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[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 24: Shooting Star (8)
Baek Ho had already surveyed the area in advance.
Thanks to that, he had a rough map in his mind and could roughly pinpoint the sniper’s location from the direction the bullets were coming from.
The highest building nearby, about 900 meters away.
Or perhaps the area around it.
Since he had picked a relatively safe zone, it wasn’t difficult to narrow it down.
Bang!
Another bullet lodged into the ground.
Judging by the impact, this wasn’t a bullet for beasts but one intended for humans.
The precise craftsmanship of the bullet, which fell to the ground, suggested it was a top-tier product made in Hades.
“Here!”
Frank spotted Baek Ho and slammed into the ground, shooting toward him like a bullet.
Landing beside him, Frank’s eyes widened as he looked around.
The bright sunlight made it clear they were outside—but nothing else made sense.
Baek Ho’s face was tense, a large shield-like shell stood nearby, and somewhere behind them came the sounds of people crying.
“What the hell is going on…?”
“We’re outside.”
“Yeah, no shit... That’s why this is so insane.”
“I’ll explain later. Focus on the fight first.”
“Understood. Brief me.”
“Give me a second.”
Baek Ho pulled up the screen on his SmartCore.
He opened the magic catalog sent by X.
He quickly reviewed the spells related to the Calamity Bird.
Though there weren’t many available for his current level, luckily, the ones he needed for this situation were within his ability to use.
He closed the screen and focused on the image of the Calamity Bird.
The fear from their first encounter came back.
The helplessness he had felt in front of such a powerful being.
Now, using his dark mana as a conduit, he opened a portal to the spirit realm.
“Open the Gates”
His right hand, now blackened, reached out beyond the building.
He formed the connection with the Calamity Bird and summoned it.
“Descend.”
He funneled the dark mana into the portal.
He called out the position and drew the Calamity Bird’s power into the present world.
『Crow's Gaze』
A small hole appeared in the air.
A faint scent of blood filled the air, and soon a crow flew out, soaring into the sky.
Caw—
Baek Ho closed his eyes, and as soon as he did, the crow’s vision connected with his.
The enhanced vision and wide field of view, far superior to human sight, made his head spin for a moment.
The crow, now under his control, flew higher.
The ruined city below came into view.
Movements were detected heading toward them.
Humans, with white skulls painted on their faces, were heading their way—around twenty of them.
Among them, the Reapers numbered four.
There were likely necromancers nearby as well.
‘Where are they…’
Baek Ho gave the crow a command.
The crow flew off toward the anticipated location.
Soon, a 15-story low-rise building appeared.
Beside a collapsed wall on the roof, two figures could be seen.
A woman with her eye pressed to a sniper scope, and a man sitting comfortably beside her.
The man was holding an Agony liquor, indicating he was a necromancer.
Baek Ho quickly explained the enemy’s numbers and entry routes to Frank.
As he cast the spell, he also shared his thoughts with his subordinate.
At the same moment, the dark mana began to dissipate as if melting away.
“Got it.”
“The problem is the sniper. The bullets are gonna hurt.”
“Eliminating them will be tough, but I’ll distract them.”
"Alright. Just give me the signal and I’ll start."
Baek Ho ended the spell and looked at Frank.
He bumped his fist toward him—a silent way of saying ‘good luck.’
Frank, wearing a sour expression, lightly bumped his fist back.
It was understandable.
He had barely opened his eyes, found himself outside the city, and was being told to jump straight into battle.
He had every right to feel confused—and maybe even a little resentful.
But Baek Ho knew the perfect way to snap him out of it.
"Frank, you’re fighting right now to protect I_Vu."
"...What the hell are you talking about? Did you take something?"
"Just look over there."
Baek Ho pointed toward one of the massive scales nearby.
Frank, frowning—which was unusual for him—trudged toward it.
Without even standing on tiptoes, thanks to his size, he leaned over the scale and looked beyond.
There, through the chaos, he spotted Nana—crying, terrified.
A moment of silence.
A sharp tremor running through him.
He remembered the hallway in front of the office.
That encounter with Nana, which he had thought was just a dream.
Baek Ho’s voice cut through.
"Nana asked me to get her out of there."
Frank said nothing.
Right at that moment, a sniper’s bullet flew toward them.
BOOM—!
This time, the bullet didn’t hit the scale.
It exploded right in Frank’s clenched fist.
"Are you insane, grabbing that with your bare hand?!"
"...Yeah. Guess I am."
Thick smoke billowed up from the blast of mana.
Through the haze, Frank slowly turned his head.
His eyes were wide open, his nostrils flaring—a face twisted like a raging demon.
He glared at the direction the bullet had come from.
He wasn’t just an angry train about to derail.
He was a nuclear warhead seconds away from detonating.
"...I’m gonna kill you. I kill for I_Vu."
Dark blue energy gathered in Frank’s legs.
As he bent his knees, the ground beneath him caved in.
The next moment, he launched himself like a cannonball.
Along with the shockwave, a notification flashed before Baek Ho’s eyes.
{Subordinate ‘Friend’ has reached maximum mana output.}
Frank shot forward without hesitation.
Bullets flew at him, but this time he rolled forward, dodging them easily.
He looked exactly like a gorilla breaking out of a zoo.
"Works like a charm."
Baek Ho muttered, closing his eyes again.
His sight linked back with the crow.
The sniper was just about to pull the trigger on Frank—
Baek Ho directed the crow straight into the sniper’s face.
–Caw! What the hell?!
–Wh-What is that?!
The reaper and the necromancer flailed in panic.
Meanwhile, Frank reached the attackers.
He let out a deafening roar—packed with every curse word he knew.
Then he swung the two necroshells in his hands without mercy.
Heads flew.
Spines snapped.
Their bodies were brutally crushed and broken, like something pounded into mush.
–Somebody get rid of this crow!
–W-Wait—!
The sniper flailed, trying to stab the crow with her dagger, but it kept dodging.
And for now—as long as the crow kept them busy—Frank could keep up his slaughter.
The problem was Baek Ho’s dark mana.
{61% remaining.}
Baek Ho lit a black cigarette.
He took a deep drag, thinking hard.
The battle raging in front of the building was clearly in Frank’s favor.
His necroshell was running at full output, and he was fighting with everything he had.
However, the sniper remained a major threat.
Even Frank would be in serious danger if a vital point was hit while he was distracted.
The sniper had to be eliminated—and to do that, they needed their own sniper.
“Chicken!”
Baek Ho shouted toward the scale beside him.
As expected, there was no response.
“Goddamn it…”
He canceled the Crow’s Gaze and moved behind the scale.
The scene inside was still in complete chaos.
Nana was huddled in the corner, sobbing uncontrollably.
The Chicken Mask and Pig Mask were frantically trying to stop the bleeding from the Ox Mask’s wounds.
Baek Ho grabbed the Chicken Mask by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
“Did you not hear me?”
“Let me go!”
When the Chicken Mask tried to jerk his arm free, Baek Ho grabbed him roughly by the collar.
"Listen carefully. If you don’t, you’re all dead."
“Fuck… You could’ve stopped this. You had something, didn’t you...?”
"Get a grip!"
Baek Ho shouted, cutting him off.
“Grab your rifle. Move.”
He shoved the Chicken Mask backward, then looked down.
Blood was still trickling out from beneath the Ox Mask.
Baek Ho reached down and removed the mask.
A face covered in burns was revealed.
Nana gasped between sobs.
Baek Ho spoke quietly to her.
“Do what you can. Even if it’s just a prayer.”
Then he turned to the Pig Mask.
After a brief hesitation, he spoke.
"Ending it quickly might be the kinder choice."
Leaving those words behind, Baek Ho stepped back outside the scale.
The Chicken Mask was already waiting with a sniper rifle in hand.
“Follow me.”
Baek Ho and the Chicken Mask ducked behind the same cover.
“We’re going to kill the bastard who shot your comrade.”
“…Understood.”
Baek Ho formed a seal and summoned a new crow, sending it soaring toward the building again.
The sniper was still there. But the necromancer was nowhere to be seen.
The sniper had their sights on Frank.
They seemed flustered, as if the situation wasn’t going as expected.
“Two o’clock direction. Highest building.”
Following Baek Ho’s command, the Chicken Mask adjusted his aim.
He pulled the trigger.
Bang—
The shot narrowly missed, grazing past the sniper’s face.
Baek Ho frowned and glanced over.
The Chicken Mask’s finger, still on the trigger, was trembling violently.
He was still in shock.
“I’ll make sure you all survive. You focus on getting revenge.”
“...Okay.”
Baek Ho closed his eyes again.
The enemy sniper turned his gun toward them.
Startled at being attacked, he tried to move to a different cover. Baek Ho didn’t let him.
He sent a crow flying straight at the sniper to block his line of sight.
–What the hell again?!
"Now."
The Chicken Mask pulled the trigger.
This time, the shot landed perfectly, bursting the sniper’s head apart.
"Got him. His vessel's destroyed."
"......"
"Stay here and help Frank. I’m going to check on your teammate."
"...Necromancer..."
"What?"
The Chicken Mask shuddered and dropped to his knees in front of Baek Ho.
"Please... I beg you... Don’t turn him into an undead..."
"So you want me to just leave him to die?"
"Even Bakado... would want that..."
The Liberation Army was made up of Awakened who had fled because they didn’t want to become Reapers.
They might not hate undead, but becoming one themselves was a fate worse than death.
"...Fine."
Baek Ho understood what he meant, roughly.
"Then there’s nothing I can do for him."
"Khk..."
"But I won’t give up either."
Necromancers were still human.
Unlike undead, they could die easily—that’s why the Academy taught them emergency treatment and surgery, both to save themselves and to save others.
But Baek Ho wasn’t confident.
Unlike necromancers, ordinary humans would be poisoned by dark mana.
"Necromancer..."
"Do your job."
He shoved the sniper rifle back into the Chicken Mask’s hands and turned away.
He pulled out a portable flask from inside his coat and opened it.
Chugging the poisonous contents down, he headed back into the scale shield.
And froze at the sight before him.
"...What the hell..."
The Pig Mask stood frozen, gripping two daggers in his hands.
Nana was kneeling beside the wounded, her hands clasped together in prayer.
"...Wrap him in Your light... and in Your warm embrace, may he be made whole once more..."
Dark light poured from Nana’s body and seeped into the Ox Mask's wounds.
The injuries were slowly, painstakingly regenerating.
"...Hah."
The pace was slow, but the wounds were definitely healing.
It wasn’t like a potion covering over the skin.
It wasn’t like a LifeGuard's nanomachines stitching things back together.
The cells themselves were regenerating—just like when a necromancer healed an undead.
"...Your radiant mercy... Khk..."
Nana coughed up blood.
It was a sign that her vessel’s dark mana was running out.
Baek Ho rushed toward her.
He didn’t fully understand what was happening, but he knew one thing—Whatever it was, it had to continue.
There was something he could do—lend her his dark mana.
He couldn’t interfere directly with her vessel, since it was managed by a Reaper, but he could still help indirectly.
"Keep going."
Baek Ho placed his hand over hers and gently let dark mana flow into her body, not her vessel.
"...By Your merciful hand, soothe his pain..."
The dimming darkness inside Nana rekindled.
The muddy glow grew stronger, and a faint cross of light appeared behind her head.
Even the Pig Mask dropped his daggers, staring blankly.
"...Shine Your light on the lost... so that they may return to Your glorious embrace..."
As the rhythmic prayer continued, a powerful darkness poured out from Nana’s body.
She absorbed Baek Ho's dark mana rapidly, and Baek Ho responded by pushing more dark mana into her.
“Damn it…”
It wasn't enough.
Since it wasn’t flowing directly into the vessel but into her body, the consumption rate was far too fast. Eventually, he had to draw up the old, dormant dark mana deep within his heart.
{!Warning!}
{Minimum reserve threshold breached!}
{It is recommended to cease usage!}
{19%… 18.9%… 18.8%}
The dark mana that leaked out wasn’t the mist-like kind, but more like thick, muddy dark mana. It passed through his hand and into Nana.
“Ah…”
Nana’s eyes widened in shock.
The sensation that she had only felt indirectly now entered her body directly, causing her heart to race even more. It was as if she had only smelled something sweet before but was now tasting it, a dizzying, intoxicating feeling.
“Focus.”
At Baek Ho's words, Nana closed her eyes again.
Her lips parted slightly as she became deeply immersed in the dark mana. The murky glow around her intensified, and it felt as if the night had descended only around her.
The faint cross behind her began to become more distinct.
“…Shine your light upon the place consumed by disease, and cleanse all pain with the bright vitality of life…”
Nana felt a sense of comfort and warmth.
She had prayed countless times before, but this feeling was something entirely new. It had always felt like her words echoed in the void, but now it felt as though she was hearing the response from the divine.
She sank deeper into it.
She became lost in the moment.
She submerged herself into the black lake that was Baek Ho, swimming through it.
As time passed, the prayer filled with light in her mind began to fade away, becoming blurred.
“…May they return to your glorious embrace…”
Her recitation sped up, and her sense of self began to dance.
Her ego, once struggling to hold itself together, now bounced around like a wild, untamed horse.
She was no longer the timid person she once was, the one who feared losing everything, who constantly worried about the judgment of others.
She was no longer the one lying on the bottom, waiting for change.
She suddenly lifted her head, taking control.
“Fucking hell!”
“...Huh?”
“...Huh?”
Baek Ho and the Ox Mask both jumped in surprise at the sudden outburst.
Soon after, Nana’s voice no longer recited prayers but instead began to sing a soft, playful tune.
“I’m undead so I don’t gain weight~ No surgery, damn~ You should look in the mirror, too~”
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[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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