Toward the Second Tower (6)
A vast crimson dome stretched before our eyes.
Inside it, chaos reigned. At the dome's center a colossal whirlwind had formed, and before long it began devouring the flames, steadily claiming more and more of the space for itself. Each time the tornado's winds howled, flashes of light erupted within — black smoke bursting outward like fireworks, spawning explosion after explosion until the blasts seemed to chain together into one continuous detonation.
There was no question what was happening to the monsters trapped inside. They would be reduced to ash by the firestorm, or shattered to pieces by the force of the blasts.
And only then did the girl inside come back to me.
"Cha… Charlotte?! Where is Charlotte?!"
I pressed my hand against the membrane of the dome and yanked it back at once — the heat was searing. Looking down, I found my palm already flushed an angry red, as if burned.
"Are you all right?"
Yeonseo quickly conjured a small piece of ice and pressed it into my hand, her eyes full of concern.
"Honestly… I'm so worried about Charlotte I don't know what to do."
"Don't worry. The fact that this barrier still exists means Charlotte is still alive."
Yeonseo kept her gaze fixed on the interior of the dome, still thrashing with whirlwinds and explosions. Her expression looked calm enough, but both her hands were clenched tight in the fabric of her clothes, trembling.
She was worried too, of course. Charlotte was a friend she had found only after the world had changed like this.
Beside us, Pedro had already sunk to the ground, staring blankly toward where Charlotte was, his face utterly lost.
"Pedro, are you okay?"
"Huh?! Oh — yes. I just… I never thought it would come to this."
"Neither did I. But like Yeonseo said, as long as this barrier is still standing, we have to believe Charlotte is all right. Come on. Let's head down and wait for her."
"Right now, the only thing we can do is trust her and wait."
So I waited — praying she would come through unharmed, and doing my best to ignore the knife-twisting pain in my chest.
It was hot. The air, the ground, the clothes on my back — everything burned.
I had expanded the barrier as fast as I could so that Hyeonseok's group and the National Assembly Building wouldn't be damaged, but looking at my situation now, I had to wonder if that had been a little too ambitious.
Every time the superheated air passed through my lungs, it felt as though my body itself were being cooked. I wrapped myself in the pain and kept healing with holy power, over and over.
"Ghk… ah… kuh… haah…"
How many times had I repeated it? I couldn't even open my eyes against the heat. In the darkness, the roar of violent wind and the endless string of explosions left my ears ringing with tinnitus.
In that unending hell, my will grew weaker by the moment.
I could hear nothing. I could see nothing. Even trying to breathe was agony — the heat made the simple act of drawing air a torment.
I knew I couldn't hold on much longer, but no solution came to me. And then —
I heard Hyeonseok's voice, as if he were calling my name.
It might have been a hallucination. The whirlwind still raged, swallowing flame, and the chain-reaction explosions still thundered on without end.
But his voice kept rising in my fading heart, kindling something there. Slowly I opened my eyes, and the world began to take shape again. My ears, muffled by the ringing, started to clear.
"Hoo… hoo… sss… haah."
Even breathing no longer hurt.
I looked around, trying to understand what had happened, and found that another domain had formed — different from the one I had raised to contain the whirlwind and the blasts.
At the same time, a familiar headache pressed into my skull as something etched itself into my mind, and a single word rose with it.
Brittany.
That was the name of the domain Curtana had created all this time.
I had no idea why a power that had been locked away inside Curtana had been released now — but thanks to it, I had survived this chaos.
The heat and the explosions were dying down. I could no longer sense any monsters. Which meant every last beast around the National Assembly Building had been purged.
It was still too dangerous to drop the barrier entirely, so I held Brittany in place and began assessing the surroundings.
"Han Jin-o? What happened to Han Jin-o?"
I spread my holy power outward, searching for the presence of the evil god's energy. What I found was faint — vanishingly faint. He must have taken serious damage as well.
I waited a while longer. When the whirlwind and the explosions finally ceased, I released Brittany.
"Hoo… cough, cough. Ugh, the ash still makes it hard to breathe. But it's finally over."
I started toward the faint trace of Han Jin-o — and a voice called my name from behind.
"Charlotte!!! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!"
I turned, and Hyeonseok threw his arms around me, crying out in relief, tears streaming down his face. I had meant to push him away — but instead my hands settled against his back and held him.
"I'm fine, so don't make that face. You'll make me feel guilty."
And so the horde of monsters that had nested in the National Assembly Building was cleanly purged. All that remained now was Han Jin-o, transformed into a monster, and the two towers still waiting to be conquered.
And the two of us, holding each other in front of it all.
After Hyeonseok and I had found each other and shared that warmth, I sensed someone approaching and shoved him away at once — but it was already too late.
"Too late~"
Yeonseo waved a photo in her hand, her half-lidded eyes flying wide as she grinned. The warmth I had felt a moment ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a flush of pure embarrassment that set my whole body burning.
"Haa… just you… wait…! I'll do the exact same thing to you…!"
"Heehee! Go ahead and try your hardest~"
Hyeonseok and Pedro broke into open laughter at the two of us, then began surveying the area.
"Charlotte — so what happened to Han Jin-o?"
Hyeonseok asked as he looked around, bringing up the man we had been hunting.
"It's over. He's not completely dead, but he won't be moving. Hmm… yes, that direction should do it."
We set off toward where Han Jin-o lay. What we found was a figure whose wings had melted away, whose limbs were charred, whose face was twisted beyond recognition by burns.
"Uh… uh… er…"
As we drew near he tried to move his mouth, as if to speak — and then crumbled into dust. What fell in his place was not the usual purple magic stone, but one black as ink, as though painted over with tar.
Hyeonseok reached for it. I slapped his hand away the instant I felt the evil god's energy radiating from it, and picked it up myself.
"Don't touch that! Ngh…?!"
The moment my fingers closed around the black magic stone, the evil god's energy surged into my body and began to swallow me whole.
"Hhk…! Haah…!"
"Charlotte?!"
Hyeonseok tried to reach for me, but I shook my head and stopped him. Looking at the three of them — all wearing the same worried expression — I managed:
"I'm… fine…! Just give me a moment…!"
I spun my holy power as fast as I could, trying to cancel out the evil god's energy — and then a scene began to rise in my mind.
"Hey! Leave the girl and get out of here!"
"Don't be ridiculous! Abandon my own daughter? That's insane!"
"D-Dad…!"
This is…? Han Jin-o's memory…?
A confrontation unfolded. Han Jin-o drove his weapon through the belly of the man protecting the girl in front of him — and the scene seemed ready to end there.
Then the image stuttered and glitched. The positions of the man and the girl swapped. It was no longer the man who was run through, but the girl — and on that reversed image, the memory cut out.
What… was that just now…?!
I was certain the man had been Uncle Dusik. So why, at the very end, had it been his daughter who took Han Jin-o's attack instead of him? It made no sense.
But there had to be a reason I had been shown that scene. I was still turning it over when a sensation of someone shaking me yanked my consciousness back to reality.
"Charlotte? Are you okay? Answer me."
Hyeonseok was shaking my shoulders, with Yeonseo and Pedro looking on beside him.
"I'm fine. I just saw a memory sealed inside this magic stone. I don't know what it means yet. Ah — and Pedro. Take this."
What I handed him was the magic stone that only moments ago had held a pitch-black light.
The evil god's energy was gone now. In its place, my own holy power filled the stone.
"Th-this is…? Isn't this the magic stone from before? Why did the color…?"
"I purified it. So don't worry — take it to your uncle and shatter it beside him. The holy power inside will come out and break his curse."
Pedro bowed his head again and again, pouring out his thanks.
"Thank you so much!"
"Haha, enough of that — go to your uncle already. Yeonseo, Hyeonseok — you two go with him."
"What about you?"
Yeonseo tilted her head, puzzled.
"I'm going to rest in the tent for a bit. There aren't any threats left now anyway."
"Really? But if we go, we won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest."
"Don't worry about me. Just go. You too, Hyeonseok."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?"
"Yes! Come on, hurry!"
I shoved Hyeonseok's back as he stood there looking anxious, urging them to get moving.
Yeonseo had already summoned her creature and climbed on with Pedro. Hyeonseok mounted as well, still looking back at me.
"Are you really okay? Do I even need to go? You're exhausted — I should stay and help with something, anything…"
"Ah! I told you I'm fine! Just go already. You need to break Mr. Vincent's curse as soon as possible!"
Only then did he nod. A moment later, they vanished from sight in a rush of speed.
"Hoo… they… finally left… hhk…"
I dragged my exhausted body back to the tent, locked the entrance behind me, and sank to the floor.
Why had I sent them both away…?
Because the things I was about to do… were things I couldn't let either of them see.