Something's About to Go Wrong
KRAAAAAAAAH!!!
The roar shook the earth. An ordinary person would have fainted from the sound alone. Between the two of them, the light of life came down like driving sleet.
Skin prickled into gooseflesh. Pores that had opened snapped shut again, and the trickle of moisture that escaped screamed as it burned away.
A single emotion drove infinite life aside. The death in life-and-death was overwritten by hatred and evil.
Rain fell.
Storm clouds of hatred dumped their dregs, and life resisted. The earth broke and rotted; on that rotten earth, flowers and grass came back. Buildings screamed as they shattered, and vines were born across the wreckage.
A stench worse than volcanic sulfur, fouler than a rotting corpse, turned into the salt air of a sea wind.
They strained against each other. Neither could seize the advantage.
Two worlds coexisted in a single space.
The creator of the world of hatred, the half-man, half-dragon, hated Life's Guardian.
Dan Miryu met a hatred foul enough to make him retch, and he met it head-on.
FWOOOOSH!!!
Leaves of hatred harvested blood. Hatred drank down the blood sprayed into the air. Dan Miryu's clothes were soaked crimson in an instant, and still he did not move. Torn flesh had already knit itself whole from the moment it spat blood.
He reached out and touched the hatred seething before his eyes.
Hot. Like a fire that would burn forever.
Mending his hand in real time, Dan Miryu murmured.
"So this is your rage."
Still so young, and hatred this deep. He could not begin to measure it.
"Dan. Mir. Ryuuuuu."
The words broke, then dragged themselves back together. Dark crimson tears spilled from Dan Miryong's dragon eyes.
"I... can't... for... give youuuuu!!!"
BOOM!!!
Dan Miryong charged, stretching time thin behind him. Nails that had become a peerless blade raked across Dan Miryu and butchered him without mercy. An arm tore free. Soft organs spilled. His throat split as well.
A perfect fatal wound. One corpse, complete.
"I won't let you past."
But the corpse moved, as if time had been rewound, as if none of it had happened at all. Restored to what he had been, Dan Miryu seized both of Dan Miryong's arms.
"Until the people finish evacuating, you're going to have to play with me."
"You bastarddddd!!!"
Something coiled around his waist. Dan Miryong's tail. The scales stood on end, and their razor edges ground Dan Miryu's middle like a blender. His spine snapped. His organs became scraps of meat and slid free.
"Kh—!"
Even for Dan Miryu, the pain was immense. Recovering did not mean the pain went away.
"Evacuate the people? You dare!"
Crunch. Crunch.
The waist that had just healed was crushed all over again. Dan Miryu nearly dropped to one knee.
"When you killed Father, did you put on this same virtuous act...!"
"I never killed your father."
No. Was that even true?
Dan Miryu mocked himself inwardly. He had held life in his hands and still failed to save the man. In the end, perhaps standing by while he died amounted to the same thing.
"Liar...! That seat was supposed to be Father's...!"
The tail snapped, and Dan Miryu was flung into the air. He got his guard up. Dan Miryong's kick exploded into it.
THOOM!
The sound arrived late.
Setting his broken bones, Dan Miryu shoved aside the rubble that had poured down over his head. When he stood and looked ahead, buildings lay in a helpless row of collapse. He had punched straight through them on the way.
"The people?"
He looked to the civilians before he spared another thought for Dan Miryong. This neighborhood was near the high school his son attended—internet cafés, cram schools, restaurants, the sort of street people used constantly.
"...At least the evacuation seems finished."
No one had been caught in it. Dan Miryu pressed a hand to his chest in relief. There was no one in the fallen buildings either, so the evacuation appeared to be over...
"Wait. Not a single person?"
A commotion like this ought to have drawn some reaction, even from a distance. Now that he thought about it, the quiet was far too quiet. Seoul, a city of ten million, and not a soul anywhere?
"Don't tell me—!"
In the instant the realization struck him, a black line of heat came flying. He crossed both arms in a hurry. It was the flailing of a man stacking two pieces of straw. A hole opened dead center in his chest, and Dan Miryu seemed to be erased.
"Tsk."
Clicking his tongue, spitting blood, he decided to set the thought aside. If his guess was right, those three were safer than anyone.
For now.
"KRAAAAAAAAH!!!"
He had to do something about that dragon first.
"Another child of the Dan clan, you said. He's carrying something ill-omened in his chest."
Outside the barrier Hong Yumin had raised, Pele clicked her tongue.
"It's a power he can't handle. Leave him like that and it won't be long before it eats him."
"He chose the road himself. What can you do."
I chewed popcorn and made a suitably agreeable noise.
"You don't know anything?"
"Sorry, but I really don't. First time I've seen him."
I watched the dragon still grappling with Dan Miryu. Face, power, all of it—an alien character I had never seen in the original. A bizarre figure who wasn't even in the setting book. He might as well have dropped out of the sky.
Was he something that lived only in the author's head, or a person native to this world?
Judging by the background alone, he was the sort who could have appeared in the original with room to spare.
"...My disciple is fleeing well enough."
Hong Yumin watched Dan Chuyeon's movements. I glanced his way and found him running from the dragon's aura, vomiting as he went.
"Tsk. His years of training are short, and his spirit is wretched. When he returns, I ought to throw him into the sea."
Hong Yumin was frightening enough that even listening made my skin crawl. Perhaps because his future had just been decided, Dan Chuyeon nearly twisted an ankle mid-sprint and went down. Seeing it, Hong Yumin muttered something about skydiving.
"Might be better if he doesn't come back."
"Or we catch that thing."
Pele and I offered the same lukewarm opinion.
"...They do their family fights ugly."
Sword kneaded the grip of his greatsword and did not take his eyes off the battle.
"Mister Sword, what happened to the man who threw a tantrum about not wanting to come out? You're locked in now. Were you bored after all?"
—!!!
I flicked the slash aside with the back of my hand. The ground split five meters deep.
"You want to keep that up, this far from home?"
Pele knuckled me on the head. A lump the size of a goose egg rose on my skull.
"Tsk."
Sword clicked his tongue and turned his attention off me.
"He looks a little better, doesn't he?"
"Too soon to tell. We have to keep watching."
"Hah."
Having heard the whispering, Sword sighed and put several more steps between us.
A low thrum rolled through Hong Yumin's barrier. The space she had split off on its own began to ripple.
"Krrng. Krrng."
San-gun cried out, and the shaking barrier steadied.
"...Hm."
Hong Yumin touched her lips.
"Is it hard on you?"
"No trouble. Their battle is simply fierce. It startled me, nothing more."
She swept a hand and reinforced the barrier. The noise from inside eased, if only a little.
"Everything else is fine, but we ought to be ready for when that one goes berserk."
"From the feel of it, if he rampages, the barrier breaks. No question."
"He's that strong?"
"If he's going to handle Life's Guardian, he has to be."
"It will not break. Spare me your worry."
Pride pricked, Hong Yumin sent over a sour look. Pele waved it off.
"I only meant how it feels. Don't get so angry."
"...Very well."
The barrier strengthened further.
"Strange, though. How did that child come to be carrying a thing like that?"
"Ah. I think I know."
I pointed off to one side.
"Looks like a present my fan sent me."
"...What?"
Pele looked where I was pointing. Not only her. The others followed her gaze.
"There's nothing there...?"
"There is."
I spoke the name of the fan who had hidden himself so carefully.
"Another One. That's enough. Come out. Stay hidden, and you might get beaten to death."
Perhaps because the voice was colder than usual, the mood sank in an instant. No one took their eyes off my fingertip.
How long passed?
"...Hm."
With that short sound, Another One revealed himself, as if sketching a picture into empty air.
"I could hardly stay hidden out of shyness. I even sent a gift, and this is my welcome?"
"I never asked for a dragon."
"You dislike dragons? And here I sent something precious, for all it may not look it."
"Kanhel? Indombe? Quetzalcoatl?"
"Not a dragon god. I had him drive Balmung into his chest."
Another One said it as if it were nothing.
"That child is carrying Fafnir. An evil dragon fit to stand beside a divine beast."
"Wow."
I let the admiration out low. So the dragon fighting down there was Fafnir?
"Honestly... you sent something useless."
"I'll take the compliment."
Another One shrugged. I swallowed the sigh that wanted out and introduced him.
"Yes, well. As you can see, the one who calls himself my fan is named Another One. A man who sits, in his own way, in the seat of the mastermind."
"Look after me. I am the mastermind."
Another One gave a short bow. The greeting was cheerful enough, in its fashion. The mood did not loosen. If anything, it worsened.
Fire roared up.
"...What is that."
Pele leveled the Divine Spear, blood-tears running from her eyes.
"As I said a moment ago..."
"That is not what I am asking!!!"
Pele pointed the Divine Spear at Another One.
"That... that thing is not a living being..."
A goddess, after all. She seemed to have seen a great deal in him.
"Calm down. He didn't come to fight."
"A thing like that walking around in the open, and you say he didn't? Are you joking!"
"Pele."
I caught her by the shoulder.
"You can't win. Ignore him."
"You, right now—!"
"Pele."
I held her trembling body.
"It's all right. There won't be any problem."
"...Hah."
Pele swayed. Her skin was slick with sweat.
"Phantom."
The moment I had barely settled her, Another One called to me.
"What."
"What are you—"
Steel shrieked. Sword dragged his greatsword past my side. I wanted to stop him. It was no use. His eyes had rolled back.
"Uh... just don't kill him."
"I won't."
Foam at his mouth, Sword spoke.
"Where is Anastasia..."
"Where? At home."
Sword's breathing turned ragged.
"...Give Anastasia back."
"Can't. She doesn't want to."
"KRAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
The wraith swung the greatsword. The place where Another One had stood was sliced into dozens of pieces.
"I'll say it again."
"I know. I know."
Both hands in his pockets, Another One jerked his chin.
"Mind your strength."
"ANASTASIAAAAAA!!!"
The wraith howled his daughter's name.