-Patch
I started running toward Bolba Restaurant. Cheon Danbi staggered along after me.
The ground beneath our feet was still rumbling, but it did not split open or collapse.
Even so, the waves were clearly rising from below. Something must have been happening in the underground dwarf village.
Kwa-kwa-boom! Kwa-kwa-boom!
The thunderous roars, like explosions in the distance, continued.
The earth gradually heaved this way and that, as though it had come alive. With the solid ground beneath my feet writhing, I felt dizzy and dazed.
No, this daze was not merely because of the vibrations.
Swa-swa-swa-swa……!
A sound arose like a bamboo grove rippling in the wind, and then, suddenly, I saw a black shadow dart swiftly past in the distance.
It did not have a proper form. Literally like a shadow, it swept by like smoke.
It was the sight of ashen energy briefly gathering into a mass, then scattering.
And that was what was spreading the daze.
“What is that now? Something just passed over there, didn’t it?”
Cheon Danbi asked in a sharp voice.
Most people probably would not even have sensed it, but as expected, Cheon Danbi seemed to have noticed the shadow’s presence.
“It looks like the afterimage of a black mage. Not the main body—more like a magic circuit moving mana waves through remote control.”
For the moment, I answered with my best guess.
“Then a black mage is doing something in the underground dwarf village right now?”
“Probably.”
“What is this? The police were over there just a little while ago. So how could a black mage……?”
Even though the ashen energy spreading through the air must have been making her dazed and muddling her head, Cheon Danbi had not let go of her suspicions.
I was relieved that her resistance seemed strong, but I could not simply relax.
I spread a barrier around Cheon Danbi and myself.
For a moment, I felt a refreshing energy. Seeing me deploy a barrier, Cheon Danbi seemed to have wrapped us in one as well, using a druid’s vitality.
With two layers of protection, we could finally breathe a little easier and cautiously approached Bolba Restaurant.
“Hey, doesn’t it look like the restaurant entrance is bulging?”
Cheon Danbi asked in a low voice.
“Be careful. The entire restaurant building is wrapped in ashen energy. It’ll be worse below.”
Whether it was real or an illusion was hard to tell, but the restaurant entrance was bulging outward. The building, entirely enveloped in ashen energy, was expanding as though it might burst at any moment.
Not only that, the ground beneath it was also gradually swelling up.
‘Is it really expanding, or is this spatial magic causing an illusion?’
There was no time to analyze it deeply.
At that instant, an earthquake-like tremor surged violently, and a massive roar burst out.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
“Get back!”
Even with two layers of barriers around us, the vibration was fierce enough to affect us.
We were thrown backward.
The sight before my eyes made me doubt what I was seeing.
The building that had been swelling to the limit finally burst. But it was different from an ordinary explosion. Like a soap bubble popping, the building vanished in an instant.
Without even a single fragment of debris scattering, it was simply deleted from space.
Then came a scream that shook the heart.
The sound echoing from deep underground felt tragic and bleak, like a cry from hell.
“Ah, my God. This is……”
Cheon Danbi shuddered violently.
The next moment, we witnessed an even more horrific scene.
Through the ruptured space, through the place where the restaurant building had been erased, dwarves shot upward.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The dwarves, flung up by the energy of an invisible explosion, soon fell here and there onto the street with dull sounds.
“What in the……!”
Cheon Danbi and I quickly ran toward them.
The closer we drew to the burst site, the denser the ashen energy became. Ashen energy was also rippling from the bodies of the fallen dwarves.
“Ma’am! Are you all right?”
“Please, wake up!”
They did not seem dead. The dwarves were moaning as they rolled on the ground.
When I approached and checked their pulses, both pulse and breathing were present. They had probably suffered injuries from hitting things as they fell, broken bones and the like, but their lives did not seem to be in danger.
But then, through the gaping hole where the restaurant had burst apart, even more dwarves came pouring up.
Once outside, they screamed with vacant faces and ran wildly in every direction.
“What happened? What’s the situation inside?”
I shouted the question, but no one answered. They did not look to be in any state to answer.
A siren sounded from somewhere. It seemed the police were coming.
I withdrew my hands from the dwarves and took a step back. If the police came, the paramedics would come as well. It seemed we could leave this side to them.
“We need to go underground right now.”
“I’ll go with you. Everyone’s acting strange. It’s like they’re possessed by something.”
Cheon Danbi said in an uneasy voice.
She had seen it precisely. It seemed the black mage had mixed in mental magic that stunned the mind while unleashing magic of expansion and explosion.
Pushing through the dwarves running around in chaos, we stepped toward the entrance leading underground.
As we hurried down the stairs, our steps kept faltering. The farther down we went, the stronger the ashen energy became.
When I looked back at Cheon Danbi, she was staggering too, but she did not seem so disoriented that she could not keep herself together.
“Why?”
Cheon Danbi asked, sensing my gaze.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m dazed, but I can endure it.”
Then Cheon Danbi rummaged through her pocket, took something out, and handed it to me.
“Put this in your mouth and chew it. It’s an herb that helps resist mental magic.”
If anything, Cheon Danbi was the one looking after me.
What she gave me was an herb that shone with a vivid blue light. Its color was so bright that, at a glance, it looked even more suspicious, but I put it in my mouth without hesitation and chewed.
A cool sensation spread through my mouth, and I felt as if the fog that had been seeping into my head was clearing away. The unsteadiness in my legs also lessened considerably.
“Spatial magic, and mental magic too. Whoever it is, they’re quite skilled.”
I said, looking around the underground space.
The space had been distorted by expansion. The stairs were crumpled at bizarre angles, and in places, they had even been severed.
The walls that had twisted and burst were cracked all over. Through those gaps, earth crumbled down, and in some places, water poured out like waterfalls.
“Isn’t this place going to collapse at this rate? Look over there. At this rate, a real explosion will happen and everyone will die.”
Where Cheon Danbi raised her hand and pointed, I saw timber that had caught fire and was burning.
It was not only ashen energy; actual smoke was rising as well. There was also an acrid smell, as if gas were leaking from somewhere.
“Uaaaah!”
From below the stairs, dwarves with vacant faces were still shoving their way upward. As if they had even lost language, they let out only monstrous screams.
With heavy hearts, we continued down the stairs.
At last, we descended into the wide space where the underground village began. There, a scene of hell was unfolding.
Dwarves were running every which way. All of them screamed as though they had gone mad, moving about in frenzied agitation.
Some were grabbing one another by the collar and fighting, while others were hurling objects at random.
Under the mental magic the black mage had spread, the dwarves were destroying their own village and community with their own hands.
Those who had remained inside instead of rushing outside seemed to be the most severely affected.
If we did not treat them quickly, it looked as though they would collapse completely.
“Try healing them as much as you can. I’ll analyze the ashen energy and look for a way to break the mental magic.”
“Got it.”
We had to use each of our abilities and do whatever we could first.
Cheon Danbi immediately closed her eyes and began concentrating.
Since we were deep underground, it would not be easy to draw upon the energy of the forest, but she somehow pulled in vitality little by little and sent it flowing into the dwarves. However, there was no immediate effect.
First, I stirred up wind in order to dilute the ashen energy filling the space.
With mana-laden fingertips, I controlled the wind’s direction and formed a current of air toward the hole above.
As a gust of wind swept through and stirred the air, the dwarves looked around with puzzled expressions.
There was some effect. But it was not enough.
More important than that was breaking the mental magic.
This part was not simple. First, I had to analyze the magic circuit the black mage had constructed, and when I examined it, its structure was extremely complex.
‘This is going to take some time.’
As I was absorbed in the analysis, footsteps sounded from above the stairs.
Someone was coming down here. When I lifted my head, I saw several mages from the Hall of Magic.
“Oudin? You were here? When did you come down?”
Gang Yonghun asked as he approached me. He looked slightly surprised. Then he glanced down at the communication device on his wrist.
Following his gaze, I also checked the communication device on my wrist. There had been no particular alarm or dispatch order.
“I came a little while ago. I happened to be passing nearby.”
Answering briefly, I observed the state of the mages.
Strangely, all of them were perfectly fine.
‘Why aren’t they being affected by the ashen energy?’
Of course, since they were mages, they might have come in after deploying barriers.
But I had also wrapped myself in a barrier. Two layers, even, including Cheon Danbi’s. Despite that, I had been affected by the ashen energy to some extent.
I had stirred up magical wind and blown the ashen energy away. But I had sent it upward, so those coming down the stairs should have been hit by it instead.
And yet they were this fine?
“In any case, this is good. I was already thinking we were short on hands. You help us arrest the dwarves too.”
Gang Yonghun said to me.
“Arrest the dwarves? Shouldn’t you be saying rescue, not arrest? They’re the victims right now.”
When I widened my eyes and asked back, Gang Yonghun looked at me as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
“Victims? What are you talking about?”
“They were attacked by a black mage, and now the dwarves can’t come to their senses. Their village has been destroyed too.”
“No. What black mage? This is the dwarves’ doing. Didn’t you see the news? The ones who caused the rats’ mutation last time were also the dwarves.”
I was dumbfounded.
Leaving aside the rats’ mutation, how could he say such a thing after seeing the situation here?
“There are traces of a black mage here. Can’t you feel the ashen energy?”
“That’s exactly the evidence that the dwarves committed terrorism. These bastards made mana weapons. Wait, did you inhale the ashen energy? You don’t look too good.”
I did not reply and glared at Gang Yonghun.
They were pinning even the traces of the black mage on the dwarves.
There was no longer any point in talking. Gang Yonghun could not simply be mistaken.
“We received information in advance. That’s why we came prepared. Looks like you were caught off guard.”
Gang Yonghun clicked his tongue, then lifted the hem of the jumper he was wearing.
I saw patches plastered all over the inside of the jumper. Those patches bore Vanaheim’s logo.