“Tch, it was almost complete.”
The voice that burst from the child’s mouth was no longer that of a child.
In an instant, the tone twisted into a sleazy, heavy middle-aged man’s timbre.
The body followed suit.
The once-clear eyes clouded black, the stature shot upward, and sinews bulged grotesquely from limbs that had been frail moments before.
Skin shriveled and dried, the face morphing into that of a middle-aged man.
Neatly parted hair and a carefully trimmed beard became prominent.
Soon, like peeling off thick stage makeup, the disguised child’s appearance completely crumbled away.
Balzac, the black mage of deception.
It was what he had done since the moment he was born, so his acting had never once been seen through.
As always, he stole hearts and exploited weaknesses with a fabricated face that perfectly mimicked sincerity, collapsing everything in his path.
This time was no different.
The stage needed to deliver the most dramatic emotions to the audience.
So what subject would be most fitting?
Familial love, and pity.
That was the core.
That’s why he deliberately chose the father and child.
A father who, even while unconscious, cried out his son’s name; a child shaken by the loss of his father.
The tragic situation woven from those two evoked sufficient chaos and compassion in everyone present.
Especially for those with sharp senses and strong responsibility, like Seol Ha-yoon, it became a fatal weakness.
And he stabbed right into that weakness.
He created an opening and perfectly approached Seol Ha-yoon.
More accurately, he made Seol Ha-yoon approach him on her own.
She walked toward Balzac without a shred of suspicion.
Close enough that if she simply reached out, he could touch her.
The moment the demonic energy residing in his fingertips made contact, everything would be over.
Seol Ha-yoon would lose consciousness and fall into Balzac’s hands, and afterward he could turn everyone remaining into usable corpses.
He had come right up to the moment just before touching Seol Ha-yoon.
But at the very end, everything went wrong.
“…That little bastard.”
Balzac glared at the boy standing there with an indifferent expression.
Ryu Jin-woo, was it?
When he was first kicked, Balzac had simply intended to continue the act.
But the instant Ryu Jin-woo’s sword aimed unhesitatingly at his nape and began slicing into flesh, he realized.
The kid wasn’t merely sensing something off.
He was certain.
As if he knew everything.
‘Goddamn pest.’
That fact irritated him.
It felt like something had been overlooked.
He had thoroughly toyed with every opponent he’d ever faced, yet in front of this boy, he didn’t feel the slightest sense of superiority.
‘How the hell did he see through it?’
Black hair, ordinary clothes.
Yet those blue eyes stared as if piercing straight through Balzac himself.
There was something about that boy.
An inexplicable chill crawled down Balzac’s spine.
“Tch, it was almost complete.”
Balzac muttered lowly.
That statement was true.
If I hadn’t interfered, Seol Ha-yoon would have been caught in his grasp.
After that, direct contact with the demonic energy he had prepared would paralyze her body and turn her into a hostage.
Seol Ha-yoon, granddaughter of Ju Yeon-hwa, held immense value all on her own.
The moment he secured her, Balzac would slaughter everyone left in this place.
And he would commit every single act of that massacre while forcing Seol Ha-yoon to watch.
That was the originally scripted development.
Seol Ha-yoon would eventually return safely through a hostage exchange.
However, the Mystery Hall incident would leave her with irreversible trauma.
Then, at the moment she advances to second year and is once again directly exposed to “demonic energy,”
the trauma would mix with the demonic energy, triggering Collapse outright.
A time bomb that lives on borrowed time until second year, then detonates.
The instant Seol Ha-yoon collapses, she doesn’t simply rampage—she scorches everything around her into nothingness.
It is the flow I most want to avoid.
That’s why, more than anyone else here right now, I consider this moment a blessing.
Balzac took one step back from me.
Slowly widening the distance.
Blatantly radiating wariness.
“You’ve got good instincts, kid.”
He said in a low voice, twitching the corner of his mouth.
“No one has ever seen through my disguise until now.”
His tone pretended leisure, but the anger and bewilderment mixed into the end of his words could not be hidden.
“I don’t think it was that impressive.”
When I lightly fired back, the spot between Balzac’s brows twitched.
“That arrogant attitude of yours really rubs me the wrong way.”
He narrowed his eyes and adjusted the distance once more.
Silence flowed for a moment before he spoke lowly again.
“Knowing my true identity changes nothing. This place is still completely sealed. You’re all no different from rats in a jar.”
Demonic energy slowly rippled at Balzac’s fingertips.
“The order has merely changed. I’ll kill you first, then take Seol Ha-yoon.”
At the same moment those words left his mouth, he flung his body backward.
His black robe billowed, and something scattered in all directions.
TUDUDUK—
Red lumps poured onto the cold floor.
They were none other than chunks of flesh.
Sticky, uneven pieces of meat writhed across the ground, crawling.
SWISH—SWOOSH—
Suddenly, they began clumping and tangling together.
Merging, twisting, swelling in volume, gradually forming a definite shape.
“…….”
Everyone could only watch in stunned horror.
As the results gradually took shape, cries of shock erupted from all around.
“Is that… supposed to be a person?”
“How horrific…”
The lumps of flesh had twisted together into the form of distorted humans.
Flesh golems created by Balzac.
Balzac “collects” corpses.
He splits the flesh from corpses, molds them into single masses, then takes them out and uses them at the desired moment.
From the chunks of flesh he had scattered, countless undead began to be born.
The amusing part was that the Balzac I was looking at right now was, in fact, the master of these undead.
In other words, Balzac is an entity from the demon world, and even the human shape he currently wore was merely sculpted from corpses.
What is certain is that his true body exists somewhere within that frame.
And with my current abilities, not only is finding it difficult—even if I found it, destroying it would be impossible.
So isn’t this an utterly hopeless situation?
Not quite.
From the beginning, Balzac is a weak existence even among demon-world beings; he is only tenacious until a skill capable of annihilating demon-world entities appears. Once you know the countermeasure, he isn’t all that threatening.
Thanks to that, if everything goes according to plan, we’ll escape this situation without major issues.
He continued scattering chunks of flesh, and gradually they began taking shape.
The first to fully reveal itself was a figure relatively close to human.
However, its skin was completely peeled away, exposing raw muscle and tendons.
Bones protruded at bizarre angles.
Its empty eye sockets stared blankly into the void until Balzac gestured—then its head snapped toward me.
After that came beast-type individuals that dragged limp forelimbs across the ground, and unique specimens with sharp bone spikes jutting from their arms like awls.
Finally, accompanied by a metallic clang that shook the floor, a gigantic entity raised its head.
An undead covered in black armor plating its skin.
“That’s…?”
Seol Ha-yoon, now standing beside me, reacted first.
Her eyes widened as she silently signaled me with a glance.
The last entity to appear closely resembled the monster we had just fought—the one that attacked us before Balzac’s true identity was revealed.
“This is your future. Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Balzac sneered with a twisted smile.
At some point, the flesh golems had surrounded him, guarding him like bodyguards protecting a VIP.
At a glance, dozens of undead had been born.
With a single wave of his hand, he had created monsters equivalent to an entire platoon.
The brief silence of the standoff lasted only a moment—Balzac gestured, and his army began to move.
“KYAAAAAHH!”
“Don’t come near! Don’t come any closer, you fuckers!”
Screams erupted from all directions.
Seol Ha-yoon bit her lip hard and drew ragged breaths.
Sensing the movements of undead lunging from behind, beside her ears, and outside her field of vision, she continuously unleashed techniques.
[Flame Ascension: Nakwha]
Blazing crimson flames poured down onto the heads of the undead swarming around her.
At that instant, a scream came from behind.
Turning her head, she saw an undead grabbing a citizen by the leg.
There was no time to hesitate.
Seol Ha-yoon once again concentrated mana at her fingertips.
Flames shot toward the undead she pointed at, rapidly draining her mana.
KRRR! KRRREEEK!
The undead, now on fire, staggered with grotesque cries and collapsed.
Fortunately, the woman was safe.
But this was merely a tiny act of resistance in an endless chaos.
“…There’s too many.”
The words she tried to swallow slipped out and echoed hollowly.
Just in the immediate vicinity, there were easily over a dozen undead.
Some were already charging at citizens.
People resisted with personal defense weapons or magical tools.
But the majority were paralyzed with terror, unable to move properly, or after being caught, were swarmed by undead, screaming in agony and convulsing.
“Seol Ha-yoon! Don’t look away!”
Ryu Jin-woo’s voice rang out at that moment.
She reflexively spun around.
One was already right in front of her.
[Flame Ascension: Manseong]
KWANG!
With an explosive sound, flaming vines erupted from the floor and ensnared the undead.
Immediately after, Ryu Jin-woo’s sword precisely severed the neck of the bound undead.
The head fell with a thud, flesh splitting along the faint line left by the passing blade.
A clean combination—their coordination didn’t falter by even a hair.
The glances exchanged in that split second, the actions that followed.
It was closer to instinctive linkage for survival than simple cooperation.
Yet no matter how much they supported each other, cut, and burned, there was no end in sight.
‘If I could, I’d burn this entire area to ash…’
Undead were definitely weak to fire.
But right now, with enemies and citizens tangled together, even that couldn’t be used freely.
And above all—
TOOOOONG—!
The heavily armored giant continued rampaging violently, pressing them relentlessly.
The same tank-type we fought earlier.
One alone had already been overwhelming.
And now that monster was rampaging amidst countless other undead.
‘Can we hold out?’
Anxiety crept into a corner of Seol Ha-yoon’s heart.
In contrast, Balzac still looked completely at ease.
Even after summoning so many puppets, he showed no sign of strain.
Above all, he was protecting himself perfectly.
Not only the undead surrounding him like meat shields, but the thick demonic energy swirling around him as well.
He allowed not even the slightest opening.
“KRRRR!”
At that moment, a standard-type undead charged at Seol Ha-yoon.
Its skinned face and flailing arms drooling as it rushed.
HWALRK—
Crimson flames engulfed its face.
PSSHT—!
The next instant, a dagger-like presence flew from her left.
“Kuht…!”
A bone spear embedded deeply into the back of her hand.
She twisted her shoulder to dodge, but the edge grazed her cheek, drawing blood.
She immediately attempted a counterattack.
Yet she couldn’t prevent her balance from collapsing.
The moment she staggered back one step—
HWOOOOONG—!
A massive shadow loomed overhead.
The tank-type.
Its enormous body floating in the air.
Its massive arm descended toward her with crushing pressure.
‘I can’t dodge.’
The instant she realized that, her body was violently shoved backward.
“Huh?”
Someone’s hand had pushed her from behind.
KWAAAAANG—!
An enormous boom rang out, and chunks of flesh and dirt exploded outward.
Dust and heat violently billowed.
As the dust fog slowly cleared, the scene revealed itself.
The spot crushed by the gigantic fist had been hollowed out like a bomb crater.
And inside it, someone lay collapsed.
“…Ryu Jin-woo?”
Seol Ha-yoon muttered in a trembling voice.