Chapter 43 – No Time to Spare (Part Three)

“What did you do?”

Il-hyeon looked down at the Phoenix.

All the Ether he hadn’t managed to absorb had been sucked into the creature’s body.

It had saved his life, but he’d never imagined a summon could also consume Ether.

Il-hyeon grabbed the Phoenix with both hands, brought it up to his face, and turned it over and over, examining it.

The Phoenix seemed uncomfortable, fluttering its wings and squirming, but it didn’t try to break free.

“Nothing seems to have changed… Are you okay?”

In response to his question, the Phoenix opened and closed its beak and nodded.

Its aura and appearance hadn’t changed either.

He was worried something might happen after it consumed the Ether, but for now, it didn’t seem like it was about to go berserk.

*Rumble!* Just then, Tog’s body shook violently.

With its core destroyed, the creature lost its balance and began to topple to one side.

“Damn, I need to get out.”

If it were just falling over, Il-hyeon’s Awakened body wouldn’t be seriously injured, but the problem was that Tog’s body itself was completely collapsing.

Large cracks formed in the floor, and rocks began to fall from the ceiling.

If this place caved in completely, there was no way he’d escape unscathed.

“Ugh!”

As he was searching for an escape route, something suddenly grabbed him from below and pulled him down.

Sucked beneath the floor, Il-hyeon was momentarily startled but relaxed and let it happen.

It was Ghost’s ability, which he had experienced several times before.

Their bodies turning translucent, the two of them slid down Tog’s leg and rolled onto the ground.

*CRASH!*

The body of the Tog that Il-hyeon had been inside completely collapsed.

Even in its death throes, it swallowed streets and buildings, shaking the ground and kicking up an immense cloud of dust.

Il-hyeon raised an arm against the dust and turned his head away.

The other Tog had also met its end at Lee Soo-yeon’s hands, and the monsters that had poured out from both creatures had all lost their power and lay scattered on the ground.

The Gate was already gone.

“It’s over.”

Il-hyeon sighed.

Ghost, who had brought him out, sheathed his sword and placed a hand on his hip.

“The cycle’s starting off with quite a bang.”

An A-rank Gate appearing the moment the fifth cycle began.

Thanks to Aegis being right next door, casualties were miraculously low for a surprise Gate in a major city, but the downtown area was a complete mess.

“Still, this is within the expected range.”

Lee Soo-yeon and Seok Pil-joon approached the two men.

All four of them were covered in dust from the operation, their faces a mess.

“Good work. And congratulations on your first A-rank monster kill. You did better than I expected. It’s probably a record, taking down a beast like that less than a month after joining the team.”

Lee Soo-yeon said to Il-hyeon, glancing at the fallen Tog.

Of course, it was a good matchup for Il-hyeon, who could immediately locate the core, and it was only possible because the monster was purely defensive.

Nevertheless, no one else could have grown so quickly and subdued a Tog like Il-hyeon had.

“Haha, I was lucky.”

“By the way, that bird…”

Lee Soo-yeon pointed above Il-hyeon’s head.

Not just her, but Seok Pil-joon and Ghost had also been looking in that direction.

Il-hyeon looked up, bewildered, and a pair of red wings came into view.

“Jesus, you scared me! What are you doing?”

Startled, Il-hyeon jumped and flinched.

A red phoenix was perched squarely on his head.

It was the Phoenix he had assumed would be unsummoned when Tog’s body collapsed.

He’d been so disoriented by Ghost’s ability that he hadn’t even realized it had come out with him.

“Pahaha, are you trying to be funny?”

“Hmph…”

His teammates burst out laughing at his reaction.

When even Seok Pil-joon couldn’t hold back his laughter, Il-hyeon’s face flushed slightly as he coaxed the creature from his head onto his arm.

“That’s strange…”

No matter how distracted he was, he always felt a connection to his summons while they were active.

But now, he could barely feel it, and more importantly, it wasn’t draining any of his energy to maintain the summon.

“You did well, you can go now.”

Il-hyeon tried to dismiss the Phoenix.

As usual, he tried to sever the connection with his summon, making its form dissipate.

*Huh?*

Il-hyeon’s eyebrows shot up at the strange sensation.

The Phoenix’s form didn’t waver at all.

*Flick, flick!* He flicked his fingers, but the creature just stared blankly back at him.

*Could it be…?*

* * *

The scene after the monsters had been subdued.

Since the Gate had opened in the capital and the scale was so large, not only the Aegis cleanup crew but also the Spanish government were involved in managing the site.

Countless people bustled about the cordoned-off area, and the team members had yet to leave.

“Hmm, so you’re saying this little guy ate the Ether from the core?”

Lee Soo-yeon said with interest, standing opposite Il-hyeon.

The Phoenix, nestled snugly in Lee Soo-yeon’s arms, calmly accepted her stroking its head.

The flames that had once enveloped its body were gone, leaving only glossy red feathers.

“Not all of it.”

The Phoenix had only devoured the core after Il-hyeon had already absorbed a significant amount of Ether.

Though, being an A-rank core, there was still plenty of Ether left over.

“Honestly, I want to ask if you saw it wrong… but I doubt you did. I’ve never heard of such a case, so I can’t even begin to guess what happened. Well, then again, its master is far from ordinary himself.”

Lee Soo-yeon shrugged.

In the first place, an ability that could openly absorb Ether like Il-hyeon’s was a first, and summoning abilities with any real utility were practically nonexistent.

But for a creature summoned by an ability to absorb Ether from a core…

She couldn’t even begin to fathom the situation.

“Here’s the item you requested.”

“Ah! Thank you, I know you must be busy.”

Il-hyeon received a core from a man who approached him.

The man, heavily armed and wearing a bulletproof vest, was a member of the Aegis backup team dispatched with Alpha Team.

As a non-Awakened, he couldn’t fight monsters directly, but he provided a great deal of help behind the scenes by controlling the area and rescuing people.

“A core? What’s that for?”

“There’s something I want to test.”

It was only an E-rank core, a spare for the backup team’s Ether-powered heavy equipment.

There was nowhere else to get a core on such short notice, and it was perfect for a small experiment.

He picked up a chunk of cement lying on the ground, likely debris from a building.

It was the perfect size to fit in one hand.

It quickly transformed in Il-hyeon’s hand, forming a mouse.

*Squeak!*

The mouse stood on its hind legs and looked around.

Beside him, Lee Soo-yeon and the Phoenix watched him quietly.

So far, it was just his usual ability.

Il-hyeon held the core out to the scurrying mouse.

The mouse took the core, which was nearly as big as its own body, sniffed it, and then glanced up at Il-hyeon.

Meeting its gaze, Il-hyeon gave a silent nod.

The mouse then took a bite of the core.

*Crack!*

A tiny, distinct tooth mark appeared on the supposedly unbreakable core.

At the same time, with a cracking sound, fissures spread across its surface until it shattered completely.

The streak of white light inside the core, the Ether, began to flow into the mouse’s body.

Lee Soo-yeon couldn’t believe her eyes and muttered under her breath.

“My god.”