- Green Claws
The pale green ferns were filling the cracks in the split earth and covering the fallen tree trunks, gradually forming a forest.
The landscape, once twisted by destruction, was turning into a beautiful scene of life.
“You’re right, Mage? It seems like that divine mage from before appeared here, doesn’t it?”
Gil asked me.
“Yeah. This time, too, it looks like the divine mage stopped the black mage’s destruction.”
“But why won’t they show themselves? I want to meet them. And how did they know to come here?”
Gil wasn’t the only one with questions. I had many as well, and I wanted to meet that divine mage. But since they would not reveal themselves, there was nothing I could do.
“I’ll go up a little farther and take a look. You two stay here.”
“Yes. Please be careful.”
“Will you be all right? The road’s completely destroyed, so moving around won’t be easy.”
“I can move with telekinesis magic.”
Leaving Gil’s and Cheon Danbi’s worries behind, I cast telekinesis magic on my body and headed upward, almost as if I were flying.
With the ground turned entirely upside down, there was no way the buildings and facilities that had been up there would remain intact, but I had to confirm it with my own eyes.
Whether there were any survivors, whether the fleeing Nasan Haegyeong was still nearby, and whether the divine mage was there as well.
At this point, it even felt strange to say what was up and what was down.
The terrain had changed completely, making it difficult to recognize anything.
In any case, when I went up, there were no buildings, no people, nothing left.
I tried to estimate and find the spot where the cave had been, but there the strata had been abruptly cut away, forming a fault.
Not only the zombies that had jumped down, but the black mage’s minions as well, must all have vanished below the sheer cliff.
There were no traces of Nasan Haegyeong. I could not detect any being at all that was emitting gray energy or waves of magic power.
Only the distinctive texture of the divine mage’s waves could be faintly felt. But that had been spread widely below as well.
From the cracks in the overturned mass of earth, and from beneath the fault, ferns were growing vigorously there too.
The texture of the divine mage’s waves clung to those ferns growing to enormous size.
‘Is the divine mage, like Samir, not actually here right now, but controlling things remotely from somewhere?’
Thinking that, I now somehow even felt disappointed that I could not meet him.
It was strange. I felt the urge to call out to him, but my voice would not come.
I stood there silently, gazing at the landscape that was gradually becoming a forest.
[When the time comes, you will meet.]
It felt as though the scenery were speaking to me.
Suddenly, those words surfaced in my heart. But they were not words I had thought of. They were words someone had spoken to me.
‘The divine mage?’
However, I did not extend my detection magic in an effort to find him. I simply listened within my heart.
Thoughts rose up on their own, like clouds.
Samir was not here right now. Likewise, the divine mage who had brought forth the pure white light did not exist here right now.
Formless black and white had collided, raising magic and fighting, and the battle had ended in white’s victory.
But this was not the end. Someday, black and white would reveal their true forms and clash in battle.
And when that time came, the one with form, the victor, had to be me.
‘Let’s wait for the time. Until then, I have to develop my magic. For now, the pure white light helped me, but when I take form and fight, I have to become that light myself. I have to become a great mage.’
Before I knew it, the surroundings were growing dim. Once the ferns had grown as much as they would, the lingering trace of the pure white light was fading.
We had to leave this place before it got any darker. Except for this area, darkness had already settled everywhere else for some time now.
I hurried back to Cheon Danbi and Gil.
“Did you find the divine mage?”
Gil asked as soon as he saw me.
“No. I couldn’t find them.”
“How was it? Was anything left?”
Cheon Danbi asked as she approached as well.
“Nothing was left. It was hard to even tell what was where. The area between the buildings and where the cave had been was cut clean away, so a fault had formed there.”
“I see. There was no way anything would be left. Even this place was overturned like this. It’s amazing that Sobaeksan is still standing intact.”
Hearing Cheon Danbi’s words, I cast my gaze far into the distance.
Earlier, only this vicinity had been bright while the far-off places were dark and hard to see, but now that the surroundings had darkened as well, Sobaeksan, standing against the sky, came into view.
Just as Cheon Danbi said, Sobaeksan stood in its original form.
I looked far in the opposite direction too. Down the mountain road. Toward the town.
I could not see clearly, but it seemed the lower area had not been greatly affected by the crustal upheaval either.
“At least it looks like the range of destruction wasn’t that wide.”
At my words, Cheon Danbi and Gil nodded.
“That’s a huge relief.”
“When it was shaking earlier, it felt like the whole world was being turned upside down. I’m glad that wasn’t the case.”
“We should start heading down now, right? Let’s hurry back to civilization.”
Before we knew it, darkness had fallen all around us.
I was worried about the descent. If it were only me, there would be nothing much to worry about, but I did not know whether Gil and Cheon Danbi would be able to get down safely.
The ferns had grown densely and filled the cracks in the split earth, but that did not mean the ground was firm enough that our feet would not sink in.
“Do you think you can get down all right?”
When I asked, Cheon Danbi and Gil looked downward.
“We’ll just have to go slowly.”
“I think if we light the way with flames and watch our footing, we’ll be all right.”
“I get the feeling these ferns grew to help us. I don’t think we need to worry.”
Cheon Danbi said something ambiguous, as if she understood yet did not.
Looking closely, I saw that at some point she had pulled up several ferns by the roots and was holding them in her hand.
“What’s that? Are you taking them with you?”
“Yeah. I think they’ll become precious medicinal herbs. I should take them back and examine them.”
“You really are an herb shop owner.”
“Of course. I can recognize valuable medicinal ingredients at a glance.”
We all laughed for a moment.
The two of them had relaxed a great deal now.
Just a little while ago, they had been pale with fear from the crustal upheaval, but the growing ferns had made their hearts brighter and more at ease.
That alone made them precious plants without a doubt.
“Give those to me. I’ll carry them. It’ll be hard to walk with them.”
I held out my hand to Cheon Danbi, meaning for her to hand me the ferns.
Walking while holding long-grown plants could be dangerous since it would keep both arms from being free. Especially on rough ground like this.
“Ah, will you? Then I’ll roll them up like this.”
Cheon Danbi gathered the ferns she was holding, rolled them into a manageable size, and handed them to me.
“Let’s go.”
With the ferns in one hand and a magical flame blooming in the other to light the ground beneath my feet, I began to walk.
Gil also produced a magical flame, illuminating the ground beneath his and Cheon Danbi’s feet as he followed behind me.
How many steps had we taken? A chill gust of wind suddenly blew in.
It was a sudden wind, but it was neither rough nor threatening. Rather, it felt as though it were gently sweeping around us.
“Wow! What’s this now?”
Cheon Danbi exclaimed in admiration.
Something was sparkling in the wake of the gust.
White, pink, and yellow lights scattered through the darkness as if glitter had been sprinkled into the air. They looked like fireflies, or perhaps spirits.
Then, wherever those fragments of light fell, flowers bloomed.
Between the ferns that had already grown, new plants sprouted, and flowers bloomed from them at a speed like time-lapse footage.
“Wow! They’re beautiful!”
Gil also burst out in admiration.
But looking closely, it wasn’t only plants and flowers that were growing.
As if wounds were healing, soil was filling the cracks in the earth and bedrock.
The gouged-out places filled in, and the ground where the differences in height had been severe gradually became level. Flowers bloomed over it.
It was an incredibly mystical sight. It was as though tens of thousands of years of the Earth’s changes had been compressed and spread out before our eyes.
“It was a magical wind. An incredible spell.”
“It has to be the divine mage. Truly, such a grateful divine mage! They’re looking after the path we’ll walk.”
Cheon Danbi said, spinning once around us as if dancing.
It seemed she was right. As if watching over us, he was making the path we would take comfortable.
Where was he? Why on earth would he go this far and still not reveal himself?
Wondering, I was extending my detection around us once more.
That was when I noticed something flying through the dark sky. Black things. Three crows.
Seeing them fly straight toward me, they seemed to be Hugin and Munin.
But why were there three? Who was the other one?
“Oh! Crows!”
“Aren’t those your crows, Mage?”
By the time Gil and Cheon Danbi spotted the crows, Hugin and Munin were already sending me voice transmissions.
[Oudin! It’s been a while!]
[You’ve been well all this time, right? We’re here.]
They had disappeared when we were attacking the swarm of jellyfish at the Daejeon National Cemetery, so it really had been a while. I had no shortage of questions—where they had been wandering all this time before finally showing up now, and how they had known to find me here.
But above all else, what I wanted to know was who the third crow was.
“Yeah. It’s been a while. But who’s that friend?”
I asked, indicating the third crow with my gaze.
I asked because I did not know, but in that very moment, I felt as though I did know who the third crow was.
Because the claws the third crow extended as it tried to land on a rock were green.
‘Hm?’
But I did not open my mouth rashly and waited for the crows’ answer.
[You know how we’ve been busily going all over the place, seeing and hearing and gathering news about the world.]
[We really ran around like crazy and learned a lot of things.]
[We were doing that, and then, when we looked closely, at some point, this person here had started following us.]
[Where was it from again? We were on our way up from Daejeon to Seoul, right? Was that Asan?]
[No. It was Ansan.]
[Ah! Right. Yeah. It was Ansan. We were resting in a park for a bit, and this person came and sat beside us, remember?]
[That’s right. From then on, they kept following us everywhere.]
[They recognized us at a glance.]
[That we were Oudin’s crows, I mean.]
[No. They recognized that we were amazing crows.]
Instead of quickly answering my question, the crows were rambling on like an endless comedy routine.
But I did not urge them on. I simply looked silently at the third crow.
[At first, we thought they were just an ordinary crow. They followed while keeping a bit of distance, so we left them alone.]
[But something definitely felt strange. They seemed different somehow.]
[So we talked with them a little. And then this person said they knew Oudin!]
[It seems they’d been following us around and secretly eavesdropping on our conversations. They already knew we were Oudin’s crows too.]
[Then they asked us to let them meet Oudin.]
[So we escorted them here like this.]
[Ta-da!]
It seemed my guess had been right after all.
Ignoring the crows, who were still chattering on and on, I walked directly toward the third crow sitting on the rock.
“Could you be… Ren? Is that you?”