Toward the Second Tower (3)
I still wasn't sure why Hyunseok had made that face.
Granted, I'd kept shoving Pedro away because he was glued far too close for comfort—but was that really enough to earn a look that angry? If someone asked me that...
No. I didn't think so. Which was exactly why seeing a side of him so different from the smiling face he wore through everything else had caught me off guard.
Still, that expression didn't suit him. The goofy smile looked far better on Hyunseok than anything cold and fierce.
"Ahem."
I cleared my throat and slipped free of his arms. The savage, icy look from a moment ago melted away, replaced by the usual mix of dim-witted charm and sly mischief.
"Ah—sorry..."
"No, it's fine. Thanks for helping, actually."
I offered a soft smile with the words, and Hyunseok abruptly turned his face away. Through the curtain of his long hair, his ears had gone faintly red.
What is with him?
A harpy's cry pulled our eyes skyward. A swarm of them wheeled overhead, blackening the air.
"Should we wrap this up? Head straight for the tower, or take these things out first?"
Yeonseo rested a hand on her grimoire as she asked. I decided on the harpies.
"If we leave them, they might make it all the way to Seonyudo. Let's clear them out first!"
At my word, Hyunseok began winding wind around his body, readying a technique. Yeonseo, likewise, started calling out summons built for ranged combat.
"Um... what should I...?"
"You said you make threads, right?"
"Yes. I can adjust their strength, too. And pull out more than one at a time."
We were past Dangsan Station, in a stretch of officetels—not true high-rises, but still four or five stories each. The alleys between them were too narrow for a proper fight, but with Pedro's ability, that might actually work in our favor.
"String your threads between the buildings like a spiderweb. And make them elastic."
"Got it!"
Pedro's hands flew, spinning thread after thread. Wire that stretched like rubber yet held with the strength of steel. Leaving him to it, I drew Durandal and sprinted out.
"Yeonseo, cover Pedro and keep him safe!"
"On it!"
She summoned her ranged units—the Chaos Series—and, on top of that, the shield-bearing Big Dipper she'd shown us before, then dashed to Pedro's side.
Even if Pedro gets into trouble now, Yeonseo will be right there. He'll be fine.
I could have used a Flamberg to launch myself into the air the way I had last time, but Pedro's threads made that unnecessary.
Body reinforced with holy power, I kicked off a wall, caught one of his threads, stretched it taut, and let the elasticity fling me skyward.
"Whoa—this is incredible!"
My frame was small, so I didn't weigh much—but still, the threads had enough give and strength to hurl me into open air. Pedro's skill at crafting exactly what I'd asked for was impressive enough; the fact that it exceeded every expectation left me openly marveling. I shot up from below, and a startled harpy filled my vision.
It stared at me in shock. That was the last thing it ever did.
I took its head clean off, kicked off its falling body into a tumbling flip, conjured a Flamberg underfoot for a platform, and leapt again—straight at the next one.
It screeched and flung a storm of feathers to stop me. I spun the flaming blade, burned every feather to ash, and loosed the Flamberg itself. The sword punched dead-center into its forehead with a wet thunk, then detonated and blew the creature's head apart as I dropped.
Pedro's web waited below. The moment my weight hit the thread, the line that had been strung at the fourth floor sagged all the way to the second.
The elasticity and durability I'd already felt were extraordinary. I rocketed skyward again.
This rebound is surprisingly fun.
The sensation of my body becoming an arrow, shot clean through the air, was so exhilarating I felt my mouth curve into a full grin without meaning to.
Falling, I used Pedro's threads to launch. Aloft, I conjured Flambergs to step on or fire as projectiles, cutting harpies down one after another. How long that went on, I couldn't say.
Then the remaining swarm broke away from me and banked hard toward Hyunseok.
"W-wait! Don't you run!"
I tore after them, but the sky was their domain. They reached him first.
"Hyunseok!"
I spun out a dozen Flambergs at once and sent them into the harpies around him. Explosions bloomed; smoke and fire roared up together. Hyunseok saw it instantly and began shaping a sphere of wind in his palm.
"Absorb Twister."
Smoke and my flames alike were sucked into the sphere. In moments a burning orb, trailing black smoke, sat in his hand. What had started the size of a baseball swelled to the size of a basketball, and a wind of whirling ash unfurled around him.
The harpies sensed the danger, clustered, and tried to flee—only to freeze midair as if snagged on something invisible.
"Now!"
Pedro's shout rose from below. Fine, gleaming threads bound the harpies' wings, legs, and throats. Hyunseok hurled the sphere into the trapped flock. On contact it expanded without a sound, then erupted into light—a howling cyclone of fire and wind that consumed them whole.
I yanked Curtana free and closed the distance to Hyunseok, planting a protective sphere around us both as light and ash-laden wind tore past.
A shrieking rush of air. The smell of flesh cooking in flame.
"Whew. Been a while since I used that—takes it out of me. Haha!"
Hyunseok looked at me with a grin. I smiled back.
"That was amazing. Why didn't you show me a technique like that before?"
"Mm. For that, I need either the fire you make for me, Charlotte, or Yeonseok's ice nearby. And until now we haven't exactly been fighting this close together, have we?"
"Fair point."
The black smoke and ash that had blanketed the sky thinned and vanished. Of the harpy swarm, nothing remained.
"That was so cool! I want to use a technique like that too!"
Pedro seized Hyunseok's hand and pressed in close, eyes shining with pure admiration. Hyunseok broke into a light sweat, visibly flustered.
"H-hold on—Pedro...?"
"How did you even think to use Charlotte unnie's fire like that? Of course, watching Charlotte unnie bounce all over the place on my threads was incredible too, but that finishing move at the end was on another level! Oh—and Yeonseo unnie's summons were amazing! Do you have other ones besides those?!"
Pedro peeled off Hyunseok only to latch onto Yeonseo and me in turn, bouncing between the three of us without pause. His mouth showed no sign of stopping.
"Pedro, settle down and let's move. We're short on time if we want to reach the tower. We need to at least make the area around it before it gets too dark."
Only then did Pedro—still machine-gunning praise for the fight and gasping in awe at the same time—scratch his head and finally close his mouth.
"So, the National Assembly Building, right? Do you know the fastest way there from here?"
I'd lived in Seoul before crossing to the other world, but I'd been a shut-in even then—and the years spent over there had wiped whatever little I remembered. I looked between Hyunseok and Yeonseo as I asked.
"Head due east from this district and you'll run straight into it."
Yeonseo called out several Marcabs as she spoke.
"But neither Hyunseok nor I have been to that tower before, so once we get there we'll need to assess the situation and find a place to set camp."
"True. Even if we leave now, by the time we arrive and scout the surroundings it'll be getting dark."
We mounted Yeonseo's summons and set out for the tower at the National Assembly Building.
While Charlotte's party battled the harpy swarm, something waited at the tower on the National Assembly grounds—Han Jin-o, no longer anything resembling human, commanding a flock of harpies of his own.
"Grrrk... d...die... krrk..."
Of the six arms Charlotte had once severed, the middle left had already grown back. Over that regenerating body he now wore something like armor, cobbled together from whatever scraps the harpies had scavenged. It was no proper suit—mismatched materials, little better than rags—but the patchwork only made him more grotesque, more terrifying.
The harpies bowed their heads before him.
Where Charlotte had cut his wings, new growth had sprouted—vaster than before. What stood there now was something that might once have been called an angel. Only there was nothing sacred or graceful about it. Twisted, monstrous, it wore the shape of a demon that brought only dread.
And it was not finished. He slowly wrapped his arms around himself. Bone erupted from the spine along his back. Black fluid seeped from his wings. His face was hidden behind long, hanging hair, but where flesh still showed, it blackened and rotted by degrees.
How long that took, no one could say. Then the arms that had cradled him fell away, and a single beast unfurled wings of blackened steel—and a monster was born.