Chi-Woo ran. All he focused on while carrying the girl was running. He didn’t know where he was going or even where he was.
‘Something is strange.’ At some point, he had a feeling that he had been going in circles, but he just kept running toward where the girl pointed him to. The one silver lining was the fact that no more arrows or other projectiles were coming their way. Since he kept evading their attacks, it seemed his enemies were now chasing after him in person. It wasn’t like all the danger was gone, but Chi-Woo placed all worries and fears behind him and took a turn.
Although the city was in ruins now because of the war, they soon arrived at a place that used to be the downtown area. There, the girl raised her index finger. Chi-Woo looked over, and his eyes widened. There was a sizable building built out of faded white marbles. High rising steeples stood on each of its corners like a lighthouse and were connected by walls to form a square shape. On top, there lay a dome in the shape of an onion, and below it was an arched entrance. Surprisingly, the exterior of the building was intact. It showed signs of weathering, but no effects of the war. There were two possibilities: it was left untouched for some unknowable reason, or it had been protected.
It was a curious matter, but Chi-Woo quickly went up the stairs as he was in a hurry. No, he tried to climb up, but gasped when he found no purchase.
“Huh?” He was sure he was stepping on the stairs, but his feet passed right through the step and landed on the ground instead. He tried multiple times to no avail.
“Ugh!” The girl pointed with her index finger in frustration again. She pointed left, then right, right again, and then left. Chi-Woo stared down at the girl blankly.
—She’s telling you to step on the stairs in order.
Chi-Woo heard Philip holding in his laughter.
‘What?’
—Come on, look around you.
Chi-Woo scanned his surroundings in a daze. Nothing particularly seemed to have changed. No, wait. Now that he thought about it, the city was quiet and way too still. The loud commotion outside, the merciless bloodlust, the snipers, and his pursuers—they were all gone like they had been wiped out.
—Why are you even surprised?
Philip snickered.
—It’s not your first time crossing through spaces. Recall the time you saved this kid.
Chi-Woo remembered the space warp he saw on the rooftop of the Academy. ‘Then, like that time on the rooftop…!’
—The sexy witch dealt with everything that time, but it’s usually not so easy to go through a space warp.
‘What? Sexy witch?’
—Come on, you saw her too. She makes you feel things.
‘Stop your nonsense. Call her Lady Evelyn or Ms. Onorable.’
—You are hilarious, man. Is the witch your girlfriend or wife? Why are you aggravated?
‘I’m just telling you to be careful in the way you speak.
—Ah, I got it! I got it!
Although there was a short period of confusion, Chi-Woo understood the general situation now. He had stepped through a spatial boundary and entered another space. Entering another space was far more complicated than creating a barrier, since it involved exploiting the inherent gaps between the barriers inside a world—or at least that was what Evelyn had told him. In short, as long as they didn’t have a person with skills comparable to the Abyss’ witch, they were safe for the time being. Thus, Chi-Woo readied himself and took a step in the direction the girl had pointed him to. Thud. His feet touched the stairs, and he began to climb up one step at a time.
He soon reached the top and stood in front of the arching entrance. The marble doors were tightly shut, and at their center, there was a symbol that looked like a dolphin or even a Taeguk. The girl in Chi-Woo’s arms began to squirm. Before Chi-Woo could carefully let her down, she hopped off and ran toward the entrance. Without even slowing down to open the door, she ran right at it.
‘Isn’t she going to collide with the door—’ Chi-Woo hurriedly chased after her before he stopped.
“Ahnu!” At that single word, the doors slid open like an automatic door.
* * *
Meanwhile, the detachment led by Ru Amuh was running toward the center of the city. They were able to move so quickly and approach the inner part of the city thanks to all the attention Chi-Woo had drawn toward him. But of course, not all of their enemies had gone after Chi-Woo, and the closer they got to the heart of the city, the closer they were to the Demon Empire; thus, the security had been getting tighter.
Fulfilling his expectations, Ru Amuh felt the presence of snipers again and quickly found a hiding spot, plastering himself close to the building’s wall.
“I think we’re almost there,” Hodamaru said while looking around. “But how do we find the eighth recruits?”
“…”
“Hey captain! Why…” Hodamaru stopped talking and closed his mouth when he saw Ru Amuh raise his hand. Ru Amuh’s expression was alarming.
“What is it? What happened?”
“Wait. Give me a moment. I need to think…” Ru Amuh muttered.
Like all abilities, one couldn’t become too dependent on it and needed to know when to use it. This rule applied to even rare abilities like synesthesia. Thus, Ru Amuh didn’t just trust it blindly. His synesthesia told him that the place they were currently at was the only hiding spot where the snipers’ vision didn’t reach; there was no doubt about that. But for some reason, synesthesia was also sending him an elusive warning that was difficult for him to grasp.
That made him realize something was off. He had suddenly felt a wave of killing intent after running into no threats for a good while, and a hiding place just happened to be near? That was too much of a coincidence… It felt like they had been purposefully led here. Why? There was only one possibility: to sweep them at once—
As soon as the thought formed in his mind, he heard something strike his ears. It was already too late when he realized it.
“Everyone get down!”
Bam!
The wall exploded.
The stillness of the aftermath was broken by bouts of coughs.
“Damn it. This is within the range of their cannons too?” Hodamaru coughed while gritting his teeth on the ground. They weren’t outside. The fact that the cannons had been shot right in front of the Demon Empire’s territory meant the monsters were prepared for an all-out war. It wasn’t time for them to hang around here like this.
“Hey! Is everyone—?” However, Hodamaru blinked in puzzlement when he turned around. There were those who fell or fell over, but no one looked dead, or even injured.
Ru Amuh was also confused. He scanned their surroundings with a shocked expression and suddenly looked up. A spherical, half-transparent barrier was surrounding them.
Ru Amuh softly muttered, “…A shield?”
“What the hell? Was there a magician among us?” Dulia got up and fixed her scattered hair. This didn’t make sense at all. To Ru Amuh’s knowledge, there was no hero among the detachment who could make such a large and strong shield to cover all of them.
—Hello, can you hear me?
A voice rang in Ru Amuh’s ears.
—If you’re here to help us, identify yourselves. Show us which recruitment you were from with your fingers.
Ru Amuh was startled, but even then, he raised his thumb and index finger with his left hand and opened up all his fingers on his right hand.
—Fifty-second recruits? Wait, that can’t be right. Ah, it must be twenty-fifth recruits. Is it twenty-fifth?
Ru Amuh frowned. He had no idea who, where, and how they were delivering these messages to his ears. However, they must be trying to find out who they were. Ru Amuh shook his head and showed ‘2’ and ‘5’ in turn with the same hand.
—…I guess you can at least understand me. Seventh recruits. I’ve confirmed it.
It seemed Ru Amuh had gotten his point across.
—I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. If you run straight from there and turn right, you’ll see a building. It’s the largest building around here. Go in there for now.
—Inside, you’ll see stairs, but don’t go up. Instead, take the passage to your left and keep running. You’ll then see a warehouse at the end of the hall. Get in there. Come on, quickly!
The speaker spoke extremely fast. They said everything they wanted to say and hurried him on, and then one-sidedly cut off the conversation in a hurry. However, Ru Amuh could clearly feel the shield around them quickly and quietly disappear.
“Everyone, this way!” With the rough directions in mind, Ru Amuh led the detachment away. When he ran to the right as he was instructed to, he saw a towering building. He immediately went inside and ran through the aisle leading to the left and found a weathered door at the end. When he opened it and went in—
“Hurry up, hurry up!” One person was holding up the iron door from below and waving towards them. Ru Amuh and the detachment jumped down as quickly as possible. There weren't any stairs or ladders.
Thud! They landed on the ground. Ru Amuh stood still for now and turned around. All his team members had gotten in, but there were others still coming in, and as soon as they came down, they surrounded the detachment members. After a while—
Bam! The iron door closed with a thud. A deep darkness filled the aisle. Soon after—Tap! Crackkle! They heard the sound of someone flicking their fingers, and at the same, the torches on the walls lit up.
Clank-Clank— Someone was walking towards them. One side of the people surrounding them moved back to make way, and the figure stopped before Ru Amuh and his companions, crossing her arms as she looked at them.
“Hmm.” She tilted her head as if she wasn’t pleased with something, her long platinum blonde hair trickling down her shoulders reflecting the torch light. Then, she said, “This is all?” Her thin voice rang in the basement.
* * *
The door automatically opened. Once inside, Chi-Woo felt something strange about the place. Unlike the outside, the interior was quite neat; it looked as if someone had been taking care of this space. He got the same feeling as entering someone’s home and seeing freshly prepared brunch and steaming coffee on the table, but once he looked around, there was no one at home.
—…In the beginning, there was chaos.
Philip began murmuring while looking at a plank on the wall of the aisle.
—Good breeds evil, and evil breeds good. Good cannot be purely good, and evil cannot be purely evil. Therefore, good is evil, and evil is good. It’s not good or evil, but both good and evil. That is real chaos…
—Hmm, it doesn’t sound completely ancient…
Philip, as someone who had beat the crap out of many demons and even pagans who worshiped demons, tilted his head. Chi-Woo was about to ask what kind of nonsense Philip just read out, but decided to first chase after the girl. The girl was moving with great urgency.
Tap, tap, tap. She walked briskly before starting running, stopping only once she reached what looked like the center hall of the building. Following her footsteps, Chi-Woo came to a halt as well.
“Ah—” The girl’s lips trembled. Her behavior was quite strange. She had looked very excited a moment ago, but suddenly, she looked extremely shocked. He wondered why she was acting like that and saw a stone statue on the altar. Its posture was strange. It looked as if the statue was raising its upper body and was supposed to be touching someone’s forehead and hands. However, there was no other statue. It was akin to seeing the statue of Virgin Mary embracing Jesus with no Jesus in her arms. Then, the girl knelt down on the altar like a mermaid.
She gently pressed both of her palms on the statue’s palms and placed her forehead on the statue’s forehead. “Aww…Aw…” As if she had been reunited with a family member whom she had been separated from for a very long time, she tightly held onto the statue’s hands and cried.
Chi-Woo was lost for words. He couldn’t move his eyes away from the girl—no, both the statue and the girl; they fit perfectly together, as if they had finally found their other half.
—…Hey.
Philip, who was watching the sobbing girl, spoke up in a perplexed voice, which was unusual for him.
—You…it…seems like you picked up something unbelievable…?