Dark night.
Moonlight spilling a sinister yellow glow.
A quiet hanok nestled among dense trees.
In a sense, you could call it a place with all the makings to stir sentimentality, but among the people in this Bongam Hall, no one feels anything of the sort.
If anything, the exact opposite.
"Wind raging across the land of bitter cold—"
"Rise from the depths of the abyssal dark—"
"Like a furious storm, with your fist strike the foe—"
A jangling chorus of incantations rings through the quiet Bongam Hall where even the insects keep silent.
Whoooooooo—
Magic surges like a storm. Magic circles of every color bloom on all sides, strange runes, dazzling formulae.
[Flame Charge] [Magma Spray]
[Shock Wave] [Force Smash]
[Hex] [Scary Scream]
Rrrrrumble, fwoooosh, KABAAAANG, crackle, screeeeech— spells and curses fly from every direction, spewing every kind of noise.
Aside from a few curses, are these mostly projection-type elemental spells?
"More or less as expected!"
While they waste time on chant and hand signs, I’ve already prepared counters to their spells.
[Lightning Rod]
[Force Field]
[Distortion Field]
[Curse Block]
The instant I trigger a few spells, I thrust mana in all directions—weakening, scattering, and deflecting the enemy magic.
Rrrrrr-ROAR! KAAAAAA! Bzzzzzzzt!
Flashes and sparks leap in every direction. Roof tiles around us burst apart with a clattering roar.
[Fireball]
Oh, a big one’s coming.
"That one gets returned!"
[Chains of Dominion]
Shraaaaak—
I cast out golden chains and snag the incoming fireball.
[System: The trait ‘Spell Thief’ activates.]
Bzzzzzzzt!
For the record, I’ve had this since level 1, but I rarely fought spellcasters, so I couldn’t use it. I rip away control of the spell and—full swing—
Vwaaaaoooom—
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[Spell Boost: Chain Explosion]
The fireball—forced off its designated trajectory—makes a wide circle around me, then with greater firepower and new properties flies back at the enemy.
"Impossible!"
"Ah, that’s what they all say."
[Magic Shield]
[Protect from Fire]
Frantic wards and fire-resistance buffs flash about. Hm, rotten fish is still fish, huh?
KAAAAAA-BOOOOOM!
KA-BOOOM! KA-BOOM!
Right before the explosion,
[System: ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ activates.]
[Enhanced Vigilance] flags the danger. I know already. Underfoot, right?
[Leap]
I spring skyward, and at the same time the one beneath the main hall completes his spell.
[Ice Spike]
Krrr-rrrk!
Huge shards of ice burst up through the roof I was standing on.
"Running won’t help!"
A cultist slams mana into his ice.
[Ice Effect]
Kkrrr-rrrk—
The ice shards surge up, changing in an instant into pillars of ice.
Come to think of it, that voice is familiar.
"Aha, Mr. Kim Seonghwan."
That old guy’s more capable than I thought.
At the peak of my jump I scan the area. Cultists look up at me and chant. Right—normally, spellcasting keeps you quite busy.
"Anyway, so it’s roughly like this?"
Among the cultists, there aren’t many you could call a [Mage Group].
I’ve gauged their level well enough. No need to trade any more blows.
Pointing at the charging ice pillars, I extend my hand and my mana.
Rrrrrr—
Kim Seonghwan’s mana rumbles in protest against my spell, but I’ve already found the weak seam in his formula.
Tzzzk—tzzzk—
[Forced Phase Change]
Fwooooooosh!
Solid to liquid, liquid to gas again.
A spell that manipulates the state of matter. The ice pillars flash-vaporize into an explosive volume of steam.
"Grk—!"
Kim Seonghwan’s scream. Having the magic he was controlling forcibly stolen must have hit him with magical shock.
"Burning serpent that swims the deepest abyss—at my call, rend the earth and reveal yourself—"
A chant from the courtyard.
[Magma Blast]
"That’s enough."
A spell from Western mysticism. The mode of expression differs a little from mine, but the technique amounts to the same thing.
I drive a magical wedge into the completed spell...
[Spell Overload: Magma Blast]
KAAA-BOOM!
"Graaaah! My hands! My hands!"
The cultist screams, staring at both hands blown apart.
At the same time, I extend my mana and give new properties to the steam I made a moment ago.
[Mist of R’lyeh]
[The unique function ‘Yellow Domination’ of the L-grade accessory ‘Mask of Carcosa’ activates.
// Yellow Domination: Adds the effect [Spell Boost: Fear Injection] to certain spells.]
"Kh... it’s illusion! Illusion! If you relax you’ll fall into delir—"
[Lightning Strike]
"—Gyaaaaaaaah!"
"I’ll clear this fog! O wanderer who dances in the palace of the sky, with your cloak, with your pow—"
Now I really understand how broken the [Incantation Omission] trait is.
I thrust mana at the cultist who’s chanting to summon wind and shouted.
"Shut that mouth!"
[Prohibition: ‘You, keep your mouth shut.’]
Shlaaap—shlurrrp—
"Upon this land, be si— mmf!? Mmmf!?"
The cultist’s lips transmute like mucus and fuse together. Where a mouth should be becomes a flat patch of flesh, and the cultist writhes, mmph-mmphing.
Gwoooooooo—
A magically enforced, fear-inducing mist blankets Bongam Hall. There’s no scene here you’d still call a fight.
"Where— where are you! Guh—!"
"Th-that way! Gkah!"
"You monster! Aaagh!"
Trapped in darkness and mist and fear, the cultists scream and flail—and I slip through the fog and drop them one by one.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!
"Gyahaaaaa!"
There are words like fanatic, heretic, cultist, and there are groups that don’t even take religious form.
Even so, the reason people in the [Cthulhu World] deliberately separate those who worship abyssal beings as [Cultists] is because their minds and thought have corroded into something utterly alien.
Ordinary persuasion does not work on them.
You either kill them—
Or inject fear so great it exceeds the madness that shattered their minds.
I seized one cultist by the head and pulled him close, whispering.
"Look into my eyes. Pick whichever you like of the four."
A ghastly monster’s face reflects in his pupils.
A pitch-black face. Four eyes set in uncanny places. A chilling golden gleam. Hm. It’s my face, but it’s pretty horrific.
"Aaah! Aaaaaaah!"
I ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) twist and crush the instinctive magical defense he throws up, then drive into his mind.
[Mind Shrink]
Viiiiiiiiiin—
"Gguh— gggkh—"
"Stop it! You monster!"
A voice cuts in from beyond the fog—prepping a spell, are we? That voice... Kim Seonghwan?
Without taking my eyes off the cultist in front of me, I fling a spell that way.
[Rushing Current]
Shshshshshaaah!
"Uwoooorgh!"
Kim Seonghwan flounders, swept up by the wave.
That old guy didn’t have any great intel in the last run, either.
I whisper to the cultist in my grip, now sunk in delirium. My voice must sound very sweet and beguiling.
『You want to tell me where the Rakreks Codex is.』
"Ah, I want to tell you where the thing called the Rakreks Codex is. Aaah— but what should I do? I don’t know what it is, so I can’t tell you. Maybe comrades from another branch know? Moon Gyeongnam heard that someone in another branch acquired a mysterious object filled with unknown wisdom. Maybe it’s connected to the ruins they say were found under Nakwham in Buyeo. When Moon Gyeongnam arrives tomorrow, he’ll tell you more, won’t he? Aaah, but what should I do about this desire to speak right now? Will this craving disappear only if I die?"
"Eh, wrong."
I interrogated Moon Gyeongnam already. He rambled off almost exactly what I just heard now.
[Charge Infusion: Static]
Bzzzt!
I enchant the prattling cultist with magic, then use telekinesis to hurl him toward the others.
Bzzzt! Bzzap! Bzzzzzt!
"Aaagh!"
"Graaaah!"
The thrown cultist turns into a hazard like an overcharged battery, spewing electricity in all directions.
‘Has it been roughly ten minutes?’
It’s still about ten minutes to midnight, but it seems there’s no one left worth fighting.
‘Mm, I did think it wouldn’t be hard, but this is too easy. Another trap somewhere?’
They aren’t usually this weak.
Even that Kim Seonghwan still floundering over there—he’s at least famous enough to be a 0.8 Judge if not a full Judge for a decent cult.
We literally saw the veteran elders of the [Evergreen Mountaineering Club] lose to these people earlier, didn’t we?
Ah!
"I get it!"
All that time I was fighting bound by penalties—madness and the rest—
"Right, I was actually pretty strong."
If the classes were different I could play the matchup, but when the class is the same, the higher-level one wins in the end.
Conversely, that means there’s less than ten minutes left to fight this comfortably.
Flap-flap-flap—
The [Bongam Tome] that had been rolling across the wrecked floor flutters its cover like wings and flies into my hand like a bird.
This time I’ve obtained the [Bongam Tome].
I’ve subdued the cultists who sought the descent of the [Great Source], and I’ve obtained the grimoire that contains the spell to block the [Great Source]’s descent.
It was originally a book you could get only after a somewhat complicated set of prerequisite quests, but since the elder [Guardian of Bongam Hall] met misfortune, it turned out like this...
Hard to feel glad—my mood is complicated.
So I spoke toward the faint spirit watching me from afar.
"Guardian. What do you think? Shall I avenge you?"
At the same time I raised my left hand and pointed at the cultists rolling on the floor.
Do you want it? Shall I grant it? A blood vengeance, I mean.
But the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] shook his head and expressed a different, unknowable wish.
『Stop her anger and sorrow.』
"Who is she?"
『Stop her.』
Who?
Mm... a woman, a woman.
Moon Seunghee? Curtain Call? Or—someone else who hasn’t appeared yet?
What’s different between this run and the last?
Well, the idiots who should have died here tonight with their heads cut off—I beat them down and let them live.
"Could it be that person?"
Come to think of it, she’s been mentioned a few times, but not in the last run and not yet now—there’s one person who hasn’t appeared.
I can guess.
"Grrr—"
"Urrrrgh—"
While I’m distracted, some cultists inch toward the main gate. Looks like they think I haven’t noticed, but I just let them go.
‘It seems the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] doesn’t want that.’
Even if they flee like that, they can’t cause any special trouble. Some had their mana cores wrecked in the fight, others are stuck with curses I bounced back.
They’ll probably need weeks just to regroup, and that burden will land on Moon Gyeongnam.
Creeeeak—
The main gate opens.
"Right, if you’re getting a pass, then leave quietly. And never forget for the rest of your lives—it wasn’t my pardon, it was the Guardian’s."
They might get attacked by the enraged [Evergreen Mountaineering Club] before they even get out of Seoraksan, but that’s their own damn fault.
Rather than that, I open the book to check what’s in the [Bongam Tome].
[System: ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ activates.]
"By what right do you speak for the Guardian of Bongam Hall?"
Huh?
A woman’s—an older woman’s—voice.
I jerk my mana up and turn my head.
"Ah, terrible timing."
"You... what are you?"
A voice steeped in wrath.
Strikingly tall. Ramrod posture. A mane of white hair.
Black leather pants like something out of a Western, a leather belt with holsters.
If she had a revolver hanging there it would be quite the look, but the things at her waist are two longswords.
In other circumstances, I would have thought she was a truly splendid grandmother, but right now, the timing is bad.
"Is this all your doing?"
"This? From where to where does ‘this’ refer, exactly?"
It’s not just the timing—that’s not the only problem.
Even if the battle’s over, I wasn’t off my guard.
Right up until the gate opened, I failed to sense her approach. Which means that grandmother... is skilled enough to slip past my detection.
"You’re splitting hairs."
"Grrrrrrrr."
She does seem that angry, but that growl isn’t from her.
Beside the splendidly dressed grandmother stands—truly a monster—truly horrific—an enormous dog that answers her anger with a snarl aimed at me.
"No, no! Ma’am! If you’re who I think, you can see what just happened here!"
"I can."
She nods slowly and walks toward me.
Step—step—her footfalls are so steady and stylish they recall a runway model.
"You dared run wild in Bongam Hall, and you’re holding the precious book my friend guarded."
"..."
Yes, it’s exactly her.
Leader of the [Evergreen Mountaineering Club], a hunter belonging to the [Hunter Mutual Aid Association].
Jeong Bokja.
No, not conqueror as in someone who destroys and subjugates (Conqueror).
Just a grandmother with the family name Jeong and the given name Bokja.
Although most people call her the [Conqueror], the terrifying fixer who destroys and subjugates.
She takes one more step toward me.
Again, this is truly awful timing.
Until midnight—until new madness manifests...
There are now less than five minutes left.
