Various yokai(spirits) surrounded Taeseong, watching him intently.
A two-headed snake, a skull as large as a house, a woman in a kimono, a creature with an elongated neck and a single, glaring eye in its center, a fox with two tails, and a massive spider—each of them conversed as if appraising their prey.
[Sniff, sniff. It smells strange.]
[An unfamiliar scent… What is this? Food?]
[I like males. I’ll eat him. I want to mate.]
[Yokai?]
Taeseong drew Hoirang from his subspace and swung his sword forward.
Swoosh!
A straight blade aura extended outward, splitting open the chests of the surrounding yokai with a sharp crack. Green liquid gushed in all directions.
[Hiiik!]
At the same time, Wairang leaped out from Taeseong’s shadow, expanding its body as it rampaged. With each swipe of its massive front paws, the smaller yokai were torn apart like paper.
“Devour them all.”
Crunch!
Crack.
Like a fish in water, the otherworldly wolf enjoyed in the carnage. Some yokai, oblivious to the situation until now, finally cowered in fear. However, among them, a few emanating powerful yokai energy flashed their eyes and lunged forward.
[You fools! Consuming him is the only way to become stronger!]
[I-I will prove myself too!]
They believed that by devouring him, they could take one step closer to the great yokai dwelling deeper within the Sea of Trees.
Jukai Forest.
For yokai, this place was their home. Since a human had willingly walked in, it was practically the same as prey rolling straight into their mouths.
“So noisy.”
Taeseong shattered the skulls of two reckless yokai that had charged at him. Then, as he fully unleashed the aura of Dueokshin, the lower-ranked yokai instinctively shrank back in fear.
[R-Run!]
[…Strange scent. Kill him. We must not let him enter deeper.]
[S-Strong yokai energy! He’s not human! He’s a yokai!]
[Move! I will eat him! I must grow stronger!]
Above the heads of the weaker yokai, skull-shaped figures manifested.
Crunch.
As the authority of Dueokshin activated, the heads of the terrified yokai were instantly crushed.
By now, even the stronger yokai recognized that something was amiss. What they thought was easy prey had turned out to be the real predator.
The quick-witted ones bolted without a second thought.
But Taeseong did not hesitate. Every time Hoirang unleashed its blade aura, dozens of yokai were reduced to chunks of flesh, while the terrified ones had their heads burst open.
Behind him, Wairang growled and gave chase. The long-awaited feast had left it in a state of excitement.
It was a massacre.
Among the slain yokai, some were classified as Gamma-grade entities, yet in front of Taeseong, they were all just equal slabs of meat.
[A monster! He’s a monster!]
[A great yokai! A great yokai has appeared!]
[We must inform the elders!]
Even the stronger yokai, who had once boasted their might in this region, were now utterly helpless.
As the yokai, once gathered like an army of ants, scattered in all directions, Taeseong turned his gaze. He knew they would take care of themselves without his interference.
“……”
Taeseong looked at the eerie, menacing energy radiating from the blade and smirked in satisfaction.
‘Its power is truly fearsome.’
The sword possessed exceptional cutting power. Even without channeling energy into it, it was as sharp as if he had. Naturally, when he did infuse it with energy, its effects were multiplied several times over.
Even a mere novice could cut through stone with it, and in the hands of a skilled warrior, it could slice through mountains with ease.
‘To think that just a single fang could create such a weapon.’
Once again, Taeseong was reminded of the sheer presence that Primordial Wolf had possessed.
After clearing his surroundings, Taeseong plucked a core from one of the yokai corpses and swallowed it.
“It tastes like rotten wood.”
Even now, Taeseong continued to grow stronger. However, since most of these yokai were nothing but small fry, he couldn’t feel any dramatic change.
“Who are they calling a monster?”
From a distance, Wairang approached, a half-crushed yokai head dangling from its maw. It wagged its tail in satisfaction, clearly pleased with its meal. Taeseong reached out and petted its head.
The creature rolled onto its back, still chewing on the remains, and let out a satisfied crunch.
To Taeseong, it was cute. But if another human were here, they would have been horrified by the scene.
“You’ve gotten stronger than before.”
Perhaps it was because Wairang had devoured some yokai during the battle. The energy it emitted was noticeably more potent. Now that he thought about it, the creature seemed to share his ability to grow stronger through consumption.
After letting out a loud burp, Wairang slipped back into Taeseong’s shadow.
To an outsider, it might have seemed even more terrifying than the yokai in this place, but to Taeseong, it was just a slightly oversized dog.
“If the entrance was already like this… the deeper areas must be complete chaos.”
Jukai Forest felt like a realm entirely separate from the outside world. Even from above, the immense spiritual energy had been overwhelming. But now that he was inside, he could feel a constant, watching presence from deep within.
Even in the midst of battle, Taeseong found himself distracted by it.
It didn’t feel hostile.
‘That thing’ had simply been there from the beginning. Its mere existence radiated an overwhelming presence that stung his heightened senses.
The only reason its presence stood out was that it was far more dominant. Throughout this massive forest, there were many others emitting slightly weaker, yet still formidable, energy signatures.
A forest of suicides.
This place was…
A land of ghosts.
This vast forest was their domain, their homeland.
“I need to hurry.”
The constant crying of spirits, the thick spiritual energy seeping from all directions, the occasional appearance of grotesque specters—
And the ominous scent of fear growing stronger in the deepest part of the forest gnawed at his mind.
Who knew how long that thing had been nesting here?
For ordinary people, merely stepping foot into this place would drive them insane.
Even Taeseong, with his supernatural mental fortitude, felt as if his senses were being distorted just by existing here. If he was feeling this, how much worse must it be for the other administrators?
The longer they remained, the more disadvantaged humans would become.
Because this forest… belonged to them.
With these thoughts in mind, Taeseong walked for another twenty minutes.
The deeper he went, the thicker the darkness became. He used Pure Flame to illuminate his surroundings.
A mystical sight, reminiscent of will-o’-the-wisps.
A lone flame glowing amidst a sea of spiritual energy—it was beautiful in its solitude.
Then—
Taeseong suddenly stopped.
His keen eyesight had spotted someone in the distance.
A woman with snow-white hair, reminiscent of the legendary Snow Woman.
As he identified her, his expression gradually twisted in confusion.
“Yukina…?”
Sooah’s mentor. The head of the Japanese branch’s administration.
A Beta-grade administrator who had been reported dead.
Yet here she was, staring back at him with an eerily calm expression.
Screams echoed from all directions.
Cries filled with agony and murmurs steeped in despair, as if resigned to everything, rang out without pause.
“Uwaaaaaah! My eyes… I can’t see! Someone, help me! F***! I can’t see anything! What the hell, my eyeballs… Where are my eyeballs?!”
A manager with empty eye sockets swung his hands in the air, trembling.
“Kkyeeeek! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts so much! Please, save me. Please, I was wrong. I won’t do it again. Aaaagh! Ah, just kill me. My arms… please….”
A manager with a hole in his chest pleaded in pain before taking his own life.
“Hiiiiiik! Damn it. We should never have come here! We should never have signed up for this mission! You worthless bastards. No matter how much we struggle, we’re all going to die anyway!”
A manager with both arms severed screamed in resignation as he watched the yokai gather to feast on his flesh.
“Mom! Mom! I’m scared! I don’t want to die like this… Please… Ah… Save me, Mom….”
A yokai that had just finished devouring a corpse mimicked the manager’s voice, calling out for his mother.
It was a scene straight out of hell.
More than half of the 300 managers deployed for this mission had already died. The yokai residing in Jukai Forest were far stronger than initially expected.
Even the lowest-ranked yokai could easily overpower high-ranking Epsilon managers, while the lower-tier ones required at least two Delta-ranked managers to handle.
To make matters worse, as time passed, the forest’s demonic energy only grew stronger, causing the managers to fall into mental instability, while the yokai themselves became even more powerful.
‘Bringing this level of force into Jukai Forest was a miscalculation from the start. And the moment we lost a Beta-ranked manager during the mission, our defeat was sealed.’
Only 150 members remained alive.
Even then, more than a third of them had just been wiped out in this area.
Now, there were only two Beta-ranked managers left.
‘If we want to increase our chances of survival, we must regroup with the main force where the Beta-ranked managers are.’
Due to consecutive ambushes, Team 7, which included Lee Eunha’s group, had become isolated from the main unit.
Teams 6 and 9, who had been traveling alongside them just moments ago, had long since been reduced to nothing more than a meal for the swarming yokai.
“D-Director! Those people…!”
“Oh Haeyoung! Don’t look back! Just run!”
It was a cruel thing to say, but if they wanted to increase their chances of survival, they had no choice but to keep running.
At least some of them had to make it out alive.
Lee Eunha gripped Oh Haeyoung’s blood-soaked hand tightly and ran with all her strength. Leading the way, Yu Gi-jun used telekinesis to assist them.
“Hurry up! If we stop, we’re all dead.”
Their bodies moved faster.
But they couldn’t afford to relax. Yokai were closing in from every direction, even now.
“Deputy Leader!”
Go Yeonghui, who was grinning despite the situation, pulled the triggers of the twin pistols she held in both hands.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The head of the yokai lunging at Lee Eunha burst apart.
The power of her unique ability, which allowed her to manifest weapons based on her emotions, was immense. The stronger her emotions, the more powerful her weapons became.
And right now, the emotion fueling her was pure terror.
“Just a little more!”
About 200 meters ahead, a large cave came into view.
‘At this rate, there’s no end to them.’
Lee Eunha quickly decided that their best option was to enter the cave and seal off the entrance.
Regrouping with the main force was important, but their priority was survival.
“Everyone, get inside that cave!”
Yu Gi-jun, who had reached the cave first, provided cover for the approaching team members.
Crunch!
With each clench of his fist, the heads of the yokai chasing them shattered like tofu.
Overexerting himself, Gi-jun was now bleeding from his nose, panting heavily.
“Haa… Haa… Hurry.”
As the last to enter, Lee Eunha tore a page from her sketchbook and flung it into the air.
At that moment, a massive Japanese gate manifested at the cave entrance.
The gate was covered in countless talismans, filling the entrance completely.
Perhaps because of that, the yokai that had been relentlessly pursuing them suddenly lost interest and began to retreat.
Sighing in relief, Lee Eunha checked on the others.
“Phew… Is everyone okay?”
Fortunately, no one had sustained serious injuries.
Everyone leaned against the cave walls, catching their breath.
.
.
.
Then, a voice echoed from deep within the cave.
[Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? Is everyone okay?]
It was Lee Eunha’s voice.
