Heukryonghoe (3)
Haines looked at his opponent with a cold, sunken gaze.
With just that, a crushing pressure poured down upon that single point, as if the entire world had turned against him.
Yet within that pressure, more than enough to leave ordinary men breathless, the old man merely stroked his beard, his face still bearing a delighted smile as though something greatly amused him.
'He was a former branch chief of the Beoncheonhoe?'
Haines's eyebrows twitched.
It was certainly surprising information.
So much so that even he, who had considered various possibilities, had never expected it.
But the biggest question right then was not the information itself.
'Then why is he telling me this?'
It was a fact he had not heard even after squeezing out every bit of information Heukyeong knew.
As the man himself had said, it was likely a secret that no one else knew, one that only he had kept.
To divulge such a thing so readily to Haines, a stranger he was seeing for the first time... no, to an enemy who had invaded the very organization he had raised—this was an act not easily understood.
"What are you thinking?"
Haines did not hide that question.
The flow of the situation was already absolutely favorable to his side.
There was no need to read the room to dig into his opponent's true intentions.
If push came to shove, he could simply force it out through strength.
"There is no particular deep meaning. I merely thought it would be good for comrades with the same goal to speak openly."
"The same goal..."
"To bring down the Beoncheonhoe. Was that not what you desired?"
Heukryongju looked at Haines with profound eyes.
Within his black pupils, dark energy rippled.
"—In the Masquerade, that is."
"Hmm."
Haines tilted his head.
He was not surprised that his opponent knew that name.
Though Masquerade had only recently begun its full-scale activities, with more than just one or two witnesses, word was bound to leak out one way or another.
He had not even intended to hide the name in the first place.
"I cannot believe you."
The problem lay elsewhere.
"You struck first and now claim to be a comrade with the same goal...? No matter how I look at it, this looks like nothing more than making excuses to escape the situation."
It was a matter of trust.
No matter how peacefully they were conversing now, this was by no means a place made to deepen friendship.
It was a place to punish the invader who had barged into his own house and rummaged through it as he pleased.
"Hmm, I apologize for that. But there were unavoidable circumstances on this side as well."
"Circumstances?"
"How much do you know about the Prophet of the Beoncheonhoe?"
"Prophet? Do you mean the Oracle?"
"...Hmm, I wondered, but it seems it's true. To think you could evade her gaze even after speaking that name."
Haines's brow furrowed.
He had wondered what excuse the man would try to make, but was this some random non sequitur?
"Her prophecy is not simply glimpsing fragments of the future. It is closer to reading the flow that penetrates past, present, and future, and the thoughts unconsciously released by humans, thereby predetermining fate."
Perhaps sensing the chilly atmosphere, Heukryongju immediately launched into his explanation.
"The range of her influence covers the entire Earth. Moreover, the moment someone utters a word clearly referring to her, they are immediately captured by her gaze and become a target. Of course, there are many abilities in this world, so it's not that there are no ways to circumvent it, but..."
Finishing by saying that it was best to leave no trace whatsoever for safety, he looked at Haines with a strange expression—and at something wrapped around his surroundings.
"But this is the first time I've seen such a lack of reaction. It's not that you've blocked the tracking through some means, but rather that she cannot even perceive you from the very start."
Then he lightly shook his head and continued what he had been saying before.
Why he, why the Heukryonghoe, had no choice but to use such a complicated method.
"Unfortunately, our Heukryonghoe does not possess the same ability as you. As it is, her vigilance is at its peak because of what you did in Southeast Asia; if we were to approach with the intention of cooperating with a blood ally in this situation..."
The risk of being discovered would be tremendous from that act alone.
Therefore, they had not even brought up anything related to it to Heukyeong, the executor, from the very beginning.
In the end, that commotion was merely a measure to bypass the surveillance network and make contact with him.
'The Oracle was at that level?'
At his excessively cautious demeanor, Haines slightly raised one eyebrow.
Truthfully, he did not know all that much about the Oracle.
He merely knew that she was part of the command center leading the Beoncheonhoe's march, possessing the ability to see the future.
"Though not a combatant, she has reached the realm of the Divine, so isn't it natural? Though she had to abandon most of her rank due to the sin of leaking heavenly secrets, in exchange, most of the restrictions on Earth disappeared for her, so she is by no means negligible. ...Well, judging by appearances, she seems to be completely incompatible with you, though."
But Heukryongju reacted as if it were obvious.
And the way he repeatedly scanned Haines's surroundings suggested that he found Haines—who was completely free from the Oracle's ability—quite fascinating.
"Yes, I understand that. Let's discuss the details slowly... Now, the most important issue remains."
At that, Haines narrowed his eyes and quietly looked at his opponent.
At the same time, the surrounding air, which had been calm during the conversation, began to stir once more.
As though he would tear apart the man before him the very instant he showed even the slightest suspicious sign.
"Speak. Former East Asian Branch Chief of the Beoncheonhoe, Yeokcheonja."
Thick blood mist spread all around.
"Your true goal. Why you betrayed the Beoncheonhoe and seek to make them your enemies."
A stern gaze that would tolerate no falsehood whatsoever stared straight into the old man's mind.
"And why I should believe you."
With each word, the increasingly oppressive pressure made it impossible for Heukryongju to maintain his serene expression any longer.
As if forcibly suppressing a body that was about to enter a combat stance, he flinched several times before letting out a deep sigh.
"Hoo, isn't that obvious?"
And with a stiffened face, he continued once more.
"If the Beoncheonhoeju's plan proceeds as intended, at least half of humanity on Earth will never survive."
It was a more humane reason than he had expected.
And at the same time, a problem on a global scale beyond expectations.
***
'Masquerade... a group of adversaries.'
The Beoncheonhoeju slowly raised his head.
In his gaze was reflected the great law that enveloped the entire world.
'Is this your will, Akasha?'
A corner of the trans-dimensional system that only he in this world could fully observe.
It was the very source of power that bestowed upon humans—Earth's sole intelligent species—the blessing of Awakening, thereby allowing them to enjoy the miracle known as Mystery.
'At the same time, it is also the key of destruction that leads the world to ruin.'
Zzzz—
—I will never give up... I will surely become...
Uuuung—
—By any means necessary... whatever sacrifice must be made...!
Along with the headache he was now used to, a ringing sound spread through his ears.
A heterogeneous voice, somehow like his own yet strangely foreign, buzzed and shook his mind.
But without so much as blinking an eye, he stared blankly at the laws of the world.
By now, there was nothing new about it.
Across his eyes flashed fragments of a future that had now become the past.
Like a nation pursuing isolationist policies collapsing under foreign pressure—the image of a world that had ultimately failed to overcome and been destroyed.
'I expected there would be interference.'
It had always been that way.
No matter what countermeasures he prepared in advance with accumulated knowledge, it was useless.
Like an unavoidable fate, it came at moments completely unexpected, in forms utterly unimaginable, and always ruined his plans.
'But I am definitely moving forward.'
He could assert it.
The responses based on his accumulated experience were effective to that extent.
To have raised his share to this degree despite all manner of constraints was the best result he had achieved so far.
There was only one problem.
That as much as he had advanced, the system's resistance had also reached a level that could not be ignored.
The fact that as his achievements grew, the level of his adversaries had become unprecedentedly threatening.
'Hahoetal and Phantom, the Saint of Another World and the Lion Mask, and...'
There were not one but many enemies who could freely cross dimensions like himself.
The fact that he had not yet fully grasped even their identities was an enormous problem.
He needed to grasp the enemy before he could devise any countermeasures...
"Aha! Hoeju! There you were!"
Just as he was lost in deep thought.
A somewhat frivolous voice interrupted his contemplation.
"I had something I wanted to tell you, and here you are!"
Striding toward him was a middle-aged man with ashen hair—Doctor.
Who knew what he had done to his own body—his pair of fluorescent yellow eyes flickered as if emitting light.
"Aah! It seems the Hoeju noticed as well? These eyes, aren't they incredible? I used factors extracted from a Watcher of the Rodeka Dimension as the foundation and added various things..."
And as always, he digressed and began rambling about this and that.
Bodies fused with materials from various races, spiritual energy circuits artificially tuned and engraved, and artificial bodies mixed with all manner of scientific civilization byproducts.
He took them out one by one and showed them off proudly.
"As expected, bodies cultivated as homunculi are far more flexible in this regard, aren't they? Had I known this, I would have switched bodies sooner. Bodies with too high a pure human content simply lack flexibility!"
A mad scientist who had used even his own body as research material for human experiments muttered complaints, regardless of whether the rank he had built up until now would drop.
Of course, it was thanks to having torn his own body into several pieces in the past and culturing them in advance that he could revive like this.
"It would have been even better if the Perfect Evolutionary Organism Project had succeeded... Ah! Since we're on the topic. That Lion Mask fellow in Masquerade—I seem to have some connection with him. Listening to the reports, something vaguely comes to mind..."
"Doctor, let's get to the main point."
At that moment, the Beoncheonhoeju, who had been quietly listening to his ceaseless chatter, spoke in a low voice.
He had waited long enough—more than enough courtesy had been shown for his position.
Having just devoured a dimension, he was relaxed enough that as long as he did not use his power excessively for the time being, he would not need to confine himself; however, that did not mean he intended to keep enduring and listening to the man's endless prattle.
"Ehehehe! I got so excited that I forgot for a moment!"
Doctor smacked his own forehead and grinned as he looked at the Hoeju.
And with an air of apparent willingness, he continued.
"I went through the logs from while I was asleep this time, and discovered a very interesting fact! Someone tried to hack into a system I had locked!"
"Hacking?"
"Not just some nobody! The very fact that they got that far means they have a quantum computer on par with an advanced super-civilization!"
It also meant the level at which they handled it was no trivial matter.
To the extent that had it not been for his [Deus Ex Machina], it might truly have been breached.
"So I tried to trace it back, but they had also paid considerable attention to security, making it difficult to pinpoint the location! Hehehek~ this is quite embarrassing!"
Of course, it was not that he had gained nothing.
Though he had not identified the point of origin, he had succeeded in finding the traces left by the hacker ability user.
"...A large-scale hacking of the entire Southeast Asian region."
The decisive cause that had made them hold an emergency meeting.
It was evidence that the unknown hacker had deeply intervened in the collapse of the Southeast Asian branch.
"Masquerade."
"Exactly! To think they possess a hacker of that caliber—they aren't merely brutes! Whew~ I'd love to face them directly, but it seems they've stopped their activities recently! Such a shame."
The Beoncheonhoeju, ignoring the genuinely disappointed Doctor, slowly closed his eyes.
Masquerade—the gathering of adversaries who obstructed his plans.
That they had an information and communications ability user of a caliber to earn Doctor's admiration was by no means good news.
'But I will overcome it. No matter what obstacles arise. Even if it means more sacrifices must be made.'
Everything was for this world.
To protect Earth from destruction.
That was his mission as a Regressor—one he could tell no one.