Inside Bom’s mind was an enclosed eye.
This self-centred eye never listened to Bom’s commands. It refused to see things that she wanted to see and would forcefully open itself to show her what she did not want to see.
However, it would sometimes show what had to be seen.
That day was one of those days.
It was when she was watching a movie with Gyeoul in the living room. Inside the head of Bom while she was blankly watching the TV, the Eye of Providence started to crack open.
Until then, Bom didn’t think much of it, thinking it would probably be another scenery of someone she had no interest in.
She saw the sky – blue and far-reaching.
She could also see people. Gathered in groups of three to five, they were people that had nothing to do with Bom. Images were followed by further images and they created a pattern and a flow.
The people raised their heads and looked at the sky.
They then pointed their fingers at the heavens.
Each of them looked extremely surprised.
Soon, the following images turned towards the sky, flashing in which was a brilliant source of light.
It was a rather ominous and abnormal light.
Before long, the golden shards of light began to gather into the clouds. As if sucking in every mana in existence, it created a tornado while gathering in one spot, carrying with it an output similar to a dragon breath.
What is…
It was when Bom was curiously staring at it.
Tuuungg–!
The gathered source of light immediately shot down, shaking the world with its aftershock. Every cloud in the sky bounced off. It swept through the heavens, falling like a hypersonic missile.
She could hear the sharp screams of certain people.
Where was the ray of light headed?
Startled, Bom tightened her arms that were wrapped around Gyeoul and pulled her closer in. Gyeoul was flustered by the sudden force around her ribs and looked back at Bom but Bom was preoccupied by the unbelievable Providence that had been shown in her mind.
Just then, a ray of light had enveloped the Association.
That was the end of her vision.
“…Why?”
“N, nothing… Gyeoul, let me go outside for a bit.”
After getting up, Bom quickly gave Kang Ahjin a call while racking her brain.
It would be after a few hours from now, with the location being the Association.
A terrorist attack.
Before long there would be a ray of light befalling the Association but this Providence did not show the end result. Since she hadn’t seen the result, it meant it was definitely stoppable depending on how it was handled.
But there was a doubt remaining in her mind. What was the identity of that golden ray of light?
From what Bom could think of with her 4 years of military education by combining the keywords, ‘gold’, ‘light’ and ‘output reaching a dragon’s level’, she could only come up with one existence from this entire world.
But…
He was the final defence line protecting the Earth and the Association.
Why would someone like that suddenly do such a thing…?
– 5th Command Room, Kang Ahjin speaking.
“It’s me! There is something urgent to talk about!”
Bom dashed out of Unit 301.
***
His senses took in the complicated situation outside.
Above the ceiling of the library were thunderous footsteps and growls as the propeller echoing the ground turned even fiercer. Every mirror image on the ground was furiously looking for something.
Kung…
Kung…
There were increasingly more sources of sound resonating from the distance beyond the darkness of the library. Some of them were opening the door of the library, coming inside one by one.
A strict procedure existed in their search. After rummaging through the ground above, they were now extending the search to the outskirts of the village as well as beneath.
It would be a matter of time for them to be discovered.
While things were approaching from a distance in real time, Yu Jitae continued staring at the black wall.
In order to understand it, he used [Conceptualisation] with the ‘black wall’ as the target.
It was a strange phenomenon.
There was a block in Myu’s memories. Someone, or some other foreign element had either blocked or fabricated her memories.
But wasn’t blocking and fabricating memories the unique ability of the black race?
Then were these memories being intentionally blocked by someone? By another black dragon?
Why?
The following message increased Yu Jitae’s doubt.
<The Authority, [Conceptualisation (SS)] has failed at interpreting the [Black Wall].>
<The [Black Wall] is an authority formed at a higher rank than [Conceptualisaton]. Conceptualisation does not have the required authority to interpret the [Black Wall].>
Yu Jitae gave a frown.
Whose authority was [Conceptualisation]? It was the authority of [Lugiathan], who was at the level of a ‘chief’ among the black dragon race.
If such a high-ranked authority could not interpret it, did that not mean that the dragon who had placed the black wall on Myu’s heart was at least at the level of a ‘Dragon Lord’? Why would that smug lord of dragons bother manipulating the memory of a mutant black dragon?
For the time being, he decided to push away the rising doubts.
“Hukk, hulk…”
Myu was shivering from the cold by his side and was not in a good state. Rather than focusing on what was incomprehensible, he had to focus on the things that could be done.
By modifying the mana equations, he changed the direction of the interpretation.
<The Authority, [Conceptualisation (SS)] changes the target of interpretation to solely analyse the data regarding the [Will of the Ancient One] within the Black Wall.>
They were physically close to the first memory.
It seemed that the time they had spent running up hadn’t been a waste. Fortunately, this method worked.
<The target of analysis has been identified.>
<The analysis will now begin.>
However, the estimated time of analysis made him yet again heave an inward sigh.
<Remaining time… [24 hours 15 minutes].>
It was way too long.
He turned his gaze to other parts of the library. Ever since a certain point, there were nothing but frozen books in his surroundings and this place was no different. The books were in a very bad state, looking like they would shatter the moment they were touched.
The two of them felt like they were in a large refrigerator. Myu was almost about to lose its consciousness from the cold – this coldness was something that couldn’t be defeated by the likes of a fire.
Every entity inside the conceptual world had to endure everything with their willpower. This was the foundational power of an existence that could not be supplemented with mana.
In the end, that meant Myu’s personality had to hang on with sheer willpower.
…For a whole day.
After a day of analysis when the interpretation was over, he would finally get to know what mirror image was the host of the [Will of the Ancient One]. However, the black dragon’s heart was not as lenient as to do nothing but wait for such a long period of time.
Kung…
From the other side of the darkness were echoing footsteps starting to draw near.
The beasts, were coming.
*
Yu Jitae collected his breath.
He had just killed the beasts that were on the search. Four-legged beasts fell in front of him. Shattering into fragments, they soon disappeared from his sight.
The fight wasn’t easy. He had to kill them quickly before they could send a signal outside. Regardless of the risk, he had to push himself to end their lives in one hit and was wounded during that process. His shoulder was crushed like glass and his ribs scattered into conceptual fragments.
Hiss…
That was when a new enemy appeared before him.
Hiss…
A quiet noise echoed across. An unpleasant breath that seemingly licked the entire dimension continued as a large snake slithered out from the darkness.
[Doubt]
This large snake with purple stripes reaching 10 metres in length could wrap its body around a mirror image to paralyse its function. It was fortunate that this guy couldn’t make that much of a noise but it wasn’t looking too favourable for him either.
Hiss… hiss… hiss…
There were more than five of them here.
*
He came out victorious from the intense round of battle.
Yu Jitae gasped for breath. The shattered snakes left nothing behind after their death.
The situation was going further and further to the south.
Since it was the memory of a vagabond black dragon, it was obvious that it would have been a lonely life. Some level of coldness had been within his expectations.
However, Myu’s memories were a lot colder than he had anticipated to a point that it was dumbfounding.
But it was okay. If things had gone according to plan, they would have already arrived at the ‘first memory’, and all they would have had to do then was find what was needed and leave this place before they froze to death.
And yet there was this black wall blocking his approach. This was again outside his expectation.
He was annoyed.
Even though Myu was a mutant, it was still unthinkable how she always jumped beyond his expectations. There was not a single thing that worked according to plan.
After finishing the fight, Yu Jitae wiped the conceptual shards that were flowing down instead of blood. Those things resembling glass fragments scattered into thin air like gas.
That was when Myu twitched from its unconsciousness. He quietly waited as it slowly opened its eyes.
“Are you alright?”
“…Nn? You.”
Myu frowned.
His leg was weird – the flesh was dug out to the point that his femur was visible.
“…Are you in the state to ask me that? What happened to you?”
“It’s fine. I won’t die.”
“But even so.”
Since there was no blood from the wound, there was no risk of bleeding to death but what was lost into conceptual fragments were unable to be cured.
Yu Jitae walked towards Myu with a limp.
“Come here. Sit and take a break.”
“It’s fine. More importantly, you shouldn’t stay down for too long.”
“Why is that?”
“The village isn’t that big and yet the scouts have disappeared from the underground labyrinth four times already. They might send faster entities soon after sensing something’s off. We might have to move and lying down in the same place will cause your body to freeze from the coldness.”
“…”
“Get up and move your body a bit.”
.
.
.
Eight hours went by.
It was cold.
Even for Yu Jitae, it was cold.
It was a different type of coldness to the one that was blockable with an outer garment. There was no way to relay warmth to someone else in this conceptual world and even if there was, it was something he wasn’t aware of.
Myu would lose consciousness from time to time. Lying on the ground, it would gasp for breath when awake and turn from pain in its sleep. This large fridge was freezing both him and Myu in real time.
<Remaining time… [16 hours 25 minutes].>
There was still a lot of time left but it was at least thanks to this that he could tell the flow of time. He got up and tapped Myu.
“Oi. It’s time. Get up and move.”
“…It is difficult to move.”
Myu was shivering and had a hard time moving.
“The coldness of a memory has the power to stop an existence’s vitality. If you don’t move, you will only continue to freeze. You must move your body from time to time.”
“…I don’t want to. It is too cold.”
“Hurry up.”
He scolded and Myu had to forcefully get up before doing a light exercise under his command.
“Is that over? What a funny set of movements.”
“Are you done?”
“I am done.”
“Good work. You can rest again.”
Myu crumbled down,
And soon fainted.
Myu continued waking up and fainting once every hour. Yu Jitae made Myu move whenever it woke up but the severe coldness had unfortunately shrank its body. Even a small movement was burdensome and Myu would gasp for breath after a light exercise before losing consciousness.
<Remaining time… [12 hours 25 minutes].>
From a certain point, ‘fragments’ started to fall out of Myu’s body whenever it was conscious. This was the same as a mirror image losing its vitality.
Myu was slowly starting to die.
.
.
.
Myu would sometimes wake up,
And unconsciously close its eyes,
Before opening them again after a while.
Every time it opened its eyes, it would see new wounds on Yu Jitae.
Myu’s personality apathetically watched the situation unfold whilst simply following Yu Jitae’s words. He constantly made it do a strange exercise so it did and would close its eyes when fatigue came crashing in.
It was when Myu reopened its eyes again.
Half of Yu Jitae’s face around his cheek had been dug out.
.
.
.
After Myu had fallen back asleep, he heard the sound of echoing footsteps.
Left, right, left, right. There was a pattern – it was highly likely for it to be a two-legged mirror image.
Quietly he waited after stopping his breath as the guy slowly came closer. He confirmed the outline of the body that was slowly coming out of the darkness and saw that it indeed was a humanoid mirror image after seeing its silhouette.
These guys warranted a stricter vigilance than four-legged animals.
“Ah, I have finally reached the end.”
The guy murmured to itself. It had an amiable countenance and the face of a handsome man.
“Mister outsider. Aren’t you around this place? Please come out and have a chat with me.”
It carefully asked but Yu Jitae did not reply. He was hiding behind a large desk and was thus hidden from sight.
“I am not a bad concept. I will not hurt you. I am here to give you help.”
Flipping its pockets inside out, it folded its sleeves, expressing that it wasn’t dangerous. As if trying to show that it was not being cautious, it slowly started to walk forward with its arms in the air.
He waited for the right timing and as soon as the guy was at a location that he could reach in two steps–
Like a lightning bolt, he dashed in.
Grabbing onto its neck, he pressed down on its upper body with his legs. Due to the weight from above, the guy fell back.
“Kuhuk!”
He strangled it by the neck. Through the contact, [Conceptualisation] began to analyse the identity of the mirror image.
<The following mirror image is not the [Will of the Ancient One (SS)].>
<Target: [Self-adulation]>
Self-adulation. It was the mirror image of a ‘disposition’ that by nature protected the [Personality] inside a conceptual world. Did that mean it was here to find and protect Myu?
“Kuuk, w, wait…”
There seemed to be something the guy wanted to say. He placed the tip of the knife between its eyes and poked a small wound before stopping his knife and slightly releasing its neck.
It gasped for breath.
“Huuk, huuuk… P, please do not kill me.”
“What are you.”
“Is, is the girl that was lying down in the dumping ground here by any chance?”