...I have seen the Marked Sword used in an agent’s hand only once.
When the thing inside the red mascot came to assault the Resort, I saw it in Agent Haegeum’s hand.
The pure ascending force that surged from the sword shook the sky, and the thunderous, punitive power that fell like lightning pierced and shattered the wicked intrusion.
Destruction of the unclean.
That is what is happening now.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!
It was unfolding in my grasp.
Ah.
Blue lightning.
The white, pure ascending power that contained the order of the world ignites and burns, turning blue-hot, rising as if to pierce through the auditorium ceiling, reaching its apex. And toward the terrifying, unclean thing that has invaded the school....
It strikes down.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!
That numinous power.
Ah.
So powerful it burns the wicked world—and shamefully, it burns the wicked me as well. But there is no time to look at my hands, missing three fingers each.
Because the unclean thing is collapsing before my eyes.
Tch.
Tutu—tutuk...
Pieces fall one by one.
The bodily remnants of the teachers—twisted into a single mass, made into a monstrous torso, incomplete, partial—fall to the floor of the auditorium.
Together with Team Leader Park Hongrim’s upper body.
Tch.
The last piece that falls into the center. All of them lie quietly, as if closing their eyes in stillness and losing consciousness.
And then—
“.......”
“.......”
Silence.
“...Ha.”
Thud. I sank down onto the auditorium floor.
From both hands gripping the Marked Sword, ash flakes away—white, burnt remnants where my fingers and palms used to be. My body and mind, overworked by something I cannot withstand, scream—but I cannot yet bring myself to release the sword. I hold it tight.
“You did well.”
Agent Haegeum approached.
“Agent Podo.”
Something like a sob almost surged up my throat—
I held it back.
Then, steadying my grip, I returned the sword to Agent Haegeum.
“No. Keep it on you for now. It’s not over.”
“...!”
It feels like cold water splashed through my consciousness.
Right.
The auditorium has regained temporary quiet.
Because Do-ul Ho’s glass rounds have projected the original auditorium’s shape, and because I have collapsed the Teacher and rendered the entity powerless for the moment.
However—
“It will likely settle again.”
“...Yes.”
The Marked Sword has only neutralized the monster in a decisive moment.
It has not erased the unclean contamination that has consumed the school.
Just like how, in the Resort, even after the red mascot’s true body was burned away by the Marked Sword, the red zone remained.
Segwang Industrial High School is still eaten through by living flesh—still steeped in ominous, uncanny corruption.
So we need to proceed quickly.
The one remaining procedure...!
Sealing.
The urgency rises again.
“For Agent Cheongdong to finish tracing the talisman strokes... Agent Choi?”
“We’ll need at least half an hour more.”
“Right. Get up. We’re going to Cheongdong.”
I forced myself to stand immediately. My balance was wrecked, like I’d been hit by a truck. Damn it.
“Need transport?”
“Yes.”
Gladly.
I let Section Chief Lee Jahaeon carry me like cargo, and moved urgently with Agent Haegeum—but...
I turned back and stopped.
“Podo?”
“Just a moment.”
I asked Section Chief Lee to bring me close to the fallen heap of the Teacher’s bodies.
Specifically, to the upper body at the center.
...The torn half of the talisman is still attached to Team Leader Park Hongrim’s upper body.
“Why.”
Agent Choi had come near me.
After some hesitation, I took out the remaining talisman half I had kept.
“Can this be rejoined with that talisman?”
“...That’s the one that was buried in the Rear Garden, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let me see.”
Agent Choi performed a small gesture, like flicking away lingering filth, then placed the remaining piece atop Team Leader’s upper body.
The fallen pieces did not become a single sheet—but at least they formed one coherent shape again.
Even without the broken lantern glass, the Book Loan Card reverse-side talisman from Hanbit Library now held its form.
“...Do you think it will have an effect?”
“Hard to say. Someone more numinous than me made it.”
Agent Choi’s gaze darkened for a moment, looking at the talisman and the bodies on the floor—Team Leader Park Hongrim’s work and the remains—but soon he smiled normally, and nudged my back.
“Better to try and regret than not try and regret. Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
And we hurried out of the auditorium.
The school’s corrosion remained.
No—
It had advanced further.
“Mmph—, mmph.”
Along the walls, figures in school uniforms writhed. People already devoured, their flesh spread across floors and walls—like suffering had sprouted inside the school itself.
A cold dread settled in my chest.
Damn.
I was glad I was being carried by Section Chief Lee. If I were walking on my own, instinct might have frozen my legs.
We gritted our teeth and moved.
But instead of going up to the second floor, the agents descended to the first floor.
“Where’s Agent Cheongdong...?”
“I left them with other agents. We need to reach the least contaminated spot possible, first—”
The sentence stopped.
“.......”
The first-floor corridor was also covered in flesh.
And in the floor and walls—
traces of people who had resisted, then been swallowed.
Flesh consuming a Glass Hand-Cannon and severed restraints.
And people who had been swallowed.
Agents’ limbs protruding.
“...Gomyung.”
No response.
Their limbs just twitched, pinned into the walls.
...Agent Haegeum stopped for the first time.
“Agent. If we fire rounds into the wall—”
“No. That’s not a life signal. ...They’re already dead.”
“.......”
“Save your rounds. Move.”
And Agent Haegeum’s gaze shifted.
Beside the corridor where the agents had been swallowed en masse, there remained one space on the first floor not yet fully consumed—only partially held back.
Class 1-4.
Its doorway was cordoned with ritual gold string, delaying contamination.
Half-eaten, but enough to show the desperate struggle that took place there....
Creak.
We stepped over the gold string and opened the door—revealing the inside.
Under the central desk, where the flesh had not yet reached—
A faint light flickered.
Agent Cheongdong knelt on the floor, tracing strokes into the lantern glass.
With a box cutter.
“......!”
Each stroke sparked light.
With every stroke, shadows streaked his face.
His temples and side face were wet—whether sweat or tears was unclear—but his expression was one of absolute concentration.
He could not even look at us.
Whether because the tool was unsuitable or because he used flesh to guide the lines, his hands were covered in thin, red, line-like cuts—but he did not stop.
And beside him—standing and looking toward us—
a Segwang Industrial High School student.
“Kim Soleum.”
Lee Gyeol.
Hearing my name—not as a call sign but as spoken in the ghost-story context—sent a chill through me. Then relief, then gratitude.
He was alive.
“Your memory’s back?”
“Yeah.”
— Check whether the Teacher is holding a slip of paper.
He raised his hand, showing the writing he’d made for himself—frowning.
“I read that, tried to check what the Teacher was holding... and then suddenly my memory came back, and I found these people.”
“The agents?”
“Yeah. I recognized them, so they told me to stay here. Said they’d handle it in the corridor.”
“.......”
“They haven’t made any sound since.”
We all knew why.
There was no need to say it.
I nodded with a hard face.
Lee Gyeol jerked his chin toward Agent Cheongdong.
“Anyway, I was asked to stay. When he finishes this, we have somewhere to go together.”
The Rear Garden.
...Agent Cheongdong arranged that.
For those not from this school, the window of the infirmary just shows a black void, not the Rear Garden.
But—wait.
“You recognized the agents?”
“.......”
“How did you recognize them?”
Outsiders appear as monsters to students here. If he could identify their roles...
Then he must have already known about the Supernatural Disaster Response Agency.
Meaning—
He remembered Team Leader Park Hongrim, and the Azure Dragon Team who remained to protect this school.
“How much do you remember?”
The bleached hair and piercings did not suit the tired expression he made.
“The day the agents came to the school.”
“...!”
“I remember the day the school fell apart. ...Hoo.”
“Wait.”
Agent Choi cut in.
He glanced at Cheongdong, still tracing.
“We... okay. Lee Gyeol. Can we talk about that for a moment? You said the school fell.”
I understood too.
The day the school fell.
That day is—
The Day of the Se-gwang Special City Disaster.
The day a catastrophic-class supernatural disaster occurred.
A shiver ran down my spine.
“When was that?”
“.......”
Lee Gyeol slowly opened his mouth.
“It was May. The day before Children’s Day.”
May 4th.
“First period had just started when the emergency alert came. They said there was a terror attack at city hall.”
“...!”
[Se-gwang Special City] Alert Notice.
Suspicious explosion near City Hall.
Believed to be a biological-chemical weapon of high lethality.
Further chain detonations suspected.
Citizens are advised to follow evacuation guidance and remain indoors.
“‘Se-gwang Special City,’ you said?”
“Yeah. You think this was Seoul?”
Agent Haegeum’s expression froze—not with confusion, but with something far more serious.
But my face and Agent Choi’s must have been even worse.
“The TV channels and WeTube were running live emergency news. No one listened to class. We watched people running, buildings collapsing.”
“.......”
“And then... everything cut off.”
Internet died.
People tried calling family.
Calls stopped connecting.
Then—
“Another emergency alert came.”
[Se-gwang Special City]
ALERT CANCELLED NOT TERROR NOT WEAPON NOT EXPLOSION EVERYTHING SAFE
comeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeoutcomeout
He has arrived.
A chill climbed my spine.
“That’s when the first kid started crying.”
“.......”
“The teachers rushed to take our phones. Unplugged the TV cables.”
Students panicked.
But followed instructions—closing windows and gathering near the auditorium.
If the attack used a heavy gas, lower floors would be more dangerous—that was the reasoning.
“And they told us to lie down, eyes closed, ears covered.”
“The teachers too?”
“No. They talked.”
But they had classical music blasting in the 5F corridor—
so loud that normal conversation was impossible.
“And high schoolers actually followed that?”
“There was a terror alert. Weird messages. Some of us thought maybe phones would explode remotely. ...Sure, some idiots ignored it though.”
“Let me guess. Including you?”
“.......”
He avoided my eyes, then admitted:
“I just didn’t cover my ears. I wanted to hear what the teachers were saying. It was suspicious.”
“And what did they say?”
“I couldn’t hear well. But one of the teachers tried to leave.”
“...!”
“He said he had something he needed to check somewhere else. But they said there is someone you report to at times like this—that they had already requested agents to come to the school for rescue.”
“.......”
“It was probably the counselor.”
— Some high schools receive regular visits from agents assigned for student counseling and monitoring.
Director Ho?
“That’s all. And then—”
Tch.
We turned.
Under the desk, Agent Cheongdong lifted his blade from the lantern glass.
“It’s complete.”
“...!”
All attention pulled toward him.
He carefully lifted the Will-o’-the-wisp Lantern. Then took the paper talisman we had from Ijeong Bookshop, and fitted it correctly to the lantern base.
Blue flame ran along the strokes.
Fwoom.
The strokes on the talisman connected with the strokes on the lantern. The flame followed.
The talisman expanded, linking—forming one complete pattern...
“...Hoo.”
Complete.
The blue light along the strokes sank into the lantern.
Receiving all our gazes, Agent Cheongdong rose from beneath the desk, lantern in both hands.
His face was pale.
“Are you—are you okay, Agent?”
“Cheongdong.”
Only then did he seem to notice us—his face flickering with relief and shock, briefly.
“The other agents—...”
“We’ll talk after we activate the talisman.”
“.......”
Agent Cheongdong looked around: the half-devoured classroom, the silent corridor.
Then, steadying breath, he focused.
“...Yes. Where do we take it?”
“We bury it in the Rear Garden, right? That’s where it was?”
I tried to answer with energy.
“Yes! Through the infirmary window—”
But—
— Found you game’s over
— Rear Garden discovered no no!
“.......”
Wait.
“Podo?”
“We cannot return it to the Rear Garden. Its location has already been exposed.”
I added quickly:
“This is—this is a kind of hide-and-seek.”
“Hide-and-seek?”
“Yes. Based on the records we saw, the talisman was hidden specifically so the unclean intruder could not find it.”
I recalled:
The Rear Garden, invisible to outsiders.
“The Rear Garden exists outside the game’s rendered map—so it was ideal to hide it there.”
All eyes went to Agent Cheongdong.
“Agent?”
“...In theory, that’s correct.”
“Okay. So we need to find a similar place in this school.”
A similar place.
A place the intruder cannot detect.
If invisibility is no longer possible—
then conversely—
‘If something overwhelmingly powerful could obscure it...’
And this school is already part of that place.
— One of the supernatural phenomena discovered in Hanbit Library involved a school background. We should exploit that.
Hanbit Library.
“We’re going to the Library.”
To the corridor leading into Hanbit Library.