Chapter 106 - Encounter at Seongnam

I had never visited Seongnam in my life.

Naturally. I didn't work in IT in Pangyo, there wasn't anything there I wanted to do, and none of my family or friends lived there. Besides, if I was going to Seongnam, I figured I might as well go to Seoul or Suwon instead.

Yet here I was, a resident of Gyeonggi Province who'd already visited Seongnam twice this year.

Until 2027, I seemed to remember hearing that Seongnam was a great place to live. The living conditions in the Seongnam of 2028, viewed from our helicopter, were fucked to hell.

Roads originally built for two-way traffic now carried marching infantry on one side and tracked tanks and armored vehicles on the other. Parks that had once probably been planted with trees and grass were crammed with K9 self-propelled howitzers and towed artillery positions, their heavy barrels rising.

The infantry searching every alley in buddy teams, as cordon veterans always did, made quite an impression. Any civilians they ran into were busy trembling, dropping to their knees, and putting their hands up.

On our first visit, this place had opened up on crowds of refugees with flamethrowers before anything else.

Fortunately, we were still some distance from the front, so apparently they weren't immediately burning civilians alive. Of course, watching them level their guns at people they half suspected were monsters made it clear how precarious Seongnam's situation was.

One thing had changed on this second visit, though: swarms of quadcopter drones buzzing around almost as loudly as the helicopter's rotors.

They flew below our helicopter, squeezing between all sorts of buildings, guns pointed downward or artillery shells exposed beneath them.

There was something about looking down at the very front of the cordon without fog obscuring it that sent a tingle through the backs of my knees.

I counted the drone formations. Four drones per formation, and at least six, seven, eight... The count easily climbed into double digits. I stuck out my tongue in amazement.

"There are more drones than when we first came here. No, wait. Didn't we see none at all back then?"

"There's a limit to how long you can hold the line by feeding people into a meat grinder. Besides, modern warfare in the twenty-first century shifted to unmanned drones ages ago."

Lee Se-jun confidently curled up one corner of his mouth as he looked out through the helicopter window.

Lee Se-jun. Just like him to puff himself up and show off whenever the military came up, all because he'd been a career soldier, despite failing to qualify for long-term service. He was looking misty-eyed, apparently swelling with patriotic pride in a Republic of Korea that might as well have already fallen.

"They might be a little less adaptable than people, but they're definitely better at killing. There's a reason the military protected Gyeonggi Province even at the cost of ten million lives in Seoul."

"Why Gyeonggi Province?"

"Je-min... You didn't know why they confined the people of Gyeonggi inside what they called the second cordon? The semiconductor plants that drive the Republic of Korea. The biggest one is in Pyeongtaek. That's why the ROK–U.S. Joint Command was established there too. They were desperate to preserve Gyeonggi's infrastructure so those semiconductors could go straight into drone production."

"Really???"

I'd thought the point was simply to maintain the infrastructure supporting the cordon. This was the first I'd heard that drone production was part of it too.

And the fact that Lee Se-jun knew something I didn't caused me extreme displeasure.

How dare some testosterone-soaked staff sergeant who spent every day singing about wanting to become a gender-swapped pretty girl know more than Archmage Baek Je-min?

Lee Se-jun... Not an easy bastard to handle.

The instant his mastery of magic threatened to surpass mine, I'd have to whack him in the back of the head.

While Se-jun and I chatted about the military, the other Supreme Mages maintained a tense silence. Then Go Ryeo-ha's muttering, which she'd quietly kept to herself until now, reached us particularly loudly.

"... They're dying. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Huh?"

Se-jun turned around with his brows twisted, but Ryeo-ha still had her face buried in her knees.

She continued mumbling from that position.

"I do hate the soldiers, but... They're dying while we eat, sleep, and chat."

At this point, people lacking sensitivity would glare at her and demand:

Oh, you fucking bitch.

You euthanized those non-mage dregs for wasting food. Who are you to talk?

But I possessed astonishing empathy and intellect and understood people from every walk of life, so I was able to speak gently.

"That Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier said it, didn't he? People outside the cordon don't see the soldiers holding it as human, so they just insult them however they please. They don't give a shit if monsters eat them. It's your duty, so march into certain death. That's what they say."

"..."

"You can't simply condemn that as selfishness. They're wise people who know how to make life easy. None of my business. That's how you free yourself from all the misery in the world. Who gives a shit whether soldiers die? Why should I care when those assholes sitting pretty in the rear don't give a fuck? Lose the good-girl complex already. Tsk."

If I personally felt responsible for every misfortune and tragedy in the world, life would just be miserable.

Seen in that light, Ryeo-ha's sense of responsibility was excessive.

What was wrong with us eating, sleeping, shitting, laughing, and researching magic while soldiers died?

It wasn't our decision. It was proof that we were considered more valuable than those soldiers' lives.

Besides, we were actually trying to kill monsters and Seoul mages. That made us far more moral than the civilians in the rear who demanded that civilians be rescued without ever showing their faces at the cordon.

Granted, I had to endure the angry looks of the Jesus-freak duo.

"Baek Je-min, you little shit. Listen to the way you talk."

"Je-min. You've succumbed to the devil's whispers again."

I was used to it by now, so I ignored them.

Meanwhile, the helicopter began descending. Amid the loud, rattling vibrations, Hamza muttered a prayer.

I turned my head slightly and looked through the helicopter window.

Seongnam City Hall.

The grounds were so spacious that I could have mistaken them for a clean, attractive park. The building was sleek too, clearly the product of plenty of money.

The difference from peacetime was that military vehicles and murderous-looking infantry had occupied every well-maintained road and parking lot.

I wondered whether there was room left, but apparently they were accustomed to transporting important personnel by helicopter. A corner of the parking lot had been set aside as a helipad.

As we gradually descended and the people, trees, buildings, and vehicles that had looked like miniatures began to seem life-sized, the pastor cleared his throat to get our attention.

"Everyone, check your gear. Repeat the team assignments before we go. We don't have time to stand around confused once we're down."

The pastor reminded us of the short briefing he'd given during our roughly ten-minute helicopter ride.

Our mission was to infiltrate an elementary school near Namhansanseong Entrance Station in northern Seongnam and kill the Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier.

Expecting fierce resistance and combat, the military would deploy special forces and frontline units to draw the enemy's attention. Aphorism was expected to make active use of magic to infiltrate and break through.

Now that it was established that the Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier could use inverted ear magic to guide monster swarms to some extent, enormous losses among frontline soldiers were inevitable.

It gave the ROK–U.S. Joint Command a reason to grind up soldiers while letting us Supreme Mages rest for a day.

Command might have preferred to drag out the fighting longer, but perhaps they'd decided they couldn't delay our deployment after discovering that Yellow-Bandage was an inverted ear mage forcing soldiers to defect.

On this point, Command and the pastor agreed.

"They're probably putting out bait to stage a diversion. We need to split into teams."

The first to object was Se-jun.

"You're limiting the infiltration team to three? And Ryeo-ha isn't even mentally fit. That practically means splitting into two and three, Pastor. Even if you're worried about a diversion, I think we should trust the military and send all six of us in."

"Both options seem dangerous..."

Hamza chimed in, but his doctrinal magic, [Angel's Intuition], was no help whatsoever.

The magic only let him avoid the worst outcome, and outside the fog its effectiveness was even weaker.

A prediction that both options seemed like the worst was completely useless. In the end, the pastor continued with his plausible argument.

"We've confirmed four officers. If two are staying near the elementary school, do you think the other two are doing nothing? They'll be lying in ambush or coming to surround us after receiving shared intelligence. We need mages to hold them off when that happens."

"That's why we should trust the military."

"Leave it to the military? How long do you think kids who aren't even mages can hold out? How many will die?"

Apparently, I was the only one thinking that dying while shooting a gun was a pretty good end for non-mages who were no help anyway.

While Na-in read my thoughts and shot me a look of contempt, Se-jun raised his head awkwardly.

The pastor clicked his tongue at him and delivered a calm reprimand.

"Lee Se-jun, you say you want to repay your country, but you can't tell us to throw away the lives of young conscripts like scraps of grass. Don't let Baek Je-min rub off on you."

"I'm young too..."

"You, damn it—"

The pastor started with a shout, then realized how old Se-jun was. His eyes rolled about before he trailed off.

"Well, you shouldn't look so old."

CLUNK!

The helicopter landed.

That put an end to the noisy briefing.

"Hey, listen a moment before you get out!"

"We're short on time. Let's get off first."

I threw open the helicopter door and got out, and everyone followed.

Pastor Park Yo-han was surprisingly democratic, though he didn't look like the type. Watching him spend time persuading everyone individually made it clear he wasn't cut out for military life.

If we left things to him, all our dopamine would cool off while we kept arguing. So I decided to step in as mediator.

"Pastor and Na-in infiltrate with me. Se-jun, Hamza, and Ryeo-ha help the military contain and repel any other mages who try to surround us or attack the troops. Anyone object?"

Hamza immediately raised a hand and clearly stated his objection.

"If we're guarding against ambushes or encirclement, I think Na-in should stay with me."

"Hamza, you fucking bastard. You just want Na-in's detection ability so you can avoid danger, don't you?"

"Ahem!"

My powerful words of command shut Hamza's mouth for him.

I wasn't giving up our human sonar, Shin Na-in, for Hamza's cushy stay in the rear. The military hospital in Anyang had taught me painfully that taking Na-in was far more convenient, even if it meant forgoing Se-jun or Ryeo-ha.

You could struggle your way around insufficient firepower. If you couldn't detect the enemy, you died before you could struggle.

Conversely, when you knew the enemy's position for certain, prioritizing firepower was the right choice.

I raised an index finger, pointed at each Supreme Mage, and issued brief, simple, clear instructions.

"Na-in handles detection so we can identify danger. Pastor comes with us, helps frontline troops withdraw, and counters Yellow-Bandage's bullshit with agitation of his own. Se-jun and Ryeo-ha assist the rear units and keep enemy mages in check with firepower. Hamza provides medical support and guesses where the defensive line is in danger. Everyone heard their role?"

"..."

They all stared stupidly with their mouths hanging open. I clicked my tongue and pulled out the gas mask tucked against my chest.

Even Ryeo-ha had lifted her head slightly to peek at me.

"What are you looking at?"

"It's just... Je-min... Couldn't you act like that all the time?"

I snorted at Hamza's words when he finally unsealed his mouth.

The raw-rubber smell characteristic of the new antifog-treated gas mask was already prickling my nostrils. Mmm, that smell. Thoroughly washing and drying it had been worthwhile. The rubber smelled squeaky clean.

I put the mask on and breathed through the filter to check its condition.

HOO, HUH.

Good condition.

Ryeo-ha's poor condition had prevented her from restoring the enchantment, so the Hebrew enchantment on my poncho had expired. But I actually liked it better that way.

A mage in a poncho covered in red lettering.

Even I thought I looked insanely good.

Only after fiddling with the selector on my custom AR-15, adjusting its sling, checking that my bayonet was properly secured, and confirming I'd brought two grenades could I answer Hamza.

"How do I usually act?"

"Uh..."

"I'll make sure to hear your answer when I get back. Let's go, Jesus-freak duo. No time. Of course, stand in front of me and I'll shoot."

Leaving Hamza's silent scream behind, I strode confidently forward.

Plenty of eyes turned toward us after we got off the helicopter. With Seongnam City Hall practically on the front line, the murderous aura of the cordon veterans was no joke. Had I encountered those eyes back when the world was normal, I'd have thought their owners had stabbed four or five people to death.

The sight was terrifying enough to make my inner thighs tingle, but fortunately, the cordon soldiers weren't hostile to us Supreme Mages.

Orange armbands hung with dog tags, marking them as cordon veterans.

They lowered their guns or slung them over their shoulders to expose those armbands and saluted respectfully whenever I passed. Their CBRN protective suits and gas masks completely concealed their expressions.

Instead, whenever their arms moved, the dog tags dangling from their armbands collided noisily.

JINGLE, JINGLE.

The clinking of dog tags followed my footsteps.

Soldiers marching in orderly ranks and files, soldiers guarding the area with flamethrowers and shotguns, soldiers loading vehicles, even officers wearing rank insignia—anyone with a dog-tag armband invariably stopped what they were doing to salute.

JINGLE, JINGLE.

It was dog tags ringing in place of little bells.

Then other footsteps followed mine, trampling over their jingling.

"Baek Je-min, what was that about shooting us? A joke to lighten the mood?"

"No, Pastor. He's fully prepared to shoot."

A sidelong glance revealed that Na-in and the pastor were both ready.

Ponchos and gas masks. Guns and belts, ammunition pouches and grenades, canteens.

Properly testosterone-heavy outfits for Supreme Mages.

The difference was in their customized ponchos.

Ancient Hebrew enchantments weren't the only things on them.

Na-in's poncho was densely covered with red crosses, while the pastor's carried a passage.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you?"

"James 4:7."

Pastor Park Yo-han spoke between the rasping breaths distinctive to a gas mask.

"Isn't it perfect for us, fighting devilish monsters to remain human? What do you think, Baek Je-min?"

"Not keen on the first part, but I like the second."

"Spirituality is finally taking root in Je-min too. Amen."

Na-in's bullshit hit me immediately, so I shut my mouth.

Couldn't say a damn thing.

I resumed walking and looked toward northern Seongnam, where the Gangnam Clairvoyant and the group under him were said to be mounting their offensive.

Clouds were rising there, however faintly.

Dark clouds infinitely close to the ground.

The fog had settled in.

Knowing what that meant, my footsteps grew heavier as I passed between saluting soldiers. Yet whenever they parted to either side and raised their hands for our trio, my shoulders involuntarily lifted with pride.

And as my shoulders lifted, something settled on my chest.

JINGLE, JINGLE.

Those dog tags dangling from the armbands were the price paid to hold the cordon. Remnants of camaraderie shared by men who alone considered one another human when no one else did.

Collecting the dog tags of comrades eaten by monsters didn't save their souls.

But Baek Je-min, a man among men, might be rational and reasonable, yet he knew when something was TMI.

Instead, I stepped onto the asphalt with heavier feet and nudged my selector.

CLICK.

At that moment, a broad avenue right beside Seongnam City Hall opened before us.

A desolate wasteland.

The scattered stumps of roadside trees, blackened with soot, suggested what had happened. Our trio now advanced over ground where countless humans and monsters had burned to death, tangled together.

STEP, STEP.

Fortunately, this trio was among the smarter Supreme Mages.

I could relax without explaining why we were walking from Seongnam City Hall rather than taking a vehicle.

Se-jun, who seemed to know the military inside out yet was a complete moron, would've suggested charging through in an armored vehicle with its autocannon blazing.

Just then, Na-in let out a dry laugh, slipped out of his sling, and took hold of his rifle.

CLACK.

He spoke as the gun's metal parts clicked together.

"Surely not. After fighting mages several times, could he still be that ignorant? Throw a chunk of concrete or rebar at a vehicle and crush it, and it's disabled instantly. Even if the body stays intact, limiting its mobility finishes it."

"Right?"

"Shin Na-in, Baek Je-min. Enough nonsense. Move your feet faster."

Pastor Park Yo-han cut in.

Normally, I'd have dismissed him as pulling another Jesus-freak move or acting like a bossy old fart. This time, his words carried weight.

"A day's play is enough. Kids are dying."

Na-in put on the headset hanging around his neck and pulled up his hood. Detection mode: ON, apparently.

I adjusted my attitude too and readied myself to roll my tongue inside my mouth.

In the middle of that long avenue, only the three of us advanced, each gripping his gun tightly.

As we approached the fog, distant impacts and artillery fire slowly began vibrating through the soles of my feet.

The fight was approaching.

HOO.

I exhaled a short, deep breath and organized my thoughts.

I am an insignificant human.

My life and desires serve only myself, and my abilities are barely enough to sustain my own life. Someone like me cannot take responsibility for other people's fates and lives.

But I couldn't let valuable EXP slip away.

If we encountered monsters along the way, I'd kill as many as my ammunition allowed.

* * *

The cordon used Seongnam City Hall as its dividing point, separating off the northern combat zone.

Beyond the highway-like avenue lay a large intersection. That was where the strange phenomena began.

The moment we entered the combat zone, an unpleasant noise leaked from the pastor's walkie-talkie.

Like a television that had lost its signal, it spewed static loud enough to destroy its speaker.

The pastor quickly removed the battery.

CLICK.

"Take your batteries out too. Remember the department store at Jangji Station? Turning them off isn't enough."

"Phones these days have built-in batteries. Can't do that."

"Good grief. You brought your phone? Leave it somewhere before I stomp it into pieces."

Easier said than done.

What was left of a modern person without their phone?

But remembering the chaos at the Jangji Station department store changed my mind.

I still got chills thinking about all the walkie-talkies ringing at once while the Dubai Fondant Witch raced around slaughtering soldiers. Walkie-talkies with removable batteries were one thing, but against modern phones with built-in batteries, that trick was far too dangerous.

The pastor was right.

I immediately took out the smartphone that had spent half my life with me, along with the talisman Lady Kiss had given me. I wrapped the talisman around the phone, carefully placed it by the roadside, then returned.

The pastor looked over in bewilderment.

"What are you doing?"

"Dressing my phone."

Na-in, on the other hand, chose a foolproof method.

CRUNCH!

He dropped his phone and smashed it with his rifle butt. Even the pastor gaped, evidently not expecting such violence.

"Na-in, what will you do without a phone?"

"The truly faithful listen to the Lord's word. They do not seek comfort in trifling products of technological civilization. The righteous find solace only in the Lord's embrace."

"They would've adored you at the prayer retreat!"

Thanks to that, we avoided one of the insidious detection methods the Seoul mages employed through sorcery phones.

We had swiftly neutralized a chillingly meticulous method: making switched-off phones ring to determine their owners' locations. The journey of the Jesus-freak duo and the Supreme Mage truly began there.

The ominous signs didn't end with that strange static.

Alone at the intersection, we soon spotted armored vehicles and tanks abandoned on the road. At first, I tilted my head, unable to understand why anyone had abandoned such sturdy vehicles.

TAP, TAP.

Na-in tapped his headset and moved his lips. A telepathy signal.

While the pastor raised his gun and watched our surroundings, Na-in and I, both ear mages, quickly exchanged information.

'Je-min. There's a faint layer of fog. And I've figured out how they disabled them.'

I lowered my gaze and widened my eyes. Sure enough, a faint layer of fog, only as high as a shoe insole, covered the road. Without careful scrutiny, I'd have mistaken it for accumulated concrete dust or paint particles.

But how they'd disabled them?

However strong monsters were, they couldn't penetrate a tank or armored vehicle, could they?

Besides, I might know nothing about military matters, but this was the Republic of Korea, obsessive about CBRN preparedness.

Surely they wouldn't let monsters pop the lids and slip straight inside.

But my complacent thoughts shattered when I heard Na-in's telepathy.

'I told you that the Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier's inverted ear magic is suspected to involve hypnosis, suggestion, and the collapse of reason.'

Don't tell me...

'He seems to have advised the crews and officers exposed to communications to unseal their vehicles, come out, and defect... Or induced them not to realize they were helping monsters infiltrate, then made them open the hatches.'

Only then did I notice details I'd missed because I wasn't a tanker.

The infantry carriers, Humvees, and tanks weren't completely sealed. A door stood open here, a window was lowered there like a breathing hole. Sometimes disgusting bodily-fluid stains remained on a gun barrel, suggesting something had crawled right inside it.

Cold and heat swept together through a corner of my chest.

The Gangnam Clairvoyant.

The bastard had clearly devoted thought to neutralizing the armored forces that posed the greatest danger on the battlefield. This wasn't simply dealing with them. He had meticulously devised tactics aimed at bringing the military down.

Creativity through magic.

Anti-non-mage tactics that even employed monsters.

Remote curse-killing aside, anyone whose thoughts were this vicious couldn't be left alive.

The pastor seemed to notice something too. Glancing at us, he asked:

"Na-in. Figured anything out?"

"Yes."

Na-in summarized it very simply for him.

"They hypnotized people to let monsters infiltrate the armored vehicles."

"May heaven punish those bastards."

The pastor's reply was brief.

We advanced between the abandoned vehicles, toward the traces of the military's presence.

If monsters had infiltrated them, there was a strong possibility they were still inside. We had no choice but to tread more carefully.

Suddenly, Na-in stopped in front of a forlorn-looking tank.

Its hatch was closed, but disgusting slime marked the tip of its gun barrel.

Just as I wondered whether he was contemplating the pride of Korea's defense industry, his eyes gently closed behind his gas-mask lenses.

"There are no Amalgams or predatory spines here. We don't have to worry about an attack."

"Didn't you say there were monsters inside?"

The pastor, still not understanding, asked again. I didn't explain.

I had recalled the human slimes we'd encountered at Jangji Station.

They were filthy slow and weak but difficult to kill, making fighting them utterly pointless. Considering that they'd taken over Seoul's water and sewer networks, though, it was reasonable to assume they'd infiltrated using their liquid-like properties.

It was obvious how the soldiers inside that tank had met their end.

HOOOO.

Deep breaths overlapped.

So completely that distinguishing whose was whose became meaningless.

When Na-in opened his eyes again, fear and anger dwelled together in them.

"Prepare to take cover."

A single sentence, but enough.

If Na-in said it was dangerous, it was dangerous. If he said something, there was something there.

The pastor and I briefly met eyes, then looked around for sturdy vehicles. We stopped our gradual advance and lowered our bodies at an angle.

Na-in remained standing in place.

Like a lightning rod waiting motionlessly to be struck.

Our trio stayed silent for a while in the middle of an avenue littered with abandoned military vehicles, armored carriers, and tanks.

The pastor and I subtly shifted our feet, ready to sprint. Na-in stood alone, doing something whose purpose I couldn't fathom.

And finally.

A microphone was tapped, followed by a squeal from cheap speakers.

Speakers scattered throughout the abandoned buildings sounded simultaneously, making their location difficult to pinpoint.

["Huh, huh."]

Someone blew into the microphone.

A cocky, flippant voice echoed through the deserted road.

["Wondered what was up when you suddenly stopped on your way over. You're not carrying any communication devices either."]

That was when Na-in's telepathy reached me.

'Je-min. Prepare Eye, Stage Two, [Cognitive Distortion], at 100%.'

I stopped myself from rolling my tongue and prepared to bite it instead.

There was something Na-in wanted from this strange standoff.

His detection ability was incomparably better than mine, so I trusted him and followed his lead.

Just then, a speaker somewhere screamed.

SCREEEEEECH!!!

["Huh, huh. Ah, sorry. Thought you might not hear me. Made a mistake adjusting the volume. So, can you hear me or not?"]

No one answered.

Our trio had finished making our individual preparations in our respective positions, wary of the voice's owner.

An Inverted Alteration-Type Ear, Stage Three mage serving the Gangnam Clairvoyant.

["Tsk. Judging by your attitude, you're not here to defect. And you're not ordinary soldiers either."]

The Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier clicked his tongue.

["Fire!"]

Now.

Without hesitation, I bit my tongue.

CRUNCH!

I felt my spine shiver at the sharp pain rising from the root of my tongue, and felt every involuntary tear spilling down my cheeks.

My pain was this absolute.

Other people's pain was insignificant.

And so my pain alone stretched on and on...

Eye, Stage Two, [Cognitive Distortion], 100%.

The world slowed without limit.

I rose and looked around.

An ambush.

Gun barrels emerged from every direction.

Soldiers wrapped in white bandages appeared in the shadows beyond broken windows, thrusting their guns out. Others rose from piles of garbage in the alleys and took aim.

Farther away, a soldier with an ammunition belt attached to his machine gun set up its bipod and aimed at us.

Slowly but surely.

Yet everything was slow and sluggish.

I rose, surveyed my surroundings, tilted my head, and walked slowly toward Na-in faster than the enemy's fingers moved on their triggers.

Only I moved freely through time.

I grabbed Na-in by the nape and forcibly dragged him down. I'd have loved to strike all sorts of poses and announce, "You're already dead," but reality was pathetic.

My eyelids began trembling. I couldn't waste any more time trying to look cool.

I forced Na-in flat, knelt on one knee, and aimed at the enemy.

Without the assistance of Eye, Stage One, I was likely to miss.

But even one hit would make it worthwhile.

CLICK.

Every pull of the trigger distorted the world at will.

The trigger I pulled sent the firing pin striking the round and fired it with a tiny explosion, smoke, and a flash. Yet the bullet slowed endlessly the moment it left the barrel.

Only what touched my hands flowed freely. The world turned rigid when caught within my perception.

My perception twisted, kneaded, and violated the world as it pleased.

The experience and knowledge I'd accumulated led me toward a higher level of understanding.

At this very moment, pulling the trigger to kill people, I stepped closer to magic's mysteries and its true intent.

The world is what humanity defines it to be.

Then only what I, a human, perceive is the world.

This was the true power of eye-branch magic, symbolizing human cognition and a human-centered worldview.

How could such an arrogant power manifest in those who served a god?

I felt ecstasy deep in my bones.

I was...

Approaching omnipotence!

The moment that ecstasy pressed down on my eyelids, my cry of joy rang out as gunfire.

A blink.

RAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Gunshots rained down, overlapped, and missed us.

Ricochets whined past my ears off concrete and rebar, while the acrid stink of gunpowder and sharp tinnitus savaged my eardrums. In that one-sided flow of time, casualties had been one-sided too.

I saw soldiers collapse amid bursts of blood mist.

Of course, most hadn't even registered the sudden spray of bullets. The soldier unlucky enough to be killed was the machine gunner. Machine gunners were always said to be the first to die in war.

Even so, the incoming fire amounted to an encirclement intended to wipe us out.

Bullets gouged the asphalt and ricocheted wildly, even tearing through our ponchos. Blood burst out and grazes burned and split, but no one suffered a fatal wound.

Na-in, flat on the ground, immediately readjusted his grip and poured point fire toward the gunshots.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

I dragged Na-in by the back of his neck, firing indiscriminately.

It was a miracle.

I was hauling someone by the neck through a rain of bullets, yet even when ricochets tore my clothes, none lodged in me. Our luck didn't end there.

Over the fierce, noisy ricochets came an overlapping buzz like hornets.

With bullets raining down and tinnitus tearing at my eardrums, I couldn't hear so much as a human shout. But when I listened just in case, Na-in's telepathy alone came through clearly.

'Drone Command. ROK military drones. Cover!'

Someone pulled my shoulder as we moved.

It was the pastor, eyes wide, apparently shouting something. I couldn't hear him because we all ducked at the explosions that immediately followed.

KABOOOOM!!!

I heard shattered glass raining onto the road through the vibrations of my body pressed against it.

As a high-pitched ringing churned inside my head, the first thing I heard was Na-in's telepathy.

'They're withdrawing...'

Sure enough, the first external sound to reach me was the Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier's loudspeaker.

["Listen, listen. Keep fighting, and we'll bring in more monster swarms too. Unit 55 on site, retreat. Don't pursue us. Pursue, and this ceasefire ends. You know we're going easy on you, right? Let's show some humanity."]

Of course, the drones weren't going to listen.

Why would the furious military be crazy enough to listen to some Seoul mage?

The problem was that the enemy wasn't merely speaking. He was using magic.

I felt a strange discomfort in my heart, like someone pricking it repeatedly with a needle to test its response.

Only when the tinnitus subsided and I could hear gunshots and voices did I fully grasp the situation.

We were hiding behind an armored vehicle.

Me, Na-in, and the pastor.

All three of us had escaped fatal injuries.

Na-in and I bled a little from scrapes and grazes, but not enough to worry about blood loss.

I missed Hamza, but he wasn't someone capable of enduring a battlefield this intense.

He was highly useful but as fragile as a sunfish. We had to use him sparingly.

Meanwhile, the military drones seemed to be hunting the Unit 55 soldiers who'd ambushed us. Gunfire rang out repeatedly, and a few drones fell, but hitting drones with small arms was difficult even for expert marksmen.

Apparently they were using suicide drones too. Explosions ripped through buildings, and falling glass and concrete dust pattered down more frequently than a rain shower.

While the drones and Unit 55 fought, the best thing we could do was stay in cover and catch our breath.

HOO, HOO.

Once I'd caught my breath, my senses returned.

"Shin Na-in, you crazy fuck. You couldn't detect this?"

Na-in lifted his gas mask, spat out saliva tinged with blood, and answered.

"Human slimes. Do you remember what I said about how those monsters sound?"

"No. Don't remember."

"Those monsters are tens of trillions of cells that have gained autonomy. Tens of trillions of tiny voices shouting that they're hungry, all at once. Inside a hard tank. And not one, but several. Once they mix together, even calling them several seems absurd... 'Large' would be more appropriate."

The pastor sucked in a breath.

"It's a tactic specifically targeting ear mages."

"Targeting?"

"They know ear mages detect things through sound, so they exhaust their mental stamina and attention, then spring an ambush."

Ordinary specialist soldiers couldn't handle this.

Even with radar or heartbeat sensors, even with elite scouts, it wouldn't be easy. This magic destroyed the person, not the equipment. Unless we created Skynet to fight them, non-mage forces alone couldn't resist it.

"Fuck."

The gunfire was dying down.

Drones flew around with loud buzzing, while Unit 55's resistance grew sporadic or faded. The pursuit had begun in earnest.

The Yellow-Bandage Routed Soldier himself, however, clicked his tongue and laughed.

["Pyeongtaek sent some proper guys this time. Guys who've really thought about magic. Lesser trash or non-mages could never have reacted like that."]

Then his voice abruptly chilled.

["You're Aphorism. The military has no other mage force that can deal with us this fucking brilliantly."]

CLICK.

The broadcast ended with those words.

In the middle of the avenue, where every sound had stopped, the three of us caught our breath for a while, then put our gas masks back on and readjusted our posture.

Looking at my ragged poncho hem, noticing the cuts and exposed patches of skin, I reflected on the wisdom of my choice.

"Good thing we brought the pastor."

"Baek Je-min. Let me have an easy life for once, huh? Pioneering ministry already keeps me run ragged, and now I have to shoot people too?"

"Pastor. With Je-min's mindset, would he really be able to cooperate with the soldiers still here?"

At Na-in's offensive question, the pastor shut his mouth.

We surveyed our surroundings again.

A corpse sprawled by a window. A chunk of flesh flung far away and a scorched blast site. Rustling shards of glass and concrete dust. Armored vehicles and other cars coated pale over their countless scars. Fog reaching the height of a shoe insole. Bleak, abandoned buildings...

CLACK.

Once again, I took the first step.

"Well, the capital region's housing problem is solved."

"Je-min, my suggestion to purify Seoul with a nuclear bomb was good after all, wasn't it?"

"Why do all my prospective church youth leaders act like there's a pot of honey waiting for them in Seoul? Boys, life in the provinces is good too. Live there a while and you won't even notice the inconveniences!"

As we passed, lightly kicking loose cartridge cases, our purpose remained unchanged.

Noble heroism ended once broken, but human greed raised its head proudly even in the most hopeless places.

I wouldn't concern myself with the troops busy somewhere in this abandoned cityscape.

We would simply do our best.

Kill mages, crush their remains, and plunder all the knowledge, experience, and mastery they'd accumulated.

"Je-min, I'm entering a holy war to defeat the power of Satan and his demons."

"Let's save some people too, huh? If you live all alone, who'll applaud you?"

"Ah, fuck. Fine."

Even as I adjusted my grip on my rifle and scanned our surroundings, the laughter leaking from inside my gas mask didn't fade.

Actively incorporating the opinions of this goddamn fanatical Jesus-freak duo, I modified our objective a little.

As long as we fought monsters, we would remain human.

Even if we weren't noble, sublime, heroic humans...

We marched into this hell as humans.