Chapter 135. The Butcher, No. 3 (1)
“An Archon?”
For a moment, Yukgap thought he had misheard.
Why in the world would one of Abraxas’s Archons appear all the way out here in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province?
[That... is correct...]
At least Robert did not seem to be lying.
Yukgap forced himself to stay calm and quickly asked,
“Where’s Victoria?”
[Over there... on the mountain behind the village... near the cemetery...]
Robert forced the words out in a voice that sounded ready to cut off at any moment.
He seemed to be holding on through sheer determination to protect his master, Victoria.
“Don’t worry.”
“I’m going right now.”
Yukgap immediately prepared to run.
He had no idea why an Archon had appeared here, but if one had, Victoria was in danger.
“What’s wrong?”
His mother, sensing something serious, cautiously asked.
Yukgap forced an awkward smile and gave a vague explanation.
“Something happened to the friend who came with me.”
“I need to go check on her.”
“Don’t go.”
His mother grabbed him desperately.
Yukgap faltered.
“What do you mean...?”
“It was the same back then.”
“You said you’d finish your work and come right back.”
“But days became months.”
“Months became years.”
“And now I finally found you.”
“I finally got you back...”
Her face was filled with pure fear.
She seemed terrified that the son who had finally returned might disappear forever again.
But Yukgap could not simply abandon Victoria.
“I’ll be right back this time.”
“Trust me.”
With those words, Yukgap accelerated.
His body instantly became a brief afterimage and melted into the surrounding scenery.
Behind him came a cry that sounded almost like a scream.
“Changiiiiii!”
Yukgap clenched his teeth when he heard it.
His chest felt as though it were being torn apart.
But right now, Victoria came first.
It did not take long for him to reach the mountain behind the village.
Normally, it would have been an ordinary wooded hill.
Now, however, explosion marks covered the area.
The acrid smell of gunpowder hung in the air.
Something serious had clearly happened here.
“What the hell happened?”
Yukgap stared around in confusion.
As though waiting for him, a familiar voice came from beyond the darkness.
“You’re late, No. 6!”
A blue-eyed man with short platinum-blond hair walked out from the far side of the mountain.
He wore only a thin shirt and jeans, and the lightly tanned muscles of his upper body showed clearly beneath the fabric.
If not for his cocky posture, he could almost have passed for a fashion model.
Yukgap knew that face well.
“No. 3.”
“Gamma.”
The man called No. 3 grinned playfully.
“Oh?”
“You still call me that?”
Yukgap immediately demanded,
“What are you doing here?”
No. 3 answered as though it were nothing.
“Alpha gave me an order.”
“She told me to bring back some red, shining stone.”
“What stone?”
“Uh... what was it called again...?”
He briefly looked blank.
Then an unfamiliar term finally came from his mouth.
“The Philosopher’s Stone.”
No. 3 nodded to himself.
“Right.”
“The Philosopher’s Stone.”
“Alpha told me to bring it back.”
“Why would you look for that here?”
Yukgap was dumbfounded.
The Philosopher’s Stone was a legendary substance to begin with.
And why would anyone search for it in some mountain in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province?
“Because the Philosopher’s Stone is here!”
No. 3 answered confidently.
Apparently, he did not question Alpha’s orders in the slightest.
Talking to him any longer would only make Yukgap more tired.
He got straight to the point.
“What did you do to Victoria?”
“Victoria?”
“You mean that blonde alchemist who took you in?”
No. 3 grinned.
“She’s pretty cute. Totally my type.”
“I’ve got to say, I’m jealous.”
“You desert and get to live with a gorgeous woman like that?”
Yukgap finally snapped.
“Shut up and answer me!”
No. 3’s eyes gleamed.
“Well.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
For an instant, his irises flashed gold.
At the same time, his upper and lower body twisted and expanded.
Orange fur spread across him.
Black stripes rose along his spine and waist.
His jaw pushed forward as razor-sharp fangs emerged.
No. 3 slowly straightened.
The shadow of a predator spread across the ground.
He looked like an enormous tiger standing on two legs.
“If you want to know...”
“Come find out with force.”
His voice carried a low growl.
Perhaps because he was a chimera fused with a tiger, just hearing him speak made Yukgap’s limbs feel cold.
“Exactly what I wanted!”
Yukgap gripped a dagger in each hand and released his own beast form.
His skeleton shifted.
Bright yellow fur covered his body.
The main differences between him and No. 3 were the spotted pattern on his body and his slightly smaller frame.
“Grrrrrrrr...!”
“Grrrrrrrr...!”
Perhaps because they were both feline chimeras, the two instinctively growled at one another in warning.
Then Yukgap shot forward.
“You’re coming first?”
No. 3 hurriedly moved to intercept him.
But Yukgap was much faster.
“Too slow.”
“Too slow, too slow, too slow, too slow too slow too sloooooow!”
Yukgap’s body became a brief afterimage and vanished into the scenery.
Daggers flashed from every direction and crashed into No. 3’s body.
It looked as though a wave made of blades had swallowed him whole.
Yukgap cut him, disappeared, then cut him again.
Again and again.
No. 3 could do little more than swallow his cries.
“Y-You...!”
He desperately tried to defend himself.
But to Yukgap, his movements were slow enough to make him yawn.
“How many times do I have to tell you?”
“You Extermination Team bastards are too damn slow!”
No. 3 staggered backward under the continued assault.
He breathed heavily.
“True.”
“It’s impossible to follow someone who breaks the sound barrier with my eyes.”
No. 3 reached behind himself.
Then he pulled a thick longsword more than a meter in length from the luggage strapped to his back.
Its blade gleamed even in the darkness.
“But you’re not the only one who received an ultrasonic monomolecular cutter.”
“The difference is that mine is shaped like a longsword so it’s easier to swing!”
No. 3 slammed the weapon into the ground.
Thoom.
The blade began vibrating rapidly.
“The role Abraxas gave me is the Butcher.”
He raised the longsword and charged at Yukgap.
“Alpha ordered me not to kill you.”
“But I can still cut off your arms and legs so you can’t resist.”
Yukgap scoffed.
“You think you can do that with that slow body of yours?”
“That was never the important part.”
No. 3 grinned.
“If I keep swinging this thing around long enough...”
“Something is bound to get cut!”
He began wildly swinging the vibrating longsword.
Every time the blade struck the ground, vibrations spread through the area and erupted into enormous shockwaves.
The earth split apart.
Clouds of dust shot upward.
“That bastard!”
Yukgap quickly retreated to avoid the shockwaves.
No. 3, meanwhile, continued swinging like a madman.
“Gahahahaha!”
“Get cut!”
“Get cut!”
“Everything, get cut apart!”
At this point, No. 3 seemed less interested in Yukgap than in completely destroying the surrounding area.
Shockwaves from his sword blasted in every direction.
“Damn it!”
Yukgap quickly fled higher up the mountain before he got caught in the aftermath.
Then, from beyond the brush in the distance, a familiar voice called out.
“Yukgap! Over here!”
Victoria.
She was crouched inside a hollow where bent bushes cast deep shadows.
Yukgap stared in shock.
“Victoria?”
“What are you doing there?”
“I was hiding.”
“Your sister was attacked by the Archon and passed out.”
Just as she said, Chana was lying unconscious beside her with blood running from her head.
Yukgap’s heart dropped.
“Is she okay?”
“Don’t worry.”
“She only hit her head a little when she fell from the shock.”
“There’s no serious external injury.”
Victoria hurriedly reassured him.
Only then did Yukgap let out a relieved breath.
“You managed to avoid being found?”
Victoria’s eyes turned sad.
“Robert bought us time.”
“At the end, he set off a large amount of explosives and erased our scent completely.”
“That’s probably why the Archon couldn’t find us.”
So that explained the heavy smell of gunpowder hanging in the air when Yukgap arrived.
It was fortunate.
But if they stayed here too long, they would still be in danger.
“Either way, it’s dangerous to stay.”
“Run while I keep him busy.”
“But I won’t be able to hold him for long.”
Victoria looked surprised.
“Is that Archon really that strong?”
“His intelligence is almost as bad as No. 9’s.”
“But his destructive power is top-class even among the Twelve Archons.”
“He was created for large-scale slaughter, not assassination.”
No. 3 belonged to the Extermination Team, built to fight entire armies rather than kill single targets.
Most of his abilities were concentrated into raw strength.
His destructive power was exceptional.
“I did notice he was swinging that weird sword around like a lunatic.”
Victoria remembered the earlier attack.
Yukgap explained,
“No. 3’s overtechnology weapon is the same type as mine.”
“An ultrasonic monomolecular cutter.”
“The difference is that his is shaped like a longsword, so it can amplify vibration and create large-scale impacts.”
Yukgap’s own ultrasonic monomolecular cutter was shaped like a dagger.
That made it easy to carry, but it had little physical weight of its own.
No. 3’s weapon was different.
Because it was a massive longsword, even a slight impact could make it vibrate at high speed and unleash tremendous force across the surrounding area.
Combined with No. 3’s absurd physical strength, it allowed him to devastate everything around him as though butchering it.
Victoria naturally became curious.
“Then why is someone like that here?”
“No idea.”
“He said he came looking for the Philosopher’s Stone.”
“That?”
“Here?”
Victoria looked just as baffled.
Yukgap answered flatly,
“Anyway, I’ll buy time.”
“Take care of my sister.”
“Got it.”
Victoria carefully lifted the unconscious Chana onto her back.
The impact must have been significant.
Chana gave only a faint groan and still did not regain consciousness.
