Chapter 67: Together with Odok

[Translator – Aren]

Olympic Bridge was far longer and wider than what I’d imagined.

I had to laugh at myself for thinking, ‘How wide could a river even be?’ Even running straight ahead at top speed, all I could see beyond the far end of the bridge were jagged concrete buildings jutting into the sky.

A sky crammed with monsters and billowing black smoke beneath dazzling, clear sunlight.

Layer upon layer of black smoke piled together like a master potter shaping clay into ceramic.

Within that choking haze, thick enough to feel like it’d coat your lungs with soot the moment you stepped inside, I could just make out monsters gliding in flocks, using thin membranes as wings.

That was where we had to reach.

The weight of that truth settled into the soles of my combat boots as they struck the asphalt. Every step shook not just my vision but also my breathing. More than our footsteps, it was the weight pressing up through our feet that reminded us this was real.

If I stopped feeling even that weight, I felt like I’d lose my grip on reality.

That was how surreal everything around Olympic Bridge had become.

Every time my feet bore the weight of my body, a dull heaviness echoed through my lower abdomen. Beyond the scratched gas mask lenses I’d gouged while scraping Amalgam remains away, the brilliant afternoon scenery clung stubbornly to the edge of my vision.

Sky Centipedes, spreading dozens of vein-riddled membrane wings as they glided down to snatch fighter jets.

Human-skin Jellyfish swarms packed so densely they looked darker and heavier than storm clouds, even as artillery and bombs tore them apart.

The deafening roars of monsters were loud enough to make the massive suspension cables supporting the bridge tremble ever so slightly.

Oddly enough, I started getting sleepy in this situation.

My eyelids drooped, my vision blurred, and sweet drowsiness seeped through me, dulling the horrific sensation like a narcotic.

Even though I’d write [Purification] inside my gas mask, the acrid stench of gunpowder and the nauseating smell of burning corpses faded first. The countless scratches across the lenses clouded over as though fog had formed inside.

As I staggered beneath the weight of my backpack and the rifle slung over my shoulder, a gentle voice whispered from somewhere deep inside my head.

If you’re sleepy, it’s okay to sleep.

If you’re out of breath, stop and rest. If you’re tired, just close your eyes.

The moment that warm, soothing sensation wrapped around my body like sinking into a hot bath, the pain I’d been putting off, numbed by adrenaline and terror, came flooding back all at once.

Maybe because I’d let every other sensation slip away, even the pain I’d thought I’d grown used to returned with renewed force.

The dull ache of my tongue felt as though it’d been julienned. The revolting sensation of my eyes being kneaded by plastic gloves coated in fish scales. The searing burn radiating from the wound on my hand. All of that assaulted my nerves relentlessly.

Only then did my sense of reality return.

The sky where chunks of flesh rained down alongside explosions. The abandoned cars littering Olympic Bridge, along with the bloodstains and mangled scrapes of flesh smeared and ground into the pavement.

The stink of sewage, blood, rot, and burning protein all mixed together, stabbing at my nose, while the damp rubber of my gas mask, wet with sweat and tears, clung tightly to my face.

I could feel all of it.

Even the fact that my hands and feet were trembling uncontrollably, my limbs shaking.

Then the pain burning through my chest became too much. I couldn’t keep running.

The pain brought me to a halt.

And dragged me back to reality.

-Huuff, huuff, huuff, huuff.

Once I caught my breath and my head cleared, I reached the answer almost immediately.

We were in danger. I’d almost lost my mind there.

If it weren’t for the countless kinds of pain clinging to this body, I would’ve lost the fight against drowsiness and collapsed. I wasn’t sleepy because I was truly exhausted or genuinely needed sleep.

My fragile mind, unable to accept reality, was trying to escape by closing my eyes.

The moment I realized that, I slashed open my left palm with my combat knife.

-Slash!

"Jemin-ssi! What the hell are you doing?!”

I heard Lee Sejun’s flustered shout, but this wasn’t the time to explain.

I clenched my fist, feeling the blood trickling from my left hand. Until now, I’d focused entirely on Eyes-branch magic because of its overwhelming power despite its backlash.

But was Eyes-branch magic the only thing I, the Supreme Archmage Baek Jemin, had ever learned?

There were spells that worked perfectly fine even without the fog. A true wizard should know how to substitute for Eyes-branch magic when its penalties become unbearable. That moment was now.

-Drip, drip!

Savoring the sensation of blood running along the creases of my palm, I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Upright Alteration-type, Tongue-branch, Stage 1 [Degrade].

This spell degraded a language that didn’t belong to humanity into one that humans could speak. At the same time, it allowed magic to perform at 100% of its intended power.

If that was true, then I should be able to use it on enchantments as well.

Until now, I’d avoided it because I was afraid of the backlash and the pain, but not anymore.

Using my blood-soaked left hand, I coated my combat knife with the word [Sever].

The [Blood of the Left Hand] spread across the blade and soaked into the steel like a drop of water disappearing into a sponge. It looked like an optical illusion, but it was real. It was completely different from the thin scab left behind when ordinary blood was used.

The steel had drunk the blood.

This was an extreme situation. I’d activated Hand-branch, Stage 2 [Blood of the Left Hand], at 100% power and enchanted the blade to test its performance.

The other Supreme Archmages should probably do the same. My cold, rational mind rejected that idea immediately.

I was already in so much pain I could fucking die, and you want everyone else doing this too?

As long as I was the only one who could, that was enough.

A few tears welled in my eyes, or rather, a lot, as pain like my tongue was being hacked apart with scissors tore through me.

"Aah."

Because I’d stopped to pull this stunt, Odok had gotten quite a bit closer.

The breathing inside everyone’s gas masks grew harsher.

-Huff, huff, huff—.

While the Supreme Archmages paused for a brief moment to catch their breath, an eerie sound brushed across the backs of our necks.

It sounded like the clacking you’d hear if a mischievous little grandchild found Grandma’s dentures and started playing with them like castanets. A rhythm made entirely of teeth with no melody nor beat worth enjoying and no one to enjoy it struck my ears.

-Clack, clack, clack, clack!

For that one moment, we were all children in a fairy tale.

Without anyone needing to say a word, we Supreme Archmages forced our leaden legs into motion again.

And we started running.

All we could do was run frantically, guided by the explosive crashes of collapsing car roofs, crumpling hoods, and those clacking denture-castanets behind us.

It was a grotesque game of tag.

After smartphones, computers, and countless other forms of entertainment had come along, it was a game none of us had even glanced at anymore. Yet here we were, playing it with monsters. 

As monsters and missiles streaked across the sky, chunks of flesh splashed into the Han River, and the countless silhouettes shifted inside the abandoned vehicles lining the boulevard, we desperately swallowed back our ragged breaths.

But the monsters waiting inside those abandoned cars, already stirring and preparing to leap out, weren’t about to let us pass.

I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Target, evasion, fatal wound, 5 minutes, path, Supreme Archmages.

The pain came rushing back. Standing before agony so sharp it brought tears streaming down my face, I realized once again that courage and a sense of duty meant nothing.

Until now, I’d deliberately rationed the pain that came with the backlash of magic. I worried about the limits of my body.

Of course I did. Pain hurt. Too much of it could even kill you.

Fuck, I’m not some goddamn masochist.

And yet here I was, willingly cutting myself over and over, embracing the pain.

Somewhere deep inside, I was even laughing. A bleak, yet joyful laugh.

Was it because I was driven by the satisfaction of learning and improving my magic?

Sure, that was part of it.

But the biggest reason was fear.

I hate pain. I don’t want to die in agony. If I could die peacefully without suffering, I might even accept it.

But what awaited me wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of eternity.

-Boom!

I saw the Amalgams burst out together with a car door ripped clean off.

Four of them.

At the same time, crimson footprints spread toward me.

The entire 6-lane road looked as though it’d been painted red, covered from end to end in those bloody footprints.

These were small Amalgams that had devoured fewer than 10 people, but I’d already seen how much stronger sunlight made them.

There was no room for complacency, so I focused all my energy into staying vigilant.

Even the spells I’d avoided until now, because I feared pain and that the price I would have to pay for it might be a permanent disability, I unleashed them without hesitation.

I’d already stopped trying to ignore the pain wrapping around my entire body. Instead, I chose to feel every last bit of it.

I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Upright Alteration-type, Tongue-branch, Stage 1. [Degrade].

Using [Degrade], I strengthened Eyes-branch, Stage 2.

Upright Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 2 [Perception distortion].

Right now, my suffering stretched longer than any moment I had ever known...

A combination I’d never dared use because I feared the backlash.

But right here and now, I’d use it.

-Tap.

The sound of my combat boot striking the asphalt seemed to stretch on forever. The artillery barrage that had been deafening only moments ago fell silent all at once. The Supreme Archmages’ ragged breathing, the clacking denture-castanets, everything stopped.

Time had frozen?

Unfortunately, not quite. I hadn’t reached that level.

But all the suffering, tears, snot, drool, and even the little bit of piss I’d secretly leaked from the sheer agony hadn’t been for nothing.

The burning nerve pain climbing up my left forearm. The itch that felt like me retinas were being scraped raw with sandpaper. The stinging ache in my hand from stabbing and slicing it over and over. The crushing pressure in my chest as my heart threatened to burst with every violent movement. The desperate heat building in my lungs because I couldn’t draw proper breath. Every bit of it had meaning.

No one’s movements, no one’s perception could keep up with me anymore.

Everything was still moving, but compared to me, everything had become impossibly slow.

Only my time and my perception, consumed by pain, moved freely within this body.

By the time I’d taken 10 steps, the sound of my very first footfall finally reached my ears.

Only after I’d already closed the distance and stood right in front of the Amalgam did its compound eyes slowly roll toward where I’d taken my second step.

And only after I swung my combat knife, severing more than a dozen pairs of arms along with the human faces fused to their tendons did the monster’s time finally begin to catch up with mine.

-Slice!

The tangled compound eyes and single eyes slowly turned toward me as I swung my blade. Still slow, but faster than anyone else.

Beyond the sticky, gum-like resistance, I felt tough human tendons briefly resist the edge before snapping apart, the sensation traveling through my fingers. My mind would never forget this feeling of the blade scraping bone before slipping free from flesh.

-Hack!

I didn’t want to forget it.

Right now, I was experiencing what omnipotence felt like.

-Slice, slice, slice, slice, slice…

The combat knife engraved with [Sever], enhanced by [Blood of the Left Hand], produced astonishing results. Ordinarily, if the blade struck bone or even a slightly tougher muscle at the wrong angle, it’d lodge there and refuse to come free, but once [Sever] had been engraved onto it, even an amateur like me could swing carelessly, and flesh simply parted. Everything was cut clean through. 

Arms and legs flopped limply from my strikes or were chopped free and sent flying through the air.

Watching the Amalgam’s severed hand begin to drift away before blood had even started to spurt filled me with exhilaration.

And then with rage.

-Slash!

After lopping off even one of its short, pudgy arms, I switched my combat knife to my left hand.

Then I reached out with my right, grabbed hold of that fat belly of one of the overweight middle-aged bodies fused into the Amalgam and squeezed.

Thanks to my right hand being coated in [Blood of the Right Hand] I gripped hard enough to nearly crush the face embedded in that slab of flesh.

This power. This omnipotence.

The fact that I could never truly reach this power was hell.

Amid the rage surging inside me within this time that belonged to me alone, I shouted.

"Odok, dinner’s ready!”

I yanked the Amalgam toward me, then hurled it behind the Supreme Archmages.

100% [Perception Distortion], strengthened through Tongue-branch, Stage 1 was exactly the magic I’d dreamed of.

Even a monster whose weight should’ve made throwing it impossible, I tossed aside with ease.

The price?

Honestly, I was scared. Power like this had to come with a terrifying cost.

But it was still better than being thrown into hell.

Before the part of my mind that could still feel pain grew numb, I dealt with the remaining Amalgams the same way. I cut and carved them up, confirming the terror in the monsters’ eyes, then grabbed them and threw them behind us.

Watching them float through the air, sailing over the tops of abandoned cars, I found myself understanding school lunch ladies just a little.

I could deal with three of them.

But there wasn’t enough time left in the spell to handle the last Amalgam.

50 steps. 41 swings. 3 throws.

I instinctively knew. This much pain was my limit. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

Slowly backing away, I returned to the ranks of the Supreme Archmages. Their eyes were still fixed on the instant I’d cut down the very first Amalgam. 

Looking at those vacant stares, I realized just how far into a realm of omnipotence I’d stepped.

And now it was time to pay the price.

-Huuuuuup...

Nothing in this world guarantees one 100% certainty. Not even studying, the thing adults never shut up about, offered a one-to-one exchange between effort and results.

From that perspective…

How fair was magic that granted omnipotent power in exchange for pain?

-Haaaaah…

-Blink.

For a brief moment, everything fell silent.

As 100% [Perception Distortion] came to an end, the sounds that had been stretched endlessly like a warped cassette tape snapped back to normal. At the same time, I realized the price of moving that much in such a short span was about to come crashing down on me. Muscle pain, hyperventilation, sky-high blood pressure, and a heart pounding like it would burst.

The instant I realized it, I collapsed face-first.

"Hgkaaaaaagh…Khahaaagh…”

My body twisted on its own.

I couldn't even roll across the cold asphalt. My limbs contorted uncontrollably. My waist bent at impossible angles. I'd already forgotten what I’d been holding in my hand. My neck couldn’t support the weight of my head anymore and folded backward.

"Khgaaagh…”

My eyes? They were open, but I couldn’t see. Something was there, yet I couldn’t tell what it was.

Foamy saliva bubbled endlessly inside my mouth until I couldn’t even tell whether I was breathing.

"Kehek, Keh. Kehehek…”

If I'd been capable of speaking, I would’ve begged someone to kill me.

And yet, buried deep inside, my, Baek Jemin’s voice, crushed flat beneath unbearable pain and terror, still cried out proudly.

If this pain was the price of magic, then I’d embrace it with trembling arms.

I’d scream until my throat tore apart and do it gladly.

The wish that had driven me all the way to Seoul with nothing but the dream of becoming a Great Archmage, the greedy ambition that had led me to step into the mist, chasing the fantasy of wielding omnipotent power, roared through my mind.

Was this really all I got?

Would I really be going into hell?

If it were merely a hell of eternal flames or one where I walked forever across fields of blades, I could endure that.

But the hell waiting for me wasn’t a place that forced such trivial pain.

It was a hell where omnipotent magic forever remained just beyond my fingertips, where all I was allowed to do was remember how far I could have gone. A hell where I’d be trapped forever inside a monster’s body, chewing eternally on nothing but what might have been.

A hell where I would just wander around aimlessly as just another nameless monster among countless others, not as a Great Archmage!

If I could escape that hell, I’d endure anything.

Even if I had to burn this body to ashes!!!

"Hnnnnngh!”

I ripped my gas mask upward in one motion.

First, I needed to breathe. Coughing up dry, foamy spit, I pushed myself upright from the ground. My head spun violently.

I couldn’t hear any gunfire.

Instead, I could hear the sound of bones being crunched from somewhere behind me.

"Baek Jemin! How’s your body?!”

"Not good.”

Hamza answered for me.

The pastor kept his back to us, sweeping the muzzle of his rifle back and forth as he stood watch.

Hamza stared at me for a long moment, then held up a rather large syringe in front of my face.

"Jemin-ssi, can you see this?”

"Yesh…”

"It’s morphine. I got permission to bring it, just in case of an emergency. It kicks in faster than expected, but that also makes it dangerous."

-Crunch!

Behind us, the cheerful sound of something being devoured echoed through the air.

I quietly listened to Hamza's explanation, then held out my hand.

"Aah…A nee…tha."

"I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

"He says he has a plan.”

Shin Nain approached, breathing hard.

Growing increasingly annoyed by my constantly titling vision, I simply closed my eyes.

If you feared the price, you’d never accomplish anything.

A wizard had to be able to calmly and gladly pay the price.

Now that I’d accepted that, there was nothing left to hesitate over.

Upright Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 3 [Cognitive Dissonance].

I’m fine. I’m the same as always.

I’m only feeling pain. My body hasn’t been harmed. None of its functions have deteriorated.

My body belongs to me.

Instead of the common sense that governs all things, my will takes precedence.

My body obeys my perception.

I am human. Baek Jemin.

"Haaa, wheew…”

"Jemin-ssi?”

I could see the shock in Hamza’s eyes.

But I was far too busy examining the price of [Cognitive Dissonance]. I immediately raised a hand and waved it in front of my face. A massive blind spot. My sense of depth was also slightly distorted. 

The price of Eyes-branch, Stage 3 was blindness in one eye.

The stronger its effect, the longer the blindness lasted.

Instinct told me that if I ever used it while one eye was already blind, I’d lose sight in both.

Even so, it was an incredible spell.

Only losing one eye while outside the fog? You couldn’t ask for a better bargain.

Even if it turned out not to be temporary, even if it became permanent, I could live with that.

Even Odin, the badass god of magic in Norse mythology, gave up one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom. If I wanted to become a Great Archmage, losing an eye was just part of the job. I’d have to buy myself one hell of a cool eyepatch.

I immediately got back to my feet and pulled my gas mask on again.

The scratched and gouged visor covered my view of the world once more.

"Situation?”

"Odok’s too busy eating three faces."

Shin Nain jerked his chin behind us.

Only then did I turn around and get a proper look at Odok.

At one point I’d thought Odok looked kind of like a yellow mutt, but if I had to compare it to something, it was closer to a starfish.

Five long appendages, made of powerful, flexible muscles like a giraffe’s neck extended outward. Each one functioned as both a gigantic pincer and a mouth.

Inside the vertically split jaws, front teeth, fangs, and molars jutted out in chaotic disarray. They clacked together like castanets, grinding through flesh and bone alike without leaving a single scrap behind. Even when its own teeth cracked or were torn out during the process, it didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Odok gnawed on the living Amalgams as they flailed helplessly, their arms and legs already gone. Its pincer mouths methodically crushed the bones in their limbs and torsos.

The sound was unmistakable. It was breaking the bones to suck out the marrow.

-Crunch!

But those pincer mouths lined with teeth weren’t all Odok had.

One of its 5 appendages lacked a pincer altogether. Instead, the long, giraffe-like neck was covered in human lips. Those lips were busily sucking on human eyeballs, rolling them around as though they were baby pacifiers.

Meanwhile, the many mouths embedded throughout its body were busy unendingly vomiting waste.

Looking at Odok, a land-dwelling starfish born from human bodies, only one thought crossed my mind. Those lips are sucking on eyeballs like they’re pacifiers. That was how this monster could see. It would roll the victims’ eyes around in its mouth and use them in place of its own vision.

This was Seoul. An inhuman realm where closing your eyes would cost you everything.

Anyone who stopped to gag at the monsters’ revolting forms, their blasphemous origins, or their grotesque ecology wouldn’t survive.

I tore my gaze away from Odok and picked up my combat knife from the ground.

Right then, Lee Sejun, having just beaten the fourth Amalgam to death, walked over, dusting off his right hand.

"Jemin-ssi, are you okay?”

"I’ve got the hang of it now.”

The pastor glanced back at me. Hamza hesitated over what to do with the empty syringe before causally hurling it into the Han River. Shin Nain caught his breath: Lee Sejun wiped his hands on his pants.

It was time to show them that even among the Supreme Archmages, there was a supreme Supreme Archmage. To show them who was truly the strongest even beneath the sunlit sky without any fog.

"I’m taking point again.”

"Are you sure? I can go first this time.”

"No."

Even if I went blind in one eye or went into shock from the pain, there was one thing I absolutely refused to give up.

Among the Supreme Archmages, I had to be the most useful one. The most exceptional wizard.

There was no way I was losing to a guy like Lee Sejun, whose dream was to become a cute TS anime girl.

"Let’s get moving before Odok finishes eating.”

*t*t*

The moment Odok started on the last Amalgam we started running again.

This time, however, the sense of stability was on an entirely different level.

The Amalgams and Predator Spines lying in ambush inside abandoned vehicles were no longer a real threat. Our division of roles was flawless.

First, Shin Nain shouldered his rifle, took aim, shooting off one of the Amalgam’s legs, throwing its balance off.

"In the name of the Lord!”

Then I, Baek Jemin, used the pain burning throughout my body as fuel and charged straight at it.

My combat knife in hand, I rolled my tongue, which was practically guaranteed to be covered in canker sores by now, in my mouth.

[Degrade].

Then I used [Perception Distortion] at 100%!

51 steps, 41 cuts, 3 throws. I’d already learned how much pain that cost, so this time, I used it more sparingly.

When I was about 6 steps away from the Amalgam, I ignored the many arms reaching toward me. Instead, I severed only the tendons in the hands and forearms it actually relied on.

9 cuts. No throwing. I immediately fell back.

-Blink.

At that exact moment, the severed arms and legs lifted into the air.

Before the monster could scream or thrash in panic, Bloody Fist Lee Sejun strode forward, grabbed hold of one of the fused bodies, and hefted the entire Amalgam into the air.

"Catch!”

That was the kind of physical ability you’d expect from a Heart-branch, Stage 3 wizard.

The Amalgam Lee Sejun threw flew straight toward the pursuing Odok.

-Thud!

"Dad! No!”

Before the Amalgam could even finish its dying scream, one of Odok’s pincer-mouths split wide open.

-Crunch!

It was a strange partnership.

As we kept tossing monsters its way, Odok’s pursuit noticeably lost its urgency. It almost felt like we’d been granted permission to cross the Olympic Bridge in exchange for preparing monsters and serving them to another monster.

The pastor and Hamza absolutely hated it, but neither of them could deny that it worked.

"Lord, when I stand before Heaven’s gates, I’ll explain everything myself. Amen!”

"You shouldn’t feed wild animals. They’ll keep following you.”

“It’s a dangerous pest, not a wild animal!”

Hamza’s completely off-target complaint naturally earned one of Lee Sejun’s equally ridiculous replies.

We vaulted over the hoods of abandoned cars. Lee Sejun would shove wracked vehicles aside or simply throw them out of the way, while Shin Nain occasionally glanced up at the sky…

Seoul’s morning was anything but ordinary.

Then as one flock of Human-skin Jellyfish drifted toward us, Shin Nain and the pastor exchanged a look and came to a brief stop.

"Islam! New magazine!”

"Yes!"

-Bang, Babang...

Even the Human-skin Jellyfish, which used to burst apart from a single bullet, had become tougher. Now it took at least three or four rounds to tear through their hide. From a distance, it hadn’t been obvious, but once they noticed us and closed in, their characteristic darting movements became much faster.

They zigzagged up, down, left, and right, making them difficult for anyone to track with a rifle.

In the middle of that, the fact that only one slipped through was practically a miracle.

"Reloading!”

"Reloadi–...Wait! No!”

Hamza cried out in panic. Shin Nain immediately spun toward us.

-Click, click, click…

The rifle didn’t fire.

I saw panic flash across Shin Nain’s face. Then the human faces fused into the Human-skin Jellyfish’s hide drifted in front of him, blocking him from view.

Of all times, its attack had coincided with the reload. And the Human-skin Jellyfish had chosen to target me, Baek Jemin.

The tentacles tipped with lip-like suckers spread apart, inflating its leathery body before unfurling like a net and descending straight toward me.

It was moving too fast even for Bloody Fist Lee Sejun to punch it away.

Never mind Shin Nain or the pastor, who were only just reloading, or the cowardly Hamza. There was no time to expect covering fire.

But remembering how an Amalgam had plastered itself across my gas mask and the resolve I’d made to accept pain without hesitation changed the way I acted.

-Clench.

I tightened my grip on my combat knife.

Before the Human-skin Jellyfish could wrap itself around me, I charged first. Thrusting my blade forward, I hurled myself straight into the creature’s body through the opening beneath its leather hide with everything I had. 

Whether I shouted or simply clenched my teeth, I couldn’t say.

What I did know was that within that pitch-black, sticky darkness the top of my blade pierced something soft.

At that moment there was only one thought in my head.

‘Got you. You damn bastard.’

-Riiip!

Our ancestors used to say that if one wanted to catch a tiger, one had to enter the tiger’s den.

Every time my blade split open the Human-skin Jellyfish’s hide from the inside, every time clean sunlight poured through the widening gashes, those words felt more and more true.

As I twisted my body, lifting my poncho, I saw the inner layer of the Human-skin Jellyfish’s hide, trying to fuse itself to my skin, writhing in agony.

Unfortunately for it, a monster was still just a monster.

It was a beast that couldn’t rejoice in pain, so all it could do was struggle desperately to seize me.

But this newly awakened great Archmage, Super Baek Jemin, swung his blade without a moment’s hesitation.

-Slash.

I could survive even inside a monster’s jaws.

-Slash, slash.

Before the monster could catch me, my own desperate struggle would kill it first.

The reason that was possible was a truth as simple as it was absolute.

I was fighting to escape hell.

-Squeeeelch!!!

Grabbing hold of the shredded human skin with my left hand, I tore it, tossed it aside, and stood up.

Fragments of the Human-skin Jellyfish clung limply to my poncho. I stabbed them off with my knife and flung them away. I watched as they dissolved into fog and died.

-Huff, huff—.

Never before had the sound of breathing through my gas mask been so comforting.

Having driven off the Human-skin Jellyfish, the Supreme Archmages started running once more.

"Jemin, I’ve been thinking.”

"Yeah?”

"I think you’re a total nutcase.”

A chuckle escaped him, only to dissolve into a coughing fit.

As those cheerful coughs spread from one person to the next, we all found ourselves looking up at the sky above the bridge.

The heavens were still filled with dying monsters. Fresh bombardments streaked across the sky alongside white missile trails. But one thing had changed. The far bank of the Han River was just a little closer now. We were getting hungry.

...Just like Odok, whose pace was growing faster and faster.