Chapter 48: The Beginning of Eternity

[Translator – Aren]

Thanks to Hamza’s Dogma-type magic and the map provided by the military, we finally knew where our destination should be.

Konkuk University.

It wasn’t quite on the level of theSKY universities, but even a country bumpkin like me had heard of it, so it had to be a prestigious school.

It would’ve been nice if we were heading there for college admission. Instead, we’d have to worry about fighting our way through every nightmare Seoul had to offer to get there.

And somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that crossing the Han River was going to become a serious problem.

There could be survivor groups living on the bridge or monsters hunting anyone trying to cross it. Hell, for all I knew, there might be some giant monster living in the Han River like something straight out of acertain movie.

But the thing we needed to fear most wasn’t monsters but local wizards.

It was something Pastor Park Yohan had pointed out after moistening his dry lips with his tongue.

"We’ve got to avoid the airstrikes. According to the original plan, we were supposed to rendezvous with the initial vanguard reconnaissance unit, but everything’s gone completely to hell.”

"Airstrikes?”

"You didn't see the fighter jets? They’re probably bombing from above the fog layer.”

Me, Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, and Hamza.

The four of us exchanged glances at the exact same moment. It suddenly hit us. We’d been so busy surviving that we’d forgotten the obvious. We were currently inside Seoul, which was being bombed in real time.

The reason we’d spent hours hiding underground at Jangji Station before coming back to the surface was to avoid the bombardment in the first place.

Pastor Park Yohan’s faithful sycophant, Shin Nain, adjusted his headset and nodded.

"When we entered Seoul yesterday, April 15th, the UN coalition officially approved military intervention, and the President of the United States made his announcement. The fighter wings stationed around Suwon are almost certainly conducting bombing raids as we speak. They’re probably limiting the frequency for now because of the Republic of Korea military’s operational constraints, but once foreign forces arrive, the bombardment will likely intensify.”

"Erm, didn’t they say a US aircraft carrier was coming too?”

"The US 7th Fleet.”

When I hesitated, Lee Sejun answered with an unusually serious expression.

The immature idiot who’d been telling us he would poop in our faces not too long ago was gone. Instead, he looked like a non-commissioned officer waiting for the division commander to walk in for inspection. He stroked his rough stubble, deeply frowning.

"That should’ve pushed every one of China’s and Russia’s panic buttons. But considering both of them have stayed relatively quiet and Chinese troops entered Ganghwa Island on April 3rd, there was probably some kind of agreement behind the scenes.”

"Ah. I almost forgot. Our government is basically gone now.”

"Well, The Combined US-Korea Command in Pyeontaek effectively inherited the government’s authority.”

Things had been happening so fast that I’d forgotten one of the biggest developments.

After evacuating to Incheon, the South Korean president and the rest of the administration ended up on Ganghwa Island. The Chinese forces moved in. Saying the government had merely fallen under China’s sphere of influence was putting it mildly. In reality, China had its hand wrapped around Korea’s throat.

Thankfully, the government had planned for a worst-case scenario like this. There’d been an emergency succession protocol transferring administrative authority to the Combined US-Korea Command in Pyeongtaek, so the commanding general there now effectively held executive authority over what remained of this Korea.

But why had China tolerated the arrival of the US 7th Fleet?

Lee Sejun believed it meant the military’s first blockade line had effectively already been breached.

"They may have sealed off the major roads and railways with 150 thousand troops, but there’s no way they could stop every civilian or monster escaping through forests and mountain trails. After all, Gyeonggi Province already had fog outbreaks before, right? They’ve stopped now, but the fact that the perimeter was breached is already established. They’re probably deploying troops with that in mind.”

From what Lee Sejun had overheard while serving at Suwon City Hall, this was the Republic of Korea military’s current defensive strategy.

First. The roughly 150 thousand soldiers maintaining the first blockade line were essentially the Republic of Korea’s last true frontline force, gathered from the Capital Defense Command, surviving units, and frontline formations pulled back from near thedemilitarized zone.

Their missions had been to seal off the most densely populated urban districts and major transportation routes while suppressing operations that were still underway inside Seoul.

They’re down to around 140 thousand now after suffering roughly 13 thousand casualties, but the reason they’re so obsessed with holding the Seoul blockade line was because the force includes soldiers who escaped Seoul during the threshold breach, along with veterans who had been fighting these monsters since the very beginning.

Calling them veterans after barely a month of combat felt a bit like a stretch. Still, from the sound of it, they’d become the sort of people who’d stopped hesitating and simply shot anything that looked remotely suspicious.

"Park Sehyeok was one of the wizards who escaped when Seoul’s threshold was breached.”

"Park Sehyeok...?"

That name meant nothing to me, so I couldn't help but frown. Pastor Park Yohan clicked his tongue and explained.

"You know, that grumbling guy who could hear heartbeats. The one who tried to ditch everyone after making it all the way out and got gunned down by the soldiers guarding Suwon Station.”

"Aah~.”

That grumbler. Now I remembered.

He’d spent the whole time acting like he’d sabotage us, then ended up pulling his weight anyway, only to try running away at the very end and get shredded by a machine gun.

Lee Sejun had picked up a few more stories from officers he knew.

Second. Obviously, trying to seal off the entirety of Seoul with only 150 thousand soldiers was complete insanity. Besides, monsters and even the fog itself had already appeared outside Seoul in Gyeonggi Province before.

Because of that, the military was operating under the assumption that the first blockade line had already been partially breached through mountains and undeveloped terrain, even if it hadn’t collapsed completely. To them, the second blockade line around Gyeonggi Province was the real Maginot Line protecting the Korean Peninsula.

To maintain the second line, they’d introduced an MPC economy to discourage refugees from fleeing. They’d also begun employing wizards like mercenaries under the title of civilian Operators. That was the reality we’d only recently left behind.

Lee Sejun continued, explaining the actual size of the second blockade force.

"About 240 thousand reservists plus every active-duty soldier they could spare from Chungcheong and Gangwon Provinces. Around 247 thousand in total. Though that was already 2 months ago. I also heard they're using the police as well. If civilians are found outside authorized zones, they’re to be treated as potential Amalgams and executed on sight.”

"They declared nationwide mobilization. So why have they only managed to gather 240 thousand?”

"They still had to station martial law forces in rear cities. From what I saw, the people at the top were already planning for the absolute worst-case scenario. Namely that some creatures had already slipped into the rest of the peninsula. I only heard this secondhand from officials at Suwon City Hall, so take it with a grain of salt, but it sounded pretty believable.”

If the worst-case scenario were true, and considering the nationwide riots that erupted in the rear cities on April 5th, South Korea had crossed the red line long ago.

At this point, the world has only 2 choices left. Either come together and save Korea or pelt the entire peninsula with nuclear weapons and wipe every Korean off the map.

Thankfully, aside from the breaches along the first blockade line, the peninsula was still under control. And more importantly, there was the irresistible prize known as magic.

Lee Sejun figured that was probably why responsibility for Seoul had effectively been divided up. China had taken the western and northern sectors. The US and we were responsible for the east and south.

It was then that Pastor Park Yohan tapped one of the locations Hamza had pointed out earlier.

"Muslim. That wizard. Go Ryeoha, was it? You said she was dangerous?”

"I’m not sure. I’ve never seen her face before. I don’t think my magic can judge someone I’ve never met.

"So the longer we delay, the more dangerous it gets?”

"I’m not sure about that either…”

"Damn it. If you don’t know anything, what good are you?!”

That was the biggest weakness of Hamza’s Dogma-type magic [Angel’s Intuition].

It could steer us away from the most catastrophically wrong choice, but when it came to weighing relative risks, its usefulness dropped steeply. Being able to eliminate the worst answer was still better than blindly guessing, but compared to its seemingly limitless potential, its actual performance was pretty mediocre.

In the end all we could do was settle on a rough outline of our plan.

Though, to be fair, our plan mostly meant Pastor Park Yohan’s plan.

"As time passes, we should assume the bombing and shelling will only get heavier. Judging by how things are going, we can’t really expect to rendezvous with the initial vanguard reconnaissance unit anymore…Let’s give ourselves about 2 weeks. We’ll follow Line 8, alternating between the surface and the subway tunnels as we move forward. Ration the food whenever possible and scavenge locally. Conserve water at all times. And don't forget to check whether the water pipes have monster bastards living inside them.”

"What if the initial vanguard reconnaissance unit was heading for Go Ryeoha, as well? And what if the Seoul wizards already know we're planning to cross the Han River?”

After seeing what Stage 1 of the inverted Tongue-branch path could do, I couldn’t just ignore the possibility. 

There was no way the Seoul wizard we’d fought was the only one capable of using inverted Tongue-branch, Stage 1. And there was even less chance she’d only devoured one or two soldiers.

Even elite special forces backed by drones and air support would’ve had trouble avoiding casualties against wizards like that. If those Seoul wizards learned why the military had entered the city or what their operation actually was, I couldn’t help worrying about how they’d respond.

Pastor Park Yohan removed his narrow-framed glasses and let out a sigh.

"What else can we do? We won’t go looking for them, but if they come looking for us, we fight.”

* * *

April 16th, 2028, 8:46 PM.

Still day two of our expedition.

Night had fallen over the fog-filled ruins of Seoul. I’d assumed there wouldn’t even be a distinction between day and night beneath this endless fog, but I was wrong.

Hamza and I were making one last patrol around the 7th floor of the department store, confirming it was still secure.

After all, we had a very intense gunfight here before burning a pile of corpses. The fact that nothing had responded was unsettling in its own way.

Wearing our gas masks, we walked the 7th floor, peering through shattered windows. The fog outside wasn’t even gray anymore but simply pitch-black.

Seoul had become an abyssal sea on land, ruthlessly swallowing every last trace of light.

The inside of the department store, invaded by fog, wasn’t much better.

If the city outside was like the deep sea, then the department store was like muddy water. We had to push aside floating curtains of fog with our hands as we walked, like exploring a flooded cave. Even clicking on our tactical flashlights did absolutely nothing against this proper darkness.

Any further scouting would be pointless.

Maybe the subway tunnels, where electricity still flowed, were a different story, but walking around on the surface at night was as good as suicide. Hamza, walking beside me, nodded repeatedly in agreement.

"It’s more dangerous at night. We should stay hidden.”

"Because you can’t see anything?”

"Because something even more dangerous comes out.”

Hamza had a real talent for delivering the most obvious statement with deadly seriousness.

By the time we returned to our makeshift camp, everyone else had already crawled into their sleeping bags.

The battle against the Seoul wizard had completely drained me too. The moment I took off my gas mask and set down my rifle, I practically dove into my sleeping bag.

Pastor Park Yohan and Lee Sejun were already fast asleep.

Only Shin Nain remained awake, leaning against the barricade. A bible rested open in his hands. He gently bobbed his head while quietly humming a hymn under his breath.

"Stay sharp."

"Soldiers of Jesus drive back Satan’s demons~."

"Haah."

Not expecting an answer, I pulled the zipper of my sleeping bag shut.

-Zzzzip—.

The place was damp, very dark, and absolutely miserable, but once I’d confirmed it was safe, I didn’t need a soft bed anymore.

I, Baek Jemin, really have grown up.

Up until I was 27, I was the kind of coward who loved horror movies but would end up calling my mom afterward because I got scared. Maybe my testosterone had finally kicked in. Now I could sleep like a baby next to a literal pile of corpses and monsters in the middle of Seoul.

The moment I closed my eyes, I was out like a light.

A lot had happened.

It was only our second day here, but looking back…

The soldiers we’d entered with had all disappeared the moment we reached the station. We’d fought our way through the subway and killed around a hundred monsters. We’d learned what happened to the survivors at Jangji Station. We’d fought a Seoul wizard and then held a funeral for the fallen soldiers.

I really knew how to live life to the fullest, huh……?

......

"...Jemin-ssi!"

...Someone was shaking me.

I couldn’t even tell whose voice it was.

My eyelids refused to open, but I merely managed to move my tongue enough to mumble.

"Aah~. I’m on last watch today."

"Actually, I’m the one on last watch. No, seriously wake up! Everyone’s already awake!”

That whispering voice sounded familiar… Hamza?

Still half asleep, I forced my eyes open.

I saw Pastor Park Yohan, his hair striking up in every direction, and Lee Sejun, his eyes bloodshot, lying flat behind the barricade we’d built out of dining tables. 

That was when every trace of sleep vanished.

Without thinking, I reached for the zipper of my sleeping bag.

If Hamza hadn’t immediately grabbed my wrist, I would’ve ripped it open.

His face had gone completely pale. Then he very slowly raised one finger to his lips.

-Shhh.

Moving as carefully as possible, afraid even the zipper might make too much noise, Hamza began opening it little by little.

The abrupt awakening left a dull headache pounding behind my eyes. I clenched my teeth and ignored it. This wasn’t the time to complain about headaches after all.

Once the opening was wide enough, I slid out of the sleeping bag as smoothly and gracefully as a cockroach. The first thing I reached for was my rifle.

-Click.

The cold, solid weight of steel settled into my hand. My pounding heart immediately calmed down. Now I understood why soldiers loved their rifles so much.

Congratulations.

Having appointed my short-barreled AR-15 as my new concubine, second to my beloved right hand, I naturally crawled over and took position beside Lee Sejun and Pastor Park Yohan.

Only then did I realize something. Where the hell was that Shitmaster Shin Nain? He was supposed to be on first watch, so why was Hamza the one waking me up?

The answer lay beneath the dark bundle Hamza was sitting on. At first I’d thought he was sitting on his sleeping bag, but it was actually Shin Nain.

For a split second I wondered if Hamza had finally declared war against that Jesus freak, but one look at Shin Nain’s abnormal face made me abandon that theory immediately.

I’d only ever seen Shin Nain truly furious twice.

The first time had been when Monk Wonhaeng recited his mantra and restored his sanity. The second time was when Shin Nain realized what kind of magic the Seoul wizard he nicknamed the Dubay Sticky Witch possessed.

And now, this was only the second time I’d ever seen Shin Nain genuinely terrified.

His lips had turned deathly pale, his pupils had shrunk, foamy saliva dribbled from the corner of his slightly parted mouth, and his hair, soaked with cold sweat, clung to his cheeks. Gripping his headset so tightly it looked painful, Shin Nain never stopped reciting scripture.

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

He’d already lost his mind.

Hamza had him pinned beneath his own backside, practically sitting on top of him while pressing himself flat against the barricade. When he noticed me looking at Shin Nain, Hamza silently raised a finger to his lips again.

-Shhhhh...

At this point, I was honestly starting to wonder if this was some elaborate hidden-camera prank. That was when I felt my phone starting to vibrate inside my pocket.

-Vrrrt.

Every head snapped toward me.

Pastor Park Yohan glared at me like he was ready to kill. Lee Sejun shot me a bloodshot look. Hamza frantically waved his hands without making a sound. Shin Nain simply squeezed his eyes shut.

Keeping perfectly calm, I tried reassuring my fellow Supreme Archmages as I pulled the phone from my pocket.

"Come on, everyone. Positive thinking. Inner peace.”

"Positive thinking? Inner peace? Baek Jemin, you wanna die?”

"I think you should first appreciate the fact that I’m considerate enough to keep my phone on vibrate, okay?”

Even as I said that, I checked the screen.

My own phone was already switched off. The one vibrating was the dark blue phone. The one we’d recovered from the mountain of abandoned phones. The bizarre phone that kept receiving messages despite having neither cellular service nor wifi.

[Songpa sector has been alerted. Evacuate and stay hidden.]

Instead of reading it aloud, I quietly turned the screen so everyone could see.

Unfortunately, the battery wasn’t removable, so turning it off was the best I could do. The message itself was so fragmented it barely told us anything.

Still, judging by Hamza’s panic and Shin Nain’s complete mental collapse, this wasn’t an ordinary warning.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, Hamza whispered.

"It’s coming."

I instinctively curled into myself at that.

Wrapping my arms around my rifle, I shrank as far behind the barricade as possible, making sure both my body and even my shadow disappeared behind it. Normally, curiosity would’ve gotten the better of me, sneaking a little peek, but not this time. Not even the slightest.

The fog parted.

A heavy, low wind slipped through the gaps in the barricade, gently brushing against my hair.

The fog that had floated lazily beneath the pitch-black darkness was being pushed aside by overwhelming presence. Another layer of shadow settled over the darkness already covering the 7th floor.

Then, I felt someone’s gaze.

A bleak, colorless resignation settled over my mind. Like our ancestors must have felt, laid out before a starving tiger or a stranded traveler staring down a starving bear. It was a despair deeper than an explorer realizing they’d fallen into a glacier’s crevasse.

An instinct beyond reason stole every last breath from our lungs.

A person falling into a crevasse or over the edge of a cliff could at least still reach toward the light. They could close their eyes before impact or die of sheer terror.

But anyone discovered here wouldn’t even be granted the mercy of death.

Before my thoughts could even catch up, every muscle in my body contracted on its own, becoming rigid. Only afterward did my mind understand why.

I had to breathe very shallowly and slow my heartbeat as much as possible.

That was the only way for me to survive.

-Thump.

The heartbeat that had always reminded me I was alive had never sounded so hateful.

-Thump, thump.

If I could’ve stopped my own heart before it found us, I would've done it. Every day, I, Baek Jemin, had spent happily living and breathing since the day I was born felt like a curse now.

Holding my breath and forcing my heart to slow brought agonizing pain, but something even worse settled over everyone present here.

If dying were an option, it would’ve been preferable.

I could feel an enormous gaze sweeping across the 7th floor of the department store.

If all I’d felt was overwhelming hunger, at least I could’ve understood that I was about to be eaten. It wasn’t even that.

It was more like someone who’d gone grocery shopping, opened a bag of snacks they’d bought because it was on sale, left it sitting around half-eaten, and was now lazily sticking their fingers inside to see if there were any crumbs left.

Or like someone smugly handing you a cream bun that had expired 6 months ago, acting as though they’d done you a tremendous favor.

Indifferent, greedy, arrogant, hungry.

The gaze pressing against my back from beyond the barricade belonged to something immense, swimming through the abyssal sea that had become Seoul.

Something so vast that even the fireball of a nuclear blast couldn’t promise its extinction drifted through the night’s fog, sweeping past shattered windows.

To that gaze, buildings were nothing more than tin cans, while humans were prey, snacks, or pets to be cared for and even itself.

Nausea surged through me. My numb organs convulsed all at once, twisting violently as overwhelming dizziness threatened to swallow me whole.

My entire body turned ice-cold, shivering uncontrollably. Inside my head, the magic symbols I’d learned—Eyes, Tongue, and Hands—began flashing one after another, branding themselves into me like red-hot iron. 

Only pain kept my collapsing body together.

Phantom images of those magic symbols burned across every corner of my skull. It felt as though someone were pressing branding irons directly against my brain. Tears streamed down my face. I fought desperately not to vomit as bitter acid filled my mouth. 

It felt like my brain had been wrapped in coarse plastic, then scrubbed over and over until it was squeaking. And if an enormous eyelid hidden somewhere inside my skull kept blinking, its eyelashes scraping directly across my brain. It was revolting.

Yet paradoxically, that agony kept my body from shutting down completely.

Eventually, the gaze moved on.

When I finally forced my eyes open, I saw a sickly yellow light illuminating one corner of the department store’s 7th floor like a lighthouse. That was the gaze.

That bizarre, baleful light pierced straight through the fog. I absolutely had to avoid it.

This was pure instinct predating any knowledge or magic.

A survival instinct more primal than pulling your hand away from fire because it was hot and more fundamental than eating because you were hungry.

It screamed at me that if that gaze found me, it would all be over.

For a long time, none of us Supreme Archmages moved, or breathed, our hearts barely beating.

At most only 30 seconds passed through. No human could survive much longer without breathing or a beating heart. That was when the gaze finally left completely.

The fog that had been pushed aside slowly drifted back into place. That enormous something, swimming through the sea of fog, had departed.

Only then did we breathe again.

"Puhaah, huff…”

Lee Sejun’s breathing was the loudest.

None of us even cared whether the noise might give us away anymore. Survival came first. Fear didn’t matter. Our entire bodies burned with agony, and every one of us was too busy trying to breathe. 

After what felt like an eternity, Pastor Park Yohan finally slumped against the barricade and muttered.

"2 weeks? Forget that. We’re getting the hell out of here as fast as possible.”

"Lord, forgive my weakness for even contemplating suicide.”

The moment the pastor sighed, Shin Nain broke down in tears, making the sign of the cross.

He’d just exposed the fact that he’d originally been Catholic, but judging by his expression, he didn’t even have the presence of mind to care. Hamza wasn’t any better.

"Haah, huff, huuufff, haah..."

Neither was I.

I was too busy wiping away the salvia clinging to my mouth and the tears streaming down to my chin with my sleeve.

Then a memory suddenly resurfaced.

Father Jeong Yonghwan and Bosal Geulmun, their tongues grotesquely lolling about and vocal cords perforated, had sung that apocalyptic hymn. Only now did I finally understand the meaning of that single word.

Shin Nain, having heard the thought inside my heart, visibly flinched.

Only now did the two of us truly understand why Father Jeon Yonghwan had continued calling out to the Lord even after becoming a monster.

"My Lord. So that's what it meant…”

Eternity.

True horror is not the end, but the beginning of eternity.

An endless eternity where death is never permitted even as a means of escape.

An eternal reign of terror where suicide cannot free you. Endless ages spent screaming, trapped forever inside the body of a monster.

That is horror.

Shin Nain and I looked at one another. Then, almost simultaneously, we both turned away.

There was a chance that the human minds and consciousness inside those monsters still remained.

Shin Nain and I silently agreed to keep that horrifying possibility a secret between the two of us.