A Thousand Degrees of Flame (1)
As I flew on Bibi’s back, monsters began gathering around us.
There were several Bill Crows and Hippogryphs.
I glanced down.
The mole-like Wild Moles and the aquatic horse monsters, Kelpies, were already moving rapidly across the ground.
“Keeek!!!”
A Bill Crow let out a high-pitched shriek.
Crows were highly intelligent.
It seemed to understand at once what I was trying to do.
It flew in an infinity pattern, guiding me toward my destination.
“I know.”
The smell of burning filled my nose.
The blaze raging far off was anything but ordinary.
Black smoke was surging upward with such force it looked ready to reach the clouds.
Damn it.
The factory fire in Jongno District had become one of the worst disasters in South Korea.
I should’ve dealt with it sooner.
I shook my head.
Don’t beat yourself up over it.
Police-Fire War had warning signs.
At the club, the clash between firefighters and villains had already revealed the seeds of the conflict.
Because of that, I’d been able to prepare in time.
But the Jongno fire was different.
I couldn’t remember everything from my past life.
It had happened so suddenly that I’d forgotten about it.
It’ll probably be the same from here on out.
Even now, somewhere on Earth, people were probably dying because of some incident or accident.
I couldn’t stop everything by myself.
All I could do was—
stop the disasters that happened around me.
Then, a memory from long ago flashed through my mind.
Ding. Ding. Ding……!!!
- Murder: < 3/100 >
- Murder: < 11/100 >
- Murder: < 37/100 >
……
It had been an accident that broke out unintentionally during Dirty Kraken……
A nightmare I never wanted to relive.
More than a hundred naval soldiers had died back then.
If things went wrong this time, the same tragedy could happen again.
Please, let me not be too late.
I yanked on the chain around Bibi’s neck.
“Faster.”
“Yes, sir, Master!”
It shook off the ominous feeling, sliced through the wind, and flew faster.
Seoul, Jongno District, Gyeonggyojang-gil 35.
There had once been an apartment complex here, but after monsters swept through seven years ago, the whole place had become a ruin.
As always, humanity rebuilt on top of the wreckage, and on that new land rose—
Apixel.
A company that processed mana stones with proprietary technology to manufacture batteries.
Apixel’s business had grown so much that it had recently expanded from Building 1 all the way to Building 4.
Mana stones were the foreign matter found inside monsters’ bodies.
Monsters were dangerous things that threatened human life, but the mana stones extracted from them were so useful they were called a gift from God.
Mana stones weren’t valuable only as luxury goods.
They were widely used in medical equipment, military supplies, and all kinds of industries.
“F-fire!”
As with all misfortune, it started with something trivial.
A fire broke out on the second floor of Building 3.
The first person to notice the danger was Gurmukh Singh, a twenty-five-year-old foreign laborer from India.
The moment Singh saw the flames, he grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed over.
“Everybodee, move aside!!!”
The white powder sprayed from the extinguisher struck the fire.
But the flames didn’t die down; instead, they began exploding in a chain reaction.
Bang-bang-bang!!!
The cause was the batteries.
As the cylindrical batteries detonated one after another, no ordinary extinguisher could possibly control the blaze.
“What the hell? It’s not going out?”
“Shouldn’t we call 119?”
When a fire breaks out, people rarely think clearly.
While everyone hesitated, the acrid smoke spread in an instant.
It took less than a minute for the CCTV mounted on the ceiling to short out and fail.
Singh grabbed his phone.
He dialed 119, but all that came back was a ringing tone, with no answer for a long while.
Most firefighters and police officers were tied up because of the Police-Fire War.
Of course, a small number of personnel remained, but the slower the response, the more lawless the world became.
“It’s not answering!”
A pillar of crimson fire shot upward and scorched the ceiling.
Startled, Singh dropped his phone.
As the people around him panicked and lost their heads, Singh shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Run for it!”
The laborers all bolted at once.
Just as Singh turned to flee too—
“Ugh!”
One of the workers nearby missed his step and fell hard.
He was twenty-three-year-old Korean Choi Seok-jun.
He had just finished his military service and started working here, and he was Singh’s closest friend.
“Seok-jun!”
It was a desperate situation, but Singh didn’t hesitate.
He ran straight to Choi Seok-jun and helped him up.
“Get up, quick!”
“...Hyung. I think I twisted my leg.”
“Come on!”
Singh supported Seok-jun and kept moving.
Just as fear began swelling in his chest from the scorching heat, the ground suddenly trembled beneath them.
It was a consequence of shoddy construction caused by the company’s rapid expansion.
At the very moment the concrete under Seok-jun’s foot gave way—
“Watch out!”
Singh shoved him aside.
Thanks to that, Seok-jun landed safely on solid ground.
But Singh himself fell through.
“Hyung!!!”
Crashing onto the first floor, Singh felt a piercing shock shoot up through his spine.
His vision blurred, and his consciousness turned hazy.
What surfaced in that fading light was his mother’s face.
Singh. Can’t you stay? You can work here just fine, you know.
His mother, worry etched across her face, had held tightly to Singh’s wrist.
Let go! If I go out into a bigger world, I’ll make more money!
Singh had frowned and shouted back.
Singh. I’m just worried about you. Please, think it over a little more.
Am I a kid? Stop nagging me already!
...All right. Just stay healthy, then. I’ll pray for you. And if it gets hard, come back anytime.
His mother had closed her eyes and joined her hands in prayer.
Clear tears streamed down Singh’s cheeks.
...Mom.
It wasn’t simply because he felt pathetic facing death.
I’m sorry.
Thinking of the mother who would grieve after he died crushed his chest with guilt.
I should’ve said goodbye properly before coming.
Whoosh!
The fire, alive as if it had a will of its own, swallowed Singh whole.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
In fear, he curled himself tight.
But even after waiting for what felt like forever, he didn’t feel the flames.
Am I already dead... and can’t feel anything?
Maybe time was simply moving slowly in his final moments.
While he was lost in those thoughts—
“Puhihing!”
At the strange sound that snapped him awake, Singh slowly opened his eyes.
“......”
A monster with a lush mane at the nape of its neck and down its back was standing in front of him, forming a wall to shield him.
“...A horse?”
The aquatic monster Kelpie opened its mouth wide and sprayed water, suppressing the surrounding fire.
As the water struck the flames, thick steam billowed up.
Someone emerged from within it.
A man in a purple mask and suit.
Behind his back, the still-raging fire made him look like the silhouette of a demon.
...Shiva?
Singh thought of the Indian deity known as the god of destruction.
But the purple god’s actions, unlike the word destruction, were infinitely gentle.
“Good work.”
The man stroked Kelpie’s head with a kind hand.
Singh met his eyes.
“H-hello. My name is Gurmukh Singh, from India.”
Singh greeted him awkwardly and childishly, completely out of place with the situation.
He had gotten into the habit of doing that after too many experiences of being unfairly discriminated against whenever he met Koreans.
“Oh? You might be...”
Singh had always kept the TV on while studying Korean.
There was one face from a recent news broadcast that had left a strong impression on him.
Purple Devil?
A masked man saving the world in a time like this.
To Singh, Purple Devil was an endlessly mysterious and admirable figure.
And now Purple Devil was holding out a hand to him.
“We can exchange names later. Can you walk?”
“Ah, yes... Guhk!”
Singh hunched over.
He had cracked a rib when he fell.
“No choice then.”
Purple Devil reached out somewhere.
Crack!
A monster burst up through the concrete floor.
It looked like a mole.
“Ride this. It should get you out.”
“...O-okay.”
Singh climbed onto the mole’s back.
The monster’s soft fur brushed against his palm.
Seen up close, the mole looked gentle, but its teeth and claws were terrifyingly sharp.
Singh swallowed hard.
Somehow, none of this feels real.
Purple Devil asked, “Is anyone else left?”
Luckily, Building 3 had suffered little damage thanks to the quick evacuation.
Choi Seok-jun had also made it out safely because of Singh.
“I was the last one out. Everybody else just panicked and ran.”
At Singh’s stumbling answer, Purple Devil let out a puff of breath.
It was hard to tell with the mask on, but he seemed to be smiling.
“Your Korean’s pretty good. My friend Brahma speaks it pretty well too.”
Brahma?
The Indian god said to have created the universe.
“Don’t tell me you’re Indian too...”
“Get to a hospital as fast as you can.”
Purple Devil slapped the mole on the ass.
The mole bolted forward so fast Singh’s hair whipped in the wind.
Riding the racing mole, Singh looked back.
The purple warrior standing tall in the midst of hell grew smaller and smaller behind him.
“T-thank you! Thank you so much!!!”
After confirming that no one was left in Building 3, I stepped outside.
One problem down, at least.
The factory was made up of Buildings 1 through 4 in total.
I’d checked Building 3, so three buildings remained.
Whiiirrr!
The fire trucks arrived a step after I did.
“Hurry!”
“Split up and put it out!”
It was hard to believe these were the same firefighters who had just finished the Police-Fire War only moments ago; they moved with flawless coordination.
The large fire trucks sprayed water toward Buildings 1 and 2.
But as they kept pouring out water, the pressure gradually weakened.
“W-what’s going on?”
“Damn it. We’re running out of water!”
During the Police-Fire War, the police had used water cannons to drive the firefighters back.
To counter that, the firefighters had used the same strategy.
Of all times for this to happen.
I couldn’t blame the firefighters.
If they hadn’t fought back with water cannons and fire axes in hand, there would have been countless casualties on the firefighters’ side.
Someone came up to me.
“Mr. Purple Devil.”
It was Gu Ja-min, his forehead wrapped in a bandage.
His wound still hadn’t fully closed; blood seeped from his split lip.
“I’m joining you too.”
I answered with a nod.
Gu Ja-min put on his gear and went into Building 4.
“Hey.”
Another man approached next.
“I’m Kim Yi-seok, on the same team as Gu Ja-min. You can just call me Team Leader Kim.”
He looked familiar.
He’s the one who was attacked on the road by a villain with Gu Ja-min.
With my help, the two of them had managed to escape the villain safely.
“The chief has given orders. We’re to assist Purple Devil and do everything we can to put this fire out.”
Kim Yi-seok continued,
“What should we do?”
Even while we were talking, Kelpie and the Wild Mole were rescuing people.
But—
“Kiiing...”
“Puhihing...”
The mole’s fur had been singed, and it was panting hard.
Kelpie, whose body was covered in slime like a lizard, twitched in pain as if it had been burned too.
They’ve hit their limit too.
Above us, Hippogryphs were flying around, rescuing people from the factory roof.
But with the flames climbing higher and higher, they couldn’t get any closer.
The feathers of Bill Crows and Hippogryphs were too vulnerable to fire.
I turned my gaze toward the building Gu Ja-min had entered.
“What about Building 4?”
Kim Yi-seok briefed me.
“That’s the problem... The basement of Building 4 stores mana stone batteries, and apparently people are trapped down there. Our teams have gone in, but... ngh!”
As a gale of heat swept over him, Kim Yi-seok squeezed his eyes shut.
Unlike the other buildings, fire had spread through Building 4 with the speed of a living volcano.
That place...
Mana stone batteries were stored in the basement of Building 4.
As mana stones burned, the temperature they gave off kept rising.
By now it was—
more than a thousand degrees.
Voices spilled from the walkie-talkie in Kim Yi-seok’s hand.
- We can’t get any closer.
- The equipment’s melting, everything’s melting!
- Cough! Cough!!
The firefighters were struggling with everything they had against a 1,000-degree blaze.
...
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t afraid when I looked at the entrance blazing like a monster’s open maw.
Being a hero didn’t mean you had no fear.
And yet—
“I’ll go.”
“Are you sure? Even our own people can’t enter Building 4 lightly...”
“I’m fine.”
I raised one finger to signal.
A red-bodied wyvern descended from the sky.
“Step back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim Yi-seok quickly withdrew and created some distance.
As Bibi swooped down at high speed, it asked, “Master. Are you really doing this?”
I inhaled and exhaled once.
“Yeah.”
Bibi opened its mouth wide.
A pillar of fire thundered down and engulfed my body.
“Ghk!”
It was so hot it felt like my skin—from scalp to toes—would burn off completely, but I clenched my teeth and endured it.
At last, a faint aura began rising across my entire body.
I flexed my fist open and closed.
I could feel it.
The mana immune to flames was coursing through my heart and spreading throughout my body like blood through veins.
Good. Let’s go.
The invincible hero who would never burn stepped into the flames.