By Zephyria 
The history of magical beast research on Earth is short. Because of this, hunters were thrown into confusion when they found no information suggesting that the anxiety fog could mutate into inorganic matter. While the division of magical beasts was rare, it was within the expected range; however, turning into inorganic matter was unprecedented.
“How are a Viking ship and a roller coaster supposed to attack…?”
“Maybe they spin like fans and spray fireballs?”
The anxiety fog provided the answer immediately. The hull of the Viking ship, which had been swaying back and forth, suddenly lunged forward and slammed down with a crash. It struck right above the hunters of the anti-magical beast unit, who had been unable to prepare for the sudden movement.
“Danger!”
Pi Min-hyeong shouted urgently, grabbing two people and using Blink to evacuate them, but unfortunately, he only had two hands. A hunter on the edge, out of Pi Min-hyeong’s reach, looked up in despair at the flames falling toward his head.
It was the moment the word ‘death’ flashed through the minds of the nearby hunters.
Clang!
With a heavy metallic sound, the flaming hull of the Viking ship stopped. To be precise, it was blocked by Kim Si-baek’s blade. His feet sank deep into the ground from the weight of the attack by the beast mimicking a hunk of iron, but the arm holding the sabre horizontally did not shake in the slightest.
“Are you alright?”
“Uh, uhhh…”
The hunter, unable to even answer properly, collapsed weakly and was quickly pulled away by his colleagues. Pi Min-hyeong, having quickly recovered from his bewilderment, vanished as if his body had collapsed inward and struck the bottom of the Viking ship with his blade.
As the hunters began to attack one by one, the anxiety fog tried to slam the Viking ship down like a hammer, but Kim Si-baek blocked it every time. Since the anxiety fog had not yet adapted to its mutated body and was only performing repetitive, simple attacks, it was easy to defend against. This was a fact that would have horrified the hunters who were currently sweating profusely while striking the ship.
‘What about the roller coaster side?’
Looking back, fortunately, the situation there was similar. The roller coaster train, which had derailed from its tracks and charged forward, was impaled by Tae-un’s black thorns rising from below, leaving it exposed to the hunters’ attacks.
The anxiety fog seemed to have learned that this attack was not very efficient against them. Instead of staying large, the ship and the train divided into several smaller units. As the attack area widened, the flames spread faster than before.
The sight of hunters fighting amusement park rides looked like something out of a B-list comedy movie, but for the hunters facing attacks of iron and fire, it was a living hell.
“Where is the anxiety fog’s core?!”
“It varies depending on the mutated form!”
Since this was the first time hunters had encountered the anxiety fog mutating into inorganic matter, they had no choice but to scramble, unable to find the core.
“What about the scanners?”
“It’s over 10 meters, so the core cannot be measured!”
“Fuck! That damn 30 percent probability! When is the support team arriving?!”
“There was an accident on the road, so they’re taking a detour; they said it’ll take about 20 minutes…”
The location of a magical beast’s core varies by individual, and the anxiety fog tended to generate its core in a place similar to its mutated form. For example, if it were a theropod dinosaur, it would be at the crown of the head; if it were a giant monster, somewhere in the spine; if it were a ghost, near a very faint glow. However, since this was the first time it had mutated into inorganic matter, they couldn’t even guess the location.
“Hmm, since it’s inorganic, it should be in a position where it can gain mobility… I’m not sure if ‘engine’ is the right word, but anyway, where is the driving part?”
Kim Si-baek asked, cutting through the commotion. His tone was so remarkably calm that the hunters momentarily blanked out, forgetting the situation. The security team leader, regaining his composure, shouted to wait a moment and ran to the protective magic circle where the staff had evacuated before returning.
“It’s, well, a motor for now. For the Viking, it’s near the platform below the axis of rotation, and for the roller coaster, it’s at the starting point.”
The officer reacted sharply.
“Dammit. I can’t trust you, but we have to try something. Our unit will take one of them.”
“Yes. However, since the anxiety fog is a pair of twins divided from a single entity, the cores must be destroyed simultaneously. Can you coordinate with me while pushing through the flames?”
Kim Si-baek’s question was genuinely innocent, but the officer’s face turned red and blue as he clamped his mouth shut. Even if every hunter in the anti-magical beast unit were mobilized, he couldn’t guarantee they would be equal to an S-class hunter who could block the Viking ship’s attack with a single sword. The security team leader had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, as the officer, who had been reacting irritably and grating on everyone’s nerves, was silenced with a single sentence.
Contrary to his nickname ‘Mad Dog,’ Tae-un, who had always watched from a step behind whenever Kim Si-baek intervened in battle, finally stepped forward.
“I’m here, Hyung is here, and we have Pi Min-hyeong as a bonus, so it should be easy.”
“Easy?”
“Pi Min-hyeong’s trait is Blink, right? He can just use Blink to drop Hyung and me—who can communicate with just a glance—right onto the cores.”
In essence, the idea was to directly drop people into the center of the soaring flames. The hunters, who had been listening breathlessly while fighting the beasts, were stunned, but Kim Si-baek looked pleased.
“Right, that would work. Whose brother is he to be this smart?”
“Ehehe, I’m your brother’s brother.”
As Tae-un bowed his head, asking for praise, the darkness flowing from his coat pierced through the magical beasts, creating a brief opening, allowing Kim Si-baek to comfortably ruffle his hair.
Pi Min-hyeong finally regained his senses and shouted.
“Hey, are you crazy? With that size and that level of danger, the magical energy is so dense that accurate coordinate calculation is difficult! And you want to take two people! What if you miss and they fall into the fire? No matter who you are, you’ll burn to death, you bastard!”
“Ah, is it not possible?”
“It’s not!”
“You can do it, Pi Min-hyeong.”
Pi Min-hyeong clenched his fist at the firm assertion, which sounded like a basic logical truth even though his own life was at stake. It had always been like this. Whenever he voiced an opposing opinion on a plan that seemed impossible given their abilities, Tae-un would always say firmly:
〈You can do it with your ability.〉
And then, he really could; it was possible. Just as a young Yang Eun-ho had blocked the flight of a flying magical beast at Dongdaemun Stadium.
In the end, Pi Min-hyeong had no choice but to follow Tae-un’s words, even while making a distorted face.
A mage from the Jeongmyeong Guild squeezed out the last of their dwindling magical power to prepare a flame-resistant enchantment for Kim Si-baek and Tae-un.
“Enchantment isn’t my specialty, so it won’t last long. Two minutes at most? I’m sorry I’m not more helpful…”
“Not at all. Two minutes is plenty.”
As he comforted the mage, Nasluik and Gloiuken naturally came to mind—those who would have confidently wrapped magic around his entire body like armor.
[If Death and Beauty were my grand warriors, I would brag that something like Blink is unnecessary.]
“That’s certainly true. Since you could just throw them.”
If it were Gloiuken, she could probably withstand the attacks of two anxiety fogs alone and throw Kim Si-baek right next to the core beyond the flames.
‘To prevent the destruction of a world where divine power is as scarce as Earth, perhaps Gloiuken is needed more than I am?’
Unlike him, who could not fully use his abilities due to the lack of divine power, her dragon power was not derived from divine power but was something she was born with.
While lost in a brief moment of longing, Pi Min-hyeong finished the coordinate calculations, repeatedly checking the positions of the motors via drone footage.
“Phew, I’m not sure I can get it in one go, so I’ll use Blink repeatedly to narrow it down. Deal with the motion sickness.”
“Stop talking nonsense that doesn’t suit you and just do as usual.”
“Do I usually throw people into fireballs?”
Pi Min-hyeong glanced at Tae-un with a highly skeptical look and took a tense breath. As soon as the flame-resistant enchantment was cast on Tae-un and Kim Si-baek, he grabbed them by their waists and activated Blink.
In an instant, the heat of the air felt against the skin changed. A dry, searing heat stimulated the skin like a knife. Having moved to the air above the Viking ship, Pi Min-hyeong used Blink again before the sensation of falling could even register.
With every blink, the scenery in his vision zoomed in rapidly, and the demonic fire flickered as if to swallow them whole. As soon as they reached the top of the axis of rotation, Pi Min-hyeong let go of Kim Si-baek as promised, and vanished to move Tae-un to the roller coaster without even waiting to confirm the landing.
Despite the flame-resistant enchantment, an intense heat that threatened to not just burn but melt the skin rushed in. Thinking that it was a good thing he had left Biyendwe behind, Kim Si-baek sprinted across the Viking’s platform.
‘There it is.’
He soon found the motor that was still mimicking a rotation even though the Viking ship required no power. To synchronize the timing of the removal, the two had agreed to destroy the cores after counting to 100 from the moment Kim Si-baek landed.
He counted the numbers amidst the heat that felt like fire catching in his throat with every breath. …28, 30, 31…
The anxiety fog felt an ominous presence where its core was located. The instinct of the magical beast, sensing danger, boiled over to the extreme.