Side Effects of Salvation (2)
When Baek Soyeon opened her eyes, the one who had gifted her salvation was no longer at her side.
The moment she registered her savior’s absence, a crushing emptiness flooded her, laced with a bone-deep exhaustion and a fierce, waking obsession. At the same time she felt the warmth that had driven out the negative energy and filled her hollowed heart begin to cool at terrifying speed—until it felt as cold and lifeless as a corpse.
“Ah… no…”
What happens when the warmth disappears? The fear that mental pollution might accelerate again and drag her into corruption seized her. In a seizure-like frenzy, Baek Soyeon unleashed her Mystery.
“Baek Soyeon is releasing her Mystery!”
“Th-that’s impossible… I thought only authorized personnel could free their Mysteries inside Atlantis…”
Medical staff and Foundation personnel who had rushed over the instant they heard she had regained consciousness went pale. As one of them had said, the release of an Awakened’s Mystery was strictly restricted inside Atlantis. Even an S-rank could not casually expand their power here. To ignore Atlantis’s laws required a Mystery of at least comparable rank.
Atlantis itself was an SS-rank Mystery.
In other words, to fully unleash a Mystery’s power without permission inside its walls, one needed a grade approaching SS-rank at minimum.
“The Formless Sword, Baek Soyeon, is only an S-rank Mystery holder. There’s no way she could open her full power inside Atlantis.”
A Foundation officer wearing round glasses pointed out the contradiction with a look of utter incomprehension.
“You don’t see those butterflies? She’s already released it.”
A man wearing a chief researcher’s badge around his neck shouted. Just as he said, the dark-crimson butterflies that symbolized Baek Soyeon’s Mystery were steadily expanding their domain.
“Damn it! Call security—now!”
The Foundation personnel and medical staff fled the intensive care unit in a panic. Even after they were gone, Soyeon did not stop deploying her power.
Security team Awakened arrived shortly afterward, yet none of them entered the ICU.
“Storming the ward is far too dangerous.”
The security captain spoke with a face rigid from tension. He was right; forcing entry into a space where Baek Soyeon had already established her domain carried an unacceptable risk.
“Wouldn’t it be safer to activate the autonomous defense system and subdue her that way?”
When the captain refused to charge in, another Foundation officer suggested using Atlantis’s own defenses. After a brief discussion, the black-suited officers activated the system.
Beginning suppression.
A flat, mechanical voice rang out, and the suppression protocol against Baek Soyeon commenced. Countless tentacles burst from the walls of the intensive care unit.
In the command center, several officers watching the large monitor openly grimaced at the tentacles’ grotesque shape.
“So the internal defense system of an SS-rank Mystery… is tentacles?”
A higher-ranking Foundation officer made no effort to hide his revulsion.
“First time seeing it?”
“Yes…”
The man who had shown disgust answered stiffly under his superior’s gaze.
“The means employed differ according to the situation. And for the record, those aren’t tentacles—they’re octopus arms.”
“Good lord…”
“We’ll have her completely subdued within ten minutes.”
His superior made no attempt to hide his confidence in the octopus arms.
Yet contrary to that expectation, Atlantis’s defense system began to be utterly dismantled by the Formless Sword’s Mystery.
Having lost her father to a calamity that took the form of tentacles, the sight of similar octopus arms reopened her trauma. She unleashed formless slashes in every direction. The invisible blades shredded the massive arms, then reduced the intensive care unit and the surrounding corridor to rubble.
“An S-rank Awakened… just broke Atlantis’s defense system?”
No one in the command center could easily find words. The chief researcher temporarily in charge of the situation finally spoke after a moment’s thought.
“Report the situation to the Secretary and put the kill team on standby. This is beyond what security can handle.”
“Baek Soyeon is just ahead.”
At Rebecca’s words I nodded, tension tightening my face. Back in the ward I had spoken boldly enough, but the moment I realized a rampaging S-rank Awakened was right in front of me, my body locked up.
“There haven’t been any casualties, right?”
I had received a brief rundown on the way, yet anxiety made me ask again.
“None so far… She appears to be reacting aggressively only to the defense systems and has not directed any slashes at people.”
“That’s a real relief.”
“Life rarely unfolds according to plan. You may yet become the first casualty, Candidate.”
“You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
“Stay close to my side.”
Following Rebecca’s lead, I rounded the corner and stood before Baek Soyeon. Severed octopus arms littered the space around her; as Rebecca had said, no human limbs were among them.
Well, if she had attacked people they never would have sent me here in the first place.
They must have judged that some reason still remained.
“Soyeon? Please calm down. I’ve come.”
The line might have sounded arrogant. I revealed my presence and took one step toward her.
And then… our eyes met.
“Ah… ahh…”
Tears welled in her pupils. A moment later Soyeon staggered toward me, arms flailing, her gaze as plaintive as a lost child who had finally found her parents.
Rebecca, the Lord of Gangwon, and the clinic director all tensed, ready to release their Mysteries, but I raised a hand and stopped them.
“Don’t provoke her.”
“It could still be dangerous.”
I shook my head at Rebecca’s warning.
“It’ll be fine.”
“Do you have grounds for that claim?”
“Look around. There are no butterflies.”
That explanation seemed sufficient. Rebecca’s eyes flicked rapidly across the surroundings.
“She’s released her domain.”
I answered with a nod and approached Soyeon. Rebecca did not try to stop me.
“I heard you were looking for me. What did you need?”
Standing before her, I asked the reason she had sought me out. For the record, I am a man who prioritizes reason over emotion. When a beautiful woman looks for me, I ask why first. I always have, and I always will.
The abrupt, businesslike question only flustered Soyeon further. Her cheeks flushed crimson; her eyes darted about searching for a place to rest, and then she tentatively opened her arms toward me.
“When I opened my eyes… it was so cold… C-can you hold me?”
Hold her? Just like that?
Sudden as it was, the request did not feel entirely unreasonable. When I had used my Mystery to halt her corruption and purify the pollution, I too had sensed the interior of her heart. What had sat deep within her was a cold so intense it made the skin crawl—negative energy that induced mental pollution, no doubt.
Even if the corruption was stopped, her mental pollution levels are still dangerously high, the director had explained earlier.
“If I hold you, you’ll calm down?”
“Y-yes. I’ll calm down right away.”
“All right. I’m a pretty heavy guy, you know… but I’ll make a special exception this once.”
The instant I gave permission she burrowed into my arms.
“Warm…”
Like someone who had been pressed against an electric blanket for twenty-four hours, Baek Soyeon’s body went completely limp.
Heavier than I expected…
Even as an EX-rank candidate, my physical abilities still seemed stuck at the level of an F-rank healer. I felt her full weight.
“Hey… is she all right?”
At the Lord of Gangwon’s question I checked Soyeon’s condition again.
“Yeah… she just passed out.”
With Rebecca’s help I carried Baek Soyeon to another ward and laid her down.
“An investigation will be necessary.”
Rebecca spoke without taking her eyes off the sleeping Soyeon.
“It’s still too early to conclude anything, but… Baek Soyeon’s abnormal behavior appears to stem from you, Candidate.”
I could not deny it. I still barely understood my own power. In the past the Phenomenon Interpretation Bureau had classified my Mystery as nothing more than an F-rank healing ability. Because of that, I had no idea what price came with the special capacity to purify mental pollution.
One fact, however, was certain: in the process of stopping Baek Soyeon’s corruption and cleansing her pollution, a portion of my Mystery had taken root inside her body.
“The Phenomenon Interpretation Bureau has analyzed and catalogued countless Mysteries and Calamities, yet it remains ignorant regarding EX-rank,” Rebecca explained. “We will need to conduct a thorough examination of Hunter Baek Soyeon as well. Your cooperation would be appreciated.”
I nodded.
“It looks like my stay in Atlantis is going to be longer than expected… There’s one favor I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“There’s someone I want to let know that I’m safe.”
“I was under the impression you had no family.”
Rebecca’s bluntness made me smile awkwardly.
“I have one friend who’s like family. She’s probably worried sick about me.”
Jin Haeun… that girl might even be crying right now.
“Someone like family… If it’s only one person, bringing her here would not be difficult.”
The unexpected offer left me wide-eyed. Seeing my expression, Rebecca smiled faintly.
“A privilege of this level can certainly be extended to an EX-rank Awakening Candidate. I will send someone to escort her.”