# Chapter 70
Right after Seo Jaeyoon left, Yumaro heard a dog barking among the dust and screams. Like how parents are sensitive to their child’s call, Yumaro, who raised dogs, heard the familiar sound despite the chaos.
Sure enough, he saw a dog in the distance. The dog was barking sadly, unable to escape as if its leash was caught. Yumaro stretched out his hand to use telekinesis, but the distance was too far to reach.
“Damn, it’s too far.”
Fortunately, after Kwon Haeil’s flames continued a few more times, the missile attacks seemed to stop, and the golden turtle’s movements had slowed down. Thinking there was enough time, Yumaro ran out of the building. He kept stretching his hand, trying to make his telekinetic power reach faster, but even when he got quite close, it didn’t work.
‘What? Did I already use up all my mana?’
After running with shaking legs, he couldn’t even move a single dog, which made him frustrated. Seo Jaeyoon, who was in worse shape than him, had managed to blow up incoming missiles. He couldn’t accept that his abilities were lacking compared to him.
“Why isn’t this working?!”
With Yumaro’s anger, surrounding objects suddenly rose all at once. The power that spread precisely to the area around the dog seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
“What….”
It was Joo Dojoon’s defensive barrier. Yumaro’s power couldn’t work beyond the barrier.
Kyun Jiho had crossed this barrier many times, yet his own power couldn’t pass through. A feeling of inadequacy started to rise, but instead, he gained confidence in how sturdy the barrier was. He even felt grateful that the barrier was protecting not just people but also the dog.
However, if the golden turtle kept advancing, it would be difficult to protect everyone, even with barriers and evacuations.
Yumaro recalled what Seo Jaeyoon had said before leaving.
‘He said the weak point is the heart inside the shell, right?’
Yumaro used telekinesis on his own body and instantly floated into the air. Although using power on himself caused more psychological resistance and consumed more mana than handling objects, he quickly rose to his desired position.
When he stepped on the golden turtle’s back, it was so solid that it felt stable.
“The heart must be where the magical power is strongest?”
Although Yumaro had never seen the golden turtle’s heart, he could vaguely guess where the strongest mana was being emitted. However, just as his power couldn’t work inside the barrier, it couldn’t reach through the thick shell where mana was flowing.
‘It’s okay. I just need to tear it off.’
Seeing the turtle’s body tilted meant that the barrier beneath his feet was still solid. The abilities of the first-generation S-class Esper were reliable. Of course, it would break soon, but it was still holding up well.
“Hurry up and work.”
Yumaro quickly poured out his power. At first, he tried to remove a piece of the shell, but when it didn’t budge at all, he changed his strategy to widen the gaps between pieces. The idea was to separate tissue from tissue, and if there was a small crack, to tear it from there.
In his urgency, the mana he poured out instantly created a very tiny gap. If there had been no reaction at all, he would have given up, but seeing a tiny fragment the size of a fingernail fly into the air gave him hope.
The headache that grew worse with each use of his power now felt like his head was being squeezed. His trembling legs gave way without him even noticing.
He had used all his strength, more than he could remember ever using at once. Fragments continued to fly up.
‘Just a little more. Just a little.’
Even though he felt he had already exceeded his limits, he couldn’t stop once he confirmed it was working. He pushed in his power as if drawing it from the bottom. It was a crude method, but a sticky liquid flowed out from the thinly split gap in the shell.
Yumaro was surprised at the quicker-than-expected result.
“I-is this working?”
He couldn’t believe it even after doing it himself. When he shook his head to dust off the dirt covering him, a nosebleed suddenly poured out.
This was the first time he had experienced this while using his power, so he was confused, but seeing cracks in the solid shell and what looked like blood flowing out gave him hope. However, Yumaro was greatly shocked to see the liquid filling the gaps as it flowed out.
“W-what’s happening?”
He panicked, wondering if it could self-heal. Quickly removing the liquid with telekinesis, it flowed out again and filled the crack.
“Let’s see who wins… ugh!”
Yumaro suddenly felt nauseous and couldn’t hold back, throwing up right there. A bright red blood clot fell to the ground. Extreme fatigue made it difficult to move even a finger, followed by pain that felt like his entire body was burning.
“Aaagh! Aaaagh!”
In pain that burned his insides, Yumaro didn’t even know he was screaming.
The thought crossed his mind that this might be the runaway symptom they learned about during training, but the unbearable pain that followed made it impossible to think anything.
* * *
Jaeyoon, who had easily climbed onto the golden turtle’s back, found Yumaro rolling on the ground, paying the price for overusing his power.
“Aaagh! Aaaagh!”
Jaeyoon discovered traces where the shell near Yumaro had been destroyed and then restored. Yumaro, who had accomplished this much in such a short time, was truly worthy of his A-class ranking, but the result was meaningless because he didn’t know that the liquid needed to be burned with fire to stop it.
“Why did you do this alone….”
“It hurts! Agh! Aaagh!”
Yumaro’s condition was serious. He wouldn’t immediately become a bomb, but if left like this, his mana would tangle faster due to the pain, making his condition irreversible.
Watching Yumaro tear at his own clothes from the pain, Jaeyoon took out medicine he always carried. It was a drug that would put him in a suspended state, something he had kept to take himself if he couldn’t endure until the end. He forcibly fed it to Yumaro.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Sleep for a while. This will only accelerate the runaway otherwise.”
“What is… this…”
Yumaro couldn’t finish his words and passed out with his face still contorted. The potion, difficult to obtain during this period, made Yumaro fall into sleep instead of pain.
Beep.
Fortunately, the communication device responded, as if the unknown communication restriction had been lifted. Jaeyoon continued giving the necessary instructions to resolve the situation.
“Kyun Jiho, move toward me with Joo Dojoon. Kwon Haeil, burn the hydra and gather all Espers.”
With Yumaro retired, they had lost one major attack method. He needed to quickly deal with the lower-level magical beasts he had handed over for the second-generation Espers to gain experience, and then have everyone cling to the shell.
“Brother, don’t you think we should carry separate radios? It’s really inconvenient when the communication devices go dead.”
Jaeyoon didn’t respond to Jiho’s complaints as he appeared. Instead, he continued giving instructions to Dojoon who had come along.
“Joo Dojoon, put a barrier around Yumaro and go to the isolation room with Kyun Jiho.”
“This person’s arms and shoulders look burned. Aren’t we going to treat him?”
“It’s one of the symptoms of an impending runaway, so treatment is meaningless. But I’ve bought time by putting him in a suspended state, so guiding will be prepared for you at the isolation room.”
“This will cut off both defense and movement. Is it okay for both of us to leave?”
“The golden turtle moves slowly, and we can manage a few minutes without a barrier. Here we need attack power more than defense, so you two should go to the Association… Hyung?”
Jaeyoon, who was answering Dojoon’s question while examining the fallen Yumaro and the cracks in the shell, was surprised to see his brother’s pale face when he looked up. He didn’t know why his brother was here, but there wasn’t anything problematic or something he shouldn’t see. However, seeing his brother’s serious face made him feel like he needed to explain.
“I’ll be back quickly. Sunbae, don’t guide anyone else. It makes me jealous.”
Jiho jokingly spoke to Jaeha to lighten the mood. Before Jaeha could answer, Jiho disappeared with the others, and soon Haeil appeared with heat radiating from his body, naturally drawing everyone’s attention.
“There appear to be no other dangers nearby.”
It was clear that Haeil had returned after showing enough firepower to completely incinerate the hydra in one go, without Jaeyoon needing to ask. Moreover, Haeil was holding a one-time use item that had been stored at the Association. Jaeyoon’s lips curled up as he received something that looked like intertwined vines made of iron.
“The Association Chairman must not have wanted to give this out.”
“That’s why there’s a bonus attached.”
As Haeil said, among the Espers who had barely managed to reach the shell following him was a civilian with a camera. The Association Chairman was someone who would blatantly focus on publicity in any situation if he thought it would help promote the Association.
Since it was a matter of intertwined interests, Jaeyoon ignored it. He needed to solve the immediate problem first.
The item he had received this time could amplify mana to draw out more than double one’s original power, but it was a one-time use item that would corrode if used beyond a certain amount. Additionally, due to its property of trying to drain all the mana from its wearer, it could lead to a runaway state if not careful.
It was dangerous in many ways, but nothing was better in a crisis. It was fortunate to have it in this period.
Originally, he had planned to give it to Yumaro to use along with Haeil’s fire. Of course, he intended to destroy the item if necessary to prevent a runaway. But given the situation now, the most suitable person among those remaining was himself.
“The outer shell is the toughest and most difficult, so I’ll break it quickly with maximum output. Tell the second-generation Espers to keep attacking the same spot, whether using their abilities or mana-infused weapons.”
“Understood.”
When Jaeyoon infused mana into the item in his hand, the vines unwound as if they had been waiting and greedily wrapped around his arm, as if trying to devour it.
Unlike the Espers who were exclaiming how cool it looked, Jaeha, who was watching, was worried about that strange thing attaching to his brother’s arm.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
