Chapter 67

Together With Odoki

Olympic Bridge was far longer and wider than any of us had imagined.

I'd been foolish enough to think, How wide can a river really be?

Now I regretted it.

Even while running straight ahead, all I could see beyond the far end of the bridge were concrete towers jutting into the sky.

A sky packed with monsters and black smoke beneath dazzling sunlight.

Black clouds of smoke piled layer upon layer like pottery being shaped from clay.

Within that suffocating haze, creatures glided through the air in flocks, using thin membranes as wings.

That was where we needed to go.

The weight of that truth traveled through the soles of my boots into the asphalt.

Every step shook my vision.

Shook my breathing.

The pressure beneath my feet was the only thing proving this was real.

I felt that if I ever stopped feeling that weight, I would lose my grasp on reality entirely.

Because the scenery around Olympic Bridge was that surreal.

Every time my feet bore my body's weight, a heavy vibration echoed through my abdomen.

Beyond the scratched gas mask lenses—scarred from scraping Amalgam remains off them—the afternoon world clung stubbornly to the edges of my vision.

Sky Centipedes spreading dozens of blood-soaked wing membranes as they glided after fighter jets.

Human-Skin Jellyfish swarms compressed into masses darker and heavier than storm clouds despite being torn apart by artillery and airstrikes.

The cries of monsters so loud they rattled the bridge cables.

Oddly enough, in the midst of all that—

I became sleepy.

My eyelids drooped.

My vision blurred.

A sweet drowsiness diluted the horror around me like a narcotic.

The acrid smell of gunpowder.

The stench of burning corpses.

Even those faded first.

The scratched gas mask lenses clouded over as though fogged with condensation.

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

If you're sleepy, you can sleep.

If your breathing is rough, stop and catch your breath.

If you're tired, just close your eyes.

Warm.

Comfortable.

Like soaking in hot water.

The sensation wrapped around my entire body.

And then—

The pain I'd postponed.

The pain buried beneath adrenaline and fear.

Returned.

Because I'd loosened my grip on every sensation.

The agony came back stronger than before.

My tongue felt shredded into strips.

My eyes felt as though they were being kneaded by plastic gloves coated in fish scales.

The wounds on my hand burned.

Every nerve screamed.

Only then did reality return.

The sky where flesh rained down alongside explosions.

The abandoned vehicles littering Olympic Bridge.

Chunks of crushed meat embedded into bloodstains.

The smell of sewage.

Blood.

Rot.

Burning protein.

All mixed together and stabbed into my nostrils.

The damp rubber of the gas mask stuck to my face with sweat and tears.

I felt everything.

The trembling in my limbs.

The weakness in my legs.

Everything.

And suddenly I couldn't run anymore.

Pain stopped me.

Pain dragged me back into reality.

Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.

As my head cleared, I reached a conclusion almost immediately.

That had been dangerous.

My mind had nearly collapsed.

Without the various pains clinging to my body, I would've succumbed to that drowsiness and fallen asleep.

I wasn't actually sleepy.

I wasn't truly exhausted.

A weak mind incapable of accepting reality had simply tried to escape.

The moment I realized that, I drew my bayonet across my left palm without hesitation.

Slash!

"Mr. Jemin! What the hell are you doing?!"

Lee Sejun's startled shout reached me.

Not important.

I clenched my fist and felt blood running from my palm.

Until now, I'd focused entirely on Eye Magic because its backlash was so severe.

But was Grand Mage Baek Jemin someone who only knew Eye Magic?

There were spells that remained effective even without fog.

A mage's duty was to use them.

This was one of those moments.

Drip.

Blood ran down my palm.

I savored the sensation.

Then rolled my tongue.

Forward Alteration-Type Tongue Stage 1. [Degradation].

This spell reduced nonhuman language into something human.

At the same time, it allowed magic to perform at its full potential.

Then it should work with enchantments too.

Until now I'd avoided it.

Fear of backlash.

Fear of pain.

Not anymore.

Using my blood-soaked left hand, I painted [Severance] onto my bayonet.

The blood vanished into the blade.

Not dried.

Not crusted.

Absorbed.

The steel drank it.

This was an extreme situation.

I activated Left-Hand Blood at one hundred percent and used it as an enchantment.

A test.

Should the others enchant their weapons too?

My cold rationality answered instantly.

Are you insane?

This hurts enough already.

Let me be the only idiot doing it.

Tears streamed from my eyes as my tongue felt as though scissors were repeatedly cutting through it.

"Aah..."

Because I'd stopped to perform this stupidity, Odoki had gotten much closer.

Everyone's breathing grew harsher.

Huff. Huff. Huff.

While the Supreme Mages paused for breath, a strange sound drifted past us.

It sounded like a child playing with their grandmother's dentures like castanets.

A rhythm made entirely of teeth.

No audience.

No joy.

Only clicking.

Clack-clack-clack-clack!

For a moment, we were all children from a fairy tale.

Then the Supreme Mages forced their heavy legs into motion again.

We ran.

Following the collapsing roofs of cars.

Following the crunching castanets of teeth.

A grotesque game of tag.

The sort of game I'd long forgotten after smartphones and computers provided endless distractions.

Now I was playing it with monsters.

Missiles and monsters filled the sky.

Chunks of flesh splashed into the Han River.

Shapes stirred inside abandoned vehicles.

And we desperately swallowed back our ragged breaths.

But the monsters emerging from those vehicles couldn't be ignored.

I rolled my tongue.

Target.

Evade.

Fatal wound.

Five minutes.

Route.

Supreme Mages.

Pain surged through me.

Again.

Enough to bring tears.

I realized once more that courage and duty meant nothing before true agony.

I hated pain.

I didn't want to die screaming.

If I could die peacefully and painlessly, I might even accept it.

But what waited for me wasn't an ending.

It was eternity.

Until now, I'd carefully rationed the pain generated by magic.

Managed it.

Distributed it.

Feared permanent damage.

Feared disability.

Reasonable fears.

I'm not some masochist.

But now?

I was mutilating myself willingly.

Using pain.

Embracing it.

Some dark part of me even laughed in delight.

Was it ambition?

The desire to master magic?

Partly.

But the biggest reason was fear.

I saw Amalgams bursting through torn car doors.

Four of them.

At the same time, crimson footprints spread across my vision.

The entire six-lane highway became covered in red tracks.

Though they had consumed fewer than ten humans each, I'd already seen what sunlight did to them.

I couldn't afford carelessness.

So I offered everything.

Spells I'd once feared to use.

Spells I'd worried might leave permanent damage.

Everything.

I stopped ignoring the pain wrapping around my body.

Instead—

I embraced every sensation.

I rolled my tongue again.

Forward Alteration-Type Tongue Stage 1. [Degradation].

I used Degradation to strengthen Eye Magic.

Forward Alteration-Type Eye Stage 2. [Cognitive Distortion].

My suffering was longer and more absolute than anything else in this world.

A combination I'd never dared use.

Until now.

I used it.

Tap.

The sound of my boot touching asphalt stretched impossibly long.

The artillery vanished.

The breathing of the Supreme Mages vanished.

The clicking castanets vanished.

Time stop?

Not quite.

But all the tears, mucus, drool, and even the little bit of piss I'd leaked from pain had not been wasted.

The burning nerves in my arm.

The itch across my retinas.

The wounds in my hands.

My pounding heart.

My desperate lungs.

All of it mattered.

Nobody's perception could keep up with me anymore.

Everything still moved.

Just slower.

Only my time.

Only my perception.

Moved freely.

When I had already taken ten steps, the sound of my first footstep finally arrived.

When I stood directly before an Amalgam, its rolling eyes had only just reached the spot where I'd taken my second step.

Then I swung.

SLASH!

Dozens of arms fell away.

Faces attached to them were severed.

Only then did the monster's perception begin catching up to mine.

The overlapping eyes tilted toward me.

Still slow.

Still impossibly slow.

But faster than everyone else.

I felt flesh resist the blade.

Then give way.

I felt the edge scrape bone and emerge cleanly.

My mind would never forget that sensation.

Slash!

I didn't want to forget.

At that moment—

I was tasting omnipotence.

Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.

The bayonet enchanted by the enhanced Left-Hand Blood became absurdly effective.

Ordinarily, bone or dense muscle would've stopped it.

Now everything parted cleanly.

Limbs flew apart.

Hands tumbled through the air.

I felt exhilaration.

Then rage.

SLASH!

After severing another chubby little arm, I switched the bayonet to my left hand.

Then reached forward with my right.

Grabbing the belly fat of a fat middle-aged body fused into the Amalgam.

Thanks to Right-Hand Blood, my grip crushed the face embedded there.

This power.

This omnipotence.

The fact that I couldn't always reach it—

That was hell.

Consumed by rising fury, inside a stretch of time that belonged only to me, I shouted:

"Odoki! Dinner time!"

I hurled the Amalgam behind us.

The fully empowered Cognitive Distortion, enhanced by Tongue Stage 1, was exactly the magic I'd dreamed of.

Even a monster that should've been too heavy to throw sailed through the air.

The cost?

Honestly?

Terrifying.

Power like this would demand an equally terrifying price.

But it was still better than ending up in hell.

Before my pain-dulled mind could fail, I repeated the process.

Cut.

Slice.

Confirm the fear in their eyes.

Grab them.

Throw them.

Watching them fly through the air over the roofs of abandoned cars, I briefly understood how cafeteria ladies must feel serving food.

I managed three.

The fourth was impossible.

The spell was ending.

Fifty steps.

Forty-one cuts.

Three throws.

Instinct told me I'd reached the limit.

No amount of pain could carry me farther.

I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Slowly retreating, I returned to the Supreme Mages.

Their eyes were still fixed on the moment I'd cut apart the first Amalgam.

Looking at their dumbfounded expressions, I realized just how deeply I'd stepped into the realm of omnipotence.

And now—

It was time to pay.

I steadied my breathing.

Inhale...

Nothing in life guarantees one hundred percent.

Not even studying.

Adults love preaching that effort equals results.

Reality doesn't work that way.

Which is why—

How fair is a magic system that grants omnipotence in exchange for pain?

Exhale...

Blink.

For a brief moment, silence arrived.

As one hundred percent Cognitive Distortion ended, all the stretched-out sounds snapped back into place.

Then I realized the cost.

The muscles.

The hyperventilation.

The blood pressure.

The heartbeat.

The consequences of moving so much in such a short time.

The instant I realized it—

I collapsed.

"Huuaaagh...! Khaaaah...!"

My body twisted uncontrollably.

I couldn't even roll across the asphalt.

My spine bent.

My limbs curled.

I forgot what I was holding.

My neck gave out beneath the weight of my head.

"Kghk...!"

My eyes?

Open.

Yet I couldn't see.

Something was there.

But I couldn't understand what it was.

Foamy saliva filled my mouth.

I couldn't even tell if I was breathing.

"Kehk... Keh... Kehehk..."

If I could have spoken properly, I would've begged someone to kill me.

But somewhere deep inside my heart, the crushed and mangled remains of the man called Baek Jemin shouted 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.

The desire that had dragged me all the way into Seoul.

The greedy dream that had driven me into the fog with nothing but the fantasy of becoming a Grand Mage and wielding omnipotent power.

That original ambition roared inside my skull.

Is this all you've got?

You're going to hell anyway.

If it were a hell of eternal flames or endless blades, I could endure it.

But the hell waiting for me wasn't something so trivial.

A hell where omnipotent magic sat forever just beyond reach.

A hell where I'd be trapped inside a monster's body, endlessly replaying the possibilities of what I might have become.

A hell where I would never become a great Grand Mage—

Only another nameless monster among countless others.

If I could avoid that hell—

I'd endure anything.

Even if it burned this body to ashes.

"HHHNNNGH!"

I ripped off my gas mask.

First I needed air.

As I spat out dry, foamy saliva and forced myself upright, the world spun around me.

No gunfire.

Instead—

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of bones being chewed echoed behind me.

"Baek Jemin! How's your body?!"

"Not good."

Hamza answered for me.

The pastor stood with his back toward us, sweeping his rifle barrel left and right while maintaining watch.

Hamza stared at me and waved a thick syringe in front of my face.

"Mr. Jemin. Can you see this?"

"Whuaa..."

"It's morphine. We got permission to bring it for emergencies. It worked faster than expected, but it's dangerous."

Crunch!

Odoki continued eating enthusiastically behind us.

I listened to Hamza's explanation and slowly held out my hand.

"Aaa... gie ib..."

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"He says he has an idea."

Shin Nain approached while catching his breath.

My spinning vision irritated me so much that I simply closed my eyes.

If you fear the price, you'll never accomplish anything.

A mage must be capable of paying the cost calmly.

Willingly.

Now that I'd settled my resolve, there was no reason to hesitate.

Forward Alteration-Type Eye Stage 3. [Cognitive Dissonance].

I am fine.

I am normal.

I am merely feeling pain.

My body has suffered no injury.

No impairment.

My body belongs to me.

My will supersedes common sense.

My body follows my perception.

I am Baek Jemin.

A human.

"Inhale... exhale..."

"Mr. Jemin?"

I could see Hamza's horrified expression.

But I was too busy examining the price of Cognitive Dissonance.

I immediately raised a hand and waved it before my face.

A massive blind spot appeared.

My depth perception was distorted.

The cost of Eye Stage 3 was blindness in one eye.

The stronger the effect, the longer the blindness lasted.

Instinctively, I knew that using it again while one eye remained blind would probably blind both eyes.

Even so—

It was powerful.

Only losing one eye in a place without fog?

What a bargain.

Even if it became permanent, I didn't care.

Even Odin, that ridiculously cool wizard-god from Norse mythology, sacrificed an eye for wisdom.

To become a Grand Mage, losing one eye was practically tradition.

I'd just have to buy an awesome eyepatch later.

I immediately stood and put my gas mask back on.

The world disappeared once more behind scratched, scarred lenses.

"Situation?"

"Odoki's busy eating three heads."

Shin Nain jerked his chin backward.

Only then did I finally get a proper look at Odoki.

I'd once thought Odoki resembled a dog.

Not even close.

If anything, it looked like a starfish.

Five elongated appendages stretched outward from a central body.

Each was supported by long, powerful muscles resembling a giraffe's neck.

Every appendage functioned simultaneously as a giant claw and a mouth.

Its vertically split jaws were filled with a chaotic mixture of incisors, canines, and molars.

They clacked together like castanets.

Chewing.

Grinding.

Crushing every bone without leaving a single fragment behind.

Even when its own teeth cracked and broke during the process, it didn't care.

Odoki devoured the still-struggling Amalgams alive.

Its claw-mouths pulverized their limbs and torsos.

The sounds of bones breaking and marrow being sucked out were unmistakable.

Crunch!

But the mouths weren't the strangest part.

One appendage lacked a claw-mouth entirely.

Instead, its long giraffe-like neck was covered with human lips.

Those lips were sucking on human eyeballs as though they were pacifiers.

Its body contained countless mouths continuously vomiting waste.

Looking at Odoki—

A terrestrial starfish created from human flesh—

I realized something.

Those eyeballs really are its eyes.

It's using the victims' eyes as pacifiers and seeing through them.

This was Seoul.

A realm beyond humanity.

A place where closing your eyes meant losing everything.

Anyone who stopped to vomit over every grotesque monster appearance, every blasphemous origin, every bizarre ecological adaptation—

Would die.

I looked away from Odoki and picked up my fallen bayonet.

At that moment Lee Sejun approached, shaking out his right hand after beating the fourth Amalgam to death.

"Mr. Jemin. You okay?"

"I've got it figured out."

The pastor glanced over his shoulder.

Hamza debated what to do with the empty syringe before throwing it toward the Han River.

Shin Nain regulated his breathing.

Lee Sejun wiped his hand on his pants.

It was time to remind everyone that even among the Supreme Mages, there was a strongest.

Even beneath sunlight.

Even without fog.

"I'm taking point again."

"You sure? I can go first."

"No."

There were some things I refused to yield.

Even if I lost an eye.

Even if pain sent me into shock.

I had to be the most useful mage among the Supreme Mages.

I absolutely could not lose to someone like Lee Sejun, whose dream was apparently becoming a gender-swapped anime girl.

"We should get moving before Odoki finishes eating."

The moment Odoki started on the last Amalgam, we began running again.

This time, however, things were completely different.

The stability.

The confidence.

Everything had changed.

Amalgams hiding inside abandoned vehicles.

Predatory Spines waiting in ambush.

They were no longer my opponents.

Our division of labor had become perfect.

First, Shin Nain would shoulder his rifle and fire.

One leg.

One shot.

The Amalgam lost its balance.

"In the Lord's name!"

Then I, Baek Jemin, used the pain scattered throughout my body as fuel and charged.

Bayonet in hand.

Tongue already doomed to develop ulcers.

THUD!

[Degradation].

Then—

100% [Cognitive Distortion]!

Fifty-one steps.

Forty-one cuts.

Three throws.

That had been the price before.

So this time I used it more sparingly.

When the Amalgam was six steps away, I severed only the major tendons and muscle groups it relied upon.

Nine cuts.

No throwing.

I withdrew.

Blink.

The severed limbs floated upward.

Before the monster could even scream, Lee Sejun stepped forward and grabbed its body.

"Here!"

The physical strength of a Stage 3 Heart Mage.

The Amalgam flew through the air.

Straight toward Odoki.

"Daddy! It hurts!"

The creature didn't even finish its dying words.

CRUNCH!

Odoki's jaws closed.

It was a bizarre partnership.

The more prey we fed Odoki, the less aggressively it pursued us.

It felt as though we'd purchased passage across Olympic Bridge by serving monsters to another monster.

The pastor and Hamza absolutely hated it.

But neither could deny its effectiveness.

"Lord, when I stand before Heaven's gate, I'll explain everything. Amen!"

"You shouldn't feed wild animals. They follow you."

"They're probably classified as invasive species!"

Hamza's misplaced concern naturally invited one of Lee Sejun's idiotic responses.

We vaulted over hoods.

Lee Sejun hurled obstacles aside.

Shin Nain occasionally glanced toward the sky.

Seoul's morning was unique from the very beginning.

Then one of the Human-Skin Jellyfish drifted toward us.

Shin Nain and the pastor exchanged a glance and immediately stopped.

"Islam! Magazine ready!"

"Yes!"

Bang! Bang-bang!

Even Human-Skin Jellyfish had become tougher.

What once died from a single bullet now required three or four.

At long range we'd never realized.

But once it noticed us, its characteristic pulsing movement became much faster.

Fast enough that anyone could see how difficult it was to track with a rifle.

The miracle was that only one had slipped through.

"Reloading!"

"Magazine—wait! No!"

Hamza screamed.

Shin Nain spun around in alarm.

Click. Click. Click.

No bullets.

I saw Shin Nain's eyes widen.

Then the Human-Skin Jellyfish blocked him from view.

Of all moments—

While everyone was reloading—

Its target was me.

Baek Jemin.

The lip-covered tentacles opened.

Its flesh swelled.

Then spread outward like a giant net.

And descended.

I could see everything.

Too fast even for Lee Sejun's Blood Fist.

Too fast for Shin Nain.

Too fast for the pastor.

Too fast for Hamza.

But something had changed.

The experience of having Amalgams plastered across my gas mask.

My decision to accept pain willingly.

Those things changed me.

I tightened my grip on the bayonet.

Then, before the Human-Skin Jellyfish could wrap around me—

I charged first.

I thrust the blade forward and dove directly into its body.

I don't know whether I shouted.

Or clenched my jaw.

I only remember one thing.

Inside that black, sticky darkness—

My blade pierced something soft.

And a single thought filled my mind.

Got you.

You son of a bitch.

RIP!

The ancestors had always said:

If you want to kill a tiger, enter the tiger's den.

Every time my blade split the monster open from the inside—

Every time sunlight poured through the wounds—

The lesson became clearer.

The creature's inner flesh writhed in agony.

Unfortunately for it—

It was only a monster.

A beast incapable of appreciating pain.

It merely struggled.

Tried to seize me.

The awakened Grand Mage.

Super Baek Jemin.

Had no intention of letting that happen.

Slash.

Even inside a monster's mouth, I survived.

Slash. Slash.

Before the monster could catch me—

My struggle killed it first.

The reason was simple.

I fight to avoid hell.

SHRAAAAAK!

I stood while tearing apart sheets of human skin and throwing them aside.

Chunks of Human-Skin Jellyfish clung to my poncho.

I stabbed them off with the bayonet.

They dissolved into mist.

Dead.

Huff. Huff.

I had never enjoyed the sound of breathing through a gas mask this much.

After defeating the Human-Skin Jellyfish, the Supreme Mages resumed running.

"Jemin. I've been thinking."

"Yeah?"

"I think you're actually insane."

His chuckling dissolved into coughing.

The laughter spread.

One cough after another.

As we laughed, we glanced up at the sky.

The monsters were still dying.

Contrails and fresh bombardments still crossed the heavens.

But one thing had changed.

The opposite bank of the Han River was closer now.

Hungry.

Just like Odoki.

Who was getting faster and faster.