Chapter 178 – Vanish (Part Six)

With the appearance of new Awakened that no one had anticipated, the tide of battle turned in an instant.

Two teams, whose members all appeared to be A-rank or higher Awakened.

The seven who entered the scene and the one providing support from afar all displayed astonishing skill.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

“Gaaah!”

From behind, a pack of beasts appeared all at once, pouncing on Eclipse’s Awakened.

They were creatures of such immense size and vicious fangs that a stranger might mistake them for Monsters, but they were, in fact, summons birthed by Il-hyeon through the Cores.

As the beasts rampaged through the battlefield, the Awakened from Eclipse could no longer claim numerical superiority and fell into a state of bewilderment.

“So that’s what it was…”

Seong-won, who had just taken down an Awakened and was catching his breath, muttered to himself.

Although he had never seen the newly appeared Awakened before, he could guess their identities.

A strange sense of kinship he had felt from the moment he first saw them.

They were undoubtedly beings born in the same way he was.

If they had been summoned by Il-hyeon only recently, they would have struggled to even stand, let alone fight. Seeing them fighting competently, however, suggested that wasn’t the case.

Moreover, their proficient combat skills indicated they hadn’t just been biding their time; they seemed to have experienced numerous battles.

He grew even more curious about what on earth Il-hyeon had been up to during the past week he was missing.

***

*Kwang!*

The securely locked door was blown off its hinges.

The personal underground bunker, located in the basement of the Response Bureau’s headquarters, was incredibly sturdy, but unfortunately not sturdy enough to withstand the kick of a high-ranking Awakened.

The dislodged door flew across the room and embedded itself in the opposite wall. The man standing there, nervously biting his nails, was so startled he stumbled and fell backward.

The Director of the Response Bureau, Ham In-seok.

He had descended into the bunker and locked the door as soon as the incident began, but he couldn’t hide from the blade that sought him.

A woman strode through the breached entrance.

“Hmm, this place is bigger than I thought. Since it was for personal use, I expected something the size of a decent room.”

The woman in the white mask spoke her thoughts aloud, leisurely looking around.

At that, Ham In-seok, who was sitting on the floor, shouted in a trembling voice.

“Who are you! Do you have any idea what will happen if you touch me here…”

Kim Yu-jin threw off the mask she was wearing.

When her face was revealed, Ham In-seok’s pointing arm dropped as he stared in horror.

“You… You’re…”

“How many years has it been? You don’t seem to have changed much.”

Kim Yu-jin said with a light smile.

Ham In-seok’s pupils trembled uncontrollably. As his mind, which had momentarily frozen, began to work again, he scrambled to his feet and rushed toward his desk.

His legs gave out, and he stumbled once along the way, but that hardly mattered to him now. He desperately got up and grabbed the telephone.

“Q-Quickly! Come save me! There’s a monster in here! You useless bastards!”

Ham In-seok bellowed into the receiver.

He had already sent several distress calls, but the situation had unfolded so quickly that it would take more time for other Awakened teams to arrive.

*Shhhk!*

The formless sword energy sliced the phone he was holding in half, and Ham In-seok, terrified, tumbled backward with a clatter.

He quickly fumbled to check if his own wrist had been severed, but there was no such wound.

“No one can get in from the outside. You know my ability, don’t you?”

The headquarters’ basement was filled with her ability, a dense fog. Anyone who stepped in carelessly without a countermeasure would lose their life, even an Awakened.

The purification function built into his Defensive Coat was utterly useless.

“W-Wait… why are you people doing this? Is it because of that incident? If it’s about that, we already apologized and settled it, didn’t we? So why now…”

*Crunch!*

“Huuuaaagh!”

Ham In-seok, who had been babbling frantically, let out a scream of agony.

Two of his fingers were crushed underfoot and obliterated, and blood gushed out, pooling on the floor.

Overwhelmed by an intense pain he had never felt before, Ham In-seok wept and sniveled, his body writhing.

Kim Yu-jin looked down for a moment at his form, head bowed and drool dribbling from his mouth.

“Ugh-guh-guhk…”

“Does it hurt a lot? Is it because this is the first time you’ve had your fingers disappear?”

Kim Yu-jin said, bending her knees.

She then grabbed Ham In-seok’s chin and forced him to meet her gaze.

She couldn’t suppress a laugh at his expression, which looked as if his soul had half-departed.

“Haha, what’s with that face? Back in our day, whenever we went into the field, we hoped we’d get away with losing just a wrist. We had to stand right back up and face the next monster, whether our stomachs were spilling out from a pierced belly or both our legs were severed. It got to the point where I resented Hwang In-cheol for having a body restoration ability. We killed thousands of Monsters pouring out of the Gates every day, watching our comrades die beside us, repeating each day without knowing when it would end.”

“Gwaaaaaah!”

Ham In-seok’s other hand was methodically crushed into a pulp.

The pain continued, just enough to keep him from passing out, and Kim Yu-jin knew that threshold perfectly.

“Yes, we endured that for five years.”

“S-Save me! Please!”

Ham In-seok grabbed her leg with his remaining hand.

But Kim Yu-jin’s eyes were cold as ice.

“But what did you all do?”

“I… I was wrong…!”

*Thwump!*

A long sword pierced through Ham In-seok’s neck.

His struggling movements slowly ceased.

The blood that seeped out formed a small puddle. Kim Yu-jin stood up, took out a cigarette, and lit it.

“I must be getting old. I’ve become too talkative.”

Kim Yu-jin, who had closed her eyes for a moment, snapped them open again and lifted the sword embedded in the corpse.

Then she turned around and said.

“Did you come alone?”

“Yes.”

Hyeon-seo, standing near the entrance, replied.

She had walked through the fog, yet she was completely unharmed and unaffected.

But Kim Yu-jin wasn’t particularly surprised.

She had already heard a great deal about the humans Il-hyeon had summoned.

They possessed an ability to ignore most of the special powers of ordinary Awakened, without even having to consciously try.

*Whoosh!*

Hyeon-seo extended her arm, deploying a large force field around the area.

It was to prevent anyone else from interrupting the fight or her opponent from escaping.

Unlike before, when she had to keep her arm extended to maintain it, the force field she had cast now shimmered faintly, as if scattered into place.

Although it was bound to be weaker in intensity and duration, it could faithfully perform to the level she currently required.

Il-hyeon wasn’t the only one who had devoured Cores over the past week.

Once the force field was fully in place, Hyeon-seo unhesitatingly drew the sword from her waist.

“You intend to fight like this?”

Kim Yu-jin asked, tilting her head as if she didn’t understand.

“You’ve set up a force field, so I can’t escape on my own, nor can I hope for someone to pull me out with an ability from outside. But you should be able to call your other comrades, shouldn’t you?”

“I’m enough on my own.”

“Is it because you don’t want to draw on the strength of your comrades fighting outside? No… that’s not a strong enough reason.”

“It’s for purely personal reasons.”

Hyeon-seo answered curtly.

Accepting her response readily, Kim Yu-jin raised the sword she was holding.

“Alright, then. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

*Chwaaaak!*

In an instant, Kim Yu-jin’s sword energy shot forward, sweeping violently across the area.

The reinforced walls and floor of the bunker in Hyeon-seo’s direction were gouged as if scraped by giant claws.

But Hyeon-seo and the ground she stood on remained perfectly intact.

The deployed force field had completely neutralized the violent sword energy; Kim Yu-jin’s strike hadn’t left so much as a scratch.

*Kirik! Jjeong!*

As if she had expected it, Kim Yu-jin closed the distance in a flash.

She had rushed forward while simultaneously launching her sword energy, and now she swung her blade. The two swords clashed fiercely.

*Krrrrrrk!*

As the power struggle proved to be more even than she’d anticipated, Kim Yu-jin sensed something was off.

They naturally had data on Il-hyeon’s team member, Kang Hyeon-seo, and were well aware of her attack methods, tendencies, and approximate skill level.

But Hyeon-seo, who should have been clearly inferior to her, was matching her strength almost equally.

“Kuh…!”

Before she could think further, a heavy pressure suddenly bore down on her from above, forcing Kim Yu-jin to quickly dodge to the side.

After rolling across the floor, she looked back to where she had been. A large, translucent barrier had formed and was now slamming down onto the ground.

Then the force field vanished, and Hyeon-seo immediately unleashed her ability toward her again.

*Whoosh!*

Another force field materialized and pressed down.

Realizing what she was doing, Kim Yu-jin rapidly closed the distance.

It seemed Hyeon-seo had grown a level in utilizing her ability.

If she could use her force fields in this way, it would make her a much trickier opponent. Against this type of Awakened, the only option was to close the distance and restrict their ability usage.

*Kagagagang!*

But contrary to Kim Yu-jin’s expectations, Hyeon-seo showed no intention of creating distance again, and they exchanged dozens of sword strikes.

Hyeon-seo’s movements showed no signs of being pushed back even in close quarters.

Moreover, a translucent barrier suddenly materialized in front of her, striking Kim Yu-jin.

*Kooong!*

Caught off guard by a force field appearing at such close range, Kim Yu-jin was thrown back and rolled across the floor.

Thanks to her coat, she wasn’t injured by the impact, but she could sense that this was by no means going to be an easy opponent, as she had first thought.

“…It seems I can’t afford to hold back.”

Over the past week, Hyeon-seo had traveled the world, dealing with the Gates that had been pouring out.

Normally, she would have absorbed only a portion of the Cores obtained there and left most for Il-hyeon, but after he vanished, that was no longer the case.

Having devoured a massive amount of Cores, she had achieved a steep growth spurt, incomparable to her previous self. Her decision to head to the A2-rank Gate in the northern part of the Korean peninsula alone, without any teammates, was related to this.

Hyeon-seo quietly reached a hand behind her back.

*Shing!*

The second sword, sheathed behind her waist, was revealed.