Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Showdown
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Employees bustled through the streets as they dashed toward the tower's entrance.
"Welcome. How may I assist you?"
A female employee with a cloud for a head greeted the mages from the information desk on the tower's first floor. Ian bolted straight toward her and slammed both hands down on the counter.
Bang!
"Where's the manager."
A brutally blunt question. The employee didn't flinch, clasping her hands together and bowing her head slightly.
"I'm sorry. I can't disclose the manager's location."
A frontal assault wouldn't work. Ian switched tactics on the spot.
"No, miss! Don't you know who I am? It's me, yeah, me. The business partner of this theme park's manager!"
"......Pardon?"
"There's this urgent matter I need to handle, but the manager won't pick up his phone? So I came all the way here myself! Spending my money and time! Right, secretary?!"
Ian turned and yelled at Yuna. She gripped her staff and nodded vigorously.
"Y-Yes, exactly. Our boss is so incredibly busy...... He has dozens of businesses on the go. And we dropped everything to come straight here first."
"Ah...... I see. Then let me try contacting the manager for you."
The employee picked up the receiver and bowed her head slightly. Ian waved his hands frantically as if to say no.
"No! Don't do that! That guy's shown up at my business unannounced whenever he needed something, so now it's my turn."
"B-But......"
"I said don't. Actually, scratch that. Do it. Just make it crystal clear that our business is done here."
Ian clicked his tongue and turned away without hesitation. Yuna timidly flipped the employee the bird before following him out of the tower.
The employee set down the receiver and shouted in a panic.
"S-Sorry! The manager is on the top floor! You can meet him right away if you go now!"
"You should've said that from the start. Tsk tsk, what kind of employee training do they do here."
Ian made no effort to hide his irritation as he turned toward the tower's elevator.
"Just so we're clear, I'm not some Karen, right? I came to talk business—how's that a Karen move?"
"Y-Yes. You're absolutely right......"
"Good, good. Keep up the hard work."
Ian waved at the employee as he rounded the corner. At the same time, he broke into a sprint toward the elevator. Yuna huffed and puffed behind him.
"Y-You're really good at acting......!"
"Thanks."
Click.
He pressed the elevator button, and the doors slid open. The two jammed the top-floor button and braced for combat.
Ian held a lighter in one hand and a revolver in the other, steadying his breath. Yuna gripped her staff and pre-chanted her spell.
Moments later, the elevator doors opened. They stepped into the wide-open hallway and flung open the door at the end.
"......Hm?"
Inside sat a one-eyed man with a bald, gleaming head. He tilted his head at the sudden intruders.
"Who are you?"
"From the Cartel."
Whoosh.
Ian lit the lighter. The ambient noise vanished.
In a world stripped of sound, he aimed at the manager and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The shot echoed only in Ian's mind. A lead bullet streaked through the muzzle flash, shattering the manager's eye and punching through his skull.
"......!!"
The creature let out a silent scream.
Ian unloaded into its gut and lower body before holstering the revolver and drawing his grimoire.
Thud.
Yuna approached the glowing manager and pressed her staff against its body.
In that instant, its flesh softened like silken tofu. Yuna swung her staff wide, smashing its head.
Blood, brains, and shattered chunks splattered across the floor.
Ian trampled the gore and reached the fallen manager's corpse. He plunged his hand into its chest.
His hand sank in without resistance, fingers closing around the heart. Careful not to crush it, he yanked it free.
A slab of flesh pulsing with pale pink light. Though severed from its body, it still beat. Ian stuffed it into Yuna's guitar case. She recoiled in horror, but he strode out without pause and boarded the elevator again.
Five minutes, start to finish. Ian extinguished the lighter and reloaded the revolver.
"The second we step out, we run. No turning back now that the manager's dead."
"Th-They'll all chase us?"
"Probably. Don't get caught. I'll help if I can, but if it looks hopeless, I'm leaving you."
"O-Okay. Me too."
"Good."
As they traded their utterly mage-like exchange, the elevator reached the first floor. The doors parted slowly, revealing the receptionist—nails sharpened to claws, jaws unhinging wide.
"You said you were business partne—!"
Bang!
Ian planted a bullet in her heart. Ignoring the recoiling body, they bolted from the tower and opened the book.
"The exit's the same as the entrance! Remember where?"
"Yeah!"
As Yuna answered, a clown popped up beside her. Unfazed, she activated her spell, hardening her body tougher than anything.
Scraaaape!!
The clown's teeth didn't pierce her skin—they shattered and scattered instead. She bashed its stunned head with her staff and panted after Ian.
"Hueeek! Th-That just cost me 300ml of blood!"
"Save your magic!"
Ta-da-da-bang!
Ian’s revolver spat flames. Two rounds pulverized the head of an oncoming employee.
"Nice shot!"
Ignoring Yuna's praise, Ian slapped the floor.
"Be reborn anew."
Crrunch!
Something crushed with a grotesque sound as the floor warped. It split vertically like a beast's maw, swallowing the aberrations before snapping shut. A horrific crunch echoed from below.
"Ugh."
The magic's toll hit Ian—a spinning headache.
Overuse of re-creation magic. He'd felt it lightly against the Monkey Dream, but now it throbbed fiercely.
Remodeling an entire space like that without backlash would be weirder.
He clicked his tongue hard, furrowed his brow, and fired the revolver.
Splat!
A larva charging from the side exploded midair. Drenched in its blood, Ian wiped the gore from his eyes and checked his ammo.
‘Two rounds left.’
Not many. No time for a full reload. He could jam in one or two in a pinch, but that was it.
What could he do? If he didn't want to die, he'd make it work.
Ian smashed his grimoire into the face of a surging aberration and glanced at Yuna.
"Eeek! Heek! Hueeek!"
Her stamina was lagging, but she kept up despite the heavy breathing. No real worry—most aberrations couldn't pierce her skin anyway.
That thought crossed his mind as they passed right by the haunted house.
[Dead aim! Dead aim! Front left, 40 degrees! Hostile intent detected!]
The reverse sight clipped to his coat blared its warning. Ian instinctively yanked Yuna's collar and shoved her toward the 40-degree mark.
"Eeek?!"
Stunned by the sudden grab, a bullet from the haunted house slammed into her forehead an instant later.
"Kek!"
Ting—the round ricocheted away.
Yuna was fine. She glared at Ian with teary resentment.
"Y-You used me as a meat shield......!"
"You're tough. Just for a sec. More coming."
"W-Wait! Eueek!"
Rat-tat-tat!
Bullets hammered Yuna's body, pattering harmlessly to the ground or bouncing off. Ian peered past her shoulder to spot the source.
"Maaaage!!"
Bureau agents who'd cleared the haunted house stood there, firing wildly with grim faces as they closed in on Ian and Yuna.
Mir stood out among them. She closed the gap in a blink—like folding space itself—and swung her blade at Ian's nape. He released Yuna and jammed his grimoire into her sword path.
Clang!
A clear ring, and her blade shattered. The grimoire was unscathed, without a single scratch.
Mir discarded the broken edge without hesitation and threw a punch. Ian thrust the grimoire along its trajectory.
The same grimoire that had shattered her sword. Direct contact with flesh? Obvious result.
"......Damn it."
Mir retracted her fist and leaped back. Ian hurled a jagged mirror shard at her.
She swatted it away casually at first, but a chill crawling up her spine made her roll aside.
Crack!
The shard embedded where she'd stood, turning the floor to glass that spiderwebbed and shattered.
Shards rained down, turning transparent. Mir tried to rise, but a fragment whizzing past made her click her tongue and shift her gaze.
That's when she saw it in her vision.
The mirror's other side.
A pristine white existence.
Color.
Flesh distorting and reforming endlessly.
Hands, arms, eyes, mouths rippling from all directions.
Countless beings.
Yet one existence.
Worm. Human. God.
On the far side of mysteries beyond human ken dwell countless entities that grind us like insects and burst us like maggots—an ocean of the cosmos, sky and god and mother and father—O why do you not save us, why sow such trials and tribulations—
"Agent Mir!"
"Ugh!"
The voice snapped Mir back. Blood streamed from her nose and eyes, coating her face. The metallic tang dragged her to reality.
She turned to see Park Sang-cheol with his shotgun and Kim I-seo pursuing the mage.
"We have to go! We can't let the mage get away here!"
Kim I-seo shouted. Mir glanced up at her briefly, wiped the blood from her trembling hands, and shook her head.
"......No. We're calling off the mage pursuit here."
"What?!"
"Excuse me?"
The agents protested. She felt the masked mage watching, but Mir didn't retract her words.
"Don't forget our objective. We're here to rescue survivors and investigate and resolve new anomalies. I get the fog in your heads from this sudden mage, but don't push further.攻略 methods aren't complete yet."
"......Agent Mir."
"If we don't gather intel, the next team dies too. Focus on investigation today. Let the mage go."
"How do you know what that maniac will do? Mages bring disaster everywhere they go!"
Park Sang-cheol bellowed, face murderous. Mir responded instantly.
"I know. But as I said, don't lose sight of the goal. Cool off. I know your past, but face reality now."
"......"
"Move out once you're calm."
"......Fuck."
Park Sang-cheol spat curses while glaring at the receding mages.
Mir clenched her trembling hands and stared after them too.
*
They hadn't gone far from the haunted house when the theme park exit appeared.
The pair raced down the stairs, smashed the beast-headed guards' skulls, and vaulted the turnstiles.
The world shifted instantly.
The blood-red sky turned blue again. Hideous aberrations gave way to bare trees welcoming them.
Back to reality. Ian sighed in relief and collapsed onto the ground. Yuna, who'd tanked every bullet, sobbed and plopped beside him.
"Hueeeek! It hurts! My whole body hurts!"
"S-Sorry. Wasn't planning that."
"......Kngh! S-Sorry's not enough! G-Give me some compensation......!"
"......Dinner later? That work?"
"......Fine."
Sniff!
Ian pulled out his phone and called the Cartel's safe transport service, ignoring Yuna's sniffles.
Three minutes out. He stood, placed a hand on the Management Bureau van parked on the shoulder.
Chanted a spell, compressing it flat. Even if agents emerged, no instant pursuit.
He crumpled his mask and torched it with the lighter, then lit a cigarette.
"Sip...... Hoo......"
The acrid smoke eased his headache slightly. Ian closed his eyes, cooling his fevered body in the chill breeze.
"......What's cigs taste like anyway? Y-You smoke like it's so good......"
Yuna sidled up curiously. Ian fished out a spare and offered it.
"Wanna try?"
"J-Just a tiny bit then......"
Eyes wide with curiosity, Yuna put it to her lips. Ian lit it. She inhaled deeply, smoke curling from her throat.
"Ugh?!"
Her eyes bulged.
She spat it out, clutched her throat, and hacked violently.
Ian chuckled.