S-Rank Calamity (3)
"Ah, no... Don't come near me!"
Baek Soyeon, the Formless Sword, screamed until her throat tore.
That raw, desperate cry finally made the citizens realize something was terribly wrong; they scrambled back, putting distance between themselves and her.
"Hhk... ahhngh..."
Clutching her head, Baek Soyeon let out a low moan. Cracks began to spiderweb through the air around her as though the space itself were glass about to shatter.
The surreal, ominous phenomenon drained the color from every face—civilians and the hunters who moments earlier had been facing down the Deep-Sea Prince alike.
"It's Corruption."
The Clinic Director's face went ashen as he poured everything into reinforcing the barrier.
"Damn it all!"
The Gangwon Lord spat a curse and stepped in front of me.
"Everyone back! Baek Soyeon is turning into a Calamity!"
At his warning, hunters and ordinary people alike—anyone whose legs still worked—fled in panic.
"Hey! You run too!"
The Gangwon Lord bellowed at me. An F-rank healer standing stock-still in front of an S-rank's Corruption clearly grated on him; his shout rattled my eardrums.
I didn't run.
"Do you not grasp the situation? This is an S-rank Corruption! Get out of here now!"
"It's useless."
My short reply made the Gangwon Lord scowl in incomprehension.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Healer Lee Jinwoo is right. Look around you, Gangwon Lord."
The Director, who had been silently fortifying the barrier, spoke up in my defense.
"What are you—"
Still looking thoroughly exasperated, the Gangwon Lord reluctantly scanned the surroundings. And he saw them.
Black-and-crimson butterflies filled every direction.
The dark-red butterflies that symbolized Baek Soyeon's domain carpeted sky and earth alike, scattering ominous luminous pollen.
"Those butterflies... they're Hunter Baek Soyeon's Mystery, aren't they? As you can see, the swarm has blanketed everything above and below. Even if you run, one flick of her wrist and your head comes off."
I explained the situation in a calm voice while Baek Soyeon continued to Corrupt in real time and the Gangwon Lord prepared his final stand against her.
"Goddamn it!"
Fortunately he wasn't an idiot. He understood at once.
"She's already eroded this whole area... Faster than I expected."
His eyes darted, hunting for a gap that didn't exist.
"We're screwed. Tonight's nine-o'clock news is going to lead with 'Donghae Citizens Massacred'..."
His gaze swung back to me.
"You're right. Running now is pointless."
He let out a long breath.
"How did you know, though? You look like an ordinary F-rank healer."
I felt his stare rake over me, probing whether I truly was just F-rank. The heavy scrutiny wasn't pleasant, but given the circumstances I didn't bother showing it.
"Hunter Baek Soyeon just said so."
"Did she? Sharp kid. Real talent."
He cleared his throat and turned his back again.
"Baek Soyeon's Mystery is high-grade. Far beyond a commoner like me—impossibly higher."
He pulled every talisman from his coat and floated them into the air.
"I'll struggle as hard as I can, but I won't last more than a few minutes. Just warning you in advance so you don't freak out when I go down too easily."
"How thoughtful of you."
He seemed to be cracking a joke to ease the tension. The man was kinder than I'd expected.
While the Gangwon Lord focused on Baek Soyeon and readied his last resistance, I looked to the Director.
"Is there no way to stop the Corruption?"
If it could be stopped, I wanted to stop it.
I couldn't say why. Watching her scream so desperately against the Corruption simply filled my head with the urge to save her.
"Not at present. Once Corruption begins, the Mystery a hunter carries transforms into a Calamity. Right now there is no method to restore a Corrupted Mystery, nor any way to purify the Mental Pollution accumulating inside an Awakened."
I clenched my teeth at the Director's explanation.
I had asked out of pure desperation, and the answer was exactly what I'd expected.
Of course. If the Bureau knew how to purify Mental Pollution and halt Corruption, they'd just fix their S-rank hunters and keep using them.
No one would abandon S-rank hunters—the most valuable strategic assets of the age—to Corruption. I already knew that, but hearing it confirmed from the Director's mouth left a bitter taste.
So I just die here?
I suddenly wanted to see Haeun.
The face of my childhood friend—who had arranged this clinic posting and warned me to be careful around Baek Soyeon—rose unbidden in my mind.
"Hunter Baek Soyeon is resisting, but she won't last long. The moment Corruption starts, the outcome is already sealed."
At the Director's words I turned toward Baek Soyeon.
She was crying.
Bloody tears streamed from both eyes as she looked at me and moved her lips, as if trying to leave a final will.
That pitiful sight drew me toward her like a man under a spell.
"Healer Lee Jinwoo! It's dangerous!"
"Hey! You'll get yourself killed!"
Neither the Clinic Director nor the Gangwon Lord could stop me.
"I'm going to die anyway. I'd at least like to hear her last words."
"It's meaningless."
"No it isn't. At the very least it might ease Hunter Baek Soyeon's heart."
I answered with quiet certainty.
She was still fighting the Corruption. That meant she still clung to life. The way her lips moved while she stared at me told me enough.
She had something left to say. Even if she couldn't pass it on to anyone else, she wanted someone to hear the final words she would ever speak in this world.
"If you pass me you'll take the negative energy head-on. You're finished too."
The Gangwon Lord warned me.
Beyond his shoulder, thick negative energy poured from the cracks forming around Baek Soyeon.
The only reason an F-rank healer like me had survived this long was the protection of the Gangwon Lord and the Clinic Director.
"I'm going to die either way. I'm not particularly scared."
"Why go this far?"
"Call it the least respect I can offer an S-rank hunter who devoted herself to humanity even while racing toward a predetermined end. I want Miss Baek Soyeon to go peacefully."
If I had to die without even a chance to run, one last good deed seemed acceptable.
"You're not a bad kid."
The Gangwon Lord gave a crooked smile and stuck a talisman on me.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying a little meaningless gesture of my own, same as you."
He formed a hand seal. Light flared from the talisman on my chest. Warm power flooded my body and breathing suddenly became easier.
"Expensive talisman. It'll only protect you for a short while, but even an F-rank healer's body should be able to listen to the Formless Sword's last words."
"Thank you."
"Skip the thanks."
I answered by walking toward Baek Soyeon. The instant I passed the Gangwon Lord, a torrent of negative energy slammed into me.
My breath locked and my whole body felt like it was on fire, yet it stayed just short of unbearable.
Thanks to the talisman he stuck on me.
The charm was already losing its light at a frightening rate. Without it I would never have reached her alive.
"Finally made it."
I stood before Baek Soyeon.
"Ahh... ahhh..."
She gestured to me through her bloody tears, telling me to come closer still.
"I've come this far. That much isn't hard."
I stepped nearer. With great effort she forced out the last words she had been holding back.
"D-Dad... I miss you... Dad..."
With her final human breath she called for her father. The moment I heard it, something inside me snapped.
It wasn't sudden paternal instinct. I still didn't know the reason. I simply wanted to help her—as if the urge had been carved into me from birth.
I approached Baek Soyeon as she writhed under Mental Pollution.
"Heal."
I pressed my hand to her forehead and poured the Mystery of healing into her.
I knew perfectly well that an F-rank healer's restorative Mystery could never purify the Mental Pollution of an S-rank hunter mid-Corruption.
But I couldn't stop. I didn't want to stop.
I'm dead anyway. Might as well try something useless.
I funneled every last scrap of mana I possessed into the Formless Sword, Baek Soyeon. And in the next instant, a miracle happened.
"Haa..."
Her breathing began to steady. The storm of negative energy that had been raging around her gradually faded.
It's working.
I had no idea why, but it was working.
Excited, I poured even more energy into her.
My consciousness is fading...
I still couldn't stop.
If I blacked out here, her Corruption might resume.
So I gritted my teeth and endured.
How long I remained lost in that trance, I couldn't say.
When I finally came back to myself, Baek Soyeon was nestled in my arms, looking perfectly fine, sleeping like a baby. Only after confirming that her Corruption had completely stopped did I allow myself to let go and sink into unconsciousness.