Blood and Shadow (3)
Comet left the power plant employee—who had refused the dangerous mission—where he stood and leaped straight out the building window.
“It’s a common enough thing.”
“No need to hand it over just to snatch it back. I’ll retrieve it when we’re done.”
She drew a single soul from the Soul Bead and reshaped it into a knife. The weapon was crudely made, so its performance would be mediocre, but it would suffice.
When she approached Dan Gayeon, who was locked in combat with the three-story flame golem, the swordswoman greeted her with a visibly relieved face. It seemed she had been struggling just to hold her ground, let alone defeat the creature alone.
“Comet! What about the survivor?”
“I saved one. He said he wanted to stay somewhere safe. Think you can handle the golem?”
“No!”
Dan Gayeon rolled aside as the golem’s flaming fist crashed down. The ground trembled and flames roared across the area. Her sword slash flew out and snuffed the fire in its path.
“My attacks aren’t landing at all!”
“Try putting more power behind them.”
Dan Gayeon swung at the golem’s fist embedded in the ground. The blade struck more than it cut. A shallow scratch appeared on the golem, but the damage was negligible.
“It’s still not working!”
“Then try using your mana more elegantly.”
Dan Gayeon dodged once more and drove her fist into the scratched spot. A heavy thud rang out, dust billowing up. The golem remained utterly composed.
Her advice didn’t seem to have helped much. The fight would end if the core were destroyed, but that core was hidden deep inside the golem’s body. Since her attacks couldn’t even connect properly, she was clearly suffering.
“What if you just threw the sword away and fought with your bare hands?”
“I’m a swordswoman. If I start relying on unarmed strikes, the openings I leave will be enormous.”
“I’m a necromancer, yet I use a knife just fine.”
“Are you teasing me?”
“No helping it, then. I’ll demonstrate—watch closely and copy what I do.”
Comet walked slowly toward the golem. Dan Gayeon retreated, breathing hard from exhaustion.
The golem clasped both fists together and brought them down like a hammer. Comet sprang upward, light as a wandering soul, and landed on its arm. Flames surged over her, only to be driven back by her spiritual energy.
She pressed her palm to the golem’s arm and forced her spiritual energy inside. The countless spells and engineering enchantments woven into the construct resisted the intrusion. Comet slipped past some barriers and smashed through others, pouring her power deeper. The spiritual energy churned violently within the golem’s limb.
When she struck down with a fist wrapped in that same energy, the two forces collided and detonated. Shards of the golem sprayed outward as flames swept the surroundings. Comet rode the shockwave into the air, then landed lightly beside Dan Gayeon.
“I don’t have mana, so I used spiritual energy. Just imitate the process with your own mana.”
Dan Gayeon stared blankly at the result. Chunks of rubble continued to tumble from the golem’s shattered arm. The creature raised its remaining limb into a defensive stance.
“You expect me to copy that?”
“It’s not that difficult.”
“That was an advanced technique!”
“Oh, you recognized it. Most raid users don’t bother learning it—mages can simply fling spells with more power, after all.”
“Ugh, that demonstration was completely unhelpful.”
Mana flared from the golem. In seconds the scattered debris reversed its fall, flowing back into place. The missing arm regenerated completely. Whoever had built the thing—whatever their purpose—it was clearly high-performance. The repair was both rapid and stable. It would keep regenerating until the core was destroyed or its energy ran dry.
“You can do it. Go on.”
“Wait—why are you just spectating? Shouldn’t you be the one handling this, Comet?”
“Well, that’s because…”
Comet glanced around and suddenly froze. A familiar man was sprinting toward the burning, collapsing building. In his hands he clutched the spear she had made for him.
The corner of her mouth curved upward.
This was exactly why she loved human souls.
He had only wanted to become a public servant. A comfortable, quiet, long career. In the end, joining a public enterprise to manage a power plant hadn’t been all that comfortable, but as his experience grew he learned the necessary tricks. Do what you’re told. Never do what you’re not told. He didn’t receive praise, but neither did he attract criticism harsh enough to break him.
His senior, it seemed, had hated living that way. The man would dig up new precedents from somewhere and create extra work. After being ignored and sidelined, he would finally obtain approval and only then push the project forward. Some of those approved projects failed. Most produced half-baked results while drawing complaints from other departments. Their achievements were ambiguous at best, far from the innovative and forward-thinking goals they claimed.
Rumors about the senior spread. People said he exhausted everyone around him simply to satisfy his own ego. Perhaps the senior had simply been unlucky with his colleagues. Despite the poor reputation, his promotions never once stalled.
When someone asked why over drinks, the senior had answered:
He had seemed like a completely different kind of person.
As the senior’s promotions continued without fail, other stories began to circulate—that he only chose tasks the higher-ups would favor. The senior never bothered denying it. In all likelihood both versions were true. Half the desire to improve the workplace. Half the desire to rise through the ranks while doing so.
The senior was neither a hero nor a superhuman. He was the sort who would climb steadily, never quite reach the summit, and retire with a touch of regret. The sort who, feeling awkward about staying home afterward, would open a convenience store or a chicken shop and spend his days sighing over the past.
That was why he could not accept his senior’s decision.
“Let’s just run!”
“The manager left the control system completely unattended! We have to go normalize it right now!”
“Why does it have to be you, senior?! Run first, then go punch that bastard in the face!”
“It could explode at any moment!”
“It might not!”
He failed to persuade his senior. Instead they simply ran together across the power plant grounds, all the way to the central control building. Terror had driven every other thought from his mind. He didn’t even know why he was running alongside him. If persuasion had failed, he could have fled alone.
Fortunately they encountered neither hound monsters nor golems on the way. When they arrived, the two men shared a brief smile of relief before hurrying to restore the control system.
It looked like everything would go smoothly—until they spotted the monster hiding in a blind spot, holding its breath, preparing to pounce on the senior.
Just as there had been no reason needed to follow his senior, there was no reason needed to abandon him and run. Without a single coherent thought, he fled.
Behind him came his senior’s scream. When he glanced back, he saw the older man collapsing with a monster latched onto his leg.
When he came to his senses, he was inside one of the buildings on the power plant site.
I didn’t do anything wrong. That’s why I said we should run. He chose to die on his own.
As time passed, rational thought returned.
Even if I had helped, we both would have died. It’s better that at least one person survives. The fact that we didn’t encounter anything on the way was pure luck; the outcome was only natural. In the first place, the senior made the wrong call. I simply got dragged along trying to stop him.
At that point he could move for the sake of his own safety. He climbed floors, searching for a room that would remain secure even if a monster came looking. Eventually he entered a space where he could check the status of the control system.
And there he learned the truth.
The control system had been normalized. His senior had succeeded. He simply could not possibly still be alive.
The rescuer with short black hair and crimson eyes looked at him.
“I don’t have any leeway right now—I need to help my colleague. So it would be best if you, the employee, went to that building yourself and resolved the critical issues.”
He could not accept the situation.
“There will be hound monsters on the path, and the building itself may contain more. I’ll give you a weapon.”
The spear was offered. He did not take it.
“Hurry. There’s no time.”
He forced his mouth open with great effort.
“…I can’t. I’ve never fought before. I’ve never even learned self-defense! If I run into one, I’ll die!”
The rescuer watched him with those red eyes, then released the spear. It clattered loudly against the floor. To him, the sound seemed to echo through the entire hallway.
“That’s understandable. Then we’ll defeat the golem and return, and we can go together afterward. Though, as you explained, the power plant may be destroyed in the meantime.”
The rescuer stepped out the window. It was a three-story drop, yet her movements showed no hesitation whatsoever.
He lowered his head and clenched his fists. Of course she could speak so lightly—she was an awakened. She probably believed that with a weapon in hand, anyone could fight monsters. What could she possibly expect from someone who had never fought once in his life? Dropping the spear like that to shame him… he hadn’t done anything that terrible. He had only…
Through the window he could see another awakened wielding a sword battling the golem. Flames erupted and the earth shattered in a brutal spectacle. Beyond them, the broken, burning power plant building loomed. The flames were growing larger. The flickering fire seemed to waver in time with his own heartbeat. Time was running out.
His hands trembled as he bent down. Cool wood met his palm. The spear felt both heavy and light, both difficult and strangely comforting. The footsteps that had begun as a walk down the hallway soon became a sprint. He descended to the second floor, then the first.
A hound monster that had been roaming the ground floor turned at his approach and charged. Sharp fangs glistened; the air itself felt scalding. As the creature leaped, he ran straight at it and shouted.
The thrust spear pierced cleanly through the monster’s mouth and into its skull. Hot blood poured down the shaft. The dead monster collapsed, and he yanked the weapon free.
He ran toward the place he needed to reach.
For one reason only.
Because someone had to do it. This time, that someone was him.