“It doesn’t smell like rain, or fish, or the rot of decaying corpses. It smells of the peculiar toxic scent unique to amphibians.
I feel the damp chill, soaked with slick moisture, licking across my skin.
I lift my head and look at the dark jungle of gray concrete.
These skeletal towers were built to house hundreds or thousands of people, then abandoned—whether for money or because of monsters, I don’t know.
From the black gaping holes in those grim structures, and from the shadows they cast, emerge humanoid monsters. Very slowly, very deliberately.
Stagger, stumble, reel—thump, then thump again.
These hollow-eyed humans shuffle forward with vacant faces, glazed expressions, their unfocused eyeballs rolling.
Slurp—drip—slurp—
From their gaping mouths flow nauseating pink, wet, wrinkled creatures.
Those wormlike, repulsive beings ooze and slither—drip—slurp.
The skin on their faces balloons, beneath it writhes and bubbles.
Beneath the flesh, the shape of countless worms twists. Too many to fit under the skin, they writhe and rub until they push out the eyeballs and burst through the sockets—whoosh! slurp—slurp—slither—and now the worms pour not only from the mouth but from the empty eye sockets too.
Once the worms touch air, perhaps feeling the slightest discomfort on their sensitive skins, they erupt in a horrific chorus:
“Creeeak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—”
“Creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—”
“Argh, aaah, aaah!”
Screams burst out here and there.
The Bongilcheon thugs shriek in terror.
“Ughk. Ugh! Uaggh—uaggh!”
Following one person’s retching—
“Run! No! I can’t do this! This is wrong! It’s too horrible, it’s disgusting! Save me! What is happening! I feel like I’m going to vomit, stop! No! No! I’m running away! I don’t need money anymore! I don’t want to die!”
A tremendous uproar rises from the rear.
One, then two. People begin backing away slowly.
“You idiots! Get a grip! Get a grip, you fools!”
Yeom Geumja’s roar as he corrals his subordinates. After all, he’s set up as the leader of their group—an NPC role.
So Yeom Geumja possesses the charisma stats fitting that role, along with traits like [Demagogue], [Cruel Commander], [Forced Orders], and [Threatening Shout], all specialized for leading many people.
“Look! Look! Don’t stare at those crawling monsters! Look at the one between you and the monsters! At the Destructor! Look at the Destructor! Look at the Destructor!”
Oh, me? I’m a bit busy right now... Still, to make Yeom Geumja’s rally succeed, I might as well put on a spectacular performance.
I raise both hands and— the nineteen magic crystal guns loaded with harpoons move.
Shlarak! Klik!
Nineteen of them.
I could move them one by one as before, but this time I must move them all simultaneously.
Even a simple spell’s difficulty and the number of calculations soar exponentially when cast multiple times at once.
I’m already using [Invisible Hand] layered nineteen times to move the guns at once. That much isn’t too difficult, but...
[Mana Infusion: Piercing]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
Now thirty-eight effects.
Still manageable.
“All right, let’s do this.”
Beginning with [Mana Overload], I cast the same eight enchantments nineteen times in unison.
Kkkkkkk!!
Kreeeeeee!!
“And now, something more flashy and spicy—”
[Stolen from Heaven]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
Krarrrrum! Krarrrrum—crackle, crackle—cracklecracklecrackle!!
From all nineteen harpoon guns, bolts of electricity burst forth.
Bright blue sparks. The electric light floods out so brightly it pushes back every shadow.
“This is... really intense.”
Grnd-grnd—
That’s the sound of my teeth grinding.
My head bears incredible pressure. How many spells am I casting at once? With [Invisible Hand] and [Mana Infusion], that’s eleven types—209 casts?
I really am insane.
And it’s not over. I keep adding spells.
[Protection Field]
[Spell Boost: Maximization]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
[Impact Nullification]
The strain of all these calculations makes it feel like my brain will pour out of my mouth.
[Clairvoyance]
Shhaaaaaa—
My vision expands dramatically. Through layer upon layer of walls and buildings, I pinpoint the locations I must destroy.
Target acquired.
The crawling Halgok charging in—though I keep calling them worms, they’re the famed yokai Halgok, originally from Tibet, named in China. You know the legend of the blind man who ate worms and opened his eyes to the abyss? Those who consume Halgok gain eyes to see the abyss. Those humans staggering toward me have been forcibly strengthened by abyssal power... Wait, what am I thinking? My brain’s overloaded. Focus, focus—stay sharp!
I aim.
They haven’t noticed yet.
Nineteen harpoons charged with lightning.
All fired simultaneously—
Kwoooooooom!!
Each harpoon follows a strange arc, unleashing massive bolts of electricity.
Krak—crackle—snap! cracklecrackle!
The electric discharge paralyzed the Halgok—those humans driven by the Halgok—instantly.
But that was only a secondary effect I added late.
Like arrows, the harpoons, imbued with lethal piercing and immense destructive power, pierced dozens of walls and ceilings before obliterating my intended targets.
Thunk! Boom! Krak! Kwang! Krnd!
In an instant, twenty large mana constructs vanished.
I’d eliminated the commanders, lieutenants, strategists, sorcerers, communications troops sprinkled throughout the complex.
The cultist high priest was already gone.
With his successors gone too, the Halgok hive-mind lost focus and devolved into base creatures acting only on instinct and reflex.
Drip-drip—thud-thud—
They dropped to the ground, ceasing to move.
“What... what was that?”
“What just happened?”
The Bongilcheon thugs couldn’t comprehend exactly what I’d done.
But they certainly saw bright lights and that their enemies had fallen.
“What? That mage—the Destructor—did something? Right? Are we winning?!” Their unresolved fear and doubt made them hesitate.
For them, the natural demagogue Yeom Geumja shouted in a firm, resolute tone.
“Did you see it, you idiots! Did you see what the Destructor did! Look at how it used the same damned weapons you have! Understand? We have a Destructor! Even if the Samduhoe bastards all gathered, they couldn’t stand against that one Destructor! Got it? Got it? We have a Destructor!”
“Wowww!! Destructor! Destructor!”
“The Destructor blesses us!”
“The Destructor protects us!”
[System: Nearby people are inspired by your heroic deeds. Temporarily remove their Reason checks.]
Yeom Geumja’s wicked smile widened as his rally succeeded. Those thugs... they might evolve from common criminals into fanatics.
“Destructor! Destructor! What should we do next? Attack? Just say one word, say one more word, and these guys can fight anyone!”
Yeom Geumja’s expression screamed bloodlust. She was desperate to let her men feast on blood, but... “Um, ma’am, that’s too fast.”
“Ma’am, those worms are truly just worms now. Have the men tend to the fallen.”
“What? Tend? Not fight? It’s over already?”
“No. It’s not over. Something else is coming, remember?”
Before I finished—
Rrrr—rumble!!
A massive quake.
The complex shook as if about to collapse, with explosive booms. From the large holes in the ground—
“Szzzrrrurrk!!”
“Just like a train...”
As I’d heard, a gigantic worm began to emerge, like a train. It even bore the name [Giant Halmang].
But like most games, it moved the same way the earlier [Blood Leech] ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) did—just a skin change on the same skeleton.
Disappointing. Very disappointing. I muttered as I hopped onto my skateboard.
“Ma’am, can you fight that thing?”
It wasn’t just one. Another appeared behind a building, and then another popped from a hole in the ground. And another, and another.
“No! No way! I can’t do this!”
Yeom Geumja screamed and backed away.
“Very well. Then I’ll handle it as planned.”
[Accelerate]
I thought of what I wanted, could, and had to do as I raced toward the complex at incredible speed, sending my intent to Jang Hyundeok.
“Hey, Super Hyper Magical Jang Hyundeok, remember? Don’t confuse left and right.”
“Ugh, got it.”
“Good. I’ve set up the early phase, so don’t touch it. Just adjust the dials when I tell you.”
As before, this is my real strategy against the abyssal beings—forcing them into a corner.
More than half the prep is done. Now it’s up to Super Hyper Magical Jang Hyundeok.
“Wow! She’s running up walls!”
“Mm, hmm. Truly—this is the first time I’ve seen a mage summon all sorts of spells with just gestures, really the first.”
While Ryu Jaegun marveled at Kim Sinhwa—already Kim Sinhwa stood on an apartment rooftop again. He raised his hand to the sky, then—
Fwoom!
An immense pillar of flame shot from the ground to the sky.
“My god... is that even a human?”
“How is ‘that’ the same as us?”
The Bongilcheon thugs watched Kim Sinhwa darting about in all directions, aghast.
“Huh?”
Jang Hyundeok looked flustered watching them.
There was something off—why were these people behaving like this? Not doing their jobs?
“Hyundeok, adjust. Adjust. It’s coming out now.”
“Ah, yes. Which dial first?”
“First one three clicks right, second dial one click left.”
“Yes, three right. Then one left.”
Hyundeok frantically turned the dials.
In the moment everyone’s attention was diverted—
“Creeak... creak... I heard it, creak—creak...”
From behind Yeom Geumja, behind the Bongilcheon thugs, behind Jang Hyundeok at the mobile barrier control—
“Grrrk—choke—worms, worms. I saw one burst from someone’s head and wriggle into that guy’s body. And choke— hehe—choke— haha. Haha...”
He looked at the hole in his wrist where the worm had burrowed.
Below his skin something writhed like tangled veins.
“Ah—yes, I see—it—see the abyss—ah—distant—dark—lonely—move—rise—to that—to thatto thatto that—to the living altar—”
The fanatic staggered to his feet.
He opened his mouth with a squelch. From his throat spilled the pink, writhing mass.
Now only a faint creak-creak escapes his lips.
Creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—creak creak—
A sound too revolting and horrifying to be human.
