11. Proof (4)
Thud thud thud!
I sprinted toward the direction where Chen Zuiyuan had vanished. One hunter came running after me. He handed his rifle off to another hunter on the truck and drew a melee weapon.
It was a massive two-handed axe, big enough to require gripping with both hands.
We raced along Chen Zuiyuan's trail without exchanging a single word.
Beep beep beep beep! Beeeeeeep—!
The detector kept beeping steadily until it let out one long final wail and went completely dead.
The hunter who'd heard it switched off the device's power.
"Overwhelming mana has pierced right through the detector's upper detection limit."
The scene from before kept flashing in my mind.
To be honest, I didn't have some deep bond with Chen Zuiyuan. I didn't particularly cherish or love him in any special way.
If anything, he'd spent less time with me than Baek Seol-yeon or Lee Ga-eun.
I could just abandon the deranged Chen Zuiyuan here and flee. All of us, myself included, could get out safely, and his death would go down in the records as an unavoidable accident during the operation.
We'd made every effort. We'd emptied our magazines trying to suppress him, and I'd even joined in the subjugation.
But why? The conviction that I couldn't just turn back now filled my head completely.
"……"
I stayed silent amid the questions swirling in my mind and kept running along the path mana pointed out.
"To the right."
The hunter handled the detailed navigation. He seemed to know the rough layout of Incheon's Songdo building jungle.
His impassive eyes tracked nearby monsters. Now and then, some small fry lunged at us.
Splat!
But they were mercilessly cleaved apart by the hunter's two-handed axe and vanished. On closer look, the axe blade shimmered faintly with purple light.
Every time the axe bit into a monster, their bodily fluids seeped into the blade like it was a magic sword.
"Keep going. The mana reaction is getting stronger."
The spatial mana density around us was absurdly high. Even I was starting to feel suffocated.
Still, we didn't let it show and pressed on. We finally halted at a three-way intersection. I could feel it—whatever had lured Chen Zuiyuan was just beyond that far corner.
"Near Songdo Station. Let's move."
The hunter called out the approximate position. We bolted forward immediately.
Thud!
Just as we charged toward that corner in perfect sync—
Boom!
A sudden shockwave erupted outward in all directions. It rattled the very space around us. The corner we'd been about to reach flickered mockingly in the distance.
"Ngh…"
The shockwave also clamped down on our chests like it was crushing our hearts.
Thump!
It didn't stop, relentlessly tormenting us. Finally, the purple mana stone at the center of the hunter's necklace shattered. He collapsed on the spot. I turned my head, but he forced his mouth open with effort.
"Go on ahead. I'll pull myself together and catch up."
He was one tough bastard. Leaving him behind, I rounded the corner.
"……Ah."
The sight hit me, and I couldn't help but sigh. There it was again—that mass I'd seen in the past, the one that had first filled me with despair and terror. And now, it was even bigger than before.
As my trauma and fear materialized right in front of me, I had no choice but to despair.
Kaboom!
The mass unleashed another shockwave at me. In the warping space, it felt like my whole body was about to be pulverized.
Slither—
Its eye moved. The grotesquely fused dark-red flesh writhed, repeating fusion and disintegration.
Facing that past terror head-on stirred the ashes buried in the compost of my memories, each one flickering back to life.
Why I'd quit researching spatial magic. Why I'd given up pushing further. Why I'd never taken on a human apprentice.
……And why I hadn't granted this power to Yggdrasil's humans.
Slither—
My eyeball shifted. It searched for Chen Zuiyuan. He was nowhere in sight.
Despairing thoughts filled my head—had he already been devoured by that mass? That's when it happened.
"Teacher!"
Someone tackled me from the side as I stood frozen, staring blankly at the mass. That horrific face entered my view. It was Chen Zuiyuan. For a split second, his face darkened, overlapping with the face of my first disciple that I couldn't quite recall from memory.
"We have to run now!"
He'd somehow shaken off the handcuffs and ring on his own. In his hand was a flask glass bottle containing what looked like a sample of the mass—something purple and wriggling.
"Wait, Chen Zuiyuan…!"
Blood streamed from his left eye. On closer inspection, his left eye was gone. But none of that mattered to him right now.
Thud thud—!
That's when the hunter who'd collapsed earlier regained his senses and rejoined us. But upon seeing the mass, he seemed overwhelmed by sheer terror. His fingers trembled around the axe handle.
"W-what… is that thing…?"
His question dripped with despair. Chen Zuiyuan spoke up.
"I'll explain later. Right now, we need to escape."
Chen Zuiyuan tried to lead us in a retreat. The hunter looked like he agreed. But leaving that monster unchecked—who knew what catastrophe it might unleash?
"…No."
I shook off Chen Zuiyuan's hand. It felt like I could see my dead disciple's optic nerve. Voices urging me to flee—Chen Zuiyuan's and my disciple's—echoed in my ears.
But for some reason, it felt wrong. If I ran now, I'd be running forever.
Besides, things were different this time. Back then, I couldn't save anyone. My power was too weak; I had no choice but to flee while everyone died.
…But now.
I can save them all.
Step—
I walked slowly forward and planted myself squarely in front of it. The mass slithered toward me. It spat out a broken arm right at my feet. Memories from the past whipped through my mind. Thorny vines snagged my ankles.
Kiiiiing—
The flesh twisted, reshaping itself. Space warped around it with every movement, as if mocking me.
I closed my eyes. For a moment, it felt like that village from back then unfolded before me.
Shwaaaa!
Its tentacles lashed out toward me. I vaguely heard someone shouting loudly from the side, but it was too faint to make out.
I stood there with eyes shut. The tentacles drew closer.
Kiiing!
Just before they touched me, I opened my eyes. The spatial barrier I'd deployed around me repelled the tentacles. The thing opened its maw multiple times to absorb me, but the same thing happened every time.
Step—
Facing my terror head-on, I advanced. The past looked different now. My melting disciple gazed at me. Her voice rang clear.
…Save me.
It could have been a hallucination from the intense spatial mana waves, or maybe something my fracturing mind cooked up.
But one thing mattered: I was going to answer that call.
Kuwaaaaa—!
My white hair whipped wildly in the wind. I shattered space, stepped on the fragments, and walked through the air.
"Finally… things are in view."
I stared at what I assumed was its eye. Dead center. A tiny, pathetic little eye compared to the massive dark-red lump of flesh. That eye trembled.
Kiiiiing—!
The thing twisted space to flee. The enormous dark-red mass shifted backward.
Kwachak!
I raised my left fist, knuckles facing out. The space where it tried to escape bulged upward, warping the ground. Its retreat was blocked.
Drip—
Blood poured from my left eye. Hot red liquid soaked my clothes and hair.
"Uwaaaaaah!!"
I endured the dizziness from blood loss and the massive urge to vomit, screaming at the top of my lungs. At the same time, I thrust my right hand forward and spread my palm.
Kiging—! Kagagang!
The space around it crumpled. It was trapped inside the crushed space. Once the surrounding area was fully pulverized, I clenched my fist.
Kaaaaang—!
The crushed space compressed in one direction—straight into the mass's center. What had once filled the street shrank to a single point.
Squish—
I squeezed my fist harder, compressing it even more. Purple mist billowed out from the point in massive quantities, thick enough to fill the street.
Ping!
Then agony slammed into my brain, shattering my focus. The spell lost power instantly. The deployed magic scattered without its focal point. The rift began repairing itself via spatial resilience, but the mass was gone.
All that remained was a single compressed red pebble.
"Haa… haa…"
I clutched my bleeding left eye and collapsed to the ground. This wasn't magic cast inside a gate—the backlash hit even harder.
"…Haa."
Barely able to see through my trembling right eye, I made out the shattered asphalt where the thing had vanished. Something lay below in the underground.
"Urk…"
As I tried to check what it was, consciousness slipped away. On the boundary between awareness and oblivion, my first disciple appeared.
Thank you.
Hallucination or not, that voice hammered into my ears. With it, I blacked out completely.