Chapter 127: Equal Fate

[Translator – Aren]

When my ears finally started hearing sound again, a certainty settled somewhere in the back of my mind.

Humans were like vessels. We couldn’t hold more than our limits allowed.

This was one of those times.

My vision flashed as if I were delirious. The sweet scent of rotten fruit and the fragrance of flowers tickled at my nose like incense. The sensation of insects writhing and crawling over my skin itched so horribly that it sent chills down my spine. My heart beat slowly, tormenting me as though squeezing the life out of my body.

Only one thing remained. Sound.

At first, it was little more than meaningless whispering, like moviegoers chattering as they watched the adverts.

Amid those sounds, I tried to retrace my last memory.

I plunged the sword down, holding it in a reverse grip. destroyed the Hundred-Miles Eyes’ remains, and, seemingly having gained enough experience points, destroyed the Human-skin Tapeworm’s corpse right after.

The moment I remembered that, the voices suddenly stopped.

My sense of touch returned first.

I felt the sensation of cold sweat running down my spine, chilling my blood vessels. It felt as if I’d been abandoned in the mountains right during sunset.

Sight was the next sense to come back.

When the flashing haze stopped, I saw a dense forest spread beneath a crimson sunset. The long shadows of the trees were just as dark as a starless night sky.

My sense of smell returned a little later.

As the unnatural sweetness of an energy drink, or rotting fruit, faded away, a faintly spicy scent reminiscent of pepper disappeared with it. Even the floral scent that had been strong enough to numb my nose vanished before I knew it.

Only my heart kept pounding hard.

Whether there was something around me or not didn't matter. Instead of moving rashly, I awkwardly shuffled backward and scanned my surroundings. Avoiding darkness where predators might be hiding was only natural human instinct.

But there were no eerie, shining tiger’s eyes, nor ominous heavy breathing or any sudden strange anomalies.

The forest was completely silent.

-Chiiiirp……

The soft sound of insects softly echoed through the air.

Even so, I didn't let my guard down. Keeping my distance from the shadows around me, I stretched my neck out to check every corner of this place. The tension of not knowing when an enemy might pop up filled the air.

But there were no signs of an attack, and knowledge wasn’t being painfully crammed into my head either.

-Chiiiiirp……

The sun didn’t set, the shadows of the forest remained unchanged, and nothing seemed to jump out. Only the sound of insects echoed from all directions.

As time passed, my wariness gradually turned into anxiety.

Did destroying those wizard’s remains along with a monster corpse screw something up with the magic and knowledge acquisition or something?

Was trying to look cool by stylishly piercing all of them with the sword and basically blowing them up a mistake?

No, that couldn’t be it.

"Haaaaaaah."

I let out a deep breath and thought about what I needed to somehow clear my mind. Right. Looking back, I really hadn’t been reading the Magic Crash Course booklet much lately. Maybe I’d cheated too much using things like monster corpses and wizard remains, so now I’d finally brought down a heavenly tribulation onto myself.

Thinking back to the first magic I’d ever used, the Vomit-inducing spell, I slipped a hand into the inner pocket of my combat uniform.

Even inside this strange illusion, the Magic Crash-Course booklet was still there.

The cover was stained with sweat and blood, but since it had originally been printed on crisp, glossy paper used for advertising flyers, the pages inside were still fine. They were the first symbols the military had identified after all. Maybe I’d figure something out by looking through them.

-Rustle.

Carefully turning the page, I saw a familiar magic symbol. The symbol that represented the Eyes-branch. A square, warped and stuffed inside a triangle. Seeing it drawn in the booklet like this somehow hit me differently now.

Looking back, those had been some seriously intense days…

Before I knew it, my wariness and anxiety had faded, replaced by a sense of pride and satisfaction. And just as I was about to turn to the next page, something else caught my eye.

The testimonies of ordinary wizards who came before me left as they tried to figure out what each magic symbol represented and meant. The words written beside the magic symbols suddenly stood out to me.

The words beside the Eyes-branch symbol were all over the palace, and it was hard to find any connection between them.

Restoration, severance, frustration, growth, wails, the tip of a spear…

Forest.

-Thump!

After closing the booklet, I tucked it back inside my clothes.

My heart pounded again.

I looked around me. A forest.

The hallucination I saw after destroying wizards’ remains and a monster corpse to obtain Eyes-branch, Stage 4 was a forest, and one of the words written in the Magic Crash-Course booklet was forest.

That couldn’t just be a coincidence.

Only then did I take a step forward.

I moved through the dense forest beneath the scarlet sunset, though there was no danger or threat in sight. A chilling realization began to surge through me. Why had I been so afraid and wary of a barren forest where there was nothing at all?

The forest never ended.

The vegetation was changing, sunlight was breaking through the leaves here and there, and occasionally animals that looked like deer leapt away, but there was no sign of people anywhere.

Restoration.

The world had returned to a time before human civilization was established.

Severance.

Only humanity and the traces left by it were completely severed from the world.

Frustration.

I ran around until I ended up gasping for breath, but even after I raced through this never-ending, vast forest, climbed trees, and looked out over the entire woods, the result remained the same.

Growth.

The beasts failed to recognize me, a human, and either stared blankly at me or hurried away.

Everything in the world seemed to have grown and flourished without the presence of humans. I wondered if I had fallen into some remote place, but the wind stirring the forest and whispering into my ears denied that optimistic thought.

Wails.

The only trace proving that humans ever existed here was the faint wails carried over by the wind.

Listening to echoes of souls that only humans could hear, completely inaudible to animals, I slowly climbed down from the tree. I couldn’t tell whether it was an auditory hallucination or real.

As I stepped onto the soft earth and grass in my confusion, I noticed a single broken piece of stone.

The tip of a spear.

It was a sharp and pointed rock. A stone spear immediately came to mind, but cold reason quickly rejected the thought.

It was just a piece of stone that just so happened to have that shape.

It hadn’t been shaped by human intellect or touch.

The only reason I wanted to call it the tip of a spear was because I was human and wanted it to be one.

Before I knew it, I had dropped to my knees and was stoking the broken piece of stone, carefully enough not to draw blood.

Only then did the knowledge begin rushing in like a tidal wave.

As I crouched in a shaded corner of this dense forest, fiddling with the stone fragment, I heard human voices whispering in my ears.

On was the familiar voice of Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes. The other belonged to Hundred-Miles Eyes, who’d died after saying only a few words.

'Seonil.'

'I’m speaking up this time. How is that any different from suicide? What are you going to do if they catch on?’

'No. Those who have been left behind can never overcome this.’

'How can you be so sure of that?'

'Because they’re an unfit breed incapable of understanding anything other than lethality and destructive force. They still only understand physical pain and brute force. Without magic, they’re nothing more than beasts that cannot prove they have souls.’

These pieces of shit didn’t even have all 5 branches, and yet their wizard-supremacist bullshit was off the charts.

Of course. Hmm.

Well, I won’t deny I agree with some of their opinions about non-wizards being useless, but I didn’t take it anywhere near as far as these bastards. If a non-wizard was exceptional enough, you had to recognize them as a wizard. The rest just needed to clap enthusiastically.

But there had to be a reason Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes went that far.

Humans loved coming up with rational reasons for their contempt, and in the process, they tended to reveal weaknesses or fatal truths.

I clenched the stone shard tight and perked up my ear.

'We draw out their bombardment and firepower. A preemptive strike. That’s the only method those people can think of. We just march. That’s all it will take for the people beyond the blockade line to collapse.’

'That’s easier said than done…’

"Seonil. You’re making the mistake of thinking they can think like wizards. The moment their prized nuclear weapons are stopped, they’ll start to thrash about desperately. The moment the superiority they still believed they possessed is rendered useless, they won’t be able to think of anything except biting like beasts. In the process, they’ll lose both the effort to understand magic and the intelligence to figure out how to counter it. Because deep down, they know. They may talk about ethics and justice, but beneath all that lies the instinct that brute force is absolute.’

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’s voice, sounding like metal scraping against metal, grew even clearer.

'They’ll just shoot whatever they have until something hits. That’s how those who failed to become wizards, those who fell behind, think. That’s the limit of those who can’t prove they have souls.’

'You still won’t be able to endure it. You’re screaming in pain even now.'

'2 hours. No, even 1 hour. If I can become a god for that long, that’s enough. Seonil, however long a person lives, all they end up seeing is misery. Remember that.’

The auditory hallucination ended there.

-Crack.

The stone shard broke.

I let the stone dust spill between my fingers as I clenched my fist tightly.

Fucking bastard.

I was planning to shoot whatever I had until something hit as well, and now he was roasting me for it?

A guy who didn’t even have all 5 branches had the nerve to tell off a Great Archmage? I was so damn pissed.

What pissed me off the most was that this bastard had come prepared to die within 1 hour.

Then what happened to the remains I was supposed to get? Even if Ears-branch, Stage 4 was more trouble than it was worth and I’d let Shin Nain have it, there was still Tongue-branch, Stage 3 and Eyes-branch, Stage 1…would they all just end up disappearing?

And then there was his gear.

Was he really going to be considerate enough to just leave those prayer beads containing the Buddha’s original True-Body Sarira completely intact so the 66 Society could conveniently farm them?

Poodle-noona said that thing was the whole damn reason the 66 Society had caused such a ruckus in Seoul to begin with, right?

Not a chance.

Even if I bend over backward and accept that I couldn’t have it, nobody else should get to have it either.

If I couldn’t have it, no one could.

That was the true Korean spirit.

At that moment, the knowledge of Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 4 began pouring into the holes in my mind. I could feel my once-empty brain filling up nice and dense.

The magic and knowledge I’d awakened so far rearranged themselves, forcing me to look at a higher stage, one step above me.

Stage 1. Restrospection. Remembering what the world was like before.

Stage 2. Grief. Mourning an irreversible fate.

Stage 3. Denial. Rejecting an unavoidable end.

Stage 4. Resolve. Vowing to change the world.

I woke up.

I blinked, opened my eyes again, and the vision of a world completely void of humanity vanished.

I was kneeling there with my sword still driven into the corpse of the Human-skin Tapeworm.

When I pulled it free, an unpleasant scraping sound followed.

-Scrrrape!

When I turned around, the first thing I saw was Go Ryeoha’s pale face. Until now, I’d thought of her as being on some impossibly higher level than me, but now I had this feeling that if we actually fought, I could at least put up a good fight.

Maybe realizing that my stage had risen, Go Ryeoha nodded and made a huge fuss about it in my stead.

"You reached Eye-branch, Stage 4. Even by Seoul wizard standards, you’re really strong now.”

-Step, step.

I strode toward the Supreme Archmages with my poncho billowing and humbly put Go Ryeoha’s blatant flattery to a stop.

While I was at it, I even gave a little wave to the soldiers who’d been awkwardly staring at me.

Then, in front of Shin Nain, Pastor Park Yohan, Hamza, Lee Sejun, and Go Ryeoha, all watching me with a vast mix of emotions, I took off my gas mask and blew onto the lenses, polishing them until they glistened with a wistful look in my eyes.

"I may be the greatest among the Supreme Archmages, but the other Supreme Archmages all have their own roles to play. There’s no need to blame yourselves.”

"Baek Jemin. I can guarantee that there isn't another bastard under the heavens who could say something that arrogant with such sincerity.”

The pastor’s prickly words didn’t matter.

Because it was now an undeniable fact that I was the greatest!

Without hesitation, I put my gas mask back on, blew through it to make sure it was sealed properly, then held out my other hand to signal that I wanted my K2. The pastor gave me a puzzled look.

"What? Why do you want a gun?”

"Jemin-ssi. You saw that guns won’t even fire in that guy's range.”

Lee Sejun butting in to lecture me was just a bonus.

This bastard really seemed to hate me. I decided to let it slide for now, though.

"Every magic has an appropriate price. That’s the law of mysticism, right?”

"Well, yeah, but…”

Go Ryeoha nodded hesitantly.

Shin Nain and Hamza frowned as if they’d just seen something they wished they hadn't, but I paid them no mind.

I burst out laughing and pulled up the hood of my poncho.

"If Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ magic seems way too powerful, that just means he’s hiding a weakness."

*t*t*

May 22nd, 2028, 2:08 PM.

After checking my phone one last time, I jumped off the roof. 

It was faster for me to jump down than take the elevator.

The wind brushed past my gas mask as I fell, while dust striking the lenses rattled against my eardrums. Since I was falling headfirst, my poncho didn’t flap around much, but I might actually die if I kept falling like this.

But as the ground rapidly drew closer, I naturally flipped in midair.

-Twist.

My feet hit the ground. Unfortunately, what I’d landed on happened to be a camouflage slate roof, so it collapsed beneath me with a loud crash. After crumpling beneath me for a while, I managed to bounce off and dropped onto a pile of garbage.

-Thud!

Plastic bags burst, sending crushed plastic bottles and drink cans that hadn’t been properly emptied flying into the air. Fortunately, I had my poncho and gas mask on, so none of it actually splashed onto my skin. Aside from the gun slung over my shoulder and its strap, anyway.

The improvised Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword and scabbard tucked into my military belt bounced around as well, but for a relic, it was pretty study. Only after practically swimming my way through the burst trash bags did I finally manage to get my feet on solid ground. I was reminded again of the greatness of magic.

If I had been an ordinary human, that impact would’ve either killed me on the spot or left me with all my organs ruptured. I’d crashed through a slate roof and slid into a trash heap, and yet I had come out without a single injury. At most I got exposed to these disgusting garbage juices, which could be called a miracle.

The stench of blood. Piss. Garbage juice. The raw rubber smell of my gas mask.

At last, I had reached peaks that even the finest military ponchos couldn’t hope to approach.

Now that my ultimate-wizard look was complete, enough to make ordinary people tremble and feel just from the pungent smell, I resolutely headed straight for the main road. If one of Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and the 66 Society’s goals was to prove magic’s absolute superiority, I figured they’d choose to take a walk along the main road over a tour through the alleys.

And on my way from the alley to the main road, I could see how the blockade line troops were handling the situation.

I passed an artillery position.

In front of the self-propelled and towed artillery, a gas-mask-wearing military chaplain was stroking the barrels and applying oil to them. The soldiers knelt in rows before him, hands clasped and heads bowed in prayer.

With the roar of artillery and gunfire gone, leaving only the sound of soft sobs, the prayer rang especially clear through the two-lane road.

"Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, who bore all the sins of the world, we earnestly beseech You. Calm their wrath and look upon our sins, but look also upon those we have protected, and grant us time for repentance and atonement. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.”

""Amen...""

"Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, who bore all the sins of the world, we earnestly beseech You…”

I somehow managed to turn my head away and continued toward the main road.

Even so, I couldn’t completely ignore what remained at the edge of my vision.

The priests sprinkled holy water over the shells, carefully wiped them down with towels, murmured prayers, and even pretended to kiss them.

Before loading the shells, the soldiers and officers now clasped both hands together, bowed their heads, and prayed first.

Not everyone was praying.

I saw a deserter sprinting south with all his might, with a group of military police blowing whistles as they chased after him.

There were soldiers sitting on ammunition boxes, groaning as they fiddled with lighters that refused to do their job. I passed officers leaning against walls, sucking at unlit cigarettes.

Then a loud signal rang out.

-Brrrrring—.

[Orders from Command. All Dogma-type wizards assemble. Effective immediately, all Dogma-type civilian Operators are to be assigned to military units and attached to individual squads.]

One of the officers with an unlit cigarette clenched between his lips scowled hard.

By the time I passed through the officers pretending to smoke and reached the main road, tanks and armored vehicles lay abandoned like empty tin cans. Tank crews and mechanics clung to the tracks, fiddling with one thing or the other, while others tapped the armor plates with wrenches before hurling them to the ground.

Tank commanders and vehicle commanders stood in front of them with their helmets off, ruffling their sweat-soaked hair.

The signal rang out again.

-Brrrrring—.

[Orders from Command. Avoid engagement. Encirclement takes priority. Hold them nearSeohyeon Station. Cease artillery fire. Troop deployment takes top priority. Over.]

Everyone blinked in confusion, then started sniffing. Naturally, they turned toward me and cautiously backed away.

I walked alone down the main road between the abandoned tanks and vehicles, parting the soldiers who were slowly retreating to either side.

Of course, I wasn’t really walking alone.

The distinct sound of helicopter rotors came from overhead. The helicopter carrying Pastor Park Yohan and Lee Sejun was circling two kilometers above, looking for a place and opportunity to land.

When I slightly turned my head, I could see a human silhouette far in the distance beneath the clear sky, swinging around like a spider between buildings and across rooftops. Go Ryeoha, a Hand-branch, Stage 4 wizard, seemed busy choosing her position so she could dominate the battlefield littered with unexploded bombs.

There was no need for us to move around in one big mass.

As long as we had enough firepower and cold coordinate splitting up was a hundred times better.

I continued to move along the asphalt road, shattered by shell craters. My combat boots climbed over the sections that had been hastily patched.

My steps were light, but I was moving far faster than Baek Jemin, the ordinary young man, ever could before learning magic.

I also pulled out one of the energy bars I’d stuffed into my pocket beforehand to prepare for the backlash of Heart-branch, Stage 2 [Physical Enhancement]. I tore open the plastic wrapper, loosened the chin strap of my gas mask, lifted it up, and took a bite.

-Crunch.

I wondered why the nut-filled chocolate reeked of trash, then realized the garbage juice must have splashed onto my hand when I landed on the trash heap. Eating an energy bar with garbage juice on your hands wasn’t easy.

But I managed somehow.

Still chewing, I lowered my gas mask again, tightened the chin strap, and then wiped my hand smeared with chocolate and nuts against my poncho. Drying blood and all kinds of stains rubbed onto my fingers, but I didn’t care.

Around then, I started sensing people from the other side of the alley.

They were soldiers.

They’d received Command’s orders and were advancing with their shoulders slumped, forming units with the others who hadn’t run away yet. In the opposite direction from me. Inside a convenience store at the intersection, I could see people trembling as they hugged bags of snacks to their chests.

I focused my gaze back onto the road before me.

-Step, step.

I gripped the scabbard in my left hand and clenched the sling of my rifle tight in my right hand.

-Step, step.

Then, on the broken asphalt ahead, I saw them approaching in a group in the distance. There wasn’t some vast horizon separating us. The Gangnam group and I had met with a tunnel beneath an overpass between us.

I took a brief breath and focused when a familiar voice greeted me.

'Jemin-ssi. You’re in front of Seohyeon Station, at the tunnel beneath the intersection. No one from the Gangnam group has broken away from them yet. It’s not dangerous for you yet.'

Hamza had stayed back at headquarters.

That bastard would’ve come out here with a rifle, failed to fire it properly, and died instantly.

Shin Nain had stayed beside him because his injuries still hadn’t healed yet.

He would serve as a living radio, transmitting me information about the battle situation and guiding me.

Remembering that, I asked,

Where are the other Supreme Archmages positioned?

'They haven’t reached their positions yet.'

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes is Stage 4, so can’t he read our thoughts?

'He can read me, but he shouldn’t be able to read you, Jemin-ssi. He won’t consider you an ally. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes has his entire mind focused on breaking through the blockade line and on whoever is obstructing him directly, so it won’t be easy for him to notice me right away.’

Got it.

I was the most mentally resilient one here, and as a fellow Stage 4, I was the only one who could actually stand up against him, so I was the one in charge of the direct confrontation with the Gangnam group. The decisive moment would be when we unleashed Lee Sejun’s ugly inner thoughts.

I opened my eyes again.

The Gangnam group and I faced each other across the dark underpass. At their head stood the executive of the 66 Society I’d only ever seen through other people’s memories. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes.

A man in a coat, wearing a baseball cap and gas mask.

A prepared wizard equipped with not only the Buddha’s True-Body Sarira and the Cuneiform Grimoire but also disciples, the 55 Unit and Gangnam group wizards, there to support him. Even Sports Rebar, the Inverted Alteration-type Hand-branch wizard, was there, cradling a nuclear warhead like a baby.

The non-wizards might have looked at Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and thought of him as a god.

I had as well, actually.

If I hadn’t looked into Hundred-Miles Eyes’ memories, if I hadn’t found a clue inside Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ contempt born from his chosen people mindset and thirst for revenge, I’d have been left with the same kinds of assumptions, simply shooting at him until something finally made it through and hit him.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes.

Whatever else I thought of him set aside, I had to admit that as a wizard he’d been one step ahead of me.

But I, Baek Jemin, was a master at surpassing my teacher.

I might fall behind at first, but sooner or later, someday, with absolute certainty, I would surpass any one I’d ever regarded as a master. Even if I had to kill them.

-Whooooosh…

A faint breeze blew.

While someone sobbed, someone wailed, and someone groaned.

I was the first to step into the darkness stretching out between the underpass.

-Step.

The Gangnam group just silently watched me, not saying a single thing.

-Step, step.

I could feel Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes staring at me.

Even through the gas mask, I could tell that his face and eyes warped by his burns were fixed directly on me.

But I wasn’t someone who’d hesitate just from that.

I kept walking through the unlit underpass, kicking aside the trash scattered across the ground.

Every time I tightened my left hand around the improvised Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword, I repeated the sword verse without pause.

Slay monsters and banish demons, root out treachery, and eradicate evil. Slay monsters and banish demons, root out treachery, and eradicate evil…

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes slightly raised the Cuneiform Grimoire in his left hand.

The Gangnam group just stood there and watched.

But I didn’t stop.

-Step, step, step.

All I could see from beneath the underpass were the Gangnam group and the soldiers of the 55 Unit still standing out in the bright sunlight. Sports Rebar, cradling the nuclear warhead, quietly took one step forward.

It was as if he was trying to block my gun or something.

But I wasn't going to fall for that.

I never took the rifle sling off. Instead, I let go of it.

The distance between us narrowed.

As I moved forward, nothing tried to stop me.

At that realization, a faint laugh began bursting out from within my gas mask. I just couldn’t help it.

Magic that could never be broken if you were trapped in a non-wizard’s way of thinking. A godlike power that could never be opposed within the framework of just killing him first and being done with it.

By the time I’d crossed more than half of the underpass, Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes opened the Cuneiform Grimoire.

I could hear a familiar incantation ring out from between his lips.

"Olnipial."

Two of the 55 Unit soldiers standing beside him dropped to their knees at once.

At the same time, their spines burst out, tearing their hosts apart. Long Predator Spines crawled across the asphalt, flashing their sharp tail stingers. The dark underpass was practically a cozy home for them.

They freely crawled across the walls and ceiling, quickly darting around everywhere.

With guns unable to fire, there was no being as terrifying as Predator Spines rushing through the darkness from everywhere. If my eternal partner, the K2 slung over my shoulder, was forced to remain silent, any soldier would despair.

But I was a Great Archmage.

I gripped the hilt and pulled that out.

-Srrrrring!

The faded jade scabbard fell away, and the gold-inlaid Big Dipper and 28 Mansions on the blade gleamed and twinkled in its place. The effort that had gone into capturing the constellations on this sword lit up the darkened underpass.

On the opposite side of the blade were dozens of strange characters in some bizarre language I couldn’t really recognize. Sanskrit. The ancient, mystical language, also calledBeomeo, bloomed sliver, reflecting the scene within the unlit underpass.

Corpses of people who had killed themselves lay slumped against the walls.

Charred marks remained behind the shapes of human bodies.

And over them came an endless flood of monsters that used human ribs as legs. Predator Spines.

"Olnipial.”

In the shadowed underpass, amid the dead and the scorched traces they had left behind, I alone stood with my sword drawn.

At that moment, I threw the sword and shouted the sword verse.

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

It was stupid.

That was what a non-wizard’s common sense told me.

But my instincts, after hearing Poodle-noona’s words, clicked their tongue and told me the opposite.

The reason of a Great Archmage flicked his index finger and spoke as I watched the glowing Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword leave my hand and fly through the air.

Localized Invasive Structural Alteration phenomena.

That ridiculously long word for magic was both a bureaucratic term and a description of a wizard’s limits as well as the ultimate goal they were aiming for.

Realizing that truth all over again, I recited the words.

Only I am truly precious in this world, so only my pain is absolute. 

Therefore, I offer the most precious and treasured thing of all to this great power.

There was only one thing I offered to magic. My pain and nothing else.

Eyes-branch, Stage 4. [Cognitive Imposition].

At that moment, gravity reversed.

My eyes started to tear up as if dust had gotten into them, but that was enough.

The direction I was falling and what I perceived as beneath my feet no longer matched. So far, it didn’t seem all that different from Stage 3 [Cognitive Dissonance]. But the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword, which had lost its momentum and begun to wobble and fall, rose back into the air.

I could see the Predator Spines twisting their bodies and uselessly kicking about.

If Cognitive Dissonance meant my perception differed from the world, this was the power to twist the world through my perception and impose it on other targets as well.

This was Eyes-branch, Stage 4, [Cognitive Imposition]!

There was no need to stagger around trying to force myself to stand upright.

I willingly stepped forward and let myself fall.

The floor of the underpass became the space behind my back, and its ceiling became what lay before my eyes.

The direction I’d entered from became overhead, while the direction where the Gangnam group waited turned onto what was beneath my feet.

The Predator SPines were incredibly fast and swift, but they couldn’t keep up with me after I deliberately stepped off and fell. They simply weren’t fast enough. These monsters still couldn't match the speed of a body in free fall.

My poncho billowed yet again.

I spun in place and reached out my hand.

I caught the hilt of the falling Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword, then fell beyond the underpass with the pursuing monsters behind me. aiming the sword’s tip at the wizard who had been regarded as a god.

The wind tapped against my gas mask.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes stood below me, holding his Cuneiform Grimoire, waiting.

And now, the moment had come for his magic to be broken.

-Ding!

I heard the sound of a violin string snapping.

One of the cruel fates lifted.

At the same time, Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes shouted at the 55 Unit soldiers who had been standing there blankly.

"Take aim! Fire!”

-Ratatat!!!!

A hail of bullets rained down.

I couldn’t tell whether they were shooting at me or at the Predator Spines chasing behind me.

But the 55 Unit had already been reduced by too much, so their firepower was far too lacking to stop me.

Only a few dozen meters.

My free fall had closed that distance.

I swung the sword without hesitation.

-Whoosh!

The blade’s tip missed.

I failed to cut Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and instead knocked aside the barrel of one 55 Unit soldier’s rifle. The chilling sound of steel scraping against steel sent a shiver through me.

But I’d expected as much.

I released Eyes-branch, Stage 4 [Cognitive Imposition].

Gravity returned, and I ended up rolling across the floor.

I had no idea how many times I rolled.

The rifle slamming into my shoulder hurt so badly I couldn’t even groan. I rolled and rolled until I finally managed to push my upper body up using one elbow, raising my body.

But no one tried to shoot or attack me.

Even though I, Baek Hemin, had charged straight into the middle of the Gangnam group, all they did was fiercely glare or back away in fear.

Just as expected. Just as I’d figured out.

Causal Arrangement. Misfire. He’d canceled that one, seeing that guns could fire again.

Causal Arrangement. Miss. He could never cancel that one, because then he'd die too.

I raised the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword, panting as I fixed my stance.

-Huuufff—

My laughter mixed with the sound of my breathing inside the gas mask.

Sports Rebar stepped in front of Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes, raising the nuclear warhead, but this guy wasn’t enough to put a damper on my joy.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ magic.

Damn strong, and yet damn weak.

I laughed as I faced them.

-Huuff, huff, huuff…….

"Hehehehehehe.”

"......"

I could see Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes gripping the grip tightly. I could see Sports Rebar nervously fiddling with the nuclear warhead.

They’d realized it.

They’d realized that I’d noticed their weakness.

I gladly decided to pass that fact along using Shin Nain.

Shin Nain. Go tell them clearly.

Tell every non-wizard in the world.

‘...I’m listening.’

Tell them their time isn’t over yet.

I don’t want an age where everyone’s a wizard either. What I want is an age where only I am the only wizard.

Haah.'

Shin Nain’s tired sigh was the last thing I heard.

Keeping the point of the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword aimed at them, I spread my stance and formed a sword controlling seal with my left hand, remembering the poses I’d seen in wuxia movies.

The world wasn’t over yet.

Humans called wizards gods because they didn’t understand them.

"Magic that forces an outcome through Causal Arrangement. But it applies to you and everyone around you as well.”

Now I understood what Stage 4 felt like.

It meant making both your opponent and yourself bear the rule you wanted to impose.

Just as Eyes-branch, Stage 4 forced my perception and the rules as I perceived them not only on myself but on my opponent as well.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ Ears-branch, Stage 4. Casual Arrangement.

The price of that power was the same.

Causal Arrangement made no distinction between friend and foe. He himself was no exception.

Fate.

Applies to everyone!