Chapter 95: The Last Moments for Mortals

Gunjin Granfian rarely cursed, even when he was truly angry, but he cursed then. He turned back to the ground and spat out a few words.

"Stay put. I need to contact someone. Fight to stop them, if it comes to that."

Then he stepped into the portal and was gone, leaving Kai and everyone else atop the Frontier wall. The others started to realize that they were leagues from the city, holding a doomed position just before a monster incursion. Kai was more concerned about where Gunjin had gone; clearly he had allies among the elites, but he hadn't wanted to speak to them directly until he had no choice.

"Come on, we can handle this ourselves!" Yangil shouted over the group's muttering, then thrust his sword out toward the southerners. "They're not that far. We can drag them back before Gunjin returns, if they won't listen!"

Was he trying to make up for his cowardice before? Or did he simply not understand how much more dangerous the Frontier was? It probably didn't matter, because he seemed to be convincing the others. Perhaps it was just easier to chase after a visible goal instead of waiting for a horde of monsters to come toward them.

The others had pulled out ropes and begun climbing down the side of the wall. After a glance at Zae Zin Nim, Kai just hopped off the side. This time he was able to land smoothly, his legs absorbing the impact. Zae Zin Nim landed beside him almost without a sound.

As far as he could tell, there were no monsters within sight. If there had been, they likely would have been chasing the southern group. What bothered him more was the lack of the world distortion that he'd felt before. He didn't think that it had anything to do with the fact that he'd gotten stronger... the absence was more like an in-held breath. Soon, it would reverse...

"Be careful if we encounter anything," he told Zae Zin Nim. "Even if it looks weak. I can't explain what exactly is wrong with the monsters here, but it's similar to that core you found."

"Hmm." She didn't say anything else, but he thought he saw her posture shift. He could be reasonably confident that she, at least, would be appropriately cautious.

The others worried him more, especially as they grouped together at the bottom of the wall with great bravado. Without the strange aura or any monsters, they didn't understand what they were facing. Going along with them might have been foolish, but the alternative... no, he couldn't stand back and simply wait while there was a chance he could make a difference.

"Now we run them down!" Yangil gestured for the whole group to follow him and charged.

Though they might have been conserving a little strength for the fight, the pace struck him as surprisingly slow. Now that they weren't jerking from one emergency to another, Kai took the time to look over the group more analytically.

He and Zae Zin Nim were the strongest in the group by a wide margin. Two older veterans had power in the 60s, based mostly on strong Classes. Yangil was fifth after them, then there were four younger hunters in the 30s. At such levels, experience and determination might make more of a difference than raw power.

If they ran into a horde of ordinary monsters, the group would perform fine so long as they stuck together. Most of them had Classes that could easily cause great destruction. But if they encountered twisted monsters that could shrug aside normal blows, he could see them falling apart swiftly. Many still had G-rank Physiques, so if their offense failed they were one small mistake away from death.

Given the ominous lack of monsters, they made good time. The group of southerners appeared to be about half a dozen officials along with several guards. Their average strength was over 40, which was good by the standards of southern cities and woefully inadequate for their current location.

"Stop, in the name of Goralia!" Yangil drew his sword as they arrived... and one of the officials turned sharply.

Kai realized that the man was attacking before he understood how. Globs of ice swirled from the air around the apparent official, then flew toward the group. They all targeted feet, binding many to the ground. From the corner of his eye he saw Zae Zin Nim gracefully step aside, but the best he could do was kick the glob as it struck him.

The ice fused to his leg, but Kai thought that he'd be able to break it with a good stomp. Since his opponents were using non-lethal attacks, he was more interested in examining them. Now he could tell that the official had a "Snowcaster" Class at 60, but somehow he had been able to not just hide his essence, but appear completely untrained. He'd never seen a shroud like that before.

"If this is for the sake of Goralia," one of the other officials - hopefully - said, "then you should stand down. Stop defending elites who don't care about you."

"Don't spew nonsense!" Yangil started to hack at the ice binding his legs.

"You always assume you have a monopoly on power. It's your brutish tactics that have locked us in this endless war."

Before the two could get into a shouting match, Kai stepped in. At first literally: he forcefully stepped forward, shattering the ice around his leg. Then he raised a hand in front of Yangil's face to keep him from spouting more angry rhetoric.

"If you know something, please tell us," Kai said. "From our perspective, it looks like you're endangering everyone just before a monster incursion."

"Don't listen to their lies!" Yangil started to take a swing at him, but Zae Zin Nim shifted behind him, driving the man onto one knee and pinning his arm. He grimaced, apparently in enough pain that he could no longer talk.

For a moment the guards looked like they might fight, but Kai simply stood ready. Even though they couldn't see his monstrous strength, he looked strong by their standards, so they weren't eager to fight him. If he was willing to talk and the zealous hunters were all iced in place, maybe they could get to the bottom of the problem without a pointless brawl.

"That's better." An older woman among the officials took a step forward. "We truly are doing this for the sake of Goralia. We don't hate hunters or the north, we just want to get the truth."

"And what is that truth?" When Kai looked over the southerners, he didn't see a group of zealots.

"They've been lying about the true extent of the monster incursions, and we have proof. Yes, monsters are a real problem. But they don't merit wasting so much of our nation's military on our northern defenses."

"But every other nation bordering the Frontier spends just as much! Are you really suggesting an international conspiracy?"

"No, just a group of powerful hunters who want even more power and so exaggerate their importance." The official gestured to one of her companions, who was carrying an odd crystalline ring. "But using new technology purchased from the kingdom beyond Irun, we've been monitoring the rise and fall of monstrous energy for several years. There's no correlation with the battles of the elites."

Kai folded his arms and tried not to scowl as he listened. There was no way he could refute evidence from a contraption that he'd never seen before, but he wanted to understand their position. "Even if that's true, why send this expedition now? Why not handle things through diplomacy?"

"Because there's a concentration of energy in the center of the Frontier." It was the man with the crystalline ring speaking this time, using it to gesture onward. "Because it never changed, we assumed it was some device they used to create more monsters and justify their existence."

"That's absurd. A device that creates monsters?"

"There are strange things in this world that no one can explain." The older woman cast a sour glance north. "But there's another reason. Go on, tell them."

"This year," the man said, "there's been a build-up like never before, yet the energy from the monsters has gone down. This is our chance to prove... the deception.." His voice trailed off as he stared down at the crystal ring. Flecks of light glowing within were beginning to expand around the ring. Kai had no idea what that meant, but the entire group of southerners looked shocked.

Some of them began to argue with one another and, even though Kai shouted at them, they wouldn't answer his questions. He found himself wondering just who had sold them the ring and what it actually measured. Gunjin had been analyzing the monster incursions for years and Kai refused to believe he was a part of some conspiracy. Maybe something strange was going on, but most likely none of them had it right.

Meanwhile the hunters on his side were beginning to help one another break free of the ice. Zae Zin Nim reluctantly let Yangil free and it seemed like his anger had cooled enough that he wouldn't attack anyone. Neither side was exactly happy, however, and a conflict could break out at any moment.

"Would you like to know the truth?" a man asked. It took several seconds for Kai to realize that the man hadn't been standing between the two groups before and he struggled to focus his attention on the new arrival.

The man had clear but heavily wrinkled skin and a bald head with wisps of graying hair. He appeared to be wearing a white robe covered with splotches of paint, one sandal, and one sock on his other foot. When Kai opened his spiritual sight, he was immediately overwhelmed by a white hot mass of symbols so intense that he winced like he'd just looked into the sun.

"Come on, let's all go to the center together!" The strange man stuck out one foot, pivoted in almost a complete circle, and began walking north.

Everyone began following him even though it didn't make any sense. Kai only realized he was walking when he felt the muscles in his legs cramping up. It didn't feel like any force was controlling him, he had just decided to walk and couldn't change his mind. Many of the others around him looked dazed.

Ahead, Kai heard an inhumanly deep roar that shook the earth. A cloud of dust began to rise in the distance, and from it swarmed monsters. They were still nothing but specks, but they moved in a great twisting mass that grew closer by the second.

"It's starting," one of the older hunters whispered. "It's a real incursion..."

"Oh, this isn't the start." The strange man appeared beside them with a broad smile. "This is just the bait. Everyone else will be along shortly, then it will be started."