Chapter 146
The existence of reptilians was practically as good as proven. Most people dismissed it as a simple conspiracy theory, but the lizards from outer space had long since blended into everyday life. If you dug into it, a few famous politicians would probably turn out to be reptilians.
It wasn't mere speculation. They were actually being culled.
The Bureau didn't exist for nothing. On a regular basis, they examined politicians and celebrities, dealing with anything inhuman pretending to be human. Reptilians were no exception.
Maybe because of that, these days they apparently didn't even pose as celebrities anymore and instead went around wearing ordinary people's skins... Honestly, though, there wasn't much reason to care. Compared to their reputation, they weren't all that strong.
Their physical abilities were fairly impressive, but only up to a point. Their shapeshifting ability was troublesome, but it didn't allow for a perfect disguise. If you tried, you could still see through it. Their physical prowess also wasn't particularly outstanding compared to other Mysteries. In terms of raw destructive power, the Eight-Foot Ghost would probably do better.
No matter how you looked at it, they weren't the kind of creatures that could rule a planet. Even if they rose up, the Bureau or some other organization would probably put them down.
But if this were a world where reptilians were the only Mystery and nothing else existed at all, that would be a different story.
I might have described them a little mockingly, but reptilians were quite resilient.
Bullets? They didn't penetrate easily because of their tough scales. If you wanted to kill them, you'd have to target the abdomen, and reptilians knew that weakness well, so they rarely exposed their bellies. Some even wore protective gear over just that area.
Bombs? They were basically heat-resistant and blast-resistant, so all that did was throw their balance off a bit. Oddly enough, their abdomen was immune to explosions too.
Poison? Same deal—they were immune.
In practical terms, they were monsters that were almost impossible to kill with modern weapons. That was what reptilians were.
If you poured on absurd firepower, you could kill them somehow, but if you swarmed them with sheer numbers, that got difficult too.
Even using nuclear weapons had its limits. There was a reason aberrations were called aberrations.
Well, of course, none of that mattered to mages. Nobody here even tensed up at the word reptilian.
“Maybe because it's an apocalypse, there seem to be traces of nuclear blasts here and there. The demons said there's no radiation, but just in case, it would be best to wear gas masks.”
Swish.
Eunha handed the gas masks she'd prepared in advance to Ian and Yuna.
Gas masks made by the Cartel.
A high-end item that filters out just about every poison and blocks radiation completely. The only drawback was the price, but considering the performance, it wasn't all that bad.
Ian took the gas mask she handed him and tapped the filter cartridge.
“How long does the filter cartridge last, roughly?”
“A month. The countdown starts the moment you press the button on the side.”
A month.
For a gas mask, that was incredibly short. Still, they weren't planning to live in the Mirror World forever, so it didn't really matter.
“So... could you come with us? I think it'd be safer if we moved together.”
While he was thinking it over, Eunha asked in a cautious voice. Ian's gaze moved back to her.
“Of course, if it's difficult, you can refuse. This is entirely my selfish request, after all. There's no need for you to push yourself just to indulge my selfishness.”
There wasn't a trace of wavering in Eunha's voice. She probably meant that she wouldn't resent him even if he turned down the offer.
“......”
Ian stared at her in silence for a moment, then gave a wry smile and adjusted the gas mask straps.
“I have no intention of refusing. Let's go together.”
“Ah... thank you, Ian. I'll definitely make it up to you later.”
Eunha gave a faint smile and busied herself gathering up her own gas mask. Yuna also, sensing that they were about to set off, gripped her staff tightly and tapped Ian's shoulder.
“I-Ian. Before we leave, could you show me how to put on the gas mask?”
“Sure. Turn around.”
The group quickly gathered the things they needed and put on their gas masks.
“Phew....”
Slightly blurred vision and awkward breathing.
Fortunately, his breath didn't fog the mask each time he exhaled, but he could still feel the heat of every exhale. It wasn't a pleasant sensation.
“We're ready.”
Eunha said. With a cross in one hand and a grimoire in the other, she looked back at Ian and Yuna.
“Is it okay to go in?”
“Yes.”
“N-no problem...!”
The two answered. Eunha nodded and pressed the button on the purifier canister.
Clack, psshhh...!
With the sound of something locking into place inside the canister, pure white smoke burst out. The safety mechanism blocking the internal airflow had been released.
Ian followed her, pressed the button to release the canister's mechanism, and drew in the pure white smoke seeping into the gas mask.
The odorless white smoke entered his respiratory tract and quickly circulated throughout his body via his red blood cells. Thanks to that, his head felt a little clearer.
“I'll go in first. Once I've entered, please come in one by one, five seconds apart.”
“Understood. What will it look like as soon as we step in?”
“The demons said it was a cafe. But not an operating one—it was already a ruined building. There were no survivors.”
“Then if it's not a cafe when we go in, we can assume something's wrong.”
“Right.”
Eunha nodded.
“But so far, every demon we've sent to scout has woken up in the cafe, so under normal circumstances, nothing unusual should happen. If, by some chance, something does happen...”
“Then let's send a signal or make some noise. Large-scale magic is easy enough to use.”
“I can do that too. It just means summoning the great demon I'm contracted with. What about you, Yuna?”
Her gaze turned to Yuna. Yuna, who had been listening blankly to the conversation, startled and flinched when the look landed on her.
“M-me?”
“Yes. Is there anything you can do that would be big enough to say, ‘I'm here!’?”
“Uh, uh... hmm...”
After thinking for a while, Yuna answered in a bright voice as if something had come to her.
“I think I can weaken the building's walls and bring it down...! I'll make it collapse as b-big as I can!”
“That's a sure way to do it. Then please do that.”
“Y-yeah!”
Yuna nodded. Eunha let out a long breath and turned toward the mirror.
“Then, I'll go in.”
There was no hesitation. She immediately stepped toward the broken mirror.
“Asmodel, Manuel, Hamael, Zuriel. Servants of the Lord and angels of the imperial palace, please protect me.”
Hum.
The moment she recited the spell, golden light flowed from the top of Eunha's head. Four feathers fluttered down from the ceiling, and she passed through the mirror in complete calm. The broken mirror swallowed her without any resistance.
“H-huh...! I really got in...”
“I'll go next. You come last.”
“Y-yeah!”
Yuna gripped her staff tightly and nodded. Exactly five seconds later, Ian walked toward the mirror with the grimoire in hand.
“......”
When he placed his palm over the mirror, the shattered surface rippled as if waves were passing over it. The mirror fragments, split to pieces, wriggled in all directions, and after Ian looked down at them for a moment, he stepped forward.
Whoosh, and his arm was sucked into the mirror.
There was a pulling force he could have resisted if he'd wanted to. But Ian didn't bother resisting and simply let himself be carried along by the force drawing him in. Like tugging at a lover's wrist, the world inside the mirror gently swallowed him whole. He vanished inside in an instant.
‘...Beautiful.’
What he saw as soon as he crossed over was a passage made of shattered mirror fragments. Light scattered, filling every direction with a pure white, dazzling radiance. Ian's face was reflected clearly in every shard.
Even among aberrations, there seemed to be beings that retained beauty. Just as Pygmalion's sculptures were all beautiful and lovely in form, this place was equally breathtaking. It felt like he'd been left alone in a mirror garden.
Anyone would like pretty things. Ian briefly forgot that this was a zone created by a Mystery and simply admired the scenery.
As he did so, his body began to fall downward. Like a sheet of paper drifting down, his slowly plummeting body touched the mirror shards covering the floor.
At that moment.
KABOOM!!
With a thunderous boom, the mirror shard Ian had been standing on collapsed. Beneath it, the ruined downtown of Seoul came into view.
Right, downtown.
It wasn't a cafe.
“Huh?”
Ian's face went blank.
What met his eyes was a blue sky, a dazzling sun, high clouds, and a gray city.
It was a landscape with an extremely dreamlike feel, but the problem was that his perspective was an aerial view. Worse, he was getting closer and closer to the city in real time. A pigeon flying side by side with him tilted its head, staring at him with a look that said, ‘What is a wingless bastard doing here?’
Ian exchanged a brief look with the pigeon, then, feeling the acceleration and wind wrap around his entire body, parted his lips.
“Ah, fuck.”
The judgment was immediate.
A fall.
WOOOOOSH!!
Sunlight pouring down. Clouds riding the wind. Wind howling as if it were tearing his ears apart, and his coat flapping.
Ian screamed, feeling all of it firsthand.
“We're fucked!!”
[Hum.]
[Humm!!]
[U, humm!]
The grimoires, sensing his desperation, were summoned at once and fell together with Ian.