Chapter 51
KRRRACK!!
The tendrils racing down the corridor crushed the patients whole. Blood splashed everywhere, and the barbed tendrils twisted like harpoons as they snapped their teeth in search of the next meal.
In an instant, the hospital lobby was cleared out. The Bureau agents who had been standing there in a daze came to their senses at once and ran to Park Hee-soo.
“Are you all right?”
Yeoul spoke as she drew her long sword. Her words were directed at Park Hee-soo, but all her attention was fixed on Ian. Ian noticed it too, but he didn't bother reacting. Instead, he tapped the grimoire with his finger, ready to respond at any moment.
For now, the watcher was following Ian's wishes and not attacking any fellow ‘humans’.
It was feeding its hunger and obeying for the time being, but if it ran out of prey and still wasn't full, it would ignore the order and wriggle around to devour anything alive. And its first target would be Ian.
‘So if the Bureau agents turn hostile toward me, I’ll change the order. If I offer up a few more, I should be able to buy a little more time.’
There was no need to bring along even someone who refused to cooperate and would be hostile no matter what.
The patient-and-guardian act was already over. The moment they started destroying the hospital, cooperation was nothing more than a façade. If he wanted, he could discard it at any time, and if it was to his advantage, he was willing to do so.
“…….”
As for Cecilia's intentions, Ian didn't really know, but what mattered most to him was his own safety. He wasn't indecisive enough to take on risks for someone who wasn't much help.
But fortunately, the Bureau agents did not turn hostile toward Ian.
“……Are you a mage?”
After finishing his conversation with Park Hee-soo, Yeoul asked.
Her voice was extremely calm, but the surroundings were anything but.
Even though the patients had been swept away once, there were still so many of them it was overwhelming. The tendrils were still frantically harvesting heads or hearts from the patients flooding in, blood was raining down like stormwater, and a foul stench filled the air.
Still, being able to speak so calmly meant she too was a veteran used to situations like this.
Ian tucked the grimoire under his arm, loaded the revolver, and jerked his chin toward the emergency exit.
“Talk while we move. We're going to the underground parking garage.”
“……The parking garage?”
When Yeoul asked with a slight frown, Park Hee-soo answered.
“Bureau Spatial Anomaly Response Article 151. If you can't find any way out, use physical means to get to the space's parking garage, find a car or hijack one, and get beyond the boundary of the space. You know that too, right?”
“I know, but…… isn't that just something you use as a substitute for suicide when there's no other way?”
“That's true. But we've got a mage and a heretic inquisitor here, don't we? We can make it happen.”
Including the ones who had joined them, there were eight in all. The now rather large party headed down through the emergency exit. Thanks to dealing with the burning patients ahead of time, the only things they had to face were nurses and patients. No doctors were in sight.
“But…… can we trust it?”
Yeoul whispered into Park Hee-soo's ear. Park Hee-soo shrugged and shot dead the legless corpse crawling up from below.
“First we have to get out together. And right now, all these writhing tendrils are something that mage summoned. If you provoke him for no reason, we'll get pierced through and die too. So watch your actions and your tone.”
“Yes.”
As Yeoul answered, a tendril whipped past her ear. It smashed the nurse crawling up from below and sprayed brain matter everywhere. Wiping the transparent, sticky fluid off her face, Yeoul bowed her head toward Ian.
“……Thank you.”
Instead of answering, Ian spun the cylinder of the reloaded revolver.
More people were a good thing. It meant more targets for the aberrations to go after. Any reduction in the risk of death was something to welcome.
Still, it was unfortunate that the added people were Bureau agents. If they had been hiding their faces, maybe it would have been different, but with them so openly exposed, he couldn't even begin to imagine what the outcome would be.
‘I said I avoided them because annoying things can happen in the community, but is that really all there is to it?’
He knew, of course, that there were mages who cooperated with the Bureau. On the Korean Peninsula there were a very small number of mages tied to the Bureau. But he didn't know what kind of treatment they got, or how the Bureau treated them.
-Deep-Sea Angler: It's not entirely bad.
Looking at the writhing bundles of tendrils, he recalled a comment he'd read in the past.
Deep-Sea Angler.
The most representative mage cooperating with the Bureau, the one who had given advice on offense and defense.
-Deep-Sea Angler: There are conditions, though. If you promise to mostly do what the Bureau says, the treatment is better than you'd expect. It's just annoying, and the only downside is that Bureau agents don't really like mages, so you have to watch your step.
ㄴBug in Your Ear: Stop lying. A friend of mine also cooperated with the Bureau, but those bastards hated the way they did things so much that he quit and ran overseas.
ㄴDeep-Sea Angler: Well, that can happen. People think differently. But I was fine. Still am.
That mage never said what the Bureau had demanded of him or what he received in return, but he often left the impression that working with them wasn't as bad as it sounded. Of course, he didn't just defend the Bureau either. He often posted comments or replies bashing them, too.
Even so, the fact that he kept cooperating meant there had to be a reason.
‘If the Bureau contacts me after this is over, I should at least hear them out.’
Thinking that, Ian gripped the grimoire tightly. Blood pouring from the ceiling soaked his hair, but all he did was show his displeasure; he didn't actually get angry.
Fortunately, no blood splattered onto the grimoire. No, it did splatter, but it evaporated on the spot. At least he didn't need to worry about it getting dirty. If the bastard got cocky later, he'd pour coffee or water all over him.
“We're here!”
While he was thinking, they reached the entrance to the parking garage. Park Hee-soo quickly checked the area, grabbed the doorknob, and turned it. When it wouldn't budge, he smashed the knob apart with his shotgun without hesitation.
BANG!!
With a deafening blast, the broken door swung open and hung loose. Park Hee-soo reloaded the shells he'd used, and Yeoul drew her sword and took the lead. Cecilia stayed by Ian's side as if protecting him.
“…….”
Kim I-seo followed Yeoul while shooting Ian a sidelong glance. Ian didn't bother meeting her eyes and instead looked around.
The parking garage was fairly spacious. The ceiling lights flickered intermittently, scattering light in all directions, and tendrils writhed beyond the exit. Judging by the blood flooding the area, the watcher seemed to be handling the patients coming down from the exit.
Still, he didn't know how long the watcher would remain unaware. It was the kind of creature that got reverse-summoned once it was full, so it might be fine for now, but long-term it wasn't a good situation.
So getting out quickly was the right call.
Ian tore his eyes away from the tendrils and walked on toward a parked car somewhere in the wide garage.
But the parking garage was as empty as its size suggested. All there was were a few abandoned corpses, a musty smell, and the parking attendant.
“……There's nothing here.”
Cecilia murmured beside Ian. The moment Ian inwardly agreed with her, the Bureau agents made eye contact with each other and then walked straight toward the parking attendant.
The bizarre-looking attendant, who had been leisurely watching a human-flesh mukbang video, tilted his head at them.
“What's the matter……?”
“Where's my car!”
Park Hee-soo shouted abruptly. The attendant flinched, his eyes going wide. Viscous fluid and blood streamed from his crushed eyeballs.
“Y-yes? Customer, what on earth do you mean……?”
“No, I definitely parked my car here! Where did it go, you fucking bastard!”
“A car……? I've been here all day, and I haven't seen any other car come in.”
The guard said that as if troubled, then his voice turned cold in an instant as he took a bone knife made from rib bones in hand.
“Are you perhaps lying?”
A chilly atmosphere sank through the air and settled over the floor. Killing intent so blatant that a single slip of the tongue could get his throat pierced leaked out openly.
Unlike the patients whose intelligence had been stripped away, the attendant was an aberration with a fairly sharp mind. His physical strength also looked considerable,
but Park Hee-soo didn't even blink and kept badgering him.
“Of course it's not the car I parked today! I was a patient at this hospital! But when I came to get discharged, my car was gone!”
“My car is gone too. How are you going to make this right?”
Yeoul chimed in from his side.
“Hurry up and tell us some solution, any solution. If I can't find my car like this, I'll proceed with a lawsuit against the hospital.”
“A-ah……! Just a moment……! I'll check right away!”
The attendant, drenched in cold sweat, started typing on the keyboard. Ian watched him with frosty eyes and flicked the cigarette in his mouth.
It seemed to be an escape method that forced the attendant to summon a car. Creative, and such an unusual route that it made him wonder whether it would really work. Still, if it was in the Bureau manual, the reliability must be high.
Compared with how they had made such a fuss about it being almost like suicide, it was unbelievably simple. That wasn't a bad thing, but it hardly seemed like something worth making such a fuss over—
The moment he thought that.
Thud!
The world trembled once. The people standing in the parking garage staggered, and the Bureau agents broke into a cold sweat as they urged the attendant even harder. Cecilia and Ian widened their eyes at the presence they felt from above the hospital.
‘……something.’
Something is coming.
Above the hospital. Outside the emergency exit.
A huge something that had suddenly appeared was descending into the parking garage.
KRAKAKAK!!