-Space Pocket
The military truck moved slowly and cautiously.
There wasn’t a single chimera to be seen around the Chinese school. The barrier Yu Jaeseon had set up seemed to be serving as a deterrent as well.
We also passed the place where I had frozen the chimeras earlier. Whether they had been moved somewhere else, nothing remained there now.
“How are you handling the chimeras afterward? Where did you move them?”
Suddenly curious, I asked Yu Jaeseon.
“The chimeras at the terminal were taken to the Bureau. There’s a place there for confining strange life-forms. But here, even the Bureau’s disposal team can’t get in right now, so the military moved them. They’ve been temporarily locked up in a military facility at Incheon Port.”
“Then the military is managing them? Will that be all right without mages?”
“They’re only managing them until the situation at Incheon Airport is resolved and the mages can come. The military said there wouldn’t be any problem. They said the facility is secure enough that even if the chimeras thaw, they won’t be able to break out.”
Hearing that, I couldn’t say I had no concerns, but for now, I had no choice but to trust them. With an absolute shortage of mages, there was nothing else to be done.
In the future, I thought it would be better to annihilate the chimeras on-site whenever possible.
But that wouldn’t be easy either. If there were over a hundred chimeras, annihilating them one by one would consume an enormous amount of mana.
“It doesn’t look like the Incheon Airport situation will be resolved anytime soon either. It seems to be getting more difficult as time goes on.”
Cheon Danbi spoke up, joining the conversation for once.
She told us what she had found after searching the news on the situation room computer.
The situation at Incheon Airport, far from being resolved, was apparently growing worse and worse; everyone had been evacuated, and an all-out battle was underway.
It had already been about half a day since the airport had been paralyzed.
It was no different from the Republic of Korea being closed off.
“That’s serious.”
“I suppose we shouldn’t expect reinforcements of mages for Chinatown.”
“In any case, let’s do what we have to do.”
We stopped talking and each got to work.
Yu Jaeseon used the communications equipment to contact the police and military, grasping the current situation in Chinatown.
The police were moving around carefully, taking charge of transporting the injured in the streets and shops to hospitals.
The soldiers were said to be patrolling around the outskirts.
Of course, both the police and the military were avoiding engagements with the chimeras.
The one fortunate thing was that although the chimeras were powerful, they weren’t fast, so if one moved by vehicle, it was possible to avoid them to some extent.
But that was only when encountering one or two. If they appeared in a group, there would be no way to flee.
That was why both the police and the military were currently unable to approach the northern district.
Our team kept a close watch on the surroundings.
Cheon Danbi, Gil, and I each extended our detection in our own ways, searching for traces of the gray energy and the chimeras.
“The gray energy has gotten much thicker than before.”
Gil said quietly.
Now that we were outside again, gray energy lay thick throughout the air.
The word “occupied” felt real all over again.
Even though the rain had stopped, for some reason the humidity had grown even higher.
A heavy low-pressure front and moisture were pressing down on the atmosphere in a suffocating weight, and the gray energy seemed to be riding along with it.
The density of the gray energy was clearly different from the area near the terminal.
When we had dealt with the chimeras at the terminal earlier, I had only felt that Nasan Haegyeong had simply released strange life-forms there, but here, a different guess came to mind.
‘Has Nasan Haegyeong come somewhere around here?’
Perhaps even another black mage had come as well.
If they would just show themselves directly, fighting the black mage would be a faster route than dealing with the chimeras one by one.
I carefully detected the infinite pentagonal circuit contained within the gray energy.
It was undoubtedly Nasan Haegyeong’s. Yasin’s was not detected.
“I should try purifying even while we’re moving. There’s no wind, but the energy of disease may still be spreading.”
Saying that, Cheon Danbi took a bundle of dried herbs from her bag. Then she closed her eyes, concentrated, infused them with purification energy, and set the herbs alight.
Smoke spread out in thin wisps.
To purify all of Chinatown would require quite a lot of purification energy, and that would consume a great deal of Cheon Danbi’s life force as well.
“Will you be okay?”
“I’m still perfectly fine. If it comes to it, I can drink plenty of potions.”
Then Cheon Danbi handed Yu Jaeseon a bundle of dried herbs infused with purification energy and said,
“Give these to the soldiers. I’ve already infused them with purification energy, so tell them to burn these and let the smoke spread when they move.”
“Understood. Then we’ll be able to cover a wider area.”
Yu Jaeseon took the herbs and was about to move to the front seat.
At that moment, the truck came to an abrupt stop.
“Mage-nim! We have no visibility at all. We can’t advance like this.”
The driver shouted.
Everyone looked ahead.
A thick gray fog had settled deep within the alley we had been moving through. It was a fog with an extremely ominous energy.
“We definitely can’t proceed like this. We’ll go on foot from here, so turn the truck around and take another route.”
“Yes, understood.”
We got out of the truck.
Yu Jaeseon handed the herbs to the soldier in the passenger seat and relayed the instructions.
The truck soon carefully made its way out.
I quickly looked around.
The restaurants and shops along the street had been completely destroyed, leaving a landscape like ruins.
“Where are we?”
“We can say we’ve almost reached the northern district.”
Before we knew it, we had arrived at the northern district. It was the operational area where the chimeras were gathered.
Looking at the gray fog spread before my eyes, I had the feeling that perhaps the number of chimeras had increased even more in the meantime.
“Everyone, make sure your barriers are up and advance slowly. Keep a thorough watch in every direction!”
I said, stepping to the very front.
I had Gil follow right behind me, with Yu Jaeseon and Cheon Danbi standing behind him.
As the smoke from the herbs Cheon Danbi held and waved spread out, the fog around us slowly began to clear.
The smell of the burning herbs also strangely calmed our minds.
But the detection magic I had extended was telling me that there were chimeras right ahead.
“There are chimeras up ahead. Roughly ten of them.”
“Yes.”
“Are they stopped?”
“They’re stopped for now, but…”
Just then, heavy footsteps began to ring out.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
They were slow steps, not hurried in the slightest.
They must have sensed us as well, yet their attitude said there was no need to rush. Or perhaps the chimeras had grown somewhat tired from wandering around until now?
“Everyone, prepare your mana. When I activate the spell, Gil, send me mana. Mage Yu Jaeseon, please watch the rear.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The footsteps grew louder and faster. Even so, it wasn’t fast enough to be called running.
It was clear that their slowness was the chimeras’ weakness.
In any case, though their steps were slow, they were approaching, and we advanced as well.
The chimeras soon reached the place where the gray fog had cleared and revealed themselves.
They were so huge the alley seemed cramped. They were even bigger than the ones I had seen before.
That meant even more individual entities had been synthesized together. They were utterly grotesque.
“Kraaak!”
“Krak!”
“Krak!”
“Kraaaak!”
The chimeras discovered us and stopped. Hideous roars poured from the orcs’ mouths.
‘Why do they look so enraged? What did they do to the other races?’
The moment that question arose, the orcs swung their arms and began smashing the buildings around them at random.
Concrete buildings were sliced away like tofu. It was tremendous destructive power.
“Aaaah!”
“Please save us!”
People’s screams came from inside the buildings.
They had said the residents of the northern district hadn’t been able to evacuate in time, and it seemed some still remained inside the buildings.
I had to use magic while also taking care not to harm the people.
I carefully observed the clustered chimeras and partitioned the space.
“Cheon Danbi! Put more power into purification!”
“Okay!”
Our visibility had to be clear. If I was going to partition space accurately.
Cheon Danbi raised the purification energy even more strongly, and Yu Jaeseon used wind magic to blow the herbal smoke forward.
Then the gray fog cleared all the way behind the chimeras.
I could see it clearly. The range I needed to burn.
‘A space pocket around the chimeras! Blue flames, flow into the inside of the space pocket!’
I activated two spells at the same time.
Spatial magic that created a space pocket to confine the chimeras, and high-temperature blue flame magic.
I rapidly drew up my mana and extended an extremely powerful wave.
When using spatial magic as well, the first moment was important.
Using this much mana all at once could make it difficult to maintain, but Gil would send me the mana needed to sustain it.
It was a strategy I could choose because I trusted my team member.
Whoosh!
Blue flames shot out like rockets and surrounded the chimeras in an instant.
‘Burn!’
The blue flames began burning the chimeras precisely within the space pocket I had partitioned.
The chimeras screamed and thrashed.
The orcs stretched out their arms, the crocodiles’ tails writhed, and the lizardmen spewed black liquid from their mouths, but none of those movements could escape the space pocket.
“Kraaak!”
“Kraaaak!”
“Kraaaaak!”
Only their screams grew louder.
Black smoke billowed up, and an acrid smell flowed out.
From the bodies of the chimeras, leaping about while aflame, blackened and melted arms and legs began dropping to the ground.
But it wasn’t only arms, legs, and tails that fell.
Chunks of concrete, melted and bent rebar, and even rifles fell to the ground while burning.
‘What? They were even swinging weapons?’
It seemed they had stolen the guns of some underground organization members somewhere.
Of course, they probably hadn’t been holding and firing the rifles. The chunks of concrete, the rebar, and the rifles all seemed to have been used merely for throwing and swinging.
Even so, it was surprising that they hadn’t been fighting only with their bare bodies, but had used objects around them as weapons.
Had they not completely lost their reason? Or was it simply an instinct like that of animals?
I grew curious about the black magic applied to the chimeras.
Even as I observed the chimeras and thought, I did not stop activating the spell.
Because Gil was sending me mana, both the spatial magic and the flame magic were being sustained without issue, but I couldn’t simply hope for the chimeras to burn to death forever.
Now was the time to deliver the decisive blow.
‘Blue flames, flow along the hearts! Until you reach the core!’
I refined the magic circuit even more precisely.
The blue flames moved sinuously like snakes, beginning to flow in search of the chimeras’ hearts.
They burned the hearts one by one.
Then, at last, as if tying the final knot, they found the core of the black magic and burned it.
The blue flames blazed fiercely.
Until all the gray energy crumbled away.