-The Power of Life and Death
“O sacred mana waves, bring forth the vast energy of purification!”
White light flared between the two palms I held together before my chest.
It was bright enough to illuminate everything around us. It was a mana wave of the same nature as the pure white light the holy mage had unleashed.
I loaded that finely refined purifying energy onto the concentric circles Gil had spread out and sent it toward the zombies.
As expected, my purification magic and the mana waves of Gil’s concentric circles met and created synergy.
A tingling sensation, like a powerful current running through them, flowed along the concentric circles.
White light spread outward.
Every corner of the darkened interior shone brightly.
At last, the purifying energy that had flowed along the concentric circles wrapped around the zombies.
As the white light touched the zombies’ bodies, tiny sparks burst and crackled like popping grains.
It seemed to be reacting with the zombies’ regenerative ability.
“Aaaagh!”
“Aaagh!”
The zombies screamed.
But it was different from the screams the zombie chimeras had let out. These were closer to human screams.
The zombies, who had been sizzling under the sparks, began to regenerate. Fortunately, they did not regenerate as zombies, but in their original human forms.
They were being purified.
As the mana waves surged, the white light drawing the concentric circles spread out hazily like mist, and the purification grew even faster.
“Aaaah!”
“Aaah!”
By the time their screams sounded even more human, they finally let out long breaths and awakened fully as humans.
“Hoo…… What happened?”
“Aah! I’m human again!”
“I’m alive! I’m alive again!”
The people examined and touched their own arms and legs, and one another’s faces, shouting in relief and cheering.
They grabbed each other and jumped up and down, then collapsed to the floor.
They were not the only ones beside themselves with joy. Gil rejoiced as if it were his own affair and shouted.
“Aah, it worked! They’re purified! Mage, we succeeded!”
Only then did the people who had returned to human form look at us, bowing as they spoke.
“Thank you, mages!”
“Thank you for saving us.”
“Great mage, you’ll be blessed for this.”
“Thank you so much!”
I was happy too.
Not because of their praise, but because I had been able to save them.
I was glad that my purification magic had overcome the horrific and powerful black magic that used humans as materials and turned them into chimeras.
“I’m so glad we could save them without killing them. It really is a relief.”
Gil came close to my side and whispered.
As if I could not understand how he felt.
I had grown utterly sick of sacrifices.
Turning humans into chimeras was no different from the black mages offering sacrifices to the evil dimension from which they borrowed their power.
It was better to save than to kill.
If possible, I wanted to save rather than kill.
As mages, we were responsible for disposing of the grotesque lifeforms created by black mages, but the reason we killed them in the first place was to save people.
But there were times when one had to save, and times when one had to kill.
There were times when there was no helping it.
In any case, taking the power of life and death into my hands and wielding it was not to my taste.
It was for the same reason that I hated those who prattled on about eternal life. Those who bewitched people by promising to grant them immortality truly desired only one thing: to hold power over their life and death and wield it.
Even if one was a mage, one must not become addicted to controlling the lives of living beings.
Once addicted to holding the power of life and death, one would ultimately walk the same path as the black mages.
That was why even killing required ethics.
“It’s too early to be happy. We need to see if there are more people like them.”
I quietly replied to Gil, then turned around and spoke to Yu Jaeseon and An Guktae.
“Take these people here to the east building. We’ll check the rest of the west buildings and return.”
“Understood.”
“It’s truly fortunate that the purification succeeded. You’re amazing.”
“Go quickly. It will be dark soon.”
“Yes. We’ll hurry.”
As the white light of the purification magic faded, the interior was sinking back into darkness.
Perhaps fear had returned with the dark, because the people began to murmur.
“Gil, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Leaving the residents to Yu Jaeseon and An Guktae, Gil and I stepped out into the hallway.
We opened each room and searched thoroughly inside.
The building we had entered was the largest among the west buildings, and it contained a gym room, a science room, a library, and so on.
After looking around, there were hardly any people left. Most seemed to have already run out of the building during the commotion earlier.
A few were hiding in a corner of the changing room, but fortunately they were still fully human.
“The power is out in this building, so go to the east building. Go where the others are.”
“Understood. It’s safe now, right?”
“Yes. It’s safe.”
“Thank you, mage.”
I raised purifying energy and sent it flowing into them.
After confirming that the last person had left, we also stepped out of the building.
The remaining buildings were small annexes, likely storage rooms and facilities buildings.
The doors were locked tight, and even when I examined the interiors with detection, I sensed no trace of living beings.
“Now let’s go toward the wall and look for Heimdall.”
“Why is he taking so long? He went alone. Do you think he’s all right?”
“Let’s hurry and check.”
Heimdall, who had gone to stop people from leaving the school, had not been heard from since.
We went to the wall beside the building he had headed toward, but no one was there.
Where had he gone?
“He’s not here. Do you think he took people to the east building?”
Gil lit a magical flame in his hand and looked around.
Instead of making a hasty guess, I extended my detection and examined the area. Then I sensed a gray energy slowly spreading from behind the building.
“There’s something over there. It’s gray energy.”
“Ah! You’re right.”
Only then did Gil seem to sense the gray energy as well, and he strengthened his barrier.
We carefully stepped into the darkness behind the building.
In the gloomy alley between the rear wall and the building, someone was standing with their back to us.
When we drew closer, it was Heimdall.
“Mage! What’s over there?”
Heimdall was standing and staring at an annex building. It was the rear side of the annex.
Even when we approached and asked him, Heimdall answered without turning around.
“Ah, mage. You’re here. I calmed down the people who were running toward the wall earlier and sent them to the east building. After that, I was looking around, and it seemed like there was something here. Zombies. A whole crowd of zombies have gathered and are turning into chimeras. I’ve been trying to control them with mental magic, but it isn’t working very……”
Heimdall’s voice was strange. Dazed and weak.
It seemed that while trying to use mental magic, he was instead being eroded by the gray energy.
I quickly covered Heimdall with purifying energy first.
Then I strode closer and looked over Heimdall’s shoulder at the annex.
The rear door of the building was half open. It was too dark inside to see.
“Mage Heimdall, step back. I’ll take it from here.”
“Ah, yes. Shall I?”
Heimdall turned and looked at me.
Though he looked dazed, like someone under the influence of drugs, he did not seem to have been fully consumed by the disease’s energy. That was a relief.
I sent purifying energy into him once more, then sent Heimdall behind me.
“Mage, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. My head finally feels a little clearer now. Did I say something strange?”
Hearing his answer to Gil’s worried question, it seemed Heimdall had recovered.
I spread my golden sight and pierced through the darkness inside the annex.
It was a facilities building. The emergency generator was in there too.
I could understand why the power had gone out in the west buildings.
The building was packed with humans who had turned into zombies. But their condition was bad. They were already being fused into chimeras.
As they transformed into chimeras, the zombies thrashed about, smashing the surrounding machinery and equipment.
It was strange that things had remained so quiet despite that state.
It seemed that was how the effect of the mental magic Heimdall had cast was manifesting.
“They’re already turning into chimeras.”
I said it so Gil could hear.
It was already too late. The chimeras had already formed cores.
The bodies of the zombies were entangling with one another, fusing into chimeras. There was no way to purify and save them.
“Ah……!”
“They won’t be purified. We have to annihilate them.”
“Understood.”
Gil accepted it more readily than I had expected.
There were times when one had to kill. There were things that could only be killed.
Gil now understood that fact. The line that could not be crossed back over.
“You burn them with flame magic. I’ll attack their hearts and cores with freezing.”
“Yes. Shall we start right away?”
“Yes.”
As Gil and I began extending our mana waves, the chimeras turned to look at us and moved as if trying to come out of the building.
Only then did they begin to shriek.
“Kieeeek!”
“Kieeeek!”
“Kiek!”
At the same time, Gil’s flame magic and my freezing magic poured forth.
The dark interior blazed brightly with red flames. Blades of ice plunged in a hail into the bodies of the chimeras trying to rush out while on fire.
The attacks were aimed precisely at their hearts and cores.
They were dealt with one by one. Before they could even regenerate.
As if the threshold of the building had become a device they could not cross, the chimeras were annihilated one after another just before they could come outside.
There had been over a dozen in chimera form, which meant they had been dozens of humans.
And so, all of them were annihilated without leaving even a trace.
“It’s over.”
At my words, Gil finally withdrew his flames.
Nothing remained in the blackened building.
I turned and checked Heimdall again as I asked.
“Mage, are you all right?”
“Me? I’m completely fine. I suppose I was just short on strength for a moment earlier. I wasn’t of much help.”
“Not at all. You bought us time. But are you certain no one went outside the wall?”
“None that I saw. Though I don’t know if anyone got out before that.”
“Let’s go to the east building now. There’s no one left on this side.”
“Yes. Let’s hurry.”
We crossed the athletic field and headed toward the east building.
As we walked, I looked beyond the wall. It was steeped in pitch-black darkness, and nothing could be seen.
Now, we would have to confirm what might be roaming in that darkness.
The disease had spread even to this place where the residents had evacuated. Even if none of them had gone outside, there was no guarantee that the disease had not already spread out there as well.
At that moment, something pitch-black flew in from the dark sky and circled above my head.
It was a crow.
“Heimdall, please go in first. Gil and I will look around the field for a moment before we come in.”
“Yes. Understood.”
After confirming that Heimdall had entered the building, I gestured to the crow.