"A terrible disaster.
Even that phrase can’t explain it.
Hell, reenacted in the human world.
Insufficient. Woefully insufficient.
A cataclysm that should never have happened. A ghastly calamity never to be provoked. A surreal monster no one should challenge.
Or Yang Seonho.
The cultists had thrown hundreds of people and black-marketed weapons at Yang Seonho, and now they were experiencing the consequences of that foolish choice.
‘Uwaaaaaa!’
"Attack! Attack!"
"Running is more dangerous!"
"Advance! Advance!"
Unable to flee backward, the cultists fled forward.
Raise your weapons. Attack. Maybe you’ll get to the end with your life intact.
Yang Seonho narrowed her brow slightly and looked around.
"Still a long way to go."
A couple more trucks, then? Decision made, Yang Seonho swung her fist without hesitation at the cultists rushing her.
[shiiiik—]
It wasn’t some named technique.
A straight punch anyone who practices striking arts can throw.
[ku—]
A fist moved at an impossible speed tore the air and birthed a pressure wave.
The pressure wave wobbled outward at the speed of sound—but Yang Seonho’s fist outran that wave and kept accelerating.
[oooooo—]
The pressure wave struggled to keep up behind her fist, compressing without end.
Compressed and compressed again, the pressure wave flipped into a shock wave.
[PWOOOOOOM—]
Space along the strike path warped under the shock wave.
Only those far from the blast center could manage a scream.
[KWAAAAAAAAANG!]
Absurd impact.
Anyone caught in a middling position pinwheeled away, blood jetting from every opening in their body.
"Uwaaaaa!"
[BWAAAAAANG!]
Dozens of armored trucks, bristling with vicious spines, charged at Yang Seonho.
"There were still trucks left?"
The cultists’ attacks came in loose waves instead of all at once.
Yang Seonho knew this was their delaying tactic.
And though everyone misread it, Yang Seonho herself wasn’t moving to massacre—so she advanced slowly, punching as she went.
[pop!]
A crisp impact, like popping a champagne cork.
Without stopping her fist, Yang Seonho pushed through—
The truck shattered into fragments that became hundreds, thousands of bullets spraying in all directions.
[KWAGWAGWAGWANG!!]
Walls of trucks and plate steel collapsed in under 0.1 seconds.
An explosion from a single disintegrating truck propagated outward.
Some wrecks couldn’t withstand the force and simply vaulted skyward, sailing over the mountain.
A transcendent spectacle that ignored the laws of physics.
The next attacks they’d planned should have followed, but the cultists couldn’t bring themselves to move.
"Ah... ah..."
"This is impossible..."
Yang Seonho suddenly halted and glanced around.
What now? Why stop? She’s pulling something from her jacket?
Cultists far away watched her in terror, afraid of what she’d do.
What she produced was shaped like a horn... a megaphone. Not a special artifact.
Compact for easy carry but truly high-quality gear. A retail model you could order online anytime.
"Ah—ah—can you hear me, you cultist brats!!"
Using a megaphone was, in fact, a courtesy to the enemy.
If Yang Seonho really screamed, the shock alone could swat down incoming fireballs.
"From now, for thirty seconds. I’m offering you a surrender window!!"
What? What did she say? A surrender window? What’s that? Oh—surrender? Now? Suddenly?
The cultists facing Yang Seonho couldn’t process what was happening, but the reason her advance hadn’t been faster was because she kept repeating this routine.
"If you want to close out your dark past and become a sound, upright pillar of our great and beautiful Republic of Korea, then raise both hands now..."
As she said it, Yang Seonho raised her left hand straight up, then sliced from right to left.
[krzzzzzt—]
From her hand’s edge burst... a blade of air? Wind shear? Telekinesis? Even Yang Seonho didn’t know which—but some shock front split the ground in a long line before her.
"Walk over here. Starting now. 30, 29, 28..."
Uh—uhhhh—wait! I’ll surrender! I’m not a cultist! Yang Seonho! Please! Spare me! I’ll wipe the slate clean and be good!
Criminals who’d joined for money or fame peeled out of the ranks.
Those moving on twisted faith and alien doctrine couldn’t be persuaded or bought this way.
Even so, some cultists abandoned their creed and chose surrender.
Because the merciless violence and surreal might Yang Seonho displayed terrorized them enough to make them drop their faith.
"15, 14, 13."
Counting down, Yang Seonho suddenly closed her mouth and cocked her head.
Someone had appeared wearing a strange robe constellated with pinpricks of light—as if the Milky Way had been pulled from the night and woven there.
A movement unlike the ones headed to surrender.
He stopped about thirty paces away, as if he wanted a standoff with Yang Seonho, and faced her.
With the hand not holding the megaphone, Yang Seonho raised two fingers and pointed at an awkward spot in empty air, frowning—like she was straining to recall the name of someone she hadn’t seen in a while.
"Mmm... you—that mask."
"Yeah. That mask."
"‘Yeah,’ my ass. You standing there to get punched?"
She clucked her tongue and made a light, threatening feint.
"I told you earlier, right? If you’re going to surrender, put both hands up and cross this line. If you stand there, you get punched."
"I didn’t come to surrender. I came to talk."
"Yeah? We at about thirteen seconds?"
"Probably."
"Then you get punched."
Yang Seonho kicked off the ground and surged forward.
A horrifying flurry of attacks.
Not just one.
[babababababak!!]
Simultaneous strikes from every direction.
‘Ugh. As expected—nowhere near normal.’
A frail mage like me, if I let even one of those through, would have my limbs torn off and die on the spot.
Fluorescent mana circuits flared along the hems of the [Robe of the Night’s Veil].
"Up we go!"
[Distortion Field]
[Barrier of Force]
[Protective Ward]
[viiiiiiiiin!]
Layered protections, cast at once.
Don’t meet it head-on. Angled on purpose, the spells bled the enemy’s strikes aside in tandem with the distortion.
At the same time, the mana circuits fanning from my robe’s hem spread out and assembled a working array.
"Magic?!"
A government esper shouted.
"Yeah—magic!"
I said it—and then triggered the prepped spells in sequence.
[Mists of R’lyeh]
[Exploding Smoke]
[shhhhhhhhh—]
A magical fog that nullifies detection and an unstable, explosive smoke spread, veiling their vision.
[Shadow Veil]
[Emergency Escape]
[Leap]
[Rapid Maneuver]
At the same moment, I wrapped myself in darkness and sprang forward.
[whooop—]
My view tunneled, sucking backwards.
Everything in the world stretched into long lines and fled.
"Kim Sinhwa!"
A voice calling my name.
What, you only just figured out who I am?
I snapped my fingers and triggered the arrays I’d launched.
[viiiin—]
『Now!』
『Everyone, attack the enemy!』
『Advance! This way!』
『Charge!』
Simple magic that stores messages and replays them remotely.
A novice just starting out could manage this much.
But to infuse those messages with a tailored intent that steers a crowd takes a more complex rite.
[Elation]
[Voice of Authority]
[Instill Violence]
[Horn of the Berserker]
Everyone who heard my voice erupted in magical euphoria and an irresistible urge to violence, and they roared.
"Uwaaaaa!"
"Crush the enemy!"
"Charge!"
People rampaged inside the fog that nullified sense.
[KWAANG!]
"Hey, the fog’s seeded with exploding smoke, so go easy with the thrashing!"
Probably couldn’t hear that. I pushed forward even faster.
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ activates.]
[vwoooooom!]
A pitch-black shadow had somehow tucked in behind me.
"Ugh, damn."
Even in the sudden fog, Yang Seonho didn’t lose her target.
How do you fight a mage?
Simple.
Hit them before they can use magic.
[shiiiiik—]
Her hand-edge flashed in like lightning.
Taang! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!
Bullets, fired wild by cultists and criminals who’d started spraying the moment the fog bloomed, streaked toward her too, but she didn’t stop her chopping hand.
[crack!]
The sound of flesh shearing and bone crushing.
[vwooooooom!!]
The blast of air that followed pinged every bullet away.
"Krgh!"
The wind didn’t just blow bullets aside.
The mage she’d targeted pinwheeled far back and skidded over the ground.
"Ugh, damn it!"
Black blood gushed from where his left leg had been.
It had been a casual backhand with her hand-edge—yet the entire left leg was gone.
[shrrrrrrrrk—]
‘Magic?’
The masked mage’s blood clotted in an instant and formed a strange prosthetic that gleamed jet-black. He snapped into a ready stance.
"Stubborn one."
At that level, it wouldn’t matter if I lopped off all his limbs.
"Can we talk for a second!"
Saying so, he flared mana in all directions.
[shrrrrrk—]
Tendrils of black, mana-wrought darkness and shards of bone coiled around Yang Seonho.
"Annoying."
At last, Yang Seonho tossed the megaphone aside, swept her hands, and ripped the tendrils away.
They were packed with heavy mana, but they came apart like dry weeds.
[shiiiiiik—]
Her fist drew back to launch straight ahead again.
[viiiiiiiiiiiiin!]
Sensing her intent, the mage instantly cast defenses to shield himself.
"Yeah—block well. Let’s meet alive."
Again, not a named finisher.
Just a straight punch.
[KUUUUUUUUUUM!!]
With a colossal blast, she shredded air, wards, and flesh—then knocked every other cultist who’d been rushing in spinning away.
[KWAAAAAAAAANG!]
The explosion that followed wasn’t a second punch.
As the straight punch completed, the added shock wave discharged with massive heat, carving a huge crater around Yang Seonho.
"Got you, you goblin punk!"
Bestial claws. A lion’s wild mane. Eyes writhing under his hair. A little shorter than me.
"Ah—Shin Woojin. Came tailing Yang Seonho?"
A named NPC of the Foreign Administration, and Yang Seonho’s closest aide—Shin Woojin.
"Tricks like this won’t hide you from my eyes!"
"Great. Lots of eyes to help you see."
"Kraaaa!"
Shin Woojin lunged with a predator’s roar.
"Good grief."
[viiiin!]
From my fingertips blossomed a blue-lit sigil.
[Torrent]
[Wave of Destruction]
[KWARARARARARUM!!]
From the completed array poured a massive surge of water.
"Tch!"
Shin Woojin scrambled, vaulting onto a heavy, armored truck.
Crouched catlike atop it, he let out a metallic screech—kyaaaak.
"Well look at that, you’ve got a tail too. Cute, cute."
[Touch of the Deep]
[shrrrrrrrrk!]
The torrent-shaped water warped into sticky, viscous tendrils and wrapped Shin Woojin.
"Uwaaaagh!"
He was dragged into the fog and vanished. Anyone else I need to worry about?
[KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!]
An explosion thudded in the distance.
And with it, a message reached me.
"Figures—stalling won’t cut it."
[KWARARARARARUM!]
Water roared somewhere far off.
"What now?"
Yang Seonho frowned and turned.
The direction of the sound...
Southwest?
Fog bloomed everywhere. Cultists rampaged in hysteria. Explosions barked here and there.
And...
At Yang Seonho’s feet lay a completely wrecked masked mage.
Not just dismembered—the whole body was in pieces.
No—this wasn’t human.
"I was duped."
She had pummeled it, thinking it a high-ranking cultist blessed by a denizen of the Abyss.
But it wasn’t human to begin with. Likely a homunculus—an artificial being made through necromancy by some cultist.
She’d wasted time falling for a pointless ploy.
To the southwest lay the main force built of armored trucks—and there was Dokgo Gyeom, whom Yang Seonho had to escort.
"Wait!!!"
[KWAAAAAANG!]
Yang Seonho bellowed and launched into the sky.
She had no flight ability. Just a leap.
At the apex, she tucked and kicked off empty air.
[PWOOM!]
Her feet, moving subsonic, struck a compressed shock-front of air.
[KWA-A-A-AANG! KWA-A-A-A-AANG!]
Explosions chained one after another.
Yang Seonho hurtled at insane speed toward where Kim Sinhwa was.
Raising absurd storms and whorled lightning in the sky—
"Damn it. Kim Sinhwa, you son of a—"
Struggling to reassemble the shredded flesh on the ground, the [Smiling One] muttered.
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ activates.]
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ activates.]
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ activates.]
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ activates.]
"Ah, she’s coming she’s coming she’s coming! Clear out! Clear out! Clear out!"
[KWAAAAAANG!]
[Overrunning Wave]
[Chain Lightning]
Seas of water crashed from every side and lightning bleached the world white.
[KWARARARARUM! KRAK! BZZZZZT!]
I bowled away charging officials and fixers and punched into the [Foreign Administration Mobile Base] built from armored trucks and helicopters.
[Shrapnel Burst]
[Great Upheaval]
[KWA-A-A-AANG!]
Even the exosuit-armored mechanized officials got tossed as I forced my way through—until finally I arrived.
[Unlock]
[krrrrrrrrrk—]
I cracked the heavy armor and the layered wards of the lock and—
"Who’s there?"
"Kim Sinhwa."
"...Who the hell is that?"
"You remember Heo Sanghyun, right?"
"..."
In the transport prison, Dokgo Gyeom bared his teeth and glared at me.
"Why are you rescuing me?"
"Mm. Let’s just say it’s a complicated way to make a friend."
"What?"
Dokgo Gyeom asked back, incredulous.
[KWAAAAAANG!]
Overhead, the clouds exploded.
Ah, here she comes.
No time to talk.
"I’m about to grab you and bolt. It’ll be better if you cooperate. If you won’t, I’ll have to run with a corpse."
