The Abyss of Obsession
A dimensional rift dyed a vivid scarlet.
I'd been living as a hunter for over five years, yet this was the first red gate I had ever seen.
This was dangerous. Not simply because of the color. The waves the gate was pouring out made every fine hair on my body stand on end.
“Do you know aught of this?”
“First time seeing one.”
“My Lord. Please give us your orders.”
Information first. Even a brand-new crimson rift was still a gate; I should be able to pull its data.
I slowly stretched out my hand.
Shit.
What the hell is this?
“Why do you look so startled?”
“It says the mana distribution of a freshly spawned gate is already at 99 percent.”
Ingrid’s face darkened.
“That means a Break is about to happen, doesn’t it?!”
“Probably.”
A gate that had just appeared was already on the brink of critical? It defied common sense. Yet the gate before my eyes was no illusion.
If I’d pulled an all-nighter and washed down a bowl of hangover soup with soju, I might have doubted it. Unfortunately I was stone-cold sober.
“Can you tell when it will erupt?”
“I don’t know that much.”
The rate at which mana distribution climbed varied case by case. Still—
“It’ll blow soon.”
My basis? Pure gut feeling. The bone-chilling aura that scraped every one of my senses. It wasn’t merely the ominous presence of an imminent Break.
“This gate isn’t normal.”
It felt as if it carried deliberate malice—an intent to cause a Break. And a Mega Break at that.
“Half a year ago a Mega Break hit Indonesia and turned an entire island into a Contaminated Zone. Population around fifty thousand, I think. They failed the initial response, the Mega Break triggered, and monsters poured out like a tidal wave. I saw the footage once… the numbers were so huge the camera couldn’t even capture them all. Barely over one percent of the civilians managed to evacuate.”
If the same thing that had played on YouTube happened right in the middle of Seoul…
Yeah. I didn’t even want to imagine it.
“Will you enter?”
“It’s too dangerous, Master.”
【Would it not be wiser to approach with caution, sir?】
My summons fretting over my safety. I was grateful for the concern, but I slowly shook my head.
“I’ve got the power to do something. I’m not about to just stand here and watch.”
At the very least I wanted to stop a Break from happening. If I went in and thinned out the monsters a bit, the mana distribution should drop. Just enough to get past the danger. That was all. Civilian casualties had to be prevented, didn’t they?
“Don’t worry. If it gets too hot I’ll pull out.”
I wasn’t some hero. I had no intention of throwing my life away to stop it, so they could relax.
Dame Isra’s expression hardened. Hmm. Looks like I needed to persuade her a little more.
“My Lord holds noble chivalry in his heart.”
Huh?
“Protecting the powerless is the highest virtue of knighthood!”
“Hmph. I’m sick of that chivalry talk, but I agree Master is splendid.”
【Great Lord. Looking after your own hide comes before any sense of justice, sir.】
“Silence, you vile thief! Hold your tongue.”
“He’s got a point, doesn’t he? So let’s protect Master ourselves.”
“For once we are allies, mage.”
“Mind your own business, iron-head.”
Are you two getting along or not?
While they tore into Zaug, the two summons found common ground. Two against one among the summons. The answer was already decided.
“Then we’re going in.”
If it looked like I was about to die, Break or no Break, I’d run for it—so don’t worry.
Hooo—
I let out a long breath, then stepped into the gate that scattered scarlet light in every direction.
About a second after entering the gate, the first sense to return was touch. A thick stench of blood hung in the air, so dense it nearly made me dizzy for a moment. When I lifted my eyelids, the interior of the gate filled my vision.
“Hrm.”
I barely swallowed the groan that tried to escape.
The gate entrance sat on a small hill rising about four meters above the ground. The landscape below was pure carnage. Corpses littered the base of the hill, bristling with spears, swords, arrows—every kind of weapon imaginable. Blood from the bodies had flowed downhill and formed a small pool.
“Warmth still lingers.”
“Looks like they haven’t been dead long.”
【The terrain is wide open in every direction. I see no path of escape, sir.】
Instead of wallowing in sentiment, my summons analyzed the battlefield. Steel hearts, the lot of them. Or maybe it was because they’d already died once.
“My Lord. The clothing on the corpses is rather strange.”
I looked where Dame Isra pointed. A man in blue jeans. His top was clearly a T-shirt from that famous sports brand with the V logo.
“Has your world ever produced people from inside a gate?”
“Not that I know of.”
There were rifts like the Cross Gate that the public never heard about. The possibility that the corpses strewn across the ground were monsters created by the gate itself wasn’t zero. But if I approached it with ordinary logic…
Fuck.
“What the hell is this place?”
I was still trying to shake off the thought that had risen in my head when—
Crackle!
Red sparks flared behind us. The source was the gate entrance we had just used.
The entrance to the Abyss of Obsession Gate has been sealed.
You cannot leave for the outside world until this gate is cleared.
Ah.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“This… appears to be a trap.”
A gate that had appeared out of nowhere, already on the verge of critical. The moment we entered, it had transformed into a sealed gate that would not open until it was cleared.
Ssssss…
A pale, whitish energy spread across the ground. Spiritual power—the energy of the undead.
“Grrraaaaah…”
Corpses with weapons still embedded in their arms and legs began to rise.
Heh. Heheheheh.
So the reason they had slaughtered civilians and laid them out inside the gate was to raise them as undead and use them to kill hunters?
“Don’t make me laugh.”
Even bullshit had its limits. The fact that everything had left common sense behind no longer mattered. This was something that had gone far beyond the pale. If this was someone’s scheme, then the rage boiling up inside me vowed I would catch them and make them pay.
“My Lord. Give us your command.”
“We hold for now.”
Once a gate critical alert went out, hunters from the Counter-Abnormal Bureau would be dispatched. Entry itself hadn’t been a problem, so the textbook move was to hold out until reinforcements arrived and then clear it together.
“I receive your command!”
“Ingrid, focus on support.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll regulate my mana and intervene carefully.”
The risen dead numbered in the thousands at a rough count. An open battlefield. Since we couldn’t approach the gate entrance, at least we didn’t have to worry about being surrounded.
“Grrraaaah…”
“Dead ones! I have seized the high ground!”
The Serimis Magic Sword flashed, drawing a long line through the air. Swordsmanship without a single wasted motion.
Slash—
Undead heads caught in the trajectory shot into the air and then thudded down.
“The combat power of each individual is about C-rank.”
Thank goodness. If that many of them had all been troll-class, even holding out would have been tough.
“Mage.”
“Leave the offense to me!”
Unique Formula – Solar Eclipse
Multiple Chant
Ice Wall × 30
Modified Formula – Heavy
The pools of blood surged upward and froze solid. Using the Ice Walls as a medium, she twisted layers of mana with the modified formula, making them even more solid. Leaving only a path wide enough for one or two people to pass, a barrier of crimson crystal completely sealed the front.
“You okay, Ingrid?”
“I only used about a third of my total mana.”
A wall built by B-rank-enhanced Ingrid pouring out her power. Those undead would never break through something that solid. The approach up the hill was now restricted by the ice walls.
“Not bad, mage.”
“Hmph. Just don’t let them break through.”
If we sealed the front completely, the undead would try to smash the Ice Walls. Leaving a narrow path was a tactic to overcome our numerical disadvantage. Even so, we couldn’t block every route with Ice Walls. The left and right approaches remained open.
“Let’s boost our numbers a bit too.”
More than twenty undead soldiers in total. This was enough firepower to chew through several same-rank hunter teams. Looking at the Tigris I had reinforced even while busy filled me with a quiet pride even in a crisis. Heavy-armored zombies mounted on dire wolves. Their agility was lower than raptors, but they received an additional breakthrough-power correction. Their pure breakthrough power had risen compared to the early Tigris versions.
“Circle around the ice walls and attack!”
“Gruuu!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The Tigris pack charged down the hill with ferocious momentum. The dead climbing up around the Ice Walls had to take their brutal charge head-on.
Thud! Thud-thud!
Resistance was meaningless. Sharply honed bone spears skewered the undead like meat on a spit. Even those not directly hit by the spears suffered the same fate. When an undead was rammed by the lead dire wolf and toppled, the raptors’ feet stomped down without mercy.
Crunch! Crunch-crunch!
The Tigris pack charged without slowing, using the speed they had gained from descending the hill. A portion of the undead army covering the entire plain was literally shredded. After running about a hundred meters, the Tigris pack wheeled in a wide turn.
Boom!
Several undead clipped during the turn were launched several meters into the air. You’d think they’d been hit by a truck. After one charge and a turn, their destructive momentum had clearly dropped. Returning would not be easy.
“Gruuuuk!”
Countless hands of malice reached out! They had plunged into the middle of the undead army. Having spent much of their strength on the initial charge, their speed fell and they could no longer shake off the undead swarming them.
“They are in danger.”
“I’ve got a way.”
I descended the hill. Distance to the Tigris pack: about fifty meters. That was enough.
Death Space
The target was the Tigris pack surrounded by the dead. Shadows expanded and wrapped around them. In less than a tenth of a second they sank into the ground.
Death Space
The Tigris pack reappeared behind me. They had taken some damage, but nothing that would stop them from fighting.
“Go stir them up one more time.”
“Grrraaaaah!”
They still had energy to spare. Good to see. I couldn’t just sit here sucking my thumb either. Whether it was the Counter-Abnormal Bureau or nearby hunters, I had no idea when support would arrive, so I needed to replenish the forces I’d spent.
I laid the subspace carrier down, pulled out the portable forge I kept stored, and set it up on the hill. While my minions and summons clashed with the undead army, I fed mana stones into the forge and lit the fire.
Whoosh!
Watching the flames roar to life, I took out the hammer, carving knives, anvil, and the rest of the tools needed for bone metallurgy and corpse processing, calmly preparing the work I could do.
I still didn’t know why a gate this fucked-up had appeared. But if they thought I was going to die easily, they were dead wrong.
“Let’s do this.”