Fortunately, the giant’s back was rough and uneven. Just before falling, he managed to grab onto one of the grotesque faces protruding from its back. If he’d grabbed the mouth, he would have been bitten immediately, but luckily, he seized the inverted face by the jaw instead. The face, mouth forcibly shut, released a muffled groan.
“Are you okay? Can you hold on? Don’t push yourself! If you get hurt now, none of this will matter!” Tae Woon shouted anxiously from below.
“I’m fine! I can do this!”
Instead of showing his younger brother his confident and heroic side, Kim Sibaek realized bitterly that he’d only managed to worry him more. As an older brother, he felt like a complete failure.
Dodging a twisted arm that swung toward him, Kim Sibaek quickly climbed higher. The giant thrashed about, desperately trying to throw him off, while countless corpses clawed, bit, and grasped at him from every direction.
[Death and Beauty rolls her widened eyes.]
He distinctly felt Lord Biendeoé trembling in terror against his chest.
Damn it, where exactly is its neck?
Just when he was growing uneasy about how far he still needed to climb, the giant suddenly shrieked and dropped onto one knee. Boom! The entire world shook again. Perhaps one of its legs had become trapped in another fissure.
Barely managing to steady himself on the giant’s back, Kim Sibaek wiped the sweat from his face and began running again without hesitation. He had no idea that Tae Woon had cleanly sliced off the giant’s knee—a feat Kim Sibaek himself couldn’t have accomplished from the ground.
[Death and Beauty shouts that the summit isn’t far away.]
“I see it too!”
His blade, imbued with Divine Power, shimmered brilliantly like clusters of distant stars scattered through space. Without any hesitation, Kim Sibaek plunged the sword deep into the giant’s neck.
The giant’s head fell, severed before it could even release a final scream. Revealed beneath the flesh near its spine was the core hidden behind its throat. With successive, decisive strikes, Kim Sibaek split the core apart, dispersing the dense demonic energy. The manastone emerged, and the colossal body immediately collapsed.
It was the end of a hatred that had festered for more than twenty years since the Dongdaemun Stadium incident.
Fragments of the giant’s body fell like rain from the sky. Had they retained their human form, it would have been a grotesque spectacle. Thankfully, as the core shattered, their flesh crumbled into dust, leaving only dry bones to scatter across the ground.
Landing safely, Kim Sibaek sank to the ground, panting heavily. As the tension released, fatigue surged through his body.
“Ugh, maybe I really am getting old…”
But the exhaustion lasted only a moment.
“Sibaek hyung!”
Seeing Tae Woon run towards him on short, hurried legs, Kim Sibaek’s cheeks automatically rose into a gentle smile. The warmth of the boy’s embrace instantly melted away his fatigue. Tae Woon buried his face softly into Kim Sibaek’s chest.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Tae Woon asked worriedly.
“I got grabbed by its arms here and there, so I’m a little bruised up, but nothing serious. I’ll heal quickly. Are you okay? You didn’t break your wrist when you tossed me up, did you?”
“Break what? You’re as light as a chick feather, hyung.”
“Oh, look at this adorable mouth of yours. Chick feathers belong to our little Woonie.”
Kim Sibaek squeezed Tae Woon’s soft, squishy cheeks affectionately, as if wanting to bite them for being too cute. Tae Woon giggled brightly in response.
Lord Biendeoé, displaced onto Kim Sibaek’s head by Tae Woon’s enthusiastic embrace, suddenly experienced a profound realization.
It wasn’t just Mak Slechth—on Earth, childhood experiences shaped personalities just as deeply. What kind of adult would a child become if, from age five to fourteen, he only ever heard endless praises about how cute and adorable he was, no matter what he did?
Would such a child grow up to shamelessly say things like, “The world treats me unfairly because I’m too cute,” even after twenty-one years?
…Could it be that Sibaek himself caused all this?
Unaware she’d reached the exact same conclusion as everyone around Tae Woon, Lord Biendeoé trembled miserably, overwhelmed by her apostle’s shocking sins.
Meanwhile, with its core destroyed, the Eid Portal—previously static—began violently twisting again. Although similar to before, Kim Sibaek instinctively knew the outcome was different. Without its core, the Eid Portal was now collapsing.
Holding Tae Woon close, Kim Sibaek examined him carefully. Though there were no severe wounds, blood seeped from several minor injuries. When he tried to heal Tae Woon’s injuries first, Tae Woon quickly declined.
“They’re just minor scratches. I’ll get treated properly when we get outside. You shouldn’t waste your Divine Power unnecessarily, hyung.”
“Nothing spent on you is ever a waste.”
“You should heal yourself first.”
Having fought the monsters nearly bare-handed, Kim Sibaek wasn’t exactly unscathed.
“I’m fine. Lord Biendeoé helps me recover faster than most people.”
“Wow, now I’m even more tempted to become your first official believer.”
Tae Woon looked pleadingly at Lord Biendeoé, his eyes practically begging, ‘Could you reconsider?’
[Death and Beauty shakes her head firmly, stating that greed alone cannot inspire genuine faith.]
“Well, seems like it’s still a no-go. Anyway, let’s get out of here before everything collapses.”
“Wait, hyung. Let’s pick up the manastone first.”
Kim Sibaek bent down and picked up the manastone, roughly the size of a human fist.
“If we sell this, do you think it’ll cover the overdue rent and living expenses I owe you? Or is the government going to take this too?”
“Since we cleared this without any official Response Agency Hunters, the manastone’s all yours, hyung… but please spend wisely. Housing prices in Daejeon are ridiculously high right now. Even if Seoul gets reclaimed, it’s totally devastated, so Daejeon will stay the capital for a long while. Prices are skyrocketing. It’s nothing like the old Seoul you remember, you know?”
Kim Sibaek listened curiously as Tae Woon suddenly began babbling nervously, but quickly caught on to the underlying message: Tae Woon didn’t want him moving out, no matter how much money he earned. Smiling knowingly, he ruffled the boy’s hair affectionately.
Where the core had been destroyed, a passage emerged, clearly marking the Eid Portal’s exit. Unlike the cosmic swirl at the portal’s entrance, the exit shimmered faintly, giving a hazy glimpse of the outside world.
Through that thin veil, Kim Sibaek saw Seo Gaeun and Yang Eunho waiting eagerly amidst Hunters hurriedly reacting to the portal’s clearance, their faces bright with anticipation.
“Let’s go.”
He reached out a hand, and only then did Tae Woon relax, staggering slightly before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion.
“Woonie! Are you alright? You’re seriously hurt, aren’t you? We need to get you treatment right away!”
This kid had been terrified of Eid Portals from the beginning because of past trauma. On top of that, he’d forced himself to fight monsters—no wonder he was completely drained.
Blaming himself for not noticing sooner, Kim Sibaek quickly lifted Tae Woon into his arms using the princess-carry method—a first-aid carrying technique he’d learned. Tae Woon weakly looped his arms around Kim Sibaek’s neck, collapsing limply against him. Kim Sibaek hurriedly moved toward the exit.
[Death and Beauty warns that exiting the Eid Portal in this position might lead to…]
But before the Divine Words fully appeared, Kim Sibaek had already passed through the exit. Reality, previously faintly visible, now solidified sharply around him.
“Hurry! Split the pillars, quickly!”
Hunters scrambled urgently, shouting orders as they rushed to deal with the Giantvine’s core.
“Tae Woon-oppa! Mentor! You’re both saf—”
Seo Gaeun’s relieved cry froze mid-sentence, her expression utterly stunned. Beside her, Yang Eunho’s mouth dropped open in silent shock. All around them, other Hunters stopped abruptly, eyes wide.
But the most bewildered person here was Kim Sibaek himself. His vision partially obscured, he felt the weight in his arms instantly more than double.
“…?!”
[Death and Beauty squeezes her eyes tightly shut.]
Naturally, as soon as they exited the Eid Portal, Tae Woon had reverted to his original thirty-five-year-old self. The princess-carry involved one arm supporting beneath the knees, and the other behind the back—meaning Kim Sibaek was now publicly carrying a fully grown man weighing nearly 0.1 tons.
The sight of Kim Sibaek emerging from the portal, holding a huge, muscular adult man in his arms, legs neatly folded, was enough to stun the hectic scene into absolute silence.
Just as Kim Sibaek was beginning to panic inwardly, Tae Woon tightened his grip around Kim Sibaek’s neck, rubbing his cheek affectionately against his shoulder.
“Oh, hyung… Seriously… You don’t have to be this public. I’m already yours. But if you insist… should we go have sex right now?”
Tae Woon’s bashful yet perfectly audible voice echoed clearly in every Hunter’s ears—and the entire scene was broadcast nationwide by a TV helicopter hovering right above them.
