Chapter 048
< Unidentified 1 Second >
48
Kagoshima International Airport, VVIP lounge.
It was an unofficial gathering place where the top-tier hunters dispatched from each country gathered before heading to Okinawa.
“Lin. How about a glass of champagne instead of that Pu-erh tea?”
The person who spoke with a vigorous voice while fluttering blond hair was S-Rank top-tier lightning mage, Lightning Emperor Kyle.
Across from him, a woman with a lithe body was silently wiping her greatsword while leaning against the window.
There was the Sword Saint of China's S-Rank rankers, Xiao Lin.
She was a swordsman who swung a greatsword as large as her height like a feather with the power to manipulate gravity.
Her long black hair was tied messily, but through it, her sharp eyes, high nose, and a cold and chilly atmosphere that could be felt as a chill were revealed.
Xiao Lin just gave Kyle a glance as if it were bothersome instead of an answer.
“By the way, is the Heart of Steel not here yet? I heard news he participated, does it mean there is still no progress in that 지독한 (dreadful) curse?”
When Kyle asked while looking around, the woman who was holding a teacup gracefully while sitting at the table answered.
“With Yu Jin-hyuk’s personality, would he be drinking tea in a place like this? He must already be at the Okinawa field.”
Seol Yun-ha.
One of South Korea's S-Rank Hunters, and a Dimensional Witch who made barriers or teleported across space.
She was a woman with a unique charm that sucked in every surrounding gaze just by sitting on a chair.
Silver hair fitting the witch's name and purple eyes shining 요요히 (eerily) below it.
Every gesture of holding the teacup emitted an arcane atmosphere.
“Then really, is it a fact that that curse healed?”
Lin asked in a serious voice.
“Yeah, I confirmed it directly through the information office the guild hired.”
“······The method, can you tell me?”
“Method?”
At Lin's question, Seol Yun-ha showed a questioning expression.
“One of my comrades has been suffering from the same curse for 2 years. If there is a way······.”
In an instant, desperation flashed in Lin's eyes.
Just then, Kyle cut into the conversation.
“Rather than such stories, isn't there a more urgent problem?”
He pointed toward the dark red sky in the direction of Okinawa outside the window.
Even the sky of Kagoshima, hundreds of kilometers away, was faintly tinted with an ominous red light.
“I’m telling you in advance, for this mission, I will pull out anytime if it becomes even slightly dangerous. Profit is good, but risking my life is not my hobby.”
“Weak sounds already? Lightning Emperor Kyle is?”
“It's not weak sounds, it's reality. If that is a disaster at a level surpassing our expectations······ we are far from enough. We have no choice but to all evaporate together nicely.”
Lin opened her mouth.
“You also felt it? That energy.”
“Of course. That's······ chaos itself. It's an irregular power I’ve never felt in any Rift, let alone the Tower. Of course, we’ll get that much too.”
Seol Yun-ha’s expression also hardened.
Her spatial distortion ability was more sensitive to the distortion of dimensions than anyone.
She was directly receiving with the senses of her entire body what others just felt as an ominous energy.
“Correct. Space is being distorted. As if trying to suck in this place itself. Beyond the Rift, there is something that our knowledge doesn't apply to.”
Three S-Rank Hunters were reaching the same conclusion in each different way.
The descent of an existence of a completely different dimension.
A helplessness like watching a giant tsunami pushing toward the coast with the naked eye.
The disaster had already reached under their chins, and no one could predict even a hair's breadth of what kind of terrible thing would happen ahead.
Of course, they had no intention of backing down.
High risk, high return.
The fact that the more the danger, the more can be obtained was the providence of the world.
This time would be the same.
No matter how dangerous this Rift is, everyone had brought their own countermeasures.
At least, they were confident in getting their own bodies out.
* * *
Okinawa, temporary control center.
“Civilian evacuation, 99.8% complete! No remaining personnel!”
Empty city.
All that remained in Okinawa were Japanese hunters with desperate expressions.
Japanese S-Rank Hunter, Sword Saint Kenshin and Miko Yuki bit their teeth while looking at the control center monitors.
“When are the other nations' support teams arriving?”
“Well. They must be having interviews in Kyushu and coming leisurely.”
Kenshin said while being cynical.
A great Rift threatening the whole of Japan.
But to people of other nations, the fact that it was just a giant stage where they could show off their strength.
That unpleasant fact made them even more miserable.
“Still, they say Hunter Yu Jin-hyuk of Korea is coming right away.”
“As expected, Yu Jin-hyuk.”
Yuki muttered to herself.
A few years ago, the guild alliance training held in Seoul.
At that time, Yu Jin-hyuk stayed in the hospital room until late at night and looked after her, who was injured by mistake.
To her, who was of a different nationality and belonging.
Yu Jin-hyuk was such a person.
It was then.
Wha-a-a-a-a-!
“W-what!”
The entire control center shook violently as if an earthquake occurred.
Warning messages popped up like crazy on the monitor.
[Warning! Warning! Unmeasurable mana reaction detected!]
From far away, a giant something was rising from the gap of the Rift.
“No way······ that, is a monster?”
It was a black gargoyle the size of a house.
Jet-black skin, burning red eyes, and three pairs of wings spread like a devil on its back.
“The Black Gargoyle of the Fallen Old New Continent······?”
Kenshin doubted his eyes.
Black Gargoyle.
It is an incarnation of disaster recorded in ancient documents as [the existence that tore the sky, descended, and erased an entire ancient kingdom from the map overnight].
The existence he thought was just an exaggerated story in myths had now appeared as a reality before his eyes.
“······Unbelievable.”
Kenshin tightly held the sword hilt at his waist without realizing it.
The black gargoyle, who made eye contact with him, twisted its lips coldly.
And soon.
After staring at Kenshin with a quiet look, it spread its giant wings savagely.
Boom! Boom-boom-boom!
Simply by spreading its wings, the surrounding mana spat out a rough trembling and let out a scream as if it would tear.
Through Kenshin's eyes, the concrete floor being scraped in real-time by something invisible and the forest trees being torn and scattered because they couldn't withstand the pressure were seen.
Even rocks were being crushed into powder because they couldn't withstand that power, a miserable sight.
-Gr-r-r-r-r-r······
“Kugh! Cr-crazy······.”
At the overwhelming intimidation the black gargoyle emitted, Kenshin vomited blood and knelt on the spot.
Yuki, who was next to him, had also long since lost consciousness and collapsed.
A presence of a different class that made two S-Rank Hunters unable to fight just by spreading its wings.
‘Just, that······.’
Kenshin thought in his blurring consciousness.
‘Such a guy is not a named boss, but just an intermediate boss level······?’
Kenshin let out a hollow laugh at the absurd reality.
If that black gargoyle is just an intermediate boss level, then just what kind of monster is sleeping in the true center of this Rift.
What happens to Japan, no, this world?
What was dumbfounding was that the gargoyle had no interest at all in them, who had become unable to fight.
As if, it didn't even feel it worth killing them.
The gargoyle's interest was only one.
The black monster's eyes headed toward one place beyond the sea.
The Korean Peninsula (韓半島).
The gargoyle thought.
Something that can evolve itself into an even higher-dimensional existence than now.
A very sweet and fundamental scent of life.
From the strange land beyond the sea, an attraction so indescribable, eerie, and enchanting was being felt.
And soon, the black gargoyle began to fly toward Korea while fluttering its wings.
Dreaming not even in its dreams that the source of that intense attraction was a certain herb garden.
* * *
The west coast of South Korea, the foremost boundary.
The gargoyle entered South Korean airspace.
The goal was only one: the sweet scent of life felt from the inland far away.
If it only put its hand on that, it could be reborn as a true god.
In the very moment the gargoyle was about to speed up.
“······!”
Involuntarily, it urgently stopped its flight.
Every cell in its body was screaming.
Death.
Annihilation.
An instinctive fear that an absolute existence it could not dare to defy was in front.
Flash-
A tiny rabbit plush doll appeared in the middle of empty air.
An ordinary plush doll, old and worn out in places.
“······.”
But those black button eyes.
From inside those ordinary-looking button holes.
An ancient and fundamental power, appearing to govern the birth and death of stars, was flowing out like a storm.
A gaze deeper and colder than the darkness of the entire universe.
The rabbit doll, as if it were bothersome, lifted its small cotton arm and gave a light gesture toward the gargoyle.
Just a minute movement as if trying to drive away a bug.
However.
Slid-slid-slid-
In that instant.
The gargoyle began to scatter as ash powder without even being able to scream.
Neither resistance nor counterattack was possible.
Every atom that composed its existence was being helplessly dismantled before the law that could not be defied.
Swish!
In only 1 second, the disaster-class monster vanished as a handful of dust into the cold wind of the West Sea.
The rabbit doll, as if it had not a shred of interest in the existence it just annihilated, vanished back into the air.
Flash!
As if it had caught a single bothersome mosquito on the road.
Since it organized a bothersome bug, now it was time to return to its small master's side.
* * *
At that time, I was sitting on the veranda spending a peaceful afternoon.
Hasuo picked up a tree branch and was drawing my face on the soil 삐뚤빼뚤 (crookedly).
“No way, is this me?”
“Pwa-aeng······.”
Watching that, I showed a satisfied smile.
But right then.
“?”
From the southern sky very far away, an intense yet familiar energy brushed past.
Instinctively I turned my head toward the sky.
Because the distance was far, it wasn't visible in my sight, but it was surely felt.
An intense yet somehow familiar energy.
A power similar to Muryong or the Gorani but minutely different.
Staring at the sky for a moment, I thought.
‘I should check it out.’
And, I threw my gaze back to Hasuo who was drawing a picture on the ground.
The picture being completed crookedly.
“Hmm.”
Apparently, our Hasuo has a talent for drawing.
* * *
US Department of Defense Headquarters, Pentagon 17th basement floor.
A space of top secrecy where only a few top-level figures could enter.
The interior of a hexagonal room surrounded by soundproof walls.
The interior of a powerful protection facility that allows one to withstand even a few strikes of an average S-Rank ranker's great magic.
Inside the room where a cold atmosphere flowed, a giant hologram table was located, and around that table sat men in suits with coldly frozen expressions.
“Excellency, the Black Gargoyle that made Japan's S-Rank rankers unable to fight is adjacent to the South Korean west coast for an unidentified reason. Large-scale damage is projected soon.”
“So, how do we plan to handle South Korea's support request?”
At the US President's question, the Secretary of Defense answered firmly.
“Excellency, we must naturally refuse. Compared to the profit that can be obtained, the risk of dispatching S-Rank Hunters is too large.”
“Does China think the same?”
“Yes, they say the Chinese side also notified of their inability to support just now. Honestly, we cannot consume our top elite forces to help South Korea. Whether they block it on their own or give up a part of their territory, it is none of our business.”
At the Secretary of Defense's cold words, the President just nodded.
International relations are such a thing.
Of course, he couldn't ignore the ally's safety.
But there was no nation in the world humanitarian enough to push its own S-Rank Hunter into a desperate situation without a chance of winning.
Where would there be a country that would want to jump into this dangerous game first right now.
Bang!
It was then.
An aide jumped into the situation room with a face pale with fright.
“Ex-Excellency! Urgent report from the Rift observation team!”
“What is it?”
“Just now, the Black Gargoyle's mana wave at the South Korean west coast······ vanished!”
“What?”
He jumped up from his seat. It was unbelievable news.
The Black Gargoyle of the Fallen Old New Continent.
According to the US Department of Defense's Class 1 secret data, the Black Gargoyle was a formidable monster enough to sweep an entire empire alone.
A single individual possessing overwhelming power, of a different class from ordinary gargoyles, which once guarded the temples of semi-divine beings long ago.
A monster that could be called a walking natural disaster without outclassing.
To think such a guy vanished.
“Is it true that it vanished?”
“No, the thing is······.”
The aide put the video filmed by the magic satellite on the screen with a trembling voice.
On the screen, only the appearance of the entire screen being covered by noise and distorting immediately after the gargoyle appeared was contained.
“Surely this isn't everything? Isn't it all just noise?”
“Yes. Due to an unidentified powerful mana wave, the magic satellite was neutralized. Only 1 second later, when the signal was restored, the gargoyle had already vanished.”
In the report placed on the table, the field information output through the magic satellite was recorded.
Records of the annihilation where mana presumed to be the Black Gargoyle's was torn to pieces and destroyed by something of a higher 격 (standing).
The pupils of the President reading the report trembled faintly.
“Heh, unbelievable. If they can process a monster of this level so easily······ why on earth did they even make a support request?”
In that voice, surprise was mixed with dumbfoundment.
The weak nation they had ignored until just a moment ago actually possessed a secret weapon surpassing imagination.
“Korea, just what on earth are they hiding from us?”
A secret weapon of Korea whose identity cannot be known, no, whose form of existence cannot even be guessed.
It was the moment when unerasable fear and dread of the unknown were carved into the mind of David Rockwell, the President of the United States of America.
< Unidentified 1 Second > END