As the Proxy, I Ask
The shaman, who had been speaking to the Taoist working alongside him, suddenly doubted his own eyes and fell silent mid-sentence. "Huuup! Shift change! I need to catch my breath first. Thirty minutes, just thirty minutes!" "No. If you circulate your energy now, you'll end up in the same state. Think of what's inside as wringing out a rag and empty every last drop..."
The Taoist understood why the shaman had stopped talking. The heavenly energy and divine power pressing down on the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency began to swirl slowly.
"Contact His Excellency and the Minister right now. This is Code Ground Zero."
Kim Moon-mok spoke to his subordinates in a grim voice, teeth clenched. He had a foreboding that this sudden variable would overturn everything. Yet even at his command, the subordinates merely exchanged silent glances, gauging the situation.
Kim Moon-mok felt blood rush to his head in this desperate moment. "What are you doing?! I said make the call!"
"They have already given approval. Director, once you submit your report, His Excellency will press the button. He will press it even if you die."
"...When did that order come in?"
"From the moment that thing appeared. From the time Seoul was swallowed by the fog."
His shoulders grew heavy. No, it felt as if his body was floating under an unreal pressure. A communication device with a large button sat before Kim Moon-mok. Pressing that button would resolve the battlefield's crisis, but it would carve an indelible scar into an already weakened nation. It might even become the cause of its downfall.
"With Shin there too, pressing this button would surely send me straight to hell."
"We are prepared. We will stand with you."
Whatever the outcome of that battle, the decision had to be made now. Withdraw the troops in advance to minimize casualties, or press forward until defeat seemed certain before pressing the button?
There is nowhere to run. That's why no alarm sounded in Seoul either.
Cold sweat beaded on his skin. The lives of soldiers who had staked everything for the sake of all, and the fate of those reverse ghosts, now rested in the hands of one man.
A shadow rose, and everyone froze. Only Kim Moon-mok remained ready to press the button even if his head were severed from his body.
He could not understand. He grasped the meaning, yet no cards remained in Kim Moon-mok's hand. He tried to ask what that card might be, but Changcheon Amgui had already vanished from their sight. As if she had never been there at all.
- Ring ring ring♪
A noisy sound erupted from the receiver. But the strangest part was that it did not come from only one device.
- Ring ring ring♪
- Brrring♪
- Brrrrrr!
A variable had emerged.
Blood spurted out in thick clumps. Pigeon 4 carried the shaman while running, and Yu Seong placed her hand on his back to attempt healing. Yet even with indiscriminate recovery, the ointment-level healing power had obvious limits. It was nowhere near enough to mend structurally twisted or severed parts. To do so required understanding the organ's structure before beginning treatment, but Yu Seong possessed no such knowledge.
Besides, the staircase leading downward had its terrain altered and was now blocked. After a detour, they stopped in a secluded corner.
"Heuk... here. The sorcery density is low. This way."
The shaman spoke as if forcing the words out.
"I'll break the floor. Give me a moment."
Pigeon 4 laid the shaman down briefly, pulled a rather heavy hammer from within his cloak, and Yu Seong gripped a sixty-centimeter blade, cutting down the shikigami that swarmed in clumps from time to time.
- Boom!
An earthquake-like vibration rang from the floor, but it remained stubbornly solid.
- Boom!
This time he struck hard enough to strain his wrist. When cracks appeared, Pigeon 4 dared to hope his strong energy had taken effect.
"Hurry! The shikigami are hearing this and gathering in force!"
Yet that hope was also like a light exposing them in the darkness. The shikigami began to converge, and Yu Seong, now truly overwhelmed, clung even to the ceremonial robe she so despised.
- Rumble!
At last a large hole opened in the floor. Below lay what appeared to be an ordinary office.
"Mr. Yu Seong! It's open!"
Pigeon 4 lifted the shaman and descended through the hole. Yu Seong followed, dodging incoming bullets.
"Let's move! I've memorized the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency layout, so follow me!"
They ran. Yu Seong chased the pigeon flying through pitch-black corridors. She disabled and evaded traps along the way, but it was still only a building interior. Though the pocket dimension had warped its structure grotesquely, breaking through shikigami to reach the basement was merely time-consuming, not difficult.
- Kwaaaaaang!
That was true only when shikigami and traps were the sole threats.
Crimson flames erupted from the corridor ceiling behind Yu Seong. A figure wrapped in those flames landed.
"Whew. I expected interference, but I never imagined I'd have to destroy the pocket dimension I created with my own hands because of outside meddling as well."
Hahaha.
His tone was like casual morning-market chatter with a friendly neighbor. Yet within those crimson flames stood a body with Yu Seong's sword buried in its back, covered in cuts, bruises, frost, and fresh wounds that looked as if struck by lightning.
A yaksha. Lee Han, fresh from a real bloodbath, was the very image of a wounded ghost. His mouth smiled kindly, but his eyes belonged to a beast that had finally found its prey.
"For the sake of the Great Work, please die."
At those words, the tip of Yu Seong's sword trembled visibly. The hand gripping the blade, her pupils, her legs, all shook. Fear flooded her entire body.
Yet mixed within that fear was something utterly alien.
It's going to hurt, isn't it?
Yu Seong's gaze fixed briefly on the sword she had driven into Lee Han. She had acted without time to think before, but only now did she truly register what she had done.
She had stabbed a person. It was hardly an appropriate reflection in this situation, yet facing death, as her life flashed before her eyes, guilt was the emotion she chose.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah!"
But the fear laced with that sliver of guilt shattered at someone's desperate scream. From within the crimson flames, two figures charged Lee Han, one wielding a sword, the other twin daggers.
"You were still alive!"
"Go! Hurryyyyy!"
The scream sounded like a final flare of life. Yu Seong snapped back to her senses. Looking back, she saw one man clutching his left leg, collapsed, crimson flames flickering across the wound. In that state, he could not carry the shaman.
With no other choice, Yu Seong supported the shaman and Pigeon 4, fleeing the scene of the deadly struggle.
- Kwaang!
She kicked open the shabby iron door blocking the path between herself and her target. Relief at finally arriving washed over her, only to be replaced by horror at what she saw.
- Uh... ah.
- Mom, mom.
There sat a single large red gem. It glowed, illuminating the dark basement. There was no way not to see it. The horrific sight of humans stuffed into the rock-like gem. If a demon had taken up sculpting, perhaps this was what it would create. The thought circled endlessly in her mind.
"Yes, it is horrible. I know. I have done something demonic."
At Lee Han's voice from behind, Yu Seong whirled, thrusting her sword. But the sight of a human covered in severe burns made her stop unconsciously. The price was a direct hit from a dragon talon that flew from beside the burned man.
"Keuk!"
Yu Seong's body flew back, slamming into the human gem and tumbling across the floor. To make matters worse, she had struck her head hard against the energy-laden catalyst. Blood streamed from her nose.
"Haa. As expected, with my arm and even my fingers broken, the power is reduced... but since it's over, it doesn't matter."
Lee Han shook his crumpled hand and surveyed the area. The troublesome elf, despite the reduced power, had taken a direct dragon claw strike and could no longer control her body. The shaman looked as if he would die if left alone. What needed dealing with now were the black gat and cloak.
Lee Han's merciless kick sank into Pigeon 4's abdomen. He rolled just as pathetically but remained alive. Lee Han stood before him to deliver the finishing blow and claim victory.
"Killing you should secure my win."
"..."
Pigeon 4 glared silently at Lee Han. He knew. Even with the opponent injured, it was not a level he could affect.
"Yes, it's the end. But let me ask one thing. Just how did you create those people? Moreover, they are police officers, aren't they?"
"Hoo, did I not mention they were police?"
"Just... I recognized a face. Jo Ha-yeon."
His pain-blurred vision captured Jo Ha-yeon's face and arm embedded in the gem.
- Kill me.
"Heh."
She was begging to be killed. Whether the plea was directed at the pigeon, Lee Han, Yu Seong, or the shaman was unclear, but from what could be heard...
"I miss that. There was a time I begged a god as well."
Lee Han spoke with a smile mixed with mockery and bitterness. Just as he had once wailed, he had prayed and wept far more fiercely than that, yet what returned was only their ridicule.
"...Once the Great Work is complete, I will kill you as you wish."
But that was not what Jo Ha-yeon desired.
"Lie."
Yu Seong, collapsed on the floor, wiped blood from her nose and mouth and struggled to rise.
"It is the truth. After I achieve the Great Work, I will release them. After all, they will no longer be needed."
Lee Han was sincere. Having committed evil for the Great Work, once it succeeded there was no reason to keep them.
"Not you."
Yet Yu Seong drew a clear line. From the beginning, a third party's opinion had no place in their exchange.
"Jo Ha-yeon."
Yu Seong took her hand. Lee Han thought she was using it as leverage to stand, but after a moment realized she was simply holding it.
"As the proxy of Ha Dowol, I ask you. Please speak your honest wish."
Yu Seong gripped her hand tightly and looked into Jo Ha-yeon's eyes. She no longer possessed proper consciousness. She merely repeated the sentiment from the moment she had understood what would happen to her at the end.
But the one mediating the transaction was a ghost. If it judged she could not carry out the deal, it would also forcibly draw the answer out. And the ghost made her speak her deepest desire. Not as a mental scream born of the curse, but with her own mouth.
An intense golden light, like the first light of dawn, pierced the ceiling and descended.