“A long, long time ago.”
The Witch spoke, like a grandma telling fairy tales to her grandchild.
“When the New Era started and when monsters came hoarding in, there was no central force in the world and local wars were happening all across the globe. Humanity did not know how to deal with monsters but the damage was actually a lot less than expected. Do you know why?”
Bom gazed up at her and shook her head. The Witch replied with an indifferent tone of voice.
“Because in fact, only 10% of the outer dimensional species survived after coming to Earth. 9 out of 10 that managed to come over died by themselves.”
“That much?”
“Now, there’s mana from Earth spread across the outer dimensions but back then it was different. Monsters couldn’t deal with the sudden change in environment and were weakened. Thanks to that, the early monster attacks were quite stoppable.”
‘Don’t they teach this at school?’ In response to the Witch’s sudden question, Bom replied, ‘No, we learned about the sacrifice of humanity though…’ which received the response, ‘What sacrifice, the monsters all just died by themselves.’
The Witch continued.
“However, they would adapt more to the environment the longer they stayed on Earth. That was why Chaliovan used to say this all the time.”
“What was it?”
“Nothing can be excessive in the initial response.”
Now they were doing searches and backtracking and whatnot, but the past Association was a lot different.
Whenever there was a fissure, they would hurry over and wait for the fissure to open. After opening, they would go in and kill the monsters before they came out.
Because it was best to be as excessive as possible for the initial response to danger.
“Chaliovan and I reformed the superhuman’s response system and tried our best to change the impression people had with fissures. It was after decades of such hard work, that the Association’s ‘Monster Outbreak Initial Response Manual’ started being used like an international textbook.
“We superhumans are sensitive to both time and outbreaks. That is why there is an inevitable tendency for the military’s ‘authority’ to soar up in times of crisis…”
The Witch said with sharp eyes.
“…And that is the Association’s weak point.”
“Ah. So you mean…!”
“Yes.”
A shocking change occurred as soon as the Witch finished mumbling that.
The sky as well as the ground began to shake. A fluctuation cracked open the barren lands as pebbles and dust rose up from the quake.
Soon, the air started to tear open.
Buzz— The dimensions collided as sparks bursted out in all directions. Something dark was slowly opening its dirty mouth.
A fissure reaching 35 metres in length. A resonance of mana estimated to be of an SS- rank.
An enormous fissure was opening itself on Earth. It was enough to astonish the entire world let alone the Association.
“If you want authority, you simply need to make a crisis.”
“Isn’t it too dangerous?”
“No. It only looks grandiose on the outside and there’s nothing much on the inside.”
That was the fissure the Witch had prepared
“It will smell – dogs will start to bark in anger. They will whine and ask for them to be unleashed but the one holding the leash is not a person, but the ‘system’.”
“And the system will definitely unleash the dogs for a fissure this big…”
“That is correct.”
Soldiers had more ‘authority’ than usual during the emergency, and it was more so for the soldiers of the Association.
That might include grouping the ‘transcendents’ of the Association into one group for them to move by themselves…
Or maybe even interrogating Zhuge Haiyan about the suspicious ‘past actions’ of the Prophet…
“I didn’t know you could make a fissure that big.”
The Witch returned a question with a smile.
“Girl. Do you know who the biggest hunting dog of our house is?”
She was probably referring to herself, but Bom thought for a bit before looking up at the Witch with a smile.
“Season.”
“…”
The Witch leered at Bom with a disgruntled expression.
In any case, it was surprising even for Bom that a mage at this level could exist for a human. She had been skeptical when reading about the works of the Witch in a book but the things written in the book were less than half of what the Witch could pull off.
Thanks to that, things had started on the right foot.
The fissure cracked wide open. It added a dense cluster of mana to the atmosphere and the intense pressure even numbed Bom’s skin.
Soon, an emergency bell rang from her watch – it was an urgent notice sent after sensing the fissure.
“…Valentine. You are doing your money’s worth.”
“Of course. Since I’ve received 500 years of something so precious.”
“Then maybe you should speak politely to me?”
“Why not ask for me to suck your toes or something, hnn?”
“Do it.”
“If you take your shoes off, I will.”
“…Sorry.”
Bom replied with a light smile. She didn’t really hate the banter – they were on the same wavelength to some regard.
“Let’s go,” said Bom.
“Yes. Let’s hurry. We do not know when Season will come back.”
But after turning her body, Bom erased the smile from her lips. Even though she had been giving a relaxed smile till now, she had to be on her toes now. She had to be very careful
If Yu Jitae was to find out about this, things might go very wrong;
Worst case scenario, it might cause something irrecoverable.
– Go home.
– Do not make things any more tedious.
– I’m close to getting tired of you.
His irritated voice swept past her mind as Bom felt a sharp blade slicing through her heart. Even if she were to finish it without him discovering it, this was still something he did not want from her.
Will I be okay even if he were to hate me…?
It was when she was thinking that, that her watch began to ring.
[Ahjussi (Fake): Where are you.]
Her eyes twitched after seeing the message. It was a message from Yu Jitae’s clone.
She stopped her fingers that were about to type back [Why?].
Bom decided to ignore the messages.
[Ahjussi (Fake): There has been a command to keep you with me.]
[Ahjussi (Fake): Tell me where you are. I will go pick you up.]
[Ahjussi (Fake): Let’s go back to Unit 301.]
Bom licked her lips.
Until now, she had never retaliated against him head-first.
However, her opponent now was Yu Jitae.
[Ahjussi (Fake): Contact me immediately after you see my messages.]
She had long known that this wouldn’t be that easy.
***
He walked to the [Safe].
Right now, Yu Jitae was in the basement of the 17th branch. Lying in front of the safe protecting it was a large beast. It was a North African spirit beast that resembled a tiger.
The [Safe] looked like a container just like what its name would suggest. This silver cube going 4 metres long in length, width and height was emanating an ambient polarised light.
Even though this light was invisible to a normal person’s eyes, Yu Jitae could tell its colour and shape.
It was an unstable golden light.
The safe was half-buried in the ground and the path leading to the Safe had a slight slope. The ground supporting it had caved in because it had turned extremely heavy just recently.
In other words, it meant that something that was heavy enough to push the ground down like clay had entered that thing.
And it was impossible for that thing to be a human.
He had already killed the keeper of the Safe. The overflowing blood had overtaken him and was gathered in front of the door to the Safe.
His military boots waded through the pile of blood.
Splash, splash—
Standing in front of the door, he waited for a bit. There was about 15 minutes left – there was still some time.
“…”
Killing his impulse, he settled his jumpy emotions. Heaving out a deep breath, he controlled his heart rate.
From now on, he had to be more cautious than ever before.
Yu Jitae calmly organised the situation.
Inside the Safe had to be Oscar Brzenk.
In fact, it was probably not the real Oscar Brzenk. The Oscar Brzenk he had seen in the video had his eyes glistering in gold with the iris unable to be seen, which was a phenomenon that occurred when one’s physical body was in someone else’s control.
Even though he hoped this wouldn’t happen, it seemed that Oscar had been discovered during his attempt to sneak in through the back door of the Temple.
It was most likely the [Judges] of Providence that took control over his body.
Judges were the legal ideologists of [Vintage Clock (EX)] that wielded strong authority in things related to legislation and jurisdiction to protect Providence.
They were the ones that were dissatisfied with Yu Jitae.
Without Oscar Brzenk’s [Safe], there was no way to bring Yu Jitae into the Temple of Providence. At the same time, there was no existence in the world that could know that the [Safe] was the only Level 6 artifact in existence on Earth without going back in time.
Therefore, Yu Jitae was the only one in the entire world that could guess this place to be Oscar Brzenk’s hideout.
And in other words,
This [Safe] in front of his eyes was a trap targeting him.
He created a hypothesis.
If he didn’t have a clear idea of what was happening, he would have opened the door to the Safe and gone in immediately. Oscar Brzenk’s corpse would either be not here or would have long been torn apart to pieces, leaving behind only the heavy power of Providence pulling him inside.
1. Get pulled inside -> Since he was being pulled inside, he would be pulled into the pace of the Judges and suffer a loss.
2. Don’t get pulled inside -> The dimension connected to the Temple of Providence will close in 10 minutes and would be unable to be opened again from this side. He would not be able to find the disappeared ‘personality’ of Vintage Clock, and he would therefore be suffering a loss.
He would be suffering a loss no matter what.
However, he knew this was the case even before coming to this place. Therefore, he had already contacted his two clones before coming here.
He sent Clone 1 to observe the suspicious Bom,
“…Sorry for being late. I have just arrived.”
And called Clone 2 to this place.
The confrontation with the Judges that will now begin was far from important. They would probably open a public trial and pressure him but he didn’t care about that.
The important task was to discover the Vintage Clock’s personality which had suddenly gone somewhere.
“Come here.”
“Yes sir.”
Nervously looking at the pile of blood beneath him, Clone 2 walked up. Yu Jitae placed his hands above the boy’s shoulders.
“You will now return to the ‘shadow’.”
“Yes sir.”
“When I open this door, something will grab me and fly off and we will be caught in a flood. I will give you a signal during that and that is when you have to leave. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what your job is?”
“It is to find the white bird.”
“Right. Our communication is limited inside the Temple. You can only contact me once because the Judges will notice it from then on. And I can’t give you any signal either, so just don’t bother sending any signal if you cannot find the Vintage Clock. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“Your job is extremely important. They will open a public trial to punish me. We do not have much time; and you have to find it fast.”
“…”
“Can you do it?”
Clone 2 looked up into Yu Jitae’s eyes, and blankly murmured a question.
“Will this, lead to the road to your happiness, my lord?”
“Yes.”
When he apathetically gazed back, Clone 2 clenched his teeth and replied.
“I will do it no matter the cost.”
Finishing his words, Clone 2 returned to [Shadow of an Archduke (SS)] and became one with Yu Jitae.
Yu Jitae approached the [Safe], and opened its large doors.
Kugugung—
Kugugugugung—
Brilliant light flooded his eyes. As if an enormous container of light had exploded, his entire vision was filled with light with nothing being visible inside the [Safe].
Glaring open his eyes, he met the flood of light face-on.
Within the world full of light, something immense was coming towards him. It was as big as dozens of apartments clustered together, and the presence given off by its height and size was tremendous.
A great flow struck him, carrying with it a tornado. Trembling the surrounding air, it shook the ground beneath. The flow was suppressing the entire world.
Front, right, left, back. That ‘something’ was everywhere, extending its grasp towards him from all sides.
He did not avoid it and instead, he took a step forward.
His boots soaked in blood stepped through the world of brilliant light. Before long, a tremendous gravitational force grabbed him and started pulling him above the world. There, he simply left his body to follow the flow carrying him to the Temple of Providence.
In the process, he sent a signal to Clone 2, and Clone 2 successfully took in the signal to escape from the ‘flow’.
That was the end of his memories.
The world in his eyes turned pitch black.