Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 23
Chapter 23. Noisy Neighbors (4)
The truck soon left the road and entered a quiet warehouse district. The warehouse was heavily fortified with sharp barbed wire and walls.
The man guarding the warehouse entrance looked puzzled as the truck approached.
“What’s this, boss? You’re here much earlier than expected?”
“Is it a problem if I arrive early? Where’s Brother Young-hoo Park?”
“Pardon?”
As the gatekeeper looked on in confusion, Han-taek clicked his tongue and knocked on the car door. The gatekeeper flinched and nodded.
“Uh, just drive inside for now. He’s in the room, I’ll report to him.”
Han-taek nodded and drove the truck into the large warehouse.
The warehouse was filled with containers and various military equipment.
Han-taek stopped the car in the middle. After quietly getting out, Han-taek surveyed the surroundings and retrieved an assault rifle and a grenade from a box.
Shortly after, armed gang members began to emerge from the darkness.
They seemed to have just woken up, not properly dressed, but all clutched loaded guns. Han-taek quietly signaled to them.
Han-taek’s gaze turned to the truck’s cargo area.
‘I’m sorry, but.’
Han-taek hadn’t betrayed the organization.
‘I can’t betray the Elder for mere U.S. military personnel.’
He never intended to betray them in the first place.
Having seen the Elder’s true power, he had no intention of submitting to the U.S. military.
The Elder was the herald of a new era, possessing authority that the U.S. military could never have. One of the gang members who had been on gate duty approached.
“Boss, is that the guy in the truck?”
“Yeah. Probably. The one who killed Lopez in Yongsan.”
“That’s incredible. How did you deceive him to bring him here…”
“It’s all about using your head, kid.”
He couldn’t admit that he had simply coaxed the man along because he saw no way to win on his own.
Han-taek made discreet gestures towards the gang members. They nodded earnestly.
With numerous guns aimed, Han-taek cleared his throat and knocked on the cargo door.
There was no answer.
Han-taek felt a tinge of anxiety but cleared his throat again and opened the door.
And at that moment, Han-taek pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it inside.
Tick.
However, as the door opened, the sound heard was that of a tripwire being pulled.
Before the grenade left Han-taek’s hand, an explosion erupted from the truck’s cargo area.
A storm of steel pellets instantly tore apart Han-taek and the gang members in front of the cargo area.
Then, a chain reaction of explosions occurred inside the warehouse filled with explosives, sending a massive pillar of fire skyward.
***
Thud.
Han-taek opened his eyes to the crisp sound. What entered his blurry vision was the silhouette of something dark splitting something else’s head in two.
Thud, thud.
Belatedly, overwhelming pain surged through him.
Han-taek tried to scream but couldn’t even writhe properly as his entire body was tattered like a rag.
“Huk, heuk, huk!”
“What, you’re awake? You could have slept longer.”
The man who heard the groaning muttered as he pulled his hand axe out of a corpse.
Han-taek looked up at him in disbelief.
It was Gangrim.
Gangrim, who should have been waiting to die in the truck’s cargo area, was alive and well, slaughtering the gang members.
“Seeing you’re not dead despite that condition, I guess you’re an immortal. I was wondering for a while, is your awakened ability acting or something?”
“How, how did…”
Han-taek tried to get up but found his hands were pierced and pinned down by some kind of blade. Though it didn’t seem deeply embedded, he couldn’t budge at all.
“That’s a spirit-binding talisman. If you have a soul, you can’t pull it out yourself even if it kills you. So just wait quietly. We’ll talk again later.”
Gangrim spotted someone running off somewhere in the warehouse and dashed after them.
Han-taek couldn’t understand where things had gone wrong.
Young-hoo Park was the gatekeeper’s name. And that guy was now lying next to him, split in half.
Gangrim ‘s silhouette moved like a ghost in the flickering flames. Occasionally, gunshots and shouts erupted, followed by chilling silence.
‘Did he never get into the cargo area in the first place?’
Han-taek had seen Gangrim get into the cargo area and even locked the door.
There was no way out. Unless he could cut through metal.
But somehow, he had escaped and even set up a booby trap in the truck while getting out.
‘How many died?’
Han-taek had told the gatekeeper to gather as many gang members as possible.
But it seemed most of the waiting gang members died the moment the door opened. Even those who survived were surely in no condition to fight properly.
“Looks like things are mostly wrapped up. Any more hidden cards?”
Thump, thump.
Gangrim approached Han-taek again.
The light of dawn began to break, but far from hope, there wasn’t even a hole to escape through.
Gangrim crouched behind Han-taek and swung his hand axe. The regenerating ankle was cleanly severed.
“Kuaak, ak, huk, heuk.”
“Hello, immortal.”
Gangrim whispered with a toothy grin.
“Shall we have a chat?”
***
“When… when did you figure it out?”
“Figure it out?”
Gangrim scoffed and said,
“I never believed you thugs from the start. Who would believe such obvious lies?”
Besides, a newcomer who joined just six months ago having enough authority to control ghouls?
Gangrim might not know much about the Necromancy Faction, but he knows how secretively necromancy knowledge is shared.
Even the Gangrim of his past life only knew about the Necromancy skill, not the actual art of necromancy.
He knew that even if Han-taek wasn’t an immortal, he wasn’t in an insignificant position.
“Clearly, clearly you said if I joined you, you’d spare me…”
“I didn’t say I’d spare you. I said I’d save you from becoming a zombie.”
Gangrim never intended to spare him from the start.
Whether he truly betrayed or not, whether he was an immortal or not.
Han-taek finally understood the situation. It wasn’t Gangrim who had been deceived, but Han-taek.
From the beginning, he had planned to ram the truck in and blow it up, so whatever Han-taek said was pointless.
He wanted to shed tears of blood, wondering how someone could be so vicious.
“Damn you, U.S. military dog!”
“Curse all you want.”
Gangrim had no reason to be offended by that insult.
Han-taek gritted his teeth and shouted.
“While we were talking in the car… I thought I had opened up my heart!”
“Ah, right. To be honest, that conversation did sound quite sincere. There was probably a fair bit of truth in it. But frankly, that’s also when I firmly decided I had to kill you.”
Gangrim said with a chilling smile.
“Don’t run your mouth with such self-justifications. In a world falling apart, once you start self-rationalizing, there’s no end or bottom to it. You think all zombie hunters make choices like you?”
“……”
“You think I didn’t see you shooting your subordinates without hesitation and ordering ghouls around? Did you think I was a pushover just because I listened to you a bit?”
Appealing to sympathy is a weapon only for the weak.
Han-taek might have indeed made an unavoidable choice. Gangrim knew this better than anyone.
But that’s precisely why Gangrim couldn’t forgive Han-taek.
Those words weren’t even truly Han-taek’s to begin with.
“You could have maintained your principles at any time. But the fact that you’re an immortal means you’ve already failed to do so.”
Bam!
Gangrim struck Han-taek’s other ankle as he spoke. Han-taek screamed again.
“Now, our brief friendship is over, so let’s start the real interrogation! You said there would be an executive here to answer questions? That was you, wasn’t it?! Thanks for gift-wrapping the package, now it’s time to unwrap it. Or should I do it for you?”
“You! No matter how much you struggle, the Elder will ultimately rule the new world that’s coming!”
Gangrim smiled wickedly.
Han-taek felt a chill run down his spine at that smile.
Gangrim ‘s mouth moved.
As if in slow motion, clear and distinct, a soul-stirring pronunciation echoed through the air.
“Han-taek.”
Thump.
The moment the Death Summon activated, Han-taek felt as if his entire body was being torn apart. It was as if the quartering execution he’d only read about in stories was being personally carried out on his body.
With that single call, Han-taek felt as if he was being dipped into hell and pulled out dozens of times per second.
After a moment, Han-taek came to his senses and looked ahead, gasping for breath. He must have bitten his teeth during his thrashing, as tooth fragments crunched between his tongue and gums.
“You know Lopez betrayed too, right?”
“…What?”
“How do you think he ended up betraying? Well? Think you can endure it twice?”
Han-taek understood.
Endure this pain one more time?
Absolutely impossible.
If it were simple physical pain, he could bear it, but this was pain that one couldn’t get used to, nor should one ever get used to.
If one adapted to this kind of pain, it would mean they had already gone mad.
“Hurry up and unwrap the gift package.”
Gangrim said, holding the hand axe to Han-taek’s forehead. Han-taek’s shoulders began to tremble.
“Huk, hu, euk, huk, hu, ha, huha, huhahahahaha…!”
Suddenly, Han-taek’s sobbing began to change strangely. Gangrim felt the atmosphere around them shift.
A chilling sensation brushed past his nape.
In that moment, Gangrim ‘s Dog’s Eye ability flashed.
Ghosts, which had become rare since the zombie plague began, were gathering around Han-taek.
Realizing Han-taek was doing something, Gangrim quickly called out the Death Summon.
“Han-taek!”
But there was no response.
Gangrim realized Han-taek was already overwhelmed by countless ghostly voices, unable to hear him.
“Huhahaha, ha, hahaha! Huk, euhheung, eoheoheo! Kakkakka!”
Meanwhile, Han-taek trembled and twisted his limbs. Dozens of voices poured out of his mouth, all mixed together.
Laughter and crying, wailing and guffaws, screams and cheers burst out in a chaotic mess.
Gangrim realized what Han-taek was doing.
Possession.
He was summoning and drawing in numerous spirits of the dead from the vicinity into his own body.
Information about the possession ability flashed through Gangrim ‘s mind.
‘Was possession a B-rank ability? It can exert power proportional to the number of spirits summoned.’
Possession is a considerably powerful ability.
Not only does it allow movement despite injuries, but it also grants transcendent strength.
However, the problem is that the more spirits summoned, the higher the probability of losing one’s mind.
‘The best possession artist I knew could handle about 8 spirits simultaneously.’
Gangrim was at a loss for words when he saw just how many ghosts had gathered in Han-taek’s body.
Over 50 ghosts were possessing Han-taek’s flesh. It seemed he had drawn in every ghost of the gang members who died in the warehouse.
“He’s insane. Even for an immortal, this is…”
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Bang. Han-taek twisted his body grotesquely and slammed his head on the floor.
Calling it madness was pointless. Even if he wasn’t mad yet, he soon would be.
There was no being that could withstand 50 souls in one body.
Han-taek was now trying to drag Gangrim along as a companion to the afterlife.
Crack, crackle.
Han-taek’s body began to transform into a centipede-like shape as bones and muscles grotesquely protruded.
It was now difficult to recognize Han-taek’s original form.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Bang.
Gangrim barely managed to dodge the attack by creating distance. Han-taek’s numerous arms flailed, brushing past his face.
If caught even once, it felt like he would be dragged in and become part of Han-taek.
‘Is this what happens when an immortal goes mad in a possessed state?’
Originally, the possessed state does cause physical transformation. But this was extreme.
Then he noticed something strange.
No matter how much Han-taek struggled, part of him remained immobile on the floor.
Gangrim suddenly recalled the spirit-binding talismans he had used to pin Han-taek’s hands to the ground.
The ability of the spirit-binding talisman is to bind and restrain souls.
No matter how many souls there were, as long as they were bound to Han-taek’s flesh, they couldn’t escape the talisman.
Thanks to this, Han-taek couldn’t directly charge at him but could only transform his body in a frenzy.
It wasn’t for combat, but merely a struggle for the sake of struggling.
“I’ll need to weaken him once to use the Death Summon again.”
Gangrim pulled out another card to imbue his hand axe with the power to cut steel, the ability he had used to escape the truck.
As the constellations on the Death Sword began to shine, Han Min-sung’s ability, Blood Taker, started to activate.
“I offer 10 years of my lifespan to the Death Sword.”
As 10 years were deducted from the 18,000 years of lifespan Gangrim had ridiculously acquired, the Death Sword began to burn with an eerie blue light.