Chapter 174 – Vanish (Part Two)

A frigid wind howled through the terrible blizzard.

It wasn’t just cold; the weather was harsh enough to freeze a person to death.

But in the middle of that cutting wind, a man and a woman walked, clad only in thin clothes and a single coat each.

“It should be around here…”

Astrid muttered, glancing at her wristwatch.

As she trudged through the plains blanketed in pure white snow, her face was frosted over as if she’d stepped into a freezer, but her expression showed no sign of feeling the cold.

She and Marco had come all the way to Antarctica to pursue Eclipse, and they had been walking for quite some time to avoid detection.

And now, they had finally reached their destination.

“I think that’s it over there.”

Marco, who had reached the top of the hill first, pointed.

The blizzard was so fierce it was hard to see even an inch ahead, but for A-rank Awakened like them, it wasn’t a major issue.

The large facility visible below was an unregistered, illegal structure, and it was obvious who had built it.

“Well?”

“Ah, that’s it. I can feel it clearly.”

Astrid said with conviction.

A week ago, during the battle between Eclipse and Aegis.

The summoned beings and team members, excluding Il-hyeon and Hyeon-seo, had taken advantage of an opening to raid several Eclipse bases within Europe.

This was made possible by Astrid’s ability and the fact that the Beta Team had gathered intelligence on them beforehand.

Though each base was small-scale, they had managed to extract and pass on plans for some strange schemes, and the cleanup operation was a success.

Besides the members they killed or subdued during the raids, they had intentionally let a few go.

And once again, they were serving as excellent tracking devices, broadcasting their locations to Astrid.

One of the members whose signal they were tracking was right here, in the facility before them.

“Shall we, then?”

* * *

A creaking door opened and a member appeared.

The man who stepped outside immediately scowled at the fierce, encroaching blizzard and muttered.

“The weather’s gone cra—”

*Crack!*

Before he could finish, a hand appeared from the side and snapped his neck. He crumpled forward limply.

Astrid, who had been concealing her presence, tossed his body into a corner and entered the building.

The other buildings in the facility had all been secured; this, the largest one, was the last.

The first place they had taken down was the building housing all the communication equipment, so they were less worried about the people inside noticing something amiss and contacting others.

Of course, that alone wouldn’t be enough to hide their actions completely, but if they finished quickly, it wouldn’t matter.

Marco, having finished with the building across the way, followed her in, and she quickly shut the door.

As the howling wind subsided, the sound of members chatting became clear.

Judging by the various goods stacked high everywhere, the largest building seemed to be a warehouse for logistics. From one side, she could feel the energy of a very familiar object.

“Cores.”

Astrid murmured softly.

At the sound, the members’ conversation abruptly stopped.

It was only a tiny sound, but more than half of the members in this facility were Awakened.

In a quiet moment like this, there was no way they would miss a spoken word.

But of course, this was no unintentional slip from Astrid.

*Crackle! Crackle!*

Electricity began to spark in the blizzard-filled sky.

And just as the members gathered and prepared to rush her all at once, lightning struck.

*KRA-KOOOM!*

The bolt of lightning shattered the ceiling to pieces as it fell, illuminating the entire building in a flash.

The members, who weren’t even wearing Defensive Coats, were wiped out in an instant, and the powerful impact left a deep crater in the ground.

Astrid checked the corpses strewn about before approaching the object that had caught her eye.

In the center of the warehouse, an enormous amount of cores was piled high.

“Just as I thought…”

Seeing them, Astrid gave a faint smile.

Since Gates could appear anywhere on land, their range of emergence covered all territories, regardless of country.

That meant uninhabited islands were fair game, as was the continent of Antarctica, which accounted for ten percent of the Earth’s landmass.

In fact, after Gates first appeared twenty years ago, they emerged so relentlessly in Antarctica that Awakened had to be specifically dispatched there.

But at some point, the Gates in Antarctica suddenly stopped appearing.

At the time, it was welcomed as good news since it significantly lessened the burden, but thinking back now, it was strange.

Gates still appeared on uninhabited islands. It wasn’t as if monsters were sensitive to the cold, so for them to stop appearing only on the Antarctic continent was odd.

And the time when Gates stopped generating in Antarctica was exactly eight years ago, not long after Baek Il-ho, an Aegis Awakened, retired and vanished.

Once Eclipse’s true nature was revealed and Hwa-yeon’s suggestion was lifted, a few people were able to deduce this fact.

The possibility that they were monopolizing this place.

And indeed, they were here.

Gate signals were still not being detected by observation equipment worldwide, but the reality was that Gates were still opening here.

They had monopolized all the Gates and cores that appeared in the Antarctic region for the past several years, so this number of cores and their inexhaustible source of funds were no longer a mystery.

These were the people who had completely deceived not only the citizens of the world but also the Awakened of Aegis and the Response Teams; blocking and manipulating Gate signals would have been nothing to them.

“This is probably just one of their many facilities.”

Marco said.

He then drew his sword and sliced through the stacks of boxes in a single motion.

Cores spilled out from within, and he snatched two that held a considerable amount of Ether.

Astrid caught one of the cores he tossed to her.

“Hmm, it’s been a while since I’ve had a feast.”

*Crunch!*

The cores shattered easily.

Marco and Astrid proceeded to crush and devour the cores in the warehouse one by one.

By the time shattered core fragments had piled up on the floor, Astrid, having eaten her fill, tossed aside the core she was holding.

She was too full to eat any more.

“Should we pack some for the kids?”

“I don’t know…”

Marco trailed off.

The mission wasn’t over yet; it didn’t seem like a good idea.

Of course, Astrid also chuckled as if it were just a joke and shifted her gaze.

But just then, she felt something was off.

“Wait… the signal’s coming from further down.”

The member who had served as their tracking device was still alive and well, and his presence could be felt below.

Without hesitation, Astrid raised her arm and gathered her power once more.

*KRA-KABOOM!*

With a deafening roar, a bolt of lightning struck, piercing through the building’s floor.

Something crumbled beneath the violently torn floor, and soon a large hole was punched through.

As the two of them descended, they found themselves in another facility deep underground that they hadn’t noticed, spread out around them.

“So it wasn’t just a warehouse…”

A spacious area that looked like a state-of-the-art research facility.

The researchers in white lab coats, who had been standing dumbfounded by the explosion and the sudden appearance of intruders, screamed and tried to flee.

But Marco immediately extended his hand.

Glass shards scattered on the floor shot through the air via telekinesis and embedded themselves in the researchers, who collapsed without a sound.

“…You’re too soft.”

Astrid glared at him for an attack that had only knocked them unconscious, but Marco ignored her gaze and walked forward.

The massive steel door before them was of a staggering size, as if it were meant for the giants of folklore.

“Hah, this is interesting.”

Faced with the colossal obstacle, Astrid scoffed.

*KRAAANG!* A bolt of lightning, striking at a precise, slanted angle, hit its target dead on and shattered the steel door.

*RUMBLE!*

The impact was strong enough to make the ground tremble, and the steel door exploded in all directions.

However, it seemed they had paid great attention to the design, as the underground facility showed no signs of collapsing from the shock.

And as they stepped inside, they were met with an astonishing sight.

A Gate, matching or even exceeding the ridiculously large size of the steel door, appeared before them.

The massive Gate writhed as if it were a living, beating heart.

Combined with a crimson light, it emanated a chilling aura.

“This is…”

Both Astrid and Marco stared at the scene with dumbfounded expressions.

It was a giant Gate, suppressed by something at the very moment of activation, just before it could spew out monsters.

“What are you standing around for! Kill them!”

An old man facing them screamed wildly, and researchers on the railings of the upper floors of the facility drew their pistols.

Gunshots rang out from all directions as special bullets designed for Awakened were fired in unison.

But when Marco extended his hand, the bullets’ trajectories changed in an instant, and all the fired special bullets passed through the heads of their original owners.

“Aah… this can’t be…”

The researchers fell backward, all killed instantly, and the only survivor, the old man, dropped to his knees.

“What in the world is this research… No, what are you doing here?”

Astrid approached, grabbed him by the collar, and asked in English.

The old man before her was someone she recognized.

The scientist who was reported missing in the past, Albert Wilkins.

It was unbelievable that he, who had even received a Nobel Prize for his research that uncovered almost everything known about Gates to date, was here, alive.

“Ah… no!”

Wilkins yelled and swung his head, trying to headbutt her.

But his head was held fast in Astrid’s grip, unable to move an inch.

“What if you break your neck doing that? I’m going to find out exactly what you’ve been up to, right here and now.”