everyone around him dies

Part 8

Reality was wrong.

Once or twice was easy to dismiss as his own insanity playing tricks on him. Trauma, imagination, starvation, sleep deprivation–he'd lost track of the number of excuses he'd made for the varying flickers he experienced.

He drew the line when it became apparent that he wasn't alone.

Children spreading rumors about the strange things they saw or heard tickling his ears, adults whispering about moments where they could swear they saw something that couldn't be real.

By the time the incongruities were appearing on the news, Cale knew that the truth was undeniable.

Something decidedly fanciful was happening to his new reality.

This thought brought Cale absolutely no comfort. Anything and everyone he might miss from his old life was dead and the last he'd been alive their chances of beating the monster behind it all were looking pretty grim.

If this was indicative of his old world leaking in then all that meant was South Korea was about to become one of many landscapes covered in dead mana and entirely inhabitable or, even worse, one of the territories that the White Star ruled under his grasp.

Cale had some hope that modern weaponry could potentially be effective against him but not a lot.

It brought to mind a concern that Cale thought about every so once in a while. A concern that filled his stomach with dread.

Choi Han.

Not the man himself. Cale couldn't give a flying rat's ass about the person he'd known contentiously during the twenty year war. With regards to Choi Han the man all Cale cared about was whether or not he actually succeeded in lopping off the White Star's head.

But the name. It was a name that had struck him as so strange and suspicious when he met the creepy bastard. Everything about Choi Han had looked quite strange and off-kilter.

In Korea, Choi Han was a dime a dozen.

From the dark hair and eyes, the almond shaped eyes, the weird name–all of it aligned perfectly with a Korean citizen.

Cale tried not to think about it because the thought meant that it was possible for a person to leap through worlds not just through rebirth, but also as a person. With all their memories and strength intact.

If Choi Han could travel from Korea to Roan... then the White Star could travel here. Spreading all of the sadistic destruction he liked in the name of his megalomaniacal dreams.

It meant that there was no possibility of protecting Kim Roksu because if someone like the White Star were to realize that he could rule a whole other world, there was no way that his insatiable greed wouldn't force him to try.

Cale grit his teeth as he crouched down by a flower that definitely didn't belong here and cursed how powerless he was here. It took all of his time and resourcefulness just to stay alive because of the curse. He had no time to train himself in swordsmanship, much less the money to seek out any weapons or appropriate training. There was a limit to how much he could train his own tiny body and again, the restraints of being constantly threatened by his twin brother's death curse really didn't help things.

"...I want a fucking grenade launcher." He told the flower, tempted to kick it. "No. I want a tank."

He knew that wouldn't do much to help them once the golems came but the idea of firing a tank at the White Star and blowing the bastard to smithereens had a certain appeal that Cale couldn't deny.