“Huaak!”
Inside an area designated for construction – in that vast wasteland with nothing but several fences to block unauthorised entry, something was happening at its basement.
“M, mister Kim!”
The manager of this facility, was an old man in his seventies, who used to be a soldier back in the days. He had sold the medal he had received due to a lack of money, so the only thing he had was his pride in the fact that he had protected humans against the beasts.
When he found the job of managing a facility under construction, he was happy that he was able to live without financially burdening his son, who was living in a distant location. The moment he started working, he vowed to himself that he would try everything he could, till the day his body no longer moved.
And that had happened this morning.
“Mister Kim, mister Kim! Damn it…!”
The trainer, that was teaching him how to manage the facility had fainted. Fortunately, he was wearing protective equipment, and had merely lost consciousness.
“T, this… bloody hell…”
Raising his head, the old man stared at ‘them’, the so-called 30-man special force or something.
Apparently, they had received permission to enter from the top, and even the old man Kim had willingly let them in.
But then they started pillaging through the inside of the facility, to an unpleasant degree. Old man Kim also appeared flustered, and it was clear that they were being disrespectful.
Up to that was fine.
“You can’t go in there!”
They suddenly headed to the ‘mana core storage room’, which was a restricted area, and although they tried to stop them, by saying how it was neglected and was therefore dangerous, they were ignored.
It was an underground facility, which had the size of several basketball courts added together, and those thirty soldiers scattered around before starting to search for something.
In the middle of that process, the leader of the 30-man special force group suddenly let out a shout.
“Kuaaah…!”
Then, she started swinging her fists at the walls as magic engines and the likes crushed alongside thuds.
“Bloody cow! What’s wrong with you!”
Startled, the managers dashed forward, and immediately afterwards, old man Kim was slapped away.
That was the situation they were in.
These guys – something was weird. They used to look composed like decent soldiers, but now had loose eyes, as if they were on drugs. But there was at least one person among them, who looked fairly normal.
The old man raised his eyes and stared at the leader of the 30-man special force. With a height that was at least two heads above normal men, and a build that made him question whether she was the same species as himself, the woman with a tremendous aura was gazing down at him.
An instinctive fear came crashing down.
“You bloody bastards! What in the world are you!?”
He forced a shout, but was unable to hide the trembling of his body.
“Shut your mouth old man.”
The leader opened her mouth.
With one word, and one word alone, the entire atmosphere of the basement felt oppressed.
“Y, you…”
No, it would be the end if he lost in terms of vigour. Coming to that judgment, the old man quickly took out a mana gun from his waist and pointed it at them.
“Don’t move! Unless you want another eye socket in your damn head!”
“Old man. Stop messing around with a toy and listen to me.”
“What?”
“I think we touched something wrong. I feel really weird, and the urge to break everything around me is driving me crazy. It’s the same with my men.”
“W, what are you talking about…?”
When he looked closer, he realised that the woman with a large build had her hands and legs faintly shivering. It appeared like she was trying to stop her own body from trying to move on its own accord.
“All I can do is keep my mind intact.”
“…!”
“While I can still hold on, take the old man next to you and leave this place.”
“What are you…!”
Seeing how the old man was still unable to clearly see what was happening, the leader let out a shout.
[ Hurry up–! ]
Clank–!
A lion’s roar – a scream shook the dimension itself, as everything made of glass inside the basement shattered into fragments. Her last bit of remaining consciousness allowed her to control the roar so that it didn’t affect the old man. With one mistake, his head would have exploded.
“…”
But the stubborn old man remained standing while holding onto the gun with trembling hands.
Her emotions crazily soared up.
This crazy old dotard wasn’t listening.
There were traces of dirty demons in this place.
Nothing was to her liking.
Then?
Isn’t it fine to just crush everything?
A twisted sense of logic continued.
By the time her subordinates slowly lost their sense of reasoning, she also let go of the last bit of rationality that was binding her.
“I told you not to move!!”
Instinctively, the old man pulled the trigger. A bullet composed of mana struck her forehead, and resulted with a light tinging noise.
That was the end.
She immediately moved her body.
As shock coloured the old man’s face, the woman floated a devilish smile.
Her hand extended forward, and reached for the old man’s head.
But suddenly, her chin was rotated to the side.
Slam!
As if a dashing vehicle had crashed into something, she rolled on the ground several times before crashing into the wall. When she raised her head back up, she found a man with a hazy look standing in front.
“…”
It was Yu Jitae.
He observed the old man, and realised that he was unconscious.
It seemed that the mental contamination took some time, and he had made it in time. Due to the electricity of the surrounding areas being cut off, there were no cameras, and the location wasn’t too bad either.
The leader, who had been stuck on the wall, raised her body with a struggle and roared.
“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!”
The underground facility echoed, as her subordinates also screamed like beasts.
“Aaauaaa-!”
“Iyaaaaaa-!”
“Haaaaak-!”
It was a sight to see.
There were ones jumping up and down on the spot, as well as ones thrashing their arms around on the ground like babies. There were also ones resembling gorillas as they bashed their chests like a king kong.
Unlike Ha Saetbyul who originally had a kind personality, they were violent from the start.
When their minds got contaminated, they had no control over their bodies.
“Anything that stands in our way—!”
““Crush them–!””
The moment they cried out their chants, their auras changed.
Yu Jitae shook his head.
They weren’t in the right mind, so he didn’t bother trying to talk to them.
“Crush him!”
“Uaaah!”
Thumping on the ground like beasts, they ran in.
He threw a fist forward, as one of the soldiers flew backward with a thud and dug into the wall.
Someone else approached with a longsword and slashed it downard, but the Regressor grabbed the falling sword and threw the man back. While screaming “Uuuk!” the man was thrown into a group of other soldiers and fell behind.
There was another one who punched his own fists, before lowering his body and standing on four legs. Then, he started dashing in towards Yu Jitae with his entire body like a rhino. Taking a step back, Yu Jitae avoided him, as the man crashed into the wall, unable to fight against his own inertia. His upper body was inside the wall, with only his feet floundering outside.
“You’re a little bit strong yourself, huh!”
Meanwhile, the woman plucked a large barrel that was embedded onto the wall and lifted it up. It was a metal container, that was at least the size of a dump truck.
“Try breaking this!”
After throwing the barrel at Yu Jitae, she followed right behind it, and right when she couldn’t be seen by him, she took out large nunchucks from an alternate dimension storage.
[Ruyi Jingu Nunchucks]
It was a Level 3 artifact, whose size and weight could be controlled at will.
Swish–
The barrel was powerlessly slashed, but it was within her expectations. The moment it started dividing into two in front of the man, the large nunchucks were already falling down towards him.
Kaaaang–!
It was a strike that was filled with her mana, that could break normal navy ships in one hit!
…At least it was supposed to.
“…!”
The leader shot her eyes wide open.
Rather easily, the man had caught the nunchucks with his hand.
“Impossible…!”
Before she could finish her words, he pulled the nunchucks towards him, as her body was powerlessly led forward.
“…No way!!”
She slammed her legs into the ground. With her disgusting strength, the ground was paved in, as her legs dug into the ground. Then, she pulled all the power inside her body.
[Strength Empowerment (B+)]
The muscles in her legs expanded forth, as her arms’ muscles inflated. Her already large body, got thicker by at least two times. Thanks to the power of the blessing that could appear disgusting at first, she gained ten times the strength she originally had in her body.
It was only thanks to this otherworldly physical strength she had, that she was able to become the leader of this group of soldiers.
Due to that, she was full of confidence. Thus, when she realised that she still couldn’t pull the nunchucks, she couldn’t believe what was happening in front of her.
They did not move an inch, as if it was being grabbed by a titan.
“Ah…!”
Astonishment painted her two eyes, as Yu Jitae approached her before she could even realise it, and grabbed her by her ear.
“Uhk!”
His strength was so immense, that she was pulled along by Yu Jitae despite her large build. In front of the existence that had escaped the boundaries of normal standards, the outstanding agent was similar to a young child.
“Aaaahk! Let go!”
“…”
“What kind of bastard are you! Huh!? Aak! Fuck. Let go damn it!”
“Just stay still.”
“Keuukk! Let go! You can’t even stop us anyways! I have more than twenty subordinates. Do you know how many are here right now?!”
She was right.
In the short span of time where Yu Jitae was dealing with her, her subordinates had already left the underground facility like mad men.
But after being pulled all the way outside by her ear, the leader doubted her own eyes. It was hard to understand why, but her subordinates were bound up, with their knees on the ground.
And behind them… there were angels in white clothes, with black linen covering their eyes.
No, they weren’t angels. The things hanging behind their backs were extremely disparate, from their elegant appearances. Even if angels existed, there was no way that they would be having the wings of a bat behind their backs.
It was one of the three great authorities that Yu Jitae had stolen from the Demon Archduke, alongside [Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)] and [Shadow of an Archduke (SS)].
[Punishment of an Archduke (SS)]
It was a troop of fallen angels.
“Sleep for now.”
[Knifehand Strike (D)]
“Kuk!”
After striking the leader on the back of her neck, Yu Jitae threw all of them into the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)]. Since it was a group of thirty with large builds, the dark alternate dimension felt small.
Because he was trying to suppress them without killing them, he had to use an authority which he didn’t really like. In other words, he had to keep the 30-man special force alive, even if it was tedious.
[The Authority, [Vintage Clock(EX)] reads the hostility sent from the other side of the Horizon of Providence.]
[The Authority, [Vintage Clock(EX)] starts gathering the fragments of the revealed [Hostility].]
It was because of this.
[[Hostility]’s Trace Fragment gathered: 15.3%…]
The percentage that had come to a stop at 15.1%, started slowly rising back up. As long as he kept on gaining more of this, [Vintage Clock (EX)] would gain information about ‘that guy’, who was on the other side of the Horizon of Providence.
Thus, he had to diligently gather them.
[[Hostility]’s Trace Fragment gathered: 15.5%…]
[[Hostility]’s Trace Fragment gathered: 15.7%…]
On the way to the [Underground Labyrinth], he stared at the status message. It felt like he was building up exp points – the only exp points that could possibly stop the Apocalypse.
Thus, he felt satisfied for the first time in a long time.
***
BM thought to himself.
It was a very strange combination.
One day, the metal armour asked for a broomstick, and started sweeping the floor of the inner room, which was already clean, and the woman with a gentle look started wiping the floor with a rag.
Was her name Ha Saetbyul?
Maybe due to having their minds contaminated, they did not lie down in relaxation despite being affected by the light falling down from the [Fragment of Paradise]. They moved as their instincts told them to, and repeated a habitual process.
“Hey. It’s time for a meal.”
The metal armour raised its body with a clank-, and Ha Saetbyul walked forward with an amiable smile. They both looked like they had a screw loose.
BM gave Ha Saetbyul a soup and a simple salad which he had made, along with some bread. And for the metal armour, he passed over the fatty oil of a high-ranked beast. Instead of having a meal, it applied the oil of a beast on its body in satisfaction.
They did not require meals, as the energy being emanated from [Fragment of Paradise] was more than enough. However, he decided that it was good to make a habit of eating things for the future, since they wouldn’t be in here forever.
After having a mouthful of the salad, Ha Saetbyul went ‘hihi’ and giggled.
“It’s delicious. Thank you.”
BM made a speculation.
The metal armour seemed to have been a housekeeper, judging from how he wiped and cleaned all day, while sometimes asking for some dishes to wash.
However, he had no idea about the woman. She sometimes copied the metal armour and cleaned, but would suddenly ask, “Are there any kids that need help?” time after time.
When the metal armour lay down after finishing cleaning up, the woman would place the metal armour’s head on her lap and sing a lullaby.
Maybe she was a mother of a baby, or perhaps…
In fact, it had nothing to do with BM, since he didn’t give affection out randomly, but today, an odd unknown feeling moved his heart, as he threw a question.
“How is this place. I’m not sure if you guys like it here.”
“It’s not bad.”
The response came from the metal armour, as its crimson eyes flickered like the ocean waves.
“Anything you need?”
“Nothing really, but…”
“But?”
“I looked around for a long time, but couldn’t find the most important thing.”
“What were you looking for?”
After stopping its hands that were moving the broomstick, the metal armour gazed off into a distance. Then, with a voice that sounded like the screeching sound of metals, it quietly asked a question.
“Where is my lady?”
“Your lady?”
“…There is a lady. There is a lady I must protect, and there is a lady that needs me. There are other ladies as well, but I have no clue where they are at.”
Then, the metal armour glanced around the surroundings.
“Do those ladies of yours need you?”
“They are all busy. The little lady would be left alone if I’m not there. She needs me…”
Blankly, the metal armour stood there in place, and seemed to be reminiscing in its memories.
BM made a frown.
The metal armour’s reaction, was quite dangerous.
He turned his gaze.
“Then what about you miss. Anything you need?”
“…”
Ha Saetbyul, who was biting through the salad, came to a stop. She then blankly stared at BM.
“If there’s anything you want or need, say it.”
“…Anything?”
“Anything’s fine.”
“…”
For a split second, BM thought he was seeing things. With a face devoid of liveliness, Ha Saetbyul gave a faint smile.
“Can you kill me?”
BM’s hands that were pulling a piece of bread out, halted.
“That was a joke.”
Then, she giggled ‘hihi’ again, as she placed the salad into her mouth.
“You surprised me there.”
Letting out a snort, BM finished eating the bread, but he was feeling increasingly more complex inside.
These guys, they weren’t in a good situation.
It seemed that he needed to talk to Yu Jitae about them if he came by.
*
By the time they were almost done with their meals, a dimensional fissure was created in mid-air. The alternate dimension opened its mouth like a greedy anglerfish, as a man walked out from the darkness.
“Have you been well.”
“Ahh yes. It’s been a long time.”
In the middle of his greeting, BM’s eyes shot wide open. From behind Yu Jitae’s back, enormous things started revealing themselves.