Do you know this?
Humans were never the true owners of this land.
Before modern humans lifted their devious heads to look up at the sky and stood on two legs—this world was ruled by dogs.
Dogs of that age had a shape entirely unlike today. With superior physical prowess, keen intelligence, and the astonishing power blessed by the gods, they administered Earth.
Humanity was created as a race to be the dogs’ slaves. Many things happened, and humans reduced dogs to slavery instead.
But the dogs remember.
The age of radiant glory.
And the dogs are waiting.
For the day they sink those sharp, threatening teeth into humankind.
“Mage! Get a hold of yourself!”
That’s Jang Hyundeok’s voice.
I know.
That’s Jang Hyundeok.
He’s wearing a golden crown on his head, so it must really be the actual Jang Hyundeok.
What conclusion can we draw from that?
Ha ha, there’s no conclusion to draw.
Humanity is doomed anyway.
Look.
Those gigantic hands are flying toward Jang Hyundeok. He made a cool entrance for a moment, but he’ll meet a hollow death soon enough.
[snarl] [screech]
Well now? The dogs are charging at me too.
Right, humanity’s doom isn’t the immediate problem. I’m about to die. These are the dogs who’ve waited only for the day to take revenge on humans.
They disguised themselves for a moment as Jang Hyundeok to deceive me, but now that they’ve turned back into dogs, they’ll kill me any second.
Did you know?
In Egyptian myth, there’s a god called Anubis.
The god of death with a pitch-black dog’s head. Why did Egyptians think the god of death wore a dog’s head?
It’s all connected. They knew.
That death someday approaches in the form of a savage dog.
“Mr. Kim! Snap out of it!”
Ah, Seo Cheonseul.
He’s attacking the dog that was coming at me. As always, Seo Cheonseul flashes here and there. That aside—he’s incredible, isn’t he?
In East Asian lore, dogs are said to drive out the unclean and chase away the uncanny.
A dog’s eyes can see what humans can’t, and a dog’s howl shrivels the power of ghosts.
Which is why even Seo Cheonseul won’t be able to wield proper power against dogs. Sorry, Captain of Heavenly Gold. We’re dying together.
No—thinking about it. I used to have a past where I feared blood.
Goblins fear blood. Even so, Seo Cheonseul fought courageously. What a guy. Amazing.
But I’m a weak human. I can’t fight like you.
[rumble]
Colossal hands rearing up toward the sky.
Isn’t that gorgeous?
[Source of Life] is moving to finish me.
As I am now, I can’t block the flick of those gigantic fingers, and if that giant super-flick lands, my head will pop off my body and probably fly—over there—to Geoje Island.
[rumble]
Huh? Guess not?
Hey, you there! Pretty hands? Where are you going right now? I’m over here, you know?
But the hands ignore me and surge in a completely different direction.
And there is...
“Mage! Get a hold of yourself!”
Jang Hyundeok’s voice again.
[ratatatatatat—]
Machine-gun fire?
Huh? What is that?
If I’m not insane, Jang Hyundeok is riding a call van shaped like a giant owl with four wings.
The call van has three legs, and on each of those three legs it’s carrying a machine gun.
I put them on. Yeah, Red, looking good.
[crash]
The owl-shaped call van starts firing streams of machine-gun rounds and casting a spell.
“Ki-iiiiii!!”
Red, you brat. Stop siphoning my mana.
A tide surging high enough to blot out the sky.
Even so, the gigantic hands conjured by [Source of Life] aren’t easily dealt with. Seems every hand in the area has gathered here.
“Hyaaaaap!!”
And then—Super Magical Jang Hyundeok.
Golden Jang Hyundeok wearing a golden crown with golden blossoms; in one hand he’s holding an insanely cool seven-branched sword—and from the other he’s blasting golden mana.
What is that?
No, wait.
Is that thing Jang Hyundeok’s holding... is it [Blade of Flesh]—
[Time Stop]
[L!U!C!A!: bubble— bubble bubble—]
Denied. As I said last time, that target cannot be the objective of your ability.
[L!U!C!A!: bubble— bubble bubble—]
That target is under priority of [Yellow]. While [Yellow] is exerting influence, you cannot exert influence regardless of the hierarchy of power.
Trigger an appropriate effect to move the target emotionally, or use another ability.
—is it?
Jang Hyundeok suddenly appearing from nowhere. Petals scattering in all directions around him.
Ah—
Aah... I get it.
Jang Hyundeok awakened as a magical girl, opening his eyes to the power of love, friendship, and hope?
The Super Magical Jang Hyundeok who became a magical girl grabbed [Blade of Flesh] and ran—hold on? What?
That’s odd.
Don’t tell me...
They didn’t use Jang Hyundeok to ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) lure me in...
So they didn’t take Jang Hyundeok hostage to catch me—
They took me hostage to catch Jang Hyundeok, who smuggled away [Blade of Flesh]?
“Good grief, this delirium is really serious. What kind of insane delusion is—”
[Time Stop]
[Yellow: strokes the mask.]
Conditions met. Transmitting a message to the Feast’s Offering.
[L!U!C!A!: bubble— bubble bubble—]
“—this.”
[KA-BOOOOM!!]
Still, the Jang Hyundeok my hallucination is showing me is fighting convincingly.
Threads of mana created by Heo Jihyun—Heo Sanghyun’s aunt—shoot in golden trails from every direction—
“Left! A little higher!”
Park Gwangrim, who has activated [Dowsing], calls out the directions Jang Hyundeok needs to move.
“Ki-iiiiii!!”
“Bahaha! This body is here too!”
[KRA-KOOOM!]
Where firepower is lacking, Seo Cheonseul and Red make up for it. No matter how you look at it, it’s a bizarre combo—but the result they put together is pretty convincing.
Mm... I have to admit it now.
[System : You are moved by your comrades’ heroic actions. The effect of delirium weakens temporarily.]
“Kim Sinhwa! Cast a spell right now!”
I can feel it too—the delirium has eased a little. But the phobia hasn’t vanished—and the delirium hasn’t cleared completely either.
Right now I’m trapped in a strange symptom that makes everything feel unreal. How should I describe it? I don’t know. It’s like I’m not in reality, my mind is hazy.
I am looking at things with my eyes, but it’s like I’m watching through a screen far away—and I can move my limbs, but it feels like I’m forcibly piloting some object far away that isn’t my body.
So even in the face of the danger pressing up against my eyes, I don’t feel that immediacy of what response to mount or how to mount it.
“Sinhwa! Hurry and cast a spell!”
Ah, right. This is depersonalization, isn’t it? Fascinating. Feels like an out-of-body experience.
But why do they keep telling me to cast a spell?
[snarl]
The beasts Seo Cheonseul knocked away are springing back out.
“I—I can’t let this go on!” “Move!”
Alien Hand Syndrome, right on cue?
No—someone in my head wrested control of my left hand. Probably the fox—my left hand moves on its own—
[jingle]
[The S-rank magical device ‘Silver Bell of the Underworld’ triggers its innate functions, ‘Lure of Pure Silver’ and ‘Dominion of Pure Silver.’
// Dominion of Pure Silver: Automatically casts the spell ‘Voice of Authority’ on the designated target and increases the effect of ‘mental-type’ spells by 100%.]
What? Who are you trying to control? Ah... the target is me?
A sudden yank as my consciousness snaps taut.
“Ghhheeeeh!”
A huge maw suddenly right in my face.
“Uwaaaah!”
I scream and pull mana—
[Pa- ? A? /null]
[bzzzzzzzt]
Like my fingertips are exploding.
A sloppily cast spell under forced manipulation. Ordinarily, it should have failed—but thanks to the [Spell Mastery] trait, my Intelligence stat, and the dizzying pain flooding my fingertips, I managed to complete an offensive-type spell somehow.
[rrrraaaumble!]
[pop!]
My left hand shatters to pieces—and so does the head of the mass-produced NPC shaped like a dog.
“Grrr— damn.”
That jolts me awake.
[You overcame your phobia and felled its object.
As a reward, the conquered phobia heals naturally and you gain bonus experience.]
[System : ‘Madness: Dog Phobia’ has disappeared.]
A message announcing the disappearance of the madness.
“Mr. Kim!”
Seo Cheonseul comes running from afar.
And a massive gush of blood pours from my smashed left hand. Damn it, what kind of curse is this? My left hand again.
[Crystallization – Blood]
[Euphoria] [Berserker’s Rage]
I forcibly solidify the blood gushing out to staunch the bleeding, while simultaneously forcing an adrenaline surge to dull the pain.
But my fingers already blown off...
Damn it, that’s a loss. I have a regeneration trait, but it can’t reconstruct a body part that’s gone.
[Necromantic Convergence]
[Summon – Blood Golem]
[Summon – Flesh Golem]
I jury-rig necromancy with golemcraft to lash together the remaining blood and flesh into... something to stand in for a hand.
A grotesque left hand, cobbled from ruby-like mineralized blood and dead flesh twisted into a mess.
“Uuuugh— and I thought of this at a time like this.”
A monster’s paw if anything. Still—I got three finger-like things on it—
[clink-clack]
Good. It moves.
[grrrrrind—]
[System : The ‘Heightened Vigilance’ trait activates.]
“Damn it, my hand’s wrecked. This is a key phase—don’t I get a timeout or something?”
No matter what I complain about, my danger-sensing traits broaden my consciousness across a wide field.
“Yahoo! Mage!”
Jang Hyundeok waves at me.
And a gigantic hand flies at Jang Hyundeok! Park Gwangrim screams.
“Ah, that idiot!”
A mage’s blood is the most efficient medium for triggering spells.
I didn’t spill it on purpose, but there’s plenty of my blood all over the place. I thrust out my golem-hand—and cast.
[Wave of Destruction]
[RRRRAAAUMBLE!!]
A crimson wave of lightning—necromancy, cursecraft, and raw elemental force braided together—smashes the gigantic hands rushing at Jang Hyundeok.
The amplification rate is higher than I calculated. I ram more power into the raging destructive force and churn it through the field.
Now the weakness that damped my power and muddled my consciousness is gone. I spread perfectly tuned force in every direction.
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[Spell Boost: Multicast]
[crackle!!]
“Uwaaah!?”
Jang Hyundeok yells, late to startle.
“Mage! That’s dangerous!”
Is he actually an idiot?
[vvmmmmmm—]
I gather my spilled blood from the surroundings into glittering crystals—and fine. I have to admit it now.
Maybe it’s the dense mana, but my blood turns into mana-stone at the slightest nudge.
The mana-stones born of my blood begin to orbit me in unison.
One, two—mm. Thirteen again, of course.
Just as I’m about to prep a new spell—
With a rolling [rumble], the gigantic hands withdraw. The forest of hands that had been spreading without end contracts.
‘They’re massing on the spot where Cure Medical Care used to be.’
Even [Source of Life] can’t use infinite power. It’s probably concentrating the strength scattered everywhere into a single point—to begin its next move.
“Either way, I won round two, didn’t I?”
