The creature’s mouth stretched grotesquely wide, smeared messily with blood and chunks of flesh. Kim Sibaek raised his sword diagonally in one hand, assuming a defensive stance, while instinctively shielding Tae Woon with the other, taking a cautious step backward. But the monster’s attention was elsewhere.
Its massive jaws, larger than its own body, snapped closed around the mangled corpses of the man and woman it had been feasting on, swallowing them whole—or perhaps storing them inside itself.
Suddenly, the ground trembled violently, as if struck by an earthquake. More precisely, the bodies of the monsters Kim Sibaek had slain began to writhe and move. Decapitated heads, pierced hearts, and mutilated corpses scattered across the floor quickly slid toward the monster at the center.
[Death and Beauty recoils, panicking that the dead might be reviving.]
Both Lord Biendeoé and Kim Sibaek were briefly shaken, but the creatures weren’t truly coming back to life. Frankly, resurrection would have been preferable to what was happening now.
Kim Sibaek slowly lifted his gaze higher and higher as the monstrous figure stood fully upright. The gathered corpses attached themselves to its arms, face, chest, legs, fingers, toes, hair, back, and neck, building upon each other layer by grotesque layer—like rolling a small ball of mud in your palm until it became the size of a human head.
“Grrrrrr!”
Towering now, about the height of a seven-story apartment building, the giant opened its twisted mouth formed from countless entangled human limbs and roared. The monster’s teeth were human faces—young, old, large, and small, all melded together.
The colossal humanoid, composed entirely of human remains, was so bizarre and horrific that even Kim Sibaek, hardened as he was, momentarily froze. Human imagination could be endless, but just how twisted was the consciousness that spawned this host?
Yet, a shockingly calm remark came from right beside him.
“Oh. It got bigger.”
Lowering his gaze, Kim Sibaek saw Tae Woon casually observing the giant. Suddenly, though, the younger man’s face turned pale, and he gagged weakly.
“You’ve already exhausted yourself dealing with the flying beast,” Kim Sibaek said gently. “Don’t push yourself. If it’s too much, step aside and rest.”
Tae Woon, breathing softly, pressed delicate fingers—so slender they fit entirely within Kim Sibaek’s palm—against his own chest.
“I’ll try harder, Hyung. I don’t want to hold you back.”
Kim Sibaek’s expression softened. Tae Woon was exactly the kind of younger brother who’d be genuinely at risk of being kidnapped by someone enchanted by his innocent charm if left unattended. Seeing the boy gather his courage despite his obvious exhaustion filled Kim Sibaek’s eyes with concern.
[Death and Beauty sharply warns you not to fall for your younger brother’s cunning tricks.]
…Regardless, that thing had to be destroyed. Quickly.
The giant let out a hideous scraping roar, smashing one colossal fist toward the ground. Kim Sibaek smoothly dodged the strike while pulling Tae Woon close, but Lord Biendeoé, caught off guard, began hiccupping uncontrollably. She’d inadvertently met the eyes of the countless, gleaming eyeballs embedded in the monster’s knuckles.
“…Aaahhh…”
“Kill… ki—”
“S-save… me…”
“…Because of you…”
“Die…die…die…”
“…It’s not… my fault…”
Each finger bore multiple human faces, murmuring hoarsely. It wasn’t genuine consciousness. Rather, it was as if the monster continuously replayed fragmented, distorted memories of its victims, like a broken cassette tape.
[Death and Beauty speculates that hatred is the source of its existence.]
Kim Sibaek silently agreed. The shining eyes, the endlessly repeating voices—all were twisted forms of lingering resentment.
Boom! Crash! Frustrated that its prey still lived, the giant furiously pounded both fists against the ground repeatedly. Each blow could easily crush any human beneath it.
Kim Sibaek leaped effortlessly, narrowly dodging the cracking floor beneath him, and then launched himself gracefully into the air, slicing the giant’s fist with his saber.
“Grrrrraaa!”
With a shriek of agony, three fingers—or rather, fragments of numerous human corpses—fell away from its palm in a grotesque rain. Meanwhile, Tae Woon had silently maneuvered underneath, slicing at the monster’s heel and scattering even more tangled remains.
Yet these attacks weren’t decisive.
“It’s huge but mindless,” Tae Woon observed calmly, “and it lacks special abilities or attacks. If we keep cutting it down, we’ll eventually win. But…”
“We’re almost out of time, aren’t we?”
“Inside the portal, it’s hard to track real-world time accurately, but we probably only have minutes left.”
Without innocent people or structures at risk and with severed pieces unable to reattach, victory was certain given enough time. The problem was exactly that—time. The Eid Portal’s mutation was imminent.
Though shaped like a human, the giant clearly wasn’t one—it didn’t even stagger after losing its heel. Indifferent to lost limbs, it relentlessly tried to crush and stomp on Kim Sibaek and Tae Woon.
Each punch and kick, fueled by sheer size alone, shook the earth with devastating force and broad reach. As they evaded, Kim Sibaek and Tae Woon quickly strategized.
“Can’t you wipe it out instantly like you did at the department store?”
“No, I’m low on Divine Power. Where’s its core?”
“It varies by creature… Let me find it. Can you distract it for a moment?”
“Count on your Hyung.”
With a gentle smile, Kim Sibaek affectionately tousled Tae Woon’s hair—impressed, as always, by the boy’s quick thinking—and then charged fearlessly toward the monstrous giant.
“Keeeereeeek!”
Driven purely by a hatred that sought only destruction and death, the monster’s mere movements drew every gaze. Boom! Crash! The earth trembled violently, cracks splitting open to reveal bubbling lava beneath.
While the giant bent closer to the ground to attack Kim Sibaek, Tae Woon seized the brief opening. Manipulating shadows, he conjured slender, razor-sharp spikes from the darkness. They shot upwards, stabbing the creature across its grotesque body.
The strikes lacked enough force to cause significant pain—likely nothing more than minor stings to the beast. Indeed, the giant completely ignored Tae Woon’s attack, relentlessly fixating on Kim Sibaek.
But there was one spot that caused a clear reaction.
“The neck!” Tae Woon cried sharply.
Immediately, the giant clutched protectively at the wounded area.
“Got it!”
Kim Sibaek quickly lured the creature toward a carefully chosen location. As the monster chased after him, he grabbed some debris—indistinct fragments of cement, wooden beams, and even animal remains, now merged by the warped environment—and hurled it at the giant’s lower leg.
The debris struck precisely, causing the giant to stagger. Its foot slipped into a deep fissure that had opened during the earlier tremors, causing it to fall forward toward the glowing, lava-like heat visible within the cracked earth.
The molten lava surging below posed no threat to the monster, but the brief moment of vulnerability was enough.
“Hyung! I’ll boost you!” Tae Woon shouted.
“Thanks!” Kim Sibaek replied, not slowing his pace. He leaped forward, placing his foot firmly into Tae Woon’s outstretched hands. With strength clearly beyond a fourteen-year-old’s, Tae Woon propelled him upward.
Kim Sibaek landed on the giant’s lower back, which was covered entirely by countless interwoven corpses. Faces, arms, legs—all twisted grotesquely—formed an uneven footing beneath him.
“Kill… them all…”
“Over there… again…”
Fragments of speech from the faces murmured endlessly, twisted remnants of their lives. Suddenly, hands and limbs erupted from the corpse-covered flesh, reaching desperately for Kim Sibaek as he sprinted across the monster’s back.
[Death and Beauty bristles in revulsion, feathers standing on end.]
“Perhaps you should close your eyes,” Kim Sibaek teased lightly.
[Death and Beauty insists your god must witness every action of her Apostle.]
Kim Sibaek nearly chuckled. Was this really the same deity who had returned to Earth trembling with fear, clueless about everything Kim Sibaek was doing back then? He shook his head, refocusing his strength in his legs.
“Guuuuaaagh!”
Finally freeing its foot from the crack, the giant began violently shaking itself, attempting to throw him off. Its hunched back straightened rapidly, soon becoming almost vertical.
“Damn—!”
Even Kim Sibaek couldn’t defy gravity on a sheer cliff. Losing balance instantly, he felt himself begin to fall backward.
“Hyung!”
Tae Woon’s desperate voice echoed clearly from below.
