Chapter 82: Evacuation of the Rear

[Translator – Aren]

-Ting!

A spent casing bounced across the cracked asphalt road.

Each time, the heavy recoil pressed down against my collarbone, while acrid smoke streamed from the muzzle and unstable flashes of light burst from it.

Countless monsters were dying beyond the ceaseless gunfire.

Even so, compared to what we had seen in Seoul, it was nothing special.

Amalgams with human heads fused together and Predator Spines charging with only skulls and spinal columns, moving their ribs like centipede legs.

I aimed exclusively at the Predator Spines.

The magic I used was Eyes-branch, Stage 1, enhanced by Tongue-branch, Stage 1.

Because we were outside the fog, the magical backlash was stronger, and the discomfort in my eyes and tongue was the greatest problem.

Perhaps because the tension had left me after escaping Seoul, my tongue burned and throbbed, while my eyes had dried out completely, leaving my eyelids feeling as though they scraped against them each time I blinked.

Even so, compared to when I had been in Suwon, it was far, far easier to use.

Unlike before, when the light alone had made tears pour uncontrollably from my eyes, now they merely felt sore, as though I had gone 24 hours without sleep.

Had reaching a higher level of magic also reduced the backlash from using lower-stage spells, even if only slightly? 

While I dealt with the Predator Spines, Lee Sejun, Shin Nain, and Go Ryeoha each performed their own roles.

When I glanced over at them, every one of them was a sight to behold.

Lee Sejun was in charge of firepower.

"Hmm. They’re weak even outside the fog. Is it because they only came out recently?”

With his enhanced physical abilities, Lee Sejun displayed marksmanship approaching laser-precision.

Because he overpowered every bit of recoil through brute strength, every shot he fired seemed to get sucked straight into an Amalgam’s skull. Considering he had served as a combat-specialty staff sergeant in the military, his already superior marksmanship appeared to have combined with his physical abilities and reached super-soldier levels.

On top of that, he was using reinforced magazines enchanted with Hand-branch, Stage 1 [Blood of the Right Hand], so their destructive power was overwhelming.

Each time an enhanced bullet struck an Amalgam in the head, a whole chunk was torn away before it collapsed and died. The instant I saw it, I felt something bubbling furiously inside me.

Shin Nain, meanwhile, was responsible for support and makeshift communication.

"Jemin-ssi, the pastor, Hamza, and all the soldiers have withdrawn. Let’s fall back slowly.”

"Got it."

Shin Nain was someone who calmly assessed the situation even amid chaos.

His Ears-branch magic was so heavily specialized toward detection that his direct contribution to combat power lagged behind, but his talent for applying that magic creatively to compensate was exceptional.

As unpleasant and irritating as it was, Shin Nain once again displayed his by-the-book nature.

I killed the Predator Spines, Lee Sejun shot down the Amalgams, and Shin Nain raised his rifle to aim at the monsters behind the corpses.

It was inevitable that some would slip through like that.

Whether the Amalgams were intelligent or simply stubborn, they had learned to use the bodies of their comrades and the corpses left ahead of them as bullet shields.

Personally, I believed it was the former.

The Amalgams had learned that, regardless of how powerful firearms were, the humans using them had limitations.

Because the monsters approached while hiding behind their own kind and their corpses, humans had no choice but to fire several extra rounds in preparation for more monsters lurking behind the bodies. Unable to fire only at the ideal moment and forced to pull the trigger more often for suppression, ammunition was consumed far faster than expected.

That was precisely when Shin Nain shone.

While Lee Sejun and I poured on firepower, Shin Nain waited calmly with his rifle shouldered and aimed. Then, whenever either of us began rummaging through an ammunition pouch to reload, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by our Almighty God and His authority, I command you, Satan and all his demonic kin, be slain!”

-Ratata!

Perhaps because Shin Nain was a natural-born ace, 9 out of 10 shots he fired alongside his thunderous prayers struck their targets. Watching him fight moving monsters like that was practically an art form.

Of course, Shin Nain had his limits alone, so Go Ryeoha, who had spent quite a while standing around doing nothing, blinked while rolling iron pellets between her fingers.

Go Ryeoha functioned strictly as our reserve force.

As a wizard who had survived in Seoul, she possessed excellent combat instincts. Knowing her killing power fell short of firearms, she remained quietly tucked away in the rear.

There was only one situation in which Go Ryeoha stepped forward.

Whenever our field of fire weakened enough that the monsters seemed likely to break through, she swung the invisible hand to knock them away or used the Fire-spewing Hands to launch heated iron pellets and eliminate anything that slipped past us.

"Fire. Overcomes Metal, go!”

-Bang!

I never imagined I would live to see a ponytailed college girl in a black mask destroy a Predator Spine’s skull with a twitch of her fingers.

But the greatest result was that I had managed to catch a glimpse of Go Ryeoha’s true nature.

When I stole a glance at her during a reload, her eyes and expression remained utterly indifferent after launching the heated iron pellet.

Hidden behind her friendliness and her attempts at a cheerful smile was the face of a Seoul wizard.

Go Ryeoha paid no attention to the monsters as she killed them.

There was no anger, irritation, grief, or sadness whatsoever.

Even though the fact that she had escaped Seoul itself seemed to stir emotions in her that were difficult to put into words.

Chillingly, all of Go Ryeoha’s attention and interest were directed solely toward us Supreme Archmages.

Even now, while monsters poured out of the fog and charged toward the outside.

That was why she had always felt so unsettling.

I watched her while reloading, and Go Ryeoha moved her eyes toward me as she killed another monster.

Our gazes locked in midair.

Only then did Go Ryeoha form a pale pink smile with her eyes across her previously blank, colorless face.

"We were both studying each other anyway, so there’s nothing strange about it, right?”

That was when I sensed danger.

Because Go Ryeoha was showing some remarkable degree of interest or obsession?

Had something so trivial been enough to make me feel threatened, I would never have aimed for the title of Great Archmage.

Lee Sejun, Shin Nain. Go Ryeoha.

All three of them were putting on impressive displays in front of the soldiers who were surely watching from the blockade line.

They were the culprits diminishing the presence and role of me, Beak Jemin, the one responsible for the ‘Supreme’ in Supreme Archmages, and making me appear plain.

That was absolutely unforgivable.

Absolutely.

-Click.

When I slowly rose after finishing my reload, I heard Lee Sejun berating me.

"Jemin-ssi! How can you take more than 4 seconds to reload by yourself?!"

"Aah. I didn’t want to reveal this somewhere like this.”

"Jemin-ssi…Please stop fucking around and shoot!”

Was there anything sweeter than Lee Sejun’s scream?

I slowly raised my left hand as the overlapping gunshots rang against my eardrums. It was time for my left-hand magic staff to shine once again.

"Watch closely."

I dropped to one knee in one swift motion, slammed my left hand against the asphalt, and shouted.

"And tell your grandchildren, your neighbors, and every last one of your relatives!”

Only my suffering was precious in this world.

Therefore, only my suffering was absolute, and only my suffering stretched on endlessly.

"That you witnessed the greatest Archmage in the Republic of Korea!!!”

Upright Alteration-type, Eyes-branch, Stage 2.

[Cognitive Distortion].

An unpleasant sensation surged through me, as though eyelids had sprouted inside my brain, but it was definitely weaker than before.

Previously, it had felt as though eyelashes growing from those eyelids were poking and rubbing against every fold of my brain. Now it merely felt as though a pair of closed eyelids were resting quietly inside it.

Before long, a fitting result returned in proportion to the electrifying pain traveling up my left hand.

The monsters froze in place. Only their eyes continued trembling as they remained preserved within time, waiting for a silent death.

Lee Sejun and Shin Nain had already experienced this enough times to act immediately.

-Babang, ratatata...

Another burst of gunfire rang out.

Listening to it, I slowly closed my eyes.

-Blink.

Only then did the monsters’ screams reach me.

Soon, flames began raining from the sky and scattered the fog for an instant. They were not enough to erase it, but they would certainly be enough to make the monsters inside suffer.

Shin Nain watched the sight, hummed a hymn, and finally curved his eyes into a smile.

"It appears they’ve begun dropping the incendiary rounds.”

"Will that be enough for Amalgams and Predator Spines?”

"The environment isn’t suitable for them to mutate into Blood Nets, and they use human bodies as they are, so they should die. Let’s go, Jemin-ssi.”

Shin Nain stepped back several paces and yielded the lead to me.

I was deeply moved.

He might be a fanatic zealot and a Shitmaster who occupied a bathroom stall for nearly 30 minutes at a time, but for today, I would remember him simply as Shin Nain, the Supreme Archmage who stood beside me.

That was when Lee Sejung stepped in front of me without permission.

"I thought we’d escaped, but what is all this? Alright, everyone, let’s get moving!”

"Oh my~. Ahjussi, your place is here. Right here!”

"Huh? What? Why am I going behind him?”

Go Ryeoha’s perfectly timed intervention drastically altered Lee Sejun’s fate.

Had she not grabbed his shoulder and dragged him behind me, the five Supreme Archmages would have become me, Shin Nain, Hamza, the pastor, and Go Ryeoha.

Unaware that he had narrowly escaped permanent expulsion, Lee Sejun was too busy tilting his head in confusion. Still, since he had fought well until moments ago, I decided to forgive him once.

Yes.

The happiest moment had finally arrived, so for today alone, I would humbly grant everyone a full pardon.

Besides, I owed at least a few words to the companions who had shared life and death with me for 11 days in Seoul.

I released a deep breath inside my gas mask.

Its distinctive breathing sound echoed across the asphalt road.

-Huuuuuuuuff...

"Anyone who stands in front of me gets shot. Let’s go.”

-Step.

The sounds of military boots overlapped.

Countless shells and missiles were falling behind us, creating a new hell, but the acrid wind blowing from behind merely made the torn ends of our military ponchos flutter.

-Huff, huff.

The breathing through our gas masks sounded remarkably calm.

It was the measured breathing of battle-hardened warriors who had just defeated dozens, perhaps hundreds, of monsters. The overwhelming exhaustion creeping in as our tension eased and the adrenaline drained away was temporarily forgotten at the sight of the soldiers gradually drawing closer.

-Click.

I idly handled my rifle, letting the wind cool its heated barrel.

Around then, we finally reached the soldiers maintaining the blockade line’s machine gun positions and trenches.

The soldiers turned toward us with haggard faces and fiercely shining eyes, holding themselves together through psychoactive drugs, faith, and fear of death.

After crossing the bridge completely and arriving right in front of them, we saw the pastor and Hamza, who had arrived earlier and were waiting.

We also saw the five special forces soldiers.

The radio operator’s reaction was especially striking.

He repeatedly rubbed and touched his camouflage-painted face with his left hand, opening and closing his mouth several times without speaking.

The pastor and Hamza were beside him, letting out sighs of relief.

A short while later, the radio operator swallowed once, approached us, and politely extended his hand.

"Aphorism. You truly are different. Considering the usual cases involving civilian Operators…I apologize for the somewhat discourteous manner in which we treated you.”

"Not at all. Seoul is what it is. Merely entering it must have put you on edge. I understand.”

I gladly accepted the radio operator’s hand and shook it.

To those who praised and looked up to me, I forgot even old grudges. If someone slandered or criticized me, I would forget even the grace of my own parents.

Thanks to this flexible attitude of mine, the relationship between the Supreme Archmages and the soldiers was sure to proceed smoothly.

The other camouflage-painted soldiers reacted similarly.

They appeared to feel complicated emotions that were difficult to express as they looked at us. Comparing the pride they had built through decades of training against their actual contribution in combat seemed to leave them feeling quite bad.

The ordinary soldiers’ reactions were quite different, though.

While all of us Supreme Archmages regrouped and exchanged a few casual words with the special forces soldiers, my ears, strengthened as they were as an Ears-branch wizard, picked up voices praising us.

"They held them off with only four people…”

"Did they just stop those monsters in place? Seriously?”

"So even civilian Operators have tiers. Fuck.”

As the murmuring among the soldiers grew louder, someone who appeared to be an officer stepped forward and shouted in a booming voice.

"That’s enough! The chemical munitions have been deployed, so they won’t come again for a while. The bombardment will resume soon. Relief shift, take combat rest! Duty shift, maintain your watch!”

I was not the only one glancing toward those soldiers.

Supreme Archmage Shin Nain also wore a satisfied smile as he watched them look our way and chatter excitedly.

Shin Nain even removed his gas mask, revealing the stupid little grin he hadn’t made in some time.

"Jemin-ssi. Are you not looking forward to the echoes of the gospel that we crusaders shall bring forth?”

"Hehehehehe….”

Of course I was fucking looking forward to it.

I planned to shout it through the dining hall at the top of my lungs. Wearing my military poncho and displaying both of my tattered hands, I intended to announce at least once that the Great Archmage Beak Jemin had arrived.

Just then, someone tapped us on the shoulders.

"Shin nain, Baek Jemin! Stop screwing around and get on already."

"The vehicle’s here already?”

"Apparently, it was already waiting to pick us up. Let’s go!”

Sure enough, it was.

"A 2.5-ton truck?”

I climbed aboard for the time being, but discomfort crawled up my spine.

That was when Hamza asked,

"What would you rather ride than a 2.5-ton truck, Jemin-ssi?”

"Something like a helicopter.”

"You think helicopters are easy to get? I’m not riding one anyway. The Lord created man to live with their feet on the ground.”

Judging by the pastor’s stubborn attitude, even if a helicopter had arrived, we clearly wouldn’t have been able to board because he would have thrown a fit.

Deciding the 2.5-ton truck was preferable after all, I nodded.

Five special forces soldiers, five Supreme Archmages, and one Go Ryeoha of Aphorism. Eleven people altogether.

Packed together like this, it should have been noisy, but after sitting crammed like bean sprouts in the rattling truck bed beneath clear skies with relatively little danger for once, my eyes gradually began to close.

"Snrrrrrrrk..."

That bastard Lee Sejun was already asleep.

Shin Nain had his eyes closed as though praying quietly, so I wondered whether he slept like that.

"I’m not asleep, Jemin-ssi.”

"Stop reading my mind."

The pastor had already leaned back against the seat and fallen asleep with heavy breathes, while Go Ryeoha had lowered her mask and was merely staring blankly at the passing scenery.

Only then, little by little.

Just slightly did it begin to feel real, and my body grew as heavy as lead.

"Excuse me, Soldier-ahjussi?”

"Yes?"

"What time is it?"

April 25th, 2028.

"1:26 PM."

"Is this going to Suwon?”

"Yes. It is currently supporting the first blockade line and serves as the central stronghold of the second blockade line.”

"I’m going to sleep.”

I closed my eyes and bent forward.

I could feel myself nod off.

Even so, relief and regret remained tangled together in one corner of my mind.

Day 11 of our expedition.

At last, the first reconnaissance mission into Seoul was complete.