They were in no state to look at, but the group recovered Mariang for the time being. About half her body was no different from a monstrosity, so they couldn’t heal her with holy water, but they could at least use a recovery injection.
“I’m billing you for this later.”
Pshk.
Alisa drove the needle into Mariang’s shoulder and injected the drug.
Mariang grumbled.
“If it weren’t for the injuries I got from you, I could have escaped easily. Tch, you do know I was going easy on you, right?”
“Recover instead of making excuses. How long will it take your arms and legs to grow back?”
“Hmm… Since I’ve been given the drug, probably about a day.”
“That’s inefficient as hell. That priest over there regenerated his severed arm all by himself, like a lizard, just zip-zip.”
“Do you think superpowers and magic are the same thing? Don’t put them on the same level. It’s unpleasant.”
Mariang snapped irritably. Alisa lightly patted her cheek and stood up.
Thick blood dripped from the tip of the needle she’d pulled out, and Ian bent down on one knee as he watched.
“You seem to have calmed down somewhat, so I’m going to ask a few things. You can answer, right?”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
“What happened here? How did things end up like this?”
Ian asked with a serious expression. Mariang let out a low murmur as she chose her words for a moment, then looked straight at Ian.
“Irene turned into a monster.”
That was the beginning. The group quietly listened to what she had to say.
“I don’t know the exact sequence of events either. I was resting in a cabin near the top of this mountain, and suddenly the room filled with fog. I thought some kind of chemical warfare situation had broken out and rushed out into the living room. But what was there wasn’t Irene. It was something huge that looked like a womb.”
Saaaaa…
The fog settled. Instinctive goosebumps rose over the group’s skin, and Ian felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
“Where the ovaries should have been, Irene’s head and legs were attached, each in a crude, brutal way. Like roughly torn Styrofoam glued on.”
“…”
“Darko came out after hearing the commotion too. And that was the end of him.”
“Did he die?”
“His main body isn’t in Korea, so he didn’t die completely, but all the clones that remained here were brutally killed. I won’t bother describing it. It’d only make us feel worse. I’m not particularly the type to enjoy gore movies either.”
As Mariang said that, she strained to stretch the arm that remained above her elbow and wiped her lips. The blood flowing from inside her torn mouth was wiped away on the hem of her black clothes.
“My limbs were cut off while I was escaping. At first, I thought I might try fighting it, but after probing it a few times, it didn’t seem possible. So I just gave up everything below both elbows and rolled down the mountain to escape. Then a tentacle came flying and took my legs.”
“A tentacle… Is that its method of attack?”
“One of them. The womb itself is hard, but it isn’t all that strong. The problem is the creatures it gives birth to.”
The group began moving again. Mariang, slung over Frederica’s back like a piece of luggage, continued speaking.
“It keeps shitting them out several at a second, and there are way too many types. Every single one has different traits too.”
“You’re saying you couldn’t break through the numbers?”
Frederica asked, and Mariang nodded.
“Yes, I couldn’t. To be precise, I did manage to break through once and carve out part of the womb, but it immediately gave birth to a baby that looked exactly like itself and used it as material to regenerate. I don’t think it has any maternal love.”
“We got more information than I expected. That’s enough. You did well.”
Ian lightly patted Mariang’s head. At that, Mariang smiled brightly and flopped heavily against Frederica’s back. Frederica staggered.
“Urgh…! Ah, fuck! I almost fell over!”
“Endure it. How heavy can I possibly be?”
“Ha, listen to the way you talk. I really want to just throw you away. Hey, can I stick her on my halberd and use her like a flag?”
“Try it. See what happens.”
While the two bickered, Alisa, who had naturally taken the lead alongside Cecilia, looked to the right. Then she drew her machete and spoke.
“It’s over there. Wait a moment.”
“I’ll go with you. It may be dangerous alone.”
Yohan followed behind Alisa. Alisa only glanced sideways at him and didn’t bother stopping him.
Thud!
Alisa roughly dug into the fog-shrouded muddy ground with her machete. Yohan stood with his back to her, looking around as he stroked his rosary. The clinking sound and the sound of digging earth echoed through the silent mountain.
“Found it.”
A moment later, Alisa pulled an emerald out from inside the mound of dirt.
An emerald the size of a fist. A small magic circle was engraved within it. Alisa roughly shook the dirt off the emerald and tapped its surface with the handle of her machete.
“A typical barrier stone. Seeing as they used emerald, they must have quite a bit of money.”
“Are emeralds expensive? By magicians’ standards, aren’t they fairly affordable?”
“You know one thing and not the second. The types of jewels that can be used in barrier arts are limited, and even those have to be highly pure to function properly. This is… an emerald so pure it’s nearly perfect. The price would be truly ridiculous.”
“I see.”
Yohan answered indifferently, and Alisa smashed the emerald with her machete. With a brittle crack, the shattered fragments of the gem buried themselves in the mud.
“That takes care of the barrier. Shin Ian, does your magic work again?”
“Yeah, it works.”
Ian answered, showing the snow-white mass of ether wrapped around his wrist. Alisa sheathed her machete and returned to the group with Yohan.
There was no longer any need to hesitate. Slowly, but without wavering, they continued moving in the direction the magic indicated. They advanced in a straight line along what would have become a circular path had the barrier been active.
[…]
The closer they got to Irene, the more varied the types of monstrosities that appeared became.
The strangest among them was a mass of blood vessels walking in the shape of a person, without a human body. With no bones or muscles, a monstrosity made only of veins trudged across the mountain.
“I’m seeing all sorts of things…”
Of course, it was only strange; it wasn’t dangerous. Its method of attack was to connect its blood vessels to its opponent’s and absorb them, but the only one among the group who was injured was Mariang. The rest were all intact, so they were able to kill it easily.
Splatter.
The falling blood vessels dyed the wet muddy ground red. Ian stepped over them and continued climbing the mountain.
As he did, he thought.
‘If they are creatures ultimately created—or transformed—by the Master of the Outer Sea. And if she thought of me even a little. Then the current Irene probably won’t be able to harm me at all.’
It was an obvious fact that the Master of the Outer Sea had done something rather troublesome, but in truth, for Ian personally, the current situation was much better than before.
All of Darko’s remaining clones were dead. Irene had lost her capacity for autonomous thought itself, and her identity as a magician had practically collapsed.
At most, all she could do was pop out brats. Even those brats couldn’t do anything against Ian.
Thanks to that, unlike before, when there had still been at least some chance of injury, even if Ian ran madly around the mountain naked now, it would be nearly impossible for him to suffer any serious injury.
Except for the case of him tripping and falling on his own, the possibility of being hurt by Irene or her creations had, for all practical purposes, vanished.
However, the people other than Ian were still in danger. No, things were far more dangerous now than when Irene had been functioning normally as a magician.
‘…Have I gotten too friendly with outer gods? Is that why my perception of outer gods has become a little lax?’
The beings commonly depicted as “outer gods” in creative works were closer to something incomprehensible. They were more phenomenon than organism, and more law than phenomenon.
Transcendents who could toy with human minds as they pleased and looked down on living beings who still drew breath.
Just as we feel nothing in particular watching an anthill burn, they probably wouldn’t care much whether humanity burned to death in its entirety. Only the safety of the human they had taken as their sole “husband” mattered.
“…Haa.”
It was obvious, but if something like this happened again, even Ian would find himself in a slightly troublesome situation.
So he needed to firmly tell her not to pull this kind of crap again from now on.
‘I should ask what she did and why she did it first. Getting angry comes after that.’
Thinking that, Ian flicked the grimoire in his hand.
Meanwhile, the group continued climbing the mountain. With their hair and clothes damp from the fog, they panted roughly as they took the shortest route.
After roughly thirty minutes had passed like that, a small cabin finally appeared beyond the fog. Ian checked the direction the magic pointed several times, then nodded.
“That’s the place.”
At his words, the group naturally readied themselves. Their rough breathing immediately settled, and each of them gripped their weapons tightly as they fixed their gazes on the cabin.
Ian returned Holmes’s head to his body. With a click, his head was reattached.
[There’s nothing around the cabin. I expected a large number of monstrosities to be standing there.]
Holmes said this while roughly wiping the moisture from his lenses with a handkerchief. No one answered, but everyone agreed with him.
Just as Holmes had said, there was nothing around the cabin. Only thick fog drifted this way and that with the wind. No self-willed organs were visible.
However, it was clear that something was inside the cabin. Something dark red was repeatedly protruding from and withdrawing into the slightly open window.
“What’s the strategy?”
Alisa asked without taking her eyes off it.
Cecilia answered.
“I’ll take the lead. They’re probably all holed up inside the cabin, and someone will have to take their attacks once to create an opening.”
“Not bad, but in that case, wouldn’t it be better to just project firepower all at once and blow the entire cabin apart?”
“If we remove the spatial restriction of the cabin for no reason and Irene escapes somewhere into this mountain, it’ll become a headache. Even if we have to accept some damage, we should deal with her here.”
Both were reasonable suggestions. Perhaps because of that, the two of them turned to look at Frederica at the same time. Caught off guard by their gazes, Frederica scratched her cheek.
“…Aing, you’re making me shy looking at me like that.”
“…Frederica, ask the angels what we should do. You can still use it one more time without any major risk.”
Cecilia said with a sigh in her voice. Frederica let out an “Ah,” closed her eyes, and clasped both hands together as if praying.
“Guides of heaven. Illuminate the path of these lost lambs.”
Fwoosh!
At the same time as her prayer, light poured down over her head. Unable to pierce through all the fog, the hazy golden light brightly illuminated their surroundings before soon fading away.
“Mm!”
Immediately after, Frederica nodded with a bright expression.
“They say there won’t be any problem if we do as Shin Ian says?”
“…”
“They say pork belly would be good for the after-party meal. Ah, with soju too!”
“…Amen.”
Yohan closed his eyes and murmured softly. Everyone’s gazes naturally turned toward Ian, and he let out a hollow laugh with an expression of disbelief.
“Those crazy angel bastards are even shifting responsibility now.”
“Hey! Don’t blaspheme. Keep that up and you might get the shit beaten out of you.”
“Bullshit.”
Ian let out a deep sigh and stood up.
“They said to do as I say?”
“Yep. So, Captain? What should we do?”
Frederica smiled broadly, planting her halberd on the ground like a staff.
Ian answered immediately.
“I’ll go in alone, so you all spread out and surround the place from here.”
“Eck.”
At the completely unexpected remark, Frederica stuck out her tongue. Whether she did or not, Ian added more before the others could object.
“Since earlier, I’m the only one who hasn’t been affected by the fog, and I haven’t been attacked by those monster bastards either. Seems the reason has something to do with my grimoire.”
“What?”
“So I’m going alone. This isn’t stubbornness or arrogance; I’m deciding this because I’m certain I’ll be fine, so I’m not taking objections. I’d rather not have everyone charge in for no reason, only for someone to die or get hurt and ruin the mood.”
Ian smiled faintly as he looked down at the group.
“Go find a pork belly place for the after-party. For the record, I like marinated galbi better than pork belly.”
With that, he took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and started toward the cabin. Voices called out from behind him, but he brought out the sound-eating flame and crushed them all.
He understood that he had been rather forceful. He also understood that, since his explanation had been lacking, it would be hard for them to simply accept it with an “Ah, I see.”
But if he were to explain in detail, he would inevitably have to bring up the Outer Gods, and he did not particularly want to go that far just to persuade them.
They had probably all figured it out to some extent anyway, but there was a clear difference between having only suspicions and openly saying it aloud. The heresy inquisitors might have known about the grimoire of the Outer God from the beginning, but Alyssa, Holmes, and Marianne did not.
He had no intention whatsoever of going around announcing in front of them, I am the owner of an Outer God’s grimoire. It was right to avoid anything that might stir up needless trouble.
There was also the possibility that, if he said something for no reason, it might get caught by some listening device Walter had hidden.
“……Hoo.”
Ian silently lit his cigarette and drew in a long breath of smoke. The sweet scent of grapefruit filled his nose and mouth.
Without any resistance, he pushed through the fog and arrived in front of the cabin entrance.
The ordinary door was half-broken, swaying slightly back and forth in the wind. Without hesitation, Ian kicked it open wide.
At that very moment, a tentacle crawled out from inside at high speed.
The dark red tentacle, smeared all over with clumps of viscera, sharpened its tip and aimed precisely for Ian’s liver. Ian looked down at it calmly and opened his mouth.
“Paw.”
Thud.
At his single word, the tentacle’s movement abruptly stopped. Then it trembled and gently extended its tip toward Ian, like a puppy offering its forepaw.
Ian smiled broadly.
“Good.”
Crunch!
He stepped on the tentacle and burst it apart.