Chapter 126: Wield the Four-Tiger Sword

[Translator – Aren]

It had been so long since anyone treated me like a VIP that I could barely remember what it felt like.

Even my parents had been too busy scolding me like some wild troublemaker ever since I entered middle school. Everyone else had been too busy laughing at me or making fun of me, and it only got worse once I learned just how cruel effort really was.

But now, as I stood inside the elevator, now that the world was collapsing, the way people treated me had finally changed.

-Brrrring—.

Black Cotton Swab raised his walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

"All personnel, attention. Escort targets descending. Secure the lower sector and restrict all access. Over.”

[Copy. Over.]

Amid the blaring signals, the soldiers spread out to either side of the elevator doors and kept watch in every direction.

Even the medical staff approaching the elevator to move equipment or tend to patients stopped in their tracks.

Only Black Cotton Swab, Poodle-noona. and us Supreme Archmages were allowed onto the elevator.

A person’s true worth wasn't revealed when everyone was doing well. It came out when everyone was falling apart. Amid muffled sobbing and the labored breaths of the dying, the position occupied by us Supreme Archmages became painfully clear.

When non-wizards started dying, the non-wizards chose us Supreme Archmages.

As we boarded the elevator, every Supreme Archmage showed their true colors in their own different way.

Lee Sejun stood with his arms crossed, looking righteously furious on the outside. Pastor Park Yohan supported the still-unsteady Shin Nain. Shin Nain endlessly recited prayers. Go Ryeoha kept glancing at Poodle-noona while trying to keep her lips closed, even though she seemed like she wanted to say something. Hamza sucked on his thumb and trembled like a leaf.

And so we went down.

Every time the floor number on the display dropped, my senses seemed to drift farther away. It felt unreal that we’d been messing around and joking just moments ago. Only then did I realize it again.

Why I kept wanting to drag things out. Why I wanted to put distance between myself and an enemy we were certain to lose against, and why I kept chatting with the people beside me even while others were dying.

I decided not to cowardly look away.

It was heavy and terrifying.

So terrifying that I couldn’t endure it without laughing and couldn’t shake it off unless I kept talking. Beneath my heavy poncho, under my combat uniform, I felt goosebumps and shivers running throughout my whole body.

A dry report crackled through Black Cotton Swab’s walkie-talkie, deepening the eerie chill.

[Headquarters here. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes has broken through Imae Station. Showing severe emotional upheaval and temporarily incapacitated. Artillery fire resumed. Over.]

"Copy. Escort targets secured. On the way to LISA enhancement. Over.”

Amen.

As the pastor murmured quietly, the elevator stopped.

-Ding.

The elevator had stopped in the basement.

The moment the doors opened, the soldiers guarding the elevator saluted us. Black Cotton Swab and Poodle-noona led us deeper into the basement.

With medical equipment and machinery that had been hurriedly cleared out, lying scattered throughout the corridor, we eventually arrived at one large room. The place where expensive equipment had probably once been treated like sacred treasure now held nothing but cables bundled into one corner and outlets hastily covered over with wallpaper.

Instead, drawings completely covered the ceiling and walls.

The room was dim as hell because it was lit with candles instead of eclectic light, but I could still make out the shapes.

Even I recognized what had been drawn in the center of the ceiling.

The Big Dipper.

But the bizarre animals drawn across each wall were things I’d never seen in my life, so I couldn’t help but stare at them. I could at least tell that they’d tried to draw seven stars around every animal.

Black Cotton Swab turned around and looked at the Supreme Archmages.

"Hamza Kirmani, Pastor Park, and Lee Sejun, we’d like your cooperation in the underground command-and-control room we’ve prepared separately. Your input is essential to ordering the Dogma-types. Lee Sejun-ssi, as a former soldier, we’d also like your help bridge the differences in perspective between us and the wizards.”

"Good grief. Why hole up somewhere this dark and gloomy when the upper floors are perfectly fine…”

"Command took your previous report on the Gaze Monster, when you speculated that only those underground were safe, into account. Reality Survival Command expected that being underground may also provide some protection against detection caused by Localized Invasive Structural Alteration phenomena. Additionally, effective immediately, our on-site judgment takes utmost priority within Seongnam.”

At that, the pastor, who had been grumbling slightly, fell silent.

On-site judgment took utmost priority.

All of a sudden, they had been entrusted with the fate and lives of everyone left in Seongnam. Anyone who could feel that crushing weight would have been busy throwing up at this point, but the pastor just took a deep breath, his face pale.

Then he patted Hamza, Shin Nain, and Lee Sejun once each on the shoulder or back and said,

"The Lord is telling me to fulfill my calling as a pastor. Let’s go.”

"P-Pastor, I’m not animam."

"We must obey. God has chosen us.”

"Agh! You cross-worshipping bastards, my God is Allah! Let go!”

"Hamza.ssi, the moment you partook of pork belly and soju, the spirit of Korea entered you. Fulfill your duty to your country!”

"Aaagh! I’ll go halal! I’ll go halal! Allah!!!”

Even Hamza began getting dragged along with a resolute show of determination.

Only then did Black Cotton Swab turn back to me, Go Ryeoha, and Poodle-noona and bow politely.

"You may proceed with the ritual.”

When Black Cotton Swab left, the door closed.

-Thud.

It felt like we’d been locked in a room we couldn’t leave unless we performed the ritual.

As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and I began looking around, Poodle-noona pinched Go Ryeoha’s cheek and stretched it out, speaking in her characteristic forceful way.

"Aowwy~."

"You’ve got the gift, don’t you? Someone in your family took it in your place. But spirit sickness isn’t something you can shake off that easily. Now that the world’s become such a mess, looks like you’re suffering from it again. Oh my, oh my!”

After lamenting Ryeoha’s fate as a shaman, Poodle-noona strode toward a corner of the room that had been hidden in shadows.

"What are you doing? Get over here and help!”

"Me? Why?”

I was rewarded with Poodle-noona darting over like lightning and smacking me across the shoulder as a price for underestimating a middle-aged woman.

-Smack!

"Aagh!"

"Hey, you little punk! People are dying outside, and you think this is the time to screw around? Just because you've got Eightfold Yang¹ and strong energy doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want! Quit slacking when lives are on the line and get over here and help!”

One smack was all it took to snap me back to my senses.

Poodle-noona’s palm strike stung way worse than my mother’s full-power back smacks. Nothing felt more unfair than suffering pain that wasn’t from the backlash of magic, so I immediately followed Poodle-noona’s orders and took the lead in moving things around and preparing the ritual.

Meanwhile, Go Ryeoha was basking in Poodle-noona’s favor while listening to this and that.

"You feel a little more comfortable when you’re next to that guy, right? Like you can’t feel ghostly energy around him and stuff, right?”

"That’s right! How did you know?”

"You haven’t learned, but you’ve got the spiritual intuition to recognize it. His Four Pillars and Eight Characters, theHeavenly Stems andEarthly Branches, are all Yang. He’s Eightfold Yang. This bastard’s got exceptional natural intuition, so he’ll have an uncanny knack for finding a way to survive. If he makes it big, he’ll make it big. If he screws it all up, he’ll screw it up spectacularly. That’s the type of guy he is.”

Hmm.

Apparently she was praising me behind my back.

Exceptional natural intuition and destined for greatness? Poodle-noona, I knew you weren’t just some ordinary shaman.

But there was one thing I found a bit disappointing.

Haah.

What’s the point of praising if you don’t say it in front of people, from a stage where everyone can see you? Complaints about Poodle-noona and Go Ryeoha welled up inside of me, but I decided to just let it slide, taking their noble intention of praising me at all into consideration.

After we’d been moving things around for a while, an old, faded sword caught my eye.

"What’s this?”

"It’s a Three-Tiger Sword from the Ulsan Museum. Put it in the center over there.”

Poodle-noona’s attention snapped toward me.

I carefully followed her instructions and set it down in the middle of the room beneath the Big Dipper. Only then did the ritual begin.

Poodle-noona strode around and grabbed a handful of salt.

"I’ll lead the ritual from here on out, and that girl Ryeoha will assist me. Eightfold Yang, you’re the practitioner who’s going to wield the sword, but your energy is so strong that you can't participate in the ritual itself. Your only job is to receive the sword. Got it?”

"Yes."

"This basement isn’t ideal either. Normally we’d do this somewhere close to the sky, aligned with the heavens, but given the urgent situation, we’ve recreated the night sky down here. Just keep that in mind for now. Then, the next step…”

"Wait.”

That was when Go Ryeoha stepped forward.

After a brief moment of hesitation. Ryeoha told Poodle-noona about her magic.

"Hand-branch, Stage 4, Material Substitution can use my blood to substitute for ritual materials too. I’ve actually been using it to substitute for mirror cinnabar this whole time.”

So that was why Ryeoha had been so confident she could make me a Four-Tiger Sword.

I quickly organized what I’d learned from Ryoeha and Poodle-noona’s conversation.

A Four-Tiger Sword was originally made in a Tiger year, Tiger month, Tiger day, and Tiger hour².

It was said to be forged at the time when the power to ward off evil and the power of the tiger, the mountain lord that ruled over all beasts, were at their strongest. The same went for a Three-Tiger Sword. Just because it only had three Tigers didn’t mean it was easy to make. Even a Three-Tiger Sword had to align the Tiger year, Tiger month, and Tiger day.

Trying to reproduce even the Tiger year and Tiger moth here would require offering up a ridiculous amount of blood. Death by blood loss would be inevitable.

Only then did I realize why Go Ryeoha had ended up scamming me after saying she’d make me a Four-Tiger Sword.

It was 2028, long past the Tiger year. If Go Ryeoha wanted to produce a Four-Tiver Evil-Slaying Sword right now on this Korean Peninsula covered in fog and monsters, she’d have to offer so much blood she’d practically be sacrificing herself.

"But if it’s only the Tiger hour, I can do it.”

"Sweetie, we do scatter blood as a way of warding off evil, but…even if we haphazardly create a Four-Tiger-Sword that way, I doubt its effects would last very long…”

Poodle-noona trailed off every few words as she looked my way.

I’d been standing there politely with both hands folded, listening obediently like a proper student, so I wondered if I’d done something wrong.

I’d never even focused this humbly on any lesson in my entire life. If I got yelled at even now, I’d feel so wronged I might lose my mind.

Fortunately, there was another reason Poodle-noona kept glancing at me.

"Eightfold Yang. Pure Yang, Right. Considering a Tiger Sword is originally a Pure-Yang Sword…”

Not that I understood a damn thing she was saying.

"Let’s tweak the ritual a little. We’re going to reforge the Three-Tiger Sword as a Four-Tiger Sword. Obviously, the effect won’t last long, it’ll be weaker than the real thing, and anyone mediocre won’t get any effect from it at all.”

But for some reason, the atmosphere was so resolute that I couldn’t help getting serious along with them.

As the candle flames flickered, the bizarre beasts drawn on the walls seemed to shimmer with an eerie spiritual light, while the stars painted across the ceiling and walls seemed to sway with them.

And beneath this atmosphere growing more and more serious, strict, and solemn, the ritual finally began under the direction of our curly-haired, Poodle-noona.

First.

Poodle-noona and Go Ryeoha began scattering salt and clear water throughout the basement.

As coarse grains of salt scattered through the air, Poodle-noona raised her voice and chanted an incantation.

"Let impurity depart. Let impurity depart from all four directions, east, west, south, and north. Let impurity depart from the heavens. Let impurity depart from below. Let us make this a place of purity.”

-Drip, drip!

As clear droplets of water splashed through the air, I found myself captivated by the mysterious feeling it all gave off and instinctively stepped back to watch.

Second.

With a bowl of something resembling red paint and a brush, Go Ryeoha began connecting the stars drawn across the walls and ceiling while Poodle-noona watched.

In the illusion that the bizarre beasts were flaring at me, Poodle-noona’s chant rang out once again. Maybe because we were underground, her voice echoed twice as much as usual, and it felt completely different to my ears.

Rather than my eardrums vibrating, it felt as though something deep inside my body was creaking.

"Seven-Origin Star Lords, O Seven Stars, descend upon this place.”

At Poodle-noona’s chant, Go Ryeoha answered, sweat of exertion on her forehead.

"May thetwenty-eight stars of heaven guard the four directions.”

Every time Go Ryeoha connected the stars with her brush, the stars on the walls and ceiling, which should have been swallowed up by the wavering candlelight shadows, seemed to shine strangely.

Rationally, I dismissed this as nothing more than an optical illusion, but between the eerie atmosphere Poodle-noona and Go Ryeoha were creating and the strange energy present in the basement, I didn’t dare say anything.

And so, the seven stars arranged around each of the mysterious, bizarre beasts drawn on the four walls became constellations.

The Big Dipper on the ceiling and the 7 stars drawn on each of the four walls, 28 in total.

Amid the coincidence, I found myself thinking that people really did think alike.

7 again.

Third.

At last, Poodle-noona headed toward the Three-Tiger Sword placed in the center.

That was when Go Ryeoha set down the brush and bowl she’d been holding and went with her.

"Even within the scabbard, the Big Dipper andCowherd Star shine, gaze upon the blade, and a lotus blooms.”

As though she’d been instructed beforehand, Go Ryeoha followed Poodle-noona, reciting a different passage.

"The dragon’s body and the tiger’s energy entwine, raising a blizzard in an instant and driving away every spirit of the dead and every monster.”

I was overwhelmed.

I, Baek Jemin, someone who’d nod off through the pastor’s sermons at church, dozed off at temples to the sound ofwooden moktak blocks, and somehow kept sleeping even while sitting down and standing back up at Mass, was being crushed by the atmosphere.

It was just some trivial ritual being performed in a room with a bunch of drawings, yet I felt a pressure squeezing down hard on my chest. They were only drawings, and I’d thought they looked strangely high-quality for something made on the spot by hand, then I even noticed printer markers on them.

But then…

"That valiant resolve has now grown old, and I stroke the jade scabbard with a long sigh.”

Watching this curly-haired middle-aged lady, who looked like she’d walk down the street with some dyed little poodle, solemnly reciting that…

"How could one find a warrior in a tiger-fur cap who could cleave through the clear wind and rising waves with a single stroke?”

Watching Go Ryeoha’s face flicker in the candlelight as she solemnly raised the old, faded sword, I felt a weight pressing down on my shoulders.

Still, I kept my legs firmly straight, refusing to kneel.

The ritual continued.

Go Ryeoha opened her palm and stood beneath the Big Dipper. Poodle-noona took hold of the Three-Tiger Sword and slowly rested the blade against her palm. Was she seriously going to cut Go Ryeoha’s hand with a relic originally displayed in a museum whose blade wasn’t even that sharp?

Just as I started wondering whether she’d die of tetanus if it did manage to cut her, my eyes narrowed on their own.

That was when Poodle-noona whispered solemnly.

"We reforge it. Gold and silver inlay, the 27 characters of the sword verse, the Big Dipper, and the 28 Mansions."

It was something mystical.

Though calling it mystical felt a bit weird with the smell of blood permeating the air.

-Srrrring!

The Three-Tiger Sword had probably been used for nothing but rituals, so its edge was never sharpened, passed around for centuries before finally ending up in a museum, and yet its blade sliced into Go Ryeoha’s palm. Beads of red blood welled from the split skin.

The moment Go Ryeoha saw the blood begin to flow profusely, she turned her head toward Poodle-noona.

"Sweetie. Alteration-type magic. That’s a deeply unholy power. But any power also depends on the heart of the person using it. Grip the blade and let your blood collect in the grooves, and don’t forget the sword verses I taught you.”

"Y-yes!”

-Grip.

Go Ryeoha seized the base of the sword.

As she tightened her grip, drops of blood splattered on the ground.

Then, as though drawing a sword from its scabbard, Poodle-noona slowly began pulling the Three-Tiger Sword from between Go Ryeoha’s hands. I knew it instinctively. As the palms were sliced open by an unsharpened blade and the blood burst from them, the sword was being forged again.

"Heaven descends essence, Earth aids the spirit."

Poodle-noona spoke as she drew the blade out.

"Heaven grants its power, and Earth fosters spirit.”

Go Ryeoha answered, her forehead covered in cold sweat, her hands still gripping the blade.

"Sun and moon in form, mountains and waters in shape."

"Sun and Moon are as they are, so are Mountains and Rivers."

Beyond the thick smell of blood, I could see the Tiger Sword being drawn anew, using a person’s hands as its scabbard.

"Thunder and Lightning whirl, the mystic constellations turn."

"Drive forward Thunder and Lightning, and move the mysterious constellations.”

The strangely shaped beasts covering the four walls began to ripple as if they were roaring.

The candles flickered and shook without pause inside an underground ritual chamber where there shouldn’t have been so much as a slight breeze. It created the illusion that the fixed stars within the drawings were sparkling.

But the most striking change of all was the blade emerging from between Go Ryeoha’s hands.

"Drive back mountain-like evil, mystically cleave, and establish the righteous."

"Banish great evils, cut with mysterious wisdom, and establish righteousness." ³

It had been the blade of an old Three-Tiger Sword, rusted and stained until it had lost its luster.

But as Go Ryeoha’s blood ran down and the blade drank in the drops, the grooves carved into it regained their original color. The golden engravings of the Big Dipper on the blade were the first to catch the candlelight.

In the deepest, darkest part of the room, the Big Dipper engraved into the Tiger Sword’s blade rose once more.

At that moment, Poodle-noona yanked hard on the sword and shouted.

"Slay monsters and banish demons! Root out treachery and eradicate evil!”

"Cut down the wicked and drive away demons! Wipe out treachery and uproot evil!”

-Shhhk!

The sword, which should have been stained red from all the blood it had absorbed, gleamed with a blue so cold it looked like 10-thousand-year-old glacial ice.

The sight made me feel a disconnect between reason and instinct.

The common sense of a non-wizard, the logic of the world I had lived in, whispered to me.

It was just a small sword, not even a meter long. It wasn’t made for combat. If I tried fighting some guy with a bat while holding that thing, I might just get beaten to death without being able to do anything. The edge wasn’t sharpened, someone who didn’t know swordsmanship wouldn’t be able to use it properly, and even someone who did would probably consider it a worthless piece of junk.

But the instinct of Great Archmage Beak Jemin, who had spent the past few months witnessing every kind of bizarre phenomenon imaginable, told me something different.

It was a sword forged centuries ago to pray for the prosperity of the dynasty and the peace of its people.

The iron had been hammered only at specific times and on specific dates to imbue it with energy. Its blade carried not only astronomical symbolism and Daoist hierarchy but also sword verses engraved in Sanskrit as well, invoking every manner of mystical harmony. After surviving repeated wars and upheavals, it was one of the most deeply mystical objects left on the modernized Korean Peninsula.

Poodle-noona raised the newly reforged Tiger Sword high, pointed its tip toward the Big Dipper on the ceiling, and shouted.

"Seven-Origin Star Lords, dwell within this sword and cut down the wicked, drive away evil energy!Azure Emperor of the East, Red Emperor of the South, White Emperor of the West, Black Emperor of the North, Yellow Emperor of the Center! Five Directional Guardian Generals, descend upon this blade!”

-Jingle, jingle, jingle…

A strangely familiar yet alien sound rang in my ears. Go Ryeoha, her face pale and her blood-soaked hands trembling, was ceaselessly ringing a small bell.

The moment I heard it, a sense of déjà vu hit me.

For an instant, I could almost see soldiers beside me, wearing armbands hung with clattering dog tags, their terrified faces hidden behind gas masks.

Thinking someone might have barged in, I looked around, but the moment I turned, every trace of their presence vanished.

The door was still firmly shut.

No one had come in.

I had simply mistaken the little bell Go Ryeoha was ringing for the sound of dog tags clinking together.

The atmosphere had gotten to me. I was just hearing things…

Waaah!

A baby’s cry could be heard beyond the ringing bell.

The chill lasted only for a moment before cold judgment took over, making me ready to bite down on my tongue if necessary.

A Teratoma?

Had a monster appeared nearby?

Then I felt someone watching me.

I had no idea where it was coming from, but it was a horribly disturbing, grotesque gaze.

For a second I wondered if the thing from Jamsil Tower had escaped, but this was different from the Yellow Gaze Monster that had made me tremble like our ancestors before a tiger.

The gaze was dank, clammy, and sticky.

Cold sweat ran down my skin as I looked around, focusing entirely on staying alert.

Creepy.

Eerie.

Would a pig that suddenly realized it was destined for slaughter feel like this when it met its owner’s hungry gaze?

Was this the primal terror of a child who realized that there had never been any love in their mother’s gentle touch?

At some point, a frosty wind sharp as a blade had begun beating against my poncho.

It was colder now than when I‘d failed to dig properly during cold-weather training and buried myself in my sleeping bag, or when the boiler broke and I endured winter in shorts and a T-shirt.

Then meaningless screams and indistinct murmuring began to grow louder.

-Whisperwhisperwhisper…

I could hear them even though I didn’t want to.

They were whining and ringing inside my head. There was no way not to hear them.

Countless death cries, regardless of age, sex, or social status, layered over one another and came crashing down as if they meant to split apart my soft. squishy brain.

-Thump.

The screams and wails overlapped, crying out desperately.

Aagh, Mother, let me go, honey, please pick up, sob, why are you clinging to me like this, why me, let me breathe…

-Thump.

A desperate spiritual impression flooded into me.

The dying voices that had all been babbling different things gradually joined into a chorus, whispering the harsh truth the human mind had desperately refused to face.

-Thump.

The celestial order had been twisted.

The world was being invaded.

Mystical knowledge had begun to speak again, those who once foretold the future were disappearing, and the passion for inquiry was fading because humanity as a species had instinctively realized the truth.

-Thump.

Humanity’s future was gone.

Even the celestial bodies would fall silent on humanity’s fate, and mankind would enjoy eternal life wandering the frigid universe, trapped in eternity’s most blasphemous form.

If you can run, run.

If you can die, die.

If you can still scream, scream louder.

-Thump.

The voices that had cried out their dying words again and again, now hoarse with grief and despair, whispered calmly.

Something I didn’t want to call a god had looked upon humanity.

"Huuuuugh.”

When I came to my senses, I was sprawled on the floor.

I was gasping for breath until I was choking, sprawled on the floor.

That was when I heard the bell Go Ryeoha was ringing again.

-Jingle, jingle…

Beyond the ringing, Poodle-noona’s voice was trembling.

"Seven-Origin Star Lords, dwell within this sword and cut down the wicked, driving away evil energy!”

Poodle-noona was drenched in sweat as well.

When I looked up at the ceiling, I understood why.

Every one of the Big Dipper stars drawn across the ceiling had lost its color, eaten away by black mold. One look was enough to tell that thing was interfering with the ritual.

With a groan, I pushed myself up and headed toward where the ritual was taking place.

"Hubae-nim? We’re still in the middle of the ritual, so you need to stay back.”

I ignored Go Ryeoha’s attempt to stop me.

I picked up one of the candles dripping with wax and walked beneath the mold-covered drawing of the Big Dipper.

Poodle-noona freaked out and tried to stop me.

"Eightfold Yang, what the hell are you doing?! Get back…”

The Big Dipper painted on the ceiling.

I held the candle flame up to one of the mold-covered stars.

-Sizzle!

The moment I held it there, the moldy parts began to burn away.

"Hey, you little bastard!!! What the hell are you doing?!!!”

"I-If we redraw it right now… No, we can’t. I’ve already lost too much blood…”

Then, all at once, the shouting faded away.

Poodle-noona, who had been yelling at me and smacking me across the back, and the pale-faced Go Ryeoha, who had been at a complete loss, had both noticed the Big Dipper on the ceiling changing in a strange way.

The flames were burning only where the mold had spread.

Thanks to that, the Big Dipper painted across the basement ceiling now shone brightly, lit by the flame.

That was when Poodle-noona let out a hollow laugh.

"You did have the kind of fate where, if you make it big, you make it really big. Looks like the times are on your side.”

-Point!

Poodle-noona raised the sword again, pointing its tip toward the ceiling as she shouted.

"Seven-Origin Star Lords, dwell within this sword! Cut down the wicked, drive away evil energy, and bring righteousness back to the world!”

At that, the flames consuming the mold went out.

Only after they had burned every last trace of it away.

Instead, the constellations engraved in gold along one side of the Tiger Sword seemed to shine more brilliantly than before.

-Whoooosh, whoosh.

Poodle-noona spun the sword around so fast I could hear it cutting through the air, then held the hilt out toward me.

"Eightfold Yang, Pure Yang. Do you know the meaning behind the three characters of your name? No, can you even write it in Hanja?

"Damn it. Why does that matter…?”

The instant I reached for the hilt, Poodle-noona snapped the sword away.

"It matters."

"It’s Jemin. Baek Jemin (百濟民)⁴."

Fuck. It was miserable having to jump through all these hoops just to get some sweet gear, but I did as I was told, tracing the characters in midair with my finger.

If I wanted the item, I had to do what she said.

Unfortunately, the interrogation wasn’t over yet.

Unfortunately, the interrogation wasn’t over yet.

"Your parents gave you a name with such a great meaning, so how did you turn out nothing like it? I can tell they named you hoping you’d live righteously and do good for others.”

I kept reaching toward the hilt of the Four-Tiger Sword, but Poodle-noona shamelessly kept swishing it away before finally hiding it behind her back.

And I was afraid I’d damage such a valuable item if I used magic to snatch it from her.

Fuck.

This was so damn petty and annoying. In the end, I decided to just answer her.

"There’s nothing harder than living a righteous and good life.”

"That’s why it has value."

"Once you start something, you’re expected to see it through to the end. Help one person and you practically have to take responsibility for their entire life before anyone will call you righteous. Give up halfway because you’re exhausted, and they’ll call you a hypocrite while the very person you were helping just resents you.”

"Oh?"

"If I can’t even take responsibility for my own life, looking after other people first is just vanity, a way to puff myself up and beg for praise. And if giving things away when I’m poor is only going to leave me shaking with regret and resentment, then I won’t even get peace of mind out of it. I decided that I wasn’t going to live like a good person when I was little.”

That was the conclusion I’d reached in primary school after a teacher told us to donate our allowance to a Salvation Army collection box. If putting money into the collection box was only going to leave me feeling regretful, disappointed, and sorry I’d done it instead of warm and fuzzy inside, then it was better not to help in the first place. So I didn’t donate it. I embezzled it myself.

And since I was currently playing Salvation Army for non-wizards, my long-term investment had paid off.

"Then you shouldn't have any reason to want a sword meant for guktae minan⁵, should you?”

"What’s guktae minan?”

"It means the nation is at peace and the people live in comfort, you little punk.”

Just as I was about to respond, scene after scene flashed through my mind like my life passing before my eyes.

Han whatever, who treated me like an idiot when I desperately warned him it was dangerous and got sucked up into a monster. That Daniel bastard whose last name I’d forgotten, taking me along while I gagged from motion sickness. Han Sookja’s son, who’d asked me to tell him if I found his mother. The Jangji Station wizard who burned himself to death. The bodies of an entire family in a rooftop room, black with decay as they clung to one another. Major Shin Hangi, condemned to die and able to do nothing but stand there motionless. The soldier who had collapsed into a corner of the elevator stamped his feet as he bawled his eyes out…

Cries begging to be saved echoed alongside screams from people desperately clawing at their throats.

I couldn’t tell whether any of those sounds belonged to monsters or humans. 

There had never been a distinction to begin with.

They had all been human, and they would all become monsters.

Everyone screamed as they raced toward the ending already decided for them.

Humanity’s fate was sealed. There was no turning it back...

"One second."

Whatever else you could say about me, honesty was one of the virtues of Baek Jemin, a man among men.

I was honest about what my heart desired.

I understood how hard it was to live a good life, so I decided I would at least live for one person. Myself.

Sing my praises.

Rejoice.

Applaud for me endlessly!

"To be recognized for even one second longer!”

By the time I gave my answer, the hilt was already in my hand.

Poodle-noona wiped the sweat running down her face with one hand and chuckled.

"As I thought. You’ve practically got jese anmin⁶ stamped right into your name. You were born to wield a Four-Tiger Sword.”

Then she taught me the sword verse.

But we weren’t given much time.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and his group were advancing without pause, and as long as they possessed the Cuneiform Grimoire, they would command monsters to thoroughly smash through the blockade line now that its firearms had been sealed. Countless people who had no way to resist were dying.

Even at that very moment, the people being forced into suicide attacks to buy time were probably struggling to hold together what remained of their shattered minds.

In the end, I managed to memorize exactly one sword verse.

"Slay monsters and banish demons! Root out treachery and eradicate evil!”

"You’re not Eightfold Yang, you’re just a goddamn blockhead. That isn’t even written on the original sword, and somehow that’s the only thing you memorized. You little punk. If you’re not interested in something, you really don’t learn a damn thing.”

After mocking me like that, Poodle-noona calmly helped Go Ryeoha stand and looked at me.

"You thought all the shamans had run away, didn’t you? Some useless fakes really did, but the real ones knew why those bastards were targeting Seoul. They had to grab the relics from all over the country and get them out.”

"There was a reason?”

"The True-Body Sarira from the stone pagoda inJogyesa’sDaeungjeon in Seoul. That’s no ordinary True-Body Sarira. In terms of lineage, it’s even more significant than the relics enshrined in theJeokmyeolbogung temples brought over during the Three Kingdoms period. It came from one of the original eight stupas erected after the Buddha entered nirvana. If that isn't a true Sarira, you might as well call every True-Body Sarira in the world a fake. It’s so precious that if this were a Buddhist country, it never would’ve been sitting there like that to begin with. The government must’ve fought tooth and nail to protect it.”

-Pat, pat.

Poodle-noona pushed Go Ryeoha over to me and let out a deep sigh.

"I burned through a lot of spiritual power with this as well, so go join up with your companions for now.”

Poodle-noona sniffed and wiped her nose before saying.

"Now wield it, the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword! It’s improvised, but there’s nothing better than this right now!

*t*t*

May 22nd, 2028, 2:01 PM.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes slowly marched forward with his forces as though mocking non-wizards. At times he would stop and wail, but even then, there was no longer any way to kill him or the people traveling with him.

The bombs that had once merely failed to explode could no longer even reach him.

They would narrowly veer off with the wind or suddenly malfunction and dive straight into the ground. Firing arrows or throwing spears without gunpowder would probably end the same way. Even when concrete rubble collapsed, only dust and tiny fragments rained down. Anything heavy enough to kill a person inevitably fell around them instead.

With the 66 Society’s full support and a ridiculous gear advantage on top of that, the range and effects of Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ ability were gradually becoming clear.

Within a 2km radius.

Miss. Every attack was forced to miss.

Misfire. All combustion was prevented.

Even something fired from far away would veer off course the instant it entered that range.

Nothing would ignite. You couldn’t even light a lighter, and vehicles with internal-combustion engines came to a halt. The moment you neutered the area, even artillery fire became impossible. Because combustion itself was suppressed, close air support was restricted as well.

After one carrier aircraft went down, a deathly silence followed.

Every method and means non-wizards could think of was being thwarted.

The prayer beads were terrifyingly powerful. At their core was one of the most authentic True-Body Sarira of the Buddha, with three Buddha relics embedded in them. The result was probably amplified further by magical enchantments and shamanistic rituals.

From a non-wizard’s perspective, a prepared wizard had every right to be called a god.

But now.

On the roof of the military hospital, a container airlifted in beneath helicopters on ropes was being lowered on the ground.

-Thud!

All of the Supreme Archmages watched the soldiers hurrying about in the violently strong wind.

When the lid finally came off, the foul stench of rot poured out, and a brilliant magic symbol immediately caught my eye.

"Uuugh, ugh."

Unable to withstand the pressure and the smell, Hamza started to vomit.

But to me, it smelled almost pleasant.

Ah.

It had been a long, long road.

However, I couldn’t let myself get high on magic and neglect my duties as a Great Archmage. Amid the roar of helicopter rotors and the chaos of the whipping winds, I raised the improvised Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword with its blade still sheathed.

"Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes is insanely strong, sure, but the fact that he's coming down here with a whole group means there’s something he can’t do alone. If I’m right, there’s a way to beat him.”

This wasn’t some bullshit lie I’d made up just to give everyone hope. I’d been thinking about this for a while now.

Why had Alteration-type wizards gone so far out of their way to hunt Dogma-type wizards just because they dropped divine relics?

Even just thinking about turning Hamza into a divine relic made me feel this much grief and sorrow. No matter how completely those bastards had lost their human compassion and conscience, there had to be a limit.

The clue seemed insignificant, but we already knew something important.

There was a reason higher-level Alteration-type wizards were adamant about hunting Dogma-type wizards.

"Dogma-type wizards don’t have Stages, but that also means they aren’t bound by Stages. So it should work."

—Stage-ignoring true damage.

The same power that had helped me so much when I fought the Dubai Sticky Witch, Jeong Nari.

Dogma-type wizards were those who chose, through their faith in the world, to hold the world in place rather than change it.

"Jemin-ssi, don’t tell me that includes me too…”

"Islam. If you don’t step up at a time like this, when the hell are you going to?”

The pastor solemnly put a stop to Hamza’s whining, then grinned.

Lee Sejun glanced over at Shin Nain, showing clear concern.

"Isn’t Nain-ssi not going to be much help?”

"I can use Mind Reading on the other Alteration-type wizards. Sejun-ssi. Please…don’t support me.”

Go Ryeoha slowly nodded, her face pale, as she stroked her bandaged hands.

"Making a Four-Tiger Sword…really is difficult, huh?”

"Don’t worry, I’ll make damn good use of it without you having to rub it in.”

-Srrring!

I drew the sword and walked toward the monster corpse inside the open container.

The soldiers parted to either side of me and saluted in unison.

-Clink, clink.

The clinking dog tags brought back the cries and screams echoing through the city to my mind.

I stood tall before the corpse of what had once been human, the Human-skin Tapeworm, and held the sword in a reverse grip.

I tossed in the remains I’d brought along just in case.

-Splat.

Hundred-Miles Eyes’s pair of shriveled eyeballs and heart.

Splat.

The heart of an unknown Heart-branch wizard landed beside them and tangled together with the monster’s corpse.

Only then did I grip the sword with both hands.

On one face of the blade, the golden Big Dipper and 28 Mansions gleamed. On the other, the 27 characters of the sword verse, said to be written in Sanskrit, shone silver.

I took a deep breath.

Eyes-branch, Stage 4.

Just thinking that it was within arms reach made my heart pound.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, another kind of joy was surging up.

Non-wizards, applaud.

Rejoice, for I, Baek Jemin, remain by your side and fight with you.

Weep tears of joy.

For the only ones who can harm that godlike being are those who can proudly declare that he is no god at all!

Today, as a prepared wizard, I will kill a man who was merely tossed about by fate!

"Eyes-branch, Stage 4! Here I come!!!!”

-Craaaaaack~!!!!!! 

_________________________________________________________________________

¹ 양팔통(陽八通) Literally Yang Eight Road. A term in Saju referring to all your8 birth chart characters being yang. Thought eightfold yang sounded a bit better.

² The next time that would be possible is February 19th, 2034, between 3-5 AM for your information.

³ All these were the sword verses inscribed on the Four-Tiger Sword, I haven’t been able to find a unified translation of them in English, so you have to bear with my interpretation.

This is the original: 四寅斬邪劍 | 乾降精 坤援靈 | 日月象 岡澶形 | 撝雷電 運玄坐 | 推山惡 玄斬貞

⁴ 百= Baek, White 濟= Je, to help/aid 民= Min, people/citizens. His name basically means to help the people

⁵ 國泰民安 = guktae minan = The country is peaceful and its people are secure

⁶濟世安民 = Jese anmin = To save/help the world and bring peace to the people.