Chương 32: S.04 Memory of the Clock 06(05) - Parousia

Scene 12. A dark shadow blocked the morning light and came flying in with furious intent. It could not cross the stone walls of Headquarters, built close to the walls of a fortress, yet it raised a siege and was pounding at the four gates set at each of the four directions. Even in the early morning, the interior of Headquarters had darkened to something close to pitch.

The mass of dark shadows, taking the south gate as its base, tried to cross the gate and come inside, but the white smoke rising from within Headquarters blocked them, and they could not force themselves in. Yeong-min stood alone facing the south gate. Yeong-min's gaze turned toward the two on the watchtower. Yeong-min: Eun-jae. Open the gate. Eun-jae: Director of the Treasury. This place, from now on, does not welcome you. Turn back. Yeong-min: Originally, this place never had many who welcomed us.

But that hardly means all who remain here are those who reject what we stand for. The one there, Kim Soo-a — is she any different. Soo-a, standing together with Eun-jae on the watchtower, could not bring herself to answer. Yeong-min: Isn't it laughable. Having lost her own elder sister as a 열쇠 (Yeolsoe_Key) Candidate in the First Cataclysm, she follows Eun-jae as if she were her real elder sister. Going on now as if she will follow the will of the Former The Oldest — who left word that she would truly bear a Key.

Truly, a laughable thing. Eun-jae: Don't trouble yourself over Soo-a. Just turn back. That you have led in these profane dead — that alone is reason enough not to admit you, Director. Yeong-min: To take in a Key — the most profane existence there is — as your Dan-jang, is that what you call justified. Eun-jae judged there was no need to speak further. Her pale hand turned bluish and raised the clearest indigo 인불(In-bul_Ghost Light). Eun-jae: I am, in any case, one cast off by the Boss.

To live on in this side of the living, I was helped by the Former The Oldest, so that I could remain with Soo-a; I have decided to follow her will. If you can — come past me. As Eun-jae swept her arm lightly, the indigo Ghost Light burst all at once past the south gate, hurling back the crowding dark shadows as one. Eun-jae did not hesitate. They deemed her the most vexing existence. One way or another, she had to be handled. Yet she was an existence that could not be killed even if killed.

Under Eun-jae's blue presence, the dark shadows could not even step through the gate. Yeong-min: The one who divided us, was the Former The Oldest. That one split us apart, and her selfish greed — that greed will bring down the side of the living. Eun-jae: That she is not such a person — that the old Kim would not have been such a Kim — you know better than anyone. Yeong-min judged that nothing would move Eun-jae's resolve.

He drew out a 싸리나무(Ssari-namu_Bush clover branch), closed his eyes, and scattered white seeds in every direction. The Incantation/Sorcery bearing Yeong-min's intent passed past Eun-jae's blue Ghost Light and dispersed in every direction. Eun-jae hurried to burn the seeds with her blue Ghost Light, but she could not extinguish every seed. The eyes of some Inner Guard members on the watchtower, where the white seeds touched, began to take on a blank look. From the east gate, far off, a bell cut through the stillness.

While pushing back death, they could not fully block the Incantation/Sorcery of the living, and began to give up their own consciousness. Soo-a hurriedly wove out a 무구(Mu-gu_Ritual Implement) in her hand. Every one of you. Behold my will. Those before you — the ones who would defy the Dan-jang's order — must be put down, every last one. The blades that had been leveled at Yeong-min began, with a tremor, to shift toward Eun-jae and Soo-a. The figures of Eun-jae and Soo-a began to twist, becoming something warped.

Scene 13. Two pairs of black 운혜(Unhye_Everyday traditional shoes) walked the corridor of the derelict apartment. As the two steps, just past the entrance, walked the remaining corridor, Black Water poured down alongside the railing from above. Paying it no mind, the two black Everyday traditional shoes, as if this were nothing, simply carried on the steps they had been walking. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Scene 14.

I-seon, having handled a great many corpses on another floor, had shattered them all and was now, with an easy motion, loosening the clustered muscles of her body. Catching Yeon-su's glare from the side, I-seon did not hide an apologetic expression. Just as I-seon opened her mouth to say something to Yeon-su, a single gunshot rang out. I-seon's words could not go on. Bleeding, falling—I-seon came into Yeon-su's field of vision in slow motion, entering her eyes.

Raising at once a 검은 모래(Geomeun-morae_Black Sand) wall the size needed to shield I-seon and herself, Yeon-su scanned the ones who had fired from the far end of the corridor. They were, without doubt, the corpses that they themselves had shattered to pieces. A thin thread of Black Water ran from the nape of every one of the fallen corpses. As if pulling at puppets, the sticky threads of Black Water threaded through them and steered the corpses that had been about to break.

Watching I-seon slumping while bleeding, just as Yeon-su hurried to raise Black Sand, another gunshot rang, and Yeon-su's shoulder was punched through. The corpses that had not yet been able to break, bodies righting along the linked Black Water threads, began to rise, slow. Scene 15. Soo-a's Ritual Implement was a 주술도(Jusul-do_Incantation Blade) with a blade on each side. It was not made for cutting people, and simply fending off the oncoming blades alone was taxing.

Eun-jae held back the mesmer on the watchtower with Ghost Light, yet a considerable number had already surrendered their consciousness and seemed to be seeing illusions; their blade-strokes came dazed and vacant. The Special Task Forces of each department, stationed beside Soo-a and Eun-jae, held off the mesmerized, but this could not simply remain a war of attrition. The indigo Ghost Light Eun-jae had drawn across the south gate slowly thinned.

Soo-a, straining, subdued the Headquarters people one by one and pried their consciousness loose. For now, she judged it more efficient to knock them out than to try to undo the Incantation/Sorcery. At some point, Yeong-min had climbed up onto the watchtower, and Eun-jae's hand, holding its blue Ghost Light, began to meet Yeong-min's Bush clover branch.

Every time Eun-jae batted at Yeong-min's Bush clover branch with her blue Ghost Light, more seeds scattered, and the Incantation/Sorcery that would break everyone's consciousness dispersed in every direction. A rushing wind rose up and swept out every one of the white Bush clover seeds that flew into the interior of Headquarters. Jeong-in, her forehead soaked with a bucket's worth of blood, vaulted onto the watchtower and broke into the taut standoff. Jeong-in: Eun-jae sis!!

Please head to the east gate for support at once!! Her shoulder, too, was dripping blood in steady drops—Jeong-in's urgent cry made Eun-jae look out at the distant east gate. The east gate, into which dark shadows had already poured, looked as if it might collapse at any moment. Soo-a, after putting one of the Headquarters people out, gave a nod. With Jeong-in left alone with Soo-a, Eun-jae led one squad of the Special Task Force and quickly descended the watchtower.

As Jeong-in faced Yeong-min, she opened up the two large fans in her hands. Soo-a, catching her ragged breath, moved her small frame around and set her back against Jeong-in's. The remaining one squad of the Special Task Force stayed with Jeong-in and Soo-a, facing the dazed hostility that had closed in on every side. Yeong-min let out a deep sigh and jeered at Jeong-in, who now stood against him. Yeong-min: Honestly. High-tier lineages. This is always your problem. You just have to pull something that grates.

Jeong-in spread open the two large fans woven in her hands to their full span and readied her dance. Yeong-min discarded the Bush clover branch in his hand and stamped it down with his foot as if to grind it. Along the floor of the watchtower, white seeds spread outward. When Yeong-min shook out his hands, new Bush clover branches settled into both his empty hands. Yeong-min: Outside high-tier lineages, every single one of them is seeing illusions. You'd do well to give up too.

That way, we'll at least leave you your lives. At Yeong-min's jeering attempt at persuasion, Soo-a and Jeong-in said nothing back, and only showed the readiness to unfurl their Ritual Implements. Yeong-min: High-tier lineage, at this point, amounts to what, Kim Soo-a, Yoo Jeong-in. Just the two of you, right? Yeong-min pushed forward the Bush clover branch in his left hand and leveled it at Jeong-in and Soo-a. Yeong-min: It's not like the matter ends if only the two of you don't succumb, is it. Right?

As Yeong-min's jeer came out, the movements of the Special Task Force—standing back to back with Jeong-in and Soo-a, bracing to face everyone—began to stutter. As if their remaining consciousness had also been surrendered under the unrelenting press of Bush clover seeds, the trembling tips of their blades began to tilt toward Soo-a and Jeong-in.

Jeong-in, who read the situation a step late, swept the fans in her hands and scattered every Bush clover seed away—yet there was no time left to turn back the thoughts of Special Task Force members who had already begun to be overwritten. The blades of the Special Task Force members drove into Jeong-in's back. Scene 16. The small bell in Ye-ju's hand drew out a mournful sound.

Every time she shook the Ritual Implement, the sound rang out bright and full, and opened the way ahead of Ye-ju as she stepped past the east gate. Every one of those who had tried to stop Ye-ju drew their eyes into a daze and began to face the Headquarters people trying to stop Ye-ju. Leaving the dark shadows beyond the gate, Ye-ju, as if making a show of it, was bringing down the east gate from within. Having taken a Derived Relic in her hand, Ye-ju rang the bell-shaped Ritual Implement.

At every stroke of its ringing, the consciousness of all who were guarding the gate faded. The dark shadows that had been wavering beyond the gate poured into the doorway as it began to open. Ye-ju shook the bell and, in an instant, overwrote the Headquarters people who had held out against her to the very end. Ye-ju: We've got such a fine Derived Relic as this, and what do they do, they hand out hilts for nothing. Honestly, there's just no way to see the Old Hag in a good light no matter how you try.

The Ritual Implement in Ye-ju's hand was turning everyone who had stood blocking the gate to Ye-ju's side. Such a Ritual Implement then snapped away, struck by a blue Ghost Light come flying in. Eun-jae, her long snaggletooth showing, stood in Ye-ju's path. Eun-jae: You don't pass. Ye-ju: Sis. No — banished goblin. You've got no place in this. Back off.

Eun-jae seized the blue Ghost Light woven in her hand as if to burst it outward, and set it breaking around the Headquarters members being swallowed by the crowding dark shadows. She first saved the Headquarters members who had nearly had their breath taken, and then set to reordering the line of the Special Task Force that had followed her out. Facing forward, Eun-jae—looking at Ye-ju, who could not hold back a sneering laugh at her—returned a puzzled gaze. And then.

The Special Task Force members touched by the white Bush clover seeds began to take on a desolate air. Eun-jae, hurrying, turned to bat aside the blades of the Special Task Force members at her own back. With her brow drawn tight in a scowl, at the presence of Special Task Force members she could not bring herself to cut down as she tried to meet the Incantation/Sorcery—Eun-jae gave her back to Ye-ju's short blade. Blue blood was smeared on Ye-ju's blade, which had punched out past Eun-jae's belly. Ye-ju: I said.

Back off. Honestly.