Submission (1)

After he escaped the Dream World, the first thing Kang Hanseong did was send Phantom to Baek Yerin.

The replica slipped through Inventory and reached Yeosu in a breath. She was already on the floor.

"Cough—cough!"

Blood kept forcing its way out of her. It looked like mana depletion, and it might as well have been. Nearly all of her ether had been drawn into him.

"You did this to me, and you still—agh!"

She had been glaring at Phantom with venom in her eyes when the scream tore out of her. Phantom had her by the collar, and her body rose into the air.

Once she was fully subdued, Hanseong took a jar from Inventory. The Gu was inside it.

The Gu came out of the jar. Baek Yerin's eyes flew wide at the grotesque thing, and as it drew nearer she shouted, the sound halfway to a scream.

"Y-you wouldn't—!"

Her mouth snapped shut. She had guessed what Phantom meant to do. It was still a useless struggle.

"Mmph! Mmph! N-no! Agh!"

Through Phantom, Hanseong forced her jaws open. The Gu seemed to understand its duty. It went into her mouth.

One swallow, and it was inside her.

Only after he was sure did he let go of her collar. She pitched forward onto the floor and retched with everything she had.

"Ugh! Hurk—hwaaagh!"

She fought to spit it back out. The Gu, once inside a body, showed no interest in ever leaving.

How long she kept at it, he could not have said. The retching went on and on, and then Baek Yerin began to shake, as if a chill had taken her.

That was when it happened.

The notice came up, and with it the Gu's long list of abilities. Most of them existed to control a host or to hurt one. Around the same moment, the shaking woman turned a savage glare on Phantom.

"Wh-what did you just—aaagh!"

She folded on her own. Bent double at the waist, she screamed and thrashed across the floor. The fit had a cause. It was the Gu.

Her face went a stark, bloodless blue. Dark red ran from her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears, and violent convulsions followed. She screamed herself raw, then glared at Phantom again.

"...If this is what you're doing, then just kill me! Aaaagh!"

"Sorry. I'm not going to."

There was too much he still needed out of her. Better to wait until the killing intent ebbed. He set Phantom down on a nearby sofa and watched her twist, his gaze flat.

Then, in that instant—

His Alignment had moved. It was the first such message since Daejeon, where he had wiped out a militia of more than a thousand. Hanseong's eyes sank.

One more step, and...

He would be little different from the villains whose lives he had already taken. Bae Hyeonseok, the Poison Master. Kim Tae-min, the Necromancer. It meant he had lost that much of his humanity.

He did not particularly care.

Baek Yerin knows something about Alignment.

What penalty came of holding a chaotic Alignment for too long. If she knew that, she would also know how to drag it down, or how to turn it back. The hunch felt solid. He ignored the notice and kept watching her.

A long while later—

"Hic—hnngh!"

The screams had turned to sobs. Had the killing intent finally slackened? He studied her, and Baek Yerin caught Phantom's foot.

"Please. Please stop. I'll do anything you tell me. So please..."

Blood and tears smeared her face, and the way she spoke ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had changed. Something about it felt wrong. It did not take him long to name it.

"Which Baek Yerin are you?"

"Wh... what?"

"Which personality."

"Th-the fifth."

"Then bring out the first."

The real conversation could start after that. She was the one who knew about Alignment. The moment he finished speaking, her eyes changed.

Fear had filled them a breath ago. Now it was hatred. She bit her lip and glared at him.

"...Why are you looking for me?"

"Until I say we're done, you don't switch on your own. Do it, and there is no conversation. I'll leave you breathing and let the pain go on."

"You—! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Nngh!"

"Oh. And change the way you talk."

The new condition landed, and the screaming started again. Through it, Hanseong tried the Gu's abilities one after another, as if he were testing them. Sensory Amplification. Agony Infliction. The rest. The pain ate at her mind, and the screams grew more wretched.

"Kyaaaah! Aaagh! Ghk—gyaaah!"

Perhaps she simply could not hold. Her personality changed more than once, and each time he answered with a sharper stimulus and a deeper pain.

Some time after that—

"Uuh... augh... auh..."

The thrashing sank into a wet rattle. Murky foam spilled from her mouth while her whole body twitched, like someone who had reached the limit of what pain could do. Hanseong shut the Gu's abilities off. He meant to try talking again.

That was when she crawled over and seized Phantom's ankle.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorr—"

Her pupils were slack. The venom from the start of it was gone. He looked at her for a moment, then spoke.

"Ready to talk?"

"Yes! I'll do anything. Anything at all. Just don't make me feel this anymore."

Her lips shivered. Hope gathered in the empty eyes—the hope of leaving the pain and being allowed to die. Only then did he come to the point.

"Then start with the incomplete puppets."

"D-deal with them, you mean...?"

"Put them back the way they were."

"But I don't have enough mana..."

That would not be a problem. He took an energy recovery potion from Inventory and tossed it down in front of her.

"Drink. Then fix them."

She picked it up in a shaking hand. Once her mana returned, she cast some nameless skill over and over. Restoring the incomplete puppets, most likely.

A good while later—

"...It's done."

"Every last one?"

"Yes. All of them..."

She nodded in a rush. Through the Magic Eye, it read as truth.

Must have been worse than I thought.

He had not expected her to fold this completely. Her eyes had changed, too—eyes that waited on death and wanted it. With that much secured, he turned inward.

So what now?

There were still questions. Alignment. Karma. A handful of smaller things besides. What he was actually weighing was what came after: once he had pulled everything out of her, what to do with Baek Yerin.

Kill her? Then what happened to the Gu? Did it come back out? In the worst case, it might die with the host.

That'd be a waste.

All the mana he had spent hatching the thing, gone after a single use. There was something else he would hate to waste. Her skill. Used properly, the ability to make incomplete puppets looked genuinely useful.

With that, I could cut out fights that don't need to happen.

Conflict between people, for one. The political games, shut down at the root. Turn whoever stirred trouble into a puppet, and they would never cross the line. Then he could spend himself entirely on the Apocalypse, and make the quarrels between humans as if they had never been.

So I put a tighter shackle on her...

Better to use Baek Yerin the way he used a Replica. For what was coming, as much as for now. A fitting shackle happened to occur to him.

He spoke toward the Blood Mark carved into his left palm.

"Jihye. Got a second?"

"Where are you?"

Suncheon sat just north of Yeosu. Good timing. He spoke again.

"Leave it for now and come to Yeosu."

"No. Come alone."

She agreed at once. He sent the address, and before long Jihye appeared in her combat uniform.

"Mage. You called? Huh?"

She had come into the room and found Baek Yerin face-down at Phantom's feet. Her head tipped, puzzled.

"Um... who is that?"

"The Puppeteer. Baek Yerin."

"...!"

Jihye's eyes went round, then filled with hostility. Fair enough. The woman on the floor was the root of everything currently grinding the Special Mission Battalion down. The hostility lasted only a moment. She remembered why she had been called.

"What did you want me to do?"

"I'm going to try making her a vampire."

"A v-vampire? How?"

"Your unique skill. Obviously."

Bloodsucking—the unique skill of a vampire. Through it, Jihye could turn someone into a thrall or a minion. What he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted was Baek Yerin as Jihye's thrall.

Jihye looked stuck.

"But I've never actually done it..."

"Then now's the time."

"Mm. All right. I'll try."

Perhaps she had seen that he was not going to let it go. The hesitation vanished. She nodded like someone already resolved, as if every preparation were finished.

Hanseong spoke quietly to the white-haired woman on the floor.

"Baek Yerin."

"Y-yes!"

"Hood off. On your feet."

"...Understood."

She obeyed. When the hoodie came off, the pale nape of her neck showed, and Jihye stepped in and drove her fangs into it.

"Ugh—ahh!"

Baek Yerin's face twisted in a strange way. It was not purely pain. The reaction looked, oddly, like pleasure.

A short time passed. When the drinking ended, Jihye's eyes widened.

"Ah—a notification."

"What's it say?"

"It's asking whether to make her a thrall or a minion. Which one?"

"Thrall."

She did as she was told. Another message appeared. She read it carefully and repeated it to him as it stood.

"To use the authority of Bloodsucking and make someone a thrall, after sunset I have to drink their blood three times, two hours apart."

More troublesome than he had expected. Not impossible.

"That's all?"

"No. There's one more."

"Go on."

"The last time I drink, the one who's supposed to become a thrall has to accept the offer to become a vampire. Finally, of their own accord."

Refuse, and the rite failed. They would have to begin again from the start. Hanseong turned over what she had told him, then looked at Baek Yerin.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"You heard her."

"Yes? Ah—yes. B-but..."

"But what?"

"You aren't... going to give me death, are you?"

She asked it carefully. The face of someone who did not want to feel any more pain. He answered as if he were still deciding.

"Depends how you do. But if the rite fails before that... you know what happens."

"Y-yes! I'll succeed. I will."

Terror sat plain on her face. She nodded hard, and he stood Phantom up from the sofa. Then he turned to Jihye.

"We're going back to the Air Corps Base."

"Already?"

"Make her a thrall and we don't have to wipe out the puppets. Oh—and tell Crow there's no need to keep looking for them."

"I'll contact them now."

Jihye took out her phone. A moment later she passed his words to Kotori. When that was done, he fixed on the coordinates of the main gate at Suwon Air Wing.

Phantom, Jihye, and Baek Yerin. A vast magic circle burned itself into the floor beneath the three of them. White light closed over them, and in no time at all they were gone.