Chapter 25

The Ijokg were never attacked by calamities. They even received their protection at times.

According to myth, in the ancient war between gods and demons, humans sided with the gods while the Ijokg sided with the demons.

That’s why the weapons created by demons, the calamities, kill humans but spare the Ijokg.

+ – + – +

Whoooosh-

The once-clear sky had darkened, and a storm was raging.

Rain poured down so heavily that I couldn’t see a foot ahead, drowning out even the sound of horseshoes.

Rumble!

Thud-thud-thud!

The mobile barrier shook as if in an earthquake. Its top appeared white from the torrential downpour.

A bright red light, like high beams, pierced through the storm and illuminated the path we needed to take.

It was Teacher Sena.

She was shouting something while holding a glowing protective talisman, but her words were drowned out by the sound of rain.

Flash! Flash!

Occasionally, a bright light like thunder illuminated the top of our heads and passed by.

The clouds filling the sky split open and a glittering silver wing went by with a screeeech!

It moved too fast to see its form clearly, leaving only the vivid afterimage of its wings.

But that sound… I’d heard it before.

‘A fighter jet…?’

Impossible. That’s a weapon from Earth, isn’t it?

“Hold your shields over your heads! It’s a harpy!!”

Teacher Sena’s booming voice erupted from the center of our formation. Until now, her mouth had been moving but no sound could be heard… she must have concentrated her magical power to amplify her voice.

We reflexively raised our shields.

Swoosh!

With a chilling sound, daggers fell from the sky. No, not daggers. The harpy’s sharp, heavy silver feathers descended vertically, piercing carts and slicing through horses’ necks.

In the midst of the downpour, two carts, three horses, and four people tumbled to the ground. I couldn’t even tell who had been hit.

Was a shield even useful? I didn’t know, but I was too scared not to use it. I gripped my shield with white knuckles.

Crack!

One of the feathers landed on the mobile barrier. Fortunately, it couldn’t penetrate the barrier’s own defensive shield and bounced off with sparks flying. Ah, how wonderful would it be if the barrier’s defensive shield could protect our entire formation?

Of course, that was too much to hope for.

Squawk!

Though it had deflected just a single feather… the mobile barrier shook with a sound I’d never heard before.

That’s when we all had the same thought.

‘Have we been detected?’

Teacher Sena shouted again.

“Run! They haven’t detected us yet! They’re just testing! Run!”

Run? We’re running. But… what a hopeless feeling.

The Calamity of Night and Storm—the harpy.

This calamity, a set package of monster and storm, was the progenitor of the fake harpies as its name suggested. But its terrifying horror was incomparable to those fake imitations.

A C+ class calamity. Even the D-class orc paled in comparison… and even something like the Red Tree Crossroad with its C-class barrier would be shattered if properly targeted… a true calamity.

“If we ride at full speed, we can reach the Guardian’s Graveyard in half a day! If we make it there, we’ll survive!”

Knowing our desperation, Teacher Sena shouted again to boost morale.

Ah, right. There is hope. If we can ride for half a day, we can escape this terrible calamity…

But…

Damn it! Survive for half a day? With that thing chasing us?

Screeeeech!

Once again, the clouds were torn apart. A single ray of sunlight fell like divine blessing through the split clouds. Reflecting that light, massive silver wings that could even part the hurricane struck down like lightning. They swept across the ground and soared back up above the clouds.

Swoooosh!

Silver feathers rode the storm and swept past us. Fortunately, this time they missed. I didn’t see anyone fall. But was it just from being so tense? Even the pouring rain felt like blades, making my body constantly flinch.

Shhhhhhh-

The rain continued to fall.

The downpour that had been falling straight beside our procession suddenly curved and began to spiral.

“Huh?”

Temurin, who had been riding at full speed, let out a startled cry when he saw the spiraling rain, then—

Boooom!

A whirlwind appeared explosively, completely sweeping away one of Temurin’s carts.

It was surreal.

The horse and cart soared into the air, and the yellowish horse that was flailing its legs all the way to the sky’s edge—

Crash!

It was torn to shreds by the passing harpy’s silver wings.

Blood splattered through the air like fireworks.

“Keep going! Don’t look around! Eyes forward!”

Teacher Sena’s voice tore through the air, and—

Boooom!

Thud!

Whirlwinds like artillery shells tore up the ground we had just passed.

I recalled war movies from the Earth science enthusiast’s memories.

Is this… Normandy Beach?

Damn… this isn’t the time.

“Hyah!”

I pushed down my shrinking heart and spurred my horse. Heukseom accelerated.

“Teacher Sena!!”

From the rear of the formation, I caught up to the center and rode up beside Teacher Sena.

“Teacher Sena! Teacher! Sena!”

Teacher Sena, who hadn’t heard my voice, finally turned to me after I shouted several times.

Was it the rain? Her lips had turned blue.

“Teacher! We’re all going to die at this rate! I’ll predict the whirlwinds, so please guide our direction!”

At my words, a spark of life returned to her previously distorted gaze.

“…Can you do it?”

“I have an idea!”

“Then start now!”

I immediately activated my Gift.

[Simulation]

The world was erased into darkness.

‘Adding conditions. Storm, harpy, mobile barrier with carts and field!’

Whoosh-

In the empty world, a storm appeared,

Screeeeech!

A harpy with silver wings flew by,

Thud-thud-thud!

And a single cart carrying the mobile barrier raced across the field.

I removed all people from the conditions to save processing power, but that’s fine.

The current situation was one where the harpy knew we were in the area but couldn’t pinpoint our exact location.

It knew we were somewhere nearby, but didn’t know exactly where.

So there was no need to include each person as a condition.

Even with this shortcut, the condition burden reached 7 Jun-woos.

The cart carrying the mobile barrier racing across the field was 2 Jun-woos.

The storm was another 2 Jun-woos, and finally, the harpy alone was 3 Jun-woos.

‘No time! Fast forward!’

A hefty 7 Jun-woo condition set.

I couldn’t run the simulation for long.

I fast-forwarded through it, quickly memorizing where the whirlwinds would erupt.

Doing it this way meant missing fine details, but that was okay for now—what mattered were the whirlwinds.

Boom! Booooom! Whoosh!

Most of the randomly erupting whirlwinds missed us by far, but some exploded near our carts.

I frantically memorized their positions.

Suddenly… I felt pathetic.

Us hiding from calamities so desperately felt just like…

‘Mosquitoes…’

The harpy was human, and we were mosquitoes.

Even our prized mobile barrier was, before the harpy, just as trivial as a mosquito’s camouflage or quick movements.

Humans in this world were reduced to such a state.

‘Damn it… focus!’

[Simulation End]

I gritted my teeth as I emerged from the simulation.

Swoosh!

Just then, a silver feather fell straight toward me from the sky.

Catch!

I pushed away my shield and caught the feather bare-handed. I carefully gripped the flat side of the feather with my fingers to avoid cutting my hand on its edge.

<Oho?>

Even in this situation, magical powers gathered around with interest in my action.

“Haaah…”

I lifted my head straight and stared directly at the storm-ravaged path ahead.

Yes. This was no time to show weakness.

I am a Mana User.

In the grand scheme, it’s a modest achievement, but among humans, I’m classified as a ‘superhuman.’ At the very least, my defeat in this nomad would mean humanity’s defeat.

‘I will never… cower before a calamity.’

This wasn’t just for the magical powers showing interest in me. This was my pride.

My mother, Baek Song-i, who had been riding beside Teacher Sena, flinched in surprise when she saw me catch the feather.

After reassuring my startled mother with a glance, I turned to face forward again.

Red light from Teacher Sena’s protective talisman poured out, piercing the way ahead.

My mother, the nomad’s guide, adjusted Teacher Sena’s arm to create a perfect straight line, ensuring we wouldn’t deviate from our path.

The Guardian’s Graveyard would be in the direction my mother was pointing.

I called out to the two of them.

“Whirlwinds will form in one minute! They’ll be close to our path!”

I couldn’t give a perfectly accurate time and direction. Since I’d skipped details in the simulation, I had to account for error.

“Sonofa—!!!”

Hearing my words, Teacher Sena cursed and threw a 1-Shine mana bill, then shook her protective talisman.

The mana bill ignited and dissolved into her talisman.

Her jet-black protective talisman, made from lightning-struck peach wood. Befitting its high price for mage use, it had several magical inscriptions beyond those found on ordinary talismans.

“Dispel!”

The advanced version of “neutralize” found on normal talismans—Dispel.

Magical power rippled from Teacher Sena’s talisman, creating a unique formation before stamping out a pattern of gray mana composed of circles and squares.

Whoosh-

With an eerie resonance, the magical power ahead was pushed away in a cone shape, creating a magical vacuum.

Pssst.

Hiss.

The whirlwinds that had been gathering to explode dissipated with sounds like deflating balloons.

Teacher Sena shouted.

“Good job! Dispel doesn’t last long! Time it precisely! Keep the error within 10 seconds!”

The whirlwinds had missed my calculation by about 6 seconds. But predicting all whirlwinds within a 10-second error margin… easier said than done…

But,

“Yes!”

I answered energetically. I wasn’t the only one struggling right now.

Shhhhhhh-

The rain poured down, and we continued to flee endlessly from the calamity. Sometimes the harpy flew terrifyingly close, other times it drifted to the far horizon.

Screeeeech! The creature passed by with this sound, and people pierced by silver feathers tumbled to the ground. Some fortunately managed to deflect the feathers with their shields.

Each second felt like a day… and no matter how far we rode, the same nightmare just repeated itself, never seeming to end.

So,

When we finally spotted the standing stones rising like Stonehenge in the distance, and the boundary where the blue sky began beyond the storm calamity,

I truly felt… an indescribable joy.