“Wh-what...”
Ki Taeyeon muttered under his breath. He strained his eyes, forcing up the pressure behind them, trying to see through the darkness.
Igyeol tensed, his face gone cold and rigid. Ready to spring out at any second. Ready to pounce in an instant.
The darkness atop the altar peeled away one layer at a time. Something that had been fused into a single mass with the darkness near the ceiling slowly began to reveal itself.
It was enormous. The shadow was terribly large.
Twice, three times the size of the other shadows. The darkness clung to its outline, then unwound one layer at a time. The shape unwinding looked exactly like a person.
The darkness lifted slowly, the shadow shrank away entirely, and through the gap the figure on the altar was fully revealed.
Igyeol, who had braced himself with a hard face to spring out at once, met that face and froze on the spot, forgetting even to breathe.
The hand gripping his sword jerked, and for a moment he nearly dropped it.
“...So-”
Height, shoulders, disheveled hair, vivid eyes, the hem of clothes, a torn sleeve, the contour of a face that shifted with the falling light, right down to the furrowed brows.
“You're not even going to say hello?”
The smiling mouth curved with immense delight.
“It's been a while, hasn't it?”
A low, soft, tender voice filled his ears. Igyeol, without realizing it, took a step back.
Mental-type magic burrows deep into a person's mind. It knows how to manipulate the psyche, to drag out what lies deepest and control it. It touches the weakest thing, digs into the most precious. When you join the UNP Special Investigations Division, one of the most strongly recommended certifications is a public license related to mental-category drugs or magic. Things like Mental Interference Defense Grade 1, or the Special Mental-Image Distortion Removal license.
Among those, Ki Taeyeon had earned the Special Mental Contamination Resistance Grade 1 certification. It was one of the certifications he'd busted his ass to earn just to get into the UNP. He might look like a punk on the outside, but on the inside he was a top student who worked his damn hardest, so it was one of his many certification achievements. Maybe that was why he could keep a clear head in a situation like this. It was all thanks to that.
But damn it.
If the physical dealer's in that state, what good is any of it? Ki Taeyeon thought.
Beside him, Moon Igyeol, his face gone white and struck with deep shock, was staring blankly at the altar, out of his wits. Of course, Taeyeon was shaken too.
Well now, master. Long time no see.
Seo Yunha, his master, who had strode into the Gate of Yeokcheon and gone up in glorious flames. His face was right there before his eyes.
That's right. He was there now, before the altar. Seo Yunha, Ki Taeyeon's master who had died as an apostle nine years ago, stood there looking perfectly fine. Honestly, Ki Taeyeon didn't understand why Moon Igyeol was so shaken. Would you please, do you know Seo Yunha? he wanted to ask, but knowing that a guy out of his mind wouldn't give him an answer right away, it was hard to even ask. For now. For now, first.
That's an illusion.
Right. That's an illusion. A falsehood conjured by the magic circle.
Right now Moon Igyeol was thoroughly deceived. What the magic circle had done was dredge up everything about Seo Yunha from inside both him and Moon Igyeol to create this illusion. So then, here's the question.
Moon Igyeol, you... how the hell did you know my master? And you two look damn close, too?
Why does this bastard have so much he's hiding?
Ki Taeyeon glanced at Moon Igyeol. That white, drained face was both pitiable and absurd. Why on earth had it come to this? How?
Ki Taeyeon swallowed dryly. Either way, right now he had to snap Moon Igyeol out of it. Ki Taeyeon quickly drew his gun and gripped it.
“Moon Igyeol.”
A hard voice shot out, calling to Moon Igyeol. But Igyeol didn't answer. Igyeol was staring at Seo Yunha. His mind was blank. The smell of sulfur pricking at the tip of his nose kept pulling him off somewhere else. He couldn't tell where he was.
Where was he right now? The Demon Realm? Was he still inside the Gate of Yeokcheon? The Seo Yunha before his eyes smiled.
“Igyeol, I was waiting for you.”
The gently curved corners of his mouth. The tender voice. The very same face as the last time he'd seen it. The scarred hands and the torn sleeve. The faintly shadowed face.
“At least show me your face. I'm your hyung.”
The voice kept dragging him far away. To the past, the distant past. To that hell-like place. To that place that had been burning. To that time on that day when it had been hard to breathe. To that time when the only way to survive was to crush his feelings down. Igyeol, without realizing it, held his breath. His breathing kept faltering. His dazed gaze turned toward the illusion before him.
Ki Taeyeon watched Igyeol quietly gasping beside him. The white, drained face wore a completely shaken expression. No, "spellbound" was the more accurate word. There was no getting through. He drew a short breath to steady himself.
Hey, hey, Moon Igyeol.
Even I'm holding it together looking at my one and only master, so why are you... this shaken? With trembling eyes, Ki Taeyeon forced himself to look at the illusion. Honestly, he wasn't entirely fine either. He was just pretending to be. His master, Seo Yunha, who had walked into the Gate of Yeokcheon, had been quite something. How to put it, someone who was etched so vividly into memory that it was hard even to tear him up and burn him away. Someone who couldn't be erased. Ki Taeyeon twisted his face. Yeah, pretending nothing was wrong didn't make it hurt any less.
Ki Taeyeon's gaze slid from the illusion's face to the side. The illusion's left ear. A small blue light hung there. A single sapphire earring. The dim light inside the dungeon fell across that one piece, then slipped away.
Ki Taeyeon's gaze locked onto that spot.
The same color as the one piece hanging from his own left ear. The same shape. The same size.
He touched his own ear with his fingers. His fingertips met the single earring. It was the matching piece to the one hanging from the illusion's ear. The last keepsake his master had left him.
Disciple, it's a keepsake.
Ugh, quit talking nonsense!
Sounds like nonsense to you? Don't regret it later. Hold onto it.
Hyung!
...He'd carelessly stuffed the thing his master tossed him with a laugh into his coat pocket, and later had a hell of a time finding it. Ki Taeyeon let out a small sigh.
...Ah.
He remembered how, when Moon Igyeol first saw him, the first thing he'd recognized was the earring.
Moon Igyeol, right from the very start-
He'd known. From the very beginning. Ki Taeyeon clenched his teeth and drew his pistol.
“Igyeol.”
The illusion called to Igyeol. It was that voice from back then. Igyeol blinked rapidly. He swallowed dryly. What, what was he supposed to say? That there was a reason he couldn't go looking for his hyung, a reason he couldn't go back to his hyung. That he was truly sorry. He had to say it. Would his hyung listen to that excuse? Igyeol parted his lips and hesitated. That was when it happened. Ki Taeyeon called out to him in a firm voice, bringing him to a halt.
“Moon Igyeol.”
Igyeol flinched and turned to look at Ki Taeyeon. Only then did his mind snap awake, like cold water thrown over him. Ki Taeyeon had his pistol aimed at the illusion. Precisely at the center of its forehead. Ki Taeyeon looked at Igyeol and winked one eye.
“It makes me jealous when you flirt right in front of me♡”
Bang-bang-bang!!
Mana rounds fired violently from the pistol.
Boom-boom-boom!!!
The mana rounds slammed into the illusion, blasting the wall apart, sending dust and debris and smoke scattering in every direction.
The illusion came completely undone. It should have simply vanished, but the illusion's outline began to run down as black residue. It didn't scatter. It gathered in one direction. The gathering spot was the darkness at the peak of the altar. It was sucked in there.
The darkness at the peak of the altar unwound one layer.
At the spot where the illusion had flowed in, the darkness thickened. The thickened darkness hardened into crystal, line by line. As it hardened, an outline slowly broke free.
The ceiling rumbled and shook. He could feel the unseen darkness trembling.
“Shouldn't we get out of here?!”
“Get out to where!”
“The vent!”
“We go there, we still get crushed to death!”
Even if they got out, it was the underground transmission station. The two of them scanned their surroundings, searching for a way out. No hole was in sight. The floor rumbled and trembled. The summoning circle flashed.
From within the darkness at the peak of the altar, something came down slowly, one step at a time. Thud- thud- a thick vibrating sound rang out. Each time a foot landed, a fistful of residue was torn from the black stone. Where it stepped, the ground was gouged into the shape of a foot.
Thud. Thud.
Four meters tall. Shoulders twice as wide as a person's. The head was shaped like a human's, but it had no face. In the place of a face, a single lump of black crystal was embedded. The crystal caught the blue light of the circle and reflected it. That reflection turned toward the two of them. It was less a gaze than a direction. Not so much that it was looking, but rather that it was oriented toward them.
It held something in its right hand, a crystalline mass rising up like a sword. A crystal honed to a sharp edge. One side bristled with jagged, protruding crystals. It had been drawn out long from the hand.
Behind it, several things about two meters tall began to rise. They were the same kind as the largest one. Just then, the system popped a red-lettered notice before his eyes.
[In the artificial dungeon 'Underground Tomb of the Abandoned Transmission Station,' the demon 'Belphegor's Vice-Commander' (Synthetic-Rank Mimic Species) and 7 other mongrels have appeared.]
An artificial dungeon...!
Just as he'd thought, this place was an artificially created dungeon. It wasn't a naturally generated dungeon like the one Hyungil had been dragged into before. Igyeol clenched his teeth.
