The Returner

â??What is that?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu dazedly stared at the skies above. It was as if a gigantic hole had opened up in the heavens.

And some kind of a strong gravitational force was coming from that hole. Bits of debris from the buildings strewn about on the ground slowly rose up in the air, then leisurely drifted towards the hole next.

â??...Did a black hole show up here or something?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Of course, if a real black hole with that size appeared on Earth, Yun Hyuk-Gyu would no longer be with the living by now. However, if the end result was going to be the same, then this phenomenon shouldn’t be treated all that differently, either.

Yun Hyuk-Gyu sensed his body beginning to get lighter and freaked out, then hurriedly pressed his whole body on the ground.

â??Holy sh*t! It can’t be! It definitely can’t be that, right?!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Pretty much every civilian in the vicinity had been evacuated by now, so there shouldn’t be any loss of innocent lives, but...

â??Hang on a sec! We haven’t evacuated yet, you know!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

How could he not know who created that hole?

Anyone could tell that Yi Ji-Hyuk was responsible unless you were a complete moron. 𝒇𝔯e𝚎𝘄𝑒𝑏𝙣𝑜𝚟𝗲𝑙.c𝘰𝚖

Besides all that, our side hasn’t evacuated yet, you know?! (Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s inner monologue)

â??What the f*ck?! D*mn it!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu felt his body become airborne, and hurriedly crawled forward as if he was swimming underwater.

Just how many people alive would get to experience this sense of weightlessness even for a brief moment?

One could say that up until this point was a remarkable, memorable experience, but too bad, the gravity situation was about to flip on its head soon.

â??Uwaaah!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu managed to grab onto the exterior wall of a building and pressed himself tightly against it. His eyes caught the sight of large chunks of debris from the wrecked buildings flying up towards the sky.

For a second there, the Gate above seemed to hum loudly, then just about everything in the world was violently sucked in towards it as if a mighty storm had descended.

No, maybe it was more apt to say that a massive tornado had begun swallowing up everything in his vicinity, instead.

â??Uwaaaaahk!!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu urgently shoved his hands in the deeply gouged out holes in the wall just as his feet were yanked off the ground.

â??Uwah?! Son of a b*tch!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

A regular person would never experience what it feels like to ‘fall’ towards the sky. Lamentably, though, the situation was too precipitous for him to fully enjoy this rarer-than-rare occasion.

Krrr?

The demonic beasts began looking up at the skies one by one.

It began with the smaller of the monsters.

Kurah-rararara!!!

The demonic creatures were gradually getting sucked into the skies. They screeched and howled out while flailing around with their limbs but even they couldn’t resist against the reversal of gravity itself. The flight-type monsters had already been devoured by the black Gate by then.

Pow! Smash!

Monsters floating up into the sky either collided helplessly against the building debris or even against each other. The huge creatures rose up at a noticeably slower speed than them.

â??Wow...â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s jaw dropped as he watched this spectacle unfold.

He too was in a mortal danger right now, but well, a spectacle was a spectacle regardless.

Various chunks of debris and demonic beasts got into a messy tangle to form a humongous tornado then got sucked into the Gate without any resistance.

Wu-du-duk...

It was right then, Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s head snapped towards the source of the noise.

â??...It can’t be?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

The outer wall of the building he was clinging onto began buckling. He realised what was going on here and his complexion paled instantly.

â??N-no! Wait!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

If this was some kind of a powerful physical force, then maybe he could’ve offered some resistance, but such a thing was meaningless in front of gravity. Just like how a human couldn’t stop their body from falling no matter how incredible they were.

The building’s outer wall was ripped out in its entirety and along with that, Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s body began shooting up towards the skies, too.

â??Uwaaaaah!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

His despair-filled eyes were now taking in the sights of the black Gate busy sucking him in.

What could be inside of that thing?

He had no idea, but one thing was for certain.

Getting sucked in there wouldn’t result in a very good end for him.

Right next to him were whale-sized demonic beasts screaming desperately while flailing about ungainly.

â??S-someone, save meeeeee!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu also started screaming as well, but he knew the truth deep inside.

Just who could even help him in the current situation?

â??Wowsers, would you look at this guy screaming his head off?â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Ah... There is someone. (Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s inner monologue)

Kim Dah-Hyun flew up at a rapid pace and stuck onto the torso of a huge monster getting sucked up alongside Yun Hyuk-Gyu.

â??Aww, man... It’s a bit hard to control my speed here...â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??K-Kim Dah-Hyun!!!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??Ehheiii, Stop reaching out to me and be still, will ya? Don’t you know that flailing about when drowning will cause you to die along with the potential rescuer? Lower your hand, dude. Your hand.â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Hey, you stupid as*hole! How can you say that in this situation?! Hurry up and save me!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??I can say it because of the situation, though.â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Kim Dah-Hyun shook his head and dashed behind Yun Hyuk-Gyu. He then grabbed the back of the latter’s neck, kicked the air and turned his body towards the ground.

â??Oh heck, this isn’t going to work!â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

They seemed to go lower for a moment there, but then floated back up and got sucked in again.

â??Argh, d*mn it! Get it together, man! Or we’ll both die!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??I never went through something like this before, so how could I have known? Seriously though, you and your exaggerations. Hang on tight, okay?â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Kim Dah-Hyun wrapped an arm around Yun Hyuk-Gyu and began dashing to the side. Ether exploding out from his legs began forcing the air back.

Rather than running, though, he looked like he was struggling to paddle himself out of a quagmire, and eventually, began panting breathlessly.

â??I, I don’t have enough horsepower...â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??What should we do, then?!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??Fire a shot in the opposite direction!â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Ng?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??Don’t you know the ‘action and reaction’ thing? Fire one big shot in the other side with everything you’ve got! I’ll use the rebound to get us out of here!â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Got it!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu hurriedly nodded his head and turned towards the Gate above before gathering all of his Ether. He was planning to use up every single ounce of his reserve. If they couldn’t get away from here, then they’d be dead, anyways.

â??No, not yet! Wait!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu shouted out while looking below him.

â??What are you waiting for?!â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Here it comes!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

A massive demonic beast flew towards them, and Yun Hyuk-Gyu gathered all of his Ether to fire it at this incoming mass.

Kwaaa-booooom!!!

The rebound from the humongous explosion in the air caused the bodies of both Yun Hyuk-Gyu and Kim Dah-Hyun to shoot out like a fired arrow.

â??Ouch?! My back! Don’t you know the concept of moderation?!â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Didn’t you tell me to fire with everything I’ve got?!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

The two men finally managed to get outside the sphere of the gravity’s influence. After landing on the solid earth, they dazedly looked up at the skies once more.

The black tornado made out of building debris and monsters were getting sucked into the Gate without a single exception.

â??Holy cow, just what is that guy thinking here?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??Mister Yun Hyuk-Gyu! Are you alright?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon was running in from a distance. Other agents must’ve been gathered in one spot as well, because they too were running towards him as well.

â??...How did you all get together like this?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??It’s all thanks to Miss Jeong Hae-Min’s hard work.â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??Does that mean only we were working our butts off?! Why didn’t you rescue me first?!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

It seemed that Jeong Hae-Min didn’t hear him, because she kept her gaze locked on the Gate while shivering away.

â??Excuse me, but what will happen with that?â?? (Jeong Hae-Min)

â??I’m not sure.â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Since Yi Ji-Hyuk created that, surely he must have a plan in mind but wasn’t that thing’s scale a bit too much?

Not just the monsters but even the intact buildings got dismantled as if someone was deliberately ripping them apart, and the resulting bits were getting sucked up into the air as well.

This was going beyond the ‘mop-up’ operation and well into the level of complete purification.

â??L-looks like everything’s just about all sucked in?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

The last remaining debris and monsters were all sucked into the Black Gate.

The Gate vibrated noisily, then began emitting thick, heavy black-coloured demonic aura.

â??Uh?â??

The black demonic aura exploding out from the Gate was now rushing towards a certain location. It was as if this ‘strand’ was falling to the ground.

Guessing who could be found in the location where that aura headed off to was not a difficult task at all.

â??...What an awesome scale this whole thing was.â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??You almost died yet you can still say that?â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

â??Dying is one thing, but that still doesn’t change the scale being awesome, now does it?â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??Hah...â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Even in the face of Kim Dah-Hyun’s criticism, Yun Hyuk-Gyu remained unwavering.

Goh-oooooh!

The seemingly-endless strand of Mana slowly thinned out, and everyone could sense that the end was nigh.

Wuuu-ooong...

The Gate began resonating loudly.

â??Uhm... Excuse me?â?? (Seo Ah-Young) 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

It was then, Seo Ah-Young suddenly raised her hand high.

â??What’s the matter, ma’am?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??You know, this isn’t our first time seeing the monsters getting sucked in, so I can more or less figure out what’s gonna happen to them, but...â?? (Seo Ah-Young)

â??Yes?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??...But, what about the building debris?â?? (Seo Ah-Young)

At Seo Ah-Young’s question, Choi Jeong-Hoon dazedly looked up, before reverting his gaze back at her.

â??................â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

A few agents with quick wits began to sneakily step back and stick rather closely to Jeong Hae-Min.

â??W-why don’t we get out of here first? I think it’s still dangerous here.â??

â??Y-you think so, too?â?? (Jeong Hae-Min)

And right that moment...

Poooooow!

The Gate let out a screech and began ballooning up, before spitting out all the debris from the wrecked buildings in every direction like a minigun turret.

â??Uwaaaaaaah?! Kim Dah...â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yun Hyuk-Gyu hurriedly searched for Kim Dah-Hyun, but the latter was already a small speck in the far-off distance.

â??That son of a b*tch!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

As comrades, they should all live and die together, so how could he dare run away just to save his own skin?!

â??Ruuuuun!!!â??

Everyone present began running away from the Gate with every ounce of their energy.

Boom!! Ka-boom!

Chunks of concrete slammed into the ground and issued explosion noises. It was like a bombardment of small asteroids.

â??Yup, this is what they call ‘Meteor’, alright! He’s really using full-on magic now, isn’t he?!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??This is already magic!â??

â??You know that’s not what I meant!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Just who would get to witness the rain of building debris in their lifetime?

Yun Hyuk-Gyu inwardly thought that he’s witnessing lots of rare things today for some reason and madly dashed forward. He could hear the sounds of ‘Boom! Bang!’ coming from right behind his butt.

He stumbled and even had to crawl but eventually managed to escape from the firing range of the debris. He immediately collapsed face-first on the dirt and panted breathlessly.

â??Argh, I’m dying here. I’m really dying here, man...â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

â??...Wow. This...â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Kim Dah-Hyun was standing next to him even before he noticed it. Yun Hyuk-Gyu tightly clenched his fists and shouted out.

â??Imma... Imma kill you for real!â?? (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Kim Dah-Hyun ignored him and opened his mouth.

â??It’s like, even though we won, we haven’t really...â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Choi Jeong-Hoon nodded his head, his complexion gloomy.

Their eyes took in the sight of the completely devastated city of Seoul. This was already well beyond the level of a disaster movie. All of the high-rise skyscrapers had been swept away.

All they could see were the skinny remnants of the buildings torn in half to bare their ugly, twisted steel beams.

â??...Not everything’s been blown apart, but...â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

At the very least, no one would be able to live in this section of the city for a long while. The damage was far too extensive for that. The one ray of solace in this situation was that the evacuation of the civilians had been carried out at the maximum possible haste and the loss of life had been minimised greatly as a result.

Choi Jeong-Hoon held his head while scanning the spectacle before his eyes.

‘This is astronomical.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

The overall damage would surely be impossible to even calculate.

A half of a country’s capital got levelled flat as if a bulldozer shoved everything aside for the purpose of the land redevelopment.

Just like how England lost all of its powers after its capital was destroyed, South Korea suffering from this sort of destruction would never be able to regain its former glory.

Just one demon king.

Not a handful of them, but just one caused an incident of such a magnitude. Although they had won, the losses were far too severe.

â??What about Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

However, that didn’t mean he should stand here blankly the whole day. His current role was to confirm Yi Ji-Hyuk’s whereabouts.

â??I think he’s over there.â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Choi Jeong-Hoon shifted his gaze in the direction Kim Dah-Hyun pointed at and nodded his head. As he started walking, he raised his voice.

â??Mister Kim Dah-Hyun, please focus on evacuating the injured.â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??Alright.â?? (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Choi Jeong-Hoon waded past the broken debris of the buildings and walked forward for a while, before finally spotting Yi Ji-Hyuk wordlessly staring at the sky.

‘What’s going on?’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Even though he felt something was off, Choi Jeong-Hoon still called out to him.

â??Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

His head slowly turned in Choi Jeong-Hoon’s direction.

Flinch.

Choi Jeong-Hoon froze up on the spot.

Yi Ji-Hyuk was silently staring at him with a pair of completely-red eyes.

< 410. Not like I wished for it -5 > Fin.