Chapter 36

“I think we’ve made it out of the battlefield. No more Guardians appearing, and that ogre chasing us is probably the last one.”

Dad muttered from the front of our group.

[Grrrr……]

The forest was quiet. Except for the growling of the ogre pursuing us, the one that had killed Teacher Sena… it seemed like we might be safe.

“The problem is our aggro level…”

Dad turned his head to stare at Monggu.

With sweat and mud dripping down his face, trembling all over, Monggu looked back at Dad.

‘Abandon Monggu… just leave him behind!’

I could only scream internally, as my strength still hadn’t returned. Without Monggu, we could survive.

Teacher Sena’s mage protective talisman would deceive the eyes of the calamities and Guardians.

Am I not sorry? Of course I am. But in this extreme stress and exhaustion, my mind worked very simply. If abandoning Monggu could ensure our safety… shouldn’t we do it?

But… Dad didn’t.

After staring at Monggu for a long moment, Dad turned away. Boom… Boom! He glared at the direction where the footsteps were coming from behind us.

Dad spoke to Mom.

“Honey… I mean, Song-i. I think this is what Teacher Sena mentioned.”

Song-i. Dad calling Mom by that name was something I hadn’t heard in a very long time. Mom’s eyes trembled.

‘But… what did Teacher Sena say?’

It was an ominous feeling. Dad gave a small leaf-like smile and said.

“Take care of things. Let’s make sure Jun-woo at least survives.”

No… don’t do this.

I suddenly realized what Teacher Sena must have told my parents.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed.

To my parents, Teacher Sena had made them… bait. Bait to draw the attention of calamities when necessary.

Sacrificial lambs who would die in her place to protect me if she couldn’t.

No. Don’t do it.

We have Monggu! Abandon him!

“D… Dad…”

Moving my mouth was even harder than before.

Dad, saying this one word was so difficult.

But Dad didn’t even look at me.

He took out his mana coin, fully activated his protective talisman, and tossed it to Mom.

“I’ll… see you later.”

Patter!

Dad didn’t look back. He broke away from our group and ran to the side.

[Grrrr?]

The ogre’s footsteps turned toward Dad, whose presence suddenly grew stronger after abandoning his talisman.

No…

But there was nothing I could do.

I now understood Teacher Sena’s other intention when she said I needed to exhaust all my magical power.

It wasn’t just to lower my aggro. She made it so I couldn’t resist. So I would have to watch Dad’s sacrifice with my own eyes, so I wouldn’t interfere, so I would simply… survive. That’s why she told me to use up all my magical power.

‘Sena!! What have you done?!’

A scream rose in my throat. If Teacher Sena were standing in front of me now, I’d want to hit her hard.

But… she’s dead too. While trying to save me.

The scream that couldn’t escape my throat shattered my chest.

Patter-patter!

The footsteps grew more urgent. Ironically, as Dad disappeared, the forest became even quieter.

It seemed Dad was right about leaving the Guardian and calamity battlefield behind.

At this rate, we’d soon reach the ancient relic that had fired the flash of light.

Would salvation await us there… or would it just be death after all?

Without any certainty, we ran. Leaving Dad behind.

Patter!

Tap… tap!

One of the three sets of footsteps suddenly stopped.

I looked back to see Mom.

Mom threw both her protective talisman and Dad’s to Yuria at once.

Yuria just stretched out her arm and caught the two talismans without breaking stride. I moved further away from Mom as I was carried on Yuria’s back.

I reached out to grab Mom. My strength-drained hand couldn’t even rise above my waist.

Mom looked at me and smiled. Sticking her tongue out slightly, she said.

“Jun-woo. I’m sorry.”

Mom turned around.

No.

“Baek Ho-yang… you think I’d let you die alone?”

After shouting boldly, Mom headed back the way we’d come. Her hair fluttered in the breeze before being hidden by the trees.

After losing both Dad and Mom, the forest seemed… too quiet.

I couldn’t hear anything.

I couldn’t hear a single sound.

Swaying on Yuria’s back, I remembered what Dad had once told me.

A thousand paths.

This path I’m walking now is one I never dreamed I’d walk.

By some cruel fate, I’m walking a path of despair that someone among a thousand must walk.

For me, this is the first time. For Yuria, who’s carrying me, it’s her second.

A dark forest. Only the cruel stars guided our way forward.

“Fcking… life…”

As I muttered those words, a leaf-like smile hung on my lips before flying away with a whoosh.

+ – + – +

Screeeeech!

A harpy’s silver wings tore through the sky. It was a new harpy. The calamities were still receiving reinforcements. The Guardians, on the other hand, had stopped appearing.

“Hey! You carry this.”

Yuria tossed the bundle Teacher Sena had entrusted to Monggu. She then adjusted Jun-woo more securely on her back. Jun-woo, who had been mumbling until just a moment ago, was now completely silent, perhaps unconscious. His unsteady breathing against her back pained Yuria’s heart.

‘My life really is something… witnessing the annihilation of a nomad twice.’

A hardship she thought would never come again had returned after just three years… she wasn’t sure whether to cry or laugh.

‘This time I won’t survive alone. I’ll save this one kid.’

Yuria gritted her teeth.

“Let’s go as far as we can.”

She ran deeper into the forest with Jun-woo on her back.

“Y-Yuria, but going deep inside will kill us…”

Monggu followed, trembling.

“So what? You want to stay here with monsters pouring in?”

“B-but there are Guardians ahead too…”

“Do you see any Guardians right now? But behind us, the monsters are swarming. Six protective talismans may sound like a lot, but do you think that’s enough? Talismans are just talismans. They’re not the same as a mobile barrier.”

Monggu shook his head at Yuria’s retort. After receiving the protective talismans from Baek Ho-yang, Baek Song-i, and Sena, their aggro level had decreased significantly. But talismans couldn’t conceal them from calamities as reliably or for as long as a mobile barrier.

“Right. Keep your mouth shut and follow me. It’s a gamble anyway.”

At this moment, Yuria had three options.

One, trust the talismans and try to break through past the monsters. Very high chance of death.

Two, go deeper into the forest and find a hiding place. Outcome unknown until they tried.

Three, go all the way to the relic and enter it. At least in old stories, there were tales of people entering relics and coming out with treasures.

Which had the highest probability of survival?

‘How would I know…’

Nobody would know.

Still, Yuria decided to go deeper for now. Hoping for a more promising card among the ones they hadn’t tried yet.

Screeech!

Screeeeech!

Meanwhile, the lone harpy became two, then three. The once-quiet forest again filled with Boom! Boom! footsteps of calamities.

And in front of Yuria and Monggu appeared an endless green barrier.

It was where the forest suddenly ended. An open sky and grassy plains were visible. But the plain was abruptly cut off by a green barrier. With a wider view, the green barrier formed a dome-like hemisphere. A green, opaque, hemispherical membrane became a barrier blocking their path.

“This looks like… the relic, maybe?”

Yuria carefully approached the green barrier.

“This… doesn’t seem promising, right?”

Poke!

She forcefully jabbed the opaque membrane with a branch. The stick didn’t penetrate. The surface felt soft, but once it reached a certain depth, it became taut and wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she pushed.

Screeeeech!

Even the harpies tearing through the sky didn’t dare touch the hemisphere, only circling around it.

Boom…

Boom…!

The footsteps from the forest behind them were getting closer.

“We’re screwed…”

Yuria muttered.

“W-what do we do, Yuria?”

“How should I know?”

Yuria bit her lip while snapping at the whining Monggu beside her.

It was a dead end. Contrary to her hopes, there was nowhere to hide. The relic was wrapped in a green membrane they couldn’t enter.

‘Should we dig? No… we’d die.’

‘Go back now? …I’d rather dig.’

‘Search for an entrance by moving along the perimeter…?’

After considering her options, Yuria finally concluded.

‘I don’t have a solution.’

She gave up cleanly and set Jun-woo, whom she’d been carrying, on the ground. The unconscious Jun-woo drooped wherever she placed him.

‘…He’s small.’

Perhaps because he was unconscious, Jun-woo’s small frame looked particularly pronounced. The still-growing Jun-woo was even more petite than Yuria herself.

After looking at Jun-woo with mixed feelings for a moment, Yuria finally raised her palm with a determined expression. Then she slapped his cheek hard.

“Jun! Wake up!”

Smack!

The sound of the slap rang out cheerfully.

+ – + – +

…I must have passed out.

When I opened my eyes to the stinging pain, the situation was dire.

“Sorry about that… but we’re cornered. I thought you might have a solution. If not… well, if we’re going to die, might as well be conscious for it, right?”

It was Yuria, smiling calmly despite the chaos. Unlike the trembling Monggu beside her, her composure somehow calmed me down.

But the situation was even worse than she thought.

[??’s ??? ?? point breached.]

[Requesting complete annihilation of ??? region.]

[Request approved.]

[Activating annihilation ??, ???.]

It was an immense amount of magical power. I’d never seen so many magical powers gathered in one place before. Not even when the calamities were densely packed. The magical power was so thick it was suffocating, and they all muttered in unison. With so many voices, it wasn’t muttering but like rolling thunder.

Slither, slither.

Beyond the green barrier, gray mana patterns poured out endlessly.

‘If this is magic… how incredible must it be?’

Was this like Earth’s nuclear bombs? I shuddered at the mana patterns spreading across the sky. This was undoubtedly a grand spell to annihilate the entire region, just as the magical powers had muttered.

[Screeee!]

Even the harpies that had been freely roaming the sky panicked and scattered in confusion.

“What should we do? Go back? Make one last desperate attempt?”

Even in this situation, Yuria, who couldn’t sense magical power or mana, spoke casually.

“We can’t go back. We’ll all die anyway. It’s an annihilation spell.”

I slowly got to my feet.

Yes.

We’ll die. We will absolutely die. Whether we dig into the ground or retrace our steps, we die.

Even if I, a mage, ran at full speed, I couldn’t escape this spell’s range in time. Not even half… no, not even a quarter of the way.

“But there’s no way out, right?”

Shrugging her shoulders with a “what can you do” attitude about death… Yuria.

I shook my head slowly.

We couldn’t die like this. Mom and Dad were trying to save me… wait, are Mom and Dad really dead?

My heart felt cold for a moment, but I quickly shook my head to clear away the thoughts.

‘Later… for now, let’s move.’

I trudged over to stand in front of the green barrier. Though called a barrier, up close it was flowing like a liquid. I slowly placed my hand on it.

It felt a bit cool. As expected, it wouldn’t budge no matter how I pushed. But somehow we needed to get beyond this barrier.

“We have to cross this. It’s our only chance to survive.”

Surely the annihilation spell wouldn’t affect the inside of the barrier… it really was our only option.

“I already checked everything. There’s no way. It’s a complete hemisphere, so we can’t climb over it either…”

Yuria sighed as she responded. Now that I looked closer, she seemed less calm and more half-resigned.

“Let me try something.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated.

Yuria couldn’t do it, but I could. Magic. The Gift that awakened when I became a mana user. And Ki-blood magic with the primordial incantation <Saíl>—I intended to use these to open a door.

And… I had a hunch this might work.

Since entering the Guardian’s Graveyard, I’d heard many mechanical-sounding mutterings from the magical powers.

‘Approval. Recognition. Request… now that I think about it, they all sounded mechanical. I never expected to apply Earth knowledge here, but objectively speaking, it makes sense.’

And a phrase flashed in my memory. The muttering just before the relic fired its flash of light:

-<Intruders. ??’s ??? multiple and unauthorized ??? few. Infiltrating through ???’s ??.>

The intruders were clearly the monsters.

Then the “unauthorized few” must have been referring to us.

‘So they attacked because we were unauthorized personnel. If that’s the case, what if I were authorized?’

So I planned to prove my identity to these machine-like entities.

‘Fingerprint. Or a seal. There’s no better ID verification.’

Maybe I was thinking too much in Earth terms.

I was imagining a security door that opens automatically when you scan your fingerprint.

Yes. Of course, this is the Star Continent.

A door won’t open just because you press your fingerprint.

This is all magical phenomena, not mechanical devices.

But… among the magic I possess, there’s one that perfectly matches the concept of a fingerprint.

Primitive magic, Gift.

I analyzed this magic as follows.

‘Magic that operates by imprinting specific mana patterns using the unique magical power fingerprint.’

In the end, it was all my intuition and subjective metaphor.

But,

I decided to believe it.

Whirrr!

The magical power fingerprint at the core of my Gift was etched in the deepest part of my inner self… perhaps what should be called my soul. I slowly, very slowly, drew out that magical power fingerprint from within.

It felt like my soul was being sucked out, making me dizzy. But fortunately, I could still move it with my will.

The magical power fingerprint slowly left my inner self and moved to my fingertips. My arm trembled. Every time I moved it even 1cm, it felt like ten drops of sweat fell.

I clung to my fading consciousness and desperately moved the magical power fingerprint.

‘Just a little more… just a bit…’

The magical power fingerprint that had been moving slowly and gradually finally reached my fingertips. It touched the green barrier. I pressed the magical power fingerprint firmly onto the green barrier, like stamping a fingerprint.

“…What are you doing?”

After I had stood motionless with my hand against the barrier for a long time, Yuria finally asked.

I… grimaced.

“Isn’t this it? I thought there would be some response… was I… wrong?”

After all that effort, I’d pressed the magical power fingerprint against the barrier, and… nothing happened. The laboriously drawn magical power fingerprint snapped back into my inner self like a released spring.

“Damn… then what I can do is…”

<Saíl>

“Still can’t activate it…”

Everything was a mess.

Suddenly my heart felt constricted.

All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

‘Am I going to die? All that struggle just to die here? Everyone sacrificed so much for someone like me…’

As my mind was sinking into panic, a small voice brushed my ear.

“J-Jun-woo? There’s no way out? Huh? Jun-woo! Huh? A-are we going to die? Huh? No, right? Y-you’re a mage!”

Monggu, suddenly panicking and babbling. I covered his mouth with one hand. I used too much force, and his feet dangled in the air. He squirmed in pain, but this wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Shh!”

I listened carefully. Then,

I heard it. The voices I’d been waiting for.

[??’s ??? identity verification in progress.]

[?? not clear. Re-authentication requested.]

[Error. ??? damaged.]

[Error.]

[Re-authentication request… error.]

[Authentication complete. Approved.]

[Error.]

[Approval complete.]

[Opening entrance]

There was a response. Really…

“W-what’s happening?”

Yuria stepped back in surprise.

The green barrier writhed like a living creature, and a hole large enough for all of us appeared.

My hand went limp.

“Cough! Cough! I-is this…? A-are we saved? Huh? We’re alive, right!?”

Monggu, finally free, trembled dramatically.

I just nodded slowly without responding.

I extended my foot into the newly formed hole.

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice echoed.

It was a strange accent I’d never heard before, but it was a ‘real’ voice.

Not just me—Yuria and Monggu heard it too.

-Weapon Depot #7 operating at less than 10% capacity. Time elapsed since last activation… error. Unable to calculate. Visitor number… error. Database down. Prompt facility maintenance by visitor requested.

That’s exactly what the voice said.