-Restorative Power
* * *
“Cheon Danbi!”
The moment I confirmed that Yasin’s presence had completely vanished beyond the dimension, I ran straight to Cheon Danbi, who lay collapsed on the ground.
“Cheon Danbi! Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Cheon Danbi’s voice was small, but clear.
She had not lost consciousness. She was holding up well enough to look at me with her eyes open and answer.
I was greatly relieved.
“Danbi noona! Are you okay?”
Gil shouted as he ran toward us.
Judging by his voice and movements, Gil didn’t seem to be injured anywhere. That was an immense relief.
Cheon Danbi, who had been turning her head and moving her body to look toward Gil, grimaced slightly.
“Careful. Don’t move. I’ll help you up.”
The whip of black magic that had coiled around Cheon Danbi was gone. It had been swept away into the Demon Realm’s dimension along with Yasin and everything else that contained the Demon Realm’s energy.
Even so, there was no telling what aftermath of the black magic might remain.
I quickly scanned her, and fortunately, not even the slightest trace of ashen energy remained.
“I’m fine. It’s just that I landed hard on my backside when I fell earlier. The black magic whip is completely gone now.”
Cheon Danbi said with a smile.
It seemed likely there would be wounds left on the skin where the whip had wrapped around her, but when I looked, there were no such traces.
She really did seem to be all right.
When I carefully took Cheon Danbi in my arms to help her sit up, she braced herself on my arm and simply stood.
When I looked at her worriedly, almost reproachfully, Cheon Danbi waved her hand dismissively.
“I told you. I landed on my butt. Standing is better than sitting.”
“Danbi noona! Are you really okay? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
Gil, who had come up beside us, asked in a startled voice.
“Yeah. I’m fine. It’s strange, but I feel completely clean now. A while ago, I thought I was going to die. I guess it’s all thanks to our team leader’s amazing magic.”
Cheon Danbi looked at me and smiled brightly.
Then she patted Gil on the shoulder and continued.
“Gil, you worked hard holding Yasin back too. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“I’m fine. Just before he broke through my barrier, Mage-nim finished him off.”
“Are both of you really all right? Now that Yasin’s been dealt with, let’s hurry up and leave this place and go to the hospital.”
I carefully examined the two of them again.
There were no visible wounds in particular, and I couldn’t sense any ashen energy.
“The hospital? Please. Just take me to the herb shop. I’m really fine, but since I was attacked by a black mage, I should at least go shower in potions or something. Ah! First, take out some potions from my bag.”
As always, Cheon Danbi had a bag strapped to her back even now.
When I opened the bag and took out the potions for her, Cheon Danbi poured them over the crowns of her and Gil’s heads.
“There. Done. Even if anything was left, it should’ve been purified now.”
“I’m really fine, though… Thank you, Danbi noona.”
The crowns of Cheon Danbi and Gil’s heads sparkled brightly.
Only then, feeling reassured, did we all begin looking around.
An astonishing sight was waiting for us.
Not only had the lava, man-eating plants, and tentacle monsters all disappeared, but a perfectly intact terminal building was standing again where the terminal had turned into a massive black hole.
The runway, which the man-eating plants had torn through countless times and left in utter ruin, had also returned to its former state.
Even the aircraft that had been lying around crumpled like rusty cans had been restored cleanly.
“What? How on earth did this happen?”
“Wow! Mage-nim, you’re really amazing! It’s like you turned back time!”
Cheon Danbi and Gil exclaimed in admiration, their eyes wide.
Even I, the very person who had cast the magic, was a little surprised.
I already knew that spatial magic included restorative power.
I had also seen the surrounding space restore itself after using spatial magic in Chinatown.
But back then, it had only been a matter of some broken walls and roads being cleaned up, so it hadn’t been as astonishing as this.
“Incheon Airport was definitely destroyed so badly it was practically smashed to pieces.”
“I know. I thought it would take a very long time to restore it, but what in the world is this?”
The scenery of Incheon Airport had been restored to its former, intact appearance, as if that destruction had never happened.
Even Gil, who possessed an innate talent for restoration magic, could not help being surprised, because no separate restoration magic had been used; I had only executed spatial magic, yet the restoration had been completed perfectly as well.
Of course, I could understand the principle behind it.
The reason it looked, as Gil said, as though time had been turned back was because the axis of time had actually moved.
Space and time were not separate existences unrelated to each other; they were two faces of one body called spacetime. They were different aspects of reality connected to one another.
That was why moving space with magic also meant moving time.
If spatial magic was maximized, it was possible to move the axis of time.
When I activated the magic, my intent was clear.
Return everything that contained the Demon Realm’s energy back to the Demon Realm’s dimension.
That included the destruction Yasin had carried out with the Demon Realm’s energy.
Reversing destruction ultimately produced the same result as moving the axis of time and turning time back.
I could understand it in principle like this, but when I saw it actually unfold in reality, I was honestly astonished too.
Still, wouldn’t it be a little embarrassing to join in their admiration? After all, it was none other than I who had done it.
So I answered as if it were no big deal.
“That worked out. We don’t need to use restoration magic separately, and we saved quite a bit of time.”
“Oho! Our team leader is seriously incredible, isn’t he? Look at you acting so calm. When did you become such a great mage?”
“That’s right. This is truly the work of a great mage!”
It seemed I had completely failed to brush it off as nothing.
Far from dying down, Cheon Danbi and Gil’s admiration was rising higher and higher, as if it would pierce the sky.
And now it was no longer just the two of them.
“That’s right. A great mage. A real great mage. Great Mage Oudin!”
“Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent! I’ve truly never seen such incredible spatial magic before.”
“I’m at a loss for words. How can magic like this even exist?”
Thor’s group, who had approached at some point, were pouring out admiration to their hearts’ content.
Seeing them unharmed made me extremely glad.
“Thor! You’re all safe. What a relief.”
“Sorry, but to be honest, we didn’t do anything. Yasin and Nasanhaegyeong clashed and fought each other, and then Yasin won and suddenly flew off, so we couldn’t stop him properly.”
Thor said, scratching his head.
Balder and Heimdall also looked apologetic.
It seemed that because they had let him slip through, Yasin had ended up attacking Cheon Danbi and Gil.
I had no intention of blaming them now.
More importantly, there was something I was curious about.
“The two black mages fought each other?”
“That bastard Yasin devoured all of Nasanhaegyeong’s chimeras.”
“Devoured them?”
“He was probably injured by your meteor attack. I think he did it to replenish his mana. In any case, unbelievable.”
“Yasin isn’t just your average madman. He devoured the chimeras, became even more of a monster, and started attacking Nasanhaegyeong like crazy.”
“Nasanhaegyeong is no less insane. He made those chimeras using humans as materials.”
“Anyway, it’s a huge relief we’ll never have to meet Yasin again.”
Balder and Heimdall joined the conversation and shuddered as they spoke.
They said that after being attacked by Yasin, Nasanhaegyeong had disappeared through a red portal.
Because he lost the fight, he survived and fled.
We had let him slip away for now, but we would meet again before long anyway.
‘Wait until then, Nasanhaegyeong. I’ll send you to the Demon Realm too.’
After confirming that all of our allies who had joined the raid were safe, we all went down from the rooftop of the parking tower to the ground.
When I briefly looked up at the sky, three crows were circling.
‘Thank you. Thanks to you, I saved Cheon Danbi and Gil.’
When I spoke to the crows without words, they circled once as if they understood, then flew off.
Once we reached the ground, I saw a group of mages running toward us from over there.
It was Han Dosu and the Jeondang mages.
It seemed they had come running to support us as I had asked, but the situation had already been cleanly resolved.
“Mage Oudin! Is it all over?”
“Wow! What happened here? Even the restoration is completely finished!”
“Impossible! To complete the raid and even finish the restoration in such a short time… Just what kind of magic did you use?”
“It was spatial magic, wasn’t it? That explosion of pure white light was truly incredible.”
“It really was amazing.”
“There’s nothing left for us to do.”
Han Dosu and the mages spoke all at once.
Questions about the situation and words of admiration poured out together in a tangled rush.
Thor’s group, whose admiration and excitement had not yet cooled, enthusiastically joined them, saying they would explain the situation.
As stories were exchanged for quite some time, the part I listened to closely was this.
“Even the wounded in the rear were all healed on their own!”
“Wow! Is that true?”
“It was the moment that pure white light exploded. As the energy of the black magic was swept back, it looked like even the wounds healed by themselves.”
“Then what about the dead? Did those people come back to life too?”
“Dead people can’t come back to life. No matter how much holy magic it is, it couldn’t accomplish that…”
The mages trailed off and stole glances at me.
I did not particularly join the conversation to explain.
I hoped everyone would understand what was obvious as obvious on their own.
That is what death is. It is something that cannot be reversed.
While one is alive, wounds may heal and life may be restored, but resurrection cannot come to those who are already dead.
Life is not eternal, and it meets its end in death. That is the most obvious and natural thing.
That is why I do not believe in eternal life, nor do I believe in people who prattle on about it. Those who claim they can bring eternal life are nothing more than frauds.
Was there not already a legendary black mage in history who revived dead humans and turned them into zombies?
Do you truly want to believe and follow the idea that a human transforming into a zombie is eternal life?
From my perspective, zombies living as beings with endless regenerative ability have not obtained eternal life; rather, they are receiving eternal punishment.
At least, that is not what I want.
And black mages who bewitch people with talk of eternal life are, to me, merely targets for eradication.
“May we leave now? I need to take these two somewhere they can rest.”
I asked Han Dosu.
Although I was the one who had ended the raid by dealing with Yasin, he had been the one responsible for the Incheon Airport raid from the beginning.
It would be fine to leave the cleanup to the Jeondang mages.
From now on, even more people from the government, military, and police would flock here.
I used Cheon Danbi and Gil as an excuse to slip away.
“Of course. We’ll handle the aftermath, so hurry and go rest.”
“Yes. I’ll contact you separately soon.”
With light hearts, we left Incheon Airport.