Sssshhhhaaaa…
What emerged from the fog looked less like a tiger and more like a giraffe.
A long, thin neck rose from a body as massive as a small hill. Atop that neck sat a head with a flowing gray mane, its face a disturbing fusion of tiger and human.
Its mouth, stretched impossibly wide, sported canines as long as a saber-toothed tiger’s.
This was the Lord of the Foghowlers: the Phantom Tyrant.
Thud—!
Its movements were elephantine, yet possessed a strange elegance. The approaching Gate Lord gave the humans blocking its path a cursory glance.
Then, it giggled in a sound as clear and bright as a child’s laughter.
The monster’s long neck dipped low.
“Mom.”
It spoke in the perfectly natural voice of a young boy.
“Mom. I’m home.”
An elderly woman had been sitting slumped on the veranda of a nearby house.
Her shoulders twitched. Life returned to her vacant eyes as she looked up. “My baby…?”
“Mom,” the monster whispered in the innocent voice of a little boy. “I’m sorry I ran away. You were worried, weren’t you?”
“No, no, my sweet boy. You did nothing wrong.” The old woman scrambled forward, tumbling off the veranda. But she kept moving. “It was all my fault. All of it. You were a child too good for me.”
She crawled toward the fog.
Toward the Phantom Tyrant.
“I’m sorry I didn’t buy you that gift you wanted. I’ll get it now. I’ll buy you anything you want.”
“Really?”
“The iPhone? What model was it again? I bought it. Just wait a second, I put it somewhere in the master bedroom…”
“Really, Mom? You’d do anything for me?” The voice giggled brightly. “Then, let’s die together.”
The Phantom Tyrant continued to whisper into the ear of the old woman.
She stared up at it blankly.
“You said you’d do anything for me, right? Then let’s die together.”
“…”
“Come here, Mom. Die with me.”
A slow smile formed on the old woman’s lips.
“…Yes, let’s.”
Staggering to her feet, the woman began to walk toward the Phantom Tyrant.
“Let’s go together. Let’s die together. My sweet boy, if that’s what you want, Mommy will do anything for you…”
Clank!
The chain fastened to her ankle stopped her from going any farther into the fog. The old woman grunted, straining with all her might to break it.
All the villagers were doing the same, screaming as they fought against the ropes and chains that bound them, desperate to enter the fog.
The members of the Black Parade and Sergeant Hwa were facing their own phantoms.
“Babe!” a cheerful woman’s voice called.
Razor’s shoulders went rigid.
“Babe~!”
It was, without a doubt, Miss Hellth’s voice.
“Haven’t you missed me?”
“Son of a fuck…” Razor finally spat out, his teeth clenched and his body trembling as he listened to his dead lover’s voice drift out of the dense fog. “Don’t mess with me. You’re… dead.”
“What’re you talking about?” Miss Hellth laughed heartily. “It’s me! You think I’d die and leave you all alone? If we die, we die together.”
“…”
“Come over here. My cute little babe, you’ve been so lonely, haven’t you? I’ll hold you all day and smother you with kisses.”
Razor bit his lower lip so hard that blood trickled down his chin.
But his feet were already stumbling toward the fog.
“Being trapped on that ship is just torture.”
“…”
“Come on. Just let it all go, nice and easy, and we can be happily dead together. Here, in my big, strong arms…”
Beside him, Sergeant Mu-gung Hwa was hearing a different whisper.
“Mu-gung, it’s Mom.” The voice of family. “Mu-gung.”
“…”
“Should we die together? Hmm? We promised we’d die together, didn’t we?”
Sergeant Hwa could only glare silently into the fog, her eyes wide.
Her mother’s voice echoed in her ears. “You promised you’d die with me. You remember, right?”
“…”
“Let’s die.”
“…”
“Let’s just give up on this awful world, okay? Let’s die.” Her mother pleaded in a sweet, warm voice. “Let’s hold each other tight, hold hands, tuck ourselves under a warm blanket, and die together.”
Meanwhile, Jae-hee Han was also hearing a voice.
“Big bro.” A faint girl’s voice drifted from beyond the fog. “I’ll take you there.”
“Huh…?” Jae-hee asked blankly. “Take me where?”
“To a place that’s warm, where you’ll never be hungry… and where you’re allowed to laugh as much as you want.” The girl giggled. “So come on. Come over here.”
“Over there?”
“Yes. It’s right here, just in front of you. You only have to walk this far.”
Jae-hee looked toward the source of the voice. It was coming from just inside the fog bank before him.
“…?”
And beyond that fog, in the far distance, a towering barrier of snow and rubble rose before him. It was the prison of his youth—the one that had caged him as a boy.
“That’s not the way, big bro,” the girl’s voice insisted. “You don’t have to climb that wall. You don’t even have to look at it. That path is too far, too high, too hard.”
“…”
“This way. See? Right in front of you. I’m here. You just have to come this far.”
The barrier was far away, but the voice he longed for was close.
Jae-hee lowered his head, his eyes turning toward the voice right in front of him. The girl’s satisfied laugh rang out clearly.
And just as Jae-hee was about to take a step into the fog…
“Window-kun!”
A cutesy, adorable, and clearly theatrical female voice suddenly burst from the Phantom Tyrant’s mouth.
“Aishiterundayo!”
“…?”
Startled, Jae-hee snapped back to his senses. The wall of snow and ruin and the nostalgic voice all scattered like an illusion.
Looking toward the source of the theatrical voice, he saw the Phantom Tyrant was now addressing Status Window.
“I’ve teleported from a fantasy sekai to be lovey-dovey with Window-kun… yo!”
“…?”
“Huh?”
“What in the—”
This sudden, booming tirade of mangled Japanese shocked everyone in the vicinity back to reality.
“Only Window-kun, with his SSS-rank cheat skill, can save watashi’s sekai… yo!”
“The shit is that about? Fucking hell,” Razor swore.
No one else said it, but the sentiment was universal.
“Ah, me too desu…” But the target himself, Status Window, felt no sense of strangeness at all, shedding tears of pure emotion. “Aishiterundayo, Hana-chan…”
“Ehh? Watashi is not Hana, I’m Hina-dayo…?”
“Ah, gomen-ne, Hina-chan. Boku is so popular that I have a ton of heroines… Fufu.”
“…How creepy…”
“Hm? What was that desu?”
“N-nnooo! Nanimo nai! Saa, Window-kun! If you die now, we can reincarnate together in a fantasy sekai-dayo! Now is the time-dayo!” Hina-chan(?) cried out cheerfully. “Isshoni die-dayo!”
“Ahh.” Status Window nodded with unprecedented solemnity. “For kimi, mochi-of course.”
Watching this spectacle, an incredulous Razor turned to Jae-hee. “Is that… Japanese? Or, well, it’s basically saying ‘let’s die together’?”
“I think so.”
“You think we were all in a similar state?”
“I think so…”
“Fuck. Shit actually makes me want to kill myself. Ugh.” Razor spat on the ground and charged at Status Window.
Smack—!
He walloped the back of Status Window’s head just as he was walking toward the fog with his arms wide open.
“Snap out of it, fatass!”
“Kagh?!” Staggering and clutching the back of his head, Status Window finally came to his senses and frantically looked around.
“Hana-chan?!” His mournful cry echoed across the area. “Where is boku no Hana-chan desuuuuuu!”
“Uh, it was Hina, not Hana…” Jae-hee muttered. But his words were lost on the grief-stricken Status Window.
In any case, they had escaped the crisis thanks to Status Window’s meltdown.
Everyone came to as if doused with cold water. The villagers recoiled in fear, finally seeing the monsters beyond the fog.
“…”
Only one person remained transfixed. The old woman who had first heard her son’s voice sat collapsed on the ground, staring vacantly into the mist, utterly lost.
“…?”
When its glamour failed to take hold, the Phantom Tyrant tilted its long-necked head.
Then, it opened its gaping maw with its long, saber-like teeth.
Sssshhhaaaaaa…!
A thick fog poured out of its impossibly wide mouth. The surrounding mist grew even denser, and visibility dropped to near zero.
It was the perfect environment for the Foghowlers to run rampant.
As he readied for battle, Razor shuddered. “God-fucking-hell, it’s one mountain of shit after another!”
“Guess that’s what makes it the Lord of the mountain!”
Razor glared at Jae-hee for the useless pun, and Jae-hee, after a nervous cough, prepared to run again.
Fwump! Fwump—!
Flares exploded in the sky.
Flash—!
A beam of light shot out from the coastal lighthouse, swiveling from the village center toward their position.
The Foghowlers wavered, their snarling eagerness to charge held in check.
Soldiers came rushing from the inner part of the village.
“Sorry, Platoon Leader! We were delayed by a Foghowler attack on another flank!”
“It’s fine, just get into formation! Marksmen, open fire!”
Taking cover behind fences and stone walls, the soldiers began pulling their triggers.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Even with the flares and the lighthouse beam, they couldn’t get a clear visual on the monsters through the fog, perhaps because the Phantom Tyrant itself was present.
The shots weren’t connecting, and the Foghowler pack circled, slowly closing in.
“Shit! We can’t get a lock on their exact position…!” Razor grumbled.
Status Window suddenly shot his hand into the air. “I can see them desu!”
“Say what?”
“Even if they’re hidden by the fog…” Status Window coolly pushed his glasses up. “The enemies’ ‘status windows’ are all floating above their heads desu!”
“Motherfucker! You should’ve said that sooner!”
“I just figured it out myself desu!”
“Then call out their positions!”
“Leave it to me desu!” Status Window scanned the surrounding fog, then thrust a round hand in one direction. “That’a way!”
The other soldiers hesitated, but Sergeant Hwa did not. She fired without hesitation in the direction he indicated.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
“Hurts, hurts, hurts.”
“It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!”
From beyond the fog came the sounds of growling Foghowlers being peppered with gunfire.
Sergeant Hwa barked, “The Hunter’s directions are good! Fire as directed!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
“Mwahahaha! All of you, follow my lead desu!”
Status Window gestured wildly into the fog, and the soldiers and Razor unleashed a barrage of concentrated fire in that direction.
Hit by a counterattack just as they were about to pounce, the Foghowlers hesitated and fell back. Any that managed to break through the wall of fire were knocked back by Jae-hee’s kicks.
The tense standoff dragged on, a constant push and pull as they held the line.
The Phantom Tyrant, which had been observing the situation, let out a sharp, clear whistle.
The Foghowlers withdrew in unison. They growled, spitting curses in the voices of the people they had devoured as they slowly retreated.
Watching the monsters disappear, Status Window wiped the sweat from his brow with a triumphant air. “Hah… you all survived thanks to me desu.”
“…”
“The Maestro of the Battlefield, that’s me! Status Window!”
Razor ground his teeth. It was, infuriatingly, the undeniable truth.
They had escaped the Phantom Tyrant’s glamour thanks to Status Window’s meltdown. They had survived the subsequent ambush because he had served as their navigator.
“Why is this pig actually useful?”
Window is surprisingly handy, Jae-hee thought, letting out a long breath before collapsing to the ground. Having managed his stamina so poorly, he felt like death.
The soldiers, also catching their breath, lowered their rifles one by one. A wave of relief washed over them, a sense that they had repelled yet another attack.
That was when it happened.
«Th-this is the lighthouse! This is the lighthouse!»
A frantic voice crackled from the radio on the communications soldier’s back.
A horrified Sergeant Hwa rushed over and snatched the handset. “This is the Platoon Leader! What’s going on?”
«The lighthouse is under attack! I repeat, the lighthouse is under att—Aaaaargh!»
Click. The transmission went dead.
In stunned unison, everyone turned to look back, just as an explosion erupted from the distant lighthouse that had been illuminating them.
BOOM…!
Watching the rising smoke, Sergeant Hwa muttered grimly, “Don’t tell me… this was just a distraction from the start? A feint…?”
As their forces had gathered here to block the main monster attack, the defenses at the lighthouse had naturally weakened. A small pack of Foghowlers had bypassed them by sea and finished it off.
“Uhm… I’m just asking out of curiosity.” Jae-hee asked cautiously, “What happens to us if they take the lighthouse?”
Razor replied nonchalantly. “Ah, you don’t have to worry too much.”
Flick. The lighthouse beam that had been illuminating the village went out.
Razor’s resigned voice echoed softly in the pitch-black darkness.
“We were already fucked. Now we’re just a little more fucked.”