Taming The Villainesses

Chapter 426: The One Who Halts (1)

The farther north we traveled, the more grotesque the monsters that appeared before us.

Some of them looked like insects crushed in a child’s careless game. Others had no recognizable form at all—just clumps of energy, like lumps of clay mashed together without rhyme or reason.

“Half-Moon Slash!”

Shhhhk!

Mirna’s sharp blade split one of the airborne mud-like creatures clean in two. But the bisected pile of sludge flopped to the ground with a splat, only to begin writhing and knitting itself back together again.

That was when the hunter drew a dagger from his waist and threw it with deft precision toward the regenerating mass. Swish. The dagger sliced through the air and embedded itself into the mud.

━━Screeeeeeech...!

With a disturbing scream, the mud melted away. The hunter retrieved the hilt embedded in the ground and casually wiped the residue from his blade with his sleeve.

“There’s a core inside them, about the size of a pinky nail. Destroy that, and they go down.”

It was a short and concise explanation—but more than helpful enough. Before long, we too had learned to handle the mud monsters with similar finesse.

Swish.

━━Screeeeeeech!

“Now that we know the trick, it’s easy,” Stella remarked as she pulled an arrow from a monster’s torso.

“Still, I’ve never seen monsters like these before. Are they a species that evolved in isolation here?”

To that question, the priestess Miriam—who was wiping down her mace—answered.

“There are beings said to have fallen from the sky. From beyond the rift up there—”

CRACK.

━━SKREEEEEECH!

“Terrifying creatures have been falling through. No matter how many we kill, they’ll never end. They just keep coming, falling from another world into this one.”

Narmee raised a question in response to Miriam’s words.

“Another world?”

“Ah—forget I said that,” Miriam replied quickly.

She seemed to realize she had let something slip. But words, once spoken, cannot be taken back. Narmee, once intrigued, never backed down.

“So, there really is another world beyond the sky? Like heaven or something?”

Miriam looked visibly troubled by the question. Just as she opened her mouth to respond—

“There’s no such thing as heaven. All that’s beyond that sky is pain.”

It was the taciturn hunter who spoke in her stead.

Pain only.

His tone was flatly certain. So final that it was as if he had been there himself and returned. We all fell silent for a moment.

Even if we asked him what he meant, that tight-lipped man would just hold his tongue. He only spoke when he wanted to. Otherwise, he stayed quiet. Truly, a man who lived life on his own terms.

Still, he was the type who never said anything unnecessary. It was as if he conserved energy, speaking only when it mattered. That was precisely why we never dismissed what he had to say.

And so, with each person fulfilling their role, we eventually reached a great cliff.

Below it stretched a sky that looked like shattered glass struck by a baseball, and beneath that—a broken city.

A broken city.

Who had given it such a name?

Whoever they were, they had quite the sense for description. That view truly could only be called broken.

While gazing down at the tiny silhouette of the city from the edge of the cliff, Elga spoke up lightly.

“That’s the last city—Gargarta... It doesn’t even look like it belongs to this world. It’s all jumbled up.”

I didn’t respond, but I agreed. Jumbled up. Like someone had built a cube-shaped city and then scrambled all the pieces.

Roads jutted into the sky or sank into the ground. Some buildings didn’t rise from the earth but seemed to grow downward from the heavens.

Looking at the roads and structures floating mid-air, it truly felt like the laws of physics no longer applied.

But what really grated on our nerves—

WRAAAAAAAAAAAAGH—!!!

━━GYEEEUUUGH—!!!

—were the monsters clinging to the city walls like swarms of ants, howling nonstop. All the monsters that had vanished beyond this northern region were gathered below that sky, screaming in unison like hell itself had opened.

There weren’t just thousands—there were tens of thousands. Trying to break through them with just our group would’ve been sheer madness. The wise move would be to turn back now.

Shhk, grkk-grkk.

Stella raised her telescope and peered toward the city walls.

“There are way too many. And ogres... trolls... It’s full of hideous beasts.”

Mirna grimaced.

“But didn’t they say trolls were completely wiped out during the war with the Demon King?”

“Apparently not all of them. Charging in head-on would be suicide.”

Of course, we didn’t plan to. According to Miriam, the priestess of the hunter’s party, they knew of a secret passage into the ancient city of Gargarta.

That meant we wouldn’t need to force our way through the wall. We wouldn’t have to throw ourselves into that horde of monsters.

“......”

Looking back, I hadn’t realized how fortunate it was that we’d met them beyond the barrier. That my duel tribunal had sent them past the wall ended up acting like a stroke of fate.

It felt like luck was finally on my side.

“We’re moving.”

Shfft. At that moment, the hunter turned and started walking. As we followed his lead one by one, I noticed Ayra hadn’t moved from the cliff’s edge.

Her eyes were fixed on the ruined city below.

“Lady Ayra?”

“That city... What you see isn’t all there is.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s much bigger than it looks. Enormous. But I can feel it—he’s there. Somewhere inside that vast city.”

With those words, Ayra spun around and walked away.

***

Near the broken city stood a mountain.

It wasn’t always there.

They said it was raised long ago during the war between the Demon King and the opposition—formed by the Demon King’s powerful geomancy magic.

To create a mountain through magic... It was a chilling reminder of how the Demon King had once ranked among the transcendent 10th-tier beings. It stood around 500 meters tall.

The rocks jutted out like teeth, and the trees growing along the slopes were bristling with thorns like acacia. The incline was brutal—it wasn’t easy to climb.

Still, no matter how rough the path, it was better than trying to fight our way through the monsters guarding the front gate. So everyone climbed without complaint.

“Here.”

The hunter stopped before a strange cave.

“Through here, we can reach the city.”

He claimed the cave carved into the mountain led to a shortcut into the city.

How exactly would that work? Was it connected to some old sewer system that would let us sneak inside through the drainage?

That was my best guess at the time.

Then Miriam, the priestess, shivered.

“I heard it wasn’t a normal path... but this isn’t just dangerous—it’s wrong. Mister Hunter, are you sure this is the only way?”

Mirna nodded in agreement.

“I’m not too keen on entering this cave either...”

I asked them, “Why not?”

“Don’t you feel anything, Lord Teo? This isn’t just a cave... it feels more like the inside of a living creature.”

I couldn’t sense it.

But both Mirna and Miriam had sharp intuition—spiritual and physical. If they felt this way, it likely wasn’t baseless.

That’s when the hunter, who had stayed silent about the shortcut until now, finally spoke.

“If you want to quit, do it now. Go back. Spend your last days in your family’s arms. If you pass through this path, you can’t return to your former life.”

His heavy words held weight. As I said earlier—he wasn’t someone who spoke to scare others or bluff.

So I couldn’t help but reflect on his warning.

Would I truly be unable to return to my old life after passing through here? I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but it was clear how serious he was. It had to mean danger.

And then—

━━─!

From below the mountain came a sizable commotion. Looking down, we could see several torches flickering on the trail we’d used earlier.

Warrior Rene spoke up.

“What the hell? You dragged a whole tail behind you. Looks like Church trackers.”

Her savage instincts were spot-on. Those torches belonged to Church pursuers.

How the hell had they followed us this far? Stella and the hunter were experts at covering our tracks. Did they plant a GPS on me or something?

No time to worry about that now.

We had to choose—dive into the monster’s-mouth cave or fight the pursuers.

Then the hunter spoke again.

“It’s not too late. Teo Gospel, go back.”

“......”

“—Though even if I say that, I know you won’t. You’re weak, but once you set your mind to something, you never back down. That’s the kind of man you are.”

He was right.

I didn’t want to go back. I’d already given up too much to come this far. There was no pretending I could go back and live happily like none of this had happened.

I needed to know.

Why all of this had happened to me.

Honestly, that was the only thing in my mind.

Finding the answer.

After solving countless problems, every equation pointed me here. All that was left was to check the answer. There was no turning back now.

I said, “Everyone—”

But before I could even finish, someone stepped ahead.

It was Elga.

She took a few steps into the cave and called out to us.

“What are you all waiting for? If we stand around, the trackers will catch us. And if they do, we might end up doing three years of dawn prayers or something.”

Narmee shivered.

“Dawn prayers?! No way!”

Following Elga’s lead, Narmee walked into the cave too. Her natural attitude gave the rest of us momentum. One by one, we began stepping ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) inside.

I too began walking slowly forward.

And then—

Chrrrk.

It felt like something grabbed my ankle. I froze.

It was as if something was trying to stop me from entering. Holding me back.

In that fleeting moment of hesitation, a flood of stray thoughts rushed through me. Thoughts of wanting to turn back and crawl into a warm bed.

Of my squirrel-dog Keongkeong, waiting at home. Of Marmar and the imp sisters with their wagging tails.

If I stepped forward—

I might lose everything I still had.

But I had already made my decision. I took another step forward.

Clink.

And then—it felt like something invisible, blocking my way, shattered.