"No matter how much you hammer iron, it won't turn into gold."
『Ma Uragan』

 

"Impressive, truly impressive."

The necromancer, Bujoom, marveled from atop the titan’s head.

Below his coffin, Dung Beetle stood on the titan’s dented head, dripping blood and filth, glaring up at him with a murderous gaze.

Having walked the path of mana for so long, Bujoom could recognize it. The human before him had achieved a miracle. A miracle born of overwhelming will and talent.

"I apologize for treating you like mere vermin. You fought valiantly and lost just as valiantly."

He reached out, casting a spell toward the titan. Though the spell inside the titan had been destroyed, necromancers were masters of reusing what remained.

The remnants of mana still within the titan responded to his will. The scattered chunks of flesh began to writhe and congeal.

Soon, something began to emerge from the mess, like pus bursting out.

It was a corpse slime, a crude amalgamation of flesh and bile.

Though it was an inferior creature that hadn't even taken human form, for the utterly exhausted Dung Beetle, even this was a formidable foe.

"Do not be ashamed of your defeat. It is only that fate has not allowed you to triumph over me."

"Bull… shit…"

He barely managed to spit out the words before coughing up blood—a harbinger of death.

"To find such a rare gem just before my grand ritual... It is further proof that fate is on my side."

The slime corpses Bujoom controlled slithered closer, surrounding Dung Beetle, closing in.

The slime nearest him touched his foot. Unable to resist, Dung Beetle let it engulf his leg.

From there, the rest of the slimes began covering his body.

"Death is not the end for you. I will personally carve your corpse into a death knight."

Bujoom descended slowly, watching Dung Beetle as the slime engulfed him, waiting to hear his last breath.

"When you are reborn, you will help me bathe the academy in blood—"

Just as Bujoom reached the ground, Dung Beetle shoved the slimes off and extended his arm. In his hand was a shotgun, barely longer than his forearm.

Boom!

The shotgun fired. Bujoom frantically slammed his coffin lid shut, but the silver bullets tore through the dark magic protecting it and struck his body.

"Arghhh!"

Pain wrapped around him—an unfamiliar sensation—and the bones hit by the silver bullets crumbled.

But… there was no critical hit.

Not a single bullet pierced his skull.

It wasn’t luck; it was a miracle. That was the only way to describe it.

"Hahaha! How unfortunate, my little gem! My true rival has already been chosen by fate—you cannot kill me!"

Dung Beetle didn’t argue. He squeezed out the last of his strength, searching for another chance to kill the necromancer.

But Bujoom sneered, lifting his coffin into the air, well out of range of Dung Beetle’s shotgun and grenades.

Bujoom floated higher, coldly declaring, "Now, die."

The slimes coiled around Dung Beetle’s neck, squeezing like a hunter’s noose around a tiger, trying to peel away its precious hide.

As his breaths grew shallow and his once-sharp eyes dulled, a distant light reflected in his vision.

A bolt of lightning cutting through the sky?

"What?"

Bujoom turned, sensing the trembling mana. Something bright and massive was descending—no, crashing—toward him.

"Dieeeeeee!"

A hammer, glowing with blinding light, plummeted from the sky, wielded by a girl.

Instinctively, Bujoom moved his coffin.

In the exact moment he shifted out of the hammer’s path, Dung Beetle used the last of his strength.

Shoving the slime away, he kicked off the ground.

His broken leg screamed in agony, and his heart felt like it would burst, but he leaped.

Feather Step.

The same step that had allowed him to dodge the titan’s fists, and now, he used it to kick the coffin.

Thud—

The kick didn’t have the power to shatter the coffin, but it was enough to send it back into the hammer’s path.

"This is not my fate…!"

Before Bujoom could finish his words, the war hammer smashed through the coffin, shattering his skull.

Even after obliterating Bujoom, the hammer did not stop. It struck the concrete dock with the force of a hundred grenades.

Boom!

The explosion shook the entire dock, like a blast from a hundred grenades going off at once.

 

Dung Beetle was sent flying by the shockwave.

He tumbled across the ground, rolling several times before crashing into a collapsed container, finally coming to a stop.

"...Hiss."

His head throbbed from where it had slammed into the container. A mild concussion, no doubt, but considering there wasn’t a part of him that wasn’t already in pain, it wasn’t the worst of it.

Shaking his head to clear the dizziness, Dung Beetle looked toward the source of the explosion.

A girl, wearing jeans and a jacket, holding a long hammer, stood there.

Her black hair swayed lightly, as if mocking the divine power she had just displayed.

She quietly rested her war hammer on the ground and locked eyes with Dung Beetle, her blue eyes meeting his golden ones.

"Mister Dung Beetle. Nice to see you again."

The first to speak was Park Seti. She tucked her hair behind her ear and asked him, "How’s your body? Are you alright?"

"...As you can see, I’m fine."

Though broken ribs were stabbing into his chest and blood was rising from deep within his stomach, for some reason, it didn’t feel like a mortal wound.

After all, this was the body that had survived decapitation. He could already feel his bones slowly returning to their proper place.

"You look like you have a lot of questions. How about a game of twenty questions? You ask a question, I ask a question, and so on. What do you think?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Of course you do. But I’m not sure the police would give you one."

It was a blatant threat. Dung Beetle paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Fine, but I’ll ask the first question."

"Go ahead. The order doesn’t really matter."

Looking directly into Seti’s eyes, Dung Beetle asked his first question.

"Who are you?"

"A philosophical question to start with? Hmm… Should I answer like Hegel, or maybe Nietzsche?"

"..."

"Just kidding. Don’t look at me like that."

Using her war hammer as a makeshift cane, Seti leaned against it, looking amused.

"My name’s Seti. I was born on October 31st, in Research Compound No. 2, Kaesong. My family’s clan is from Hamheung."

"Hamheung?"

"Oh, right. My last name’s not actually Park, it’s Hong. But my first name is really Seti. Hong Seti. I know, sounds like some kind of chemical compound, right?"

She shrugged before continuing.

"Anyway, I’m an honorary student at Lord Howe Academy, I hate silver and beans, and that’s all I can think of for now."

"Is that really the answer you think I wanted?"

"Well, next time, ask a more specific question. Anyway, it’s my turn to ask now, right?"

As Dung Beetle’s right hand regained some feeling, he reached down to his belt.

Two grenades left.

He considered whether he could escape from Park Seti—or rather, Hong Seti—with just two grenades.

‘Impossible.’

Maybe if his body were in better shape, but with a broken leg, no chance. Especially given what he’d just witnessed when she flew in wielding that war hammer.

After a brief consideration, Dung Beetle decided to continue the strange conversation until his leg healed.

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Do you remember what your mother or father looked like? Were either of them not human by any chance?"

...What?

Surprised by the unexpected and borderline offensive question, Dung Beetle furrowed his brow.

"Oh, sorry, that came out wrong. I meant to ask if you have a special bloodline or something like that."

"Special bloodline? What exactly are you asking about?"

"Celestials, monsters, beastmen, fairies, that sort of thing. Y’know, other races from beyond the dimensional rifts. Well, I don’t see any dwarf blood in you, at least…"

Faced with the bizarre question of whether his parents were non-human or had relations with non-humans, Dung Beetle was at a loss for words.

After a moment of silence, he sighed and answered.

"I don’t know. Like I said at the bar, I’ve never met my parents."

"Aw, that means my question was wasted."

Seti said the words casually, her empty laughter feeling oddly cold.

"Now it’s my turn to ask a question."

Dung Beetle thought for a moment, trying to come up with something to buy more time. Finally, he asked something provocative.

"What about your parents?"

"My parents?"

"Yeah. Anyone who’d name their kid Seti probably wasn’t exactly normal."

Seti grinned, flashing her teeth. It was the same kind of mischievous smile you might expect from a girlfriend who had just found a dirty magazine in her boyfriend’s drawer.

"My parents? Oh, they’re pathetic people."

"...What?"

First, she asked a twisted question, and now she was throwing her parents under the bus? Dung Beetle blinked in confusion.

"I’m not going to tell you to love your family, but you should at least be a little more respectful. Badmouthing your family has a way of coming back to bite you."

Even though it wasn’t his original intent, Dung Beetle ended up giving some genuine advice. But Seti just shrugged her shoulders.

"My dad’s a junkie, and my mom’s a prostitute. 'Pathetic' seems like a pretty polite word, don’t you think?"

"..."

Dung Beetle’s face twisted immediately. He wasn’t exactly used to discussing such crude matters with women.

"Anyway, it’s my turn again, right?"

While Dung Beetle was still reeling from the blunt admission, Seti cheerfully continued.

"Why did you kill the government guy?"

"..."

"If you were just after the necromancer, you didn’t really need to throw a grenade at the government agent, did you?"

Realizing the implication behind her words, Dung Beetle regained his focus.

"You’ve been watching from the beginning."

"Anyone can spy if they’ve got binoculars and the patience for it."

Seti’s casual admission of her stalking made Dung Beetle grit his teeth.

It wasn’t the fact that she had been watching him that was so unsettling. It was that he hadn’t noticed her at all.

‘I acted too rashly.’

But his regret didn’t last long. He could reflect on his mistakes later—right now, figuring out her intentions was the priority.

"Why does it matter to you that I killed the government guy? A kill is a kill."

"Answering a question with another question breaks the rules of the game."

"...Better than lying, I suppose."

"Mr. Dung Beetle, you’re really ruining the spirit of this game."

Seti laughed, clearly enjoying the situation far more than he was.

"In case you’re wondering, I’m not asking to defend the government. I don’t exactly have a good relationship with them."

"Everyone who pays taxes says that."

"I’m a student. I don’t pay taxes."

She tilted her head slightly, looking in the opposite direction from where Dung Beetle was standing.

"How about this? I’ll show you why I hate the government so much. If you find me trustworthy, then answer my question honestly."

Seti gestured toward the only entrance to Dock 13 that hadn’t been touched by the titan’s destruction.

Dung Beetle followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes.

Through the darkness of the night, the headlights of a car were approaching the dock.