The Shadow of the One
“They’ve left no traces, nothing sloppy like that. Just make sure the tail doesn’t catch them.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
Seated at the lavish desk, one man with a careless gaze looked down at the man kneeling on one knee beneath the throne: Count Blanser.
The black robe of the long-haired man bore a large white tiger embroidered on the back, its majesty even more striking.
“Hmm, The One himself has come… that’s creepy.”
“Forgive me, Your Highness.”
“No, I wasn’t about to blame you. Hmph, what can I do? Where is he now?”
“He… he did it for what reason….”
“Since you couldn’t handle the matter properly, there was no one else I could trust with it, right?”
“However, Your Highness, that man…!”
“He’s arrogant and rude, not a man to be trusted! He asked you to entrust him? Well, it was your fault for letting the little rat escape.”
“…”
A sharp glare from the Dongwang made Count Blanser bite his bleeding lip without a word.
“Still, no harm was done to the grand plan, so that’s something. Ah, but did you find out the identity of that little rat who wounded you and sabotaged my work?”
“Forgive me, I haven’t….”
A pause.
The smile vanished from the Dongwang’s face as he brought the wine cup to his lips.
“See? That’s why I can’t trust you with a big task. Your duty is over, so get out and go to him. Tell him that I want to see him about something.”
With those words, the Dongwang downed the wine in his cup with a cheerful grin.
Thud.
“Ah, and find that little rat. Then kill him as painfully as possible. He must pay for interfering with my work.”
“I shall obey Your Highness’s command.”
“That’s enough. Get out.”
The Dongwang waved his free hand dismissively while pouring more wine into the empty cup with the other.
“Yes, then.”
Count Blanser bowed to the Dongwang and quietly withdrew.
KRRRRD!
‘Just a little longer… wait! I’m coming to kill you soon…!’
* * *
TATATADADAT!
“Run run run—!! Faster!!”
Teraden’s urgent cry echoed through the corridor.
He was shouting because we were being chased mindlessly by those strange machines.
“Hey, what now?”
“There was a corridor on the right in the previous room. Let’s go around that way.”
“What if that’s blocked or full of traps?”
“Let’s just hope it isn’t. If it is… we’ll have no choice but to fight.”
“Hyung, why don’t we just smash everything while we’re at it?”
“Didn’t we say that? We have to save our strength until we find Junior. Now, shut up and run!”
Of course, fighting those scarecrows wasn’t impossible, but our goal wasn’t to fight them—we needed to find Junior.
Fighting them would drain our stamina more than necessary, making it harder to deal with anything that came after.
“Hey, the distance keeps getting smaller….”
Wing! Wiiiing!
[Speed adjustment required based on opponent’s level. LV. 8/10]
“Those crazy bastards?! Hey, their speed got faster…! Run! Dig your heels in!”
We turned back down the path we’d taken and raced into the trap-filled room without even talking.
Our plan had been to activate the traps to slow them down and lose them in the chase.
Phew! Pew pew pew!
The scarecrows plowed straight through the rain of arrows shooting from every wall.
Traps that opened the ground or sent walls and ceilings shooting out were dodged with circus-level skill.
“This is ridiculous.”
Kiyoooo!
ZZZZZZ!
Blanser sent a scarecrow flying with one punch, the one that had reached Maru’s rear.
“Left turn here.”
We passed familiar spots and arrived in familiar space, then turned into a side corridor.
KUNG KUNG KUNG KUNG!
Even so, the scarecrows behind us showed no sign of stopping—they were still chasing our backs.
“Damn it, I don’t care anymore!”
KWAANG!
Halfway through the corridor, Teraden suddenly stopped and punched the bulging part of the wall like the scarecrow had done.
The sound of impacts echoed inside the corridor.
Click. Rumble.
A sound like something separating came with a small tremor.
“…”
RUMBLE.
The tremor and sound gradually grew stronger.
“Teraden, what the heck did you touch?!”
“It’s fine, fine. I don’t think anything big happened…”
RRRRRRRR—!
Soon the joints of the corridor ripped apart in a violent shaking that felt like an earthquake.
But that wasn’t the end of the problem.
The remaining corridor began folding like paper from the far end.
What was revealed by the folding corridor was simply a vast, empty space.
Its depth was impossible to judge even with the naked eye; if we fell, we would at least suffer serious injury.
“Eh? What is this? Wait, what kind of thing did the Seven Stars make?! Wow!”
Only after the corridor was completely folded did the shaking finally stop, but that wasn’t the end of the madness.
The entire space seemed to spin wildly in circles, accompanied by a deafening noise that made your ears ring.
We were suddenly transported somewhere.
This was the moment the distant vibration’s source was revealed.
I thought we were finally relieved, but it wasn’t over?
They had built dozens of these ruins across the continent at this scale. Truly, the Seven Stars were all insane.
KWAANG!
As the separated space slowly receded, one of the scarecrows clinging to the ceiling like an insect leaped toward us.
It looked like it intended to chase Teraden, who was rolling around after losing his balance.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
TAAT!
It was easy to separate the scarecrow that only targeted Teraden.
While Teraden was distracted, I lightly shoved the scarecrow’s side from its blind spot. The airborne scarecrow flailed a few times in the air before falling into the endless darkness.
Of course, the space’s rotation continued to shake off their pursuit for a while.
“Ugh…! Hyung, I feel like I’m going to throw up from the dizziness…”
Kyaaaaak!
“No way! Hold on with everything!”
“Hold onto anything nearby and endure just a little longer.”
The space spun up and down, then suddenly side to side, throwing us around and making it hard to keep balance or direction.
A while later, when the shaking finally calmed, the turbulent space fell silent once more.
“Hah… hahaha. As expected, my prediction was right.”
“…”
Teraden sat on the floor, breathing heavily, and gave a thumbs-up with a wry smile.
“One, two, three…? Hyungs! Big problem! There are only three of us! One person is missing!”
Blanser’s face went pale as he pointed at us and counted carefully.
“Whoa, you idiot! You didn’t even count me!”
“Oh, I didn’t realize. Yeah.”
“Anyway, we made it through this crisis safely. But I have no idea where we are. Where’s Junior?”
I took out the compass from Teraden’s pocket to check his location and found it pointing in the completely wrong direction.
“Huh? Why… it’s pointing in the opposite direction from earlier? Did it break?”
“No, the needle is still shaking normally. And the corridor length is shorter than before, so it’s clear the distance to Junior is shrinking. Let’s go that way for now.”
The place I pointed to had a new corridor we hadn’t seen before.
It seemed the corridor on this side had disappeared, creating a new one on the other side.
After entering the corridor, how much time had passed?
From ahead came the voices of several people and a foul smell of blood.
“Sniff sniff. Blood?”
That it was blood, not stench, meant someone wounded—someone, not a corpse—was on the other side.
“There’s someone in that room. Let’s join them.”
“Oppa, what if they’re bad people? We should go later, right?”
Maru grabbed my arm with a worried face.
“Yeah. What if we just charge in?”
“We came here to find Junior, not Oparts. We’ll only join if we find companions. There’s no reason to fight.”
“Really? You’re going to believe that without question?”
“With this much blood, it’s either a few seriously wounded or many lightly wounded. But we’re in full power, so I doubt they’ll have the energy to fight us.”
“Okay, staying here won’t give us any good ideas. Let’s go like you said. We need to find Junior fast.”
We moved slowly toward the end of the corridor, bodies still tense, having come to an agreement.
At the end of the corridor was a very wide space.
The spacious area had eight entrances total, including the one we had just passed through.
Eight entrances, so each seemed connected to a separate peak.
It looked like everyone who entered through any peak gathered here.
“Huh? You’re that rude little brat from before?”
And in this wide space, we met familiar faces.
They were the same group that had argued with Teraden on the streets of Okjeo yesterday, now treating their wounded.
“Huh? The same guys from yesterday?”
Teraden and one of the men pointed at each other with their fingers at the same time.
“Hah, even those little brats are obsessed with Oparts? But they came here without any major wounds. They’re not complete amateurs after all.”
“That guy always talks like that? Hey, you with the spiky hair, come here!”
They started arguing again, continuing from yesterday.
“Teraden, stop.”
“Shut up. Not now.”
And the leader of their group, the one who had come with us yesterday, tried to mediate.
“Leader, there’s no one watching us here. Killing a brat is no big deal.”
“Stop and check the surroundings.”
“What exactly do we check…?!”
Suddenly.
The man who had been annoyed by the leader’s words froze as he felt the presence all around him.
KRRRRLL…!
“What the hell… surrounded? When….”
When, when? They were still arguing when it happened.
In the darkness, green glowing circles multiplied one after another, quickly filling with hundreds of pairs.
They weren’t the same scarecrows from before.
Their howls sounded like animals, but that didn’t mean they weren’t machines—the problem was their bizarre appearance mixing people, animals, and even Yokai.
“It can’t be that these are also the creations of that person, right?”
The appearance of a monster that looked like a mix of people and something made Teraden’s “that person” change from “him” to “that guy.”
“These guys are seriously twisted. Not just twisted, but twisted.”
“If these are also made by the Seven Stars back a thousand years… tsk, that’s insane.”
“…Given the situation, it’s best to team up here for now.”
“It’s necessary to overcome the crisis first, so cooperating here makes sense.”
“Chet, no choice. Just wait a bit, you little brat.”
“You keep calling me little brat? We’ll see after this, you spiky-haired loser. You’re behind.”
“Enough! No more talking—get ready!”
“Maru, Blanser. Be careful… here they come! Everyone, prepare!”
KRRRRRLL!!
KWAHAHAK—!!
The mysterious things that encircled the space began slithering and attacking from all directions, drooling.