Chapter 55: The Misunderstood Heavily Armed Civilians

[Translator – Aren]

Seoul, no longer a city for humans, had become an environment of extremes.

We had to keep advancing while constantly watching in ever direction, never knowing when a monster might burst out of the drifting fog. Not for even a single moment could we let our guard down. Like our ancestors in prehistoric times, we had to vigilantly watch every direction just to survive.

Up until now, we’d casually called Seoul the Demon Realm or Hell, but even those descriptions fell short.

This place was simply another ecosystem.

It was pretty much another world. A different realm.

Instead of barking dogs, there were Amalgams moaning with human voices. Instead of spiders, Predator Spins lay in ambush. Instead of birds, Human-skin Jellyfish drifted through the sky. An alien ecosystem where creatures born from humans occupied their own ecological niches.

Some people, looking at these monsters, might think they embodied nothing but malice toward humanity. That they were deliberately grotesque and depraved solely to desecrate the sanctity of the human body.

That would be an understandable conclusion. When faced with monsters that constantly tested humanity, unconditional trust was a shortcut to one’s ruin.

In fact, although neither the pastor nor Shin Nain had said it aloud, both of them had grown noticeably quieter ever since seeing the Tadpole Bellies and the Lung Tree. Deep down, they were probably burning with righteous anger.

These monsters seemed incomprehensible, yet at the same time they displayed intentions that humans could all too easily understand.

It wasn’t quite the same as the indescribable terror of the unknowable. Everything about them felt deliberately targeted. That was why, instead of fear, I felt emptiness. The monsters’ ecology had gone beyond simply hating or despising humanity.

Just then, after crossing the field, we arrived at what had once been one of Olympic Park’s parking lots.

It was filled with abandoned vehicles, their doors torn off, and their windows covered in spiderweb cracks. Dark brown bloodstains remained here and there, silently hinting at what had happened in this parking lot.

My gaze landed on a single discarded shoe lying beneath the dangling rear door of one car. It couldn’t have been more than about 200 mm in length. A small child’s shoe, its pair long gone, covered in mold.

Looking at it brought the Tadpole Belly monsters back to mind and left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Just then, Hamza tapped the filter of his gas mask.

"Danger. Everyone, take cover.”

The instant he gave the warning, Hamza slipped into the back seat of a car whose door had been ripped away.

The rest of us reacted immediately. Lee Sejun followed him into the back seat. The pastor crouched beside the front door frame, pressing his back against the frame to make himself as small as possible.

Shin Nain curled up behind a large van, using it as cover. I instinctively followed him, flattening myself against the van as well.

The fluttering of our ponchos came to a stop. An eerie silence settled over the parking lot.

"Jellyfish."

Shin Nain clutched his headset tightly, then flattened himself completely against the ground beside me.

He even took off his backpack, propped it against the van, and crawled underneath with only his body.

Naturally, I, a proud practitioner of the elegant cockroach arts, followed suit. After removing my backpack, I crawled beneath the van as well.

Only my face peeked out. Carefully, I tilted my head upward to look at the sky.

If anything happened, I’d use my Eyes-branch or Tongue-branch magic.

But the moment I looked up, I realized how foolish that thought had been.

Beyond the thin fog blanketing Olympic Park, where visibility stretched nearly 200 meters, countless shadows drifted overhead. The sound of thick sheets of skin flapping in the wind pounded against my eardrums. It wasn’t just one or two.

The number far exceeded anything I’d imagined.

There were so many that even beneath the fog layer hiding the sunlight another layer of shadows was cast below. There weren’t just a dozen. At the very least hundreds. An enormous swarm of Human-skin Jellyfish floated through the fog, densely filling the skies above Olympic Park.

Without thinking, I hurriedly pulled my entire body back underneath the van.

Just then, my eyes met Shin Nain’s. I conveyed the message with my expression alone. There were a hell of a lot of them. Of course, there was no way our super monster detector Shin Nain hadn’t already figured that out. He simply raised a finger, held it in front of his gas mask’s filter, and silently made a Shh-gesture.

Every human sound, even our breathing, disappeared.

To avoid the distinctive hiss of our gas masks, we all deliberately slowed our breathing as much as possible. Soon, the only sounds left in the world were the alternating flaps of thick sheets of skin and the grotesque breathing noises that sounded like someone exhaling through a throat clogged with boiling phlegm.

Had they noticed the gunfire from when we’d killed the Tadpole Bellies?

Or had the sudden increase in fog density drawn them here?

We still didn’t know whether the monsters moved purely on instinct or whether some unseen commander directed them. They possessed intelligence as predators and hunters, yet at the same time they almost seemed to exist in some kind of symbiotic relationship. It was impossible to tell.

I instinctively hugged my rifle a little tighter.

If we couldn’t avoid a fight, I’d have to sow as much chaos as possible with my Tongue-branch magic. Just as I steeled myself and absentmindedly stroked the trigger…

-Bzzzzzzt—.

The sound of hornets.

For a split second I frowned, wondering if a hornet-like mutant of those things had appeared. Then I heard the transmission.

[...Drone Command… Support Survivors...]

We weren’t wearing the fluorescent identification bands that marked civilian Operators.

Even so, the loud, hornet-like buzz unique to military drones echoed clearly beneath the van where Shin Nain and I were hiding. So this was what they meant by shifting to survivor support, huh?

Shin Nain and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us knew what was about to happen, so we waited.

Moments later, the buzzing multiplied. Then a barrage of loud and rapid gunfire erupted.

-Ratatatatatata—.

Countless shell casings struck the damp earth of the park like a rain of metal. At the same time, I could see Human-skin Jellyfish falling one after another, even from beneath the van.

They dropped somewhere into Olympic Park, their shredded skins stretched out behind them like burst balloons.

Then it hit me.

How much ammunition could a drone possibly carry? I immediately crawled out from beneath the vehicle in a low tactical crawl, shouting,

"Move! While the drones have their attention!”

Now wasn’t the time to worry about scraping my knees.

Sure, watching the unprecedented showdown between drones and Human-Skin Jellyfish would’ve been entertaining, but with gunfire ringing throughout Olympic Park, it was obvious even more monsters would soon converge on the area. The other Supreme Archmages realized the same thing. Everyone bounded out from cover.

"Gah!”

"Hamza, if it gets too much, say something! I’ll drag you if I have to!"

Lee Sejun and Hamza sprang out like coiled springs, already prepared to run.

The pastor rose to his feet as well. He pulled a bible from his backpack and gently ran a hand across its cover.

Despite the urgency, I figured it was simply part of the ritual of his Dogma-type magic, [Redemptive Conviction]. To steady his heart, he quietly recited, 

“As long as I believe in salvation, I shall be saved.”

-Thud.

He slipped the bible back into his backpack and gripped his rifle once more.

"Let’s go, Aphorism.”

I nodded and grabbed Shin Nain’s hand and pulled him out from beneath the van. After slinging our backpacks back onto our shoulders, we hurried after the other Aphorism wizards, who were already on the move.

When we charged bravely into danger, we were the Supreme Archmages. When we slipped away without anyone noticing, we were Aphorism.

Right now, we were Aphorism.

After hauling Shin Nain to his feet, I turned my back and sprinted after the other Aphorism wizards. This time, we weren’t advancing cautiously while scanning our surroundings.

Instead, despite my vision bouncing with every stride, I looked up at the sky and witnessed a sight I would probably never see again.

There were about 8 drones.

They were bravely opening fire on hundreds of Human-skin Jellyfish, but there was no escaping the limitations of their size. After firing only a few dozen rounds, their guns sputtered and wisps of pale smoke drifted from their barrels.

The drones had exhausted all of their ammunition.

The moment the Human-skin Jellyfish realized that, they lazily waved their tentacles and drifted toward the drones. Gone was the sluggish floating they’d shown before. Now they were as swift as a net thrown over a bird.

-Chomp!

One drone was swallowed whole. The sound of its propellers chewing into flesh echoed loudly from inside the monster.

-Brrrrrvvvtttt—.

But once it had been swallowed, its fate was already sealed.

The Human-skin Jellyfish and the drone became one, before plummeting toward the ground, disappearing beyond the fog where visibility stretched 200 meters.

That was the last thing I saw before turning away.

Now it was time to escape.

The pounding of our boots echoed endlessly across the cracked asphalt, and as if that wasn’t enough, the gunfire that had erupted moments ago awakened the sleeping city. Only then did I realize that Seoul had actually been eerily quiet until now.

-Tap.

The sole of my boot struck the asphalt, then faint cries drifted toward us from somewhere in the distance.

-Sob. Mom. There’s no such thing as a monster. No, stay away.

The wind carried shattered voices toward us. Within a single sentence, the speech patterns, pitch, rhythm, and emotions changed. It was as if the voice were crudely stitched together.

Only one thing was certain. They were all rushing toward the source of the gunfire.

Leaving the gunfire behind us, we ran past the countless Tadpole Bellies and forests of Lung Trees that still remained throughout Olympic Park.

-Tap.

Whenever my boots landed on a storm drain, an unsettling vibration traveled through my feet. After the hallucinated voices battered my ears, a familiar sound inevitably followed.

-Gurglegurglegurglegurgle...

The wretched remnants of wizards wandered through the sewers beneath us. A choir whose upper skulls had been torn away, faces reduced to little more than hanging tongues and lower jaws, sang through ruined vocal cords that no longer formed words.

The moment we hurried past what had once been a museum and stepped back onto the road, back into the dense fog, that meaningless chorus degraded into human language once more.

-Gurglegurglegurgle…

The entire sewer system beneath our feet vibrated. Even if you blocked your ears, it would simply make your whole body vibrate until you understood. It wasn’t a song heard through the eardrums but through the entire body.

It was a prophecy desperately repeated by those who had already been devoured for the sake of those still struggling to survive.

[Eternity. We stand before Eternity.]

-Flaaap—.

Behind us, vanishing into the dense fog, countless shadows spread across the sky. The swarm of Human-skin Jellyfish no longer counted just hundreds.

Now there were thousands of them, their shadows filling the entire fog layer overhead.

They were watching us as we ran. Their slow, drifting movement had been nothing more than a trap. Whenever the fog grew thin, they stuck in an instant like hawks or eagles.

Only after throwing ourselves back into the dense fog, where visibility dropped below 10 meters, did we shake off those nauseating gazes.

But that dreadful prophecy continued to reverberate through our bodies until the very end.

[Our end is not the end but the beginning of endless Eternity.]

Inside the dense fog you couldn’t even see the people beside you.

I activated Eyes-branch, Stage 1, 10-second foresight, and looked at the red footprints hidden within the mist. For a moment I thought I’d finally gone insane.

Everything was red.

It was as if blood were pouring in from everywhere. Front, back, left, right, above, below. Every direction was packed with red footprints.

I didn’t hesitate for long.

I slung my rifle over my shoulder, drew my combat knife with my left hand, and pressed it against my right. A sharp sting shot across my palm as I sliced across it, but now wasn’t the time to care about something like that.

I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Evade, critical wound, 5 minutes, path, me.

Tongue-branch, Stage 1, Language Degradation. With it, I brought my magic to 100% efficiency. Then I used Eyes-branch, Stage 1. In a situation where I couldn’t even fire my rifle carelessly for fear of hitting my allies, ironically, my right hand was all I could rely on.

I wrapped that right hand around the blade of my combat knife.

The edge bit into my palm. The pain was vicious and cold enough to sink into my bones before erupting into a burning heat.

But when I looked at the crimson footprints stretching farther and farther, when I watched the fog swirl aside like a majestic curtain, I couldn’t afford to dwell on that pain or fear.

Those who couldn’t endure suffering died and became monsters. Only those who found exhilaration within their own pain survived.

Using my right hand as a sheath, I drew the combat knife once more.

The blade, now coated in my blood, looked unsettling enough, but to the monsters it was even more terrifying. Keeping low, I followed the path where the fog had parted, the path where my safety was assured, and swung the knife with all my strength.

It was an almost wild and careless swing. However against a monster charging straight at me without thinking, it was fatal.

Within 10 meters, an Amalgam smiled with the countless eyes covering its fused faces, its single shared mouth stretching into a grotesque grin. Five faces, one body. It had deliberately distorted those faces into an unnatural shape while hiding behind a tree.

But the instant its eyes met mine and it saw the blood coating my blade, its expression twisted in terror.

Though bound by the laws of physics, though it knew that it wouldn’t be able to stop itself now that it had already thrown itself toward me, it desperately tried to wrench its face aside to avoid the blade. It was pointless.

The instant the combat knife’s edge touched the Amalgam, I felt a strange sensation.

It was like cutting throughacorn jelly or softcongealed blood curd. Like breaking off chunks of them with chopsticks after they were freshly made. Softer than expected, yet with enough substance that I could feel the resistance as it parted beneath the blade.

Amalgams died by bleeding out their bodily fluids. Even the Korean Army’s tactical instructions were built around making them lose those fluids. Guns simply made that easier.

But at this moment, I wasn’t merely making it bleed. I was carving those fluids away.

It was similar to how blood of incompatible types clot together when they meet, yet fundamentally different.

Hand-branch, Stage 1 magic. The instant the blood from my right hand touched the monster’s soft flesh and bodily fluids—

Only the monster’s flesh and its fluids hardened into something like jelly. And because of that, the combat knife I swung so casually carved through it without mercy.

Only then did I truly understand Hand-branch, Stage 1 magic.

Upright Alteration-type, Hand-branch, Stage 1. [Blood of the Right Hand].

This magic forced human common sense upon monsters.

A shapeless creature that ignored human logic was forcibly confined within the framework of humanity’s understanding and died in the form humans believed it should.

The true meaning behind the right hand, associated with God’s order, His sovereignty, and humanity’s long-held belief that the right side is the proper one, was humanity’s ancient conviction that this was how the world ought to be.

Blood of the Right Hand was magic born from that conviction manifested through a part of the body.

That was why it used the right hand, the hand long associated with what was proper and correct, as its medium.

That was why the right hand would turn into the hand that could kill monsters.

Because it symbolized the order humanity desired, the order humanity believed to be right, driving back the absurdities humanity rejected.

-Slash!

The layered cluster of overlapping eyes spun through the air in pieces.

Blood from my right hand seeped into the severed surface and would spread throughout the monster’s entire body.

The Amalgam seemed to understand that. Every fused face stared blankly at me as though unable to believe it, as though burning with rage. The single mouth beneath that tangle of faces split wide open, pouring out screams and groans.

But behind every one of those reactions there was an emotion that even I, who had not awakened Ears-branch magic, could recognize.

Fear.

Monsters that didn’t fear bullets feared a blade stained with blood. One cut was enough.

Leaving the already doomed Amalgam behind, I sprinted deeper into the fog. Fortunately, Shin Nain was following me closely, never having lost sight of me.

The constant gunfire behind my back and the clinking of present casings hitting the ground were proof enough.

That fanatic Shitmaster… He sure was lucky. 

After all, he’d glued himself right behind the great Archmage, Baek Jemin.

-Huuff—.

I drew a deep breath through my gas mask, then held out my bleeding right hand like a talisman to stop the monsters charging toward us. Now that I knew the blood of my right hand was properly lethal to monsters, there was no reason to hesitate.

"Stop!"

The fog parted even farther. I heard the footsteps of charging monsters falter in confusion.

That was when I felt a rifle settle across my right shoulder.

That lunatic Shin Nain was trying to use my shoulder as a shooting rest. For a split second I almost turned around to ask whether he’d lost his mind. Was he seriously planning to fire right next to my ears even though I wasn’t even wearing earplugs? Before I could complain, though, Shin Nain spoke up.

"Jemin-ssi, I’m going to cover the others.”

Ah, damn it.

Before I knew it, I lowered my stance and became exactly the shooting platform he wanted.

Every gun shot made me feel like my eardrums were being ripped apart. It was as though my ears had simply forgotten how to hear. The rifle thundered while the hot brass rolled across my poncho, damp with fog droplets.

I kept walking forward holding out my bleeding right hand, using it like a shield to make the monsters hesitate.

Using my right shoulder as a rest, Shin Nain carefully fired one deliberate shot after another.

My ears had gone so numb that even the gunfire sounded muffled.

I couldn't tell whether he was landing every shot or simply firing into the fog. My aching eyes were far too busy pushing Eyes-branch, Stage 1, to its limit, searching for safe paths. Eventually, Shin Nain lowered his rifle, lightly tapped my side, and shouted.

"Reloading!”

When the fog surged, that meant danger. When it parted, that meant safety.

Once I’d figured that out, responding became simple. Wherever the fog flowed in, I swung my blood-soaked combat knife. If the blade couldn’t reach, I simply thrust out my right hand. Even if I cut them, that didn’t mean that one swing would end them, though.

The Amalgams were clever.

The moment they sensed the knife coming, they immediately backed away. I could tell from the shadows barely visible beyond the thinning fog.

When they tried to surround us, I simply held out my right hand, forcing one side of the encirclement to hesitate.

Shin Nain, having finished reloading, quickly caught on. Every time I swung my combat knife or thrust out my right hand, he assumed there was a monster there and, just as he’d been trained, aimed for the chest area. His fire wasn’t meant to kill. It was meant to disable.

All while using my shoulder as a shooting rest.

It pissed me off, but staying alive was our highest priority right now, so I let it slide.

That was how Shin Nain and I kept breaking through the fog again and again.

At last, the moment a familiar church cross emerged through the mist, more gunfire erupted ahead of us.

"Baek Jemin, Shin Nain! Over here!”

"Uwaaaagh! There are so damn many!”

It was the pastor and Lee Sejun.

They’d roughly guess where the monsters chasing us were coming from and were laying down suppressive fire to buy time. By then, the blood on my right hand had already begun to clot.

Shin Nain and I immediately sprinted behind the pastor and Lee Sejun.

Hamza was already pulling loaded magazines from his backpack, tossing one to each of us.

"Reload!”

-Thump.

Looks like Hamza was pretty good at playing catch, too. Only then could I sheath my combat knife and grip my rifle again. My wounded right hand stung, but this was no time to complain.

I pulled out my magazine and roughly estimated the rounds remaining.

Still a full 30.

Realizing I didn’t need to swap, I tossed it to Shin Nain. He caught it smoothly and performed a quick tactical reload. I reinserted mine just as naturally.

-Click.

I rolled my tongue inside my mouth once more.

Target, kill, monster, 5 minutes, path, me.

The places that had been free of fog were suddenly swallowed by it while dense fog peeled away, revealing countless crimson footprints.

In that state, our Supreme Archmages opened fire together.

Against the Amalgams bursting out of the thick fog, shooting their legs proved more effective than aiming for the head. If they fell over and tangled together, their advances stopped. We created living barricades, then calmly shot the heads of anything trying to crawl over them.

Some monsters that managed to push through tripped over broken paving stones or potholes in the shattered asphalt.

That was the effect of [Redemptive Conviction].

Whenever a fallen monster tried to stand again, whoever had the clearest shot simply raised their rifle and blasted it, enough to make it spill its bodily fluids, leading to its death.

-Tingting—!

Spent casings cascaded down the church’s front steps.

I lost count of how many times we changed magazines. Eventually, the monsters got so close that I was on the verge of drawing my combat knife again.

But we survived.

Just before the last remaining Amalgam was torn apart, it looked up at me and pretended to sob. Among the tangled faces, one remained. Half the face of what looked like a freshman girl who’d only just started university. Tears streamed from her eye as the fused mouth struggled to move.

"I-I can still cry…I-I…I’m still alive…"

I briefly glanced toward Shin Nain. He silently shook his head.

To him, whether it still held a real human personality no longer mattered. I raised my rifle. The fused faces all smiled at once, while only that half of the freshman girl’s face continued to weep. 

This time, I didn’t hesitate and pulled the trigger.

-Babang, bang……

Only after the final gunshot echoed through the area did it finally end.

We stood before the church’s front entrance looking at one another. Hundreds of spent shell casings were scattered across the ground.

-Huuff—. Huuff—.

As everyone struggled to catch their breath, the pastor knocked on the church’s front doors.

"Let’s rest here for a bit. Muslim, any monsters inside?”

"Only about 2 Predator Spines."

"Jemin, take care of them."

"Yes."

There was no need to say anything else.

The effects of Eyes-branch, Stage 1, were still active.

Because I hadn’t made the foolish mistake of setting the duration too short during that frantic fight, I still had some time left. The two Predator Spines clinging to the church’s cross were each blown apart with a single shot.

Only after collapsing onto the pews did we finally pull off our gas masks, revealing our faces.

Everyone was drenched in sweat.

It was then that the dark blue spell phone vibrated.

-Bzzzt-.

Before my overheated rifle barrel had even cooled, I pulled the spell phone from my chest pocket and checked the message.

[5 military survivors who provoked Olympic Park are moving north.]

"Military?"

Were there other survivors besides us?

The other Supreme Archmages looked at the message and seemed to reach the same conclusion.

"Could it be the special forces they said came in before us?”

"Olympic Park was an absolute nightmare. I can’t believe there were five other people besides us who made it through.”

"I’m scared. They might be dangerous people.”

The pastor, Lee Sejun, and Hamza each gave their thoughts.

Meanwhile, Shin Nain wiped the sweat from his face with his left hand, then quietly offered his opinion.

"I think they’re talking about us.”

"Huh?”

All of us Supreme Archmages looked at one another.

Then we could only tilt our heads in confusion.

There were heavily armed civilians wearing ponchos, gas masks, combat gear, and carrying rifles, but there wasn’t a single soldier among us.

Shin Nain let out a tired sigh before continuing.

"If they’re mistaking us for soldiers and if the spawn of Seoul’s demons hate the military, they’ll approach us as enemies.”

"So this message on the spell phone..."

I slipped the phone back into my pocket and finished the thought.

"It’s announcing the start of their hunt.”

"Exactly, Jemin-ssi.”

"That makes things simple.”

It had been hard to tell which local survivors were actually friendly, so this made things much easier.

At that moment I was reminded of one of the xianxia novels I’d read.

There was a saying that often came up.

‘The virtuous do not come uninvited. Those who come uninvited are seldom virtuous.’

So, if someone came looking for us when we hadn’t asked them to come, we’d just kill them.

I suddenly turned my head toward the crucifix inside the church.

Today, the statue of Jesus hanging upon it looked strangely pitiful. As someone who’d been baptized during military service, I decided to offer a short prayer.

O Lord, a few more souls will come to your side soon.