Chapter 67 - The Sleepwalker V

7

To point out one obvious fact: Homo sapiens has no wings.

In short, most people have no intuitive understanding of flight. Unless you are a pilot who regards the hum of an airplane’s engine as your own heartbeat, or a paraglider who can feel the canopy as wings truly joined to your arms, flying through the air is surprisingly uninspiring for the human animal.

And where intuition is absent, fear is born.

“Aaaaargh! I’m flying! Flying!”

“How high are we supposed to go?!”

As seven hundred awakened shot into the air with nothing but a broom to support them, screams erupted everywhere.

“Mom! I really hate this!”

“I’m faaaaalling!”

“Boo-hoo-hoooo!”

Of course, we had assembled several times beforehand for joint training. Any awakened afraid of heights had long since been excluded from the combat force.

Even so, anyone could see that cheap brooms were far too unreliable to serve as humanity’s new wings.

Even an owl flying through the night stared at us with eyes that said, ‘What’s this? A new breed of would-be suicides?’

[The ‘Saintess of National Salvation’ announces.]

[The vanguard is currently passing an altitude of 300 meters above sea level.]

In a sense, the owl’s eyes had judged us correctly. What else would you call a group that manufactured wings it did not possess and charged in to bring down a special-class anomaly, if not a suicide squad?

Only the members of Three Thousand Worlds were skillfully performing aerial feats.

[600 meters.]

Oh, for the record, I was quite an accomplished broom flyer myself. Believe it or not, when I belonged to Three Thousand Worlds, I had even taken second place in the guild’s flying competition.

With the screams of countless awakened trailing behind us like long shadows, Dang Seorin—the competition’s perennial champion—and I led the very front.

[1,500 meters.]

It was starting to get cold.

“Ahhh—”

But that did not matter. Dang Seorin was already singing another verse of Spell-Song Chanting.

Fourth Melody: Physical Enhancement.

It was an all-in-one package she had developed by combining existing effects such as ‘Temperature Control’ and ‘Breathing Assistance.’ It helped people endure, to some extent, environments hostile to humans: the cold deep sea, scorching deserts, the void, and so forth.

Sure enough, the moment her chant ended, a pleasant warmth spread through my entire body.

[2,200 meters.]

Higher. Still higher.

[2,900 meters.]

I glanced down. The ground had already shrunk to a distant speck. Lightly dismissing the instinctive dizziness, I turned my head to look upward again.

Meteor Strike was there.

From below, the starlight had looked ready to fall at any moment. Yet ever since we began flying, no matter how high we climbed, it had not grown any larger.

An optical illusion. An error in the world. As I continued looking up at the starlight, I felt as though my brain’s sense of proportion between distance and size might break down.

But this, too, was merely an illusion within an illusion. We were unquestionably drawing closer to Meteor Strike.

[3,500 meters.]

At last.

[4,100 meters. Enemy presence close.]

[Entering.]

SHHHHHH

A noise rang out, just like waves breaking. It was a sound you could not—and should not—hear 4,100 meters above sea level.

The instant we rose through that surface of sound, everything around us suddenly turned black.

A darkness that deserved to be called ‘the dark deep sea’ rather than ‘the night sky’ shrouded heaven and earth.

SHHH, SHHHHH

Each time another awakened rose behind me, the darkness rippled. They lowered their brooms and paused in midair.

At the utterly unfamiliar sight, their jaws dropped.

“My God, this is...”

“The void!”

Before confusion could spread through the combat force, I grabbed my radio and barked out an order.

“We’ve just entered Meteor Strike’s territory! There’s no need to be surprised or nervous! It’s simply the void we’ve experienced more times than we care to count, only this time it’s in the sky!”

“Oh.”

“Continue the operation! Restore formation! Form up with your own combat squad! Once you’re in position, we charge immediately, just as we trained! You have forty seconds!”

“Squad Eight, assemble! Squad Eight, assemble!”

“Squad Eleven! Why are you over there?! Get your ass over here, you bastard!”

The awakened’s formation, briefly disrupted by their ascent into the void in the night sky, swiftly re-formed.

Even as they did so, I kept an unwavering watch on the direction of Meteor Strike.

Starlight that created the illusion it might plunge down at any moment. No—the hallucination that it was already falling.

Yet it was clear that the thing was crouching motionless, glaring at us.

Beyond intellect and reason, my instincts as a regressor, honed over dozens of runs, fiercely detected its hostility.

In contrast to my instincts, our surroundings were utterly peaceful.

It felt as though we had dropped into the middle of the horizon on an utterly tranquil sea at night.

“... This place is strange, Undertaker.”

Dang Seorin drew the head of her broom right alongside me and murmured.

“The air is pretty heavy. It’s gotten a little harder to breathe, too. It feels less like being in the sky and more like we’ve gone underwater in the shallows.”

“The monster must be water-elemental and about to make it rain. What did you expect? The void is just being the void.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“I’m counting on you for the last song.”

“Yes. Leave it to me. ... And I’m counting on you, too. This operation won’t work if you go down.”

“Of course.”

Then the Saintess’s voice slipped softly into my ear.

[Be careful, Mr. Undertaker. The altimeter has broken.]

Broken?

[It read approximately 4,100 meters just before you entered that void, but now it is showing 7,182 meters, -9,699 meters, 21,337 meters, 0.01 meters. The numbers are changing at random. In real time.]

“...”

[It is not only the altitude. Air pressure and other readings are also fluctuating incessantly. May fortune favor you in battle.]

I nodded.

Exactly forty seconds.

I looked behind me. A perfectly ordered flying force of seven hundred was watching my back.

“Continue the operation! Charge! Charge!”

“Raaaaaah!”

Boss battle, Phase Two: begin.

With me at its tip, the seven-hundred-strong flying force followed like an awl. Dang Seorin, who had shared the lead with me until now, switched to the very rear, completing our prearranged formation.

Still, the starlight showed no reaction.

That was our greatest opportunity.

“Ahh—ahhh—ah—”

From the very rear, Dang Seorin’s voice awakened the night sky.

Fifth Melody: ‘Mirror of All Things.’

This, too, was a difficult grand spell developed relatively recently. Dang Seorin’s masterpiece, combining [Concentration], [Absorption], [Reflection], and [Amplification] and finally elevating them into a single song.

Its effect was self-evident.

SHRRRRR

Translucent mirrors formed around the seven hundred awakened. Like planets orbiting the sun, countless mirrors circled our flying force.

Without hesitation, I gave the order.

“Everyone, pour in everything you have!”

As though they had been waiting for those words, the awakened released aura, mana, and the like toward the mirrors.

Each mirror reflected the awakened’s aura in its entirety toward ‘another mirror.’

CRASH

Having fulfilled their duty of reflection, the mirrors immediately shattered. Countless fragments fluttered through the air like white spring blossoms.

The procession of aura, beginning its reflections at the rear, bounced toward mirrors farther forward, toward ever larger mirrors.

CRASH! CRASH! CRAAASH!

With every reflection, mirrors shattered. With every reflection, aura accumulated layer upon layer and passed to the next mirror ahead.

Taking on the colors of the aura, the glass was colored like stained glass, spilling every hue into the pitch-black night sky.

The radio clamored noisily.

[Squad Twelve, charge complete!]

[Squad Eleven, charging complete!]

That was right.

The role of ‘Mirror of All Things’ in this battle was nothing less than concentrating our firepower.

Though there was some variation, the seven-hundred-person raid force was divided into squads averaging about sixty members each.

In other words, as many as sixty awakened were focusing their aura—their strike—into a mirror.

[Squad Six, complete! Complete!]

[Loss rate, approximately five percent!]

GRRRRR!

As aura of different colors and even different wavelengths mingled, thunder roared. Like an enormous beast growling.

From Squad Twelve to Squad One.

Passing through a winding duodenum linked together from twelve organs in all—the roar of the beast called the Korean Peninsula Federation had now seethed its way up to its throat.

[Squad Four, complete—]

[Loss rate at or below three percent. Within calculated parameters so far. Passing it on.]

[Squad Three! It’s passed through!]

Aura raged like a storm.

Occasional squeals of “Eek!” broke out. Awakened unused to flying staggered in the aura storm.

This had been foreseeable. That was why I had placed the less experienced awakened in the rear squads and the skilled elite in the forward squads.

There was no problem.

At the very rear, Dang Seorin controlled everything. At the very front, I commanded everything.

[Squad Two... passed! We managed it somehow!]

[Go! Go! Go!]

Some awakened cried out in wonder. Like ancient Egyptians who had come to worship the pyramids they themselves had built, they could not help trembling before the torrent of aura.

And then.

[Squad One! Complete, Your Excellency Undertaker!]

Squad One’s Team Leader shouted. Yu Jiwon. An awakened who had once served as my adjutant in the distant past, when I belonged to Three Thousand Worlds.

[Now—now! We’ve passed it on!]

[Loss rate under one percent! Under one percent!]

[Your Excellency Undertaker!]

RRRROOOOAR!

At last, the aura of seven hundred people reached right in front of me.

Every mirror Dang Seorin had created had shattered. The magical mirrors fell toward the ground, scattering countless fragments.

Except for the largest mirror, filling the space before my eyes.

A typhoon of aura swirled within the transparent concave mirror.

“Hnnng...!”

My whole body prickled.

An exaltation like becoming an omnipotent god surged up my spine. What mortal could dare be granted such power, and who could wield it properly?

That was why I stood at the very front.

I injected my own aura into the torrent that already threatened to escape my control and explode at any moment.

Ink-black. This was the color of my soul.

The torrent of aura boiling with every color was infected with black in an instant, like water in a beaker entirely stained by a single drop of ink.

In a sudden burst, the skin of my right hand peeled away all the way up my forearm. It could not withstand the aura’s output.

“...!”

My ears were deafened. I could hear nothing. Thunder rang incessantly around me, and my vision had turned pitch-black, leaving me unable to see anything.

The pain of blood vessels bursting.

But again, there was no problem.

“Saintess! The position—”

[Adjust three centimeters to the right.]

A voice sounded quietly, directly inside my head.

[Again, eleven centimeters down.]

[You have aimed too low. Two centimeters up.]

My forty-second-run self did not know it, but at this moment the Saintess was using ‘Time Stop’ to correct the errors with meticulous care.

She must have examined and calculated, again and again, through the eyes of countless awakened, whether firing the aura like this would hit Meteor Strike. Perhaps spending days on end.

That long span of time was no more than an instant to me, and to endure that instant, I bore every agony.

[Yes, just a little. A little more...]

[Now.]

Softly.

[Now, Mr. Undertaker.]

The Saintess’s time intersected with mine.

At that moment, I shouted and fired the storm of aura gathered before my eyes. I could not hear my own shout.

RRRRROOOOOOOAR!

Only the roar of a gigantic beast.

That ink-black roar, rising through seven hundred souls and twelve layers of duodenum, shook heaven and earth.

-A҉h҉?҉

Only then did Meteor Strike, silent all this time, react. Like a being just waking from a deep sleep.

Boss battle, Phase Three: begin.

-T҉w҉i҉n҉k҉l҉e҉,҉ t҈҉w҉i҉n҉k҉l҉e҉,҉ l҉i҉t҉t҉l҉e҉ s҉t҉a҉r҉.҉

I felt Meteor Strike stir.

-S҉h҉i҉n҉i҉n҉g҉ s҉o҉ b҉e҉a҉u҉t҉i҉f҉u҉l҉l҉y҉.҉

-I҉n҉ t҉h҉e҉ e҉a҉s҉t҉e҉r҉n҉ s҉k҉y҉,҉ a҉n҉d҉ i҉n҉ t҉h҉e҉ w҉e҉s҉t҉e҉r҉n҉ s҉k҉y҉.҉

A familiar melody. Meteor Strike’s lullaby, which had invariably brought the world below to ruin from the twenty-third run through the forty-first, rang out through the typhoon.

It must be planning to put us to sleep like this.

“Ah—ah, ah—ah, ahhh—”

And for precisely this moment, Dang Seorin played her final card.

Songs began ringing out simultaneously from the far shore and the near shore of the night sky. But the moment the two waves met at the exact center—

-A҉҉h҉҉?҉

—the songs abruptly disappeared.

Sixth Melody: Anti-Resonance.

An application of [Silence] that nullified all noise by emitting sound waves precisely countering the sound produced by an opponent.

Filled with exhilaration, I shouted.

“You don’t have an exclusive patent on working miracles through song!”

The point where Meteor Strike’s void and Dang Seorin’s magic intersected was precisely where I was flying.

The black ripples spread by Meteor Strike and the white waves spread by Dang Seorin collided incessantly. Black and white. The color of humanity’s song. The hue painted by the anomaly’s song.

While the battlefield in the night sky filled with the songs of humans and the void, I alone raced along the silent front line.

Following the Saintess’s guidance, keeping the storm of aura continually aimed.

-A҉h҉?҉ A҉҉h҉҉?҉

Was it flustered because its finishing move had failed? Unidentifiable noise intruded between the phrases of the lullaby Meteor Strike must have been singing.

But it was too late.

Solely to drive this single strike, this surprise attack, into you, seven hundred combatants and nine hundred noncombatants had trained again and again.

Dang Seorin had developed three advanced spells, prepared the radios, and enchanted each and every one with Medium magic.

To lend credibility to the constellations’ messages, the Saintess had worked in secret all this time, concealing her existence.

The time the Saintess had poured into rallying all the Federation’s awakened over the past seven years must have approached eternity. The days she had just spent ensuring accurate aim were merely the final seasoning for that eternity.

And there were my hundred and fifty years.

The optimal route. The best possible strategy.

-A҉h҉?҉ A҉h҉?҉ A҉h҉?҉ A҉҉h҉?҉

Therefore, this was the first and final strike.

The single instant when Meteor Strike was off guard. When it had never yet fallen upon any land, never destroyed any people, never killed any awakened—the moment it had the least experience.

Quite literally, a regressor’s sure kill.

-A҉҉h҉?҉ A҈҉h҉?҉ A҈҉҉h҉?҉ A҉҉h҉?҉ A҉҉h҉҉?҉ A҈҉҉h҉҉?҉ A҉҉҉h҉҉?҉ A҉҉҉h҉҉?҉

You could hardly accuse us of being unfair.

After all, this was how you had fought until now.

You, too, will die in your sleep, anomaly.

-A҉҉h҉҉a҉҉҉a҉҉h҈҉m҉҉a҉҉҉a҈҉h҉҉a҉҉m҈҉a҉҉a҈҉҉a҉҉h҉҉?҉

A flash—

The starlight that had soared from the ground pierced the starlight that had fallen from the sky.