-Sandstorm
I stepped out of the transport portal and quickly looked around. It was a familiar place. None other than the abandoned building where the biohackers had been staying.
I was on the verge of laughing at Loki’s painfully obvious movements.
‘After kidnapping them, this is the best place he could bring them?’
The portal had opened in the first-floor lobby, where there was currently no one.
I walked slowly down the corridor. Several rooms lined either side of it.
When I quietly extended my detection magic, I sensed a faint gray energy from the third room.
I approached the room. The door was closed, and not a sound came from within. There wasn’t even any light.
But I could clearly feel traces of magic having been used, and judging by the texture of that gray energy, the mage was undoubtedly Loki.
I flung the door open. Goblins burst out from inside, shrieking.
A single gesture. The goblins, who had been charging blindly through the darkness, froze on the spot.
As if I would open the door without preparing to use magic first.
I quickly looked around the room.
I saw Gil and Cheon Danbi sitting in the corner. They were tangled in magic snares, with gags in their mouths.
But Loki was nowhere to be seen.
I hurriedly used dispel magic to undo the snares and gags, and the two of them let out long breaths.
“Are you all right? Where’s Loki?”
“We’re fine. You found us so quickly, Mage.”
“Yeah, you got here fast. Loki went outside. He told the goblins to guard us and left. But what was that tremor just now? The attack’s already started, hasn’t it? That wasn’t a tremor caused by Oudin, was it?”
Cheon Danbi asked about the tremor as she looked around.
It was a prison cell-like room with not even a window, so the sandstorm hadn’t blown in, but it seemed they had still felt the tremor from earlier.
“Yeah. The Magic Tower’s attack has begun. Let’s get out of here.”
We hurried out of the room.
Leaving the frozen goblins as they were, we went into the corridor and headed toward the lobby where the transport portal was.
Only now did relief begin to fill my chest.
Honestly, when I saw that Gil and Cheon Danbi had disappeared, I hadn’t thought I would be able to get them back this easily.
Moreover, the two of them had merely been tied up and confined; they were unharmed. It didn’t seem like Loki had intended to hurt them.
“Was Loki acting alone? There wasn’t anyone else?”
“Yeah. It was just Loki and the goblins. He suddenly popped out of a subspace, and we got caught.”
“We resisted, but he caught us with the snares in an instant, so there was nothing we could do. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? If someone uses spatial magic to ambush you, it’s hard to stop.”
As I replied to Gil, a question occurred to me.
Loki had invaded my house by using spatial magic to open a path through subspace. That was fairly high-level spatial magic.
Was Loki skilled enough to use spatial magic like that? I didn’t think so.
He had probably received help from a black mage.
And if that person hadn’t even appeared at the scene and had helped him remotely, that would require even greater magical skill.
Perhaps he had received Samir’s help.
No, had the kidnapping been Samir’s order from the start?
I extended my detection magic again and scanned the surroundings anew.
At that moment, I sensed gray energy from the far side of the lobby. Looking into the darkness, I saw Loki, who had just stepped in through the front door, staring at the gray portal with a startled expression.
Sandstorm winds were blowing in through the open front door. Dust swirled in a pale haze.
I gave Loki no time to react. The instant I found him, I launched a magic snare and bound him, then applied pressure magic as well.
“Aaagh! S-spare me!”
Loki immediately begged for his life in a servile voice.
To me, it only felt refreshing. I had been wondering whether I would have to leave this place without getting revenge on Loki, so I was simply glad to see him.
“Why should I spare you? You broke into my house and kidnapped my team members.”
I approached Loki. Up close, he looked as if he had been kneaded white after being covered head to toe in sandstorm dust.
The situation outside seemed far from normal. It didn’t look like I had time to waste chatting with Loki.
Cheon Danbi quickly shut the front door and stared outside with wide eyes.
“Oudin, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Please undo this pressure magic. I feel like I’m going to suffocate to death. I just had no choice. I only kidnapped them because Sir Samir ordered me to.”
At last, the name Samir came out of Loki’s mouth. It was the moment my suspicions were confirmed.
But why had Samir ordered Loki, of all people, to do it? Had Loki become a member of the Magic Tower now?
There were many things I was curious about, but there was no time. I had to ask only the questions I needed right now.
“Where is Samir now?”
“He’d be at the Magic Tower, of course.”
“That attack happening right now—what’s the plan? Tell me everything you know.”
“I don’t know anything about the attack. I’m sorry. I really don’t know anything. I just did what Samir told me to do. I just went outside a moment ago, got startled by the sandstorm, and came back.”
“Where did you go?”
“To get a car. I was going to get one and drive to the Magic Tower. But I guess that’s all ruined now. You can’t see a thing outside because of the sandstorm.”
No useful information came from Loki at all.
Seeing as he had intended to drive to the Magic Tower, it seemed he couldn’t open a transport portal that far.
As expected, the kidnapping itself would have been impossible with Loki’s power alone.
It seemed true that he had done it on Samir’s orders, and that because he couldn’t break through the barrier by himself, he had ultimately kidnapped them with Samir’s help.
‘He sided with evil, and he’s incompetent on top of it.’
There was no reason to keep struggling with Loki here. Nor was there any need to kill him.
I activated spatial magic and opened another transport portal. It was a portal leading to the Administration Bureau.
However, the Administration Bureau building was protected by strict security, so I couldn’t open a transport portal inside it. Right in front of the building was enough.
As expected, since the Magic Tower’s attack had begun, mages were busily coming and going in front of the Administration Bureau. Everyone was moving frantically.
Even through the portal, the severity of the sandstorm could be felt clearly. Fierce winds were blowing, and though it was night, so much sand dust filled the air that the entire world looked white.
The mages of the Administration Bureau were trying to push the sandstorm upward with wind magic.
Just as I was about to call Yu Jaeseon, a face covered white in dust appeared beyond the portal. It was none other than Yu Jaeseon.
“Mage Oudin? Where are you?”
“This is the restricted zone. I caught the criminal who kidnapped Gil and Cheon Danbi. It’s Loki. I opened the portal to hand him over to the Administration Bureau.”
“Kidnapped? No, then what you meant when you said something happened at your house was…? Thank goodness. You’ve already resolved it. Are the two of them all right?”
Hearing Yu Jaeseon’s words, Cheon Danbi and Gil stepped in front of the portal and showed themselves. Yu Jaeseon was pleased to see them.
In the meantime, I dragged Loki over and roughly threw him through the portal. Loki’s scream crossed through it.
“He says he kidnapped them under the orders of Samir, the head of the Magic Tower. Please interrogate him thoroughly. Though I suppose there’s no time for interrogation right now.”
“Yes. At the moment, we’re too busy responding to the attack. We’ll lock him up for now.”
Yu Jaeseon said as he grabbed Loki and pulled him to his feet. Even after seeing that Loki was bound by a magic snare, Yu Jaeseon put another layer of magic handcuffs on him.
Then he stopped a staff member passing by, handed Loki over, and ordered them to lock him in the Administration Bureau detention cell.
“How is the attack situation?”
I asked Yu Jaeseon after he returned to the portal.
“A sandstorm is sweeping across all of Seoul. The sand dust contains mana, but it doesn’t seem to be showing any other special effects. At least for now, it’s fine. Even if you’re covered in the dust like this, it doesn’t cause harm beyond ordinary dust.”
“That’s fortunate. Then we just need to blow away this sandstorm?”
“The problem is that sandworms are increasing rapidly. On top of that, they’re growing larger. It seems the mana in the sandstorm is supplying energy to the sandworms.”
“I see. Are the sandworms harming people?”
“It’s the middle of the night, and we sent out disaster alerts in advance, so people aren’t coming outside. There hasn’t been much damage yet. But if we can’t deal with the sandstorm quickly, tomorrow will be a problem.”
Yu Jaeseon covered his mouth and coughed several times. The sand dust was thick enough to make it difficult for him to continue speaking.
While we were talking, sand dust was also coming over to our side through the portal. The lobby grew hazy just from the dust blown in through the open portal.
Even so, our side was inside a building, while Yu Jaeseon was outside.
Even if the sand dust wasn’t showing any special effects, it was harmful and serious in itself.
“Understood. Then we need to deal with the sandstorm first. The mages shouldn’t fight separately; they need to combine their strength. Please have everyone gather in front of the Administration Bureau. I’ll be there soon as well.”
“Please come to Samseong Station instead of the Administration Bureau. It seems the Magic Tower building is the epicenter, so I think we’ll have to tackle it from there.”
“Understood. Then please gather the mages there.”
As soon as the conversation ended, I quickly closed the portal.
The sand dust that had been pouring in with the wind disappeared and gradually settled, and the world became quiet.
It truly felt as if I had opened and then closed a portal to another world.
“Phew, this really isn’t an ordinary situation.”
Cheon Danbi let out a sigh and spoke with a grave expression.
“Let’s go home first. Ren is waiting.”
“Yeah, right. Let’s hurry.”
We passed through the gray portal one after another and returned to my room.
Before I could even step out of the portal, I heard Ren’s voice.
“Danbi unni! Gil! You’re safe!”
The three of them, reunited, hugged one another and jumped up and down in joy. It was true that they had only been apart for a few hours, but it felt as if decades had passed.
Even the crows were flapping about in a commotion.
From the rooftop came the whirring sound of wind. Outside the window, everything was pale and hazy.
It was good to be happy to see one another, but we had no time for this.
I asked Ren first.
“Did anything happen?”
“No. Nothing happened except the sandstorm.”
“Then I think I need to go get rid of the sandstorm now. What do you all plan to do? It seems impossible to go home through that sandstorm. Do you want to rest here?”
I asked as I looked around at my team members.
Cheon Danbi and Ren weren’t mages, and while Gil was a mage, he had only just been kidnapped, so he might want to rest a little.
There was a sandstorm outside, but this house had a barrier, so everyone would be safe if they stayed here.
But it seemed none of them were thinking that.
“We should go together.”
“Yeah. Of course we’re going too. You said everyone needs to combine their strength, right? Even if it was created by magic, a sandstorm is close to a natural phenomenon, so I think I can help too.”
“I’ll go as well. I can use the life force of nature.”
Gil, Cheon Danbi, and Ren all looked at me with the same unwavering eyes.
Brave eyes, full of goodwill.