CHAPTER 67
067 - His Authority

The plane was shaking violently. It wasn't plummeting to the ground just yet, but it was clear that if this continued, it would crash.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
"Help me! Help me!"
The passengers, naturally, were in an uproar. People who had been sitting quietly just moments before were now screaming and running wild like mad.
The commotion caused some to fall and get injured, but no one reacted to such small tragedies.
"P-Please, just a moment! Everyone!"
The flight attendants tried to calm them down somehow, but it wasn't working. They themselves were trembling, their faces pale with fear.
It was right after that that the object, which looked like a scythe or a spear, pierced through the plane's fuselage.
WHOOOOOOOOOOSH—!
An incredible amount of wind rushed out through the hole in the ceiling. It wasn't strong enough to suck people out, but it was more than enough to add chaos upon chaos.
It didn't stop there. The enemy outside punched three more holes in the plane's ceiling. Each one was small, but for a plane flying at high speed, even a single hole was a major disaster.
"Chartia! Can you block that?"
Jinwoo shouted to Chartia, who had just woken up. He told her the most urgent task, as she likely hadn't yet grasped the situation.
"Leave it to me!"
Chartia was also an S-class Hunter. She had experienced countless surprise attacks in Gates.
Instantly sharpening her senses, she unfurled something. From her seemingly empty arms, leaves and tree bark spread out in a flash, plugging the holes in the ceiling.
"This is S-class Hunter Chartia from Seoul! As long as I'm here, nothing terrible will happen, so please, everyone, calm down!"
After taking action, Chartia shouted loudly to calm the passengers.
There was an appeal in her voice, but it was also subtly imbued with mana. A minuscule amount of mana that would seep into the ears of ordinary people and draw their attention.
Just turning their attention to her voice was a success. When they looked, they saw the S-class Hunter they'd only seen on TV and the well-plugged holes in the ceiling, and the commotion began to subside.
"It's Chartia! The S-class Hunter!"
"We're saved! We're saved!"
Order gradually began to return among the passengers, who hadn't calmed down no matter how much the flight attendants shouted.
The flight attendants didn't feel resentful at all. In fact, they too were clasping their hands and praying at the sight of Chartia.
KWAJIK!
"Kyaaaaaah!"
Just then, the spear that had pierced the ceiling dodged the tree bark and stabbed another section. It groped not only the ceiling but also the side of the plane, then shattered a window and thrust inside.
A passenger sitting nearby was startled and ducked under their seat. Fortunately, Chartia's leaves and bark spread quickly to block the newly created hole as well.
This time, she didn't just stop there; she covered the entire interior of the plane. The spear from outside tried to pierce Chartia's wood a few times, but it wouldn't break through.
The bark was so tough that it could only be pierced by stabbing the same spot multiple times, and even those pierced spots were easily covered again by Chartia, rendering any further piercing attacks meaningless.
THUD! THUMP!
As if angered, the sound of something rampaging above could be heard. The passengers' faces turned pale again. They had stopped the plane from being punctured, but the crisis was not yet over.
"Jinwoo, what's going on? It's rare, but planes do sometimes collide with monsters. But I've never heard of one being attacked like this!"
"It's targeting me. By any chance, do you know how fast this plane is flying?"
Jinwoo asked, looking up at the ceiling. He was genuinely asking because he didn't know.
"It's going at least 900 kilometers per hour!"
Chartia answered as if screaming. In other words, the monster clinging to the top of the plane was withstanding that much pressure.
'It doesn't seem like it can move freely, though.'
The fortunate thing was that the creature didn't seem to be able to move around freely. If the enemy was something that could climb onto a flying plane and roam around without any restrictions, there would be no way to fight it.
However, the creature was stuck fast to the top of the plane. Attacks like the spear that pierced the ceiling and windows were all it could do.
Now that those attacks were ineffective, it was trying to shake the entire plane by moving its body.
"Miss flight attendant. How is the cockpit?"
"The c-captain and the first officer are in a state of panic! But they're still trying their best to fly the plane..."

"Can it even fly properly?"
“Th-they said it’s precarious, but it’s flying for now. But…”
But there was no telling what would happen next. This was a situation they were all experiencing for the first time, so their uncertainty was natural.

‘There are flying-type monsters, but…’

None of them had ever boarded a plane before. The most dangerous encounters involved collisions with a flying plane, but aircraft were protected by the same kind of barrier that shielded cities. Such accidents were rare unless it was a direct hit from an object with immense mass.
But this thing had ignored the barrier and was now on top of the plane.
Jinwoo knew. It hadn't flown from somewhere and landed on the plane; it had simply appeared on top of the flying aircraft.
He had seen it with his own two eyes: a Black Flame blossomed above the plane as the power of Erosion gathered.

‘A minion.’

It meant the creature was a minion of a Lord. Most likely, a minion of the Sky God, similar to Ireland.
The moment the Black Flame appeared, the Sky God's Scabbard in his hand began to pulse, emitting the aura of Erosion.
It looked as if it were licking its lips at the sight of a delicious meal.

An emergency signal reached the control tower at Gimpo Airport. The plane, ambushed by Erosion, was already close to Seoul, so their distress call was received by Seoul's airport, not New York's.
Ma Doo-sik was receiving the report with a grave expression. He had been at the airport before the incident occurred, having heard that Jinwoo and Chartia were returning on this flight.
He had prepared a grand welcome for the heroes who had brilliantly resolved the disaster in New York.
But what arrived instead was another disaster.
"Hunter Kang Jinwoo and Hunter Chartia are on that plane! Isn't there anything we can do?"
"It seems they're already responding! They're asking if we can provide any support from our end, but…"
"Prepare for an emergency landing! Clear the runway and get the equipment ready! And… and…"
There was nothing more they could do.
The problem was the enemy that had appeared on the plane. If the plane were still on the ground, it would be a different story, but how could they possibly remove an enemy from a plane already flying high in the sky?
If it had been a fast-gliding monster instead of a plane, they could have shot it down. But as long as it was clinging to the aircraft, that was impossible.
Firing a missile to kill the monster would also blow up the plane.
"S-so all we can do is watch…?" a controller asked Ma Doo-sik, his face pale. Ma Doo-sik replied with a similar expression.
"All we can do is pray. To those two."
Their only hope was to pray that Jinwoo and Chartia could somehow get rid of the Erosion. That was all they could do.

Normal flight was already impossible. There was no telling what would happen even if they removed the enemy right now.
In other words, every single second was critical.
‘At this rate, we’ll crash.’
All Chartia could do was protect the plane and its passengers from the enemy's attacks.
Her power came from the earth, so it was difficult to use her abilities on a high-speed plane, far from the ground. The only reason she could manifest this much power was because she was an S-class Hunter who had awakened a significant portion of her past life.
Just maintaining her current state was draining her strength; she couldn't afford to fight the minion as well.
It had to be him.
"Chartia. I have to cut it down."
"…! Can you do it?"
"It seems to be struggling to hang on to the fast-moving plane. It’s a stationary target, so aiming will be easy."
The problem was whether his own attack would cause even more damage to the plane.
But since a crash was certain if they did nothing, there was no time to hesitate.
"If my sword tears a bigger hole in the plane…"
"Leave it to me. I'll block it somehow."
Please, do whatever it takes. Chartia's gaze was desperate.
Jinwoo nodded and took his position. It was a spot where he could clearly see the Black Flame through the ceiling.
The passengers had already been evacuated to another section, so there was nothing in his way.
He raised the Sky Sword, his recent favorite. Of course, he wasn't going to use a spell; he would simply cut the flame.
Just…
‘Like when I healed Kanok.’
Back then, he had succeeded in cutting away only the Black Flame. In his desire to save Kanok without killing him, he had excised only the Black Flame, leaving Kanok’s soul and body intact.

Could he perform the same feat inside this plane?
‘Recall the sensation from that time.’
Chartia had said she would block any damage, but there were no guarantees. To cut the Black Flame, he had to swing with all his might, and he couldn't predict how much damage the plane's ceiling would take from the blow.
If possible—no, he had to swing his sword exactly as he had with Kanok.
A sword that cuts what must be cut, and protects what must be protected.
Jinwoo raised his sword and slashed.
Strangely, there was no sound. A moment ago, the cabin had been filled with all sorts of chaos, shaking, and confusion, but now an absolute silence swallowed all noise.
Chartia, and all the passengers and crew, watched the sword that had created that silence.
But who among them could have possibly fathomed the true nature of Jinwoo's sword? Ordinary people certainly couldn't, and it was a level of mastery that even Chartia couldn't comprehend.
Just…
‘Ah.’
Chartia recalled the first time she had ever seen Jinwoo's sword.
Her heart had trembled then, too, her eyes captivated. It was the moment that made her, who had been searching for a place to naturalize, decide to settle in Seoul.
Seeing it again after so long, Jinwoo's sword was still beautiful.
‘Wait.’
For a moment, something tried to surface in her mind. But like a fragile, thin thread, it was easily carried away by the wind and vanished.
As she was lost in that strange sensation, a peculiar jolt ran through the plane.
Thump—
Simultaneously, the plane’s violent shaking subsided. It wasn't stable yet, but the frantic instability from before was gone.
"Hoo…"
Jinwoo let out a sigh that was unmistakably one of relief. Only then did the passengers begin to collapse into their seats, one by one. They wanted to cheer, but no one had the energy left.
Chartia, too, was barely standing, a part of her wanting nothing more than to fall to the floor.
It was then that she noticed. Jinwoo's sword had cut the enemy outside the plane, but the ceiling in between was completely untouched.

The now-masterless Black Flame flowed into him. Through the sword, into Jinwoo's heart. Absorbed by his heart, the Black Flame was enveloped by his soul, instantly bleached and stripped of its ominous aura.
And in Jinwoo's other hand, the Sky God's Scabbard trembled slightly, scattering its energy.
To Jinwoo, it looked as if it were rejoicing in its recovered power.
‘Don't tell me…’
A possibility dawned on Jinwoo. He held the divine object of the Sky God, the scabbard, and he possessed the ability to cut down the minions of Lords and absorb their flames.
If so, by continuing to cut down the Sky God's minions, couldn't he completely steal his Authority and seal it within this scabbard?