Hermit Wizard

New York. A small campus not far from Central Park. The young man with pale brown skin, Antony King, was looking at the direction of the building he had just walked out of.

A building that stands supremely under Sirin's autumn skies. The most prominent bronze sculpture in the law school building against 116th Street West. Like a rooster with wings on a torch, the statue rises to the top of a pillar about five stories tall.

The statue that Antony is looking at is shaped like a naked human trying to pull down a horse with wings that are several times his size.

“Hey, Antony! What are you trying to get through? ”

Antony turns his head to the friend who called him.

“Oh, that reminds me of something. ”

“It's been a month since you went to school. I thought you were used to that ugly statue now. ”

Antony, who heard what his friend Bill said, smiled shruggly.

Antony and Bill joined Columbia Law School in September of this year. It has just been a month since the beginning of the semester and I am getting used to living in a new environment. Even though there was a case that was never minor in the middle.

Just a fortnight ago, when the New York channel opened, they were both worried that they might not have to take a vacation as soon as they entered. The channel, however, was the southernmost corner of Brooklyn, more than 30 miles from Columbia University campus, with beaches, amusement parks, and nearby shops completely closed, but the aftermath did not reach Manhattan. Consequently, Columbia Law School resumed its academic schedule shortly after the channel broke up.

“That winged horse. Pegasus, right?”

Antony asks. Bill seems indifferent.

“I think I heard that. Honestly, everything from orientation to school buildings to history. ”

The two continued the conversation as they walked towards the subway. Antony said.

“Pegasus will be right. I remember.”

“So what? Are you suddenly interested in Greek mythology? ”

“When I looked at the statue, I thought, Maybe the myths and legendary animals that we're delusional about now really existed in the past? Some kind of Pegasus. ”

“Hmm?”

Bill suddenly sends a glance at what he sounds like. Antony shrugs and talks.

“After the channel opens, all the starry creatures are appearing. You call it Wyvern because of the monsters that came out of the Barcelona channel last year? Until two years ago, the name Wyvern could only be heard in games and novels. ”

Bill scratches his chin and raises his head.

“Ah, that's too much elixir. What comes out of Barcelona is another dimensional monster, isn't it? I'm sure it was named after Wyvern because it happened to be similar to what humanity imagined. ”

“Should I?”

The two of them moved on without saying a word for a moment. It was Antony who broke the silence again.

“Anyway, this is how the world works, so I think I'm changing my mind. I used to be a thorough realist. I thought winged horses were just a product of fantasy. But it turns out that somewhere in the world, I can't do it, and I wonder if there might be such creatures in some other dimension. ”

“· · · hmm, yeah, I'll do that. You know what? I know the world beyond Brooklyn's channel, and I wonder if the winged white horses are floating around on clouds instead of carrots chewing on pasture. ”

Antony throws his gaze at cynically opposing Bill.

“No, there's nothing beyond that. ”

Bill smiles and replies.

“Extremely assertive? I mean, all I saw out there was pink smoke. ”

It's the fourth full day since the channel happened. All citizens, including New Yorkers, were nervous, but there were no other changes. There was testimony that he only witnessed strange pink smoke around the same day the channel appeared. The United States government was only repeating that nothing had been confirmed about it yet.

Antony was talking.

“And I was a thorough atheist. But now I believe in God. I think my channel is also affecting these changes. ”

“Really? That's a big deal. Now you want to go to church on the weekends? ”

“No, I don't think so.......”

There, they changed the subject for a while, giving and receiving school stories. Bill said.

“By the way, is the school trying to keep the semester going? You missed a third of your class today. ”

While the government has convinced its citizens to remain reassured and to continue their daily lives, the public's response has varied according to their own tendencies.

The United States has not yet suffered direct casualties because of ’officially’ xenophobia, but there have also been cases of the extermination of cities in foreign countries. Thus, there were no fewer citizens who evacuated downtown New York after the channel was established and fled to other cities. I couldn't shake my anxiety even if there was no noticeable difference right now.

“Alexia was absent today, wasn't she? I must have been here until last week. I said I didn't see them this week, even if I asked the other kids in class. ”

In the words of Bill, Antony nodded with a nod.

Alexia was a girl who took property law classes with two people. Bill asked her if she had any objection at all, but as soon as the first lesson was over, she didn't react.

“So, Antony, didn't you say you live close to you? Have you met him in the past few days? ”

Antony shakes his head.

“No? Not at all. ”

Bill sighed.

“No matter how close you live, you're unlikely to encounter it by accident. I should have asked for a number. Did he really leave New York? You want to come back when things stabilize? The trend is that refugees will return after some time, even in other cities where channels are open. ”

“· · · I don't know. ”

Arriving at the subway station, the two of them broke up on their respective home routes.

Anthony slowly walked down the alleyway from a station near the apartment where he lived past a few stations with his body on a streetcar. The autumn sky was clear. Anthony takes a step with a nostril and arrives in front of the house. Raise your head instead of climbing the front steps.

“How are you?”

Apply a soft smile to your face. Instead of opening the door to the apartment, Antony greets the neighbors on the second floor. The old woman who opened the window and watered the pot looked down at him, and her eyes widened.

“Oh, my God. A law school student who lives on the third floor?

“This is Antony King. ”

“Oh, Hoho. I'm sorry. It's not easy remembering names these days. By the way, I thought the student moved out. ”

“Yes? No. I don't plan on moving. ”

The old lady laughed at her head and said,

“Ah, you did. I thought I was packing up again after a few days of banging upstairs. ”

There was a strange thorn in the horse. Antony smiles bitterly and raises his voice.

“I'm sorry to keep you so loud. I moved in, and I kept losing my mind, and I put the furniture together this week. I intend to stay in New York. Because the school keeps taking classes. Besides, as soon as I get admitted, I like to take a vacation. ”

“Oh, really? You know, everybody's been messing around lately because they know what the channel is, and I'm guessing the inspiring guy who lives on the fourth floor hasn't moved in lately. You yell at the whales every night, and they mess around, and you don't hear them at all these days. ”

Then Antony looks at the old lady and asks:

“What about Miss Webber? You intend to stay in New York? ”

“Where are you going at this age? ”

Ah, I see. After muttering, Antony greets Mrs. Webber. Then I stepped inside the porch. I see. That old lady is going to stay in New York.

Anthony walks into the apartment and climbs the stairs leading to the third floor. Then I opened the front door of 302 and entered the living room. Scratch, lock the door.

Antony puts the bag she was carrying on her bedroom visit down on the chair.

And he took off all the clothes he was wearing and became a Jeolla. He folded gray checked shirts, beige cotton trousers, and underwear and socks and put them on the bed.

Anthony walks into the kitchen naked wearing indoor boots. Open the sink drawer and pull out what's in it. I rub the tip with my finger. The day does not stand properly and is moody enough. It was a knife abandoned by a tenant who lived before. After that, I used myself a few times.

Antony took it and headed to the bathroom.

Gain on bias

The old wooden door of the old apartment opens with a scratching sound. The unpleasant noise seemed to awaken someone's sleep inside.

“Ugh! ”

In the tub beyond the shower curtain, a squeaky sound flows. Antony takes a leisurely step forward, squirms, and walks through an opaque vinyl curtain.

“Ughh...! ”

In the bathtub, a young woman, like Antony, was tied to a chain. The chain that accompanies the whole body is connected to the faucet. One eye looks at Antony as if he is complaining about something. I sealed it with a tape that didn't leak the correct words.

Antony greets with a gentle voice.

“Hello, Alexia. ”

The woman in the tub who heard his voice began to struggle. Looking down at the gesture close to her luminosity, the man smiled.

“All right, that's enough. ”

Fortunately, a pale pink smoke came out of Antony's mouth, smiling brightly. Antony kneels on the floor of the bathroom with a knife in one hand.

“Great One, I would like to praise your honor by raising the sacrifice of your Lamb so little. Please be happy.”

And he recited the prayer for a while. At the end of the reading, raise your head again. Antony's two eyes, as he opened his eyes, were tinged with a scary dark pink.

“Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh! ”

Antony getting up again and approaching Alexia. The woman in the bathtub frowned like crazy. The chain that tied the two wrists tore the flesh, and the blood began to flow.

However, the scars and blood marks left on her body were delightful in addition to her wrists. Looking at the bane wounds and the ointment and bands on her body, Antony said slowly.

“It's only the third time, so I'm not good yet. I understand. If I had more experience, I might have been able to keep you the same without giving up the day. ”

“Urgh! ”

Alexia's eyes look up at Antony and are terrified.

“You know what? The first attempt was a drunkard who lived on the fourth floor of this apartment. I just stabbed myself here and there for a few hours, and suddenly I fainted and died. The priest who baptized me saw it and rebuked me. ‘You can't please God like this!’ · · · ·. Because the old man died after he lost his mind. He died because he didn't feel loyal to the fear of being killed. ”

Alexia burst into tears.

“Next was the girl I met at the club. · · · What was your name? Anyway, Alexia, she'll be about the same age as you. I brought her to this apartment, and then I tied her up in the bathroom like I do now. It wasn't that different from bringing you here. ”

He laughs and talks for a while.

“After being locked up here, I cut myself a little bit for a few days. Little by little, little by little, so you don't bleed too much. I didn't die to see if my heart was stronger than that old man. She was terrified enough. Extreme fear that he might be killed at any moment. But, damn it, I failed the second time, too. ”

Antony's two eyes were soaked in madness.

“Because my greed was excessive. For a few days, I felt the horror of that woman's breath piling up in my body. as if your bank account balance is increasing. So I got greedy. Just a little more, just a little more here! ”

Keep your head down for a while.

“· · · But it was too much. She's finally gone mad! Most importantly, he didn't recognize the horror of the moment he was killed. ”

“Urgh! ”

Alexia starts to howl with a horrible sound in her mouth. However, his voice was stuck to the tape and could not flow out.

“The brainwaves she had when she died were animals like pigs. It wasn't a sophisticated, beautiful brainwave that humans made when they were killed. So the priest reproached me once again. ‘I cannot please God if I do this!’ Hahaha! ”

A man smiles and says:

“You know what? Alexia, the god I brought you prefers a unique offering. It's completely different from the traditional gods we've known so far. This god receives the brainwaves of the high creatures as a sacrifice. Yeah, well, it means" human, "after all. That's what he wants. Brain waves that occur when a human is terrified before death, and brain waves that produce at the moment when he is killed! ”

Anthony holds a machete in his hand. After seeing it, Alexia desperately shook her head and moved her body.

“This is just the time. The horror you feel has reached the right level. If you torture me more here, I might give up my life or go crazy. If you haven't been obsessed with your life yet, you're going to feel the biggest despair of all. The priest with me is telling me! ”

A pink smoke flowed along Antony's rough mouth. He pushed himself into the tub. Kneel over Alexia's body lying on the bottom of the tub and raise the knife in her hand.

“You're lying, aren't you? Why me? Why me? I can't believe I won't be supportive. You want to live, don't you? I don't want anyone running here right now to save you. ”

“Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh! ”

“You'll regret it. Why would I answer Antony King's phone that day? Why did he follow the words to have a light drink? Why did he come into this apartment that day? ”

“Huuuuuuuu! ”

Alexia's right cheek shed a single tear.

Looking down at her, Antony asks:

“Don't you want to die? You don't wanna die, do you? You don't wanna die, do you? ”

Under his gaze, Alexia blushes with a dull face.

“Don't you want to live? ”

She shakes her head and nods. Antony smiled.

“Idiot. No miracle. ”

Antony brings the tip of the knife to the tip of Alexia's neck. and pressed him with his whole body weight.

“Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The body flutters. The time taken to pierce the neck with a blade that doesn't lift properly is approximately 12 seconds. It took Alexia approximately 148 seconds for her body to convulse and finally stop breathing.

During that time, Antony felt the fear of Alexia seeping into his body. It was precisely the cerebral waves that her brain emitted at the moment of death. Unparalleled terror so far. Only then did Antony understand what the priest meant.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh! ”

This sensation that is manifested to God through the mediation of his own body. In the meantime, even though I had tasted it for a while, it was nothing compared to any joy and pleasure I had felt in my life so far.

Yes, the most important thing was this moment of "murder." If the situation did not allow it, the middle course could be omitted and the reason why it did not matter if it was killed immediately could be understood. A four-story old man who died after he lost his mind, or a woman who died after he went crazy, a taste that is incomparable from the brainwaves of the last moment he was born.

Antony now understands. Since the day before the channel was opened, I have come to understand perfectly why the name of the great god I served is' the joy of slaughter '.

The moment Antony was trembling, filled with joy.

“· · · Ah, it's real. I've been following you where you smell delicious. ”

I heard a strange voice behind my back.

“Who, who! ”

Antony's body splashes up in a frenzied state. Behind his back there were strangers looking at him. It's like two men with the same boring white complexion as a corpse.

Antony advises in his heart. I didn't even hear the door open. How do you do that?

One of the two tall men looks around the bathroom and says,

“· · · I threw away all that poor thing. ”

His gaze remained in the tub. Precisely not Alexia's body, but a pool of blood filling the bathtub.

“You, who are you! ”

The tall one looked up at the tall one and said,

“Can't you kill him too? ”

“No. Eugene told me. Bring it back alive. ”

“· · · Ah, what a nuisance. Why are those guys in the city where we're headquartered? ”

A tall little man raises his hand, grunting like that.

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