Hermit Wizard

The Second (8)

“Hey, Saburo. is it really here?”

The one called Saburo was an Asian with a pale complexion. No matter how high the temperature was that day, it was only 17 degrees. He was wearing a sleeveless tee that didn’t suit the autumn weather in New York.

“Oh. Are you going to do it?”

The long-haired man who asked the boy a question was wearing a trench coat that contrasted with Saburo, who was almost naked. After all, without blood on his face, he frowned in his eyes and took a step back.

Anthony’s eyes, who looked at the two, were filled with murderous intentions.

“… Damn it! I don’t know how you two got in, but…”

Anthony had been hit directly by arterial blood from the woman’s neck. His naked body was covered in blood and stained red. In a terrible appearance as if he had just walked out of hell, Anthony lifted the knife in his right hand.

“Now that it’s like this, I will sacrifice you to God…”

“Ah, you’re so noisy.”

The boy interrupted Anthony’s words and gathered Mana in his hand.

“Let’s stretch him out for now.”

With the words, the sound of flesh bursting in the bathroom echoed.

-Plug!

Saburo’s right arm, which was revealed out of his sleeveless tee, exploded with a creepy burst. Anthony saw lumps coming over him like a storm. He crouched to avoid it, but the bathroom was too narrow.

-Pat!

“Eaaaaarrrgghhh!”

Anthony screamed and rolled over the bathroom floor. The remains of the boy’s arm, the pale apricot-colored flesh, was split into dozens of pieces and covered Anthony’s body. Each mass wriggled over the skin of its prey as if it had life. It looked like Anthony’s whole body was covered with leeches.

“W-what is it? Aaaarrrghh!”

He screamed desperately. It was an emotional reaction that he felt frightened and physiologically disgusted by the flesh crawling on his body. Anthony couldn’t focus on his doubts about that bizarre phenomenon. His brain seemed to be burning white because of the pain of the holes in his body.

“Khaarggh!”

Anthony couldn’t see, but each flesh was holding its place and plucked his skin with sharp teeth. After such exposure to muscles and blood vessels, he inserted awl-like dung and sucked in his blood.

“Huuuurgh… Heuuuuuuurgh!”

Anthony, rolling on the floor, scratched his body like crazy with his fingernails. The seemingly soft tissue-like leeches didn’t get a scratch, no matter how strong he scratched them. Anthony’s nails were only tearing off his own skin, which wasn’t covered with flesh, leaving a scar.

The tall man who was looking at the scene from a step back quietly murmured.

“I should have stopped you when you were hanging out with that crazy guy Hessler.”

“What’s wrong with Hessler? He lost his mind slightly and has a disgusting taste, but he turned out to be fun and useful. Now I don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

“Insanity is contagious.”

“We haven’t met often enough to get infected. You know that, don’t you? He hated coming out of the lab, but I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t want to put my feet in the basement where human beings live by eating their bodies while starving after being remodeled to have maximum resilience or where Hessler’s own cloned corpses were piled up for his sexual desire. We mostly discussed magic over the phone.”

“… Even if you develop magic together, I never thought it would be such a disgusting thing.”

Saburo responded calmly with his one arm missing.

“What wrong about it? It’s an old-fashioned stereotype that the vampire must put the fangs on the back of the neck to suck the blood. I can’t drill two 8 millimeter diameter holes and suck them while squishing until the stomach was filled. Putting the mouth on the prey’s skin and drooling… Isn’t it unsanitary? Furthermore, I guess people applied sunscreen to the back of their neck. Oh, I’m losing my appetite. Valentine, this is the 21st century. Look, how comfortable is that?”

“… For a vampire, there are bats and mosquitoes. Why leeches?”

“It’s because it has the simplest biological structure. It’s easy to make.”

Still, Valentine kicked his tongue as if he was displeased. He was sticking to the idea that the act of vampirism by cutting the body into pieces and transforming it into an invertebrate was a degrading behavior that was unlike Eugene’s children.

Saburo, who was well aware of Valentine’s usual beliefs, just shrugged instead of expressing his opinion anymore. Anyway, he couldn’t speak well with the person whose birth year was earlier than Jesus. What was the point of changing his name to a modern one? It wasn’t Valentine. It was Valentinus.

“Heuuuu… Khuuurrrg!”

Anthony gradually lost his power and wriggled on the floor.

“That’s enough.”

Saburo called the leeches that covered the prey’s body back to their original positions.

-Pat!

The pieces flew in all at once, forming the boy’s arm again in perfect order. Anthony’s blood, which the leeches sucked, was naturally absorbed into Saburo’s body. When it returned, the boy raised his right arm, clenching and opening his fist to circulate the blood. The color of his pale face was getting better.

“That child’s strength is removed, and my stomach is also filled. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”

The boy, who was quite satisfied with a happy smile, suddenly lit his eyes.

“Hoo?”

-Shrrrrrkkkkk!

The boy’s gaze stayed on the floor. Pink smoke was rising from Anthony’s body, who fell unconscious.

“I will take care of that.”

Valentine, who had stepped back, entered the bathroom. He made a sign and chanted the spell. However, before he completed the magic, his head was wrapped in smoke.

As soon as he came into contact with the smoke, a voice rang in Valentine’s head.

-Worship it! Be guided by the great being. That noble name is ‘the joy of slaughter.’ By obeying its words, we will escape from the pain of being, which is repeated 100 billion times…

Valentine stopped chanting his spell and was silent for a moment. As the atmosphere became strange, Saburo slowly called out his name.

“Valentine?”

The thoughts that penetrated his mind continued.

-Listen, believe, and you will receive far-reaching blessings. Let the sacrifice struggle in despair, pain, and terror. May God be pleased with the ecstasy of taking life at its peak…

“…”

Valentine blinked his eyes a few times. He then opened his mouth and spoke grimly.

“… Ah, it was like this.”

“Huh?”

Saburo looked at him as if he couldn’t understand English. Valentine said, stirring the pink smoke gathered around his head with his index finger.

“There’s a divine force on the part where the smoke comes into contact. I almost got baptized.”

“What?”

Saburo shed a stupid sound as if what he heard was absurd.

“Of course, it didn’t work for me.”

The long-haired man continued his words and analyzed the power of the smoke wrapped around his fingers.

“The effect of baptism… as Eugene guessed, seems to be the brainwashing system.”

Saburo nodded and saw the man’s body scattered on the floor.

“… Well, looking at what he was doing, it’s obvious that he was brainwashed.”

“It would’ve been better if it was magic. Unfortunately, it’s divine power.”

“Ah, wait a second. Does the divine power act on the ‘contact’ part? So…”

Valentine nodded and affirmed the fact that the boy belatedly realized and noticed.

“It means that the phenomenon that the smoke touches my head is basically no different from the act of putting a hand on a believer’s head and giving him divine power. This smoke is its own body.”

The boy asked back as if it was hard to believe.

“Then, this pink smoke is a priest?”

Valentine nodded.

“Right. A priest who tries to brainwash with divine power. Hmm.”

He looked at the smoke and added his words.

“Of course, this doesn’t work for us. I don’t know if it was the apostle itself. But well, it seems that the words shed in my head are just imitating the apostles.”

Valentine finished his words and completed his magic again. The pink smoke, which didn’t affect him, quickly absorbed into his hand and disappeared.

The tall man looked down at his palm, sealed by absorbing the different races.

“I don’t know what type of creature it is. Is the body the size of a microbe? Or a virus? Is it a colony rather than an individual?”

“If we take it and study it, we will know. Ah! We don’t have Hessler so that it will be my job in the end. Valentine, so, are we going back to the headquarters today?”

“Yes, because we got a sample of an alien, and we have to take that person.”

A deep light shone in Valentine’s eyes.

“Anyway, the guess that it would have brainwashing was correct. But it is divine power.”

He clicked his tongue. It was absolutely unwelcoming for a priest to roam the city apart from how difficult it was to use.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we figured out the survival mechanisms and then catch them all and kill them?”

“It’s Eugene’s choice, but he will eventually. It’s dangerous. God’s influence is greater just by the presence of a priest.”

It was something that could make the ascetics’ vigilance rise. Of course, the priest’s appearance was in New York, where the headquarters were located. Valentine mumbled inside.

The Truth-Seeker’s body was being regenerated in the city; his ‘second body’ should avoid any Gods. With that determination, Valentine lifted Anthony’s body, which was on the floor.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

The two men took the naked Anthony and went outside.

In the bathroom where they disappeared, only one body of a woman trapped in a pool of blood remained. The last drop of tears flowed silently from the cold pupil. The colorless liquid flowed along the soft body that hadn’t yet begun to stiffen after death, mixed with blood, and disappeared.

Alexia’s body was left in the bathtub until the day when Mrs. Webber on the second floor, who couldn’t stand the odor, called the apartment manager and forcibly opened room 302.

New York police searched for Anthony King, a leading suspect, across the country, but he never showed up again.

Two new people joined the crowd leaving New York after the incident, which was featured in the headlines. One was Mrs. Webber, the first witness at site 302, and the other was a Columbia Law School student named Bill, who submitted a leave of absence a week after the incident.

Of course, those two were just a few of the countless people leaving New York. The city’s population was declining so quickly that citizens could feel it, and it didn’t take long for everyone to notice that the proportion of the citizens who disappeared from New York was too sudden to dismiss as mere migration or evacuation to be negligible.

***

“… What did it say just now?”

The voice of a middle-aged man came out.

“Um… reclusive-what?”

Seomyeon intersection was isolated by a temporary barrier. All of the soldiers gathered inside were struggling and wrapped with their heads around. It was because of the sharp telepathy digging into their minds.

Kim Kyung-hwan and his party had just entered the barrier. He could see a Channel that looked like a blue disk far away. There was a giant creature in front of it. The alien, which looked like a fluorescent purple jellyfish, was the one who just vented its thoughts.

A middle-aged man, Instructor Bae Seong-ho, muttered, covering his greasy head with his palms.

“Everyone just heard it, right? It said it is looking for reclusive-something?”

“It said it was looking for reclusive soul.”

Kim Kyung-hwan replied quietly. He was more resolutely responding to telepathy than others.

“That sounds like some kind of ghost, huh? Why is it suddenly looking for a soul here?”

Kim Kyung-hwan didn’t know the answer.

“At least, there’s no hostility mixed with its intentions. It does say something about peace… but the sentiment mixed with telepathy is quite… friendly.”

“No, Trainee Kim Kyung-hwan, you can even feel that?”

He remembered what Eraser taught him. Did he say that from the moment someone encountered magic, the quality of the soul rises? As spiritual abilities were developed, they could understand the intentions more sensitively and deeply.

Kim Kyung-hwan quietly nodded. He admitted there that he could only detect such subtle differences, but it was just that far.

He could do what was impossible for others. Such flattering feelings no longer came up. The scale of his recent experience was too large for him to show off with such arrogance, and his unstable and twisted self-esteem had already collapsed and shattered.

The instructor wasn’t aware of what was going on inside. He stroke his rough chin and spoke.

“But it’s troublesome. No matter how friendly it is, we don’t know what it wants. Reclusive soul, I can’t even guess what it’s talking about. Is it literally looking for a soul, or is it a symbolic representation of a being?”

While the instructor and Kim Kyung-hwan talked from afar, the troops in the front maintained vigilance toward the aliens without moving. It was a unit that had been in confrontation even before Kim Kyung-hwan and his party arrived in Busan. Even in the midst of this, no helicopter was seen in the air. That situation was utterly unknown to the outside world.

The commander of the field officer attempted a conversation. It wasn’t his first attempt. The alien hadn’t shown any reaction until that time but had currently emitted telepathy for the first time. He couldn’t miss that opportunity.

“Ah, ah, can you hear me? Can you understand me?”

There was no answer from the aliens. The commander considered it a failure again and frowned.

However, it was a hasty judgment. The presence of the giant being once again showed a different reaction. Unfortunately, the direction of the response wasn’t the field officer who attempted the conversation.

=… I can’t understand what the hell he is talking about. I’ve heard about it, but this world isn’t really connected to Akashic Records. I want to talk to the wizard. You, who just entered this barrier…=

Recognizing the meaning of the alien, the commander looked back without knowing.

It was obvious who it was pointing at. Kim Kyung-hwan made eye contact with the instructor with an edgy look. The instructor started talking to the communicator with the superiors beyond it.

=Wizard, I will ask you. Where is the Reclusive Soul? =

The instructor’s eyes shook. Kim Kyung-hwan swallowed dry saliva. There was no hostility, but it was a being with enormous Mana that couldn’t be compared with himself. He felt the power of the alien sweeping through the surrounding. It was unnecessary to reject it in a situation where such a being wanted a conversation instead of violence.

Kim Kyung-hwan thought. He didn’t have the ability yet to transmit telepathy. However, even if he tried to respond in Korean, the jellyfish couldn’t understand the meaning.

There again, he recalled Eraser’s teachings, and he shed a self-help laugh. After all, was it that alien that helped him at that moment?

Kim Kyung-hwan concentrated.

Even if he didn’t know how to transmit his thoughts, he could open up his mind. He opened a narrow door for those who were capable of reading his thoughts. He was sure when he saw the Mana that surrounded his body. That was a wave of power for communication.

He weakened the mental barrier and, at the same time, formed a clear will. If he went one step further, he could release his will, but he hadn’t mastered that skill. He encouraged the other being to read his thoughts up to the permitted area. Kim Kyung-hwan was trying to make his thought as concrete as possible and said it through his voice.

“… What is the reclusive soul?”

That method seemed to be successful. The flow of Mana surrounding the body changed. The voice itself was just an interpretable noise for the alien, but the distinct thoughts formed in his head while speaking could’ve been read.

Kim Kyung-hwan’s guess wasn’t wrong.

=Oh, yes. Now we can communicate. It’s worth waiting for the wizard.=

The startled commander’s eyes widened. In his eyes, there was no difference in the way of conversation. However, it seemed that the alien only understood Kim Kyung-hwan’s words. Instructor Bae Seong-ho conveyed the situation in front of his eyes through the radio in a low voice.

In the meantime, the will of the alien continued.

=The person I am looking for is a ‘Reclusive Soul’ whose shell is shaped like a human. Can you see the soul? Oh, you can’t see it. Then, it will not be easy to distinguish it from ordinary humans only by appearance. But some characteristics set him apart. Listen, Wizard…=

Kim Kyung-hwan responded.

“… Tell me.”

The sense of the dignity of the alien echoed.

=He is a being made up of the remains of destruction. He’s the one who uses magic that doesn’t initially originate in this dimension.=

Kim Kyung-hwan squinted his eyes. After all, the Earth’s wizards would be like that. As far as he knew, every human wizard had learned magic from that race, including himself.

However, the jellyfish-like alien’s wills didn’t stop there.

=He is the one who performed the task instead of the Truth-Seeker with the human body.=

“… The Truth-Seeker?”

When a word he couldn’t understand came up, Kim Kyung-hwan mouthed it, but at that moment, unlike him who tilted his head because he didn’t understand, the face of the instructor who heard its will beside him suddenly turned white. His speech, speaking in a low voice to the radio, accelerated.

=A mortal who succeeded in carrying on the work that the Truth-Seekers of this world had to do. He is the one who captured God-made toys and expelled them out of the dimension. Don’t you know?=

“God-made toys?”

=I’m talking about the Heart Fish.=

There were concepts that he couldn’t understand.

=It seems you don’t know. Would you know if I explain it like this? He is also a rare man among mortals who is deeply connected with Truth-Seekers. He certainly did not cross the mortal wall, and surprisingly, he is a servant of the Truth-Seeker of another dimension. He has a ‘Channel’ opened on his chest that is the highest honor of the ascetic. Is there anyone whom you can guess if I say this much?=

Kim Kyung-hwan desperately closed his mind the moment he recognized its intention to some extent. When the alien had no thought to read, it conveyed its will mixed with regret.

=Ah, is there no one who comes to your mind after hearing this far? It’s really difficult. Does he live up to his name and are entirely secluded at his own dimension? It’s mysterious that such a man’s name is unknown.=

Cold sweat flowed down on Kim Kyung-hwan’s back.

His head began to spin rapidly. A Channel… opened on his chest?

In the past, he would ask what nonsense it was when he heard that. So far, there had been hundreds of Channels worldwide. Yet all of them had been created in empty air, including the Busan Channel where the jellyfish appeared.

Kim Kyung-hwan tried to hide his astonished expression. Nevertheless, he had seen it recently. That ‘Channel opened on the chest.’

However…

He thought with a strong mental barrier to prevent his thoughts from leaking out.

‘… It’s not in sync!’

Yes, there was. He had witnessed that it was a Channel opened on the chest. On the day of the Hun-neung disaster, Kim Kyung-hwan saw the sight of a blue flash across the chest of an existence who was too familiar with him, and it turned into a dimensional gate.

He was likely to pass out just by mentioning the phenomenon that he and only a few people had witnessed with their own eyes. In the meantime, there was one more factor that upset Kim Kyung-hwan’s mind.

Eraser was an alien. Yes, Eraser that opened the Channel on his chest was clearly an alien.

‘Then… why does that purple jellyfish keep calling the reclusive soul… ‘human’?’