Five hours until the Incineration Operation begins.
Near Incheon Port. Before the wall of fog. At the temporary base.
The Black Parade Strike Force on standby.
“The tiger is coming down, the tiger is coming down~”
Silken Bodhisattva crooned a little song. She was in the middle of preparing a grand ritual site in front of the temporary base.
Five-colored fabrics were wrapped around five pillars surrounding a circular stage. Behind the central altar stood a large folding screen, and in front of it, an array of colorful knives was thrust into the ground.
One by one, she tossed five-colored flags into the air, catching them and planting them in the earth according to the cardinal directions.
“I may make a living as a shaman,” she said, “but I’m not exactly what you’d call orthodox, you see.”
Silken Bodhisattva pulled a long kitchen knife from the ground before the altar and swung it with practiced ease.
“I never had a master, so I’m self-taught. If other shamans are college grads, I guess that makes me the GED type? Not that it matters. The world’s half-ruined anyway, and it’s not like you need a license to be a shaman. As long as you’ve got the gift, that’s all that counts.”
She pushed up her gold sunglasses and grumbled.
“Still, I had plenty of colleagues in the business giving me grief. ‘How can you call yourself a shaman without a master or a proper initiation?’ they’d say. What the hell? It’s not like you need a pedigree in this line of work. How would they know if I was possessed by a god or swept up by a dragon’s waterspout? Weren’t they just jealous because I was successful?”
Spinning on the spot, she let her skirt billow out in a circle before a smirk lifted the corners of her red lips.
“And since they were being such a pain, I lost my patience and unleashed a Curseblight on those worthless cunts.”
“…”
“I’m good at reading the Four Pillars, good at reading fates, good at reading faces, good at reading palms…. good at everything, you know? But my real specialty is casting Curseblights. And then, ta-da! Turns out every single one of those wretches I cursed dropped dead.”
“…”
“I knew I was a pretty kick-ass shaman, but even I didn’t think they’d all die. Turns out, I’d Awakened somewhere along the way.”
AA-Rank Awakened, Silken Bodhisattva. Her ability was ‘Cursewrit.’
In exchange for a commensurate ‘Price,’ she could cast a curse on a target.
The power of the curse was proportional to the Price paid.
“The Awakening really did me good, I gotta admit. It wasn’t just a curse of misfortune anymore. It became a curse of pure slaughter.”
Her curses were so potent they could gruesomely murder their targets. Already popular for her skills, Silken Bodhisattva’s fame exploded after her Awakening.
It was only natural. For the right price, she could place a real, lethal curse upon anyone you hated.
“I was riding high, holding one ritual after another, and then—bam—I got nabbed. ‘I’m just a shaman! I just danced on the blades a little,’ I said. ‘Their deaths were a complete coincidence!’ But who’s going to listen to that? ‘Use of an Awakened ability for assassination,’ blah blah blah. ‘Off to prison with you!’ And that’s how I ended up here.”
“…”
“Well, life in here isn’t so bad. They pay me to dance with abandon on the blades, there’s a magnificent swimming pool, delicious food, even booze that’s hard to find on the outside. Wait a minute, isn’t this even better than the world out there?”
As a final touch, Silken Bodhisattva set a large pair of ritual blades onto the stage with a thud.
Commander Hae-eun Seo had been listening to her story all this time and smiled faintly. She was sitting with her legs crossed in a front-row seat before the stage.
Silken Bodhisattva shot her a coquettish look. “Thank you for letting me continue my work as a shaman, and for letting me enjoy a life like this, Commander.”
“Don’t mention it. We can’t let a talented person go to waste. It would be a national loss.”
“By the way, Commander, you never ask me for a reading. I’m scarily accurate, you know. For you, no fee. Isn’t there anything you’re curious about?”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.” Hae-eun smiled pleasantly and slowly rose from her seat. “There’s no chance the result would be good.”
She turned and headed toward the other end of the base.
“Prepare well, Silken Bodhisattva. This entire operation rests on your ability.”
“But of course~!”
As Hae-eun walked away, leaning on her cane, the beaming smile on Silken Bodhisattva’s face twisted into a scowl.
“Ugh, what a killjoy. Seriously, that woman is as sinister as Ghost…”
Just then, Little Lamb came running over, huffing and puffing as he carried the remaining materials for the ritual.
“Lady Bodhisattva! This is the last of it!”
“Good, well done. Time for my Little Lamb’s reward~”
“Reward! Reward! Reward!”
Silken Bodhisattva planted a series of loud, smooching kisses on Little Lamb, then brought the knife in her hand to his smooth neck.
“Now that you’ve had your reward, it’s time for your punishment, isn’t it~?”
“Eeeh, but pain is scary…”
“So sorry. But you know there’s no other way.”
Silken Bodhisattva’s ability, ‘Cursewrit,’ came with a single restriction: she had to pay a price proportional to the power of the curse she cast.
A wound for a wound.
Misfortune for misfortune.
A life for a life.
In other words, to unleash a curse so venomous it could steal a target’s life, she had to offer a life of her own. But since the caster couldn’t very well take the target down with her, she offered the life of a corresponding sacrifice instead.
Back when she worked as a shaman on the outside, Silken Bodhisattva would always prepare a lavish offering—a whole host of live chickens and pigs—before beginning a ritual.
But it was always a risky business. If the cost of the curse was even slightly higher than the value of the prepared offerings, the backlash could rebound upon the caster herself. It was a perilous tightrope walk.
And then, in this prison, Silken Bodhisattva met Little Lamb.
AA-Rank Awakened, Little Lamb. His ability was ‘Resurrection.’
Born frail, he had no physical prowess of his own. No matter how much he trained or disciplined himself, he could not grow stronger, bound by the restriction that he must ‘do no harm.’
But no matter how his life was taken, he would always be revived.
He could kill no one, but neither could he himself be killed.
Such was the weakest Awakened: Little Lamb.
He had been waiting for someone who would protect him and, in turn, make use of him.
And so, upon meeting in prison, Silken Bodhisattva and Little Lamb recognized each other at first sight. They knew, instantly, that they needed one another.
As shaman and living sacrifice.
As a master of curses and a regenerating scapegoat.
“We really are a well-matched couple.”
She wasn’t just talking about the synergy of their abilities.
Tying a blindfold over Little Lamb’s eyes, Silken Bodhisattva smiled darkly.
“Because I’m an S, and you’re an M…!”
Even in that department, the two of them were a perfect fit.
After gently laying Little Lamb down on the altar, Silken Bodhisattva plunged the knife in her hand into his neck without hesitation.
“Aah…!”
Little Lamb’s body shuddered in ecstasy before finally going limp.
But his body did not grow cold. His heart stopped only briefly before resuming its beat like nothing had occurred.
As the wound on Little Lamb’s neck healed in an instant, Silken Bodhisattva flicked her kitchen knife, shaking the blood onto the ground.
“Now then…”
Drenched in her lover’s blood, Silken Bodhisattva caressed his blood-smeared cheek with an adoring look.
“To wipe this whole area clean, I wonder how many times I’ll have to kill and offer up my cute Little Lamb~”
***
A few hours later, the final operational meeting began.
“The plan is simple,” Commander Seo declared, gesturing nonchalantly before the assembled Strike Force.
“Silken Bodhisattva and Little Lamb will unleash a wide-area curse on the fog zone…”
Silken Bodhisattva quickly raised her hand. “Madam Commander! Not a ‘curse,’ a ‘Curseblight’!”
“…unleash a ‘Curseblight’ to perform a Deathwrit on every target within the area of effect.”
A Curseblight bombardment.
Against monsters, this indiscriminate curse was far more efficient than a missile strike. The duo’s firepower had already been proven through several missions.
“How long do we keep it up?”
“Until the fog clears.”
Hae-eun glanced at the wall of fog, still as dense as ever.
“We don’t know the exact mechanism generating that fog, but it’s the work of monsters. If we keep hitting them with an indiscriminate, wide-area Curseblight, they’re bound to take damage.”
It was a brutal and unsophisticated tactic, but the Curseblight bombardment had proven effective in the past. As such, everyone accepted the plan without complaint.
Only Silken Bodhisattva muttered, “Hmm, I wonder if the current stock of lives I’ve offered up will be enough,” prompting Little Lamb, who was resting his head wearily on her lap, to flinch.
“Normally, this would be the end of it. But if these things aren’t your average run-of-the-mill monsters…”
If monsters managed to withstand the bombardment and emerge from the fog…
“Grease Gal’s fortified temporary base will serve as the first line of defense.”
The temporary base had been deployed in a clean circle enclosing the fog zone.
It was the culmination of Grease Gal’s ‘Tool Crafting’ ability pushed to its absolute limit. She had steadily manufactured the components for the base over time, and the materials had been transported here to be assembled.
The base was now amply armed with automated turrets and traps. It couldn’t hold out against the monsters for very long, but it would serve as an excellent means of buying time on all fronts.
“Hee hee, time for some overtime, yessiree~ Yay~” Grease Gal mumbled, her face etched with exhaustion.
Hae-eun offered her a benevolent smile, then turned her gaze to another prisoner bound in restraints beside her.
“And while the temporary base buys us time, Hangman will handle the regular monsters.”
Hangman, the specialist in mass slaughter.
Even with ninety-nine percent of his power sealed, he radiated suicidal impulse. At full power, just getting close could push you from despair into a death drive.
It wasn’t very effective against elite specimens with mental barriers, but there was no one better suited to repelling a swarm of common monsters.
“Eugh, just look at that horrifying energy oozing off him,” Silken Bodhisattva griped. “What I do isn’t a curse, I tell you. That’s right there’s the real curse. Ugh.”
“Heh heh heh…” Hangman let out a convulsive laugh, staring down at the black Null Cuffs still fastened to his wrists. “It’s been a while… since I’ve been able to get truly, utterly depressed.”
“Your face alone is depressing enough, shithead,” Silken Bodhisattva snapped.
Hae-eun continued. “And if elite enemies that the aforementioned means cannot handle should appear. Say, a Boss-level monster or higher…”
She slowly turned her head to the side. “Ghost.”
“…”
“You will eliminate it personally.”
Clutching her black sword, Void Trinity, to her chest, Ghost stood leaning silently against a pillar. She slowly closed her eyes without a single word, hiding her piercing blue irises.
“All of you, remember this. Once the Incineration Operation begins, there are no ‘people’ in that area.”
Hae-eun clasped her hands together, delivering her final instructions.
“We don’t know what kind of monsters are in there, or what they might have done. Even if you see something that looks human, it could be a monster in disguise.”
“…”
“Burn everything. No conditions. No exceptions. Remember that.”
The presence of survivors meant nothing when the time limit expired. They would all be killed along with the monsters.
This was the Gate Engagement Protocol, written in the blood of thirty years of horrific losses to all manner of monsters.
This was their way. Severing a part of the world to protect the rest of it.
“But Commander, what if…” Silken Bodhisattva began, raising her hand. “What if survivors come running out before the time limit is up?”
“Well then…” A wicked smile played on Hae-eun’s lips. “Why, we’d welcome them with open arms, in the spirit of humanitarianism, of course.”
“…”
“Though the chances of that happening seem to be practically zero.”
Hae-eun snapped her fingers. “That is all. Prepare yourselves and rest until the operation begins!”
***
Ghost stood before the wall of fog.
Her red lips pulled a fresh cigarette from its pack. It had been a full pack just a moment ago, but this was already the last one.
“Why are you chain-smoking like that? It’s not good for you.” Silken Bodhisattva spoke as she approached.
Ghost struck a match and lit her cigarette, exhaling a long plume of smoke. “The only good thing about having a body like this is that my liver and lungs stay perfectly fine, no matter how much I drink or smoke.”
“Sure, yours might be fine. But what about the poor non-smokers next to you, suffering from your secondhand smoke? Ugh.”
Grumbling, Silken Bodhisattva waved a hand to clear the smoke and glanced at Ghost’s profile. Her wild white hair obscured much of her face, but it was clear that her sharp gaze was fixed on the wall of fog.
“If you’re so worried about that Boy, why don’t you show him your ‘real sword’ for a change?”
Her real sword.
Ghost finally turned to look at Silken Bodhisattva, who covered her mouth with her sleeve and giggled.
“One shot of that glorious miracle only a great S-Rank can perform, and a piddling wall of fog like this would be wiped out in a single blow, no?”
“…Under the Gate Special Act, the use of a ‘Special Ability’ by an S-Rank Awakened is strictly prohibited.”
Ghost tapped the ash from her cigarette as she finished her sentence. “It can only be used in an emergency with permission from a state agency.”
“Oh~?”
“Without approval from my superiors, I cannot use it.”
“Who the hell follows some lukewarm scrap of paper like that? In a world this cold and miserable—especially in a shithole like this unit, running off-the-books ops?”
“An S-Rank’s Special Ability is that far outside the norm. Besides, the side effects are nothing to scoff at. It must be considered a last resort, not used carelessly.”
Ghost turned her gaze back to the wall of fog, her posture indicating that Bodhisattva’s proposal wasn’t even worth considering.
Silken Bodhisattva shrugged and sneered. “Yes, yes, live your life by the book, all prim and proper. For god’s sake, I can’t tell if I’m talking to a convict or a Hunter.”
“…”
“This Boy is the first person you’ve shown an interest in for a long, long time. Are you really telling me you don’t care if he lives or dies?”
After a moment of silence, Ghost finally spoke.
“…You were talking about fate, weren’t you, Silken Bodhisattva.”
“Hm?”
“If that brat wants to keep on living, in any form, in this hellscape of a world…”
Ghost flicked the cigarette butt from her fingertips, sending it flying toward the wall before them.
“He has to be able to break through a wall like this on his own.”
“…”
“If he can’t, then he was fated to end here.”
Spinning around, Ghost strode back toward the temporary base.
Watching her retreating back, Silken Bodhisattva chuckled softly. “Such a stern grandmother…”
She checked the luxury designer watch on her wrist.
Three hours until the Incineration Operation begins…