A Thousand Degrees of Flame (4)
Several fire engines arrived late at the battery factory in Jongno District.
Only one of them had brought a full tank of water.
And even that truck was a small one, which made the situation all the more dire.
From Building 1 to Building 4, every structure was already engulfed in flames, but Team Leader Kim I-seok didn’t hesitate.
“Building 4! Drench the entrance to Building 4!”
That was where Gu Ja-min still hadn’t made it out.
The water spewing from the hose was sucked toward Building 4 in a white torrent. Fortunately, the smoke thinned out as the flames began to die.
“Ghh!”
Han Tae-sik, who had been on the same team as Gu Ja-min, gripped the hose and braced himself against the brutal pressure blasting from it.
Kim I-seok, Han Tae-sik, and the rest of the crew all felt the same way.
They all prayed that Gu Ja-min would come back alive.
“Hold up! Stop for a second!”
Kim I-seok, who had been staring hard at Building 4, shot a hand up.
There was movement near the entrance.
Between the collapsed concrete and twisted steel, a swaying shadow came into view.
The team recognized him at once.
“Ja-min!”
An all-too-familiar face appeared through the rubble.
“...Team Leader.”
Kim I-seok quickly barked out orders.
“Bring the cutters! Cut the rebar here first!”
The rescue operation began at once.
The collapsed structure weighed more than thirty tons, so there was no way to move it all at once.
Three excavators were brought in to break the debris into smaller pieces, and then machines and firefighters worked together to haul it away.
At last, Gu Ja-min was pulled free.
“Ja-min!”
“...There are people back there too.”
With trembling fingers, Gu Ja-min pointed behind the entrance.
There were seven people sprawled there.
“Get the stretchers! Hurry!”
One by one, the people trapped in the basement of Building 4 were loaded onto stretchers and carried out.
Burns, unconsciousness from carbon monoxide poisoning, exhaustion, heatstroke—each of them had suffered serious injuries, but thankfully, no one had died.
Once they were rushed to the hospital, there was a good chance they’d pull through.
“Ja-min. You should get to the hospital too, right away...”“
“Wait, Team Leader.”
Gu Ja-min waved him off, swaying on his feet.
They had already removed the fragments embedded in his calf and given him emergency treatment.
Kim I-seok pressed his lips together.
How is he still standing like this...?
It was a miracle he had survived at all. And to have saved seven lives in that condition was nothing short of remarkable.
Kim I-seok patted Gu Ja-min’s shoulder.
“You did more than enough, kid. You’re a hero. So get some rest...”
“No. That’s not true, Team Leader.”
Gu Ja-min shook his head.
Over and over, he pointed back toward Building 4.
“Purple Devil-ssi didn’t make it out.”
The face of the usually goofy, always-grinning Gu Ja-min had gone dark.
“I’m not the hero. He is.... He’s the real hero.”
Gu Ja-min’s voice trembled.
To stop the fire from exploding further in the basement, Purple Devil had made the bold choice to bring the building down.
That was how everyone else had managed to escape safely.
“We have to save Purple Devil-ssi too, now!”
Rumble—
Just then, the already unstable Building 4 caved in with a thunderous crash.
Gu Ja-min’s cry scattered into the air.
Explosions kept echoing from within, and with each blast the red flames jerked and writhed as the ruined structure shuddered.
It was a sign that the magic stone explosion was still in progress.
Kim I-seok furrowed his brow.
Damn it...
He didn’t say it out loud, but every firefighter there understood the situation perfectly.
No matter how awakened someone was, the odds of surviving inside flames hotter than a thousand degrees were close to zero.
“No, no...!”
As if denying reality itself, Gu Ja-min shook his head again and again.
He remembered Purple Devil’s final expression.
Even at the very end, he had smiled at Gu Ja-min.
That memory made Gu Ja-min’s chest ache like it was being torn open.
Heavy guilt tightened around his throat.
“It’s okay. Rescue work after a collapse takes time anyway. If we call for backup now and keep going until dawn—”
He couldn’t finish.
Kim I-seok and the others all looked away.
Everyone desperately wanted to save the man who had led the Police-Fire War to victory.
But the battery factory hadn’t simply collapsed.
It had blown apart, with magic stones and lithium batteries detonating like a bomb had been dropped on the place, and the unbearable heat was still boiling through the wreckage.
Gu Ja-min lost all reason and started limping toward Building 4.
“It’s too early to give up! Let’s keep searching a little longer. I’ll help too—”
“Ja-min. Stop!”
Kim I-seok seized him.
“This is enough.”
Only when he saw the hard look on Kim I-seok’s face did Gu Ja-min finally give in.
“...Sob.”
All he could do was lower his head and cry helplessly.
“You worked hard. Let’s get that leg treated first.”
“Understood, Team Leader.”
Gu Ja-min slowly raised his head.
“...Huh?”
But his gaze wasn’t on Kim I-seok.
It had gone past him, toward the sky.
Gu Ja-min’s eyes widened.
It looked as though he’d seen something impossible.
“What is it?”
Kim I-seok turned to follow his stare.
“...What the hell is that?”
Every firefighter looked up.
An Ice Unicorn flew through the sky with a solid, frozen horn.
A Deep Blue Pegasus beat its blue wings overhead.
A Web Griffin with water dripping from its body, and even a Sky Chimera exhaling frigid breath each time it drew in air.
All manner of flying monsters had gathered above the factory.
“W-What is this?”
Since Gates had appeared, monster sightings were common enough.
But it was rare to see such a variety gathered together like this, so everyone could only stare, dumbfounded.
“Run!”
“Report this to the Hunter Association!”
One by one, the firefighters who had come to their senses scattered in a panic.
The Ice Unicorn lowered its head and hurled its horn toward the ground.
“Wa—watch out!!”
But the horn wasn’t aimed at the firefighters.
“Neighhh!!”
The solidly frozen horn struck the building and burst like white blossoms, snuffing out the remaining fire.
The Deep Blue Pegasus landed beside it and flapped its wings toward the structure.
“Flutter!”
A thick mist of moisture rose, and the flames withered away.
The Web Griffin hurled itself into the disaster site with its wet body.
The Sky Chimera puffed out its mouth and blew out a stream of freezing breath.
One by one, the firefighters who had been running froze in place.
It made no sense at all, and yet anyone could see what was happening.
“They’re...”
“Putting the fire out?”
The battery factory blaze had toppled five utility poles in the explosion.
The surrounding area—and even the nearby residential neighborhood—had lost power.
If the fire spread from here, it could leap straight into homes.
Suppressing it as quickly as possible was the priority.
As though God himself had answered human prayers, an unbelievable miracle was unfolding before their eyes.
Kim I-seok swallowed hard.
What the hell is going on?
Still confused, he was getting his gear ready to head back in when the sky suddenly went dark.
Something massive had covered the heavens.
Its shape resembled a stingray that lived in the sea.
A monster that flew in the stratosphere, the highest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, and was almost impossible to spot at all thanks to its Ghostlin talent, which rendered its body transparent.
The Rain Manta.
And, fitting its name, its specialty was...
The Rain Manta opened its mouth wide.
Its wing-like pectoral fins spread open to either side.
Gu Ja-min’s jaw dropped.
“No way.”
From every opening in the Rain Manta’s body, torrents of water erupted.
Whoooosh.
Like a tropical squall.
Huge raindrops pounded into the ground.
It was a deluge so fierce it looked as if someone were scooping water from a bucket and flinging it across the factory.
Smoke rose from the entire battery plant.
“...It’s out.”
Just like that, the fire died down as though it had never been there at all.
Clear drops of water dripped from the ruins.
“Twenty years on the job, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“This isn’t a dream, right? I’m not under some illusion spell, am I?”
Monsters weren’t attacking humans.
They were gathering to save them.
It was an unprecedented phenomenon anywhere in the world.
That feeling of exhilaration lasted only a moment before the ground itself shook, and the firefighters lost their footing.
“What’s going on?”
“...An earthquake?”
The anomaly came from Building 4.
Above the collapsed structure, something rose up as if the earth itself were growing.
Everyone who saw it was stunned speechless.
Kim I-seok let out a dry laugh.
“So it was a dream after all...”
Gu Ja-min grinned stupidly, just like he always did.
Hot tears rolled down both cheeks.
“...Haha. I knew he’d come back.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
It was right after I activated Assimilation’s upgrade.
The ground shook as if a major earthquake had broken out.
I can feel it.
Something with absurdly huge mana was tearing through the earth and racing toward me.
“GROOOOAAAR!!!!”
With one deep, thunderous roar, the fire surrounding me was blown away in an instant.
“Rrrrgh.”
An unfamiliar monster stood before me.
This one is...
It had a strange shape, part lion with horns and part floating cloud.
A mythical divine beast said to be seen only in Asia.
Haechi!
Haechi belonged to the fire attribute, and ironically enough, it could suppress raging flames in an instant.
Because it symbolized the restraint of fire, Haechi was also used in South Korea as the emblem pinned to firefighters’ uniforms.
Why is Haechi here?
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
Bear Man, the children’s hero, loved and protected animals and plants.
On the other hand, when Bear Man suffered severe damage to his life force, powerful living beings nearby would gather to help him.
In the theatrical anime film, when Bear Man was wounded by a villain and cornered at the edge of a cliff, even legendary animals appeared to lend a hand.
So it’s recreating that exactly.
I couldn’t help but laugh under my breath.
The Purchase talent always made the impossible happen as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Rrgh.”
Haechi clamped its mouth around the edge of my mask and lifted me onto its back.
Something extraordinary happened.
Mana swelled up from my dantian like a spring bursting from the ground.
That wasn’t all.
The skin that had melted away until bone showed through regenerated before my eyes.
Haechi was said to drift leisurely through the mantle beneath the earth’s crust.
Some scholars even claimed it could reach Earth’s outer core.
As long as the being shared its fire attribute, Haechi could provide healing.
The momentum is insane.
It was a speed no S-rank healer could possibly compare to.
Before I knew it, my body had fully recovered.
I could hear rain falling outside.
Had a sudden shower started under a clear sky?
No chance.
Once I activated the druid’s power, my senses sharpened.
My friends are out there.
Smoke rose from my battered suit.
I staggered to my feet on Haechi’s back.
I grabbed the protruding ridge on its spine.
Through the collapsed concrete, I could see a faint light ahead.
I remembered the firefighters’ battle cry.
“First in, last out!”
We arrived first at the fire scene and saved everyone.
Now, at the very end...
I pointed toward the dot of light and said, “Let’s go.”
The rare monster, a legend in its own right, bellowed as it surged forward.
Haechi dug its snout into the earth and pushed on.
It felt like a hyper-powerful excavator running in reverse.
...As expected, it really is a monster.
Haechi was every bit as powerful as the Dirty Kraken.
What would have taken human workers days of grueling labor, Haechi accomplished in a matter of seconds as it tunneled through the earth and burst outside.
Whoooosh.
Riding on Haechi’s back, I let the rain pour over me.
Water dripped from beneath my mask and down my chin.
Above me, the flying monsters circled in a wide ring.
...What a sight.
It was a fantastical scene, like a painting come to life.
I stood there quietly and looked down.
The firefighters were each muttering something under their breath.
“So this was a dream...”
“...Haha. I knew he’d come back.”
Everyone was looking up at me.
I clenched my fist.
Hah.
I let out a long breath.
The war between firefighters and police.
With the long, brutal Police-Fire War finally over, I raised my right fist high.
The firefighters threw both arms into the air as if they’d agreed on it beforehand, and the earth erupted in cheers.