Not Your Average Magical Boy
It was so gross!
"How do you find that...?"
"By looking inside. At the very essence of your ability."
Master closed his eyes. As he did, I felt a strange illusion, as if the phantom of another man was overlapping his body.
W-what was that? Feeling odd, I rubbed my eyes with both hands and shook my head. But nothing changed...
"As expected, your eyes are good. Very impressive."
"My eyes?"
"What kind of man did you see?"
"Umm..."
When Master opened his eyes, the man's phantom vanished in an instant. The encounter was so brief and blurry that it was impossible to pinpoint the details.
"He had some kind of band wrapped around his head... and was wearing a hanbok...? I think."
"You saw well."
Master's hand patted the crown of my head again. His touch had a way of making people feel good.
"A man who wielded illusions... and was called the King of Dokkaebi..."
"The King of Dokkaebi?"
"Bihyeongrang. All of my abilities come from him."
Bihyeongrang...?
Did that mean all the classes Awakened people had were actually historical figures or people from legends...?
My heart fluttered, feeling like I had uncovered a secret about abilities. I had never seen anything like this on the internet.
Then for me... was the Snow Girl I saw in the tower the one giving me my abilities? Was that why the skills she gave me had ranks, unlike the ones from General Nami?
It was mysterious, truly mysterious.
"Let us go. The time has come."
"Huh? Where? Whoa!"
Master took my hand and slowly began to walk. I was suddenly reduced to a child being dragged along, following behind him.
"Hoot, hoot."
"Whimper..."
Jeolmi flew slowly behind us, while Bombe walked along... before suddenly trembling in fear again, just like before.
"Huh...? Bombe, are you okay?"
I wanted to stop for a moment and check on Bombe, but Master's steps didn't falter, so I couldn't.
All I could do was turn my head slightly to look. Master wasn't even holding my hand tightly, yet I couldn't pull it away at all.
Bombe's eyes had changed to look just like mine did earlier. Even as she slowly followed, she was terrified, keeping her head bowed low.
"M-Master, Bombe is acting strange."
"She has good instincts..."
"Pardon? What do you mean...?"
As we pushed through the bushes, a clearing surrounded by trees appeared. In the center lay a flat, wide stone slab.
Master let go of my hand, clasped his hands behind his back, and calmly stared at the slab.
"She has good instincts..."
He simply looked at Bombe and repeated those words once more. Just as I was wondering what kind of training this was—
"Uh, uh...!"
A Gate appeared.
A black current swirled violently above the stone slab. It was unmistakably a Gate.
At the same time, Master's mana enveloped the area, feeling as though it was isolating the space like a barrier.
"M-Master?"
"No support will come from the outside..."
"What?!"
"Hoot...!"
"Whi-whimper...!"
Jeolmi and Bombe also looked at Master with bewildered eyes.
Had Bombe sensed this Gate and been afraid of it all this time...?! W-what was I supposed to do?
"Handle it."
"B-by myself?"
"You will be able to..."
Master stepped back, keeping his hands behind his back as if to show he wouldn't help. Then, his body blurred and vanished in an instant, as if he had been nothing but an illusion.
In the midst of the confusion, I first made Bombe return to her original size and stared at the Gate. With a sharp *crack*—like a mirror shattering—the Gate slowly opened.
"How in the world did he know an instant-spawn Gate would appear here...?"
Even if Bombe, being a special summon, had sensed it instinctively, how did Master know about this Gate so precisely and bring me here?
Many questions swirled in my mind, but I couldn't afford to get lost in thought.
I gulped.
Clenching both fists tightly, I watched the monster leisurely step out of the Gate.
A human...?
The entity emerging from the Gate had a human shape, just like before. On top of that, it was the boss, appearing entirely alone.
As soon as the boss stepped out, the Gate shrank and vanished in an instant.
Gate Rank: Class 3
A Gate boss on the level of the one I had first faced with Grandpa Yongsu stared at me. It was—
"Magical Prince! Arrives!"
A magical girl... no, a magical boy had appeared.
"A-a magical boy?"
"Is this Earth?"
"Yup! That's right-ma! If we defeat all the humans here, we can save our universe-ma!"
What kind of magical boy mascot is a hippo?
A hippo with wings on its back was flying around the magical boy, talking to him. Its body was pitch black, but it had a thick, bushy golden beard, which felt incredibly bizarre.
The magical boy... the self-proclaimed Prince, was wearing a neon blue prince outfit that looked like it came straight out of a cosplay shop.
The toy sword-shaped wand in his hand was quite unique.
"Hoooot!"
"Eek! Let's get rid of that bird first-ma!"
"What...? No! That bear looks way more dangerous!"
"..."
Se-eun had definitely told me that the more intelligent a monster was, and the fewer monsters that came out of a Gate, the stronger the boss would be.
How strong would a boss be that walked out of a Class 3 Gate completely alone? And I had to face him by myself, without any allies—
No! I have Jeolmi and Bombe with me...!
"What's with that brat?"
"She must be a villain sent to get in our way-ma!"
"Haha! Really? Then I, the Magical Prince Vega, will have to take care of her!"
"Who said you could...!"
"Who said? I did!"
*Crack.*
The corners of the magical boy's mouth ripped open, tearing all the way to his ears. A grotesque, elongated tongue slithered out from deep inside his mouth like a snake, dripping golden drool.
The whites of his eyes turned completely black, and his pupils glowed with an unnaturally bright, neon blue light.
"BECAUSE I SAID SOOOOO!!!"
"Hic...!"
The magical boy's joints twisted grotesquely as he launched himself into the air. Flailing his limbs as if crawling through the sky, he lunged toward me.
"Growl!"
Bombe, now back to her massive size, immediately blocked the magical boy's path. She raised her shield, intercepting the toy sword he swung with a tight grip.
Boom!
A powerful shockwave rippled through the clearing. I closed my eyes briefly as the wind blew my bangs wild, then looked ahead once more.
"Pretty tough, aren't you!"
"Ugh... Jeolmi! Attack now!"
I stretched out my palm, sending my mana straight to Jeolmi. Jeolmi dove sharply, spreading her wings right in front of the magical boy.
The fierce, biting wind whipped up by Jeolmi's sudden deceleration swept over him, carrying a barrage of icy feathers. *Thud-thud-thud!* I could see the feathers embedding themselves into his clothes in real-time.
"Gah! That hurts!"
The monster in the shape of a magical boy crossed his arms to block the wind and retreated. It looked as if a translucent force field was serving as his stepping stone in midair.
"Hippo-ma! Let's activate the Magical Sword!"
"Understood-ma!"
The winged hippo opened its mouth wide, its jaw splitting open just like the magical boy's had. Its mouth stretched wide enough to swallow a person whole, and the magical boy plunged his toy sword deep inside it.
"Screeeeech!"
A dark red liquid erupted from the hippo's mouth like a fountain. The magical boy then pulled out a demonic sword, its blade webbed with pulsing veins centered around a beating heart.
What part of that is a magical boy...!
"Magical Sword! Starlight Charging!"
"Bombe! Charge first!"
Boom! Bombe kicked off the ground and leaped into the air, charging at the magical boy. Behind her, glittering shards of ice chilled the air.
Not to be outdone, the magical boy gripped his sword and took a stance, swinging it while bending his joints at angles no human could ever achieve.
Crash! Once again, Bombe's shield clashed with the magical boy's sword.
"Growl!"
*Clang! Boom!* Realizing that simply blocking wasn't enough to withstand the full force of the magical boy's attack, Bombe activated her shield's shockwave ability.
Through the thick, rising mist of snow, Jeolmi's blue eyes flashed sharply.
"Jeolmi! Now!"
Without backing down, I took another step forward and channeled my mana into Jeolmi. I seized the mana dispersing into the air along with the snow mist and condensed it all into Jeolmi's wing.
Snow Eyes.
All visible mana and frost were under my absolute control.
Jeolmi swooped in, concentrating all her mana into a single wing. *Crack-crack!* A massive blade of blue ice froze over her wing.
*Slice.*
"AAAAAAARGH!!!"
One of the magical boy's legs was severed. A near-black liquid misted out from the wound. Inside the dark fluid, there was a strange illusion of stars twinkling, as if looking into deep space.
"My leeeeeeg!!!"
"Ugh... Bombe! Pin him down!"
Fear and the realization that I couldn't afford to hesitate hit me at the same time. Feeling tears well up reflexively, I sent my mana to Bombe.
Bombe whipped up a blizzard from the ground, leaped into the air, grabbed the magical boy, and slammed him down. She immediately pinned his back with her massive paw, rendering him immobile.
I flipped my palm toward the sky.
"Skadi...!"
*Crack-crack!* A massive greatsword of ice froze in midair, gleaming with a chilling blue light. The more I used Snow Eyes, the more natural it felt to manipulate mana and frost.
I stared briefly at the *Skadi*, which was now larger and sturdier than ever before, and swung my hand down.
"GYAAAAAAAH!!!"
But the magical boy had no intention of going down easily. He opened his mouth wide. His already torn mouth stretched even further, and a beam of black energy erupted from within, accompanied by the screams of countless people.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The energy beam tore up the ground as it flew, colliding head-on with *Skadi*. Both attacks neutralized each other, shaking the earth.
"Ugh...!"
I stumbled back a few steps from the resulting gale before regaining my footing.
"Huh...?"
"Growl..."
Amidst the thick cloud of dust, the figure that should have been pinned beneath Bombe...
The magical boy's body was gone.