133 - War
TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
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The banishment magic unfolded on a massive scale, befitting its grand nature. It rivaled road construction or urban planning in scope.
The company and magic society drew city-sized magic circles at six points close to the afterlife.
They repainted road lines with magic-infused paint and built new roads to form the magic circles.
"They're wasting tax money on useless things at year's end," ordinary people grumbled.
Aside from these complaints, enormous magic circles were smoothly drawn in six cities worldwide.
The prepared banishment magic forcefully pushed back the afterlife. The falling afterlife collided with this repulsive force and shattered.Fragments of the afterlife rained down all over the world.
'Get a grip!'
Lee Yeonwoo barely grasped his constantly twisting thoughts and eyes trying to return to the laptop. To be precise, he turned his 180-degree reversed thoughts another 180 degrees, returning them to their original state.
'She'll be fine. She's not the type to get hurt from falling.'
Yeonwoo vaguely sensed it.
All probabilities and possibilities were moving for her sake. Possibilities that could harm her shrank away, while those that could help her were maximized.
She was one who could move reality.
Someone on a similar level as the Golden Omnipotence that moves reality with gold, or the future Yeonwoo who handles possibilities at will.
'Even dice interference probably won't work well on her. She won't get hurt in an accident like this. So, if I just survive, I can see her again. My survival is the top priority.'
His mind rotated 360 degrees, returning to its original state.
Yeonwoo sprang up and rushed to the window.
"The afterlife..."
In the blue sky, translucent meteor-like objects were falling strangely. Without flames from friction, without noise.
Fragments of the afterlife were falling. The direction they were falling was...
Yeonwoo was terrified.
"Why are they falling here?!"
A fragment of the afterlife plummeted straight towards the hospital where he was admitted. Its speed was incredibly fast.
What seemed like a faint dot grew to the size of a human fist, then instantly closed the distance, filling the sky.
There was no time to react properly. Yeonwoo crouched down by the window, next to the reinforced concrete wall. As if responding to a nuclear explosion, he closed his eyes, covered his ears, and protected his head.
And then, the fragment of the afterlife fell.
Boom-
The impact was minimal. There was no flash, no destructive power.
When Yeonwoo cautiously opened his eyes, he saw a completely transformed hospital room.
"What the..."
The once-clean hospital room had turned into a haunted hospital straight out of a horror movie.
The wallpaper was torn off, revealing moldy concrete. Dirty puddles appeared here and there, the blankets were in tatters, and all the furniture had turned to trash.
Before Yeonwoo could grasp the situation, an announcement immediately followed.
Bzzt-
"Anomaly manifestation confirmed. Patients and medical staff, please respond calmly. This hospital..."
An old speaker spat out a murky sound. The sound was distorted.
"...will do its best for the death of patients."
Not the voice of the person making the announcement, but a dreadful voice as if from hell. A voice mixed with screams and curses.
When Yeonwoo listened carefully with heightened senses, he heard something about taking revenge on the living world.
At the same time, the hospital was in chaos. All sorts of curses burst out from the patient rooms.
"Shit! Getting caught up in this crap even in a hospital!"
"Ghosts go to hell."
"Is this a second-dimensional fusion? Any magicians around?"
"I'm here. Let's see, the materials I have right now are..."
Yeonwoo's expression settled calmly as he listened. He had grasped the situation.
'A fragment of the afterlife fused with the hospital. And in this hospital...'
There were plenty of veteran company employees admitted. From what he heard, there was no shortage of professionals including demon hunters and magicians.
Yeonwoo nodded to himself.
'It shouldn't be too big a problem. First, let's wake up that guy.'
Yeonwoo's gaze turned to Mark Jung, who was sobbing and caressing the laptop screen.
"I have to go too!"
"Get a hold of yourself."
"My mind is perfectly clear. In my life, I've never-"
Mark Jung tried to say something, but Yeonwoo immediately cut him off.
"How do you plan to go?"
"That's..."
Mark Jung's eyes lit up. He immediately found a way. A way to use all the resources he could mobilize.
"She's the president of the Artists' Association. I heard she usually stays at the Arts Center, turning it into an anomalous entity. So if we contact the Artists' Association-"
He knew her identity. Yeonwoo felt uneasy for a moment.
An artist he usually didn't want to get involved with. The leader of such artists.
'...Something's off.'
"Kieeek!"
Just then, a ghost's scream echoed through the corridor. The scream that pierced his head caused a headache, and Yeonwoo escaped a bit more from her influence.
His senses sharpened, thoughts flowed.
'Is my mind contaminated? But she...'
Her shadow that wouldn't leave his mind. That beauty.
Something was strange, but she didn't threaten Yeonwoo's life, and even the dice couldn't resist, so he couldn't completely break free.
Yeonwoo massaged his throbbing head and soon came to a conclusion.
'Now's not the time for these thoughts.'
He needed to survive in the hospital fused with a fragment of the afterlife. Yeonwoo looked straight at Mark Jung.
"Let's focus on escaping from here first. If we die here, we'll never see the Artists' Association president again."
Mark Jung also came to his senses. No, he set his priorities straight.
"You're right."
They carefully left the hospital room.
---
---
A hospital run by the company.
The fragment fell in the wrong place. After all, hospitals where professionals are admitted were full of people who could fend off most dangers.
"Kraaaah!"
A demon hunter with one hand in a cast hanging from a sling and wielding a silver dagger in the other tore apart a ghost.
The ghost dissipated with a resentful expression.
The demon hunter watched it with a stoic expression, then briefly prayed, "Amen."
He didn't know what had happened, but his job remained unchanged. Hunting threats to humanity.
Just then, footsteps were heard. The footsteps of two people.
When the demon hunter turned his head, he saw a man in patient clothes and another in a suit. The man in patient clothes bowed his head.
"I'm Investigator Yeonwoo. This is Mark Jung from headquarters. We're trying to escape, would you like to join us?"
The demon hunter frowned.
There was a smell. A smell that tempted people.
Shing-
The silver dagger was raised diagonally. Its sharp blade gleamed faintly in the dim light.
"You two have been affected by an anomaly."
"Us?"
"Yeah."
The demon hunter stood still for a moment, then lowered the silver dagger. Such incidents were common. They didn't seem to have completely lost their sense of self or been controlled.
"Get checked as soon as you escape."
Yeonwoo and Mark Jung looked at each other, then back at the demon hunter.
"Aren't you escaping?"
"I'm going to hunt these things. Go on."
He spoke firmly and moved on. The silver dagger scattered an eerie light.
Yeonwoo and Mark Jung didn't press further and hurried their steps.
How long had they been walking like that?
They saw people gathered in the middle of the corridor. Medical staff and patients were crowded together, with a magic circle drawn on the floor.
"Two more coming."
"Hurry! The magician created a safe zone!"
As they said, ghosts were gathered on the opposite side of the corridor, wearing hateful expressions. They couldn't approach the magic circle.
The magician threw some powder to drive away the ghosts, then rummaged through his bag.
"Ah, we're short on materials. Haven't we been able to contact the company?"
"I've been on the phone with them..."
That's when it happened.
Their phones rang simultaneously. Yeonwoo immediately checked.
The first message was sent to all company employees.
"The afterlife has fallen in fragments. Move quickly to track the locations of the fragments and suppress the anomalous entities existing in those fragments."
The company, moving separately from the paralyzed command, entered combat mode and moved to clean up.
The second message was sent to special management targets.
"Elite agents, we will soon assign missions. Be prepared."
The third message was sent to those who had witnessed the war and been affected by the Association President.
"This is..."
"Drink the memory eraser."
The short sentence wasn't text but a photo, with a force that compelled the mind.
Mark Jung immediately took out a memory eraser from his pocket and poured a few drops into his mouth. Yeonwoo resisted, his hands trembling.
'The memory eraser isn't right for this situation.'
His mind was torn in three directions.
The desire to approach the Association President. The need to survive. The urge to drink the memory eraser.
Yeonwoo groaned and curled up. His head hurt.
That's when it happened.
Suddenly, a mechanical sound was heard. People turned in unison to see beings that were half human and half machine climbing up the stairs.
On their chests, the logo of Synth Dynamics was clearly imprinted.
These were anomalous entities that had been in this fragment, in the midst of war.
"Pure organic lifeforms detected. Modify them."
Red optical sensors flashed. The machine humans each drew out weapons.
Yeonwoo suddenly raised his head. He lowered his hand slowly with sunken eyes.
'...Right. Those anomalous entities from the afterlife would be here too.'
If something like the spirit of a nuclear explosion was here, it'd be really dangerous. As if doused with ice water, his head cooled rapidly, and his split mind was mended.
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