Chapter 648: Human World [R-18] (77)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 648: Human World [R-18] (77)
A few days ago.
In the darkness, criminals from Twilight's Fang had gathered in secret.
On a circular altar in their midst lay Oh Jeong-seok's son, Oh Gyeong-hun, bound and struggling.
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmmph!!”
A man in a mask looked down at Oh Gyeong-hun with cold eyes.
“It was quite a hassle bringing you here quietly.”
Oh Gyeong-hun thrashed desperately, but there was no one here to save him.
The masked man let out a smirk.
“We didn’t expect Oh Jeong-seok to be thrown in prison. Still, with you in our hands like this, things turned out well for us in the end.”
Another member standing beside him asked impatiently.
“Master, are we starting soon?”
The masked man checked his watch and nodded.
“Yes. It is time for the gate to a new world to open. Everyone, prepare the incantation I taught you.”
“Okay!”
“Finally, the moment has come.”
The members formed a circle around Oh Gyeong-hun and began to chant the incantation the masked man had taught them in low voices.
“Vetra, Shak’Ra-Nim, Oth-Rel.”
The masked man slowly approached the altar and took out a small glass vial from his robes. Inside was something like a bizarre, wriggling parasite.
“First, you will swallow this. We need to infect your Aether.”
The lid was opened, and the parasite crawled up the glass wall before dropping toward Oh Gyeong-hun’s face. Oh Gyeong-hun shook his head frantically and twisted his bound limbs, but it was no use.
“Mmmph! Mmm…!”
After fumbling between his nose and mouth, the grotesque creature instantly burrowed into Oh Gyeong-hun’s nostril.
“Gggghhhhh…!”
His entire body convulsed, bucking violently.
Around the altar, the members of Twilight's Fang chanted the incantation with growing intensity.
“Vetra, Shak’Ra-Nim, Oth-Rel!”
One by one, black patterns began to bloom across the altar, and the air grew heavy and distorted.
Oh Gyeong-hun’s consciousness began to fade. Somewhere in his mind, the voice of an alien entity, one that could not be described in human language, whispered low and long.
The voice seeped into him with a chilling coldness, and that was the last of his ego.
The masked man slowly brought a bizarrely twisted dagger to Oh Gyeong-hun’s chest. As the cold metal grazed his skin, the black patterns on the altar began to glow with an ominous light.
“Worship.”
With that low, reverent voice, the man plunged the dagger deep into Oh Gyeong-hun's heart.
Instantly, the veins all over Oh Gyeong-hun’s body swelled, turning black as his form began to twist abnormally.
Instead of blood, black smoke and mucus erupted from his heart. From the spot where the dagger was embedded, squishy, tentacle-like things burst out, shaking his body from within.
The masked man knelt before the altar, clasped his hands, and bowed his head in deep reverence.
But the sudden spectacle threw the surrounding members of Twilight's Fang into chaos.
“W-Wait a minute! Master, what the hell are these tentacles! This isn’t what you told us— Gack!”
The moment someone tried to shout, a tentacle pierced through his chest.
“My apologies, but your usefulness ends here. Consider it an honor to offer your Aether to this being.”
The tentacles writhed madly, filling the room in an instant.
All the members, except for the masked man, were impaled by the tentacles, their brains and hearts plucked out one after another before they could even finish their screams.
In a flash, only blood, black mucus, and the corpses of the dead remained in the room.
And then, countless tentacles writhed and approached the sole survivor, the masked man.
Very slowly, he removed his mask with both hands.
The face revealed beneath was far from human, its skin as rough and unevenly layered as scales. His nose and mouth were almost gone, and his eye sockets were empty.
However, in the center of his forehead, a single, large eyeball squirmed, rotating ceaselessly in a mixture of capillaries and mucus.
The man—no, the being that could no longer be called human—knelt reverently before the tentacles and bowed his head.
“I have prepared the gate.”
Taking his words as a signal, the tentacles gently wrapped around the masked man’s body. Then, they writhed and chillingly plucked out the single, squirming eye embedded in his forehead.
“Kgh…”
The tentacles carried the extracted eyeball toward Oh Gyeong-hun’s corpse. The eye was instantly sucked into the body, and at the same time, the tentacles vanished like steam, leaving only a void in the room.
The man stood blankly, black blood dripping from his face, before hoisting Oh Gyeong-hun’s mutated corpse onto one arm.
As he stepped outside the ship, a blue sea and a vast sky unfolded before him.
He leaped once, cutting through the air as he headed south. In the distance, the silhouette of Jeju Island faintly emerged under the red sunset. He slightly increased his speed, flying straight toward his destination.
A short while later, above the sea near Jeju Island, the man stopped, his feet hovering just above the water's surface as he looked down.
The Aether is still most densely concentrated here. My brethren will soon begin to move as well.
His body sank, descending into the sea.
In the deep abyss, the altar for a secret ritual, prepared in advance, awaited him. The man carefully placed Oh Gyeong-hun’s corpse on the altar. The moment he did, the corpse’s skin cracked like a fissure, and the flesh beneath seemed to crumble and scatter.
“Hmm… as I thought, it’s incomplete.”
To open a complete gate… a more powerful sacrifice was needed.
With that thought, he slowly rose back to the surface. The air above the sea shimmered faintly as invisible particles began to gather.
He waved his fingertips. In that instant, a transparent wave spread out, forming a massive barrier.
This should be enough… they won’t find me for a while.
Soon, his form wavered, distorted, and vanished as if sucked into the empty air.
*
I arrived at the Halcyon Guild headquarters. When I opened the door to Im Hye-rin’s office, she greeted us with a serious and heavy expression.
“You’re both here.”
I sat down and asked.
“Mother-in-law, what’s going on?”
Im Hye-rin picked up a tablet from the table and handed it to me.
“A massive rift has appeared in the sea near Jeju Island. The problem… is its size.”
The tablet was playing a video filmed from the sky above Jeju Island. On the calm, empty sea, a black rift slowly spread open like a crack before instantly expanding to an enormous size.
Im Hye-rin continued.
“It’s not just a problem in our country. The US, UK, Russia, China, Japan… rifts appeared simultaneously in countries all over the world at around the same time. However, the one in Jeju is the largest.”
I watched the video carefully.
“Nothing has come out of the rift yet, right?”
Im Hye-rin nodded.
“That’s right. Nothing has happened yet, but it’s getting bigger and bigger. The Association has issued an emergency summons to all guilds, and the Association President himself… asked me to bring you.”
Bi-yeon, who was watching the video beside me, remarked with a hint of awe.
“Heeh~ So this is the rift Seo-yun was talking about.”
I turned off the tablet and looked at Im Hye-rin.
“Are we leaving right now?”
Im Hye-rin nodded firmly.
“Yes. We’re taking a helicopter to Jeju Island immediately. Are you ready?”
I stood up at once.
“Yes. Let’s go now.”
We hurried to the helipad.
*
After getting off the helicopter, we headed straight for the coast where the rift was located.
Above the sea, a rift large enough to be seen at a glance hung in the air, splitting the blue surface of the water. Dozens of small ships floated near it, and people on board were moving about busily, observing the rift with various pieces of equipment.
“What are those people doing?”
Im Hye-rin answered Bi-yeon’s question.
“They’re collecting data on the rift. It’s dangerous, but it’s necessary work.”
I nodded silently and looked around. Elite ability users from various guilds had already gathered in large numbers at the site.
Im Hye-rin turned her head and said.
“Let’s go to our camp.”
I followed her and soon arrived where the Halcyon Guild members were gathered in small groups.
Among them, one person stood out. It was Im Hwa-yeon.
As soon as Im Hwa-yeon saw us, she approached with a bright smile.
“Over here!”
Im Hye-rin immediately asked.
“Hwa-yeon, what’s the situation?”
“Right now, all the guilds are sharing information and cooperating. But… the rift is growing much faster than expected.”
Im Hye-rin asked again.
“Any other unusual reactions?”
“No, nothing out of the ordinary so far. However, there’s a strange fluctuation of energy from the rift at regular intervals.”
While the mother and daughter were busy talking, I quietly stared at the sea where the rift had opened.
…Hmm, this sound. Can the others not hear it?
From the rift far out on the water, I could clearly feel a heavy thrumming, like a heartbeat. The pounding was growing louder in my ears. But when I looked around, the other ability users and guild members were all focused on their own tasks, seemingly unbothered.
I glanced at Bi-yeon.
Bi-yeon, what about you? Do you hear anything?
I hear it too. It’s like a huge heart, thumping… It feels incredibly ominous…
I feel like something’s about to happen…
It was at that moment.
Far out on the sea, the rift began to vibrate faintly, making an ominous, cracking sound.
And then, the worst-case scenario I had anticipated became a reality.
The rift shattered like a giant pane of glass, and from the opening, something pitch-black poured out like a sudden downpour.
It wasn’t just one or two. A quick glance told me there were hundreds. The grotesque creatures charged all at once toward the ships near the rift.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
Only after I shouted did the surrounding ability users and guild members snap to their senses and raise their weapons.
Im Hye-rin waved a hand and commanded her guild members.
“All units! Rescue our allies!”
The Halcyon Guild members instantly formed a battle formation, and Im Hye-rin’s body, wreathed in red flames, shot into the air.
When she waved her hand, a massive pillar of fire erupted over the sea where the creatures were swarming, engulfing them in an instant.
Im Hwa-yeon followed her mother’s lead, creating hot, blue flames to incinerate the creatures from a distance.
Bi-yeon came to my side.
“What should we do?”
She tilted her head, pointing at the ones that hadn’t yet crawled out of the rift.
I drew my sword and answered.
“Let’s jump in for now.”
“Got it.”
We charged toward the rift together. Bi-yeon unleashed a blade of wind with her wind-infused sword, instantly slicing the creatures apart.
I, too, swung my sword lightly, and they split in half with a scream.
-Kieeeeeeek!
“These things look fucking disgusting…!” Bi-yeon grumbled from beside me, lopping off a creature’s tentacle leg with a look of disgust.
I flicked the sticky black mucus from my blade and agreed.
“Cutting them feels gross.”
One of the creatures rolled its large eyeball, staring intently at us.
“What are you looking at? Pisses me off.”
I swung my sword lightly, and a sharp blade of wind tore the creature’s body to shreds.
Individually, they were strong, but they didn’t pose any particular threat.
“Seo-yun, should we just use Spirit Fusion and wipe them all out at once?”
“Let’s do that. The feel of cutting them is so shitty, I can’t stand using my sword.”
“Alright, let’s fuse—”
It was at that moment.
-THOOOM!!
From the depths of the rift beyond the sea, a massive vibration, powerful enough to shake the very earth, erupted.
From the pitch-black darkness, massive tentacles, writhing as if about to burst, began to emerge from beyond the rift one by one.
Fuck, what is that.
A chill ran down my entire body.
Its silhouette was overwhelmingly larger than anything I had ever faced. And the presence I felt was foul, sticky, and alien.
Bi-yeon must have sensed something too, as she immediately placed a hand on my shoulder.
“…I think I’m going to be sick.”
I nodded in agreement.
And a voice echoed in my head.
-Ding!
[Mind Control detected. Absolute Resistance is activating.]
“Looks like something dangerous has shown up.”