Chapter 39: Best of the Best

[Translator – Aren]

Seoul. A land buried beneath a colossal cloud of fog hundreds of meters thick.

The reconnaissance mission into it had reportedly been divided into 2 major phases. While countless reconnaissance drones and fighter jets entered Seoul’s airspace to gather information and carry out bombing raids, special forces units spearheaded the initial advance.

The primary objective was to secure footholds using the subway network rather than the surface, where they would be vulnerable to artillery fire and attacks from unknown unidentified species.

Once the special forces successfully scouted and cleared a route, engineers, whether volunteers or conscripts, would move in to inspect infrastructure and check supplies, advancing step by step. Regular soldiers would then be assigned to maintain and secure those footholds.

That was the first reconnaissance phase.

The deployment of civilian Operators—wizards cooperating with the military, constituted the second phase. Following routes already secured by special forces and the military, they would search the surrounding areas and establish contact with survivor groups.

As such, our Supreme Archmages would also be entering Seoul through the subway tunnels.

And our first point of entry was none other than Bokjeong Station.

The very subway station near where we’d encountered the Teratoma.

"Disembark!”

At the booming command of the lead officer, soldiers poured out of the other trucks. Searchlights were unloaded. Portable generators were hauled down with plenty of grunting and swearing. That sight stirred up old memories. Yeah. Enjoy the suffering, you guys.

Our Supreme Archmages finished preparing to disembark as well.

The fog was already so dense that you could barely see a foot in front of you. It rolled and churned like ocean waves. The moment I dove into it, damp moisture rushed over me.

-Thud.

As soon as I landed, I vigorously wiped the condensation from my gas mask lenses. I loosened my sling and wiped the moisture from my rifle barrel as well before finally looking around.

If you could even call it looking around.

Without the headlights from the armored vehicles and trucks, I wouldn’t have known whether any light was getting through at all. The gray fog was so dense that even the soldiers were stumbling around, feeling ahead, while wearing fluorescent identification bands to keep from losing one another.

By then, all of us Supreme Archmages had climbed down from the truck.

"Man, what a life. Never thought I’d be this old and still riding around in the back of a truck with no cushioning whatsoever.”

While Pastor Park Yohan joked as usual, a captain with his name tag removed emerged through the fog. Like everyone else, he wore a gas mask and military cap, making his face impossible to identify.

The fog and condensation obscured even his eyes, leaving only his voice audible. And instead of sounding authoritative, it quivered nervously like a plucked string.

"A-Aphorism. Uh, Operators, you should proceed to Bokjeong Station’s concourse first. The commanding officer there will brief you on the details. We’ll verify the surface conditions here and then withdraw.”

"Alright. Good luck.”

Some people volunteered for this. That guy looked like he’d been dragged here, though.

Leaving behind the soldiers and officers who stumbled around like blind men feeling their way through the fog, we headed toward the stairway heading into Bokjeong Station. Through thick fog poured downward through the entrance, the underground beyond was surprisingly clearer.

That was when our gazes naturally turned toward Hamza.

"No problem. We’re good to go.”

Though lacking in combat ability, Hamza had volunteered to be our porter. Of course, even a former foreign laborer hardened by years of hard work had limits, so most of what he carried consisted of food supplies like chocolate, hardtack, and water.

Still, despite the weight, he never complained once as he put his Dogma-type magic, [Angel’s Intuition], on display.

Only after receiving Hamza’s judgment did we take our next steps and begin descending underground.

"Haaah..."

The real pack mule here was actually Lee Sejun. True to someone who possessed Heart-branch magic, he’d stuffed two entire ammo cans into his rucksack and still didn’t look remotely tired. The weight had to be at least as much as a sack of rice, yet the guy was still yawning casually. Truly ridiculous.

The sigh he’d just let out wasn’t from exhaustion. It was because he was scared.

As we descended the stairs and slowly surveyed the station, the reality of the palace became clear. The floor tiles were shattered, cracks spread across the walls, and parts of the ceiling had collapsed. But considering the amount of shelling it had endured, it was in surprisingly decent shape.

Carefully stepping over the rubble, we headed toward the distant source of light.

That was when we found traces of people.

Where thick layers of concrete dust should have accumulated, a single smooth, heavy-duty cable ran across the floor.

The sight of a nearly laid cable in a wrecked subway station brought back memories. I suddenly remembered communications soldiers sprinting through storms in rain ponchos, because everyone would lose their fucking shit if even one cable got cut.

I even remembered getting dogpiled after teasing them about having an easy job.

"Looks like we just follow this. Let’s go.”

"Hmm. Seoul’s not that impressive after all, huh?”

Lee Sejun’s confidence seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

Though honestly, I felt the same way. Back when we’d encountered the Teratoma, we’d been acting like this place was literal hell. Now it felt more like we were out for a walk.

Of course, if we’d been the very first reconnaissance team, I’d have been scared shitless. But the special forces had already cleared the route. All we had to do was follow the path they’d secured and head toward positions occupied by soldiers. What was there to be afraid of?

Shin Nain had gone a step further. He was cheerfully humming a hymn to himself.

"Lord Jesus~ There’s nothing I would trade~ for you~”

"Maybe now isn’t the best time for singing, Nain-ssi.”

"Nothing~ in the~ wooorld~.”

Pastor Park’s attempt to stop him was completely ineffective.

Shin Nain was utterly absorbed in his hymn, singing through his gas mask while wearing his headset.

At this point, the tension weighing on our shoulders naturally began to fade. With no monsters in sight, Hamza saying that it was safe, Lee Sejun talking nonsense, and Shin Nain singing, how was anyone supposed to stay scared?

Following the cable, we eventually reached the stairs leading down to the platform.

Only then did something start to feel off.

I tightened the grip on my rifle and decided to chamber a round.

We’d brought 10 magazines per person. Ammo that sits unused doesn’t save lives. There was nothing more foolish than risking your life just to conserve bullets.

-Click.

As the bolt locked into place, I raised the rifle and narrowed my eyes.

Alteration-type, Eye-branch, Stage 1. A glimpse 10 seconds into the future.

The fog inside Bokjeong Station was relatively thin, but perhaps because we were deep within Seoul’s dense fog zone, the backlash pain was almost nonexistent. It felt like nothing more than the fatigue from getting a little less sleep than usual.

Like that, I surveyed my surroundings.

A generator connected to the cable, searchlights illuminating the stairs and the interior, weapons lying around somewhat haphazardly, crates packed with supplies, a military helmet sitting abandoned on the floor, as though someone had taken it off for a moment and forgotten about it…

Calling for Hamza was the obvious thing to do.

"Hamza."

"No. No. It’s really safe.”

"Nain, what do you think?”

Suspecting that our Hamza Radar was malfunctioning, I turned to our monster detector, Shin Nain, but his reaction wasn’t very reassuring either.

He looked around while breathing heavily through his gas mask, then loosened his sling, and adjusted his rifle before speaking.

"I can’t hear anything."

"Nothing at all?”

"Yeah. The strange sounds monsters make. The cries of babies begging for life. The inner voices people normally carry in their hearts…Nothing at all. There are no people or monsters around.”

"Don’t let your guard down. We don’t know what might be here.”

Pastor Park raised his rifle as well and scanned the surroundings.

Lee Sejun followed suit, awkwardly gripping his weapon and scanning the area, but Bokjeong Station was eerily deserted. There were signs that people had been here. Yet all that remained was the silence of a palace abandoned long ago.

10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes…

After 5 minutes, Lee Sejun swallowed hard and spoke in a wavering voice.

"...Maybe everyone’s in the bathroom?”

Even he seemed aware of how ridiculous that sounded. Nobody bothered responding.

Pastor Park Yohan was the first to lower his rifle and turn toward us. His eyes behind the gas mask were firm.

"We’re going back up and reporting this to the soldiers on the surface.”

Everyone followed his lead. The only difference from before was that nobody felt relaxed anymore.

Like the ace he was, Shin Nain maintained a standing firing posture as he followed behind the pastor. Lee Sejun tightened the straps on his backpack and tucked his rifle beneath his arm. Hamza nervously inspected his ridiculously huge revolver, slowly resting his thumb near the safety.

-Clack, clack.

Even though we were all wearing combat boots, our careful ascent made our footsteps sound almost like dress shoes.

That was the problem.

We were retracing our steps, heading back to the surface. Yet the only sounds echoing through the station were our own footsteps. When we finally emerged above ground, we were greeted by nothing but an unsettling silence.

-Whiiiiiiirrrrr...

The generators were still running noisily.

The searchlights remained upright, still trying to pierce the fog. The lights on the parked vehicles hadn’t gone dark, not flashing or showing signs of malfunctioning.

We, the Supreme Archmages, stood silently before moving toward the convoy.

-Knock, knock.

Pastor Park Yohan rapped on the side of a truck, then he peeked through the window. A moment later, he turned back toward us and slowly shook his head.

"Nobody."

"Detective Shitmaster, what about your past sight?”

"Nothing’s changed. Even looking an hour back.”

"Let’s stay together and keep searching.”

Everyone silently agreed.

The five of us naturally formed a formation and checked every truck and armored vehicle. The unloaded supplies were still there, the generators were still operating, and the engines were still running.

There was only one thing missing. the people.

If they were running, they’d have taken the trucks. How far could anyone possibly get on foot in this fog? 

At least one person would’ve driven off.

I briefly considered looking for a radio to contact someone. That was when Hamza nearly had a heart attack trying to stop me.

"Don’t."

"What? We can’t call anyone?”

"Yeah."

Hamza’s firm, curt answer made all of us realize one thing. There was something out there that could track communications.

Hamza’s magic was frustrating in a lot of ways. I never gave the right answer unless you asked the exact question. But it seemed pretty reliable at steering us away from obvious blunders.

After taking a brief moment of silence for the soldiers and officers who had apparently died pointless deaths, I made a decision.

"Let’s head back down. Just grab anything worth taking.”

"Hey, what if they come back…?”

Even Pastor Park Yohan, who was objecting, looked pale as a ghost.

Still, he had a point. Shin Nain looked between me and the pastor before shrugging.

"Jemin-ssi thinks that if nothing goes missing, the next reconnaissance team will immediately realize how serious the situation is. Besides, we can't carry any more gear anyway. Let’s just go, Pastor.”

"Baek Jemin…your brain works in the strangest ways, huh?”

"Tsk."

I, Baek Jemin, was a man rapidly approaching 30.

Still soft-hearted enough that little comments like that wounded me deeply, causing me to grind my teeth and quietly plot tiny acts of revenge.

Still, none of us could shake the strange atmosphere. Leaving questions unanswered was how you got wiped out.

According to Hamza, trying to contact someone over the radio was dangerous.

And every soldier who should have been here, aboveground and below, had vanished without a trace. With our limited imaginations, that only left two possibilities.

An unidentified species or a hostile wizard.

That was when Shin Nain had an idea.

"Back when we encountered the Teratoma, didn’t the people traveling with us suddenly change locations too? Maybe it’s something similar.”

"Oh, Nain-ssi."

"It could be another wizard’s doing. But considering that we, the faithful warriors of the Lord, are perfectly fine, I suspect it’s a monster targeting ordinary soldiers with weak faith. Some sort of bewitchment.”

Shin Nain concluded it was probably a psychic-type creature.

Honestly, it sounded plausible enough that I found myself nodding. The others felt the same, letting out impressed noises and making motions as if to applaud him.

Of course, being the elite members of the Supreme Archmages that we were, nobody actually brought their hands together.

"Problem solved!”

"Man, I like how straightforward that explanation is.”

"Thank goodness. I’m glad it’s nothing too complicated.”

"If it’s a monster, then well…”

At last, our group set their worries aside and smiled brightly.

"Alright then, let’s continue to Seoul.”

*t*t*

The fact that the soldiers had apparently been wiped out by some unknown attack wasn’t enough to make us Supreme Archmages turn back.

After returning to the platform, we finished a quick meal of hardtack and water before climbing down onto the subway tracks one by one. Only scattered lights illuminated the dark underground tunnel.

The moment we stepped down, a wave of cold air washed over us. Lee Sejun shivered dramatically.

"Seoul really has subway lines all the way up to Line 8? Doesn’t the ground collapse when they keep digging tunnels everywhere?”

"Well, it has collapsed before.”

"Ah."

Shin Nain’s reply immediately shut him up.

By the time Hamza climbed down as well, all of us decided to follow the pastor’s rather convincing theory.

"If there are still survivors out there, they’re probably staying near places where it’s easy to scavenge supplies. They’ll be sheltering in underground facilities or reinforced concrete structures that can withstand shelling and scavenge for supplies from there.”

The pastor glanced at his phone screen and quickened his pace toward the upper end of Line 8, in the direction of Jangji Station.

"For now, let’s follow the subway tracks near the outskirts and avoid northern and central Seoul. Since the fog first appeared around Bukhansan, survivors are probably more likely to be farther away from there.”

"Oooh.”

"Baek Jemin, what’s with that reaction?”

"It’s a beautiful organizational culture where we all admire each other.”

An old fish is still a fish.

Despite being a pastor who got accused of being money-hungry and called the Pope the Antichrist, he was still an educated man.

In any case, now that we had a destination, there was no reason to hesitate.

I, Baek Jemin, with my Eyes-branch magic, took the lead, while Shin Nain, with his Ears-branch magic, took the rear.

The pastor and Hamza, who lacked combat power, stayed in the center, while Lee Sejun acted as porter, grenadier, and rifleman, guarding the middle.

"Wow. Listen to how our voices echo.”

"That’s normal underground."

"Nain-ssi, have you tried yelling ‘Yoohoo’? Does it echo back?”

"Sejun-ssi, please…”

I had my poncho pulled back and my tactical flashlight on as I let out a long yawn, proceeding forward when Hamza started poking me repeatedly in the back.

"What.”

"It’s dangerous.”

I shot Shin Nain an annoyed look, but he immediately stopped fooling around and proved why he was our reliable monster detector.

Breaking off his bickering with Sejun, Shin Nain halted and adjusted his rifle.

"The sound of nails scraping a chalkboard. Irregular groaning noises.”

"Stop being poetic and tell me what they are.”

"Spines and faces."

-Clack.

Gripping my rifle tighter, I narrowed my eyes and looked beyond the tracks where Hamza was pointing.

Then I removed my gas mask and hooked it over my arm before sticking out my tongue.

-Bleh—.

It probably looked ridiculous, but it was a necessary sacrifice if I wanted to avoid splattering blood all over the inside of my gas mask and clothes.

Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 1. Alteration-type, Tongue-branch, Stage 1.

I racked my brain for words that would make the monsters easier to hit.

Target, Monster, 1 minute, path.

The faint mist lingering over the tracks suddenly swirled violently and plastered itself against the walls in vivid streaks. Red footprints appeared along the walls and ceiling surrounding the subway tunnel, densely packed together as they advanced toward us.

A few days ago, I probably would have panicked. Granted, I could hear Hamza and the pastor shouting something beside me. But our Alteration-type trio remained perfectly calm.

The taste buds on my tongue split apart.

Cracks spread across it as bright-red blood poured out. Naturally, it hurt like hell. Enough to rival my wand, the left hand.

More than enough to prepare Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 2.

-Click, click, click, click…

The sound of bones scraping against the ceiling assaulted my ears.

-Huff, huff……Huuuuff…

Harsh breathing spilled from mouths crushed and wrapped beneath the weight of fused faces.

The things lurking in the darkness, hunting anything still alive, were rushing toward us at full speed. Of the 10 million people who once lived in Seoul, more than 9 million would probably be claiming citizenship in that condition.

The dim ceiling lights disappeared behind the shadows of the Predator Spines. Within the beam of my tactical flashlight, mangled human faces rolled their cluster eyes toward us.

For a moment, I thought the Amalgam was smiling at me.

Its lips weren’t curved upward. Its eyes were simply all turned to stare at us at once, and yet it felt like a grin.

At that moment, a single drop of blood formed at the tip of my tongue.

The sensation of it dangling there made the pain slicing through my tongue feel vividly real.

And my suffering stretched longer than any moment I had ever known.......

My eyes burned.

My eyelids tried to close on their own. I already blinked frequently to begin with, so the effect duration was short.

But it was more than enough time for Lee Sejun to pull a grenade from his gear belt and yank the pin out.

As an explosion erupted, fragments and dust blasted outward, to which I closed my eyes.

-Blink.

I pulled my tongue back into my mouth and swallowed the blood before speaking.

"Go for the heads!”

Even though the effect of Eyes-branch, Stage 2, had ended, Stage 1 was still working perfectly.

I could see it. Exactly where I needed to shoot. A targeting point was helpfully painted across my vision. No matter how wildly the Predator Spines twisted and darted around, I could see areticle adjusting in real time, showing precisely where to aim to hit their heads.

My aim was moving far ahead of the monsters themselves. 

At that moment, every Predator Spine turned toward me.

Keeping my rifle shouldered, I lined up the reticle and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

-Ratatata! Bang!

I wasn’t the only one firing.

Lee Sejun and Shin Nain were both shouting something while squeezing their triggers as well.

Gunpowder smoke filled the air. Spent casings bounced off the rails with metallic clinks. The heads of the spine monsters exploded. 

Chunks of bone dropped from the ceiling like flies falling after a dose of pesticide.

That was when the monsters fused together from multiple heads, the Amalgams, began to thrash widely.

"Mom, Mom!”

"We just need to get out. Just get out…”

At that moment, I noticed Lee Sejun’s hands trembling as he fired. One stream of gunfire suddenly died off.

Shin Nain, on the other hand, only shouted louder.

"Amen, Amen! O Lord, I send this abomination unto You! Cast it into the fires of Hell!!!”

-Ting, Titing…

Shell casings continued rattling across the ground until a dry clicking sound echoed out.

Shin Nain kept pulling the trigger, but the gun no longer fired.

He had emptied an entire magazine. The Amalgams didn’t miss the opportunity. Groaning in sounds almost resembling laughter, they charged.

I was just steeling myself for how hard I’d need to bite my tongue this time, when…

-Bang, Babang!

Another set of gunshots echoed through the underground passage.

Shin Nain exhaled a calm breath, then he began reloading. The one firing now was Lee Sejun, who had somehow moved up beside me without me noticing.

Lee Sejun was calmly holding his rifle without the slightest concern for recoil, carefully punching holes through the Amalgams’ heads one by one.

He’d shoot out a leg to knock one down, then shoot the knee of another trying to climb over it, tripping that one too. Only after slowing them down would he finish them off with a headshot. Over and over again.

Since things had calmed down, I took the opportunity to swap magazines as well.

-Click.

"Jemin-ssi, what about the Spines?”

"Already got them all."

Lee Sejun’s gunfire stopped.

I continued swallowing blood while checking the future without the aid of Tongue-branch magic this time. Shin Nain seemed to be doing something similar with his Ears-branch magic.

The two of us advanced side by side with our rifles raised, aiming at the heads of any monsters still twitching.

Every pull of the trigger released another spray of disgusting bodily fluids.

The nightmarish creatures died helplessly, writhing as they did.

After we finished them all off and regrouped, Lee Sejun was blowing across his overheated barrel to clear away the gunsmoke.

"Sejun-ssi, did you hold your fire on purpose?”

"Huh? Ah, yes. If we all reloaded at the same time, they would’ve swarmed us, right?”

So he hadn’t hesitated because he heard the monsters screaming. He’d been thinking about reload timing. That was some serious character growth right there.

Smiling in satisfaction at Lee Sejun’s progress, I started mentally calculating our ammo usage.

"There had to be around 40 of them total between the Spines and the Amalgams. If we cleared them with one magazine each, that’s pretty efficient, right?”

"Wouldn’t we be able to do it with half a magazine if you smeared your right-hand blood on the bullets later?”

"Hey. The right hand is off-limits.”

Shin Nain had absolutely no professional ethics. How could he make such outrageous demands regarding my beloved?

While we were chatting like that…

Pastor Park Yohan and Hamza stood there with their eyes wide as saucers, repeatedly looking between us and the pile of monster corpses.

"Y-you……you guys?”

"Whooaaa."

The three of us exchanged glances and blinked at their reaction.

Lee Sejun awkwardly fiddled with his hood.

"Did we use too much ammo…?”

Shin Nain adjusted his rifle sling and chuckled.

"Pastor, shouldn’t a proper believer hate Satan’s demons rather than fear them?”

Finally, I put my gas mask back on and added,

"And if you freak out over every trash mob you meet, you’ll never make it through Seoul."

There was a point to deliberately drinking less water so I wouldn’t wet myself.

That was what allowed me to strike this cool pose right now.

It was at that moment that something resembling hope finally appeared on the pastor’s face.

"So Mr. Anderson wasn’t exaggerating after all. You guys really are Supreme Archmages.

"There’s no way that guy is actually coming all the way to Seoul, too, right?”