“Entire Expedition Force, advance!”
After finishing all preparations.
The Expedition Force once again stepped out beyond the Wall and began its advance toward the Source of the Cold.
...
SHIVER SHIVER SHIVER.
“...Mages, increase fire ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) output!”
The closer we got to the source, the more sharply the temperature dropped.
These were Awakeners who could survive even in regions where an ordinary human would simply freeze to death on the spot.
And yet even those Awakeners were shaking so hard their whole bodies trembled just from standing still.
While we were silently pushing our way through the blizzard like that.
Someone spoke.
“...It’s creepily quiet.”
Sure enough, just like they said.
Before, at least there had been swarms of wild monsters that came charging in.
But now, maybe because the temperature had dropped to something truly vicious, even the number of those monsters had fallen off a cliff.
Aside from the howling blizzard, no sound could be heard.
‘Is this what they call the calm before the storm...?’
More than that, yeah.
‘It feels like walking into a predator’s den... one that’s holding its breath as it waits for prey to come to it.’
People kept marching forward, uneasily on edge.
And then.
‘We should be starting to see it soon...’
Right around when the city should have started to come into view.
An abnormality occurred.
“...Huh?”
“Over there, something’s approaching!”
Those who sensed a presence drawing near from far off hastily went on alert.
As the Awakeners raised their weapons and the long-range types aimed their various weapons toward the enemy—
“W-wait, wait!”
“Don’t shoot!”
“...?”
What came from the approaching presence was none other than—
A normal human voice.
“W-we’re Park Sangcheol and Jang Seokho! From Central Branch!”
“Please don’t attack us, I’m begging you!”
What stepped out from beyond the curtain of snow.
Were two men bundled in thick clothes, faces haggard like they’d been through hell.
“...My god.”
“It really is Sangcheol and Seokho.”
The people who saw them reacted with a hint of surprise.
It was my first time seeing their faces.
They must have been people who’d belonged to that assault team.
“No way, you’ve got to be kidding me. Look who it is!”
Just as I was catching onto that.
Someone moved before I did.
“You two, you’re alive!”
“General Jo...!”
General Jo Beomseok strode toward the two with an emotional expression on his face.
He cupped their dirtied faces in his hands as if they’d suffered terribly, and spoke in a worried tone.
“W-what on earth happened. And what’s with your faces.”
“Ugh... General.”
“I heard you two had gone missing... What in the world happened out there?”
“The truth is... the assault team came under enemy attack...”
“Mm, is that so. Sounds like a lot must have happened... I understand. It’s freezing; don’t just stand there, come inside.”
Jo Beomseok welcomed the two warmly.
Then, with a worried look, he led them all the way inside the formation.
*****
“S-so warm...”
“I can’t remember the last time I felt anything this warm. Ugh.”
When we sat them down by the fire the mages had going inside the formation.
The two men started shedding tears like they were genuinely moved.
“For now, warm yourselves up slowly... and then talk. What on earth happened. I was under the impression that the Chair’s assault team had been completely wiped out. To be honest, I thought you two were already dead.”
“Sniff...”
“The enemy... There were just, there were just too many monsters.”
“Too many? How many?”
“There were so many that not even the Chair could stop them all and ended up buried in the middle of that swarm...”
“Ho...”
Jo Beomseok’s face twisted in pained surprise.
“If the enemy’s power was that great... Still, how did you two survive. Against monsters on that level, it shouldn’t have been easy to live.”
“In the middle of the fighting, when it really hit us that there was just no way we could win... we ran.”
“You ran?”
“Yes...” Once even the Chair disappeared, and the enemy just kept coming without end, we just wanted to live.”
The two lowered their heads, speaking with guilt.
“You can call us traitors who abandoned our comrades and fled. Because that’s the truth.”
“But we just... wanted so badly to live...”
“Traitors! Don’t say that. I understand completely.”
Jo Beomseok pulled them into a warm embrace as he spoke.
“You two have... really, really suffered.”
“Sniff.”
“General...!”
The two men wore expressions overflowing with emotion.
And then.
One of them looked around and spoke.
“But... General.”
“Hm? What is it. If you have a favor to ask, just say it. For someone we thought dead to come back alive—there’s no request I wouldn’t grant.”
“Uh... I don’t know if I should call it a favor. I just have one question.”
With a slightly tense expression on his face.
He glanced around as he talked.
“Why are those people... approaching us with their weapons out?”
“Hm? Ah.”
Just like he said.
While Jo Beomseok had been talking with the two and sharing this moving conversation.
At some point.
There were people approaching with weapons in hand.
“So that’s what was bothering you.”
“Yes...”
“Don’t worry too much.”
With a genial smile, Jo Beomseok patted the two on the shoulders.
“All of that... is for you, Sangcheol, Seokho. For you two.”
“...”
At those words.
Maybe they sensed something was off.
SLIDE.
From the sleeve of the man who’d just been shivering moments earlier.
Two short daggers sprang out and landed in his hands, one in each—
“Long time no see, you two!”
“...Tch!”
It was already too late.
While they’d been talking, the two men who’d made their way here all the way from the far end of the formation.
Park Junggu and Heo Yunchang swung their respective weapons down at the pair!
“W-what do you think you’re doing, General Jo!”
“W-we didn’t do anything wrong...! We were just happy to finally meet people again!”
The two shouted like they genuinely felt betrayed.
But.
“Yeah, I get it. I get you.”
Jo Beomseok dug at his ear as if he wasn’t the least bit interested in that story.
Then he flicked the earwax away and spoke.
“I get it, but let’s talk after we peel off that stray specter stuck to your bodies.”
“...!”
“Traitors this, that... When you’ve got something like that clinging to you, mouthing off about that in someone else’s body—taking it off is doing this for Sangcheol and Seokho, don’t you think.”
Up until a moment ago, the two had looked sincerely wronged.
But the instant they heard that.
“...So you knew.”
“For a guy who’s been a grunt his whole life, that acting didn’t suit you...”
The last hint of life vanished from their eyes.
And the two took on truly emotionless combat stances.
“We knew the operation the brothers were deployed on had failed, but we didn’t think our identity had been exposed... That was a miscalculation.”
“There’s no way my brother and I would have talked easily. If we were put under serious torture, we would have abandoned the body and run without hesitation... How did you find out?”
At those words.
Jo Beomseok answered with a sly grin.
“Just take it as knowing we’ve got our own techniques on this side too.”
“...You damn old geezer, so the Association did have some power it kept hidden even from us.”
“And yet you have the nerve to say Central Branch’s forces alone cleared out the military bases? You shameless old bastard...”
KABOOM!
The two didn’t have any leisure to keep talking.
“Kahaha! Die!”
“We can’t kill them, man! Keep them alive, alive!”
Park Junggu and Heo Yunchang.
With all of Central Branch’s elites completely missing now, those two were practically the Association’s strongest warriors, and they kept pouring out attacks.
“Grk...”
The former Central Branch elites who’d gone missing, now had those monsters’ souls stuck to them.
The two men who were using the powers contained in those souls were quite strong.
‘But at the end of the day, they were just regular combat troops, weren’t they?’
No matter how elite they’d been.
They weren’t guild executive level.
CLAAAANG!
“Damn it...!”
No matter how powerful an ability they’d awakened.
Against the two warriors who had once stood shoulder to shoulder even with those executives, it meant absolutely nothing!
Blasted far away by Junggu and Yunchang’s attacks, the two men.
Slowly looked around them.
“...Looks like there’s no chance of heading back with this body.”
In addition to Junggu and Yunchang.
Every Awakener who’d gathered around had their weapons out, encircling the pair.
Escape was impossible.
“In that case...”
The two looked each other in the eye, then shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Hear us, invaders!”
BWOOOM!
This must also have been a power engraved into those souls.
Their booming voices drowned out even the howling of the blizzard and rang out toward the entire Expedition Force.
“We commend you for making it all the way here. But this is as far as you’re permitted to go!”
“Beyond this point lies land that is not permitted to you! Behold!”
As they shouted that and thrust out their hands.
FWOOOOOOOOOOSH...
“...!?”
“The blizzard... is clearing?”
The blizzard that had been roaring around us, blocking our vision.
Vanished all of a sudden.
*****
The extreme cold was the same as ever.
But the view was suddenly clear.
Thanks to that.
We started to see scenery in the far distance that we hadn’t been able to see until now.
What started to appear far off.
Was a once-prosperous human city.
And.
“That black curtain-looking thing... what the hell is it?”
A gigantic, grotesque curtain of darkness.
Covering the mountain behind that city from top to bottom.
‘A Gate that big, huh.’
And.
Filling the inside of that human city.
-KRAAAAAAGH...!
Was an innumerable.
Swarm of monsters.
“Behold! Our brothers gathered there!”
“...!”
“Do you truly believe that the likes of you can overcome those brothers? The difference in power is obvious.”
The two spoke with their chins raised high, as if they’d become messengers of a god.
“This is the last proposal, the last mercy we can offer. Surrender.”
“...”
The morale of our people dipped slightly at the sight of that enormous number of monsters in the distance.
At that moment.
“No, you stray specter.”
Before our side’s spirit could be dampened any further.
The one who stepped forward was General Jo Beomseok.
“General Jo. You’re as full of confidence as ever. Truly... arrogant.”
The two looked down on Jo Beomseok, curling their lips in a nasty smile as they spoke.
“I heard you achieved the goal you longed for so desperately. Those tanks we see over there... aren’t they the fruit of your greed, which drove you to sacrifice Central Branch’s forces to obtain them?”
“Yeah. Thanks to that, we’re putting them to good use.”
“Heh... I don’t know how you solved the fuel problem, but... they are certainly quite the force. I can understand why your confidence overflows. However...”
They looked down on Jo Beomseok with icy eyes.
“You don’t actually believe you can wipe us out with a few hunks of scrap metal like that, do you.”
“...”
“Surrender, General Jo.”
When Jo Beomseok didn’t answer.
The two kept talking.
“Just like you said, we are not the original owners of these bodies. But... we do share their memories.”
“The tendencies these bodies originally possessed influence us far more than you’d think. Thanks to that... we even feel a bit of familiarity toward you. When you attacked us just now, we genuinely felt betrayed. And... this is an offer for you who were once our comrades, however briefly.”
At those words, Jo Beomseok gave a short laugh and replied.
“Your offer for us is to tell us to surrender?”
“That’s right.”
“You sure can pile nonsense high, can’t you. Did you think we wouldn’t realize that you bastards are after our bodies.”
At that.
The two frowned faintly.
“I don’t know what method you used...”
“But it seems my brother and I really did spill every little thing, true or not.”
Apparently, this was something they absolutely hadn’t wanted humans to find out.
The two let out a sigh like they had a headache.
“If you know that much, it might actually make the discussion simpler.”
“What are you talking about.”
“You were a soldier, General, so I assume you know. That surrender negotiations are something you conduct only after you’re seated at the table.”
The two crossed their arms arrogantly as they spoke.
“If you show an intention to surrender, we’re willing to concede to some extent as well.”
“So you’re saying you won’t try to steal our bodies?”
“For people who know that much, we have to put that level of condition on the table from the start. The really important parts are the conditions that come after, aren’t they?”
“...Conditions after.”
“If there’s something you want, we’ll grant it as far as our power allows. Right... for example.”
As if they meant to drive their words straight into Jo Beomseok’s heart.
The two fixed piercing gazes on him.
“We could save your grandson...”
“...!”
For the first time, a crack appeared.
In the expression of Jo Beomseok, who had been completely composed until now.
