Chapter 32
Chapter 32
4. The Savior Who Ended the Cold Wave -8
Compared to the monsters pouring out of a Gate to devour a planet, a zombie apocalypse looks like a relatively small disaster.
But it was by no means a joke. We had only found a solution thanks to the System as a stepping stone. What if we hadn't been able to obtain a cure? A zombie curse of this level was a blight capable of thoroughly destroying a world.
So if I can sever it here, I will.
Step.
Sergios and I stepped inside the ruins. The temple-like building, constructed of marble, had endured ages long enough to be buried in earth and still remained intact.
The architectural style was Greek. Even if Sohye's world had a slightly different history from Earth, seeing ruins like these on the Korean Peninsula still felt jarring.
Bzzzt──
The closer we got, the clearer the sensation became. The source of the curse was deeper inside.
I took point, shield raised, and approached. Sergios followed behind me, ready to bolt at any moment. The way his left hand hovered slightly forward, he seemed intent on grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and running if things went south.
The interior was wider than I expected. And if there was one peculiar detail⋯⋯ over the thick layer of dust on the floor, there were chaotic footprints and wheel tracks.
Someone had hauled something through here with a cart.
"Sergios, how do curse-users usually fight? Is there anything I should watch out for?"
"If their only ability is curses, they're nothing special. Kill them before they do anything, and get clear of the area before they can leave a dying curse behind. But don't let your guard down. If the being has intelligence, it will have equipped itself with something to compensate for its weaknesses."
"Just so you know, I have resistance to the curse the enemy wields. If it looks like I'm about to get hit—"
"Then I will use you as a shield without a moment's hesitation."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Right, that's fair. But for courtesy's sake, couldn't he at least pretend to refuse, or act uncomfortable if it was too much? The man has no idea how to phrase things nicely.
I approached without letting my guard down.
Then a great hall appeared. A space surrounded by eight marble pillars, and in its center sat a single large carriage, all alone. Ornate, adorned with dangling decorations modeled after the sun—a carriage close to a work of art.
It looked like an extraordinary object. Something about it felt ominous.
The curse's energy was flowing from the carriage. If so, was the one with the curse skill riding inside it⋯⋯?
"⋯⋯No, Noah Won. Where are you looking?"
"What?"
"Not inside the carriage. The one with that 『Skill』── seems to be the carriage itself."
"What do you mean⋯⋯."
That was when it happened.
Twitch, rrrrrrr── pop!
A human face sprouted from the carriage. The pale face chattered its teeth and mumbled in slurred speech.
-Ah, aah⋯⋯ where. Where⋯⋯
"⋯⋯⋯⋯!!"
I immediately wrapped the wind of 『Azure Wind Wanderer』 around my dagger. What the hell was that grotesque monster? It looked like a creature straight out of a novel.
Sergios hardened his expression, tensed every muscle in his body, and quietly explained.
"That is the fate of a human devoured by a 『Fragment of the World』."
"What?"
"When a civilian with no talent whatsoever obtains power far too great for them, that is what happens. But this one is especially severe. It didn't stop at transforming the flesh—it completely seized control of both body and soul."
"⋯⋯It got eaten by the 『Skill』?"
A chill ran down my spine.
When I used 『Internalization』 to draw out 『Azure Wind Wanderer』's power to 120%, my fingertips scattered into cloud and wind before returning. Even that had been a fairly unpleasant experience.
If I ever handed my entire body over to a single Skill, would I end up completely like that⋯⋯ in my case, would my whole body turn into wind and rain? There was a reason Sergios had warned me until my ears were sore.
I'd have to use it more carefully from now on. I needed to be cautious.
As I was chewing over the danger of 『Skills』 once again, Sergios, who had at some point begun dripping cold sweat, growled.
"What are you doing, Noah Won? Retreat carefully."
"Huh?"
"⋯⋯What is that blank reaction? I am telling you to run⋯⋯!"
He glared at me like he was watching an elementary schooler spacing out in front of a dinosaur, as if he couldn't stand it. But as far as I was concerned, I was just bewildered.
"⋯⋯No, I mean, it's gross. But is it really that dangerous?"
My senses are pretty sharp. Especially my eyes.
So I can roughly gauge how dangerous an opponent in front of me is, and that sense has never been wrong except for a single time. And⋯⋯ as far as I could feel, that human carriage wasn't dangerous.
No, if anything. All I felt was that I could seize control of it.
"I know your senses are abnormal. But the power that carriage holds is⋯⋯ a full layer above us. Do you understand? I am saying it is C-rank!"
C-rank in the System, then.
[C-rank Hunter 『Glass Sword Lord』 expresses delight.]
[Due to incompatible hierarchy, the appearance of the True Form (眞體) is automatically filtered.]
The knight made entirely of glass that I had observed through the Telescope. That existence was on the same level. Even Glass Sword Lord had radiated a pressure that made my eyeballs sting when I looked directly at him, a pressure that suggested even hundreds of me couldn't sink a tooth into him.
If that human carriage really was C-rank as Sergios said, we could be wiped out here. It truly was a dangerous situation.
My senses could be wrong. Only then did I ratchet my tension to the maximum and carefully step backward. Of course, Sergios could also be mistaken, but in times like this, choosing the safe option was correct.
-Apol, uh, where. Looking for, ah.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
-Where is 『Apollo』⋯⋯.
Then.
The moment the face sprouting from the carriage uttered that name, the 『Corpse-Plague Curse』 dwelling in my body shuddered with a thud and reacted. It resonated.
"Kh⋯⋯?!"
"Noah Won!"
Roll. The carriage's eyes turned toward me. Those empty eyes, the eyes of a fanatic that seemed to repeat only one thing over and over. But something⋯⋯ like a spark ticked and flared.
-Ah⋯⋯.
What flickered through those eyes was, no matter how I looked at it, not a positive emotion. Pain, lamentation, pleading, and a certain intent were lodged there. I had seen that expression before. In the military. Behind the stage at a regional event, in the ruins collapsing under the plant invasion.
-Take, it.
That's.
-Take this from me, take it aaaaah!!
That's the face someone makes when shoving something filthy onto another person⋯⋯!
Whoooosh──!!
Along with a chilling sensation, 'daylight' descended inside the ruins.
What rose from the carriage's rear was a small sun. But there was no warmth or coziness to it—only a chill like frost needles. I knew that thing was, literally, a 『Divine Curse』.
And that curse began crawling along the passageway.
Dadadadak-!
Countless hands made of sunlight came rushing to seize a new host!
I shouted on spinal reflex.
"Sergios, leave me and get out!"
"Stop talking shit and run! Moran, Afterwave Grasp, Whirlwind Thrust── converge. Three-Origin Fusion, 『Intercept-Grasp-Thrust (攔拿扎)』!"
Kwaaaaaah-!
The storm bursting from Sergios's spear surged through the passageway, coiling around it. But the light defeated the wind. The storm couldn't even buy a moment, literally melting away into nothing.
That was a strike unleashed by Sergios, a powerhouse counted among the top even at D-rank. And it just flew off like ice cream.
Did the letter C, that mere word "C-rank," really contain this much of a gap?
Time slowed.
"『Open Gate (開門)⋯⋯』"
Sergios seemed to be trying something more. He planted his spear into the ground like a flag and began to chant something. It seemed he had a trump card of his own.
But he was too slow. The attack would land before that trump card could be completed.
Fortunately, the thing's target was me. That 『Skill』 was reacting to the curse inside me, trying to transfer from the carriage into my flesh. It wouldn't overflow onto Sergios.
⋯⋯Should I use 『White Lightning (白雷)』?
No. Even at this moment, with a C-rank skill that seemed alive trying to swallow me, my intuition was telling me I could break through. As if someone was feeding me the answer.
Or⋯⋯ as if I had already experienced something similar before.
Trust the intuition. Instead, I threw myself toward the curse. Hands of light seized my limbs and drove their fingertips in. Then they seeped into my body like parasites.
"Noah Won—!!"
Don't worry, Sergios. I'm not going to die here and delay your promotion ritual. To reassure him, I waved the back of my hand.
And my consciousness was sucked somewhere.
I was sitting cross-legged in an empty wilderness.
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
Somehow, this space felt familiar.
As I was wondering whether this was a hallucination or some illusion the curse was showing me, the wilderness began to change rapidly. This was history. It was trying to show me what had happened on this land.
It flowed by in an instant, like watching a time-lapse.
In the beginning, various guests passed through the pure-white wilderness where nothing existed. A small torch, a sharpshooter, a sting of static—those were only guests staying briefly. Once used, they vanished.
Kugwagwagwagwagwa──!!!
Then, thunder and lightning so fierce I worried it might tear the world apart came crashing down from the heavens. That lightning embedded itself in the center of the wilderness and was preserved as a white pillar.
What entered after that was wind, rain, and clouds.
Rumble-
The rain clouds settled fully into the wilderness's sky. Unlike the guests that dissipated after use, this one spread wider and wider the more it was used, expanding its presence. As if trying to drown this entire world in clouds.
Afterward, a fast and nimble blade entered.
Then a sinister, sluggish, ominous dark cloud crawled along the ground, squirming.
By this point, I could grasp the identity of this space. This⋯⋯ seemed to be my 『inside』. The phenomena flowing through the wilderness were the 『Skills』 that had passed through my body.
If so, that rain cloud was 『Azure Wind Wanderer』.
"Ha."
Seeing it like this, it hit me anew. Azure Wind Wanderer was a massive power. Things like 『Bullseye』 rolling around down below, or 『Flame Goat Gauntlet: Flame Emission』—those were the size of ants compared to the dark clouds pooled in the sky.
But even Azure Wind Wanderer.
Compared to that white pillar, a single strand of an S-rank hunter's lightning, it was nothing but a speck of dust.
Then there must be another guest coming after this. I looked up at the sky and waited calmly.
Blink.
Soon, I felt a gaze, and a small sun appeared in the sky.
Jureureuk──!!
The sun, as if it were a hole, poured a torrent of light down onto the wilderness like a waterfall. Startled by the force, 『Quick-Flash Inner Core』 scampered away. Even Azure Wind Wanderer seemed to edge back slightly from the light's majesty.
Pop. A face appeared on the surface of the light and shouted.
-Oh, ooh⋯⋯ what a spacious vessel you are. A vessel spacious enough to hold me completely! How splendid!
I had no idea what it was suddenly talking about.
-Talented child, accept me. I can give you power! Better than the wealth and glory of the human world is doing glorious work. Let us become great together!
"⋯⋯⋯⋯."
So that was the true form of the C-rank skill that had dwelled in the carriage human.
Right now, it seemed to be trying to persuade me.
As if trying to curry my favor, it changed the shape of its sprouted face into that of a lovely woman and smiled with fox-like eyes. It was pretending to be harmless now, but as if that could be true.
The desire behind those eyes was shining this clearly.
The light pouring from the sun carefully dyed the earth. The surface of the wilderness glittered and shone. That thing seemed intent on filling this entire space that way, but at this rate, I'd die of old age before it finished filling it.
Whooong— the wind blew.
A wisp of cloud flew over and murmured around me. Was Azure Wind Wanderer worried about me?
If so, don't worry.
Now I understood why I hadn't felt a sense of crisis. I had instinctively judged that I could handle that thing well enough. Because this cunning cloud would help me.
And also.
The principle of a vaccine is to obtain antibodies from a weakened pathogen and use them against a strong pathogen. Even if weakened, the source is the same.
As it happened, I had been infected with a curse far degraded from that original divine curse. A dreg so weak it couldn't even be compared to that C-rank light.
The 『Corpse-Plague Curse』.
I intended to obtain antibodies from this thing.
[-> Download Slot 2: 『Corpse-Plague Curse』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 99%)]
That's it. That black dark cloud crawling along the ground. I snatched it up.
-Kreeeeek!
And I squeezed it as if strangling it.
[-> Download Slot 2: 『Corpse-Plague Curse』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 100%)]
Ding!
Stored List: 『A01#@47Eb』, 『Bullseye』, 『Corpse-Plague Curse』
Got it.
Jureureuk— pitch-black liquid poured out. Perhaps because this curse originated from light, it seemed I could use it as a kind of sunscreen. It could resist that divine light.
I sprayed the liquid over my corneas, creating a kind of temporary sunglasses. Then, beyond the black veil laid over my eyes, the thing's true form came into sharp focus.
The lovely woman's face melted away.
What was revealed behind it was the face of a man with bold features, resembling a Greek statue. That face was twisted like a goblin's, and fury and obsession dripped from its eyes.
Now I could be certain. That thing only wanted to control me to achieve its purpose.
-You intend to refuse? You dare?
"Yeah, I intend to refuse. I dare."
-You insect who knows nothing of greatness, fine! Then I will burn your soul to ashes if I must, and make you join the great cause!
Rumble──
The light flared.
Good.
They say it is the sun that strips the traveler of his cloak. But that thing is only a fake sun. If ink and rain clouds join forces, can they not blot out that one thing?
-Kneel before the power of the great sun!
Bring it. I'll bind you tight so you can't run rampant inside my body, and seal you away.