The crocodile-headed lieutenant finally couldn’t stand it and yelled.
“You really are insane like a mage. Is that what matters right now? We’ve got you surrounded! One hundred! A full hundred armed men have you encircled!”
“Ah, thanks so much for the concern, but I asked if it was a mask.”
“...It’s a mask.”
“Aha, there it is! I figured it was a mask!”
People who wear masks do have a way of understanding each other.
Just to be sure, I asked again.
“Hey, so the mouth opens, you drool, your eyeballs roll, you can even make expressions—yet it’s a mask, right?”
“Yeah! A mask! A mask!”
“Do you even know what kind of mask that is?”
“Enough! Shut up! You lunatic! What are you all doing? Shut that bastard’s mouth!”
Ah, but this is important.
It’s not because I’m obsessed with masks.
That crocodile mask is aesthetically excellent, casual enough to wear daily in ordinary life, and—most importantly—extremely useful for the current incident.
But it looks like chat time is over.
“Haaap!”
“Get him!”
The Cheongho crew charged with a chorus of faceless shouts. In their hands was something rather unusual.
A sword with an S-curved blade.
“Khopesh (sickle-sword)? You’re holding toys you don’t usually use.”
Cheongho is a character designed after the romanticized “roughneck”—no, “gangster”—of the 1960s.
So his underlings are mostly fist-fighters by base setting—specialists with their hands—and when fists won’t do, they use guns.
“Alright. Let’s see how much Hyuna prepped.”
I raised my left hand covered in a complex spell diagram, then slammed the ground to trigger the spell.
[Great Upheaval]
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[Spell Boost: Power Increase]
KWAANG!!
KWA-rrrrrrr!!
The concrete underfoot shattered at once and heaved like surf.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Hyaaaap!”
Even with the ground wobbling like pudding, the Cheongho grunts kept rushing. Not bad movement.
But these guys aren’t the real issue. More importantly...
I flashed through a hand seal and flung a spell toward Chae Taewon, who was hesitating in the rear.
[Remove Curse]
Bzzzzzzt!
Chae Taewon convulsed as if electrocuted.
Did they notice?
“Don’t panic! Close in!”
“Close in! Don’t let him get time to cast!”
Mm, everyone’s so busy psyching themselves up they’re not paying attention. I shouted to draw eyes—and cast.
“Why are sweaty uncles trying to cling to me? Don’t cling!”
[Myriad Thunder]
Bzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt!!
A blinding white presence burst outward, tracing a hooked-cross pattern as it spread in all directions.
“Graaah!”
“Uaaagh!”
This is dangerous Paju territory—thugs who live on violence, so they’re naturally above average.
While the front line ate lightning and held—
“Haaap!”
Hoodlums came flying in with their khopeshes.
And Chae Taewon, realizing his body was free, gave me a nod, then withdrew and slipped out of sight.
Good. First mission, clear.
Alright, let’s keep going.
[Desolate Fury]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
Vvvvvvmmm—
A staggering number of magic circles bloomed in an instant.
Whirrrrr—
Hundreds of pitch-black mana rounds condensed and howled out in every direction.
KWA-KA-KA-KABOOM!
I’m throttling it so we don’t rack up any corpses later... but these mass-produced °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° grunt NPCs are tougher than they look.
They still look like Cheongho’s men, but their stats and traits are completely different. Did they get powered by an Abyssal being?
And out of nowhere, khopeshes?
In [Cthulhu World], the ones who swing weird weapons like that are usually—
[System: The penalty trait ‘Feast’s Offering’ has triggered.]
Right. Like that.
Ash-gray mana rippled off the grunts’ shoulders.
Just as I’d heard. They’re really no longer Cheongho’s men so much as cultists now.
“Hiiieeeee!!?”
A bizarre scream suddenly came from behind.
Our polite crocodile-mask friend from earlier. He puffed his chest, inhaled—and blasted the ground with a storm laced in vicious mana.
I could stop it—but let’s see what he’s trying.
Shhhhhhhh!
[The Abyss-charged breath twists the familiar scene into something alien to you. Dry sand shimmers and dances. Concrete that was surely solidly paved turns into desert in an instant.]
Ah, shocking news indeed.
Shhhhhh!
It wasn’t just the floor. The whole big abandoned factory, its skeletal frame laid bare, turned to sand and came crashing down.
“Right, I think I see what’s hitching a ride.”
[Protective Ward]
I wrapped myself in a ward and stirred my mana.
[Unique function of L-grade clothing ‘Night Shroud Robe’: ‘Heaven-Demon Wings’ has activated.
// Heaven-Demon Wings: Automatically casts ‘Flight’.]
Ffffft—
As I cut up through the falling sand like rain, I thought:
The khopesh is a weapon from Egypt. Cheongho’s grunts are NPCs based on fist-fighters—this isn’t what they use.
And crocodiles and sand. No—desert?
So we’re on an Egypt theme now.
Doesn’t really suit Hyuna.
In [Cthulhu World]—no, in the original [Cthulhu Mythos]—Egypt, filtered through the prejudices of Americans of the time, is portrayed as a ridiculous land stuffed with occult mystery and cosmic madness.
Because of that, there are Great Old Ones—Abyssal beings in [Cthulhu World] terms—modeled after actual Egyptian gods.
Looks like one of those latched on.
Which one?
Shrrrrrr—
“Ah. Damn.”
Hey, Mythos—name the animal you think of with deserts.
Huh? Camels?
No, not that. The one with no legs, with scales, with venom.
Uh... pufferfish?
Shrrrrrr—
I wish it were a pufferfish, but pufferfish don’t have anything to do with deserts.
Something was crawling under the sandy floor. A legless beast. Cold skin. Scales! No, it wasn’t actually real.
It was just an effect from an Abyssal being projecting its influence here. The crocodile-headed cultist himself—
“O [Scaled Schemer]! Show us the wrath of the desert!”
[Scaled Schemer]?
“Sebek (Egyptian god depicted with a crocodile’s head), you mean?”
So minor an Abyssal being I barely remember what it can do.
Wait, it’s minor so I’m just not remembering it, right? He doesn’t have some weird sub-theme on top of the crocodile, does he? Please say he doesn’t!
Rumble! RRRUMBLE!
A sandstorm of sand, lightning, and murderous gales barreled in to smash me.
“Ah, whatever. I don’t have business with you anyway!”
Today’s missions for Kim Sinhwa:
One. Extract Chae Taewon.
Two. Identify what’s behind Jung Hyuna.
Oh, and starting now, three—pulverize every cultist-type that isn’t a Cheongho grunt.
I drew the [Blade of Flesh], swung toward the onrushing vortex, and cast.
[Unique function of L-grade weapon ‘Blade of Flesh’: ‘Edge that Cuts Barriers’ has activated.
// Edge that Cuts Barriers: Slices space.]
SHRAAAK!
Space between me and the vortex twisted in a strange way—and the laws of space inverted in all directions.
[Sword Realm]
A spiral-whirling force? A dangerous natural phenomenon?
No. That is my enemy.
So go cut the enemy. Sever the necks of those who bare hostility to me. Inflict blows, carve wounds. Call blood.
SHRARARARARARA!!
The concept and image of a [Blade] thrust from the warped space multiplied into tens of thousands of slashes in geometric repetition, lashing the vortex. No—cleaving it. Cutting it.
SHRARARARARAR—
And without stopping, it surged on and wrapped the crocodile-headed cultist. Was there a scream—aaagh? Did he beg in his god’s name?
[Sword Realm] held for only a very short time—
But when the spell released and I looked around, nothing within a one-kilometer radius was still standing.
“Hm. A natural disaster in more ways than one.”
Anything with a stone base—concrete and the like—had turned entirely to sand, and whatever metal hadn’t become sand, I’d cut to pieces.
Cheongho’s grunts lay with their heads buried in the sand, clutching their skulls.
“Hey.”
“H-hiiik!”
“Uaaagh!”
The punks writhed, drooling and crying, scrambling over the dunes to get as far from me as they could.
Saying “the fear evoked by the concept of a [Blade] severed their reason and their faith” would be a bit much, maybe?
Well, it did go out mixed with something like [Fear Injection]. Enough to blow away the hold that thing called [Scaled Schemer] had planted in them.
“Where is it?”
Ah—there.
The crocodile-headed cultist’s corpse.
Unlike the other thugs, the crocodile head who took [Sword Realm] head-on was chopped into dozens of pieces, rolling over the sand.
“Hm. The thematic consistency is clear, at least.”
I wasn’t the one who killed him.
You can’t kill a man who’s already dead.
‘And calling him “crocodile head” doesn’t fit anymore.’
Because the instant the mask came off, the cultist shriveled into a dark-brown, dried-out mummy and collapsed.
“In any case, this theme doesn’t suit Cheongho or Jung Hyuna. Who decided to mix an Egypt theme into Cheongho’s crew on their own?”
As a [Cthulhu World] gamer... I know this game isn’t that picky about consistency—but it still bugs me.
Anyway, I picked up the crocodile mask the nameless cultist had been wearing and made a call.
“What was that earlier? Cheongho—did you kill him?”
— Hh, maybe I went a bit far? But I wasn’t spouting nonsense. We were always close. Otherwise we couldn’t have formed the Tri-Head Council.
Jeokdu answered with a shameless laugh.
“Just to head off misunderstandings, I wasn’t the one who killed Cheongho.”
— I figured. Anyway, just like you said, a whole pile of them poured in here too.
“From the sound of your voice, I take it you wrapped it up.”
— Yeah, the monsters you sent over took care of all of them.
“Good. I’ll finish up here and head your way.”
“It’s done.”
“...Thank you for your hard work.”
Chae Taewon, standing there with a somber face, bowed to me. Oof—nearly a full ninety degrees.
“Your men...”
I turned my head again to look over the place turned to desert.
You could see it clearly even from here: the punks floundering on the sand in a daze.
“No fatalities. But they’ll all be seeing the inside of a hospital for a while.”
“Thank you.”
His voice was low and bleak. The shock must be heavy.
“Right. I’ll handle all the follow-up. For now, please lie low somewhere for a while.”
“No. I can’t just dump everything on you, Mr. Kim, and wash my hands of it. Can’t I come with you?”
Mmm—bringing him along isn’t impossible, but honestly he’d only be baggage.
There’s a massive gap between us now, and even if he’s at my side, I’ll be protecting him more than he helps me.
Which is how it’s been with most people who’ve stayed near me so far.
So I refused.
“From here I’m going to meet Jeokdu. Things might get awkward between us—if I need help, I’ll contact you immediately.”
“But—”
With a face full of regret and earnestness, Chae Taewon opened his mouth again, but I lifted my right hand and pointed at the place turned to desert.
“You need to gather your people, don’t you, Director? If you want to rebuild the organization, you have to be in one piece.”
Reading the subtext in my words, Chae Taewon went a shade paler and took a half-step back.
“Mr. Kim. Please, the young lady—”
In a similar situation once, I gave the wrong answer.
Thanks to that, I learned never to make promises in a moment like this. And yet I chose to repeat the same mistake.
“If I can save her, I will.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Chae Taewon clasped my left hand with its strange sigils and repeated his thanks several times.
