157 – The Nymphs and the Hero of the Demon King's Castle! # 7

"Do you know why this island is called Hell Island? This island has another flip side to it!"

Wooooooong—.

The rings threaded onto every one of Ma Wangjun's fingers began to glow.

The air warped in an unsettling way, and then the empty space rippled as crack—crackle— arcs of lightning leapt through it.

I knew this sensation all too well.

"An Anomaly Rift…!?"

The hair on my entire body stood on end.

These were the signs of an anomaly rift about to open.

Wooooong, crackleee—!

With a violent burst of noise, an oval-shaped doorway tore open behind Ma Wangjun.

"A person can open a rift?"

Lee Jina looked badly shaken.

She had once tried to reopen the rift her mother had been trapped inside, and in the end it had taken the help of many people before she'd miraculously managed to pry open the entrance.

So it was no wonder she was stunned to see Ma Wangjun pull it off all by himself.

"Stay right there, you idiots! This island is about to blow!"

As Ma Wangjun stepped into the rift, he pulled something out of an inner pocket on his chest and jangled it at me.

It was an object I recognized all too well.

"That's Ban Dongju's remote detonation controller, isn't it?"

Like Ki Seung-jae, Ban Dongju had been blessed with skilled hands and had been assigned to a special post for it.

The man loved handling and setting off explosives, always went around saying, "Art is an explosion!", and being twisted as he was, he enjoyed smashing things to pieces, too.

So why was his controller in Ma Wangjun's hands?

Which meant the explosives Ban Dongju had made were probably in Ma Wangjun's possession as well?

Come to think of it, there was something that fit.

A few years back, when Ban Dongju caused that incident in Gangneung, Ma ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Wangjun had supposedly been one of the people who suppressed that civil war.

"Bombs are hidden all over this Hell Island! In a few minutes they'll go off and blow the whole place to kingdom come! Ha Ildo, you know exactly how powerful they are, don't you? If you want to stop me, then come in here alone! Into my rift!"

Jingle-jingle—

After brandishing the detonation controller one last time, Ma Wangjun finally pushed his entire body through the rift.

The entrance of the anomaly rift shimmered and crackled with light.

Watching it, Lee Jina spoke up.

"It's a trap, no question! Ha Ildo, go in alone and you'll get shredded!"

"But if what he said about the bombs and the controller is true, there's no telling what happens to this island. I have to go take that controller away from him and stop the detonation somehow!"

We'd already gotten most of the people off the island.

But the gangsters were still here, along with me, Jina, and the people and nymphs we hadn't managed to account for yet.

I couldn't leave them to be caught in the blast.

"Lee Jina, take care of these guys!"

I decided to leave Keongkeongi, Ang-ang-i, Kalinoi, Kwang-kwangi, and Myeong-i in Lee Jina's care.

And without a single second to spare, I hurled myself with all my strength into the rift that had swallowed Ma Wangjun.

Wooong—.

A strange sensation wrung my body up and down.

Feeling as though I were punching through a thin sheet of plastic film, I churned my arms and legs forward until the air brushing my face finally gave way with a soft whoosh.

"This place…."

A world spread out before me beneath a blood-red sky.

Dilapidated buildings crowded every horizon, and ash drifted down like fallout, piling high across the ground.

"Is this Geukrakdo?"

It was a scene choked with collapsed buildings and rubble, yet something about it resembled the Geukrakdo I'd been staring at mere moments ago.

If Geukrakdo had been wiped out by an ice age, this is exactly what it would have looked like.

The icicles hanging from the eaves of the buildings looked as menacing as the fangs of some nightmarish monster.

But there was no time to stand around admiring the scenery. I swept my surroundings in search of Ma Wangjun, who was somewhere in this rift—and thanks to the footprints pressed deep into the piled snow, tracking him was far easier than it could have been.

"Come on out!"

I pushed into the hotel Ma Wangjun appeared to have fled into.

It was an old, crumbling hotel frozen solid all the way through, but the strange thing was that several vending machines still stood there with their lights on.

And those machines were packed full of things I'd never seen before.

"Beam Sabers?"

A vending machine lined to the brim with beam sabers just like the one I carried at my hip.

Just as I was marveling at it, a wave of scorching heat washed over my back.

Ssssssss—!

Whipping my head around, I saw a long serpent of flame diving straight for the back of my neck.

"Gah!"

I ducked my head.

But the fire snake, like some living creature, bent its trajectory mid-strike and came coiling down at my body instead.

Fwoooosh—!

"Damn it—!"

I wrung out every ounce of strength and flung myself aside.

Kaa-BOOM—!

Only after I hit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ground rolling did the serpent of flame slam into the floor, erupting in a burst of blistering heat.

"Combine telekinesis with pyrokinesis and you get control this fine, see. Even you've never seen anything like this, Ha Ildo, have you? You dim-witted fool. I told you to come alone, and look at that—you actually came alone."

Swish—.

As I was pushing myself back to my feet, Ma Wangjun appeared on the floor above.

He descended the dead escalator with lazy, unhurried steps as he spoke.

"A killing field, isn't it? A rift that opened by resonating with a violent wavelength of mana. I named this flip-side space, identical to Geukrakdo, Hell Island. This is probably the island's future."

"The future? This ice age nightmare is the future?"

"That's right. The space inside a rift is a jumbled mess of past and future—you wouldn't know that, you fossil of an awakener. Not that you'd ever need to. Because you're going to fall right here!"

FWHOOSH—!

A sword of flame blazed to life in Ma Wangjun's grip.

It looked as if he were running telekinesis, pyrokinesis, physical enhancement, and even sensory reinforcement all at the same time.

Pop—!

The instant he kicked off the ground, the surrounding snow, ice, and icicles melted away from the shockwave of it. Having closed the distance with me in a heartbeat, Ma Wangjun raised his blazing sword high overhead.

"Drop dead, you bastard!"

A blade of searing, ultra-high heat was descending on my head from above.

I reached for the thing at my waist, pulled the pin, and shut my eyes in the same motion.

Click. FWA-BOOM—!

With a blinding flash, the Mana Flash Grenade detonated.

"━──!"

Eeeeeee—.

A high-pitched ringing howled in my ears, and through it I could make out Ma Wangjun's face scrunched in a grimace, one hand clamped over his eyes, screaming something I couldn't hear.

I seized his arm and slammed it into the ground with all my might.

"━Kuhhak—!"

His back cracked against the frozen floor, and as he thrashed and wheezed, forcing every lungful of air out of his chest, I didn't waste the opening. I swung myself astride his stomach.

First order of business: get those rings off his fingers. While Ma Wangjun was still too dazed to gather his wits, I stripped every last one from him.

"No more games for you. Isn't the detonator in your pocket?"

Clank—.

Having secured the detonation controller, I pressed the red button the way I already knew how, halting the bombs' operation.

But something was wrong.

The timer displayed on the switch refused to stop counting down.

Soon enough, Ma Wangjun let out a long, dark chuckle.

"I had it specially modified. Once it's been activated, nothing on earth can stop it, no matter what you try. You and I will survive in here inside the rift, but the island out there is going to be well and truly turned inside out."

"Are you actually insane?"

"No. Not insane—cold, careful thought and judgment. There are a lot of dirty little secrets of mine on this island that must never see the light of day. So the smarter play is just to blow it all away."

"You're going to level an entire island to hide your own screw-ups? You absolute psycho!"

"Ahh, come on. What's with you? It's just the two of us in this world now. Drop the act already. And speaking of which—Ha Ildo, you've got a lot of coins on you, don't you? Partner up with me. Do that, and I'll let you stop the bomb."

He'd let me stop a bomb that supposedly couldn't be stopped by any means.

There was no way to know whether it was a lie or the truth.

Then Ma Wangjun added more.

"There are rifts like this all over the world. Rifts where coins work. And each one has a fixed coordinate that lets you open it. That's the very reason I chose this Geukrakdo. You've got plenty of coins, don't you?"

"Coins?"

"The coins the nymphs bring back, obviously. Don't play dumb. With those, you can use the vending machines. And power gained that way makes rules mean absolutely nothing."

"…"

"We might even be the ones who get to write the rules! We'd become the very apex! What do you say, Ha Ildo? You've got the qualifications! Time to be honest with yourself! There's no one left here to judge you!"

Ma Wangjun's words were like a serpent coiling around my heart.

Of course, they weren't worth listening to for a second.

"Ma Wangjun, if I'm caught shaking hands with a criminal gang-boss like you, I'll get hate comments plastered all over me! Every single post with my name on it will get flooded with downvotes! That's why I refuse!"

"…What? What the hell are you even saying right now! I'm telling you, other people's opinions stop mattering entirely!"

Ma Wangjun frowned as if he genuinely could not comprehend what I'd said.

His sensibilities and mine were just too far apart.

If you no longer had to care what anyone thought of you, what exactly would be the point of living?

Me, I live for people's eyes on me! Being noticed is the whole fun of it!

Deciding that subduing Ma Wangjun mattered more than any further conversation, I bore down on his throat with a hard chokehold.

"Ghek, kkehk!"

After a long bout of thrashing, Ma Wangjun went limp and slumped.

"They call him an A-Rank organized crime boss, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he's useless in a grapple. That's what happens when you rely on fancy items and neglect your training. In the end, the only thing you can count on in a crisis is your own two fists."

I left him sprawled where he was, headed back to the rift entrance, stuck my head out, and shouted.

"The bombs might still go off! Get in here, all of you, right now! Hurry! Everyone evacuate into the rift!"

"…"

Ratta-tat-tat-tat—.

The roar of helicopter blades was the only sound tearing through the tension.

The Geukrakdo strike team had just received word from the agents who'd arrived ahead of them.

"It looks like bombs have been planted all over the island! They're mana-operated, so disarmament is next to impossible, and we're told there's only about seven minutes left ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the clock! What are your orders!"

The commander of the strike team was the S-Rank hunter Cha Yura.

Feeling every eye in the cabin turn toward her, she coolly weighed the situation as it had just been reported.

Is it really right to fly the helicopter toward an island that's about to explode and blow itself to pieces?

That was when it happened.

An agent in black sunglasses leaned in and murmured to Cha Yura.

"Reports say Ha Ildo is evacuating everyone into the anomaly rift. Roughly ninety percent complete. All personnel should be safely inside within three minutes."

"Oh?"

Cha Yura decided the job had just gotten a great deal simpler.

Ratta-tat—.

The helicopter finally arrived over the island and touched down.

The desolate, eerie atmosphere of the place sent a distinct chill down the spine.

"Time remaining?"

"Five minutes."

"Then Captain Kim and the rest of the agents evacuate into the rift as well. I'll deal with the bombs myself. Il-do's got good instincts, doesn't he? Cleared the whole island of people for me."

At Cha Yura's word, the strike team sprinted with everything they had toward the coordinates where the anomaly rift had opened.

The moment the confirmation came through that the evacuation was complete, Cha Yura crunched down on the nymph honey candy in her mouth, swallowed it whole, and stretched both arms out wide with every ounce of her strength.

"Absolute Zero."

Crack, crrrack—.

Rumor had it that S-Rank awakeners could change the climate of an entire region and reshape the landscape merely by existing.

Some called it an exaggeration, but anyone who had witnessed a scene like this would have said the rumors actually undersold the truth.

The instant Cha Yura's eyes flashed blue, a violent blizzard came whirling down from the sky—and then the sea and mountains around the island, the hotels, every last building, froze over solid with a shattering craaack.

The sinister bombs planted in secret across the island froze right along with everything else, locked in solid ice.

"Clear."

Whew—.

Cha Yura exhaled a breath full of frost and yawned.

"Easy."