Chapter 112
To use magic, the body had to be filled with ether. And this ether, or the force called Merlin's flesh, often granted the human body a new sense.
In other words, a sixth sense. A new sense beyond the five, closer to intuition and instinct.
It wasn't enough to say, as in games or novels, that a wizard's intuition was close to prophecy, but it had still risen to the level of animal instinct. And that instinct was now ringing alarm bells like mad.
[Enemy detected. Enemy detected. Sky. Sky. Enemy detecㅡ]
Fshhhhh.
The reverse sight on Ian's coat sent a warning through his mind before rapidly breaking down. The newly shaped brooch melted away, and the engraved spell scattered into the air and vanished.
Ian swore under his breath and put distance between himself and the others. Their gazes turned to follow him on their own. Moonlit gazes spilled over him like moonlight.
‘The moon.’
Having stepped back, he was able to observe the sky in greater detail. Ian drew the Circulator closer and narrowed his eyes at the blue expanse above. In his obsidian-black pupils, a blue full moon was clearly reflected.
Its form wasn't that different. A round, spherical shape. But the very fact that a full moon hung in broad daylight was strange enough, and its size was far greater than the sun's. He could barely cover it even with both hands held side by side.
An obvious anomaly. Worse, an anomaly occurring beyond the sky, in outer space. All sorts of moon-related conspiracy theories and ghost stories flashed through his head.
There were quite a few conspiracies and ghost stories centered on the moon. Since ancient times, the moon, opposite the sun, had been the afterlife, the unknown, and a rock threatening Earth. It was also said to be the egg of something, and a grotesque mass that gnawed at the mind.
The superstition currently being applied to the moon was probably one of those—something that attacked the mind. Maybe all of them.
‘I'm going insane.’
If the source of the mental attack was the moon, there was no way Ian could step in and destroy it. The scale was far too different to compare with the Monkey's Paw incident. The gap between the hand of a mere primate and a satellite orbiting Earth was absurdly wide.
In other words, it meant he couldn't deal with this the same way he had with the Monkey's Paw. Ian let out a long breath and drew his pistol to prepare for whatever might happen.
Not to shoot the moon itself, but to incapacitate the party members who had fallen under its spell.
They still weren't reacting to anything except staring, but they might suddenly break into a sly smile and rush him. And when that happened, Ian would pull the trigger without hesitation. It would be a lie to say he hadn't grown attached, but survival mattered more.
‘The one doing the brainwashing is the nursery rhyme. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.’
He slowly observed the situation. Keeping a tight grip on the grimoire, he stayed on guard in case the Circulator was bewitched as well.
‘At what point did the party start acting strange?’
When they heard the nursery rhyme.
‘And the headache?’
That too had started when they heard the nursery rhyme. No, perhaps a global mental confusion had already been creeping in slowly before that.
The moon hanging in broad daylight was something Ian had already observed a few weeks ago. If the attack had started from that point, and if they had been exposed, then the song might not be the source of the brainwashing. But analyzing the situation as it stood, no answer came out except the song.
Whatever it was, there was no way it could be completely unrelated.
‘The moon appeared when I summoned the Circulator. And the moment the moon appeared, they lost their reason too.’
Magic itself couldn't be the trigger for the brainwashing. If it really were, the incident would have happened long ago when he used magic inside the tunnel. Something far more high-level was at work.
The moment he thought that, one fact flashed through Ian's mind.
Under the tunnel, moonlight obviously couldn't reach, and the song wasn't loud enough to seep all the way into the tunnel. But the instant those two restrictions disappeared completely, the mental attack on the party began. And during that mental attack, magic was used.
Not just any magic, but Outer God magic—more or less its very symbol.
“……That son of a bitch.”
Ian could only twist his mouth into a grimace as he looked up at the moon.
“Are you after my grimoire?”
[Waeaeaeaeaeaeeng!!!]
At the same time Ian spoke, the village loudspeakers that had only been spouting the nursery rhyme suddenly blared an alarm.
A harsh noise stabbed at his ears. Instinctively, Ian pulled out his lighter and drowned out the sound. But the party members outside the lighter's range were left fully exposed to the alarm.
Heh.
Their faces began to change.
From blankness to a smile.
From smile to sadness.
From sadness to delight.
From delight to despair.
And from despair to melancholy.
Unable to withstand the rapidly changing expressions, the muscles in their faces tore open and blood flowed. Blood mixed with falling tears slid down their cheeks and dripped from their chins.
The moment the blood droplets splashed onto the asphalt road.
Thunk!
They each grabbed their weapons and charged at Ian. Ian pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet fired in silence shatters the Bureau agent's shoulder. Unable to withstand the bullet's kinetic force, he falls backward, and Cecilia, standing right behind him, collapses to the ground under Park Hoseok's weight.
Crunch!
The back of her head was smashed. Albert stomped on her mouth, dagger in hand, and rushed forward.
“Ghk!”
Ian barely managed to pull the trigger, shattering his knee, and then stowed the lighter before leaping backward.
At the same time, a siren pierced his ears.
And the intrusive sound mixed in between them reached Ian's ears with perfect clarity.
“Ugh... What...?”
A fluent Italian. Between the siren sounds hammering directly at his brain, Cecilia's distinct voice seeped through. Ian's head turned of its own accord toward the woman who had collapsed.
“……Ugh…… What is this sound…… Ah.”
But soon her face was dyed with melancholy once more. Cecilia, as if her brief return to lucidity had been a lie, drew a pistol and aimed it at Ian. Ian rolled sideways to dodge, then frowned when he realized the rainwater pooled on the ground had caught his ankle.
‘Kim Yul……!’
Her water-manipulating magic. Just before Cecilia could fire, Ian turned to the Circulator and gave an order.
“Devour all the water nearby!”
[Pyak!]
The Circulator moved. It stood right behind Ian and blew its own head apart.
Black seawater spilled out like blood. The headless body staggered for a moment, then collapsed with a thud.
At first glance, it looked dead. But Ian quickly snatched the Circulator's corpse up and held it out like a shield. At the same time, Cecilia pulled the trigger.
KWAANG!
With a tremendous boom, her wrist shattered. Unable to withstand the recoil, the pistol shot upward, striking her forehead and slightly splitting her skull. But the bullet had been fired properly.
The bullet tore through the air, a chunk of lead hurtling toward the Circulator's limp body, obviously enough to leave a huge hole where it hit.
Right before it could reach it.
Crack!
A new head sprouted on the Circulator and chewed up the incoming bullet. Its head, far larger than its body, swallowed the shot down its throat and let out a short howl.
[Grrr....]
A growl vibrating even lower than before. Saliva dripped from between the Circulator's teeth as it slowly crawled out of its own corpse.
A giant nearly 7 meters tall. Far larger than an ordinary crocodile, the Circulator let out a low growl and stood before Ian as if guarding him. Black seawater dripped from its abdomen.
[Grrrrr...!]
The beast gave a short roar. In that instant, all the nearby water turned into seawater from the Black Outer Sea.
A creature that grows larger and changes form the more times it experiences death. If its most basic form had been one that controlled and manipulated prey by adjusting their size, then its current ability was to control and transform the flow of water. Since it fought for survival through ability rather than sheer build, its power was truly overwhelming.
……
The water, now transformed into seawater from outer space, no longer obeyed Kim Yul's control. In an instant, she had become a completely ordinary civilian.
It was the intended result. After Ian put a bullet through Kim Yul's knee as well, he gave the Circulator an order.
“From here on, protect me. We're breaking through.”
[Kruk!]
The Circulator nodded. Though it had no eyes, it sensed presence; though it had no ears, it read intent. Ian felt as if he were moving with a well-trained attack dog as he rushed toward the collapsed Cecilia. Bureau agents lunged at him from the side, but the Circulator harvested their heads.
Fwoosh!
Blood poured from the severed necks. Hot blood soaked Ian, and he roughly wiped away the blood blocking his vision before snatching Cecilia up and hurling himself into the forest.
Kkrrk...!
He collided with a tree in his path. Breath knocked out by the throbbing pain starting from his back, Ian gritted his teeth, swapped grimoires, and braced a hand against the tree to use magic.
“Ugh... Be reborn anew!”
Crack!
The tree's material changed. The rough, uneven surface turned smooth, wrapped Ian in its roots, and stretched straight toward the depths of the forest. His immobilized body moved along with the tree.
The speed was so great that Ian gritted his teeth and tightened the hand holding Cecilia even more. It was hard to endure, but the speed made it easy to slip past the pursuers. By the time the men chasing them, even after being shot, were no longer visible, Ian stopped the tree's mutation and carefully climbed down.
His legs were shaking, but he drove a fist down and forced the trembling to stop.
“Phew...”
Ian let out a pained breath and looked up at the sky.
The forest still hadn't grown dense enough with leaves. But even the few leaves that had spread out were enough to cover the sky. Ian stared for a moment at the moon's surface visible through the gaps, then turned his head at Cecilia's groan.
“Hah... Haa...”
The woman who had been bleeding from a shattered forehead opened her eyes, completely restored with not a single wound left. Then she looked around in confusion before fixing her gaze on Ian.
“I...an... what... is this situaㅡ
“Do you trust me, Cecilia?”
“……What?”
At the answer he had not expected at all, Cecilia frowned. But Ian didn't give her room to react.
“We don't have time to ask questions. We don't have time to explain anything, either. So just answer me. Do you trust me?”
……
Cecilia kept staring at Ian, gripping her pounding head.
After a moment, she gave a short nod.
That was enough. Ian took the 'Dying Hearing' out of his pocket and brought its opening close to his ear.
“Cecilia Capone.”
Click.
At the same time as he murmured the name, something in Ian's mind seemed to click into place. Staring straight at Cecilia, he tore at his ear without hesitation.
Riiip!
At the same time, Cecilia's ear was torn away from her head.
“……!”
Cecilia's face twisted with excruciating pain.
Her hearing vanished in an instant. Not only her ear, but every organ that allowed her to hear disappeared, and her pupils quivered at the sensation.
But Ian didn't give her time to collect herself. He immediately covered Cecilia's eyes with one hand and used the other to write on her palm.
[Permanent loss. Regeneration impossible.]
Her shoulders jerked at the meaning she understood.
[Necessary. Trust me.]
“……Haa, haa……”
Cecilia let out a short groan and clasped the hand covering her eyes. Then she slowly opened her mouth.
“What's going on?”
[We're screwed.]
Ian answered that way and looked up at the sky.
[The moon has become an aberration.]