Academy’S Gumiho Is A Magical Genius [EN]: Chapter 291

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius – Episode 291

Academy Gumiho is a Magical Genius Episode 291

The Chief (1)

Fierce lightning filled the sky.

It poured down, striking trees and buildings, setting them ablaze.

Some were sliced apart by swords, and other bizarre occurrences unfolded.

It was a scene of utter devastation.

People who realized escape was impossible resigned themselves to their fate.

It was too late to run. Accepting death and secretly praying for survival was the best the citizens could do.

“I, I lived! I lived!”

“To think the lightning struck just beside me.”

Indeed, some people’s prayers were answered.

“M-My body won’t move! Where did my legs go?!”

“Everyone’s going to die. We’re all going to die like me.”

“……Mom.”

But many people’s prayers were not answered.

As the battle dragged on, the reach of the lightning and tentacles expanded, increasing the destruction. Numerous buildings collapsed or were damaged, resulting in enormous property damage and casualties. There was no way to stop it.

Seungwoo and Baek Seokho’s battle raged in Daegu.

Although less fortified than the capital, Seoul, it was still a major city with a sophisticated defense system.

It was also home to the Nine Tails Guild’s headquarters, renowned as the world’s best.

Normally, no damage should occur, no matter the threat.

“What about the defense system? Why isn’t it intercepting?!”

“What is the guild doing?!”

“I paid my hard-earned taxes to protect my family! But you couldn’t protect a single one of them! Why!”

But damage occurred.

Damage so great it couldn’t be concealed.

Damage that couldn’t be ignored.

It had befallen them now.

The citizens began to descend into madness with anger and anxiety, and the guild was well aware of this.

“Um… Omi-nim [Omi-nim is a respectful title used for someone of high rank], the number of protest calls from citizens has already exceeded six digits. What should we do?”

“Huh? Already six digits? By the way, can you even make calls in this weather?”

“…Omi-nim?”

The control room was located on the 4th floor of the Nine Tails Guild’s headquarters.

There, a man with a languid air sat in the highest seat.

The guild’s fifth tail, commonly known as Omi.

He was receiving reports on all the guild’s situations.

He was receiving so many reports, but the conclusion was always the same.

“Why? Is there something you want to say?”

“Ah, no! I’m saying the calls have already exceeded six digits! More than 100,000 people have made emergency calls!”

“So?”

“…Yes?”

Six digits of calls.

All requests for rescue.

They hadn’t seen this scale even during the attack of the 2nd tier monster 7 years ago.

It was such an urgent situation, but the executive’s lazy and languid tone showed no intention to act.

At this, the employee speaking to Omi crumpled the documents in her hand.

She was angry without realizing it. Although she had only been with the company for 7 years, her sense of duty as a player was strong.

So, despite her seniority and position, she was about to say something harsh when someone cut her off.

“This won’t do. No matter how high-ranking you are, this response is…!”

“Omi-nim! We have received a call from the city district. They are asking us to dispatch help as soon as possible!”

“Emergency contact from the association! They want all personnel dispatched quickly. If refused, there will be consequences. Please convey that!”

“Senior! The signals of the personnel dispatched earlier… the signals have been cut off en masse!”

“Life signals lost! Should we draw additional personnel?”

“Omi-nim!”

“We have received a call from the ninth tail? Shall we connect it?”

It wasn’t just someone.

It wasn’t just one or two people.

Countless people held documents in their arms, phones fixed to their shoulders and ears because they didn’t even have the energy for earphones, reporting in unstable postures. All focused on one person.

It was an excessively inefficient system, but she understood the situation.

“…Ah.”

It was true that Omi was the highest authority in the control room, but the information coming in real-time was too much for ordinary employees to handle. It was too heavy and grim.

So, they came to Omi for guidance, just like she did.

“You. You asked me why I ignored 100,000 calls earlier, right?”

“…Omi-nim.”

“There’s already an employee who said the same thing as you. I already took action.”

“As expected…!”

As expected, the executives are different!

That’s what she thought.

“And they were annihilated.”

“…?”

“There’s nothing we can do. In the first place, what can we do when our leader and spiritual pillar is the enemy?”

The upper management dispatched troops due to the sudden surge of demonic energy.

The guild organized a powerful force.

But, futilely, the troops were easily annihilated.

Unable to understand what was happening in their own front yard, they lost their will to fight when they saw the culprit of the commotion.

The representative of Nine Tails.

Baek Seokho, the symbol of invincibility to them.

The first tail had caused all this.

Having understood that fact, the Nine Tails Guild gave up trying to stop them with force. He was not an opponent that could be dealt with by force.

Baek Seokho. He was the undisputed strongest in the guild.

No one could beat him.

Moreover, Baek Seokho had become a demon.

When a civilian turns into a demon, they become strong enough to defeat an E-class player. Then what about Baek Seokho?

Probably, he had become unimaginably strong.

The executives remaining in the headquarters watched the fight between Baek Seungwoo and Baek Seokho through the screens or windows. They silently watched the fight.

Drop. Dropping.

Rain began to fall from the sky.

The rain poured down harder and harder.

The rainwater poured down even between the collapsed buildings and began to flow down with the blood pooled there.

* * *

An hour had passed since the rain started.

Perhaps because the sky was dark.

The murky rain, which felt particularly black, had a strong fishy smell.

People with a good sense of smell say that rain smells fishy, but many people don’t agree with this.

Nevertheless, everyone agreed today.

People who survived the tentacles and lightning moved busily to avoid the rain and thought:

Why does it smell so fishy?

While everyone was thinking that, people with a particularly sensitive sense of smell had other thoughts.

Another fishy smell was mixed with the unique fishy smell of rain.

It was a very strong fishy smell.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar scent, but they had never felt it so intensely.

They moved to find the source of the fishy smell.

And as soon as they realized what it was, they sat down on the spot.

The thought of avoiding the rain or the lightning didn’t occur to them. Their legs lost strength, and their eyes went blank.

Their heads stopped thinking with a strong shock, as if a rubber band had been stretched tightly and then released.

What is this?

“…Blood?”

A student with a particularly sensitive sense of smell, who came out of the bus stop where they had gathered to avoid the rain, dropped the phone in his hand when he arrived at the source of the fishy smell.

The phone fell into a puddle with a splash.

It was true that it was raining now, but it hadn’t rained so much for so long that puddles had formed.

The rain was bearable without an umbrella.

Then this puddle was formed by something other than rain.

The clear scarlet puddle that came into view clearly identified the cause. This is blood.

The blood of a human, not any other animal.

“…It’s coming out of that building.”

The boy opened his mouth blankly.

A puddle of blood. Above it, a huge building collapsed so badly that it was impossible to recognize its original form.

It’s impossible to know if it’s an apartment or a shopping mall.

The only things visible are piles of concrete and rebar.

The problem is that blood is trickling out of the gaps.

The fact that the blood is flowing out without solidifying soon means…

“…There are many dead people inside.”

Too much blood was spilled.

It doesn’t coagulate easily.

The student’s legs froze at the sight he was seeing for the first time.

There was a hand grabbing his shoulder.

“Hey, let’s hurry back.”

“…”

It was a friend who followed him when the student came out of the bus stop.

He was also surprised to see the puddle of blood, and his legs froze.

He tried not to think deeply.

To divert his attention elsewhere, he grabbed his friend’s shoulder.

He took his friend with blank eyes to the bus stop, saying let’s go back quickly.

Fortunately, they were not turned into a handful of blood puddles.

The students who evacuated to the bus stop with all their limbs intact were lucky.

The same thing that those students saw was happening frequently in the city. People who were unlucky were swept away by collapsing buildings and donated blood to form puddles of blood.

From a high place, all those terrible sights came into view.

Whoo-oong─!

In a high place where the rain and wind blew fiercely like blades.

I, located in a place higher than a skyscraper, was taking in everything that was happening on the ground.

Really.

“It’s a mess.”

I did my best to reduce the damage, but it’s hard to deal with this scale alone.

I fought Baek Seokho with Simgeom [Simgeom is a powerful sword], and cut down the falling debris and lightning falling on people with the Formless Sword.

In urgent cases, I manifested and dealt with any magic that came to mind.

I shot fire at the tentacles targeting civilians and threw the debris of the building that had fallen on the ground with telekinesis to entangle Baek Seokho’s escape route, who was trying to escape towards the apartment where many people lived.

I did my best like that, but too much blood was shed.

It’s hard to believe that it was done by one man.

To pay the price for killing one man, too many people’s deaths were visible.

「Yomaan」

My eyes see the flow of magic.

Not only that, but I also peek into the souls of the dead.

At this moment, there were so many souls coming into my eyes that I couldn’t count them.

“If there are so many souls, how many corpses are there…”

The soul is relatively small compared to the body.

My vision was filled with only such souls.

This means that there are so many corpses lying on the floor that they far exceed my wide field of vision.

“…Do we have to see this much blood?”

“Still! Are you still trying to fight me!”

“I knew you had given up on being human a long time ago, but now you can’t even talk in human language.”

“The position of head is mine! It’s mine!”

I thought as I watched Baek Seokho, who was gradually deviating from the human form.

If I had acted quickly, if I had killed him in one blow, wouldn’t there have been so many casualties?

─It’s impossible. His durability was so bizarrely strong that your one blow couldn’t kill him. Even if you had driven him to the brink of death, he would have become a demon. Your thoughts now are meaningless assumptions.

“I guess so.”

─Now, rather than that, prepare to deal with the next attack. Instead of imagining such things, think of a way to kill him quickly.

“That’s already done.”

No more damage can be done.

That was a word to the citizens, and at the same time, it was a word to myself.

I’ve been fighting for too long, and now I can’t ignore the damage accumulated in my body. I have to end it in one go.

Otherwise, I will also be one of the corpses on the floor.