Chapter 113
“What did you say...?”
Cecilia couldn't make sense of what Ian had said at once.
The moon had turned into a monster. It was a simple sentence, but the meaning behind it was quite complex.
But Ian didn't give her time to understand.
More precisely, he couldn't. He had sensed a presence from deep in the forest.
[Wait a moment. Cover your eyes.]
After leaving Cecilia with that message, Ian slowly stood up. Then he aimed his gun toward the source of the presence and swallowed hard. A thick sulfur stench rushed in with every breath he took.
“A, aaagh!”
A moment later, a Nazi officer, his whole body burned, came pushing through the brush. Gripping his head with an arm whose skin and muscles were melting away and oozing, he trembled all over. His staggering steps were alarmingly unsteady.
“Why did you follow us!”
The officer shouted in a voice that was almost completely hoarse.
He wasn't looking at the sky, but all his emotions were reaching toward it. Since what floated there now was the moon, he was probably speaking to the moon.
A thin iron rod was stuck in the officer's ear. Thanks to it destroying his eardrum, he didn't seem able to hear the song.
It was a rather brutal method, but also a certain one. Ian decided to hold off on killing him and listen quietly to what he had to say.
“You, the being imitating the moon's form! We obediently handed the moon over!”
He wailed and sobbed as he cried out.
“And yet why! Why are you targeting Earth too! Was the moon not enough for you!”
“…….”
“There are laws and limits to all things in the universe! So why do you ignore them so casually and invade our land! Is the name of a god really that great!”
The officer's cry was desperate and heartbreaking. But the moon did not answer. Instead, it poured moonlight down on him.
“Ah.”
The blue moonlight slipping through the leaves touched his skin. At the same moment, the expression vanished from his face. The blankness soon became a smile, and the smile shifted until it turned to melancholy.
A mental breakdown in an instant. The bastard didn't spill a single drop of blood through the torn muscles of his face, then snapped his head toward Ian so hard his neck looked ready to break. A sharp crunch rang out.
“Tsk.”
Ian clicked his tongue and put a bullet between his eyebrows. The bloodless body collapsed and died on the spot. Just in case, Ian put a few more bullets into its head and heart before turning to Cecilia.
‘So the reason those Nazi ghouls had no organs was because these bastards were monsters from the start.’
By rights, not only humans but any being with bones and muscle should have organs and blood vessels. But the Nazis had none of that. They were literally empty shells. Their bodies could be pierced, yet no blood flowed, and nothing existed where their hearts should have been.
Maybe becoming ghouls was, for them, a process of becoming more “human.”
Thinking that, Ian knelt in front of Cecilia, who had her eyes covered. Cecilia lifted her head when she sensed his presence.
“Is that you, Ian...?”
[Yes.]
He wrote the letters on Cecilia's small hand. Cecilia let out a sigh of relief.
“A-are you okay now?”
[I'm fine. Have you calmed down a bit?]
“Mm, mm... It still hurts, but I can manage.”
[Then that's a relief.]
Ian let out a long breath and looked around.
Aside from the Circulator sitting nearby, he didn't feel any other presence. But they couldn't let their guard down. If they followed the tree line, they'd be exposed in no time. Even the moon hanging in the sky right now was effectively an eye, so staying in one place was not a good choice.
[Let's move first. Hold my hand.]
Ian reached out his hand toward Cecilia. Cecilia hesitated for a moment, then carefully took it.
Since ancient times, a person's warmth had been like a medicine for calming anxiety. Relying on the warmth she felt from his hand, Cecilia covered her eyes with her other hand and moved carefully. The Circulator followed behind them.
‘Still quiet, huh.’
The creatures of the Outer Sea Ian had summoned so far all moved around while devouring their prey, except for the Producer. The Messenger did, and so did the Watcher.
But the Circulator had only devoured several dozen corpses. It wasn't moving around while eating anything.
Even so, the fact that it wasn't showing any particularly violent behavior was proof that its fuel economy was pretty good.
But no one knew how long that would last.
It could suddenly go berserk and shove its muzzle toward Ian.
‘I should probably get its belly filled before that happens...’
Thinking that, Ian gripped Cecilia's hand tightly. She didn't resist, instead focusing on the warmth transmitted through his palm. In a world cut off from sight and hearing, Ian's warmth was the only thing she could rely on.
Step, step.
They didn't encounter anything while moving.
Thanks to that, he had a little room to breathe. To ease the throbbing pain in his back, Ian leaned against a tree for a moment and flipped through the grimoire. He wanted to see if it held any hint about the current situation.
Rustle, rustle.
Fortunately, the grimoire had read his intent perfectly.
[The Outer God ‘Song of Melancholy,’ hereafter ■■■, can imitate beings with abilities similar to its own. Naturally, humans cannot withstand its level and melt away like candle wax, but powerful Mysteries are able to endure it.]
“...An Outer God?”
Ian frowned.
An Outer God, of all things. The scale was suddenly getting way too big.
“…….”
But if this was the work of an Outer God, then quite a few things made sense.
The rapid mental domination and the attacks so fast they were hard to respond to were too powerful to be explained as mere mystical power.
The Moon legend itself was already quite dangerous, but even so, taking over someone's mind that fast was a bit too much.
But if it was the work of an Outer God, Ian had no choice but to nod along. He was the only one here who had directly used the power of an Outer God, so he could feel it all the more keenly.
‘So how the hell do you kill it.’
However, if it wasn't just a simple Mystery but an Outer God, the situation became even more hopeless. How was a mere human supposed to kill a god?
“Hoo, shit...”
At least the good news was that the Outer God itself couldn't step in and do anything in this environment, and that it was bound to the moon. It seemed possible to drive the life on Earth into madness, but not to descend directly and tear things apart.
‘Still, it was disgusting all the same.’
Ian spat a curse and closed the grimoire. Feeling his breath, Cecilia gripped his hand tightly.
“Why...?”
[No. I was just feeling a little stifled.]
“......Sorry.”
[I wasn't talking about you. Let's move.]
“Ah, yes.”
The two of them started walking again.
In the meantime, Ian told her about the current situation and what they needed to be careful of. Cecilia nodded stiffly over and over.
Then, just as they were moving quietly along, the Circulator turned its head toward somewhere and let out a low whine. Ian followed its gaze.
Where it was looking.
In the middle of the village, a black-haired girl, a ghoul, and Nazi officers were all holding one another's hands, their faces melancholy, spinning around and around.
It looked almost as if they were performing a ritual.
Whether vampire or Nazi, those whose brainwashing had been completed were spinning round and round in the moonlight as if dancing. Ian clicked his tongue and carefully moved so as not to be noticed by them. The Circulator also lowered its massive body and followed him.
Obviously, going wild and trying to catch the vampires in this situation would be insane. For now, getting out of this damned area was the priority.
The brainwashed companions? Unfortunately, there was no choice but to leave them behind. Once the situation was over, he'd have to bring them back somehow, but for now there was no way to look after all of them.
They might come back to their senses if their heads were smashed like Cecilia's, but they had no regeneration. If their heads were broken, they'd just die.
‘At least I managed to secure Cecilia.’
Thinking that, Ian slowly turned back toward the entrance they'd originally come in through. It wasn't impossible that they'd run into the others, but they couldn't stay isolated forever. They needed to get out of here, even if they had to subdue them.
Fortunately, there was no living person near the tunnel. Kim Yul, whose knees were broken, and Albert were crawling along the road into the village, and the others had apparently moved on long ago, as there was no sign of them at all. Only the corpses of Administration Bureau agents with their heads gone lay sprawled about.
‘The problem is the moonlight.’
Ian held Cecilia in his arms and looked up at the sky, faintly visible beneath the leaves. The moon, which had not disappeared, still held its place.
Once they came into the moon's sight, pursuit would begin immediately. Whether ghoul, vampire, or Nazi, they'd all rush in desperately trying to steal the grimoire.
It would be annoying, but he couldn't just sit still. Ian wrote on the back of Cecilia's hand in his arms.
[We're going to run. The path is rough, so I'll carry you on my back. Okay?]
“Mm, yes. Sorry. I'm such a burden...”
[I don't mind. You can open your eyes once we're inside the tunnel, since you won't be able to see the moon there. I'll tap you twice, then open them. As for your ears....]
“I don't care. I'd actually be grateful.”
Cecilia gave a faint smile.
“There should be a way to recover. Let's look for it together.”
[Yes.]
Ian gave a bitter smile and patted Cecilia's head. Cecilia did not refuse his touch. As said, right now the warmth conveyed through touch was everything to her.
[I'll carry you.]
Ian informed her and called the Circulator.
Reading his intent, the Circulator lifted Cecilia and placed her on Ian's back. The struggling girl squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around Ian's neck. Ian stood up, holding her thighs tightly.
For someone of her small frame, she wasn't very heavy. Not exactly light, but still manageable enough to run with. After checking that Cecilia was secured, Ian turned to the Circulator and said.
“Follow me. And set up a nest here and deal with the ones swarming in. Understand?”
[Grrr.]
The Circulator tilted its head as if asking why it shouldn't follow and had to do that instead. Ian answered obediently.
“I don't know what's going on outside yet. We're going to Seoul, and I can't take you that far. You'll stick out too much.”
[Grrr!]
“So wait here. When I call your name, come find me. This is my scent.”
Ian held out one hand toward the Circulator's nose. The Circulator sniffed with its tiny nostrils, then lowered its body and drooled.
[Grrrrr!]
“All you need to do is remember. Keep your hunger from getting too out of hand. I promise. I'll definitely call you again.”
Ian gave a small smile and patted the Circulator's head. The Circulator nodded and pulled out the sharp claws it had been hiding. Ian let out a long breath and tapped Cecilia's thigh to signal that they were setting off. She hugged him even tighter.
“Let's go.”
[Grrr!]
At Ian's signal, the Circulator spewed Outer Sea seawater in vapor form. Feeling the blood-reeking seawater lightly wrap around his whole body, Ian gritted his teeth and kicked off the ground toward the tunnel.
[WAAAAAEEEEENG!!!!]
At the same time, the siren that had briefly fallen silent started wailing again.
The village, where the nursery rhyme and the siren rang out at the same time, had the “Moon dwellers” stop what they were doing and start running toward Ian.
Quickly approaching footsteps. But Ian wasn't worried. No matter how much they were Moon dwellers, they were no match for the inhabitants of the Outer Sea.
[Grrrrr……!]
Running alongside Ian, the Circulator turned its body the other way. Then, wrapping itself in the Outer Sea particles drifting around them, it charged at the Nazis and ghouls rushing toward them.
KWA-AAAANG!!
At the moment of collision, the bodies of the ghouls charging at the front burst apart with a tremendous boom. Blood, muscle, and organs sprayed in all directions, and the Circulator tore the residents apart with its teeth and claws while chewing them up. A thick spray of blood scattered everywhere along with the Outer Sea steam.
A massacre. It was truly a situation that deserved that word, but Ian didn't let his guard down and kept running toward the tunnel. The moment he stepped into the tunnel, Ian tapped Cecilia's thigh twice.
“……!”
She opened the eyes she'd kept shut until now. Light returned to her amethyst eyes, and at the edge of her vision, not yet fully adjusted to the darkness, the figure of a village resident lost to the moon's madness came into view.
“Ian! Ahead!”
“Dammit, you set up a roadblock ahead of time?!”
Ian spat a curse at the Outer God's shallow trick. Cecilia immediately drew the pistol at her waist and fired at the resident.
KWA-AAAANG!
The bullet, flying like a cannon shell, shattered the resident's skull.