Alchemist Emily (3)
Jinwoo, Chiharu, and Corax circled above Washington, cloaked in spells to evade radar and surveillance, searching for the 'path' leading into the Eternal Nightmare. It wasn't a visible door. It was a faint 'crack' where the boundary between reality and nightmare thinned, twisting space itself.
"Caw!"
Finally, Corax's red eyes locked onto it. Above the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, near the airport, a repository of aviation history. The air there shimmered faintly, like rippling water.
"There it is."
At Jinwoo's command, Corax spread its massive wings and dove toward the rift. As they passed through, his vision warped like jelly—then a wholly different landscape unfolded before them.
Emily ran like a madwoman. Hideous screams echoed behind her, mingled with the rip of tearing flesh and the whoosh of a massive axe slicing through the air.
The ruined airport terminal was a vast labyrinth and slaughterhouse. Dodging shattered glass and scattered corpses, she desperately sought a hiding spot. Her body was caked in sweat and grime, her worn Harry Potter hoodie shredded to rags.
Emily! Over here! Under that baggage conveyor belt!
The Magic Grimoire's urgent cry made her hurl herself under the conveyor belt into the dark space below. She huddled, holding her breath, body trembling.
Thud... thud... thud...
Heavy footsteps like a giant's approached. Then they stopped right in front of her.
Emily peeked through a gap in the conveyor. There stood a colossal warrior in living steel armor. Dozens of eyeballs affixed to his face scanned every direction like living things.
"Found you, little rat."
Hundreds of voices boomed directly in her mind. The warrior reached out with a massive hand and tore the conveyor belt away like a cardboard box.
"Kyaaak!"
Emily screamed and scrambled back. A dead end. Nowhere left to run.
"Th-this is all I have left!"
Clutching her last hope, she flung the small clay homunculus dangling from her backpack to the ground.
"Grow, golem!"
At her command, it glowed faintly and swelled to human size. It charged the warrior with clumsy punches.
...A trinket?
The warrior didn't even dodge. He just kicked it lightly in annoyance.
Splat!
The homunculus shattered like a dirt cookie, crumbling to dust. Emily's face drained white with despair.
The warrior approached, grabbing her hair and hoisting her up.
"You'll make a fine offering. Your overflowing mana... He will be most pleased."
As he knelt to sacrifice her—
...Wait, my child.
...I've changed my mind. Don't kill that wench. 'I'll raise her'.
"......!"
The warrior hesitated at his master's capricious order but obeyed perfectly, releasing her hair. Emily collapsed, gasping.
Rejoice... you have been chosen, little sorceress.
My exalted master, the 'One With Countless Eyes', has decided to take you in. Offer everything you have now—that pathetic grimoire, your worthless alchemy, your voluptuous flesh and soul—to Him.
I won't lie. The process... will be agonizing. Your ego will shatter, your memories turn to ash. But at the end awaits eternal glory beyond your primitive race's wildest dreams.
Emily could only sob in terror.
No! Refuse it, Emily! That's not salvation! That's eternal enslavement! Better to die! That's the worst choice!
At that instant—
"Caaaawwwwww!"
A sharp, majestic cry from a massive bird tore through the blood-red sky, shaking the entire nightmare airport. The warrior looked up. A colossal black shadow pierced the crimson clouds, diving straight at them.
...Oh?
But this time, his master's voice rang with incomparable lust and obsession.
That's it. That vermin. No, what's with that vermin... that's it! Bring it to me! That bird! That wench! And that sorceress! All of them! Bring them all to me, my child!!!
At the frenzied command, the warrior instantly recognized the descending figure as the 'Crow Sorcerer'. His myriad eyes gleamed with ecstasy. He kicked the sobbing Emily aside like a pebble and yanked his massive double-bladed axe from the ground, laughing maniacally at the sky.
Kahahahaha! So we meet like this at last, little crow! Who will earn my master's 'favor'—you or I? Let's settle it here today!
The spatial distortion filling Jinwoo's vision cleared, revealing the new nightmare landscape. Beneath him lay Corax's vast back. Below stretched a massive graveyard of aircraft. The sky was a murky, ominous blood-red like a stagnant pool, the ground littered with shattered runway asphalt and burned plane husks like giant tombstones.
But his enhanced sight pierced beyond the mere destruction to horrors more grotesque. Dark crimson pools like bloodstains dotted the runways, surrounded by shredded clothes, scattered shoes... and fresh chunks of flesh. Mangled as if run through a giant blender.
A Boeing 777 fuselage with a snapped wing gaped with a massive hole, its interior a gore-soaked mess of seats protruding like meat hooks in a slaughterhouse. The emergency slide lay extended but slick with blood, clustered with trampled corpses in horrific tangles.
And there, before the ruined terminal—he saw it. A colossal figure. Living blade-armor. A massive double-bladed axe in hand.
Th-that... that's...!
For the first time, the Magic Grimoire's voice trembled with shock and fear beside Jinwoo.
The Champion! The 'One With Countless Eyes'' most favored firstborn and strongest champion! Why is he here already...!
Master! Danger! He's on another level from anything you've faced! His power is the outer god's authority itself! You could win now that you're stronger... but everything you have could be destroyed too! Choose! Retreat now, or hunt this god's son!
Jinwoo said nothing. He simply felt Chiharu's stunned tension on his back and Corax's hesitation in midair, silently glaring at the giant Champion below—who had spotted him, grinning madly as he raised his axe.
Chiharu's breath caught. She'd faced countless monsters. But that was different. Every cell, instinct, soul screamed.
Run.You can't win.
For the first time, the huntress felt the prey's bone-deep terror.
Corax was the same. Its red eyes widened in fear, massive body trembling faintly. But it couldn't move. No order from its master, its creator.
Jinwoo merely stared at his next prey in silence. None could see his expression under the plague doctor mask.
The Champion's mad laughter faded, tension thickening the ruined airport once more. Sky intruder versus ground guardian. The two transcendent beings sized each other up.
And from behind a burning passenger plane wreck, one girl watched breathlessly. Emily. The poor girl nearly lost her mind to terror. But the massive black bird in the sky and its two bizarre riders clung her fraying sanity together.
What... is that...?
First, the giant crow Corax. It reminded her of Hagrid's Buckbeak. But no—this was more primal, ominous, mythic.
And its two riders. One in skin-tight black like her 'fox mask'. But her eyes fixed on the man at the fore, facing the Champion boldly: crow-feather cloak, pointed hat, eerie plague doctor mask.
"...The Crow Sorcerer."
Awe-filled whisper escaped her lips unbidden. The sole hero of this new age of magic—right before her.
Emily.
Th-that book the crow's holding... that's...!
"What's wrong, Germain? What's with that book?"
It's... on another level...
Saint Germain's voice dripped with primal fear, like prey before a predator.
If my power merely promises mortals wealth and immortality through 'alchemy'... the aura from that book is different. It's 'law' itself. The authority of 'conquest' and 'domination'—overturning the world, forcing all to kneel...!
For the first time, Saint Germain shed its haughty arrogance, issuing a sincere warning to its novice master.
That sorcerer isn't some hero we imagined, my lady. He's a tyrant like that Champion—or worse! A king! We're rabbits caught between two dragons glaring at each other! Pray... pray we don't catch their eyes!
But Emily ignored the warning. Her blue eyes were utterly captivated by the solitary, overwhelming silhouette of the Crow Sorcerer gazing down from the sky.
And she realized. It wasn't Harry Potter's courage she yearned for. Not the friendships of magic school.
What she truly craved was that power—the absolute might to overlook the world, mock fate, destroy and create at will.
Emily's heart pounded not with fear, but blazing admiration.