The Black Sound Iron Abyss
Black Sound Iron Abyss
[Order Received: Ruined temple outside the South Gate — a large number of easy-to-eat convenience foods. High-heat preservation packaging required. Note: A new Hyeol-mun has appeared. Temporary designation: Black Sound Iron Abyss. Support order for the assault team. Ice unnecessary. Prepare for sound.]
“Black Sound Iron Abyss... so this is a place like a pitch-black abyss with the force of iron nails, shaped by sound.”
Deep inside the kitchen, Jangro Suksu’s voice rolled out low and heavy as he opened the lid of a massive iron cauldron, his expression grave.
“This time it’s not ice we need, but fire—no, sound. Yeonhwa, and all of you! Keep your wits about you!”
At Jangro Suksu’s call, the sous-chefs peeling potatoes in one corner of the kitchen and the servers preparing to greet customers all looked up.
“Sous-chef Baek! Go to the storeroom at once and bring out every nut and jujube we dried last year! Server Park, find a thick leather cloth to cover the customers’ ears! Yeonhwa, you’re with me. We’re making the dough for the base!”
Under Jangro Suksu’s command, the staff and cooks rushed around the inn like foot soldiers under a general.
Hyeol-mun: the Black Sound Iron Abyss.
They said the gate had opened below the cliffs of southern Qinghae Nansan, in a crevice carved by the wind’s path.
But according to the scouts who had gone there, not even the sound of the wind could be heard inside.
What you heard instead was only a bizarre vibration, like metal twisting and saw blades scraping against bone.
“They say sound takes shape, and vibration chews away at your vision. Even if you swing a blade, it gets thrown back by the impact of that vibration.”
To Yeonhwa’s explanation, Jangro Suksu replied,
“Then this time the food has to be different. Cut back on the cheese, and take out the grease. That sort of thing makes the body lax. What we need now is heavy, solid food that can press the body’s center down hard.”
Jangro Suksu dropped beef shank, sinew, salt, whole peppercorns, and refined medicinal herbs infused with inner energy into the giant pot. It was pot-au-feu.
Beside him, Sous-chef Baek kneaded flour into layer upon layer and baked a crisp focaccia.
He worked the dough longer than usual so the crust would be as hard as stone, yet when you bit into it, it would crack with a sharp, cheerful snap that rang through the skull.
“Yeonhwa, bring me the honey. We’ll need to boil the nuts down rich and make tarts. Focus on foods that make people chew hard with their jaw muscles. They need to concentrate on the sound of their own jaw moving, the click of their teeth, or else that eerie iron screech will steal their souls.”
The inn door opened, and warriors from the Cheongryu Sect and the Akmyeonghoe stormed in.
Yu Cheong-ran, Transcendence.
Han Cheong-hyeok, Peak.
Gang Jeok-woo, Peak.
Seo Han-muk, Peak.
And, arriving late on a Suguta,
Cheol-ya, Transcendence.
In all, five assault members were assembled.
“Sound, huh... Looks like we should plug our ears before we think about our swords. Do you even think you can swing weapons with a face like that?”
Gang Jeok-woo snorted and dragged a chair out before sitting down heavily.
Yeonhwa quietly held out a piece of focaccia.
“If you block your ears, your sense of balance will collapse and you’ll lose your center inside the Hyeol-mun. Instead, please try chewing this.”
Gang Jeok-woo looked at it with a dubious expression and took a bite.
Crack.
The crisp, addictive shattering of the bread rang in his head.
“Focus on the sound that resonates from within your own body. Drive out the illusion by building up weight in your inner center.”
“When the iron noise of the Black Sound Iron Abyss scrapes at your ears, please chew the food we prepared and focus on the living pulse and the sound of your own teeth working. Rather than the sound outside, cover the uncanny with the sound inside you. That’s the core of this dish: inner sacred sound.”
Cheol-ya stuffed focaccia into his mouth and crunched on it.
“Keep the center inside... crunch... interesting... crunch... idea. crunch”
Eat and talk.
The assault team shouldered the tightly packed bundles from Mugung Hyeoptak and headed toward the cliffs below.
The entrance to the Black Sound Iron Abyss. From within, the wind that slipped inside soon returned with a grating metallic squeal.
“Go in.”
Step, step—
Pi-iii!
“Khh...!”
The moment they entered, Seo Han-muk swayed, as if countless versions of “to see” had twisted together before his eyes, making him dizzy enough to feel as though he had ten eyes.
Sound does not end simply as sound. Even what you see can be ruined by sound.
Kreeeek!
“It’s coming—front... no, to the side!”
At the surging noise, Gang Jeok-woo shouted.
Strange metal-shaped forms crawled across the floor and filled the space. No—more precisely, they could not be seen. Every one of them was wrapped in a veil of sound.
“I’ll go first!”
Kwaaaang!
Gang Jeok-woo’s great sword slammed down, and the ground shook. At the force of that massive noise, the metal forms, for an instant, had the sound veil stripped away, revealing themselves.
“Now, Cheong-hyeok!”
Yu Cheong-ran and Han Cheong-hyeok swung their swords at the same time.
Their blades grazed one another as they swept low over the floor—no, they hovered just a hair above it—and sliced more than half of the metal creatures apart.
Cheongryu Sect — Soryu Hapgeo — when even a small stream joins together, it becomes vast—
Crackle!
Swishhh!
Seo Han-muk also swung his spear and unleashed a surge of inner energy.
The spear, longer than any sword, swept away the shattered remnants of the metal creatures that had not already been cut down.
“To be this strong already...”
Gang Jeok-woo muttered uneasily.
“Will it work?”
“It has to work.”
At Yeonhwa’s worry, his master answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“The sound-infused food is properly packed this time. There’s no way it won’t.”
Kiiiiiik—!
It sounded like tens of thousands of metal rats were screaming all at once. Gang Jeok-woo clenched his teeth, and Seo Han-muk staggered as the space before his eyes warped into a hallucination.
Then, tearing through the blurry veil of sound waves before them, a grotesque monster revealed itself.
Sound-Engraved Iron Monster.
It was a giant centipede-shaped beast, its entire body covered in scraps of iron. Every time it moved its legs, it unleashed high-frequency vibrations, and wherever that sound reached, stone turned to powder and the inner energy of the martial artists shook apart.
“The sound... it’s pushing the blade back!”
Han Cheong-hyeok swung his sword, but it rebounded, blocked by the wall of vibration the monster was spewing out.
Their vision began to fracture like a mirror with cracks running through it.
At that moment, Cheol-ya pulled a piece of focaccia from his robes and bit into it.
Crack! Crack!
Hmm. I like this. I should make sure to keep a bunch of these around—Cheol-ya thought quickly.
The hard bread’s bursting sound, carried from his jaw straight into his brain, carved a small fissure through the iron screech that was tearing at their ears.
“Now! Eat!”
Shouting, Cheol-ya moved ahead to block the Sound-Engraved Iron Monster, and in that gap Yu Cheong-ran and Gang Jeok-woo also began chewing the food.
The deep, rich burst of meat juices when they bit into the beef. The solid resistance of the nut tart.
Those small sounds of life gathered the scattered minds of the martial artists into one.
“The current of Cheongryu can even ride on sound.”
Yu Cheong-ran’s sword flowed elegantly along the grain of the vibration. As if recalling the steady rhythm of whisking cream when the food had been made, she matched her blade to the texture of the vibration—
The tip of her sword, steeped in blue sword-gang, locked precisely into the monster’s frequency.
Cheongryu Sect — Gyeokgwaye Sword — the sword that cuts through even as it clashes—
Shiiiik!
The wall of vibration tore open. Through that gap, Cheol-ya leapt.
He channeled the sensation of cleaving through the emptiness of Manhon Yeon-ok into his blade. Instead of the sphere of Manhon Yeon-ok, his sword plunged toward the monster’s head, where the iron screech had been compressed into its sharpest point.
No-name — Cheese Sword...? — this doesn’t seem right—
Crunch!
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
The moment Cheol-ya’s blade sank into the monster’s head, the entire Black Sound Iron Abyss cried out and convulsed.
Sound took on visible form before their eyes and shattered the space apart. The monster destroyed itself under the force of the vibrations it had been unleashing, scattering as iron dust.
Black Sound Iron Abyss, cleared—
“But just now, didn’t you call it the Cheese Sword...?”
“Looks like your ears are broken. Go see a physician when we get back.”
Once the Hyeol-mun closed, the assault team returned to Mugung Hyeoptak covered in dust and iron powder.
Server Park hurried over with warm wet towels, and Sous-chef Baek filled their cups with strong liquor to restore their strength.
Jangro Suksu ladled the hot stew that had been simmering in the cauldron into bowls and set them before the group.
“Good work. Your ears are probably still ringing with iron. When that happens, drink this stew. The hot sound of it slipping down your throat will wash away every last lingering echo.”
Gang Jeok-woo lifted the bowl whole and gulped down the broth.
Gulp, gulp.
“Feels like I can live again. I can finally hear my own breathing.”
Yu Cheong-ran also quietly swallowed her stew and closed her eyes. The sound of swallowing, the sound of breathing, the sound of hearts beating. At last, the sounds of the living filled the inn once more.
Yeonhwa went up to her master and puffed out her chest a little.
“Master, this Inner Sacred Sound dish was a success, right? I should tell the Baedal-ui Hojok reviewers to write that it’s a taste that opens your ears.”
Jangro Suksu snorted and rapped Yeonhwa lightly on the head.
“You little brat, don’t make such a fuss. We simply gave the hungry the chance to hear the sounds of their own bodies. That’s a cook’s duty.”
Outside the inn, rain began to fall again in quiet patter. The iron screech vanished, and the sound of rain once more filled the world.
Ring-a-ling~
A new order came in. Yeonhwa cinched her apron tight once more.
“Yes! I’ll prepare it right away!”