Chapter 176 – Vanish (Part Four)

A massive monster suddenly burst in.

Even for high-ranking Awakened, it was impossible not to be flustered.

Faced with the creature that appeared, spewing flames from its entire body, the Eclipse Awakened either hid or manifested their abilities to block the fire.

“Aaaargh!”

But those who tried to awkwardly block it from the front were helplessly melted by the S-rank monster’s flames.

It wasn’t an attack that could be stopped by a half-baked defensive ability.

The monster’s flames heated the underground area, and the intense heat made it impossible to even think of getting close.

“To pull a stunt like this…!”

Kim Yu-jin, who had retreated to safety, ground her teeth.

Even for her, taking that monster’s flames head-on was impossible.

If their leader, Baek Il-ho, had been here, he could have snuffed out the beast’s life in less than a second, but he was currently engaged in an important matter elsewhere.

A situation where he couldn’t be summoned here with a spatial movement ability.

To face it with only the A-rank Awakened present, they had no choice but to accept the potential for damage and launch an attack.

“Well then, have fun, everyone.”

*Fwoosh!*

Astrid and Marco, who were floating in the air, vanished in an instant.

They had moved in a single leap using Hyeon-seo’s spatial jump ability.

Leaving the difficult-to-handle monster to their opponents while also inflicting significant damage on the Eclipse bastards—it was killing two birds with one stone.

And the plan proceeded exactly as she intended.

But just then, only one of the Eclipse Awakened stepped forward.

“Everyone, stand back.”

Hwa-yeon said, calmly walking forward.

Her expression was as if she didn’t care about the flames filling the area.

*Kwoooosh!*

Sure enough, the monster, seeing her, unleashed a fierce blast of fire breath.

The flames aimed at her engulfed her in an instant, with no time to dodge, and it seemed like she was finished, regardless of the Defensive Coat she was wearing.

But within the roaring flames, a closer look revealed a different situation.

Her hair was merely fluttering about; her exposed skin hadn’t suffered even a minor burn.

The bewildered monster increased its output with all its might, but she still stood unharmed amidst the flames that were melting everything around her.

“I’ll take care of this one.”

*Click!*

Hwa-yeon gripped the sword at her waist.

* * *

“Whew, that was close, wasn’t it?”

“Still, it was a good plan.”

said Astrid and Marco, collapsing to the floor.

Both of them had soot-covered faces from being chased by the monster, and they were panting heavily, having suffered from the literally suffocating heat.

Even though they had grown stronger, they had struggled this much just to escape from it, so it was only natural that even Eclipse wouldn’t be able to subdue it easily.

“Good work, everyone.”

Hyeon-seo, who had summoned them with her ability, extended a hand to each of them.

Even without words, they were connected to some extent, so Hyeon-seo already understood everything that had happened on the other side.

The two took her hands and stood up.

“Let’s hurry. We need to get out of here first. It looks like both of your Defensive Coats aren’t working.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Astrid looked puzzled as Hyeon-seo urged them on, even pushing their backs.

“Now that I think about it, where are we?”

Marco asked, looking around.

The empty streets were filled with monster corpses, but it didn’t look like a city that had simply been evacuated.

All the visible buildings and facilities were excessively dilapidated, and aside from the traces of monsters running rampant, there were no signs of human life.

The gloomy city and the vines coiling around the buildings, as if they hadn’t been maintained for a long time, evoked the scenery of a place untouched by human feet for over a decade.

And beyond just its appearance, an alien and unsettling energy could be felt here.

*Vrrrr!*

Only after boarding the transport aircraft that hastily descended from above could they get a proper explanation from Hyeon-seo.

The place they were in was an uninhabited region in the northern part of the Korean peninsula.

It was the heart of one of the areas where a nuclear facility had exploded 20 years ago due to the appearance of monsters, and it went without saying that the radiation levels were extremely high.

Although the Awakened could endure much longer than ordinary people, prolonged exposure to high levels of radiation would still have a very negative effect on them.

It was so bad that if a Gate opened in a radiation-exposed area, even most monsters wouldn’t last long before collapsing.

Of course, if they had coats with self-purification functions, they could stay in the hazardous area indefinitely, but their Defensive Coats had been damaged in the explosion and were no longer working.

“Isn’t there usually no need to enter the north?”

“This time it was an A-rank monster, so we had no choice.”

“Hmm…”

Astrid brushed off her clothes with an uneasy expression.

Radiation. It was something she had never even considered while working in the field.

After the Gates opened and monsters appeared, nations around the world hastily shut down all nuclear facilities and dismantled their nuclear weapons.

No matter how sturdily they were built, the risk of accidents was high, and since alternative energy sources could be secured through cores, there was no reason to maintain them.

Besides, with monsters pouring out, no one was insane enough to engage in a do-or-die battle involving nuclear exchange, so an agreement to eliminate the seeds of disaster was easily reached.

However, not all nuclear weapons were eliminated, just in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

All that remained were three powerful nuclear weapons, jointly owned by the entire world under the leadership of an international organization.

They were a last resort prepared for when the Awakened could no longer hold back the monsters, so there was no need to elaborate on their power.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

Astrid shrugged it off lightly. Then, thinking of the situation back in Antarctica, she let out a small, satisfied smile.

Eclipse, who always launched surprise attacks whenever they pleased, would have a hard time of it this time.

She wasn’t asking for much, just that the monster would clean up about half of the trash that was there.

But just as she was indulging in that thought, her location-tracking ability detected a strange movement.

“Wait… they’re already on the move.”

“What?”

As Astrid spoke, Marco turned in surprise.

They should have been in the middle of fighting the monster they had lured, but the Awakened inside the facility were starting to scatter and move.

Judging by the number of Awakened, it wasn’t likely they were fleeing because they couldn’t handle the beast. If so, there was only one possible answer.

*’Don’t tell me they’ve already subdued the S-rank monster…?’*

* * *

Following Min Ji-hoon’s death, which was kept secret from the public, the terrorists’ activities, which had briefly subsided, began in earnest.

However, their movements were completely different from before.

The criminal organizations attacked government facilities recklessly, as if trying to burn themselves out, and more importantly, Eclipse Awakened began to reveal themselves one by one.

With many high-ranking Awakened tied down in the field, Eclipse’s full-scale move caused the tide of battle to turn sharply, and a bloody massacre began.

“Is it really okay for us to just stay here?”

Gwen asked, watching the chaotic breaking news.

As Il-hyeon’s personal physician and the leader of Beta Team, she was cooped up indoors, on standby.

“We were ordered to stand by.”

Jo Nam-seok replied with a relaxed attitude, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

While manpower was desperately needed, he was just sitting idly, neither going to the front lines nor stopping the terrorists. He was so calm it was as if he were living in another world.

“…You don’t happen to have no more lingering attachments to this world, do you?”

“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone with more attachments than me.”

Jo Nam-seok said with a chuckle.

*Rumble, rumble, rumble!*

But no sooner had he finished speaking than the ground around them began to shake.

Just as they wondered if it was an earthquake, a violent explosion sounded, and the entire building they were in collapsed.

“Kyaaah!”

“Damn…!”

The tilting building and the crumbling, falling ceiling.

The first thing Jo Nam-seok did was grab Gwen, who had no abilities, smash through a wall, and cling to the opening.

Fortunately, it was a low-rise building, so they were able to jump outside without much difficulty, landing on the ground with a thud.

*Rumble! Craaash!*

As the building completely crumbled, a thick cloud of dust settled over them.

And through the dust that obscured their vision, they could see someone walking toward them.

Two men in white coats.

There was no need to look further to know their identities.

“You must be busy. What brings you all the way here…?”

“We came to eliminate a variable.”

the large man on the right spat out.

The original future that the regressor, Baek Il-ho, knew.

In that future, the existence of the Beta Team created by Il-hyeon was an unforeseen variable, and they were beings whose abilities and potential could not be predicted.

Among them, Seo Jeong-hwa and Lee Dong-won had already Awakened, but Gwen and Jo Nam-seok had not, and their abilities were unknown. From Eclipse’s perspective, they had come to eliminate these risk factors in advance.

“Haha… it happened just like he said.”

Jo Nam-seok muttered in disbelief.

If they were from Eclipse, his opponents were at least B-rank powerhouses. His reaction stood in stark contrast to Gwen, who was terrified in their presence.

“It’s just as I heard.”

Il-hyeon had definitely been gone for a week without contact, and he was still missing.

But there was one person he had contacted, and only one.

Jo Nam-seok, standing right here.

Jo Nam-seok, who had received Il-hyeon’s call twice, had carried out a separate mission for him and was then instructed to simply wait.

“Instantaneous Acceleration and Lightning… nice abilities you’ve got.”

Jo Nam-seok said, nodding as if he knew everything after looking at them one by one.

But the Eclipse Awakened weren’t surprised.

They had been told beforehand that Jo Nam-seok had the ability to see through his opponents, including their powers.

However, there was one variable they hadn’t predicted.

*Crackle!*

Moving in an instant, Jo Nam-seok swung a sword imbued with electricity, and the two members were struck by the attack.

Sent flying back by the unexpectedly powerful impact, they tumbled across the ground.

“This… this bastard!!”

the enraged Awakened shouted, jumping to his feet.

Thanks to his Defensive Coat, his head wasn’t severed, but for a moment, he couldn’t follow Jo Nam-seok’s movements with his eyes.

And he instinctively knew what the man had done.

Instantaneous Acceleration and Lightning.

He had taken their abilities for himself.