106.
that time.
“uh… ?”
Dayoung Kim, who had just entered the station, looked around with surprised eyes.
A rocky mountain with red rocks.
It was obviously a horse station, but now Kim Da-yeong was the only one standing in this dreary horse station.
“no one… doesn’t exist?”
I’m sure they all came in together.
Could it be that I fell alone?
With that thought in mind, Dayoung Kim tried to communicate according to the instructions, and soon realized that it was impossible.
“… … ”
Anxiety then confused her mind for a moment.
However, Dayoung Kim shakes her head and shakes it off, and first examines the terrain.
She was on a sloping ridge.
I couldn’t see far because of the thick fog, but it seemed that there were mountain peaks nearby.
“first… ”
Dayoung Kim brought out the attitude behind her back.
The fingertip holding the sword trembled slightly.
Dayoung Kim gripped the handle of the sword she was used to, and turned her body in the direction of the peak.
The mist seen from the ridge got thicker as we went down.
Then, if you go to a high place, maybe you can see something.
That’s how it was judged.
Maybe I’ll be able to meet other people with similar thoughts.
“… Let’s go.”
So she moved toward the top of the rocky mountain.
how long did it take
The slope, which was at first gentle, soon became steeper, and the fog gradually faded.
“uh… ?”
A sound filled her ears with only silence.
It was a distant rupture.
It was the sound of something hitting the ground through the fog and breaking rocks.
Is someone fighting?
Dayoung Kim took a deep breath and ran in that direction.
Because I can’t just pass by my comrades who are fighting monsters.
Then the sound got closer and closer, and soon the reality was revealed.
“Dayoung!”
It was Lim Hee-soo who said that.
A 4th grade female exorcist belonging to the same LB Academy as Dayoung Kim, and a colleague who participated in this operation together.
And what was in front of Lim Hee-soo was a giant centipede.
The red legs attached to the pitch-black body squirm wildly.
Dayoung Kim felt disgust and fear at the same time as she saw the gruesome monster.
The sword he was holding swayed slightly.
“I’ll go!”
However, Dayoung Kim did not hesitate.
With a forced stride, she ran to the centipede.
Then, as always, the disgust and fear disappeared as if erased with an eraser, and only a sense of elation dominated her mind.
A sharp anticipation at the end of a wavering attitude.
It cut open the body of the centipede in front of me.
“Shiyi!”
Chow!
The centipede’s bodily fluids gushed out with an exhilarating cutting sound.
The centipede had a shell as thick as its huge body, but even that couldn’t stop Dayoung Kim’s slash.
On the other hand, Dayoung Kim covered the black bodily fluid from the front, but did not feel any resistance.
On the contrary, the fact that she saw her enemy’s blood caused more excitement, and she began to swing her attitude like crazy.
“Kei-”
Then, the battle between Lim Hee-soo and Centipede turned upside down in an instant.
Centipede was unable to properly respond to Dayoung Kim’s new violence.
The centipede’s torso and legs were mere targets in front of that slash that sliced through the hard skin like cheese.
“Shii-!”
The centipede convulsed from the pain of having its entire body cut off.
But that’s for a while.
It found the hole through which it had risen above ground and poked its head into it.
He instinctively sensed his disadvantage and chose to retreat.
But just before its head hit the ground.
“now!”
Before I knew it, Lim Hee-soo was in front of him.
Lim Hee-soo’s spear pierced the head of the centipede that came down to the ground, and that was the end of the centipede.
The centipede stopped breathing and fell to the ground.
Lim Hee-soo confirmed the centipede’s death and looked back at Kim Da-yeong.
“Daeyoung! Thanks to you, I live!”
Lim Hee-soo said with a bright smile.
However, as the centipede died, Kim Da-young, whose madness had faded from her eyes, could not easily laugh.
The elation and excitement that had already shook my head like a drug had disappeared.
Instead, what fills that void is disgust.
She looked at the centipede’s bodily fluids that covered her.
From nob le mt l. com
Just looking at that gooey liquid with an unpleasant smell made me feel sick.
And the pain was felt in her arm as she held her attitude.
It was only for a moment, but the muscles that had been moved to their limit were now creaking.
“Dayoung, what’s wrong? Where are you hurt?”
Lim Hee-soo asked Da-yeong Kim.
Seeing Lim Hee-soo’s worried expression, Kim Da-yeong just smiled and shook her head.
“no. More than that, senior, the blood… ”
“Ah, this. it happened in the first place I didn’t expect it to pop out of the ground all of a sudden.”
There was a wound on Lim Hee-soo’s arm, as if it had been torn by something.
It wasn’t a very serious injury, but it was never to be taken lightly.
It is a magical place where the evil spirit of disease resides.
In this place where you have to be careful of poisons and diseases, injuries like that pose a serious threat.
“are you okay?”
“It should be fine. Until you find other people.”
At Lim Hee-soo’s calm words, Kim Da-young nodded slowly.
There was no point in worrying until he joined another colleague with a means of healing.
“Then let’s go up. Dayoung, you were heading to the top too, right?”
“yes. I was afraid I might see something.”
“So do i. But be careful. Maybe the owner of the magic station is up there.”
“that… Yes.”
Dayoung Kim replied with a pensive face, and Heesu Lim laughed at Dayoung.
“Why are you looking like that? I didn’t know, but you’re pretty timid, aren’t you?”
“Me?”
“Speaking of the sophomore student council president, you’re famous at the academy. That’s why I thought I might try to beat the owner of the station by myself.”
At those words, Dayoung Kim let out a small sigh.
A berserker, a battle fanatic.
As Lim Hee-soo said, Kim Da-yeong was known that way.
But I couldn’t deny it.
Even if he didn’t even have the will to do so, the way he actually fought was no different from him.
“Still, I’m glad I met you, senior!”
“I was lucky too. I guess they all fell in completely different places.”
“Will I be able to meet other people soon?”
Talking so hopefully, they finally reached the top of the mountain.
Contrary to my worries, there was nothing above it.
Instead, the fog that covered the surroundings was completely lifted, and the field of view was opened.
The illusion of being above the clouds.
However, the scenery Dayoung Kim saw from the top of the mountain was by no means hopeful.
“what’s this… ?”
Lim Hee-soo gave such a voice.
What stretched out in front of their eyes was a white sea of fog.
And in the distance, you can see the sparse peaks of the mountains.
Beautiful scenery that I have only seen in photographs or landscape paintings.
But the problem was its width.
The wide range of mountains covered with fog stretched endlessly beyond the horizon.
“Is this wide?”
A stable is generally a closed space.
Therefore, it is usually in the form of indoors, and even if it is not, there are limitations such as being limited to one village or mountain.
However, the magic they could see now was not that much.
East, west, south, north, and north, no matter which direction you look, you can only see the same scenery.
To the point where I couldn’t even guess the end of the magic station by looking at it with my own eyes.
If it wasn’t an illusion, it meant that it was an incredibly wide magic area that had never been observed before.
But to think that people are scattered in such a wide area.
“… … ”
In response, Dayoung Kim and Heesu Lim shut their mouths at once.
Then only a still silence lingered between them.
* * *
“No, where is this going?”
I said, looking at the green arrow still pointing forward.
After entering the station, it had been several hours since I had followed this arrow.
In terms of distance, it would have moved more than 20km.
In the meantime, far from meeting people, I only encountered a group of monsters a few times.
It wasn’t that big of a problem, but I was concerned about the size of this magic station.
Even though it was wide for a magic station, it was too wide.
“hmm… ”
So I remembered what I had studied before the subjugation operation.
First of all, the shape of the demon generally symbolizes the owner, unless it is a special case such as distorting the space of reality.
In that respect, the reason LB Academy guessed that the owner of the magic station was an evil spirit related to the disease was because of the entrance to the magic station.
It is said that the shape of the round entrance in red symbolizes a skin disease such as a boil.
In that respect, the disease that caused this demon was related to the skin.
Also, the breadth of this wide area meant that it was a disease that had spread so widely.
In addition to that, if it was enough to build this level of magic, it meant that it was a disease that had accumulated that much karma, that is, it had caused countless deaths.
“It is a disease that has spread widely and killed many people… ”
So that’s how famous it is.
But there was something odd about it.
The reason was that despite killing a lot of people, the poisonous nature of the magic itself was almost non-existent.
There are only a few poisonous monsters living here.
Because the poisonous nature of the demonic environment itself was non-existent.
At first glance, it seemed contradictory to the story.
But unexpectedly, that was the hint.
It wasn’t long before I thought of a disease that was applicable to this.
“Is it Mama?”
i.e. smallpox.
In the past, it was a deadly plague that made countless victims all over the world.
It was a disease that was completely eradicated by the discovery of a vaccine in modern times.
And the history of such smallpox was enough to explain this kind of magic.
Although the evil spirit created by the accumulation of countless deaths due to smallpox in the past opened its eyes.
Because smallpox was conquered by humans, its transmission as a disease itself was denied.
That’s why he made such a wide range, but he couldn’t load poison and disease on it.
“It looks like smallpox, but… ”
It was a valid guess.
It is also said that smallpox makes blisters all over the body, so it is related to the entrance.
I wonder if the study was helpful, I successfully figured out the identity, but nothing changed.
It was a story that had nothing to do with finding people in this vast area.
So I just quietly moved on.
And it was two days later that I finally reached Dayoung Kim.
* * *
“under… after… ”
Dayoung Kim, who had cut the monster in the form of a black snake, gasped.
The snake’s head was cut off, red blood gushed out and its body fell to the ground.
The bodies of five headless snakes were strewn across the wasteland.
And after cutting off all the snakes, Kim Da-young’s eyes, which could no longer detect the enemy, slowly regained their reason.
“ah… eww… ”
She grimaced in pain as if all the muscles in her body were being ripped out.
It’s already been 3 days since I entered the station.
In the meantime, Dayoung Kim kept moving to find her colleagues, but she couldn’t find anyone.
No matter how much you walk, all you see is fog and wasteland.
“… … ”
3 days at the station.
Eating and drinking were supplemented with emergency food that had been brought beforehand.
Because she couldn’t sleep comfortably in this dangerous magical area, she hadn’t slept here for less than an hour.
But even that, Dayoung Kim was okay.
Her body was reaching its limit from the continuous battle, but it was able to withstand it.
However, it was none other than Kim Da-young’s colleague Lim Hee-soo who was really burdening her.
“Ugh… ”
Lim Hee-soo was dying.
The wound inflicted by the centipede on the first day was caused by the centipede’s fangs, which poisoned it.
After that, Lim Hee-soo and Kim Da-yeong tried various antidotes they had brought with them just in case, or witchcrafts that were effective against toxicity.
The centipede’s venom was so strong that it was just a waste of time.
So Dayoung Kim carried her, who could not even walk on her own feet, on her own and hurried her steps.
There was no time.
Since she was once a doctor, it was very clear that Lim Hee-soo was getting closer to death.
But all she can do is take Lim Hee-soo to another colleague as soon as possible.
“… … ”
So Dayoung Kim walked through the wasteland without saying a word.
Her legs, which had not been able to rest for more than tens of hours, screamed, but she just moved on.
But soon, the legs that couldn’t hold on finally collapsed.
“oh… !”
I managed to touch the ground, but I couldn’t move in that state.
Blood flowed from the knee, which was stamped on the stone beak.
However, Dayoung Kim gritted it.
There was no one to listen to Dayoung Kim crying.
It would be fortunate if the monster didn’t appear after hearing that.
So, Dayoung Kim finally put Lim Heesu down and collapsed on the spot.
“ha… ”
A weary sigh escaped.
How did this happen?
“… … ”
Looking at the fog, she recalled the past.
Actually, she didn’t want to fight.
The ghosts were still scary, and the monsters were disgusting.
The reason why I chose LB Academy at the training center was to choose a research position where I could not fight.
However, at the academy, she could not choose a research position.
Ironically, it was because she was too strong.
No matter how much I hated it, I could tell.
He had a talent for himself.
His combat power was far superior to that of other exorcists of the same career, and he was recognized for exorcising countless spirits and monsters with that power.
So she decided to walk the path of an exorcist at the academy.
At that time.
The final blow was what a senior exorcist had said, that a powerful exorcist could save as many people as possible.
For Dayoung Kim, who chose the path of a doctor because she wanted to save many people, these words could not be overlooked.
However, Dayoung Kim was regretting that choice at that time.
“I am… ”
Now she was looking at herself coldly.
Looking back, he had never fought properly.
He wasn’t strong.
I was always scared and scared, but I didn’t even think about overcoming it, and I just surrendered to the sense of exhilaration rising every time.
And the result was this.
The completely uncontrolled madness could not save strength in continuous battles, and reached its limit.
Even though I don’t have time to be like this.
“… … ”
It was at that time that Dayoung Kim forced herself to stand up.
The quiet ground shook.
Despair filled Dayoung Kim’s eyes when she sensed the vibration.
to know what that means.
She desperately got up from her seat and pulled her attitude.
Unable to lift it completely, Dayoung Kim looked ahead as she dragged it to the floor.
OK,
“Shii-”
The centipede that had been bothering Dayoung Kim since the first day on the ground came out again.
only one.
At this, Dayoung Kim glared at him.
If it was one, wouldn’t it work somehow?
And a familiar sense of exaltation came over me, washing away the anxiety I had just a moment ago.
If only this is somehow-
“uh… ?”
Dayoung Kim, who suddenly came to her senses, murmured.
The craziness that came rushing in seemed to say that even his mental strength had reached its limit.
For an instant, it cut off as if the battery had run out.
“why… !”
Dayoung Kim’s eyes were filled with fear and confusion at the unexpected event.
However, the centipede in front of me didn’t pay attention to this and dropped its huge jaw toward Dayoung Kim.
That’s how Dayoung Kim felt her own death.
Quarreureung!
A white lightning bolt fell from the sky and hit the centipede.