Prepare For Calamity! (2)

“To think something like this would overlap in such a difficult time. I feel needlessly sorry to that friend.”

After hearing Jeong Gil-sun’s words, I asked seriously.

“Are you really sorry?”

Judging by the way the corners of his mouth were raised high, it seemed he found Han Sang-gil, who was in an awkward situation in Japan, quite satisfying to watch.

“Of couuurse. Can’t you see that I look extremely worried?”

“I asked because you do not look that way at all. But why exactly is Japan collapsing to that point?”

“There are many reasons. Among them, the biggest reason is greed for power, and the second is that one of the biggest causes is that talented people outside the mainstream are not working for Japan and are keeping themselves hidden.”

“True. I heard that the Japanese masters who were active during the First Korean Peninsula War did not appear in the last war. But it is strange that they still do not step forward even when their own country is on the verge of destruction.”

“Who knows? They may have been killed by someone.”

What Jeong Gil-sun said was a fairly deep complaint.

In reality, there had been incidents where powerful people secretly died off. Because the cause could not be clearly identified, people had thought of it as something of a mystery until now, but through the recent Magic Tower laboratory incident, we had concluded that the group behind that mess was the Cultists of Ruin.

That was because some of the people captured at that time had been found in the Magic Tower’s secret laboratory.

An Sang-gil had put them into eternal rest and the incident had been settled for the time being, but such experiments and circumstances could not be said to have occurred only domestically, so it seemed correct in many ways that powerful people had been killed by Cultists of Ruin all over the world.

“But how did the merger happen?”

“Because things are difficult. If we want to survive, we have no choice, do we?”

It was an extremely plain answer. So I looked at the busy people and the empty lot and said,

“That place is the Magic Tower site, then?”

“That is right. We received a lot of help from Master Baek Da-gyeong.”

“Did you disassemble the relic?”

“No. We enlarged it and examined the magic circles inside it in detail. Then we drew the same thing into the Black Tower as well. When we did, the ratio was still quite high, but we were able to make it shrink.”

Just how much was it for him to say that the ratio was quite large?

I had thought it would already be here when we arrived, so I had found it strange that it was not.

“We also worked hard. And by linking it as a twin Magic Tower, we will be able to manifest greater power in the future.”

“A twin Magic Tower. It certainly was a good alternative. But was it not something you did not do because there was not enough feasibility?”

“A whole Magic Tower rolled in from somewhere. There is no reason to refuse it. And hardship is about to come soon, is it not?”

He was not wrong.

If the Apostle of the Calamity God called Saturn came through the Yellow Sea, war would break out once again.

I did not know how strong that being was, but because of the strange events occurring all over the world recently, I was certain they had decided to unite their strength as one, and said,

“You made a good decision. And it seems it is coming soon.”

Jeong Gil-sun shifted his gaze when I spoke while looking at one place.

“It seems you can feel it. I envy you. I envy you! I envy you to death!”

Jeong Gil-sun suddenly accelerated out of nowhere.

At that, Jeong Do-bin, who had been watching beside us, cut in.

“Raise your realm. Why is someone who was a master from the start envying someone who raised his realm through effort?”

“Do you think I am doing this because I want to?”

“Then stop lazing around and focusing on grass!”

Jeong Gil-sun wilted under the nagging.

“Our granddaughter has changed. She has been tainted by something bad from you.”

“I do not seem to have anything to do with that?”

From the beginning, Jeong Do-bin was a strong woman.

The woman who was practically leading the association was Jeong Do-bin.

How capable must she have been for people to even call him a ‘figurehead association chairman’?

“Do I look like a useless figurehead to you too?”

“You did not know?”

“You little?!”

As I lightly dodged and played around with Jeong Gil-sun, who shouted and rushed at me, Jeong Gil-sun finally seemed to feel the presence and stood still, looking at the place I had pointed to.

“To think the difference in perception between me and you is this large. It feels miserable.”

“At the very least, there is a difference of more than fifteen times in mana.”

“…Are you human?”

“I am curious too. Whether this is still a realm where I should be called human.”

Having a lot of mana did not necessarily mean one was strong, but to manifest high-circle magic called miracles, mana suitable for it was necessary.

“You are saying there is a difference of fifteen times?”

“It suddenly came to me.”

“You enviable bastard….”

His gaze held envy and jealousy, but it soon cooled, and Jeong Gil-sun complained.

“I am not at an age where I can have that much passion. I am at an age where I am too busy protecting what I have. Now is a time when I am full of only things to lose. Unlike you lot, who will only gain and gain, I am merely a sun setting with the passage of time.”

The sight of an old man sunk in remorse was only pitiful.

I had no particular intention of offering words of comfort, but I did have to say one thing.

“If your realm rises, you become younger.”

“…You damn brat?”

In the end, I laughed lightly as I watched Jeong Gil-sun follow me again and try to make a fuss somehow, and the people watching us had expressions asking why people who were around the level of ‘masters’ were acting like this.

A short while later, with a boom, the enormous Magic Tower began settling into place.

Although they had learned the unknown through Baek Da-gyeong’s relic, they had not made it entirely their own, and it was at the level of imitation, so it seemed reducing the Magic Tower’s size to about one-tenth had been the best they could do.

“This is incredibly exhausting.”

“Just how many mages clung to this?”

“…If you had been here, I should have received some help.”

“I would charge money, though?”

“I am paying these people too. Would it not be cheaper than that amount?”

“Who knows? I am expensive, you know?”

“Keke. I know. But it seems your realm has risen again. I can no longer feel anything from you.”

Jeong Gil-sun’s first words when he saw me had also been, ‘You have become ordinary.’

Thinking about that, it seemed clear that he could no longer peer into my realm.

There was no need to deliberately reveal my power, and as I watched the Magic Tower that had settled into place increase its volume, I began roughly grasping the flow of the magic.

‘High-level white magic was definitely used. It is certainly at the level of the 9th Circle.’

They had said that with black magic, even reaching the 8th Circle was a miraculous probability.

That was because dark mana itself was said to be a power humans could not endure.

However, the impression I felt after reaching the realm of the 8th Circle was that it was a realm anyone could sufficiently reach.

That was because if one went through the stage of ‘adaptation’ and became one with dark mana, one could sufficiently look toward a higher place. The reason I was not saying this for now was because that statement contained a ‘weakness.’

Through the stage called adaptation, the body was altered as if it had become a lump of dark mana.

It was not change, but alteration.

That was why one had no choice but to become even more vulnerable to divinity.

That was why, among the many topics, I had fallen even more deeply into resonance.

All I had to do was prevent divinity from touching me through the power called forth by resonance, so the weakness itself became useless.

And I had definitely made this mine. Now, if I became familiar enough to teach this to others, I was certain I would be able to aim for the next step.

Moreover, this was knowledge the Necronomicon had given me after taking all of the soul.

I had to prepare more varied prices and make more deals.

‘It especially liked the souls of the Cultists of Ruin. If there is a reason, then as expected…. Is it because they are souls related to divinity?’

They were commonly called servants of god.

When their souls died, they belonged to their god.

But since there was now an opportunity to intercept and devour them halfway, from the Necronomicon’s position, there could be no sweeter temptation.

Rather, the ‘devil’ that was supposed to tempt and bestow power had been tempted instead.

As I watched the enormous structure completely take form and rise at the desired location, harmonizing with the association building, I thought that we had truly taken a long way around, and offered words of congratulations.

“From now on, bicker a little more intimately.”

“Thank you. We will have to do that until old man Jeong Gil-sun goes.”

“You might have to wait several decades. Is that all right?”

“Keke. In truth, I am more worried about Do-bin than that. Do-bin is scarier than old man Gil-sun.”

Old man Jeong Gil-sun had the feel of a foul-mouthed old man, so he did not feel that difficult to deal with, but Jeong Do-bin had a strong image of a cold woman, and her atmosphere was heavy as well, so there was a part of her that was hard to approach.

That did not mean her disposition was cold or bad, so it was not a big problem in terms of relationships, but there was nothing I could do about the fact that she felt burdensome.

The high-ranking black mages, including Jeong Gil-sun, Cheon Jong-un, Go Yu-jin, and me, who had gathered together for the first time in a while, were discussing one thing.

“Requests for support are continuing to come in. There were promises of support funds, and there were also half-threats. What do you think we should do?”

The request from the government was not merely my problem alone.

“They say the Apostle named Saturn is extremely strong.”

At Jeong Gil-sun’s words, Jeong Do-bin displayed the materials.

“They say thirty percent of China’s strength has evaporated, and even now, they are taking devastating damage in real time.”

“The situation is serious, but the problem is that because the destination of that Saturn fellow seems to be our side, they say the Chinese are apparently opening the path for him. What do you think?”

At Cheon Jong-un’s words, Jeong Do-bin agreed.

“That’s right. That actually happened, and even now, they say they are emptying the regions Saturn passes through as quickly as possible.”

“They have fire at their feet. But can it cross the sea?”

“Considering Beral crossed the sea and devastated Britain, they believe it is not impossible. And many Awakeners can actually fly through the sky.”

Even among physical Awakeners, there were humans who flew through the sky by strange methods.

So it meant that its crossing the Yellow Sea had become a foregone conclusion.

“The situation is considered even more problematic because many masters are detained on Japan’s side. I suppose they judged that if at least those people joined and took up positions, they could resist once.”

How unfair would it be if we perished helplessly without being able to do anything about a single Apostle?

At that moment, Jeong Do-bin carefully asked a question.

“So I am asking, Geum Seong-chan-ssi, do you think you cannot deal with it even with your power?”

“To be honest, I do not know. I cannot give a definite answer. In a situation where I cannot even properly estimate what level my power actually is, is it not ridiculous to speak with certainty about a target when I do not know how strong it is?”

“That is true. It might be different if we could receive combat data, but China is flatly refusing to provide it. It openly feels as if they want us to perish.”

I could tell that it was a situation that had to be troublesome in many ways.

Because the mood had grown heavy, everyone’s attention scattered as if a change of air was needed, and just then, the phone rang. Jeong Gil-sun checked it and let out a sigh.

“Dae-san called. It seems he is very urgent, so I will go take the call.”

Everyone fell into thought as they watched Jeong Gil-sun leave his seat like that.