I tapped away at my laptop keyboard. Messages were coming in real time, but I ignored them and instead searched for information on Norse mythology—specifically, Ragnarok.
“Here it is. This is what you meant, right?”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: That’s the phrase we saw inside the dungeon.]
***
Upon the lifeblood of mankind fated for ruin
shall it collapse,
and with crimson prophecy-blood
shall the halls of the gods
be painted red.
When summer returns afterward,
the sun’s rays will darken,
and all weather shall turn perilous.
***
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Honestly, we live in a great age. Stuff like this prophecy is just lying around on the internet.]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: Can’t argue with that.]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: If I’d been born in this era—]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: I’d probably be called ‘God of Facebook,’ or maybe ‘God of Tweets,’ or even ‘Streaming Genius Deity with a Killer Subscriber Count.’]
“That’s honestly not a bad title.”
[CH.Private/Free Wind: Right? I think so too.]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: In today’s world, trends are everything. Even gods can’t afford to fall behind them.]
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: What’s Facebook?]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: See? That’s exactly the fate of someone who’s fallen behind the times. Your Constellation name should be something like ‘The God Who’s Out of Touch.’]
[CH.Private/One Who Guides the Dead: Now. Is this really. What matters right now?]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: Oh, right.]
[CH.Private/One Who Guides the Dead: Scroll. Further down. Ga-hyeon.]
I followed Anubis’s advice and scrolled further.
***
Brothers shall turn on one another,
killing and being killed,
while the children of sisters
defile their own bloodlines.
Betrayal shall run rampant,
and the world will grow cold and merciless.
An age of axes. An age of swords.
—The shields will shatter—
The age of winds, the age of wolves.
And before the world takes its fatal plunge,
not a single human who knows mercy
will remain.
***
Apollo let out a sigh of awe.
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: See, this is exactly why I hate those mythological bastards.]
“I had a hunch, and yeah—it really was part of the Ragnarok prophecy we saw back then.”
I looked out the window.
“Which explains why things are such a mess right now.”
It was a maddening, almost cruel cold. The word “cold snap” didn’t begin to do it justice. Water had frozen solid, and snow had piled up past the knees. If you went outside without bundling up from head to toe in thermal gear, you’d get frostbite.
“There’s already talk in Russia that we might be entering a new Ice Age.”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Why not just go all the way and say it’s the apocalypse?]
“It is the apocalypse, though. Isn’t it?”
A brutal winter—one of the omens that herald Ragnarok. Most people probably dismissed it as another symptom of climate change, but I knew better. If Angrboda was preparing for Ragnarok, then this wasn’t a passing anomaly. It was only going to get worse.
And even knowing that, there wasn’t much I could do. Yoo Jin-woo, whose trial had dragged on forever, was finally sentenced to life in prison. But he’d been so careful about cutting off his loose ends that we couldn’t trace any information back to Gongmyeong from the incident. Even Park Gil-seon, the guildmaster who’d gone to investigate the rift, reported she hadn’t found anything unusual connected to Gongmyeong.
If only something—anything—would happen, it might be better. But with nothing at all, it felt like the calm before a storm. I was starting to feel desperate enough to wish I could even see Kang Si-hoo’s shadow again.
“The next dungeon… the next sign of the rift will probably be tied to Jörmungandr or Fenrir. Kang Si-hoo—no, Angrboda—will no doubt want to drag those two out into the world as well.”
I stared at my phone, still blinking with unread messages.
“That’s why I can’t help but think we need to prioritize preparing for that, rather than digging into Gongmyeong’s background…”
[CH.Private/Free Wind: Could you at least answer your messages?]
[CH.Private/Free Wind: You’ve already got 64 unread texts.]
Ever since I asked Yoo Ji-won to stream about the Red Apple incident, he’d been messaging me regularly. At first, I responded here and there. But as the days went by, the constant stream of messages grew annoying, and now I just treated them like spam.
‘Good morning!’, ‘Have you eaten?’, ‘I’m skateboarding right now.’, ‘The roads are all frozen.’, ‘So cold!’, ‘I’m in the shower.’—why was he sending all this crap to me? He clearly had his own social media, yet here we were.
I pulled the blanket Baek Tae-beom had covered me with closer and shoved my phone even farther away.
[CH.Private/Free Wind: Come to think of it, where’s your Contractor?]
“At the hospital. Visiting his little brother.”
[CH.Private/Free Wind: And you didn’t go with him? That’s rare.]
“People need time to themselves sometimes.”
Of course, Baek Tae-beom had offered to take me along. I was worried about his brother too, but it had been a long time since they’d last seen each other. Going alone would mean more to him than if I tagged along.
Before he left, he had made him promise repeatedly not to open the door to just anyone.
Baek Tae-beom had this tendency to treat me like a child left alone near a riverbank. Sure, I’d gotten dragged into all sorts of things lately, but it wasn’t that bad. Or maybe… he really just didn’t trust me?
I briefly compared our specs—mine and Baek Tae-beom’s—and had to admit it. From his point of view, it made perfect sense not to rely on someone as fragile as me. I knew my own limits too well to even pretend otherwise. There was no room for false pride in front of Baek Tae-beom.
[CH.Private/Free Wind: You’re up to 70 unread messages now.]
[CH.Private/One Who Guides the Dead: Just block him.]
“How could I coldly block someone like that?”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: What the hell kind of guy is he, anyway?]
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: Probably the kind who picks up trash while jaywalking at a red light.]
“That’s not even remotely related, you know?”
I sighed and finally picked up my phone—then froze.
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: What’s wrong?]
“He… says he’s coming.”
[CH.Private/One More Dazzling Than the Sun: What?]
And right then—Ding dong—the doorbell rang from outside. I glanced between the door and my phone.
[Yoo Ji-won: I’m coming over now!]
[Yoo Ji-won: You got that, right?!]
[Yoo Ji-won: You need to open the door!]
BAM BAM—someone was pounding on the door.
“Ga-hyeon hyung! Open up!”
I calmly pressed a hand to my forehead.
Baek Tae-beom told me not to open the door for just anyone…
***
“God, it’s freezing out. The snow’s insane. I nearly froze to death, seriously. Wow, nice place! Oh, wait—is this Tae-beom hyung’s house? Right? You’re just crashing here, aren’t you, Ga-hyeon hyung?”
Yoo Ji-won asked with a beaming face as he plopped himself onto the sofa like he owned the place. I responded just as brightly.
“Get out.”
“Sorry.”
Ever since we cleared that last dungeon, Yoo Ji-won had gotten way too familiar with us. He spoke informally, called us hyung like we were best friends, and no matter how menacingly Baek Tae-beom glared at him—probably debating whether to smack him—Ji-won acted like he didn’t notice a thing.
And now, here he was, barging into our house.
I considered offering him tea—then remembered I had no idea what was even in this kitchen. Whenever I even thought about cooking, Baek Tae-beom would sweet-talk or outright stop me. Thanks to that, I didn’t even know if we had tea.
So I kindly brought him a glass of cold water.
“Wow, cold water? Do you know you and Tae-beom hyung are the only people who treat me this coldly?”
“Then why the hell do you keep showing up?”
“You’re so sharp when you talk like that, hyung. I mean, sure, I only really have Aquila noona, but still.”
I didn’t particularly like him. That was the root of it—I just didn’t. But for some reason, Yoo Ji-won seemed to really like me, even when I acted like this.
I let out a sigh. I had to kick him out before Baek Tae-beom came back.
“Why did you come here?”
“Hyung. I heard you’ve been looking into Gongmyeong lately.”
I stopped, my hand halfway to lifting my glass. Then I slowly looked up at Yoo Ji-won. His brown hair was tucked under a cute hat with a cartoon bear on it, his eyes slightly upturned with a smug glint, dressed in a white knit sweater and a red scarf. His face was as casual as ever—but the words out of his mouth were anything but.
Because the investigation into Gongmyeong was being conducted in strict secrecy.
If it had been someone from the Hansung Guild, maybe—maybe—it would’ve made sense. But for those words to come out of Yoo Ji-won’s mouth?
“How do you even know about that…?”
“One of my die-hard fans is a member of the Hansung Guild.”
Yoo Ji-won grinned wide as he said it. I took a dry, steady breath, rubbing my face. Honestly—problems from all sides, inside and out.
“Who is it?”
“Can’t tell you that.”
“What do you want?”
“I’ve got some valuable intel.”
Yoo Ji-won leaned forward slightly, voice smooth.
“Wanna trade?”
“I asked what you wanted.”
I responded calmly. Yoo Ji-won lifted one finger into the air.
“Now, don’t take this the wrong way.”
“The wrong way?”
At that moment, footsteps echoed from the front door. Yoo Ji-won, apparently not noticing, kept his finger raised and smiled as he spoke.
“I want you, hyung.”
CRASH!
A thunderous noise exploded through the room as the front door shattered.
Standing there was Baek Tae-beom—one hand holding a plastic bag from a tteokbokki shop, the other gripping his sword. His face was terrifying.
