I Don’t Want This Reincarnation

My vision flashed several times. An indescribable pain swept through my distant mind.

Beaten by the monster’s swinging hand, I was flung to the ground without even being able to defend myself.

Ppii—, With ringing ears, I felt something hot and sticky run down my face. Through my blurry vision, I saw its sword stabbing down at high speeds.

Kwaang!

I forcibly moved my body to dodge the attack. In the process, Ha Tae-heon’s coat fell to the ground, which I failed to grab in time.

“Gasp, gasp…”

I tried to stand up, but my legs were weak. I fell down. Perhaps because the debuff affected my eyesight as well, my vision was hazy.

Kugung! Thud!

In the aftermath of the attack that I avoided by a short margin, I floated up and rolled to the ground. Lightning struck nearby. I struggled to open my eyes and looked at the huge monster standing amidst smoke and fire.

“Haa…”

Wiping off the cold sweat, I was barely able to stand as I forced my energy, feeling like it had rusted, to flow. Hwiing, the wind in my hands didn’t immediately wrap around my body, but gradually spread around me. The fire created by the lightning swelled up in the wind.

I didn’t feel like rolling over and letting it kill me. But against an opponent where nothing you did worked, this might’ve been a useless endeavour.

‘It’s always been like that, so there’s nothing to be surprised about.’

No matter how useless it was, I didn’t want to give up and sit still. I lifted my head and looked at Ha Tae-heon reflected in the mirror. He walked over to the tentacle and raised his sword. At that moment, I jumped into the air.

The energy that had begun to move was unstable and twisted. Enduring the pain, like before, I lifted the tree with wind and threw it at the monster. Kwajik, the tree that hit the monster’s body shattered.

Kieeeek!

The monster cried angrily. I flew here and there to keep the monster from paying attention to what was going on underground, throwing trees over and over again.

“Argh!”

Kwarurung! From behind, a lightning bolt struck me, burning my back. I felt a hot sensation as if I was on fire. The moment I shuddered in pain, I was caught in the monster’s grasp.

“Keuk, ugh…!”

The long, hard monster’s hand wrapped around my body. As I was dragged closer to the monster in that state, I smelled a strong stench that made me nauseous.

The monster that lifted me widened its face. The four-pronged flesh of its face, soaked in black liquid, was bubbling with bubbles and hundreds of fine needles sprouted. I was horrified by the terrible sight unfolding beneath my feet.

I struggled desperately to get out. I also tried using my ability but to no avail. It was impossible to escape from the monster’s tight grip.

“Ugh, hgh.”

Fear engulfed any sense of reason as its face approached. Thump! Thump! The sound of my heart beating at tremendous speeds echoed in my ears and cold sweat ran down my chin.

But, just as I was about to be swallowed legs first—

Kiaaaak—!

Suddenly the monster twisted and screamed. I reflexively checked the mirror and saw Ha Tae-heon mercilessly cutting off the tentacles. The monster lost its balance and staggered greatly. My body trembled wildly along with it.

I was squeezed hard enough to drive anyone insane, but I clenched my teeth and endured it. Ha Tae-heon once again swung his sword. As several of the tentacles were severed from the eggs in one fell swoop, the monster began to shrink little by little.

‘Its grade…!’

… was falling. Being so close to the monster, I was sure of it. The tightness of the monster’s grip and the fear I felt were different from before. When Ha Tae-heon dealt with the last remaining tentacles, the monster flew into the air, black blood pouring from its face. The severed tentacles on its lower body wriggled, revealing the cross-sections.

In that time, I pulled half of myself out of the monster’s hand and used my ability. Now was the best time to kill it. Of course, even if its grade fell, the monster was S-grade—there was only one way to go about it.

Forcing my creaking energy to move, I began drawing the huge fire into one place with my wind. The hot fire flickered in the wind and moved where I wished it to go. Pulling all the fire I could see under my feet, I poured it all on the monster.

It was fire created by S+-grade lightning. It would work well against monsters whose rank had been lowered to S-grade.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle…!

As I expected, black liquid began pouring out of the burning monster, sounding like phlegm was boiling. I barely managed to escape its fist as it loosened, and I collapsed onto the dirt floor.

“Gasp… gasp…”

In front of me, the monster was engulfed in fire, burning. Black smoke spread through the air. My energy, which barely moved before, had stilled again, and my body had stiffened. Distantly, I barely lifted the corners of my lips into a smile.

“Cough, that’s right… you—bastard.”

My eyes closed as I laughed at the monster’s painful death. My body collapsed.

* * *

Mmhmm, hmm. A soft hum echoed in the dark hallway. A firmly closed door appeared in front of Cheon Sa-yeon, who was walking slowly as if he had come out for a stroll, hands in his pants pockets.

When he turned the handle of the wooden door, which was engraved with a luxurious pattern, the door opened with a click. Creeeak. Cheon Sa-yeon entered the room as the door creaked open and tapped the floor with his long sword.

“Hmm.”

It was a spacious study room—however, instead of books, dolls filled each bookshelf. Hundreds of ball-jointed dolls adorned with colourful dresses and accessories glistened in the candlelight.

“Ah, no wonder I was in a foul mood…”

Cheon Sa-yeon calmly recounted the events of the timeline. Indeed, this annoying and tedious event has arrived again.

Ehe.

Laughter arose from somewhere.

Ehe, ehehe!

The laughter that started once spread throughout the library. Ehehehe! The dolls’ faces, which were looking straight ahead, twisted towards Cheon Sa-yeon at the same time. A voice came from the blonde doll in the middle of the second row of the first bookshelf:

“You are not surprised to see us.”

Another doll continued. “A normal human would scream.”

“Why? Why?”

“This isn’t fun.”

“I’m having fun.”

“Interesting.”

“How unfortunate! Let’s kill him!”

“Be careful. He’s not an ordinary human being.”

“Kill him! Motherfucker!”

The study room was filled with the dolls’ voices. Cheon Sa-yeon, looking tired as he rubbed his temples, smiled.

“Abel (아벨).”

When the dolls heard the name come out of his mouth, they moved their heads.

“You know my name.”

“How? How?”

“You said my name with that dirty mouth!”

“Calm down. God said he would know us*.”

“How ominous. I want to kill him.”

“Should we kill him? Is it okay to kill him?”

As he listened to the dolls’ conversation, Cheon Sa-yeon drew the sword across his palm. A familiar pain followed as his blood dripped. Flames rose from bright red blood.

“From the party hall to this gate, you made something interesting. I didn’t even notice it.”

The fire roared like it was going to melt everything around it. One of the dolls closest to it released a metallic scream, like a cat with its fur raised.

“Hot! It’s hot!”

“A fool like you could never make a plan on your own… Indeed, Samael (사마엘) has made a move.”

Crackle, crackle…

Eventually, the dolls melted. Their eyeballs rolled down their grotesquely melting faces.

Rattle, thump.

The dolls fell down the bookshelves all at once, crawling up Cheon Sa-yeon’s legs despite their melting bodies.

“Let’s kill him! Let’s kill him!”

“Shove a knife in his throat!”

Cheon Sa-yeon looked at the dolls that were clinging to him with indifference. The dolls’ energy was undeniably weak. They were reconnaissance dolls often used by Abel.

Remembering Samael’s disgusting mask made him sick just thinking about it, so as Cheon Sa-yeon drew in a breath he swung his sword.

“Aaargh! Argh!”

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!”

“Kill! Kill him!”

“Murderer! Murderer! Die!”

Even though they were dolls, the way their flesh shredded or the way their blood splattered was no different from a human’s. With a child’s voice, they screamed and cursed him out.

A doll’s hand, with nails painted red, pulled at his pants leg. A sharp sword cut through it without hesitation, and red blood spilled from the severed sections.

The study room turned into hell in an instant. The room was engulfed in the screams of children, gushing blood, and a raging fire.

Continuing to swing his sword with a bored expression on his face, Cheon Sa-yeon concluded, “I wasn't the target.”

Back at the two doors, something about the left side was particularly irritating, so he went and looked. But instead, he got himself caught in Samael’s subtly laid trap.

He thought of Han Yi-gyeol and Ha Tae-heon, who went through the other door. He didn’t know how Ha Tae-heon would fare on his own, and it wasn’t like having Han Yi-gyeol with him would automatically make things easier…

“Ah, ah…”

“Gurghh… ghg…”

Crackle… crack…

Doll pieces scattered on the floor were eaten by the fire. Leaving behind the study room heavy with the smell of blood, Cheon Sa-yeon went back the way he had come. The suit he was wearing was stained with the dolls’ blood.

The way back was empty. Before he parted, he made it clear to come back in case of danger.

‘Either it wasn’t dangerous enough for them to come back, or the situation was so urgent that there was no time to escape. It’s one of the two.’

It was most likely the latter. Cheon Sa-yeon hummed lightly as he did before and walked over to the door Han Yi-gyeol and Ha Tae-heon had entered. He made his way through a longer, more boring hallway than the one on the left and reached the end.

“Oh my.”

At the expansive sight before him, Cheon Sa-yeon raised the corners of his lips gracefully. There was a huge, burnt corpse of a monster. It was not Ha Tae-heon’s work.

‘Han Yi-gyeol used his ability to kill it with fire.’

Just looking around, it was clear what kind of battle went down.

Like a storm had swept through the place, the surroundings were ruined and crumbling. Cheon Sa-yeon looked around as he walked, eventually finding a small body in the corner.

Getting closer, he saw a familiar face, eyes closed and unconscious. Probably because he just fought a hard battle, he was a mess—it was somehow funny. It was like looking at an abandoned pet.

“Han Yi-gyeol.”

He called out his name, but there was no response. He knelt down on one knee and scanned him slowly from head to toe. There was the fishy smell of blood, but unlike in the study room, nothing else seemed wrong.