The Boundary of Dreams (19)
But his body could hardly be called normal, either. His vision swam, his stomach churned. His eyes burned as though they might burst from their sockets, and the hand gripping his blade trembled faintly. The Bessel particle suit that had absorbed countless physical shocks was torn and ragged in multiple places. Scratches and gashes covered him from head to toe.
Blockade could only completely neutralize magic that entered its domain. There was no way to perfectly stop the demonic beasts swarming from every direction or the reinforced physical blows of the dark mages. He had already far surpassed the limits of what medicine could suppress simply by dealing with the frenzied enemies scattering in all directions. Once the drug wore off and the side effects hit, he would likely need to return to the Cradle and rest for some time.
Even so, a certain deep satisfaction filled his heart. Facing such a large force of powerful enemies alone was a first for him as well, yet he had overcome them. If they had occupied Jinling, fortified it, and contaminated the water source or crops with demonic energy, far greater chaos would have followed. It was heartbreaking that innocent people had died, but there was no way for one man to protect everyone. He took satisfaction in having sent the person he needed to protect above all others to safety. Moreover, by suppressing the invaders early, he could at least hope that some citizens of the city had survived. The thirty percent of students whose whereabouts had been unknown might also be hiding somewhere, protecting themselves.
“This can’t be… cough…! This wasn’t in the revelation… This place was supposed to be… the new heaven…”
“Revelation?”
A strangely uncomfortable hook in the man’s lament caught Lee Hyun’s ear.
“…The central army will arrive soon. Until then—”
“Cough… central army…? Puh, puhuhu… kick… puahaha!”
The dark mage suddenly burst into mad laughter at Lee Hyun’s words. Even as blood kept surging from his throat, he didn’t seem to care; he simply spilled it across the floor.
“The young lady of the Red Fire… cough! That bitch will never… make it out of the south alive… cough!”
“…What did you say?”
At the man’s words, tiny cracks began to form in the satisfaction that had filled Lee Hyun’s heart. It was not the medicine but anxiety that now whipped his heartbeat into a frantic rhythm.
“Puhuhu… The goal of this operation wasn’t… merely the destruction of the south… cough! A powerful spirit mage who could become a major threat in the future… When the chance to kill her appeared, did you really think we would let it pass?”
“What the hell are you—”
“Losing an entire battalion is painful, but… cough! Trading it for a spirit mage—the heir of the Red Fire, no less—is more than worth it… cough!”
Noticing Lee Hyun’s growing panic, the dark mage continued with even greater delight.
“Puhuhu… You looked so confident earlier. How the mighty have fallen. Jinling was only the beginning. You people… cough! Have no idea what kind of plan has been laid out for you…! Not just the south—this filthy country in its entirety will meet its end…!”
The bespectacled man’s words were cut short. Lee Hyun severed his head and immediately broke into a sprint toward the northern gate where Yeon Minha had fled. His body had already accumulated severe overload, yet he paid it no mind. Restlessness consumed his entire heart. He had decided that one failure was enough. If he repeated the same mistake again, he would never be able to forgive himself.
“Haa… haa…!”
Yeon Minha leaned against a boulder in the misty canyon, breathing hard. Her left arm, poisoned by demonic energy, hung limply, dripping blood with no sign of movement. The Bessel particle suit Lee Hyun had forcibly put on her earlier now lay in tatters at her feet. Without it, she would have suffered fatal wounds long ago.
When she had retraced her steps and reached the canyon between the gateway city and Jinling, she had clung to a faint sliver of hope. But she and her companions had been ambushed at the heart of the canyon. The other students had already scattered long ago. The area was dense primordial forest, further obscured by blood-red mist, making it impossible to find their way. At this point, she could not even guess whether they were alive or dead.
—BOOM!
She barely managed to raise a barrier against the red projectiles flying from the forest on her left. Then, squeezing out the last of her strength in the same direction, she launched a counterattack. The sound of choking breaths was followed by the wet thud of limbs hitting the ground.
“Haa… huup…!”
Dozens of corpses lay scattered along the path Yeon Minha had fled. Yet the crimson eyes surrounding her numbered more than twice that. She was being hunted like prey. And she could feel her limit drawing closer with every passing second. No matter how powerful a mage, one person could not turn the tide of battle alone. That was an immutable law of the world that had held throughout the entire history of magic.
“The young lady of the Red Fire looks absolutely terrible.”
A man stepped out from among the crimson shadows blanketing the area and spoke with leisurely ease. He was a middle-aged man with a face steeped in malice. In one hand he held a massive awl formed of red demonic energy, aimed directly at her heart.
—Grind.
Yeon Minha bared her teeth and glared at him with all her might. She recognized the man without difficulty. His composite sketch appeared on the wanted posters distributed to the Cradle’s students every week without fail.
“The Southern Tiger…”
“Oh, for the esteemed daughter of a great noble house to recognize me—this is quite the honor.”
Puhuhu…
The man gave an exaggerated, theatrical bow, bending at the waist. Mocking laughter erupted from the blood-misted forest all around them.
Southern Guerrilla Operations Commander of the People’s Liberation Front. A wanted man bearing the highest “black” grade, reserved for only the most dangerous criminals. His name was Lee Ji-sang, commonly known as the Southern Tiger. He was a giant among giants, a man who had single-handedly slaughtered more than ten national army subjugation forces. Promising young mages and veteran commanders who had survived countless battles had all met gruesome deaths at his hands. The wicked dark mage who had vanished from sight for several years had now appeared before her.
No matter how powerful a spirit mage Yeon Minha was, there was nothing she could do in this situation. Moreover, an uncountable swarm of dark mages stood behind him, encircling her on all sides.
“…You’ve stayed quiet as a dead mouse all this time. Why start moving now?”
“Because the time has come. The promised moment foretold by the Revelator is approaching.”
Yeon Minha frowned at his incomprehensible words. The Revelator? Was there someone in the rebel army called that? No matter how she searched her memory, she had no recollection of such information.
“And your death will make the perfect signal flare to announce the dawn of a new era. Don’t you agree?”
“The Revelator… what are you—”
“It is unfortunate for one so young, but such is life. In your next existence, may you reach paradise.”
As if he would waste no more words, he hurled the red demonic awl that had been floating above his palm straight at Yeon Minha.
“You son of a—”
She no longer had the strength to raise another barrier. Yeon Minha simply clenched her eyes shut, sensing the end.
Strangely, the face that rose in her mind at that final moment belonged to a perverted man wearing a mask. Even in death he tormented her. Perhaps all of this was his fault to begin with. The lowly bastard had dared to mock her—a successor of one of the great noble houses—to her face. In the duel that followed, he had added humiliating conditions and ultimately carved unforgettable shame into her. Even now, phantom pain occasionally throbbed in the places he had struck. His threats and abuse had continued without end. He had burst into her dormitory without warning and taken the room right beside her bedroom. He had used sorcery to make her unable to sleep without him, forced a shameless slave contract on her, and turned her into little more than a puppet. He had seen every secret and intimate part of her that she would not have shown even to a fiancé.
Yet at the same time, he had completely cured the Red Fire family’s mental pollution that no one else could solve. He had returned to her the joy of dreaming happy, sweet dreams. The fact that she, who had never even been able to leave the capital, had come all the way to the south was also thanks to his mysterious power.
What had become of him now? He was probably dead. And she bore part of the responsibility for his death. Yeon Minha had failed to fulfill the request he had made even at the cost of his own life. She could only lament that her hope had shattered at the very last moment.
—BOOM!
The instant the fleeting panorama of memories flashed past, the sound of an explosion rang out from extremely close range. What puzzled her was that she felt no pain anywhere on her body. She wondered if she had already died, but her senses remained vividly alive, so that could not be it.
When Yeon Minha cautiously opened her eyes, an unbelievable sight filled her vision.
“You…”
“Haa… haa…”
What blocked her view was the broad back of the male student she had believed dead. The demonic energy, instead of striking her, had shattered the rocks on either side and gouged deep craters into the earth.
“I’m not… too late…”
“H-how…”
He was breathing roughly, as though he might collapse at any moment.
“How did you… get here…”
“We clearly… made a contract… didn’t we?”
He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“That no matter what danger… I would protect you.”