Hermit Wizard

It was a discomfort that wasn’t based on the body’s sensory organs, but a gaze as if someone was very persistent and looking through inside.

Whenever he breathed in, an unfamiliar feeling filled his lungs as if he was encroached on by a mysterious being. He got goosebumps since it felt like a massive breath of something was flowing through his skin.

Nothing was added or subtracted from the surrounding area. Nevertheless, if there was a noticeable change…

Hwang Soo-rim gave strength to her eyes and looked up.

“It’s done!”

The color of the sky has changed. The dark red light encroached everywhere. Soon enough…

“Do you copy?! Do you copy?! No, damn it! Communication magic doesn’t work.”

The intruder in the lead spat out a curse, then gave up and put the ring down. He was the only wizard among the crowd in that position. He spoke loudly as if instructing his colleagues.

“Continue to retrieve the wizard according to the rules of action. Move to the nearest executive and receive follow-up instructions afterward!”

As soon as he delivered his orders, the confusion among the intruders disappeared like a lie. She took up a stance and aimed her artifacts toward her.

Hwang Soo-rim cried impatiently into her heart, even though she was poised to counterattack. The spot of the burned scar with destroyed pores heated up.

‘Why is it so slow?! He said that soon after the sky changed color…!’

***

“Hmm.”

“What’s wrong, Alice?”

The cat asked as it took a breathless soldier’s backbone with its front paw and crushed it. Alice replied, tilting her head, “Something is weird.”

There was a terrible sense of incongruity. She couldn’t see the scenery outside the basement without windows, yet something definitely happened.

“What?”

“… Nothing has changed significantly, but on the other hand, I feel like everything has changed.”

It was the sensation she felt for the first time even though she had existed for many years. Unfamiliar traces filled the space.

Furthermore, she felt an unusual Mana flowing from the outside just before. At first, she thought it was the teleport magic used by the fleeing Kaifu race, but it was unusual that the location was on the main building.

For the first time, she attempted to contact the guards in charge through a communication ring. He was a guy she didn’t like, but Hessler, who would be outside the building, would know what was going on.

“… What the hell is it?”

Hessler didn’t respond. She turned to speak directly with the headquarters personnel just in case, but that was also a failure.

“Is there anything wrong with my artifacts rather than a problem with Hessler?”

She immediately shook her head.

“No. The Mana felt in the ring is the same, right? So, was there a sudden interruption in communication?”

She was anxious that the communication with the headquarters was cut off. That strange sensation that flew through her spine was also reluctant, but…

Alice looked around. Wizards were lying on the floor with their eyes and ankles ripped off. She just finished cleaning up, and all she had to do was go outside and retrieve those who ran away.

“So, what are the apprentices doing so far? Are they still playing hide-and-seek?”

At that rate, there was no significant difference of utility with when the executives move on their own. They said that they improved and enhanced the artifacts for apprentices, and in the end, it turned out like that.

“Well… ‘his’ absence would have such a great impact.”

He was the one who caused a great war over the world in the past. Humans on the battlefield at the level of a weak civilization weren’t even aware of it. Countless “beings who crossed the wall” from around the world stood up against him.

Nevertheless, he was the winner in the end, a being that had such great power.

‘Of course, one of the reasons for winning easily is that the beings who crossed the wall weren’t able to unite properly. Everybody didn’t join forces to fight on a common front and played separately in each region, and in my case, I didn’t participate at all.’

During that fierce war, Alice stepped back and watched.

‘I didn’t have any kind of people who crossed the wall, and the ones that were my kind before I crossed the wall have already gone extinct… and, crucially, I already lived on the island. I didn’t have to fight.’

The biggest reason why the people who crossed the wall stood up was to protect their territory in which they lived from ‘Dragons.’ Still, at that time, Alice’s territory was an island, and it didn’t belong to the continent that the Dragon declared as his territory.

It was a war zone where you fight because you didn’t want to be kicked out of exile, and it turned out you already lived in exile?

‘I never thought I’d be the part of the group that succeeds the Dragon’s will after he dies.’

It was something I saw after I lived for a long time, Alice thought.

In Eugene’s hand, it contained both justification and practicality. There was no reason to shake off that hand when the trust that had never existed was sprouting.

“Oh, they’re really slow. I have to call the kids and get them.”

Following Alice’s gesture, some fairies giggled and flew outside. The cat threw its suspicious eyes at her and said, “What is this strange feeling? Are you okay with this? Shouldn’t we have to find the source?”

Alice replied, thinking that that guy was a piece of her ego close to skepticism and cynicism.

“There’s Hessler outside… and Noel, too. The core of this mission is to retrieve the wizards. We have to deal with the important things first and in any case…”

Alice looked at another ring in her hand. It was a teleport ring given only to executives.

“If I really need to, I can run away with this. Of course, it won’t happen.”

The moment she said those words so carelessly…

-Woooong!

“Huh?”

Space was distorted, and the surrounding presence became more intense. Alice felt an unfamiliar sensation across her face.

-Chiieeeeek

What was that? What did they call that? It was awkward since it had been a long time since she had felt it. The feeling of a nerve cell standing up. The memory was faint, but the body reacted violently. Yeah… what they said at that time…

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It huuuuurts!”

Alice fell to the floor and rolled over. She covered her face with both hands.

“Alice! What is it?! Hang in there!”

The puzzled cat stretched its paws to Alice. The aftermath was also affecting the cat as Alice’s mind became messy and unstable.

“A-lice! Ugh!”

“It huuuuurts!”

Alice screamed and twisted her body. The fairies that flew in the air stopped at once as if they had made a promise to her. With their mouth shut and the laughter disappearing from their faces, they shed their empty eyes.

“Alice!”

“Uh… ugh!”

She barely managed to pull herself up and raised her head. The face of the cat she met hardened.

“You… in your face…!”

Her face was stamped with an unknown pattern as if it had been carved with an iron. It was a shape that seemed to portray some hideous creature that didn’t exist in that world.

“A–Alice!”

-Thump!

Something broke in its mouth. Her bloodshot eyes ran into the cat, and blue veins rose from her neck. Her eyes, nose, and mouth were twisted like an evil spirit.

Alice cried out loudly with tears on her face and melted skin.

“What-the-fuuuuuck-is-this-bastaaaaaaard?!”

***

“Uugh!”

“Eaaaaaaarghhhh!”

The intruders who surrounded her collapsed, covering their faces all at once. Smoke was rising through their fingers. Hwang Soo-rim sighed in relief. She didn’t know what Eraser was doing, but it had succeeded in neutralizing the intruders for the time being.

In other words, that moment was the right time to run away.

“Hey! Wake up!”

Hwang Soo-rim reached for Kim Kyung-hwan, who had fallen on the floor, but currently, there was an echo that shook the air.

-Woooong!

“Huh?!”

She took a deep breath for a moment. A different kind of echo from the presence continued from the moment the color of the sky changed.

A wave of unknown meaning spread out into the air. It felt like someone’s voice, but she couldn’t figure out what was being said.

Yet, some people heard the voice very accurately.

-Chuck!

-Shrrrrk!

“What?!”

Hwang Soo-rim reached out her hand forward and prepared to shoot her magic. An eerie sight unfolded before her eyes. Dozens of intruders immediately pulled a knife from their left waist.

“Eraser…! You lied to me, too! You said their purpose is to capture and not kill us!”

It was hard to think that a lot of those people were pulling knives at the same time to block their movement. They were instantly going to rush in and disfigure this stupid bastard and me…

Huh?

However, the movement that followed was far from her expectations.

-Whoooong!

-Shrrrk!

Once it resonated again, all men raised their knives high in the sky.

-Whooong

Once again, the rumble passed through the air…

-Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab…

“Hump!”

Hwang Soo-rim unknowingly covered her mouth with her hands. What unfolded before her eyes was a calm madness. Dozens of knives lifted without a hitch like a soldier’s ritual movement. The movement of it digging into each’s chest and stabbing the heart was also consistent. The crowd of invaders chasing them stabbed their hearts with a knife and fell to the floor with no one left.

A river of blood flowed through the gaps between the overlapping and scattered bodies.

“… This must be Eraser’s doing, right?”

She got chills in her spine. Could he do something like that?

‘If he can manipulate people at his own will and even make them commit suicide, why did he sign a contract with me and even make a penalty? He can just control me…’

The answer was unknown there. Hwang Soo-rim managed to calm her surprised heart, and as she saw the bodies of intruders filling the floor, she realized one thing.

It would be beneficial for her own life to accomplish the mission that Eraser gave.

“I have to take this bastard and run away at all costs!’

Hwang Soo-rim squatted on the floor and slapped Kim Kyung-hwan’s cheeks alternately.

-Slap! Slap!

“Hey, wake up! Quickly! We have to move right now! We have to get to the exit as quickly as we can!”

No reaction was coming back. Hwang Soo-rim slapped him harder on the cheek, and her nervousness put more and more power on her hands, and then…

-Thug!

“…”

She obviously slapped him with her palm, but it made a sound of punching the face with her fist. A line of blood flowed down from Kim Kyung-hwan’s mouth with his head turned aside.

Hwang Soo-rim clenched her teeth and spoke.

“… Ah, Shit. It’s really getting a lot of work. This bastard.”

***

Alice was stuck in the basement, struggling to heal her face. How many minutes had passed already? It wasn’t clear, as if the sense of time itself had become blurred.

“This is useless!”

-Pyaaaaaang!

When she threw the glass bottle that she was holding, it bumped against the floor and broke.

she had and drank them. It was magical medicines that had the effect of recovery, but no matter what she used, the ugly wound and the stigma left on her face didn’t go away.

“What the hell… what is this?! Why doesn’t it disappear! My face… my face!”

In front of her, who was struggling without knowing how much time had passed.

-Bang bang bang!

A wave of powerful Mana struck her without notice.

“Ugh!”

Alice barely escaped. A strangely twisted voice resonated in the basement.

“… What happened to their eyes and ankles? You prevented them from running away, huh. In the meantime, how could you…”

Alice didn’t listen to her opponent until the end.

“It’s you!”

Her eyes flashed, and before the faint existence beyond the dust could finish his words, Alice cried out screaming.

“That guy! Kill him!”

Fairies flew along in the direction of her fingers.

There were no more expressions on the fairies’ faces. They raised their sharp nails, flashed their sharp teeth, and flew in.

The identity of the opponent was unknown. She wasn’t even curious about what happened to Hessler, who was in charge of the outside perimeter. Just showing up there at that moment was a sufficient condition to turn out to be an ‘enemy.’

The fairies attacked, following Alice’s reflexive orders, but…

“The Sigh of Melcos.”

-Whuiiiiing!

As soon as a short word fell off, a cold wind blew and…

-Thug! Thug! Thug!

After the cold wind struck, the fairies fell to the floor, frozen. Even creatures that broke human bones with their bare hands couldn’t resist in front of that magic that was activated in an instant. The fairies that turned like ice cubes lost their power, and like the dropping hail, they fell on the wizards’ bodies scattered on the floor.

“Eeeeeek…!”

Alice’s eyes, seeing that sight, became bloodied and swelled.

“I’ll kill youuuuu!”

The huge cat, who hadn’t lost its composure so far, drooled with its eyes turned upside down. There was no intelligence any longer.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaahh!”

The roar that burst through the sharp teeth echoed through the underground passage.

It was the shadow that was much larger than ordinary humans who approached the cat. He was stuttering and walking in the direction of the cat and Alice.

The cat, who could no longer hold back its anger, jumped into the air!

“Gyaaaarghhh!”

The sharp cat’s claws broke the wind. The shape in the dust kept walking forward, facing it, and just before the toenails touched the shape…

-Poong!

There was a loud bang that shook the space. The tall shadow never stopped walking.

-Drop, drop.

It rained in a dusty underground passage, and then, the cat’s blood and flesh fell to the floor.

“…”

Alice clenched her teeth and pulled her hands together. She stared at what appeared in the dust.

He had countless eyes that were staring at her. Alice quickly recognized who he was.

“… Why here? No, what was Hessler doing that he couldn’t catch you alone?!”

“Hessler? Other than Noel? So, that’s the name of the wizard with makeup.”

Alice’s expression hardened. No way?

“Don’t worry. That guy Hessler is moving safely now. My ‘colleagues’ will bring him.”

Alice muttered as if she didn’t understand.

“Unfortunately, that guy named Noel is dead. So, I just need to make two more tanks in my house.”

He then added in a small voice.

“Now, welcome, Fake God’s roommates.”