“Kh… at this rate, we’re going to lose Busan. What do we do?”
At Bak Yeong-cheol’s words, Bak Young-min roughly wiped away the blood covering his body and looked around.
“This is damn relentless. Just how many of them came?”
“I’d estimate around 100,000. What do we do?”
“What’s happening with the civilian evacuation?”
“The kids are fighting for their lives. They’re on the verge of dropping dead.”
After one upheaval and one war, Busan’s population had sharply decreased to the point that it was now under one million.
So the phrase “the second capital” had already become meaningless, and now that another invasion had taken place, the chaos was even worse than before.
“What about those bastards coming from the other regions?”
“They’re probably running here hard enough to wear out their heels. But you know how it is, don’t you?”
Some of them would be running away.
That was because there were many who had become sick to death of any situation where they had to fight people because of war trauma.
It was then, as they were catching their breath for a moment.
“So you were here.”
The two men flinched at the sudden voice coming from the air, but Bak Yeong-cheol soon realized who the owner of that voice was and brightened.
“You’ve come!!”
“Who is it?”
“It’s Baek Da-gyeong. A 7th Circle black mage!”
“7th Circle…. A remarkable person has come.”
“Is everyone here the entirety of your forces?”
In response to Baek Da-gyeong’s question, Bak Young-min said that they were.
“You’re holding out quite well against 100,000 with fewer than 30,000 people. They say war is not decided by numbers alone, but at this rate, it does not seem you’ll last long.”
“More than 20,000 are focused on evacuating civilians. Our goal is to buy time.”
Seemingly satisfied by Bak Young-min’s answer, Baek Da-gyeong lowered her altitude and landed on the ground, then soon pulled something from her arms and threw it onto the ground, whereupon it began to grow as if swelling to an enormous size.
“A mobile Magic Tower…. is that right?”
Bak Young-min, Bak Yeong-cheol, and countless Awakeners were astonished, but Baek Da-gyeong waited until the structure had fully taken shape, then opened the door and shouted inside.
“Everybody out. It’s time to work.”
Then, people began walking out, grumbling in tones that made it sound like they were dying of annoyance.
Their haggard and pale complexions clearly showed that they were black mages, and realizing that the oppressive presence they gave off was on a completely different level from that of ordinary mages, Bak Young-min approached and asked, looking tense.
“There seem to be quite a lot of you. How many have come as support?”
“These thirty-odd ragged-looking ones you see here are all of us. Our guild is an elite small-force unit.”
“A guild…. was it?”
Seeing the mobile Magic Tower, it was on such a scale that one could not think of it as a mere guild, so while he was flustered, Baek Da-gyeong looked at the black mage standing at the front and spoke.
“We need to buy time. There are plenty of corpses around, so raise only the Awakeners and make them fight.”
“So we just use the Japanese ones, right?”
“We have to do it like we did in the last war. Otherwise, we’ll get cursed out later. And… you know how hard the old men are working, and you’re still asking that?”
The black mages, shrinking back, began scattering in all directions, and seeing that, Bak Young-min spoke.
“I’ll assign people to support you. I’d like you to focus on controlling the undead.”
“In that case, I’ll leave my kids to you.”
“Tower Master…. no, what will the Guild Master do?”
She tapped the mobile Magic Tower with her foot and then said,
“I brought it out, so I should use it. It is a Magic Tower, after all.”
Only then did Bak Young-min become certain that a very powerful reinforcement had arrived, and he looked at Bak Yeong-cheol and said,
“Support the kids, and tell the rear to stay as calm as possible while evacuating.”
“Yes, hyung-nim.”
The situation in Busan was moving busily.
At that same time, across most of Gyeongsang-do, many people had joined the stream of evacuees, while conversely countless Awakeners were staying away from the battlefield for various reasons.
The reason was simple.
The generation that had not gone through war had been swallowed by fear because of the illusion created by the war generation.
On top of that, even those who had experienced war were gripped by a vague anxiety over whether they themselves could truly perform in such a war, so even high-ranking Awakeners began showing a tendency to avoid war.
Because of that, many guilds were also swept up in the atmosphere and had no choice but to hesitate.
“…Is it really right for us to evacuate like this?”
“Quit your bullshit and move. If you stick your nose in for no reason, you’ll all die.”
“But…. if Japan pushes us back like this, what will happen to us?”
“Fuck, if we win up north, they’ll send support down here, and then we can push back down together. The government army hasn’t even arrived yet, so what if you act like lunatics trying to buy time and end up dead?”
“…Understood.”
It was a situation where one could only shrink back.
Moreover, one of the causes making the anxiety worse was that the war situation in the northern region was not very good either.
If at least one place had been delivering clear news of victory, it would have been one thing, but every region that had become a battlefield was bogged down and performing poorly.
As a result, countless guilds acted in direct opposition to the bold things they had shouted before, and in the end that was expected to become a bad development.
The black mage unit led by Jeong Gil-sun and Cheon Jong-un struck the rear of the Chinese army just before dawn was about to break, shortly after the battle had begun.
“It’s the enemy! An ambush!!”
By the time they realized they had already been ambushed, most of the black mages had already unleashed the destruction spells they had Memorized, and because the enemy had not been able to prepare sufficiently, tens of thousands were exposed to the magic of over five thousand black mages, putting them in a position where their rear would be struck hard.
“Those fucking bastards, where the hell did they come from?!!”
“They say the ground suddenly opened up and they burst out from there!!”
“So those cowardly bastards had been preparing in advance?”
Sangjang Liu Chang was certain that an enormous number of casualties would occur, and because of that, he instinctively realized that his allies would turn into enemies and that a horde of undead would run rampant.
So he hurriedly summoned Jungjang Yu Hyeon and Hwang Yang and gave the order.
“We’re sending in the Chantra unit. Have them buy us time!”
“Yes, Sangjang!”
The two generals moved quickly after receiving the order, but their unease did not fade.
Perhaps because, even in that short time, they now felt they understood why the enemy had kept doing nothing but retreat.
Was that why?
Judging that it might not be only the black mages who had sprung into action, Liu Chang ordered that communications be opened with the unit that had been told in advance to follow the enemy’s rear.
But the answer that came back was absurd.
“Urgent report! The enemy is reversing the tide!”
“Relay it to the rear immediately and order the entire army to advance!”
“Yes, sir!”
Liu Chang had become desperate. And just then, sensing a tremendous dark magic power even from far away, he kicked off from his position and headed somewhere. As he moved, many of the surrounding troops moved with him as well, and the place he arrived at was just as chaotic, with all eyes soon turning to Liu Chang upon his arrival.
“How is the disruption proceeding?”
“We’ve lost contact with the carrier strike group since a short while ago.”
“…What about the Japanese side?”
“They have begun advancing, and are pushing forward starting from southeastern Korea, including Busan and Geoje.”
“Have our forces all concentrated on our side?”
After moving quickly through various places and receiving reports in order to grasp the details, Liu Chang gave the order.
“We hold. Stall them somehow until reinforcements arrive from the rear. And in cooperation with Chantra, we will begin clearing out as many of those black mages that launched the ambush as possible.”
In the end, Liu Chang recognized that enduring was the only option left, and hoped that Chantra, which could at least hold out in a contest of strength against the black mages, would properly fulfill its role.
“The ambush really worked. This is a tremendous military achievement!”
At Jeong Gil-sun’s words, all the black mages around him looked over the battlefield with satisfied expressions.
In reality, they had rapid-fired nearly all of the spells they had Memorized, and had inflicted damage on an Awakener army numbering in the tens of thousands.
Moreover, they had firmly raised an undead force as well, and in many places Blood Golems made by gathering blood were relentlessly pursuing the enemy and launching attacks.
“As promised, we split into two forces and scatter, correct?”
Jeong Gil-sun nodded at Cheon Jong-un’s words.
“There’s not much efficiency in us all staying in one place anyway. Even if we strengthen the undead, the limit is clear. In that case, it would be better to carry out guerrilla attacks like before. But…. do you really intend to cross the border?”
“Did you not receive the message?”
According to the information provided by the government before the operation began, it had been determined that a large Chinese force was stationed two days beyond the border, but the unusual part was that the unit consisted of an ordinary civilian army.
So the plan was made for the forces to split up, with one side remaining in Manpo, while part of the other acted as if it were moving to Kanggye before crossing the border.
And it had already been discussed that the Black Tower, a gathering of black mages largely far removed from The Light, would take the lead in slaughtering the Chinese army and then command a massive undead legion.
There had been much argument over this point, but in the end Jeong Gil-sun sided with Cheon Jong-un’s hardline stance that no one talked about human rights in war.
The government also knew of this decision by the black mages, but its response policy was not much different from that of the Black Tower.
That was because they judged that China was not a group that would show mercy even to its own people.
Indeed, in the last war many civilians had been slaughtered, and because of that an undead army had swept across the Korean Peninsula.
So now it seemed more accurate to say that this was no longer being seen as a war between humans, but was degenerating into a battle between monsters.
“Do not overdo it. You must always know when to retreat.”
“Do not worry. If a situation comes where we really feel we are going to die, we can hide in a Gate that still has a long time left before closure, restore our strength there, and hold out.”
“Tch, what’s so good about that crude method…. Until we meet again.”
Thus, about a thousand black mages cautiously detached themselves from the group and split away.
‘I will make sure you answer with desperate thoroughness!’
Jeong Gil-sun and Cheon Jong-un were filled with venomous resolve.
At that time, the West Sea had become a hellscape created by a single person.
“…You…. have become even stronger!”
I smiled because it was a familiar face and I was pleased to see him, but the other man’s expression twisted fiercely.
“Are you trying to toy with me?”
“It is a smiling face. Is that so strange?”
“Damn it…. you’re a veritable yaksha.”
I lightly flicked my finger, then walked across the deck of the supercarrier and raised the corpses strewn all around it back to their feet.
The deaths of the countless Awakeners crushed to death before overwhelming power, without even any fierceness or desperation to speak of, were horribly ordinary, and the 8th Circle Master and final survivor, Ma U-yang, ground his teeth at the sight of the old nemesis before him.
“When did you cross the boundary?”
“There is no need for me to tell you that, so instead of an answer, I shall ask a different question.”
“And do you think I would answer?”
“You will have to. Otherwise, I will kill you, extract your soul, and use it for my new hobby of playing with such things.”
“As expected of a black mage mongrel, you are vicious to the core!”
“That is not for the likes of you to say, you who grew excited at the thought of trampling another country and came charging in. So answer me, are more coming from the rear?”
Instead of answering, Ma U-yang released his mana, and thinking that was answer enough, I sent all the countless undead I had raised at him.
He hurriedly tore the undead to shreds with instantly castable spells, but each time I pushed mana back into them, re-formed them, and made them rush him again, the number surrounding Ma U-yang gradually increased and the distance closed in.
Ma U-yang, dripping with cold sweat, desperately tried to block the undead, but since I was also pressing down on him with mana pressure, he was gradually driven onto the defensive and began shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Please, let me die with honor! I beg you earnestly!!”
“A worm that cannot even answer my question properly speaks of honor? Freeze to death with your honor. The only thing your kind deserves is dishonor. So struggle desperately and meet an end where you are torn apart and eaten bit by bit, without a single scrap of flesh left behind.”
At that, even though he screamed and resisted, he did not last more than five minutes before meeting his death, his entire body torn apart and devoured by the undead.
However, my work did not end with merely killing him.
I used Call of Spirit to summon Ma U-yang’s soul, sealed it inside a Magic Stone, then placed it into Sub-space, and after glancing over the aircraft carrier, where only corpses wandered bleakly, I flew up into the air without regret.
‘I am sorry it took much longer than expected.’
It was a moment when I felt concerned that I had made Go Yu-jin wait too long.
