Chapter 155 – Their Identity (Part Six)

*Crack!*

Ray tightened her grip on Seo Jeong-hwa’s neck. The struggling woman lost all strength and went limp.

As she slumped to the floor, her teammates watched in stunned disbelief.

It was already too late to do anything.

Her pupils were dilated, her body growing cold.

“……”

“Now, how should I serve up the remaining gentlemen?”

Finding the scene amusing, the smiling woman glided closer.

Her ability, ‘Phantasm,’ was a formidable A-rank power that allowed her to remain unaffected by any physical influence while being able to interfere with others.

Of course, unlike Aegis’s Ghost, it had a duration, making it difficult to maintain for long. However, even for that short period, few in the entire world could survive the unrestrained attacks of an A-rank Awakened like her.

Moreover, she possessed not only the Phantasm ability but also a barrier ability, making escape from her impossible for anyone of average skill.

*Whoosh!*

Lee Dong-won threw a powerful punch at the approaching Ray, but it passed straight through her chest, meeting only empty air.

His Pulverize ability was useless against an intangible opponent.

*Thwack!*

She grabbed Lee Dong-won by the neck and lifted him off the ground in a flash.

“Sorry, ending things this quickly isn’t my style, but I’m short on time. Besides, I can’t let my guard down against that ability of yours.”

Looking up at him with a smile, Ray began to squeeze her hand again.

His desperate struggles and the frantic attacks of his summons were all in vain. A cracking sound began to emanate from his neck.

But just then, behind her, the corpse of Seo Jeong-hwa, who should have been dead, twitched.

Setting aside the faint stirring, a chilling aura pricked at her back, causing Ray to quickly turn around.

“Ugh…”

“Wh-what?”

She muttered in disbelief.

She was sure she had crushed her windpipe and felt her presence vanish completely, yet there was Seo Jeong-hwa, writhing on the floor and groaning in agony.

To be more precise, she was writhing against a bone-chilling cold that pierced her entire body.

And she was doing so with a very clear consciousness.

“How are you still alive?”

“Ugh… so cold… I feel like I’m dying…”

Consumed by the cold, she seemed to have lost her mind, her eyes rolling back as she shivered uncontrollably.

She hugged herself tightly and curled into a ball, but it was no use.

Just then, Seo Jeong-hwa’s red hair began to turn white.

Sensing something was wrong, Jo Nam-seok and Lee Dong-won watched her anxiously. The two members of Eclipse, the Awakened in white coats, did the same.

“…Doesn’t matter. I’ll make sure you’re dead this time!”

Ray shouted, drawing a sword from her waist.

She felt deeply unsettled by the ominous aura emanating from Seo Jeong-hwa and intended to finish her off for good, right now.

But just before the sword reached Seo Jeong-hwa’s neck, the powerfully descending blade froze over with a crackle.

The frost and ice crept up the blade with the speed of multiplying cells, and Ray recoiled, letting go of the sword.

Instinctively sensing danger, she tried to retreat, but a burst of cold erupted from around Seo Jeong-hwa’s body and enveloped Ray.

“Aghhhh…!”

Even with her Phantasm ability active, an unbearable cold wrapped around her.

Her Defensive Coat’s protective function activated violently, trying to shield her, but it was only for a moment. The chill easily overwhelmed even the much stronger defensive measures of the dual-core system and seeped through.

“N-No way…!!”

Ray screamed in despair, but the situation had already spiraled out of control.

An extreme cold that froze everything consumed her.

*CRACKLE!*

Her entire body frozen solid, Ray stood motionless with her mouth agape. Seo Jeong-hwa staggered toward her.

*Tap!*

Reaching her, Seo Jeong-hwa tapped her on the chest with a finger. Ray’s frozen body shattered and fell to the floor.

It was as if glass had crumbled at a molecular level, scattering like sand across the ground.

The woman who firmly believed she could never die vanished from the world in an instant. A stunned Kreger took a hesitant step back.

“Hah…”

Seo Jeong-hwa stared blankly at the shattered ice fragments for a moment.

Then she brought her ice-cold hand to her mouth and realized warm breath was coming from her lips.

Everything about the sudden situation was bewildering, but one thing was certain.

She had experienced death.

“But now… I’m alive.”

She touched her neck. The vertebrae, nerves, and muscles that had been completely crushed were all back in place.

Her white hair was slowly but faintly regaining its original vibrant red.

At the same time, life began to return to her dead, sunken eyes.

“I’m alive.”

While Seo Jeong-hwa was muttering to herself, Kreger, who had been in her blind spot, came to his senses and targeted her from behind.

He didn’t know what she had done to a woman who should have been immune to physical interference, but he had no sense of camaraderie with his fallen comrade anyway. He had to take her out before she figured out how to use her new ability.

*Swish!*

He threw a punch powerful enough to kill a C-rank Awakened in a single blow.

Seeing that Seo Jeong-hwa still hadn’t turned around, Kreger sensed victory.

Of course, he was mistaken.

*CRACKLE!*

“Kugh! This bastard…!”

Kreger gritted his teeth as his entire fist, aimed at the back of Seo Jeong-hwa’s head, froze solid.

She hadn’t even been looking his way, yet her ability had activated behind her.

Once it took hold of his fist, the frost and ice spread slowly, just as it had with Ray, eventually consuming his entire body.

But she had overlooked one thing. With a ferocious roar, Kreger shattered the ice encasing him and swung his fist.

“This crap won’t work on me!”

He was a mutant whose body, deep beneath the surface, had transformed into a hard shell.

He was far from a normal human and possessed a powerful resistance to cold and fire.

Not just natural cold, but various elemental attacks like frost and lightning created by high-ranking Awakened were absorbed and nullified. His body was built to withstand even the most extreme cold.

*CRACKLE!*

“I told you, it’s useless!”

This cycle repeated: Seo Jeong-hwa would freeze his entire body, and Kreger, trapped within, would forcibly shatter the ice to break free.

Twice, three times, four times, ten times, even twenty times.

But with each repetition, Kreger’s escape slowed, until finally, his hardened body came to a complete stop.

“Guhhh…”

*Shatter!*

With a tap of her finger, Kreger’s body also shattered and disappeared.

With them gone, the barrier had truly vanished.

* * *

An Aegis transport plane was streaking across the sky above the Mediterranean Sea at incredible speed.

Inside sat Il-hyeon, on his way to the next site after clearing his third B-rank Gate of the day.

The next site his team had to handle was a Gate from which an S-rank monster would emerge, a situation that should have made him tense. Yet, Il-hyeon showed no signs of it, instead conversing with his sword.

“So, you can’t see the future anymore?”

“Not for a while. The core I ate back then isn’t enough anymore. And you’re still too weak, Master.”

Peacemaker said.

The sword wasn’t exaggerating.

After using Peacemaker’s precognition for the first time, he had been able to glimpse the future a second time so quickly because the residual Ether from the half S-rank core he’d consumed had been supplemented by a few B-rank cores, gathering enough energy.

Now, the massive amount of Ether from the S-rank core was completely depleted. The only way was to either feed it another core of that magnitude or for Il-hyeon to become strong enough to wield Peacemaker skillfully.

Of course, that didn’t mean he planned to feed Peacemaker the S-rank core he might obtain this time.

It was better for him to get stronger quickly and draw out the sword’s power himself. The sword’s appetite was so enormous that continually feeding it cores just to use its ability would bankrupt him, leaving his other core-eating summons to starve.

“Hmm… but still. Are you saying it’s all gone after just those two times?”

Il-hyeon questioned the sword.

No matter how amazing precognition was, to have devoured half of an immense energy source like an S-rank core only to get two uses out of it was beyond poor fuel efficiency; it was atrocious.

It wasn’t even twice a month. Such a massive investment for a one-time-use ability seemed excessive.

Peacemaker hesitated for a moment before replying.

“Ah, well. It’s true my ability requires a lot of energy. But to be honest, I also absorbed a lot for myself. Don’t you think I’ve gotten stronger than before, Master?”

“I knew it…”

Il-hyeon smirked as if he’d expected as much.

So the sword had indeed pocketed its share.

Having inherited his Predation ability, it was only natural for it to gain a spec boost after consuming a core.

His previous opponent had been relatively easy, making a proper comparison difficult, but he had thought the power of his sword strikes had grown considerably. It seemed this was the reason.

*Rumble!*

Reaching the airspace above the destination city, the transport plane banked smoothly and began its slow descent.

Il-hyeon opened the door, stepped out, and slowly surveyed his surroundings.

According to local time, it should have been daytime, but it was as dark as night.

However, sunlight was shining normally in the distance. He soon realized it wasn’t night; they were simply cast in the shadow of something floating in the sky.

As he was looking around, intrigued by the strange sight, Hyeon-seo and the team members she’d brought with her appeared through a tear in space.

“Alright, good work. Were there any problems?”

“Of course not.”

Astrid replied with a grin.

Noticing a small smudge of monster blood on her cheek, Il-hyeon reached out and gently wiped it away. She let out an uncharacteristically silly laugh.

It had been a thoughtless, reflexive action, and her reaction made him feel a bit awkward, so he quickly changed the subject.

“So the monster we’re supposed to fight is coming from up there…”

Il-hyeon muttered blankly, tilting his head up.

A crimson Gate floating in the sky filled his entire field of vision.

It was an extremely rare case, considering Gates usually appeared close to the ground.

But that fact hardly garnered any attention.

The Gate’s size—so massive it blotted out the sun and plunged part of the city into darkness—was the largest humanity had ever encountered.

A radius of 16 kilometers.

Its nonsensical size and the powerful output—unthinkably strong for an inactive Gate—were already broadcasting a vast amount of data in all directions via its waves. As a result, a great deal of information was known before anything had even begun.

Thanks to this, not only were the monster’s characteristics and appearance already identified despite it being a new type, but it had also been given a name, which was unusual.

“Leviathan.”

As Il-hyeon spoke its name, the crimson Gate seemed to respond, emitting a thick, viscous wave.