The Mother's Call
The ruins lay submerged in a cold silence. Black feathers of ill omen drifted gently down onto the ashen twilight. Above the blackened city, Karne, the Mother of Ill Omens, drew a shallow breath. Decay and the stench of plague hung everywhere. The reek of death. Crows cried out. Her familiars.
She looked down at the ground. A corpse that had caught her foot was frozen in a posture of prayer.
“…Prayer, was it? To whom did you pray?”
She asked, but of course the corpse gave no answer. Karne smiled bitterly and moved on.
“I prayed once too.”
A distant memory surfaced. Karne had prayed the same way. She had wished for her children’s salvation and offered them boundless mercy. Yet what had come of it?
“…”
Karne slowly knelt and placed her hand upon the pile of corpses. Black energy rose from her fingertips.
5★ Mother of Ill Omens Karne casts the skill 「Mother’s Call」.
Spreading the black wings at her waist, she chanted the incantation. Corpses scattered across the ground twisted together and rose as new familiars. What was created was both desecration and blasphemy, yet at the same time a new kind of sanctity.
5★ Mother of Ill Omens Karne has successfully synthesized 3★ Black Resonance.
Her unique skill, Mother’s Call. The ability to create her own familiars. The price was countless disasters—or lives. It was a power she could not use in the peaceful core of Actor’s rift, but things were different now. Karne stood in a new dimension, one overflowing with life. Harvesting them to forge new familiars was no difficult task. It was something she had done countless times before.
Thus, the army of ill omens under Karne’s command had already grown large enough to blanket an entire mountain.
“…Hmm.”
Just as she finished creating a familiar and rose to her feet, her sharpened senses caught a gaze. The sharp eyes of a storm.
5★ Storm of the North Sea Mirien is observing 5★ Mother of Ill Omens Karne.
5★ Mother of Ill Omens Karne has seen through the skill 「Eye of the Storm」.
“…The little whelp is doing something unnecessary.”
When it came to tracking and detection skills, Karne held the advantage. She turned her gaze due east, a faint smile on her lips. The Storm of the North Sea, Mirien, hurriedly recalled her familiar. But it was already too late. Karne had confirmed that her former child, Actor, was in that direction. Given the Ruler Actor’s personality, he would surely come to meet her. In that case, all Karne had to do was wait. With her newly created children at her side. Waiting for the ruin that would soon follow.
“Isn’t that right, Lungyan?”
At Karne’s call, the living corpse merely blinked. Lined up around her were Awakened who had once been human. Soon, the tide of ill omens would sweep forth.
*
The position of Director of the Awakened Management Bureau was one that inevitably clashed with government officials. In that sense, Yu Junseo’s sole role and reason for existence as the bureau’s figurehead was to stand firm and face them down. Just like now.
“What the hell happened here?!”
The Prime Minister slammed the report onto the desk and shouted. “Two hundred civilian casualties! Two hundred! This is a disaster!”
“…It really couldn’t be helped, sir.”
Unlike the previous eruption, the fourth one had resulted in civilian deaths. It couldn’t be helped. The number of disasters that had erupted was simply incomparable, and the dungeon eruption in Yeouido two weeks earlier had been catastrophic.
“I told you. Awakened aren’t heroes just because they’re Awakened. We did our best. Can’t we just frame it as ‘it couldn’t be helped’?”
Yu Junseo voiced his grievance. The Prime Minister’s face flushed red regardless. Yu Junseo himself had plenty of complaints. They had done everything they could. The scale of the eruption had simply been too large. Even among the Awakened, the casualties had been severe. The dedicated hospital ward was already full, and there was nowhere left to transfer the critically injured.
“Compared to other countries, we’re practically saints here. If nagging could fix this, America would have normalized ages ago.”
Yu Junseo’s words were perfectly reasonable, but in the political arena they were utterly useless.
“What did you just say? We gave you a high position and now you’re talking back?!”
The Prime Minister erupted in fury. Yu Junseo let it go in one ear and out the other. To summarize: ‘A government-funded organization… talking back?!’ Since the funding came from the government, this outcome was inevitable. Yu Junseo’s face twisted. He scratched the back of his head and offered an excuse rather than an explanation.
“I’m telling you, it couldn’t be helped. Please try to understand our situation.”
Perhaps because his mood had soured, his speech slipped into informal tones.
“If you’re so upset, have the President come himself. While his brain is holed up in a bunker living the high life. The budget’s tiny, the military barely helps, and you still expect more?”
“…What? The military? Do you even know what you’re saying when the front lines are barely holding against North Korea?!”
“What meaning does a divided nation have in this mess?”
Yu Junseo sighed. The conversation kept circling. The government side gave up first. The Prime Minister muttered with a scowl.
“This is why we shouldn’t have put someone from the private sector in charge. Tch.”
“What? Has your son even finished his military service? You can find all that on Keumwiwiki.”
Yu Junseo might have been an ordinary citizen, but he wasn’t weak-willed. Nor was he particularly patriotic. He was certainly no saint who would meekly accept abuse with a “Yes, sir.”
“Wasn’t the real problem that the authorities failed to control the civilians properly in the first place?”
“What?”
“I mean, think about it. The Awakened Management Bureau doesn’t even have the capacity to stop the disasters pouring out of the eruptions. Civilian evacuation and control should be your job. I don’t know why you’re getting angry at us.”
Yu Junseo knew this entire farce was just a show to create an excuse for the public. But what could he do? He had things to say.
“You.”
The Prime Minister, who had been listening in silence, pointed a finger.
“If this continues, we’ll have no choice but to reclaim full authority over the Management Bureau from the executive branch.”
“Ha. So now it’s budget cuts and suspension? What a joke.”
“A joke? Did you just call this a joke?”
Voices rose. Yu Junseo was on the verge of losing his mind from frustration. The argument was about to escalate further when—
“…E-Excuse me…”
A bureau employee rushed into the conference room.
“Can’t you see we’re in the middle of a meeting?!”
“Ah, no… I’m sorry. But this is extremely urgent…”
“Speak.”
Yu Junseo gestured with his chin, and the employee cautiously opened his mouth.
“…S-class Awakened Nam Juyeon just made contact with a Chinese scout a moment ago…”
“…”
Yu Junseo blinked several times after hearing the report. Then he met the Prime Minister’s eyes.
“Shit, why didn’t you contact us?!”
“…Find him immediately!”
They spoke in unison.
*
“Actor, that bitch Karne saw me.”
The moment Mirien returned to the base after hearing the full story from the Chinese scout, she spoke.
“She was making familiars. Already hundreds of them.”
“…”
The suspicion had become reality. Karne’s unique skill, Mother’s Call. Classified as a unique-grade skill alongside Selene’s Holy Flame Brand and Mirien’s Thunderstorm, it was one of the most peculiar skills in Disaster Order, capable of synthesizing 3-star disasters with certainty.
Of course, in the game it had been treated as a nuisance. Consuming an enormous number of disasters just to create mediocre 3-stars wasn’t particularly useful. But now that reality had become the game, things were different. Juyeon finally understood why Karne had settled in China. A large population meant an abundance of materials for creating familiars.
It was time to come up with countermeasures. However…
“…However, My Lord…”
“What.”
“There were observers.”
“I know.”
I took out my phone. Countless missed calls. Most were from the Management Bureau’s number, with a few personal numbers mixed in, but aside from Yu Junseo’s, they were all unknown. Just as Selene had said, it seemed there had been surveillance.
“…Since the bureau is calling, I suppose I’ll have to show up for now.”
“If they attempt to harm My Lord in any way…”
“Selene, don’t worry.”
I shrugged at Selene.
“I’ve more or less figured out what stance I need to take in this fucked-up world.”
“…What do you mean by that…”
“By the way, Selene, lend me something.”
Selene tilted her head at my words.
*
“This is a serious problem, Nam Juyeon-ssi. No matter how much of an S-class Awakened you are, you’ve crossed the line this time.”
The moment I entered the Management Bureau building, a suited government official approached and started berating me. He looked to be in his fifties, and I vaguely recognized his face from before the world ended, during the general election. I half-listened to his words as I walked. Eventually, I entered the conference room where Yu Junseo and other high-ranking government officials were seated. The moment I appeared, they all stood up and began spouting their lines.
“Nam Juyeon-ssi! What exactly happened?!”
“You’re not unaware of domestic security regulations, yet you contacted a foreign scout without any report? How are we supposed to interpret this?”
“What were you thinking, meeting with China’s scout alone? Did you naively believe you could just ‘exchange information’? Do you really think they would have met you without an agenda?”
“Be honest with us. Did China offer you something? Some condition we don’t know about?”
Most of it was accusatory. It was absurd. As if I were the one at fault.
“…Hah.”
Faced with the exact situation I had expected, I glanced at Yu Junseo standing awkwardly to the side. Our eyes met, and he quickly clasped his hands together in apology, making sure no one else saw. I didn’t react and looked straight ahead.
“S-class Awakened Nam Juyeon! Answer the questions immediately!”
It felt like a hearing. In truth, their intentions weren’t much different. They wanted to pressure me into submission and grill me. Already troubled enough, why were these pathetic people so desperate to tear me apart?
“First, let me say one thing…”
If I backed down here, I’d be no better than third-rate. And I had to become first-rate.
“All of you, shut up.”
Everyone froze at my words. There was no reason to watch my tone. So I decided to go on the offensive.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“H-Huh?”
I grabbed the collar of the first person who caught my eye. It was the congressman who had escorted me here from the bureau entrance. I was confident in my strength. I was a young, fit twenty-something, and he was a fifty-something old man. Even if I weren’t confident, it wouldn’t matter. I had come wearing sturdy sneakers.
Thud!
I kicked his shin with all my might. After military service, I had a knack for joint locks, and the congressman groaned, hopping on one foot after being kicked in the shin. I grabbed his hair and slammed his head onto the desk.
Crack!
A dull sound echoed. The congressman slid down and collapsed. Red bloodstains and broken tooth fragments remained on the desk.
“…So.”
Only silence filled the conference room.
“I’m going to do whatever I want. What business is it of yours?”
Now this felt a little better.