128.
“The video is strange! are you listening The video is weird!”
“I’m listening, calm down.”
I said that to Choi Soo-hyuk, who was on the other side of the radio.
It was the first time he had seen an anomaly with his own eyes, and he looked quite bewildered.
“Specifically, what condition is it?”
I asked that and took the walkie-talkie and went out of the guard post.
The scene is right in front of you.
Even if you walk, it will take a few seconds, and the iron fence in the video will come into your eyes.
“Chuck, a black man appeared behind the barbed wire fence. And now behind bars… ”
“huh?”
Choi Soo-hyeok’s voice, which continued urgently, suddenly cut off.
The radio is still on, but there is no response.
Is it the work of the spirit?
But it didn’t matter.
The scene was just about to come into view.
“Look over there.”
Kwon Tae-soo pointed to the iron fence.
The black man Choi Soo-hyeok saw was clearly visible to our eyes at the scene.
The level you see above your head is 24.
It’s not a very dangerous level.
However, the spirit grabbed the barbed wire and shook it as if it were about to tear it apart.
Only then… I should just leave it as an ally or an enemy and just exorcise it.
That was when I thought.
Suddenly, with a groan, the iron bars were indeed ripped right in front of my eyes.
“what… ”
I frowned.
I didn’t expect it to be ripped off so easily.
However, I soon felt a sense of incongruity in the barbed wire fence.
There was a hole in the barbed wire fence big enough for people to come in and out, but nothing was visible after that.
Like a mouse hole in the ground.
“Huh… Is that the entrance to the station?”
Kwon Tae-soo muttered that.
It’s the entrance to the magic station.
When I heard it, I felt the same way.
Is the entrance to the station made in this way?
however…
“In order for a spirit to create a demon, didn’t it have to be an enemy age?”
So I asked Kwon Tae-soo.
However, if there really was a being of the age of the enemy here, something much bigger than the manipulation of the camera image would have happened.
At my words, Kwon Tae-soo thought for a moment, and then continued.
“That’s right. But not necessarily. If not alone, isn’t it something that can be done by a group of people?”
“How many?”
“The magic area is originally a space that embodies the image of spirits or the moment of death. However, if there are several spirits who had the same image and experienced the same moment of death… Even if you are not of the right age, demons can arise.”
It’s not a single spirit, but a demon created by multiple spirits.
Understanding the story, I approached the entrance of the station.
The person who made the entrance, to be exact, tore off the iron fence, was no longer there.
Only a hole in the air remains.
“Now what?”
Kwon Tae-soo asked.
But the answer has already been decided.
“I have to go in, what?”
It was a conclusion that there was nothing to think about, except that the arrow of the quest was pointing to the inside of the magic area.
At this, Kwon Tae-soo also nodded lightly.
“Then I’ll go in first.”
Having said that, he immediately entered the magic area.
It didn’t look very good to see him go into the hole in the barbed wire fence.
But I followed suit, and my vision soon reversed.
In an instant, the barbed wire fence, the stairs leading up to it, and the lighting above it disappeared.
Instead, only unfamiliar ground comes into view.
“Here… ”
This place… It was still a mountain.
But the scenery was not the same as before.
It is not a dense mountain of trees and grass, but a desolate wasteland with scorched soil and various unknown debris.
Only the bent and broken branches here and there indicated that there was once a forest here.
“Is it a battlefield?”
Looking around, I came to that conclusion.
Even though it’s a place that has nothing to do with the war I went through.
This landscape, scattered with traces of fire and iron and flesh and bones, was surprisingly similar to what I knew.
“… What is coming?”
Kwon Tae-soo pointed to the ridge of Bald Mountain and said,
As he said, a soldier was coming down from there.
It must be one of the spirits that must maintain this magic area.
A level sign was clearly visible above its head.
Surprisingly, he looked so human and spoke plain words.
“What are you? Why are you here?”
The soldier pointed the barrel of his gun in this direction and said.
His face was full of exhaustion.
What he was wearing was a military uniform soiled with mud and unknown filth.
Even just by looking at it, I could tell that I hadn’t spent a day or two on this battlefield.
Also, those eyes weren’t that cold.
The reason he didn’t shoot right away was probably because we were empty-handed.
“… … ”
But I put him in front of him and thought about my response for a while.
It was one way to destroy the spirit like this, but this magic station was not a normal magic station.
Battlegrounds of the past, that is. A magic station that reproduces the moment when the person who left the spirit died.
That’s why, if I don’t cause any problems, that death will happen again.
then…
“I think it would be better to just watch.”
So that’s what I concluded.
If it was the death of spirits who were soldiers on the battlefield, of course it meant fierce battles.
That’s why, rather than wandering around the vast territory, looking for anima.
It was efficient to wait for the battle and wipe out the spirits gathered in the middle at once.
“Good idea. Isn’t that the military uniform? Then we have to watch the situation first.”
However, Kwon Tae-soo, who misunderstood my intention, said so.
Was that a military uniform?
“What are you? Why are you here?”
Meanwhile, when we got no answer, the soldier repeatedly asked us.
It was a question that sounded like a recorded voice that had been played again, with the same level of voice as before.
It was different from a real person.
From nob le mt l. com
Just as this place is not real, that soldier is also acting with only a handful of memories contained in his heart.
So I answered moderately.
“The reinforcements.”
“… … ”
If this was a real battlefield, it was an answer that would not work.
However, the soldier, who had stopped for a moment with his expression gone, soon put his gun away and opened his mouth.
“… Follow me.”
He took us across the ridge of Bald Mountain.
Beyond that, several trenches had been dug along the slopes of the mountains.
Some of the trenches showed the figures of soldiers.
But the number was not large.
Will there be 10 people in all?
A soldier took us into one of the trenches.
In the uppermost trench, two soldiers were talking to each other.
The rank… They were captain and sergeant respectively.
“Squadron commander.”
“Corporal?”
“During reconnaissance, we found some suspicious people.”
The captain called the company commander saw this for the first time.
His gaze came out and passed Kwon Tae-soo.
“Who are you?”
“The reinforcements.”
“What are you here for?”
“I’m here to fight.”
“… … ”
The captain kept his mouth shut.
Is this not the answer you want?
While that awkward silence continued, the sergeant next to him suddenly opened his mouth.
“Ah, it looks like supplies have finally arrived.”
“Is that true, Platoon Commander?”
“You said you came now? Bastards, did you only send bullets this time?”
“no. I have something to eat.”
The corporal and the captain immediately reacted to the sergeant’s words and chatted among themselves.
Before I knew it, there really was something like a supply box behind me.
The captain looked at it for a moment, then looked at me again.
“Did you break through that siege and come all the way here? But you guys are out of luck too.”
“why?”
“Because once you’ve entered this hill, it’s impossible to get out.”
The captain let out a short sigh.
The sergeant behind him and the corporal moved to another trench with a supply box.
It looked like they were trying to distribute supplies.
The captain, who had been watching the scene quietly, opened his mouth slowly.
“It’s already been a month since we’ve been defending this place.”
The captain’s voice had subsided.
“Originally, it was a company with over 100 people. By the way, can you see the rest of the people now? Let alone a platoon, there is not even a squad size left.”
I could see the soldiers who received supplies, especially food, and liked them.
But even so, the captain looked at me and said:
“But what difference will it make if I send you some supplies?”
The captain said as if resigned.
As if he already knew his own death.
To this, I nodded lightly.
“I will ask for it.”
Perhaps they endlessly repeated their deaths in this magic station.
Han, who became their source, has nothing but memories of death.
Is that why?
The captain smiled bitterly.
“please… I hope so.”
It was the moment he said so.
A booming sound was heard from somewhere.
At the same time,
“It’s shelling!”
someone shouted.
Then the soldiers hide themselves in the trenches all at once.
It was shortly thereafter that the shell landed on the hill.
The shells flip the ground with a loud sound.
Trees with only the stump were cut down by the roots, and ghastly shreds of human bodies were scattered in all directions.
However, Kwon Tae-soo and I did not have to avoid it.
Because it was all fantasy.
This reenactment of death was nothing but a nightmare even for spirits.
For those who were only around level 20, they barely built up magic.
It was because the power to reproduce the reality was not allowed.
“Enemies are coming!”
Only when the artillery fire subsided did the opponent show up.
It was an army numbering in the hundreds, clad in brown uniforms.
And the 10 soldiers who were guarding the hill soon had a fierce battle with them.
“Is that the cause of the magic station?”
I murmured as I watched the approaching enemy soldiers.
The bullets they shot and the shells falling from the sky were just illusions.
The enemy forces coming from there were not just illusions.
Hundreds of them all had level markers on their heads.
If it’s that number… It wouldn’t be strange for a demon to be created.
“die!!”
Then one of the soldiers opened fire with a machine gun mounted on top of the trench.
Then the enemy soldiers climbing the ridge were swept away like autumn leaves.
Looking at the direction of the battle, it seemed that the ROK troops had killed most of them and annihilated themselves as well.
“Huh… ”
Kwon Tae-soo looked at the battlefield with a sigh.
A bitter look was evident in his gaze.
Considering his age… Although he was a grandfather, he was not old enough to go through the war.
But it was a familiar sight to me, so I had no intention of continuing to watch this grueling battle.
Coincidentally, all spirits are gathered in one place, right here on the battlefield.
Now was the time to exorcise.
“… Let’s finish quickly.”
Quarreung!
A thunderbolt struck as if out of nowhere in a battlefield where bullets were rampant.
The roar created by nature, not human gunpowder, roared over the hills louder than any artillery bombardment so far.
The lightning that hit the ground like that didn’t even scatter into the ground.
Like a dragon descending from heaven to earth.
The thunderbolt changed into the shape of a sparkling white dragon and traversed the ground.
In the place where the dragon of pure lightning passed, only ashes remained.
The spirits engulfed in it disappear without a trace.
“… … ”
Like an unexpected monster in a brutal war movie, the power of the blue dragon wiped out the enemy army in an instant.
Even that was not enough, and white flames and metal protruding from the ground attacked the rest of the spirits that the lightning could not burn.
So, the annihilation of them was an instant.
Then, silence finally came to the battlefield, and the expressions on the faces of the soldiers who were fighting desperately just a moment ago disappeared.
Fighting so hard, they didn’t even let out a victory cry.
Also, I wasn’t surprised to see a lightning dragon that fell from the sky and flames that moved themselves.
Because it wasn’t their memory.
The captain who appeared in front of me just repeated the question from before.
“Who are you?”
“The exorcist.”
“What are you here for?”
“Exorcists come to exorcise, what are they doing?”
Answering him roughly, I took out my sword.
The clear view of the bare mountain became blurred, and cracks appeared like camera noise.
The magic area, which had been built with the number of spirits, was slowly collapsing as a large amount of spirits were exorcised at once.
So I thought there was no point in further conversation.
But there,
“War is… Is it over?”
The Captain’s question changed.
Was that a question he had in his lifetime?
Or is it a question that has come to mind now?
I didn’t know that either.
Also, the answer also had some choices.
All I had to say was one word.
“Your work is done.”
“… Right.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and was silent.
Then he suddenly took something out of his arms and handed it to me.
that… A dog tag with his dog tag hanging from it.
He held it out and asked me.
“Hey, what’s your name?”
I looked at the dog tag.
Apparently, this seemed to be the medium for this captain.
Besides, not only him, but other soldiers were also holding out dog tags to me.
I opened my mouth, picking up the items with the names of the soldiers engraved on them one by one.
“I’m Kang Jin-woo.”
After hearing my answer, Captain Lee Seong-hwa finally nodded.
And finally, the station collapsed.
My vision flickered as if it were flickering, and soon I was in front of the barbed wire fence where the entrance to the Magic Station was originally.
Fortunately, the iron fence is in good condition.
A thorough search of this place, which was the scene of the incident, did not change anything.
The only thing that’s different from before is… It’s just a rusty dog tag in my hand.
“It’s over.”
Kwon Tae-soo murmured.
at the same time.
“older brother! Can you hear me? older brother!”
Choi Soo-hyuk’s voice came from the walkie-talkie, which had been silent all along.
I handed the walkie-talkie to Kwon Tae-soo.
“I can hear you. Did something happen?”
“Oh, you are alive. Don’t talk. All of a sudden, the radio didn’t work, and the camera went out. I thought it was going to be a real big deal.”
Listening to his words, the entrance to the station appeared, and it seemed that the camera didn’t even take a picture until it disappeared.
Nevertheless, Choi Soo-hyeok said that he did not even think about coming to the scene and was only checking the radio.
It was an extremely wise decision.
“Good job. Rather, I have something to give you.”
Kwon Tae-soo looked at my dog tag and said,
It has already lost its function as a medium and is now just an ordinary keepsake.
I handed them over to Choi Soo-hyeok, and the case was closed.