The Beast That Speaks

Haneul hadn't opened his mouth once, and yet a handful of grit was still grinding between his molars. Sweat streamed down his forehead like rain.

He pulled the canteen from his side and moistened his mouth with the barest sip.

'I have to ration this water as long as I can. And the moment the canteen runs half empty, I'm heading straight back to the blue fog. Even if the 1st Raid Commander curses me six ways to Sunday, staying alive comes first.'

Checking his watch and receiver at regular intervals, Haneul inched a little further toward the central mountain.

Then, in a single instant—

"Hurk!"

Blood spurted from Haneul's mouth.

A monstrous projectile had flown in before he could even register it, punching through his backpack, then his back, grazing just beside his heart before slamming deep into the vest over his chest.

Its destructive force and thrust were so ferocious that Haneul's body was lifted clean off the ground and hurled a good five meters forward.

Only the A-Rank vest he wore saved his heart from being run through outright — thanks to the vest's defenses, the projectile's point of impact had slipped just barely wide of the mark.

The vests originally issued to new hires of the 1st Raid Division were D-Rank: better than the E-Rank gear handed to interns, to be sure, but no match for A-Rank quality. If Haneul hadn't had the luck to grab an A-Rank vest that morning, he would have died without ever getting the chance to lift a finger.

The moment he came tumbling to a stop five meters ahead, Haneul pressed himself flat against the earth.

He played dead, not stirring so much as a hair — and from far off came a response.

From a range far beyond what his eyes could reach, from a point several kilometers away, a disc-shaped object came flying in like a bullet.

Riding atop it was a bizarre life-form: an inverted-triangle head atop a body small as a dwarf's, with arms long enough to drag at its ankles.

The creature — or magic beast — stood erect upon the disc as it hovered two meters above the ground, staring straight down at Haneul.

The Second Highland Expedition II

Chapter 1

'Please. Just go away.'

Holding his breath, Haneul played dead.

The bipedal beast on the disc had eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and nothing else — no nose, no mouth.

"λοοβ, νβη, ζζζ."

And yet the beast was spitting out sounds no one could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠understand. From what Haneul could judge, these weren't mere noises — they felt like a kind of language.

'A magic beast... that uses language?'

Haneul was thunderstruck.

In the meantime, the beast lowered its disc and glided closer to him — all the while keeping that long tail trained squarely on Haneul's head.

At the tail's tip gaped a deep hole, and judging by the shot that had nearly killed him, it was from this very opening that something had been fired into his back moments ago.

Too terrified to open his eyes, Haneul lay frozen.

'But I have to see it through. Come on, Haneul. Be brave.'

He drove himself on, then cracked his eyelids open as thinly as he could manage, shaping a slit of a gaze that barely counted as looking.

Only then did the beast atop the disc — that creature, that alien life-form — finally enter his field of vision.

'A little more.'

Haneul focused his mind still harder, and at last the thing's soul came into clear view.

'What is that — some kind of venomous stinger?'

Haneul narrowed his eyes. What caught his attention first were the sharp, stinger-like shapes surrounding the beast's soul.

Then the strange phenomenon he had experienced before unfolded all over again.

The beast's soul suddenly flattened into a figure on a two-dimensional sheet of paper.

Haneul looks down upon that figure from the third dimension.

This beast's figure was as shown above.

The alpha Frost Wolf Haneul had finished off last time had kept its soul hidden behind three layers of shielding; this beast's defenses numbered only two, suggesting it was somewhat weaker than the wolf. In exchange, a jet-black growth jutted out like the tail of a venomous scorpion — hideous beyond words.

Should an enemy try to strike this beast's soul, that grotesque tail(?) looked ready to deliver a horrific counterattack on the spot. That tail, most likely, was what Haneul had glimpsed moments ago and taken for a venomous stinger.

'And yet somehow... I feel like I could pluck that soul right out.'

Even as cold sweat poured off him through the searing pain in his chest, Haneul found one thin ray of hope. The moment he raised his will, the iridescent hand from within his mental image thrust down out of a higher dimension and pinched the beast's soul alone between thumb and forefinger.

"ββ!"

The beast ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠suddenly clutches at its own head. Its long tail, unable to find its bearing, thrashes about in a frenzy.

It looked exactly like a snake with its head cut off, its body whipping through the air in senseless convulsions.

At length, Haneul's iridescent fingers tightened.

Pop!

The beast's soul came free on the spot, absorbed into the iridescent hand.

Now that he thought of it, the souls of the six Frost Wolves last time had all been absorbed into his mental image as well.

"β!"

Robbed of its soul, the beast gave a single shriek and dropped from the disc like a stone. Orphaned, the disc whirled in place for a moment before spiraling down and slamming into the ground right beside him.

'Nnngh... aaargh...'

Squeezing out the very last of his strength, Haneul forced his arm to move, barely managed to unscrew the potion hanging at his neck, and gulped it down in great, ragged swigs.

The instant the miraculous arcane liquid slid down his throat, a cool, soothing sensation spread through his entire body.

The blood that had been streaming from him stopped before he knew it. His wounds knit closed with startling speed. And the agony tearing through him visibly ebbed away.

The wound across his chest healed first; the gaping hole punched through his back closed next. His blood vessels and muscles, shredded to ribbons, rapidly returned to their proper state.

Most astonishing of all, the projectile — the sharp spike that had been buried halfway in his chest — was pushed out of his body entirely.

Every bit of it was the potion's doing. The reward Haneul had earned for bringing down six Frost Wolves had, in the end, saved his life.

Of course, no potion was a panacea, and the recovery did not complete in mere minutes. It took the better part of ninety minutes before Haneul was roughly whole again.

For all that time, he had to lie flat on the scorched wasteland, unable to move a muscle.

"Never again. I'm never setting foot in this godforsaken Highland again, not ever. Hnk."

Sprawled across ground that seethed and simmered like the bottom of a great cauldron, Haneul wrung tears from his eyes.

Chapter 2

The human heart is a wily thing.

Only moments ago, Haneul had sworn to himself, 'I'm never coming into Highland again.' But the instant his body recovered and he got a look at his spoils, that vow melted away without a sound.

"Whoaaa, look at this Maryeongseok. It's a good one and a half times bigger than the alpha's."

Curiously enough, this beast with its inverted-triangle head bore triangular Maryeongseok embedded in two places — one at its Adam's apple, one in its chest.

The stone at the throat was only about the size of a single knuckle of Haneul's thumb. The one in its chest, on the other hand, was startlingly large.

'It's even bigger than what they taught us in training. And a bipedal beast built so much like a human — I've never even heard of such a thing.'

Which meant one thing: if he hauled this beast's corpse back to Midland, its value would be recognized at a premium.

Haneul fished a space-compression vacuum pack out of his backpack and stowed the beast's corpse inside.

'And look at this disc. There are mana stones set into it, too.'

Astonishingly, eight bluish mana stones were embedded in the disc the beast had ridden. In other words, this beast belonged to a civilization as developed as humanity's — one that knew how to charge magic stones with energy and forge mana stones.

Haneul had no memory of hearing anything of the sort during training.

'So this disc must be exactly the kind of artifact Shinseung Group prizes, right? Carry this back to Midland and the reward will be enormous.'

Chuckling to himself, Haneul moved to pack the disc into the vacuum pack — then a sudden worry stopped him cold.

'Hold on. Won't this make people suspicious? My stats aren't anything to write home about. If somebody presses me on how a rookie like me hauled back a relic like this, what am I supposed to say?'

There was, of course, an easy way to dispel all doubt.

'Just reveal my ability, and the whole problem goes away.'

But something about that made Haneul uneasy.

'I can see other people's souls. Even before I properly entered Highland and my DNA began to mutate, I could already study the souls of those around me. And once my ability flowered, I gained the power to pull those souls out, too.'

The so-called instant-death ability.

Haneul had awakened a monstrous gift — the power to kill any living thing on the spot.

'But would people really shower praises on an instant-death ability like mine?'

The answer was no.

Human nature, as Haneul had learned time and again, was not the forgiving kind. A being who could kill instantly, the way he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could, was certain to inspire unbearable terror in everyone around him. And human beings, by their very nature, do not tolerate such creatures.

'What if they all believed I could use this instant-death power only on magic beasts?'

Then people would court his favor, treat him well, and scheme to put him to use.

'But what if the truth came out — that I could kill them just the same?'

Then those very same people would move to erase him, by whatever means necessary.

'No one on this earth sleeps soundly, stretched out and at ease, with a monster like me lying beside them.'

Haneul was no fool. For his age he was quick on the uptake, and he had thought long and hard about the nature of humankind.

'No. This is too dangerous.'

Haneul changed his mind.

First, he reopened the space-compression vacuum pack holding the beast's corpse, and the body — shrunken small and thin — sprang back to its original form.

Then he drew the ultrasonic blade strapped against his shin and set about carving the Maryeongseok out of the beast's throat and chest.

'I'll take only these stones. That way I can bluff my way through without ever exposing my ability.'

Haneul had worked out his own plan. But to his surprise, the stones refused to come loose — the beast's hide was far tougher and harder than it looked.

'Wow. Who knew skin could be this strong. With the ultrasonic blade powered on, it shears through steel like butter — and this stuff holds. There'd be no winning a head-on brawl against a beast like this.'

By Haneul's reckoning, even the 1st Raid Commander — the man whose mental image was a saw-toothed shield — would be all but doomed in a one-on-one against this class of beast. Frankly, a close-combat type like him looked hard-pressed just to block the stingers such a creature could fling from long range.

'Though if it were the Pioneer Corps Commander instead of the 1st Raid Commander, who knows.'

All the more reason, Haneul judged, to keep his ability buried.

Suppose a beast existed that was stronger than the 1st Raid Commander — one whose combat power might even come close to that famous Pioneer Corps Commander's. And what if a rookie employee like Haneul brought down such a beast without a single scratch on him?

It was bound to become a controversy from every conceivable angle.

'I can't go manufacturing that kind of mess with my own hands. Absolutely not.'

Chk, chk, chk, chk.

Haneul cut with everything he had. With the ultrasonic mode engaged, he gouged out the flesh around the stones at its throat, sawing at the beast's hide like a man felling timber.

After more than an hour of that struggle, the two Maryeongseok finally came free from the beast's Adam's apple and chest.

'Hah... hah... I'm dying. Is it because my attack stat's a measly 3? Pulling out just these two nearly finished me off.'

Drenched in sweat, Haneul flopped flat onto the wasteland floor. Clutched in his grip, a triangular Maryeongseok twice the size of his fist and another no bigger than a thumb knuckle threw off a yellow glow.