Back in Korea, where this ss had all begun, on the flanks of the Seongsan Ilchulbong looming over the sea, sothing else was happening that the group was not privy to.
A group of old n stood at the mouth of the volcanic tunnels, looking into them with an expecting gaze. On the surrounding walls, many bujeok had been stuck to walls at regular intervals in an attempt to seal, or at least purify, the entrance of this tunnel.
But from further in, the five old n could hear the sound of combat.
The pitter-patter of footsteps echoed, getting closer to them, as a group of three n ran toward the exit, a fourth man in their arms, badly wounded.
Gazing at him, the five old n felt the dread of the situation dawn upon them.
The young man who was wounded scread in pain as the others lay him on the ground.
His left arm was missing at the elbow, crudely ripped off, with jagged edges to the wound. "How bad is it in there?" one of the old n asked one of the three young n.
One of them, who seed a little older and sported an ugly scar across his face, turned to face the old n before taking a knee.
"It's not good down there, Seniors. The creatures are small and weak, but they are legion. It's how brother Kang lost his arm. We were sward by a group larger than we could handle, and he was mobbed. The little monsters ripped his arm off before we could help him," the man explained, his face dire.
The old n looked at him with pensive expressions, keeping silent.
"What about the seals? Did the creatures respond to the seals?" another of the Seniors asked.
The man turned to look at him, his expression wavering between anger and hatred. But the feelings quickly dissipated from his face.
"The seals are barely forcing the creatures back, Senior. These are not evil spirits. These are monsters-true atrocities of the physical kind. They care about them for a few seconds, before pushing through them.
"The seals are hurting them, but it is so dismal they barely even notice. We would need to apply seals a mile deep from the entrance for it to have any effect, Senior. Is it worth losing n for this foolhardy task?" he asked, clearly reticent to send his brothers in there again.
"If the seals are working, even marginally, it is worth losing a few n over, Cho Yi-Joon. It is not your place to question our decisions. You would do well to rember that. Now, take your n and get back in there. You have a job to finish."
The man grit his teeth as he bowed his head and turned to face his n, who looked at him haggardly.
"We are going back in, brothers-steel yourselves. This will be a test of our resolve and skill. The first round will be on tonight, I promise."
The two n left barely looked enthused at his promise but couldn't go against his orders.
Bringing their heels together, they bowed to their division leader and barked in unison. "Sir, yes, sir, Brother Cho!"
Watching them head back into the cavernous tunnels, four of the old n turned their gaze to the fifth one, who had ordered this.
"Are you sure it was a good idea, Senior Kim? It seems reckless to start losing n this early in a battle of attrition. We have no idea how long will last."
Senior Kim faced the one who spoke and sighed heavily.
"Do we have a choice? Most of our n are split across the country, battling more of these monstrous incursions, Senior Lee. We can't afford to let this one beco the one we lost that caused the fall of the Korean Peninsula.
"It may seem heartless to these n we grood into fine warriors, but it is our duty to save the many, not the few," Senior Kim defended his actions.
Senior Lee accepted his reasoning, even though it didn't sit too well with him to lose promising seeds. They were duty-bound; that much was certain.
"Very well. I will contact our other divisions and try to get them to hurry back here. The more n we send in there, the easier their task will be."
The five left in unison, walking out of the tunnels onto the cliff side, and if anyone had been there to see what happened next, they would have been hard-pressed to believe their own eyes.
The n walked over the air like it was solid and made it across the separation between the central volcano and a little islet, where Alexander had killed so harpies earlier and vanished into the ground.
It was like they were never there.
***
anwhile, far over the old world, the plane in which Alexander's group resided flew over Europe unimpeded, making good pace to their first destination: Finland.
Inside the plane, Alexander had been ditating with his eyes closed the entire ti, only opening them to respond to a question or another about their trajectory or their next move when asked.
He never stopped circulating his mana as he answered the nurous queries, though, and he had recuperated most of it already.
Surprisingly, even though the density of mana on Earth was abysmal, and this high in the sky only made it worse, he had managed to form a good cycle within himself to accelerate the regen on his own.
For every particle of mana he absorbed from outside his body, he duplicated it into dozens more, making his cycle stronger with every rotation.
He was tempted to show the others how to do the sa, but most were past simple mana deprivation, as ntal and physical exhaustion had settled into them. So he opted to teach them later when they were in better shape.
For now, what they needed most was rest.
Alexander scanned the group occasionally, taking in their physical and ntal state as best he could, and was happy with their progress. But one person kept catching his attention more
than the others.
Liu Yan, who he considered the least important of the party at this mont, had fallen into a spiral of self-doubt, sending the mana inside him into turmoil.
Although Alex didn't need the young man to be in fighting condition with the others, he felt as if this state was bad for him in the long term as well.
'I'll have to do sothing about it before we unload him in China. But I can hardly do that with this parasite present,' Alex mused, thinking about the smuggler in their midst.
As promised, the man had kept to himself, but Alex could still feel his curious gaze as he observed everyone else on board the aircraft. He could hardly start giving him shit for looking at others, so he had kept his opinion to himself, but it still peeved him.
'I can't wait to unload him in Europe. Once he's gone, we can finally speak more in-depth about what happened in those tunnels,' he thought.
The flight proceeded without a hiccup, with the group resting as much as possible on seats made for comfort, but not total rest.
As they started descending over the small country of Finland, the Major called them to order over the intercom.
"Alright, people. We are starting the descent, so I want everyone in their seat and buckled in. The weather over the airport isn't great, so it might get bumpy."
No one even questioned her order when they heard the weather wasn't great, and a symphony
of buckling belts echoed in the passenger cabin. It wasn't long before everyone sat silently,
so gripping their armrests tightly.
"Don't worry, guys. It's not that bad outside," Kary tried reassuring them.
But, as she did, the plane shook violently, hitting a turbulence zone out of nowhere.
A few muffled screams echoed, but were cald down by the others.
"Hang on, guys. The zone is a little worse than I thought," Major Schrute's voice echoed over
the intercom.
A flash of thunder lit up the cabin as the lights dimd and flickered. The boom of thunder imdiately followed it, and nervousness spiked inside the passenger cabin.
But the Major was not on her first flight through rough conditions, and she was not worried in the slightest. She flew her plane with practised expertise, trying her best to stay out of areas of extre turbulence as lightning buffeted the aircraft.
Fortunately, planes had been made to resist such onslaught for decades, and it did little to dampen the aircraft's performance other than shake it a little.
The plane lowered until it reached under the clouds, as rain replaced the black exterior, and Major Schrute spotted the landing strip lights, calling her to the ground.
She quickly readjusted her path to settle in a straight line, the wind being a none-factor with
her experience.
Seconds seed to stretch into hours as the plane shook and wavered until it landed on the
ground and regained stability.
"Welco to Finland, and thank you for flying with Air Schrute!" the Major joked on the
intercom.
But a wave of relief brushed over everyone on board.
They were safe.
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