The Mother of Ill Omens Watches Me
The message appeared before my eyes the moment I met her gaze.
In Disaster Order, every 5-star disaster came with its own dedicated quest. Just like Selene and Mirien, the Mother of Ill Omens, Karne, had one too.
She joined your base while carrying a debuff. It was called the Curse of Ill Omens, a restriction that prevented you from learning any skills. If you didn’t gift her the unique item required to lift the debuff, Karne would be forced to rely solely on her unique skills instead of being able to use common ones. For someone whose strength lay in versatility, it was a massive handicap.
The item the quest demanded was a 5-star piece of equipment: the Source of Life. But the Karne standing before me in reality didn’t have it. Or rather… she did.
[Corrupted Equipment]
[The pure energy has been tainted by deep resentment]
The equipment I had once given her, the Source of Life, now sat in her arms bearing the Fallen tag. In other words, just like Asteria, the Queen Who Devoured the Stars, she had personally destroyed the gift I gave her.
That fact alone told me exactly how much resentment Karne held toward me.
“Karne.”
When I quietly called her name, she lifted her head and looked at me. Golden eyes with vertically slit pupils. In the pitch-black night, only those two eyes glowed with an eerily bright light.
“Actor, I have so many questions for you.”
Karne answered with a bitter smile. Fortunately, unlike Mirien, she still seemed to have enough sanity left to hold a conversation.
She spread her black wings wide and continued.
“Why you abandoned your immortal body and descended to a mortal existence. Why you moved your residence to this higher dimension. Where you left the territory you once ruled inside the original rift. There are so… so many things I want to know.”
The Karne who had once called herself Mother suddenly stopped speaking and shook her head.
“But… all of that is just meaningless small talk. There is only one thing I truly wish to ask.”
Karne looked straight into my eyes and spoke.
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Her every word carried such chilling emotion that it felt like ice water had been poured over me.
“…Karne, this is all a misunderstanding.”
As expected, she believed she had been abandoned. And she wasn’t entirely wrong. I had fired Selene, Mirien, and Asteria with my own hands. From what I’d heard, they all remembered the exact moment I dismissed them with painful clarity. Selene had fallen into despair. Mirien had refused to accept reality. And Karne… she resented me.
“I didn’t abandon you. It was unavoidable.”
Even as the overwhelming pressure threatened to crush me, I forced the words out.
“There was a reason for everything. Selene and Mirien both understood. I can’t explain the details, but I only…”
“Only?”
Karne leaned forward, cutting me off. The darkness gathered around her writhed violently, and her black wings twitched. In the silence, the cawing of crows slowly echoed through the air.
“Actor, my precious child. There is no need to struggle with lies.”
“…It’s not a lie…”
“I have already been betrayed twice. Once by the world, and once by the person I held dearer than the world itself.”
I didn’t need her to explain who the latter person was.
“This mother has a truly selfish nature. Once abandoned… I can no longer bring myself to believe.”
Being able to talk was not an advantage here. Karne was resenting me more rationally than anyone else. Continuing the conversation would only backfire.
“Actor, are you planning to wound this mother yet again?”
“…”
“In truth, I had intended to ask why you abandoned me, laced with resentment. But now that I stand before you… it feels like everything was my own fault.”
Karne smiled bitterly and wrapped her arms around her own shoulders.
“Once, this mother was the creator of all life. I gave birth, I nurtured, I loved.”
“So…”
“But I was abandoned. In the worst possible way. So miserably. So cruelly. My heart was pierced, my wings were torn off, and overnight I went from a sacred goddess to a filthy whore.”
Caw—!
Countless black wings flapped wildly. The familiars born from her body continued to cry out, as if sharing in their mother’s sorrow.
“Actor, I do not resent you. But to be betrayed twice and fall into such a pit… it must mean there is something wrong with this mother after all.”
Karne was tormenting herself. She gripped the Source of Life hanging from her chest with brutal force. Instead of the pure energy that should have flowed from it, ominous red liquid dripped down.
“My Lord.”
Selene, who had been silently listening, raised the Wedge Sword of Hellfire at an angle. She must have sensed something dangerous. Sure enough, Karne spread both arms with a mocking smile.
“Therefore… this inadequate mother will not blame her child.”
“Karne, just listen to me—!”
“It’s alright, Actor. I understand everything. So…”
The Mother of Ill Omens sings of ruin.
Fear the night.
At the same time, thick darkness scattered around Karne. The instant I was swallowed by the pitch-black void, a system message appeared before me.
You are entering the dungeon 「Nest of Ill Omens」.
Subdue the master of the dungeon and claim ownership.
“...You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The dungeon 「Nest of Ill Omens」 is a 5☆ dungeon!
She didn’t have a nest. Karne herself was the nest.
*
It was ten minutes later that the Chinese Awakened Alliance and Yu Junseo arrived at the First Refugee Camp.
Though it was called a refugee camp, it was practically a massive prison. The structure resembled a human tower built by stacking multiple floors of enormous enclosed grounds. Yu Junseo was horrified.
“...Fucking crazy chinks.”
In truth, whatever China was doing was none of Yu Junseo’s business. He had been dragged here against his will; he had zero intention of risking his life for China.
“Where the hell did that bastard Nam Juyeon go?”
Yu Junseo unconsciously shook his head to suppress the rising panic. Nam Juyeon had disappeared on the back of the Storm Dragon. At first he thought the guy had run away like some ninja. But then he reconsidered. There was no way the great Flame Emperor, an S-class Awakened like himself, would be abandoned!
“...Right?”
Yu Junseo wasn’t entirely convinced, but it felt better to comfort himself that way.
“Lord Yu Junseo, the wave is about to arrive.”
“...Yeah.”
A Chinese Awakened of Hua ancestry was looking at him with strangely expectant eyes. And she wasn’t the only one. Dozens—no, hundreds—of hopeful gazes bored into Yu Junseo’s back. It made sense. In the Chinese Awakened Alliance, Leihu was the only other S-class. Since Yu Junseo was also classified as S-class, they were naturally pinning their hopes on him.
“Jia you!”
Someone shouted in Chinese. A chorus of cheers erupted in response. As expected, Chinese really was a cursed language. It didn’t sound like the speech of civilized humans, more like the cries of primates. Whether it was “jia you” or “jia you jia you,” Yu Junseo felt like he was losing his mind.
“H-hmm. Well then… shall we show them what we can do?”
Still, Yu Junseo wasn’t strong enough to disappoint the expectations of so many people.
“T-they’re coming!”
After listening to the briefing, Yu Junseo looked up. A swarm of disasters that blotted out the sky. What he had been told would be several hundred thousand turned out to be at least several million.
“...This is bullshit. Seriously.”
With a tearful face, he summoned the Guardian of Scarlet Flames. This disaster, whose tanking ability was extremely enhanced, would serve as a reliable shield for the Chinese Awakened Alliance. If the defensive line showed even the slightest sign of collapsing, he planned to abandon everyone and run.
But Yu Junseo never got the chance to put that plan into action.
“Ugh!”
The Awakened groaned. Yu Junseo felt the same. A nauseating sensation that turned his stomach inside out. He had experienced this feeling before—when hunting the Storm Dragon Tempestra, and when entering the tower at Yeouido. In other words, this sensation meant…
You are entering the dungeon 「Nest of Ill Omens」.
Subdue the master of the dungeon and claim ownership.
The surroundings turned pitch black in an instant. The darkness that made it impossible to see even an inch ahead maximized the terror. Then came the chime.
The dungeon 「Nest of Ill Omens」 is a 5☆ dungeon! It does not match the level of Ruler ‘Yu Junseo’!
Immediate evacuation is strongly recommended!
The warning window that popped up was more than enough to send the Chinese Awakened into a panic. Shouts flew back and forth. He couldn’t understand the Chinese clearly, but if he had to summarize, it would probably be something like:
‘We’re fucked!’
Yu Junseo was so flustered he couldn’t endure it without thinking something equally stupid. His teeth chattered. Having faced the great disaster, the Singed Saint Selene twice before, he knew. A 5-star disaster could never be defeated. He had to run.
Yu Junseo spun around to flee, but an invisible barrier bounced him back.
“Shit!”
It seemed that once you entered the dungeon, leaving so easily was impossible. Was he going to die like this?
As that thought crossed his mind, a pure white vertical line was drawn before Yu Junseo’s eyes. But it wasn’t a line. It was a crack that had formed in the dungeon’s outer wall. Soon the crack spread horizontally with a loud ripping sound, revealing the outside scenery. Light leaked in through the gap.
“...M-Mr. Nam Juyeon! I knew you’d come!”
Yu Junseo shouted, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, but the person who entered through the gap was not Nam Juyeon.
Jet-black hair with a blue shimmer. Eyes that shone with a clear sky-blue light. A woman of such exotic beauty that anyone would gasp. However, Yu Junseo couldn’t calmly admire her face.
Because of the text floating above her head.
At the sight of it, Yu Junseo collapsed onto the ground. The great disaster, the Storm of the North Sea Mirien, glanced at him. Her face was heavily scrunched up. It was an expression barely holding back rage.
Mirien spoke to him.
“Where is that bitch?”
“...Th-that… bitch?”
“Never mind. Forget it.”
Mirien no longer paid any attention to Yu Junseo. She took one step forward.
"Space Leap."
⟨ Spatial Leap ⟩
She vanished from sight in an instant.
“...”
The moment he saw that, Yu Junseo could no longer hold back.
“Ah, ugh… fuck…”
The panic attack he had been barely suppressing finally erupted.