Chapter 137

Chapter 137. The Butcher, No. 3 (3)

“Then I’ll be taking this!”

No. 3 reached out with his left hand and violently ripped the Philosopher’s Stone out of Victoria’s chest.

The connected blood vessels tore apart, sending blood spraying like a fountain.

“Ah...”

Having lost her heart in an instant, Victoria could only let out a faint groan.

No. 3 clenched the Philosopher’s Stone in his left hand and glared at Yukgap.

“All right.”

“Now you’re the only one left.”

Even after leaving Victoria’s body, the Philosopher’s Stone continued to pulse.

If I get that back, I can save Victoria.

The instant Yukgap realized that, he roared and charged toward No. 3.

“Give that back right now!”

“You think I’ll hand it over just because you asked?”

“Alpha personally ordered me to bring this... Aaaaaagh!”

A tearing scream suddenly burst from No. 3’s mouth.

For some reason, the left hand holding the Philosopher’s Stone had turned black and was crumbling apart.

“You... dared to touch a lady’s chest without permission...”

Victoria slowly raised her head, blood running from her mouth.

Even though the Philosopher’s Stone that served as her heart had been ripped out, she seemed to be keeping herself conscious through sheer willpower.

“What did you do to me?”

No. 3 asked in terror.

Victoria grabbed hold of the Philosopher’s Stone he was carrying and shouted,

“The Philosopher’s Stone can reconstruct anything it touches into a complete form.”

“And it can do the exact opposite too!”

Red sparks burst in every direction.

The instant they touched No. 3, his right arm began collapsing until its original shape was almost impossible to recognize.

No. 3 stared at his arm disintegrating before his eyes and screamed without pause.

“Aaaaaaaaaagh!”

“Break down at the atomic level!”

Victoria activated the Philosopher’s Stone with every bit of strength she had.

In the blink of an eye, No. 3 lost his right arm.

He howled in agony.

“It hurts!”

“It huuurrts!”

“Why isn’t it regenerating?!”

An Archon could recover from torn flesh or broken bones within seconds.

Even a severed limb should ordinarily regenerate like a lizard’s.

But for some reason, his disintegrated arm did not return.

Worse, the area being destroyed continued to spread alongside the horrifying pain.

“Because I used the Philosopher’s Stone’s reconstruction ability to stop your regeneration!”

Victoria shouted with wide eyes.

Apparently, she had interfered directly with No. 3’s body through the Philosopher’s Stone.

“Now!”

Yukgap immediately realized No. 3 had weakened and rushed in.

He raised his dagger and slashed rapidly across No. 3’s shoulder.

“Ghk!”

No. 3 let out a short groan.

His left arm, which had already been crumbling from contact with the Philosopher’s Stone, dropped helplessly to the ground.

Victoria, who had been trapped in his grasp, fell forward as well.

“What are you going to do now?”

Yukgap held his dagger ready and warned him.

“Your regeneration has stopped.”

“If you keep fighting, you’ll die!”

No. 3 clutched his ruined body and glared at Yukgap.

“Alpha said you would return to us.”

With those words, No. 3 suddenly leaped away and fled toward the mountainside.

As he rapidly disappeared into the nearby hills, he shouted like a roaring beast,

“We’ll meet again soon!”

Once No. 3 disappeared, Yukgap immediately rushed to Victoria.

Fortunately, the Philosopher’s Stone had fallen nearby and was still glowing red.

Victoria lay limp on the ground, blood spilling from her body.

“Victoria!”

“Are you okay?”

Victoria looked at Yukgap and struggled to move her lips.

“I... I...!”

“Don’t lose consciousness!”

“I...!”

Victoria gasped for breath, repeating the same words.

Yukgap desperately picked up the fallen Philosopher’s Stone and pushed it back into Victoria’s chest.

It had only been out for a short time.

He thought that if he put it back, Victoria would surely recover.

After all, she had demonstrated monstrous physical abilities countless times before.

But perhaps because the stone had already been completely torn free, Victoria showed no sign of recovering.

“Damn it!”

“What am I supposed to do?!”

Yukgap, covered in blood, grabbed at his own head in panic.

Victoria forced herself to speak.

“Yuk... gap...!”

Yukgap supported her and desperately tried to reassure her.

“Don’t talk!”

“You’ll be fine!”

“I’m... an ordinary... person...!”

Victoria forced the words out with the last of her strength.

Then her eyes slowly closed.

The warmth began draining from her body.

Only the Philosopher’s Stone continued to pulse softly inside her chest.

“...”

Still in his Archon form, Yukgap walked forward with heavy steps.

It was late, and fortunately there was no one on the road.

Perhaps that was for the best.

“Ch-Changi?”

His mother was pacing in front of the house in the distance.

Apparently, she had been waiting all this time in case he returned.

Robert was still lying broken in the alley.

Yukgap let out a long breath and slowly raised his head toward his mother.

“Eek!”

As expected, the sight of his cheetah-like form made her recoil in horror.

He had expected that.

“Honey, calm down.”

His father spoke in a trembling voice.

“That’s our son.”

Even like this, could he still recognize him?

“Changi?”

“Is that really you?”

Only then did his mother realize that the monstrous being before her was Yukgap.

He looked at both of them and forced himself to speak.

“Mother. Father.”

“The truth is... I became a monster.”

He had wanted to hide it until the very end.

What parent could easily accept that their missing son had returned as a chimera, something neither fully human nor beast?

But now was the time to tell them.

“I’m sorry I can’t explain everything.”

“But as you can see, I’m not human anymore.”

“While I was gone, experiments were performed on me and I became like this.”

“I didn’t want it, but... I killed many people too.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

His mother’s voice trembled.

She slowly approached and grabbed Yukgap’s fur-covered arm.

Then she pleaded,

“I don’t care what you look like.”

“You’re still my son.”

“So come inside, okay?”

“You must be hungry.”

“...I can’t stay.”

Yukgap stepped backward.

Confusion crossed his mother’s face.

“Why?”

“There’s someone precious to me who helped me after I became like this.”

“She’s badly hurt.”

“I have to help her.”

His mother asked through tears,

“Is that friend more important than us?”

“Do you know how much we missed you?”

The guilt nearly tore Yukgap apart.

The family he had longed for so desperately was crying because of him.

He lowered his head and made a promise with no certain date.

“She’s as precious to me as family.”

“I’ll help her.”

“And then I promise I’ll come back.”

Yukgap bent down and picked up Robert’s broken head from where it lay nearby.

“Robert.”

“Let’s go.”

[Where are we going?]

Robert asked through weak mechanical beeps.

Yukgap held his head carefully against his chest.

“Victoria is badly hurt.”

“We need to go home.”

Robert asked flatly,

[Did you not find your family?]

There were many emotions hidden inside the question.

Yukgap started to answer.

Then stopped.

At last, he forced out a short, heavy sentence.

“Victoria is my family too.”

At that moment, a sharp shout came from the house.

“Don’t ever come back, you monster!”

It was Chana.

Thanks to Victoria, she had apparently made it home safely.

A bandage was wrapped around her head, but she did not seem badly injured.

“Chana?”

“Don’t call me in my brother’s voice!”

“My brother is dead!”

The moment she said it, Yukgap remembered the grave he had seen earlier.

A grave bearing his own name.

Could that really have been a coincidence?

“Th-That...”

Yukgap tried to speak, but faltered.

Chana ignored him and turned furiously toward their parents.

“Mom! Dad! What is wrong with you?”

“Oppa is dead!”

“We saw the body!”

“We buried him on that mountain!”

“Did you already forget?!”

Then Chana stared at Yukgap with trembling eyes.

Shock.

Disgust.

And an instinctive fear toward something alien.

“My brother is dead.”

She emphasized each word, as though confirming the fact for herself.

“You... wearing my brother’s face...”

“What are you?”

She was looking at him exactly as one would look at a monster.

Yukgap raised his head and stared into the dark night sky.

“I don’t know.”

No. 6, one of Abraxas’s Twelve Archons.

Yukgap, the chef of Restaurant Shelley.

Kim Changi, the mercenary who had disappeared.

All of those names pointed to him.

All of them were him.

And yet none of them felt strong enough to anchor his identity.

“What am I?”

He murmured the question through the chaos in his mind.

Then he clenched his teeth.

“But right now, I have something I need to do.”

Holding Robert tightly, Yukgap ran down the dark alley.

His parents called desperately after him.

But Yukgap did not look back.

He forced himself to ignore them.

For now, he knew only one thing.

Victoria had helped him.

Now it was his turn to help Victoria.

That was all he needed to act.

“Why did you call me out this late?”

“You could have paid for the kimchi tomorrow.”

Seryun arrived at Restaurant Shelley late at night after receiving Yukgap’s call, openly displaying his irritation.

Yukgap greeted him with an exhausted expression.

“Sorry.”

“You were the only person I could think of calling.”

Then he pointed deeper into the restaurant.

Victoria lay there with her eyes closed, blood staining the area around her heart.

There was no warmth or vitality in her face.

Seryun immediately realized something serious had happened.

“What happened?”

Instead of answering, Yukgap slowly raised the object in his hands.

A glittering stone pulsing with a red glow like a burning sunset.

He held it out to Seryun.

“Do you know what this is?”