And the Dragon Descended
Maybe it was because I'd rolled around so much I'd completely forgotten the paralytic poison was still in my system. By the time I came back to my senses, I truly couldn't muster the strength to twitch a single finger. My mana reserves, nearly scraped down to the dregs, were in comparatively better shape — that's how bad it was.
Yeeun was in the same boat.
Had they used some kind of anesthetic when they kidnapped her? Watching her crawl toward me across the floor in a clumsy, lurching crawl, a laugh escaped me despite myself. Her abilities, after all, were perfectly intact. It wasn't that Yeeun was an idiot for not using them — it was a precaution. Just moments ago, right after we took down the Ghoul King, the ghouls of the upper floors had come swarming in. They must have belatedly realized their leader had gone down.
For my part, I could barely move anymore. And it was Yeeun, freshly awake, who sorted out that situation.
Needless to say, with her current strength alone, breaking through everything coming at us would've been difficult. But — the intel on ghouls I fed her, the single-file corridor that forced enemies to charge in one at a time, and the thrown weapons I dug out of my storage and handed over. With those conditions stacked, even Yeeun could hold the line just fine. All she had to do was hurl weapons with her telekinesis at the tide of ghouls pouring down the stairs. This was exactly the kind of situation where psychic-type abilities proved their convenience.
So time passed. The basement floor shuddered and trembled beneath us, and only when no more ghouls came crawling down did Yeeun finally reach my side.
"Teacher, so what exactly is going on here?"
"Uh, I told you. Apparently you got kidnapped to be the vessel for some secret organization."
"There's no way I can accept that explanation……"
"Unfortunately, that's all I know. I can take a rough guess, but it ends there. And even that's closer to speculation than anything."
Dr. Pyeong So-woon, huh.
The reason those bastards had targeted Yeeun of all people had to be tied to Dr. Pyeong So-woon's research. The current situation made that much obvious. How had the New World Order managed to open gates? Thanks to Dr. Pyeong So-woon's technology. How had they been able to deploy a barrier instantly — a ward that should have required substantial preparation time? Thanks to the research building built on her technology. And according to Moon Youngseok, she was the one who refined the summoning ritual, too.
So if the ceremony those bastards had just executed was a form of summoning magic, the reason they'd abducted Yeeun fell neatly into place. Because Yeeun's creator was Dr. Pyeong So-woon.
The Third Great Cataclysm. To summon an Extra-standard monster, they needed Hayeon in their grasp. But — what if Dr. Pyeong So-woon had been researching a substitute for the catalyst used in that summoning ritual? What if she'd been refining the ceremony so it could proceed with a catalyst other than Hayeon? Then naturally, the second catalyst to replace Hayeon could only be Yeeun. Detailed enough data to work into the improved ritual — and Yeeun was the masterpiece of masterpieces among Dr. Pyeong So-woon's creations, the one holding all that data. If I'd been in Dr. Pyeong So-woon's shoes, I'd have built the entire ritual around Yeeun too.
The problem was the reasoning behind that idea. What exactly had Dr. Pyeong So-woon seen that made her think Yeeun could replace Hayeon? Was there some concrete basis, or had she just tried whatever was within arm's reach? I had no way of knowing. And besides, this was a topic Lee Joongoo was supposed to handle. At absolute best, if I tried explaining the situation to Yeeun myself, I'd be lucky to escape with nothing worse than being called a lunatic.
Yeeun, actually, you were a subject of government-run human experiments. One of the more successful ones, supposedly. And as it happens, one of the people in the organization we've been fighting was in charge of that project. Small world, right? Anyway, what I'm getting at is, apparently that guy refined his ritual around you. Hmm? What ritual, you ask? Ah, that thing I mentioned before — the Third Great Cataclysm. What's that? It turns out anyone could have done it? No, probably not. Then why did they think that? Honestly, there was no real evidence!
Damn it all.
Of course she wouldn't believe it.
"I believe you."
"Huh?"
"If it's you saying it, Teacher, I'll believe anything."
Even as Yeeun said that, I couldn't hold back a dry laugh. Oh sure, right, I bet.How touching. How very dutiful of you.
"I mean it……"
For someone like me, who still couldn't forget our very first meeting back in the first semester, I had no choice but to let it slide with that. Anyway.
Once Yeeun had finally crawled her way to my side, I operated my storage toward her. And then —
"Oh?"
"Here. Drink."
Two identically designed vials dropped into Yeeun's palm, glass bottles vibrating quietly in time with the shuddering ground. I hadn't been able to drink them back when the Ghoul King was staring us down — every drop had gone into holding him at bay — but these antidotes were brewed from nothing but top-grade materials. And since they were specialized for paralytic toxin, I could at least expect some effect.
And in fact, there was. Once Yeeun managed to crack a vial open and get the antidote down her throat, her movements improved visibly.
"The other bottle — will you feed it to me, Teacher?"
At that, Yeeun nodded along obediently. And then —
"Huh?"
Barely a beat after her puzzled little sound, she drained the second bottle herself, exactly as I'd asked her not to. What is this? Some kind of self-promotion? The moment my soul left my body —
Tap.
Both of Yeeun's hands took hold of my cheeks.
"……Huh?"
And then!! Yeeun began doing something that absolutely, categorically should not happen between a high school girl and her homeroom teacher!!
No, what the hell?! Naturally, my pathetic flailing accomplished nothing. "Her face slowly drew closer" would be far too generous a description. This was a genuine ambush kiss. There was no time given to study the other person's face, their eyes, or their hair.
Porcelain-white skin!! Slender jawline!! Sky-blue eyes!! Radiant golden hair!! Full equipment check complete!! Launch!!
That's what it felt like. No, seriously.
What in the actual fu—
The curse I couldn't quite push past my lips went circling in my throat instead. Park Woochan, twenty-seven years old. Who knew a paralytic poison would end with a high school girl stealing my lips? If only I'd been able to move so much as a hand, none of this would've happened.
As I was picking through those lament-adjacent thoughts, a strange sensation crept over me. A jolt — touch spreading out from the tips of my fingers. Only then did I grasp what was happening. When I'd asked her to feed me the antidote too, Yeeun had been transferring the antidote she held in her own mouth — directly to me.
……By the clock, roughly one minute. Even the rumbling of the earth had begun to feel distant by the time Yeeun quietly pulled her lips away. And then she turned back to look at me with a face full of confidence. I genuinely had no idea what I was supposed to say.
"Uh, um. Yeeun?"
"Yes?"
"What exactly was that just now?"
Damn it. The pathetic tremor in my voice was, frankly, embarrassing. But Yeeun only tilted her head at my interrogation-that-wasn't.
"You told me to feed it to you?"
"I did say that. I did — but was that really the only way?"
"I don't know any other way……"
With that, I had no comeback. Come to think of it, I vaguely recalled hearing something along those lines once. That you're not supposed to pour liquid down the throat of someone lying down. That it was dangerous somehow, or whatever.
"Uh, r-right?"
Viewed through that lens, what just happened was simply a medical procedure……right? Should I be — should I be complimenting her?
"Nothing feels wrong, does it?"
"Uh? N-no, no. Yeah, I'm fine. Yeah."
There was something about Yeeun's air of perfect composure that carried a force you simply couldn't refuse. And in practical terms, the results were excellent. Blood surged through my whole body. I'd already confirmed the antidote worked on the lesser breeds' venom, but I'd only half-believed it would hold against a higher-order strain. Mercifully, there were no complications. Unlike vampires or werewolves, ghoul blood-feeding carried no infection to begin with.
That much I could be somewhat relieved about. If I'd turned into a monster, I'd have killed myself on the spot. I cursed about it at first, but thinking back on it now, a ghoul might have been a better draw than a vampire or a werewolf.
The real problem was the mood hanging over us right now.
Letting out a low sigh, I pulled a top-grade potion from my storage and downed it in one go. The mana I'd reclaimed from the dragon vein after felling the Ghoul King was being devoured without a trace. My injuries were that severe — and beyond that, with the monster before my eyes gone, my own abilities had sharply waned. Even so, the reason I'd scrambled to prioritize recovery was……
Whoosh.
I swept Yeeun, still sitting there blankly beside me, into my arms.
"Wha—?! T-Teacher?!"
"Yeeun. Hold still."
"N-no! Teacher, this isn't like you……"
Damn it, this is why I hate this. A sigh slipped out of me before I knew it. Sure, from Yeeun's perspective right now, it probably looked like her teacher had finally gone off the rails. But I wanted to say it anyway.
"Hey, what you just did to me was worse!"
"Y-yes? What do you…… w-wait, hold on! That was a simple medical procedure!"
"Don't make me laugh, you little menace!! If I sued you over that, I'd win!! Uh, probably!!"
"Y-you little menace?!"
One fact had come to light. Lee Yeeun. This girl, forever wearing that prim, imperious expression, had a streak of cunning deeper than I'd given her credit for. Right up until a moment ago she'd maintained the pretense of pure medical necessity, and now a single hug had her mind sprinting through every scenario at once.
If there was one problem, it was that we had no time left for this banter. I pulled the coat I'd asked Yeeun to retrieve earlier out of storage, threw it over the both of us, and cinched it tight. As I drew Yeeun in even deeper, a very girl-like shriek pierced the air, and for a moment I couldn't suppress my laughter.
"Yeeun. There's no time to explain, so don't panic. And remember — you're a telekinetic."
"Yes?"
The next moment, the tremors that had been hammering without pause until now quietly stopped.
And then, the ground exploded.
Long story short: preventing the ritual failed. More precisely, the ritual had already been completed — from the moment I set foot in that basement. And yet there was exactly one reason it hadn't activated. The trigger that would begin the ritual had never been pulled. To put it in terms of a gun, the hammer had never been drawn back — no, the trigger never squeezed.
And the trigger of that ritual was a cliché of the most conventional kind. Namely: the blood of the executor — a Ghoul.
Had that been their plan all along, or had I simply intervened at the last possible second by chance? I couldn't say. Only this much was certain: even if I'd marched into that basement and killed the Ghoul King on the spot, the outcome would have been the same.
Vmmm— the warping of the air brushing past my ears felt utterly surreal. More than a kilometer overhead. The grand ritual that had wrung the dragon vein's mana dry flung the two of us straight toward the edge of the sky.
Mana erupting from the depths of the basement, collapsing half of the academy's teaching buildings — the scene swept past like a panorama. And then —
Coat and potion. Borrowing the strength of both, I somehow wrestled my body under control and weathered the shockwave — and there, at the far end of the heavens, I saw it.
You have got to be kidding me.
It really was a you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me kind of sight.
The colossal gate that had, until moments ago, hung in occupation of the city's skies. The magic circle inscribed beneath the academy had been aimed squarely at it. The dragon vein's mana, fired skyward, made contact with the mega-scale gate — and through that wide-flung door to another world, it sent a magical signal.
Summoning magic. I'd had my suspicions, but what had been unfolding beneath the academy was, in the plainest sense, a summoning ritual. One that used Yeeun — not Hayeon — as its catalyst.
So what came of it? Success or failure? Had the Third Great Cataclysm begun? Was an Extra-standard monster about to appear? No — the situation had been that slapdash, a magic built atop a theory improvised on the fly. It was hard to believe it had gone off without a single hitch.
And indeed, what revealed itself the next moment was not the so-called Cataclysm incarnate. Not quite. And yet — the sight of it was despair enough.
Beneath New City. Above the gate smothering the sky, a shadow fell, sudden and total. Feeling a flicker of bewilderment at that fact, everyone who lifted their eyes from the ghouls before them — up to the heavens — would come to understand. An absurd, impossible despair. The question no member of humanity had ever been able to dodge across two Cataclysms:
……Yes. Against monsters like that — what, exactly, could humanity possibly do?
Three years since the end of the Second Great Cataclysm. Those who had lounged in comfort atop a peace built from hunters' blood now faced the hour when they would have to ask themselves all over again.
Crack.
A sound rang out. Was it the Gate of the invaders shattering the world as it emerged? Or was there some absolute being out there who had judged that even three measly years of peace was more than humanity today deserved to enjoy?
Shattered peace came calling on humanity, in the clearest possible shape.
───────!!!!
And then —
The King of Monsters.
Above the gate that swallowed the skies of New City whole, flaunting without restraint a majesty that dwarfed even the mega-scale gate itself —
A dragon appeared.