Magic, Myth, and the Forbidden City
The wasteland. A rough and merciless land.
True to its name, past the final river the grass had grown steadily thinner, until nothing remained but endless stretches of stone and sand.
"At this point, it's almost majestic."
No matter how far they looked, only barren earth rolled on without end.
"Nothing's going to grow in dirt like this. Not a chance."
Yujeong, who had once lived as a farmer, added the remark, then let out a low groan.
"Does it bother you?"
"Honestly… a little."
What weighed on them was a myth—or a legend—that Hoeyeon had only just managed to recall.
"I saw it in a book in my grandfather's study when I was little. The story went like this…"
Standing in the courtyard of the estate, Hoeyeon pieced the memory together as she spoke.
"The first king of the world grew so arrogant that he summoned the gods and threatened them—if they wouldn't make him immortal, he would destroy or kill everything each of them held dear… But the enraged gods wiped out his entire nation. The rivers were carved by their fury, and the mountains rose where their wrath surged up… And there was an illustration with it."
"And you are saying that illustration matches the actual terrain."
Hoeyeon shook her head at Gayul's words.
"Half of it."
"Half?"
"The lower half."
The map Gayul had drawn only reached the boundary of the semicircular wasteland—because no one knew what lay beyond it.
"In that picture, it went all the way across the wasteland and formed a full circle. That's why I couldn't place it until now."
The thought of annihilation made every one of them uneasy about setting foot on this soil.
They pressed on across the empty wasteland for half a day before Gayul stopped.
"Here."
Gayul, who had been leading, came to a halt, and the other three stopped with her—yet there was nothing to see.
"Here what?"
"From this point on, the forbidden land begins."
"There's nothing here, though? I figured there'd at least be some kind of marker."
When Yujeong looked puzzled, Gayul wordlessly stretched out her hand.
The moment her fingers touched a certain point in empty air, something rippled.
It was as if an impossibly transparent, impossibly thin membrane barred the way.
"Touch it. It does not appear to do any harm."
"…Appear to?"
Uneasy as they were, they reached out as Gayul instructed—and sure enough, something like a thin film met their palms. It felt as though purest glass had been stretched infinitely thin and raised into a wall.
Arang pressed her hand to it as well, then kicked at the ground. Dirt and sand flew straight through without the slightest resistance, as if nothing stood in their way at all.
"This is… magic, is it not?"
"…Yes. Magic."
Of all of them, Gayul—who understood magic best—was the one who looked most shaken.
"Huh? But you said you'd been here once before, didn't you?"
Hoeyeon asked, noticing how unusually pale Gayul had gone. When Geumdo had first been mentioned, Gayul had clearly said as much.
—When I came alone, I found nothing of worth. But with you beside me, I believe we may yet learn something.
"You are right. I did come once, alone… And at that time, there was nothing."
"You mean this wall?"
"Not only the wall. Truly nothing at all."
Gayul answered Arang's question.
"There was only endless wasteland stretching on and on. The same scenery as here, continuing without end. I turned back because I judged that if I went any farther, I would run out of food and water before I could return."
"Then this is…"
"It either appeared in the meantime, or it was always here and something else manifested then—or some condition has been met…"
Gayul set both hands against the wall and pushed gently. The ripple her pressure created ran upward and outward in every direction.
"……………."
Gayul clenched her teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut and stood there with her hands still on the wall, wrestling with herself.
At last, after a long silence, she spoke.
"Let us turn back."
"Gayul—"
"I cannot take you into a place whose dangers I do not even understand. And when I think of the tale Hoeyeon recalled, it feels all the more ill-omened."
"Gayul, but this is your—"
"I know full well that a truth of value to me lies beyond this wall!"
Hoeyeon tried to speak a second time, and Gayul cut her off again in succession.
"I understand your strength as well! However—"
"Why is this only your business?"
If someone kept cutting you off, then once in a while it was only fair to cut them off in return—and there was nothing to complain about.
"Are we just strangers to each other? If we find something out about you here, does that only benefit you and then it's over?"
"But…"
"Then why did you and Yujeong share my embarrassing secrets with each other?"
Hoeyeon took Gayul's face in both hands, so that those uncertain blue eyes could look only at her.
"I feel the same. I want to know about you too. And if there's something you've lost, I want to help you find it."
The blue eyes she had to tilt her head up slightly to meet were as beautiful as ever.
"Besides, you already suspect that losing your power is connected to what that Masu horde did—and what they're trying to do. Punishing them is all of our goal."
Hoeyeon held Gayul's gaze as she spoke.
"So let's go together."
"……How is it that you always… strike so honestly against my heart…"
As Gayul lowered her head, Arang—who had been waiting—spoke up.
"Once we have seen this place, let us visit the ancient city where this humble one was raised."
"Eh… Arang, but…"
When Yujeong spoke carefully, Arang smiled.
"Thy concern is kind, yet needless. The time has come to go and watch that old hag's face crumple once more… And when Gayul shows such a splendid figure, this humble one can hardly be the only one left behind, can she?"
"Hah… You all truly are…"
Gayul lifted her head with a laugh.
"Very well. But promise me this—if I say we turn back, you will turn back at once."
"Promise."
"I swear it."
"I promise!"
Gayul smiled again and set both hands against the wall.
"Everyone, place your hands on it. On the count of three, gather your internal energy at your fingertips and push through together. Good. One, two—"
And all at once—
"—Three!!"
One hour later, the four of them were running for their lives.
"Did I not say we should turn back!!!!"
"How was I supposed to know it'd be like this!!"
"That is precisely why I said we should turn back in the first place!!!! Upper left!"
Yujeong's sword flashed out and split a Masu lunging from the shadows clean in two. Of the four, she alone had a sparkle in her eyes.
The moment they set foot in Geumdo, the empty wasteland had vanished—and a fallen, ruined city had taken its place.
Startled and awed by the strange, exotic scenery, they had pressed forward—but that feeling did not last long. Murder-starved Masu came crawling out from every direction in countless numbers and charged them.
"Whoa!? The ground!?"
Ice erupted from the earth right beside them. Since entering, they had already seen the terrain twist at will several times, things from below surging up without warning.
"Pay it no mind!!"
"How am I supposed to not mind this?! Behind us on the right!"
Arang's claws tore a goat-like Masu's head clean from its body.
"I slay and slay, yet there is no end to them! Is there nowhere to take shelter!?"
Shelter—yet in this alien, unfamiliar space, there was no guessing where any might be. The architecture of the buildings, the very layout of the city itself, was foreign to them.
And the air itself was thick with mana.
"Senior Sister! Senior Sister! No matter how many I cut down, they just keep pouring out!!"
Yujeong cheerfully flung out a blade of sword qi, and a Masu with two snake heads stacked vertically was cleaved first horizontally, then immediately vertically—quartered into four pieces.
"Do not use it so recklessly! Who knows what side effects may come later!! Enough—begone from my sight! Seven Sage Wolves of the Water Gate!!!"
Water surged up from seven directions across the ground. Each column of water shaped itself into a wolf the size of a house, and the beasts tore into the Masu without mercy.
"You're the one having the most fun!!!!!"
"Would all of you please compose yourselves!?!?"
Winding alleyways. The colonnade of a collapsed temple. The wreckage of shattered homes. A thoroughfare that must once have been a bustling commercial street.
Stone paths, tiled houses, a temple of white stone, a palace of sinuous design.
"! Up ahead!"
"What is it!?"
Gayul suddenly cried out. Hoeyeon, who had been facing three Masu at once, turned—and saw a round building. The door stood open, but light poured from within, making it impossible to see what lay inside.
"There are no Masu around it at all!"
"Why!?"
"I do not know!"
"Isn't that because there's something even more dangerous than Masu in there!?"
"That is hardly something one should say with sparkling eyes!"
"Just go! Could it really be more dangerous than this!?"
"Fine! If we die, we die together!"
"We can't die! I'm the only one who hasn't confessed yet!!"
"Then do it quickly!"
"No way! Who confesses in a situation like this!!"
"Have you not essentially done so already!?"
All four leapt into the light at once.
Hoeyeon's old nanny swept the now-quiet courtyard of the estate alone, then suddenly looked up at the sky.
It was a clear and beautiful autumn sky.
"…Please take good care of my young lady, Miss Hoeyeon—and Miss Arang and Miss Yujeong as well."
The old woman bowed deeply in the direction where they would be.
"Urgh!?"
"Ah!?"
"Kyaa!"
"Hwah!"
Four distinct screams rang out for one reason: the moment they leapt into the light, they were falling.
The screams were short for another reason: they were falling slowly.
"…What… in the world…"
Gayul murmured blankly.
From the moment they entered Geumdo, nothing but the shattering of magical common sense had awaited them. And Gayul herself was someone who shattered the common sense of ordinary human mages.
The light was bright, but once their eyes adjusted, they could tell where they were.
"…A well?"
Yujeong muttered. Whether there was water at the bottom was a separate matter—the cylindrical structure dropping straight down was unmistakably similar.
The differences were that it was far wider than any well, that the walls were smooth, and that it was filled with white light.
"There is something at the bottom…"
Arang was right.
And after falling a little farther, every one of them caught their breath.
There was a person.
Judging by the shape of the body, it was a woman, dressed in white and sitting with her eyes closed. She did not move at all—impossible to tell whether she was alive or dead.
Her appearance was young, perhaps early teens, and her hair and eyebrows were pure white, the same color as this space itself.
"…Her ears."
At Hoeyeon's words, Gayul's eyes flew wide as she looked at them.
The ears of the one below were long and pointed.
Just as Gayul's own ears would have been, had they never been cut.
