Episode 190
Permafrost (11)
Before Seoul was in ruins.
Anya thought she was a genius.
Shining looks despite her young age.
Unusual shooting ability that he demonstrated at the shooting range where he followed his father as a child.
Even the quick awakening of myself that I learned through it.
Everything looked perfect.
I thought I could be everyone’s star.
At school, every child struggled to become friends with her, and her status in the neighborhood was always top notch.
However.
A week passes, a month passes.
As the years passed, her abilities did not develop.
At first, including her parents, she herself is also young, so it won’t matter. It was considered insignificant.
-Okay.
her parents said so. But Anya still remembers when she’s older. The crumpled eyes of the mother who couldn’t keep still while biting her nails.
And at the association where she went for reexamination, Anya realized her incompetence.
It wasn’t something she realized herself when she was still young. Through the mouth of a doctor at a hospital where awakening is being evaluated–.
-hmm… … It must be difficult to aim for Seoul with this level of ability, right? Mother, what would you like to do?
—It was forced to know.
Anya wanted to shine like a group of stars in the night sky, but her ability was only a small firefly.
-… … mom? … … dad?
– Don’t say anything.
And in the car on the way home, she noticed that the eyes of her family looking at her had changed.
‘Dig into the heart like a dagger.’
If the above words were embodied, wouldn’t the parents’ eyes look like that now?
In the dark car, only the whites of her eyes flashed, and the two pairs of eyes staring at her were menacing.
so i came home
Anya was conscious of the changed gaze wherever she went.
and… … .
Anya moved to a dungeon on the outskirts of the city to change their eyes.
Unusually, there were no monsters on the way to the deepest part as if they were welcoming them.
“I want to be special.”
＜What the hell does a kid like you want to be special for?＞
In front of a human-like demon in front of her, young Anya spoke cautiously.
It was by accident that I found it. Fate disguised as a coincidence found on the way home from the association. Originally, it was a place that would never have been found by a child like her.
However, no matter how well hidden it is.
I couldn’t avoid her [Eye] obtained through awakening.
“… … that.”
The devil stared intently into little Anya’s eyes.
[Demon Keeper Arkham] nodded his head in satisfaction as he saw her swaying eyes.
＜Low self-esteem that is conscious of others’ gaze, self-loathing for disappointing parents, and weak ideology of choosing people to stand above others, all of them are delicious. I don’t know how a little boy like you could have all these ignorant things. good-!＞
“my… Are you granting my wish?”
＜I’ll make your wish come true?＞
At that, Arkham burst into laughter.
＜My little one, you are misunderstanding something. This contract is not for me to grant your wishes—.＞
Arkham, who had laughed so much that the room resembling a temple resounded, erased his laughter in an instant and lowered his head to face Anya.
then said
＜You are making my wish come true.＞
Anya pledged her feelings and made a contract with the devil.
and after a few days
The day Anya’s family and Nikolai’s family visited Seoul together.
Korea’s heart is in ruins.
Only knowing that she was the trigger and detonated the Han River incident, Anya could not remember what happened that day.
* * *
Nikolai led the way up the emergency exit stairs.
The inside of the emergency exit was bright, unlike the 1st and 2nd floors of City Hall.
Anya followed him.
Anya put her hand on the railing and raised her foot to the next stair.
they just climbed
How many floors did you climb like that?
“Haa— Collie, what do you want me to show you?”
Anya opened her mouth to the strangely quiet Nikolai’s back, and he stopped in place.
I stopped exactly halfway between the first floor and the next.
After a short word at the boundary that didn’t belong anywhere, Nikolai looked back at Anya.
I saw his face with a mischievous smile.
“… … You’re almost there. I’ll tell you when I arrive.”
“… … okay.”
“It’s not perfect yet, but you should be satisfied enough.”
There are no words that follow. That short word was the end.
Anya felt something sad about Nikolai’s smiling face.
And the floor just below the roof.
Upon reaching the disused, abandoned stairs, Nikolai’s feet stopped. opened the door and entered.
“… … nothing?”
Like Anya’s muttering, there was nothing on the stairway they encountered. It was literally empty.
Except for the occasional grayish-white concrete pillars, there was nothing but fluttering dust and concrete powder.
“This way… … .”
Crossing the gray wasteland where the light of the blue night sky came in, he stood in front of the window.
Placing his hand on the window frame, he turned to Anya.
“No, so have you decided on the answer?”
“… … There, that.”
His eyes stared straight into Anya’s pupils.
After mumbling for a moment, Anya bowed her head toward his eyes that demanded an answer.
“Sorry.”
“refuse?”
“… … huh. It’s kind of impossible.”
At her words, Nikolai sighed.
“That’s right—”
He crossed his arms and stroked his chin with his left hand.
Although he was rejected, his face looked rather relieved.
At least Anya felt that way.
I moved a step towards Nikolai.
He tried to get closer, in case he jumped down after being kicked by himself.
“Hey, Collie… … .”
And the moment she just opened her mouth with her feet.
“—I’m glad.”
“… … uh?
“It’s gone now.”
Something is out of focus. Like a sandcastle piled up one by one, it collapses in the waves.
—Something got messed up all at once.
Anya hurriedly walked over to him and spoke up.
“Are you happy? what the hell is that… … ?”
“… … .”
At Anya’s question, Nikolai quietly clenched his fists and raised his arms.
He clenches his fist as hard as if to squeeze the moon through the window and opens his mouth.
“Didn’t I say I had something to show you?”
“… … .”
He felt a hint of mischief in the corners of his lips.
Anya’s feet stop, leaving only a few steps from Nikolai.
Anya’s gaze fixed on his fist.
As soon as he raised his arm—
-Chang-Geurang!!!
He smashed the window with his fist.
Shards of broken glass rained down behind Nikolai’s back.
‘Down!’ and the strong night wind circulated the stairway through the broken windows. cold and chilly
-Wheeying.
The Wind Blows. Under the moonlight, Nikolai’s blonde hair fluttered.
Under the pure white moonlight, his blue eyes were as cold as the temperature.
“It was prepared just for you.”
at the same time.
Through the open window, red-hot flames gushed out of its mouth.
* * *
that time.
I remembered Anya heading to City Hall.
It was the same with Elizabeth and Desiree, so our steps out of the house were wide and quick.
I was hoping it would work out somehow.
“I have to go see Anya.”
“is it so.”
“… … huh.”
the moment it came out.
I got a strange feeling.
It was the kind of disgusting feeling that something from the outside was trying to get deeply involved in my body.
I was startled and circulated magic power through my body.
As the whitish flames circulated through the blood vessels and the magic furnace, the pollen-like things that had accumulated in them burned up and disappeared at once.
“This… … What else—?”
“Did you feel the sun too?”
Perhaps the children also went through the same process as me, and the reverberation of magical power that could not be captured flowed from them.
and.
“Uuuhuh——”
It saved me the trouble of figuring out what was going on.
An old lady passing by just in time showed it to me.
Her entire body contorted as she let out a grotesque tone. The joints turned in the direction they couldn’t fold, and the body began to expand.
“Hey—!!”
Desiree was startled and ran, but had no choice but to stop.
-Paaak!!!
It was because, along with the grotesque explosion of flesh, something completely different from the ‘old lady’ came out.
In place of the wrinkled skin, a shiny upper was placed. Sharp claws clicked in a mouth that had lost all its teeth and seemed to be able to barely drink.
Three pairs of legs with four joints.
It was hard to see the appearance of being divided into a head, chest, and belly as being human.
It was a human that had shed its way into an insect-type monster.
She was one of the elderly couple across the street who treated Anastasia like a granddaughter.
“This crazy… … ?!”
It’s not just her.
A groan is heard from all directions.
After they had finished molting, they might have accidentally touched something inside the tightly closed door, but occasionally, through the window, an explosion and flames could be seen gushing out.
The once peaceful city became hell in an instant.
Citizens as monsters.
The downtown is in ruins.
Everything changed one by one.
“hey! Golden Sun! What are you doing?!”
Elizabeth called in a harsh tone, but I couldn’t move.
Only then did I know Things that have happened in Maritime Province so far flowed like a panorama and piled up step by step.
It’s like making a book.
The splintered scenes began to weave together.
All the pieces of the puzzle of what has happened have been put together.
The reason why the Free Cities visited through reconnaissance were empty, the strange patterns that surrounded the Free Cities where no one lived due to the evaporation of citizens, and the number of monsters abnormally increased even though no hatchery or gate was detected nearby.
And strange graffiti painted on the outskirts of the city.
I ignored it casually at first, but that wasn’t the case.
It was something I absolutely had to go through.
I’m in a hurry.
for not being able to focus.
it’s missed
gritted it
It was too late to undo what had already happened, and if I stayed like this, I could end up drifting in the middle of a city plastered with monsters.
“Desiree! Elizabeth!”
“Yes!”
“Tell me quickly! I don’t have time.”
It is unreasonable to judge the situation as objectively as possible and run from here to the outskirts of the city, and you cannot entrust something to Desiree, who cannot drive.
“Destroy all the graffiti painted on the outskirts of the city like Elizabeth. If it’s something that we can neutralize simply by circulating mana, then we’ll be able to destroy it with just that amount of action!”
The magic of this world changes its effect, form, and range according to its ‘cost’.
I don’t know what Nikolai was hiding, but this would be enough.
It is impossible to deal with it if there is a variable while moving the two separately.
Elizabeth immediately nodded and immediately started searching for a car with a monster nearby.
“What will Taeyang do?!”
“… … I’ll go see Anya.”
At my words, Desiree frowned.
she knows too Like Elizabeth, he was trying to shoulder the hard work again by himself.
“Are you going to do that again?”
she sighed.
“Desiree! What are you doing! Ride fast!”
Suddenly, a white car was stolen… … No, borrowed Elizabeth honked.
I turned my back on her.
then said It seemed as if the Yeriel on my waist was glowing in the moonlight.
“Sorry, this is me.”
I want to step out like that.
“If you’re going to—!”
Her cry caught my ankle.
“If you’re going to do it, do it right. Don’t get hurt by messing around like last time. Because I can’t even save you this time.”
Desiree’s face was painted with a gentle smile. Her hair, like a field of bright golden wheat, seemed to sway in front of me.
okay.
This was also her, Desire.
I ran towards City Hall. Footprints left in the snow.
Promising to put a punch in the guy’s face.