Honbul: Flame of the Soul

Jaegyeom, kneeling with one knee bent, slowly lifted his head toward the sea.

“The light dwelling within the earth is my domain. Raise a barrier and defend it.”

Yoon Taehee’s eyes widened as he stared at Jaegyeom’s back.

It was the first time he had ever seen Jaegyeom create a barrier.

The method itself was completely different from the techniques used by modern gifted. Normally, barriers were constructed with talismans drawn on paper. But Jaegyeom’s method borrowed power directly from nature itself.

An ancient technique.

Only a handful of former-generation Naja had inherited it, and somewhere along the line the art had been lost. Taehee had only ever encountered it in old texts. This was the first time he had seen someone actually perform the barrier with his own eyes.

Goosebumps prickled across his skin.

He could feel the air currents changing.

Looking at the boy’s back, Taehee suddenly felt a chill crawl down his spine.

At that moment, Jaegyeom pressed his ear against the ground.

Grrrrrr...

A strange vibration had just traveled up from beneath the earth.

Sensing the faint trace of a presence, Jaegyeom frowned. He turned toward Taehee with narrowed eyes.

“Hey. What was that just now?”

Taehee furrowed his brow and tilted his head slightly.

He still had the talisman in his mouth and couldn’t answer. The moment he tried to remove it, Jaegyeom immediately stopped him.

“Don’t spit it out. If you do, the whole thing falls apart.”

The talisman Jaegyeom had drawn was meant to ward off water calamities.

A safeguard.

Taehee had said he couldn’t swim. Even if he got dragged into the sea, the talisman would at least keep him alive.

“So shut up and keep your mouth closed.”

“......”

“I’ll handle everything. Don’t move.”

After the rough warning, Jaegyeom swept his gaze around the area again. But the strange presence he had sensed was already gone.

Was I imagining it?

He blinked a few times.

And then—

The strange mermaid pretending to be Shin Jihye’s mother appeared again.

The mermaid who had vanished into the sea immediately after Jaegyeom snapped her wrist had somehow recovered completely. The arm that had bent at a grotesque angle like a broken branch now looked perfectly normal, as though nothing had ever happened.

“You humans will pay the price.”

So the rumors about mermaids possessing monstrous regenerative abilities were true.

The mermaid raised the whistle to her lips again.

The next instant, a school of silver flying fish burst from the sea.

Flap-flap-flap—

Hundreds, thousands of flying fish spiraled through the air at terrifying speed as they shot toward the two of them like blades.

Jaegyeom rose to his feet and positioned himself in front of Taehee.

Will the barrier hold?

For the first time, tension crept across his face.

Then—

The instant the swarm collided with the barrier, a curtain of light flashed through empty space.

The flying fish froze in midair as though caught against an invisible wall before ricocheting away all at once.

The strange mermaid’s lips twisted into a fishy smile.

“What strange sorcery is this?”

Something unseen was protecting them.

After hanging suspended for a moment, the flying fish began dropping to the ground in waves. The transparent barrier, woven from the power of the earth itself, absorbed and erased every impact.

Jaegyeom sucked the blood from his thumb and lowered his shoulders slightly.

There were six mermaids altogether.

Five remained floating far out at sea, impossible to approach. Meanwhile, the strange mermaid guarded the shoreline like a sentry, assisting the sea dragon’s attacks while preventing anyone from getting close to the others.

In other words, there was no way to advance across the shore.

The mermaids could not come onto land.

And they could not enter the sea.

Which meant close combat was impossible.

Then should he use talismans?

Jaegyeom’s thoughts raced.

Several long-range talisman techniques flashed through his mind, but—

“No.”

Simple attacks would not be enough. The mermaids regenerated almost instantly.

Jaegyeom’s eyes cooled as he weighed his options.

Then there was only one answer left.

Having reached a decision, he tore another sheet from his notebook.

The ordinary paper fluttering in the wind suddenly stiffened.

Spiritual force.

Without hesitation, Jaegyeom brought the sharpened edge to his wrist.

Taehee’s expression hardened.

Before he could even think, he instinctively reached out and grabbed Jaegyeom’s wrist to stop him.

“No. Don’t.”

The words came out clumsy around the talisman still lodged in his mouth, but his eyes were fierce.

“Hey. What did I tell you?”

“...What?”

Jaegyeom brushed his hand away and spoke in a low voice.

“If we can’t get close...”

The corners of his mouth curled upward.

“Then we shoot them.”

Taehee’s eyes widened.

If we can’t get close, then we shoot them.

Jaegyeom was about to draw out the bow.

Taehee’s pupils shook violently.

That strange bow he had seen once in the mountains—

No matter how he looked at it, it was not something a human being should wield.

Jaegyeom had said it was a gift from his master.

I’d rather summon all the intelligent ghosts right now...

The thought crossed Taehee’s mind.

Expose everything here. End it now. Call every intelligent ghost and wipe this place clean.

A ridiculous idea.

The sort of impulse the usual Yoon Taehee would never have entertained.

His cold reason was beginning to crack.

“I. Will. Handle. It.”

Jaegyeom looked straight at him.

“No. We made a promise.”

We protect each other.

“So stay safe.”

The square sheet of paper bit into Jaegyeom’s wrist like a blade.

His face twisted from the pain of flesh splitting open, but he did not stop. He dragged the sharpened paper deep along the inside of his arm in one clean line.

Fuck, that hurts.

The kind of pain no sane person could endure sober.

Blood poured from the deep self-inflicted wound. Jaegyeom clenched his teeth and shoved his fingers into the gash.

This much could be healed with Mesan’s medicinal water.

But he could not afford to lose too much blood.

If he bled too heavily, he would lose control. And if that happened, he would spend days unconscious afterward.

He had to end this quickly.

At last, a shabby wooden bow stained red with blood emerged from inside his arm.

Jaegyeom lightly rolled the bow in his grip.

Taehee stared at it with rigid tension.

“Yoon Taehee.”

Standing near the barrier, Jaegyeom spoke in a low voice.

“I ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) poured everything into this barrier, so don’t break it. The backlash will hurt me.”

With those brief words, he vanished.

“Jae... gyeom...”

The moment Jaegyeom leapt away barehanded, Taehee’s face stiffened.

Ignoring the warning, Taehee immediately tried to follow after him.

But the instant he took a step forward, something invisible blocked his path.

...This.

Only then did Taehee realize what Jaegyeom had meant.

Jaegyeom had intended to trap him inside the barrier from the very beginning.

The barrier drawn in blood.

The talisman written in blood.

The blood mark painted across Taehee’s forehead.

All of it was connected.

Powerful spells woven together into a single structure. If one shattered, the entire thing would collapse.

“Jaegyeom!”

Taehee slammed spiritual force against the barrier.

But the monstrous barrier did not move even slightly.

His eyes shook violently.

“Jaegyeom!”

He frantically searched for him.

But Jaegyeom had already hidden his presence and vanished into the wind.

He could not spit out the talisman.

He could not break the barrier.

The backlash would injure Jaegyeom.

He trapped me?

For the first time in his life, Yoon Taehee was seized by genuine confusion.

Where—

Where are you?

Unable to decide what to do, Taehee spread his spiritual senses wide, trying to track Jaegyeom’s presence.

Then—

Something sliced through the sky from atop the cliff.

KREEEEEEK—!

FWIP—

The arrow tore through the wind and struck the sea dragon directly in its left eye.

The sea dragon shrieked and thrashed violently.

Taehee’s eyes widened as he snapped his head toward the cliff.

“Whe... re...”

Far above, at the edge of the cliff, the boy stood with the bowstring drawn all the way back to his chin.

“Shit. That didn’t work.”

Jaegyeom frowned, one eye narrowed shut.

“This thing... why...”

Startled by the sea dragon’s scream, the strange mermaid whipped around with wide eyes.

“How dare you challenge a spirit beast—!”

Physical spiritual force alone could not wound it.

That was why Jaegyeom had gambled on the bow.

And his judgment had been half right.

The sea dragon writhed in pain, its form briefly flickering unstable, but the chanting of the mermaids quickly restored it. The creature gathered strength again and slowly raised its sagging body.

“Ch-change the scripture! Borrow the sea god’s name—!”

The mermaid shouted frantically toward the other five.

But before she could finish—

“Ugh!”

An arrow suddenly tore through the air and pierced her shoulder.

The mermaid crashed into the sea with a splash.

“One down.”

From the beginning, Jaegyeom’s target had never been the sea dragon.

“That’s enough warming up.”

The boy’s eyes gleamed as he drew the bowstring again.

“It’s been a while since I went hunting.”