Chapter 91 - A Chilling Truth

Walking through the fog was like wading into deep water. With each step, you felt the water rising, cold, damp pressure weighing on your neck and chest, until you unconsciously held your breath. It felt like pushing through muddy water clouded with pale sediment stirred up by loaches.

I moved my hand and switched on the low-output light mounted on the custom AR-15 I'd gotten for free. Every little action like this filled me with pride. The week or so I'd spent getting chewed out by Instructor Song Smith had paid off: I'd gotten much better at handling firearm attachments, things an ordinary rifleman would almost never use.

CLICK.

Our last expedition into Seoul had taught me that excessively bright lights were useless in fog. Turning up the brightness only showed you where the fog particles were flowing. Like a natural barrier, the fog prevented light from penetrating it. So this low-output light was meant to illuminate the ground at our feet and guard against possible ambushes. As the monsters' disgusting behavior grew more intelligent by the day, we needed something to draw our attention below our ankles, an area we tended to neglect.

Since we had to shoot everything that moved, I also took the weapon off safe.

CLICK.

Selector on full auto.

Once again, I took point. No one was better suited to it: I could respond with the most flexibility, and if necessary, stop the monsters with Eye, Stage Two. Detection and searching for enemies, however, involved a little division of labor.

The price of eye magic was unpleasant pain tormenting the eyes and brain. Its backlash was as brutal as its power, so the best approach was to use it strategically and carefully ration the total amount of pain I could endure. The job of detecting the monsters in this gray fog—their locations, types, and numbers—fell entirely to Shin Na-in. This was why I tolerated him despite his identity as a shit-taking, Christian-freak zealot.

Standing in the middle of the Supreme Mages' alteration-type trio, Na-in acted like human sonar, occasionally raising a hand to stop us. Whenever I heard the unusually loud flutter of his poncho behind me, Se-jun and I dropped to one knee as if on cue, watching every direction with our index fingers on our triggers. An ominous silence invariably followed, filled with sounds like wind passing through the gaping windows of an abandoned building, or an improperly shut door creaking in the wind, needlessly wearing out its hinges.

Only Na-in remained standing ramrod straight, like an antenna, singing a hymn in a faint voice.

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come~. Let earth receive her King~."

It was an uncanny stillness. The fog-submerged village lay beneath a silence heavier than that of a village drowned beneath a reservoir. People must have been living here only days ago, yet even the chirping insects had fallen silent.

What grated on my nerves was the babies' crying. Ear-splitting screams would have been far preferable. At some point, their cries had abruptly stopped. Even the sobbing woman's voice lost its shape in the fog and disappeared among the leaves of faintly swaying branches.

My breath circulated inside the rubber of my gas mask, mixing with sweat and settling over my face. Suppressing the urge to pull the trigger beneath my finger, I used Eye, Stage One to look ten seconds into the future. But no red footprints appeared, nor did the gently flowing fog clear. They wouldn't attack even ten seconds from now.

I considered strengthening Eye, Stage One with Tongue, Stage One, but held back for now. Na-in was far more efficient at searching and detection. Instead, I steeled myself by recalling how teratomas attacked.

Teratomas: monsters that imitated babies. They targeted humanity's instinct to protect children, luring people in with mental attacks delivered through plaintive cries and adorable appearances. That was what we Supreme Mages knew of their behavior. Judging by the cries echoing earlier, we must have entered their range...

GULP.

I swallowed dryly and let out a short breath.

HAAAH.

These monster bastards. Had they realized their mental attacks didn't work on us? Even now, Na-in remained engrossed in his hymn, singing the refrain.

"Let all the church arise and sing His praise~."

Meanwhile, I was glaring wide-eyed through my red-dot sight, following Instructor Song Smith's incessant insistence that I shoot with both eyes open. Hearing that made me seriously resentful. An obvious thought reared its head. Was this bastard Shin Na-in actually doing his job?

Then Na-in stopped singing and spoke quietly but clearly, at a volume only Se-jun and I could hear.

"It is a case similar to Tadpole Belly."

"Ear, Stage Three can tell that too?"

"Na-in, how do you know?"

Unable to contain ourselves, Se-jun and I asked without moving anything but our mouths. A heavy metallic sound followed.

CLACK.

Na-in shouldered his rifle and stared into the fog.

"If someone with functioning senses hears a hymn in an extreme environment like this, they should become emotionally unsettled, confused, or focus on it in the hope that help has come. But the woman we presumed was a survivor remained trapped in the same thoughts as before. Either the pain is too severe, or she's in a condition that makes maintaining her senses difficult. I've decided to regard her as effectively dead, or someone we need to kill."

"Couldn't she just not have heard you?"

"If she can't hear my hymn in a place this unpleasantly quiet, we should consider her condition equivalent to death."

Na-in's answer to my question was razor sharp. It made sense.

Se-jun and I stood back up, slowly sweeping our surroundings with our muzzles. Thanks to Na-in's judgment, we no longer needed to consider the slim possibility of rescuing a survivor. Find them all. Kill them all. With that resolve, we passed the irrigation channel and fields still being sown, then stepped onto a two-lane road.

A low guardrail and retaining wall lined one side of the narrow road. On the other, abandoned plastic greenhouses stood desolate, with no sign of people. There were also the piles of trash earmarked for illegal burning that you inevitably found in the countryside. Avoiding the trash, I approached the guardrail. Only then did I notice a small stream flowing peacefully between the retaining wall and the road. Just in case, I stood at the railing and examined it carefully, but it was ordinary water flowing over and wearing down gravel and pebbles.

Se-jun approached, aiming his machine gun this way and that.

"Je-min, did you find something?"

"No. Nothing much."

"Isn't finding nothing a problem?"

"True."

We rejoined Na-in.

You might be appalled by how lax we were acting, but having survived the nightmare realm of Seoul once, I found this village's atmosphere utterly bizarre. Monsters were definitely here. Specifically, the teratomas we knew so well. Apparently, there was also a monster with a human host, like Tadpole Belly. Yet Na-in, who should have been better at this kind of detection than anyone, was subtly screwing up. In fact, when we approached, he was backing away, swinging his muzzle toward the dimly visible mountains.

Visibility in the fog: 150 meters. We three Supreme Mages stood among the trees and mountains crowding around the road. Se-jun and I couldn't help readjusting our grips and asking flatly,

"Shithead, have your drugs worn off?"

"Where are the teratomas?"

I'd expected us to rush straight in and blast everything dead the moment we entered the fog, but instead, it was utterly silent. So silent that I was beginning to wonder whether the fog was simply a natural phenomenon rather than something spawned by monsters. But instead of getting annoyed at our mockery, Na-in urgently turned and lowered his muzzle.

"Inside a building."

Only then did I notice his eyes trembling with horror behind his gas-mask lenses.

"We're surrounded."

No further words were needed. I rolled my tongue inside my mouth. Eye, Stage One, enhanced by Tongue, Stage One.

Evasion, fatal injury, route, five minutes, me.

As the separate words combined on my tongue, my taste buds split. By the time that familiar bloody smell and metallic taste began filling the gaps between my teeth, I was already moving without hesitation toward the places where the fog cleared.

Moving my blood-soaked tongue, I led the Supreme Mages.

"I'll take point."

As I ran, Na-in followed; as Na-in followed, Se-jun strode after him. That was when the entire village, silent for so long, began wailing like a maternity ward.

WAAH, WAAH, WAAH...

Babies' cries echoed.

Today, finding a house with an intact gate, unbroken windows, straight walls, and both door panels still attached was unusually difficult. Worse, I could see strands of hair drifting beneath the dark shadows of abandoned houses. Having survived Seoul, we knew what they were without saying a word. Monsters.

At that moment, the mournfully crying babies all wailed in unison.

WAAH!

Time was up. We couldn't run any farther.

Without hesitation, I pulled my rifle close, rolling my tongue as I did.

Target, kill, monster, five minutes, route.

I felt my eyes heat up. The backlash had diminished greatly, but it hadn't vanished. With a sting like a little soapy water had gotten in my eyes, I stepped forward. My destination was an abandoned house.

I strode forward, my poncho fluttering. I deliberately avoided running to steady my breathing. Passing through the gate already flung open, I stopped before a door with broken hinges. Rather than shouldering my rifle, I kept it drawn close and raised the muzzle into my line of sight, aiming around the doorknob.

BANG-BANG!

As I pushed the fallen casings aside with my foot, I saw Na-in moving toward a window. Se-jun had his back to us, aiming his machine gun down the road. They were fucking bastards, and the fact that we worked so well together at times like this made it even more fucking annoying. Gritting my teeth, I kicked the door.

BAM!

The fog cleared. Red footprints littered the floor in a chaotic pattern. Beyond the broken door, I saw a two-year-old baby toddling toward me.

"Aboo..."

It waddled forward with plump cheeks and blinking, watery eyes, sucking its thumb like a pacifier.

I aimed my muzzle at the baby. In the future ten seconds from now, its red footprints stood right in front of my face.

BANG!

The baby's shell burst, sending a hideously tangled mass of teeth, eyeballs, and hair flying out.

I didn't pull the pin on a grenade. Not because I harbored the slightest hope, but because we needed to use this place immediately. Instead, I desperately recited what Instructor Song Smith had taught me, watching the red footprints dart around as the rising fog cleared, drawing boundaries between fog-filled and fog-free spaces.

When stepping forward, put your weight down heel first. I advanced in measured steps. When rounding a corner, take it wide while keeping as much of your body concealed as possible. I continued forward. Glass fragments and broken debris crunched beneath my combat boots as I grabbed a creaking doorknob.

Just as I was about to turn it, a hunch struck me. I turned the knob, flung the door open, and immediately let go. Then I pressed my back flat against the hallway wall. My backpack dug into me, but my field of view mattered more than the pain.

SPLAT!

Something sprang through the open doorway. A jumble of meaningless flesh wrapped in a baby's skin like a dumpling wrapper. The teratoma clung to the wall like minced meat, rolling pale eyeballs inside its wrinkled belly skin to stare at me. Once again, I aimed my rifle.

RAT-TAT-TAT!

As I pulled the trigger, a window shattered. Gunfire rained from every direction. Readjusting my stance, I moved into the living room, where teratomas shredded by bullets writhed as they died. Na-in swept the glass from the window frame with his barrel, acrid gunsmoke rising from it, then climbed through without hesitation.

No one said anything. Still, Na-in aimed his rifle out the window while I put mine on safe and dragged every remaining table and chair toward the frame. Se-jun, arriving last, tossed his hot machine gun onto the sofa, ripped off a door, and blocked the entry hallway with it. Everyone must have known instinctively that we didn't have enough obstacles for a barricade. At the same time, they must have realized this was the best we could do.

I loosened my sling again, adjusted my grip, switched back to full auto, and poked my tongue out slightly. I prepared Eye, Stage Two in case they broke through. If necessary, I'd unleash Eye, Stage Two [Cognitive Distortion] at 100%, enhanced with Tongue, Stage One.

The damp fog seeping through the gaps in our flimsy tower of chairs at the window began giving me goosebumps. But my eyes were busy watching familiar yet grotesque shapes lumbering toward us through the dense fog within a hundred meters. I even forgot to blink.

WAAH, WAAH, WAAH...

The babies' cries continued. As they drew closer, however, I began hearing groans buried beneath the wailing.

WHINE... WHIMPER...

Dogs' pained whimpers were buried beneath the babies' cries.

OINK, OINK!

An ill-tempered wild boar was struggling for breath. An antlered animal—some kind of deer, perhaps a water deer—had joined the procession too. The babies' cries were coming from those very animals.

WAAH, WAAH...

Where fur should have covered the animals' hides, human hair, teeth, eyes, and noses covered them instead, breathing. Clusters of tiny, webbed hands sprouted and flailed. Parasitism. The teratomas weren't using their animal hosts for reproduction. They were using them as carriers.

The host animals moved naturally to surround the house where we'd taken shelter. Some might call it intelligent, but I saw it as a parasite's instinct to find a comfortable habitat. Knowing they were helpless against firearms, the teratomas had borrowed the animals' bodies and sheer numbers. Perhaps this was how these monsters had always lived. Thinking of them as human-shaped horsehair worms or cordyceps made them feel a little more familiar.

Then I heard someone breathing through a gas mask behind me.

HAAAH.

A quick glance told me it was Se-jun. Passing through the filter seemed to make his breathing sound even rougher. After checking the ammunition belt's connection, he closed the cover again.

CLACK.

"So that's how they got through the cordon."

Exactly my thoughts.

His eyes wavering slightly, Na-in offered a suggestion too.

"Je-min, Se-jun. I think we should fortify this place with [Blood of the Right Hand] and hold out."

"Haaah..."

I could only sigh at his utterly ordinary suggestion. This was why I couldn't like Shin Na-in. With animal-hosted teratomas gathering by the second, he wanted us to fortify and hold out? If we were going to request support and wait desperately for fire support until sheer numbers crushed us, we should give up the Supreme Mages title.

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Shithead, what's the Supreme Mages' motto?"

It shall end before our faith breaks. Before fear subjugates us, we shall become fear.

Clicking my tongue, I spoke to Na-in, whose mindset still wasn't supreme despite being a deranged Christian fanatic.

"Change your mindset. We haven't been ambushed."

I briefly set down my rifle and drew my bayonet amid the increasingly savage cries of the approaching teratomas. Repeated cuts and scabs had already covered my right hand with lumpy scars, but with my left hand working hard as a magic staff, I couldn't let only the right rest.

SLICE!

I clenched my fist as if grasping the blood spurting out, then pressed my gas-mask filter to my bleeding knuckles, pretending to kiss them. Mmm, that disgusting, bloody smell. Proof that my magic was working. Smearing [Blood of the Right Hand] over my gas mask, I looked at a slightly repulsed Na-in.

"We don't need to go looking for them anymore."

The attack began the moment I raised my rifle again. As the whimpering animals charged, Se-jun's machine gun spat fire. While I'd been reassuring Na-in, Se-jun had mounted his machine gun on the window frame and pressed down on the barrel with his left hand. That alone suppressed all the recoil.

BRRRRRT!!!

Casings poured out as teratomas burst. The poor animals were torn apart alongside them, screaming, but I ignored it. Aiming toward the entrance, I shot the charging dogs dead and reassured myself. The human Baek Je-min had already grown up eating the screams of thousands upon thousands of chickens. If I shed a tear over these animals' chorus, the chickens charcoal-grilled in hellfire would have something to complain about.

RAT-TAT-TAT!

As casings rolled across the living-room floor, I shouted,

"Break out!"

I deliberately didn't use ear magic. I could already picture Na-in throwing a fit and telling me not to talk crazy. But I knew the magic words to persuade him.

"Perfect chance for martyrdom."

"!!!"

One member of the Supreme Mages' alteration-type trio began burning with passion. The ordinary fellow who had been thinking rationally and reasonably, so unlike himself, reawakened as a true Supreme Mage.

BANG-BANG, RAT-TAT-TAT!

As muzzle flashes drove back the fog, the man who had rediscovered his calling confessed through tears.

"Almighty Lord God, forgive my weakness."

Glancing over, I saw Na-in pulling the trigger with tears streaming behind the gas-mask lenses where horror had filled his eyes moments before. He grew more devout with every cycle of the bolt.

"I repent of my cowardly attempt to hide before the devil. Amen!"

Of course, there was also someone chatting as if he'd stepped out for a stroll, even while holding down his machine gun's recoil one-handed and blasting away. As ejected casings struck the floor, Se-jun voiced his concern over my swift intervention.

"Je-min, are you really driving him crazy again now that he's acting a little normal?"

"If Shin Na-in gets sane, he'll be a complete social butterfly: handsome, smart, a great shot, and considerate."

"Fuck that. Absolutely not!"

From that point on, our alteration-type trio displayed astonishing teamwork, pushing the monsters' offensive back instead. Se-jun ground them down with heavy firepower from the machine gun mounted on the window frame. Na-in covered his flanks and rear. And I, Baek Je-min, stepped toward the entrance, my gas mask coated with [Blood of the Right Hand] and my poncho's left sleeve fluttering.

The cut in my right hand, briefly numbed by adrenaline, was beginning to burn. The lingering pain in my left hand still throbbed. As those pains crossed my threshold, they met the timely backdrop of dense fog. And was that all?

Magic spanning four branches: Eye, Stage Three; Tongue, Stage Two; Ear, Stage One; Hand, Stage Two. A poncho strengthened with those society bastards' Sorcery-type knowledge. A sleek custom AR-15. Even the marksmanship I'd learned running around camp and getting chewed out by Instructor Song for over a week.

Well, then... With this much preparation, wasn't it natural to want to use it? If you'd learned and acquired something, shouldn't you put it to use? I didn't mind dying while pursuing magic. If only I could reach omnipotent power, I'd crawl into the fog before the nuclear bombs fell. The moment I hit my limits in pursuit of magic, I would die without regret!

At that moment, the three of us, who had clumsily pretended to be rational, became one again without a word.

We are madness against madness.

Absurdity against absurdity.

If hell has seeped in, then deeper still!

CLACK.

I raised my rifle. A parasitized animal—a damn dog—came charging with a whine.

BANG!

Its head broke open, tearing the attached teratomas free. The malignant tumors sprouting from its hide crawled along in imitation of human babies, then shifted their clumps of hair toward me.

"Ubub..."

BANG!

A casing fell and rolled as the monster collapsed. Still striding forward, I put my shooting training to use as always.

More importantly, if teratomas had overcome their limitations by parasitizing animals, I could turn that around and make them subject to those animals' desires. Stirring my tongue inside my mouth, I recited inwardly.

Upright Alteration-Type Tongue, Stage Two.

[Explosion of Desire] — desire for sleep.

POP!

The instant my taste buds split again, the charging animals began staggering and flailing. It was no use even when the parasitic teratomas inflicted pain and tried to forcibly manipulate their nerve signals.

WAAH...

While the teratomas continued crying like babies, their overworked hosts couldn't resist the magical drowsiness. One after another, they dropped or struggled merely to stay upright. Only then could Se-jun and Na-in come outside too.

RATTLE!

Se-jun changed his ammunition container as soon as he emerged. Covering him, Na-in aimed at the animals still standing.

BANG, BANG-BANG!

As the animals dropped, some of the teratomas tore free with wet ripping sounds. Naturally, animals with chunks of flesh forcibly ripped away couldn't survive. I aimed and pulled the trigger for the animals falling asleep even as they suffered from dangling bones and tendons, shooting the detached teratomas dead along with them.

Gunfire rang out incessantly. Muzzles heated red, gunsmoke scattered into the fog, and casings rolled across the cracked asphalt, lodging in its gaps as disgusting lumps of flesh burst apart. But apparently, we hadn't killed them all.

SQUEEEAL!

Turning toward the loud boar cry, I saw a mass of teratomas clinging to a single wild boar. Its tusks had swollen like osteosarcomas, and its entire face was covered in baby-imitating monsters, leaving its original eyes almost impossible to find.

BRRRRRT!!!

Se-jun's machine gun shredded it without hesitation. Half the animal was torn away, but the tiny webbed baby hands created by the teratomas linked together as if holding hands, forcibly stitching the wounds shut. In that state, the boar began charging with a howl. It limped, and at some point, the babies' cries grew louder than its piglike squeals. Before long, they weren't even cries anymore.

HEE-HEE... HAHA...

As it charged with the teratomas' laughter overlapping, Na-in immediately dragged Se-jun away and poured bullets into it. But neither Se-jun nor Na-in was their target.

"Je-min!"

Someone shouted urgently.

Yet at that moment, my mind was filled with nothing but exhilarating dopamine. Was this how a matador with a red cape felt before a bull? Even as a boar deformed beyond recognition beneath human teeth, hair, eyeballs, and pus charged toward me, my movements remained clear and precise. I dropped to my knees, raised my left arm like a shield—the sleeve stained with [Blood of the Right Hand]—and rested my rifle on it.

CLACK.

As metal clicked into place, the boar opened its tangled snout. Teratomas clung inside that maw too. Swelling across its tongue, palate, and teeth, they stared at me, grew innocent babies' faces, and reached out with adorable little hands. Human babies' cries harmonized inside the boar's mouth. Against that harmony, I pulled the trigger.

BANG!

As the boar began to fall, swollen tumors held its posture upright.

RAT-TAT-TAT!

Other teratomas swallowed the ones bursting under the bullets, giggling all the while.

RATATATATAT!!!

I wasn't the only one firing. Na-in had stopped protecting Se-jun to aim at the boar too, but it was useless against a monster with such overwhelming endurance.

The moment the recoil felt as though it would dislocate my shoulder, I bit my tongue without hesitation.

CRUNCH!

As sharp, stinging pain spread and tears fell, I filled them with rapture and recited.

Because I alone in this world am exalted, only my pain is absolute.

While I suffer, even time shall suffer.

Upright Alteration-Type Eye, Stage Two, [Cognitive Distortion].

100%.

The wind subsided. Sound sank away. Even the flowing fog hardened like bricks. Only I remained unaffected. With even the smoke rising from my muzzle moving leisurely, I rolled my stiff right arm in a full circle and stood. Then I switched my selector to semi-auto and changed magazines. Looking around afterward, I saw quite a spectacle.

Spent casings floated in midair like clouds in the sky, only much lower. I flicked one with my index finger. It changed direction and began moving slowly. If everything in the world was running at zero speed and I was running at normal speed, the casing I'd flicked would be moving at about one-tenth speed. This was it.

One by one, I picked up the floating casings and coated them with [Blood of the Right Hand]. Digging into the still-unclotted wound sent a sharp, throbbing pain tingling through my entire palm. Then, recalling the days when I'd played games flicking stones at each other, I flicked the bloody casings one after another. The casings that had been aimlessly floating toward the ground changed direction and drifted slowly onward. There were somewhat fewer than the dozens of bullets I'd fired, but merely having something moving alongside me unleashed a rush of dopamine. I couldn't stop laughing. This was why I wanted to crawl into Seoul, into the fog, even if it meant braving nuclear bombs and forcing my way through hordes of monsters.

Only after finishing my casing-flicking game did I look at the charging boar and the teratomas clinging to it. Within this slowed time, the human-imitating monsters seemed to have grasped the situation much faster than humans could. Their poorly functioning pale eyeballs and lumps of flesh sprouted like protrusions and flailed. Webbed baby hands began waving desperately, but ever so leisurely. I laughed, tears streaming from the gradually intensifying pain in my eyes, even as every kind of pain swept through my body.

With this... all the experience points were mine. I blinked, closing my eyes.

PA-PA-PA-PAK!!!

The sound of experience points rising reached me clearly. It was so sweet that setting it as my alarm could even turn me into a miracle-morning person. When I slowly opened my eyes, nothing remained but a little blood, blasted apart after being pierced by dozens of bloody casings.

I dropped to my knees right there. Of course, pain like needles continuously stabbing my shoulder and arm forced me to swallow my groans, but even those groans couldn't overcome my laughter. Then something heavy climbed onto my back. Irritation surged. That fucking Lee Se-jun, again?

"Se-jun, fuck, stop clinging to me..."

WAAH.

...

The back of my neck prickled instantly. Every bit of joy and rapture I'd felt vanished, replaced by the illusion that my heart had frozen solid. As my blood vessels seemed to flash-freeze, I was just about to bite my tongue again.

EEEEEE.

A sound seemed to pierce straight through my head. Sharp rather than clear; an eraser rather than something clean. A sound that seemed to forcibly scrub my brain. When it ended, the heavy pressure on my back was gone too. I hurriedly stood and turned, finding only a handful of black ash. I was standing there dazed, wondering what had happened, when they spoke.

"Ryeo-ha's enchantment definitely works."

"Tch. Isn't it useless if you don't let your guard down?"

Se-jun approached while pouring water from his canteen over his hot machine-gun barrel to cool it. Na-in came over after removing his magazine to check the remaining rounds.

"Did you see what happened?"

"One of the Hebrew letters on your back turned red. It seems to have a limited number of uses. The red probably symbolizes impurity."

Na-in seized the opportunity to evangelize. A teratoma had waited for an opening and climbed onto my back, and my +1 ancient-Hebrew-enchanted poncho had blocked it once, so I should come to church. The Lord truly existed and had just saved me, he said. My answer, of course, was firm.

"If God really wanted to save me, He wouldn't have sent me to the army."

"What does that mean?"

"On the day of my military physical, I prayed that I'd go to church if He got me an exemption, but it didn't work. Since that day, I haven't fully trusted Jesus."

Knowing He had no intention of recruiting a talent like Baek Je-min, why would I go to church?

While Na-in gave me an incredulous look, Se-jun surveyed our surroundings and clicked his tongue.

"The fog's clearing. But... feels like there's still something left, doesn't it?"

We looked over the monster corpses littering every direction, then naturally turned to Na-in.

"Let's go. Time to catch the last one."

Once, the elderly people living in this village would have spread mats beside the road, drunk soju, and played go-stop, even with a few worries on their minds. We looked down at the flower cards drifting along the babbling stream beyond the roadside guardrail, then walked on.

Once, the village dogs that barked at every visitor would have bounded around energetically, wagging their tails even while tethered. We looked at the empty collars and doghouses, then walked on.

Once, there must have been someone who believed that despite life's hardships, a better future would come if they survived to the end. We walked on past bloodstains, a broken baseball bat, and the traces of resistance that had ended in tragedy.

Once, while everyone else evacuated, there had been a woman forced to stay and endure, stroking her swollen belly as she awaited her child's birth.

"Hhk, no, no."

Before us stood a sobbing lump of flesh, clutching a belly that grotesquely swelled and contracted as though breathing.

Her human lips were already gone. The mutation was more devastating than Tadpole Belly's. No, it wasn't even a mutation. I knew it the moment I saw her. The lump of flesh didn't notice our arrival or the guns aimed at it. Her entire body had already collapsed, separated into teratomas, and scattered. Now, a colony made of teratomas, she was merely imitating her past pregnancy. A human consciousness trapped in a monster's body couldn't relinquish its human memories and was desperately imitating a human.

But what drew our attention was a fact more horrifying still. Each time the lump's belly rose and fell, something became clearly visible. A symbol that should have induced vomiting at first sight glittered ominously, stained blood-red. Se-jun even lowered his machine-gun muzzle without realizing it.

"Heart-branch magic script?"

A chilling realization swept over me. Na-in seemed to share it, turning his head sharply and murmuring,

"Je-min. Hasn't this happened before?"

Without a word, I raised my rifle. This time, it was my turn.

I pulled the trigger again and again. I heard the woman's anguished cries as she clutched her bursting flesh. Flailing, she gathered the scattering teratomas back into her embrace, her desperate screams to imitate the body she'd possessed as a human cutting through the thinning fog. This had to end. With only that thought in mind, I poured bullets into her without pause. As human screams degenerated into a monster's cries, the colony's grotesquely swollen belly hissed and expelled fog.

When I finally lowered my muzzle, the fog had completely cleared. Only the monster's corpse and blood remained. Instinctively, I sensed it: heat coursing through my heart. I'd learned heart magic. But the chilling truth I'd just realized was too immense for me to rejoice.

The hand magic seal we'd encountered beneath Suwon Station. And now, the heart magic seal we'd found in this village. Both had been discovered on monsters. Even the slow-witted Se-jun tilted his head as if something seemed wrong. Only Na-in and I looked at each other, keeping our mouths shut before this horrifying truth.

The monsters were learning about humans.

And they were trying to steal human magic.