#45 Dark Clouds (暗雲) (2)
#45 Dark Clouds (暗雲) (2)
The one in the mouthless mask gave a calm nod. The man in Gapju, wreathed in blue flames, silently shook out his arm. The severed head rolled across the ground for a long moment until it touched his feet, and the giant Armored Monstrous Figure draped in a robe snorted a heavy breath.
"———!"
The Armored Monstrous Figure let out a monstrous howl and snatched up the fallen head, gripping it by the horns that jutted from either side and prying them apart until the head tore in two with a wretched sound. Even then, as if unsatisfied, as if the boiling rage in his blood had yet to cool, he screamed like a beast.
"——————!"
While the Armored Monstrous Figure howled, the mask and Gapju looked at each other.
"————? ———."
"Nothing changes. It's merely..."
"——————? ————."
The mask had seemed to be asking something, then shook his head as if deciding it was pointless and reached his arm into the open dimensional rift. As though gripping and twisting something, or tearing through something. He fiddled with the rift for a moment.
"————."
Before long, the dimensional rift split into two. The mask pointed at the torn rift and entered with the Armored Monstrous Figure. Gapju glanced back at the plaza for a moment, then turned away and stretched his hand toward the dimensional rift the mask had not entered.
—And soon, nothing remained in the blood-and-flesh-fouled plaza but the Mountain Goat's severed head, split now into two pieces.
***
The moment I hauled myself onto land, I shook myself off violently. Perry, once again looking like a drowned rat, threw a tantrum.
"Kyu! Kyukyukyu!"
I stroked the irritable little creature to soothe her, calming her down even as she smacked her tail against me in a sulk, then expanded my Perception to scan for presences. There were barely any monsters left... It looked like the clearing of Area 1 was nearly finished.
'...It still seems to be proceeding smoothly.'
I had spotted Eun Ja-rim while crossing the river earlier. I had the entire Neverland raid strategy committed to memory, so I could tell, nine times out of ten, that the group she was leading had been the Rear Unit.
'Their numbers really are thin.'
The presences I felt from the Rear Unit and the Main Force combined came to around 200. That was hardly a small number when you considered that every single one of them was an exceptional hunter, but it was honestly rather meager for a force sent to conquer Neverland.
'And there don't appear to be any Squares, either...'
On top of that, no sign of Go-won... When the commander of the Raid Force, having just finished clearing Area 1, delivered a short briefing, the content of it left me bewildered.
'They're not going to Section 3?'
They had clearly stated their objective was to clear up to Section 2. But that only deepened the question.
'Then what causes the annihilation?'
The only possibility would be the Section 2 Boss, but even that seemed unlikely. They would know about the Section 2 Boss as well, wouldn't they...?
"......!"
Then I felt it—someone's presence, far across the river in this vast, sprawling jungle. More than anything, when I saw the dark clouds gathering, I couldn't stop my eyes from snapping wide open.
'...How?'
Right up until I crossed the river from Area 2, I had felt absolutely nothing. It was as if they had appeared out of thin air...
'Like me...!'
The dimensional rift had been torn open by the Executioner's strike, and I had been dropped into Area 2 because of it. In my case, it had been completely unexpected, something that happened by pure chance.
'But if it's him?'
Chimmuk-haneun Ip. If it were him, I wouldn't find it the least bit strange that he could deliberately manipulate the direction and coordinates of his fall after tearing through a dimensional rift. No, he could most certainly do it.
'Damn it.'
Outside interference—it wasn't that I hadn't considered it at all. I'd had a nagging feeling. But even if that were the case, I had assumed they would appear at the entrance. I had never imagined they would drop into Area 2, the same way I had. Most of all—Neverland. I had thought there was no way anyone could breach this ultimate Malice dungeon so easily, but—the fact that I had done it meant there was absolutely no guarantee they couldn't. I had realized that far too late.
[Lv.30 Achievement Condition: Prevent the annihilation of the Neverland Raid Force]
—Which meant the Raid Force's annihilation wasn't going to be caused by Neverland itself. The Wolf didn't hesitate. I plunged straight into the river. Praying I wasn't too late.
***
The great river connecting Area 1 and Area 2—when the party finally crossed and set foot in Area 2, Okyeon's Lord, Kim Joo-seop, tilted his head.
"...Strange, isn't it?"
Eun Ja-rim, who had just disembarked from the raft, nodded in agreement.
"It is. It's unusually sparse."
She didn't know how or why, but the monster presences detectable in Area 2 were oddly few. As if someone had swept through and cleared them out. What's more, the stench of blood hung thick everywhere. Intense enough to sting the nostrils even without channeling any mana.
"...What in the world is going on?"
Kim Joo-seop let out a low murmur. There had been monsters in the river too, and they had been too busy staying alert to the waters beneath them to pay attention to Area 2. Now that they had finally landed, the situation in Area 2 was anything but normal. It looked as though something had carried out a massacre.
"Could the Boss have run rampant?"
Kim Joo-seop speculated, but Eun Ja-rim shook her head.
"...I'm not sure. But..."
In the past fifteen years, nothing like that had ever happened. The Section 2 Boss, unless a frenzy was triggered, would not move unless someone woke it. —Did that mean someone had entered ahead of them and woken the Section 2 Boss? That didn't make sense either. The Raid Force had been waiting on standby and entered the moment Neverland's gates opened. There was no way anyone could have preceded them. And more than anything, this ominous, ever-intensifying dread... what in the world...
'Is this really the Section 2 Boss...?'
Eun Ja-rim, now enveloped in an inexplicable foreboding, bit her lip.
"...Let's proceed for now. We can't afford to delay any longer."
The Main Force would finish clearing Area 1 and cross into Area 2 soon. They needed to clear the entrance to Area 2 and set up a Base Camp before they arrived. Now that things had turned out this way, there was no need to bother clearing out the monsters at the entrance. They just needed to find a suitable spot and set up Base Camp. In a way, the job had gotten easier.
"Well, good is good, right? I don't know why, but..."
Kim Joo-seop's voice trailed off, and he froze stiff. Eun Ja-rim and Kim Joo-seop locked eyes. The moment both of them swallowed hard, the ground began to rumble.
"......!"
The ominous feeling Eun Ja-rim had sensed was no illusion. Her prediction was dead on. Before long, a massive Armored Monstrous Figure draped in a blood-soaked robe revealed itself before them.
—And above their heads, dense dark clouds began to spread.
***
"What the hell kind of dogshit situation is this?"
They had just finished clearing the entirety of Area 1 and were taking a brief rest when Kang Tae-ho looked up at the sky and scowled.
"Old-timer. You ever hear of dark clouds forming over Section 2?"
"...No. And more importantly, that's—"
Baek Gun-tae unfolded the map they had been drafting on the spot and furrowed his brow. Kang Tae-ho likewise let out a heavy murmur.
"......That's the direction the Rear Unit is in."
It was clearly near where the Rear Unit was supposed to be clearing the entrance and setting up Base Camp. —The dark clouds gathering there, enough to send a tingling chill even from this distance, carried hideous magical power within them. No, it wasn't that they carried hideous magical power...
"The clouds themselves are magic."
It had to be someone who wielded lightning—someone, in one way or another, connected to Yellow Square. But why would a Square be here? No, the bigger question was how they had managed to reach Area 2 before the Raid Force. The hunters who had also seen the dark clouds began to buzz with growing agitation. Gu Jin-ha's expression hardened.
'Damn it.'
Others might not know, but Gu Jin-ha knew with absolute certainty. Deokjeok Island—the calamity that had unfolded there. The countless flesh masses he had fought, and the faceless mask. Gu Jin-ha, who had fought 'Chimmuk-haneun Ip' directly, knew.
'...It's him.'
There was no mistaking this overwhelming magical power. A mage who wielded lightning—he found it hard to believe there could be another monster like this among the turncoats.
[Yes. He was annihilated. I too once thought I had killed Chimmuk-haneun Ip. Three times, in fact.]
[The only executives I've managed to kill so far are two. But Chimmuk-haneun Ip is different. He, and he alone, keeps coming back, time and time again.]
—Gwanghwi's words had not been a lie. Chimmuk-haneun Ip had returned once more. Gu Jin-ha approached Kang Tae-ho and Baek Gun-tae, and after checking that no other Raid Force members were within earshot, he gave them a suitably abridged version of the story, leaving out the parts involving Go-won and the Prodigal Sons.
"...Fuck. I did hear reports about that."
Kang Tae-ho, who had already received a full briefing on the matter, grimaced and scratched the back of his head.
"At the very least, it means Chimmuk-haneun Ip, one of their executives, is here. So—"
"So the bastards who just attacked us are this organization called the 'Prodigal Sons'?"
Baek Gun-tae summarized, and Gu Jin-ha nodded.
"...Hah! This is absolutely insane."
Merely containing Neverland was difficult enough, and now a shadowy organization was running rampant inside. Baek Gun-tae let out a deep sigh. If anyone else had told him this, he would have doubted the information's reliability, but there was no way Dawn's Three Swordsman would spout nonsense. More than that, Kang Tae-ho was nodding along with a grim expression... Baek Gun-tae raised his voice and shouted.
"From this moment, the Raid Force's objective is changed! We move with top priority to link up with the Rear Unit—no, to rescue them! Begin the river crossing immediately, right now!"
And so, the Raid Force launched their rafts at once. A little ahead of them, Lee Eun-ha, who had sensed the presence earlier, clutched her throbbing head and muttered to herself.
"...That can't be..."
As if she couldn't believe it, her eyes were trembling faintly. She kept repeating the words over and over. That can't be.
***
"Vin nori negri—"
As the mask began his incantation, the dark clouds slowly descended. The Armored Monstrous Figure roared in savage excitement at the sight of the world darkening around him. Finally. The time had come at last. He snorted out heavy breaths and boiled with irrepressible desire until his true nature broke free.
"UOOOOOOOH———!"
Draped in his tattered, multi-meter-long robe caked in blood and flesh, he sprinted forward as if he could no longer contain himself, each footfall making the ground quake.
"Este voia lui Dumnezeu, moartea ta."
Already wreathed in yellow magical power, the mask looked down upon the cliff and carried on with his incantation. The Armored Monstrous Figure had already revealed itself before the Rear Unit and was continuing its butchery. A merciless slaughter—watching the Rear Unit being massacred by an unstoppable force, the mask calmly continued his incantation.
"Judecățile cerului aduc tăcerea—"
Lightning began to flicker within the hanging dark clouds. A 5-section spell—the incantation would soon be complete and descend upon the Rear Unit. The immense magical power emanating from him began to take shape. —The mask twisted the corners of his lips as he watched the Rear Unit struggling desperately against the Armored Monstrous Figure.
In the end, it was all a useless struggle. Death was inescapable. Once this spell was complete, they would all perish anyway.
—And so, the mask failed to notice.
How, somewhere in the darkness, black embers had begun to rise.