“What is that hand, Mage!?”
I raised the grotesque hand—a tangle of char-black dead flesh and mana-stones that looked like rough ruby crystal.
“Cool, right?”
It even had three big fingers.
[clink-clack]
Yeah, it makes a stylish sound every time it moves.
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa. Are you being serious?”
Park Gwangrim cuts in, voice tight with worry.
“Mr. Kim, this is bad.”
“Ki-iiiii—”
Seo Cheonseul and Red look at me with pained faces.
“Uh... Mage.”
Even Jang Hyundeok, whom I’ve always considered a mere dummy, grimaces while staring at my left hand.
“Nggh.”
Yeah, I was just mouthing off.
It is attached to my arm, but honestly it’s a horrific shape.
If I hadn’t attached it myself—or if the [Madness of the Abyss] trait weren’t seated in my head—I might have snapped and gone raving mad on the spot.
“It’s a stopgap hack. Once we settle this, we can find a way to fix it.”
“Great King of Ten Thousand Gold will help.”
Seo Cheonseul invokes the Great King of Ten Thousand Gold with perfect seriousness.
“Yeah, got it. For now—prep the next phase.”
Saying that, I looked toward the massing, squirming giant hands gathering where Cure Medical Care used to stand.
“Next phase?”
“Yeah. It’s not over yet. Oh, right. What did you even do?”
“Only now you ask!”
Jang Hyundeok lifts [Blade of Flesh] with pep.
I’d wondered how he was standing on Red’s back—turns out he’d anchored himself and Park Gwangrim in place with threads of magic spun by Heo Jihyun’s ability.
Nice application.
The wreath on his head is the same, a circlet of mana-thread. Wait—what is that?
“Hey, what? Do you have a hole in your head?”
“Ah! You finally saw! I almost died!”
With that, Jang Hyundeok starts explaining what just happened to him.
[screeeeech]
Sensing Kim Sinhwa’s crisis with a burst of surreal ability, Jang Hyundeok began piloting the call van in a very—extremely—super—cool way.
A catastrophic, lethal, dangerous wound in his head was pouring an unbelievable amount of blood, but Super Magical Jang Hyundeok, by astonishing inspiration, came up with a method.
“Right, Hyun—”
“Hey, don’t. Don’t!”
This is not the time to listen to that kind of play-by-play.
“Why not!?”
“I can guess the gist. Spare me the narration.”
“Eeh?”
A whiff of the abyss from Jang Hyundeok’s body.
This feel is [King in Yellow]. That jerk decided to back my side.
[Source of Life] must have been about to act, and King in Yellow snatched Jang Hyundeok first and shared power.
‘Then that Super Magical Jang Hyundeok state won’t last.’
I know what we have left on our side and what I can move. The problem is the other side.
“Mr. Kim, what is that monster doing now?”
“Not sure. Looks like it’s drained a lot, at least.”
[rumble]
All the hands [Source of Life] made are gathered on the grounds of Cure Medical Care, tossing and writhing in some grotesque pattern.
[Source of Life] hasn’t even properly descended. It has so much power it’s caused an out-of-spec catastrophe, but it can’t rampage forever.
Losing the [Soul Manacle] did stretch the timeline a bit—but—
‘Wait, what about [Mirror of Wisdom]?’
The thing Akiyama called the golden hairpin. I assumed it was taken the moment the thing moved.
If it lost that, then all it would need for advent would be [Blade of Flesh].
Instead of bunching up over there and stalling, the correct choice would be throwing everything at us.
‘Yet it’s stalling in a weird way...’
And there’s still no message that it has acquired the thing.
[rrrraaaumble!]
It’s not just storing power. If it were, you wouldn’t hear impacts like that.
Huh? Don’t tell me...
“Ah, damn. I missed one because of the phobia.”
The titanic hands forged by [Source of Life] draw toward the heart of Cure Medical Care.
The place where it all started. The very spot where Kim Sinhwa and Seo Cheonseul faced off with Yang Seoho—the huge hole punched open toward the abyss.
A beautiful, despairing surf of hands—like waves, like the dark of night, like despair—surging in.
A forest of death with not a hair’s breadth to slip through.
There, Yang Seoho is screaming.
“Uaaaaaah! Uaaaaaah! Closer! Closer! Make me feel alive! Touch me! Or give me pain!”
Yang Seoho is broken.
Colossal hands born from [Source of Life] rush at Yang Seoho from every direction.
Yang Seoho stretches out her hands to clasp those warm, loving hands coming for her.
“I can’t feel anything! Hold my hand! Touch me!”
Her hands, loaded with desperate hope and dented longing—rip the air and detonate an absurd shockwave.
An immense destructive force from a mere human body.
A dreadful power even abyssal beings find hard to manifest without direct descent.
[crackle-crackle-crackle!]
The hand Yang Seoho thrusts in desperate reach explodes everything around it before it touches anything.
Petals scatter emptily.
A storm of petals, so beautiful and vivid it sears itself into your pupils from a single glance.
Amid that unreal landscape, Yang Seoho screams again.
“Why? Why can’t I touch you? Why? Why? Where is this? Why am I here? Mom? Mom—where did you go? Why—hahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha!”
[KA-BOOM! KA-krkrkrk—]
Yang Seoho, keening with thirst, tries to interact with the oncoming hands from every side, but there is nothing her hands can touch.
And right beside her lies the object Kim Sinhwa is looking for—
The golden hairpin.
A special artifact made by wrapping [Mirror of Wisdom]—which holds the deep-sea curse—in gold. If [Source of Life] recovers this item, it can substitute for the “sacrifice” among the rites, medium, and sacrifice required for descent.
Yang Seoho has fallen into delirium from the madness evoked by the abyssal being, but even in her sludge-clouded consciousness one thought remains: she must not let this item be taken.
[sharrrrr— rrrrrumble—]
And so [Source of Life] still hasn’t managed to recover the golden hairpin housing [Mirror of Wisdom].
Kim Sinhwa has assessed the situation.
He will move to that location now.
[L!U!C!A!: bubble— bubble— bubble!!]
Resources are required to carry out that action.
[L!U!C!A!: bubble— bubble bubble—]
Understood. In exchange, this information will also be delivered to the Feast’s Offering.
[System : The penalty trait ‘Feast’s Offering’ activates.]
[The unique trait of ‘Source of Life,’ ‘ ’s Gift, activates.]
New messages flash without warning.
“Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!!”
A monstrous cry, raised by the forest of hands itself.
[bzzzzzzzzzzzt!!]
“Damn it, what now?”
[All sapients who love ‘Source of Life’ begin to feel the drive to become one with Mother. The rite to call down the abyssal being ‘Source of Life’ is still ongoing. It requires a medium and a sacrifice. Among those who desire to become one with Mother, there may be one who fulfills those conditions.]
『I shall grant your wishes! Gather here! Children! Children!』
“Ahhhh— Mother! Mother!”
“We love you! We love you!”
“Luca! Luca! Luca! Luca!”
Cries rising from every direction.
[crack!] [creak-crunch!] [sizzle-snap!]
“Uwaaaah!? Mage, t-that looks like... like that time...!”
“Right. A familiar sight.”
A scene guaranteed to trigger Jang Hyundeok’s trauma.
The cultists of Cure Medical Care surge toward Cure Medical Care in a wave.
『I love you! I love you! Come into my arms. Return to Mother’s embrace! I shall grant your desires! Fall into my arms.』
“We love you! Make us one!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!” “Aaaaaaaah!!” “Aaaaaaaah!!”
“Luca! Luca! Luca! Luca!”
The primal drive of all living things whips into a frenzy.
I want to become one with that great being who loves me!
And [Source of Life], Mother of All—who bears the traits of every creature that exists—grants the wishes of the children who follow her, the children who love her.
Thus those who answer [Source of Life]’s call are not merely cultists. Among those who fell into delirium upon seeing her—any who came to feel love, obsession, attachment, fanaticism, faith toward her—begin to move in the same way.
“Th-that can’t be... Even officials from the Foreigners Administration...”
Park Gwangrim’s sigh.
“Ah, hell. Mediums aside, sacrifices they can secure for sure.”
I scratch my head—and yikes, almost with the left hand. I yank it down and turn to Seo Cheonseul.
“Captain of Heavenly Gold! Block that! I’ll go inside and secure the golden hairpin.”
“W-what about me?”
Jang Hyundeok’s question.
“Give me that sword and run with Park Gwangrim.”
“Eeh? I can fight too!”
“If you’re caught, the game’s over. Run now!”
“Come on, trust me a little!”
Jang Hyundeok snaps back. I scowl—
“J-just a second!”
Park Gwangrim shouts.
“What? What is it, Mr. Gwangrim?”
“I just confirmed something with Dowsing.”
“Hmm?”
“People who can help us are coming this way.”
Help us?
Who the hell would that be?
Park Gwangrim explains who—and—
“Right. Even for cultists, they can’t abide another order’s god running wild like this.”
I agree with his proposal.
“Good. Then we do that! Jang Hyundeok! Go bring them here with Park Gwangrim!”
“Got it!”
“Red, I’m counting on you to escort that idiot and Gwangrim!”
“Ki-iiiiii!”
“Why am I the only idiot!?”
“I don’t care. Enough—move out! Captain of Heavenly Gold!”
“Bahahahaha! Good—let’s go!”
The instant Seo Cheonseul and I start to move, [Source of Life] roars again, a howl big enough to shake all of Busan.
『I shall grant desires! Those who wish to run faster shall have swifter legs. Those who desire greater strength shall have stronger arms. Grow swifter, stronger, wiser! This is the sign of my love that I give to you!』
[rrrrrrrrumble—]
“Krroaararrok!”
“Kyarrararrk!”
A radiant, vast love, bestowed equally on everyone.
Her love mutates ordinary bodies into the shapes of surreal monsters.
“You damn deokkshini!”
[smack!]
Mm, nice and easy to sort.
Seo Cheonseul classifies those whose souls were stolen by an abyssal being and whose bodies have mutated as deokkshini—the goblins’ enemies—and swings the Diamond Vajra Staff, swatting down everything that charges him.
With [Blade of Flesh] in hand, I move toward Cure Medical Care.
