Rainy Days
The rift. It was a gateway leading into a space designed solely to deliver fear and despair. That unknown realm, according to our expectations, was something that should have been created unilaterally and artificially from our side. But contrary to predictions, rifts existed in this otherworld too—and its people had suffered from this bizarre phenomenon for an incomparably longer time than we had.
So perhaps, just like the people of this world, humanity was also fated to be tormented by this unexplained anomaly. At least for now, our foolish conclusion was that nothing could stand against 21st-century science and technology.
“Well… no matter if it’s a monster or whatever, everything’s equal in front of a gun, right? Don’t you think so, boss?”
“…”
“Boss?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah. They’re just dangerous beasts, that’s all…”
“…”
Like my mind had left my body, I gave a half-hearted, soulless answer to brush off his question. It wasn’t because there was any problem during the operation. It was because of what happened yesterday.
How should I put it… hearing that old man’s answer of “virgin” at the very end left me with a slight pang of guilt? Especially since we couldn’t communicate, so I had no idea whether she actually wanted it or not. That seemed to be the biggest reason. Still, I desperately tried to rationalize it to myself.
The strange atmosphere that day was one hundred percent a “let’s fuck” vibe. The faint trembling I felt at the tip of my dick, transmitted by instincts that transcended worlds, was definitely not…
“Boss.”
“…”
“Boss!”
“What?! Oh… yeah, right.”
“…What are you thinking about that you’re not even answering?”
“No… I wasn’t thinking about anything…”
“Really? Then repeat what I just said.”
“…Uh… let’s hurry back to the lodgings?”
“…”
Wrong answer? I’d racked my brain as hard as I could to come up with the optimal response, but the way he was looking at me like I was pathetic told me I’d missed the mark.
“Sigh… You were spacing out inside the rift earlier too… I’ve told you three times now that we’re running low on bullets.”
“Huh? Oh… right. Then let’s start by fixing that piece-of-shit comms equipment. After that…”
“…”
An awkward silence fell. Only then did I face the hopeless reality I’d been trying to forget by thinking about Elphy.
Fix the comms equipment? Us? A bunch of guys who only know how to pull triggers? I knew better than anyone that unless a miracle happened, that equipment wasn’t coming back online. I knew it better than anyone.
So I needed to come up with some kind of plan… but now everything just felt utterly futile.
“…Minhyuk. What do you think about living here?”
“Huh? Suddenly…?”
“Yeah… I don’t know about crossing over to the other side, but the passage we came through is closed now. And they’re still at war over there, right?”
“That’s…”
“…”
Fantasy had knelt before bullets. Unidentifiable monsters had been blown to pieces by artillery shells. It was August 7th, in the middle of summer—the day we exterminated the first monster that emerged from a rift, and the story that dominated the news all day long.
Back then, the overall tone was that humanity had won. But it didn’t take long for the handful of rifts to start multiplying like crazy. No matter how advanced our weapons were, there was a limit to responding to rifts that could appear anywhere, anytime.
“Haa… Honestly, I think getting drafted for this operation was the will of the gods.”
“…The will of the gods? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Either way, we’re still alive, aren’t we? For all we know, things could’ve gone to shit on the other side. It wasn’t just one bridge— if another team had come instead of us, they would’ve launched drones or done something…”
“Maybe the other guys are all thinking the same thing I am?”
“…”
(The other guys are probably all thinking the same way he is…)
(Please, I hope that’s true…)
Of course, someone might call me irresponsible for thinking that as the one in charge of a team. But the best choice available to us right now was to assume we could never go back and start adapting to this otherworld.
Rationalizing it that way, I lit the last cigarette I had left.
“Hey, so if you end up living here, what are you gonna do?”
“Huh? You mean like a job?”
“Yeah. We still gotta eat and survive somehow, right?”
“Hmm… Since I’m a mercenary, I guess becoming part of the militia like these people makes sense? It’s the closest category.”
“…”
Closest category, huh… Well, since it’s a combat profession, I guess it is pretty similar. The problem is we need bullets to fight… but if we’re alive, we’ll figure something out, right?
“What about you, boss? Got anything in mind?”
“Dunno… Maybe I’ll take up farming?”
“Farming?”
“Yeah… Truth is, I was planning to quit being a mercenary after this operation anyway…”
“I’ve gotten pretty close with the villagers here… If things work out, maybe I could set up a house to live in with Elphy?”
No way the housing prices here could be worse than that hellish peninsula at the edge of Asia, right? I traded those silly jokes with him as we returned to the village.
A peaceful daily life with no casualties or deaths. The villagers welcoming us and the militia. Elphy getting shy when she saw my face, me making an awkward expression right back at her, and the village chief sighing and pushing me forward because he couldn’t stand watching anymore. That kind of everyday life.
Everyone, including me, thought that kind of daily life would continue forever. At least until we heard that the militia captain had died. Until I saw true magic with my own two eyes.
That day, rain was pouring down steadily. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I’d said I wanted to live by farming.
An utterly ordinary day, with nothing strange about it except the rain. Yes. It definitely should have been.
At least until someone violently threw open the firmly shut door. Until Minhyuk came running with a desperate look on his face.
“Boss! We’ve got a huge problem!!!!”
“What the hell… You’re not here to spout more nonsense about interspecies breeding like yesterday, are you?”
“It’s not that! The militia captain’s been injured…!”
“What?! Ilail? How bad is it?”
“His arm and leg have been severed… His condition is critical.”
“…”
No way… That monster of a man took a wound that serious? I couldn’t believe the news, so even as I hurriedly followed him, it didn’t feel real. That was only natural. The Ilail I knew was a veteran.
A man over two meters tall with a muscular build—he was the very embodiment of the village’s greatest magic user. Ilail. Just saying his name made everyone around him look on with respect, didn’t it? At least, the Ilail I knew was so strong that the idea of him getting hurt was unimaginable.
But… why?
“…”
Pouring rain. Ground stained crimson. The villagers’ faces showed fear and panic that went beyond shock. Looking into his eyes, which were slowly losing their light, I instinctively realized that neither hemostasis nor the villagers’ healing magic would do any good in this situation.
“Boss…”
“…”
I wished it was a dream. I wished all of this was just a nightmare. But Minhyuk’s voice growing increasingly distant proved, bone-chillingly, that everything I was seeing and hearing was reality.
Like I was possessed by something, I walked toward Ilail and thought:
(Damn it… what the hell did this to him?)
(A monster? Or something else? If not, then maybe…)
Please, don’t let it be what I’m thinking right now.
The cleanly severed cross-section, as if cut by a blade, sent chills down my spine. This wasn’t a wound from a monster, nor was it from a wild beast.
I suddenly felt a spine-tingling presence and shouted.
“Get down!!!!!”
It was the same horrifying sensation as on a battlefield, like someone was aiming right at me. I instinctively dropped to the ground and screamed with all my strength, but my warning was pointless. People split in half, spewing blood and guts as they collapsed.
“…B-Boss? Behind…”
“…”
A dream… right? Yeah, it has to be a dream. Otherwise, how could something like this happen?
Completely out of it, I approached Minhyuk, who was collapsed and covered head to toe in other people’s blood.
“B-Boss… Am… Am I… dying…?”
“No. Why the hell would you die?! Hey!!!”
Don’t say weird shit and pull yourself together from now on. I grabbed his face with both hands and shouted, but his torso—already split in half—was leaking intestines nonstop. The same spine-chilling killing intent I’d felt earlier now sliced across my hand.
“!!!!”
Excruciating pain surged from my left arm, which had been severed along with Minhyuk’s face. The gushing blood dyed my little brother’s face red.
I couldn’t believe it. And it seemed my brother couldn’t believe it either—his severed head kept blinking, eyes opening and closing repeatedly.
I wished it was a dream. I wished all of this was just a hallucination from me going insane. But the disgusting metallic stench brushing the tip of my nose stabbed at my nerves, telling me to snap out of it.
Only then did I, still trapped in panic, grit my teeth and pull out my pistol.
“Goddamn it… Goddamn it…!!!!”
“Come out! Come out, you fucking bastard!!!!!!!!!”
I’ll kill you. With eyes blazing, I aimed the muzzle in the direction the magic had flown from. The strange thought that this couldn’t be reality and the maddening pain no longer registered. All I felt was an indescribable, intense emotion seeping into every part of my body like poison.
With a face full of rage, I pulled the trigger toward the unidentified figure somewhere beyond the forest.
But that was it. The useless gunshot tore through the sound of rain, yet the unpleasant presence showed no sign of disappearing. I focused all my senses once again, trying to figure out where the unknown enemy was.
(I can win…)
(I can kill them…!! If I just stay focused, I definitely…!!!)
“…”
I can do this. I wonder when I realized that the thought of avenging my little brother at all costs had been arrogant?
When my other arm flew off? When my right leg was shattered to pieces? Or when the black magic that had been protecting me was torn apart by the light pouring down from the sky?
No. I realized it the moment the village chief—who had called me son—turned into a bloody rag. This wasn’t a battle. It was a one-sided slaughter.
Just like children playing by ripping off the limbs of bugs, they were toying with us. Why? What the hell was the purpose of doing something like this?
I couldn’t understand the reason. I just…
“Slice…!!”
“…”
The unidentified masked assailant. That bastard was giggling as he sliced my waist in half. I thought, while spilling all my organs and blood as if wandering through a dream:
(Elphy… I wonder if she’s still alive?)
Her shy expression when she looked at me is still so vivid… Her black hair and red eyes feel like they’re still right in front of me, and I can’t forget them… So why am I helplessly slamming my head into the ground?
What I saw at the far edge of my fading vision, chasing after the bloody afterimage spreading with the pouring rain, was a black shadow.
It was the dying light of life.
And the burning darkness of creation.
User confirmed.
Administrator mode confirmed. Account lock confirmed. Account concealment confirmed.
From now on, you are a Super Account user.