Chapter 61

The Weather Today: Clear

As our Supreme Mages crossed the bridge, they noticed a distinct change.

The fog was beginning to thin.

The visibility, which had been limited to less than 100 meters, suddenly extended to around 200 meters. Traffic lights and road signs that had completely vanished beyond a short distance now emerged faintly through the mist.

Before all this happened, it would have been a welcome change.

But for mages, it was enough to put us on edge.

Pastor Park Yohan and Shin Nain, who had been designated to use the firearms, visibly tensed as they watched the sky. Hamza seemed more nervous than usual as well; the breathing from his gas mask grew noticeably rougher.

Hoo—

Hoo—

The pastor noticed Hamza's breathing and relaxed his shoulders.

"Let's stay calm. The sun's still up."

"Ye-"

"Islam, stick close too."

Hoo... "Y-yes."

Every now and then, something watery or viscous squelched beneath our feet, but our Supreme Mages were manly men who didn't concern themselves with such unpleasant sensations.

Though we were still sentimental enough to feel melancholy while looking at the desolate streets.

The first thing we happened to see after crossing the bridge through the thinning fog above the flowing river was an empty schoolyard.

At a place where a three-way road and an intersection met, the Supreme Mages spotted a school building.

Even with the fog thinning, visibility was only about 200 meters, so we couldn't inspect the entire campus.

Still, as we slowly walked along the sound barrier separating the road from the school grounds, we found fragments of the school's name scattered away like debris.

Lee Sejun stood there blankly for a moment, staring at the building whose sign only retained the words "Middle School."

For no reason, he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists.

"It was a middle school."

"Islam and Nain, check it."

Hamza shook his head. Even through the gas mask lenses, his face looked pale.

Shin Nain tapped her headset with a finger and immediately turned away.

"It's dangerous."

"I can hear a baby crying."

The sound Shin Nain described was familiar enough that I recognized it instantly.

"Teratomas?"

"Probably."

"Come to think of it, what exactly is a Teratoma anyway?"

Pastor Park Yohan blinked as he asked.

Only then did I realize it.

The pastor and Hamza had never actually seen a Teratoma in person because they'd been enjoying the easy life in the rear.

I had assumed the monsters we encountered at Olympic Grand Park were Teratomas, but they had turned out to be different creatures, and the situation had been too urgent for a proper explanation.

But this wasn't a safe place to stop and talk.

We were standing in the fog with 200 meters of visibility and absolutely no cover or concealment.

"I'll explain next time we rest. Let's move."

Among older generations, many people describe middle schoolers as being "just babies."

The irony was that they had literally become babies of darkness.

And so we passed by the middle school inhabited only by Teratomas.

The traces of children who had once rushed to school wearing tracksuits or uniforms remained only at the front gate.

Where noisy students must once have crowded and chatted, only eerie, lifeless fog now lingered.

None of the Supreme Mages bothered to say farewell to those traces of childhood.

Everyone passed the gate, and when only Lee Sejun remained at the rear, I alone happened to hear his muttered voice.

"Namu Amitabha. Whether it's Allah or Jesus, may they show mercy."

To the right of the sidewalk we were walking on, beyond the median and the road, the silhouette of an apartment complex could be seen through the fog.

And the farther we advanced, the more signs of looting and chaos appeared.

Storefront windows along the roadside had been shattered so thoroughly that wind passed freely through them.

Browned bloodstains remained only as flakes of dried scabs atop towering piles of garbage.

The strangest thing was that there wasn't a single human corpse in sight.

Whether the monsters were making efficient use of corpses, or the survivors were, I couldn't tell.

Either way, it was difficult to judge danger through bodies alone, so we had to continue using magic despite the thinning fog.

Eventually, we reached a row of pharmacies across the street.

The moment I noticed that every single storefront window had been smashed, I stopped and raised a hand.

"Let's check first."

As the point man, I periodically halted before intersections or densely packed alleys to ensure the group's safety.

The purpose was to use the First-Stage Eye Magic to detect moving threats.

This time was no different.

While I checked for red footprints appearing within the fog, Hamza and Shin Nain carried out their own duties.

"It's okay... for now."

"There are monsters nearby, but they're some distance away. They don't seem to have noticed us or be approaching. It sounds like the Spines are lying in ambush waiting for prey. I can hear noises like fingernails scraping a blackboard."

"Good. Move forward."

This was an age where even a stone bridge had to be tested before crossing.

Especially in Seoul, where closing your eyes for a moment could get your face and body torn apart, careless optimism was a perfect way to die.

A lot had also changed regarding our policies and preparations for encountering monster groups.

Since ammunition had to be conserved, we became even more cautious.

Small groups of monsters could be forced into mutual slaughter using Second-Stage Tongue Magic: Desire Explosion, and whenever possible we'd stay concealed and simply wait for monster packs to pass by.

Fortunately, during our walk through the pharmacies lining the road—places marked only by shattered glass and traces of fire and distortion—we didn't have to fight anything directly.

The numbers were clearly lower.

We had prepared ourselves for most of Seoul's population of ten million to have transformed into monsters, but their density and numbers were far lower than even our most pessimistic expectations.

We already knew the reason.

It had become obvious that monster hordes had been moving toward the front lines—toward the outskirts of Seoul—for days now.

The information Shin Nain had continuously gathered through her hearing-based magic had proven accurate.

But facts like that meant nothing to a terrified Hamza.

The moment we confirmed the area was safe and resumed walking, he spoke in a timid voice.

"Um... maybe we should go back? If we run out of bullets, we're screwed."

"Hamza. You've been saying for days that monsters keep moving toward the front lines. If we turn back now, won't we run straight into the hordes gathering there? And if we burn through all our ammo trying to break through them, won't that be even more fucked?"

I clicked my tongue at Hamza, but my mood was far from pleasant.

Knowing that Hamza's doctrine-type magic, Angel's Intuition, only judged whether something was dangerous or not made me even more irritated.

That bastard clearly wasn't bringing it up because he thought it was a good idea.

Going inside was dangerous.

Staying outside was dangerous.

He just wanted an excuse to leave.

The guy had been a medical student in Pakistan.

There was no way someone like Hamza couldn't understand what would happen if we turned around now, when monsters were flowing from central Seoul toward the front-line perimeter.

Use up all our bullets breaking through the monsters blocking our retreat route just because we were short on ammunition?

No magic learned.

No mission accomplished.

All our bullets wasted.

It would amount to gambling everything on the slim possibility of escaping Seoul.

The only one willing to defend Hamza was the pastor.

"It's because things have gone way off from the original plan."

Pastor Park Yohan fiddled with the filter of his gas mask for a moment, let out a short breath, and brushed the dew off his poncho.

"The original plan was to advance step by step. We'd cooperate with other army units, ride with non-mage infantry, secure strongpoints, and move forward carefully. But then all those guys suddenly disappeared. I still don't know what kind of monster did it."

"We should've turned back then..."

"If we'd turned back, our entry into Seoul would've been delayed by a long time. That was exactly when the monsters were flooding toward the outer front lines."

The one who finally calmed Hamza's panic was Lee Sejun.

Even while watching our rear from the very back of the formation, he patted Hamza on the shoulder to reassure him.

Neither Shin Nain nor I said anything out loud, but we exchanged glances and shrugged.

Even though he had plenty of flaws, there were surprisingly many times when she and I reached the same conclusions regarding professional matters.

Annoying as it was, I had gotten used to it.

The thing Shin Nain and I both understood was why this pathetic suicide mission had happened in the first place.

Now I finally understood why the military had assembled the operation the way they did.

The first assault force had consisted of American and Korean special forces, reinforced with regular troops meant to secure footholds.

Then, in a hurry, they had organized a second reconnaissance force that included us.

If I had to guess, almost certainly—

The military had fought Seoul Mages before.

The military mages known as Specialist Troops were probably not only used to detect monsters, but also to direct military firepower against Seoul Mages attempting to escape.

People who were still slow to grasp the situation might ask why everyone couldn't simply build walls, receive supplies, and survive patiently.

But after killing two Seoul Mages, I knew better.

Both the military and the Seoul Mages knew that the fog was spreading.

So why were the Seoul Mages guiding monsters toward the blockade lines?

The military might still be misunderstanding cause and effect, but even if they reversed the order, the correlation remained.

According to Seoul Mage Kang Areum,

when monsters spread, the fog follows them.

What the military believed was different.

When the fog spreads, monsters appear.

The Seoul Mages knew that fog emerged where monsters already existed, so they focused on spreading monsters.

Meanwhile, the military believed monsters appeared where fog emerged.

Without understanding the true cause, they would continue falling behind bit by bit.

The truly fatal problem for the military was that they probably had no idea how the Seoul Mages were spreading the fog in the first place.

I didn't know what method they used to lure and direct monsters.

But they definitely had a method.

Perhaps the first assault force that had gone via Line 3—the special forces contingent—had already figured it out.

Even so, discovering the truth wouldn't magically turn an unfavorable battle into a favorable one.

Inside the fog, modern firearms suffered from severely restricted visibility.

Only mages received the fog's blessing and could fight efficiently within it.

The Seoul Mages didn't even need to sacrifice themselves to break the blockade.

As long as they could continuously drive monsters toward the front lines, the modern military would slowly be worn down.

This was a death match.

A death match in which the Seoul Mages grew stronger at a speed that was overwhelmingly, absurdly faster than everyone else.

The rule governing this battle was so simple and direct that it would naturally provoke resentment from non-mages.

—Only mages are given a chance to fight and survive.

I let go of my irritation toward Hamza and decided to calm him down instead.

"Quit regretting it and keep moving. Hamza, you knew you'd die if you tried to run."

"Sniff... Seoul is hard..."

"Living away from home is always like that."

Moved by the warm friendship of the Supreme Mages, Hamza finally managed to overcome his fear.

"Y-yes... The angel is also telling me we have to keep moving forward."

That bastard.

So he really had wanted to run away because he was scared.

Anyway, with Hamza's panic settled, our Supreme Mages continued pressing onward.

The problem appeared shortly afterward.

Visibility within the fog had reached nearly 300 meters.

The fog had become far too thin.

As a result, we could now make out a large open lot and an enormous building on the left side of the road.

To the right, beyond rows of street trees, what looked like an apartment complex came into view.

And until the bridge crossing the Han River, there wasn't a single alleyway or shelter suitable for hiding.

Shin Nain's eyes hardened as she quickly made a decision.

"Let's go back near those pharmacies with the broken windows."

"You hear something?"

"There are too many. We need to wait until the fog thickens."

She didn't need to explain what there were too many of.

I already knew.

April 19, 2028 — 5:47 PM.

Day 5 of the expedition.

We were forced to turn back despite seemingly being right on the doorstep of the Han River.

As we searched for a narrow, defensible location that could serve as a shelter, cold sweat trickled down my back.

The fact that the fog continued thinning was not a good sign.

Though the soldiers outside the city would probably consider it a golden opportunity.