Chapter 31 - Episode 5. The Dead (6)
Chapter 31: Episode 5. The Dead (6)
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At that moment, the old door to the Outer Fortress infirmary burst open.
“Chief!”
It was James, the Chief’s assistant, along with the guards from the northern checkpoint. James’s eyes burned as they briefly passed over Jaehwan. One of the nearby guards hurriedly explained what had happened. After hearing the whole story, James turned to Karlton with a despairing expression.
“Bring out every medicine we have!”
The guards produced all the medicine they were carrying. Most of it was One-Horned Beast powder, though some Two-Horned Beast powder was mixed in. James even readily offered the precious Three-Horned Beast powder he had been saving.
“To think even a Three-Horned Beast can’t purify it...”
One of the medical staff groaned. The soul contamination had not improved in the slightest. A guard spoke anxiously.
“What do we do now? If the Chief becomes a Deadman...”
“No one will be able to stop him.”
James said, clenching his fist hard enough to crush it.
Jaehwan asked casually, “Is there no way to bring someone back once they become a Deadman?”
A medical staff member nodded grimly. Jaehwan looked back and forth between Karlton and Mino as if considering something.
After a while, Jaehwan suddenly grabbed Karlton by the collar.
“Hey, wake up. I have something to ask you.”
Jaehwan slapped Karlton’s cheeks repeatedly. He hit him hard enough to make them swell red. The guards, trembling with worry, went pale at the sight and rushed forward.
“H-How dare you strike the Chief!”
Yet, surprisingly, Karlton regained consciousness.
“C-Chief?”
The guards from the northern checkpoint gathered around Karlton. Subordinates were supposed to hate their superiors, but judging by how worried they all looked, Karlton seemed to have been a better boss than expected.
Karlton barely managed to speak.
“Jaehwan?”
“Yeah.”
“...I have a request.”
“What is it?”
“Please kill me.”
Everyone he met today seemed to be asking him to kill them. Jaehwan frowned.
“You could kill me, Jaehwan. Please. Kill me before it is too late.”
There were many implications in those words. Jaehwan’s expressionless face was reflected in Karlton’s blue irises.
“Shouldn’t you normally be asking me to save you at a time like this?”
Karlton gave a faint smile.
“Article 1, Clause 4 of the Gorgon Special Act. Anyone whose soul contamination exceeds 95 percent and begins Mutation must...”
Karlton coughed, as though even speaking had become difficult. Jaehwan furrowed his brow.
He did not like people like Karlton.
He disliked those who devoted themselves to an organization. He especially despised those who served it blindly, without a shred of doubt.
Still, there was one thing Jaehwan could acknowledge about Karlton. If there had been ten people like him in the 《Tower of Nightmares》, no, even five, Jaehwan would not have needed to spend forty years trapped inside it.
Jaehwan slapped Karlton’s cheek as he started to lose consciousness again.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“W-What...?”
Karlton’s lips trembled.
“Does that Gorgon law you are so proud of have anything about the crime of returning to the past?”
“What do you mean...?”
“I’m asking if there’s a law to punish people who abandoned this world and ran away to the past.”
“I don’t understand the question...”
Those were Karlton’s last words before his eyes rolled back. His body began to convulse. Dark blue veins swelled again, while every muscle in his body writhed like crawling larvae.
Mutation was imminent.
[Warning! Soul contamination: 94%. Mutation will begin shortly!]
At that moment, the infirmary tent flapped as a group of men barged in. The face of the man at their head was familiar. He was the commander of the Anti-Evil Squad, who had been fighting the Deadmans near the tavern moments ago.
James’s expression darkened sharply after recognizing him.
One of Gorgon Fortress’s strongest combat units.
The Deadman Extermination Unit, the Anti-Evil Squad.
And the man who led them.
“Anti-Evil Squad Commander...”
The commander’s cold gaze was fixed squarely on Karlton. A few guards subtly tried to shield Karlton’s body, but it was meaningless resistance.
“Move aside.”
Shing. A blade rang as it left its sheath.
“That man is no longer the northern checkpoint chief you knew. You know that well enough, don’t you?”
Even then, the guards did not move.
In the end, the commander chose a harsher approach.
“Under Article 1, Clause 4 of the Gorgon Special Act, Northern Checkpoint Chief Karlton and one other are to be eliminated immediately.”
The manifestation of 「Edict」.
Jaehwan found it somehow amusing.
Stubborn bastard, the world you protected has come to kill you.
Under the effect of 「Edict」, the guards fell to their knees one after another. 「Edict」 was a skill that displayed unmatched power within the fortress. There was no one who could resist it.
The commander’s blade flew mercilessly toward Karlton’s neck. It was an attack no one could stop.
Or at least, it should have been.
Until someone caught the blade barehanded.
“This guy can’t die. I still have questions for him.”
* * *
Catching the sword of a Fifth Adapter with one’s bare hand.
Naturally, it was impossible by the standards of 《Chaos》.
The startled Anti-Evil Squad Commander tried to pull his sword free, but the blade trapped in Jaehwan’s grip showed no sign of coming loose. The commander was formidable even among Fifth Adapters.
Yet Jaehwan had stopped his blade with a bare hand. Even if the sword had not been infused with spiritual power, there were only a handful of people in this fortress capable of stopping it barehanded.
On top of that, Edict was ineffective.
The commander had spent nearly a hundred years in Gorgon Fortress and seen all manner of things. The man before him had broken through Edict and stopped his blade. He did not know who Jaehwan was, but he was certainly powerful.
“...I do not know who you are, but do not obstruct the Anti-Evil Squad in carrying out its duty. We are only trying to prevent a greater disaster.”
“A disaster?”
Jaehwan narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t think killing Karlton will solve anything. Shouldn’t you be finding the cause of this situation instead of killing Karlton?”
It was a sound argument.
The commander had heard about the situation as well. Some of Geumcheon Hall’s men had done something, contaminating Karlton’s soul. Apparently, Karlton had ended up this way while trying to save the residents.
But what could they do about it? The culprits were gone, and so was the evidence. Karlton would soon become a Deadman.
That was all there was to it.
“We only follow the law.”
“The law.”
Using 「Doubt」, Jaehwan examined Karlton’s inventory.
‘Just as I thought.’
Jaehwan’s hand slipped into Karlton’s clothes and emerged holding a book. It was the real thing behind the so-called 『Stubborn Bastard’s Law Dictionary』 that Karlton had memorized by heart.
“Article 1, Clause 4 of the Gorgon Special Act... Anyone whose soul contamination nears 95 percent and begins Mutation shall be executed immediately. This is the clause, right?”
“...That is correct.”
“Then if we stop the Mutation, there will be no reason to kill Karlton.”
Jaehwan pulled a long, blackish horn from his Dimensional Bag.
“I think this should do it.”
One of the medical staff recognized it.
“Garnak’s horn!”
They had heard that the horn of Garnak, a Five-Horned Beast, had made its way into Gorgon Fortress. But they had never imagined that this man was its owner.
“T-That might give us a chance.”
The medical staff agreed, and the Anti-Evil Squad Commander slowly sheathed his sword. The man was right. If they could stop the Mutation, there was no need to kill Karlton immediately.
Still, the medical staff did not look entirely pleased.
“But there is a problem...”
Most medicinal ingredients circulating on the market came from Three-Horned Beasts or below. There were very few people who could process horns from Four-Horned Beasts or higher.
The only person in the fortress who might be able to do it was Twilight Dusk's Deputy Workshop Master Meikal. But there was not enough time to summon him. Besides, there was no telling whether the proud Deputy Workshop Master would lend out his skill just to make medicine...
The medical staff stopped speaking with their mouths hanging open.
“Wouldn’t this work?”
Garnak’s horn was crumbling into powder in Jaehwan’s hand.
“W-Wait!”
The horrified medical staff accepted the powder with trembling hands. It was medicine too valuable for them to even guess its worth.
The powder, already basically refined, was drawn into Karlton and Mino’s airways. For the first time, the contamination meter’s numbers stopped rising and began to stabilize. Purification had not yet begun, but they had prevented them from becoming Deadmans.
Then the medical staff member treating Mino spoke in a grave voice.
“This is bad!”
The contamination level had begun fluctuating again.
“The Mutation isn’t subsiding. This person’s Constitution has fallen too far...!”
The medical team hurriedly measured Mino’s contamination.
[Warning! Soul contamination has exceeded 95%! Mutation has begun!]
The medical staff member’s face turned pale with terror.
“We can’t stop it now...”
No matter how good the medicine was, there was no way to stop it once the contamination exceeded 95%.
The Anti-Evil Squad Commander moved to draw his sword again. Claire shouted.
“Call Cheongheo, call him! That old man can use ‘Deadman Slash’! If he uses it, there’s still a chance!”
“...Are you referring to the Divine Doctor of Despair?”
The medical officer frowned.
Cheongheo, the Divine Doctor of Despair.
No one at this infirmary was unfamiliar with his name. He was the only physician capable of saving a soul that had entered the stage of Mutation. The Divine Doctor who could forcibly halt Mutation with his unique Ultimate Technique, Deadman Slash.
The Push of the medical staff reached Jaehwan’s mind.
[But Officer, what exactly is Deadman Slash?]
[It is a technique used by the Divine Doctor of Despair. I hear it cuts away the contamination itself, the thing causing the Mutation.]
[How could that be possible...]
Claire spoke.
“This child knows the Divine Doctor of Despair. That old man will definitely help her.”
“The Divine Doctor is in the Inner Fortress on important business. He cannot come over something so trivial.”
“...Something so trivial?”
Claire’s anger flared. Just as she was about to speak, the Anti-Evil Squad Commander cut in.
“Move.”
Claire and the medical officer screamed and collapsed beneath his powerful Spiritual Pressure. The commander appeared to measure Mino’s spiritual power, then spoke to Jaehwan.
“I cannot yield this time. You should move aside as well.”
Jaehwan drew Dokbul.
The air began to freeze. Just as a vicious standoff was about to begin, Jaehwan unexpectedly turned his back.
“I’ll kill this woman. She asked me to.”
The Anti-Evil Squad Commander took his hand off the sword hilt, as if surprised. The tension in the air gradually eased. The medical team stepped back. Claire bit her lip as she stared at the tip of Jaehwan’s sword. A few medical staff turned away in resignation.
Jaehwan looked down at Mino.
Her face was pale after her Camouflage skill had worn off, but she was beautiful. She was the first person he had met after coming to 《Chaos》.
Her name was Mino.
It was a name he had never once called her by. Jaehwan knew almost nothing about her. He did not know what kind of life she had lived, nor why an assassin had such a fragile disposition. He had never tried to find out.
Slowly, he raised Dokbul. The humming grew louder.
Lines that would guide Mino to death began to appear before Jaehwan’s eyes. Death Lines, visible when he reached an extreme state of 「Selflessness」. It was the best consideration he could offer Mino. Whichever Line he followed, she would die instantly.
Then, the scenery around him began to change.
‘...What is this?’
Everything around Mino and Jaehwan was turning a pure, blank white.
Jaehwan’s 「Doubt」 bloomed to its limit. His senses became extraordinarily sharp.
He had felt something similar when he encountered a succubus on the sixty-sixth floor of the Tower.
A high-level illusion.
Jaehwan looked around while maintaining 「Doubt」. He could find nothing except Mino lying there.
He gripped his sword hilt. He intended to split space itself apart.
Then Jaehwan was startled.
An unfamiliar old man was crouching beside Mino.
[Heh heh, how did our Mino end up in such a state?]
The old man wore a broad-brimmed black hat and a pitch-black robe. At a glance, anyone might mistake him for a grim reaper.
Seemingly unaware of Jaehwan’s presence, the old man clicked his tongue as he looked at Mino.
[Poor child, I’ll help you.]
The old man lightly tapped Mino with his index finger, then smiled in satisfaction. Jaehwan watched silently.
The old man looked over Mino’s entire body with gleaming eyes. The moment Jaehwan gripped his sword, the old man let out a startled scream.
[Ahhh! W-What are you?!]
The old man’s face reddened as though he had been caught doing something improper. After a moment, he cleared his throat and continued.
[Y-Young man, you possess an extraordinary soul. How did you enter my ‘World’?]
Without answering, Jaehwan used 「Doubt」.
But 「Doubt」 did not work.
Several theories flashed through his mind in a brief instant. An old man had suddenly appeared while he was looking at a contaminated soul.
Could this old man be the source of the soul contamination?
Jaehwan remembered what the medical staff had said. Perhaps killing this old man would save Mino.
Whether the old man knew what Jaehwan was thinking or not, he continued speaking.
[But how can such a noble soul possess such petty spirit? Like a five-year-old child...]
Jaehwan’s sword hilt moved.
[What?!]
The old man’s eyes widened. Then he let out a fierce roar.
[It seems this young man needs a lesson!]
A dazzling sword strike erupted.
From the impact, Jaehwan stepped back once, while the old man stumbled back three steps. Jaehwan was startled.
‘He blocked my sword?’
For the first time since arriving in Chaos, his Light Stab had been blocked. There had been enemies who dodged his Stab or survived after taking the hit, but none had ever blocked it...
That was not the only surprising part.
The old man had blocked the Stab with a slash.
The old man let out a groan.
[H-How did you block my ‘Ordinary Slash’?!]
The technique’s name was somehow irritating.
The old man’s beard trembled as he staggered. He had suffered greatly from the clash. Severe cracks ran across his sword.
[W-Who are you?]
With the old man’s shout, the surrounding World shattered. The scenery returned to that of the infirmary.
Then a miserable cry rang out.
“No...! My beloved sword made from a Four-Horned Beast!”
When Jaehwan turned his head, the old man who had just crossed swords with him was on his knees, sobbing. He trembled as he held his broken sword.
The Anti-Evil Squad Commander and Claire shouted almost at the same time.
“D-Divine Doctor...?”
“Old man Cheongheo!”
The finest physician Gorgon Fortress had to offer.
The Divine Doctor of Despair Cheongheo had arrived.
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