Baaang!
Beneath the red lights, the shotgun belched fire with a tremendous roar. Chunks of lead burst from the firearm specially modified by the Bureau, and the pellets, flying at nearly the speed of sound, tore the Watchers’ bodies apart.
Even if their bodies were controlled by an aberration, they were still human flesh in the end. They possessed no durability sufficient to withstand gunfire. Nor did they have regenerative ability, so by blasting away their lower halves, their legs could be severed.
The only problem was that the optic nerves took over the role of the legs that had vanished.
[Kieeeeeek!]
Below the head. Clusters of sharp tentacles that had pierced out through the throat gathered together, forming two thick legs.
Their mobility was far inferior to the legs they had originally possessed, but the problem was that bullets would not lodge in them. At most, they could only leave a faint scratch.
Worse yet, unlike the flesh, the organs connected to the eyes even regenerated, so there was no way to reduce their mobility. There was a limit to responding with magic as well.
But doing nothing would only lead to death in the end. Kim Yul forced his torn, limping leg to move and aimed the eyeball Ian had handed him at the Watchers. Then he smashed it.
Crunch!
The dying eyeball shattered, collecting the lives of two Watchers along with it. Blood and transparent fluid burst out, splattering Namgung Minhyeok’s face red.
He paid it no mind. Spitting out the blood seeping into his mouth, he swung the grimoire wide. Then the mouth of the monster drawn on the grimoire’s cover gaped open and swallowed the Watcher’s corpse whole.
A dedicated spell built into the grimoire.
Not every grimoire possessed its own spell like the Shanhaijing. It could only be used if the one who first wrote it had personally designed one into it. The Shanhaijing, the Huangtingjing, and the Book of the Angel Raziel were the most representative examples.
However, they could not be used without any price at all. At least, that was true for the spell built into the Shanhaijing.
The price offered was twenty percent of the owner’s blood. An amount that met the standard for excessive blood loss.
“Guhah!”
The world seemed to spin for an instant, and Namgung Minhyeok collapsed with a groan. His skin turned deathly pale, and his lips went blue. Only the hand gripping the grimoire retained any color.
If left alone, he would die without question. It was not as if some wound had opened somewhere on his body and blood was continuously flowing, but even so, now that twenty percent had been lost, he could not move normally. Regenerating blood also required time.
If they thought coldly, abandoning him here was the right choice. It was unfortunate to lose combat power, but one person dying was far better than getting others killed trying to save him.
Kim Yul and Mika thought exactly that, and without looking back, they ran toward the simple rest area at the end of the second-floor corridor.
The Bureau agents were different. Kim Iseo tucked the shotgun beneath her armpit, aimed the muzzle at the head of the Watcher charging in, and pulled the trigger.
Baaaang!
With a tremendous roar, her body toppled backward. The empty shotgun fell to the floor, and she opened the weapon case she had been carrying and pulled out a short submachine gun. Then she provided covering fire, assisting Park Mina and Venus.
In the meantime, the two of them grabbed the fallen Minhyeok and fled. Kim Iseo also moved with them.
Kwaaang!
The group flung open the door to the rest area as though they were about to break it down and went inside. The door, which had greedily devoured six people, closed on its own, and the Watchers grabbed the doorknob and shook it as though they would smash it apart. But the door did not budge.
A safe space identical to the lounge on the first floor. Though it came with various additional conditions, there was still no better place to flee to right now.
“……Haa, fuck.”
Now that they had entered the safe zone, there was no need to remain silent. Kim Iseo put the submachine gun she had been holding back into the case, then sank down with a painful groan. Kim Yul, panting roughly, asked her,
“Is your hand all right?”
“It is not all right. To be honest, I feel like I’d rather pass out.”
“Want to pass out? I’ll help you.”
“……I’ll accept the thought only. In any case, if we stay in this space for more than two hours, we’ll be forcibly ejected, so we can’t remain here long.”
Rustle.
Kim Iseo took a bandage from her coat and wrapped it around the severed end of her shattered, blown-off wrist. Because it had been destroyed so gruesomely, even tying the bandage was difficult, but she somehow managed it. Looking down at the bandage slowly turning red, she exhaled.
“Mina. Could you give me a hemostatic and a recovery agent?”
“Ah, yeah. Here.”
Park Mina took a pill bottle from her bag.
They were medicine to stop bleeding and medicine to rapidly regenerate blood, respectively.
Kim Iseo tossed both pills into her mouth without hesitation. Park Mina also placed medicine into the unconscious Namgung Minhyeok’s mouth.
“…….”
His face slowly began to ease in comfort. Venus stared down at him, then took out a notebook and walked toward Kim Iseo.
Scratch, scratch.
After quickly writing something, she showed Kim Iseo what was written in the notebook.
[Are you okay? Your hand? Can it be healed?]
“There is no problem, Venus. As long as I return alive, it can be regenerated fully. I’ll have to stay stuck in the regeneration room for a full week, but regeneration should be possible without issue.”
At Kim Iseo’s immediate answer, Venus let out a sigh of relief.
“Hoo.”
Kim Iseo adjusted the knot of the bandage and looked back at the now-quiet door.
Though only a few minutes had passed, it had grown quiet beyond the door. When she glanced outside through the lens set into the door, she saw the Watchers standing there blankly.
‘Damn it.’
Now that there was a time limit of two hours, they would have to leave this place eventually. If those things were still standing guard by then…… the situation would become nearly the worst possible.
‘If only Mr. Ian were here, at least……!’
Kim Iseo personally held Shin Ian in the highest regard.
She was not talking about his personality, but his skill. Because she had witnessed everything that happened at Yohan General Hospital, she could be more certain of it than anyone. If he unleashed his summoned creature, the entire art museum would be crushed beyond recognition. Just like the hospital had been.
But for now, things were quiet. At the very least, she could not hear anything like vibrations or thunderous noise.
“…….”
Should she take that as a good sign, or a bad one?
Had no situation arisen that required him to use magic? Or had he been killed before he could even use it?
“……Haa.”
Whatever the case, it was not good for this side either way. The absence of one major combat force was bound to weigh heavily.
If she had her way, she would go looking for him right away, but the situation would not allow it. Going out now would be nothing more and nothing less than suicide. Before she got far, her head would surely be neatly cut off, and she would turn into one of the Watchers.
So all she could do now was hope.
‘Please be safe.’
Thinking that, Kim Iseo drew her pistol.
*
“A loser…… That is an incorrect expression, mage. If I had lost, I would hardly be here standing on my own two legs.”
Lairirie answered in a voice that had already returned to calm. Ian held the white grimoire in his hand and tilted his head askew.
“For someone who couldn’t even control the power of a grimoire and degenerated into an aberration, your mouth is the only thing still alive. When R’lyeh sank, I bet that mouth of yours was the only thing bobbing above the surface.”
“If you intend to make me angry, you would be better off stopping.”
Lairirie stood with her back against the wall. Ian snorted.
“Threats only work when you’re on the right level. Seems you still don’t know your place.”
“It is not a threat. In truth, the only emotions permitted to me now are jealousy and love. I cannot even feel something like anger.”
“…….”
At the unexpected statement, Ian furrowed his brow slightly. As though it were nothing, Lairirie waved her rotten fingers and brushed aside the rose petals.
“Mm, shall we end the idle chatter here? Talking about my past only makes me feel jealousy toward you, you see. It is not a particularly pleasant feeling.”
“Unfortunately, I’m rather interested.”
Chik.
Ian placed a cigarette between his lips, lit it, and spoke.
“I understand that you’re the sole survivor of R’lyeh, and that you’re the culprit behind your country’s downfall. I also understand that you were originally an ordinary mage who went insane because of a grimoire. But what the hell does it mean that R’lyeh’s name wasn’t originally R’lyeh?”
“It is nothing special. The records were erased.”
“Erased……”
“I do not wish to explain in detail either, so I will tell you only briefly.”
Lairirie stared at the cigarette smoke Ian exhaled and moved her lips.
“R’lyeh originally had another name. It was a city-state that had prospered since ancient times, and its development was fairly rapid as well. But it caught the eye of an Outer God, and the nation itself was corrupted. The faith that existed was transformed into faith toward the Outer God, and festivals became events where blood and flesh ran rampant.”
“Not much of a story. Mental corruption is nothing to an Outer God.”
“Yees, you are correct. I cannot think of anything to refute that.”
She laughed softly and leaned her upper body slightly forward.
“In truth, the corruption itself was still fine. Even then, the very foundation of the nation had not collapsed. But the moment the god’s power grew greater, and he became capable of creating a book that could contain his knowledge, the story changed.”
“……The Submergence of R’lyeh.”
“From the moment the grimoire bearing that name came to the surface, to me, the city’s name was changed to ‘R’lyeh.’ And its original name vanished from everyone’s memories.”
“You don’t remember it either?”
“Regrettably, that is correct.”
Ian let out a low groan at her calm attitude.
He did not sympathize with her. He neither pitied her nor felt any unease toward the Outer God. He merely recalled the kind of incident that occurred when a being with low compatibility forcibly came into possession of an Outer God’s grimoire.
‘If my compatibility had also been low……’
On the day he obtained a grimoire, would he not have gone berserk and destroyed everything in sight under the pretext of offering it to a god?
Well, since it had never happened anyway, he did not care much. It was simply interesting.
He exhaled smoke and tapped the grimoire in his hand with his finger.
“The name R’lyeh appears in a novel. You know it too, don’t you? The Cthulhu Mythos?”
“I know it well. After all, I was the one who told Lovecraft of R’lyeh’s existence in the first place. How could I not know?”
“……What?”
Ian narrowed his eyes. Lairirie let out a low chuckle.
“Following His guidance, for His amusement. I transformed my submerged city into the city of an Outer God within a novel. Ahh, R’lyeh will now exist in the world for all eternity.”
“…….”
“A ridiculous story, is it not? That the fall of a nation was, in the end, a puppet play arranged for the amusement of an Outer God. When something is too ridiculous, one cannot even smile.”
Instead of answering her, Ian flicked off the ash from his cigarette.
The Submergence of R’lyeh.
Though the name R’lyeh was included, this was undeniably not a grimoire from a story, but an object truly bestowed upon the world by an Outer God, like the Hand of Re-Creation or the Deep-Sea Travelogue. Naturally, its danger level could only be high as well.
If Lairirie’s words were true, the Outer God’s personality itself did not seem good either. Even if he happened to find the grimoire by chance, he would probably never lay a hand on it.
Three volumes were already enough to begin with. Taking any more than that would instead become poison.
‘I don’t know exactly what ability the grimoire has, but for now, I know this art museum is connected to the grimoire.’
The Hand of Re-Creation, capable of twisting any being however one desired.
The Deep-Sea Travelogue, capable of commanding the creatures of the outer seas without a great price.
The Book of Contracts, capable of concluding one-sided, unfair contracts regardless of whether the target was animate or inanimate.
The Apocalypse of Mysteries, capable of giving birth to mysteries.
Every single one recorded only dangerous magics. That was what the grimoires of Outer Gods were.
Then what ability did The Submergence of R’lyeh possess? Did it even have any connection to the art museum in the first place?
“Our conversation has grown long.”
As he was thinking, Lairirie stood up and clapped her hands. Ian shifted his gaze to her.
Clap, clap.
As the light sound of clapping rang through the space, the closed door slowly opened, revealing a dark corridor. Lairirie stood beside the door and gave Ian an elegant bow.
“The conversation was not very enjoyable. Personally, I wanted to draw out your madness. I wished to project my past self onto you, to see you blindly love and believe in an Outer God, then ultimately be ruined. I wanted to show you, who maintains your sanity, how beautiful a mad world can be.”
“…….”
“But I failed. Ahh, how boring you are. I take back my words that I love you. It seems I prefer men who possess no reason whatsoever after all.”
“What an honor. That I don’t suit your tastes.”
Ian flicked the cigarette he had finished smoking toward the roses. The flame, not yet extinguished, clung to a petal and set the leaves blazing.
“So? Are you going to send me back now? Or are we done with this shitty sob story and finally fighting?”
“Hu hu, mage. I have no intention of fighting you. I may not look it, but I am a pacifist, you see. I do not particularly favor barbarically exchanging blows.”
“The thing is, your opinion doesn’t matter.”
Ian walked up to Lairirie and seized her wrist. The moment Lairirie tilted her head at the unexpected contact, Ian recited a spell.
“Be born anew.”
Crack, crunch!
Lairirie’s body instantly transformed into a small sphere. Born as she tore through the rose leaves, she gazed at Ian with interest.
“What sort of magic is this? It is closer to an authority than magic.”
“I have neither reason nor obligation to tell you.”
“Ahh, yes. That is true. Quite right.”
Lairirie smiled brightly. Looking down at her own corpse caught in Ian’s grip, she moved her lips.
“Then, now that our conversation is over, shall we move on to our next destination?”
“No. I’m done dancing to your tune, aberration.”
“No, it will not be over. After all, this matter will sound rather interesting to you as well.”
Watching Ian draw his gun, Lairirie rubbed her palms together.
“The current owner of The Submergence of R’lyeh. Let us go meet him.”
“……!”
At the unexpected words, Ian’s eyes flew wide open.