Fury

I tried to move my body, but it wouldn’t budge.

Not even a breath could escape me.

‘Why had I done that?’

After all, the being before me was humanity’s enemy, the worst kind of monster.

What was I thinking, idly grinning and asking her to lie on her back for a massage?

Yet, I wanted to live.

I craved breath.

My mind grew increasingly disoriented, and my vision blurred into a distant haze.

With immense effort, I managed to part my unresponsive lips and utter a word.

“For-forgive me—”

“A bothersome old man is approaching.”

The Witch’s words coincided with the complete disappearance of the intangible aura that had bound my entire body.

I could breathe again.

“Cough… gasp…”

As I knelt, gasping for air, the Witch rose and turned to face me.

“Tsk… You truly are nothing more than a bug. To think you’d almost die from a mere troublesome thought.”

Once again, I felt it profoundly.

That was a Witch.

A monster clad in the beautiful skin of a human.

A creature capable of freezing an entire area upon its arrival, and of slaughtering tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even more people.

What in the world had I been doing with such a monster?

I had to escape.

Escape the clutches of this insurmountable monstrosity.

As I staggered to my feet, the Witch clicked her tongue once more and spoke.

“Prepare to move. A troublesome old hag is coming.”

A troublesome old hag?

Was another Awakener approaching?

Was there an Awakener nearby strong enough to make this monster want to flee?

No, was such an Awakener even possible?

I quickly dismissed these questions, pushing them to the back of my mind.

[The trait ‘Endless Talent’ is activated.]

Such things were not important to me now.

What mattered was that a being the Witch found bothersome was approaching.

And how I could exploit this situation.

“Um… then, Witch-nim, may I just retrieve one item from my house?”

I uttered words I would never have dared to speak with my previous mindset.

At this juncture, where a single word, a single choice, could determine life or death, my mind raced with eerie speed, and my heart grew even calmer.

First, my recent brush with death was a mere coincidence.

From the circumstances, the Witch had simply been displeased by the realization that the bothersome old hag was coming, and I had merely been caught in the aura she emitted in her displeasure, nearly dying.

Like a bug swaying in the exhalation of a human.

This meant she had no intention of killing me, at least not yet.

Perhaps she was quite pleased with the massage and intended to keep me around.

‘That’s not happening.’

The Witch was a being who would draw the attention of the entire world, beyond just Korea.

People from all over the globe would flock to gather information on her, and my identity, tied to her, would soon be exposed.

Humanity’s betrayer.

A sycophant clinging to the Witch.

Such labels would be thrown around, and eventually, I would be exterminated along with her.

Living in constant anxiety, fearing death with every massage misstep, would be an added misery.

If that was the case, I’d rather just die here.

I made this judgment with astonishing composure.

This was not my usual audacious nature.

Regardless, this was a gamble.

A gamble with my life.

If I could somehow hold out until the bothersome old hag arrived, my chances of escaping the Witch’s grasp would slightly increase.

As expected, the Witch once again unleashed the suffocating aura.

“I give you an inch, and you take a mile, you bug.”

“…But, but for the massage, it’s absolutely necessary… Your satisfaction will increase by at least three, three times… It’s not even… comparable… Cough!“

Perhaps it was because I had forced my constricted throat open to squeeze out the words.

My vision darkened even faster than before, and I felt my consciousness slipping away.

‘Was this how I would die?’

‘Just as I awakened, just as I thought I had gained the power to fight against these monstrous creatures, would it end like this?’

Suddenly, oxygen surged into my nose and mouth like a flood, and my vision cleared.

The Witch’s voice echoed once more.

“Do not attempt any petty tricks; you must return quickly.”

It seemed the Witch rated my massage quite highly.

I stumbled to my feet and ran toward my house, feigning utmost haste.

Of course, it wasn’t my house, but a house at the edge of my vision, as far away from the Witch as possible.

After all, this small house in the village where I was born and raised was soon to be cleared out.

I had a studio apartment in Seoul, so I had a place to stay, and I had already sorted out all the furniture and appliances in the house, so there was nothing particular I needed to retrieve.

What I needed was time.

Time until the being capable of confronting the Witch arrived.

The house I headed for was the village’s only gukbap restaurant.

Calling it a gukbap place was a stretch; it sold gukbap less often than not. It was where an old woman lived, who would tell you it wasn’t available if you asked for gukbap, and instead insisted you eat doenjang jjigae, and an old man who watched TV while drinking makgeolli.

The door was half-open, and as I squeezed through the gap, the scene from my memory was perfectly preserved.

Everything was frozen, as if captured in a photograph.

The old woman was frozen exactly as she had been, washing dishes in the kitchen, and the old man sat at the table, watching TV.

They had been frozen to the bone, to the heart, without ever feeling the approaching bitter cold.

“…Damn b*tch…”

I muttered words I couldn’t utter in front of the Witch, scanning the house.

Was it because they were frozen exactly as they had been in life?

Or had something changed within me?

Despite the surge of anger and self-reproach, my mind remained chillingly clear.

I had to stall for as much time as possible here before leaving.

I estimated I had at most five minutes.

If I delayed any longer, the Witch would assume I was playing tricks and try to kill me.

After stalling for roughly five minutes, if the old hag still hadn’t arrived, I would have to go out and stall for more time.

Honestly, reaching this point was already close to a miracle.

Stalling for more time outside was simply absurd.

If the Witch’s troublesome opponent didn’t arrive within five minutes, there was a very high probability I would be dragged away by the Witch, or die with a single flick of her hand trying to resist.

‘For now… let’s do what I can.’

I searched the house, hoping to find something useful, but there was nothing of the sort.

A tool to enhance massage effects?

That had, of course, been a lie.

Thinking about it, I realized I would die the moment that lie was exposed anyway.

With no particular success, time flowed relentlessly, and more than five minutes passed.

If I stalled any longer, the Witch might personally come to kill me.

I thought I needed to go out and figure out another plan, and so I headed back outside.

“Hehehehe. Witch, Witch. What kind of trick are you trying to pull?”

An old man stood midway between the Witch and me.

****

The white-haired old man was mystical.

His long white beard swayed in the wind, and he wore a white and blue dobok that blended exquisitely. Coupled with the sword hanging at his waist, he resembled an immortal sage.

“Old man. You actually followed me all the way here.”

“Witch, Blue Witch. Is it not too soon for you to descend?”

“That is none of an ancient monster’s concern.”

“Hehehehe… Your true intentions remain as elusive as ever.”

“Do not interfere, old monster. I will do nothing here.”

At his words, the old man looked around, clicking his tongue.

“Do you not think you have already done something?”

“That was not my doing. It was what this dimension did in accepting me.”

“That is precisely why it is your fault, Witch.”

The Witch’s gaze swept past the old man and landed on me.

“Regardless, return, old man. I will only be taking this one bug.”

Only then did the old man turn to look at me.

His gaze, somehow warm yet incredibly sharp, pierced through me.

“You are a child who has just awakened their power. Is your reason for coming here related to this child?”

“Nonsense. He is merely a useful bug, so I am taking him.”

“Hehe… I don’t sense any particularly special power…”

Under the dual gaze of the Witch and the old man, I felt as if I would suffocate.

Just being looked at made my chest heavy and my breath catch.

It felt as if I were breathing through only half a nostril.

And so, I remembered.

The day I first heard the news that my parents had died at the hands of monsters.

Anger ignited a fire in my heart, and contrary to my warming body, my mind grew cold.

“Bug, did you find that tool?”

Even amidst the suffocating pressure, I met the Witch’s chilling blue eyes directly and replied.

“No, I couldn’t find it.”

I recalled the tattered corpse of my friend.

In a world like this, such a thing barely made the news, and in the cold, harsh reality, I buried my precious friend in my heart, telling myself it couldn’t be helped.

The Witch’s delicate brow twitched for a fleeting moment.

“Tsk… You foolish, useless bug. Never mind. Let’s go.”

My only sister’s body couldn’t even be found.

Monsters like Dembula, colossal beasts with eight massive mouths, appeared throughout the city, and my sister vanished after that day.

I never gave up searching, but when a blood-soaked bracelet emerged from Dembula’s corpse, all I could do was sink to the ground.

It was one of a pair, a gift from our parents on the same day, unique in the world to just the two of us.

“I’m not going.”

The Witch, who had been turning to leave, slowly turned her head back, her face even more expressionless as she stared at me.

That made her even more terrifying.

“What did you say?”

Nevertheless, I answered.

“I said I’m not going.”

The Witch raised a single finger.

Simultaneously, the world began to glow dazzlingly.

…No, it wasn’t the world that glowed dazzlingly, but ice.

Hundreds, thousands of sharply honed ice shards filled my vision, filling the entire space.

The tips of all those ice shards were aimed directly at me.

The Witch’s glistening killing intent permeated the air, and my body stiffened with tension.

The fear of death I had felt earlier was still vivid in my mind.

“I will tell you one last time. You have no choice. Come with me.”

What pushed back the rising fear was a single scene.

The old man and woman from the gukbap restaurant, frozen to death exactly as they had been living their daily lives.

Their powerlessness, their futility, how easily and senselessly they had died.

The reason for their death was truly insignificant.

They had died simply because the Witch had appeared.

Finally, the burning fury pushed away the chill in my mind and surged to the top of my head.

“No! I’m not going, you ugly hag!”

The Witch’s face finally crumpled, and her finger slowly began to lower.

The world, or rather, the ice, began to move.

Simultaneously, the unleashed fury subsided, replaced once again by cold rationality and terror.

I quickly looked at the old man.

The old man was watching the scene with intriguing eyes, as if observing some peculiar creature, and I shouted at him, even louder and more desperately than I had at the Witch.

“Save me!”

The old man burst out laughing.

“What an interesting child.”