24
Chapter 24
I crawled into the hideously twisted gap under the train, lying flat on my stomach to catch my breath.
Whoosh, whoosh-.
It was hard to hide the sound of breathing through the gas mask.
When I inhaled, the rubber pulled in slightly, and the distinct, damp texture of rubber brushed against my cheek. When I exhaled, the breath that couldn't fully escape swirled inside the rubber of the gas mask before forming a dew-like drop.
The fog had already risen to my thighs by the time I climbed down, leaving the view beyond the gas mask's lenses hazy. Meanwhile, the damp, frigid chill of the marble floor tiles seeped through my clothes and deep into my skin.
But I couldn't afford to move rashly.
Beyond the hazy fog, the bundle of capillaries, repeatedly contracting and relaxing as it returned to the ceiling, looked like a shadow. At the same time, the monster's distinctive groans and footsteps overlapped.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Because I had learned eye magic instead of Hearing Line magic, I had no idea what that monster was muttering inside its head. I was so incredibly grateful for that fact today. It was the very first time I actually felt sorry for that shithead, Shin Na-in.
Click.
The sound of the priest monster stepping forward and tapping against the track rail echoed throughout the underground cavern.
Click, click.
The one who would have once stepped up to the altar and knelt in prayer no longer knelt. The eyes that would have once gazed up at the cross were nowhere to be found, yet it still wandered in search of the living.
However, the limits of the eyeless were clear. The priest monster, walking along the rails below the platform, suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. I saw the shadow move beyond the fog.
The priest monster lifted its drooping arms and carefully stroked the spot where its head used to be. There were no gurgling moans, either. Only a vain touch, expecting something that was gone, brushed against the priest monster's reality.
The aorta, extending long and straight from its spine to take root in the ceiling, met the priest's hands.
The priest monster didn't move from that position, as if time had momentarily stopped. It stroked and grabbed its own throbbing aorta with both hands to feel that alien pulse of life reaching all the way to the ceiling.
Thump.
The capillaries on the ceiling violently writhed in unison and glowed red. It was intense enough to momentarily drive away even the flickering fluorescent lights.
Under that bizarre red light, the priest monster remained silent for a while. Instead, as if offering a ritual, it stroked and caressed its aorta with utmost reverence and holiness while singing with a limp, dangling tongue.
That was an attack.
It was a song sung by a priest who barely had lips, a mouth, or even vocal cords left. As its gurgling groans and dangling tongue struck its mangled lower jaw in place of drums and a music box, a grotesque rhythm and melody began to clash within the underground cavern.
The problem was the dizziness.
I frantically clutched my chest with my gun tucked under my armpit, but I couldn't hold back the rising nausea. I once got enteritis from eating week-old delivery food because I didn't want to waste it while living alone, but my vision spun wildly with a sense of utter exhaustion far worse than that.
This... if I keep holding it in, I'm going to end up vomiting non-stop.
"Urgh....!"
I ripped off the gas mask and whipped my head to the side.
"Blargh..."
Sour gastric acid immediately spewed out. It was a relief that I hadn't eaten a proper lunch. I was incredibly thankful to my past self for developing the habit of eating a light breakfast.
Relieved that I had managed to turn my head before getting vomit inside the gas mask, I spat out my saliva and quickly put the gas mask back on.
There might still be blood agents or something similar lingering underground. Or perhaps that monster might do something of the sort. With that sense of vigilance, I readjusted the gun tucked under my arm.
I felt a chill run down my spine as I watched the priest monster looking in my direction.
Even though it didn't have eyes, it felt like we made eye contact. The priest monster stood there, staring at me without making a single sound. It was looking through the fog at me, hiding as I crawled under the crushed subway car.
"..."
When I looked ten seconds into the future alongside a burning sensation, a red footprint was already stamped on my right hand.
In that moment, I squirmed faster than I ever had in my entire life.
I curled and uncurled my body like a shrimp. Not even caring about getting vomit on my pants, I just rolled. As I tumbled away, I finally realized what had happened to the spot I had just been in.
Between the gray clouds of tangled fog and the dust from the ceiling materials and shattered flooring, capillaries were covering the top of the train like a dense net.
The capillaries stretching out from the ceiling began to softly and stealthily wrap around the spot I had just occupied, like a mother's touch caressing her precious child. Every time the capillaries densely encasing the train car pulsed and thrashed, it looked as if the entire carriage had been turned into a massive hunk of meat.
A drop of cold sweat ran down my spine at the sight.
There was no sound. Normally, an attack plunging down from the ceiling would at least make a swishing sound through the air, but there was absolutely nothing of the sort. Instead, it had merely moved quietly and stealthily.
As if trying to avoid detection from my end.
A chilling question crossed my mind.
Does it know?
I gripped my gun with slightly trembling hands. Then, while remaining flat on my stomach, I slowly turned my head to stare at the shadow of the priest monster in the fog. The priest monster was still watching the gap under the train where I had briefly stayed and vomited.
I aimed the muzzle and made a judgment.
I have to shoot. If so, should I even use phase 2 eye magic?
My hesitation was short.
I choose the surefire option.
After securing the gun under my armpit, I rested my right index finger on the trigger and finished aiming. The pain would be fast and intense. I didn't have time to take off my gloves.
I slammed my clenched left fist into the ground in one go. Preventing the gun from shaking as much as possible, I pulled the trigger in a single motion.
Bang, bang-bang!
The sound of shell casings bouncing and rolling on the floor was the first thing I heard. Confirming the blood spatter came next. But in that exact moment, someone grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me desperately.
The gun hit the ground, and I rolled right over it. A tear leaked out from the dull, aching pain in my shoulder and back.
However, without even a moment to groan, gunshots began to ring out.
Bang, bang, bang...
Perhaps because we were underground, the gunshots echoed so intensely that my ears rang. Only then did I lift my head to see who had pulled me away.
"May the Lord be with us."
I knew who it was from that single phrase.
Instead of making excuses, that shithead Shin Na-in jutted his chin toward the spot where I had been lying prone and firing, and I couldn't even let out a groan. Red, thrashing capillaries were drooping like a fishing net, piercing the exact spot where I had just been.
But the most bizarre part was that the priest monster, which I had definitely shot and hit, was nowhere to be seen in the fog.
There was no way I had killed it. I didn't even know its weak point, so there was no way it died just from getting a few lead bullets lodged in its body. While I was slightly flustered, Shin Na-in quickly tapped my shoulder.
"Even if we scatter, I can hear you, so just think it in your mind. I'll try to match your pace."
"What about Lee Se-jun?"
"Let's meet up with him later."
We immediately scattered again.
Shin Na-in headed toward where the last gunshot was heard, while I carefully advanced through the intact sections of the platform. Now that we realized the priest monster's attack pattern was bizarre and overwhelmingly powerful in this underground space, sticking too close together put us at risk of being wiped out all at once.
Just in case, I kept my left hand free so I could immediately stop an attack. I needed it to be free so I could slam it anywhere at any moment, or at the very least, take off my gloves and bite my hand.
With my left hand slightly raised, I glanced around and slowly took a step, then another.
Point-shooting with the gun tucked under my right armpit would have dogshit accuracy, but I had no other choice. It was better for me to stop the attack when targeted, allowing another member to shoot toward the sound of my gunfire.
However, as I thought non-stop, a dead silence fell.
It was quiet enough that the sound of crunching broken tile pieces could be faintly heard under my combat boots.
Crunch, crunch...
My breathing almost grew a bit ragged. Worried that the sound of my breathing through the gas mask might leak out, I intentionally held my breath.
Then, this time, the sound of my beating heart pounded against my eardrums.
As I inhaled and exhaled very slowly, my body, stained with tension and fatigue, screamed and dripped cold sweat down my cheek.
I had no choice but to instinctively stop in my tracks. The sounds were echoing too much. I had walked about fifty paces from the center of the platform, and a wave of terror washed over me—a fear that I might be the only one left on this second basement floor.
Considering the priest monster's quiet and stealthy ambushes, couldn't both of them have been taken out by now?
What if I was the only one left alive, walking around in this place right now?
Gulp.
I became conscious of myself swallowing my saliva.
A terrified voice telling me to run away echoed in my head. However, my most loyal instinct, reason intertwined with my survival instinct, told me a cold and clear truth.
Run away? Where to?
Those monsters aren't mere corpses or abominations. They are monsters born from twisting human flesh, predators and parasites who know how to be patient and hunt. They would just be waiting for me to run away.
Because that would make their hunt easier.
At the same time, they wouldn't have any intention of letting me out alive. Having their existence known would be a fatal blow to a hunter. If those things possessed any intellect, they would definitely kill me now that I'd been spotted, even if not driven purely by instinct.
If so, where were they observing me from?
I decided to no longer consider the priest monster as something that was once human. Even if it bore a human shape, I decided to ignore it and treat it purely as a monster.
Once I did, I caught a glimpse of their bizarre ecology and purpose.
Reaching out with my raised left hand, I pushed aside my poncho and turned the tactical light on my left breast pocket back on. Click. Along with the mechanical sound of interlocking parts, proper light illuminated the underground cavern that had been filled with flickering fluorescent lights and an ominous red glow.
As the light shone, the platform floor and the area near the track rails, which had been obscured by the swirling and flowing fog, became clearly visible.
Blood-stained combat uniforms and torn clothes were scattered haphazardly. These were things I couldn't see properly when I was only surveying the entrance of the platform stairs with the reconnaissance drone.
At that moment, the background of this operation came to mind.
[Heavy gas injection for purification over two weeks.]
I didn't hesitate any longer.
I immediately raised the muzzle of my gun. Toward the ceiling. I pulled the trigger toward the ominously pulsing blood vessels. Not even caring what the light was illuminating.
Bang! Bang-bang!
My shoulder shook wildly from the recoil.
Amidst the deafening ringing in my ears, I was yelling with my mouth open without even realizing it. It was a battle cry close to a groan, and a scream that I hoped was a battle cry.
Then, when pulling the trigger no longer ejected shell casings and only a clicking sound remained.
I bit off the glove on my left hand with my teeth and threw myself to the side.
Thud!
What fell onto the spot where I had been standing was a corpse. But it was a living, breathing corpse.
However, it was a different entity from the corpse I had expected.
Instead of a black cassock with torn sleeves, it was a monster wearing scruffy, casual clothes with prayer beads hanging around its neck. With only its lower jaw and a drooping tongue left, it let out groans while the aorta extending from its spine throbbed.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Geulmun Bosal had also taken on a form similar to the priest monster, flailing its grotesquely twisted arm from the impact of the fall and swinging its drooping tongue. Then, it made eye contact with me.
Even though it had no eyes, it perceived me perfectly and stared right at me.
Then, someone grabbed my poncho and dragged me backward.
"Get down!"
Following Shin Na-in's shout, I rolled my body once more and dropped flat on my stomach.
That was when a deafening roar erupted.
Boom!
Shrapnel scattered in all directions.
A high-pitched ringing—beeeeep—followed, shaking my brain, and through my instinctively half-opened eyes, I saw the devastated platform.
Tiny bits of flesh and metal shards swept across the entire underground. A shockwave, incomparable to a mere gunshot, rocked the air, its explosive pressure forceful enough to slightly push back the fog.
When I lifted my head, I saw the Geulmun Bosal monster, having lost its entire right arm and lower body, contracting its aorta as it squirmed and was hoisted up to the ceiling.
Dangling there, the Geulmun Bosal monster stretched out its tongue, soaked in cold saliva, even further while letting out a bizarre groan. At first, I thought it was a gurgling sound, but in merely three seconds, I realized it was something entirely different.
The moment I heard that sound, I was gripped by a painful sense of dread.
A surging discomfort arose, as if something not sharp, but rough like plastic wrap, had lodged itself in the center of my brain and was squeaking against it. A wave of disgust followed, as if an eyeball had arbitrarily sprouted in the dead center of my head, its eyelashes scraping roughly against my brain cells, accompanied by a stomachache that twisted and squeezed as if my stomach were dancing in wild ecstasy.
A song whose meaning the vulgar languages of humanity could not dare to fully capture.
A prophecy bordering on a curse, one that the fragile and inadequate vessel known as a human could never spew forth, leaked out through that monster. Amidst the nausea and dizziness wracking my body, I could only comprehend a single word.
[....Eternity....]
That was when the second explosion hit.
The Geulmun Bosal monster, dangling from the ceiling and singing, was struck by something with a thud. The object, which I mistook for a stone, instantly exploded.
Boom!
As I instinctively shielded my eyes with my left arm, I heard the sound of flesh falling with a plop, plop.
Only then did I realize that Shin Na-in, who was standing behind me, had his hands clasped in prayer.
"Almighty Lord God, do not let Satan and his demons deceive me, and even if their terrifying power overwhelms me, instill me with courage and hope so that my journey toward the gates of Heaven does not end... Only say the word, and I shall be healed..."
I instinctively realized something.
Even without looking ten seconds into the future, I knew Shin Na-in couldn't fight anymore. Since he used Hearing Line magic, he seemed far more vulnerable to the sound. Then, was the one who threw the two grenades just now Lee Se-jun?
His throwing control was insane. Even though the distance was massive, I caught a glimpse of it flying in almost a straight line rather than an arc.
If so, it's highly likely that Lee Se-jun will be targeted. Since he can deal meaningful damage, that is.
My eyes burned, but it was enough.
Alteration-type Eye Stage 1.
Without hesitation, I aimed at the ceiling and decided to unload my remaining ammo. I quickly swapped the magazine, racked the bolt, and raised the muzzle. Aiming at the spots where the red footprints were stamped, I placed my index finger on the trigger.
I now knew how the monster was tricking my precognition.
Bang-bang!
Shell casings rolled onto the floor. The capillaries thrashing on the ceiling squirmed and recoiled.
Bang!
The heavy recoil dug into my shoulder, but my gunfire was suppressing the monster on the ceiling just as much. The priest monster still wasn't visible, but this was enough.
Because those blood vessels are its main body!
"Shin Na-in! Pull yourself together and report the situation up top! Tell them to pop the smoke grenades!"
"Lord God... What? Smoke grenades?"
Hearing Shin Na-in's flustered voice, I had no choice but to yell in frustration.
It was due to my sudden realization: popping smoke grenades would increase the fog's density, and the sudden pressure would help push the fog all the way up to the ceiling.
Killing the priest monster wasn't the issue right now.
I was given the chance to learn directly on the field, without going through a booklet or another person.
Then I had to use it!
"I need to learn magic! Can't you see the symbols those overlapping blood vessels are making? We need to spread the fog! Let's pop the smoke grenades!"
"Mr. Baek Jemin, in this situation..."
Click.
Just as I ran out of ammo, I immediately turned my head and dropped the magazine.
As the sound of the magazine bouncing over the already fallen shell casings echoed, I leaned down toward Shin Na-in and glared fiercely.
"There's magic!!!"
Only then did Shin Na-in hurriedly grab his gear and head for the stairs.
Reacting to his movement, the capillaries on the ceiling writhed, and the priest monster finally revealed itself. It had been hiding, dangling just beyond the track rails, out of the light's reach.
Much like a claw machine's crane moving, the aorta extending from its spine squirmed, moving the priest monster across the ceiling.
It was obvious that its target was Shin Na-in.
In that instant, I lifted my gas mask slightly without hesitation. And, opening my mouth wide, I brought my left hand up to it.
Alteration-type Eye Stage 2.
My pain is longer and deeper than any other time...
Crunch!
Blood oozed out. I glared with my eyes wide open at the sensation of my teeth tearing and digging into my flesh.
When I pulled my mouth away, blood spurted from the gap of the teeth marks where blood and saliva had mingled. The pain was doubled because of the previous aftereffects. A thrilling pain that made my spine shrink and bristle, along with a burning sensation, flared up and spread from my nerve endings.
Against the backdrop of my left hand trembling from pain, I shouted at the priest monster that was dangling from the ceiling, immobilized and frozen.
"Lee Se-jun!"
At the sound of my voice echoing through the underground cavern, Lee Se-jun, who had been hiding inside the tunnel, finally revealed himself.
Even in this situation, Lee Se-jun bravely sprinted without a single sign of exhaustion, corrected his posture, ducked behind cover, and nodded.
"I have one more grenade left. I'll pull the pin..."
"No, you idiot, don't throw it!"
"Huh?"
"Wait until the smoke grenades arrive! Put on your gas mask!"
However, my eyelids couldn't hold on much longer.
In the process of grabbing the gas mask with my heavily bleeding left hand, which had a huge bite taken out of it, I must have put it on wrong, as my right eyelid was slightly crushed against the lens. My body involuntarily twisted from the stinging pain, causing tears to constantly burst forth.
My vision blurred because of it.
That meant the magic's effect was also disappearing.
I cast it one more time.
"Lee Se-jun, I'm closing my eyes for a second! The magic will wear off, so try to suppress it by shooting your gun! Shoot the blood vessels!"
Blink.
The moment I closed and opened my eyes, a gunshot crossed my ears.
"Aaaaargh! Die!"
Lee Se-jun's scream-like yell rang out, followed by the echoing gurgling moans. But the monster had already vanished from my sight. Does the Stage 2 magic have a separate penalty? Is there a cooldown after using it once? Or do I need to inflict a different kind of pain?
Nevertheless, my magical tool, the left-hand staff, guaranteed reliable performance.
Since there was already baseline pain from the aftereffects, inflicting additional pain was all too easy. I had already tried biting it and slamming it into the ground, so this time I would cut it with a knife.
After tossing my gun aside, I pulled out my combat knife from my pocket, gripped the palm of my hand with the tip of the blade, and readied myself to slice it slightly. I rolled my eyes toward the direction where the sound of ricocheting bullets came from.
But it was indoors, and underground.
With the gunshots echoing and colliding, it was difficult to figure out where the bullets were hitting and bouncing off, and the monster had already learned how to skillfully hide its presence among the flickering lights.
However, my magic didn't just have Stage 2.
Feeling a burning pain as if thick mint toothpaste had been smeared in my eyes, I quickly scanned the entire underground platform with my eyes wide open. Red footprints were raining down from all directions.
It was an attempt to neutralize my precognition using area coverage.
By spreading its main body thinly and widely across the entire ceiling, it evolved to be capable of attacking from anywhere at any time, aiming for the time lag within the 10-second window. It was a tactic to attack within 10 seconds by exploiting the weakness that I could only see from 10 seconds into the future.
However, ever since it realized I could use Stage 2 - stopping it - it had been reluctant to attack me.
Because the risk was too great.
A clever hunter doesn't take excessive risks. Even if it attacked me within 10 seconds, the monster's intellect determined that if it failed to completely finish me off within that time limit, it might get caught and suffer damage, so it shifted its target to Lee Se-jun.
It probably judged that once it killed Lee Se-jun, who could deal meaningful, practical damage, it would then be able to hunt me down.
I realized once again.
The opponent was something that used to be human, and is no longer human. We were currently fighting a monster, and as a clever hunter, that monster was in an eat-or-be-eaten relationship with us. It's just that the monster held more cards in its hand.
And the creature attempted to neutralize us through its song once again.
Gurgle, gurgle...
I almost instinctively closed my eyes at the surging nausea, but I endured it while breaking out in a cold sweat. Gritting my teeth, I thumped my chest to forcefully calm myself down as I scanned the ceiling.
Now I understood what those gurgling moans were.
That wasn't an actual gurgling sound. It was the sound produced because a language incomprehensible to humans was leaking out by borrowing human vocal cords.
At that moment, along with a murmuring noise from the stairs above the platform, something rolled down.
Clink, roll...
"It's a signal smoke grenade! Put on your gas masks!"
The moment First Lieutenant Baek Han-seong's shout was heard, the sound of smoke leaking out blanketed the underground.
Hiss-.
Yellow smoke mixed with the white fog, blurring everything.
It was then that the priest monster revealed itself. The creature was dangling in ambush near the platform stairs. Having grotesquely bent its arms and tucked them inside its black cassock to use it as camouflage, it moved in reaction to the sound of the smoke.
Gurgle, gurgle....
Just as a claw machine's crane descends with its claws open to grab a desired toy, the priest monster also descended by relaxing and drooping the aorta from its spine. The aorta, made of tangled capillaries, still boasted an alien pulse of life.
Thump.
The priest monster twisted its body and pulled out its arms, which had been forcefully stuffed inside its torn cassock. Its bent arms spread wide as if to embrace, taking the place of claws. Its drooping tongue, dripping with cold saliva, squirmed faintly and sang with a bizarre, ominous melody and rhythm.
[...Eternity....]
Not yet.
As the yellow smoke mixed with the fog and spread, and as the priest monster retreated into it and turned into a shadow, I calmly maintained my gaze.
No footprints were visible.
At that moment, knowing the time had finally come, I looked up at the ceiling.
As if responding to the bursting smoke grenade, the fog rapidly rose, already reaching the tip of my nose. As the pungent, sickening scent unique to chemical gas slipped past the gas mask filter, my vision beyond the gas mask's lenses was also muddied.
But the moment I opened my eyes a bit wider, the fog swirled and enveloped me.
More precisely, it enveloped the blood vessels drawn on the ceiling.
The capillaries thrashed.
And they displayed the symbol more clearly. This time, the magic runes didn't just arrange themselves arbitrarily. Instead, the capillaries making up the symbol emitted a brighter, more distinct red glow.
Two pairs of five lines. A shape intersecting horizontally and vertically.
What was arbitrarily arranging itself was my own mind.
No matter how slow-witted I was, I had no choice but to comprehend it. The magic runes forcefully twisted and altered my brain, making me understand their meaning and significance. A flash went off before my eyes, as if presenting a clear truth that even a complete moron would be forced to grasp.
This symbol is a hand. Two pairs of lines representing five fingers, taking the shape of a left hand and a right hand intersecting.
The evolution that began when humanity became primates, and the very origin that made humanity the dominant species.
A thrill swept down my spine.
This is...
This is the Hand Line.
A magic symbolizing the intellect of humanity.
A line that the military has yet to discover...
A line of magic that I might be the first to awaken!
At that moment, I instinctively realized what Stage 1 of the Hand Line was. That was why I adjusted my grip on the combat knife I was about to use to slash my left palm. Instead, with burning eyes, I looked into the future 10 seconds ahead.
I could see the future.
Red footprints were stamped all over the back of my hand and my arm. It was an intuition. The fact that I had become a greater threat than Lee Se-jun.
However, the 10-second time lag was a window that allowed for anomalies, for both the creature and me. Without any hesitation, I stripped off and threw away the leather glove on my right hand.
Then, with the readjusted combat knife, I slashed across the palm of my right hand.
Slash!
Blood instantly oozed out. I was careful not to cut off my fingers, but a burning sensation belatedly surged up.
And without hesitation, as if telling it to drink the flowing blood of my right hand, I thrust it upward toward the capillaries plunging vertically from the ceiling. I offered my right hand and my blood to the monster.
The capillaries fully relished this opportunity.
An opportunity for predation and reproduction. The clever hunter, assuming I was defenseless, dug its capillaries deep into my skin.
I could feel it. Beneath my thin skin and flesh, the sensation of the monster's capillaries connecting with my blood vessels. That horrifying sensation felt as though it was entwining our blood vessels into one.
However, the very moment my blood vessels and the monster's capillaries were about to touch, the creature realized something was wrong and attempted to pull out.
Of course, I didn't allow it.
I instantly clenched my fist, grabbing the bundle of capillaries with my blood-soaked right hand.
And finally, the Stage 1 magic of the Hand Line took effect.
Hand Line Stage 1.
The blood shed from the right hand can inflict damage on those monsters.
The capillaries that had absorbed the blood of my right hand rapidly withered away. As if struck by poison, or like a snail that had sucked up a massive amount of salt water, they began to melt.
Crackle-.
The sound of dried blood scabs ripping apart erupted from all over the ceiling. Blood dust bursting from the ceiling fluttered and mixed into the clouds of yellow smoke and fog.
Before I knew it, the bundle of capillaries I was clutching had turned into a handful of dried scabs, and I unhesitatingly crushed them to dust.
"Hehehe..."
A laugh leaked out.
At the same time, Lee Se-jun, who had been in a state of panic, approached with ragged breaths. Groaning, Lee Se-jun heaved himself up and crawled onto the platform.
"Mr. Baek Jemin, what is this?"
You've been through a lot.
Feeling unusually generous, I decided to grant Lee Se-jun a very special privilege.
I showed him both my bloodstained left and right hands and gave him a pleasant smile.
"From today onwards, call me Archmage Baek Jemin."
The End
ⓒ Hardpokbal#151df