The Voice in the Thunder
Deep within the burrow, a distant rumbling echoed from far away. My shattered consciousness, scattered in fragments, slowly began to gather at the sound of that terrifying noise.
“Ugh… ugh……”
I had regained enough awareness to move my mouth by sheer will, but all that escaped my convulsing throat were feeble groans. With great effort, I pried open my heavy eyelids. Nothing was visible.
‘What was I… doing? Where… am I?’
No… something was visible. I had simply mistaken the darkness for total blindness. It seemed I was inside a narrow, foul-smelling earthen tunnel—cold and damp as a grave.
The stench of mixed excrement nearly made me pass out again. It was the smell of a deer’s ruptured bowels splattered everywhere, blended with the waste that had leaked from my own body as the poison relaxed every muscle.
‘The books and things I kept inside my robe… are they alright?’
Even as that worry crossed my mind, my eyes darted around.
Along with the sound of heavy rain hammering the ground nearby, a faint light from somewhere far off barely reached me. It wasn’t enough to illuminate my surroundings, but at least it confirmed this wasn’t an endless void of pure blackness.
Once more, thunder roared from outside the burrow, tearing through the air with a deafening crash.
“Hngh…!!”
My body instinctively curled in on itself. My mind fractured. The sound of lightning-scorched air ripping apart felt as if it were tearing my very soul along with it.
‘Have I… always been afraid of thunder? More importantly… where am I?’
I tried to move my hand to figure out my location, but it wouldn’t budge. I attempted to drag myself through the tunnel using my legs, but they refused to move either.
It was as if my head and limbs had been severed from one another. Only then did the memories of what had happened begin to surface.
‘That’s right… I was stung by a parasitic wasp, and then… the deer…’
I let out a sigh. Even after enduring all that, I still retained enough sanity to recover some of my reason. Was that fortunate, or a curse? It might have been easier if the poison had completely scrambled my brain and driven me mad—I could have simply shattered in peace.
Even without seeing or hearing, I understood my current predicament. My body trembled uncontrollably. I focused on my magical circulation, summoning a tiny spark of light that I could create even without moving my muscles.
A small, white flame rose from my left hand, faintly illuminating the area. My eyes, long adjusted to total darkness, squinted at even that slender ray of light.
It was a narrow burrow, as if carved and packed solid by insects. For a dug-out tunnel, the walls were unnaturally smooth. Perhaps the wasp had coated them with wax to seal out moisture and reinforce the structure.
And there I sat, helpless—still fully clothed, backpack strapped to my back—inside that insect burrow.
‘Is it that strong because it’s an insect…? Even if it’s a large bug, it was only about the size of my arm. Did it really drag me here with the entire pack?’
I barely managed to turn my head and survey the burrow. The space where I lay was slightly wider, like a small chamber with a blunt end. It seemed the creature had dug a tunnel barely wide enough for one person’s torso, then expanded a room at the end to store its prey.
Prey that, in this case, was me.
‘I can regain my mind, but my body won’t move. What do I do now…?’
“Ugh!!”
Sudden agony slammed into my skull.
‘Just endure it, dear.’
Every time the whisper reached me, my skull rang like a struck bell, sending unbearable pain radiating through my entire body. My arms wouldn’t move, so I couldn’t clutch my head. My torso wouldn’t budge, so I couldn’t roll in agony.
All I could do was twist my face slightly and try to endure the torment of contact with that distant entity.
‘It’s simple. If you just use the power I gave you once, you’ll easily break free from that insect’s restraints. Why do you refuse such a gift? Use it. Release the lock in your subconscious and accept my power.’
I clenched my teeth and pushed back inside my mind.
‘No… I don’t want it!! I will never let you do anything good for me… I won’t allow you to descend into my body. I won’t give you any more openings!!’
‘My, my.’
The voice was clearly mocking.
‘The mental strength to lock away the gift from one as great as I with nothing but subconscious rejection is impressive. Truly the spirit of the delectable soul I chose. But you already know deep down what will happen if you die here, don’t you?’
The voice—sickeningly sweet yet painful enough to split my skull—burrowed into my mind.
‘Remember when your precious mother died. Recall the moment that girl became a plaything for pirates on the ship, sculpted into something beautiful. Can’t you see the shadow of the power I gave you rising from that split corpse? Death is nothing more than a tool to strip away a resisting soul.’
I endured the brain-scraping agony that came merely from its presence and forced myself to rage back.
‘Don’t… speak… of Mother… of Pirel… like that…’
‘So whether you go mad with your brain devoured and poison injected, your mind and soul reduced to rags, or whether you become a dried skull with only a few scraps of flesh after the insect eats your marrow down to the bone—I don’t particularly care, Lee Seon-yeon customer. Either way, the power I gave you will remain in your body, and once your interfering soul is gone, those remains will become a perfect vessel for me to inhabit. Yes, dying right now is the fastest way to summon me into this world.’
‘Lies… it’s all a filthy trick. Get out… get out!! From my… my head… disappear…!!’
‘How cruel of you to speak that way to me, who granted you another life and even power. Yet even as you say such things, you’ve already been persuaded, my lovely vessel. From your fingertips, the power you sealed with your subconscious is rising once more—the magic that twists the natural flow of cause and effect. The gift I gave you.’
The voice remained calm, yet carried a hint of irritation. The surging tone crashed over my head, down my spine, threatening to shatter what remained of my body.
‘Still, I would prefer you survive this place. Your desperate struggle to escape me is such an entertaining comedy. I took special care to craft a face pretty enough to enchant anyone I might meet after so long—wouldn’t it be a shame if it were covered in blisters filled with insect larvae?’
‘Eh…? My… appearance… you… no, you… chose it…? Then that… strange smell… too…?’
A laugh filled with clear displeasure rippled through my mind.
‘Ah, yes. That horrible stench that guided people to offer you warm care so you wouldn’t go mad. That wasn’t something I gave you. It seems you unconsciously suppressed even that power without realizing it.’
‘That’s impossible.’
I knew it was as unnatural an ability as turning back time. Then who had granted me that constitution? Before I could properly pursue the question, the voice rang painfully through my skull.
‘In any case, the choice is yours. Go mad or die here and accept me immediately, or survive this place and resist me to the end. Never forget that your death will be my descent—and the death of your world. You know best which one to choose. I hope we can continue this pleasant conversation later as well, Lee Seon-yeon customer.’
With the sensation of something that had been devouring my mind losing interest and vanishing, that ominous presence—darker than midnight—disappeared.
“Haa……”
I let out a sigh of relief at finally being freed, but in a way, things had only gotten worse. I was now utterly alone, abandoned in darkness where no one would ever find me.
Since my hands wouldn’t move, I would have to cast magic through incantation alone. But was there any spell that could get me out of this situation? The number of spells I could use with only my mouth was extremely limited.
I stared at the faint light faintly visible at the end of the burrow. If I could turn back time to heal my body and purge the poison, I might be able to crawl out. The tunnel looked sturdy enough that it wouldn’t collapse from my passage…
According to that entity, however, what was blocking the power to reverse time wasn’t anything else—it was me. I wasn’t consciously suppressing it, yet even now I was thinking how much I wanted to turn back time and escape this horrific insect den.
In the end, only one option remained. If there was nothing I could do as a mage or as the unfortunate girl chosen by that grotesque omnipotent being from beyond, then I had to try what any ordinary person would attempt.
My body wouldn’t move, but my throat could manage something. Gathering every ounce of strength in my vocal cords, I barely managed to cry out.
“Is… anyone there…? Please help me… save me…!!”
I knew it. My voice, buried beneath the thick earth of the wasp burrow, would never reach the outside. It was too far, and my exhausted voice was far too weak.
Still, I shouted again. There was nothing else I could do.
“Please save me… please save me…!! Someone… please… help me… I’m here…!! There’s a person here……”
Just a few quiet words that barely qualified as shouts drained what little strength I had left. My head dropped limply. All that remained was a soft sob that even someone right beside me would have struggled to hear.
“Ugh… huu… save me… someone… please… save… me……”
This had been a forest path that almost no one traveled to begin with. I had no idea how far the burrow entrance was from the trail. Even if I could shout at full volume, no one would hear. There was no one nearby to hear me… not even an animal.
I simply hadn’t wanted to admit there was no hope at all.
‘……’
But I had been wrong.
While I sat with my thoughts halted, vacant eyes and hollow expression fixed on the darkness filled only with the distant sound of rain, something that had heard my voice was approaching.
‘Ah……’
The only being inside this insect burrow that would listen to my voice.
“No… please not……”
The parasitic wasp that had dragged me here appeared before me. It looked much larger than when I first saw it, its abdomen grotesquely swollen. Perhaps it was full of eggs.
The light still flickering from my left hand illuminated the insect’s iridescent teal carapace. As if confirming something, the creature began to move, its whip-like antennae thrashing wildly in place. Its shadow shifted.
“Hic… no, no… I’m scared……”
The parasitic wasp drew closer.
“Go away… go away… please… d-don’t come……”
The massive insect suddenly fluttered its wings. The buzzing sound instantly brought back the memory of what had happened on the forest path, plunging me into panic. I could no longer even form proper words.
“Ah, aah…… ugh… aaah……”
The parasitic wasp paused for a moment as if considering something, then its enormous mandibles spread wide. The insect’s mouth descended over mine.