-Worship
What fell from the sky was a Golden Apple sample in a clear plastic pouch.
When something suddenly came pouring down from the sky, people were busy dodging it at first.
But once they realized it was Golden Apple samples, chaos broke out as everyone rushed in to catch and pick them up.
The riot police were trying to disperse the crowd, but it was no use.
In the dim darkness and strange waves, the shadows of people floundering about painted a scene like a hellscape filled with starving ghosts.
‘What the—Golden Apples? Has Kim Seonho still not given up on them? In the middle of a disaster starting, both Golden Apples and the protesters are out of control…’
Just as that thought flashed through my mind, a voice rang out from the sky.
“Humans, receive the Golden Apples. Drink eternal life. This is a gift to you from the Magic Tower. Accept it with joy!”
It was not Kim Seonho. It was Samir.
Feeling as if my blood were rushing backward, I looked up at the sky.
But in the black sky, only a vortex of ashen energy was swirling; Samir himself was nowhere to be seen.
But why did the Magic Tower have Golden Apples? Had Kim Seonho made some kind of underhanded deal with the Magic Tower? Such questions crossed my mind.
But more than anything, Samir’s voice was scraping at my nerves right now.
‘Where are you? Show yourself!’
The moment I thought that, Samir revealed himself, as if he had read my mind. In true Samir fashion, it was quite the dramatic entrance.
Once again, crack! A sound like space being split rang out, and the sky cleaved in two. Between the long rift in the black sky, a red portal opened.
A black silhouette floated in the air against the wavering crimson light.
But he did not step through the portal. He merely showed an enormously enlarged image of himself.
“I shall give you Golden Apples. Drink eternal life!”
Samir’s voice whirled through the air like the sound of a tornado. Then, like a chorus, the voices of many others followed.
The black mages themselves were not visible. There were only voices flowing, mingled with the wind.
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
Rage surged up in me so fiercely that I grew dizzy.
I could not understand why he was laying this pointless groundwork for worship when he was going to unleash a disaster anyway. It was simply disgustingly vile.
It was no different from Samir in my previous life.
Consumed by fury, I immediately drew up my mana. The rage was quickly forged into a cold wave of freezing energy.
I fired it straight up into the sky, but by then the red portal had already vanished.
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
Only those spell-like voices drifted through the air like clouds of dust. At the same time, Golden Apples fell from the empty sky.
The Golden Apples froze in my wave of ice, and the plastic pouches came rattling down like hail.
The people below were pelted by the hail-like Golden Apple pouches, yet they did not even think of avoiding them. They screamed in pain as they reached out their hands.
They paid no heed to the darkened world, the whirlwind, or the portal that had appeared and disappeared in the air.
Like people obsessed with nothing but the Golden Apples, they were desperate to seize them.
They had already been possessed by the ashen energy and Samir’s command.
“No! The Golden Apples are dangerous! Don’t drink them! Everyone, evacuate into the buildings right now!”
I shouted at the people.
I added golden energy to the barrier I had been wearing since leaving the building. It was to convey authority to the people who had lost their minds.
But it was no use. The protesters who looked back at me realized I was the one who had cast the freezing magic and instead began hurling abuse at me.
“It’s Oudin! Oudin stopped them!”
“You damned mage! Stop it! Get lost!”
“Hurry up and melt the Golden Apples! We’re going to drink the Golden Apples!”
Then they looked up at the empty sky and pleaded.
“Lord Samir! Give us Golden Apples!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“We worship Lord Samir! We worship the Magic Tower!”
“Lord Samir, grant us eternal life!”
I could endure any amount of abuse directed at me, but I could not endure their worship of Samir.
Thinking that I had to destroy every last one of those Golden Apples immediately, I drew up my mana again.
“I’m going to use magic! Get inside the buildings right now!”
Even though I shouted it as a warning this time, the protesters did not listen to me.
Not knowing that the path of following a black mage’s words led straight to death, they were deceived by the hollow name of Golden Apples and threw themselves at them like moths to a flame.
At that moment, I truly intended to use magic. Whether people were surrounding them or not, I was determined to destroy all the Golden Apples. Just then—
“Mage-nim, we should hurry…”
“Oudin! Leave this place to me! The elves and I will do something about the people who’ve gone strange because of the Golden Apples. Oudin, you hurry and go to Samir!”
Gil spoke to me first, and Cheon Danbi shouted as if snapping me back to my senses.
I quickly looked back. Gil, Cheon Danbi, and Ren were looking at me. Their eyes were blazing.
My mind cleared in an instant. I had been swept up in anger for a moment.
My anger was a grudge that had carried over from my previous world.
It flared up as it stirred my trauma, but there was no reason for that anymore. The current me was not so weak that I would be oppressed by Samir.
Moreover, in this world, I had my teammates. People who made me wiser and stronger. People I had to protect and defend.
I quickly redirected my mana and said,
“Cheon Danbi, thank you. Then I’ll leave this to you. You two, come with me.”
My teammates nodded.
I immediately opened a teleportation portal. Amid the ashen energy growing ever thicker, a blue portal opened.
After sending Gil and Ren in first, I was just about to step into the portal.
From over there came a heavy thud! as something fell, followed by screams.
“Aaah! Is that a person? Did a person fall from the sky?”
“No, it’s a corpse. A corpse fell!”
“Huh? It’s Kim Seonho!”
“Kim Seonho, the chairman of Vanaheim, is dead!”
It was some distance away, and people were crowded there, so I could not see properly. I hurriedly activated my golden vision and looked through to that spot.
It really was Kim Seonho’s corpse. He had not fallen alive and died; he had already been dead when he fell. There was a large hole right in the center of Kim Seonho’s chest. It was a wound no human could survive.
‘Did Samir kill Kim Seonho?’
It was not particularly surprising. It only meant their collusion had not worked out properly.
But the people seemed shocked. Even those who had been crazed over the Golden Apples and rushing at them began to stumble backward when a corpse fell from the sky.
The police and the mages of the Administration Bureau ran toward that place.
At that very moment, a whirlwind surged from the spot where Kim Seonho’s corpse had fallen.
Black energy roared, and the temperature dropped sharply. A cold wind swept through the street like a plague.
“Aaagh!”
“S-save me!”
“Lord Samir, the Golden Apples…!”
“Worship Lord Samir! Worship the Magic Tower!”
“We worship you! Please save us!”
All kinds of screams of agony burst out.
Worship quickly turned into terror. It was only natural.
To Samir, people’s worship was nothing but mockery. What he truly enjoyed was bringing disaster upon them.
The black energy flowing from the corpse swirled like a living creature, devouring people.
In particular, those who had already drunk the Golden Apples were instantly engulfed by the black energy and soon transformed into shapeless black smoke.
The police who had been running over turned and fled.
The mages strained with all their might to cast spells, but their magic did not form properly. It was being disrupted by the black energy spreading all around them.
The fall of Kim Seonho’s corpse from the sky was unexpected, but the event I had expected to happen was unfolding.
As I stepped into the portal, I glanced toward Cheon Danbi. Cheon Danbi was concentrating. Vitality was expanding in every direction.
I had decided to leave it to her, so I had to leave it to her.
‘Cheon Danbi, I’m counting on you here.’
I had to go to where Samir was. I hurried into the portal.
In order to survey the situation at the Magic Tower, I had set the destination of the teleportation portal to the front of the Vanaheim Building. Gil and Ren, who had crossed over there first, appeared to be shaking violently.
I quickly stepped out of the portal.
What I sensed even before the tremors was a shriek.
Kiiiiiieeeek!
At the sharp sound, as if a skewer were being twisted inside my ears, my body shuddered on its own.
At the same time, my body swayed from the tremor that shook the ground.
The scene that entered my eyes was of cars on the main road crumpled together into one mass like sheets of paper. The road itself had warped.
“Gil! Ren! This way!”
I called my teammates. First, I had them come inside my barrier.
A fierce wave was pushing in, one too powerful to withstand with an ordinary barrier.
Gil and Ren quickly came over to me.
“Leviathan has emerged!”
“Ha…! It really is tremendous. I’ll go to Leviathan right away!”
I had already guessed that Leviathan would have come out of the Magic Tower, but I still had not had time to find its form.
I hurriedly covered Gil and Ren with a purification barrier of pure white light. Then, when I finally lifted my gaze, Leviathan was up there. Pouring out black energy like a river, it moved its long body with fluid grace.
As if it had come out to sightsee in the world, it leisurely looked down from the air.
But its very existence was already a terrible poison.
Because of its vicious mana that felt like electric current and the overwhelming energy of the Demon Realm, there did not seem to be a single living person left moving nearby.
The Samseong-dong intersection, which should have been crowded with cars and people, now felt as quiet as death.
Of course, it was not actually quiet. Leviathan’s shrieks were ceaselessly boring into my head and echoing there.
Even so, the sight of everyone dead created the impression of a distant silence.
“I’ll take Leviathan. I’ll transform into a dragon now.”
Ren repeated. It was something we had discussed in advance. Against Leviathan, Ren transformed into a dragon would likely be the most suitable opponent.
I knew very well that Ren had originally been strong enough to transform into a dragon, and that after meeting Bruno in my magical space, she had grown even stronger.
Even so, now that I had Leviathan before my eyes, I hesitated to send Ren alone.
Then Gil said,
“I’ll go with her. I’ll replenish Ren’s mana.”
It was a good idea. If she transformed into a dragon, Ren would release tremendous mana as well, but as the fight went on, she could still run short.
But Gil was a mage who held nearly infinite mana. If the two of them worked together, they stood a chance.
“All right. That would be best. You two take Leviathan. Ren, if it seems dangerous, retreat at any time. I’ll be here.”
They only had to buy time. Until I dealt with Samir and ended this entire disaster.
During that time, I needed them to prevent any more victims from being caused by Leviathan.
“Understood. I will.”
“Don’t worry too much, and please be careful too, Mage-nim.”
Ren and Gil answered. They were so reliable.
I was moved all over again. I had formed my bond with them by protecting them because I thought they were fragile people, but as it turned out, they were this strong. Their growth was frightening.
As if blessing them, I infused the two of them with even more powerful purification energy.
At that moment, Leviathan’s shriek rang out once again.