[crunch]
Another Nirvana tablet crumbles in Park Gwangrim’s mouth.
“Uuugh—”
That makes five just today.
It’s a drug that’s supposed to suppress mania and delirium, but the recommended adult dose is one pill per day.
And yet—there’s no way to face this endless stream of absurdity with a clear head.
A storm.
A magic circle of staggering scale expanding to cover all the sky and the earth.
A grand spectacle as if heaven and earth were being stirred together.
“Is this really real?”
Everything in his sight ✧glit✧ters✧.
Is that a side effect?
Or is that what’s actually happening right now?
If the following side effects occur, consult a physician, dentist, pharmacist, alchemist, magus, fixer, or Kim Sinhwa immediately.
Auditory hallucinations✧visual hallucinations✧grandiose delusions✧delirium✧convulsions✧chills✧vomiting✧fever✧chills✧insomnia✧dizziness✧cardiac arrest✧depression✧restlessness✧anxiety✧nervous irritability✧tachycardia✧surreal hypersensitivity✧respiratory arrest✧and the manifestation of psychic powers and the awakening of limited precognitive ability ✧among ❀ ex tremely ꕥ li ght ❀ side ✿ effects.
“Hahahaha—”
Mr. Hyundeok? Mr. Hyundeok?
The sight of veins writhing beneath the skin that wraps those beautiful hands. Those splendid palms embracing us are (truly beautiful).
A beautiful flower that gleams like a strange straight line, a sugar cube that gobbles up flashing light, and, flapping like a function-grass frond at Park Gwangrim’s feet, a snow-white fish with feathers like quills. (That’s right. Red One was a fish, in fact.)
Jang Hyundeok mounts an owl that blocks curses and devours petty spirits, and begins the gut ritual.
A curious and beautiful voice flows from Jang Hyundeok’s mouth, his body now both male and female at once.
“East to the Azure Emperor Household, south to the Red Emperor Household, west to the White Emperor Household, north to the Black Emperor Household, and center to the Yellow Emperor Household—I present pure devotion before the great courts of the Eighty-Four Thousand Sea Emperors. With combed hair in sincerity, with washed hands and feet in sincerity, with devotion and heaven moved by devotion, I pray. O-ho— o-o-ho— ho— o-ho-o-ho—”
Jang Hyundeok was Jang Hyundeok and also not Jang Hyundeok, was not Jang Hyundeok and yet was Jang Hyundeok. And also, Park Gwangrim was a dignified elder he had never seen in life, was a truly beautiful and bewitching lady, and was a king beyond, wearing a golden crown. (Also, he was someone who had in fact been cursed and died earlier.)
Because of Nirvana’s side effects, Park Gwangrim, ✧ ex tremely ✧ li ght ✧ly ✧ intoxicated, let out a foolish laugh and spoke to Jang Hyundeok.
“H-hahaha— Mr. Hyundeok? Mr. Hyundeok?”
“Do not address a mansin (a title of respect for a shaman) so lightly.”
A voice from an unexpected direction grabs Park Gwangrim by the nape.
“Uuurgh—”
He is dragged off, choking for breath.
The Conqueror who seized and detained Park Gwangrim glowers at Jang Hyundeok—no, at the [Guardian of Bongam Hall].
“Damn wench. You wouldn’t answer no matter how I called, and now you crawl out to a bell-spirit seat without even a musician on the gut floor—what’s so fine about that?”
Hearing the Conqueror’s words, Jang Hyundeok—no, the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] dwelling in his body—laughs boisterously and answers.
“Hahaha! You hussy who can’t do a thing but brawl, go over there and pound a monster for a drum and play musician if you must! Huuuuuh....... East is Blue-Stream Water, south is Red-Stream Water—”
“Hmph.”
You mustn’t disrupt a mansin once the rite has begun.
So the Conqueror, still gripping Park Gwangrim, jumps down from Red One’s back.
The moment he tosses Park Gwangrim somewhere convenient—flash—light knifes every which way—
And he slices, hammers, and smashes everything around him to pieces.
Boom! KWA-kwa-KWA-bang! Boom! KWA-KWA-bang!
A thunder like drumbeats that summon gods.
Watching that, the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] forgets the mansin’s role for a moment and mutters:
“Right—once this bout’s over, you go live your own life now. Bongam Hall is closed for business.”
The magic discharged through Jang Hyundeok’s body by the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] finally touches the power of Kim Sinhwa belowground.
Ignoring spatial constraints, the chains of the [Sealing Array]—which had been linked to the [Great Source]—gain new strength.
Kiiiiiiii—
The Sealing Array is a spell I can’t fully realize without a medium’s trait.
Sure, Jang Hyundeok does have a medium’s trait—but that fool isn’t about to learn a complex spell like the Sealing Array on the spot.
But the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] arrived with the Conqueror.
It seems the Conqueror meant to retrieve the [Bongam Codex] I spirited away, but the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] had another plan.
“Right. Thank you!”
I send my thanks toward the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] and draw a mask from my coat.
A gift from a dokkaebi.
The Mask of the Thousand-Gold Captain.
With drumbeats rolling from every direction, I layered a dokkaebi art atop the [Sealing Array].
Chwarararararak—
“Let those nearby see, and those afar hear! By the subtlety of Five Phases and Six Cycles, in place of the Thousand-Gold Captain, I give command!”
The eight mana stones orbiting me streak away in different directions.
Pabababababak!
The mana stones deploy around the Gate of the Abyss in eight sectors and expand the field.
“Set the four pillars with Rat-Rabbit-Horse-Rooster, and again the eight pillars with Ox-Dragon-Goat-Pig!”
Failing to find a suitable medium, the [Life Source] is using Akiyama’s body as a forced medium to manifest its power in this world.
A shoggoth can embody every beast’s trait—and yet, oddly, in Akiyama’s body one particular set of bestial traits was strongly pronounced.
Tiger legs with a monkey’s head, and a snake’s tail with a dog’s torso, wasn’t it? Strictly speaking it’s a raccoon dog, not a dog, but in the context of sorcery, raccoon dogs are classed as dogs. They’re canids anyway.
“Tigers, snakes, monkeys that throw the world into disorder. And dogs! Yes, especially dogs! In any case—return to where you properly belong!”
Fwooooooo!!
A vortex of force forms that human eyes can hardly resolve.
A “vortex” isn’t even the right metaphor, really.
It’s a powerful tendency to send back into the Abyss what the abyssal being scattered into reality.
A yearning for one’s birthplace and a homesick pull toward home.
A strong force that makes things go back to where they originally were—where they rightly belong.
Or else......
“Right, I said it was like making a drain, didn’t I?”
KWAZhzzzzzt!
“Bahahahaha! Looks like Mr. Kim pulled something off, eh?”
I don’t know what he did or how—
But strange Mr. Kims swarmed from somewhere and started helping Seocheonsul, and the dead Mr. Kim entered the body of the Mr. Kim riding a bokjo (a yokai resembling an owl) and held a feast that drove back the darkness.
And then—
Charrerrrrrk!!
Colossal hands, overlapping and interleaving in a non-Euclidean fashion, begin getting sucked into the hole where Cure Medical Care sits.
“GraaAAAH!!” “Gyaaaah!” “Kkyeeeek!”
Alien monsters are dragged into the hole along with the giant hands.
Rrrrrrrrrrumble—
In the far distance, the shadow of the [Source of Pollution], hauled up from underground Buyeo.
Kwarrrrrrrrumble—
And the shadow of the [Great Source], pulled up from under Sokcho.
[L!U!C!A! : bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble—]
Yes, that’s a duel ruling.
KWA-aaang!
Giant hands, layered in physically impossible ways, unfurl like a flower.
KWAZhzzzzzt!
Giant hands grasp the hole torn in Cure Medical Care’s floor. From those hands spread radially, strands of flesh twist and braid.
An elegant hand that grabs a beautiful wrist that holds a graceful hand that tangles with slender fingers that reach to a refined wrist that is seized by a bewitching hand that entwines with lovely fingers that run to a fair wrist and from flamboyant fingers that run to—
“Knock it off already!”
Yang Seho rockets skyward, roaring like a furious storm.
He dumps all three daily [Ki] slots into a basic move—[Normal Attack: Flying Kick]—and adds [High-Speed Movement], [Super Jump], [Powerful Impact], [Fear Inducement], [Exploding Strike (Explosive Damage +300%)], [Flamboyant Hit (Normal Damage +200%)], [Ultra-High Heat (Heat Damage +800%)], [Armor Penetration], [Guard Break], and [Windup Skip].—
Kwarrrrrrrrrrumble!!!
And then, a Yang Seho–only, auto-applied exclusive trait, whether he likes it or not.
[TraitNameIsEmpty. PleaseNameTheTrait : Damage changes from Normal to /null,? Penalty applies to all /null at *(-3)%(The function is multiplicative. Please adjust quickly.)]
All of that stacks into a singular special technique.
[Secret Art, Meteoric Thunder Comet Kick]
Like a blazing meteor, like a downpour of lightning, like a rampaging storm—Yang Seho hurtles in.
“Get out of my country right now!”
---------!!
A blow so absolute the sound of the explosion is erased.
A flash that blankets the entire Busan City area.
An attack with force better compared to a natural disaster or environmental devastation.
Kwarrrrrrrrrrumble!!
A glare that pours down to the deep underworld.
As if clearing a clogged drain—mana in the form of a torrential wastewater cascade comes surging through.
“Looks like our civil-servant lord finally landed a hit.”
Is that the same attack he used back in Sejong City?
Sea of the East and Mount Baekdu and whatever comes next—may Lord Yang Seho protect us, long live our nation.
Struck by that merciless blow, the [Life Source] is sucked toward the Gate of the Abyss at tremendous speed.
Normally you can’t dispose of an abyssal being with a simple strike like that.
But right now we’ve been in a taut tug-of-war thanks to my and the Guardian’s [Sealing Array].
“Well, good thing he didn’t miss the moment and beat the daylights out of it.”
Now it really is over.
Chwararararak!
The domain of the Sealing Array expands in an instant.
Under Gijang County.
Under Buyeo.
Under Sokcho.
None of those three places could possibly hold ruins of this scale. They’re fake settings made in this world with the [Great Upheaval].
I decided to return those forced settings into the Abyss where they belong.
“Does it make any sense there’s a cavern this huge under Busan City? Out—now.”
[Forced Eviction – Life Source]
[Forced Eviction – Source of Pollution]
[Forced Eviction – Great Source]
Kwarrrrrrrrrrk!
I haven’t slain the abyssal beings.
They were never fully descended to begin with.
Their true bodies have been far down in the Abyss from the start until now.
What I’m driving out right now is nothing but their shadows.
I’m simply gathering up the influence that had seeped into this land like a spreading contamination and sending it back to where it ought to be.
That’s why this is [Eviction], not [Elimination] or [Annihilation].
“Damn. So there really isn’t a fundamental way to win... is there.”
Muttering that, I invert the space-cleaving power housed in the [Blade of Flesh].
Jjejejejejejek—
The eight mana stones squeeze inward toward center as the tunnel to the Abyss contracts.
Thoom!
A tremor that shakes heaven and earth.
Shut.
“Ha—done. That was brutally hard.”
Krrrrrrrrrumble—
The darkness around us turns vague. The fake ruins the abyssal beings had forced into this land are dissolving.
It’s over.
Yeah.
“You bastards! Let’s never meet again! So long! Bye! Bye-bye!”
Saying so, I used the night-cloak duffel’s power and shot up to the surface.
Surface in one bound.
Gijang County of Busan Special Autonomous City is......
“Ha, a desert now.”
Everything around had turned to desert.
“Bahahaha! I take my leave now!”
“Already?”
“His Majesty of Ten Thousand Coins commands me to halt at once and return!”
So saying, Seocheonsul dances and vanishes.
KWA-aaaaaang!!
The roar of an explosion the instant Seocheonsul disappears.
Ah. {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Now I see why the King of Ten Thousand Coins recalled Seocheonsul in such a hurry.
“GraaAAAH!”
Yong-su’s scream.
“Hold still. You’ll snap a bone.”
Yang Seho growls like a beast and offers kindly advice.
Kk-krrrk— wr-rrrk—
Looks too late already, though?
Yong-su is a sorcerer of genius talent, over two meters tall, a deep-sea man whose whole body is armored in hard scales—
And yet he’s being kneaded like dough by Yang Seho, who’s shorter by a full two handspans.
“Well, that’s handled.”
Terrifying.
Behind them, the monster Yong-su brought—a tangle of octopus, shark, and crab—now lies separated into portions that could each be called the octopus part, the shark part, and the crab part.
“Hey, you Japanese lot. Line up and show me your passports one by one.”
“S-scatter and break off!”
“Hai-yaah—!”
Yakuza, ninja, and cultists scatter and bolt in all directions.
“Urahaha—bit rough on comrades who fought alongside you, isn’t it?”
At Kid the Gunman’s words, Yang Seho snorts and answers without a blink.
“They were merely deprioritized. I intend to arrest every . And elder, it’s dangerous—take that horse and head to a safe zone. Need assistance?”
Yang Seho is called a terrifying monster close to a natural disaster, but to verified Korean citizens... well, he’s simply a kind and competent civil servant.
“Ahaha! No, no! I can manage alone!”
Laughing, he hefts his mount and exits the danger zone—Kid the Gunman (Hwang Incheol, 68, born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do).
“Mm...... I’m also an , aren’t I?”
Best run—fast.
Fwooooooo!!
While a sandstorm named Yang Seho rampages over the desertified Gijang County, a clear sun is rising beyond the sea.
