Chapter 128: Cognitive Imposition 100%

[Translator – Aren]

-Huuuuff...

Listening to my breath leaving through the gas-mask filter, I rolled my eyes around. I’d managed to break through and figure out his weakness, but that was all I’d done so far.

The price of breaking through was getting surrounded.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes. The man in a coat, baseball cap, and gas mask glared at me with the grimoire in hand.

Sports Rebar. He stood around while casually holding out the stolen nuclear warhead.

The Seoul wizards. Each of them hid their faces and eyes behind some ridiculous getup as they turned their backs to me.

The 55 Unit wizards. Still holding their rifles, they began sidestepping stealthily while subtly tugging up their combat-uniform sleeves or ponchos.

The ones getting on my nerves the most of these people were the 55 Unit guys.

I wondered what the hell these bastards were trying right now, and then I realized. The magic symbols.

Some were the Eyes-branch symbol. Others, the Heart-branch.

They had spread themselves out and formed their group so that the magic symbols of all five branches could fit within my field of vision at the same time. The 55 Unit soldiers had been positioned that way from the very beginning so I would see all five branches’ magic symbols all at once.

I suddenly remembered Hundred-Miles Eyes’ memories I received.

A non-wizard’s way of thinking, focused only on destructive power and lethality, could never stand against a wizard. Even if the opponent was another wizard. Only now did I understand what those words had really meant.

However, when I said it myself, it kind of didn’t sound as cool.

A proper reaction was always better than somebody else making a huge fuss for you.

I maintained my stance, completely ignoring the magic symbols the 55 Unit wizards were showing me.

A few seconds.

The standoff lasted only a few seconds, but that was enough.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes, who had been silently watching, let out a deep breath. Sports Rebar, still cradling the nuclear warhead like a baby, narrowed his eyes.

-Huuff—.

This time, the breathing sounds came from Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ gas mask.

But it was Sports Rebar who spoke up first.

Dressed in sneakers and a tracksuit, looking like some unemployed bum, the wizard had his collar pulled up over the lower half of his face. He stroked the nuclear warhead as he opened his mouth.

His voice, completely different from his appearance, was deep and gentle.

"All 5 branches."

-Flinch.

The shoulders of the Seoul wizards who had turned their backs to me jerked violently.

The 55 Unit wizards, still hesitantly displaying their magic symbols, stepped backward and raised their rifles. Click. Metallic sounds overlapped as they dropped to one knee and took aim, making the whole sight both ridiculous and pathetic.

[Causal Arrangement - Miss] was still in effect, so it should’ve been pointless, but apparently their instinctive fixation on shooting guns was hard to shake.

With Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes staring straight through me and everyone else stretched tight with tension, only Sports Rebar remained relaxed.

"All 5 branches, huh?"

Fine wrinkles began spreading around Sports Rebar’s eyes.

The sudden aging should’ve startled me, but strangely, my chest only felt like it had been weighed down by something. I had this prejudice that anyone who calmly spoke in such a soft, pleasant voice would never show what they were really thinking.

More importantly, his reaction was far too weak.

If you saw a Great Archmage with all 5 branches, the proper response was to open your eyes wide, drop your jaw, and gasp in amazement. He didn't, though. Sports Rebar. This bastard had to die.

Just as I naturally started rolling my shoulder to swing the sword.

The moment my eyes followed the sword seal I made with my fingers beside the blade’s tip, the Big Dipper and 28 Mansions engraved in gold across the blade seemed to flash. My non-wizard’s common sense dismissed it as nothing more than the sunlight reflection of the metal of a bit.

But my reason of a Great Archmage understood immediately.

The Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword.

The sword of a dynasty, forged with the meaning of warding off evil, to cut down the evil and wicked to preserve righteousness, was warning me.

Without hesitation, I charged toward Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and shouted the sword verse I knew.

"Cut down the wicked and drive away demons! Wipe out treachery and uproot evil!"

The instant I swung the sword while reciting the verse, I immediately sensed something was wrong.

It felt like swinging a baseball bat badly and getting dragged along because I couldn't handle its weight. That was exactly what was happening. My stance tilted weirdly, and my center of gravity twisted wildly, however it pleased.

Only then did my life flash before my eyes as time slowed to a painful crawl.

I remembered that I was a pure, 100% gunman who had never learned a damn thing about swordsmanship.

My feet tangled themselves up, my breathing faltered as I panicked, my waist felt like it was spinning in circles, and the sword’s tip was so damn heavy it seemed to point just anywhere.

Fuck, should I have taken someHaidong Gumdo classes or something?

No. This was gaslighting.

There was no way I, Baek Jemin, couldn’t properly swing some lousy sword. Thanks to that, I figured it out immediately. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ Ears-branch, Stage 4 magic, [Causal Arrangement - Miss], was working in close combat too.

There was no other way to expla…

-Slash!

Something got sliced.

The sensation of cutting through a half-finished chunk of meat snapped me back to my senses.

A chilling sensation ran into the palm gripping the hilt, like scraping against bone.

My feet were tangled, my waist was twisting however it pleased, and my arms and shoulders were flailing around like an amateur’s, and yet I somehow kept cutting things.

-Sliice!

Only after seeing the severed pieces falling to the ground did I realize what they were.

Chunks of what had once been human spines spilled dirty, pus-like marrow as they twitched their rib-bone legs like overturned insects before dying. Predator Spines. I was chipping Predator Spines apart with a sword instead of using a gun.

One, two, three…

My body was dragged along by the sword as it tore the charging monsters apart one by one. The blade never caught or scraped against bone. As though being sucked into a bathroom drain, it lunged straight between the monsters’ vertebrae and into the cartilage.

There was no way the soft cartilage of those cursed monsters could withstand a lump of iron imbued with divine energy.

-Slice!

I did nothing but get dragged around by the sword like a drunk.

But the monsters just kept dying somehow.

The Predator Spines whose tails had been severed could only writhe like chopped-up centipedes.

My poncho fluttered beneath the clear sunlight as I watched the monsters die through the lenses of my gas mask, standing in the middle of disgusting bodily fluids raining down all around me.

Every time I swung, the blade flashed as though lightning were whipping through the air, and every time I stumbled, I somehow avoided the Predator Spines in all kinds of strange ways.

As it kept happening, I naturally started getting into it.

Before I knew it, my chest was swelling with excitement from the sheer joy of carving up monsters charging at me. I realized that even without anyone else’s recognition, pulling off something awesome enough to impress myself was satisfying all on its own.

Baek Jemin, you damn rascal.

You’re shining brilliantly right now!

-Huuff, huuff, huuuuff~.

My breathing grew ragged as it poured through the gas-mask filter. driven by my heightened excitement.

I was starting to doubt myself.

Baek Jemin, a man among men.

Had I actually been born with the talent of a swordsman rather than a Great Archmage?

Just as I was trembling at my own natural gifts, a strange sight unfolded before me.

Fog began to rise rapidly.

In an instant, it climbed past my thighs. Only then did I look around at the surroundings I’d been too lost in the moment to notice. That was when I realized it. Every last member of the Gangnam group was fleeing in groups of fives and trees.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes was basically slung over Sports Rebar’s shoulder like a piece of luggage. He looked back towards me and quietly recited some sort of incantation.

Halu Wi Hongwiyashen. Halu Shen Hongshiyashen.

I couldn’t help blinking absentmindedly as a bead of sweat stung my eye. But when I opened them again, the entire Gangnam group, which had been fleeing like mad men just moments ago, had vanished.

A familiar sense of deja vu.

It was the concealment spell Ski Goggles had used.

The instant I realized it, I screamed out loud.

"They fucking ran!”

These cowardly bastards. If I came all this way looking this cool, they were supposed to turn around and fight me bravely. They seriously just threw out bait at the enemy and then ran?

That kind of underhanded attitude only belonged to gunmen and gunmen alone!

My extreme rage instead chilled my mind.

I swung the sword, flinging the disgusting fluids coating its blade across the road.

As long as I held the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword, Swordmaster Baek Jemin wasn’t going down easily.

My problem was that I was in the wrong position to make a judgment right now.

I needed someone who could track their movements or decide how to best coordinate with our allies.

Self-awareness was important.

I was the kind of guy who could smash down a ranch fence, sure, but you couldn’t beat kettle herding or shepherding into me even if you killed me.

I focused, lowered my guard, and concentrated on Shin Nain, the dumping ground for all the magic I didn’t want to use myself.

Shin Nain. I got rid of Causal Arrangement 'Misfire.'

What do you and the non-wizards think?

'Jemin-ssi, first go take cover somewhere, then get prone.’

What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?

We’re supposed to be chasing them, and you want me to crawl on the ground?

I was just about to get pissed off for a perfectly justified reason.

'They’re going to dispose of the unexploded bombs and clear it all at once. Right now, Ryeoha-ssi is……’

The instant I heard that, I sprinted straight under the overpass.

There were still some Predator Spines alive, but this wasn't the time to worry about those trash mobs. Running alone didn’t feel like it would be enough, so I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Eyes-branch, Stage 3 [Cognitive Dissonance] 100%.

The moment it felt like my tongue was being sliced into thin stripes, the tension left my knees. Good thing I’d taken a dump before coming out here because I knew this might happen. At this point, I could handle pissing myself.

I changed the gravity acting on me and threw myself beneath the overpass as if wanting to free fall.

-Thud.

The underpass shook, sending dust raining down. For a moment, I wondered if there had been a small earthquake. Concrete dust poured over my poncho, tinting the lenses of my gas mask slightly gray.

At that moment, I released [Cognitive Dissonance] without hesitation.

I rolled onto the road beneath the unlit underpass. My ears were overwhelmed by the sound of the whole thing shaking.

-Thud.

The entire underpass trembled.

Then the explosions that had been buried beneath everything began going off one after another. As the unexploded bombs detonated like land mines, the bombardment resumed. Of course, that still wouldn’t inflict any meaningful damage.

After all, Ears-branch, Stage 4 [Causal Arrangement - Miss] was still active.

I rubbed the lenses of my gas mask clean with my stained hand and focused. My thighs were unpleasantly warm, but this wasn’t the time to worry about that. I concentrated and listened to Shin Nain’s voice.

I wondered what I should say first, then decided my current situation, trying to get back on my feet beneath a shaking underpass, took priority.

You fucking bastads.

'Jemin-ssi, I figured out why they lifted Causal Arrangement ‘Misfire.’'

Amazing how quick he got once I started swearing.

Magic trash can Shin Nain summed it up very simply and clearly.

After the non-wizards and Hamza put their heads together for a few dozen seconds or so, they thought of the nuclear warhead. Headquarters’ theory was that the Gangnam group might have some way to detonate the warhead they were carrying.

My answer was simple.

Then they’ll give themselves away. Check their equipment and vehicles first.

'Most of the roads are blocked off with obstacles, so that probably won’t help!’

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes was capable of controlling monsters.

If they load those things onto a vehicle and send it charging through in an attempt to break through, grabbing all of our attention, we’d be screwed. Tell them to shoot every vehicle that starts moving.

'Copy. Are you coming back?'

You crazy? I haven’t even gotten to properly try Eyes-branch, Stage 4 yet.

My answer was firm.

I raised the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword.

Even beneath the dark underpass, the constellations glittered gold, while the sword verse written in Sanskrit gave a faint silver glow. It was enough to illuminate my poncho, covered in blood and filth.

I now knew that his sword was able to do.

[Automatic Interception].

It intercepts attacks, either specifically from monsters or specifically from magic.

No matter how versatile I was, this was the first time I’d ever held a sword. I wasn’t good enough to instantly deal with monsters on my own. Every human had things they lacked. Even a prepared wizard was no exception.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes had an obvious weakness as well.

He could thoroughly force the actions of non-wizards, but twisting the actions of wizards required some convincing setup.

The proof was that my attack hadn’t simply swung through nothing. It had struck the rifle of a 55 Unit wizard. His Ears-branch, Stage 4 magic had been forced to concede in order to counter an equally ranked power. My badass Eyes-branch, Stage 4.

He was still hiding whatever method he had for killing people at long range, but put another way, that meant it was probably Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ actual finishing move.

-Huuuuuff……

My breath poured through the gas mask.

And at the end of it, I drew my sword again, starting to move forward.

I didn’t even need Eyes-branch, Stage 1 [Cognitive Expansion].

Once I stopped being wary of Shin Nain, acknowledged the objective fact that he was a damn fanatic zealot piece of shit, and accepted him as a companion who faithfully served as my unwanted magic trash can, I could hear his voice whenever I wanted.

'Sejun.ssi and the pastor have landed.’

My hands trembled for some reason as I took the few steps needed to leave the underpass.

'Go Ryeoha-ssi is detonating the unexploded bombs. They’re trying to herd them back north.’

My hands and feet were shaking, and my heart was pounding so hard that I momentarily wondered if it was because I nearly died just now.

Sure, I went around reeking of every foul smell imaginable, but I wasn’t some mediocre nobody who’d be overcome by fear over something that minor.

Therefore, I dismissed it.

Why were my hands and feet shaking? Why was my heart pounding?

I thought about it carefully, then I suddenly realized it.

'Contact with military forces!'

The moment I stepped out from beneath the underpass and returned to the bright sunlight.

Standing in the middle of asphalt crushed by explosions and scorched concrete walls, I felt it with absolute certainty.

I…

I think I look kind of badass.

'Jemin-ssi!!!'

I crouched down, then launched myself upward like I’d been fired from a spring.

Heart-branch, Stage 2 [Physical Enhancement].

Walls were no longer obstacles that could stop me.

If you could run faster than a person could fall, and there was somewhere for a person to plant their feet, then a person could click off walls and just keep going.

Footprints appeared across the wall.

My left hand planted itself beside one of the black footprints.

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot…

Recalling how I’d awkwardly waddled around during my first birthday party, I walked along the wall as though gliding across it.

It took me only five steps for that walk to turn into a run.

Whenever I felt myself starting to slide down, I simply hopped up and used a street light pole like a stepping stone. The rifle hanging from my right shoulder still bounced around wildly. The Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword in my right hand reflected the sunlight, gleaming like a mirror.

I had no idea what that looked like from above.

The wind blew from behind me, which made my poncho flap nonstop.

A formation of fighter jets tore across the sky overhead.

I ran along with them, chasing after the sound.

The buildings dropped in height almost instantly. Once I entered an intersection dotted with buildings no taller than 6 stories or so, even my leaping from place to place started to hit a limit.

I had no choice but to shift onto a streetlight near the road for a moment.

-Clank.

The metal beneath my feet tilted and wavered.

At some point, dense fog about 2 stories high had spread across all of Seongnam. But my stomach was already growling, which told me something. Real fog normally reduced the penalties of magic.

If this were real fog, my stomach wouldn’t already be growling just because I'd been jumping around a little.

This was fake fog.

Fake fog mixed with just enough real fog to make the difference hard to tell. A sense of frustration washed over me. Had Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes gotten this good at escaping like that?

Just as I was about to roll my tongue around inside my mouth to use Eyes-branch, Stage 1 [Cognitive Expansion]...

-Bang…

A gunshot rang out.

The gunfire that had begun with that single shot quickly intensified.

-Ratatatat!!!

It was practically like spraying bullets from a hose. Whoever was unleashed that much firepower into the fog without hesitation…

I didn’t know who they were, but they completely embodied the spirit of the Supreme Archmages.

I resolutely headed toward the sound.

I hopped from streetlight to streetlight a few times.

By the time I’d crossed another intersection, a shrill signal sounded, followed by a scream-like shout.

-Brrrring—.

"Emergency, emergency! Fog Depth Level 3 confirmed, visibility under 5 meters! Seal off all of Seongnam!”

They were non-wizard soldiers moving in a circular formation at the center of the intersection, maintaining a 360-degree watch and shooting at anything that moved. Their squad leader was screaming into the radio as he reported.

There were 8 of them.

That wasn’t enough to deal with Predator Spines darting through the fog on their rib-bone legs with lightning-fast clicking sounds.

Predator Spines weren’t monsters non-wizard soldiers could handle in an open area covered in fog to begin with.

At that moment, I leapt up without a shred of hesitation.

My destination was the center of their formation.

If I, Beak Jemin, man among men, found a place where I could shine brightest, then even in the middle of chasing an enemy, it was only human nature to go there.

-Thump!

"What in the—?!”

Just as the startled soldiers all tied to turn around, I resolutely raised the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword.

Warding off evil.

It meant driving away wicked energy and disaster. The Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword had been forged for that exact purpose. And this blade hadn't even been made in the 21st century. It was originally a Three-Tiger Sword carefully preserved in the Ulsan Museum, temporarily transformed into a Four-Tiger Sword through an Incantation-type ritual.

If that was the case...

There was no way [Automatic Interception] was all it could do.

With that in mind, I raised the sword high.

I stood at the center of the terrified soldiers as they backed up through the dense, 2-story-high fog, each trusting the other to guard their backs. The blade engraved with constellations and a sword formula was held high above my head.

Even as cold sweat ran down the back of my neck, I desperately recalled Poodle-noona’s words.

Eightfold Yang. Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Pure Yang. Three instances of Wu.

Even if the heavens drowned in fog, even if I were trapped in damp, clammy moisture, I could endure it.

My Four Pillars and Eight Characters contained Wu, the seventh of the 12 Earthly Branches, three times. And there was another Wu (5) engraved on my heart, the Five that sought to become Seven… If anyone could wield a Tiger Sword here and now, there was no one but me!

The moment I gripped the hilt with that belief in mind…

The blade hidden within the thick fog shone brightly as though it had been set ablaze. The Big Dipper was the first to burn gold, followed by the 28 Mansions glowing a searing yellow. At the same time, the silver sword verse ran down the blade like liquid mercury. 

Then, a sword verse surfaced in my mind.

Not the one I’d memorized, but the verse originally inscribed on the blade itself.

I recited it instinctively and intuitively.

-Establish righteousness.

-Flash!

The fog cleared.

The sacred light pouring from the heated blade alternated between gold and silver, the colors humanity revered the most, and wherever it shone, the scenery returned to how it was originally.

The moisture dried up in an instant, and sunlight reached the ground.

The fog surged and writhed, but it couldn’t cross into the boundary illuminated by that sacred light.

But the most shocking sight was something else.

-Click, click.

The Predator Spines crawling up the walls curled their bodies inward.

LikeAnisakis worms curling up to hibernate, they coiled around themselves while still embedded in the walls.

Even so, as the sacred light from the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword continued to shine on them, they began writhing and retreating.

Like starving beasts unable to easily back away with their prey right in front of them, the Predator Spines were acting the same.

Some lashed their sharp tails around and viciously struck the walls or floor with the teeth remaining in their upper jaws. Others flattened themselves as low as possible and strained desperately to crawl forward anyway.

The soldiers were shaken by the sight too.

The soldiers who had been trembling with their rifles aimed in every direction flinched and froze.

The squad leader even slowly pulled up his gas mask and stared around with his mouth hanging open stupidly.

Only the walkie-talkie kept making noise, oblivious to the suffocating atmosphere.

-Brrrring—.

[All squads, prioritize eliminating monsters and remnants. Wizard forces are pursuing hostile wizards. Over.]

Sometimes a single action hit harder than a hundred words.

In front of the soldiers twitching with the urge to turn around and the squad leader staring at me with his mouth hanging open, I smiled in satisfaction and let out a short breath.

-Haah!

"What are you doing? Shoot!”

Only then did the soldiers snap back to their senses.

The squad leader hurriedly pulled his gas mask back down. and the others pulled their triggers.

-Ratatatatatatatata!!!!

There was no easier target than a monster that couldn’t move.

As the light pouring from the Four-Tiger Sword’s blade faded, the fog began creeping back in, but humans were beings who needed only a single miracle to find the strength to fight.

The moment I lowered the sword and leaped up, a soldier’s booming shout rang out beneath me.

"You saw that, right?! That’s our wizard! Our wizard’s stronger! Move!”

-Clank.

I landed atop a streetlight pole again.

I could see the soldiers’ backs as they shuffled forward through the fog in formation. Without a second thought, I turned away and began hopping toward the sound of gunfire.

By then the explosions had been silent for quite a while.

Judging from the fact that Go Ryeoha had stopped detonating the unexploded bombs and the artillery had gone quiet again, either the Gangnam group had been pushed far enough north or friendly troops had finished deploying. In that case, all I had to do was follow the gunfire and keep helping any soldiers I came across to tighten the encirclement.

As long as [Causal Arrangement - Miss] remained active, the other side couldn’t maximize their killing power either.

Then all we had to do was herd them in and surround them

With that resolve, I kimped through a few more intersections until a familiar-looking nightmare I absolutely didn’t want to encounter appeared before me. In front of the hospital, I found Lee Sejun and Pastor Park Yohan beside a planted concrete shield in the middle of changing an ammo box.

I paused, standing on a streetlight pole, and thought for a moment.

Should I join them?

I really didn’t want to, but for the sake of the operation, I gritted my teeth and jumped down to join them.

-Thump!

I rose while stylishly running my fingers held in a sword seal gesture along the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword.

That was when Lee Sejun and the pastor, hearing me land, turned around to look at me.

Lee Sejun twisted his brows, but the pastor’s eyes curved into a smile as though he were genuinely happy to see me.

"Hm? Baek Jemin? You showed up at exactly the right time!”

"Tsk…My experience and remains.”

A chill ran down my spine.

Without realizing it, I glared at Lee Sejun.

Lee Sejun.

Lately, his passion for magic had been rising exponentially.

And this guy even had Tongue-branch magic, yet he was working that hard to improve… Lee Sejun was far too dangerous a rival.

But for now, we had to work together, so I lowered myself again.

"So what are you doing in front of the hospital?”

"The Gangnam guys over there. Looks like concealment can't fool machines. Command flooded the area with drones, figured out the exact range and timing where they started malfunctioning, then combined that with Islam’s imaging to track their route.”

The pastor pulled his hood aside slightly, showed me his headset, and tapped it a couple of times.

The plan the pastor explained was as follows.

After the Gangnam group had their weakness exposed, they decided to occupy a hospital north of the military hospital, near Seohyeon Station. Even if they couldn’t detonate the nuclear warhead for now, the fact that they still had it made them an enormous threat.

So the Supreme Archmages would move in coordination with the military.

First up was Go Ryeoha.

"Hand-branch, Stage 3 was [Telekinesis], right? She’s going to use that to infiltrate from the upper floors. She can go in immediately without being seen from the air, and she’s strong enough as a wizard to draw plenty of attention.”

Shin Nain was no longer focusing on maintaining contact with me.

Instead, he was reading the minds of 55 Unit wizards and other Seoul wizards from the Gangnam group whose prepositions had been narrowed down inside the hospital, reporting what he found to headquarters in real time to help them make decisions. As for Hamza, all he had to do was keep spamming his imaging thing to earn his keep, so whatever.

"The other soldiers are currently trying to surround them. Special forces are deployed again too, apparently, but now that they’ve realized the only meaningful force that works against wizards is other wizards, they’re being cautious.”

"What’s our objective?”

"Burn through the Causal Arrangements Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes has set up. What bothers me is that we still haven’t figured out Sports Rebar’s power. He’s an Inverted Hand-branch wizard.”

"Pastor, we’re carrying way too much of the burden.”

That was when Lee Sejun interjected.

-Clack.

Having finished loading, Lee Sejun raised the machine gun straight up with one hand and exhaled through his gas mask.

"There’s fog everywhere, and on top of that we’ve got that ridiculously broken [Causal Arrangement] to worry about. Since we can’t shoot them dead, there’s nothing we can do except face them directly. In a situation like this, you’re the only person who can ignore [Causal Arrangement], Pastor.”

"I’d be glad if they would hear the Gospel…but they’ve gone too far. Lord, I pray this doesn’t mean I have abandoned them. Amen.”

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Everybody listen to me first.”

I flicked my index finger and corrected the pastor and Lee Sejun’s thinking a little.

Only non-wizards had to obey [Causal Arrangement] absolutely.

To affect wizards, what mattered was to create a convincing enough setup for [Causal Arrangement] to accept.

If the setup was convincing enough that even [Causal Arrangement] itself has no choice but to go ‘Yeah, nothing you can do about that,’ then we should be able to break the magic or drastically weaken its effect.

"How are we supposed to accept an explanation like that? It makes absolutely no sense?”

"Baek Jemin, you’ve been acting kind of idiotic for a while now. You finally decided to make it official?”

"This is why I said I shouldn’t bother talking to ordinary mortals!”

I drastically revised the explanation to bring it down to their level.

To get into the hospital, which was obviously fortified and filled with troops, I, the Eyes-branch, Stage 4, wizard, would launch a surprise attack. Then, amid the confusion, Lee Sejun and the pastor would break through together from another direction.

If Lee Sejun’s and the pastor’s gunfire overlapped, then even [Casual Arrangement - Miss] wouldn’t matter. As a Dogma-type, the pastor should be able to fire while ignoring the difference in Stage.

If anything, the enemies who had complete faith in [Causal Arrangement] would be even more shaken when they actually got shot.

"No objections, right?”

"Try acting like this normally, you bastard.”

"Jemin-ssi, stop pretending you’re smart.”

I felt a little wronged.

I thought I’d made a damn good call!

But the operation came before complaining about how unfair they were being. The three of us immediately split up. As I leapt away, I spotted a human silhouette flying around near the hospital from a nearby building. It seemed like Go Ryeoha had made it here as well.

With us spread out like that, all four Supreme Archmages had more or less gathered around the hospital entrance.

Lee Sejun tore a chunk of concrete off with his bare hands and began advancing with it as a shield. The pastor stuck close behind him, keeping watch over the surroundings.

Go Ryeoha was probably up on the roof of that building over there, looking for an angle to infiltrate the upper floors. The moment we started raising hell, she’d probably join in.

From beyond the intersection, deep within the thick fog, I could hear a ‘Brrrring—!’ signal followed by soldiers shouting.

I, Baek Jemin, stood atop a streetlight with my sword raised, making sure I looked as cool as possible.

The Gangnam group was most likely prepared, waiting on the first floor.

Even if they’d fortified the higher floors instead, they’d only be guarding the windows and stairways.

Of course they would.

It was only natural to watch the places a human body could squeeze through.

But with the fake fog gently drifting beneath my feet, among the people gathering around the hospital, the only wizard among them, raising a sword while everyone else was carrying a gun…

I laughed at that pitiful sense of caution.

Then, finally, I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Pain was coming.

Enough to bring tears to my eyes, drain the strength from my knees, and make my legs buckle with fear.

But I could endure it because I knew what waited beyond that pain. Because I knew the reward would be equal to how harsh the pain was.

I willingly offered up my pain.

For the sake of great power. For magic.

I crouched, ready to leap, curled my body, and recited.

I had always been a part of it.

Until now, I had lived as one fragment of the world.

But at this moment, the world would be reduced to a mere part of my perception.

-Crunch!

My tongue split.

Blood burst out.

It felt as though the base of my tongue were being burned with fire, blisters forming and bursting over and over as the sharp pain traveled all the way down my throat.

I jumped up in exactly that state.

As I vaulted over the wide road, the two people beneath my feet stood out the most to me. Lee Sejun, advancing with a concrete shield, and the pastor pressed close behind him, both looking up at the sky.

At the sky where I was.

Feeling their gazes on me, I smiled as I faced the cold outer wall with no window frame in sight.

—Upright Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 4 [Cognitive Imposition] 100%.

The wall I was looking at was foam.

At least, the moment my body touched it, it became foam.

-Swoooosh—.

Like touching a soap bubble with wet fingers, the outer wall distorted and wrapped around me. But I wasn’t trying to be embraced by the foam. I was trying to break through it.

I poked it with the tip of the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword.

I stabbed through with the point, shoved a foot inside, then twisted my body and squeezed through. I could see what must have been a hospital ward on the other side. Inside were 55 Unit wizards sitting on the floor, catching their breath.

Our eyes met.

My entire body passed through the wall that had turned into foam. The instant I dropped through, the part of the swelling wall could no longer withstand the impact and burst apart. Concrete fragments sprayed in every direction, turning the entire hospital room into a mess.

Dense fog surged into the room, creating utter chaos.

Belated footsteps sounded from outside the hospital-room door, but it was already too late.

Even as blood spilling from between my lips ran down my chin, even as I realized black streaks were starting to float across my vision, I didn’t stop.

—Upright Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 4 [Cognitive Imposition] 100%.

The floor I was looking at was foam.

The moment I threw myself onto it, the floor stretched out and enveloped me.

This time, I twisted around and punched a hole through it with the rifle digging into my shoulder. The moment an opening formed, it quickly widened enough for my body to pass through, and I willingly threw myself down through it.

-Thud!

I fell.

-Bang!

The ceiling came down with me.

Because I’d made the hole wide enough, no debris rained down where I landed. Instead, startled gasps and voices overlapped with the sound of footsteps.

"Eyes-branch, Stage 4! It’s a Stage 4 wizard!”

"It’s that guy with all 5 branches! He followed us! Stop him!!!”

I tightened my grip on the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword and rose to my feet.

Of course, fellow wizards were the ones who truly understood the might of a Great Archmage with all 5 branches. Anyone could tell from the way they came rushing over and immediately shifted the direction of their wariness.

To spare them the trouble of coming to me, I started walking toward them.

Beyond the corridor, I saw 55 Unit wizards aiming their rifles at me and Seoul wizards with their faces wrapped up in all kinds of ridiculous ways. There were about a dozen of them. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and Sports Rebar weren’t here.

Without hesitation, I threw the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword and recited the sword verse.

It was to expose everyone hiding within the dense fog, and to stop any monsters that might be lurking there.

-Establish righteousness.

Gunfire rang out, but [Causal Arrangement - Miss] equally applied to everyone.

The tip of the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword sank into the ceiling like it was slicing through soft tofu, then trembled and began giving off light. The fog vanished in an instant. As though a blazing sun had risen, even the moisture filling the hospital’s first-floor lobby began drying up completely.

The Gangnam group wizards, suddenly fully exposed, hunched down or lowered themselves to avoid the light.

That was their mistake.

-Crash!

The wall broke apart.

While everyone from the Gangnam group on the 1st floor had turned to watch me, the wall beside the door, the one no one had been paying attention to, burst open.

Lee Sejun.

Despite only being Heart-branch, Stage 4, he’d become a true monster.

He charged in with a machine gun cradled in his arms, smashing through concrete and bending rebar with his shoulder. The moment the startled 55 Unit wizards turned their gun barrels toward him, their fate was sealed.

The pastor, who had been waiting beside the doorway, immediately raised his gun.

-Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

Normally, it should have missed.

But the pastor had honed his marksmanship on the trip to Seoul, and as a Dogma-type wizard, good fortune naturally followed him. Stage-ignoring true damage. Even [Causal Arrangement], used by Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes, an Ears-branch, Stage 4 wizard, couldn’t simply disregard the power of a Dogma-type.

One of the Seoul wizards was hit in the shoulder.

-Thud.

Blood splattered.

As the entire Gangnam group stared with wide eyes at the wounded Seoul wizard standing in the area that had been cleared of fog, Lee Sejun dropped to one knee.

He aimed the machine gun and immediately pulled the trigger.

-Ratatatatatatata……

My ears grew numb.

A sharp ringing echoed inside of them.

The pastor’s gunshots cut through here and there.

But no one would ever know unless they paid attention.

Screams rang out.

The Seoul wizards forced themselves back to their feet and charged in like madmen, while the 55 Unit wizards vomited and fired their guns wildly in every direction.

"Surrender!”

The pastor’s shout never reached them.

Gunfire was pouring down too heavily, and the other side was far too agitated to hear him at all.

I watched the scene while clinging to the wall.

There were barely any casualties.

However, no one surrendered.

When the barrage finally stopped, the light from the Four-TIger Evil-Slaying Sword faded, and the fog began creeping back in.

At the same time, ‘Briiiiing—!’ signals sounded from outside the hospital.

[Orders from Command. Retake the hospital. These are dangerous criminals who stole a nuclear warhead. Prioritize eliminating all enemies. Over.]

The soldiers had arrived.

Lee Sejun, the pastor, and I looked at each other, then quickly gathered at the center of the lobby. Just as I was wondering how the hell I was supposed to get the Four-Tier Evil-Slaying Sword out of the ceiling, Lee Sejun fired his gun at it.

-Ratatatatata!!!!

Bullet marks spread across the ceiling, and the impact knocked the sword loose.

-Clang!

I immediately ran over, caught it in my arms, checked that the blade was okay, and gave it a little kiss.

"Hey, you bastard. Do you have any idea how valuable this thing is?”

"Jemin-ssi, stop kissing the damn sword and hurry up the stairs. We need to minimize casualties.”

He had a point.

I gripped the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword in my right hand and headed for the stairs. I’d already shown them how I used Stage 4, so this time I’d catch them off guard by taking the stairs.

With that resolve, I started to move forward…

Only to find Lee Sejun and the pastor naturally following right behind me.

Well, I did need someone to tank hits and draw aggro.

-Brrrring—.

The walkie-talkie signals washed over the Gangnam-group members struggling around on the first floor. The clinking of dog tags sounded especially loud.

But even amid all that, there was one shout I didn’t let pass me by.

"Thank you!”

Someone must have shouted it while watching the Supreme Archmages head for the stairs.

Yeah, keep praising me and applauding like that.

Then whenever you cross my mind, I’ll definitely help you out from time to time!

-Step.

I looked up the stairs and took a deep breath.

-Huuuff…

"I’m going on ahead.”

I kicked off the wall and launched myself through the gap between the flights of stairs.

I’d never realized turning my body in midair could be this easy. I’d never known running along walls could be this exciting either.

More importantly, I’d never known that if I didn’t like a wall, I could just go straight through the damn thing!