Chapter 79 - Escape

Just before setting out, we plotted a rough escape route on the map Hamza had brought.

Using his doctrinal magic, [Angel's Intuition], Hamza distinguished the dangerous routes from the safe ones, marking the dangerous spots with a pen Go Ryeo-ha had on hand.

Our first destination would be Gwangnaru Station on Seoul Subway Line 5.

"If we head straight for the river, we'll end up down by Jamsil Bridge, too close to the monster in Lotte Tower. I think we'd be better off going this way to reach the riverbank."

Hamza frowned and let out a heavy breath. Go Ryeo-ha, who had been watching him with wide, attentive eyes, spoke up.

"Islamic doctrinal magic is convenient, isn't it? It looks incredibly useful, too."

"Are there no Islamic doctrinal mages inside Seoul?"

"Doctrinal mages usually get hunted down. I just assumed there must be some Islamic ones."

"I see. That's an easy enough reason to understand."

Ryeo-ha's answer made perfect sense.

No contrived excuses or anything. Just say mages hunted each other, and everything fell neatly into place.

Sure. That could happen.

That was when Hamza, who had been listening quietly, turned to Ryeo-ha in horror.

"Doctrinal mages get hunted?"

"Yes. Hmm. The various implements made through sorcery-type magic are called fetish objects, and the remains containing an alteration-type mage's magic fall under that classification too, you know? When a doctrinal mage dies, instead of a fetish object, they leave behind a sacred relic appropriate to their doctrine. After they die, their power inhabits the object that was closest to them."

"Oho."

Ryeo-ha even closed her eyes and puffed out her chest as she rattled off her explanation, clearly proud of herself. I could only listen with sparkling eyes.

They even thoughtfully threw in loot so you wouldn't feel shortchanged after going to all the trouble of killing someone?

I felt much of the hostility toward Seoul that I had been born with as someone from the provinces melt away. Seoul. Such a warm, generous place. Now I understood why people said anyone who wanted to achieve something for themselves should come to Seoul.

Hamza, however, seemed to feel a little differently.

HIC!

The other Supreme Mages frowned at Ryeo-ha as though they hadn't seen that coming at all.

The pastor and Shin Na-in—the Christian-asshole duo—reacted the most strongly and took the greatest offense.

"Killing a doctrinal mage creates a sacred relic? And that's why they hunt them? Good grief."

"Those minions of the devil...!"

The pastor took off his glasses and rubbed his eyelids, while Shin Na-in merely worked his lower lip between bloodshot-eyed glares.

"Na-in, don't people usually grit their teeth at times like this?"

"You can't get your dental health back, Je-min."

Even in the grip of absolute fury, Shin Na-in refused to grit his teeth out of concern for his dental health.

He folded his arms and glared daggers at Ryeo-ha, then clicked his tongue and turned back to the map.

"Let's discuss doctrinal mages and sacred relics later. It's as important as it is unpleasant, so I think it deserves our full attention. Escape should come first."

"Hmm..."

I was leaning toward continuing the discussion of doctrinal mages and sacred relics, but judging by the other Supreme Mages, that wasn't going to happen.

Even Lee Se-jun had dropped his usual fixation on turning into a girl and put on a distinctly serious expression.

Se-jun placed his index finger on the map, roughly tracing the route from Konkuk University's New Engineering Building to Gwangnaru Station, from there to the riverbank, and from the Han River's bank to the outskirts of Guri. Then he spoke.

"Before we leave, I think we should try contacting them to ask whether they have some means of getting us out, or whether we're supposed to reach the cordon on foot. Even with Ryeo-ha joining us and our ammunition replenished, it's a dangerous route. Besides, I'm concerned that traveling entirely on foot will expose us to other survivor groups."

He withdrew his finger, straightened up, and looked around at us.

His base inferiority complex and hideous inner self aside, that was a pretty reasonable point from a guy who had even considered a military career to repay his debt to the country for supporting him as a welfare recipient.

"There was a lot of noise when our supplies arrived. Given the limited firepower inside Seoul, guns and ammunition must be extremely important strategic resources. Anyone who could steal them would gain a huge boost in combat strength. Especially in our country—however poorly trained they may be, plenty of men know how to handle guns. Weapons could turn ordinary people into a meaningful fighting force, or greatly increase the strength of individual Seoul mages who armed themselves."

He rambled a little, but this was the gist of it.

The survivors inside Seoul were already at their breaking point. They had nothing to fall back on.

They would have noticed the airdrop, and they might decide to gamble.

Faced with a choice between getting shot dead and risking their lives to steal the guns, who could guarantee no group would choose the latter?

It was certainly a valid argument.

If the surviving Seoul mages risked their lives to attack us and loot our weapons and ammunition, even we might suffer losses. That was why Se-jun wanted to avoid traveling exclusively on foot.

For once, the pastor apparently felt Se-jun was right too, and nodded.

"Se-jun has a point. Let's contact them one more time this morning before we leave."

After the pastor made his decision, we hurried to finish our preparations.

The Supreme Mages packed their backpacks, redistributed the ammunition cans, and took four loaded magazines each.

Ryeo-ha hummed as she packed necessities, clothes, and several bizarre sorcery implements into her own backpack. Then she rose briskly and turned to us.

"I'm going to say goodbye to everyone. Don't leave without me, okay?"

"Of course. Explain things nice and gently so they don't get upset. Ah, it's lovely seeing you like this. You're just like my own daughter."

While the pastor gushed, Se-jun and I decided to go to the tenth-floor rooftop and try the radio again.

Several hours had passed since the shelling ended, so there was no interference in the transmission itself.

The [Best] enchantment I'd applied with Hand, Stage Two, [Blood of the Left Hand] was still in effect too.

Once I enchanted it, even the 999K—that tin-can radio barely a step above garbage—became as responsive as an old landline phone.

Thanks to that, Se-jun had no trouble communicating with the cordon.

"Seongnam, this is Konkuk. Request radio check. Over."

["Konkuk, this is Seongnam. Receiving. Signal three by three. Good reception. What is it?"]

"This is Konkuk. Are we to escape on foot?"

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

For some reason, the incoming signal sounded downright cheerful this time.

["This is Seongnam. Plans and equipment for the civilian Operators' extraction have already been prepared since our last contact. Stay on the Han River bank and listen carefully. We wish you a safe return. Over."]

CLICK.

Se-jun and I picked up the 999K again and looked at each other.

"Those army guys sound confident, huh?"

"At least they're not telling us to come without a plan. We should give it a shot."

After Se-jun and I returned to the Supreme Mages, we finalized our route.

As soon as Ryeo-ha came back looking cheerful, we shouldered our packs and checked our gas-mask straps again.

HOOO...

After checking the distinctive sound of our breathing through the gas masks, we blinked at Ryeo-ha as she pulled up her black mask.

"Ryeo-ha, will that mask be enough?"

"You'd be better off with a gas mask."

Her eyes widened. Then she smiled with her eyes as she tugged on her Fire Marquis Hands—the sorcery-made fetish gloves that launched heated steel balls.

"You soldier guys. I think I'll be safer than you, walking around dressed like that and claiming to be civilians."

And so the fully armed civilians and the lunatic college girl emerged from underground and stepped back into the damp fog.

But I couldn't shake an odd, lingering sense of unease and regret.

I subtly adjusted my stride to draw alongside Hamza, then whispered so only he could hear.

"Hamza. There's a place called Guui-dong Catholic Church near our route. Want to stop by?"

Through his gas-mask lenses, I saw his eyes blaze with a tangled mixture of contempt, anger, disgust, and irritation.

I hadn't seen him this furious since the pastor had asked whether India and Pakistan weren't basically the same.

"Je-min. Were you planning to go to Guui-dong Catholic Church and pick up any relics a doctrinal mage might have left behind?"

"No... Well... The church's God might bless us..."

"We don't have time to waste looking for that. And if you keep talking like that, the Christian-asshole pastor and Na-in really will punch you."

SMACK, SMACK, SMACK...

I smacked my lips for no particular reason, but conceded the point.

I could see exactly how our Christian-asshole duo would scold me.

It wouldn't be for farming a doctrinal mage's relics. No, I could see all too clearly how they'd lay into me for bothering with useless Catholic relics.

Sure enough, when I glanced around, Na-in was already glaring at me.

"Je-min. If you need the power of the Antichrist who calls himself Peter's successor and flaunts an inverted cross, or that of his followers, just say so. I'll give you a New Testament in the revised translation published by the Presbyterian Church of Korea."

"Forget it. I absolutely don't need it. Keep it."

And that was how we left Konkuk University.

We laboriously made our way out of the campus and back onto the road. By the time the fog thickened, reducing visibility to around fifty meters, the lettering on nearby signs was our only way of determining our location. The words on a fallen sign, stamped here and there with footprints, told us where we were.

Near the main road in front of Children's Grand Park.

We had left Konkuk University, but we were still only a few dozen steps from reentering the grounds. We needed to keep moving.

But before we could put the university fully behind us, everyone looked back. There should have been six sets of footsteps, but we could hear only five.

Ryeo-ha stood motionless, gazing toward the campus concealed by fog. We had thought she would be happier than anyone, but contrary to our expectations, she had sunk into a blank, subdued mood.

She kept clenching and unclenching both hands, drawing deep breaths and letting them out, simply standing there as though she wanted the fog to swallow her.

She was like a rock on the shore about to vanish beneath a fiercely surging tide.

Looking at her back, the pastor was the first to step forward.

Thanks to [Soteriological Conviction], our Pastor Park Yo-han still understood less than half of what had happened at Konkuk University.

Even so, he knew at least that a tragedy had occurred there. Wanting to comfort Ryeo-ha, he spoke gently.

"Ryeo-ha. I understand how you feel. You shared your lives with those people, and you've been protecting them all this time. Of course you're worried. But they're letting you go because they trust you. Come on, let's go. Staying here will only make it harder."

"Pastor..."

Na-in apparently believed Professor Nowon District's account was almost entirely correct.

Unable to bring himself to stop the pastor's coaxing, he looked back and forth between the pastor and Ryeo-ha with a pained groan. It was as though he had lost every hymn he usually hummed and every one of his silly little grins.

Se-jun continued scanning our surroundings as though he wasn't particularly interested, laying his index finger on the trigger.

Hamza merely stared, at a loss, not even thinking to moisten his parched lips.

Judging by this sorry lot, if I just stood by, we'd be stuck like this forever.

There was no helping it.

It was time for me, Baek Je-min, to step in.

"Teacher. Those people had a chance to try learning magic."

CLACK.

I rested the barrel of my custom AR-15 on my left hand and continued.

"Even the world's most celebrated gods divide heaven from hell and only offer people a chance. You're a college girl who hasn't even made it past her thirties. Stop moping because you couldn't do more, and let's just go."

Meanwhile, I congratulated myself on my sublime patience.

The red-pill version would have been, 'Hey, you fucking bitch, you killed them all. Cut the sentimental bullshit.' But I valued my life, so I fed her the refined blue-pill version instead.

Whatever my distaste for ordinary non-mages, I couldn't even farm Guui-dong Catholic Church. There was no way I was going to tolerate our magic teacher dragging things out with her emotional act.

Had my words worked?

A moment later, Ryeo-ha slowly turned to face us Supreme Mages. There was a strange laughter in her eyes.

"Yes. You're right. Ahaha... Hahaha! Mm-hmm. I'll do as you say, my junior!"

At last, she rejoined the group and began walking briskly.

Seeing her instantly perk up, clench her fists, and chatter away with renewed vigor, the pastor started gushing again. Ryeo-ha was a bomb, but she was a bomb that killed monsters well. Perhaps this little bit of chatter was fine.

STEP, STEP.

Walking over damp, broken asphalt, we began making our way out of Seoul, the homeland and holy land of mages.

That was when Na-in approached me and muttered.

"Je-min. One day you'll regret not listening to me and guiding Ryeo-ha toward repentance. You must have some inkling already. You've become the bomb squad."

"I already regret it, so shut up."

* * *

Strictly speaking, Ryeo-ha wasn't a Supreme Mage yet.

There were five Supreme Mages: me, Shin Na-in, Lee Se-jun, the pastor, and Hamza. To be precise, I supposed Ryeo-ha was more of a VIP.

But rather than someone we had to escort, she felt more like a... what was it? A hunting dog we could put straight to work in combat.

The instant Hamza sensed danger and raised his left hand to signal, Na-in also gave a more refined, concise signal.

Rather than speaking now, he tapped his neck with his index finger, then held up fingers to indicate the type and number of monsters.

A tap on the forehead meant the head—an Amalgam. A tap on the neck meant the spine—a predatory spine.

There was no need to make noise for the most common trash mobs.

This time, there were two predatory spines.

Normally, we would have opened our eyes wide and aimed our guns at them.

But Ryeo-ha noticed the signals, stopped dead, and began making strange gestures.

"Shh. Gunshots will bring more of them. Give me a moment."

She moved her fingers in waves, rolling steel balls between them. Now that I looked closely, she apparently carried a handful of them whenever she went exploring outside.

The steel balls rolling through her gloved hands—adorned with threads in the five directional colors and bizarre talismans, and overlaid with blood—gradually began to glow red.

As the balls turned blazing scarlet, a sound like a thin cane tapping a tiled floor began to ring out from the thick fog, within our fifty-meter range of visibility.

Ryeo-ha's hand moved.

"True Lord of Fire Virtue. By fire, subdue metal. Go."

POP!

The steel ball wasn't nearly as fast as a bullet. But its heat and speed were enough to disturb the fog slightly.

Through the scattering mist, I saw shattered bone fragments fly.

Still, that was only one shot.

A predatory spine leaped from the fog and charged, using human ribs as its legs.

That was when a heavy rush of air struck it in the face.

THUD!

Se-jun's swinging rifle stock sent it tumbling.

Normally, it would have retreated immediately to wait for an opening. Instead, bizarrely, it floated into the air all by itself. Its ribs clacked together as it violently lashed its tail stinger, but to no avail.

An invisible hand crushed its cervical vertebrae.

CRUNCH!

Crushed cervical vertebrae couldn't keep its neck attached to its spine. The severed monster dropped onto the asphalt.

But what surprised me wasn't Ryeo-ha's battle-honed skill.

"Se-jun. Why you?"

The other Supreme Mages apparently hadn't expected Se-jun to be the first to act either.

Even Na-in, who always closed his eyes and busied himself listening to hymns through his headset whenever he stood beside Se-jun, was looking at him this time.

What a surprise. Given all the sordid, ugly behavior Se-jun had displayed toward Ryeo-ha so far, this was something I had never expected to see.

He readjusted his grip on his rifle, his eyes reluctant but his manner suggesting it was only natural.

"Whew... Like it or not, I'm still a man. Once a man says he'll repay a debt, he has to. Ryeo-ha seems to know quite a lot, and the army is going to need her. Sure, our country's half ruined, but still."

He shouldered his rifle again, aimed into the fog, and continued.

"Refusing to repay someone because they've gone under isn't loyalty."

"Loyalty?"

"I'll do as much for my country as it did for me. That's all."

"Wow! Your name was Se-jun, right? Turns out you're a really cool guy!"

Ryeo-ha, closing her fists to gather her steel balls, looked at him with shining eyes too.

Certainly, if you set aside his personal aspirations, Se-jun was the very image of the ideal soldier the Republic of Korea wanted.

But why couldn't human beings be nothing but beautiful?

Na-in, Hamza, and I, who knew what went on in Se-jun's head, sighed and instinctively exchanged glances.

The pastor clicked his tongue but nodded as though he was moved.

"Se-jun just needs love. He's not rotten to the core. A boy like that ought to come to church."

"Pastor, don't go guaranteeing any loans for him."

Not rotten to the core? Was he sane?

Whatever the seed had been like, if its seed leaves had turned sickly yellow while growing, it was spoiled.

The pastor chuckled through his gas mask, looking deeply satisfied with Ryeo-ha's quiet monster disposal.

"Then let's leave the takedowns to Ryeo-ha for a while. The rest of us will keep moving with our guns ready. If we can avoid gunfire, that's best. Right?"

"Yes."

Thus, Ryeo-ha's addition allowed us to travel more safely.

Normally, a single bang from a gun would have brought a swarm down on us, but her heated steel balls and thrown stones proved especially effective.

Even when close combat seemed likely, I never deliberately stepped forward.

I wanted to watch how she responded and steal every skill I could from her. I also wanted to size up my chances of killing her if she ever swallowed the red pill and went berserk.

Observing her with that mindset taught me a great deal about her tactics.

"They're coming."

First.

Every few blocks, at set intervals, Ryeo-ha activated spirit sight to provoke the hostility of monsters lying in ambush and draw them toward her. She was clearly compensating for the limits of her detection abilities as a non-ear mage through destructive means, securing her safety that way.

At the same time, I became certain that none of the fetish objects she could make aided detection.

She was vulnerable to surprise attacks. However impressive her physical abilities with the heart branch, cutting off a leg or inflicting a critical wound in an ambush would clearly restrict her movements.

"True Lord of Fire Virtue. By fire, subdue metal. Go."

Second.

Those red gloves she used, Fire Marquis Hands, needed to warm up.

I called it warming up for simplicity, but more precisely, it was a process of controlling the fire energy within her body and borrowing a spirit's power.

Heating the steel balls with fire energy and drawing on a spirit's power seemed to give her excellent accuracy too.

On our journey to the riverbank near Gwangnaru Station, she launched steel balls and stones about fourteen times. Every single shot hit.

But the limitation was clear as well.

The warm-up took so long that once she fired, close combat was unavoidable.

So how did she handle that close combat?

"Ahaha, don't worry!"

Third.

Ryeo-ha was a normal alteration-type mage. A mage with two branches, in other words.

Her physical abilities enhanced by Heart, Stage Two, combined with her status as a Hand, Stage Four mage, made her naturally suited to fighting monsters at close quarters. Hand, Stage One, [Blood of the Right Hand] alone could deal them fatal blows. Add speed and strength, and she could simply beat the shit out of them.

But the most important part was something beyond Hand, Stage Two—something I suspected belonged to Hand, Stage Three or Stage Four.

The invisible hands.

They were close to a form of telekinesis. And perhaps because they were tied to the caster's own physical abilities, their grip wasn't anything like normal grip strength.

When Ryeo-ha kicked a charging monster, it crumpled on the spot. The instant she noticed another attacking from the side, an invisible hand caught it and tore it apart or crushed it.

Naturally, the limitations here were clear too.

Like real hands, the invisible hands became far less accurate when used outside the caster's field of vision.

Perhaps that was why, when monsters targeted her back or sides, she used them to knock the attackers away rather than attempting to grab them. I could infer as much from the way the charging monsters flopped over as though they'd been slapped.

Taken as a whole, Ryeo-ha was something close to an advance scout.

Instead of relying on the firepower of guns, she made relatively little noise. Instead of bullets, she used easily obtained resources like stones and steel balls to improve her staying power. And with spirit sight, she provoked ambushers, deliberately drawing them into close combat rather than avoiding engagements.

As befitted a Seoul mage, her tactics and magical development were optimized for surviving in Seoul's environment.

If Se-jun was a conventional melee damage dealer, Ryeo-ha looked useful as a scout who could operate with a degree of independence.

When we finally reached the riverbank near Gwangnaru Station and stopped to catch our breath, I shared these valuable findings only with Na-in, Se-jun, and Hamza.

I left Ryeo-ha in the pastor's care for a moment while he gushed about all her hard work.

"Well? What do you think of my powers of observation and judgment?"

"Je-min. Fuck, is that why you had your rifle slung over your shoulder the whole time?"

"Come on. To gather information, someone has to refrain from shooting. That's just how it works."

Se-jun's complaints, Hamza's grumbling, and Na-in's peculiar look aside, they all expressed admiration for my assessment itself.

"I'll give you points for doing more than just taking it easy."

"Hearing that from a guy who takes it easy on night watch kind of pisses me off, you know?"

"Je-min, those powers of observation truly befit a Supreme Mage."

"Hamza's the only one I can count on, as always."

I decided I'd gladly give Hamza, the brains of the Supreme Mages, a can of Spam from my private stash.

That was when Ryeo-ha and the pastor approached us as we chatted near the gently flowing river.

"So. Did they say to keep following the bank down this way?"

"They didn't really say anything beyond that."

"They're worried other survivors might approach. Looks like the army knows they're being listened in on too. Let's take a stroll along the river, then."

And so our group of fully armed civilians and one lunatic college girl began a stroll along the Han River bank.

Concrete bridges showed only pale outlines through the dense fog, while strange ripples occasionally disturbed the river's surface. As we calmly made our way through the cool, thoroughly damp weather, everyone seemed caught up in a curious mood.

Escape.

When we first entered Seoul, I'd thought at least one of us would die. Somehow, we had all survived.

Considering the dangers we'd faced so far, it was practically a miracle.

Once we got outside, people would look at us differently too, wouldn't they?

Around then, Se-jun whispered.

"I haven't seen a single Skin-jellyfish."

"Professor Nowon District kept one promise, at least."

"Je-min, there were two. Surely you don't have doubts about the professor's second payment, or think there was some other truth behind the Konkuk University survivor group?"

"Na-in. Why are you so shortsighted? We have to say we think it's bullshit and don't believe it if we want to squeeze something else out of him later. It really could be bullshit, too."

As befitted a crazy Christian-asshole fanatic, Na-in couldn't keep up with me, Baek Je-min, when it came to reaping practical, worldly benefits.

We chatted now and then, shooting approaching monsters dead with a few bangs, and enjoyed a rare therapeutic stroll. That was when we heard it.

PUTT-PUTT-PUTT-PUTT...

The sound of a motorized cultivator.

What was a cultivator doing in Seoul, a concrete graveyard where there couldn't possibly be a single field? But it really did sound like one.

At first I wondered whether I'd finally gone mad and pulled back my hood for no reason. But no.

Beyond the dense fog, an immensely powerful light was flashing as it approached. The mist diffused it, but couldn't extinguish it.

It was coming over the water.

BEEP-BEEP!

That was when we heard the distinctive transmission tone of a military radio.

As we walked along the bank, the flashing light went out, and at last we could make out clear shapes beyond the fog.

"Eleven fourteen. Located on the riverside walking path along Gangbyeonbuk-ro. Eleven fourteen. Located near Gangbyeonbuk-ro."

Three rubber boats and five soldiers.

Every one of them wore full combat gear and looked taut with tension. Pentagram necklaces, rosaries, Buddhist prayer beads, and the like hung all over the boats, clinking together so heavily they almost looked like chains.

The soldier speaking into the radio let out a brief sigh and turned to us.

"You're the civilian Operators, correct?"

"How did you know?"

He'd guessed who we were immediately, without any proper radio contact?

The soldier, his face thickly smeared with camouflage cream, looked us over as though we were a bunch of weirdos.

"We haven't identified any other survivors inside Seoul wearing military rain ponchos, combat uniforms, and gas masks while carrying firearms. Get aboard one at a time!"