Chapter 89
The rockets fell into the forest with their characteristic high-pitched sound.
Boom!
With a sound that seemed to burst eardrums, the rockets shattered the forest, overturning the earth's surface and splintering trees. However, while its power was not negligible, it was a power unworthy of the name 'rocket'.
It might be comparable to a hand grenade, to be generous?
At a glance, it looked noisy as it shook the earth and exploded trees, but it was a power that raised questions for something bearing the name of a rocket.
This was because these rockets were not primarily designed for simple explosive power, but for a 'special purpose'.
Woong-
Smoke billowed from the exploded rockets.
As if the seemingly noisy explosion was only to spread this smoke in all directions, it covered the entire forest with blue smoke, covering the eerie-looking forest entirely with blue clouds.
Woooong-
3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate.
The cloud mixed with the suppression gas usually called BZ gas vibrated finely and devoured the searchlight, and eventually the red light was completely buried in the blue cloud and lost its light. The smoke, which had eaten up to where the altar was as if it were a ghost made of smoke, floated in the air as if creating a forest buried in a sea of clouds, and the middle-aged man watching it asked.
"What kind of energy is it?"
"Judging by the vibration readings... SN-13! It's yang energy!"
"Is that so? Then prepare the cryo grenades!"
Following the man's order, the soldiers stuffed grenades into grenade launchers and began firing all at once.
With a 'pong, pong' sound, the grenades that filled the sky flew towards where the altar was located while rotating their bodies, and eventually they burst one by one, spraying the liquid they contained.
The grenades that fell to the ground burst like water balloons, spraying liquid everywhere, and the grenades that exploded in the sky rained down. And the liquid sprayed in this way froze everything it touched.
Trees froze the moment they touched the liquid, and the ground turned into nothing but ice blocks. The grass became ice shards and shattered into pieces at the slightest impact, and the lotus flowers floating in pools of blood became works of art as they were.
Icicles formed everywhere, and water that had scattered due to the impact froze in its shape, becoming protruding thorns.
But as if not feeling reassured even after pouring cryo grenades, the middle-aged man frowned.
"That smoke is all good, but we can't observe inside."
He grumbled and drew the sabre he was wearing at his waist.
The gently curved blade stretched out long, and a red qi that seemed to burn rose from the handle and enveloped the sword. The sabre began to blaze as if it had been fed oil and set on fire, its appearance reminiscent of the flaming sword said to be held by angels.
He moved the sword with sharp eyes.
From left to right.
The sword moving horizontally drew a red line in the air, and the line flew like an arrow as if it should naturally do so, cutting everything it touched.
Boom-!
The trees in the path of the flying sword energy were cut down and fell to the ground, making a thunderous noise as soon as they hit the ground. The frozen parts burst into pieces, and the unfrozen parts laid their bodies on the ground, cooling themselves in the cold air.
As if one time wasn't enough, he continued to move the sword.
The sword drew a diagonal.
The sword drew another horizontal line.
From bottom to top, from top diagonally to the ground.
And horizontally again.
As the sword energy scattered in sync with the sword moving as if slashing the air, it cut the forest here and there, and finally, when no more thunderous sounds were heard even when swinging the sword, he stopped spraying sword energy indiscriminately.
"Remove the smoke."
The sword dance was over.
The soldiers who heard the order moved in unison and operated the equipment, and the suction device in a vehicle resembling a tank truck activated to suck up all the smoke that had settled thickly in the forest. Like sucking up smoke with a powerful vacuum cleaner, the blue clouds were sucked into the suction device, and gradually the scenery of the shattered forest began to emerge.
The revealed forest scenery was truly devastating.
The habitat where wild animals would have lived until just a moment ago was shattered as if it had gone through a war, and what used to be trees were now just wood chips or ice shards rolling on the ground. Moreover, perhaps because they had become sharp when broken, they had pierced and penetrated the bodies of the animals in the forest, definitely cutting off their breath.
And.
"Hmm."
The altar, which was the culprit that had made the forest like this, was intact.
Although it was frozen, perhaps affected by the cryo grenades, its original form remained.
However, the two people who should have been lying on it were nowhere to be seen, with only bloodstains visible.
Moreover, the sorcerer had also disappeared somewhere, not to be seen.
"Clear the obstacles and check!"
Upon receiving the order, two mages with strange machines dangling from them stepped forward.
They activated the equipment they were wearing by injecting magical power, and as if concentrating, they made a triangle with both hands and stretched it straight ahead. Then, psychokinesis amplified by the power of the machines burst out, and the obstacles in front of them slowly rose into the air.
The wood chips, rocks, and other objects that floated in the air were pushed aside, creating a well-paved path.
And as the path was created, a mage wearing a special helmet stepped forward.
He scanned the cleared path with his helmet and passed the data to the AI mounted on the vehicle that came with them.
"No abnormalities!"
The AI instantly analyzed the scan data and reported the results.
"Move in!"
Judging it to be safe, the soldiers moved all at once.
Perhaps because of the thought that they had to catch the sorcerer, they ran while putting a lot of strength into the equipment they were holding, and there was a slight tension on their faces.
But fortunately or unfortunately, they didn't need to use that equipment.
What they saw was neither the figure of a sorcerer preparing for a siege, nor a sorcerer trying to threaten with hostages.
It was a deep hole that seemed to lead deep underground.
"He escaped."
The middle-aged man said decisively.
And as if agreeing with his words, the adjutant standing next to him nodded in agreement and gestured to the soldier behind to bring the equipment.
He received the equipment and immediately shot a laser towards the hole to measure it.
Beep-!
"The depth is about 10m vertically."
"He dug deep. Track with drones!"
At the middle-aged man's order, a man with sharp features stepped forward and breathed magical power into a drone.
The drone, smaller than a baby's palm, floated in the air silently when magical power was injected, and following the gestures of the man who breathed mana into it, it slipped into the hole.
The ultra-small camera attached to the drone showed the inside of the hole on the video device.
"The walls aren't rough. He dug it with supernatural ability."
"He used a method to compress the soil. An artifact? If not, he might be using psychokinesis-based sorcery."
"I don't feel any traces of mana in the video. It's not an artifact."
"But there are also traces of melting soil with heat."
"I'm not sure about this. But we need to be careful."
The middle-aged man and the adjutant analyzed while watching the video.
The texture of the soil, the shape of the soil, the shape of the hole, its size, traces of movement.
All of these were important clues revealing the techniques and physique of the sorcerer.
But such analysis didn't last long.
Noise began to appear in the video.
"It's noise due to spirit body interference!"
"With this kind of noise, is it some kind of evil spirit? Don't worry. We received a blessing from an Orthodox priest, so excessive interference shouldn't... Oh no!"
Crack!
Perhaps the middle-aged man's boasting had been annoying.
Before he could finish speaking, there was a sound of something bursting, and the video transmission ended.
It wasn't just a matter of noise causing problems, but that there was a problem with the drone itself.
"Suka blyat (сука блять)."
The middle-aged man muttered a curse under his breath.
Then he spat on the ground and took out a grenade.
"You pig bastard sucking ghost assholes. You dare to break an expensive drone?"
He pulled the pin and threw a napalm grenade into the hole.
* * *
Boom!
Jinseong smirked at the distant explosion sound.
"He was reckless in the past too."
Jinseong knew that man who had tried to catch him with such extreme methods.
The vanguard who led the war with neighboring countries during World War III, and the man who would later rise to the presidency.
Viktor Alexandrovich Smirnov (Ви́ктор Александрович Смирно́в).
His nickname was Viktor of the Nuclear Shower.
The man who contaminated half of Eastern Europe with radiation.