Chapter 37 - Escalate

The day the world's fate changed was quieter—and rattlier—than I had expected.

CLUNK, CLUNK.

In the beds of countless deuce-and-a-halves stretched along the road, relatively important personnel swayed together, packed like sprouts in a jar. On the smaller roads visible beyond the alleys, soldiers in full combat gear marched in orderly ranks and files. But people's sighs and shouts were drowned out beneath the contrails crossing the sky.

WHOOSH.

Three fighter jets flew past in formation. They were probably sending them up from other places, too. From what I'd heard, Suwon had an Air Force base; I suspected that was where they were coming from.

Thinking about it that way, I understood why Suwon had been chosen as a major strongpoint of the second cordon. There was an air base here.

Somehow, it didn't quite feel real. The thrill and excitement were still there, but not the sense that I was heading onto a battlefield where my life would be on the line. Fighting monsters had made my spine go rigid, yet now that I was part of such a massive troop movement, I found myself oddly calm.

An unexpected sound brought reality back.

["We will now hear a major statement from the current president and government."]

Lee Se-jun, who had been sighing quietly, Hamza, who had been blinking slowly, and Shin Na-in, who found everything in the world delightful, all turned toward the sound. Pastor Park Yo-han had deliberately turned up the volume so we could share this historic moment.

"You need to listen to things like this if you want something to talk about later."

At his easygoing, matter-of-fact remark, everyone began listening in silence.

I, Baek Je-min, met that fateful day loaded into the back of a military truck with the other mages. Just as there was a world before COVID and a world after it, today would divide the world into before and after.

["My dear fellow citizens, I stand here today to speak honestly about the most dangerous moment our nation has faced since its founding, a moment I have encountered during my term in office: our struggle against the most threatening danger humanity can imagine. This will also include establishing the truth about the government's actions in the name of protection that have fostered distrust, and the various atrocities directed against civilians."]

By the time Suwon Station had nearly been breached, information about Amalgams had already spread to some extent despite censorship and controls. The government had refused to officially acknowledge it to the bitter end, but society in the Republic of Korea had long since descended into turmoil.

Even without knowing the full horrors at the Seoul cordon, the proliferation of monsters and the unhesitating killing of nearby civilians had touched the nation's old traumas.

CLUNK.

A speed bump sent my ass briefly airborne before it slammed back down. Se-jun rubbed his lower back, groaning, "Ow, ow," before speaking.

"Things must be pretty bad in the provinces, huh?"

"Riots. What else?"

That was the beanie-wearing makgeolli man. His hair fluttered in the wind, his hands thrust into the pockets of his tattered padded jacket.

"They forget all about seeing those monsters rubbing faces together, and it's all 'I've got family in Seoul' this and that. Fucking idiots. Haven't they ever watched a movie? How does it make sense to open a door those monsters might come through just to save one member of your family?"

"Good grief, why do you have to talk like that?"

The Poppy lady finally lost her temper after listening to him go on.

"And what did the government do right? They should've tried gently coaxing people out. Killing everyone because they're scared, then blaming only those people, doesn't make any sense."

"That kind of thinking is how you end up one of those face-rubbing monsters! Do you still think Seoul is somewhere we ought to protect? What those chinks are saying is fucking awful, but it isn't wrong. Frankly, I think it's a miracle they haven't showered us with nukes already."

"Why go around in circles just to say we should all die? Does having no family give you the right to insult people who do? What's so admirable about shooting everyone who comes out begging to be saved that you have to defend it?"

"That's what I'm saying—the government is working its ass off to save forty million people, and they don't even know how anyone could save them, but they keep saying we need refugee evacuation screenings in Seoul, we need quarantine facilities... With the country in this state, all anyone ever does is fucking fight."

Watching and listening to this argument, a microcosm of the Republic of Korea in 2028, left me with a lot of feelings. Maybe this was how the country would go under.

I desperately needed the authoritative counsel of my Richam buddy, Hamza.

"Hamza, do you think this country can survive?"

"I don't know anything about the fate of nations. The angel doesn't tell me."

While the makgeolli man and the Poppy lady bickered, the government's major statement continued spilling out over the rattling military truck.

["The government humbly accepts that this situation is no longer the Republic of Korea's alone, but a global disaster facing all humanity. We will share with the world information about the monsters clearly identified among those the government and Armed Forces have fought from the declaration of the mobilization order to the present. This concerns four identified species which, thanks to the valiant containment efforts of our service members and the active support of our ally, the United States, have not spread beyond Gyeonggi Province..."]

At that moment, everyone's conversation stopped dead. In the strange silence, the current president read the script in a calm but trembling voice.

Identified Species One. Head-fusion mimic beast.

Disguises itself as a human, then fuses heads upon approach to steal the victim's body. Capable of imitating humans to a degree. Confirmed to possess active intelligence, recognizing the power of firearms and taking measures to evade them. The previous victim's sense of self is presumed irrelevant. An instinctively hostile predator with no possibility of dialogue or negotiation.

Communication impossible.

Identified Species Two. Autonomously mobile extracted spine.

An independent monster born from mutation of the host's spine. Mimics the host by transmitting signals that manipulate the host's nervous system. Communication is impossible. Maintains human form and replenishes its nutrients by eating away at the host's internal organs, then emerges as the host is dying and lies in ambush. Reproduces by injecting bodily fluids into another victim, like a parasitoid wasp.

Cannot be trained.

Identified Species Three. Degenerative cellular colony.

A type of slime presumed to arise when a human is exposed to a particular environment. Believed to result from all the human's somatic cells degenerating into a cellular colony riddled with extreme mutations resembling cancer cells. Moves as a colony to acquire a host. Confirmed to reproduce upon contact with a victim through a mechanism similar to cancer cells.

No intelligence. Cannot be trained.

Identified Species Four. Bloodcord Delta.

A subspecies of the head-fusion mimic beast, mutated to evade heavy biochemical gases and adapt to indoor environments. Ambushes prey from ceilings, extending tentacles to snatch victims. Presumed to absorb some of its victims' knowledge. Confirmed to control some corpses to neutralize victims' resistance.

Cannot be trained.

["These are the true nature of the monsters we face. Further reporting will show you the appearances of the monsters you wish to see."]

There had been no mention of teratomas yet, but honestly, the four monsters already described were hell enough. Why, though, had they taken the drastic step of releasing information they had gone to such extremes to conceal?

Seeing me deep in thought, Na-in raised his eyebrows, his earphones still in.

"It's a public-opinion campaign to establish the righteous cause most essential to a holy war."

"A public-opinion campaign."

"It's a question aimed at those who resent or feel uncomfortable with killing all the heretics in Seoul. Behold: here is Satan's power. Can you bear the weight of responsibility for what might happen if we do as you say? Do you dare?"

"But some people won't believe it. They'll say it's AI-generated or whatever."

Rather than being bothered by Se-jun's biting observation, Na-in smiled as though delighted.

"Then let the cordon fall."

"What?"

"If most people have submitted to Satan's power, then this country deserves to be brought to an end. Evacuate refugees? Quarantine them? Only when the weak, shallow nonsense they advocated spreads those satanic demons across the entire Korean Peninsula will they truly understand how cowardly and insignificant they were."

"Wow..."

I shuffled my ass over, edging closer to Hamza. Suddenly forced into the shape of someone squeezed in a hydraulic press, Hamza had to stretch himself vertically.

"Je-min, I think I'm going to get squashed."

"I'll give you a spoonful of Spam this time. Hang in there."

This Shin Na-in bastard was a complete fucking lunatic. Unlike me, happy at the prospect of mages fighting mages, his reckless optimism—fine if we stopped them, fine if they broke through—was hard to understand.

Meanwhile, the government's major statement was still going.

["Despite the Armed Forces' valiant efforts, however, military casualties over the past three months have exceeded thirteen thousand. These soldiers understand the threat posed by these monsters better than anyone, and they are effectively our finest troops, desperately preventing breaches of the cordon. Though they report considerable psychological trauma and lasting effects, they remain dedicated defenders of our nation, striving to prevent the monsters from spreading into the rear. Unfortunately, as the current government repeatedly took a hard line against survivor groups remaining in Seoul, we could not prevent bloodshed."]

By this point, I understood why Na-in had called it a public-opinion campaign. Yeah. They were framing this damn well.

["The local survivor groups made the understandable decision to prioritize their individual survival over containment and infection control. As a result, however, they disobeyed military instructions, not only requesting a halt to the deployment of firepower but even engaging without hesitation in hostile acts against the Armed Forces... Evidence has even been detected that some survivor groups use human bait to lure monsters toward our defensive lines. They have almost no willingness to negotiate with the current government... A significant portion of the more than thirteen thousand military casualties are estimated to have resulted from operations conducted by local survivor groups in Seoul."]

The current president went a step further here and began appealing to emotion. It was the old-fashioned, eighties-style sentiment of 'you should make the sacrifice,' but it was enough to work on the people outside the cordon, at least, who enjoyed safety thanks to those sacrifices.

["I understand the sense of betrayal the citizens of Seoul must feel. At the outset, the government was preoccupied with analyzing the cause and responding to the situation. We prevented information from being shared in the name of avoiding confusion. To prevent sudden traffic congestion and logistical disruption, we stopped Seoul citizens from attempting to evacuate and demanded that they remain isolated inside the cordon under the pretext of infection control. This is the original sin of the government and Armed Forces, indefensible under any circumstances."]

["However, despite our inadequate capabilities and exhaustion pushed to its limits, the current government and Armed Forces... fought with all their strength to maintain containment for approximately three months. By holding the first and second cordons, we secured the safety of the Korean Peninsula outside Seoul and northern Gyeonggi Province. The survival and safety of forty million citizens are the government's most important responsibility. Despite the citizens of Seoul and the many values Seoul represents, I had to make a utilitarian decision for the sake of the greater number."]

["I wish to apologize to the citizens of Seoul who cannot accept this decision and who force sacrifices upon our service members, even employing human bait to breach the cordon. Though we are divided in the face of tragedy, if any of you retain reason and a willingness to negotiate, please respond to communications from the ROK–U.S. Joint Command in Pyeongtaek."]

["Fellow citizens, this is a crisis unprecedented since our nation's founding. No one dared imagine that such a thing could happen. Even I, charged with confronting any crisis, was no exception. I stand before you as a guilty man. But I am a guilty man more passionately committed than anyone to stopping this disaster by any means necessary. Please grant the government and Armed Forces just one chance. Once again, I offer my apologies to those who will lose their families. I will bow in apology to our ancestors as I look upon a Republic of Korea that may collapse."]

["But I could not gamble the survival and safety of forty million citizens on saving innocent people who may be mixed in among the monsters. That is all."]

CLUNK, CLUNK.

As the volume faded, silence descended. With only the suspension rattling over speed bumps, Pastor Park Yo-han spoke bitterly.

"It's fear, more than responsibility."

"The soldiers at the first cordon were pretty vicious."

Replying to him, I recalled when the three of us had encountered teratomas. The soldiers had confidently formed a semicircular encirclement to annihilate a monster mimicking a little girl, unleashing their flamethrowers. There had definitely been innocent refugees mixed in there, too.

Even so, the soldiers at the first cordon had pulled their triggers without hesitation.

Why else would they have established rules of engagement that prohibited rescue and ordered anyone approaching to be shot?

Nothing in the journal we'd found in the abandoned hospital was wrong. Humanity could not win this fight. Because humans loved themselves far too much.

Monsters attacked by worming their way into the vulnerabilities of the human heart.

Amalgams disguised themselves as humans and slipped among them to defeat attempts to screen refugees. Predatory spines kept their hosts alive while searching for places to lie in ambush. Teratomas went so far as to mimic the appearance and cries of tiny babies, their single desire to live even neutralizing the ear branch's ability to read their minds.

Only those who had awakened magic had a chance to discern their true nature a little sooner and stand against them.

An enemy that horrifically violated and killed you if you tried to uphold noble yet fragile, shallow morality. That was a monster.

But not everyone possessed the qualities needed to become a mage. At least, the ethics and morality of twenty-first-century Korea had made it that way.

As long as the Republic of Korea believed it had to save even the innocent among the monsters, defeat was unavoidable, however much it raged and struggled. At least the mages gathered here had tacitly recognized that fact.

I looked around at the Supreme Mages and asked what they thought of the government's major statement.

"We must save them nonetheless. Our Lord risked his life to save a single lamb."

Pastor Park Yo-han steadied himself, his gaze growing firmer.

"Not everyone is good. No one deserves to die, but no one is guaranteed to live and be saved, either."

Hamza expressed a more cynical view than I'd expected.

"I don't know. If we can save them, we should. But we can't endanger everyone together just to do it..."

Se-jun propped his chin on his hand and groaned.

"Je-min, that perspective is wrong."

"..."

"Only the Lord can grant salvation. Once people kill them and send them before Him, it will be decided whether they are saved. The good do not fear judgment, and the wicked repent in the face of terror!"

Only Shin Na-in possessed unshakable conviction.

In a mad world, a madman's logic was the right answer. I didn't need to go mad along with him. Better to sneak a look at his answer sheet and change it however I pleased.

Before long, the back of the military truck was full of noisy debate as everyone aired their views. Rather than joining that pointless argument, I began a different investigation. Using the bandages and disinfecting supplies I'd brought, along with the bayonet from the ritual, I decided to put Hand Branch, Stage Two magic to work.

I'd brought my old K2 on this operation instead of the new AR-15, for a simple but compelling reason: to avoid being suspected or identified as a mage or mercenary because of a conspicuous firearm.

Now that we'd be fighting other mages, and given the need to remain wary of the powers the mages in Seoul possessed, it was best not to hand them any noticeable clues. A combat uniform, gas mask, and rain poncho wouldn't stand out much at the first cordon.

Accordingly, I used Hand Branch, Stage Two magic somewhere inconspicuous.

"So we should at least screen them to reduce the resistance from people in Seoul..."

"And will you take responsibility for any losses that causes?"

With their chatter in the background, I secretly pricked my left index finger with the bayonet. Using the bead of blood that welled up, I repeatedly wrote on the rubber inside my gas mask, rubbed it, and tested the effect.

The word I wrote inside was 'breathing.' I thought it might fix how hard the filter made it to breathe.

In the end, I found some consistent rules:

1. The broader a word's meaning, the weaker its effect. To produce the effect I want, I need to inscribe more characters and make it more specific.

2. However, making words with more meaning produce magical effects appears to require a higher stage of magical attainment. My current limit is about one word, or two characters.

3. When combining words such as purification, breathing, and freshness, only the word written with more blood takes effect. This might change as my attainment increases, but for now, only one works.

4. I think Tongue Branch, Stage One magic could strengthen the effect, but I didn't try because I was afraid it would hurt my tongue.

5. Though its effects persist and it feels somewhat like rune magic, the backlash is relatively mild. My arm merely tingles as though I've used it as a pillow for six hours, my fingers twitch, and I get occasional cramps.

Could it also have a different effect on an individual caster?

To test that, I borrowed Se-jun's gas mask and cast magic on it, but unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case. He had jumped at my suggestion, and now he whispered to me through the mask between huffing breaths.

"Je-min, how did it go?"

"You're still a man. Writing 'gender swap' on it didn't work."

"Damn it. Do I really have to reach Heart Branch, Stage Five for that?"

Hand Branch, Stage Two magic granted effects strictly to the object with blood on it. Just in case, at Se-jun's insistence, I tried writing 'pretty girl' on his hairy arm with blood from my left hand. Nothing changed.

"Se-jun, just live your life, would you? You were born a proud Korean man. What do you hate so much that you want to chop your dick off?"

"Fuck, I want to live by leeching off other people for a change, too."

This fucking guy.

I fought down the urge to join Na-in in looking at him with contempt. Right. Everyone wanted different things, didn't they?

At any rate, the limitations of Hand Branch, Stage Two were clear.

6. It has no effect on living creatures, especially humans. It must therefore be used to enhance or confer properties on nonintelligent, inanimate objects such as guns, gas masks, and clothing. It most closely resembles what is commonly known as enchantment magic, and seems somewhat consistent with the earlier speculation that the hand branch is related to alchemy.

Meanwhile, the air began to change. A burnt odor mingled with a sickening, bloody smell. With gray dust occasionally drifting in, Se-jun and I quietly straightened up. Hamza, who had been squashed flat, primly straightened his back as well, and the people talking fell silent one by one.

We were nearing the first cordon.

One thing had changed: the distinctive roar of shelling had stopped, leaving an even stranger, colder silence. For a moment I wondered whether everyone had been wiped out...

Fortunately, that wasn't the case. We could clearly hear soldiers' footsteps and the clatter of metal.

Then the truck stopped, and soldiers from the first cordon approached, completely concealed in CBRN protective suits and gas masks. They carried flamethrowers and drum-fed shotguns.

HUFF... HUFF...

With the distinctive breathing of gas masks pressing against our ears, a soldier wearing a squad leader's armband spoke.

"Your assistance as civilian Operators is needed to deliver an ultimatum and warning. I'll escort you to command."

* * *

March 23, 2028.

The government of the Republic of Korea revealed truths it had long concealed. The unrest in Seoul was not mere unrest, but a form of containment and a war against threatening monsters that had proliferated with the fog. Knowing the repercussions, the government and Armed Forces had accepted decline for the sake of the nation's immediate survival.

The entire world debated the information on the four identified species released by the Korean government. Even while questioning its authenticity, they could not deny its impact.

Humanity would never be able to return to the world before March 23.

Calling the unprecedented crisis known as the Seoul unrest a transnational biological catastrophe, the United Nations convened to organize worldwide support. Discussions ranged from nuclear strikes in the event of a cordon breach to proposals for deploying volunteer forces and UN troops.

Amid this situation, the government presented the local survivor groups in Seoul with an ultimatum and a final negotiation proposal. More precisely, it was the same collection of measures they had been passing off as negotiation proposals all along.

- Commence support through aerial resupply, despite the risks.

- Provide regular supplies via unmanned drones or vehicles once underground routes have been secured.

- Cease shelling areas inhabited by local survivor groups if they disclose their coordinates.

- Survive locally until Seoul is recovered and retaken.

And with us mages gathered there, this was the response that returned through command's radio, mingled with all manner of interference.

["... Hey... you... fucking morons..."]

Amid the loud interference, a voice so distorted that we couldn't tell whether it belonged to a woman or a man shouted:

["Let us get out!!!"]