Episode 046
I bolted like a madman, my mind racing.
"Why didn't they hit Hamburg directly?"
They hadn't dropped it on Hamburg itself, but nearby. That meant there was enough time to prepare. The dispersion of the impact points was far too wide.
— The ROK military calculated the impact site along with wind direction and speed. Their estimate says sarin gas will blanket Hamburg in 35 minutes. We're planning to send the train to the Netherlands within 20.
"So that's the goal."
Relief supplies could be contaminated by the gas. The train had to depart as fast as possible.
— Even if that's what the enemy wants, we don't have a choice.
"No. That's not it."
Rushing the train's departure was just a preliminary step toward achieving their real objective. If I were running this operation, the goal would be obvious.
"They're trying to separate Hunter Lee Se‑eun from the train."
They intended to pin Lee Se‑eun down here somehow and send off only the train. That would make reclaiming the train much easier.
— …They'll probably succeed.
For a moment, I nearly stopped running. Succeed? Did he mean stopping Lee Se‑eun from boarding the train?
"What do you mean by that?"
— There's an archer in military uniform with a hood pulled up…
I clicked my tongue before he even finished. I knew exactly who it was—the bastard Han Sang‑a and I ran into on Gyodong Island.
If it was him, he could hold Lee Se‑eun in place. No wonder his voice sounded so urgent.
— The train has to depart.
This wasn't just about distributing relief supplies. If the gas cloud drifted in on the wind, Europeans would end up rubbing relief food in sarin gas.
"Crazy bastards. I'll give them this—their concept is solid."
Releasing sarin gas in Germany? Were they trying to avenge the Jews killed by the Nazis? Or were they just messing with people?
"What a complete shitshow."
The first thing I saw was Lee Se‑eun clashing with the hooded man in uniform.
In an instant, dozens of arrows poured down like a storm, and Lee Se‑eun countered by detonating the greatsword clenched in both hands again and again, intercepting every single arrow.
"At this rate, the station's going to collapse."
Power was transmitted to the train, and it began to move slowly. Everyone else was already aboard.
Everyone except Lee Se‑eun.
I glanced at him once, then boarded the train. Lee Se‑eun couldn't get on this train anyway.
"Departing!"
With the shout, the train surged forward. And the distance between Lee Se‑eun and us steadily grew.
Inside the moving train, an unpleasant feeling settled over me. Being played in someone else's palm always felt like this.
"Who the hell would've predicted a gas bomb?"
I wasn't even curious where they got it. The idea that the Descendants of Dangun were cooperating with the Korean government was already half‑confirmed.
If present‑day Korea—the world's superpower—put its mind to it, would a measly gas shell really be hard to obtain?
"…"
Those who'd been forced to leave Lee Se‑eun behind just stared blankly toward Hamburg in silence.
"What, you think if you glare hard enough, Hunter Lee Se‑eun will teleport over here?"
The looks gathering on me weren't friendly.
"Get a grip. Lee Se‑eun isn't fighting like hell back there so we can zone out."
After speaking, I scanned the surroundings and continued.
"This train is headed for Amsterdam. Now that they've separated Lee Se‑eun from us, something is definitely going to happen soon."
Considering the speed, we'd reach Amsterdam in about nine hours. And the Descendants of Dangun would certainly make a move before then.
"We need to prepare. We can't just waste time thinking, We left Lee Se‑eun behind, what do we do…"
They'd come soon. The Korean military might manage crowd control and protect relief supplies, but against hunters they wouldn't be much help…
"Korean military, cooperate with us."
"Even if we step in, it won't add much to our combat power."
As the officer was about to respond, I cut in immediately.
"There's no need to guard the shield generator. Split your personnel and deploy them to the trains carrying relief supplies."
Let's see how the Descendants of Dangun treat the Korean military.
If they touched the relief trains, then my theory—half‑confirmed until now—about the relationship between the Descendants of Dangun and the Korean military would be wrong.
But if they didn't touch them at all, that would be definitive proof.
"Hunters, focus on protecting the shield generator."
After issuing the orders, I headed toward the shield generator with the other hunters.
"Suspicious group spotted ahead!"
As expected—they'd prepared. I infused mana into my eyes and examined the group visible in the distance.
About 250 people.
"That bastard…"
Among the group blocking the railway, one figure stood out—the guy who had forcibly sealed Lee Se‑eun's movements back in Khabarovsk.
Beside him was a woman wearing a black hanbok dress. An indigo gayageum set next to her caught my eye.
Looks like those two were the leaders of the group blocking the tracks.
"Prepa—"
At that moment, the woman in the modified hanbok sprinted toward the train. Her legs were so powerful that the ground behind her exploded in bursts of dirt as she ran.
Charging at a terrifying speed, she reached the front of the train in an instant and immediately swung the gayageum at me.
"Whoa—what a crazy woman!"
I ducked hastily, and with a whooom the gayageum brushed past right above my head. An unpleasant dissonance rippled out along its strings.
"Gah."
As my body was shoved backward by the sound, my head spun. A few hunters even had their legs give out and collapsed, retching several times.
This wasn't just sound. Mana was mixed into the spreading sound waves—shaking the mind, and on top of that, exerting physical force.
"You?"
"So what. Ask a proper question."
I replied while igniting Contradictory Ghostflame on the spear in my hand. The woman's eyes narrowed the instant she saw the flames.
"So it is you. Then die."
"You're hitting people with a gayageum?"
That's not what it's meant for.
"My name is Seo Yeon‑ju. I've been ordered not to kill you, so I won't.
But I will turn you into a cripple."
"Everyone lives chasing big dreams, huh."
As if she'd be the one crippling me. With that insane woman swinging a gayageum as her vanguard, the rest of the bastards who had been blocking the railway began charging at us one after another.
Behind Seo Yeon‑ju, the shaman‑looking guy who'd restrained Lee Se‑eun before took up position, shaking a ritual fan in his hand.
"Yoo Chan‑seok. The Gangneung Yoo clan traces its roots back to China."
"So what, you trying to pull off a discount Holocaust or something?"
"It means your lineage started out filthy."
He's just spewing whatever comes to mind. Does he want to get sued by the Gangneung Yoo Clan Association? The bastard's lost his mind.
I can't believe there's still someone going on about family registries in this day and age. And it's not even some ancient geezer—this guy looks young and perfectly healthy.
"You're not seriously thinking the two of you are going to gang up on one weak guy like me, right?"
"That's exactly what we plan to do."
"You're dead."
At that, I scanned my surroundings. Either way, all I had to do was deal with these two. The skill of the pair in front of me was undeniably top‑tier.
Honestly, for a hunter at my level, taking them both on alone should've been impossible.
"Well then. Let's give it a shot."
Life doesn't only throw you crises you can easily overcome.
"Uraaagh—!"
With a thunderous bang, the gayageum wrapped in dissonant sound collided with my spear, and my body was sent flying backward.
My wrists throbbed painfully—what the hell is that thing made of? Why is it so sturdy?
"What did I do to make you prepare this thoroughly? It's annoying."
The gayageum amplified the discordant noise released from the impact using its resonating chamber, swirling it around itself.
"If you want to burn something with that pitch‑black flame, you'll have to break through this first."
Seo Yeon‑ju wasn't wrong. Even that last clash—my spear hadn't actually touched the gayageum. It had collided with the dissonant sound pouring out of it.
After that, Seo Yeon‑ju deftly maneuvered the gayageum with both hands, relentlessly targeting me. At this point, it wasn't even a gayageum anymore—it was basically…
"That's sign spinning."
In plain terms, spinning an advertising sign. She whipped the gayageum around like one, closing in and raining down heavy attacks. I shortened the length of my spear drastically and moved to counter her.
She tossed the spinning gayageum lightly into the air, then immediately went into a handstand. Like picking up a sausage with chopsticks, she clamped the gayageum between her legs and slammed it down at my head like a pickaxe.
"What the—!"
Boom! A heavy shock traveled up both my arms. Even then, the gayageum still hadn't made direct contact with my spear.
After continuing her assault for a bit, Seo Yeon‑ju spotted the spear tip flashing toward her body and hastily plucked the gayageum's strings with her fingers. An awful sound rang out, blocking the counterattack.
"I didn't think you'd be able to counter."
"Oh yeah?"
She wasn't wrong. If I hadn't rewired my nervous system, counterattacking would've been impossible.
"But are you really just going to stand back there and watch? I'll report this later."
"Alright. I'll start working then. Jesokhaewon‑gyeong should be enough, right?"
At Seo Yeon‑ju's words, the guy who'd been spectating from the rear finally moved.
"On iron pillars with bronze crossbeams, a vast ancient hall is built high and grand. Wind chimes hang from its four corners—can bronze pillars truly rot? When the southeast wind blows, wing‑grang, deng‑grang, the famed instruments of mountains and rivers reveal themselves—"
As the shaman‑like bastard spewed incomprehensible words, he danced while swinging a ritual blade.
"You ill‑mannered little—"
The moment he moved, vitality visibly surged through Seo Yeon‑ju's body. That meant an even stronger attack than before was coming.
"Monstrous demons, death spirits, vile ghosts, goblins and specters, bind them one by one and drag them forth! By this law, divine soldiers, strike them down with the great blade! Rain Master, Wind Lord, Thunder God, generals of transformation—!"
He kept chanting nonstop, performing a sword dance and shaking bells. Mirage‑like energies writhed upward from beneath my feet, clamping tightly around both my legs.
"Try dodging."
"Yeah right. You know I can't."
I muttered that and grit my teeth, raising my spear toward the gayageum being swung at my head with full force.
The instant it struck, the spear bent under the impact.
A grinding crack echoed from my ankles, and the ground—compressed from tank armor plating—caved in deeply.
"Khah—ptoo!"
I spat out blood that had risen up my throat and wiped the nosebleed away. I'd managed to block it, but my hands and feet were trembling uncontrollably.
"Still got all your limbs, huh. But that won't last long."
Spinning the gayageum, Seo Yeon‑ju declared that calmly. I looked at my shaking hands and let out a crooked grin.
What won't last long?
"You don't look like you have any intention of playing that gayageum properly anyway."
I took a deep breath and drove my spear into the ground. From the point where it pierced the earth, Contradictory Ghostflame spread outward.
"Let's just fight on mute. That okay with you? From here on out—everyone, shut your damn mouths."
With my words as the last sound, every noise in the area was consumed and burned away by the Contradictory Ghostflame.
A gayageum that attacks by wrapping sound around its target, and techniques that only work if you keep chanting nonstop.
If the Ghostflame burned away all sound produced in this area, those bastards couldn't use their techniques. I pulled the spear back out of the ground.
Facing the stunned looks fixed on me, I raised my middle finger.
And with that, Phase Two began.