The Eternal Gate
Cheolwon, inside the civilian access control line, on the mid-slope of a nameless mountain.
Beep. Beep-beep.
Instead of the insect sounds a mountain ought to have, mechanical noises filled the air here. The trees, stripped bare of leaves, stood withered and skeletal. The grass underfoot had lost all vitality, yellowed and dead. Insect corpses littered the ground, and small animals had never even considered setting foot on this soil. Even the birds in the sky veered wide to avoid flying over it.
Code name: Death's Land.
Within a fifty-meter radius, the only living things were humans. Even humans couldn't stay for long; they had to work in shifts.
"I heard it wasn't originally this big," said Park Sena, who had guided us here. She wore a neat combat uniform. The only real problem was that a Keeper's basic combat suit was a skintight tights-style number. Park Sena's sexy dynamite body drew the eye no matter how many times you looked.
"Then how big was it?"
"See that sunken spot in the middle? They say it was only about that size."
In the center of Death's Land, a roughly fifteen-meter-diameter section had caved in. I'd have to get closer to be sure, but it looked like it had been dug out pretty deep.
"This feels more like Elena's territory than Keira's. What do you think, Elena?"
"We'll have to investigate to know for certain. But we absolutely have to stop whatever's creating this land. Left alone, it could grow to an absurd size."
"Agreed."
If we'd stayed wary of the Association and never come, it would have been a disaster. This was clearly everyone's problem.
"Welcome."
A mid-low male voice— the kind people call a "cave voice," rich and magnetic. I turned and saw five men and women. One man stood a half-step ahead of the rest. Park Sena introduced him, though I already knew who he was.
"Ah, you've arrived. This is Han Seongmin, head of the Major Monster Response Department. And this is Lee Jungmin of GGC."
"A pleasure. Hero of Shinyongsan."
Han Seongmin held out his hand.
"The pleasure's all mine. Truly glad to meet you."
I took the hand he offered carefully in both of mine. I knew my hands were trembling; everyone present knew it too. But I couldn't help it.
"I'm a fan. Never thought I'd actually get to meet you like this. Could I get an autograph?"
"Huh?"
Han Seongmin was an S-class Keeper the entire country knew. Korea's first S-class Keeper, in fact. I had grown my dream of becoming a Keeper while watching him. There was a time I'd been so deep into it that I collected every article about him separately. And now I was meeting that Han Seongmin in the flesh!
I still couldn't believe it even looking straight at him. Becoming a Keeper was the single best decision of my life. I held out the paper and pen I'd prepared ahead of time.
"Please, right here. If I'd known you'd be here I would've brought the book… shame."
"Don't tell me… my book?"
"Of course! Every Keeper should read it. You learn the proper mindset and attitude. Read it and a sense of mission just naturally grows. I really learned a lot."
"…This is genuinely embarrassing."
He took the paper and pen. Seeing nowhere convenient to write, I turned my back to him.
"Use my back."
"…Huh? Ah— yes."
Scribble, scribble.
While Han Seongmin signed, I could see the faces of the three watching me. Keira was as impassive as ever. Elena was smiling like she found the whole thing hilarious. And Park Sena was staring at me in pure shock. What? You've never been a fan of anything?
"…Done."
"Thank you. Unexpected windfall in a place like this. I'll treasure this as a family heirloom—"
I cut myself off. I was fine, but my hero, my actual hero, looked thoroughly flustered. Seemed the old memories had gotten him a little worked up.
"…Kidding. Thanks for the autograph. I was a real fan once… still am, of course, but not a stalker. Not a stalker."
"You look more like a stalker than anyone here right now, Mr. Lee Jungmin."
"Why act like an amateur? You have to camp outside someone's house to be a real stalker. I never went that far, Miss Park Sena."
Park Sena backed away with a thoroughly fed-up expression. Han Seongmin shot her a silent plea for rescue; she shook her head and refused.
…Okay. Time to actually get my head on straight.
"These two are Keira and Elena. Keepers with the abilities you've already been briefed on."
Information on the two of them had only been given to the leader, Han Seongmin. The Association Keepers standing behind him didn't know. That didn't stop them from failing to hide their surprise when they looked at Keira and Elena. Why? Because both of them were simply too beautiful. Standing side by side, they had the power to make even Death's Land look like a flower field.
"We've been waiting. First, please come inside. We desperately need your help."
"Of course. That's why we came."
The situation was serious, and no one knew how much time we had. We had only just arrived, yet without a moment's rest we stepped into Death's Land.
"We discovered this place a month and a half ago. Back then there was a cave, and the area around it was already black and dead just like now."
"A cave?"
"Yes. There was a cave right in that sunken section. Now you can barely find a trace."
Just as Han Seongmin said, the cave was gone without a trace. On the sloping hillside there was only a large hole dropping straight down.
"To dig deep enough we had to remove the cave entirely. Even after that we kept digging for quite a while before we found something that could cause this phenomenon. Take a look."
We stood at the rim of the hole and looked down. It was deeper than expected— roughly ten meters. At the bottom lay flat ground covered in white characters. People were digging at the dirt along the edges below; more white characters showed underneath. Among them were a few runes I could actually read. This was the magic circle the Association had mentioned.
"…It's huge."
The magic circle was nearly fifteen meters across— almost the same size as the hole itself.
"Size isn't the only issue. It's still growing. Well? Does anything look familiar?"
"Keira?"
"We'll need to go down and examine it carefully. There are still parts we can't see from here."
We climbed down the ladder hanging against the wall. From below, the white characters floated about five centimeters above the ground. Sometimes they overlapped our bodies.
"When we first dug down this far— two weeks ago— the magic circle was only about ten meters across. Death's Land itself was only a thirty-meter radius then. We need to act fast, but we know nothing about magic circles, so we've just been sitting here sucking our thumbs."
"I don't know how much help we'll be, but we'll do everything we can."
The moment Keira and Elena set foot on the floor they began examining the circle. I could read a little rune-script myself, but joining them would only get in the way. Better to do what I could do: sense the energy.
The instant my body brushed the magic circle I felt a faint energy being drawn into it. It was a quality I'd felt before— nearly identical to the Necromancer's power. I expanded my senses and followed the flow. The energy seemed to whoosh somewhere, then merged with a mass already waiting there. The combined energy was enormous— almost equal to the residual energy the Necromancer had left behind after dying. In other words, if this thing detonated, Cheolwon would be erased from the map.
"Huk…"
I slammed my senses shut in shock at the sheer scale.
"Mr. Lee Jungmin? Are you all right?"
"Ah— yes, I'm fine. Did you ever try to destroy the magic circle?"
"Yes. As a last resort, once, the day before yesterday."
Everyone knew that carelessly touching a magic circle was dangerous. Circles of unknown origin turned up inside Gates all the time, and plenty of Keepers who poked them wrong had paid for it— some with their lives. But when a circle was growing and Death's Land was expanding like this, even I would have had no choice but to try something. You have to stop it somehow. From this moment on, though, it absolutely must not be touched. One wrong move and the energy explodes— catastrophe.
"Fortunately nothing happened."
"Yes, fortunately… fortunately? Not regrettably?"
"It's fortunate. If you mishandle the energy gathered in this circle, the entire area will be wiped out. From now on, never touch it."
"Then…"
Han Seongmin's face asked the obvious question. I answered with a smile.
"Don't worry. My friends will find a safe method. Guaranteed."
I trusted Keira and Elena. They would find a way. And if they didn't? Then I'd just bloom the White Flower one more time. Whether I could survive it the way I had last time… that was another question.
"…I am…"
"…immortal."
The moment the Necromancer Becancho arrived in this world he had taken out two insurance policies. Looking forward while always keeping the rear in mind was basic literacy for any mage. The instant Lee Jungmin's spear struck him and death claimed his body, he abandoned the flesh and flew toward Cheolwon as pure spirit. Spirit moved at nearly light speed; reaching the house where he had hidden a spare body took less than a second.
Dozens of complex magic circles covered the living-room floor. At their center lay a woman in a maid's uniform— the same maid who had served Becancho. The unfortunate woman whose younger sibling and parents had already been eaten as meals. The only fate left for her was to be eaten by Becancho as well.
Becancho poured straight into her body. He had erased her consciousness long ago; nothing remained to resist the invasion.
Good. Now I only need to pull the power across…
The "life" energy he had hoarded for a thousand years— if he could transfer it from the ruined corpse to this new vessel, he would rise again in a fresh body. Then the problem appeared.
…Why? Why isn't the power coming?
The link between body and spirit had been severed, yet the link between spirit and power still held. He could still feel the power through that connection. But the power would not move. No matter how hard he strained, it refused his call. And then, abruptly, he could no longer feel it at all.
…What is this…!
This was no simple matter of having power or not. Without that power he could not maintain himself. He was a being from another dimension. Just as Keira and Elena sustained themselves with Lee Jungmin's mana, Becancho had used his own power as a breakwater to preserve his identity. When the breakwater vanished, his spirit began to erode.
Ugh… bi… ll… er…
If even a scrap of the maid's spirit had remained he could have hidden behind it as a temporary breakwater. But he had completely annihilated her mind so he could control the body without resistance. All that remained was a body that had not yet finished dying.
…Why? Why did it come to this?
Only one cause made sense. That damned Incubus. Lee Jungmin's Incubus power had been fiendishly troublesome. The reason the heart had refused to regenerate was that residual Incubus energy still clung to it and interfered. If Becancho could have unleashed the full thousand years of stored power he would have brushed aside a greenhorn demon's interference and restored his body. But this was not his home dimension. The power he had gathered since arriving here could not contain his true strength; he had been forced to abandon the old body and flee to a new one. Yet the power of the boy he had dismissed as a greenhorn had reached even spirit and soul. The only force capable of severing the link between his spirit and his power was that Incubus energy.
Lust… yes. Their power is similar to mine…
Becancho considered the kinship between survival instinct and reproductive drive. Perhaps that similarity had been his fatal mistake. To the very end he died the way a mage dies.
And so the Necromancer Becancho— who for a thousand years had spread terror across ten dimensions— sank into the sea of dimensions and was gone.
A few days after Becancho's death, at midnight.
In a house in Sagum-ri, Cheolwon, the maid opened her eyes. Her pupils were still the same crimson as Becancho's. Even in the lightless living room the red glow shone clearly. She rose, scanned the room, then fixed her gaze on one wall. Only wall and picture frame stood before her, yet beyond that wall, beyond the road and the mountain, lay the magic circle the Association was investigating.
Using the knowledge left in her head and the power that still maintained the surrounding circles, she cast a spatial-transfer spell.
Pop.
She appeared above the hole the Association had dug— exactly where the cave should have been. She did not flinch at the missing cave. She did not flinch at the lights illuminating the magic circle. From the void that the lights only made darker, she simply whispered toward the circle.
The Necromancer's power— "life"— answered her word and opened the door inscribed upon the magic circle.
…Creak.
A sound so faint only the caster could hear it. She knew the door had opened just wide enough for her alone to pass. A month and a half of gathering life energy and anchoring power from beyond the dimension had been enough only to crack the door a fraction. Yet the door had opened, and the system that governed the dimensions was forced to process the energy pouring through it.
Straight into the Eternal Gate.
Clank. Clank.
She stepped into the Eternal Gate that was beginning to take shape— claiming the privilege reserved for the one who opened the door.
This was the second insurance policy Becancho had prepared.