed the creature, seizing its soul—or Soul Shell—and twisted with a sickening wrench.
Squeezing, crushing—crack-crack-crack!
[Screeeech!]
The Strange Being convulsed as though struck by a blade driven deep.
The very act of writhing collapsed the space around it.
Stars shattered across the cosmic expanse, falling as a meteor shower.
Yet the Strange Being did not crumble under Han Eol’s assault.
[Guh-guh-guh-ughhh.]
Even as its soul fractured under the shock, the creature thrashed its tentacles wildly, desperately trying to kill Han Eol before it was too late.
‘Nngh? Gah-retch. Ugh.’
Han Eol’s nostrils flared as he gagged, his body convulsing.
A gelatinous tendril—whether it was a tongue or something else entirely, he couldn’t tell—had driven itself down his throat, choking off his breath.
Simultaneously, the Spirit Race Slayers fused to two other tentacles spawned countless Spirit Thunders and Spirit Swords in rapid succession, bombarding Han Eol’s soul with relentless force.
Han Eol mobilized every one of his 108 Blood Channels and threw his weight against his Soul Shell’s durability, taking the creature’s onslaught head-on without defense.
There was no pulling back now; the Multicolored Hand had to see this through.
‘Damn it. Let’s finish this thing.’
Malice blazed through Han Eol’s mind.
The Spirit Thunder and Spirit Sword attacks were devastatingly powerful.
Cracks spread across Han Eol’s Soul Shell in multiple places.
His soul, nestled within that Shell, trembled precariously.
As his soul wavered, Han Eol’s panic skyrocketed. He found himself desperate to surrender, to kneel before this creature and beg for mercy.
‘Nnngh. Damn.’
But Han Eol forced the fear down, locking it away.
There was no other path to survival.
The Strange Being, meanwhile, felt terror for the first time—terror from a soul attack it had never before experienced.
All thought of extracting this young Spirit Race Slayer’s(?) soul and fusing it with its own tentacles had evaporated.
‘This one is different. This one is far too dangerous.’
The Strange Being shifted its strategy: kill Han Eol swiftly, utterly, and escape the agony of its fragmenting soul.
But it proved impossible.
Han Eol was squeezing with every last ounce of strength, determined to shatter the creature’s soul.
‘Arrrrgh, you monster, die! Please, just die already!’
Han Eol’s inner rage poured forth.
With each curse, vast chunks of the Strange Being’s soul were carved away.
The creature possessed tremendous fortitude—it could endure any amount of physical suffering.
In fact, there was a time when two-thirds of its tentacles had been torn away in a bitter clash with an ancient rival, and it had borne that agony.
But the soul was different.
When the Strange Being’s soul took direct impact, that damage immediately reverberated through its body.
Its flesh no longer obeyed its will.
It could not even muster its willpower.
To be attacked at the soul was to have one’s very right to exist in this world denied.
To lose control of the body and vanish completely from this world.
The impact and terror of a soul strike far exceeded even that.
The Strange Being now genuinely wanted to abandon this fight.
But that was impossible.
‘Arrrrrgh. Die. Die.’
Each time Han Eol thrashed wildly to survive, the Multicolored Hand grew more vicious, tearing deeper into the creature’s soul.
[Ngh-guh, no. No…]
At last, the Strange Being lost even control of the tendril lodged in Han Eol’s throat.
The other two tentacles bearing its weapons—the Spirit Race Slayers—went limp, drooping like wilted cabbage leaves in the height of summer.
[No. This cannot be.]
The Strange Being made a desperate decision: shed this prickly Spirit Race Slayer(?) and flee this place by any means necessary.
It lashed out with several of its oldest tentacles.
A Crimson Magic Circle bloomed into being. The arcane circle split space apart, tearing open a rift to another dimension.
But what good would that do?
The Multicolored Hand, which held fast to the creature’s soul, showed no sign of releasing its prey.
Please. Argh. Please stop.
At last, the Strange Being begged Han Eol.
‘Stop? Not a chance.’ Han Eol’s breath came heavy.
With the momentum fully his, Han Eol flared his nostrils and squeezed the enemy’s soul with all his strength.
Sixth Highland Expedition II – A Shocking Truth
Chapter 1
Crack!
At last, a portion of the Strange Being’s soul shattered. Eight soul tendrils that he had nurtured over an immeasurably long age snapped with a hideous grinding sound.
Splinter.
Then the rampart constructed from four overlapping ellipses crumbled.
Crunch-crunch-crunch-crack-crack.
Next, the great eye turned to powder within the Multicolored Hand’s grip.
Pop.
Even the small eye—the Strange Being’s final stronghold—was crushed.
Now it was all over.
The world fell to pieces.
The ceiling that was the universe shattered into fragments and plummeted.
The ground split and dropped away into an abyss.
Screeeeeech.
In that crumbling world, the Strange Being lost its ‘Spirit.’ Then the ‘Soul’ within the Soul Essence was absorbed by the Multicolored Hand and vanished utterly.
What remained at the last was the Strange Being’s ‘Shell.’
This ‘Shell’ was absorbed by the Multicolored Hand, then clumped together like a pimple and protruded slightly from the tip of the pinky finger.
The shape of that protrusion resembled an eye.
But it was a peculiar eye.
A smaller eye nested inside the larger one.
Blink.
The outer great eye scanned its surroundings.
Blink. Blink.
The small eye embedded within the larger one looked in a different direction.
‘Haaah.’
After barely finishing the lethal battle, Han Eol collapsed onto the ground. His legs had lost all strength; he could barely stand.
Han Eol’s chest was filthy with vomit. His pants were soiled with urine.
Yet Han Eol felt no shame.
It didn’t even occur to him that his body was dirty.
Having nearly died and then survived, Han Eol now understood with absolute certainty that filth and shame were nothing.
One thing was sure: the Strange Being was dead.
As proof, the revolting tendril that had burrowed into Han Eol’s throat withdrew smoothly and dropped to the ground with a soft thud.
‘Phew. Is it finally over?’
Han Eol was staring blankly at the enemy’s massive corpse when it happened.
Something occurred that Han Eol had never experienced before.
‘What—what is that?’
Han Eol’s eyes went wide, nearly splitting at the corners.
Originally, a thread had been woven through the Strange Being’s soul.
This multicolored thread, perceptible only to Han Eol in all the world, had endured as the Strange Being’s ‘Spirit,’ ‘Soul,’ and ‘Shell’ were absorbed by the Multicolored Hand, and the moment the ‘Shell’ became the eye-shaped protrusion on the pinky finger, the thread’s one end caught upon that protrusion.
The other end remained in the Strange Being’s body.
In other words, a single multicolored thread now served as a conduit linking the Strange Being’s corpse to the ‘Shell’—a connection.
Blink. Blink.
The moment the large and small eyes on the multicolored finger blinked, the Strange Being’s corpse lurched upright.
“Gaaahhh!”
Han Eol let out a ghastly cry.
He genuinely thought his heart would stop.
He’d always thought that hair standing on end from fright was just a webtoon cliché, but now Han Eol experienced a genuine shock—his hair bristling straight up.
‘I’m dead—’
In his panic, Han Eol instinctively struck at the Strange Being’s tendril.
This was the same strike that had leveled a Demon Beast nest on the 6th Continent in one blow.
Yet the Strange Being’s tendril simply bounced back like rubber at the impact of Han Eol’s sincere punch, suffering not even a scratch.
But that made sense.
What Han Eol had absorbed through the Spirit Tribe Twelve Constellations’ Forbidden Technique was the physical prowess of a supreme-tier dragon clan member who was just about to ascend from the 5th Continent to the 4th.
In other words, that dragon was top-tier on the 5th Continent but the lowest rung—the very bottom—on the 4th.
But the Strange Being was a resident of the 3rd Continent, which stood even higher than the 4th.
It was only natural, then, that no matter how much Han Eol poured his full strength into a strike, he could not leave even the faintest mark on this Strange Being’s hide.
When Han Eol had grappled with this abomination moments before, he had bitten down with all his might on the tip of a tendril that had forced its way into his mouth, yet not a single tooth mark had remained—and now he understood why.
The Soul-Harvesting Puppet Artist
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Junon
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(주) Samyang C&C
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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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