Ch.12Chapter 12 – World of Flames

“Fuck?”

Jae-hyuk Shin let out a profanity aloud. But his voice was drowned out by the surrounding cheers. People who had witnessed humanity’s first great victory were jumping up and down, expressing their joy with booming voices. Just like the soldiers on the TV screen. To them, it looked as if the army had rattled off their guns and the monstrous—or literally, monster—enemy had retreated into a mouse hole, unable to withstand the firepower. In reality, it wasn’t much different.

“Woohoo! Well done, fuck yeah. Kill them all!”

“We won! We won!!”

The crowd, drunk on the joy of victory, shouted loudly, forgetting their concerns that imps might swarm at the noise. But those who coolly assessed the battle situation remembered that this fight wasn’t over. The second hell gate still remained in Gwanak District. Until that gate was closed too, they couldn’t rest easy.

Officers silenced the excited soldiers and began moving toward the next destination. The marching speed was noticeably faster than during the first advance. The commanders seemed to feel that dealing with the monsters was easier than expected.

As long as the enemy lacked long-range attack capabilities, commanders only needed to be wary of a few possibilities: allowing enemy approach through overwhelming numbers that surpassed the army’s firepower, or being surrounded by ambushing enemies, causing firepower to be dispersed and allowing enemy approach. These were the two scenarios.

Fortunately, both possibilities had been preemptively blocked. First, one of the two passages continuously supplying enemy forces in Gwanak District had just been closed, preventing the gathering of forces that could overwhelm the army’s firepower. Also, while the commanders knew the monster soldiers had lower intelligence, they didn’t underestimate their cunning. They always sent drones ahead to scout the terrain before deploying troops, to identify potential ambushes and threats.

In fact, after once confirming that a group of imps was hiding in the army’s blind spot, they became even more thorough in using drones to search their marching routes. Thus, the army advanced, annihilating hidden enemies and charging foes alike.

“Hey, be careful there! That’s right!”

“Good, our country’s army is doing well!”

“Yeah, at least our tax money wasn’t completely wasted!”

The news reporter and the people watching united in cheering for the army. The excited news reporter explained, spitting as he spoke, that this incomprehensible phenomenon had occurred in major cities around the world, and our country was the first to destroy a black sphere.

But Jae-hyuk couldn’t focus on the scene. It wasn’t because of the noise around him. He was in a state of great confusion, witnessing common sense being shattered.

‘The hell gate is closing…? I’ve never heard or seen such a phenomenon in my entire life. Is the demonic force truly weakening? Or is there some limitation to their crossing over to Earth?’

Every time guns blazed on screen, the devil’s minions fell one after another. With each one that fell, people gasped in amazement. Jae-hyuk clenched his fist. His bloodless, pale hand trembled.

How could this be? The overwhelming victory of Earth’s people was certainly joyful. Being able to annihilate demons with minimal casualties was surely a blessing. But, but. Deeper in his heart, a vile, jealous, dark emotion stirred. Though he knew a Holy Knight shouldn’t harbor such feelings, he couldn’t stop the flood of emptiness that washed over him. The spectacle of Eden’s despair and terror being slaughtered like mere livestock. What then of all the struggles and noble sacrifices of Eden’s humanity?

Jae-hyuk’s eyes grew dim. In those cloudy eyes flashed hellish scenes. Underdeveloped communication methods, a young man running to the castle bleeding from his entire body. Late deployment, riding horses without rest to reach a village. Burning houses reflected in his eyes, slaughtered women and corpses with burst intestines.

A living hell where only death remained.

Jae-hyuk bowed his head deeply and muttered compulsively. He must enter the hell gate. Go into hell and assess the situation inside. Eden’s secrets, the devastating truth he wanted to know—perhaps would regret knowing—would all be beyond that gate…

“Uh, uh, uh? What are those bastards?”

“What! An ambush?”

“Fuck! These persistent monster bastards. They’ve hidden so many in the city? What about the people, what happened to the people?”

At the collective gasps of shock, Jae-hyuk snapped his head up to look at the news screen. From inside buildings, between alleys, from beneath sewers, a green wave of imps emerged and gathered. Toward the hell gate.

Not to retreat to their home. They wedged themselves between the advancing army, blocking their march toward the hell gate. They seemed to instinctively know that the hole must not be attacked. True to that instinct, the demons charged. It was a more primitive and bestially intimidating charge than when they had faced them before. A suicide squad that disregarded their own bodies crashed into the human army.

The soldiers, apparently not expecting such a sudden concentration, began firing in all directions without fully establishing their battle formation. The battle continued in a manner that could hardly be called modern urban warfare despite centuries of development. Some soldiers didn’t even take cover behind obstacles as they put bullets into the foreheads of charging imps.

Whether it was a final struggle or not, the monsters’ offensive was particularly fierce. Soldiers at the front line began to retreat hesitantly to regroup. It was such a fierce offensive that without the tank fire and grenade explosions killing large numbers of imps, the front line might have collapsed. Some observant onlookers also questioned the behavior of monsters charging recklessly.

“What’s going on? They seem to be charging particularly aggressively. If those monsters were smart, they’d hide in the city and attack civilians instead—that would cause less damage to them.”

“Indeed. This looks like… they’re trying to buy time.”

That’s how it looked to Jae-hyuk too. As he watched, a sinister possibility struck his mind like lightning. Immediately, Jae-hyuk ran out of the police station.

He got into a police car haphazardly parked in front of the building. It was Officer Park Sung-ho’s car, who had fled from the imp swarm in a hurry, leaving the keys in the ignition. Though he had no driver’s license, Jae-hyuk started the police car based on his shallow knowledge from driving games and stepped on the accelerator toward the hell gate.

Horrific scenes flashed quickly past the windows. Jae-hyuk considered a possibility that might cause even more terrible devastation than those scenes. He pondered why the imps were charging so recklessly toward their burial ground.

The imps weren’t charging out of hatred for humans. The demons weren’t rushing to kill the army. That suicide charge was to buy time, waiting for something.

For instance, reinforcements.

***

Sergeant Kim aimed at the mouth of a green monster charging toward him and pulled the trigger. Since another monster was charging from behind that corpse, he kept pressing the trigger. The muzzle spat fire continuously, creating five new corpses. He briefly glanced away from the front line to check the situation beside him. His comrades were shouldering their K2 rifles and pulling triggers just like him.

“Hey, you bastard, not focusing? Shoot quickly!”

A shout flew toward Sergeant Kim. He was too frantic to recognize whose voice it was. Sergeant Kim focused back on the front and pulled his finger. Feeling the now-familiar recoil hitting his shoulder, he thought.

Why am I here doing this? What are these monsters? It was supposed to be an ordinary 18 months of service.

Getting scolded by seniors, bullying some new recruits a bit. What kind of bolt from the blue is this in my final days?

‘Less than a month left until discharge, fuck…’

Sergeant Kim fired his gun wildly, glaring at the black sphere with resentment and hatred. Well, at least I’m getting to fire a gun to my heart’s content in the army. Yeah, it might even be a good experience. When I return to civilian life, I might be able to use this story on blind dates…

“Huh?”

Sergeant Kim, who had been firing mindlessly, suddenly felt the monsters’ murderous momentum waning. Other soldiers seemed to feel it too, as they looked around with newfound leisure. With demons from the left, right, and rear all dead and collapsed, the soldiers turned their eyes forward. That is, toward where their target, the hole spewing demons, was located.

“What… is that…”

And they could see it.

The surreal sight of green imps, whom they thought only knew how to kill humans, prostrating themselves in unison around a vortex of darkness.

The sight of a massive hand wrapped in flames, emerging from the darkness, smashing down on the asphalt, crushing the imps beneath it and burning their corpses.

The sight of demons singing a hymn of doom, celebrating the arrival of a great demon even as they melted in flames.

Sergeant Kim couldn’t understand what it was. But seeing it, he was reminded of a certain being that often appears in creative works. A demon from Norse mythology that heralds the end of the world.

A giant whose entire body was on fire.

Surtr.

A system message appeared in the view of the awakened soldiers.

It was a boss message.

「 ===

Fear!

The lord of the lava rivers flowing in hell, the lord of the burning earth has descended to the mortal world.

As the vanguard, he shall rightfully trample the land of humans and plant the flag of hell to bring glory to the king.

His name is Bham-Sardaq, the Marquis of the First King’s borderlands.

=== 」

“Demon of the Burning World…?”

One awakened person muttered, looking at the system window.

It was more appropriate to call it a giant than a demon.

Even the building-sized hell gate looked infinitely small compared to the giant’s body. Like a full-grown adult passing through a narrow dog hole, the burning giant body stooped to squeeze through the narrow hole. Arms, head, torso, and then legs. Each time a part of the giant emerged from the hole, nearby imps burned and vanished from its heat. The ground where the giant stepped melted, forming footprint-shaped pools of lava.

The giant straightened its knees and stood up. The top of a low-rise building reached its waist. Though its massive body blocked the sky, the ground was not covered in shadow. Like a sun descended to earth, the light emitted from the demon’s body illuminated the ground. That light was intense. Too intense.

Only then did the army belatedly pour artillery fire—or so Sergeant Kim thought. It didn’t take long for him to realize his mistake. The army had been firing since the burning arm first emerged from the hole.

He had only assumed the army wasn’t attacking because the demon was completely unharmed. The shells and bullets fired by the army melted into flames before even touching the giant’s body. Those flames were absorbed into the giant’s skin, giving the demon even greater power.

This demon was the natural enemy of the army and modern firearms. Sergeant Kim’s mind went blank as he realized this fact.

‘We’re fucked.’