Chapter 81 - Joining the Cordon

We Supreme Mages, Go Ryeo-ha, and the five soldiers landed on a stretch of the Han River bank shrouded in thick fog. As soon as we disembarked, we put our gas masks back on, pulled up the hoods of our ponchos, and checked our weapons. For a while, the air filled with forceful breathing as everyone checked their mask filters at once.

All of this took barely more than ten seconds. Putting on a gas mask and checking it in one swift sequence had become a basic life skill for civilians in the Republic of Korea in 2028.

As we shouldered our packs afterward, the pastor approached the radio soldier and asked,

"You there. Soldier. Why get off in Guri? We could go farther."

The radio soldier looked irritated at that. Apparently, the stress of this extreme situation had him on the verge of snapping. Thinking things might turn ugly, I took a step toward them.

Just then, the soldier spotted the cross necklace hanging inside the pastor's poncho. His expression twisted oddly, and he sighed.

"They say there's an offensive underway."

Beneath his camouflage paint, the radio soldier swallowed fear wrapped in exhaustion and irritation as he spoke. In other words, he didn't want to explain any further. The pastor read the countless emotions in his voice and didn't press him.

The other soldiers, silent though they were, seemed little different. As soon as they left the boats, they damaged the motors, kicking them irritably.

Their attitude couldn't help but hurt me, too. Apparently, they thought of us as dead weight. However hard they tried to rein in their emotions, even though we were their mission objective, it was obvious they thought we'd be useless in these extreme conditions.

I sneered inwardly at their behavior. Mere non-mage civilians, daring to look down on us Supreme Mages when every one of us was a mage?

I turned my head and clicked my tongue, thinking of the road and city streets that must lie atop the gentle rise beyond the riverbank, hidden in dense fog. Just then, Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun approached, having noticed the strange mood.

"Je-min, I don't need to tell you what the soldiers are thinking, do I?"

"Ugh. Just a little while ago, we were calling each other comrades and high-fiving."

"It's because their lives are on the line."

Once Na-in and Se-jun joined me, the pastor and Hamza also approached, frowning at the soldiers' distant attitude. Go Ryeo-ha glanced between us and the soldiers, her eyes crinkling in a sly smile as she trotted along behind the pastor.

"Prickly bunch. Still, Seoul is a harsh place for fellows who aren't mages and don't have steadfast faith."

"I think staying beside our Aphorism... our Supreme Mages would be safest."

"What's wrong with everyone? Aren't they acting like soldiers? They're actually much kinder and more polite than I'd heard!"

Everyone quietly shut up at Ryeo-ha's cheerful remark. Because we knew.

To a person from Seoul, soldiers were simply enemies. Unable to readily distinguish monsters from innocent people, the soldiers had shot civilians dead whenever they saw them.

Science and technology, along with thorough testing, could distinguish them, but considering the time and expense involved, simply shooting them was far more economical. Time was probably the biggest issue. The infection spread rapidly; giving every individual a CT scan and checking the results to ensure no innocent person was left behind was practically the same as abandoning the quarantine cordon.

But to Ryeo-ha, who had been trapped inside that quarantine, soldiers who merely acted irritated would seem incredibly decent.

At a loss for words, I merely smacked my lips and shrugged.

"These things should be resolved through dialogue. Let's go."

As the public face of the Supreme Mages, I went to persuade the soldiers.

The radio soldier was giving the others instructions and hand signals when he noticed me approaching and immediately frowned. He held a gas mask in his left hand. As the other soldiers took out their masks and put them on, he asked curtly,

"Civilian Operators. If you have something to say, please keep it short and quick."

"How long are they keeping the route open?"

"One hour. In one hour, chemical shells will be dropped on the outskirts of Guri."

Right, they'd said they would start using chemical shells and white phosphorus incendiaries indiscriminately once the seasonal winds shifted. Apparently, they were doing just that.

CLACK.

I fiddled with my gun for no particular reason and let out a short breath.

"If you want to get through in an hour, trust us and follow our lead for a little while."

"Hah... Do you think we're pushovers because we're being respectful?"

That was what I wanted to say. What the hell gave these ordinary non-mage bastards outside Seoul the confidence to stand up to mages like this?

They clearly weren't ordinary soldiers—they looked like special forces. Did they think decades of grueling effort and training could stop magic? Did they feel that magic had cheaply stolen a march on their decades of life?

How outdated. The age of pathetic effort, relying solely on innate talent and diligence, was over. This was the age of equivalent exchange: offering pain to gain magic.

I stared at the soldiers, then had no choice but to unveil the secret finishing move I'd only contemplated until now.

"Listen, soldier guys. I know you're having a rough time. That's why I'm saying we should work together properly and get out."

"Civilian Operator. Whatever confidence you may have, we are trained professionals. In a situation like this, you must follow our instructions to get out alive. Compared to you, we—"

I pulled up my gas mask to expose my mouth, opened it slightly, and stuck out my tongue. Seeing how ragged it was from all the biting, the soldier's eyes showed a faint flicker of unease mixed with a what-do-you-want-me-to-do-about-it irritation.

With my tongue still out, I said,

"I can use magic to make your desires explode."

"... So you're threatening us?"

"Let's clean up our language instead of using violent terms like 'threat.' It's a request for involuntary consent."

Upright alteration-type Tongue Branch, Stage Two.

The most vicious, terrifying way to use an explosion of desire against humans without harming their lives.

"Quietly give me your involuntary consent before I make your lust explode and get you all tangled up with each other."

Everyone could surely tell how noble and virtuous I, Baek Je-min, was from the fact that I hadn't used it this way.

* * *

Once the hierarchy was established, the Supreme Mages and the soldiers traveled at tremendous speed. Even dense fog limiting visibility to less than fifty meters was useless against mages.

We had Hamza, who assessed danger with [Angel's Intuition]; Shin Na-in, whose ear-branch magic could detect even the numbers and types of monsters; and Go Ryeo-ha, who could draw out even ambushing monsters with [spirit sight].

That wasn't all. Archmage Baek Je-min and Lee Se-jun—who would be the perfect teammate if we reformatted his personality—provided the actual combat strength.

The packs of monsters that noticed us and charged were nothing more than sacrificial presentation materials, letting us demonstrate without reservation the tactics and formations we'd honed in Seoul.

The soldiers advanced, watching every direction, with the Supreme Mages and Ryeo-ha tucked among them. First, Hamza raised his left hand. Na-in, wearing his headset, paused briefly and delivered a terse report.

"Five heads. Two spines."

As soon as I heard that, I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Target, monster, kill, five minutes, route.

The dense fog swirled and parted, and patches clear of even a single particle revealed red footprints sharply. I aimed at the red footprints with the longest strides, the ones approaching fastest.

I'd leave the Amalgams to the other Supreme Mages. Predatory spines were more dangerous, with their bizarre maneuvers, agile movements, and even some ability to fool precognition.

Following my assessment of the threats, Na-in's muzzle naturally swung elsewhere. Two out of ten. Na-in and I were the first to confront the danger.

BANG!

The bolt moved back, ejecting the casing that had sent its bullet flying.

BANG-BANG!

Each pull of the trigger brought recoil that pressed against my shoulder and collarbone. A skull that had once belonged to a human burst with a pop. Dozens of pairs of rib-legs, covered in haphazard growths like osteosarcomas, writhed and fell still.

The two fastest sets of approaching red footprints vanished. While I blew apart two predatory spines with headshots, Na-in focused on aiming at targets and announcing threats rather than killing them.

"Three this way! Two are circling!"

On the riverside road, the only cover consisted of roadside trees, trees planted to create parkland, and thick, thick fog. Within this natural cover, the Amalgams seemed to have learned tactics for fighting humans even in the fog, an environment unfavorable to them.

At some point, the red footprints I was watching split and scattered to surround us. These masses of faces, festooned with human bodies, had fully learned how to deal with infantry carrying guns.

I aimed at the red footprints taking the widest circling route—at the little Amalgams racing through the fog with sobbing moans. I pulled the trigger toward the monster's voice faintly mumbling for someone to save it.

BANG-BANG! BANG!

"Soldiers, get a grip!"

That was when Pastor Park Yo-han roared through his gas mask and pointed his muzzle into the sky.

BANG!

"Islam Boy, point wherever you can and check for danger! Na-in, help Je-min shoot the ones circling! Se-jun and Ryeo-ha, knock back anything getting close! The soldiers and I will pour bullets wherever Islam Boy points!"

The pastor's judgment settled the soldiers' agitation at confronting conditions near Seoul, inside the cordon. Whatever their failings, they were still special forces. Ordinary people or conscripts would have broken down completely here, but as befitted a five-man team that had infiltrated Seoul, their judgment and improvisation were swift.

"Follow his instructions. Establish a curtain of fire!"

Guns were humanity's greatest power and its curse. Knowing that even a single gunshot would summon more monsters, we had to keep moving and fighting without pause.

Hamza in particular, realizing how many lives rested on his shoulders, began retching. Crushed by the pressure and deathly pale, he pointed here and there.

"Th-this way!"

"Fire!"

When the pastor gestured toward the place Hamza indicated, the soldiers formed up and unleashed a barrage together.

But everyone could see a single mass of shadow splitting apart and scattering beyond the dense fog. What the giant Amalgam had shown us at Suwon Station long ago was being reproduced with greater precision.

Na-in and I took on the Amalgams that split and circled wide to surround us, along with the predatory spines hopping through the treetops.

BANG, BANG-BANG-BANG...

I shot the most dangerous predatory spines dead.

BANG-BANG-BANG!

Na-in shot down the circling Amalgams I hadn't managed to deal with, but even so, we couldn't stop all the monsters pouring in from every direction. The Amalgams split again and again, until it became difficult to distinguish them by appearance at all.

Civilians began running out of the fog, crying for help.

"Please save us!"

"S-soldiers! Please... don't shoot!"

Visibility was under fifty meters. The people emerging through the dense fog, pleading for their lives with tears streaming down their faces, looked human to anyone.

There were women in their twenties, men in their thirties, and even children in their early teens, their faces frozen in panic or sobbing with tears, snot, and drool running down them. Each desperately raised both hands, waving ragged garments and stained shirts.

As they crawled clumsily toward us, weeping, they were the very image of humans gripped by terror.

Even the soldiers, who had been blasting away recklessly until moments ago, flinched at the sight and unconsciously took their index fingers off their triggers. Only Na-in and I could aim at the civilians without hesitation.

"They're monsters! Shoot!"

If bullets struck their bodies instead of their heads, there was no way to distinguish real humans from monsters. Amalgam fluid was only in their heads. Their bodies bled, so I shot them in the head to end their suffering, only to see the Amalgams' distinctive pus-like fluid burst out.

Without magic, it was impossible to tell them apart in the field.

Because of that, as time passed, even the hesitant soldiers became busy screaming and shooting down anything that approached.

Trained warriors though they were, it was hard to endure conditions inside the cordon, where monsters disguised as civilians screamed with human faces and voices and moaned even as they died.

"Hah, haaah, hah."

The soldiers were tiring rapidly, faster than we were. But as though sensing that exhaustion meant death, they began to rely on the pastor more and more naturally.

Leading them, the pastor shouted,

"Keep moving! Hurry!"

As the soldiers grew mentally exhausted, the strength of their curtain of fire began to drop sharply. It amounted to little more than an extra second to reload, or a trembling muzzle causing a tiny decline in accuracy, but against the swarming monsters, even that was fatal.

More monsters escaped the curtain of fire, and more split apart to form a ring around us, until Na-in and I could no longer cope alone. That was when Se-jun and Ryeo-ha stepped in.

BOOM!

A predatory spine dangling from a tree burst apart. Ryeo-ha smiled as she shook her hands, apparently trying to cool her Fire Marquis Hands. Then an invisible hand knocked the approaching monsters back with a thump.

Se-jun fired into our blind spots. Whenever he spotted a monster even Ryeo-ha had missed, he clenched his blood-covered right hand and swung. The sight was electrifying by any measure, but not even the soldiers had the attention to spare to marvel at him punching monsters apart.

Only after we ran like mad, fired like mad, and killed without rest did the fog thin. We were leaving Guri.

But knowing thinner fog wasn't entirely cause for celebration, I volunteered to bring up the rear.

"Pastor, Hamza, take the soldiers ahead toward the cordon. Stop the people at the cordon from shooting us."

"Je-min! I'm leaving it to you!"

"Urp... ugh..."

Dragging the retching Hamza along, the pastor led the soldiers out of the fog first. The soldiers cast complicated looks at us, but I ignored them.

Na-in, a shitter but a better detector than anyone and an excellent marksman, understood my intention first and stood beside me.

"Please focus on the predatory spines. I'll aim for the Amalgams' legs as much as I can."

Next came Se-jun, who approached after glancing around to gauge the mood.

"Trying to look cool?"

Finally, though I wasn't thrilled about it, Ryeo-ha joined us too. At least she was a definite asset in combat.

"Ahaha, it's been ages since I fought together with everyone!"

A fucking Christian fanatic. A hairy bastard who kept yammering about gender swapping or whatever. A crazy bitch.

Not one of them was someone I actually wanted as a teammate, but with the world hurtling toward its end, I couldn't be picky.

CLACK.

I changed magazines, loading a taped one I'd enchanted beforehand with Blood of the Right Hand.

CLICK.

Only the weight of this heavy lump of metal felt truly dependable. I drew a short, heavy breath and spoke.

"Supreme Mages."

April 25, 2028.

Expedition day eleven.

The end.

I shouldered my rifle and sighted through the red dot at the monsters racing through the fog, letting out a laugh.

"We hold them back and join the cordon."

Monsters.

The more humans they devoured, the more they learned about us.

And we, too, were learning about them in order to kill them.