Chapter 59

Grand Melee on the Road

For a brief moment, Ski Goggles and our group stood in a standoff.

Gripping the metal tent stake and preparing to swing it, Ski Goggles looked like a gladiator.

Sure, Hamza was practically dead weight in combat, but willingly taking on a one-versus-five fight still made the guy look insane.

Then again, maybe you had to be that crazy to become a wizard.

The standoff lasted no more than five seconds.

During those five seconds, Shin Nain and I kept our rifles trained on him, searching for a way to kill him instantly.

Our theory regarding Eye Stage 3, [Cognitive Dissonance], was simple.

You had to render him unconscious before he could reject reality.

Of course, that wouldn't be easy.

Shooting him through the heart wouldn't work.

A death he couldn't even perceive might not stop Eye Stage 3 at all.

We needed a death so absolute that even Ski Goggles couldn't deny it.

Destroying his head seemed like the obvious answer.

If his ability to perceive vanished, perhaps the magic would fail.

But even that was a gamble.

What if some remnant of consciousness activated Eye Stage 3 after death?

There were too many possibilities.

And careless conclusions always led to defeat when dealing with wizards.

Apparently Ski Goggles had reached the same conclusion.

He pointed the tip of his tent stake toward us and regulated his breathing.

Five seconds.

The standoff ended there.

Shin Nain suddenly swung his rifle upward toward the sky.

A short breath escaped through his gas mask.

"Jellyfish!"

At the same instant, Ski Goggles moved.

The Human Jellyfish were Shin Nain's problem.

I rolled my already-ruined tongue.

Target. Kill. Ski Goggles. Route. Three minutes. Me.

This time, there were no red footprints.

The fog simply cleared and thickened repeatedly.

Showing routes.

Hiding routes.

Showing them again.

The problem was the speed.

The fog shifted faster than blinking.

Clear.

Covered.

Clear.

Covered.

Again and again.

Like a flickering light.

Then I realized it.

Ski Goggles was using Eye Stage 1 against my Eye Stage 1.

The clash felt like an endless game of chess.

Whenever I tried aiming at one route, the fog covered it.

When I shifted my attention elsewhere, the fog moved again.

Even looking at a path caused it to vanish.

The sensation reminded me of some annoying child repeatedly flicking a light switch on and off.

Only then did I realize.

We were trapped within a stretched second.

Time between us had expanded infinitely.

The moment our Eye Magic collided, time itself distorted again.

A battle of endlessly predicted futures.

Everything slowed to a crawl.

Only thought and perception remained free.

The fog shattered into fragments.

Red footprints flooded my vision.

The deadlock broke when Ski Goggles uttered another meaningless word.

"Olnipial."

At once, time resumed.

An Amalgam burst from the fog and stepped between us.

Eight faces.

Flailing limbs.

Its compound eyes met mine.

My body couldn't react immediately.

My mind had already raised the rifle.

My body was only now tightening its grip.

Backlash.

The magical duel had desynchronized mind and flesh.

Then the creature smiled.

Or perhaps I imagined it.

I desperately hoped I had.

Its overlapping eyes stared into mine.

Something lurked within them.

This thing could think.

And right now—

It was happy.

The fear wasn't fear of death.

It felt like seeing a cockroach wave its antennae from the kitchen sink.

Like leeches crawling toward me from a flooded rice paddy.

Disgust.

Revulsion.

Pure terror.

This wasn't a smile humanity was meant to understand.

The instant an Amalgam smiled with certainty of its meal, a human instinctively understood their own fate would become one of those faces.

And if you suspected those faces weren't the monster's expressions—

But the expressions of its victims—

The horror became even worse.

Before reaching the ultimate mysteries of magic, this was the most terrible ending imaginable.

An eternity where even begging for death wasn't allowed.

Only then did I finally understand why Father Jeong Yonghwan had searched for the Lord so desperately.

Humanity's conception of Hell was pathetic.

Compared to the true Hell before me, the flames of traditional religions seemed merciful.

Within this distorted time.

Within this accelerating world.

The Amalgam's eyes revealed a truth I should never have understood.

Eternity trapped inside a monster's body.

Existing only to consume more victims.

A consciousness forced to endure endless ages while driven by monstrous instinct.

The true end awaiting humanity stood before me.

That smiling creature.

That split mouth.

That was the real Hell reserved for mankind.

Every monster in Seoul represented a different form of damnation.

We were not standing before the end.

We were standing before the beginning of eternity.

Naturally, my grip loosened.

Even an optimist couldn't instantly accept such a revelation.

Only fools could endure it.

And Lee Sejun happened to be an idiot.

"MAGIC PUNCH!!!"

CRUNCH!!

A blood-covered fist plunged into the Amalgam's head.

Considering the monster's amorphous body, the punch should've simply sunk inside.

But Lee Sejun's fist carried Hand Stage 1 magic.

The creature's compound eyes shifted from delight to shock.

Then pain.

Watching that happen, I gathered myself.

My ruined tongue moved again.

I lightly scraped it with my teeth.

Crunch.

Pain surged through my mouth.

Electricity raced into my brain.

My right hand clenched the rifle.

Time resumed.

My perception settled back into my body.

The strange sensation of watching reality at one-and-a-half speed vanished.

By then, I had already completed my firing stance.

Click.

Through the collapsing Amalgam body, I saw Ski Goggles.

He was swinging the tent stake at Lee Sejun.

The Amalgam had been used as cover.

A blind spot.

A distraction.

Smart.

Very smart.

But bullets traveled faster than tent stakes.

So I fired.

Gunfire erupted.

Brass flew.

As muzzle flash disappeared into the fog, Ski Goggles staggered.

I'd aimed for the head.

He twisted.

The bullet struck his left shoulder and side instead.

But he wasn't finished.

"Olnipial."

The nonsense word echoed again.

A shadow dropped from the sky.

A Human Jellyfish.

One of his servants.

The bastard could summon his monsters.

Maybe even control them.

I started raising my rifle—

RATATAT!

Gunfire from behind me tore the Human Jellyfish apart first.

Only one Supreme Wizard reacted that quickly.

Super Detector Shin Nain.

When I turned, he was already tapping my shoulder.

One hand maintained perfect shooting posture.

The other pointed skyward.

"Mr. Jemin! The demon's minions are ours!"

The pastor copied his stance and raised his K2.

Hamza came running.

"Muslim! Throw me a magazine!"

"A-A magazine?!"

WHACK!

The magazine hit the pastor's shoulder.

Bounced away.

Yet somehow he snatched it from the air.

"Throw properly!"

"S-Sorry!"

"I'll keep shooting! Shin Nain, reload first! Baek Jemin, help Sejun kill that demon!"

Truly Supreme Wizards.

Whether eternity awaited us or not, our philosophy remained simple.

If something pissed us off—

Shoot it.

That spirit drove away the last remnants of fear.

Men answered with actions.

Not words.

Instead of replying, I aimed toward Ski Goggles again.

Lee Sejun was already pummeling his summoned Amalgams.

"Mr. Jemin! Help!"

WHOOOM!

Every Blood Punch reduced an Amalgam head to powder.

Lee Sejun looked disgusted.

Yet his breathing remained steady.

The bastard was single-handedly slaughtering monsters while asking for help.

Still...

If I had to punch Amalgams barehanded, I'd probably want assistance too.

So I helped.

I rolled my tongue.

Pain brought tears to my eyes.

But pain meant reality still existed.

I grinned.

Today, I'd grown stronger.

And growth made pain worthwhile.

Laughing through tears, I placed my finger on the trigger.

Before the beginning of eternity—

Only pain was immortal.

My pain guided me toward omnipotence.

Toward becoming a true Grand Wizard.

Pain was salvation.

Pain was truth.

My hope.

My future.

Everything lay within pain.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Whenever I crippled an Amalgam limb, Lee Sejun immediately charged.

His Blood Punches split heads apart like dry sand.

If he became surrounded, I shot out legs and opened escape routes.

Then he would break free and start punching again.

For a while, gunfire and battle cries filled the road.

Dozens of monsters fell.

Amalgams.

Devouring Spines.

Human Jellyfish.

At least ten of each.

Then, beyond the corpses.

Within the swirling fog.

Ski Goggles emerged again.

He surveyed the dead monsters.

Clicked his tongue.

Then spoke.

"Olnipial."

This time there were noticeably fewer monsters.

Only Human Jellyfish and Devouring Spines remained.

No more Amalgams to use as shields.

I raised my rifle.

Then Ski Goggles lifted his left arm.

What?

Was he surrendering?

Momentarily confused, I lowered my weapon slightly.

Of course it wasn't surrender.

The moment he raised his arm, a Devouring Spine leaped upward.

Its rib-like legs wrapped around his forearm.

Locked in place.

CRAAAAK!

Even his long padded coat compressed under the pressure.

Ski Goggles casually shook his arm.

Everyone stared.

Speechless.

But I understood immediately.

The Devouring Spine's tail stinger now dangled from his forearm.

That bastard...

He was using a Devouring Spine like a hidden blade.

A sword concealed within his sleeve.

"Oh, Allah..."

The others finally understood too.

The rattling of bone fragments sounded like chains.

Ski Goggles spun the tent stake in his right hand.

Then began walking toward us.

SPLAT.

Crushing Amalgam corpses beneath his boots.

The sight was terrifying.

I'd assumed Eye Wizards stayed far away.

Fighting from safety.

I was wrong.

This monster tamed monsters.

Studied how best to use them.

And deliberately pursued close combat.

For one reason only.

To make absolutely certain his enemies died.

That realization finally struck the rest of the Supreme Wizards as well.

And even they could only stare in horror.

"Oh, Allah..."

"Who the hell uses monsters like that?!"

Clang! Clang!

Ski Goggles tapped the asphalt with his metal stake, then expertly scraped out the sticky remains from a shattered Amalgam head.

After carving away the still-viscous flesh with the stake, he twirled the Amalgam remains around it as if he were making cotton candy.

Any normal person would think he was insane.

But from a wizard's perspective, that was the most efficient killing weapon imaginable.

For an ordinary human, being impaled by a stake coated in Amalgam fluids or stabbed by a Devouring Spine's tail stinger meant instant death.

Even Shin Nain, arguably the healthiest among us, couldn't freely unload on him.

Right now, he was serving as a human anti-aircraft gun.

Human Jellyfish kept appearing endlessly from the sky, and Shin Nain was the only one stopping them.

The Pastor was distracted by Ski Goggles' bizarre appearance, but Shin Nain alone kept pulling the trigger without pause.

As shell casings rolled across the ground like background music, Ski Goggles turned toward us, displaying the metal stake and the Devouring Spine strapped to his arm like a vambrace.

I stroked the trigger with my finger but couldn't fire.

I wanted to shoot.

Part of me thought I could just use Eye Stage 1 and end this.

But Ski Goggles was a veteran eye mage.

A seasoned Grand Wizard killer.

If Eye Stage 1 collided with Eye Stage 1, my backlash would be worse.

And if he used Eye Stage 2 at that moment, we'd be wiped out without a chance.

Wizard battles weren't just contests of magic.

They were combinations of physical ability and mind games.

The moment you got careless, you lost everything.

A zero-sum duel.

There was only one answer.

Jump him.

"Lee Sejun, take melee."

"Goddammit..."

"Maybe Magical Punch sounds better than Magic Punch..."

Ignoring the nonsense in his head, he was currently our most dependable frontliner.

Lee Sejun pulled up his gas mask, bit down on his right hand until blood flowed, then clenched his fist.

Blood Fist Lee Sejun and me, the eye mage, would handle Ski Goggles.

Everyone else would deal with the endless swarm of familiars he kept summoning.

Having figured out our formation, Ski Goggles shook his left arm again.

The sound of human vertebrae grinding together echoed across the road.

Rattle—!

"You military bastards! Do you know how many people died because of you?"

His ruined voice dripped with rage.

"You shot everyone who got infected! And now you've crawled back here? Into this place? You dare?!"

His fury rose higher.

"Then become monsters yourselves! Rot just like we did!!!"

He's coming.

Lee Sejun moved first, launching a dropkick.

Ski Goggles twisted casually and dodged.

Then he flicked his left arm toward Sejun.

The Devouring Spine's tail shot out like a hidden blade.

This was where I stepped in.

Time to remind him of a simple fact.

People die when they're shot.

Bang! Bang!

I deliberately aimed for his thigh instead of his head.

Painful.

Crippling.

But not instantly fatal.

The perfect spot.

Ski Goggles staggered.

At that exact moment, someone grabbed my shoulder and threw me to the ground.

Crash!

I understood what had happened almost instantly.

Human Jellyfish.

One had dropped directly onto the spot where I'd been standing.

Hamza had saved me.

His face was deathly pale behind the gas mask.

Before I could thank him, the Pastor emptied a burst into the jellyfish.

RATATAT!

"Baek Jemin! That bastard's way too good at controlling his familiars! Get your head in the game!"

"Got it."

That was all I managed.

Ski Goggles.

The moment a bullet hit his thigh, he'd simultaneously directed a familiar behind me.

He was different from Jeong Nari, the Dubai Sticky Witch we'd met at Jangji Station Department Store.

Jeong Nari relied on overwhelming physical power.

Ski Goggles didn't.

But her tactics held the answer.

She'd known we had an eye mage and an ear mage.

So she'd never stopped attacking.

Maybe that was the answer.

Relentless pressure.

Attacks beyond the limits of cognition and stamina.

That was how mistakes happened.

I raised my rifle again.

And then I realized just how experienced a Seoul wizard Ski Goggles really was.

Whoosh!

The metal stake cut through the air.

A Blood Fist followed immediately after.

Lee Sejun and Ski Goggles were locked in a razor-thin melee battle, constantly moving.

Yet even during that, Ski Goggles remained aware of my gaze.

The moment I aimed my rifle—

Lee Sejun suddenly slowed.

"Soooooo..."

Ski Goggles swung his left arm.

The Devouring Spine's tail extended segment by segment like a hidden sword.

Straight for Sejun's throat.

A perfect dilemma.

Shoot Ski Goggles?

Or use Eye Stage 2 to save Lee Sejun?

I hope everyone understands why I couldn't do either instantly.

Lee Sejun was a twenty-four-year-old ex-sergeant with terrible luck, an old-looking hairy guy who somehow dreamed of becoming a magical gender-swapped anime girl.

Honestly, he wasn't exactly friend material.

So I chose neither option.

Instead, I rolled my tongue.

Orthodox Alteration Tongue Stage 2: Desire Explosion.

Sleep.

The effect was immediate.

Ski Goggles stumbled.

His posture collapsed.

As his concentration wavered, Lee Sejun broke free.

The tail stinger nearly reaching his throat made him leap backward with a silent scream.

"AAAH!"

His delayed cry echoed.

Ski Goggles staggered.

I seized the chance.

My rifle aimed for his head.

Target. Kill. Ski Goggles' head. Five minutes. Route.

It worked.

The endless battle of predicted futures disappeared.

The fog's movement slowed noticeably.

His perception was being dragged down by overwhelming sleepiness.

It's over, you son of a bitch.

I pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet pierced his head.

He didn't die immediately.

Some fragment of consciousness remained.

Enough to activate Eye Stage 3.

But it didn't matter.

This was over.

I prepared to keep firing headshots until he finally died.

Then Ski Goggles swung the stake.

Amalgam fluids splattered away.

After shaking the sticky remains free, he raised the stake upside down and screamed.

"You outsiders!!! Die!!!"

CRUNCH!

At that moment, I witnessed a truly great wizard.

The stake had pierced through his own left arm.

Straight between the Devouring Spine's bones.

My knees nearly gave out.

The man was insane.

In the best possible way.

To overcome the magically induced sleepiness, Ski Goggles had impaled his own arm.

If he'd stopped there, I'd have called him an idiot rather than a wizard.

But he had a plan.

When he pulled the stake back out, he pointed at the Devouring Spine hanging from his arm.

CRACK!

The creature stiffened like a splint.

It moved his ruined arm in his place.

No longer capable of using stealth, Ski Goggles now relied solely on his eyes and familiars.

Yet that was still enough to pressure us.

Pointing the blood-soaked stake at Lee Sejun, he rasped:

"I'll grow stronger. Strong enough to overcome your precious bullets and artillery."

His voice dripped with hatred.

"And when that day comes, I'll shove the remaining forty million people face-first into Mimics."

Then he charged.

He was consumed by rage.

The problem was that he fought incredibly well while angry.

Lee Sejun and Ski Goggles exchanged blows without pause.

Blood Fists.

Tail-sword strikes.

A bloodstained metal stake.

Everything sliced through the air, trying to tear flesh apart.

At the same time, he continued using Sejun as cover from my gunfire.

This wouldn't work.

"MAGICAL PUNCH!"

No way was I letting that stupid line steal the spotlight.

Click.

I grabbed my rifle and threw myself into the melee.

"Baek Jemin, what the hell are you doing?!"

The Pastor's desperate shout rang out.

But men prove themselves through results.

No amount of gunfire would finish Ski Goggles.

What we needed was one decisive hit from Lee Sejun.

A punch that would force reality onto him.

My role was support.

"Mr. Jemin?!"

"I'll help. Keep doing what you're doing."

Defense. Fatal wound. Lee Sejun. Five minutes. Route.

The results were immediate.

When Ski Goggles swung the stake downward—

My rifle butt intercepted the future itself.

CLANG!

Ski Goggles glared at me.

His hand trembled.

The impact had loosened his grip.

Barely.

The stake almost slipped away.

Then his movement suddenly accelerated.

He clenched it again.

Crunch.

"Jeeeeemiiiiiin Ciiiiiiity..."

The stretched sound of Lee Sejun's voice confirmed it.

The moment Ski Goggles realized I was using Eye Stage 1, he'd used Eye Stage 2 to slow us down.

He alone moved at triple speed.

His left arm rose.

Just fast enough for human eyes to follow.

The tail stinger swayed toward our throats.

But the instant Ski Goggles chose pain to overcome sleepiness—

The instant he refused to heal his self-inflicted wound—

His fate was sealed.

Pain erodes focus.

There's a reason people take painkillers.

He'd forgotten that.

BANG!

Time returned to normal.

My time.

Lee Sejun's time.

Ski Goggles' time.

All synchronized once more.

What had happened was obvious.

Behind Ski Goggles—

The Pastor's K2 rifle smoked.

The Pastor noticed me looking.

He raised his thumb.

A signal.

Lee Sejun immediately sensed the advantage.

I trusted my fellow Supreme Wizards.

Victory felt close.

Sejun clenched his Blood Fist.

I tightened my grip on the rifle.

"Lee Sejun. You take the left side."

"I'll take the right."

"Roger."

As disgusting as it was to admit—

We made a good team.

The moment we divided roles, our coordination clicked.

When Ski Goggles thrust with the stake, I knocked it aside.

When the tail stinger prepared to strike, Sejun smashed it with his Blood Fist.

Whenever Ski Goggles used Eye Stage 2 to escape, the others stepped in.

Shin Nain.

Having read Ski Goggles' thoughts with Ear Stage 3, he immediately switched positions with the Pastor.

"Pastor!"

"Okay! Switching!"

They traded roles.

Shin Nain targeted Ski Goggles.

The Pastor targeted familiars.

Hamza trembled behind them, pointing into the fog.

"That one! That one's dangerous!"

"Hurry up and point them out! Hand me another magazine!"

"Here!"

Amid the chaos, Shin Nain's solemn prayer echoed clearly.

"Almighty Lord God, may Your authority descend upon this land. Through this trigger I drive away the servants of evil..."

BANG!

Ski Goggles' magic broke.

Lee Sejun and I immediately resumed our assault.

"WAAAAAAAH!"

At some point Sejun had abandoned all pretense of being magical.

He simply unleashed a storm of physical punches.

I focused entirely on deflecting tail stingers and metal stakes, ensuring he wasn't injured.

The melee grew louder.

Ponchos and padded coats whipped violently in the wind.

Metal scraped against my rifle butt.

Sometimes fabric tore.

Each rip made me wonder if my stomach had just been sliced open.

Gunfire.

Bones.

Steel.

Fog.

Chaos.

And at the end of it all—

Naturally—

The Supreme Wizards seized victory.

CRACK!

Lee Sejun's Blood Fist shattered the tail-stinger sword.

The Devouring Spine shrieked and detached from Ski Goggles' arm.

Ski Goggles looked at me.

Through the lenses of my gas mask and his ski goggles, our eyes met.

At that moment, Lee Sejun's knee rose.

I don't know what expression Ski Goggles wore.

But I tried my best to communicate one heartfelt message through my eyes.

Don't worry.

I'll destroy your eyes myself.

BOOM!

Lee Sejun's kick slammed into Ski Goggles' stomach.

The impact should have pulverized bone.

Ski Goggles didn't even roll.

He simply collapsed.

One strike.

One blow.

His limbs appeared broken.

Still—

He didn't die.

As long as Eye Stage 3 remained, he could rise again if given the chance.

Cognitive Dissonance was that powerful.

Fortunately, it wasn't invincible.

Reality could kill it.

If reality hit hard enough.

I raised my rifle and advanced.

Each trigger pull came with a step.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

By the time I reached him, all five Supreme Wizards stood around Ski Goggles in a circle.

I smiled.

The rifle aimed directly between his eyes.

"Any last words?"

"I..."

BANG!

His body convulsed.

Then went limp.

The pain had finally exceeded what Cognitive Dissonance could deny.

That was my strategy for defeating Eye Stage 3.

The Pastor clicked his tongue.

"If you were going to shoot him anyway, why ask for last words?"

"So he'd focus on his final thoughts."

I shrugged.

"As long as he's thinking about those, he's forced to acknowledge that he's dying."

"Damn, Jemin. That's terrifying."

I fired one more round into his heart.

Just to be sure.

Only then did I turn toward Lee Sejun, who was finally catching his breath.

"By the way, Sejun."

"Yeah?"

"Why did you answer with 'Roger'?"

He grinned.

"Would you have preferred, 'Wakarimashita, Oni-chan'?"

Right.

This overwhelming disgust.

This deep irritation.

That was our strength.

We rage.

We hate.

We resent the fear and absurdity thrust upon us.

Even knowing that, on a cosmic scale, our struggle might change nothing.

We still fight.

We refuse nihilism.

At least I do.

No matter what truth waits ahead.

I'm ready to face it.

Standing amidst drifting gun smoke, spent brass, corpses, and fog, we looked at one another over the body of a fallen wizard.

At last.

Time to celebrate victory.

"Alright."

I grinned.

"Time for some fun looting."

This time, I'm taking everything.