Chapter 199 - Showdown

KWB.

The light lettering on the wall looked out of focus, so Chang Mi realized he was seeing through fogged glass. An almost imperceptible shadow came into view, and he turned, climbing the winding stairs silently. He looked at his bare feet. He looked at the pajama pants, loose and dragging on the floor, and the silk robe open over it. He looked at his nails painted black ... were they really painted? No, they were really black, he observed with horror.

'Why did you bring me here?' he asked himself. He knew he was dreaming, and in his dream, he was the Devourer. Seriously, he didn't want to dream that. Chang Mi didn't know if it was just a dream, either.

'Don't be afraid, Chang Mi. I just want you to know something. I didn't want to leave you. They forced me. And now…' The shadows surrounded him like pets that brushed his legs and sought the contact of his fingers, as he climbed the stairs. Wraiths. There was some expectation in the air, it wasn't just any night.

Then Chang Mi remembered! Today the Hunter would go hunting for the Devourer.

Damn it! 'He's on my mind', and that meant he knew it, as soon as Chang Mi thought.

'Don't worry, Chang Mi. I already expected. My diligent friend Hye Seong has been working hard for a rematch. Hye Seong is stubborn and prideful. But there's a problem, Chang Mi. I don't want to die,' he just heard the voice echoing in his mind, without moving his lips.

The upper floor was a house, and Chang Mi / the Devourer navigated into a large room, and opened the glass doors to the terrace. A gust of cold wind enveloped the Devourer's body, but the sensations were numb in Chang Mi's head. The only thing he felt alive and vibrant was a hollow sensation that felt like a painful hunger, especially when he paid attention to it. A longing for something intangible and ecstatic. A craving for a torrent of pleasure and magic.

On the terrace, Chang Mi could see the big transmission antenna of the pirate radio, above other buildings in the city. KWB was a clandestine radio with a lot of resources and professionalism, apparently. The house was a rich and comfortable place, and Chang Mi was able to see some familiar location points from the rooftop.

"Hey, wait,' he tried to get the Devourer's attention,' Since you say you care, at least you could tell me your point of view of what happened.' he didn't know if it would make any difference, and the Devourer asked,

'Wouldn't it be a waste of time?'

'Why do you say that?'

You already have a side.'

'If it's a waste of time to talk to me, why did you come to me?' Chang Mi questioned.

'I looked for you and found you some time ago. Close to the appetizing Miss Wild Fairy and the Enchanted Human Girl. I expected you to remain ... safe... ' the Devourer sighed, and suddenly Chang Mi had a blurred vision and then it went completely black, as if he had lost control of himself ...

Chang Mi awoke abruptly, feeling a cold and delicate hand on his forehead. His head was on the well-known pillow in the Hunter's room, and Eun Ha reclined on him with a concerned look. He felt hot, but he got even hotter when he saw the curve of noona's neck and her lips so close, asking in a distressed voice,

"Persimmon…! Please say anything! Please!"

He gave a nervous cough, and after the surprise Eun Ha's lips smiled. It would be his dream come true to be in a room alone with Eun Ha, but not as a patient. And not struggling to get rid of the Devourer's mind control webs. How could it happen?

"Eun Ha ..."

That short break was interrupted by a searing headache, and again his vision started to blur,

"No!" he groaned, grabbing Eun Ha's wrist before being swallowed up again for the strange connection with his father, the Devourer. Chang Mi didn't want to go, he didn't want that connection.

But this time, when he looked through the eyes of the Devourer, he heard him say,

'Love upsets and blinds us, huh? If it weren't for that silly and unpredictable feeling ... Everything would be different.'

He could try to understand what the Devourer was referring to, but Chang Mi feared he did not have the capacity for understanding the clearly deranged and insane mind of his father. The Devourer could be talking about Chang Mi, and his youthful crush on Noona. He could be talking about himself. And he could be talking about Hunter Shin's motivations.

Coming from the lower floor of the duplex, HUnter Shin made his appearance.

Shin had a sword in his hand and his gaze was cautious and fixed on the Devourer's face. Chang Mi was pushed to the back of the mind, as a forced observer of events. The Devourer's attention was now entirely on the newcomer.

"Are you dumbfounded because you found out that I killed him?"

Chang Mi knew that the Devourer was referring to the corpse in the radio studio. He wondered if that was the music expert fairy that the Hunter mentioned. Shin's furious look showed that the Devourer nailed it. The spectral wraiths stirred at the Hunter's appearance, and bristled like trained animals awaiting the order to attack. All the young half-fairy wanted was to cut the empathic bond with the Devourer. But at this point, he realized two things.

The Devourer longed for this moment, and was afraid of that confrontation.

He was afraid to die, and he was afraid to kill.

"CHANG MI!" Eun Ha's desperate call came to him, but he was unable to respond, muted and paralyzed. At that moment he was both in the arms of noona and in the mind of the Devourer, and he wondered what kind of torture it was. He didn't want to see it happen.

He didn't want to witness it.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the Hunter's violent cry, accompanied by the quick and precise movement to reach the Devourer with the instilled sword was almost a blur. At the same time the Devourer raised his hand with the scepter with an orb, his wand, and Shin slammed against an invisible wall of energy, his body bouncing off with the impact.

But the Hunter reversed his movement still in the air, apparently being able to measure where the invisible 'wall' was, and using it to his advantage. He overcame the barrier on the second attempt, and using a metal mesh glove in one hand, conjured up an orb of frightening energy. Now Chang Mi knew that the time when he was instilling magic in those objects, with energy that Eun Ha deposited in the big glass containers in the laboratory, had the purpose of creating these magic weapons.

The power struggle and agility was unbalanced in favor of the Devourer, while the Hunter used the two instilled magical objects to get rid of the wraiths, getting them out of the way, and advancing inexorably towards the insane fairy. Chang Mi knew every counterattack the Devourer was going to make, and all his reactions to avoid the damage. And every moment he was hurt or hurt the Hunter. Seeing it happen through the eyes of the Devourer was maddening.

The fight advanced to the terrace, and all caution was put aside. The Devourer became more and more upset and losing his sense of control. Chang Mi could feel Seong Hwan's faery blood boil and the reason diminish in inverse proportions. Both were injured, but the Hunter was losing attack strength as both his energy and the magical power of the objects began to fade.

Chang Mi was surprised, at the very moment he was concluding these things, with a surprisingly clever and unexpected attack by the Hunter. That despite facing the damage of going through the Devourer's elemental attack with his body, he managed to plunge the sword in his opponent's chest.

The Devourer's magic scepter fell to the floor with a metallic noise, while he choked and Chang Mi felt the blood rise in his throat that was not his.

Chang Mi gasped, sharing his biological father's physical and mental pain.

"Yeah ... that's what will happen to you one day, Chang Mi!" the Devourer managed to speak.

The statement aloud removed the victory glow from the look with Hunter.

And with a shock of understanding, Chang Mi realized that yes, the Hunter had stuck the sword in the Devourer's chest ... But not exactly in his heart, for a tiny mistake. And the fury of pain, anger and madness caused the Devourer to get rid of its self-imposed limitations.

"Is that what you want, Hye Seong? Kill me? Your master?" Seong Hwan joined forces and stood up, with a hand movement to launch the Hunter away.

"You killed many of us, Seong Hwan! I have to stop you from killing…"

"How dare you!" the Devourer was staggering, but only with his bare hand did he launch the Hunter with kinetic energy against the antenna a few times, until the structure began to collapse. The loud noise of the collapsing structure hurt Chang Mi's ears. Shin was unable to get up this last time, even though he struggled to find the strength to do so.

The Devourer plucked the sword from his chest with trembling hands, and Chang Mi realized that even for him, it was close. Although her magic was strong, her body was like that of all fairies. Gasping in pain, the Devourer invoked his immense magical power into his hand, the hand that held the sword.

"So far ... I spared you, Shin ... Because you were the only one who stood by me against the Council ..." and the Devourer was slowly approaching the fallen fairy, panting heavily.

Chang Mi tried his best to shout in his father's mind,

'NO! DONT DO IT! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T!'

Shin looked up at the Devourer. He didn't have the strength to get up and his magic was too little to resist. But he murmured,

"I regret it, Seong Hwan. I regret."

The Devourer grimaced, raising his sword towards the heart of the other fairy, as if ignoring the pleas in his mind.