The passage was narrow. They had said it led beneath the purification filter, but it was far from anything that could be called a properly maintained path.
It was a passage that burrowed through the innards of long-abandoned equipment. Wastewater pipes and bundles of cables were tangled across the walls and ceiling without distinction, and rusted inspection rails jutted up here and there from the floor.
Noise moved ahead with his body lowered. On his cracked terminal, only a few broken route lines were displayed instead of a map. He matched the remaining traces on the screen with his memory as he chose the path.
“Left is blocked. Right side. The floor’s hollow. Careful!”
Blackbeak flicked a finger.
“Go.”
The two wolf-types lowered their bodies. Each time their bulk brushed the walls, rusted iron plates scraped with a long screech. Even they could not pick up speed.
I slipped through the lowest gap.
The passage had been twisted in several places. It seemed the impact from the battle just now had reached this far. Several supports were bent, and black water leaked little by little from pipe joints.
Like old, decaying bones, the path creaked with every movement. It felt as though one wrong touch would bring the whole thing crashing down.
We could not move quickly.
Noise raised a hand ahead.
“Wait.”
The floor ahead had been cut off. Beneath the inspection rail, an empty space of unknown depth yawned open, with a few thin iron plates laid roughly across it.
Noise clicked his tongue.
“We can cross, but one at a time.”
Blackbeak halted the two wolf-types.
“You first.”
Noise stepped onto the iron plate.
Creeeak.
The plate bent. Noise held his breath as he shifted his weight and half-crawled to the other side. Blackbeak followed. The two wolf-types took longer. Each time they moved, rusted fasteners beneath the plates groaned.
I passed through the gap between them.
The circulation beneath my scales was turning without disorder. The flow that had been distorted when I forced the Gate open had returned to its proper place. The orbit of Ouroboros was turning more fiercely than before, and the power remaining in me was, if anything, overflowing.
The afterglow from opening the Gate had not disappeared. I had not managed to open it completely. What had leaked through the crack was a fragment. The shape of a dragon’s head and a single streak of lightning.
That sensation alone was clear.
It did not have to be a complete domain. I could seize part of the form and leave it briefly where it was needed. If there was a foundation to endure it and power to feed it, the spell would take shape on the spot.
That sensation drew up my memories of talisman arts.
A foundation on which to engrave the pattern, power to feed that pattern, and a medium to support the two.
The medium I had now was my scales.
Nor was I lacking in power.
The problem was the ratio.
AI.
— Yeah.
There’s something I need you to help with.
— What are you trying to do now? Tell me before you do it this time.
The ratio of Dao power and demonic power. The moment the pattern holds. The point where the circulation goes out of alignment.
— I don’t know spells, snake. I can’t understand what you’re trying to do just from the name.
You don’t need to know the name. Just remember the flow I show you and follow it.
— Oh. I’ve never seen this before. Is this a method you made yourself?
Don’t touch the spell.
— I won’t. I can’t, either. But I can help tune it.
Good.
I laid my spiritual sense onto one thin scale near my side. I pressed down the first stroke with Dao power, then covered it very thinly with demonic power. A scale could not hold energy for long like Goehwangji paper. If I put only Dao power into it, the engraved mark quickly blurred; if I added even a little more demonic power, the stroke spread and the mark became muddled.
— The demonic power is too fast. It’s not following the stroke; it’s trying to cover the whole scale.
I slowed the demonic power.
— This time the Dao power is going out first. The power drains before the frame takes shape.
I set the Dao power up first, then laid the demonic power over it a little later. The scale trembled faintly.
— Yes, like that!
I seized that point. The mark pressed into the surface of the scale did not vanish immediately. It was not something that could last as long as a real talisman, but power had definitely been engraved into it.
Vajra Talisman.
It was the most basic of talisman arts, but crude. A makeshift thing, using a scale instead of Goehwangji paper and forcibly interlocking Dao power and demonic power instead of cinnabar. Even so, the moment it was struck, it could endure once. After that, the engraved area would collapse, and the scale would crack and fall away.
— A shield you use once and throw away.
Right. But the efficiency is incomparable.
Raise the scale just before impact, receive the blow, then let it slide off. A shield that covered my whole body was still too much, but even a Vajra Talisman bound to a single scale was enough of a card to get through one critical moment.
Other talisman arts came to mind as well.
But for now, it began with the Vajra Talisman. Binding power to one scale and making it endure only at the moment of impact. I had to establish that simple structure before moving on.
— Yeah. That’s the right direction. Start with one scale.
This body does not have only one scale.
— What, don’t tell me you’re going to put it on all of them?
At that moment, Blackbeak, who had been moving ahead, stopped.
“White Scale.”
I withdrew the flow I had been holding onto the scale.
Blackbeak did not move for a while. In the narrow passage, droplets fell along the rusted pipes. Noise, who had been leading, slowed his steps as well, and the two wolf-types remained crouched, waiting only for Blackbeak’s fingers.
“What the hell are you?”
“I thought you were a mute contamination, then you send meaning. You’re not humanoid enough to be an Irregular, and your smell is different too.”
Blackbeak’s fingers froze in the air. The two wolf-types lowered their bodies in response to that movement, and Noise also slowed ahead.
Blackbeak took one step toward me, then stopped. Beyond the ceiling, an old vibration scraped past, and the supports creaked as they dropped several black droplets.
He let out a long breath.
“No. It’s absurd to be worrying about that right now.”
A moment later, Blackbeak turned his body forward again.
“Fine. A promise is a promise.”
“I’ll admit you’re far more extraordinary than I thought.”
The promise still remained.
The hideout, the Wave, and the identity of the pursuers.
Blackbeak spoke first.
“As you know, the place to hide has been blown away.”
“So we’re going to the corporate district.”
Noise sucked in a short breath ahead.
“That place won’t be intact either.”
“I’m not looking for somewhere intact.”
Blackbeak lowered himself deeper into the narrow passage.
“There are solid bulkheads, private defense networks, and devices those suits inside installed to protect their own lifelines. Better than the collapsed lower levels.”
I did not ask at length about the Wave. I had already seen the black tide pushing in from beyond the wall, the call that overturned even the instincts of contaminations, and the flow that pulled even the demonic power inside me.
Blackbeak added,
“As you’ve already seen, once you’re swept up in the Wave, there’s no distinction left between people and contaminations. Don’t think of fighting it. Avoid it.”
What remained was the pursuer.
“The pursuer.”
One of the wolf-types ahead stopped before a fork in the path, and Noise tapped his cracked terminal before pointing right.
“The only one I can guess is Wudang.”
Yeon Mujin.
That name caught briefly inside me.
“I don’t know how much you know about the humans’ game, but Wudang isn’t just some group with a big signboard.”
Blackbeak continued while looking into the darkness ahead.
“Contaminations, Irregulars, monster-class incidents. Wudang has a special response force dedicated solely to that side of things. That’s the Exorcism Unit.”
Noise swallowed a curse ahead.
“Their unit commander died, and Wudang is quiet?”
“They covered it up. They didn’t give up.”
I brought up the next name.
Red Eyes.
Do you know someone who uses gravity?
Blackbeak’s steps came to a halt.
“......Red Eyes?”
Noise looked back as well.
A breath leaked from Blackbeak’s throat.
“Hah.”
He braced a hand against the wall, then started walking again.
“You got tangled up with the wrong ones. Wudang, and now Red Eyes too.”
“What the hell have you been carrying around with you?”
Then the ceiling rumbled.
Kuuung.
The entire passage shook as if it had sunk downward once. Rust powder fell from the walls like rain, and water burst from inside the old pipes. One ceiling support twisted, letting out a long metallic screech.
Noise grabbed the wall.
“Shit.”
The second impact was closer.
Kugugugung!
This time, the floor beneath us shook. One wolf-type drove its claws in to keep its balance, while the other raised its body as if to block Blackbeak. One of the upper supports snapped, and black water poured down.
Blackbeak looked up at the ceiling.
“Run.”
Noise shoved the terminal into his chest.
“Right! Keep going right no matter what!”
The third impact came down.
Once again, the passage twisted.
I spread my spiritual sense. Iron plates, pipes, cables, supports. Through them, the flow above pressed downward. It was not a simple impact. The entire district was shaking. The structures connecting the lower part of the wall toward the corporate district were all groaning at once.
We picked up speed.
Noise, ahead, found the path while practically crawling. Blackbeak guarded the rear, and the two wolf-types advanced through the narrow passage while scraping their bodies.
I followed behind them, riding the vibration of the floor.
At the end of the passage, the air changed.
Amid the stench of rotten water and rust, a hot, scorched wind mixed in. Burnt plastic, molten metal, acrid smoke pushing in from outside. It was not the smell of the inside of a blocked-off facility.
Noise raised his head.
“Ahead!”
Before he could finish speaking, light spread from the direction of the exit.
Pressure came before sound.
Kwaaaaang!
Hot wind backflowed into the narrow passage. The air rushed in as if it were pushing the walls themselves, and Noise’s body lifted from the floor. Blackbeak was shoved toward the wall as well, and the two wolf-types dug in their claws, but they could not withstand it.
Bang!
One slammed into a pipe.
The other crushed a wire mesh and rolled to the side.
My body was pushed too.
At that moment, something flew in from the direction of the exit.
It was a piece of burning armor plate. A metal mass as large as a human torso was rotating as it gouged through the passage wall. It was not merely debris swept in by the blast. Carrying the force of the explosion intact, it shot down the narrow passage toward us.
Noise had no room to dodge.
Blackbeak still had not pulled himself away from the wall.
The Vajra Talisman engraved onto my scale surfaced in my mind.
Now.
Dao power first raised the stroke, and demonic power covered it. The pattern pressed into a single scale burned with golden light.
The pattern trembled atop the scale as though it would scatter at any moment.
Even so, it created one instant to receive the impact.
I twisted my body and placed it in front of the fragment.
The armor plate struck my scale.
Kaaaang!
Along with the sound of metal bursting, my vision shook white. The pattern of the Vajra Talisman endured for an instant, and golden strokes scattered from the scale like sparks. The impact could not enter head-on and slid off to the side. The piece of armor plate lost its direction and slammed into the wall.
Kwajik!
The passage wall crumpled, and the burning metal scraped across the floor before stopping.
One scale cracked and fell away.
No engraved mark remained.
— It worked!
AI’s words burst out.
— It held just now, snake!
Another explosion erupted from the exit.
Kugugugung!
This time, light surged in with it. Through the gap in the twisted blast door, white-blue flashes burst forth, and beyond it, alarm sirens, artillery fire, people’s shouts, and the sound of something collapsing poured in all at once.
Noise lifted his bloodied forehead.
“Boss...... it’s outside.”
Blackbeak pushed himself up with a hand on the wall.
Light erupted once more.
Beyond the gap in the blast door, the sky over the corporate district was splitting white.