—Pouring Rain
Up ahead, I could see three chimeras milling about in confusion.
Judging by their size, they seemed like chimeras put together with zombies as the base rather than orcs.
Maybe they were disoriented by the heavy rain, but the creatures showed no particular interest in our car.
“If they don’t come at us, let’s avoid them for now. Getting to Chinatown is more urgent than fighting right this second.”
“Got it. Hold on tight.”
Cheon Danbi started the car again.
Since the chimeras were blocking the lane we were in, Cheon Danbi turned the wheel, crossed the center line, and drove into the opposite lane.
It was only possible because there were no cars on the road.
As we passed by the chimeras, they finally noticed us and came toward us with grotesque shrieks.
But their movements weren’t especially eager.
Our car quickly left them behind and continued forward.
As we drove past them, the blare of an ambulance siren rang out loudly from behind us.
When I looked back, the chimeras seemed to have been provoked by the siren and were all running toward the ambulance.
They were running, but not particularly fast.
The ambulance, however, was approaching the chimeras at high speed.
“This won’t do. Let’s turn back. I think the chimeras are going to attack the ambulance.”
Before I even finished speaking, Cheon Danbi whipped the car around.
The ambulance, belatedly noticing the chimeras rushing toward it, tried to cross the center line and avoid them just as we had done a moment ago.
But this time, unlike before, the chimeras showed enthusiasm. The three of them spread out wide and blocked the ambulance’s path.
Screeech!
The ambulance hastily slowed and came to a stop.
The chimeras kept running toward it without stopping.
The siren was still wailing sharply, continuing to provoke them.
“Get in between them!”
“Okay!”
After making the U-turn, our car swiftly slipped in between the chimeras and the ambulance.
Screeech!
The moment we stopped, the car was struck by sounds like hailstones pounding down.
Splat! Thud! Thud! Splat! Thud!
In the torrential rain, the chimeras’ thick fists and blunt tails slammed hard against our car.
Black liquid poured from the lizardman’s mouth along with hissing sounds.
But of course, I hadn’t forgotten to put a barrier around the car, so I didn’t feel much of an impact, nor did the aura of disease seep in.
“Gil! Adjust your kinetic magic and push the ambulance backward!”
“Yes!”
We didn’t get out of the car. Instead, we opened the windows and leaned only our upper bodies outside.
Rainwater immediately ran down my back, but that wasn’t a problem. If anything, these were good conditions for using freezing magic.
I waited until Gil pushed the ambulance back with kinetic magic.
Once the ambulance had retreated to a suitable distance, I immediately activated freezing magic.
‘Freeze. Every last drop of rain.’
I sent out a wave toward the chimeras surrounding our car and pounding against it.
With so much moisture in the air, it barely consumed any mana at all.
In an instant, white frost settled around the chimeras, and soon they began freezing rapidly.
The falling rain turned into sharp spears of ice the moment it touched the chimeras’ bodies.
There was no need to aim for their hearts separately. There wasn’t just one or two raindrops; countless ice spears were attacking the chimeras.
If they kept piercing them again and again, the ice spears would naturally reach their cores as well.
“Kieeek!”
“Kieeeek!”
The zombies making up the chimeras screamed.
The gray energy flowing around them surged violently. It seemed they were trying to activate their regenerative abilities.
It was helping me use freezing magic, but as expected, a large amount of gray energy was mixed into this rain as well.
It probably hadn’t been that way from the moment it fell from the sky, but the raindrops had drawn in the gray energy spread throughout the atmosphere and were holding it within them.
“This won’t do. I’ll have to purify it a bit.”
Cheon Danbi took out some medicinal herbs and set them alight.
Smoke quickly filled the inside of the car.
Just as I began to think we would be purified first at this rate, Cheon Danbi opened the car window and sent the smoke outside.
I used wind magic with one hand to circulate the air more quickly.
As the medicinal herb smoke spread outside the car, the gray energy that had been clumping together with the surrounding moisture and settling down like a sticky gel began to clear and purify.
But perhaps because I had used wind magic, the herb smoke had gathered too much to one side.
Part of the chimera that had been frozen solid was beginning to melt.
I hurriedly tried to extend freezing magic in that direction again.
At that moment, a strange sound reached my ears.
“Kiee……! P-please, save me!”
I doubted my ears. That was the voice of a zombie.
Instead of losing its reason and only screaming, it was clearly speaking, asking to be saved.
How……?
“Mr. Mage, wait!”
Gil shouted.
He was asking me not to activate the freezing magic. He meant not to kill the zombie that had regained its reason.
It seemed Cheon Danbi’s purifying smoke had washed away part of the black magic cast over the chimera.
For the moment, I stopped extending the freezing magic.
But it was already too late.
The freezing magic I had activated earlier was still operating, absorbing plenty of the surrounding rain.
Before I knew it, ice covered the melted portion, and in less than a second, it had already frozen over.
“Mr. Mage, the zombie……!”
Gil didn’t finish his sentence, but I already understood well enough what he was trying to say.
For a brief instant, I hesitated as well.
If the zombie had broken free from the influence of black magic and regained its reason because of the purifying smoke, shouldn’t we save it?
Whether something that had been made into part of a chimera could be returned to an individual was a matter for later.
If we covered the entire chimera in purifying smoke, perhaps it might be possible.
But it was already too late.
If it had only been frozen, it wouldn’t have been a major problem. We could simply thaw it again.
But the problem was the rain pouring down in sheets.
Even during the brief moment I hesitated, the rain continued to fall, and the raindrops turned into sharp spears of ice, stabbing into the chimera’s body countless times.
The chimera had already begun to vanish.
The purifying smoke had washed away the gray energy contained in the rain, and thanks to that, the speed of the magic increased. The rain-spears of ice had reached the chimera’s core and destroyed it.
The chimeras, which had turned into enormous masses of ice, gradually transformed into rippling gray energy, and even that began to disappear.
“Ah……!”
Gil only let out a sigh and said nothing more.
However, the complicated emotions he felt were plainly visible on his face in a confused expression.
“Whew. Looks like it was already too late. Still, even if we couldn’t save the zombie right away, it’s a good discovery. Next time, let’s try purifying a chimera before killing it.”
Cheon Danbi spoke carefully, as if trying to comfort Gil.
She was right. A life that had already vanished couldn’t be brought back. Whether zombie or chimera, it had disappeared without a trace.
But we had learned of a new method to try next time.
I didn’t rashly try to comfort Gil. I simply let him remain in silence.
After confirming that the chimeras had completely vanished, I got out of the car.
I approached the ambulance.
The ambulance was still blaring its siren loudly.
Even though the situation was over, there was no sign of it moving. It seemed the driver had been terrified by the chimeras and had lost his senses.
When I approached the driver’s side, the window finally lowered and a voice came out.
“Ah! You’re the mage, right? Thank you. We survived thanks to you.”
“It’s over now. Please get going. It seems you have a patient.”
“Yes. Understood.”
The ambulance soon sped off into the rain.
I looked around once, then got back into the car. I couldn’t see any more chimeras nearby.
“Shall we get going too?”
Cheon Danbi asked, looking back.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
We continued along the route we had been taking.
As we drove, a fire station and a police station appeared one after another along the roadside.
Both the fire station and the police station looked extremely busy.
Fire engines and ambulances were rushing in and out, and police officers were boarding patrol cars and buses in groups and continuing to head out.
In a word, it was a disaster.
Once we entered the side road leading into Chinatown, the disaster became palpable.
Between the sounds of pouring rain, I could hear thudding noises, and screams occasionally rang out as well.
Chimeras were roaming here and there, destroying the city.
Most of the shops and building entrances were closed, and there were no people passing by. It seemed they had evacuated, but that alone wasn’t enough.
The chimeras were smashing shop windows and trying to break into buildings.
“It’s a complete mess.”
“Just how many chimeras are there?”
“It’d be nice if the rain would at least stop. The gray energy is clumping together so thickly and flowing around.”
The closer we got to Chinatown, the worse the destruction became.
Broken debris was scattered even across the road, making it difficult to keep going by car.
“We’ll have to stop the car around here, won’t we?”
“Yeah. Hmm…… There’s a parking lot up ahead. I’ll park there.”
Cheon Danbi checked the navigation map and found a parking lot.
When we got there, fortunately, the entrance wasn’t blocked, so she parked the car there.
As I was about to get out, Cheon Danbi stopped me.
“Wait! Let’s each drink a bottle of potion first.”
From this point on, a war was about to begin.
Since I had already used up no small amount of mana, drinking a potion was a good idea.
We all drank our potions together. Ren, in the form of a crow, drank a little potion as well.
“You’re hungry too, aren’t you? I brought some simple things to eat.”
This time, Cheon Danbi rummaged through her bag and pulled out bread, energy bars, and the like.
Come to think of it, we had left without even eating breakfast, and it was already well past lunchtime.
I glanced at Gil and said,
“Yeah. Let’s eat something simple. Things are only going to get more hectic from here on.”
After seeing Gil put some bread in his mouth, I quickly ate an energy bar and called Yu Jaeseon.
“We’ve arrived in Chinatown. Where should we go?”
[You’re here? I’m at the Overseas Chinese School right now. We’re evacuating people this way.]
“The Overseas Chinese School. Understood. We’ll head there.”
Hearing my phone call, Cheon Danbi seemed to have looked up the Overseas Chinese School on the navigation system and pointed to it.
“Here it is. The Overseas Chinese School. It’s only two blocks away.”
“If everyone’s done eating, let’s get out. Put up your barriers first.”
“Got it.”
“Yes.”
When we got out of the car, fortunately, the rain had let up considerably.
It hadn’t stopped completely, but compared to the downpour from before, it was now closer to a drizzle.
Even Cheon Danbi’s bag, which seemed like it could produce anything, didn’t contain an umbrella or a raincoat, so we had no choice but to let ourselves get rained on.
But rain of this level wasn’t much of a problem. If we went with magic barriers around us, we wouldn’t even get wet.
Ren lightly flew up and circled once above our heads.
I waved to him, meaning we would meet again later, and we set off as well.
The moment we stepped out of the parking lot, we heard the grotesque cry of a chimera.