Chapter 149 – Rank S (Part Six)

CLANG!

A sword and spear, swung with great force, clashed violently.

The impact rippled through the air, but a surrounding force field stopped it from spreading any further.

SCREEECH!

Il-hyeon pressed his advantage.

The monster’s tattered body and deep wounds remained, and due to its weakened state, it began to lose ground in the contest of strength.

Of course, using the ability it had absorbed from Seong-won, its wounds were slowly regenerating as it tried to stall for as much time as possible.

But Il-hyeon had no intention of just standing by and watching.

Astrid and Marco had risked their own safety to bring the beast down, inflicting a critical wound in the process. He couldn’t face them if he let this opportunity slip away.

CRUNCH!

Hundreds of transformed spikes shot toward the creature.

The creature dodged nimbly, not going down so easily, but it was impossible to escape completely while fending off Il-hyeon’s attacks and his layered abilities.

It desperately protected the weak spot where its core was located, but another spike pierced through its opposite leg, leaving a new hole.

Seizing the momentum, Il-hyeon pressed the creature even harder. New wounds began to appear faster than the monster could regenerate.

CRACK!

The spikes that Il-hyeon had been continuously creating while swinging his sword suddenly crumbled.

The monster, having copied his ability, countered his transformation power with its own, causing the spikes to crumble.

‘So it’s given up on regeneration.’

The creature could only activate one of the abilities it had copied.

As it used the transformation ability, its regeneration stopped as well.

It seemed it intended to quickly kill Il-hyeon and then regenerate.

As if to prove it, once cornered, the creature began to radiate a terrifying killing intent and hatred toward him.

The monster, which had paused for a moment, swung its arm violently, and numerous monsters were summoned from thin air.

The chimeras, repulsive creatures that looked like various life forms haphazardly stitched together, opened their pitch-black maws and bared their hostility toward Il-hyeon.

Easily over a hundred chimeras surrounded him threateningly.

These were the monsters summoned by the creature using all its remaining strength.

However, Il-hyeon scoffed upon seeing the creature’s attempt to copy his ability.

He had been utterly bewildered when it first copied his ability, but seeing it in this state was just laughable.

“Sorry, but you can’t just copy me by taking my summoning ability.”

Il-hyeon reached his hand to the floor.

RUMBLE!

Then, the ground shook violently as if an earthquake had occurred.

Rock fragments and concrete chunks shot up from the floor, gathering and twisting to form distinct shapes.

Transformation, and summoning.

Creating life from thin air requires immense power and mental fortitude, but with a proper framework in place, the process becomes incomparably more efficient.

In other words, even when using the same amount of power, the results were completely different.

GRRRRUMBLE!

Over a hundred golems appeared, exactly matching the number of chimeras.

Compared to the crudely stitched-together chimeras, each of his golems was intricate and majestic.

Having practiced constantly in his spare time, his mastery of the ability was also overwhelmingly superior.

The golems, much larger than the chimeras, raised both their arms high.

“Kiiiiek!”

SPLAT!

In an instant, the chimeras were obliterated, leaving behind nothing but crushed remains and splatters of blood.

So many corpses were created at once that black blood and flesh splattered onto the faces of Il-hyeon and the monster standing in their midst.

A brief silence fell, as if time had stopped.

Breaking it, Il-hyeon wiped the blood from his cheek.

“It’s over.”

* * *

CRUMBLE…

The golems lost their form and collapsed to the floor.

Not long after, the force field surrounding the area also slowly disappeared, opening a path to the outside.

SHLUK!

Standing amid the rubble and monster corpses, Il-hyeon pulled his hand from the monster’s leg.

In his grasp was a core emitting a dazzlingly brilliant white light.

Il-hyeon could feel the potent surge of ether emanating from the S-rank core.

Sssss…

The monster’s body, its core removed, crumbled into dust.

It was rare for a corpse to disappear even after its core was removed, but this one vanished without a trace.

After confirming the creature was completely gone, Il-hyeon immediately ran toward his teammates.

It was quite a distance away, but for the current Il-hyeon, it didn’t take long.

“Team Leader!”

“Are you okay?”

Il-hyeon rushed over, grabbing her by the shoulders. Astrid simply nodded.

Her blackened skin was slowly returning to normal, but she still had minor internal injuries and seemed to have exhausted most of her energy.

“Good work. Where’s Marco?”

“He’s over there.”

Hyeon-seo pointed to a nearby building, and Il-hyeon immediately entered.

Inside, he saw Marco lying unconscious, Aegis’s medical team, and Gwen wiping sweat from her brow.

“I’m glad it ended safely. The sounds of the fight reached all the way here…”

“How is his condition?”

“He’s stable now, so you don’t have to worry.”

Gwen replied, reassuring him.

Even without the means for a proper surgery, she had performed all the necessary procedures perfectly. Considering Marco’s physical capabilities, he was already at a point where he could recover on his own.

This was because she had tailored her treatment specifically to the physiology of a high-ranking Awakened, a completely different approach than one would take for an ordinary person.

However, Il-hyeon didn’t hesitate to pull out the spare core he had saved.

If necessary, he had been prepared to use the S-rank core he just obtained, but thanks to Gwen’s skill, it seemed unnecessary.

Il-hyeon placed the core on Marco’s chest and brought his arms together.

A pure white light spread in all directions. As the light that filled the building slowly subsided, Marco’s wounds, both external and internal, had vanished completely.

Regaining consciousness, he slowly opened his eyes and found Il-hyeon standing beside him.

“…What happened to the monster? We finished it, right?”

“Yeah, we finished it thanks to you two.”

“Then that’s all that matters.”

Marco let out a small laugh.

As if that was the last of his strength, Il-hyeon tilted backward and closed his eyes.

He hadn’t lost consciousness or fainted, but the release of tension and overexertion made him want to lie down for a moment.

“I’m just going to lie down for a bit, just a moment.”

As the people around, including Marco, gathered around in alarm, Il-hyeon waved his hand dismissively.

Even though the S-rank Gate was cleared, the day’s schedule wasn’t over yet. A very brief moment of rest would be enough.

* * *

“……?”

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Astrid, sipping coffee under a blanket, suddenly turned her head. Choi Seong-won, standing beside her, asked.

“That reporter we met today… she suddenly disappeared.”

“You mean the one you dumped a whole cup of coffee on?”

“Why would you…! Ugh, never mind. I don’t have the energy for this. Yes, her.”

Astrid replied curtly and leaned against the wall.

Seong-won asked her, clearly not understanding what she meant.

“What do you mean, disappeared? The reporter left the area before the Gate even opened.”

“You know my ability. Once I see someone, I can always tell where they are.”

“Right.”

“She was definitely nearby just a moment ago. But suddenly her location vanished.”

“Really? I heard she was an Awakened. Maybe she had a space-related ability. Or maybe someone else teleported her.”

“No, that’s not it. I can’t sense her location *anywhere*! I’m telling you, her very existence just vanished. Unless she suddenly got launched into outer space or something.”

Astrid said, glaring at him in frustration.

Only then did Seong-won realize what she was saying and looked at Astrid, bewildered.

“…That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why I think it’s weird.”

“Hmm…”

Seong-won also became lost in thought.

If what she said was true, it was a truly strange occurrence.

An ability that simply hid one’s appearance or concealed one’s presence couldn’t escape Astrid’s notice.

It was only possible if she had never noticed the person to begin with, or if their existence itself had truly disappeared.

“Isn’t it just because you’re exhausted right now? This is the first time you’ve ever been this wiped out in your life.”

“You think so…? Dammit, I don’t think that’s it…”

Astrid scratched her head irritably.

* * *

The news of Aegis’s Alpha Team and Il-hyeon clearing the S-rank Gate quickly spread.

The fact that not a single person died, and that a single team—even if it was Aegis—had cleared an S-rank Gate, was an achievement anyone had to admit was incredible.

Furthermore, the fact that this ‘single team’ was a new team formed just a day ago, and that all its members had been personally scouted by Il-hyeon alone, surprised people even more.

In a society still reeling from the Gate concealment exposé and the appearance of a terrorist group, Il-hyeon’s heroic tale spread across the world in an instant, creating a surprising stir.

“Kang Il-hyeon, rising to Team Leader in record time! A single team clears an S-rank Gate! …His growth is unbelievable, a meteoric rise that’s almost awe-inspiring.”

In the office of the Director of the Response Bureau, under the South Korean government.

Ham In-seok, sitting in a large leather chair, spoke in admiration as he watched the TV on the wall.

“On the other hand, our so-called strongest team leader just goes around causing trouble all day. Truly touching.”

“You didn’t call me here just for that, did you?”

The leader of Team 1, Seol Ah-yeong, who was standing defiantly before the director, retorted.

Her face, which looked pure and beautiful on the outside, was filled with displeasure despite her best efforts to restrain herself.

“No, I did call you here for that. The leader of Team 1 deserted her post during an operation; I can’t just let that slide. Who else would I say this to but you?”

“Desertion? I cleared five A-rank Gates during that time. Why does that matter?”

“Yes, by poaching sites that were originally assigned to other teams. A truly great achievement. I should have praised you earlier, my apologies.”

As the director continued his sarcasm, Seol Ah-yeong’s expression twisted in an instant.

“Hey, what does a non-Awakened who’s never even been in the field know to be nitpicking like this? The director is just a figurehead, a normal person placed at the top of the Response Bureau by the higher-up idiots to keep the Awakened in check, right?”

“I’m genuinely surprised our Team Leader Seol could think that far. But may I ask why a person capable of such thought did what she did? Instead of dealing with a few world-class criminal organizations, you would have been paid an additional performance bonus that easily exceeds your usual core profits, wouldn’t you?”

“Do you think I joined the Response Team to grind up criminals in some dirty back alley?!”

Shouting harshly, Seol Ah-yeong stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Even though she had tried to control her strength, the director’s office door was left shattered and on the verge of falling off its hinges.

“Honestly, these people are completely uncontrollable.”

The director picked up a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

Ham In-seok’s cold gaze, which had been on the broken door, turned back to the TV reporting Il-hyeon’s news.

“Still, him being treated as a hero is a problem… Isn’t there anything we can do? It’s not as if we can deal with him like we used to.”