“Let’s kill them.”
At that single phrase that echoed heavily in the darkness, the murmuring of the demon race filling the space subsided in an instant.
“No matter how much humans struggle, crossing the dimensional wall with the Middle Realm’s fragile flesh is close to impossible. The fact that that Saint and knight are here must be either some kind of accident, or because they themselves committed a taboo risking their lives.”
The demon race exuding the densest demonic energy came to a conclusion, red eyes flashing. Since the previous Demon King had died miserably, he, of the Demon King’s bloodline, had risen to the position of interim Demon King.
“There’s no such thing as Lancia’s clergy swarming over in droves. The only enemies we must face are those two bastards.”
“But those two bastards are the problem! The Saint’s divine power burns our origin, and the Holy Knight’s aura transcends physical limits. There’s no chance of victory in an all-out war!”
“Who said we’d have an all-out war?”
The Demon King smiled, tearing his mouth wide.
“This isn’t Lancia. It’s Earth, where mana is turbid and human selfishness and shadows lie thick. There’s no need to clash stupidly with force. This fragile and dense human city is our finest weapon and hiding place.”
He extended a massive hand toward the void.
“Open gates simultaneously. Disperse humans’ attention and power to those shallow rifts.”
It wasn’t a simple destruction order.
“And taking advantage of the gap when chaos reaches its peak, infiltrate the ‘Shadow Clan’ who can wear shells beyond the gates.”
“You mean to steal human skin?”
“Right. Lick up their memories and knowledge and blend perfectly into their daily lives. Aim for the moment those arrogant two bastards—the Saint and knight—let their guards down and stab their hearts from the deepest place.”
As the order fell, dozens of red eyes in the darkness simultaneously twisted with delight. Creepy friction sounds and terrible laughter filled the space.
***
Sudden gates that opened simultaneously across the nation.
An unprecedented disaster alarm in Republic of Korea history rang out, and just as the Management Bureau and major guilds turned pale and tried to mobilize all their forces.
Whiiiiing!
The detector that had been ringing ear-splittingly went quiet as if broken. The dozens of gates that had ominously torn through Seoul’s sky, dyeing it red and about to spew out monsters at any moment, all closed at once as if melting away like a mirage.
“What the hell?”
Yoon Taegyeom, glaring at the large monitor in the Management Bureau situation room, adjusted his glasses as if he couldn’t believe it. Over 90% of the hundreds of danger signals flashing red from all over the country had simultaneously disappeared. Only a few substantial B-rank or higher gates were opening their mouths, spewing ominous demonic energy.
“They’re feints.”
Vermouth, who had been staring at the monitor, opened his mouth in a low, sunken voice.
“They threw bait to disperse our attention and induce extreme chaos. Those numerous rifts that opened and then immediately closed were doors to quietly ‘push in’ something to this world.”
At Vermouth’s chilling warning, the situation room’s air rapidly froze.
But before chasing the invisible threat right now, the urgent priority was dealing with the real gates still remaining unclosed throughout Seoul. They couldn’t let the monsters that would pour out from inside cover civilian areas.
“We must immediately form teams and close the remaining gates.”
At Yoon Taegyeom’s urgent words, Choi Jaeheon nodded, narrowing his brow.
The problem was efficiency. The gates were scattered in multiple locations, and the longer time was delayed, the more monsters would destroy the surroundings. In this emergency situation, binding the beyond-S-rank forces of Choi Jaeheon, Vermouth, and Alexander in one team was tremendous power waste.
“Let’s split up.”
Choi Jaeheon issued orders while maintaining chilling reason.
“I’ll lead Stigma Guild members and block the Gangnam side gate. Guild Master Alexander, I’d also appreciate if you’d take charge of the Yeouido side with Empire’s attendants.”
“Oh, it’s an allied nation’s crisis, so I’ll gladly offer myself.”
Alexander readily slung his hammer over his shoulder and winked at Ian. What remained was the A-rank gate in the Jongno direction. Naturally that place was assigned to Ian and Vermouth.
“Ian.”
Choi Jaeheon’s eyes wavered. How could he send his younger brother, who still felt so fragile, to an A-rank gate? If it were up to him, he wanted to prevent him from entering the gate. If that wasn’t possible, he wanted to stay by his side and protect Ian. But guilds fundamentally had a duty to protect and defend the nation. Moreover, the area he was in charge of was expected to have the greatest damage.
While Choi Jaeheon’s worries deepened, Vermouth approached Ian’s side with a quite intentional movement. He rolled up his sleeve slightly and tapped his left arm—which had been torn off by Shadow Stalker not long ago and smoothly regenerated by Ian’s divine power—with his opposite hand.
“Choi Jaeheon-ssi. It’s tactically correct for you to take charge of the Gangnam defense line. So leave Ian-nim’s escort to me. I’ll safely attend to him without any incidents.”
Vermouth’s violet eyes sparkled hatefully. His fingertips swept over the newly healed arm as if showing it off.
“Ian-nim personally bestowed mercy and newly crafted this arm. So it should be used only for Ian-nim.”
“You, really.”
Thick veins bulged on Choi Jaeheon’s forehead. He knew better than anyone that beast-like knight’s blatant obsession with Ian. Just thinking about what that bastard might pull inside the dark dungeon under the pretext of escorting made his insides turn.
He wanted to immediately twist that regenerated arm again with telekinesis, but he couldn’t. Because the sense of debt from saving Ian’s life hadn’t completely disappeared yet.
Moreover, as Vermouth said, the most perfect and certain force that could be attached to Ian’s side right now was only that bastard.
“…Haah.”
Choi Jaeheon exhaled deeply while gritting his teeth.
“Fine. Vermouth, you bastard will enter the Jongno gate together with Ian.”
“A wise decision.”
Toward Vermouth smiling triumphantly, Choi Jaeheon approached closely and growled while radiating chilling killing intent. It was a terrifying warning enough to make the surrounding air tremble.
“However, if even one hair on my younger brother’s body gets injured, or if you pull any ‘tricks’ inside the dungeon using the situation as an excuse.”
Vermouth looked at Choi Jaeheon with wide eyes.
“Then know that you’ll be torn to shreds first by my hands, not the demon race. Consider yourself warned.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll stake my life to safely attend to Ian-nim.”
He would never say he wouldn’t do it. Behind the standoff between the two men glaring at each other as if to kill, Ian dry-washed his face with a tired expression. Even in this serious situation, those two’s blood-draining nerve war showed no signs of ending.
In any case, the situation was settled like that. Ian moved heavy steps toward the Jongno gate together with Vermouth.
“Phew.”
After Ian and each guild’s forces all left for the gates. In the situation room with only silence remaining, Yoon Taegyeom roughly pulled down his tie and placed both hands on the desk. On his desk lay a detailed report about the ‘possibility of demon race infiltration’ and ‘demonic energy’ that Vermouth had warned about.
Monsters with intelligence but who hate humans. If attacked with demonic energy, wounds won’t heal properly unless with healing mixed with divine power. Moreover, they also had the ability to wear human skin and permeate daily life. That’s why the place called Lancia also lost the first Saint in the beginning due to internal enemies running wild.
Yoon Taegyeom had strongly insisted that this terrible truth should be announced to the public. Because he judged that they could only prevent secondary damage by warning that your family, your neighbor might be a demon wearing a shell right now.
But the answer that came from the video conference with leadership that just ended was conservative and cold.
[Can’t do it, Team Leader Yoon. Society is barely finding stability after barely escaping from gate shock. And you want us to announce to that ‘demons that devour humans and imitate them are roaming the streets’? The public will be terrified and suspect and bite each other. It’s obvious as day that riots will break out!]
[We can’t create national fear just believing a foreigner’s words without clear evidence. For now, let’s just end it at releasing special agents to investigate secretly.]
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the higher-ups’ position. But Yoon Taegyeom’s intuition was warning that if they remained silent like this, an uncontrollable bloodbath would blow in.
