-The Line of Yellow Mist
A rain of flame came crashing down on the area where the mass of amoebas had spread.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Red flames instantly clung to the amoebas.
Because it was fire magic manipulated to match the creation circuit of the giant amoebas, the flames struck each individual amoeba with precision, like predators lunging at their prey.
The amoebas pierced by flame turned into fireballs and began rolling here and there.
The mass of amoebas that had spread wide inside the control line was retreating backward as if fleeing. Toward none other than the Eternal Life Building.
I quietly watched the hidden space of the Eternal Life Building.
How would the Magic Tower react?
So far, there had been no particular movement.
“Whoa! It’s raining fire! That’s incredible!”
“They’re hitting the amoebas exactly!”
“It’s Oudin!”
Exclamations sounded from somewhere, but I paid them no mind.
Instead, I heightened my senses toward touch and intuition.
Bzzzt, bzzzt. Bzzzt, bzzzt.
A tingling sensation spread in every direction, as if electric current were flowing all around.
The survival instincts of the giant amoebas rose as waves of mana, and gray energy surged violently.
The amoebas under attack were immediately counterattacking. Toxic substances burst through the flames and sprayed out.
“Dodge! It’s poison!”
“They’re counterattacking!”
“Fall back!”
“Evacuate the people!”
For the moment, I had withdrawn my freezing magic because I was pouring down the rain of fire, and besides, in order to expose the black magician behind them, I needed the amoebas to counterattack.
Even if that had not been the case, the power of the toxic substances the amoebas were firing was far stronger than before.
A powerful attack had brought out a powerful counterattack.
Following the magicians retreating to avoid the poison, I also fell back toward the control line.
“Everyone, be careful! The amoebas are regenerating!”
Someone shouted.
But in truth, the amoebas were not regenerating. New individuals were being born.
Even being burned to death by the flames was no problem for them. Amoebas were geniuses of proliferation, creating new individuals the moment they died.
The number of individuals in the amoeba mass hardly decreased.
But even if the amoebas’ attributes had come from nature, their proliferation was not a natural creation.
It required a constant supply of mana.
The black magician had to inject gray energy into them and grant them life.
Through the pouring rain of fire, I examined the waves of gray energy forming a flow.
Little by little, a change began to appear. Yu Jaeseon was at work.
“What is that?”
“What?”
“Look over there! Something like yellow mist is coming down from the top of the Vanaheim Building.”
“Huh? It’s connected to the amoebas?”
“Is it a new attack?”
The reporters began to murmur.
But for now, their voices would still be buried beneath the screams and commotion, unable to reach those on the top floor of the Vanaheim Building.
The black magician was continuing to send down gray energy.
He could not stop, because the moment he did, the giant amoeba mass would be wiped out.
I also continued pouring rain of fire onto the amoeba mass as I approached the reporters.
“Film that and broadcast it. The line of yellow mist connecting the top of the Vanaheim Building to the giant amoeba mass.”
As soon as I spoke, the cameras all turned in that direction at once.
A short while later, the scene was broadcast on the large displays at the intersection.
Immediately, questions from the reporters poured down on me.
“What is that? Is there a magician in the Vanaheim Building too?”
“Is it a new attack pattern?”
“Is that thing that looks like yellow mist magic?”
“Is it related to you, Magician Oudin?”
The reporters were all ordinary people, so none of them knew anything properly. Their questions circled around all the wrong points.
But the magicians quickly realized the meaning of the scene before their eyes.
I noticed magicians who, while fighting the amoebas, discovered the line of yellow mist and were shocked.
I committed their faces to memory.
Whether the expressions on the magicians’ faces were pure surprise or agitation showed which side they stood on.
Loki was extremely flustered, while Thor, after jumping in surprise, was snorting and fuming in indignation.
“No! He was there? Isn’t that the Vanaheim Building? Ha! He was hiding in Vanaheim?”
Thor’s booming voice reached even my ears from afar.
I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
Now it was time for me to step forward and reveal the truth to the whole world.
I stopped my magic for a moment and stood before the reporters.
“The line of yellow mist is the gray energy, the mana waves of a black magician, dyed with magic and made visible. It was made so that even ordinary people could see it. For the broadcast. Magician Yu Jaeseon over there is the one doing it.”
At that, the reporters’ questions poured out again.
“You’re saying that’s black magic?”
“Then are you saying there is a black magician in Vanaheim?”
“Are you saying the culprit behind this terror attack is in Vanaheim?”
Following my words, the cameras turned toward Yu Jaeseon, and also showed the line of yellow mist stretching all the way across.
The gray energy sent down from the top of the Vanaheim Building was being relayed through Loki to the amoeba mass, but...
At some point, Loki had disappeared.
It seemed he had noticed the situation and already hidden himself.
Before long, the line of yellow mist flowing out from the Vanaheim Building was suddenly severed as well. They had seen the broadcast over there too.
“Yes. That is correct. The black magician who caused this terror attack with the giant amoeba mass is right there, in the Vanaheim Building. From there, he was infusing the amoebas with mana and controlling them.
I do not know who it is. I am only telling you this based on an analysis of the magic circuits and the flow of mana waves. And as you can see, I have shown the evidence before all of you.”
The surroundings grew noisy.
Screams, gasps, and groans burst out, everyone was shouting something, and the reporters poured out questions that were impossible to hear properly.
I saw Han Dosu and a group of magicians running toward the Vanaheim Building. They were going to capture the black magician.
It was swift movement. But hadn’t he already hidden himself?
When I kept my mouth shut, the reporters and cameras flocked elsewhere.
Some chased after Han Dosu and the Jeondang magicians as they ran toward Vanaheim, while others replayed the line of yellow mist that had just been shown and had reporters summarize what I had said into news reports.
‘Since the entire nation saw it live, Vanaheim won’t be able to talk their way out of it, will they?’
Of course, they could make excuses. They could say the black magician had nothing to do with Vanaheim and had secretly slipped into the building to commit the act.
But would such an excuse really work on people? Would people believe that the Vanaheim Building, which boasted the best security facilities, had accidentally been handed over to a black magician terrorist?
They would have to come up with a better excuse than that.
I wondered what Kim Seonho was doing right now. Was he running away with the black magician?
No. That would not be the case. He would remain there, wait for the Jeondang magicians, and try to settle the situation. After all, he was nominally the chairman of Vanaheim, and above all, a madman full of pride.
Kim Seonho would be furious with me, but it could not be anger with a legitimate cause. I had not broken my contract with Vanaheim.
I had not said a single word about the test subjects beneath the chairman’s mansion. The confidentiality clause was being upheld.
Even so, if he tried to attack me, that would not be a very wise move.
Because the secret I knew would become poison to him.
The person holding the secret was, in effect, holding the leash.
‘Let’s meet again. There’s still a long way to go before I peel off your mask.’
I turned around.
The stage I had prepared ended here.
It would be fine to leave the pursuit of the black magician in the Vanaheim Building to Han Dosu.
Yu Jaeseon would take care of analyzing the evidence on his own.
Now that I had cleared myself of the false accusation and presented evidence of where the real black magician was, that was enough.
I had no desire to take charge of both the assault and the capture of the black magician and become a hero.
I had something more important left to do.
I had to dig into the Magic Tower.
Even now, there had been no movement from the Eternal Life Building.
It was certain that it was not unrelated to this terror attack. That was why I had not mentioned the existence of the Magic Tower to the reporters.
‘I have to dig it up first.’
I had turned toward the Eternal Life Building and was starting to approach slowly when a sharp scream rang out from behind me.
“Please save me! Aaaah!”
I quickly looked toward the source of the sound. It was outside the control line.
A person who had likely been a spectator was collapsed and crawling.
I saw an amoeba near his leg. It was an amoeba with no burn marks.
It seemed a newly proliferated amoeba had slipped out at some point and was firing toxic substances.
As soon as the news broadcast went out, the black magician cut off the injection of gray energy. Because of that, no more new individuals were being generated. The amoebas struck by the rain of fire had mostly died.
But when I stood before the reporters and explained the situation, I had withdrawn my magic, creating a brief gap. It seemed an amoeba that proliferated during that time had taken advantage of the chaos and extended itself beyond the control line.
‘Where did all the magicians go?’
I was about to hurry over there when Gil and Cheon Danbi suddenly entered my sight.
The two were running toward the fallen person ahead of me.
Gil quickly shot a fire arrow at the amoeba, and Cheon Danbi supported the collapsed person and dragged him away.
Shooting fire arrows while keeping a distance instead of approaching the amoeba was a good choice.
It seemed Cheon Danbi was taking those who had come into contact with the toxic substances away and treating them with potions.
The two of them were doing well. It did not seem necessary for me to go.
I decided to leave the outside of the control line to the two of them and was about to turn away when Loki briefly caught my eye.
Loki was mixed in among the spectators, watching Gil intently.
I had thought he had fled the scene long ago, so what was he doing there?
Loki knew who Gil was. He had seen him with me a few times.
But since I had kept the fact that Gil was a magician hidden until now, he should not have known.
Now he had found out. He was watching Gil, who was using magic, intently.
‘What the hell is with that bastard? What is he planning?’
At that moment, perhaps feeling my gaze, Loki abruptly raised his head and looked at me, then quickly turned and fled into the crowd.
I was about to chase after Loki, but stopped. He was like a loach.
He kept slipping away. Today too, I had wanted to have the scene of him relaying the black magician’s mana injection filmed, but I had missed him.
He would not be able to run far. I would be visiting him soon.
But for now, I had something more important to do.
The hidden space, the Magic Tower, would not vanish anywhere, but I could only observe its reaction to today’s terror attack now.
I turned back toward the Eternal Life Building.