Chapter 33

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

The wagons race madly forward. The mobile barrier sways feebly on top. Even with calamities approaching, everything remains quiet. The damaged barrier can’t fulfill its role.

Stars appear one by one in the sky. Stars of varying sizes and colors, much prettier than Earth’s stars.

-Do you think the stars are pretty?

Once, Temurin had mocked the children.

-What’s pretty about them? Those are just proof that our world is completely shattered.

Yet even as he said this, Temurin lay on the wagon, unable to tear his eyes from the sky. The children teased him mercilessly.

-No! I’m not crying! My eyes are just naturally moist… Hey! Lidia! You explain it to them!

-Dad… so embarrassing…

As Lidia turned her head away, Temurin wore an expression like he’d lost his entire nomad.

Screeeech!

A harpy tore through the sky and plunged downward.

Crash!

The mobile barrier. The massive rock was smashed like a potato.

Fragments were swept away in the whirlwind, and with a thud! Temurin was thrown from his horse.

White brain matter spilled from his shattered head.

Crunch!

Screeeech!

A Guardian suddenly emerged from the forest and stabbed the harpy that had destroyed the mobile barrier. The two monsters entwined and rolled, breaking trees as they went. Two more people were crushed to pulp in the chaos.

Crackle!

The Calamity of Lightning struck from the sky, melting nearby Guardians. Bright red molten metal fragments dripped down.

‘Wow—everything’s getting destroyed.’

Does panic eventually lead to numbness? By this point, it all seemed like a comedy.

Everything was just getting destroyed. Calamities destroyed, Guardians destroyed, the wagons carrying essential supplies, people we’d known for years, even the mobile barrier that was the nomad’s last defense… all ruthlessly destroyed.

Even if we were lucky enough to survive this chaos, we’d die without the mobile barrier, and if we somehow survived that, we’d die from lack of supplies. A dead end after dead end. How many nomads had ever witnessed such a scene? And how many had survived it?

Were all human efforts to survive just a joke?

The stars twinkled, looking down on us as if amused.

The mobile barrier was broken. What that meant was simple.

The Sena School Nomad was finished.

Thud-thud-thud-thud.

We continued running, but only death awaited ahead. Even Teacher Sena and even Mom couldn’t decide which direction to take. We could only race straight toward our inevitable deaths.

‘Still… I can’t just throw in the towel, right?’

Death was trying so hard to catch us. Should we make it easier for it? We’re still alive, so we should make it as annoying and tiring as possible until the very end.

I shouted,

“Teacher Sena! Let’s head toward the center of the forest!”

Teacher Sena turned to me with a blank stare.

“Let’s live even one more day!”

At my words, she laughed as if in disbelief. Her gaze slowly scanned the forest center.

The Guardian’s Graveyard. While its outskirts were safe, it was said that no one who entered the forest center had ever returned.

But… to escape the calamities pressing in on us from all sides, we had no choice but to head toward the center.

“…We have no other option.”

Teacher Sena looked up at the sky, closed her eyes, then opened them again.

“Turn around! Put the calamities at our backs! Full speed ahead to the forest center!”

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

The Sena School Nomad changed direction.

“An obvious death is still less romantic than a mysterious one.”

Someone shouted those words, but in all the confusion… I couldn’t tell if it was Teacher Sena’s voice, or Mom’s, or Yuria’s.

+ – + – +

The forest grew denser the deeper we went. We had probably already crossed the boundary line Mom had warned about, where shadows outnumber sunlight.

The sounds of calamities and Guardians fighting behind us had already faded. Deep in the forest, everything suddenly became quiet. As the trees thickened, we dismounted and continued on foot. Two more people had died, leaving only seventeen survivors.

“Jun-woo.”

Teacher Sena called me.

“Yes?”

“Can you run a simulation to see what might happen next?”

How I wished I could.

“No. This forest… it’s strange. When I try to run a simulation, the entire forest gets captured as a single condition… the condition burden is enormous. It sounds crazy, but… it’s about 10,000 Jun-woos? If I run a simulation, I’d die before even lasting a second.”

Teacher Sena calmly nodded.

“As I suspected. The entire forest is captured as a single condition? As if the whole forest is an organically interconnected life-form… this must indeed be a relic site.”

Relic site.

Ancient ruins built with magical technology that’s now unimaginable. Some said they were legacies left by old gods.

Most cities were built atop such relics. Great mages would reinterpret the magic embedded in these relics to create barriers and defense systems for humans, and cities built this way were almost perfectly safe from calamities.

Perhaps this could have been a place where a city stood. But… is it now just our graveyard?

Teacher Sena asked again.

“Can you see or hear anything?”

This I could answer, though it wasn’t particularly hopeful.

“…There are lots of magical powers gathered ahead. Lately they’ve been muttering among themselves. What they’re muttering now is… confusing, but two meanings keep repeating. [Intrusion] and [Exclusion]….”

Teacher Sena smiled bitterly. Intrusion and exclusion… were they talking about the calamities? Or about the Sena School Nomad entering the forbidden forest center?

“And behind us, black magical powers are… getting closer. It seems like… the Guardians on the outskirts have all been destroyed.”

Rumble…

Screeeech…

As if confirming my words, the sound of massive footsteps came from behind us. The wing beats of harpies tearing through the air also grew closer.

“So that’s how it is…?”

That smile again. The frost-covered leaf smile. With that faint leaf smile on her lips, Teacher Sena looked directly at me.

“Baek Jun-woo. Watch carefully what I’m about to do and remember it.”

Whoosh-

The magical power that had been overflowing uncontrollably since she killed the orc began swirling like a whirlwind.

She opened her lips and recited a long incantation.

[Sky. Earth. Wind. Star. All things of the world and the record of all things. Behold me. A thousand eyes and ten thousand ears. I am here. Listen.]

Just like when I used the Primordial Incantation <Saíl>, her voice resonated deeply.

[Behold. I am one who speaks to the world.]

Whooooom!

The magical power spinning around her grew even more intense.

[One who makes manifest what is spoken.]

Spinning faster and faster, the magical power flattened and formed a long ring. The magical ring rapidly contracted and gathered around Teacher Sena.

[Behold. I have a mouth,]

Now completely drawn into her, the magical ring became sticky like honey and gradually slowed. The magical ring taking solid yet fluid form looked like a wide-open mouth.

[A mouth to which you shall listen.]

Ching!

With a sound like metal locking into place, the magical ring fully formed inside Teacher Sena. Her magical ring had an overall reddish hue.

I immediately recognized it even though I was seeing it for the first time.

‘Ah… so that’s a Circle.’

But it wasn’t over yet. There was still residual magical power swirling around the center of the completed ring.

[Behold, here are lips,]

The sticky magical power slowly solidified and gently wrapped around the first magical ring. A second ring formed, twisted into a double helix around the circular one.

[Lips to which you shall submit.]

Dong-

With a sound like a leather drum, the second ring was also completed. All of Teacher Sena’s swirling magical power was absorbed into the rings.

One smooth ring and another ring coiled around it in a spiral. The two rings remained perfectly still, maintaining absolute silence.

Beads of cold sweat dripped down Teacher Sena’s forehead. Her incantation still wasn’t finished.

[Thus, when I say let there be fire, there is fire.]

Whoong-

Very slowly, the magical rings she had created began to move. Like a baby making its first sounds, they barely managed to emit a single note.

Whoosh

At that moment, an orange flame blossomed in her hand,

[When I say let the wind blow, the wind blows.]

Whooosh

Wind swirled around us, making her hair flutter,

[I am the rightful successor. One who fell but rose again. The mage of fire and wind, Sena.]

Dong-dong-

A sound like bronze bells echoed. Magical powers all around us stirred.

‘They’re all watching.’

I observed the reactions of the magical powers with amazement.

Even the magical powers that had been lined up ahead muttering among themselves were now focused on Teacher Sena.

They murmured in their normal way again.

<Seems like I’ve seen this before.>

<It’s fake. Already failed.>

<But returned as promised. Kept the covenant.>

Favorable and skeptical reactions crossed each other, and the favorable magical powers poured into Teacher Sena.

Dong-dong-The bronze bell sound that only I could hear grew louder, and Teacher Sena’s two Circles contracted then expanded widely, writhing as they came alive.

Whoong-whoong-

Once the Circles started moving, they never stopped for even a moment.

And I saw it clearly. The transformation of the mana representing Teacher Sena.

All humans have mana extending in the shape of ginseng roots, but at the head of her mana pattern, two new strokes appeared. Like flames fluttering in the wind, two rough, short strokes were drawn diagonally.

“Phew…”

Only then did Teacher Sena wipe away her sweat and catch her breath. She asked me,

“Do you understand what I just did?”

I nodded. Handing her the black protective talisman I’d been holding, I said,

“Congratulations on becoming a 2nd-Circle mage, Teacher Sena.”

+ – + – +

Teacher Sena pushed away the protective talisman I offered her.

“Keep it. At this point, talismans are meaningless anyway.”

She had entrusted her talisman to me when I became stronger than her. But now she was stronger than me again. When I tried to return it, she refused.

“Besides… that talisman can’t completely hide my presence. Rather…”

Instead, she gave me back my own talisman that we had previously exchanged.

“Rather… clearly revealing my presence might improve the survival chances of the others, even if just a little.”

Boom!

Rumble!

Even during this brief conversation, the footsteps behind us had grown noticeably closer.

Crack! Crunch!

We could see trees being snapped and toppled in the distance.

But… the sounds weren’t coming only from behind us.

[Intruders. Multiple ?? of ?? and a few unauthorized ??. Infiltrating through ??’s ??]

[S-class alert issued.]

[Alert confirmed.]

[Mobilizing.]

[Exclude.]

The magical powers shouted…

Whiiiiing!

From deep in the forest, a brilliant white flash sparkled.

A step ahead of it, Teacher Sena cried out.

“This is an ancient covenant. Flames of Trimacos, protect us as promised!”

Teacher Sena shouted.

Whoooom…

Her Circles responded to her incantation. They inhaled the gray mana saturating the air like breath and expelled it again. But the mana merely formed shapeless clumps as it flowed out, failing to take any distinct form.

Teacher Sena shouted again.

“Flames of Trimacos, protect us as promised!”

Whooom…

The mana expelled by the Circles clumped more thickly. But the pattern remained unclear.

“Goddammit!! Protect us as you promised!!!”

In the final moment, Teacher Sena screamed in desperation.

Whoooom!

Only then did the Circles move deftly. Like mouths speaking, they contracted then expanded, sending streams of mana pouring out. They formed strange patterns made of thick, short strokes.

Following the beautifully unfurling mana, a wall of flame rose before our eyes.

Screeeeech!!

Almost simultaneously, the white flash that had sparkled deep in the forest became a massive tidal wave, crashing against the fire barrier Teacher Sena had raised.