"Mr. Kim Sinhwa, aa— Mr. Kim Sinhwa! Please, please listen to me!
No! No! I’m not— I’m not crazy yet!
It’s true! I’m in my right mind! Honestly, I feel like I could go mad any second, but I’m really not mad.
Yang Seoho is dead. It’s true.
So...
Ah, I don’t even know where to start.
No, please listen!
Aaah, please, please listen to me!
In Gongju— yes, in Gongju, I was waiting for the friends you said you would send me.
Right. The cultist friends.
The one called Hyeolhu turned out to be better than I expected.
I mean “better” only within the scope of a cultist, of course, but still, we could at least talk, so it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t my first time collaborating with people like that, so we got along quickly.
Once we gathered in Gongju, we started work right away.
It was still before Yang Seoho— that is, before the people she gathered, the [Escort Team] assembled to transport Dokgo Gyeom to Sejong City, had set out. Yes, this was yesterday.
Just as you advised, we decided to give up on attempting anything directly against Yang Seoho.
We’d heard that someone who tried something similar to me nearly died. She really is a crazy woman.
So I approached the cultist side.
They...
Right. This is just as you said too. They were gathered not in Gongju but around Nakhwaam in Buyeo.
We had no choice but to move there as well.
The [Assault Team]— ah, they said remnants of the Mansae Ilwon Church had gathered, but since it was a group of cultists from various sects plus people who’d do anything for money, they didn’t use any specific sect name.
So they called themselves the [Assault Team].
It’s a game-like term. Anyone would agree Yang Seoho is a monster. From a game-sense perspective, maybe it’s even the right word.
We infiltrated that [Assault Team].
Its core was what used to be called the Masquerade— ah, do you know it? Yes. It was composed of sect-leader-level figures from each cult.
Fortunately, Mr. Hyeolhu had ties to that Masquerade, so infiltrating wasn’t difficult.
The work itself wasn’t hard. In fact, the response was enthusiastic.
But they didn’t ask for Yang Seoho’s location—they asked for something completely different.
Yes, I have the ability called [Dowsing], don’t I? If a few conditions are met, I can find anyone.
At the time, I couldn’t understand it.
Why look for someone unrelated at a time like this? Who were they that it was so urgent?
But they promised compensation enough to convince me. Considering their current situation, it was obviously money squeezed out to the limit.
I soon began the search.
People, people, people.
Right. People. I helped them find people.
People.
I have [Dowsing], don’t I? If a few condi— ah, I said that already? Right. I see. Understood.
Anyway, I soon pinpointed where they were.
They were in a truly absurd place.
Not east, not south, not west, not north, not left, not right.
They were below.
Below! Below! They were underground.
That’s Buyeo, right? I mean Nakhwaam. There was a cave down there you could descend into.
What? You knew?
You told me earlier?
Really?
Ah, I’m confused. Confused. Art— Atia tra— h— mua— no— I’m fine. What did I say? Art? You say I said that? No. I never did.
Yes, yes. Yes. Hoo— haa—.
Yes, thank you. I’m calming down a little.
Right.
They were underground. To be precise, they’d been stranded in an underground ruin. Under Nakhwaam there was something very deep, dark... a ruin tangled like a labyrinth.
It seems they discovered something there.
Ah...
Now I remember.
Right.
I’d heard the rumor before.
That somewhere around there they’d found something in a ruin. And believing in that object’s power, they planned to confront Yang Seoho.
Yes.
I’m the one who said that.
Ah— aa— but what on earth did I do? I shouldn’t have found that for them.
I’m the one who did it.
Yes. That [Assault Team] had in fact excavated something from the ruin earlier, but apparently not everything.
During the excavation, there were people who were stranded while holding important relics.
What the [Assault Team] was looking for wasn’t those people themselves, but the relic they were carrying.
It took quite a long time, but I managed to find them somehow. It required earthworks bordering on impossible, but after all, they’re cultists with superhuman abilities, aren’t they?
In the end, they were able to rescue all the stranded.
The stranded, those stranded...
The intel we were given said clearly they were people in their twenties.
I remember that for sure.
Most of the stranded were kids in their early twenties, born after the Great Collapse.
But when they came out of the ground, they were gaunt like seventy-year-olds, hair white as snow, and their skin was blotched with black spots like some horrific plague.
And they spoke this bizarre language: “Sshiik-shak— hwir— cha— k, t’a.”
No, you didn’t mishear.
I was right there, hearing what they said.
It’s true. They definitely said that.
They definitely said, “Sshiik-shak— hwir— cha— k, t’a.” At first I thought it was some odd dialect. Not Korean—Chinese. Honestly, I’m more familiar with Chinese than Korean.
And since I often deal with people entering Korea by various routes from many nations, I’ve heard a lot of different Chinese dialects and even languages from entirely different countries.
But that was, I swear, a strange and ominous tongue I’d never heard once in my life.
A grotesque, baleful pronunciation no human could imitate. Sshiik-shak— hwir— cha— k, t’a. Cha— sshiik— t— k’a— t.
Among the things they brought out, there was one especially strange object. Honestly, the others were strange too, but that one was exceptional.
One stranded man clutched it—he went berserk to keep it from being taken. Yes, even when a Mansae Ilwon Church officer told him to hand it over, he growled like a beast, drooled thick saliva—bit and clawed in resistance.
It was madness—he couldn’t even speak human words, as if he’d forgotten he’d ever been human. In the end, the cultists had no choice but to kill him.
It was uncanny. A man had died, and yet the cultists looked even more excited because of it.
They— one cultist there called that thing the [Soul Seal].
Or maybe I misheard what he said as [Soul Pollution].
I was afraid, afraid, afraid— I had the sense something irreversible was unfolding, but there was nothing I could do.
Mr. Hyeolhu said, “It’s strange. Something’s gone wrong.”
I also thought it felt bad. I tried to contact you, Mr. Kim Sinhwa. But you didn’t pick up. We called again and again and again and again. You wouldn’t answer.
Why didn’t you?
If we’d gotten through then, maybe things would be a little different.
In the end a day passed, and it became today.
I don’t know what power that thing called the [Soul Seal] will exert, but if a real fight breaks out, there’s nothing more I or Mr. Hyeolhu can do.
So we sold the intel on Yang Seoho’s location and pulled back.
Mr. Hyeolhu suggested we needed to watch a bit longer—so we moved toward Chilgapsan. We didn’t go all the way there. There was a spot with a good view in that direction.
It was a spectacle I’ll be hard-pressed to see again.
Dozens of armed trucks and armored vehicles; as for Yang Seoho—whether she borrowed them from the military or what, I don’t know, but she even mobilized dozens of helicopters.
Just as you said before, she looked like she was saying, “Come if you dare.”
The assault began soon after.
Yang Seoho jumped out of a truck and ran faster than the truck—crisscrossing—moving in a truly monstrous way, destroying everything.
Not a person— a tank? No, that’s not even the right metaphor.
It was like a giant blender.
Only then did I realize the role of the people Yang Seoho had gathered.
They were there to recover the bodies that piled up where she swept through—or to rescue those lucky enough to survive.
Rescue— yes, I said “rescue.”
It wasn’t violence—it was a natural disaster.
A storm, a tidal wave, an earthquake, and Yang Seoho.
That’s what it deserves to be called.
The cultists caught in her sweep didn’t look like victims of an enemy attack; they looked like refugees swept up in an absurd calamity.
The role of the people Yang Seoho gathered was to rescue them.
The cultists began surrendering or fleeing in a frenzy.
That was what was happening just a short while ago.
But— but— but—
But— but— but— but— but— but— but— but— suddenly one cultist ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ stepped forward.
Yang Seoho didn’t even glance that way.
That was a terrible mistake. In his hand was the [Soul Seal]. If he hadn’t been holding it, I wouldn’t have looked that way either.
But what he held was definitely the [Soul Seal], and he said, “Kr— cha— ukt’a— v— tof— sha— s’aak.”
Yes, “Kr— cha— ukt’a— v— tof— sha— s’aak.”
At the same moment, that cultist suddenly collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.
No. No! No! Yang Seoho didn’t do anything! And yet that cultist just died!
Please let me finish!
What came next is the problem!
Then Yang Seoho died! No! It’s true!
Nothing flew at her, there was no attack on Yang Seoho. No light, no lightning, no flame, nothing surreal— I mean nothing visible to the eye happened.
And yet Yang Seoho died!
Aaah— kr— ker— ve— utu-shin— hal— pu, k’thun—
It’s not over yet.
The corpses are rising.
The dead are getting up.
Even now, in the very moment I’m speaking, the bodies piled there are rising and gathering toward the [Soul Seal]—or maybe toward that relic that might be [Soul Pollution].
And the people too! Not just the dead—people too!
They’re getting up and running that way!
Gathering into one, squashing, crushing, mashing into a single mass! People turning to pulp—sagging, heaving, writhing.
Mr. Kim Sinhwa, are you listening?
What is that monster? Aaah, Mr. Kim Sinhwa! Do you know what that is? Why is that monster making that grotesque “Tekeli-li!” sound?
Aaah— Mr. Kim Sinhwa! Mr. Kim Sinhwa! Look at the sky! Look at the sky!
The stars— the stars are finding their places.
What is happening right now? What on earth is happening right now? To me, and what on earth is happening here?
Mr. Kim Sinhwa, are you listening?
Can you tell me, by any chance?
Why am I—
Why do I want to become one with them?
Aaah— what is—
What is—
What is happening— to me?"
