Cheonseolhwa
Cheonseolhwa
Emul pulled back his hand, feeling a sense of frustration.
He had expected that mana control wouldn't go exactly as he wanted.
It poured out like a broken faucet, and he barely managed to shut it off just before mana exhaustion set in.
'I'll need to be careful for a while. But why is this mage always....'
Always getting hit? He wanted to ask, but sometimes silence is far more beneficial.
Just as Emul was thinking this and about to open his lips, Camellia, who had wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, bowed her head.
"......I apologize for showing you such a pathetic sight."
Emul shrugged and stared at her intently.
Tear tracks were stuck only on the left side of her face, where he had infused mana. Not a single drop had fallen from the other side.
'So, if the recovery rate increases excessively, it stimulates the tear ducts too.'
It almost affected her eyeballs, but fortunately, there didn't seem to be any abnormalities.
It wasn't exactly a useful result, but he had gained a new sample, at any rate. Even if he couldn't use it, it was better than not knowing.
Continuing his intellectual exploration, Emul stepped back due to the closeness and spoke.
"What's your business?"
"That......."
Camellia dragged out the end of her sentence and didn't open her mouth for a while.
Emul had already guessed to some extent why she had called him.
It must be a magic demonstration that couldn't be properly shared via a terminal. There was no other reason to drag someone to a place like this.
It was reasonable to assume that the urgency in her message was for that very reason.
This woman had a purpose clear enough to bet her fate on the creation of a nameless magic.
'That red droplet. What is it that makes her want to complete it so badly? Repulsion. Catalyst. Something hot enough to explode....'
As even Emul fell into deep thought, silence filled the abandoned warehouse for quite some time.
A moment later, as if he had realized something, Emul muttered without even glancing at Camellia.
"That magic from before. Show me again."
Camellia looked at him with a confused expression, but she obediently followed his request.
As she waved her delicate, slender hands, a red droplet manifested between the two of them in an instant.
Emul stared at the small but intense collection of mana, falling into a vortex of questions.
'Is this even magic?'
It wasn't just because it couldn't be stolen or because it had a red hue.
A suspicious energy lingered.
A sense of wrongness he hadn't discovered at all when they met in the sewer.
It was as if it were trying to clumsily imitate a power that wasn't magic——.
Emul's head turned at the strange presence felt from behind.
Kkigigigik.
The figure that appeared after pushing the iron door without hesitation pointed at Emul, who had his hand on his holster.
"Mana. Is it you?"
He couldn't see the features clearly due to the backlight, but the bright red eyes were glowing strangely.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Playing dumb, are you? Fine."
Having said that, the figure reached for the sword hilt.
The moment Emul naturally gripped his pistol.
Kkuuk-.
A weak force tugged at the hem of his coat.
Camellia, who had covered herself with a metal hood at some point, was sending a silent signal.
Was it possible that the two women were teaming up to eliminate him?
A faint delusion crossed Emul's mind, but no such intent could be read from the hand gripping his clothes.
Only the vibration of fingers trembling slightly as if in fear was transmitted.
That was why he didn't deploy a separate force field behind his back.
Still, he couldn't just stand there and watch the opponent draw their sword.
Emul aimed the pistol he had already drawn precisely at the intruder's glabella.
Kkirik. The trigger guard was pulled slightly.
At that, the pitch-black blade that had been pulled from the scabbard stopped halfway out.
"...Was I mistaken."
Chalkak. With a single word, the figure sheathed the sword and left leisurely, closing the iron door.
'What a crazy bitch.'
He thought about putting a bullet in the back of their head, but there was no need to create unnecessary friction.
He was fighting for survival, not because the struggle itself was the purpose of his life.
Emul averted his gaze and spoke without looking back.
"Do you know them?"
"...I don't know them."
"I see. For now, let go of that hand."
"...Ah."
Camellia jumped back in surprise and watched Emul's reaction.
The uninvited guest who had appeared out of nowhere by pushing open the iron door.
The pure white uniform and the patch on the arm were symbols of the Enforcer, who was in charge of public security in Academy City.
Leaving aside why such a person was wandering around the Outer Zone, she had to stop Zen-nim from killing a public official.
The Academy City government would hunt them down with fire in their eyes. That concern was why her hand had moved first.
Emul, who knew nothing of Camellia's thoughts, didn't dwell on the situation from a moment ago but instead fell back into the thoughts he hadn't been able to finish.
'The red droplet was a trace of clumsily imitating a power that wasn't magic. Magic, but not magic... now I finally get it.'
Just as Emul had implemented the Gunner's sniping skill as a combination of three spells.
The person who designed the red droplet had tried to cram something into the framework of magic.
"Camellia."
"Y-yes?"
"That magic. Did you make it from the start?"
Camellia gasped. She was flustered because he had suddenly called her name, but it was also because he had hit the nail on the head.
A flower that hadn't fully bloomed. That wasn't hers; it was a magic that was like a symbol of her family.
"...No."
"Then, is there anyone else besides you who uses that magic?"
"There... was."
Past tense. Now, there was no one left to show the results of that magic.
Records might remain, but they wouldn't be of much help.
It was a realm that could only be understood by those who had mastered abilities of other lineages, a new horizon opening up.
It could never be conveyed through text or video.
For something like that, the completeness of the magic was quite impressive. With that brief thought, Emul asked the most important question.
"The name?"
Magic is, in the end, the result of the caster's mental image being projected.
Just as Aero Bolt mimics air bullets and Haste mimics the electrical signals flowing through the body.
It is a desire to forge what one wishes from mana.
Only when that longing is fully contained in the name does the mana respond.
If an original existed, the magic name must also exist.
Camellia, who had been moving her lips, soon spoke as if repeating the word.
"...Full Bloom. Because the flower blooms fully, it's called Full Bloom."
Her shoulders heaved as she finished speaking.
It was because Emul was wearing a wry smile.
The moment the word 'Full Bloom' hit his ears.
Before he could even finish his thought, it was as if the scattered puzzle pieces were falling into place.
A single correct answer floated clearly in Emul's mind.
'Using mana like Qi. That was the core principle.... How very magical.'
This was the sensation of breaking through a complex maze in a single attempt.
His understanding of mana and Qi, which even he felt was bizarre, had meshed together to hand him the answer sheet.
'If it was going to be like this, I should have asked for the magic name when we first met... No, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out like this.'
If he hadn't been able to implement the Sniping skill as magic.
If he hadn't even had the chance to steal Qi from the Cyber Psycho.
He wouldn't even have been able to map out the tangled path leading to the answer in his head.
That was why Emul couldn't hide his sense of hollowness.
The process he had run through to survive was, ironically, also the process to complete this woman's magic.
He turned his body to face Camellia's face directly.
Her lips were slightly bitten as if she were nervous, and her eyes were wavering.
'To say she has talent isn't enough.'
To Emul, who had pierced through the reality of the magic, she looked like a once-in-a-generation genius.
The red droplet.
That seed was in a state just before revealing its flesh, leaving only the final shell.
Camellia, the mage, had been vaguely guessing the reality of magic just from the shadows flickering on the torchlight in a dark cave.
"Zen-nim. Actually, the deal...."
Emul muttered in a low voice.
"...Terrible. Truly terrible."
Camellia's silver-white eyebrows twitched. Soon, her long eyelashes trembled.
Emul continued without caring.
"A guy with a twisted mind left the blueprint."
"...Zen-nim?"
"Do you remember the deal conditions? We need to settle the score properly."
Watching Camellia, who had her mouth hanging open, he poured the energy remaining in the vessel.
Mana overflowed as if pouring from a bucket, as always.
'Doesn't matter. Because it's that kind of skill... no, it's magic.'
It required the total amount and output of mana to be backed up, and at the same time, it required an extraordinary understanding of specific techniques from martial arts classes.
There was no need for the magic to be combined, let alone anything else.
He just had to follow the blueprint of the magic Camellia had shown and operate mana as if handling Qi.
A terrible bait, as if presenting an unreachable goal to a mage.
That was why Emul couldn't look kindly upon the creator who had forged this magic.
Hwiing-.
The swirling wind gathered on his palm.
The coldness of mana, which had a different texture from the chill of winter, was compressed to the limit.
A densely condensed droplet revealed itself.
Up to this point, it was identical to the incomplete magic Camellia had shown.
Even so, she couldn't take her eyes off the red droplet floating in the air, her blue-violet eyes wide.
"Watch until the end. It's the fruit your efforts have bloomed."
Having finished his sincere request, Emul clenched his fist tightly.
He didn't fear the cold that pierced his skin and forced the mana in.
'I didn't need a catalyst. I just had to add more.'
He blocked what was trying to escape and forcibly pulled up what was trying to sink.
Resisting mana. The sensation of something cold and slippery trying to squirm between his fingers and escape.
The more it did, the harder Emul clenched his fist.
Jjeojeok-.
It cracked.
Jjeojeojeok—.
The shell of the seed that had looked like a droplet.
Paaaaaat——.
A strange blue-white radiance leaked through the gaps in his fingers.
The pale, transparent flash dispelled the darkness cast over the two men and women in the closed room.
The broken machines rattled and Camellia's hair fluttered in the storm-like wind.
But she didn't even move, entranced as she indulged in the brilliant spectacle.
Hook-.
The radiance and wind pressure disappeared as if the power had been cut.
As the rough airflow vanished in an instant, only the cheerful music of the casino street and the cheers of passersby could be heard from afar.
In the void, as if separated from the world.
The tightly closed bud began to rotate.
The petals opened and spread. Frost powder, as if starlight had been finely crushed, circled around it.
Then, a small fruit that couldn't even cover his palm formed.
Saaaa-.
An ice flower blooming faintly.
Unlike its bitterly cold appearance, the inside was clearly hot, despite being mana.
Emul looked at the Cheonseolhwa (Heavenly Snow Flower) that had fully bloomed on his palm and smiled with satisfaction.
Among the martial artist classes, Blooming Flowers Everywhere, which is specialized in the manifestation of Qi.
The only basic skill that the character uses as a main, and the only one adopted until the end due to its extraordinary performance.
And following Sniping, this was the second trick of melting another class's technique into the category of magic.
It would have been impossible if Camellia hadn't revealed the blueprint.
"It'll be hard, but if you practice, you can definitely...."
You can do it if it's you. Emul, who was about to encourage her like that, shut his mouth tightly.
Silver-white hair tinged with the faint blue light reflected from the ice flower.
The wet eyes beneath it blinked slowly, as if tracing the time she had passed.
"......Ah. Aaaa. Aaaaaa...!"
A desperate and deep wail, as if a massive dam that had been suppressed for a long time had collapsed.
At least this time, it wouldn't be because mana was stimulating her tear ducts.
He didn't know her circumstances, nor did he want to pry.
He didn't know any words of comfort to soothe her.
Emul just waited quietly, holding the Cheonseolhwa that was scattering brilliant cold air, until the crying of Camellia, who was kneeling on the floor and weeping like a child, ceased.