Summons (2)
The Black Dragon Society.
Now pushed aside by the Beoncheon Society, it was a name with so little presence left that it would not be strange at all if it soon vanished.
The only reason its lineage had yet to be severed was because it was an organization with a long history, one that had existed in China’s shadows for at least several decades before the Great Cataclysm.
Though even that had long since become nothing more than a thing of the past.
‘The Black Dragon Society… It’s an unfamiliar name, but there’s an incredible amount of information left in the database.’
That meant it had once been a force of considerable renown.
In the early days, when Returnees had only just begun appearing one by one.
Thanks to the good fortune of one of their core executives returning as a master of the Huajing realm, they had successfully reformed their constitution and enjoyed a period of considerable prosperity.
An enormous amount of blood had been spilled both inside and outside the organization in the process, but that was nothing particularly special, as it was something repeated whenever power changed hands.
Even the Huajing master who had overturned the organization was killed by someone stronger than himself before more than a few years had passed.
‘What matters is that, through that process, the Black Dragon Society came to have a few distinctive traits.’
The most representative of them was that they came to give preferential treatment to Returnees of the murim world, those who used “martial arts” among the mysteries.
Of course, there was also a practical reason for that.
For some reason, among Returnees of Chinese origin, the proportion of those from dimensions classified as murim worlds was extremely high.
In truth, considering that most of those sent to murim worlds were East Asians, it might be that an Awakener’s subconscious had some influence on the selection of the target dimension.
‘It’s the same with vampires being especially dominant in Europe.’
Also, after returning to Earth, their growth had stagnated, and the only way for them to become stronger was to interact with their own kind and hone their techniques. In that sense, it was not particularly strange that the Black Dragon Society had come to be composed mainly of martial artists.
Well, in the end, because they pursued such an extreme direction, there was a sense that they had been weeded out all the more emptily.
“…That is why we judged that relocating to Korea was the only opportunity to revive the Black Dragon Society. The Korean Peninsula has been an area the Beoncheon Society has shown strangely little interest in since before.”
The Beoncheon Society’s forces sent into Korea were mere scraps, not even worth comparing to a drop in the bucket beside those on the Chinese mainland.
So even after hearing that they had ultimately surrendered the territory and withdrawn completely, they had not thought of it as serious—so said Black Shadow, quietly lowering his head.
‘In other words, to put it bluntly, they completely looked down on the Blood Alliance, which had become the representative of Korea’s underworld.’
It was nothing new for the Chinese to look down on Korea as a small country.
They must have thought that no matter how remarkable Phantom, a Transcendent, might be, he would not be able to properly respond on his own to a conspiracy that crept forward in such an insidious manner, just like this incident.
“Fine. I understand the motive clearly.”
Heinz II slowly nodded.
Black Shadow had been the advance party dispatched to lay the groundwork.
If the plan all succeeded and the Blood Alliance collapsed completely, there would be nothing better; and even if it did not, their goal was to ensure the Blood Alliance had no room to pay attention to other matters.
“So what you’re saying is…”
The mere fact that a master of Black Shadow’s level, standing at the very edge of the Huajing realm, had been dispatched for such an operation was enough to show just how important they considered this matter.
“The head of the Black Dragon Society, the one who ordered it, is right there?”
“…That is correct, Lord.”
Though in the end, they had committed the fatal mistake of misjudging the other side’s capabilities—badly.
Heinz II extended one hand forward, pointing to the city visible far in the distance, and looked in the direction his finger indicated.
Heilongjiang Province, located at the eastern end of China. One of the largest cities there—Harbin.
‘Good. Then shall I go and take a look at the face of the person in charge?’
As he personally stepped forward to bring this incident to a definite close, the city’s nightscape bloomed beautifully in his eyes.
***
At present, the number of those called Transcendents on Earth was estimated to be roughly a hundred or so.
It was inevitable that the number was not certain.
Not everyone revealed their existence and acted publicly, and for various reasons, there were not a few regions where contact with the outside world had become difficult in itself.
Africa, where countless warlords ran rampant and the land had become little different from a savage wilderness; South America, where the influence of superhuman cartels surpassed that of governments; the Middle East, swarming with extremist terrorists—these were places where obtaining information was nearly impossible without special means.
All anyone could do was estimate that the number would be about that much when considering the ratio of Transcendents to population.
However, there was one fact the world’s people had not anticipated.
In every one of those regions cut off from the outside, the same force existed behind the scenes.
It was only natural, since they were the ones who had fanned the flames of those chaotic situations in the first place.
Whether Africa, South America, the Middle East… or any other region, it was the same.
In that sense, today was an extraordinarily special day.
Because it was the day of a meeting of the black curtain that had, until now, been moving the world from behind the veil.
A reverse-side world covered entirely in pure white marble, with elegant patterns engraved throughout, exuding a solemn atmosphere like that of a temple.
Creeeak—
With a small noise, the door connected to the outside opened wide, and a middle-aged Hispanic man with a stylish Kaiser mustache and a scar crossing one eye strode inside.
He lightly looked around, then immediately moved toward the round table at the center.
Clank! Clatter—clang!
Every time he took a step, heavy metallic sounds rang out in all directions.
Thick metal armor that covered his whole body without a helmet, a war hammer in his hand as large as an adult’s torso, and a large-gauge shotgun hanging from his back and swaying this way and that.
As the fully armed man, looking as though he might break into battle at any moment, approached the round table, a Black man who had already arrived long ago and taken one of the seats twisted up the corner of his mouth and jeered.
“Making quite the noisy entrance, aren’t you? Lord Dictator. Not very fitting for the one who arrived last.”
Unlike the other man, he had no weapons to speak of, nor any equipment.
All he wore were ornaments that seemed to be made of bones, feathers, and the like tied together.
But to him, who had reached transcendence through sorcery, such ritual implements were the true weapons.
“Keh-heh-heh! Sorry about that! A little commotion broke out in my jurisdiction, you see. Business is something with a lot to worry about, isn’t it? Unlike war addicts who only eat up the money others have worked so hard to earn.”
The middle-aged Hispanic man took a thick cigar from his breast.
Then he bit off the end with his teeth, spat it onto the floor, lit it, drew in deeply, and slowly exhaled toward the Black man.
At the same time, the surrounding air began to grow increasingly taut with tension.
“…Hmph! I don’t know what a druggie has to be so proud of, bragging so confidently about making money through smuggling.”
“Isn’t it better than starting meaningless wars and doing nothing but stuffing your face like a pig? Isn’t that right, Mr. Self-Proclaimed Liberator?”
“Meaningless? The number of peoples freed from exploitation through our struggles so far, the villages that have regained their freedom, are countless. You filthy dictator bastard… did you just call our holy war meaningless?”
“…”
“…”
A frigid silence flowed between the two.
It did not last very long.
Whoooooom—!
A fierce storm whipped up along with a violent flow of energy.
The muzzle of the large-gauge shotgun, imbued with tremendous energy, was aimed at the Liberator, and something that revealed itself in midair bared its teeth at the Dictator.
A hair-trigger situation, as though they would clash at any moment.
“If you two don’t want to get beaten until you’re on the verge of death, stop there.”
But they were not the only ones present.
At the somehow languid female voice, both men flinched.
A head of disheveled blond hair, still lying face-down on the round table just as it had been from the beginning, without even stirring amid the commotion.
But there was no one here who could ignore her warning.
No matter that they too were Transcendents and branch heads responsible for South America and Africa respectively, before an absolute power that surpassed all of that, they had no choice but to restrain themselves.
“Tch. Consider yourself lucky.”
“Ha! That’s my line.”
In the end, the two withdrew their energy and each sat down at the farthest ends of the round table.
Of course, even then, their eyes continued to glare at one another.
Since the two had fundamentally opposite ideologies and dispositions, it was inevitable that friction would arise when they shared the same space.
Still, until now, their areas of activity had been separate, so there had not been many occasions for them to clash…
‘Ah, I already feel tired.’
The blond woman with her head planted on the table, the Judge, let out a deep sigh.
In truth, this was not the first fight she had intervened in and stopped.
It had not been long since they had come face to face, yet there had already been several clashes before this one.
‘Every last one of them has far too much personality and pride. On top of that, camaraderie was at rock bottom to begin with, so what else could be expected?’
It was only natural, since all of them had joined the Beoncheon Society for their own reasons.
Some because they had incurred a debt difficult to repay, such as having their lives saved or being aided in their growth; some because they judged that siding with this faction would be advantageous for achieving their ambitions; and others because they feared or revered the absolute being known as the leader of the Beoncheon Society, and so on…
If she had her way, she would have liked to leave them alone whether they fought or not, but with the Society Leader’s words in mind, she could not simply neglect the executives if they were about to fight to the death.
All the more so since a comrade of equal standing to her was currently away to carry out the Society Leader’s orders.
And also…
Her gaze turned toward several empty seats whose owners had now disappeared.
‘I knew because I heard about it… but seeing it like this in person really makes it sink in.’
This meeting had been personally convened by the leader of the Beoncheon Society, and it was one that any high-ranking executive at branch head level or above was required to attend, yet many seats remained empty.
‘Starting with the Lawgiver, then the Duke, the Secretary, and even Nagaraja…’
No, that was not all.
Hadn’t even the Executioner, who was practically second only to the Society Leader in terms of military force, and Doctor, who along with Oracle was no different from one of the Society Leader’s arms, fallen to those bastards?
Also, since she bore a very slight responsibility for the Executioner failing to get his body out in time, as she had been in charge of the support bombardment, she could not simply gloss over the current situation.
‘I definitely confirmed that he had gotten out safely before stopping the bombardment. Why on earth couldn’t he escape properly even with such a fraudulent ability?’
Was the Executioner incompetent, or was Masquerade far too capable?
After venting several complaints inwardly like that, she lightly steadied her breath.
No matter that he had been someone she personally disliked, public and private matters had to be kept strictly separate.
If the enemy force… if Masquerade’s strength was that great, then they, who were hostile to them, also needed to hurry and devise countermeasures.
Creeeak—
Just as she was deep in thought, troubled by the complicated ideas passing through her mind.
The door connected to the outside opened again.
A dozen or so high-ranking executives, all exuding unusual presences regardless of age, gender, or race, turned to look there in unison.
Those among the executives who could come had already all arrived, so they could sufficiently guess who the one appearing now was.
“I kept you waiting.”
And just as expected.
From the direction of the door, the voice of the being everyone had waited and waited for flowed out quietly.
“Ahh!”
“The Society Leader has arrived.”
“Society Leader!”
An ambiguous voice that even the Judge, who had sprouted divinity, could not properly perceive—at once like that of an ordinary young man and an extraordinary old man.
She gulped down her saliva and wiped the beads of sweat that had formed on her palm at some point onto the hem of her clothes.
“Hmm, looks like everyone behaved themselves. How admirable.”
Following behind came Oracle’s voice, tinged with a slight laugh.
The way he kept sneaking glances toward where she stood made it seem as though he had already pieced together everything that had happened here.
'So he knew everything and dumped it all on me. What a twisted sense of humor.'
That was precisely when an unexpected variable emerged.
"Woohoo! Long time no see, everyone! Have you been well? Ah... come to think of it, I heard the news too. The Executioner... that Executioner...! Kuhuk!" Starting with a high-pitched, frivolous tone, then sniffling as if truly grief-stricken, a cyborg appearing to be a middle-aged man with gray-brown hair began shedding tears drop by drop and wailing in earnest.
It was the 'Doctor', who had concealed himself to modify a resurrected body.
"Euhheoheohung—! Keoheuk! Keuk!"
While everyone stared blankly at his erratic reactions, even more unpredictable than before, his fluctuating emotions showed no signs of stopping there and continued to shift repeatedly.
"Aaaack! This is absurd! To have the Great Demon, the Great Demon's body stolen by those bastards! There are still so many experiments I haven't tried, and to lose such a precious, top-grade test subject like this!! I'm jealous, jealous, jealous! I cannot tolerate this!"
Jealousy following rage.
It couldn't be helped that his grief over losing a comrade took a different direction.
After all, he was a man who had lived his entire life that way.
"...Huu, but still, what a relief. Just in case, I secretly created a homunculus from the Executioner. If I hadn't even had that, I truly would have gone mad. Huhuhuhu!"
And the conclusion of that rampage was enough to leave everyone utterly dumbfounded.
The Executioner had periodically repeated his challenges against the Beoncheon Hoeju, and the outcome was always a severe injury from which he could barely regenerate. The Doctor had actively assisted his regeneration on each such occasion, but from the sound of things, it seemed he had been conducting every experiment possible even during those times.
He had even gone so far as to harvest materials without permission to create a homunculus, so that said it all.
If the Executioner had found out about that, it would never have ended simply.
The existence of an artificial lifeform that perfectly resembled one possessing divine nature was in and of itself nothing short of a vulnerability that could threaten accumulated divinity.
Though it was nothing more than an irrelevant story now.
"Hm? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
But the Doctor merely tilted his head, as if completely oblivious.
"Did we not gather here for a purpose! Come, come! Let us begin at once!"
Then he broke into a bright smile, happily clapped his hands, and called out energetically.
"An operation meeting to capture all of Masquerade as test subjects!"