Eternal Gate

80.

A pure white armor began to flush with pink light.

Elena had already been drawing up her mana. Her holy power followed it naturally, flooding into the armor.

"Jungmin! You're bleeding!"

Wrapped in light, Elena caught me with a startled face.

"Kh—"

My legs nearly gave out. Lucky she was there. Blood kept pouring from my body — from my nose, from every cough, thick with that metallic reek.

I still had to focus. I had to keep the Gate open.

"...Lena... kh, hurry... now..."

"No, but you—"

"Go! That's how you help him! Elena, move!"

Keira took my weight from Elena. Even then, Elena's face was nothing but worry; she still hesitated.

"Protect... the people... kh."

I swallowed blood and forced a smile.

"...Yes!"

Only then did Elena launch herself toward the plaza. At the same moment I heaved up another fistful of blood.

"Kh—"

"Jungmin!"

My head went foggy. My heart clenched. Even with Essence and lust reinforcing my body, holding the Gate open was crushing me.

"Just hang on a little longer. Elena will finish this fast. Trust her!"

"I know..."

A little more. Just a little more. Then—

Pink light flooded City Hall Plaza. It fell over the skeletons like cherry blossoms scattering on the wind. Cherry blossom viewing under a midsummer sun. It felt like a dream.

I don't remember much after that. Only that I fought to keep the Gate open until the very end.

Elena was overjoyed to feel Ru's Love again after so long. At the same time, the sight of Jungmin coughing blood tore at her chest.

I have to finish this fast!

Even through the fight with the Necromancer and the chaos of the Eternal Gate, Jungmin had kept training to maintain a summoning Gate. With the help of Essence — of lust — he could now pass four units of holy power through his body for about three seconds without wrecking himself.

Three seconds had already passed. Because she had hesitated.

Idiot. You idiot!

Cursing herself, Elena landed in City Hall Plaza. Skeletons blocked the path to the entrance. She vaulted over their heads, stepping on skulls as she went, and in three strides she was past the horde and standing in their way.

"I am the Thirteenth Sword of Ru, God of Compassion and Love!"

"..."

The maid's scarlet eyes fixed on Elena. Elena had no time to care. Five seconds had already gone by. That alone would put a massive strain on Jungmin — and this wasn't even the end of it. Receiving holy power and using it were two different things.

I end this in one stroke.

"I beseech you — show your love upon this place!"

Elena raised her sword high in both hands. A pillar of light shot from the blade into the sky. Midway up, the light spread outward and rained down. The white skeletons flushed pink almost at once.

At Elena's invocation the light flared, and the skeletons began to crumble into dust. Skeleton Warriors, Archers, Wizards, Knights, even the Prince — the hundreds-strong legion that could have paralyzed Seoul was gone. All that remained was a black sphere floating in the air: a barrier the maid had thrown up to block Ru's light.

That, too, in one stroke...

Elena swung the sword still streaming light. Pink radiance and black membrane sparked against each other for an instant, then the blade split the barrier clean in half.

"...?"

There was no one inside. And the light wrapping Elena vanished. Jungmin's Gate had closed.

"Ugh..."

A sudden emptiness dropped her to one knee. The fact that she herself hadn't scattered meant Jungmin's life was intact. That didn't mean he was unharmed. His whole body would be a wreck.

Elena crushed the urge to run to him at once. Instead she spread her mana in every direction, bracing for an attack. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Even without holy power she was an S-class Keeper. She was confident she could defend against anything aimed at her.

Aimed at her, that is.

Boom!

An explosion shattered part of City Hall's glass. People screamed and scattered as someone was hurled out into the plaza.

Han Seongmin!

Elena recognized the man tumbling across the square — the department head who had vanished in Cheolwon. The maid reappeared in the plaza a moment later, already standing in the path of Han Seongmin's roll. A black scythe rose high, drinking in the midday sun.

"No!"

Elena launched herself. She crossed more than fifty meters in under a second and arrived before the scythe could take Han Seongmin's neck. Her sword drove for the maid's waist.

Good — if this works...

Any normal person would have stopped the attack to protect their own midsection. The maid did not. She left her waist open and kept the scythe moving. Even as the sword bit into her side, she did not stop.

Shhk.

The scythe sheared through Han Seongmin's right arm. That it missed his neck was only because Elena had dropped her sword and shoved him with her body.

"Aaaagh!"

"..."

Han Seongmin screamed and thrashed on the grass. The maid stood silent in contrast — blood pouring from her waist the same as his, except hers was black.

"Hah!"

Elena charged with her shield. Her sword was still buried in the maid's side. The scythe and shield crashed together. Elena deflected the blow, seized her sword, and hewed hard.

Black blood sprayed as the maid was cut clean in two. Elena held her blade ready and watched the corpse. Undead — it might still rise.

One second. Two. Three...

Her caution proved unnecessary. Like the other skeletons, the maid's body crumbled to dust and vanished.

...What?

The ending had been too easy, and it left a question in Elena's mind. Of course, looking back step by step, none of it had been easy. Crossing from Cheolwon to here in a single leap had been a miracle, and receiving holy power through Jungmin's Gate had been a greater one still. Jungmin had pushed himself hard through all of it, and Elena still had no idea how badly he was hurt.

"Ah — Jungmin!"

She finished the few skeletons left in the plaza and decided to check on him at once. The lingering doubt, and Han Seongmin's screams, slipped from her mind.

A white ceiling. The trim at the corners was a shape I remembered clearly. The hospital I'd been stuck in not long ago. No question.

"You're awake?"

Keira. She was sitting by the bed the same as last time, with Elena standing behind her.

"Yeah. Everyone okay?"

"We're fine. Elena's fine, and they say you're in decent shape too."

My body was a little stiff. My head throbbed faintly. Still, I'd take it. Honestly, I'd thought I was going to die. Never again.

"Good. How many days this time?"

"One."

"Faster than I expected. What's the situation outside?"

"Chaos."

Keira handed me a tablet. It was packed with articles.

"Ten people died?"

"Yeah. At the end the maid teleported into City Hall and attacked Han Seongmin. Ten people died in the middle of that."

A grim thing. Civilians, not even Keepers.

"Why was Han Seongmin inside City Hall in the first place? He's not a spatial transfer type. Did one of his teammates have that ability?"

"Han Seongmin came from Cheolwon to Seoul alone. Everyone else died in Cheolwon."

"That's..."

More than ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twenty people had gone into the Gate with him. They were dead, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠articles didn't spare them a single line.

"I don't know the details, but he must have used an artifact or a scroll."

"Then why City Hall of all places? If you're running, you'd pick somewhere safer, wouldn't you?"

"That's the question everyone's asking right now."

Keira pointed at the tablet. I kept reading.

Most of the articles were asking what the Association had been doing — and why Han Seongmin had come to Seoul. Under normal circumstances this would never have happened. The Association always controlled the information, and reporters only wrote after the Association's briefings.

"How did this happen? Why did the information leak?"

"Shinyongsan, maybe. Because of the Eternal Gate."

"They're already talking about the Eternal Gate?"

"Not yet. It's still being reported as a Gate rampage."

"What's the Association's response?"

A soft beep came from Keira's wrist.

"Right on time."

Keira turned on the hospital room TV. Lee Jayoung, General Manager of the Association, appeared on screen. A press conference.

A photograph of Death's Land filled the press conference screen.

Lee Jayoung started the story from there. The discovery of the magic circle in Death's Land. Calling me in as a mage for advice. The Eternal Gate. Han Seongmin's reconnaissance. The retreat. She left nothing out — except the otherworlders, Keira and Elena.

She apologized first for Han Seongmin's reconnaissance as a rash decision, and Han Seongmin himself — missing his right arm — came out and apologized in person.

"Keira, is she telling the truth?"

"If it was a simple transfer scroll, maybe — but the odds of finding a scroll like that inside a Gate are low. Scrolls barely drop at all."

"In our world, almost no one has ever found a scroll either."

Keira's doubt and Elena's testimony. I hadn't heard many stories of people getting scrolls from Gates either. And a spatial transfer scroll? Something felt off — like I was missing a piece.

What came up on the screen was my face and my voice. The viewpoint was probably Park Sena's. My words from her perspective — conversations from the fight with the Necromancer through the Eternal Gate incident — edited to suit their narrative. The footage even included the part where I introduced Keira and Elena as otherworlders.

On top of that, Keepers with a trait labeled "Knowledge of Demons" came out and spoke about them.

Demons fight each other. They also summon and use one another.

Of all the countless traits of demons, the reason the Association had picked that line was obvious.

And the press conference feed cut to the hospital ward. At the same moment, the door to my room opened, and my face in a hospital gown was broadcast live on TV.

...We'd been played.