By Zephyria 
Fortunately, the creature’s back was bumpy. Just before falling, he managed to grab hold of a face protruding from the back. Had he grabbed the mouth, he would have been bitten, but what he gripped was the chin of the upside-down face. The face, its mouth shut, let out a crushed sound.
“Are you okay? Can you hold on? If it’s too hard, don’t push yourself and come down! What’s the point of anything if you get hurt here, Hyung!”
“I’m fine! I can make it like this!”
He was a failure of an older brother for making his sibling worry instead of showing off a cool side of himself.
Kim Si-baek quickly crawled up, dodging the arms reaching out from the sides. He avoided the countless corpses that were biting, scratching, and trying to grab at the giant’s back as it writhed and flailed its arms to shake him off.
[Death and Beauty rolls its wide-open eyes.]
He could feel Biyendwe trembling in fear against his chest.
‘Damn it. Where is the neck attached?’
Just as he was starting to get anxious about how much further he had to crawl, the giant suddenly screamed and dropped to one knee. Boom! The collapsing world vibrated once more. It seemed one of its legs had fallen into a crack in the ground again.
Kim Si-baek, barely managing to push himself up from the back, began to run again without even a moment to wipe away the sweat. He had no way of knowing that Tae-un had instantly severed the giant’s knee from the ground—a part of the giant that even Kim Si-baek would have struggled to approach.
[Death and Beauty shouts that the goal is not far off.]
“I see it too!”
The blade imbued with divine power sparkled like a cluster of distant stars in the universe. Without hesitation, Kim Si-baek slashed the blade deep downward.
Before the giant could even let out a final scream, its neck was severed, and the head split in two fell downward. He saw the core hidden in the spine near the Adam’s apple. As successive slashes finally split the core, the condensed magical energy collapsed, revealing the magic stone, and the massive body crumbled helplessly.
It was the end of a hatred that had lasted over 20 years since the Dongdaemun Stadium.
If the fragments of the body raining down from the air had remained human corpses, it would have been a quite grotesque sight, but fortunately, as the core broke, the flesh of the fragments crumbled like dust, and only bone fragments fell.
Kim Si-baek, barely landing on the ground, collapsed while gasping for breath. As the tension released, fatigue suddenly washed over him.
“Ugh, I guess I really have aged…”
But the fatigue was short-lived.
“Si-baek Hyung!”
The moment he saw the child running toward him with short legs, Kim Si-baek’s cheekbones reflexively rose in a smile. His face melted with warmth at the sensation of the child throwing himself into his arms. Tae-un, hugged tightly, rubbed his face against his chest.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I got scratched here and there because I was grabbed by the arms, but I’ll heal quickly. Are you okay? Did you break your wrist while pushing me up?”
“Break it? Hyung was as light as a chick’s feather.”
“Look at this mouth, saying only the cutest things. Our Un-i is the chick.”
Kim Si-baek pinched the white, soft, mochi-like cheeks with an expression that looked like he wanted to bite the mouth that spoke such adorable words. Tae-un also melted into a goofy grin.
Watching this, Biyendwe, who had been pushed to the top of Kim Si-baek’s head by Tae-un lunging at his chest, suddenly reached a realization.
The fact that childhood experiences greatly influence the formation of personality must be true for humans on Earth, not just for those of the mak slecht. If so, what happens to a human who grows up from age 5 to 14 hearing nothing but “cute” and “pretty” no matter what they do?
Even after 21 years, would they grow into a human who naturally spouts immoral things like, ‘The world is unfair to me because I’m too cute’?
‘…Could it be that Si-baek was the root cause of all this?’
Unaware that he had reached the same conclusion as the people around Tae-un, Biyendwe trembled his wings in agony over the sins of his apostle, which were too much to bear.
Meanwhile, the portal, which had stopped being crushed the moment the core was destroyed, began to distort again. It was a phenomenon similar to before, but Kim Si-baek instinctively felt that the direction was different. The Id Portal, having lost its core, was collapsing.
Kim Si-baek checked Tae-un’s body while holding him. There seemed to be no major wounds, but blood was visible here and there. He tried to heal the wounds immediately, but Tae-un declined.
“It’s not a big injury, so I’ll get treated by a doctor once we go out. You shouldn’t use your divine power too often when it’s lacking.”
“What’s the waste in using it on you?”
“Treat yourself first, Hyung.”
Since he had hunted the magical beasts almost bare-handed, Kim Si-baek was not without scratches either.
“I’m fine. Since I have Lord Biyendwe, my recovery speed is a bit faster than others.”
“Wow, my desire to become the number one believer is growing.”
Tae-un looked at Biyendwe with an expression that asked, ‘Is there any way?’
[Death and Beauty shakes its head, asking if faith can be born from mere greed.]
“Hmm, he still says no. Anyway, let’s get out quickly before it collapses.”
“Let’s grab the magic stone first.”
Kim Si-baek bent over and picked up a magic stone about the size of a human fist.
“If I sell this, will I be able to pay the overdue living expenses and rent for you? Does the ownership of the magic stone also transfer to the government?”
“Since we cleared it without an invitation bureau hunter, it’s yours, Hyung… but Hyung, even if you make money, spend it sparingly. House prices in Daejeon are incredibly expensive. Even if Seoul can be reclaimed, it’s a complete ruin, so Daejeon will serve as the capital for a while, and house prices are continuing to rise. They’re just skyrocketing. It’s incomparable to the old Seoul house prices you remember.”
Kim Si-baek, who had been listening curiously to Tae-un’s sudden rambling, soon realized the reason. It meant that even if he made money as a hunter, he shouldn’t leave his current home. He simply chuckled and ruffled the child’s hair.
In the place where the core was destroyed, a passage identical to the entrance of the Id Portal appeared. However, the scenery visible through the passage was distinctly different. Unlike the entrance, which looked like the flow of the universe, the exit faintly projected the outside world as if covered by a thin membrane.
Among the hunters moving urgently, knowing the Id Portal had been cleared, the faces of Seo Gae-un and Yang Eun-ho, waiting for them with joyful expressions, shimmered blurrily.
“Let’s go.”
When he reached out his hand, Tae-un, as if finally releasing his tension, staggered and slumped to the ground.
“Un-ah! Are you okay? You are badly hurt, aren’t you? Let’s get out and get you treated quickly!”
The boy had been afraid of the Id Portal throughout, perhaps due to trauma. On top of that, he had pushed himself to hunt magical beasts; how exhausted he must be.
Blaming himself for not considering this sooner, Kim Si-baek scooped Tae-un up in both arms. It was the ‘carrying’ method among one-person manual transport techniques for patients. Holding Tae-un, who weakly wrapped his arms around his neck and collapsed, he ran without delay toward the exit.
[Death and Beauty says that if he leaves the Id Portal while holding him in that posture…]
Before the divine utterance could be fully output, Kim Si-baek passed through the exit. The reality that had only been faintly visible suddenly rushed in and materialized.
“We’re out of time, hurry up and split the pillars!”
The shouts and urgent movements of hunters trying to destroy the giant vine’s core.
“Tae-un Oppa! Teacher! I’m so glad you came out safel—”
Seo Gae-un, who had been shouting with a relieved face, suddenly froze. Yang Eun-ho opened his mouth in a stunned expression. Beside them, other hunters stared with wide eyes.
But above all, something else bewildered Kim Si-baek. A part of his vision was suddenly blocked, and the weight on his arms more than doubled.
“…?!”
[Death and Beauty shuts its eyes tight.]
Naturally, the moment he left the Id Portal, Tae-un returned to his original 35 years of age. The ‘carrying’ method among one-person manual transport techniques involves placing one arm under the patient’s knees and the other under the armpits—in other words, a princess carry.
The sight of Kim Si-baek emerging from the Id Portal while princess-carrying a 0.1-ton giant with his legs modestly gathered was enough to cast a dead silence over the surrounding urgency.
The moment a suspicion flashed through Kim Si-baek’s mind, Tae-un wrapped his arms around his neck and rubbed his cheek.
“Hyung is really something… Un-i is yours even if you don’t do this publicly… Shall we go have sex right now?”
For some reason, the shyly fading voice was heard clearly by the surrounding hunters. And this scene was broadcast live nationwide by the broadcasting station helicopter flying above the giant vine.