Fortunately, the misunderstanding with the Inquisitors was quickly resolved.
Five people and one monster stood at the mountain entrance where the fog did not spread, conversing.
“So.”
A woman named Frederica cut off the beginning of the story. She sat on a rock with her legs stretched out long, cocking the halberd tucked between her thighs as she stared at Ian.
“You ambushed a mage named Irene, but couldn’t kill her. The fleeing Irene hid in this mountain? The fog has nothing to do with you?”
“Something like that.”
“You know that sounds really suspicious, right?”
“What can I do. It’s the truth.”
Ian replied nonchalantly and exhaled smoke into the air.
The smoke flowing into the fog soon dissolved and became one with it. Frederica tilted her head at the sight.
“Hmm…… Well, whatever. Anyway, you’re that thing, right, that thing. With Cecilia, huh? That thing.”
The “that thing” she spoke of referred to the cooperative relationship with Cecilia. Perhaps because they were from the same Inquisitor order, she seemed to have been roughly briefed on the true nature of the grimoire Ian possessed.
However, calling a cooperative relationship simply “that thing” could lead to misunderstandings, so Ian let out a deep sigh and rose from the rock.
“Yeah, we’re friends. Nothing more.”
“Whoa, friends! Friend!”
“I’ve explained all the reasons we came. Now tell me why you were here.”
Ignoring Frederica who laughed with a cackle, Ian turned to look at the priest. The priest took a swig from the hip flask, fiddled with his rosary, and answered.
“We came because we heard a prophecy. To prevent a disaster that will occur in Korea.”
“Prophecy?”
“You’ve never heard of it? The kind of joke about how the Administration and the Catholics have prophets who foresee dangerous situations that will befall humanity?”
“I think I’ve heard of it in passing.”
“It’s nothing worth hiding. Most of those involved in the occult know about it.”
The priest had stopped using honorifics at some point and muttered in clumsy Korean pronunciation.
“Prophets truly exist. But they aren’t omnipotent. They are sometimes wrong, and the futures they can see are all jumbled up, so they aren’t all that great. Their ages vary in the first place, so their attitudes toward receiving prophecies differ too. Shall I give an example?”
Squeak.
He closed the bottle cap, wiped his beard, and tilted his head back.
“As you know, the Earth will end someday. Whether the sun goes out or the environment becomes severely polluted. Though we don’t know the method, it’s certain that the end will come to Earth someday. This is the fate God has set for us.”
“…….”
“And prophets sometimes see this end of the Earth. Someone sees destruction by meteor collision, someone sees monsters rising from a polluted environment, someone sees the advent of Outer Gods, someone sees a cosmic explosion, and they wake from their sleep.”
“……The contents of the prophecies are all different?”
“They cannot see events in the distant future accurately. They only see possibilities. Just like the weather forecast.”
The priest stood up.
“Of all the ends prophets have observed so far, the nearest future is 300 years from now. And there’s nothing we can do now to prevent that destruction. It’s not even a definite future to begin with.”
“Hmm…….”
“When a young prophet observes such a future, they tend to make a huge fuss, so it’s hard to placate them.”
The priest snickered as he spoke, then turned to Ian and rattled his rosary.
“Anyway, the point is that prophecies are more accurate the closer they are to the present. And more than ninety percent of our prophets foresaw a disaster in Korea in the near future.”
“That fog?”
“Precisely, something within the fog.”
“…….”
“They all said they saw a mass of flesh endlessly repeating conception and birth.”
Ian flicked his cigarette ash as he listened. The priest loosened his wrist.
“Probably that bastard you call Irene or whatever who pulled some dogshit stunt.”
“……Irene isn’t that weak of a mage, but she’s not strong enough to cause a national disaster either.”
“……Really?”
The priest’s face turned sour. He remained silent for a long while, then let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
“But you who say that don’t have any idea either, do you?”
“…….”
“Then it can’t be helped. We have no choice but to charge in headfirst.”
“Reckless.”
“It’s devout faith. The grace of God covers my flesh, so demons would not dare lay a hand on me.”
As he spoke, the priest stared at Ian. He was an old man with completely white hair, but his frame was quite large, so his eye level didn’t differ much from Ian’s. In terms of bulk alone, he was even bigger than Ian.
“I request cooperation, mage. Aren’t you Cecilia’s friend? We have the same goal now, so let’s get along nicely.”
“The price?”
“Hey, none of that. If we don’t stop that, your country is finished, got it? Price, my ass. The Republic of Korea is the price, you bastard.”
The priest spat out with a frown. Cecilia, who was beside him, flinched in surprise.
“J-Johann sunbae! Please don’t use such strong language……!”
“Forget it. I didn’t like putting on airs all this time either; I’ll just act according to my true nature.”
The priest called Johann crossed his arms and jerked his chin toward the fog-covered mountain.
“It doesn’t matter if we act separately. Since you’re Cecilia’s friend, we have no intention of hindering you. Even if we meet inside, we can just pass each other by.”
“…….”
“If you don’t enter and turn back? That too is fine. Whether you step forward or not, we came to kill the monster within that fog anyway.”
“Korea and the Vatican aren’t closely connected, are they? Honestly, I don’t see the reason to go that far.”
“How dare you try to fathom a cleric’s mind with a mage’s psychology. Arrogant.”
Johann snickered and turned around. Then he gestured with his eyes toward Cecilia and Frederica.
“Hahat!”
“Haa…….”
Frederica spun her halberd and made a ferocious smile. Cecilia let out a deep sigh and drew the greatsword strapped to her back. Johann turned his head slightly to stare at Ian.
“Having learned that God’s children may die because of demons, we cannot act with closed eyes and ears. We are God’s blade that interrogates and judges heretics, and the shield of the lambs. Would such doctrine disappear just because we came to a foreign land?”
“…….”
“We go. Priests guide the lambs to heaven, and we guide demons to hell. May God’s blessing be with us.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Johann poured holy water over his two fists, wrapped his rosary around them, and recited a prayer. Frederica followed him, walking backward.
“Bye-bye! If you follow, I’ll take it as cooperation! God’s blessing blah blah!”
She disappeared into the fog. Cecilia let out another deep sigh, shouldered her greatsword, and looked back at Ian.
“You said you ambushed Irene? You’re not hurt?”
“Fortunately, I’m fine.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
She smiled brightly and stepped toward the fog.
“Still, don’t overdo it. If it’s hard, you can go back and rest. We’ll take care of things here.”
“Cecilia.”
“Housewarming. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
With those words, Cecilia disappeared. The presence of the three swallowed by the fog vanished like a lie, crossing the air meaninglessly.
“…….”
Ian stood staring blankly at the spot where they vanished, then put the finished cigarette into a portable ashtray.
“[Shall I turn on the lens?]”
Holmes tactfully piped up. Alisa snickered, and Ian also smiled as he took out his grimoire.
“[Woo-ung!]”
The Deep Sea Observation Log emitted a short vibration. Ian loosened his stiff joints once, then approached Holmes without a word and plucked out his head. Then he pressed the shutter button to turn on the light.
“Let’s go.”
“[……?]”
Holmes blinked his lens cap, and Ian began to lead the way into the mountain. Alisa followed him with a shotgun. Holmes, now nothing but a body, kicked a nearby stone with a thud and walked after the two.
Saaaaah…….
After passing through the fog, their bodies grew abruptly heavy. Their clothes instantly absorbed moisture and became heavily soaked, and their hair drooped as if dipped in a bathtub. Alisa peeled the hair stuck to her face and clicked her tongue sharply.
“……The fog is too heavy. The moisture is abnormally high…….”
She licked her lips and furrowed her brow.
“It even tastes like seawater. Shin Ian, are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
On the other hand, Ian was not affected at all.
His body heavy? No, rather, it felt lighter. His clothes were as they were before, and his hair was fine. His condition was not bad either. Except for the limited vision, there was no hindrance whatsoever.
‘The reason is…… I don’t really know. I don’t recall being involved with any occultism related to fog. I don’t have any similar magic either.’
Ian pondered for a moment, then pushed aside the thoughts. Holding onto questions without answers would only give him a headache. For now, it was right to focus on the current situation, secure additional evidence, and reach a conclusion.
So he left the grumbling Alisa behind and raised Holmes’s head high in his hand.
Then he could make out three shadows moving violently in the fog a short distance away.
They were the Inquisitors. Ian turned the grimoire’s cover and slowly approached them.
“Uwah! That looks fucking disgusting! Get lost, you bastards!”
“Watch your mouth, Frederica!”
“I lost an arm. I’ll recover a bit.”
Familiar voices drew closer. Ian smirked and scattered the black seawater flowing from the grimoire onto the ground.
“Cover them. Devour them. Enjoy the feast.”
Gurrrgle……!
The scattered droplets gathered in one place. They immediately crawled at high speed toward the bizarre creatures the Inquisitors were fighting.
Sasasak!
The plankton violently tore through the fog as they advanced. Thanks to that, Ian could make out the appearances of the monsters, albeit faintly.
“……A liver?”
It was a liver.
It was indeed the liver among human organs. However, unlike a normal liver, the thing rampaging over there was a hybrid bastard with eyes and teeth attached, and bones clumped together replacing legs. Even an umbilical cord hung in bunches from the back of its head.
“[Bweeeehk.]”
The liver crawling like a centipede bit off Cecilia’s severed arm and chewed noisily, stuffing the flesh into its own stomach. Ian twisted the corner of his mouth at the sight.
“What the fuck is that.”
At an appearance so bizarre it was almost perfect, he spat out a string of curses.