More than a month had passed, and Mount Ryu held me tight within its frozen jaws. The only question gnawing at my mind every night, echoing with the howling winds outside, was: How do I escape this open prison?
During my cautious reconnaissance, I mapped the mountain. Five Masters share this peak, each region bearing its own signature of terror:
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North (Yuki-Guma): A frozen graveyard of trees. Trunks are sliced by colossal claws; sword marks and ice cover every inch. I remember our first encounter; he was high up the mountain, far from his usual territory. I don’t know why he was there that day, but now... things are different. He is Frenzied. He leaves his territory constantly, searching for me. His grudge after I deceived him and dropped him into the icy crevice has turned him into a rabid beast. He wants my head, and he won’t rest until it’s crushed between his jaws.
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West (Kyura): A maze of shadows and glowing eyes. Kyura, the Frost Wolf, leads an army of gray wolves. Their intelligence is terrifying; they don’t attack blindly, but surround you with psychological pressure until you retreat voluntarily.
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South (Shirawasa): Soft deception. A beautiful lake and docile animals, ruled by a rabbit the size of a bear. But the danger lies in numbers. Thousands of small red eyes watch you from the grass; an army of gnashing teeth waits for a single signal to turn you into a skeleton.
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East (Hyukojin): The Land of Stillness. Rolling hills enveloped in a heavy silence. The Five-Tailed Fox sleeps there, and his aura alone forms an invisible wall that repels intruders.
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Summit (Kura-Okami): The Sky Throne. The Blue Dragon that swims in the clouds. Its roar sends avalanches burying valleys, and its shadow covers the mountain like a shroud.
This month has been hell. I tried to leave several times, but the biggest problem was that these five control all possible exit routes, preventing any entity from leaving for some reason. All my attempts ended in crushing failure, returning each time with new wounds and shattered pride.
That bastard Morito... he knew this when he told me, "Go to the capital." He was throwing me into a den of monsters to see if I would survive. I lived through hit-and-run tactics, fleeing from every bird that moved on this mountain.
Currently, I am in Hyukojin’s territory. It is relatively the safest area... as long as Hyukojin doesn't notice you. It’s my best chance for an exit because Hyukojin sleeps most of the time.
What I’ve been doing all month is observing Hyukojin’s routine from a vast distance—more than 30 kilometers away—atop one of the high ridges. Why so far?
The first time, I crossed my red line and approached a distance of 29.9999 kilometers. In that instant, the air pressure changed. I felt a massive weight crushing my chest. Hyukojin opened a single eye. It was golden, slit, and radiating an ancient, terrifying light. He looked directly in my direction across the kilometers, as if I were standing right in front of him. 404 froze in my mind from the sheer intensity of the danger analysis. I fled. I ran until my lungs nearly burst, and the sensation of death only stopped when I stepped back beyond the 30-kilometer mark. The fox returned to sleep, as if I were a fly not worth the chase.
To be honest, I was miraculously lucky to escape him that day. As soon as I exited the 30km range, he quietly returned to his spot and slept. I believe he sees me even now, despite being 30km away, but he simply ignores me.
While watching him, I noticed something strange. He sleeps a lot and doesn't seem to need food or water. The other four, I saw them hunting and devouring prey. Hyukojin also has small foxes always around him; they don't eat either, sleeping just like him.
Another interesting thing is his fighting style. During Yuki-Guma’s desperate search for me, he entered Hyukojin’s territory. I saw them fight. Hyukojin was clearly superior, and with almost no effort, he was merely playing with him because he didn't want to kill him.
But what caught my attention wasn't the power—it was the method.
Yuki-Guma uses his soul gate like me and everyone else; he pulls the "Echo of Creation," filters it inside him, then releases it as whatever element. Hyukojin... does not need to filter! He pulls the "Echo of Creation" and uses the raw "Echo of Creation" itself as it is!
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At that moment, I thought: Can’t I do the same thing? Why am I trying to "filter" energy like the others, when I am a different entity? I must use the raw. The Echo of Creation itself.
I began training. I sat in a small cave I found while fleeing and tried to mimic the fox. I pulled the energy. I didn't try to convert it into Rei or Mana. I let it flow inside me like a wild electric current—colorless, propertyless. Then I tried to release it to form "Fire" or "Water."
Nothing. The energy left and dissipated into the air like transparent smoke. It didn't turn into anything.
< Analysis: Attempt #430 failed. Energy loses cohesion immediately upon exiting the body, > 404 said coldly.
"Why?" I asked in frustration. "I bring it in raw, and I try to shape it with my will as he does. Why does it vanish for me but turn into a storm for him?"
< Data insufficient. Perhaps the fox's biological composition contains different neurotransmitters that allow him to stabilize the energy, > 404 suggested.
"No, that makes no sense. The gate has the same structure for everyone."
I tried again. I focused with all my might. I squeezed the energy inside my hand until my bones nearly broke. I released it... and it vanished. 404 and I were stuck in a vicious circle. He analyzed numbers, I tried force, and our dialogue led to a dead end. We were like two blind men trying to describe a painting.
Suddenly, a third voice joined in. Sarcastic, arrogant, and full of confidence. Hong Min.
"You bunch of idiots," Hong Min said, appearing in my mental space, leaning against an imaginary wall and flipping through the pages of an old book in his hand. "An advanced calculator and a stone beast, and neither of you sees what is as plain as day."
I looked at him sharply: "What do you mean?"
He slammed the book shut and said: "You are looking at the result and forgetting the process. Do you remember, 404, that 1% 'distraction' you detected the moment the fox launched an attack?"
< Yes. We classified it as an activation error or energy leakage, > 404 answered.
"An error? Ha!" Hong Min laughed. "That wasn't an error. That was the secret." Hong Min walked toward me and said: "In the magic books of 'Arcadia' that I read while searching for a way to use magic as a talentless person, there was a chapter on 'Chaos Magic.' The theory says: Raw energy cannot take a physical form (fire, water) because it contains all possibilities simultaneously."
He paused for effect, then continued: "To make it one thing, you must not build it... you must dismantle it. Hyukojin does not release energy and then shape it. He releases raw energy, and in a fraction of a second, he performs a 'deconstruction' of its chaotic structure, removing all other possibilities, leaving only one (Wind, for example). That distraction you saw? It was the remains of the other possibilities being deleted from existence!"
404 fell silent for a second, processing the new information at insane speeds. < Re-analyzing data in light of the new hypothesis... > < Result: Probability 94%. Selective Deconstruction Theory explains result stability and surrounding atmospheric dispersion. > 404 said in a cold tone: < This... is logical. >
I looked at Hong Min. "Tell us from the start next time, you idiot!"
We began the attempt again, this time under the new hypothesis. It was like trying to sculpt water with my hands. Controlling raw energy was painful, but the mental "deconstruction" was pure agony. I had to grab the chaos and, with the speed of thought, delete "Fire," "Electricity," "Light"... and keep only "Water."
In one of my focused attempts, I gathered a dense ball of raw "Echo of Creation" between my hands. The sphere rippled and distorted, making a sound like the buzzing of angry bees.
Suddenly, something strange happened. The small animals around the cave—mountain mice, birds, even insects—stopped moving. They felt something "wrong." Something that didn't belong to nature. Raw, unrefined energy threatening the stability of their reality. Then, in a mass panic, they all fled away from me. Birds crashed into branches; mice dug frantically into the earth. Even the air around my hands seemed to tremble in fear.
After two months of mental hell, trial and error, and skull-crushing pain... I succeeded.
I grabbed the raw energy, applied Hong Min’s theory, and deconstructed it mentally. A drop of water formed. Then another. Then a stream. I created water from nothingness—or rather, from "Everything."
404 asked me: < Control? > "Stable."
I turned the water into a pressurized bullet and fired. It pierced a solid rock, leaving a clean hole, then evaporated. I immediately created another bullet. And a third.
Hong Min said proudly: "See? Knowledge is the true power, you stone-muscle." 404 said: < This solves the reservoir dilemma. You are now an open energy reactor. >
I fired 50 consecutive bullets. I felt absolute power... then... BEEEEEEEEEEEP! A sharp, loud ringing exploded inside my head. It felt as if a hammer had struck my brain from the inside. I fell to my knees, clutching my head as the pain blinded me. Black blood ran from my nose.
"My brain... is melting," I panted. 404 replied coldly: < The neural pressure of the instantaneous deconstruction process is immense. Neural pathways burn then regenerate. With repetition, your consciousness will expand to accommodate this load. >
I raised my head, blood staining my face, and looked toward the towering mountain peaks. I no longer felt the urge to run. Leaving now, with this unstable power, would be suicide.
"I’m not leaving." I stood up and wiped the blood from my face. "I’m staying here. I’ll train until this mountain becomes my playground." I smiled a savage smile, imagining the face of the bear, Yuki-Guma, who had been hunting me. "My new goal is their heads... the five Masters of Mount Fuji."
Hong Min replied: "Yes! That’s the spirit! Let the coward die, and the warrior be born!"
404 completed the calculations: < Success rate of exiting currently: 20%... Mission success rate outside: 5%. > < Success rate after hunting the Masters: 80%. > < Decision is logical. Let the hunt begin. > < The easiest and first target: Kyura. >