Back into human arms
Back into human arms
The Mimic Beast's appearance was, to put it mildly, not in a sound state.
A living lump of meat. Could there be a more fitting description?
Silver-white grenade shrapnel was embedded between raw flesh that was so red it had turned a dark, bruised blue, and the monster twitched its muscles repeatedly as if trying to push them out.
An appearance that seemed to have stepped outside the framework of life.
That thing was once human, but it had ceased to be human.
Why did they have to meet such a cruel end?
They had been filleted by monsters, and now even their corpses were being insulted by being reborn as immortal monsters.
Is there no rest for them?
Is there truly no salvation for them...?
Wooooong.
A massive wave of power is felt from the Halo.
The surroundings, which had been growing dark after twilight, are covered in white radiance.
Behind my head, a halo rises in its entirety.
A vast amount of Holy Power pours out from the broken dam.
I cannot control the flow. The power is like an ocean that a mere human cannot handle.
The wave of Holy Power sweeps even me away.
A power so vast I cannot handle it. But because of that, I will be able to show a miracle.
A fateful intuition told me what I had to do.
Where this uncontrollable power heads... at least I can decide that.
The flow of Holy Power reaches the Mimic Beast.
This is a power containing infinite possibilities.
So it can become anything, and it can do anything.
But what I want is not grand.
Just a small hand of salvation that I can reach out.
"You were once a human being..."
So, naturally, take my hand within this massive current...
"And return, once again, to the arms of humanity."
And soon.
Whoosh-!
A massive radiance was overlaid upon the Mimic Beast, which had been tinged with a dark blue light.
Someone's gasping breath was buried within the wave of light.
The light was fierce but never violent. It was not of a nature that burns, destroys, and annihilates.
It was just an infinitely warm touch, returning things that had been forcibly clumped together to their original places.
As the light touched the Mimic Beast's body, the grotesquely twisted muscles and blood vessels began to loosen, like snow melting in the sunlight.
The bodily fluids that had been dripping like black oil and contaminating the floor gradually took on a clear light, then soon oxidized into a milky mist and vanished into the air.
Pop, pop-pop.
The silver-white grenade shrapnel embedded in the Mimic Beast's skin was pushed out and poured onto the floor.
The clanging sound of metal rang through the space filled with light.
New flesh sprouted where the blood-soaked debris had fallen away.
The hideous, pieced-together skin of others erased its boundaries and was stitched into a single, whole complexion.
How much time had passed?
The massive light that had made it impossible to even open one's eyes faded away like a lie.
"..."
The corpse had regained its original form.
From human to monster.
And from monster back to human again.
After traveling a long, long way...
Like this, they returned.
*
Silence pressed down on Outpost No. 4.
The terrible tearing sounds of flesh being ripped and bones being twisted as it regenerated, and the disgusting smell of blood that stung the nose, had all vanished like a lie.
The lump of meat that had lost its human form and was twisted when it was pulled up from the sewer was now lying quietly, like a sleeping person.
Thud-.
The first thing to break the silence was the dull sound of knees hitting the floor.
It was the vampire, Kim Ji-hoo.
He looked back and forth between the corpse and me, then prostrated himself on the cold floor of the guard post. Thick tears poured endlessly down his pale cheeks.
"Oh... Lord. Truly, Your messenger has descended into this hell."
His voice was trembling slightly with awe. Normally, I would have shuddered and said "here we go again," but right now, I didn't even have the energy to stop him.
"The smell..."
Min Ah-ji sniffed the air with a dazed expression. Color slowly returned to the face of the girl who had been retching continuously.
"That disgusting smell of blood is all gone. Even though we're in front of the guard post... there's only the smell of cozy, warm sunlight."
Owl Bear Elder, Orc Mister, and Yoo In-ha also stood there, dumbfounded, with their respective weapons hanging loose. What dwelled in their eyes was not fear. It was pure admiration, the kind only those who have witnessed an absolute miracle can show.
But among them, the one most shocked was none other than Captain Kim.
Clatter.
The rifle slipped from the hands of the man who always maintained a dry, emotionless attitude and fell to the floor.
He approached the corpse with trembling steps and looked down at it for a long time.
"This, how..."
Captain Kim's lips trembled.
I don't know what kind of past he had. But one thing was certain...
Captain Kim turned to look at me with eyes full of astonishment.
"Han Yoo-jin-ssi, just what are you...!"
"..."
It would have been nice if I could have answered him.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a single ounce of energy left to do so.
Spinning-.
The world tilted, leaning to one side.
Without even a moment to savor the afterglow of the miracle, a terrible emptiness surged from deep within my body.
'Ah.'
I overdid it. I didn't need anyone to tell me that; I knew it.
The wave of Holy Power that poured out from the broken dam was fierce enough to swallow even my reason.
It was because that power, like an ocean, was too vast and heavy for the wretched vessel of a human soul to handle.
The halo that had been burning behind my head as if to illuminate all things popped and went out like a blown incandescent bulb.
Even the Halo above my head, which always emitted a gentle warmth, flickered and lost its light, trembling weakly.
"Ugh..."
A terrible sense of exhaustion starting from my fingertips swallowed my whole body in an instant. Even the strength to stand drained away, and my legs buckled helplessly.
"Angel-nim!"
"Yoo-jin unni!!"
At the edge of my vision as I collapsed onto the guard post floor, the silhouettes of Kim Ji-hoo and Min Ah-ji rushing over in a panic blurred.
I also saw Captain Kim reaching out his hand urgently.
'...Ah, I'm tired.'
If I had performed a cool miracle, I should have finished it standing in style.
It seemed that was going to be difficult.
I blacked out.
*
'...A familiar ceiling.'
When I opened my eyes, the ceiling of the familiar [Dormitory] welcomed me.
My whole body is heavy like wet cotton.
A terrible exhaustion, so bad I couldn't even twitch a finger, was pressing down on my entire body.
But strangely, it wasn't the feeling of depletion, as if my insides were empty.
'Rather... it's closer to the feeling of being completely stuffed.'
My solar plexus felt heavy, as if I had swallowed a giant rock.
I blinked my eyes and steadied my blurry consciousness.
And I slowly reviewed the reason why I had fainted.
'It's not that I exhausted myself by scraping the bottom of my power.'
It was the exact opposite.
The Holy Power that surged in from beyond the broken dam was like an ocean with no end.
Even though I had only drawn upon a tiny fraction of that ocean, my wretched human vessel couldn't withstand that massive flow.
"Y-Yoo-jin unni?!"
At that moment, a presence that had been holding its breath nearby was startled and suddenly popped into my field of vision.
It was Min Ah-ji, who had been drooping her ears like a puppy.
As soon as she confirmed that my eyes had opened, she burst into tears.
"Unni! You're really awake, right?! Sob, I thought you were never going to wake up...!"
"...I told you not to call me unni."
A cracked voice forced its way out.
Perhaps surprised by my hoarse voice, Yoo In-ha, who had been coiled up on a mattress in the corner, also hurriedly approached, dragging her snake tail.
"Thank goodness, truly thank goodness! How is your body? Is there anywhere that hurts?"
"Nothing hurts... I'm just tired. How long have I been lying here?"
At my question, Yoo In-ha let out a sigh of relief and held up one finger.
"Just one day. You collapsed yesterday evening, and now it's the evening of the second day."
'One day.'
Since this is the first time I've collapsed like this, it feels incredibly long.
I tried to sit up my stiff body.
"Ah, be careful!"
Min Ah-ji quickly supported my back. With her support, I barely managed to sit up, leaning against the head of the bed.
When I felt slightly above my head, the Halo that had been flickering and going out was emitting a gentle, stable radiance again, as if it had never happened.
"...How is it outside? That corpse... no, that person."
I asked about the thing I was most concerned about first.
The result of my miracle. The situation after that wretched lump of meat returned to the form of a whole person.
At my question, Yoo In-ha's expression stiffened subtly.
"Captain Kim immediately took care of it and sent it up. And..."
"And?"
"It was chaos. As soon as they heard Captain Kim's report, military doctors and researchers from the upper echelons swarmed in and took the body away."
Min Ah-ji chimed in from the side, shuddering.
"Everyone's eyes were flipped. Since you didn't just kill an immortal monster but turned it back into a human, the whole base was turned upside down. While you were collapsed, the security forces in front of this infirmary doubled. They said they're controlling it so no one can just walk in."
"...Haa."
I just put my hand to my forehead and let out a deep sigh.
I had expected it, but the situation was turning out to be more troublesome than I thought.
'I need to go into the Blackout Zone to grab that bitch of a sister by the hair.'
With the situation like this, would the military willingly let me go out to the dangerous front lines?
It was highly likely they would instead hide me deep within the base and force me to safely churn out miracles.
"Oh, right. Captain Kim asked me to report to him as soon as you woke up."
Yoo In-ha said cautiously, looking at the radio.
"Should I call him?"
It was an encounter I couldn't avoid anyway.
It was better to settle things now, when my hand was at its strongest.
I shrugged my heavy shoulders once, then nodded with a smile on my lips.
"Call him. We'll have plenty to talk about anyway."