Se-gun Declares War

Elliot had finished his report to Tetra Anax and was waiting for orders. He had already pulled strings with the police and military units, stationing a considerable force of human troops at Flex Medical. Even now, all manner of security construction was underway at headquarters.

Fireproof doors reminiscent of bank vaults were being installed throughout the building, infrared alarm systems fitted, and the ventilation systems overhauled so that gas and other agents could not be forced back through the ducts. Because the work was being done primarily during daylight hours, employee complaints poured in without end. But knowing that the bastard named Han Se-gun would challenge Tetra Anax while loaded with high explosives, Elliot needed the fortifications completed as soon as possible.

On top of that, a 30mm Oerlikon cannon had been mounted upside-down on the heliport, aimed at the ground. With that, any vehicle or monster approaching the Flex Medical building could be obliterated in an instant. They were still in the middle of turning the Flex Medical building into a fortress when, at last, the orders from Tetra Anax arrived.

"This is… hahaha. This is a masterpiece."

Elliot opened the orders that had arrived by mail and laughed with genuine delight. Tetra Anax, with its formidable precognition and mental manipulation, had prophesied in detail exactly when events would unfold. On July 5th, Chang-hyun and Jeong-ya, unable to endure the flood of tourists any longer, would finally abandon their seclusion in the mountains, and the subordinates of Jinma Argon would attempt contact with them. On July 21st, Han Se-gun's assault would place the entire vicinity of Flex Medical in danger.

The fact that specific dates had been provided left no doubt that Tetra Anax itself had personally foreseen these things. Yet the orders only stated that the threats needed to be stopped, which suggested that their futures were not entirely fixed. Of course, Elliot still wondered what kind of threat a lone human could possibly pose by charging in, but Tetra Anax had taken the matter with extreme seriousness, ordering heightened vigilance and the use of every available means to capture him.

"I really have to wonder where we could possibly lose to that human to warrant such timid commands. But Tetra Anax's orders are absolute. Inform the other Jinma as well. We will stop this attack."

"Will the other Jinma actually move?"

A subordinate asked the question. Elliot's expression twisted with irritation. When vampires took wounds, those wounds translated directly into VT loss, so every vampire was forced into caution for the sake of their own VT. And the ones who had reached the absolute peak of that caution were the so-called Jinma, always waiting for someone else to do the dirty work so they could scoop up the profits. The last Sarhyuk incident had proven it. The Jinma who had been circling for an opportunity had quietly slipped away the moment they realized Sarhyuk was far stronger than expected, leaving Elliot—who was not even a Jinma—to get kicked halfway across the landscape by the werebear's forepaw.

"Even if Tetra Anax headquarters gets blown sky-high this time, those bastards still have no reason to move, do they?"

When the subordinate put it that way, Elliot's eyebrow twitched. He had put up with the Jinma until now, but their laziness had become so disgusting he could barely stand to look at them. Whether they had lived in careless safety for too long, or whether they truly believed that even Tetra Anax's death would leave them unscathed, he could not say.

"Simple. Cut all their visas and prepare to put them on the wanted list. Can we use Mind Triggers?"

"The Oracles are all exhausted. The recent workload has been brutal."

A Mind Trigger was a form of brainwashing time bomb—information pre-loaded into a human's subconscious that would suddenly surface into awareness after a set period. It was an extremely high-difficulty technique, difficult to employ while the Oracles were already being run full-time. Without it, however, Elliot's plan could not proceed.

"If they refuse to protect Tetra Anax, they'll have no choice but to leave this country by illegal means! Let them prepare themselves! Don't tell me the Jinma are all going to turn tail and run just because they're afraid of one human!"

"Th-that kind of method is far too heavy-handed. There will be massive backlash."

"We've simply been too lenient ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠until now."

Elliot declared it flatly and rose to his feet. Still… just how did that Han Se-gun bastard intend to attack a place swarming with this many vampires?

On the desk of state broadcaster current-affairs reporter Seong Yeon-cheol sat a strange envelope with a motorcycle courier tag still attached.

"I'm telling you, I really know the guy. I saw him before when I was doing that undercover church report!"

"Sure, sure. And I was best friends with bin Laden."

Even when he spoke about the man recently identified as a terrorist—Han Se-gun—his colleagues refused to believe him. These days so many people claimed to have seen the terrorist that everyone had given up trying to sort the real sightings from the fakes. Young people these days were incomprehensible. In the old days, if someone committed a serious crime the entire nation would unite in hatred. Now there were even idiots who praised the bastards for how impressive they were.

There were lunatics who claimed that blowing up the casino had somehow been a noble strike against the nation's immoral gambling habits.

"Damn it. If someone blocks gambling fever twice, this country's bloodline will dry up."

Reporter Seong Yeon-cheol was still grumbling when he suddenly noticed the envelope sitting on his own desk.

"What's this?"

"Oh, a motorcycle courier came a little while ago and I signed for it. It kept sitting at your seat, so."

His neighbor, reporter Kim Gyu-seok, said it while dumping an overflowing ashtray into the trash can. Seong Yeon-cheol examined the envelope—no sender's address—and opened it with curiosity. Inside was a short letter and a camcorder memory stick. The moment he read the letter his mouth fell open.

"Wh-what the hell is this?!"

The letter had come directly from the very terrorist named Han Se-gun. He was demanding that Seong Yeon-cheol air the video on the memory stick completely unedited as a condition of the broadcast.

"Wh-what's going on?"

"Oh, look who it is—bin Laden's friend."

Seong Yeon-cheol made the joke at the colleague who had refused to believe him earlier, but he was in no mood for humor himself. A vicious criminal currently stirring up social chaos had sent something like this directly to him… even if they had only briefly crossed paths during the investigation of that cult.

"Hell of a connection to have, I guess."

He grumbled as he picked up a camcorder and inserted the memory stick. For a split second he worried it might be a bomb, but the stick seated properly.

"Wh-what is this?!"

The image on the small LCD screen showed Han Se-gun himself, shamelessly revealing his face. The resolution had been deliberately degraded so the exact features were hard to make out, but the full upper body was visible, which would be more than enough for image analysis ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to confirm his identity.

"…"

Seong Yeon-cheol listened to the young man called Han Se-gun speak and felt his mind go blank.

"There's no way we can air something like this!"

But if they did not air it, his own life would be in danger. The man had identified his exact desk and sent a motorcycle courier. If he wanted Seong dead, it would be as easy as eating cold rice.

Seong Yeon-cheol clutched his head. He had no choice but to show this to his colleagues, the section chief, and the director. What outcome was that Han Se-gun bastard hoping for by sending him this?

"That devil of a bastard!"

The green-haired young man who appeared on the television screen radiated a fierce, decadent beauty even through the low-resolution footage. He was spouting words so terrifying that no one would believe they were hearing a public broadcast news program.

The youth on the screen pointed a finger straight at the camera.

The image cut off after those outrageous words. The crime announcement broadcast over the public airwaves was so brazen that the news anchor who was supposed to continue the program simply lost the power of speech and kept staring at the monitor.

"Th-this… this is…"

The shockwave from the video spread almost instantly, setting the entire nation boiling.

"You son of a bitch!"

The Special Investigation Division was in an absolute uproar. Some of the older officers looked so enraged that people worried they might drop from cerebral hemorrhage. Criminals who announced their crimes beforehand were the stuff of old movies—yet here someone was actually doing it. How thoroughly did he have to look down on the police to pull a stunt like this?

"Still… knowing that bastard has bombs, the advance warning is almost a relief."

Detective Jo muttered it while pale as a sheet. There was no question that this Han Se-gun was the same man who had once been listed as a person of interest in an investigation by his senior, Detective Sim Gu-jin. Sim Gu-jin had died under mysterious circumstances back then. Perhaps that was connected to this bastard as well.

But what the hell had happened to him? When they had seen him before he had seemed like an ordinary student. The man on the screen now was completely off his rocker.

"Looks like one of those lunatics from a Tim Burton movie."

Regardless, the warning itself was almost certainly genuine. The police lit a fire under themselves, preparing for the announced terrorist attack while simultaneously investigating everyone connected to Flex Medical.

"Especially medical malpractice cases—look for anything like that!"

Superintendent Hwang Seok-yeong roared in a voice already raw and cracked.

"Whoa… so even among humans there are maniacs like that."

Wilhelm grumbled as he gathered up the documents he had dropped in shock. He had been so startled he had scattered every last page. Phantom, however, simply sat on the sofa watching the television and let out a long sigh.

"Truly an impressive bastard."

"Guinness World Record material for gall. If his guts are swollen that far outside his body, it might actually be worth watching."

Wilhelm dismissed Se-gun lightly because he still underestimated him. Phantom could not laugh it off so easily. He had seen exactly how vicious and how completely insane the human called Se-gun could be. The reason Se-gun had announced the crime so directly was to provoke Tetra Anax so thoroughly that they would be unable to avoid the confrontation. Besides, any human with a functioning brain would refuse to remain in the building on the day of a bomb threat and die for no reason. The police, for their part, would naturally only maintain an outer perimeter as a precaution. In short, the announcement would minimize human casualties.

"He went about it this way because he wants to keep human casualties to a minimum. If Tetra Anax's prophecies are going to expose every one of his action patterns anyway, then he might as well leave a spectacular warning and give the humans time to prepare."

Phantom muttered it and sighed again. Wilhelm stared at his master in open surprise. Phantom might have a decent personality, but his evaluations of others were objective to the point of being extremely stingy. For a mere human to receive that kind of praise!

"Urgh."

"What's wrong?"

"Master. Why on earth are you taking that human's side? A vampire hunter is our enemy! The same goes for that Silvester. Even if he's opposing Tetra Anax, the enemy of my enemy is not automatically a friend. Wouldn't it be better to just kill them outright?"

Wilhelm pressed the point, but they had already had this conversation several times.

"Tetra Anax possesses mental domination and precognition… so a single powerful entity is far less useful than a number of merely decent ones. I told you this before, didn't I? That Elliot fellow only has a VT of 140,000, yet in a one-on-one duel he could match most Jinma. Precognitive ability is the single most outstanding power across every clan."

To defeat an opponent who could read your every move, the only method was to create a checkmate so absolute that even knowing it was coming would not save them. No matter how exceptional a Jinma's abilities might be, cornering a powerful vampire with 140,000 VT into a true checkmate was no easy task.

In the end, the way to counter Tetra Anax's terrifying power was quantity over quality. The more uncertain variables multiplied, the lower the accuracy of Tetra Anax's prophecies would inevitably fall.

"Then that bastard is definitely going to die. He's doing everything alone."

Wilhelm muttered it with more than a little malice in his tone. Phantom looked at him, then clapped his hands with a sudden realization.

"Are you jealous right now?"

"Huh? Why would I be jealous?"

"Because I'm rating Se-gun higher than you."

Wilhelm flinched, then shook his head vigorously from side to side. If his hair had been a little longer he would have looked exactly like a Marlon doll; the neat blond strands swayed left and right.

"…Master, you really do see me as a child."

"Well, you do look like one."

"What are you talking about?! If I were still human I would already be old enough to have great-grandchildren!"

"…I can't picture it."

Phantom muttered that and picked up the Beast Double. Ever since the ordeal with Sarhyuk, he had fashioned a dedicated bandolier for the Beast Double and carried it with him at all times.

"By the way, tomorrow is the full moon, isn't it?"

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason. When the moon reaches fullness, lycanthropes revive. Sarhyuk should be coming back to life soon, so I thought I might try tracking his location."

As he spoke, Phantom pulled the massive cylinder of the Beast Double free and spun it with his hand. The cylinder whirled at high speed with a smooth rattle of bearings.

"Master. Don't tell me you're going on patrol?"

"That's right."

Click.

Phantom holstered the gun again and walked out dressed in his dress shirt and waistcoat. Wilhelm hurried to block his path in alarm.

"It's dangerous. That Sarhyuk bastard's estimated VT is over a million."

"Well. If I use Crimson Glow, it should be fine, shouldn't it?"

"What if it rains?"

"If it rains, I'll just run. It's a good thing you never lived as a human. If you'd gotten married as a human you would have been the type to make your whole family miserable."

Phantom teased the nagging Wilhelm that way and stepped outside.

"That insolent bastard!"

Hecate glared at the magpie perched on the windowsill with an intensity that suggested she wanted to tear it apart. After losing most of her clan members upon coming to Korea, she was well aware that she could do nothing without Tetra ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Anax's protection. But to threaten a Jinma into providing security for Flex Medical headquarters—that was truly without precedent.

"Then I'll take it that the message has been properly delivered and be on my way."

The magpie, which was not even a myna bird, spoke human language with practiced ease before reverting to an ordinary, featureless magpie. Apparently startled at how close it had gotten to a human, it immediately kicked off the window frame and soared into the sky.

"…I truly cannot understand it. How did things come to this?"

Hecate felt her insides twist, but she knew she had no choice but to obey. That Elliot fellow was quite capable. Not only her—every other Jinma would be forced to follow his unilateral ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠decisions as well.

"Though the only ones who might refuse are Phantom and the Messiah, I suppose."

She sighed and sank onto the old sofa. This cozy bar, whose entire clan had been slaughtered in an attack by Juyda, had remained empty afterward because of the grim rumors surrounding it, and so it continued to serve as her hideout.

"Hmph. Fine. Then let's have a look at that adorable little vampire hunter."

She picked up the whiskey bottle on the table and poured a glass.

A massive man was walking straight down the middle of the road. His eyes held nothing but madness; not a single glimmer of reason remained. He walked as if the surrounding world did not exist. In truth, his body was in a semi-fluid state that passed through other matter, so nothing could obstruct him even as he staggered along like a lunatic.

"Aaaahhh…"

The man muttering like a developmentally disabled child was none other than Sarhyuk, who had inherited the blood of Jinma Juyda. But after obtaining Zein's blood and forcing a reckless teleport, he had become a complete wreck.

Reconstructing the brain during spatial transfer was the single most critical element of every form of teleportation. Just because the cells were identical, just because the tissue was identical—did that make it the same brain? Even if the mass and composition were identical, was it the same "existence"? The only one who might have answered that question was Zein himself, the one who had performed the teleportation. And it was Sarhyuk who had killed him.

As the price, Sarhyuk now drifted like a ghost, straddling the boundary between half-reality and half-unreality.

"Kh."

Then Sarhyuk stopped dead, as if he had snagged on something. A full moon hung in the sky. Yellowed and swollen from the city's pollution, the moon floated high overhead. Sarhyuk's eyes went wide; he stared at it in wonder like a child seeing the moon for the first time.

"Ahh!"

At the same moment, reason returned to his pupils. The neural pathways in his brain, which vampire regeneration alone had been unable to fully restore, recovered under the fully activated power of a lycanthrope.

"Urgh. Wh-what happened to me?"

Barely recovering his senses, Sarhyuk examined his body. His clothes were in tatters and his wristwatch was nowhere to be found. Searching his pockets turned up nothing at all.

"Hmm. Side effects of the teleport after all. I really ought to thank Grekto for this."

Sarhyuk clicked his tongue as he recalled Grekto, the one who had turned him into a werebear. He had nearly been annihilated just like that. After all the effort of becoming a Jinma, to vanish so pointlessly… he would have to be more careful when teleporting from now on. If he had simply wandered the boundary between reality and illusion like a ghost until he disappeared, all those precious vampiric factors would have been lost. A body exceeding a million VT could fairly be called a crystallization of vampire history itself.

"Hahahaha. Nearly spilled some valuable blood there."

He looked around. He seemed to have left Seoul; few high-rises were visible along the quiet alley. An outdoor beer-hall patio of the kind common in residential neighborhoods came into view. Places like this had sprung up everywhere during the World Cup years, and people who still hadn't forgotten the fun of those days had set up outdoor seating and a television outside the shop.

The strong smell of smoked chicken filled the air. The ground was still damp from a recent shower, yet two people—a man and a woman—were sitting outside, so the little alley beer hall must have been doing decent business.

"Hmph."

Sarhyuk clicked his tongue at the man and woman staring openly at him. Tetra Anax had apparently put out a wanted notice for him. Well, it wasn't as if they were pinning a false crime on him, so he couldn't exactly claim injustice—but Tetra Anax's habit of using humans for attacks truly pissed him off.

"Kyaaaah! S-Seong-gyu, that man!"

"Ah… y-yeah."

The man shot the woman a look of pure panic. If the guy was a terrorist, then he was a terrorist—blabbing about it right in front of him had just put their lives in danger. The man's eyes burned with resentment toward her.

"Living up to expectations is one of my charms, you know."

Sarhyuk grinned and lunged, seizing the man's head in one hand and hoisting him high into the air.

"Kyaaaaah!"

"Shut up!"

He gave the woman's stomach a light kick and sank his teeth into the man's throat. Then, with tremendous suction, he drained the blood in a single rush.

"U-uwaaaagh!"

The other customers inside the beer hall screamed in terror. Sarhyuk simply extended his claws and swept them through the glass window.