Ch.459Episode 17 – The Blood-Drinking Tree

Working in foreign countries means you’ll inevitably handle all kinds of firearms.

From famous company pistols like Glock, Sig, and Colt to former Soviet models like Makarov and Tokarev. Generally, the less developed the country, Eastern Bloc weapons become more common, and rather than legitimate exports from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, you’ll often see illegal knockoffs with falsified origins.

But since smugglers will import anything that makes money, intelligence agents who use black markets frequently encounter unfamiliar weapons more often than you’d expect.

Just like now.

“……”

The crude body of the pistol drawn from my waist gleams under the ceiling light.

The hammer-less pistol, designed for easy concealment, was small enough to carry in a pocket without looking awkward. Like a Tokarev or M1908.

I pushed the catch located at the back of the grip, checked the magazine, pulled the slide and gently pushed it back while saying:

“Through the back door.”

Episode 17 – The Blood-Drinking Tree

I first realized the lock had been tampered with when I noticed the seal I’d placed on the front door had been torn off.

Whether it’s a safe house or a residence, once you’ve left a building unattended, it can no longer be considered 100% secure. So like other experienced intelligence agents working overseas, whenever I needed to go out, I always placed warning markers on the entrance and windows to indicate if someone had broken in.

-Rustle. Rustle.

Even during the brief moment it took to reach the back door, I continuously ran simulations in my head. Who was the intruder and what was their purpose?

The first group that came to mind was “Devourers of the Abyss,” the cult that controlled Necropolis. Perhaps they had tracked me down after identifying Francesca and noticing my activities with her in the city.

Probably not.

If the Devourers of the Abyss suspected me, they would have come for me directly rather than searching my lodgings.

Searching my room meant they were more interested in my possessions than in me personally. Staff targeting guests’ luggage, thieves after valuable items, or spies raiding a safe house to secure documents, and so on.

Since this lodging was property owned by the Palm Tree Guild, I ruled out staff. This wasn’t a hotel or motel. Similarly, I eliminated thieves. In a lawless city, possessing substantial cash and property means you have the ability to protect it.

Unless they were mentally deranged with extreme narcissism like Hong Gil-dong or Arsène Lupin, no one would attempt to rob guild accommodations.

That left only one candidate.

“……”

Whether my guess was right or wrong, I had absolutely no intention of letting whoever had broken into my lodging leave peacefully.

Arriving at the backyard, I poked at the lock with a lockpick while muttering so only Camilla could hear.

“I’m picking the lock.”

“You’re not using a key?”

There is no key for the back door. The guild manager lost it a while ago.

After picking the lock, I carefully entered the building. While I attached the silencer, Camilla cautiously pulled out a kitchen knife that had been stuck in the counter.

The sounds that were clearly audible from the entrance became more distinct. Zippers opening and closing, objects being rummaged through. As soon as I heard these explicit noises, I could visualize the intruder searching through my belongings.

The presence was coming from the second floor.

The intruder had left traces throughout the hallway and stairs, probably not having bothered to clean the dirt from their shoes before breaking in, which made it easy to track their location.

After giving a hand signal, I climbed the stairs to the second floor. The Arabian-style carpet absorbed the sound of footsteps, helping to conceal our presence.

Camilla placed her hand on my shoulder and whispered softly.

“…Be careful.”

I gave a slight nod and entered the second floor.

The second floor looked exactly as it had when I left.

The room was shrouded in darkness without a single light, and the cords tying back the curtains on both sides were still intact. Scanning the entire room with my loaded gun, I left the peripheral scenery behind me.

And then I saw it.

“……”

At first, I doubted my eyes.

The upper body was blocking a window spacious enough for two people to look through simultaneously with room to spare, and the round object presumed to be its head nearly touched the ceiling.

Seeing a statue-sized figure occupying the center of the room made me wonder if I was still feeling the effects of alcohol. It was a build that would put any human—no, even an orc—to shame.

There was no time to question why such a massive figure was here. It was more rational and natural to think someone was playing a nasty prank than to believe that the intruder was a giant whose build was recognizable as such even in the darkness. That’s how much the figure’s size exceeded imagination.

For a moment, I even wondered if someone had secretly placed a statue here, or if Joaquin had sent a golem to my lodging.

But when that mountain-like body began to move, and I spotted my bag carelessly rummaged through at its feet, I finally realized I wasn’t seeing things.

The next moment, my gun barrel aimed at the strange intruder spat fire.

– Thp! Thp!

The suppressed gunshots pierced my eardrums. The slide retracted, ejecting a brass casing.

Before the sound of the casing hitting the floor could be heard, the firing pin struck the primer of another round loaded in the chamber, spitting out another casing.

I calmly pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Even in the darkness, I wasn’t so incompetent as to miss a target at this distance, so there was no need to align the sights.

– Thp! Thp! Click, tick!

When I pulled the trigger, I heard the sound of the last casing rolling on the floor. Feeling the slide locked back with my fingertips, I replaced the magazine while staring at the intruder.

As the massive figure that had its back to us moved, the brilliant multicolored light of crystals drove away the darkness.

Like wind clearing storm clouds and the sun showing its face between them, the intruder’s body was revealed in the underground city’s pouring light.

The body wrapped in rags like a beggar’s gave an almost inhuman impression. An unrealistic bulk enveloped in worn cloth.

-Woong….

The bullets, no longer spinning, seemed to have hit an invisible barrier and hung suspended in the air.

I lowered my gun with a dejected expression.

“…Ah, come on.”

Now even street bums with no bulletproof vests are stopping bullets.

*

Everyone agrees that perfect plans don’t exist in this world. Plans often go awry due to unexpected mistakes or variables you never imagined.

In that sense, an intruder immune to gunfire was truly the worst variable possible. Especially for a nobody like me who had nothing to rely on but a gun.

By the same logic, when the giant used some kind of invisible force to throw something at me.

It was only natural that I, not being a magician, would take the hit and go flying.

“Ugh!”

“Oh my god…!”

Camilla’s scream quickly brushed past my ears. Floating in the air, I was slammed helplessly against the wall.

“John, it hurts like shit…!”

“Are you okay?!”

Clutching my stomach and gasping, I desperately shook my head.

No, I’m absolutely not okay….

While I was barely holding onto my breath as I rolled on the floor, the intruder began approaching with a THUD! sound.

What the hell does this guy eat to bulk up so much that the floor shakes with each step? He was advancing one step at a time, pushing aside the bullets and casings at his feet.

“Stay back!”

-Whoosh!

Camilla shot flames toward the intruder. Seeing the flames that instantly approached, the figure hastily retreated and then swung his thick forearm to deflect the fire.

-Crack!

The giant swinging his arm to deflect the flames looked like a dancer performing in fire. Following his seemingly rigid movements, the flames were pushed away from his forearm and spread to the ceiling and wallpaper.

Tiny sparks flew up and drifted in the air, beautiful like stars scattered across the night sky. While the embers entangled with dust circled in the air, the intruder’s silhouette began to emerge under the crimson waves.

His forearms, made of bumpy muscles, resembled rocks rather than body parts, and black shadows that might be tattoos or writing were engraved on them. The shadows, starting from his fingers and wrapping around his entire forearm, extended into the shoulder joints covered in rags.

He appeared to be a being that shone even within the flames.

The moment I finally realized the intruder was male, he began to slowly advance through the scattered flames.

And after witnessing him deflect the flames with his bare arms, Camilla opened her eyes wide and gaped.

“What is that?!”

“How would I know… ugh….”

I replied as I barely managed to get up.

Seeing the figure approaching through the flames, Camilla began to summon more fire. Just as the hulking figure lowered his stance to prepare for the impending attack.

“Hah!”

With both hands full of fire, Camilla quickly set everything around us ablaze.

-Whoosh!

-Crackle!

Floor, ceiling, walls. Fire spread to the left, right, up, and down. The rug emitted an acrid smell as if spitting out the dust it had absorbed, and the scorched wallpaper left black traces as it spread in all directions.

“…!”

Trapped in the sudden flames, the giant looked around in apparent confusion.

Meanwhile, Camilla supported me under my armpit, struggling to pull me up, and shouted:

“Let’s get out of here! We might burn to death if we stay!”

“Ah’ma!”

Just then, a language I couldn’t understand pierced my eardrums.

It was the giant shouting something at us through the flames.

“Makuna-ba’kta!”

It was a language I’d never heard before. It sounded like a regional dialect from the Mauritanian continent, but I couldn’t even guess which tribe it belonged to or if it was a dialect.

What the hell is he saying? With that question in mind, I glanced over, and Camilla opened her mouth hesitantly with a somewhat confused look.

“Um, he’s asking where it is…?”

“What?”

“He’s asking where something is. He wants something back…?”

What nonsense is this?

I looked at Camilla with an incredulous expression. Although she translated, she didn’t seem to believe the intruder’s words either.

The wooden structures consumed by flames began to collapse. Seeing wooden pieces crumble with a crash, we finally came to our senses. I pulled my clothes to cover my nose and mouth, and Camilla covered her face with a handkerchief before pulling me hard.

And then,

-Whoosh!

Transformed into flames, we were thrown into the yard.

“Ouch!”

“Gyaaaah!”

Because she hadn’t fully mastered teleportation magic, Camilla who emerged from thin air had no choice but to roll on the ground. Of course, I, who was tightly held by her, had to fall with her.

She tapped her dizzy head and barely regained her senses.

“Quickly, let’s escape to the guild….”

-BOOM!!

Looking up with a jerk, an unbelievable sight unfolded before our eyes.

The outer wall of the lodging was being blown outward as if hit by artillery.

Even without hearing an explosion, the scene of one side of the wall not just collapsing but scattering in all directions was something you’d only see in a monster movie.

Flying stone fragments mercilessly pounded the fence, flower beds, and streetlights, and some debris even shattered the windows of neighboring buildings.

As screams from people caught in the sudden attack dissolved into the darkness.

The giant who escaped from the collapsing building appeared before us with a thud.

“Da’la-kur!”

He shouted again in an incomprehensible language, veins bulging in his neck.

I don’t understand that foreign language.

But he was clearly furious.

“Damn it….”

As I drew a knife from inside my jacket and took a stance, Camilla, who had approached without me noticing, pressed her back against mine.

With beads of sweat trickling down her jawline, she asked in a tense voice.

“It’s going to be hard to escape like this, isn’t it…?”

“…Obviously.”

I answered while adjusting my grip on the knife.

As thunderous shouts continued and the boulder-like figure began to charge.

Red waves and sharp blades collided with the black shadow.