The Cardinal's Grudge
"Hmm…."
"?"
"Hmmm…."
"Ah, why are you sitting there making those noises?!"
Canteas, who had been running every experiment imaginable to summon the soul of Legion's younger brother Lazarus, snapped at Do-ha lounging on the sofa.
The man had barged in out of nowhere ages ago — so why keep hovering around being a distraction?!
"What the hell are you even looking at?"
Canteas set down his staff, circled behind Do-ha, and peered at the phone in his hand.
What had he been frowning at this whole time?
Had some kind of disaster broken out?
"Tanghulu craze returns after decades… What is this? What are you even reading?"
Canteas tilted his head after skimming the article.
He'd thought it was something important — and it was just some useless fluff piece?
"That's not what I was looking for."
"Then what were you looking for?"
"I was checking whether anything had gone wrong…."
"And?"
"No incidents worth mentioning."
"What? No incidents is a good thing!"
"It's too quiet."
He had even killed the Blood Demon, and still the Cult had shown no real reaction. Inflicting that much damage and getting silence in return could only mean they were plotting something.
Ordinarily there had always been at least a trickle of incidents that smelled of Cult activity. Now there was nothing at all.
What are you bastards cooking up?
Just then—
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Someone pounded on Canteas's front door.
"Don't you have a doorbell?"
"Don't need one."
"Fair enough."
Do-ha rose from the sofa, came up from the basement, and opened the front door.
"Hah… hah… Lord Do-ha… I heard you were here…."
"Why didn't you just call…."
The door opened on Han Jeong-soo, gasping for breath.
Why did this guy keep showing up in person lately?
A phone call would have been enough.
"Y-you were showing as out of service range…."
"?"
Do-ha tilted his head, then something clicked and he let out a sigh.
That damn Canteas.
He'd cast a signal-jamming spell over the whole house. The Wi-Fi still worked thanks to the router, but phone calls couldn't get through.
No wonder.
Whenever Canteas went home, the only way to reach him was telepathy — he never answered a call.
"Something happened, I take it?"
"Yes. Something terrible has— Why are you smiling?"
Han Jeong-soo frowned at Do-ha's expression.
He had come running in a panic — so why did the man look so pleased…?
Had something good happened?
"It's nothing. Talk."
"This is truly serious."
"What is it? A dragon show up or something?"
"In a way, it's bigger than that."
"?"
"Awakeners… have lost their abilities."
"What…?"
At Han Jeong-soo's report, Do-ha's brow furrowed hard.
Abilities gone?
Completely?
"The Awakeners who lost their powers still haven't recovered them, even weeks later."
"When did this start?"
"Everyone's been hiding that their abilities vanished, so we don't have an exact timeline, but the Association estimates roughly two weeks ago."
"Is this happening worldwide?"
"Yes. Three of our own Association staff have already lost their abilities."
"Were they stationed in Korea?"
"No. All three were on overseas assignment. Two in Canada, one in the United States."
"Did the ones who lost their powers die?"
"They're alive. Uninjured — just stripped of their abilities."
"Hmm."
Do-ha folded his arms and sank into thought.
Both regions were relatively close. And the phenomenon hadn't struck everywhere at once, which made it far more likely to be someone's ability at work.
A demon?
No — there were no demons who erased abilities outright. Sealing power, yes. But if a demon were behind this, the victims would have been killed the moment their powers vanished.
"Anything unusual before they lost their abilities?"
"Awakeners from other countries aren't talking. They're pretending nothing happened."
"Figures."
Especially for Hunters. Years of work would have made them plenty of enemies. Getting dragged into other people's messes left a lot of bad blood. And now they were ordinary people again?
They would become targets overnight. Guild-affiliated Awakeners might even be expelled.
"Are the Association staff staying quiet too?"
"The staff filed reports. But nothing stood out. They didn't fight anyone, and they didn't hunt any monsters either."
Han Jeong-soo held out the tablet he was carrying.
It logged the dispatched staff members' movements hour by hour.
8 a.m., on duty. 11 a.m., lunch with the people from the meeting….
Do-ha read carefully — then something caught his eye.
"All three have 'leisure time' listed from 8 p.m. onward. What's that?"
"Ah — all three said they went to a club."
"A club?"
"Yes. They're all fairly young, so after work they visited a local club to unwind. They claim no one picked a fight with them."
"Anything else?"
"They say they woke up like that… but we can't tell whether they blacked out or just drank themselves to sleep. The subjects themselves don't remember."
"Is that so?"
Do-ha nodded, searched for the clubs named in the report, and opened their sites.
Boom! Boom!
Waaaaah—!
"Yeah. This is where it happened."
One look at a promotional video and Do-ha was certain.
The ceiling opened up so the club DJs could set off magic displays to hype the crowd. What used to be fireworks was now magic.
The staff teleported around mid-shift, too — which meant magic and abilities were freely allowed inside. In a place like that, someone walking up and using a power wouldn't look strange at all.
"Out of the way."
"?"
A voice from behind made Han Jeong-soo turn.
Only authorized beings could enter this area, so it wasn't an enemy.
But who around here talked that rudely?
"U… uwaaah!"
Han Jeong-soo spun around, saw the massive figure of Baal looming over him, and screamed.
Baal already looked terrifying enough — having that face staring down at him nearly stopped his heart.
"Baek Do-ha."
"What?"
"New word has reached one of my subordinates in the Demon Realm."
"Oh? Go on."
Do-ha had already given Baal standing orders: report any change or anomaly in the Demon Realm immediately.
"Not long ago, one of the Cardinals who had been in the Demon Realm returned to the Intermediate Realm."
"There are demons among the Cardinals??"
"No. A human. In the language of this Earth, think of it as studying abroad."
"Wow~ The world's really gone soft. Studying abroad in the Demon Realm."
Do-ha burst out laughing at Baal's words.
What a ridiculous thing to treat like a prestigious exchange program.
He'd always known it, but the Cult really was full of complete lunatics.
"When did he come back?"
"By Earth time, roughly two to three weeks ago."
"Of course."
Do-ha snapped his fingers.
Awakeners had started losing their abilities about two weeks ago. A new Cardinal had appeared two to three weeks ago. Anyone could see who was behind this.
"I don't know the Cardinal's location, but—"
"Doesn't matter. We're good."
Do-ha shook his head and handed the tablet back to Han Jeong-soo.
All he had to do was go to the clubs and track the mana trail. That would be enough.
One o'clock in the afternoon, under a blazing sun.
Crrrk.
Sssssssss—
"Your power will make fine nourishment for the Demon God."
An Awakener collapsed near the coast in Nayarit, Mexico.
"I put you to sleep so you wouldn't suffer. You need not worry."
Cardinal Germa — having already passed through Canada and the United States on his way into Mexico — gently laid his victim on the ground.
"You strip someone's power and then tell them not to worry… Are you a psychopath?"
"?!!"
A voice from behind made Germa whirl around in shock.
He had spread his authority over the entire area — passersby shouldn't have been able to see him at all.
"…Baek Do-ha."
"Huh? You know me?"
Germa recognizing him made Do-ha tilt his head.
This was their first meeting, yet the man knew him on sight. It wasn't just matching a name to a face, either. The look in those eyes was the look you gave someone you already knew.
Sssssss—
And that killing intent….
It was the kind of aura you only saw when someone met a hated enemy. Not ordinary hostility toward a foe — the kind of murderous will that only came from a deep, personal grudge.
"Looks like you've got a serious grudge against me."
"Kehehehe… We meet sooner than I expected."
Germa's shoulders shook as a grotesque smile spread across his face.
He had wanted to meet Baek Do-ha for so very long.
When he first heard that Baek Do-ha was dead, he had been devastated. He was supposed to tear the man apart with his own hands — and the bastard had simply vanished.
But the moment he heard Baek Do-ha was alive, he hadn't been able to stop the trembling thrill in his chest.
"I have been looking forward to meeting you."
"Look at those eyes. Stalker much?"
"How did you find me?"
"You left a ton of traces at the clubs."
"Clubs?"
Germa tilted his head at Do-ha's words.
Which clubs? He had visited dozens across three countries.
"Does it really matter which ones?"
"True enough."
Saaaaaah—!
Germa flung his arms wide, and a tremendous surge of power erupted from him.
He had clearly absorbed every ability from the Awakeners he'd drained — Do-ha could feel all kinds of energies mixed together.
"Baek Do-ha. I want to see you crawling at my feet."
"Weird. You've been acting this whole time like we've met before."
Do-ha dug a finger in his ear and eyed Germa.
Why did this guy hate him so openly?
"We have met…."
"Have we?"
"When you killed my parents… I watched you do it. I saw everything."
"…."
For a moment, Do-ha was speechless.
"Were your parents… Cult members, by any chance?"
"They were."
"Whew… Damn, you scared me."
Only then did Do-ha let out a breath of relief.
For a second he'd thought he'd killed innocent people.
"So your parents died. What am I supposed to do about it? Worship something like the Demon God and that's what you get."
"You… you son of a bitch…."
"Don't play the victim. The people who died because of the Cult outnumber them dozens of times over. Look around you right now. Because of you, victims who lost their abilities are piling up."
"…."
"Cult bastards always pull this victim cosplay, don't they? Makes me want to beat them to death."
Do-ha exhaled, and a crushing wave of power began to pour from him.
"I'll send you to join your parents."
"I'll kill you!!!"
Germa, thoroughly enraged by Do-ha's words, charged straight at him.
Ssssss—
"Alright, everyone move along."
In the distance, Canteas was evacuating the nearby civilians.
"Ugh. Hard to tell who's supposed to be the villain here."
Canteas shook his head at Do-ha's line.
Sending someone to join their parents….
Even the demons would tip their hats to that one. That was pure Do-ha.