24 — Chapter 24

Advance Outpost.

The sun had long since set, yet every mage of the Firepower Support Unit—except the wounded—was outside.

Not just the sentries. Everyone held their breath, staring into the darkness beyond the narrow trail.

They all waited for one thing.

『One vehicle approaching from the rear gate. Not cleared by command.』

『Details?』

『Old exhaust, shaky steering, chassis in near-total ruin. And… a pale white glow.』

Gasps rippled among the mages listening to the comms.

The Savior’s Truck, which had vanished mid-battle while being chased by enemies, had returned safely.

“It really exists…”

“I even saw it carrying the wounded earlier.”

“Could this be a miracle from the stars—or maybe even the Outer Gods themselves…?”

“Check the passenger! Make sure they’re alive!”

The truck rolled in with a choking rattle, looking more like scrap metal on wheels than an actual vehicle.

The top half had been sheared clean off by the Butcher of Bishkek, leaving the passenger fully exposed.

“Ooh…”

“It’s here!”

Moon Ah-rin shrank under the flood of stares.

She hadn’t done anything. She’d only spread her wings when Hayan told her to—yet somehow, she’d become the hero of the exercise.

Deputy Commander Robert himself opened the door and praised her.

“Twenty-three successful supply runs, forty-six relief efforts, and over a hundred confirmed combat results. You did technically steal a supply truck without authorization, but I’ll say it anyway. Well done, Moon Ah-rin.”

“Ah, n-no… I just…”

“You even defeated one of Division 3’s Awakened—a disciple of the Confinement Immortal. Thanks to you, we held the First Outpost. That victory is yours.”

Confinement Immortal? One of the Seven Immortals?

She… defeated his disciple? No, ran him over with a truck?

Ah-rin wanted to deny it immediately, but Hayan wasn’t here. He’d never once stepped out of the truck when delivering supplies. She doubted anyone had even seen him.

“Division 3’s Confinement Immortal’s disciple… Spear of Thunderclouds, Kang Ha-neul?”

“She took down a Middle Level Awakened in one strike?”

“Has she been hiding her strength this whole time…?”

“Maybe this is the first time since Division 4’s founding that a White Tower mage could rise to Commander…”

No! Absolutely not—!

Ah-rin screamed inside, just as familiar faces appeared before her.

The same Red Tower mages who’d kicked her out that morning.

Their leader, Martin, bowed his head the moment their eyes met.

“Damn… Ah-rin, we need you.”

“Will you rejoin Team 1 starting tomorrow?”

“We realized how important you were today—even without us knowing it!”

“We’re begging you, please!”

If nobody knew what she’d done, that just meant she hadn’t been any real help at all.

These usually cold and logical mages now looked like they were under some kind of hypnosis, heaping praise on her. Ah-rin thought she might lose her mind.

“Th-that’s… I-I…”

She almost wished she could climb back into the truck and vanish into the dark.

That was when—

BOOOOM—!

A massive tremor shook the ground as space itself warped.

The entire Cheonsan peak, where the Special Unit’s outposts were gathered, quivered.

The sign of a Gate.

---

Normally, a Gate functioned as a passage between Earth and the Demon Realm, separated from reality. But not always.

Sometimes, like now, it bled directly into the world.

It was time.

I watched as the ground split, purple mana bursting from below.

The earth writhed as if alive. Trees thrashed like they’d grown nerves and sinew.

It meant the Tartaruga Cheon So-baek had mentioned was about to appear.

“So, you think I’ve been tailing you? I was just out for a stroll, curious about what stirred in my backyard.”

“…”

“But you… Are you really the same boy I once saw? You’re no mere mage, are you?”

The master of this mountain didn’t spare the emerging Familiar a single glance. His eyes stayed fixed solely on me.

He remembered when I’d appeared with Yoo Se-byeol.

The only difference now—

The Outer God was with me. In an Incarnation. Bearing a Star Scar.

Yoo Chae-seon, the Sword Immortal.

They called him “the one who cleaves stars.” A man who had once raised his blade against an Outer God. He’d already sensed the presence hidden in my sleeve.

“The decrepit things would never come down to the surface again… or so I thought. Strange times indeed.”

“Elder, before anything else, I have a favor to ask.”

“To think, the obsequious flatterer I saw beside Se-byeol is nowhere to be found. Now you stir the mountain on purpose, unpredictable and dangerous. Hardly someone I’d keep close.”

“…”

The reason words failed was simple—neither of us intended to resolve this with talk.

The Sword Immortal had spread his aura deliberately, testing whether I was someone safe to leave at Yoo Se-byeol’s side. I, meanwhile, had business with him.

We both knew there was only one way the strong imposed their will.

The moment his blade left its sheath, I triggered Endless Outer Path.

—Shhk.

The slash that tore through infinite space seemed to vanish, yet the concept of “cutting” remained. The nearest space was severed cleanly, and the slope beneath my feet simply ceased to exist.

The mountainside collapsed like a cake slice being carved away. It wasn’t merely a physical cut—space itself had been sliced. There was no going down.

And from below, the peak trembled as the Tartaruga, assimilated with Cheonsan itself, began to raise its colossal head.

“This way, there will be no interruptions. Leave that little beast to the others, and why not take a leisurely walk with this old man?”

“I came here for that ‘little beast,’ actually.”

I silenced the smartwatch’s first-ever emergency deployment signal and murmured under my breath:

“Thirteenth Tentacle, Deluge.”

The air ripped open. From my back surged hundreds of massive tentacles, flooding forth like a tidal wave.

For the first time, the Sword Immortal’s face showed surprise. Then he began cutting them down without hesitation.

This was the same technique that had once swallowed an entire horde of monsters at Ground Zero.

But my opponent was an Awakened who had surpassed even the Upper Level—someone who had reached the Transcendent Realm, the absolute peak of humanity.

“Incredible. I have never encountered an Awakened like you. Did you fall from the heavens?”

“I came from farther than that. What surprises me more is how little this fazes you.”

“Do you take me for a blind old man, unable to tell magic from ability?”

So, he could at least see it wasn’t Black Magic.

As expected of someone who could stand against even Archdukes—one of the few in the world.

My tentacles were shredded like paper, yet I kept my eyes on the battlefield below.

The Special Unit fought desperately against the Tartaruga looming over Cheonsan.

Siege turrets thundered, while flames gathered above, condensing into a massive inferno.

Cheon So-baek, Commander of the Firepower Support Unit, had finally taken the field.

“It has been a long time since I’ve faced someone who dares look away from me.”

“I have no wish to fight seriously. You’re too valuable a force for humanity.”

“And yet, I still do not know what you truly are.”

“You sound like you won’t be satisfied until you test me with your blade.”

For swordsmen, judgment didn’t lie in the eyes or words, but in the feeling carried on their edge.

When his blade carved the air downward, the sheer pressure dragged the clouds out of the sky.

I bound the Tentacles of Stimulation together and unleashed them at him, while simultaneously creating a cluster of Singularities.

The space around my tentacles dissolved into countless voids, an attack that could neither be blocked nor cut.

As expected, when his blade failed to meet its mark, the Sword Immortal was briefly caught off guard. A needle of my tentacle pierced his forearm.

It injected a faint stimulant, magnifying sensation by fiftyfold.

Yet he simply plucked the tentacle out and shook his arm like it was nothing.

“It’s been so long since I felt like I’d had a bee sting. Refreshing, really.”

“Wait, even poison doesn’t work on you?”

“One of my inner techniques is called Myriad Toxin Purge. Care to learn it? I’ll even let you start at the intermediate stage.”

“I’ll pass.”

I had no taste for martial arts. Watching Special Unit members train like maniacs was enough to prove it wasn’t my path.

Back in the Demon Realm, I’d been so used to walking on tentacles that even climbing the Bureau’s stairs left me collapsing in exhaustion at first.

The Sword Immortal finally began drawing out true sword aura, his attacks pouring in.

Even his casual forms carried the weight of strikes equal to an Upper Level Awakened going all out.

And yet, as I countered with tentacles and Extreme Magic, his expression gradually hardened.

It wasn’t just that his blade couldn’t reach me—it was that I wasn’t even fighting seriously.

“Hoh… after the Eighth Night, I thought there’d be nothing left to astonish me in this life.”

“Are you satisfied now?”

“Not yet. You still haven’t answered me. Not your identity, nor the nature of the suspicious thing you harbor.”

The Sword Immortal drew a stance, slowly sheathing his sword.

The blade’s glow vanished into silence so sharp it seemed to slice even sound.

This was the technique that had raised Yoo Chae-seon to the Transcendent Realm—the same strike that had once cleaved even an Outer God.

When that blade came free again, there would be no time to react.

I let out a quiet sigh.

The plan had been to persuade him, stall him, keep him occupied while Moon Ah-rin seized the Tartaruga’s reins.

That way, the Special Unit would grow stronger, yet the Red Tower wouldn’t be able to monopolize the beast.

Cheon So-baek would gain use of it indirectly, but not control outright. She wouldn’t dare voice open dissent.

And on top of that, I could claim the merit of retrieving his granddaughter’s Star Scar.

The Sword Immortal surely knew about the Archduke’s Incarnation lurking inside Yoo Se-byeol.

If he heard me out, he’d have no reason to oppose me.

But he clearly wouldn’t stop until he saw it for himself.

I understood.

Even as one of the Seven Immortals, he wouldn’t trust the words of someone whose allegiance was unknown—unless tested blade to flesh.

Then I had no choice but to show him.

Rolling up my sleeve, I addressed the white being twined around my arm with solemn reverence.

“Mala-nim, my Outer God.”

『Fear not.』

“Forgive me for wasting your strength. This man doesn’t realize he is not our prey.”

I hadn’t wanted to use this against anyone short of an Archduke, but one must always prepare for the worst.

At my words, Mala-nim hesitated briefly before curling in on herself and replying,

『Fear not.』

Permission granted.

I pressed my hand to her holy flesh.

Like a cut across hair, her soft white skin split open, bleeding forth a drop of Star Scar.

I caught the glowing essence in my palm and swallowed it whole, bowing deeply with hands clasped.

Then I whispered,

“Ninth Tentacle.”

The Sword Immortal’s blade drew.

Before the sensation of my body being cut apart could finish, my vision turned blindingly white.

“What is this…?!”

A heartbeat later, there was no trace of his strike—only the heavens themselves aflame, burning instead of the earth.

I could feel the faint tremor of his sword tip, betraying his shock.

And I, for the first time in ages, lifted my gaze to the familiar panorama of the Demon Realm.

“The Tentacle of Pursuit.”