Glitch
Although the vengeful spirits filling the counterfeit city began moving in grotesque, unnatural twitches, they did not attack us right away.
Instead, they merely fixed their unblinking, bulging eyes upon us, glaring intently as if trying to constrict us with their gaze or measure our worth.
It made sense. Ordinary human beings didn't travel by casually strolling straight through walls and buildings. By all rights, they should have toyed with us using bizarre phenomena and incomprehensible rules of their own making, yet I had shattered their game without batting an eye. Naturally, they were at a complete loss.
"U-Uwaaah...!"
Of course, that didn't make the sight any less abominable, and a muffled groan escaped Cacciola's lips.
It was undeniably a skin-crawling spectacle. Every single person walking the streets had suddenly frozen in place, as if time itself had ground to a halt, all staring in our direction. Worse still, they weren't breathing. Not a single breath stirred their chests, nor did they display the subtle, involuntary micro-movements inherent to living things. They stood motionless as mannequins, cold and lifeless, simply watching us.
Anyone with a weak heart would have collapsed to their knees in sheer terror.
"Hah, what are you looking at, you bastards?"
Knowing full well they possessed no real means of physical harm, I flashed a relaxed smirk.
"Lord Alzen, should we eliminate them all?" Muriel asked.
"No, there's no need. Just cut down anything that follows and becomes a nuisance."
"Understood."
"Oh, and Sister."
"Hm? What is it?" Weller turned to me, her cheeks slightly flushed, her eyes darting about in feverish excitement as she took in the bizarre, unfamiliar scenery.
"Sightseeing is fine and all, but I'd appreciate it if you pitched in a little."
"Ah, right. This is a dungeon, isn't it? What do you need me to do?"
"Every now and then, a monster with actual physical strength might pop out, so keep a detection field active around us."
"A detection field?"
"Just ping anything with an abnormally high mana pool or any signs of true biological life."
"Hmph, that's easy enough. Do you not need offensive spells?"
"Not right now. Save your mana in case the moment comes where we actually need it."
"If that's all you want, fine."
A moment later, a miniature magic circle traced itself through the empty air, and a ripple of mana spread outward like the surface of disturbed water.
"For now, it's just small fry," Weller murmured. "They're all about the same. The real issue is that their 'ordinary' baseline is anything but normal."
"I told you, it's fine. Those things can't lay a finger on us. The fact that we're standing here completely unscathed is proof enough."
I chuckled with supreme confidence and kept walking.
"If our mental resistance had been even slightly lacking, we'd already be drowning in terror and confusion, completely out of our minds. We would have seen hallucinations, had our senses scrambled, and slowly died off while raving mad or tearing our own flesh apart."
"...So this dungeon is far more sinister than I thought?" Weller shot me a sharp, narrow glare. I merely offered a shameless shrug in response.
—Khehehe... khehehk...
—Ehehehk! Ihehehehk!
—Kuaack... kueeeork...
The moment the distance between us widened, the creatures that had stood frozen like statues began contorting their bodies in horrifying ways to keep pace. Some snapped their hips at angles impossible for human anatomy, bounding forward like deranged grasshoppers; others compressed their entire torsos like squirming caterpillars before lunging ahead; still others kept their heads perfectly still in mid-air while their bodies rolled along the pavement. Surrounding us on all sides, the sheer psychological pressure they exerted was suffocating.
"Ueeergh...!"
"...Repulsive," Muriel muttered.
"Truly horrific," Rebecca added, her brow furrowing deeply.
Faced with such hideous, sickening displays, the vanguard bristled with hostility and drew their weapons. Well, with two notable exceptions.
Vivian and Cacciola were glued to me like barnacles, their faces buried in my clothes as they trembled violently.
"Vivian. Cacciola. Try not to react so much. Fear and panic are exactly what they feed on. Keep acting this terrified, and you might actually breach the relic's protection, you know."
"H-Hiiiik...! Hiiiik...!"
"Hyaaahk...!"
Of course, the Holy Guardian Fortress would never be breached by something like this. I had only said it to knock some sense into them, but it seemed I had only ended up scaring them half to death instead.
Their knuckles turned paper-white as they clutched my coat, frantically rubbing their faces against my chest and back while burrowing even deeper. At this rate, I felt like they were going to pierce straight through me from both sides.
"...I can understand Vivian, but Cacciola, shouldn't you be used to this sort of thing by now?"
"H-How on earth am I supposed to get used to an abomination like that?!"
"Come on, you need to pull your own weight. Are you going to cling to me forever? Back off a bit, I can barely walk."
"Ugh! N-No! Over my dead body! Kill me instead!"
She whined while clinging to me like a cicada to a tree trunk. It was so utterly pathetic that I felt an urge to rap her over the knuckles, but knowing my own hand would just hurt from hitting her hardened physique, I could only let out a defeated sigh.
—Excuse me. Excuse me there. Where are you heading in such a dreadful hurry?
Suddenly, a clear, melodious voice echoed through the air, vibrating against our eardrums and halting us in our tracks.
"...That mana," Weller's expression hardened instantly. "That's a real monster."
At her warning, Muriel, Rebecca, and Lira raised their vigilance to its absolute peak.
—Look over here. Please, cast your eyes this way. Ah! What handsome gentlemen, what exquisite ladies. Just looking upon you brightens my eyes and lifts my heart. Your striking grace stands out even in a sea of thousands, and your noble aura pierces the heavens. Truly, I cannot tear my gaze away.
The figure that emerged was a middle-aged woman with her hair pulled back into a tight bun. She possessed elongated, sharp eyes, thin lips, and was clad in the flamboyant robes of a Korean shaman, holding ritual bells in one hand and a painted folding fan in the other.
"...Mom?"
Apparently, the monsters appearing in this place drew directly from my memories as well. Come to think of it, back when I played the game as the protagonist, I had to fight monsters that wore the faces of villagers from his hometown.
"......"
To be honest, deep down, I knew this would happen. I had simply been trying my best to ignore it. But now that it was actually happening—now that I was forced to look upon the face of the family I missed so dearly—it felt... genuinely revolting.
"Hah... figures."
I finally understood why heroes in comics and novels always struggled so terribly against villains who shapeshifted into their loved ones. It really was agonizing. Even though I knew it was a fake, and even though I wasn't the one swinging the sword, the very thought of ordering her killed triggered an instinctive, visceral repulsion.
—Hehehehe!
Ringing her brass bells with a sharp chime, she flashed a warm, familiar smile that I knew all too well, gliding toward us with light, airy steps.
—Could you spare me a moment of your time? The guardian spirit watching over you is a truly magnificent entity. Have you been offering proper ancestral rites? If you follow me, you can present offerings to express your gratitude and receive even greater blessings. So please, help me out. Allow me to cultivate good karma.
There was one decisive, glaring difference: that voice. My mother's voice had never sounded so seductive and bewitching. That realization only made my stomach churn further.
And what was with that dialogue? That sounded exactly like...
"What is she talking about?"
"Guardian spirits...? Do we possess such things?"
"Lord Alzen, what are your orders?"
Baffled by the ghost's nonsensical babble, the party turned to me for instruction. I couldn't help but let out an incredulous, hollow laugh.
"Are you kidding me..."
That was the classic recruitment pitch used by cultists trolling outside subway stations back on Earth. My mother's face, dressed in the garb of a traditional shaman, spouting the lines of a street-corner pseudo-religion cultist? What kind of unholy, bizarre combination had the dungeon cobbled together?
Did this place suffer a system glitch or something?
"...Ah."
Come to think of it, it really might be a glitch. After all, I wasn't an ordinary human; I was someone possessing the body of Stanashila Aljen, carrying both Kang Han-gil's memories and Aljen's memories simultaneously. If that dual consciousness caused an internal conflict in the dungeon's mental projection system, such a scrambled mess made perverse sense.
It had probably dredged up some dramatic shaman character I'd once seen on television and stitched it onto the most precious connection in my heart—my mother. Did it really think a stunt like that would work on me?
For the record, my mother had been an ordinary office worker. She had zero connection to cults, shamans, or anything of the sort.
"...Don't let her words sway you. Just kill it. It's nothing but empty drivel."
"Understood."
"So we just need to cut it down, right? Simple enough!"
Muriel and Rebecca coated their blades in brilliant Aura and lunged forward.
"......"
Lira remained behind with her sword lowered, maintaining a vigilant perimeter around our non-combatants.
—Hyahyahyaha! Ah, spirits of heaven and earth, hear my prayer! Cleanse the filth of those who hanged themselves, those who split their own bellies, and those whose heads fell beneath the executioner's blade! Sever the bitter regrets and delusions of those butchered, those betrayed, and those buried alive!
Jingle-jingle-jangle!
Fluttering her vibrant silk skirts and violently shaking her cluster of brass bells, the monster waged battle as if performing a frenzied exorcism ritual. It was a spectacle of utter absurdity. Every time she shook the bells, fluttered her fan, or spouted archaic incantations, a foul, shadowy miasma surged forth. Clearly, she was hurling waves of curses and psychic attacks with all her might, but to Muriel and Rebecca, shielded by the Holy Guardian Fortress, it was nothing more than meaningless posturing.
Slash! Shhk!
—Kieeeek!
Her throat and abdomen were sliced wide open. Screaming in agony, the creature slipped away with fluid, agile footwork. Seeing that the grievous wounds barely slowed her down, it seemed her physical appearance was merely a facade sculpted out of spiritual matter.
"......"
Damn it, it really was unpleasant to watch. Yet I couldn't tear my eyes away, my chest knotting with tangled emotions.
—Kyahahaha! You foul, impure wretches! How dare you roam this earth! Fall to your knees and beg for mercy this instant!
Thwack! Smack-smack-thud!
—Kieeeaaak!
—Kueeeerk!
—Keeeeegh!
Diving straight into the crowd of specters acting out the roles of modern pedestrians, she began striking them with her brass bells and folding fan. Each spirit she struck unleashed a blood-curdling wail before being swallowed directly into her body. With every soul absorbed, her frame twisted and swelled at terrifying speed.
"Is she absorbing their souls?!" Rebecca shouted.
"We cannot allow this to continue," Muriel replied.
Sensing the impending danger, both warriors unleashed longer, sharper plumes of Aura and closed the distance at frightening speeds.
—You shall be cursed! A gruesome, wretched fate shall grind your flesh and spirit to dust!
Having devoured hundreds of souls in mere seconds, the monster had ballooned into a colossal entity rivaling a skyscraper, glaring down at us from above. Its immense size alone exuded a crushing sense of dread, but Muriel and Rebecca didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second.
Rebecca leaped skyward with immense force to strike from above, while Muriel melted into the shadows to pierce from below.
—KIIIEEEAAAHHH!
Carved into dozens of fragments in the blink of an eye, the abomination dissolved into thin air like parting mist, accompanied by a hideous, grating death rattle.
"D-Did we get it...?"
Cacciola nervously chanted what sounded like an anti-resurrection ward, but the creature showed no signs of returning. Yeah, it was dead for good. A rather anti-climactic end compared to its theatrical entrance.
"All right. Let's keep moving."
Still, it hadn't been entirely pointless. Brief though it was, I had gotten to see my mother's face again, etching the faded features back into my memory.
"That wasn't much of a threat," Rebecca remarked, sheathing her blades. "All flash and no substance."
I offered a wry grin. "If not for the Holy Guardian Fortress, you would have had your hands full. That thing was hurling several distinct curses and mental afflictions at once in the span of a few seconds."
"I-Is that so?"
"Yeah. It was fine because we blocked it all, but otherwise, we would've taken serious damage."
"Hmm, then we must remain on guard."
"Nah, you can let your guard down. As long as this relic works, we're practically invincible in this dungeon."
"Ahaha..." Rebecca laughed awkwardly, though she still tightened her posture and surveyed our surroundings.
We continued walking for some time, passing straight through illusionary buildings and phantom pedestrians for several minutes. Suddenly, an abrupt blanket of darkness swallowed our surroundings, replacing the bustling cityscape with a gloomy, narrow alleyway lit by a solitary, flickering streetlight.
"Where are we now?"
"Night fell all of a sudden..."
"Wait, what is that...?"
Click, clack. Click, clack.
From the darkness ahead, an abnormally tall woman clad in a trench coat walked toward us. Under the dim, sickly yellow glow of the streetlamp, her silhouette was deeply unsettling. Matted, disheveled hair hung around her face, her eyes burned with chilling murderous intent, and her towering frame—easily exceeding two meters—cast an imposing shadow. But what drew the eye above all else was the bright red mask covering her mouth and nose.
"...Are you serious? The Slit-Mouthed Woman? How old is that urban legend?"
I was so utterly dumbfounded that only laughter came out. And once again, the face beneath the hair was painfully familiar. Even with the large mask on, there was no way I wouldn't recognize my own family.
"......"
My older sister this time, huh? We had been the textbook definition of Korean siblings—a relationship fueled purely by bickering and petty resentment—yet seeing her face still brought a strange warmth to my chest.
"Haaah... Muriel. Go take care of her."
"By myself, my lord?"
"Yeah. You'll win easily."
"Understood."
Click, clack.
"......"
The Red Mask strode forward, her heels clicking distinctly against the pavement to broadcast her presence. Muriel glided across the ground like a shadow, moving without making the faintest whisper of sound. As the two figures closed in on one another, it was hard to tell which one was the actual ghost.
Halt.
Stopping a short distance before Muriel, the Red Mask yanked her mask down in a single, fluid motion, revealing a mouth brutally torn from ear to ear.
"......"
My body flinched involuntarily. An intense wave of shock and fury flared up inside me before quickly settling. I never imagined I'd feel this protective over my sister's image... but I supposed seeing a family member's face desecrated like that naturally set anyone off.
"Am I... pretty?"
"Are you asking me?" Muriel replied in a perfectly flat, deadpan tone. "If so, allow me to answer. Yes. You are quite pretty. You possess a beauty that even grotesque, hideous mutilations cannot obscure."
"Then I'll make you look just like meeee!!"
Delivering the textbook line, the Red Mask pulled a pair of massive, rusted scissors from beneath her coat and snapped them shut with lightning speed. However, she wasn't trying to physically slice Muriel's face open.
Snip! Snap-snap-snip!
The sharp, metallic screech of the blades drilled relentlessly into our ears. Blinding, disjointed glints of light assaulted our vision.
"KIIYAAAHHH!!"
Finally, a piercing shriek torn from the monster's throat slammed directly against our souls. Of course, none of those tricks had the slightest effect on us, but the sheer execution made my blood boil for entirely different reasons.
"Wait, the Slit-Mouthed Woman attacks with psychic attacks instead of physical blades?! That crazy bitch! There's a limit to breaking the lore, damn it!"
"...Alzen? What kind of nonsense are you spouting all of a sudden?" Weller asked, baffled.
"Lord Alzen, did you suffer a mental affliction? Are you all right?" Rebecca called out in alarm.
"Brother...?" Vivian whimpered.
Snapped out of my outburst by their worried voices, I let out a heavy sigh and turned my attention back to Muriel.
Shhhk!
Shielded from every psychic assault by the Holy Guardian Fortress, Muriel danced forward. Her daggers traced elegant, effortless arcs through the air, shearing through the monster's limbs and severing its neck in a single heartbeat.
"Kiiiaaaagh..."
With a mournful, trailing wail, the Red Mask disintegrated into gray mist and blew away.
"......"
Rumble, twist!
As I watched the mist fade with mixed feelings, the surrounding space began to warp once again.
"Ku-eeeerk, ku-erk...!"
"Kiiieeegh!"
"...Zombies this time?"
Looking out over the crumbling, ruined cityscape crawling with an endless horde of stumbling undead, I let out another dry, incredulous laugh. Every single zombie in the horde bore the exact same faces: my father and my younger brother. It looked like an asset duplication glitch in a broken video game.
"What's this? Undead?" Weller remarked, crossing her arms. "How mundane. It was rather amusing and refreshing up until now."
"They appear far inferior to the undead that breached the Duke's Castle," Rebecca observed coolly.
"We passed the point where mere numbers could threaten us a very long time ago..." Lira muttered, drawing her blade.
Needless to say, mindless zombies were zero threat to our party. While they possessed actual physical forms and were technically more dangerous than the intangible specters from before, that only mattered if they were within our weight class to begin with.
Ten minutes later.
The horde of thousands, which had rushed forward in heedless frenzy, was utterly wiped out by the lethal swordplay of Muriel, Rebecca, and Lira, combined with Weller's wide-area bombardment magic.
Warp—shudder!
"Ah, looks like we finally cleared the first sector."
Dredging up personal memories was a gimmick unique to the first map of this dungeon. From the second map onward, standard dungeon terrain would take over. Taking a swig from my flask, I let my shoulders droop under a wave of deep mental exhaustion. It had been an utterly baffling, chaotic sector from start to finish.
Still... getting to see my family's faces after so long wasn't entirely bad.
"Where are we..."
"Hmm..."
The next instant, the ruined city melted away, leaving us standing in the middle of a vast, primordial forest.