The clash of giants forged from steel.
The Golem blocked the path of the Steel Monster.
The Hunter Association President and I held our breath for a moment and watched the battle between the two monsters.
Sparks flew in all directions as the iron of the two beasts clashed.
To be honest, it wasn’t much of a fierce fight.
The Golem swung its fists diligently, but—
The Steel Monster easily dodged its attacks, punched the Golem once, and then brought down its massive Sword on the Golem’s head.
“My head hurts just watching.”
The fight was completely one-sided.
The Armored Monster beat the Golem as easily as if it were a ragdoll.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Still, it was buying us valuable time.
“We need to move now, quickly.”
I reloaded my Rifle, and the Armored Monster kept pounding my Golem in front of me as if slaughtering a dog on the hottest day of summer.
“He gets hit every single time I see him.”
“That’s true.”
I had sent in the Golem at the Machine Church’s Gate as well.
Back then too, it just took a beating to buy us time and died almost immediately.
A few of the President’s Puppets carefully circled the Monster, and I raised my gun, aiming at the Monster’s knee joint.
“Let’s take the shot calmly.”
Bang!
The Armored Monster seemed to notice my attack and turned its head.
Crash! With a tremendous roar, the Monster’s Greatsword pierced the Golem.
The Monster smashed the Golem in half.
The Golem’s fragments scattered in both directions.
“Oof.”
But it looked like some cumulative damage had taken effect.
I hit the same spot on the Monster’s knee that I’d shot before.
The President’s Puppets charged at the Monster again—
And the Monster’s knee joint broke.
From the gap in the armor, dark red blood and flesh began to pour out, and the Armored Monster collapsed with a crash.
The Monster’s steel-helmeted head, falling from above, struck the stone floor and left a crack in the slab.
[You have slain a top-class Monster.]
[Exploration score +30.]
[Enlightenment Stage 3 progress: 100/300.]
I carefully examined the remains of the Armored Monster.
“What on earth is this Monster…?”
How did they even summon something like this?
I poked at the bloody lump with the tip of my stick.
“What do you think this is?”
“Well, it looks like blood at least.”
But it wasn’t just blood.
There were a lot of fragments of flesh and internal organs. One piece was clearly part of a human Skull.
“There must be more if we look around.”
Whatever it was, it seemed they had stuffed together bits of human Corpses and crammed them inside this steel armor.
It was a horrific sight.
Still, it was a relief that we had managed to deal with it successfully.
I radioed out to the field team outside the building again.
“This is Doctor Lee Han. The most dangerous hostile entity has been eliminated. What’s the situation outside?”
– “We’ve taken down several Monsters that appear to have escaped from the Gate. We have a few wounded.”
“See to the casualties. Requesting support at the Underground Parking Lot where the fake Gate was located, and at the site where the large Monster fell.”
– “Confirmed.”
The radio went silent.
I stood there for a moment, thinking.
The operation had succeeded, but in the end, I had only directly killed one Gate Worshipper.
Could there still be surviving Gate Worshippers?
Of course, this alone wouldn’t be enough to wipe out all the Gate Worshippers, but if we cut them off early, things might really change.
“There are so many strange people. I expected as much, but still.”
“Yeah…”
The Puppet Master looked a little shocked.
Still, it was fortunate that my relationship with the President had improved compared to before.
“I knew there were problematic Awakened out there… but to actually create and raise Monsters, and set them loose in the city. It’s much worse than I imagined.”
My thoughts exactly.
Cleanup at the scene went faster than I’d expected.
At the Underground Parking Lot where the fake Gate had been, red Warning Tape had been put up.
Dozens of people were gathered at the site.
The Police had arrived in force, gazing at the Corpses of the Gate Worshippers strewn around the area.
Six people had died at the scene.
It was clear they were all Awakened.
All of the dead were holding Weapons imbued with magic power.
Six Weapons were identified at the scene.
One Spear, one Sword, and an item that looked like a Staff.
I took a few photos at the scene, then collected the remaining Monster traces in a small Sample Vial.
There were still small Monster Corpses rolling around.
“Disgusting.”
“Let’s focus on the evidence.”
Dr. Min was inspecting the remains of the fake Gate.
Keeping a cautious distance from the surrounding bloodstains.
“These look like Obsidian Shards. We’ll analyze them again in the Laboratory, to see what material the fake Gate was made from.”
“Is it a material similar to Magic Stone?”
“I’m not sure. The Magic Stones observed in the Goblin Gate and at the Machine Church Gate were Quartz Crystal. This looks like Obsidian, so the composition is different…”
Dr. Min trailed off.
“In any case, it doesn’t seem the fake Gate itself was made of a magical item. At this point, there’s no way to obtain a Magic Stone or Artifact of this size, right?”
I nodded slowly.
Dr. Min could be right, but it was dangerous to make premature judgments like that.
There was no way to be certain what these people were capable or incapable of.
I stared at the broken fake Gate.
Dr. Min frowned.
“What were they trying to do here?”
“It looks like a ritual using blood. They were probably offering sacrifices to the fake Gate, trying to borrow power from another world.”
“Terrifying.”
“Seems like it failed. They summoned a Monster that was too powerful from the Gate and were wiped out by it.”
“Is that what happened?”
“We’ll know after we investigate.”
I had a few guesses.
In the end, almost all Gate Worshippers just wanted to become stronger Hunters.
“They want to get stronger.”
Some Awakened believe they’re superior to ordinary people, others want to unleash Monsters in the city to cause chaos, and still others hold apocalyptic beliefs.
That leads them to raise Monsters or decide to attack people directly.
We were lucky the enemy failed this time, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be so fortunate next time.
Right now, I was curious—
Could that fake Gate be replicated by anyone?
“Is this method only possible for Gate Worshippers?”
There was a lot that needed to be researched.
The magical principles of the fake Gate, the Monster Corpses retrieved from the fake Gate site, the Weapons left by the dead Gate Worshippers.
Just like when a new Gate opens, there would be a mountain of work ahead.
***
Thus, the incident was wrapped up.
The Police were chasing after the remnants of the Gate Worshippers.
And the remains of the ‘Living Armor’ I had captured were moved to the Research Institute.
The first thing to examine was the Corpse of the Living Armor.
Dr. Min, Dr. Wi, and I wore Masks and Goggles as we examined the Monster’s remains.
Even after being cleaned up, blood was still seeping out onto the floor of the Laboratory.
We started by dismantling the armor as much as possible.
I pried apart the seams of the armor with a Crowbar, then sorted the pieces from head to toe.
It wasn’t an easy process.
Dr. Wi moved an Iron Gauntlet off to the side.
“This is just bizarre. So, the suit of steel armor was stuffed with flesh and then animated? That was the Monster?”
“Yes.”
“Who could have made something like this?”
“I have no idea.”
It did seem like it had been summoned from the fake Gate, but I couldn’t rule out the possibility that the Gate Worshippers themselves had made it.
I pulled out something from the Monster’s remains that looked like a blood-stained Skull.
“Looking at these teeth, it seems human.”
Let’s think about this a bit more.
“There’s a certain consistency here.”
“In what sense?”
“They activated the fake Gate by offering sacrifices. And the Corpses inside this armor—they probably used blood as fuel to move this giant Monster, right?”
That explanation made sense.
Sacrifice for a goal, death for life, destruction for creation. It was the same line of thought as those with apocalyptic beliefs.
We continued the dissection.
I found several more fragments of what looked like human Skull among the remains.
“So, it wasn’t just one person.”
“They would’ve needed more than one or two bodies to fill this whole suit. There must have been more sacrifices offered to the Gate as well.”
“Right.”
Even though it had only been a few days since starting work at the Supernatural Science Research Institute, Dr. Wi was already thinking in a productive direction. If we just wait a little longer, results will surely come.
Dr. Min frowned.
“So the armor was decorative. I didn’t realize because it was so bloody.”
“Is that so?”
“It seems to be a kind of Coffin. They shaped it like a suit of armor, put human Corpses inside, and made it move. I also found several Magic Stones inside.”
Dr. Min showed me the Magic Stones.
Come to think of it, when we fought in the abandoned building, it was surrounded by something like a Magic Shield.
So of course there were Magic Stones inside.
They glowed with a reddish tint, but otherwise looked just like the usual Crystals I’d seen.
“Is this what was rolling around inside the armor?”
“Someone must have made it.”
I let out a sigh.
The more I studied it, the more gruesome it became.
Whether it was created by a Gate or the Gate Worshippers, they had crammed several people inside the armor to create this Monster.
Still, it was worth researching.
“It’s an incredibly well-made suit of armor, and it’s even imbued with magic.”
With this material, we might be able to make a Robot.
***
Given the barrage of phone calls since morning, it seemed the Government had been alarmed by this incident.
I had already mentioned it to a high official last time, but there are definitely Awakened who are dissatisfied with the world.
“Well, was there ever anyone without complaints in the first place?”
Gate Worshippers.
The problem is, there are people who want to unleash Monsters in the city and kill people wherever they find them.
Staff from the National Intelligence Service Science and Technology Headquarters, as well as Police Executives, came to the Research Institute. I glanced at the papers for a moment.
“I imagine you have a lot of questions.”
There were six visitors in total.
It was unusual for the National Intelligence Service and the Police to visit together. That showed how extreme the situation was.
Somehow, they’d managed to keep the incident from leaking to the press, but…
It’s just hiding behind closed eyes.
As if things are fine as long as ordinary people don’t know.
“What exactly happened? Did a Gate open in Mujin City? Or was someone raising Monsters?”
“Are there hostile Awakened out there?”
I nodded.
In the end, I was the only one who could answer their questions.
And the only one who could solve these problems as well. No wonder both the National Intelligence Service and the Police Executives had come at once.
What they wanted to know was this:
“Yes. There aren’t many yet, but the number of Awakened will keep growing, and so will the number of hostile Awakened.”
We cannot afford to let our guard down.
From now on, we’ll have to actively hunt down those who threaten humanity.